Beauty Blogger Coalition Valentine's Giveaway!

The Beauty Blogger Coalition is back with another $500 Visa card giveaway! To enter, please allow the Rafflecopter widget to load below. All Terms and Conditions may also be found in the widget. Please visit the following Beauty Blogger Coalition members who are bringing this to you! You may enter using Rafflecopter from any of the below blogs but your entry will only count one time. You may, however, tweet about the giveaway (the last option) once a day for the duration of the giveaway.

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Beauty Blogger Coalition
Beauty and Fashion Tech
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BlushingNoir
Gems in a Bottle
Madame B Fatale
Moxie Reviews
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PeaceLoveLipgloss
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polish insomniac
PolishGalore
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Prime Beauty
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Poshe Top Coat & Family

I've been bouncing around with different base and top coats, and now I will be trying another line of products by AII - Poshe!  I know a lot of you have seen or heard of it before, and some even swear by it.  I'll be testing it out for about a month and let you know the results!  Please enjoy the following press release from AII!

SAFE AND EFFECTIVE COMPLETE NAIL CARE

Poshé Promotes Healthy Nails Without Damaging Chemicals

Los Angeles, CA – (February 2012): Formulated without Formaldehyde, Toluene and Phthalates, it’s no wonder that Poshé Top Coat is a five-time winner of Allure Magazine’s “Best Top Coat” award and three-time winner of Nails Magazine’s “Readers’ Choice Award”. Poshé Top Coat, along with the rest of the Poshé family of complete nail care products, is coveted by top-notch nail care professionals and nail fanatics alike.

Products in the Poshé line include:

Image courtesy of AII

Poshé Topcoat: This revolutionary formula dries to the touch in one minute. Remarkable gloss and no shrinking make this top coat one of the best in the business.

Image courtesy of AII

Poshé Nail Strengthening Basecoat: This basecoat promotes hardness and helps flexibility, while working as a ridge filler and conditioning nails at the same time. UV inhibitors protect nails from damaging sun rays.

Image courtesy of AII

Poshé Fast Drying Base Coat: For natural or artificial nails, this fast drying, non-yellowing and chip resistant basecoat helps maintain the beauty of the manicure. Great for pedicures as well, this basecoat also protects from staining.

Image courtesy of AII

Poshé AHA Cuticle Care: A unique blend of Alpha Hydroxy Acids and botanicals are specially formulated to exfoliate and hydrate problem cuticles. It can also be used on elbows, feet and other dry areas. Great for preventing hangnails while promoting healthy nail growth.

About Poshé Nail Care

A logical approach to creating strong, flexible nails based on the science of the natural nail, Poshé uses elements found naturally within the nail plate to nourish and condition, without the use of dehydration techniques. The result is strong, long, natural nails that resist breakage. All Poshé nail care products are formaldehyde and toluene free.

www.poshenails.com

About American International Industries

For 40 years, A.I.I. has been the leading manufacturer and worldwide distributor of innovative, quality beauty and skin care products for men and women.  Our product lines include 5 Second Nail, Ardell Eyelashes, Andrea Eyelashes, Body Drench, Bye Bye Blemish, Checi, China Glaze, Clean + Easy, Clubman/Pinaud, Correctionist, Duo, European Secrets, EzFlow, Fright Night, Gena, GiGi, Gypsy Lash, IBD, It’s So Easy, Jeris-Lustray, No Tweeze/Micro Tweeze, Prolinc, RAW, Seche, SuperNail, Surgi-Care, Waterworks,  Woltra, Woody’s Grooming and Youthair. For more information, visit: www.aiibeauty.com

China Glaze It's Alive

Going through my boxes of polishes, and I grabbed China Glaze It's Alive from the 2010 Halloween Haunting collection.  It's a green glitter in a green base - both microglitter and larger round glitter.  My brush was a bit on the "fluffy" side, not thin and uniform, but more like a kabuki brush.


I used a base coat of Duri Rejuvacote, 2 coats of polish and a top of CND Air Dry.  Even though this is a bit of a thirsty glitter, it was smooth after just one coat of CND Air Dry.

Here in the sun, you can see how nicely opaque this polish is!  I had a bit of a clean up issue on my pinkie, mostly to unsteady hands.

In the shade, this color really pops!  The different glitters really show up nicely even though it's all green.

Indoors with the flash - not as amazing... looks very mossy green - great Halloween polish but also St. Patrick's Day!  If you can still find this color at a local salon/beauty supply store on sale, snatch it up!

China Glaze [Website] [Facebook] [Twitter] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty, Sally's Beauty Supply as well as TransDesign.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

nubar Purple Beach

Before chopping down to nubbins, I decided to get a few more nail polishes swatched while I had beautiful long nails.  I picked up this awesome nubar duochrome - Purple Beach - while at Cosmoprof North America.  It's still available on their website (product S203) for $8.00.


I used a base coat of Duri Rejuvacote, 2 coats of polish and a top of CND Air Dry.  I was super pleased that this color was opaque in 2 coats, no base of black needed!

In the sun, the purple color is quite apparent and on the edges of the nail, you can just slightly see the green.  I completely looked past the streaky/pearl finish on this polish because it's so pretty - you don't really realize it!

In the shade, again the purple is more apparent than anything else.  I attempted a picture inside with the flash but the camera couldn't focus properly so I ended up with lots of blurry pictures.

I told you this was a duochrome!  The green duochrome is best seen in indirect light.  I couldn't stop taking pictures once I figured out how to get that green to be seen, because on your nails, the duochrome is super apparent.  It's nice and strong and you'll constantly be twisting your hand around.  Definitely a happy Krystal here with this polish.

nubar can be purchased on their website for $8.00 a bottle in the US.  They do have international retailers in Russia, Sweden and the UK.  You can like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter although their Twitter has been a bit bare lately.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Duri Rejuvacote: Update

So I'm still in love with my Duri Rejuvacote.  I've been wearing it under all manicures or just on its own and my nails have NEVER been this long.


However, on 13 January, I suffered a blow.

Boo.  I don't even remember what I was doing when it broke but the next day it snapped right off when I was taking out the garbage so I'm back to nubbins.  Here's my left hand as well.

You can see how thin my nails are on the index finger - nearly translucent!  Now I need to see about something to make them thicker since the growing is good.  :]  Duri just recently came out with a top coat as well called Miracote that I will probably be checking out when I'm done with my bottle of CND Air Dry and Seche Vite.

Duri [Website] can be purchased on their website or in salons.  I purchased my bottle for $15 at my local salon - it's priced at $14 on their website.