Site Review: Beauty Stop Online

Image Credit Beauty Stop Online

As a blogger (and not a licensed professional), I don't have as much access to beauty products, so I tend to buy online quite often. It's cheaper for me to spend $10 on shipping than to drive the 45 minutes to my nearest Ulta or Sephora. I do have a Sally's Beauty Supply but I find my store to be quite picked over before I am able to go in there to shop, leaving me with little selection.

Back in August 2012, a company called Beauty Stop Online asked if they could send me some nail polishes for review or a giveaway. I browsed their website to find that they offered older collections of polishes - which I already own quite a bit of older collections when I was so obsessed with owning ALL THE POLISHES. I said I would be happy to write a review, but wasn't sure what they wanted me to review - the product or their website. I was told a little bit of both would work.

In September, I chose 2 China Glaze polishes, 2 Essie polishes and 2 ORLY polishes. Nine days later I was told that only the China Glaze would be shipped, the other 4 were on back order and Beauty Stop Online was not sure they would be restocked. I was offered the opportunity to pick more polishes, but I declined.

My polishes arrived in the following box.

Now, I've blurred out my address and I was the one who tore open the white label but the flaps out and the box in that shape? Yeah that's how it arrived.

Inside was the following.

One crumpled piece of brown paper and no other packaging inside the white China Glaze box... no bubble wrap, no packing peanuts, and no tape to close anything.  Additionally, there wasn't a packing slip, receipt or any correspondence inside either.

I received the following China Glaze.

China Glaze #101 Secrets 70319

China Glaze #172 Royal Tease 70537

It's been almost 4 months since this incident and I went to check the website again and I don't see much improvement in the polish department. The "newest" collection for China Glaze is Halloween Haunting.

As for follow up information, Beauty Stop Online again offered to send me additional polishes for the 4 that I didn't receive (I declined a second time) and then asked how I liked my Essie & ORLY polishes. (Remember, those are the four I didn't receive.)

I'm not sure how this speaks to a consumer because sometimes companies offer special services to bloggers, like hand packing the order or adding in additional items. I don't know if Beauty Stop Online sent this order through their shipping department like they would for a normal customer or if they were hand packed.

I don't think I would voluntarily purchase from this website again based on this experience. I know other bloggers have enjoyed working with this company in the past both on reviews and giveaways so I'm just one fish in this big sea.

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

SensatioNail's 2013 Nail Color Collection

SensatioNail has expanded their Color Gel Polish to add in 48 new colors!  Please enjoy the following.

SensatioNail™ Color Gel Polish now comes in 48 of the most-wanted, fashion-trend colors! Their proprietary, 3-free formula has a unique polymer technology that glides on smoothly in minutes, and is flash-cured in 60 seconds for a radiantly resilient finish that will last for up to two weeks without chipping, peeling or fading! From delicate pinks and intense berries to black—including traditional and shimmering finishes—these saturated hues boast a super gloss shine unlike any other lacquer. Color Gel Polish must be used in tandem with the SensatioNail PRO 3060 LED LAMP (included in the Starter Kit), and will provide users with 20 gel manicure applications.

How-to:
1. File and lightly buff the natural nail.
2. Using the Lint-Free Wipe, clean nails with Gel Cleanser. 
3. Apply one layer of Gel Primer to nail and air dry. 
4. Apply a thin layer of the Gel Base & Top Coat. Avoid skin and cuticle. Cure for 30 seconds. 
5. Apply a thin layer of your favorite fall Color Gel Polish. Avoid the skin and cuticle. Cure for 60 seconds. Apply a second layer of the Color Gel Polish. Cure for 60 seconds. 
6. Apply a thin layer of the Gel Base & Top Coat. Cure for 30 seconds. 
7. Remove the moisture layer using the Gel Cleanser and Lint-Free wipes.

Removal: Color Gel Polish can be removed with the SensatioNail Gel Polish Removal Kit or 100% acetone.

SensatioNail Spring 2013 Color Collection will be available in February 2013 major food, drug and mass merchandisers.

Layla Caviar 10 Mambo

2013 is all about texture and microbeads or "caviar" is part of that rage. The concept is fairly simple - apply beads to a wet coat of polish and seal (or don't - I didn't!).

I used a base coat of Layla Softouch 9 "Aqua Zen" which is a pretty turquoise and then I poured the C-10 "Mambo" microbeads over a small bowl to catch the extra. Layla says not to seal with a top coat, so I decided not to. The photo above is right after I applied the microbeads. I lightly pressed them down into my nail and went to bed.

Sorry for the ridiculously out of focus shot. Overnight, the beads seemed to change colors! Instead of all being teal, now some were teal and silver. You can also see the tip lost pretty much all its beads in a solid line.

This is after lunch, just going about my daily routine. Quite a bit of lost beads but hey, the patterns looks cool!

This is 12 hours later - you can see that I lost about 50% of the beads. Now my day job consists of being a mom and a front desk secretary, so... take that how you will. I'd like to try again with top coat in the future but for me, this is definitely an accent nail look - not a full manicure look. I used regular nail polish remove to take the beads and polish off which meant that they were not reusable for me.

Furthermore the price point is a little high for me. When the caviar craze first started, I bought a package of colored microbeads from JoAnn's "Reflections" for $10. It contained 6 different colors so ... 

Layla Caviar Effect ranges between $10-$13 depending on the retailer.

Layla Cosmetics is distributed to the US through the Luxcon Group who has a Facebook Page to several online websites including Ninja Polish, Zappos, AVEYOU, Brigette's Boutique, Amazon, and Drugstore.  It is also available at Ulta.


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

States Looking to Deregulate Beauty Professionals

I am not a licensed cosmetologist but I have a tremendous appreciation for what they do. I don't cut my own hair, I don't wax my own eyebrows, I don't give myself manicures or pedicure... for each and every one of those services, I go to a beauty professional whether it's in a spa, a salon or a stand alone shop.

Five USA states have introduced bills to deregulate those in the beauty profession. This means that anyone can open a shop preforming beauty services, without the proper licensing and education. This is pretty appalling to me, as chemicals are being used and correct sanitation services are highly important between clients.

The five USA states are
-Indiana
-Conneticut
-South Dakota
-Utah
and my pride and joy that I call home, Texas.

Tabatha Coffey, along with the PBA are trying to get the message out to those professionals who are about to see their licenses mean literally nothing, that they can do something NOW.




You can get more information from the PBA here on how to get the word out, who to contact and how to get involved. Let's keep the professional stuff to the professionals! Nothing wrong with wanting to DIY but if I'm paying someone to do it, I want to make sure they are properly licensed!

Gelish MINI: An Experience Take 2

I was slightly skeptical but also interested to receive a Gelish MINI set from Nail and Harmony. Gelish is the professional only brand, Gelish MINI is the consumer brand (also available at Sally's Beauty Supply).

Because I wasn't ready to gel myself (haha), I decided to force my co-worker to let me do her nails. She's a tomboy who tends to chew her nails, so I didn't know how much of a challenge this would be. She told me I could paint her middle fingers.

The application booklet that came with the kit was very straight forward (which is great) and I felt pretty confident that I could do this.

First I had to prepare her nail. I applied Gelish Cleanser (the blue larger blue bottle) to a lent free wipe and wiped the nail plate. Then I pushed back her cuticle with an orange stick. Then I used the cushion file to remove the shine on her nail and used the Gelish Cleanser again to remove any dust from the nail.

Next is the Gelish pH Bond (bottle with orange writing on the right) which dries instantly on the nail. Then a thin coat of Gelish Foundation Gel was added sealing the edge. Make sure you remove any excess gel BEFORE you cure under the curing light. If there is gel on the cuticle or surrounding skin, it can cause the Gelish to lift when the excess gel is removed from the skin.

I have the LED Pro: 45 curing light so I placed her nail under for 20 seconds (manually counted). Next I applied a thin layer of Gelish Soak Off Gel Polish in June/Bride to her nail (her choice) and sealed the edge. That was cured for 45 seconds (which the lamp is made for 45 seconds so when it turned off automatically). We ended up doing 2 layers of color because it's a pink glitter that doesn't have a heavy base color.

Finally I applied Gelish Top It Off Gel Sealer and sealed the edge and let it cure for 45 seconds. After this, the nail was tacky, so it was time to remove it using the Gelish Cleanser on a lint free wipe.

She was SHOCKED that she was done - that quick! She tried to put her hands up to let the nails dry and I grabbed her hands and twisted the nails to show her that no, it's really dry.  It's DONE. (I also added some cuticle oil afterwards and rubbed her nails to show her that yes, it was really dry!)

So you can see that I got gel in BOTH cuticles on the right side of the picture but overall I was pretty proud of myself for the first time.

Now, Gelish should last up to three weeks but by the 8th day, she had peeled it off her nails (ow). She said that it came off very easily, no problems with sheeting or crumbling like I had. Will I try it again on myself? YES.

The Gelish MINI Basix Kit runs about $50 USD, and the Gelism MINI Pro 45 LED Curing Light is $70. Gelish colors runs $11-$15 per bottle.

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