eBay Order Post! (+ Extras; Pic-Heavy!)

Hello!

As promised ages ago, I'll review the products I ordered from eBay and received earlier this month.
I ordered this set of 15 nail art brushes and 10 acrylic paints, and I got a palette for the acrylics.

They were about $6, and I got them from Hong Kong. They arrived in almost 3 weeks, and the only thing that kinda annoyed me was that I received the package OPENED! (due to the US toll rules, they had to check the package to make sure it didn't contain flammable things, drugs or something like that..)
Anyway, I was so damn excited that I even did a manicure the same evening! The acrylics are highly pigmented, yet some of them were quite watery (?) so I had to apply them three times.

 (All done with acrylics except for the bases)

(Again, all done with acrylics except for the bases and the thumb nail, which I did a glequin row on)

This evening, I did my nails AGAIN, using the dotting tool included in the set.

And yep, guys, I have some more goodies! The first one is a nail growth treatment from Chissa which has visible results in just 3 days of wearing 2 coats alone! I've just re-begun the treatment yesterday, so I shortened them to show you the progress. The second one is a quick-dry top coat from Flormar which also gives extra shine to the nails (applied directly on them) and polishes (applied in one thin coat). The third one is a mini AlixAvien ShinePlus nail polish, which I got in a gorgeous red. It's so tiny and cute, yet really pigmented! And finally, the last one is a polish I ordered from AVON and received 2 days ago, it's the beautiful Nailwear Pro+ shade, "Sweet Pea Dream". It's a gorgeous nude crelly with very fine gold glitter and scattered holo glitters.I think it resembles a bit the collab shade "Majesty" from pIcture pOlish, because it's basically perfect for every skin tone, and for every occasion! I wore it at school and it was unnoticeable -until the gold glitters decided to show up-. Anyway, I also wore it on a day out in town with my friends, and I think I'll also wear it at my prom. It's so beautiful, I'd wear it for ever! It's definitely on my "Restock" list.

 (My thumb nail, which had some sort of dreamcatcher with a triangle instead of feather on the middle row, wasn't in the mood for taking pictures..)

That's it for now, I'll see you quite soon. Kisses! xx

Nail Care Routine

Hello!

As I haven't really took much care of my nails for a while, I decided to share my new nail care routine with you!

It's quite easy, I found it through cutepolish's videos. Here are the steps:

SMOOTH! Make sure your nails are clean, and apply a cuticle oil/cream/gel (I used both Moraz's Nail Oil and AVON's Aloe Cuticle Gel, and I have to admit the oil had better results!). Gently rub it all over your nails and skin surrounding them (and also cuticles, obviously), and let it dry for 2 minutes.

PUSH! Grab a cuticle pusher (it can either be a metal one, like I used, or an orange stick, or anything else you use for pushing your cuticles). As I said before, I'm not the kind to push them, but I don't advise you to cut them. I'm that kind of perfectionist so, if there are dry cuticle bits, I grab my scissors and cut them a bit. Anyway, another useful advice is the next one: DO NOT PULL the cuticles from the base to the tip to push them after that. Just push them to the nail base (you can even use one of your nails as a help -if you have long nails- for this step), but try not to lift them. It's a bit hard to find my words to explain this step, judging by the fact that it's almost midnight here and I'm REALLY tired. (I haven't slept well for 3 days!)

HYDRATE! Here I'll be very specific: ONLY USE HAND&NAIL CREAMS! I have mine from a gift set, it's really nice-scented and it hydrates the whole skin. Just apply a bit on your palms and rub your whole hands (including nails and cuticles), then wait 5 minutes till the next step.

SEAL! Wipe away the cream & oil residue on your nails with a cotton pad or tissue, then apply a nail hardener. Mine has a slightly milky tint and it dries fast, and a bit like Seche Vite-looking.

Here are some steps for beautiful and healthy nails (and smooth hands, too!), and I hope it helped you. Below it's shown through pictures. Enjoy! xx

essence Swatch & Review - Absolutely Blue

Hello!

Two days ago I decided I should buy some brand new polishes (judging by the fact that I had to throw away  more than 10 polishes, and now owning only 19 with the two new achievements).

Did I just say TWO?!

Yes, it's about essence Absolutely Blue, which I swatched for today's post, and Golden Rose Paris 209.

A short review about Golden Rose 209, which I'll be swatching in a few days. It's a beautiful yellow crelly (jelly-créme). It's the perfect yellow tone: not too vibrant, but not too pale. I guess it would be perfectly opaque in 3 easy coats. Here's a quite useful tip: I usually let the polish dry a minute until I apply the next coat, but sometimes I don't wait that "long" and the whole manicure smudges and looks terrible and the polish gets tacky and.. Yeah, here's the advice: let each coat dry for at least 5 minutes. If it is a quick-drying polish, like essence, you shouldn't have any problems, but wait at least 2-3 minutes, though.

Back to the main swatch & review.

essence Absolutely Blue is, like, the perfect blue créme I've ever seen! It is some sort of sky blue créme which slightly fades to a cold, subtle lavender tone. (Okay, i'm not that good at describing colours, but that's how I see it. It's not a perfect sky blue créme, that's what I can say, but it depends how you see the true sky blue colour.) Here, I swatched it in 3 easy coats with no extra top coat, among with my accent nails in two thick coats of essence Time For Romance topped with 2 more thick coats of AVON Mineral Fix. Even though I have this obsession for Time For Romance (as I previously said, too), this is a gorgeous combination!

Okay, I write too much! That's it for me, sorry if the pictures are a bit blurry (talking about how the accent nails look), but I have no idea why my nail polish got a bit matte. :\ I'll see you really soon with a new post. Kisses! xx

Glitter Layers featuring essence Time For Romance and AVON Mineral Fix

Hello everyone!

Because one re-swatch wasn't enough, and because now I have an obsession for essence Time For Romance, I decided to do one more post about it.

And here's one more review.

I haven't tried to swatch it in different lights until today. I did my ring accent nails with 1 thick coat of Time For Romance over 2 thin coats of AVON Mineral Fix, and topped with 3 more coats of the base. Wanna know why? This base/top coat has a pinkish-orange-ish tint, which makes the colour of the polish even more vibrant.

Anyway, here's yet another new review. As I said before, it's some kind of crimson liquid sand, with a crimson jelly base. A few things to add: besides the crimson glitter and small hexes, you can find holo glitter, too. This gives the polish such an amazing effect, I can't really describe how amazing, though. I just love its rich colour, easy appliance due to the wide brush and the short drying time. (I'm not that handy with quick-dry polishes, but essence polishes' formula makes it all easier)

I also found it a bit difficult to apply the polish knowing that:
1. You don't need to fish for hexes, the polish has plenty of them!
2. This is the main reason I had to swipe the brush a few times over the nail to get the desired look, with hexes nicely spreaded over the nails.

There is also a problem, if the brush fishes too many hexes, it's very difficult to apply them all on the nail (if you want to) and almost 30% stay on the brush, no matter how many times you apply the polish. But these aren't bad points, though.

essence polishes are awesome, even though it's the first time I'm trying them. I can say that, so far, essence and Golden Rose (including the Golden Rose Paris collections) have been my easiest-to-apply polishes. They don't even leave too much residue to clean up and essence polishes' wide brush allows me to cover my whole pinky nails in just one easy swipe.

And, because I CAN'T make a post without pictures, here are a few from this swatch. Here's shown essence Time For Romance in 1 thick coat over 2 thin coats of AVON Mineral Fix, and freshly topped with 3 more coats of the base.

That's it for a while, I'll be quite busy these weeks, as I'll soon finish the 8th grade (which, in Romania is, officially, the end of school and the beginning of high school). When I have some time, I'll keep you tuned to some fresh manicures. Love you all! xx