More Valentine's Day Manicures

I did this super fast manicure a few weeks ago. I was putting Wet n Wild's Buffy The Violet Slayer on for the third consecutive time when I noticed my bottle of Nicole Step To The Beat of my ♥ sitting on the table. Perfect combination. Purple hearts with purple polish!


Of course, this isn't a color accurate representation of Buffy... But it still looks pretty, right? You can see little circles of topcoat around the hearts, haha! The polish is still wet in these pictures. I put extra topcoat on top of the hearts to make them a little more smooth, otherwise I keep playing with them and sometimes peel them off.


But even better than my mediocre manicure are these super cute designs submitted by my reader Nicole. She and her mom both did adorable designs for February, check it out:


This is Nicole's manicure, which is done with Zoya Jolene and Nicole by OPI Love Your Life. Fitting, right? Nicole wearing Nicole! She did a way better job with her hearts than I did with mine. This looks so pretty. I love the hot pink with the light pink hearts!


And her mom goes one step further and literally turns her nails into hearts! The color is Sinful Dream On, a neon purple. I love this so much. Heart shaped nails. I totally want to try this!


This time of year makes me all silly. I find myself wanting to be surrounded by red flowers and heart shaped lace doilies and pink sugar sprinkles... The actual Valentine's Day is rarely special for me, but I love the season and everything that goes along with it. All the pretty and almost sickeningly cute decorations and candies are a welcome break from the dreary, seemingly endless snow and cold during the last stretch of winter. You know what I'm talking about. That depressing period between the end of the Christmas season, after all the lights and decorations are gone and there's nothing but frigid cold, bare trees and absurd heating bills and that first warm day of spring when you can actually go outside without your hair freezing. As much as I do love winter, after a while, the oppressive cold and lack of color starts to get to me. I need that little bit of color and cuteness in February.

Guest Review - Kiss and Revlon Press-On Nails

This is only the second time I've had a guest review! This time the guest reviewer is none other than my dear Mom. I was sent some press-on nails by Kiss that I'm literally unable to review. They're so short and small that they don't even cover half of my nail bed, so... yeah... review not possible. While my hands are on the petite side, they definitely aren't petite enough for the Kiss Petite french nails. However, my mom has some of the smallest hands and nails I've ever seen, so she was a perfect candidate to try these. Just one of the perks of being my mom.... Another is that you have an endless variety of polish colors to choose from when I give you a mani/pedi... Also, I'll give you unwanted critical commentary of stupid prime time sitcoms with identical plots for free!


In addition to the Kiss Petites, I put some Revlon press-on nails on her to compare, and here's how the Revlon Zoe nails worked for her:


"I liked them because they stayed on-- no bubbles or loosening. Didn't like because too wide and the color on tip chipped within 2 days."

I applied these to her using the Revlon NailStay glue that's included in the Revlon kit. I filed them down to a medium length- these start out pretty long, which I personally prefer because I have longer nail beds, but the long length doesn't work for her. My opinion of these is that they look a lot less natural than the Kiss nails, the tips are too thick and white. Not that a french manicure ever looks natural, but you know... some are less tacky than others.


And now here are the Kiss petites:


"I liked these better because they were smaller and thinner. I didn't think the glue was as good as the other brand, it bubbles and I kept getting my hair caught in them. The finish lasted, looked more natural and stayed shiny."

I applied these to her using the little disposable tube of glue included in the Kiss set. She's right, the Revlon glue is superior, not just in application, but in longevity. It's kinda difficult to apply the proper amount of glue using those little one-use tubes, and it doesn't set as fast or as strongly as the Revlon. They also lifted on her sooner than with the Revlon glue.

However, I think the end result looked a bit more natural. The actual thickness of the nail is a lot thinner so they do look more like a natural nail from a front/head on view. The base part of these nails is clear, so you won't be able to hide any imperfections on your nail or bubbles in your glue, but that also makes the nail look brighter and shinier. She didn't notice any chipping or wear in the white tip of the Kiss nails and she was able to wear them for a whole week with them still looking new.

The small width and length of these suited her pretty well. This set comes with some extremely tiny nails- the smallest ones are slightly bigger than a lentil! So if you have extremely petite hands and nails with very short nail plates and you want to try press-ons, these would be the nails for you.

The Kiss nails overall seemed thin and lightweight, especially compared to other brands of fakes I've tried. Someone would be less likely to detect that you're wearing press-ons with a nail as thin and clear as these. I can't say I'm a fan of that super bright white tip, but if these had a softer, more milky and translucent natural white, they'd definitely pass for real nails.


Thanks, Mom, for contributing your reviews and photos!

(These were sent to me for review...)