•rachel•

  Hello everyone! Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and to give you guys some nail inspiration I decided to do four Valentine’s Day tutorials. To start them off I am doing heartbeat nails (which I haven’t done since 2013!). Let’s do this! The colors I used for this design were Sally Hansen’s Salon Manicure shade in “Red My Lips” (#470) and Xtreme Wear shade in “White On” (#300). I also used a thin nail art brush from Bundle Monster. First, you will need to paint a base coat of red. I used two coats of this polish and it is such a beautiful color, but I won’t drone on about it because (spoiler alert) I’m putting a review of it up next Wednesday. Anyway, using your thin nail art brush you will need to paint skinny, zigzag lines, going in a vertical direction, to represent a heartbeat monitor. For you middle finger, paint a heart instead of zigzags. Finish your design off with a clear coat and you’re done! It’s not too difficult as long as you have a steady hand. I hope y

Hello everyone! I’m back from my nail design break and to start things off I decided do polka dots and stripes. Last Sunday I did a review on this base color and chose to paint over that instead of redoing my nails (lol lazy). The colors I used for this design were Sally Hansen’s Miracle Gel shade in “Greyfitti” (#260), Xtreme Wear shade in “White On” (#300), and Insta-Dri shade in “Presto Pink” (#210). I also used Kiss Design Tip Guides and a nail dotter. On my index and pinky fingers I added white polka dots using a nail dotter. On my thumb and ring fingers I used 3 chevron nail stickers and painted a pink color over top. After waiting 10 seconds for the polish to set, I removed the stickers. For my middle fingers I dotted on a pink line and a white line near the tip of my nail. Finally, I set all my designs with a clear coat. Pretty self explanatory form the picture, right? haha I hope you all liked this design! I made a video tutorial for this design as well, which y

Hello everyone! I was in the mood for some baking on Saturday and decided that I would test out a new recipe. The recipe I chose was a German chocolate cake that was a single serving, which means no leftovers or hiding the cake from my family lol. However, I changed the recipe up a bit (for convenience) and it became more of just a chocolate cake. Here’s what you’ll need. Cake: -1 tablespoon + 2 tsp cocoa powder (8g) -3 tablespoons flour -1/8 tsp salt -1 tablespoon + 2 tsp sugar -1/4 tsp baking powder -2-3 tsp coconut oil -3 tablespoons milk of choice -1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract Glaze: -1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons water -1/4 tsp salt -1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract -2 tsp maple syrup -2 tablespoons powdered sugar First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a bowl mix together all of the dry ingredients (cocoa, flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder) needed for the cake using a whisk (or whatever you have to mix with). Add in all th

  Hello everyone! Today I have a review for one of my newer polishes by Sally Hansen called “Greyfitti” (#260). So, keep reading to see what I think!  The first thing I have to say is that this polish took 3 coats to get this opacity. That was a little bit annoying, but it didn’t take too long to dry and this color is very pretty. I guess if you needed a really transparent grey color for any type of nail design that this polish could be considered multifunctional.  Also, this color reminds me of Candie’s “Concrete Jungle”, which I’ve done reviews on before, except it's a bit of a lighter shade of grey. I may like Candie’s a bit better… no offense to Sally Hansen lol. This polish is great and you know that I love Sally Hansen products, but I prefer the other one a bit more. Overall, I’d say that this polish deserves 4 out of 5 stars. I like the color and it dries quickly. So far it has lasted with no chips (even though I haven’t had it on for that long so I’ll update

Hello everyone! Today I have a life hack to share with you that may change your life. I’m going to tell you how to get excess nail polish off of your skin WITHOUT NAIL POLISH REMOVER. I know, it’s crazy, but I promise it works. First off, I’d like to talk about the nail polish I am wearing, which is Mineral Fusion’s “Berried Gem”. I did a review on this polish on my old blog which you can view here , but I haven’t used it since then. To sum up that review, the polish is really great lol. Anyway, I know you want to know the hack so here it is: hot water. This is no joke. If you have some time to spare, let your polish completely dry and then use hot water to rub off the polish left on your skin. I usually do my nails on Sunday, when I’m not too busy, which gives me a few hours to let my polish dry and then I can take a shower to get the polish off. It’s so easy and doesn’t require anything extra.  I hope this tip helped you. If you want to see a video with me explaining th

Hello everyone! For this blog post I thought I would do a recipe that I have been making a lot recently ok I've made it twice and that is pumpkin muffins. It isn’t my own recipe, but I have made some changes to it, and since I like them so much I just had to post about them. Ingredients: -1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour -2 teaspoons baking powder -1 teaspoon cinnamon -1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice -A pinch of salt -3/4 cup granulated sugar -1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed -3/4 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) -1/3 cup coconut oil or canola oil -1/4 cup milk -1 tablespoon vanilla extract After you’ve gathered all your ingredients, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, whisk the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt) in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients (both sugars, pumpkin puree, oil, milk, and vanilla). Mix everything together and you ha

Hello everyone! For Christmas I received these nail strips by Sally Hansen Salon Effects and I thought that I might as well try them out. I have never used nail strips before because I always felt like it was cheating; I like to do things myself. However, my opinion has changed because these things are great lol. Before I forget, the nail polish I used for the rest of my nails was Essie’s “Licorice” (#720). I have always wanted to do my nails like this (with the cursive writing), but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do it by hand. As I said, I was always hesitant to use nail strips and I never knew if they were worth buying. Turns out they are worth buying and I’m just crazy. They are so convenient and they last (as long as I need them to anyway) and there are a lot of designs to choose from. The nail strips by Sally Hansen come with 16 nail polish strips in different sizes and I guarantee that there will be one that’s the right size for you (unless your nails are baby tiny

 Hello everyone! My first review of the month is for a polish I got for Christmas from one of my best friends. This polish, as you can see from the title, is by Blackheart Beauty in the shade “Daydream Scream” which I previously had no clue what the name of this shade was and I had to guess, but turns out it is on the bottle; the other bottle didn't say so I just assumed lol. I believe this polish can be found at Hot Topic. First off, I’d like to say that this is not a one coat polish. I used three coats to get the color I have in this photo. However, I didn’t really mind doing three coats because each thin coat dried SO QUICK. It dried in less than a minute so it was cool. Secondly, I’d like to say that this color is very pretty. It is a bluish-purple color and has a subtle glitter effect to it. I think it would be a good color to use for a galaxy nail design. Maybe I’ll do that sometime..? Lastly, the polish has lasted. I have washed the dishes two or three times since I

  Hello everybody! So, it’s 2015 which means it’s a great time for a fresh start and to make goals and all that stuff. Even though Christmas (or other holiday you may celebrate) is over, winter is still in full swing. This means that a snowflake nail design is still acceptable for the New Year. Here’s what you’ll need. The polishes I used for this tutorial were Michael Kors “Curtain Call”, Sally Hansen’s Xtreme Wear shade in “White On” (#300), and Revlon’s “Stunning” (#340). You will also need a very skinny nail art brush to help with precision.  I started with my blue base and let that dry. Afterwards, I added glitter to the top part of my nail to sort of create a gradient effect. Next, I took the white and painted my snowflakes. I alternated between nails with one large snowflake and nails with two snowflakes cut off slightly. To paint the snowflakes I drew a cross and added short lines coming diagonally out of the ends (making a V shape), then I drew and small X over the