•rachel•

sorry for the glare i took this in my car lol **Note: I'm trying to get the font sizes and font types fixed, but no matter what I do it just changes it back. Is anyone else having the same issue? I wanted to post this still** Happy Halloween!!! Okay, so it isn't Halloween, but it's the Halloween month and I wanted to do some spooooooky designs for you guys. But before we get into that, I wanted to tell you I was featured on Sally Hansen's website!! I was on the fan photos section and I was super proud of myself. Considering Sally Hansen is my favorite nail brand, it was an honor to be noticed. I posted a screenshot on my Instagram, which if you aren't following you should. Anyway, back to the nail design. I have chosen mummies as my first look and I got loads of compliments on them. Here's how I did it. The polishes I used were Sally Hansen's Miracle Gel " Get Mod" (#789), Insta-Dri shades in " Sand Storm" (#113) and " Black

Hello everyone. So I delayed this blog post because I was too lazy to write it and I've been super busy, but I purchased some new nail polish and I wanted to do a design with both of them. At Walgreen's I bought two more polishes from Sally Hansen's Miracle Gel line. The first was a deep dark purple (the base color) called "Boho a-Go-Go" (#549). It's a super pretty color and it's a great polish just like the rest of the line. However, it did chip a lot on the tips of my nails, but I'm blaming the top coat I used which is over a year old. Also my nails were pretty long so it's easy for them to chip. The other color, which is a sort of pastel yellow (it's darker than pastel, but not like a super yellow color) called "Gigabryte" (#769). I needed another yellow color after my Insta-Dri one dried up and I really liked this color. It went well with the purple so I wanted to incorporate them both in the design. I had never done a water

Hey guys! I know it's been a while, but I have had ZERO clue of what designs to do and I've been doing solid colors all summer. However, last night I decided to practice making my own nail stickers and they turned out super well. I went with two types of lilies, white lilies and purple/white lilies, and decided to put them on a two-toned ombre. For the "stickers" I started with a piece of parchment paper and a clear polish. With the polish I painted 10 rectangles which I would be painting my designs over. I ended up trimming my stickers down to size later so don't worry if the base is a bit too big. After about a minute I began painting my designs over top of the rectangles making sure they weren't too big for my nail beds. I looked at a picture of a lily for reference and then just went for it. I started with the white petals, added the center color, added thin green lines with a nail art brush for stems in the center and finally the brown dots on the ste

Hey everybody! So I was walking around my local Walmart about 2 weeks ago and I came across a new display of nail polish for L.A. Colors Color Last nail polish. The polishes went for 2 dollars (I think anyway they were pretty cheap) and they claimed to last up to 10 days with the top coat. I decided I’d test that out because why not buy more nail polish that will inevitably dry out and be wasted, whatever. So that is what this blog post is for; I’ll be giving you my first impressions of both the actual polish and the top coat itself.  The color I chose is called “Friendship” and it’s a neutral purple color with slight pink tones. It also has this weird glitter that you can only see when it’s wet or if you have eagle eyes. Anyway, it is a nice color (I used 2 coats) but I had a few problems with application. This particular polish did NOT go on smoothly at all and it looked really rough on its own. I contemplated testing the polish without the top coat on one hand for a bett

Hello! It’s been forever hasn’t it, but today I have a very special nail design to share with you guys. I am meeting Dan and Phil as of tomorrow and in order to celebrate the occasion I did some nail designs inspired by them (and with the help of Pinterest obvs). I used a lot of nail polishes for this so I am just going to make a huge list below. Nail polishes used:  On all nails - Revlon Base + Top Coat, Sally Hansen’s Miracle Gel “Get Mod” (#789) On my thumb-   Blackheart Beauty “Deep Sky Blue”, Sally Hansen’s Miracle Gel “Pink Tank” (#220), Insta-Dri “In Record Lime” (#50), Insta-Dri “Black to Black” (#360), Opi “Primarily Yellow”, and Insta-Dri “Rapid Red” (#280).  On my index finger- Insta-Dri “Black to Black” (#360), Candie’s “Concrete Jungle” (#2191), and Wet n Wild “Tough Girl” (#34206). On my middle finger- Insta-Dri “Black to Black” (#360), Insta-Dri “Sand Storm” (#113), Essie “Mink Muffs” (#624), Blackheart Beauty “Deep Sky Blue”, and Miracle Gel “P

Ignore my crappy cuticles I'm sorry Hey everyone! A little while ago I was at Big Lots and I was looking at beauty sets. You know the ones that come out around Christmas time and Valentine’s Day, the generic gift sets for people who don’t know a lot about. Well while I was browsing I saw an E.L.F. nail polish set with four polishes for under $3 and I had to buy it because… it was under $3 lol. I’m a spender. Anyway I thought I would do a review of these four polishes for you. I’m going to start with the color on my pinky finger which is called “Chic Confetti”. This is a really cute glitter that you can wear by itself, as I am, or wear over a solid color. I really love this color combo and the polish itself is pretty great.   It’s pretty hard to mess up glitter tbh. I even got a compliment on this one finger nail lol. It stands out. The color on my ring finger is called “Pot of Gold” and it is just a classic gold color. I’m a fan of this for sure and I really have no co

So my birthday happened and with my money I went out and bought some lipsticks because I am addicted to buying makeup. I really wanted some lipsticks that are matte and also one that was purple. I saw these Hard Candy lip colors and the packaging was so cute I had to get them.  I decided to get two colors: “Wisteria” (#1078) (the purple one) and “Cherry Blossom” (#1077) (the pink one). I really love both of these colors. Wisteria is really edgy looking and Cherry Blossom is one I could wear daily. When I took out the lip color it was in a skinny tube and it had a standard lip gloss style brush. I kind of expected it to be more of a round container with maybe more lip color, but that’s fine by me. The packaging says they are 0.23oz each. I swatched the colors on my hand so you could see them, however, I took the picture right after and it looks a bit glossy, but that’s not actually how they are. The colors are matte as it says; you just have to let them dry. The most amazing p

Hey everybody! So if you are like me, you love holiday themed nail designs. For Valentine’s Day this year I was going to use baby pink, but the polish I had was like 5 million years old and I’m like NOPE NEVER MIND. So… lol I picked a medium pink and decided to do a different design on each nail. The polishes I used were Revlon’s Base + Top Coat, Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri shade in “Presto Pink” (#15), Miracle Gel shade in “Wine Stock” (#480), and Formula X’s “Love Chemistry”. I also used a nail dotter for the designs and a nail gem thing from a nail art kit I have (I don’t remember what it’s called if you want to know search through blogposts sorz). On my ring finger I did my accent nail with a gold glitter and the rest of my nails had the pink base color. To match the gold accent nail I had a nail art piece that was a gold heart, so I decided to put that on my thumb near the cuticle. As you can see, some pink polish got on the heart, but oh well lol. On my index and pin

So, I’ve been meaning to make this blogpost for like ever, but to be fair I hate cleaning my makeup brushes. I actually used to never wash them because I didn’t even think about it, but as I started using makeup every day and got a lot more makeup brushes I realized that those things are carrying old makeup and skin oils and bacteria and that’s not good. I now clean my brushes on a semi-regular basis and if I start to break out I make sure they are spotless.  If you’ve never cleaned your brushes before because it just seems like too much work I have a trick for you that will make the process a lot easier. I got this idea from a Korean YouTuber called ssin (they have English subtitles if you want to check them out. Makeup woo!) and it is literally one of the best ideas ever.  The things you will need to clean are a bowl, a small strainer and some liquid soap. I used bar soap for the picture because it looked better than a soap bottle, but don’t let that throw you. Now, take

Hey dudes. I decided I wanted to do something simple with my nails for the week, but I also wanted to do something different. I have never done a different shape for French tips and I have a bunch of nail stickers, so why not use them. I believe the brand of nail stickers I used is kiss. I don’t really remember though and I don’t have the outside packaging anymore. The polishes I used were Revlon’s Base + Top Coat, Sally Hansen’s Diamond Strength polish in “Ballet Bare” (#3227) and Insta-Dri polish “Sand Storm” (#113). To start I used the diamond strength polish as a base on my nail. It originally came with a French manicure set, so it is perfect for these designs. Only adding one coat makes it very subtle and natural looking which is perfect. However, you can see that my nails are stained from years of nail painting; just ignore that. Next, I used the nail stickers to create the French tip. Depending on where you place the sticker changes the width blah blah you know the dr

Hey guys! I know this post is late, but now that school has started back up all I ever do is homework. It's ridiculous I don't do anything anymore (not that I ever did lol). Anyway enough excuses. I did these swatches forever ago, like October of last year, so my memory of these colors are a distant memory. However, I didn't have a post planned so I thought I would show you these. The deep red color is "Wine Stock" (#480). I really like this color and it would be a great holiday nail color. However, because I love red nail polish, especially deep red, I will wear this whenever I want. As every other Miracle Gel polish I own, this is a great polish. I believe this was only one coat as well which is super cool. The other color is "All Chalked Up" (#230) and it is a pastel purple color. This color is very light-hearted and cute looking which I appreciate when it is dreary outside and I get sad. This is also a great Easter color (apparently I l

beep beep boop boo boop beep beep boop Umm anyway lol what’s up my peeps? I decided I wanted to do something star wars related even though the fad may be over (idk not for me) and it isn’t May the 4 th , but whatever. BB-8 is like the coolest character in the newest movie, which if you haven’t seen it’s a must, so I decided to give it a shot. The polishes I used were Revlon’s Base + Tope Coat, NYC’s “French White Tip” (#134), Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri shade in “Black to Black” (#360), and Miracle Gel shades in “Electra-cute” (#300) and “Greyfitti” (#260). I also used nail dotters in various sizes. I think the best idea when doing designs like this is just to have your reference picture and study it like homework that’s due in 30 minutes and you haven’t started it yet lol. I started with the big, black robot eye and continued off of that. It isn’t perfect because I’m not talented enough to make thin lines, but I did the best I could. I like using nail dotters instead of brus

Hello every one! Now I know what you’re thinking, “Rachel those colors are for spring and it isn’t spring.” I know. I just felt like using some polishes I don’t really use that often and I also wanted something bright and fun to cheer me up. I got this design idea from Pinterest, which you should follow me on, and you can view the original image here . The polishes I used for this design were Revlon’s Base + Top Coat, Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri shade in “Lightening” (#250), and Sinful Colors’ “Mint Tropics” (#1443) and “Hazard” (#952). Sadly, this was the last use I could get out of this yellow polish as it is really old now. I'll have to buy another one soon. I started off with my base coat to prevent stains and create a smooth surface for my design. Then, using two of the three colors, create two diagonal triangles on each nail. To make a straight line you can use a nail sticker/tape or just free hand it. After that polish is dry add a French tip in your third color and

Hey guys! For Christmas this year my friend Dani kindly gifted me a set of Formula X polishes and I decided to do a review of each for you. Since this is my first time using this brand as well this will be my first impressions. I have heard many good things about them, so I was pretty excited to test them out. The four polishes that came in the Happy Hour set were “Perfection”, “Atomic”, “Love Chemistry”, and “Fine Like Einstein”. They came in a cute little case, which you can see above. All of the bottles are 3 mL or 0.1 fluid ounces. First up, is “Perfection” which is a medium beige color with slight purple tones. It is a very pretty neutral color that is perfect for every day wear. The polish went on very smoothly and it took 2-3 coats (I can’t really remember tbh). I had this polish on for about a week and it had minimal chipping. When I went to remove the polish it was so easy, I was very impressed. There was no scrubbing or stains. This polish is a solid 9/10.

Hey everyone! It’s the first day of 2016!! You made it through another year of fun, or potential torture. Congrats! This year will surely be even better. For 2015 I set myself some goals and I thought, hey, why don’t I go through those goals and see if I accomplished them, then set some new ones for the year ahead. Sounds fun, right? Let’s get started then. 2015 goals: 1.        Become a vegetarian: Check! I started my new vegetarian diet on December 29 th and I kept it up this entire year. It wasn’t difficult for me at all and I plan on being vegetarian for the rest of my life. I don’t regret this decision one bit, even though it can be a bit difficult when eating out with friends and I’m criticized daily, but that’s fine be me. I have my reasons and I’m super proud of myself. I’m not setting out to be vegan right now, because at this point it wouldn’t be the best. Sometime in the future when I am more independent and a bit more motivated, I would certainly consider. 2.