Top Coat.. To Spend or Not To Spend?

Hi Guys thanks for coming back. Just let me start by saying sorry it’s been so long between posts.  As you already know, if you follow my blog, we are between homes and staying with my grandmother.  She is having some trouble with a pinched nerve in her back and I have been spending some time helping her out.  She doesn't need a lot but I have been driving her to work and so on so she will not have to walk as far.  And yes my 86 year old grandmother still works 2 to 3 days a week, God bless her.

The house hunt is getting the best of me.  I swear I never thought it would be this hard to find a house to rent.  Chattanooga is in the midst of a financial boom.  With the fastest, cheapest internet in the whole country, Chattanooga is now known as the Gig city, internet startups that really can take advantage of the speed and cost of the speed offered as well as new jobs from Volkswagen and Amazon who have large facilities in the area and are still growing, well lets just say housing is snatched up as soon as it is posted.  The rent is pretty high as well once you cross the Georgia/Tennessee line.  We are looking at paying around $1000 per month for a 2 bedroom in a decent area.  There are a lot of areas that have had revitalization programs and are coming back better than ever.  When I was growing up downtown Chattanooga was a ghost town after 5:00 p.m. and now that’s when things really start to pick up.  The city has done a wonderful job and it shows in not only the industry that has come but in the tourists that now flock to the city to see the Tennessee Aquarium, The Incline, Rock City and Ruby Falls.  If you have never been to Chattanooga check it out, it’s not just about a train anymore.


So I have been bitten by the nail polish bug lately.  Of course you can spend anywhere from $2.00 for Wet and Wild polish to $27.00 for a bottle of Chanel polish.  There are subscription boxes dedicated to nail polish and accessories as well as hundreds of thousands of Pintrest boards dedicated to beautiful nail art.  I have started buying more polish than I used to.  Up until I was in my late 20’s I was a nail bitter.  The last cruise I took with my mother was the event that really made me decide to stop.  We weren’t even on the boat yet when one of my acrylic nails broke off.  That of course ruined the whole look and it just pissed me off.  Back then we didn’t have a nail salon on every corner and it was $40 at least for a full set.  So when I had to get on that boat one nail short I decided I would have my own nails the next time I sailed.  Of course my nails are brittle and break easily, but I haven’t had acrylic nails on since.  That was about 15 years ago and I love to paint my nails but it wasn’t until recently that I was so adamant about them looking perfect.
I believe I know the best way to paint my nails.  I know to use a base coat, I know to use the center stroke then 1 down each side, I know to run the polish across the end of the nail to create a seal to prevent chipping and use a top coat to bring it all together and seal it up.  I try to keep layers from being to thick so that the polish dries faster and it doesn't dent when you press in on the nail.  That being said my polish was chipping within a day or 2.

So back when I wrote the review about Wet and Wild Megalast polish I wasn’t having this problem, I even packed up a house and moved 350 miles then unpacked into a storage unit.  So I had been using Sally Hansen Dries Instantly 30 Second Top Coat up until I got to the bottom of the bottle and it became pretty goopy and I threw it out.  So instead of buying another Sally Hansen top coat I got one of the cheaper ones, Nutra Nail Speed Dry Top Coat.  About the same time I ordered a Julip Maven monthly subscription box with a coupon for my first box free.  I believe the coupon code is FREEBOX, I will update this post if I find out it’s different.  From what I could see on the internet about Julip and from the cost of a single bottle I believed I had a pretty high quality polish.  I know it’s not Chanel but I believed it to be up there with OPI for example.  I used a bottom coat, 2 thin coats of polish and the Nutra Nail top coat.  It had chipped by noon the next day, not even 24 hours after I polished them.  I had let them dry for an hour and babied them for the rest of the night after I polished them, they shouldn’t have chipped so quickly.

A couple of days ago having the same results with any and all polish I decided that it wasn’t due to my polish but my top coat.  I found a bottle of the Nicole by OPI on sale and purchased it.  Now before you say, hey that’s not a high quality top coat, it’s better than the Nutra Nail, that’s of course if you judge quality by the price….  Back to the chipping problem, they wore another day or 2 longer but still chipped.  So I’m not real sure if this is the problem or the answer.  I need more research and I need a better top coat.  Up until recently I had been skipping the base coat step and I am paying for that with discolored nails.  So maybe it’s the base coat, maybe it was better when I wasn’t using one.  I had found a bottle of Wet and Wild strengthening nail polish in the bathroom at my grandmothers house.  This bottle of polish might be considered antique.  So I am off to buy a better top coat and maybe even a base coat that isn’t as old as I am.  I did find the Sinfulcolors top coat on clearance for $0.99.  I really do like the quality of their polish and at under $2.00 you can afford to change colors everyday.  If you have any suggestions about what I might need to do differently or what brand top coat might work better I am open to suggestion.


I really wanted to get a post up so you guys wouldn’t think I had moved on to something else.  I know, like I said in my opening paragraph, that I am lacking in my frequency of blogs.  I still have a head full of ideas for my program to help women who have been incarcerated.  I think I am at the point where I just do not know what to do next.  I’ve been using mind mapping to pull my ideas into a cohesive plan.  I have untreated adult attention deficit disorder and it is hard to pull ideas into something tangible sometimes.  Just know it is my passion and so is this blog.  Beauty products and everything that goes with it is the one thing I have stuck with longer than a typical commercial break.  Thank you all for reading and I appreciate the continued prayers and support.  When I solve my nail top coat/base coat problem I will get back to you.

Much Love and God Bless,

KelleyJo

Twitter @kelleyjo3334
Instagram @kelleyjojo333
Facebook @Kelley.lively
Pintrest @Kelleyjo333
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As Requested Epielle BB Cream Review

Hi guys, thanks for coming back.

So I had a reader comment today about wanting a review for the Epielle BB Cream sold at Big Lots and other discount locations.

Lulu June 10, 2014 at 10:57 PM
“Yes, please if you can do a review of the Epielle BB cream, that would be great. Our Grocery Outlet sells it for $1.99. A great deal for a made in Korea bb cream, I think.”



If you are a Big Lots shopper you might already be familiar with the makeup removing wipes that this company sells that come in a couple of different options.  I know there is a cucumber and maybe 3 or more different kinds with this brand.  They retail for I believe a $1.00 for 50 wipes and I’ve used them fairly often with good results.  I never had any resulting breakouts or negative reaction to them.  The wipes themselves are medium size, soft and do a great job of taking off your makeup and even hard to remove eye makeup.

The BB cream was something I had seen in a blog post somewhere and was excited to see in my local Big Lots.  I had a post where I boasted about how wonderful the H&B department was at my location and in it I had listed this BB cream with a promise of review and I’m sorry it took Lulu asking for it.  In all honesty I had forgotten because I no longer use this product. 

At first I thought the BB cream was wonderful.  It seem to have great coverage for a BB cream and when mixed with my foundation, Estee Lauder Resilience Lift and buffed in, it created a dewy finish.  It wasn’t until I was in the car on day 2 of wearing it.  I looked in the mirror in the day time after wearing it for only a couple of hours and noticed it was breaking up, bad, especially around my nose and across my forehead at my hairline.  The finish was nothing like it had been when I first put it on.  Just for information I do have dry / combo skin so I was very surprised it was doing this on my face.  I’ve seen this more with oily skin, but haven’t experienced it much myself. 

Shortly after buying this BB cream I bought the It Cosmetics CC cream from QVC and really forgot about the Epielle BB Cream.  I am sorry to say that I was just so unhappy with it in the car that day that once I was wearing the It Cosmetics product I just packed it away and forgot about it.  If you read my blog often you are aware of my current living situation and our desperate hunt for a house, which we still haven’t found.  So room is very limited here at my Nannies house not really in area but in the fact that it’s her house and I’m trying to keep all my makeup and products put away best I can.  I have already taken over the formal dinning room table for a dressing table.

So in closing would I recommend getting the Epielle BB Cream?  Yes and No, if you are young with great skin, sure give it a try but if you have any problematic skin or aging skin, I might spend my $2.00 on a bottle of Wet and Wild polish or any of the other great beauty find at Big Lots.  On second thought who am I to judge.  Grab and bottle and go to town!  We are all beautiful no matter how good the Epielle BB Cream works. 

Thanks a million Lulu I hope this helps and thanks for reading my blog today.  Every time I see the counter go up  I am so humbled by it.  I am so blessed, thank you so much for coming back.  I promise to blog more often as soon as we move and I am comparing cameras for YouTube videos.  I am working on a full review this weekend of the It Cosmetics CC cream, for the most part I just love everything I have gotten from them. I will be getting my nonprofit, Makeup for a 2nd Chance off the ground soon as well.

Much Love and God Bless,

KelleyJo

Twitter @kelleyjo3334
Instagram @kelleyjojo333
Facebook @Kelley.lively
Pintrest @Kelleyjo333
LinkedIn Kelley Lively

Wet N Wild Megalast Nail Polish, I'm sold!

Hi guys, thanks for coming back.

So I just wanted to make a quick post about this polish. As many of you know I am moving and the next week is going to be insane. My husband starts work on Thursday at his new job, yeah hubby!

So I went to Wal-Mart yesterday and I just wanted to pick up a cheap polish to welcome the spring weather and to see if the one I pick would survive a move. Well I'm still on the move part but I have to say I am impressed with the polish. I have never used or bought a Wet N Wild nail polish and when I was considering how much I was spending, the $1.68 price tag had a huge influence. I have only recently been informed of the quality of Wet N Wild. With the enormous amount of vloggers and bloggers it’s a never ending stream of information. After a few years of watching and reading I have narrowed it down to my most reliable reporters of the beauty news and I have mentioned them often here. EmilyNoel83 talks often of how good the quality is of this brand and she is one of my top picks for trusted and reliable information.

Last week I picked up one of the trios from Wet N Wild, Walking on Eggshells and I loved it. For the price you just couldn’t beat the pigmentation and blendability. So when I ran across the polish I thought why not, its $1.68, give her a go. I chose the Megalast in #206C, Undercover, a lovely pinkie mauve. The first thing I noticed was the sticker on the lid telling me the brush was a ManiCurve Pro Brush. I had not seen one of these but I think I remember reading about them briefly. This made application so much easier. It is more flat that your traditional polish application brush. It lays on the nail better and the 3 stroke application is just much more natural. It also left no streaks and I really didn’t have to go back over any more than once.

So I applied I coat, because it was very opaque and it didn’t seem to need a second. I wanted to avoid thick layers because I thought it would do better during the move. I topped it with Sally Hansen Dries Instantly 30 Second Top Coat. I was sure to brush it across the tip to give it a good seal to prevent chipping, gave it a good 20 minutes to dry for good measure and went about my evening.

24 hours and 50 boxes later and it looks as good as it did last night after I put it on.

It’s really hard to impress me but this stuff really does. I change my polish almost every 3 days except when I take Tati’s recommendation for the gel polish top coat. If you don’t know about it follow the link and find out, it will make a huge difference. I didn’t do the gel top coat with this so it is doing it all alone and it is doing a great job.

I will be back hopefully early next week with something new. My program Makeup for a 2nd Chance is taking off so fast guys. I intend to help as many women as possible and I will need your help to do it. Stay tuned!!! I also want to give a quick shout out to all my new twitter followers. Would love to include you in that list, use the link below. I’m doing a better job a tweeting more often.

Much Love and God Bless,

KelleyJo

Twitter @kelleyjo3334

Instagram @kelleyjojo333

Facebook @Kelley.lively

Pintrest @Kelleyjo333

LinkedIn Kelley Lively

BTW, excuse my lack of a good mani!!