Give Yourself a Mini Spa Treatment

I may have to fight for it, loose a little sleep because of it and in desperate times pay for someone else to do it, but by golly I’m going to have nice nails.

I was told that after having a baby I was going to have to quit paying attention to myself. I would have to, “Let myself go.” Now that I’ve experienced life with a baby, I don’t let anything go…I simply adjust my grip.

Doing my nails is a Saturday night ritual. With a baby around, it’s meant I’ve had to adjust when I get it done. Most of the time that means doing them in stages. File and clean up my cuticles before I go to bed; paint the base coat after feeding/changing the baby in the morning; paint the first layer of color before walking out the door; paint the final coat at my desk.

Some weeks it’s a crazy spread-out process like that, other weeks I can get it all done in one sitting. My goal is to never give up!

This week I returned to applying a face-mask while working on my nails. It’s the perfect time to let something soak into your skin while you’re giving yourself a manicure. Afterwards, I felt like a whole new woman (and after a rough week, I looked like one too).

I’m a much happier person when my nails are nice, and I just don’t think you have to forsake yourself entirely just because you’ve had a baby. Women have been having babies and keeping up their appearance for centuries. I’d like to join the list.

Here are the products I use and love for an at-home “me time” –

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One: Nugg Face Mask

I have a whole box full of face mask samples that I’m determined to pick through each week. This one was super hydrating and left my skin feeling baby-butt soft. Which is a review you can trust as I have a direct way to compare the two ;)

Two: Zoya Satin polish in Sage

Ok, so maybe Zoya doesn’t employ the most creative imaginations when it comes to naming their polish. But I do love the soft color and how it drys with a matte-like finish. And it drys fast, which is great when someone needs their paci reinserted, completely hypothetical of course. (Ps: I would name this one “So, what do you Sage?!”

Three: Crystal Nail File

My weekly manicure used to include time spent hunting down a fresh nail file. It took at least 15 minutes to find one that had that good clean spot. Thankfully someone invented the crystal nail file – it never ever wears down. All it requires is a quick rinse and it’s ready to go. God bless that person. You can pick up your own at Mori’s Luggage and Gifts in West Town Mall (they have multiple sizes too!)

Four: Essie Fill the Gap Base Coat

Prepping your nail is the most important step for polish longevity. I don’t have time for a top coat, but I refuse to skip the base coat, and my polish lasts all week chip-free because of it.

Five: Sally Hansen 18K Gold Cuticle Eraser

I live such the life of luxury that I’m slathering gold on my cuticles. And that’s no lie. This cuticle pen has bits of gold in it! Sure you can’t SEE them, but it really gets into your cuticles leaving you with fresh nails – which is a luxury in and of itself!

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Summer Beauty Swaps

This a post from last summer (as you’ll quickly surmise when you see my stomach ;) But I wanted to bring it to you again because all of these products are still relevant, and will help make your summer beauty routine a lot easier. Enjoy!

Now that it is consistently hotter than a cole miners arm pit outside, it’s a good time to summer-ize our beauty routine.

This time of year we need protection from the sun, tools to combat humidity, and products that will help us not feel like we want to melt into the concrete.

If you didn’t get a chance to watch yesterday’s segment, just press play!

Here is a list of all the products I talked about…

Aveeno body lotion with SPF: If you’re not already applying lotion everyday/every time you get out of the shower, you should be! Add this to your routine and you’ll not only get moisturized, but you’ll also get protection from the sun!

Pond’s BB Cream: One thing I forgot to mention on the show, is this only comes in two shades. I picked up the medium to go with my tan, and it seems to blend in well. It does come out a lot darker then what it ends up looking like on your face, so don’t get freaked out.

Maybelline Color Show in Pink Embrace: light pastel colors are great for your manicure if you don’t want to touch it up a lot. These lighter colors won’t show nicks and chips as badly.

Urban Decay Makeup Setting Spray: I don’t know why my face starts to feel gross by 3pm, but I do know how to fix it – this makeup setting spray does the trick every time. Spray it on your face after doing your makeup to keep it in place, then do what I do and use it as an afternoon refresher.

Sea Salt Spray by Organix: Get that soft beach-babe look in your hair without all the driving and that sand thing, with this great sea salt spray. It smells fantastic and will give your hair some texture to make it easier to put up.

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Wedges and Polish Pairings

wedges, west town mall, nail polish, rack room shoes, sephora nail polish, pedicure ideas, open toe shoes, black wedges, tan wedges, white wedgesA couple months ago, I swore to my husband that this summer I was not going to try and reach around my bulging pregnant belly to paint my toes. I said I was going to get a pedicure every time!

…So far that hasn’t happened. But this I promise you – it will happen! At some point before I have this baby I will find the time to get a pedicure!

Until then, let’s look at these polish and wedge pairings for our feet this summer.

All of these wedges can be found at Rack Room Shoes in West Town Mall. All of the nail polishes are by Nails and can be found at Sephora (which now has a mini shop open in JCPenney!).

I like to go a little bolder on my toes sometimes and this colbalt blue will definitely grab you by the eyeballs. I think these subdued black cut out wedges would be a perfect pairing for something so playful.

No matter what age you are, you can dive right into the lace trend with these cute white lace wedges. They’ve GOT to be comfortable since there’s not one pressure point on your foot. So that’s a plus, and pairing them with a bright coral polish is a plus plus seeing as how your feet will be really on trend. Listen if our feet can’t get with the times, why are we even trying?

Let’s talk easy breezy for a moment. This nude low-wedge sandal looks to me like it’s begging for the nickname, “Old Faithful” as in – I can reach for these any time and they’ll go with whatever I’m wearing while still being wildly comfortable. Lets balance out the look of dependability with a crazy fun polish like emerald green.

I used the word “subdued” earlier to describe that first pair of black cut out wedges, but that word doesn’t belong in the same room as these shoes. That word goes running out of the building the minute these black cut out wedges show up. How wildly fun are these!? And speaking of wild fun, let’s keep it going all night by making your pedicure a shiny silver metallic color. Yow-zah! Pair these two with a simple black dress or another subdued basic so as to keep that spotlight pointed directly at your feet!

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Two Unexpected Ways to Use Coconut Oil

The coconut is having a good year.

In the store the other day I noticed there’s no shortage of coconut-related products. All of our basic essentials – sugar, water, oil, milk – have been taken over by this tasty and wildly healthy fruit…? Fruit right? No, I just looked it up, it’s part of it’s OWN species. Ooo fancy.

Which further proves my point…this thing is becoming a bit of a diva.

But we’ll take an edible/slather-able diva that will help us feel and look better any day, right?

Let me share with you two new ways the coconut can be introduced into your beauty routine.

Coconut Oil Nails

We knew this stuff was a great moisturizer, but who knew it could do this!?

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I found this online and didn’t believe it until I tried it myself. Take your favorite blush and mix about 1/2 a teaspoon of it with a full teaspoon of coconut oil (per nail, by the way so it works out to 5 teaspoons of blush, 10 teaspoons of coconut oil). Then slather on a thick coating of the mixture on each nail, making sure to mold it into the shape of your nail. Then hold your hand under a hair dryer for a full two minutes. Once it’s dry it looks like you got a professional manicure!

Something else that’s quite unexpected is creating an eyeshadow by using it and another simple household ingredient…baking soda!

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By mixing equal parts of the two together vigorously (I used a small spatula for about a minute), they combined to create this perfect color that has the consistency of a creamy eyeshadow. And because it’s made up of coconut oil it moisturizes your eyes as you wear it throughout the day. The downside is it does crease by the end of the day, even if you’ve applied a primer. However, the benefits to your skin and the color that it leaves behind, far outweigh the down side of looking wilted and droopy by 5pm.

So…when are you going to try these awesome beauty hacks?

I hope it’s today because it’s a great April Fools joke!

#gotcha :-P

*The nail color I’m actually wearing in the picture is OPI, “Lucky Lucky Lavender.”

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Easy Metallic Nails

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I feel as if I need to write OPI an apology letter.

Someone complimented my polish the other day and I didn’t. remember. the name.So sorry, OPI. You all are naming geniuses and half the fun of wearing the polish is rattling off the clever title you’ve given the color!

I’m happy to report I’ve since looked it up and can tell you that the name of this dark silver metallic color is, “Haven’t the Foggiest” (What would have been awesome times 1,000 is if I would have answered with, “I haven’t the foggiest idea” when asked the name…that could have been so ironic).

I need to stock up on metallic colors like this because they are perfect for Saturday nights like I had this past week.

I paint my nails every weekend, and this particular Saturday left me completely drained. I couldn’t, however, bring myself to waking up the next morning with the mess my nails were, so I pressed through and gave myself a manicure.

Since painting right before bed usually ends up in a mashed mess, I always paint only the first coat of polish then go to bed. This way if things do get smashed I can put another coat on in the morning, and I don’t have to wait as long for it to dry. Thankfully this color can totally look good in just one coat, so I was up and at ’em in the morning without having to give my nails a second thought.


Shopping My Closet

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