What do you use to remove polish?

One of my least favorite part of a manicure is removing polish. I wish I could snap my fingers or something and the polish is off and ready for the next color. Yeah...that's not going to happen.

I've tried a couple of removers from different brands and it's always the same thing; I have to twist and turn and scrub my little cotton ball on my fingers for what seems like forever. Imagine my happiness when I used Zoya's Remove+. That has got to be hands down, the best polish remover I have ever tried. No harsh scent, removes polish like a charm. Literally, I just used one cotton ball to remove polish from all ten fingers. What?!

Then there's the bottle design...it's genius! That flip top has helped me many times when I wanted to remove polish from one finger without messing up another one. This is also the only polish remover that hasn't dried out my nails and skin after using it. It's amazing and it still works that way after lots of swatching too.

So here's my dilemma, I'm almost at the bottom of my bottle. I wont be getting to order anymore soon. It's 10 bucks + shipping and handling but its worth every penny. Only thing is my pennies wont be making that order soon. Until then I'm looking for a remover that I can find in-store. What do you guys suggest? Anything that you just love?

-Lachelle

Blue French Manicure

Indoor + Flash (above)

Outdoor + No Flash

This is the same thing I did in my Black French Manicure post, except for now I have blue tips. When I got off work I was really wanting to do a blue manicure for some reason. I had the perfect blue in mind; Nicole No Limits. Just my luck, I couldn't find it. Oh well, I had OPI Blue My Mind near so I decided to do only my tips with it. I wanted the deep, dark almost black blue of No Limits but since I was using this lighter blue, I didn't want to paint my whole nail. Still a gorgeous blue nonetheless.

This was fast and simple. Just one coat of Essie Pinking Up the Pieces, two coats of OPI Blue My Mind, Stripe Rite silver for the line and Seche Vite for the topcoat.

Wait...typing all that made it seem not so simple.
But I promise it was.
-Lachelle

Zoya Valentine

This shade feels like Christmas on my nails. Something about the shimmer and maybe the fact that I don't like red polish. Anyway, it just has a holiday feel. Zoya's website describes this as a romantic bright red metallic with duochrome pink shimmer. I cant just wear a plain red mani; so here is the before picture, 2 coats and no topcoat:

Indoor + Flash

I'm loving my silver Stripe Rite polish, but the pink one not so much. I don't like the way it dries but that's another story. So just to spice up my nails, I added a...well I don't know what to call it, but there's some silver swooshy things in the right corner of my nails. It helped me to feel better about the red. This is with Zoya Armor topcoat.

Both pictures are Indoor + Flash

Pre-cleanup nails. I like the end result but I don't think they will be staying long.

-Lachelle

A Little Bad News

Hello to anyone who reads my blog,

Thanks for stopping by! I have a little dilemma on my hands. I've stated that I'm a newbie to this polish addict thing and a college student. Well, these two things don't exactly mix well for my budget. :-) Bottom line...I have bills to pay on my part-time job budget and buying polish over food...no bueno. LOL. I think I have shown you most of my polish collection so far, but I will have to start posting less frequently. I wont abandon the blog completely, I promise. Believe me I don't want to. Blogging is sort of therapeutic...
I'm trying to look on the bright side; I graduate next May but then its on to grad school. However, I do believe I will have a full time job. So then I can support my habit more!

Once again, thanks for your support and wonderfully nice comments!
-Lachelle

China Glaze Shocking Pink

Outdoor + Flash
Indoor + Flash

What took me so long to get that Seche Vite?! The shine is amazing! I think the reason was because I got one of those "trial sized" bottles from Trade Secret that was gooey and sticky. I was like is that what the fuss is all about?! However, the new bottle I got from Sallys is like butter! And it dries soooo fast!

I've been waiting to get my hands on Shocking Pink ever since I saw it in some YouTube videos. I did my nails and feet with this color and I was at work and this lady walks by and says" Wow, that's really bright! It really says summer" Another time my nails were noticed was at home; this is actually a funny story to me. I was blow drying my hair when all of a sudden I smell something burning. I run into the living room where one of my roommates is sleep and the other runs out of her room. Whats burning? Turns out the dishwasher is smoking because some plastic Tupperware dropped to the bottom and was burning during the steam cycle. While the smoke is coming out of the dishwasher, my roommate is like, "Wow your nails look so manicured! Did you do those yourself?" I was like "Yeah, I did!" Meanwhile my boyfriend is standing by, shaking his head "You guys are talking about nails and the dishwasher is about to catch on fire!" It was funny. Hey, we're just three girls...

I am so happy with this color. I think its my new favorite pink. Yeah, I know. I say that a lot.

-Lachelle

Orly Strip Down

Outdoor + No Flash (above)
Indoor + Flash

Okay, I know I'm partial to pink, but please believe me when I say that I love this color. I got this at Sally's this past weekend for $2.99. I didn't think much of it in the bottle; actually I'm ashamed to say I just got it because it was a good deal. Turns out this is a gorgeous shade. Only my 2nd Orly but this one gives me hope. I was starting not to like Orlys, not because of the application or anything but because they never had any colors I liked. One thing that is definitely a winner in my book about Orly is their rubber, easy to grip handles.

This is three coats + topcoat. I also got some Seche Vite ( yes!) on that trip to Sally's but that's not the topcoat I used here. I believe it is Zoya Armour.

-Lachelle

Nic's Sticks Form One Lime

Indoor + Flash (above)
Outdoor + No Flash

Okay, this wasn't the green I expected. I don't know why, but I don't like the shimmer. I wanted a green creme for my first green polish. Oh well. Anyway, this is the 2nd Nic's Stick I've tried and I've gotten used to the brush. I actually kind of like it now. This is three coats + topcoat.

I wanted to wear this to one of my friends graduation since our colors are green and white, but this was a little too green. Maybe to a football game...

-Lachelle

Storage System...sort of

For my birthday my parents gave me money to buy one of those plastic drawer storage sets. I was all too happy to run to Wal-Mart that I jumped in the car the minute they told me. Except that it hadn't been transferred to my bank yet. Ooops.

So the next day, Friday my actual birthday, I went to Target and got it for cheaper than I expected. It was about 13 dollars. However, I still need some kind of way to organize my polishes within the actual drawers. For now it goes a little something like this:

1st drawer: Base coats, Top coats, nail files, buffers, cuticle oil, fingernail clippers, nail polish remover, nail art stickers, Stripe Rite polishes.

2nd: Nail polish. I tried to organize it by color but they all slide around so this is a work in a progress.

3rd: Okay I kind of cheated with this drawer, but its my jewelry. I'm tired of finding it all around my room or not finding it when I need/want to wear it.

So, I feel a lot better about my storage and my room thanks me for less clutter.

-Lachelle