Shellac 2 Week Update

Bio Seaweed Gel Soak-Off Gel in Grapefruit, 2 weeks later

Hi guys!  Here I am for the last installment of my Shellac experience - here are parts one and two.

These photos were actually

Shellac 1 Week Update!

Bio Seaweed Soak-Off Gel in Grapefruit - 1 week later

Hi guys!  As promised, here I am exactly a week later to give you an update on my "Shellac" manicure - to see my intro post about the product and my experience, click here.

I have to say,

Soak-Off Gel ("Shellac") - First Impressions

Bio Seaweed Soak-Off Gel in Grapefruit

I know.   I know!  I must be the last woman within my age bracket in the developed world to properly try "shellac", or soak-off gel polishes.  Soak-off gels

Essie Jazz

This is me wearing Essie Jazz (and being a Chanel whore)

Oh my goodness, you wouldn’t believe what lengths I went to to procure this nail polish. But the effort was quite worth it, don’t you think?

It’s a beautiful,

Joe Fresh Orange Crush*

Last week I talked about my failed foray into trying one of the season's hottest colours...

NaBloPoMo Day 11: China Glaze Peachy Keen

China Glaze Peachy Keen

One of the it colours for nail polish this year is peach; all tones of orange are in, really, because

NaBloPoMo Day 4: Essie A Cut Above

Over China Glaze For Audrey

On a love/hate ratio, my feelings towards this polish would stand at 60/40.  60 love because,

Basic French Manicure #2

My basic French mani v2.0!

Much better than last time, right?

This might just be my favourite French polish combination yet.  Here, I'm wearing

My Go-To Red: OPI O'Hare & Nails Look Great!

OPI O'Hare & Nails Look Great

While I love pink (as longtime readers will know - remember my old blog and Twitter layouts?), I don't look that great in it.  My power colour is red.  My philosophy is to

Basic French Manicure #1

Orly Bare Rose as a base, Orly Soft White on the tips and Orly Fifty Four on top

French manicures – pornstar or posh?

Um, I have a bit of a confession.  I used to be

The Quality Threshold

Source

My Pawpaw (maternal grandmother) is a Chinese Dragon Lady. She takes no prisoners and she doesn’t suffer fools gladly. She has infinite opinions, which are all Absolutely True and Correct and she will tell you ALL about them whether you like it or not.

Hence I found myself in the middle of a lecture one Saturday afternoon when all I wanted was just

Another (Not Really) Chanel Dupe - Essie Sew Psyched

Essie Sew Psyched

I am hating so hard on this polish right now!

I first started hankering for an army green polish after hearing about the one from H&M from my friends in Europe.  Such a creative, chic colour, and the olive tone reminds me of living on the Mediterranean!  Sadly,

Say NO to Cheap Mani-Pedis!

OPI's Do You Lilac It?

At the seediest, skeeviest, grossest nail bars in downtown Toronto, you can probably get a mani-pedi for $30CAD, tax included (provided you pay cash).  In the lower-mid-range level, several steps up from those, at the still-affordable but clean places (like the one I go to), a mani-pedi costs $35.  Prices can go up from there, all the way to $100 or so.

So imagine my surprise when I found,

China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint

China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint in sunlight

A perfect, summery mint green that reminds me of...

Essie Ballet Slipper

Please file this one under "Cult Favourites I Don't Get" because I don't get it.  Why it's so popular, I mean.

The colour is typical, Upper East Side Rich Girl Pale Pink, but the formulation is...

Bitch Nail Polish

Baby Smiley says “You gotta make sure that your ah-browns scream, ‘BITCH!’”

Similarly, I sometimes turn to cosmetics to imbue power in me when I feel like I need a little lift. My favourite is using dark, dark nail polish – not black, because that’s too emo, but black-red, because I once read that powerful women in history liked to paint their nails dark red. I’m not sure if it’s true, but I like to do it anyway.

Enter Chanel.

In ’94, a makeup artist coloured models’ nails with black marker before a photo shoot, and then created an almost black polish for that season’s runway. After that Chanel show, there was a huge frenzy for that nail polish and it quickly became a cult favourite. Originally named Vamp and later re-named Rouge Noir, it was designed to look like dried blood. See? That’s the power thing. It tells the world – Don’t f*ck with me. I paint my nails with dried blood. It’s sexiness, aggression and sophistication in a bottle.

However, Chanel USA “re-released” a nail polish called Vamp some years later, but it’s not the same. The new Vamp has a shimmer finish to it and doesn’t hold a candle to the original Vamp/now Rouge Noir, in my opinion. So caveat emptor: The colour I’m referring to is Rouge Noir today – look for the bottles that say Made in France on the back.

My Aunt K has a bottle and was kind enough to share with me once, but I can’t keep mooching off her because she’s usually countries away from me. It applied just a little bit streaky, but I have a feeling it’s because her bottle’s ancient. She didn’t know that it was such an iconic polish until I told her, apparently.

At about $30-40 a pop, it qualifies as an “affordable luxury” but I really can’t justify spending that much on nail polish, so I’ve set about looking for a substitute, and luckily, there are many dupes out there.

My personal favourite at the moment is Essie’s Wicked (pictured above). It’s a bit darker than the original Vamp but it comes very close and I like how it’s just a shade away from black. It’s sort of a cross between a creme and a gel. It applies slightly streaky but many dark colours are difficult to apply, and this one isn’t as bad as some others I’ve come across. It dries to a beautiful, glossy finish, but I always use top coat with it, so that’s a moot point. And at $11 a bottle ($9 at Wal-Mart) – or less when there’s a sale – the price is right!

Summer Nails & Giant Marshmallows

L-R: China Glaze Rich & Famous, OPI A Grape Fit, CG For Audrey, CG Re-Fresh Mint, CG Lemon Fizz

When I was archiving the posts of my old blog onto this new blog, I realized all of a sudden that The Soap Heiress used to be a fashion/beauty blog! Somewhere along the way it morphed into more of a travel/living abroad/culture blog and now it's very food-oriented, in addition to all of the above. It's funny how things change and take on a life of its own, right?

So yesterday I was doing my nails and I decided to show all of you my picks for the best nail polish shades for Summer 2011, since they look so great together. As pictured above, they are:

(thumb) China Glaze Rich & Famous: A bright, hot pink cream. This shade, as with many CG polishes, looks way more subdued in the bottle and much brighter on. It takes 3 coats to be opaque but is easy enough to work with.

(index) OPI A Grape Fit: I am so in love with this lavender cream! As with most OPI colours, this self-levels beautifully and is a dream to apply. The colour is also super pretty - fun and feminine but not too wild.

(middle) China Glaze For Audrey: Tiffany blue! They've captured the colour perfectly. I recently brought a friend to Sally Beauty Supply to buy this colour because she's been looking for it forever and she's very happy with it. This cream also applies very well and self-levels.

(ring) China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint: I had to pick up a mint green because this colour's so hot this season. This one, also a cream, is a bit streaky to apply, like many pastel colours, but after 3 coats it was perfectly opaque and even.

(pinky) China Glaze Lemon Fizz: I was looking for a pale yellow colour originally after hearing about Illamasqua's Load (gross name but such a cool colour). This was the closest I could find that wouldn't break the bank and I didn't have to have it shipped to me, which was great. It's such a gorgeous colour and it's ideal for the summer! It's sort of a butter yellow cream - well, maybe slightly brighter than butter yellow. Yellows are notoriously streaky and this one is no exception, but it looks acceptable after 3 coats, I think. I'd suggest waiting for it to dry completely before applying top coat or else it'll be even streakier.

Bonus shot - I was at a summer barbecue yesterday and I brought over the biggest marshmallows I have ever seen. They were literally a handful each, see (below)? Eating and roasting them was lots of fun, but I think I'll stick to the regular jumbo marshmallows because this product wasn't engineered very well. Our marshmallows would melt and get all goopy before the outside had a chance to brown, you see, so these are more for novelty.

*Huge thanks to Karl for the pictures! :D

How to Grow Out Your Nails After Having Artificial Nails

Habits and the Best Nailcare Products Ever

I can't believe it's September already! Where did my summer go?

I hope all of you had a lovely long weekend and first day of school. I spent the weekend partying four nights in a row - on Friday I went to my girl Laura's birthday bash, on Saturday we feted with girlie cocktails, Johnnie Walker Blue Label and Camus XO (yum!) chez Nicole, on Sunday my BFF Jen hosted a get-together at her place for me where my boy Ramir gave me a copy of Vogue from Brasil, where he just returned from, and last night, I had the most incredible meal ever - the kind that epitomizes what excellent Chinese cuisine we have here.

I am pooped - and incredibly touched. How I adore all the people who love me!

And I'm leaving in three days - I can hardly believe it. The countdown is winding down.

I think that everyone counts time in their own special way. My brother, boring practical person that he is, counts days on a calendar. My little cousins count bedtimes they're forced to endure.

I count time with spa visits. A visit to the spa=a fortnight. You see, ever since sometime in second year, I've made bi-weekly trips to the spa, regular as clockwork. Usually in the winter, it's just for a nail fill. In the summer, it's for pedicures or mani-pedis, depending on my mood. It makes budgeting time a lot more fun, you see. And I firmly believe that a put-together person must have well-groomed nails.

So this summer, I've been getting regular mani-pedis. Consequently, I've been rocking spectacular nails all season long. However, based on the information I've found on sites of Niçois spas, I won't be able to afford continuing this habit of mine for the next ten months - not if I want to be travelling as much as I want, anyway. So last week, I kissed my gorgeously long fingernails goodbye and cut them short (since I won't be able to get fills), which also symbolised my impending arrival in Europe.

Because I'm a girl that likes to indulge in using fakies, since my own nails refuse to grow without breaking, my natural nails were ravaged by all the filing down that they've been put through all summer. When I complained about this, my esthetician, Fanny, introduced me to Duri Cosmetics' Rejuvacote Nail Growth System and, my goodness, my nails have never been this healthy.

***Update!!!***
I don't use this product anymore!  To see my new nail strengthener of choice, please click here!

The packaging is a little lacking, but it's a great product. You start by brushing on two coats of it on your bare nails (polish between the two coats optional) and continue to re-apply it every day for a week. When the week is over, wipe it off with polish remover and then re-apply every other day as a topcoat as needed.


After a week, I've found that my nails are much stronger, healthier and prettier as a result. And they're actually growing! Rejuvacote gives your nails a glossy shine that doesn't chip or peel away. I was told that even when you're down to the last bit, it won't get gummy. It also dries very quickly.


I love it and it's officially on my must-have list.

I also like to follow up with Solar Oil, a huge salon and spa staple, which I was also introduced to by an esthetician, back when I first began my spa habit. I like to rub generous amounts of it into my cuticles and around my nail area to keep my digits moisturized, pretty and hangnail-free. I'm planning to try to convince my mum to develop a good cuticle oil so that I'll have free access to lots at home.

Take good care of your nails and good luck in school!

Ginger Esthetic Spa

I firmly believe that every girl/woman/gay boy should be married to a spa and salon. Every one of us deserves to have those two special places that we can count on to make us beautiful (and therefore happy), who will never fail us, who will cheer us up on bad days, who will pamper us without abandon, forever and ever amen.

When I went to school in London, Ontario, I was married to Ginger Esthetic Spa. Whenever I was stressed out from school, the drama of sororityland, or if I just needed to be pampered, I'd make an appointment and it worked every time. The décor is tasteful, the ambience is relaxing, and the service is great, especially since they don't try to upsell you, like many spas do.

There, I met Fiona, the best nail tech I have ever met - and I am almost unreasonably picky. If I ever become rich enough to be able to afford hiring a posse to follow me around to keep me beautiful, I'd hire her at any cost to be in charge of my nails.

Ginger's nailcare services really take the cake because they are the only place I have ever found that doesn't use drills for artificial nail application, so the damage to your nails is minimal. They do a great job for fakies because they use the Brisa nail system - it's so natural-looking and lightweight that no one could ever tell that my nails weren't my own.

I came across Ginger in first year, when I went to another spa in London to ask for sponsors for a sorority charity event. I'd just gotten my nails done very poorly at a cheap nail bar, and the ladies at the other spa totally cut me up, as if I weren't aware of how pornstar-like my nails looked! Then they referred me to Ginger because their spa doesn't offer these services, and I went to Ginger faithfully for the remainder of the time I spent in London.

The owner, Janice, is a certified podiatrist and natural-products specialist. All the ingredients they use for their facials and massages are all-natural, and they smell fantastic! Her products are available on sale as well, if you try something and really like it. Their repair serum is phenomenal, and better than all the serums out there on the market, in my opinion.

Ginger is located at 181 Albert St. in London, ON. For further inquiries, call 519-646-2979.