Easter Nails

Hello again!

Sorry to keep going AWOL on you all but right when I think I'm ahead, something else comes up! But I'm back! Today I'm going to share my current manicure with you! I was feeling in the Easter mood so I thought I'd get ahead of the game and create an Easter manicure to share with you all!

 

What you need:

•  Base Coat (Avon Rodge Filling Base Coat)
• Dark Purple Polish (Essie No More Film)
• Light Purple Polish (Essie Lilacism)
• White Polish (Avon French Tip White)
• Top Coat (Seche Vite)
• Gelous
• White detailing polish
• Makeup Sponge
• Dotting tool

After your base coat dries, paint two of your nails your dark purple and the other three white. Once the white has dried, take your makeup sponge and paint a line of your dark purple, a line of light purple, and a line of white. This part tends to get a bit messy so either tape around your nail or use Vaseline or even glue. I used Vaseline around my nail to keep the clean up a bit easier.

 

Once you've created the 3 lines on your sponge, dab it gently on your nail. If you press too hard it comes out too concentrated. Repeat this on the other nails you are creating this look on, repainting over the stripes each time. You are going to want to do this about 3 times on each nail in order to get a seamless gradient look. I am still working on this, but practice makes perfect, right?

 

Now, paint your middle finger with 1 or 2 coats of your light purple and let that dry. Once dry, take your striping brush and create 2 chevron type lines on your nail. Take your dotting tool and place dots of your dark purple in the empty spaces between the lines.

 

Top with a coat of gelous and your top coat and you are done!

 

Here is the finished look:

 

Let me know what you think!

Recreations? #countryclassdiy

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Avon Clearskin Professionals 3 Step Kit Review

Hello Again!

 

I was going to post a navy blue/pink nautical inspired manicure for you all, but I attempted a navy/pink/white ombre and I am not thrilled with it at all. Honestly, I am not all that happy with the manicure and I plan on taking it off tonight. So, I'm back with one of my many drafts!

 

The main reason this one has been drafted so long is because it is a review on a 3 step acne system I bought from Avon and I wanted to be sure that I liked it before I went and reviewed it!

 

This is step one in the system, an exfoliating face wash. I use this both in the morning when I shower and at night after I take my makeup off. I love this step because it leaves your face with a wonderful cool and tingly feeling!

 

Step 2 are the clarifying toner pads. I use these in the morning when I get out of the shower. All you have to do is wipe them all over your face then let your face dry!

Step 3 is the daily correcting lotion. I use this in the morning and at night. Keep in mind, though that this contains salicylic acid, so if you have more dry skin I would use it only once a day. My skin tends to be quite oily, so using this twice a day works great to balance out that oil!

I will tell you that this can seem pricey when you first purchase it. We all know that I'm typically broke so I cringed when I saw the price, but I saw so many reviews on YouTube stating that is was better than Proactive (which I definitely agree with!) I just had to splurge and buy it!

 

After the initial purchase, it is much more affordable. You never run out of all 3 at once. The first thing I ran out of were the toner pads, simply because there are 45 of them. So I usually buy them once a month, depending on when my Avon orders go in. Next, I ran out of the face wash (which I also use to wash my back and chest), I find that the face wash lasts me about a month and a half to two months. And I literally JUST bought my second bottle of the moisturizer. I want to emphasize this point because I have been using this since September and it is now March, so it lasted me about 7 months or so! Talk about value!

 

Before I get too far into this, yes, I am an Avon Representative. Though I was in no way influenced by Avon to review these products. I saw this system in one of the brochures and did my own research and decided to purchase it of my own accord.

 

Now that that's over with, here are some before and after pictures:

 

 I clearly was planning on taking progress pictures for you guys, but that obviously didn't happen! You can see some progress here, my cheeks are almost all cleared up and my forehead is also clearer. Also, some of the redness has gone down. I would take a picture of my skin right now (which looks great if you ask me!) but I have makeup on and I don't want to have to take it off and put it back on. My skin has cleared up so much over the past 7 months it's crazy! I will still get a little breakout here and there, but I fight those with my Avon Clearskin Professional Liquid Extraction Strip which I reviewed here and my Avon Clearskin Pore Penetrating Black Mineral Mask which I plan to review soon!

This has been an absolute life saver of a product and has helped me to feel so much better about my skin! The only issue now are those pesky acne scars, which I will be targeting next!

You can purchase the full set here. Or, you can get a 2 week trial kit here. I just want to point out that the two week trial kit is currently on sale for $5.99, how awesome is that?

If you would like to see some updated progress pictures, I can surely get you some! Just leave a comment or send an email!

Recreations? #countryclassdiy

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Vintage Rose Manicure

Hello again!

I was thinking my life would slow down a bit after I got one group presentation out of the way, but that was a joke! I'm still busy as ever and it seems like I can never catch up on my sleep! The good news is that I'm getting the word out about my Storenvy store, so hopefully I can start making some sales!

I also have a giveaway going on right now on my Avon Facebook page which you are all more than welcome to join and enter! Also, feel free to join my Facebook group for my creations!

Now that I'm done self promoting, I'll get to the core of this post, which is this manicure. I want to point out that I'm trying a bit of a new posting style and I would love to hear your feedback on it!

I actually just took this manicure off today and I was really sad to do so because it was so adorable!

What you need:

•  Base Coat (Avon Ridge Filling Base Coat)
• Black Polish (Wet N' Wild Black Creme)
• Nude Polish (Avon Gel Finish Barely There)
• Dark Pink Polish (Sally Hansen Unnamed)
• Light Pink Polish (Avon Nailwear Pro Cotton Candy*)
• Green Polish (Art Deco)
• Gelous (Optional)
• Top Coat (Seche Vite)
• Small brush/dotting tool (I got mine from avon*)

*Products marked have unfortunately been discontinued 

As always, first paint on your base coat to protect your nails.

 

After your base coat dries, apply your nude polish. I only needed one coat of this polish.

 

Once that dries, paint your stripes and dots, alternating nails. I will tell you that my brush was too thick in my opinion and I would have preferred thinner lines.

 

Once those dry, take your dotting tool and put quite a bit of your hot pink polish on it. Use that polish to create 3 large dots on your nail. You may have to apply more polish to the dotting tool, because you want to make sure that there is a blob of polish on your nail. Immediately after creating your dots, place s drop of the light pink polish in the center of each dot and swirl it around with your brush. You may have to do this a couple of times to get the perfect swirl of color.

 

Then, take your green polish and using the detailing brush, add some small leaves to the flowers. There's no exact number as to how many I use, I just did what looked good to me!

 

Once this dried, I applied a coat of Gelous so that it would last longer. This is totally optional!

 

Finally, apply your top coat and clean up your nail beds!

 

I would love to see your recreations at: #countryclassdiy

 

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Let me know what you think!

 

Purple and Gold Chevron Manicure

Hello again!

Today I'm posting about my current manicure (amazing, I know). I still have about 12 drafts sitting out there waiting to be posted, but I just had to show you guys this manicure first! I've gotten so many compliments on it and it was super easy!

These nails were inspired by some that I saw on Pinterest, which I have included a screen shot of. I chose to do some springy colors in the hopes that it would get a little warmer here in Michigan (no luck yet).
 

 

Inspiration:

What you need:

•  Base Coat (Avon Ridge Filling Base Coat)
• White Polish (OPI Alpine Snow)
• Purple Polish (Essie Lilacism)
• Gold Polish (Unnamed one from Ulta)
• Top Coat (Seche Vite)
• Gelous (Optional)
• Single Chevron Nail Vinyls (Purchase here)

Before I start my tutorial I just wanted to point out that I used Gelous, but I used it differently than I usually would. I was just getting sick of doing a regular manicure that I hoped would last a week and having it last about 2 days and the polish would chip. So instead of doing a full on Gelous manicure, I opted for one coat before my top coat and it has actually worked wonders!

 

So, first thing's first, put on a base coat to protect your nails.

 

After your base coat dries, paint on a layer of your white polish. I used OPI Alpine Snow, but I really do not recommend it. It is really streaky and it seems like a super thick formula. Mine is almost gone so I asked the lovely ladies in a Facebook nail polish group and got a lot of suggestions for Sinful Color's white polish (the name has just slipped my mind). I have yet to buy it, but one of the ladies swatched it for me and I'm planning on buying it next time I make a trip to the store!

 

I did end up having to do 2 coats on most of the nails simply because I wasn't happy with how streaky it was with just 1 coat.

 

Once the polish has dried a bit, paint on a layer of your quick dry top coat and once that dries, apply one of the single chevron vinyls. 

 

Now paint one section gold and the other purple. I had to do a pretty thick coat of the purple because it is such a sheer color.

Immediately remove the vinyl. Repeat for all of your nails, alternating which nail has gold on the top and bottom.

Let me know what you think!

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Recreations? #countryclassdiy



DIY Turban Headband

Hello again!

 

Two posts in one week! I'm on fire! This is currently the oldest draft I have sitting out there and I figured it was finally time to write a tutorial post for you all!

 

I had some old shirts that were starting to fall apart so i turned to Pinterest to see what I could do with them and I found a tutorial on how to make turban headbands and figured I would try it out!

 

To start out, get an old t-shirt. I would suggest using a more stretchy one. One of the ones I used didn't have much give in the fabric and it tends to squeeze my head too much.

 

I then drew lines on the shirt to mark where I was going to cut. It's pictured below but it

's a little hard to see because of the color of the shirt.

 

Now cut out 2 strips.

Make a cross out of the two strips.

Now fold one of those strips in half over the other.

Now this might get a little tricky so I'm really going to suggest relying on the pictures more than what I'm typing, simply because I'm not sure how well I can explain this.

 

Now take the other strip of fabric and fold that in half.

Take one strip and place it inside of the other strip. Do this for both folded sides.

This will give you your headband! Sorry that I didn't take a picture of the finished product! It's been a while since I made these and I clearly wasn't thinking straight when I did this!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Let me know what you think!

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Recreations? #countryclassdiy

Winter Inspired Nails

Hello again!

 

Sorry to have been so neglectful of you these past few weeks, but school and work have kept me extremely busy!

 

Today, I'm going to show you how I created these winter inspired nails!

 

What you need:

•  Base Coat (Avon Ridge Filling Base Coat)
• Top Coat (Seche Vite)
• Gray Polish (Maybelline Color Show Audacious Asphalt)
• Baby Blue Polish (Sinful Colors Cinderella)
• Silver Polish (I got this one from Meijer)
• Dotting tool (I got mine from Avon)
• Single Chevron Vinyls (Buy them here)
 

Step 1. After painting on your base coat, paint a layer of your blue polish.

Step 2. Once that layer is dry, add another layer.

Step 3. Now on the finger(s) of your choice, add 2 or 3 dots of silver polish off to one side.

Step 4. On the finger you plan to use as an accent nail, paint a coat of your fast dry top coat.

 

Step 5. Once that is dry, place your single chevron vinyls and paint your choice of colors.

Step 6.  Immediately remove the vinyls.

Clean up and you are finished! This is a quick and easy look that I got many compliments on. I also love Cinderella from Sinful Colors as it has some very pretty iridescent glitters in it!

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Recreations? #Countryclassdiy

Valentine's Day Nails

Hello everyone and happy February!

 

I don't know about you all, but I'm just glad to have made it through January alive! Today, I have a tutorial for you on how to do this simple mix and match Valentine's Day manicure! Which, in part, was also inspired by the water cup my little sister got me for Christmas!

 

Here is the finished product:

What you need:

•  Base coat (Avon Ridge Filling Base Coat)
• A sheer polish (Sally Hansen Beyond Perfect, White Tea)
• A Pink Polish (Avon Nailwear Pro Cotton Candy which I believe was discontinued, but the Pastel Pink looks similar)
• A Pink Glitter Polish (Avon Stardust in Crystallized Pink which they also discontinued)
• Gelous (Optional)
• Top Coat (Seche Vite)
• An orange stick/toothpick
• Nail File
• Chevron Vinyls (Purchase Here)  

Instead of doing the design on my middle finger freehand, I decided to make some nail wraps and do it that way instead. The following few steps will show you how I created those.

 

Step 1. Take a piece of paper and draw your design(optional).

Step 2. Take a lunch bag and attach your paper to the inside of it (optional)

Step 3. If you skipped the paper step, start here! Paint your base color approximately the size of your nail, or you can go a little bigger like I did. I just used my Seche Vite top coat for this part.

 

Let that dry.

Step 4. Once your base coat is dry, paint on your design. I just used a toothpick to do this.

Step 5. Once you've finished painting on the design, let it dry for about an hour. You can then peel it off of the bag and use it!

So now, for the manicure!

 

Step 1. After your base coat dries, paint one coat of each of your polishes, on whichever fingers you wish.

Step 2. Paint a coat of Gelous on after the first coat dries.

 

Step 3. While the Gelous is still wet on your middle finger, apply your nail wrap and press down. 

Step 4. Cut around the sides with an orange stick and trim the end off and file.

 

Step 5. Paint a layer of top coat over the nail wrap.

Step 6. Paint a second coat on the nails that need it. (I only used one coat of my glitter)

 

Step 7. Add a coat of fast dry top coat to every finger but the one with your nail wrap.

Step 8. Once the top coat dries, place your vinyls on the nails of your choice and press down on the edges with your orange stick.

Step 9. Paint over with the color of your choice.

Step 10. Immediately remove the vinyls and touch up anything that needs it.

 

Step 11. Paint a layer of top coat over the nails you used your vinyls on.

Step 12. Once all your nails are dry, add one more coat of Gelous and let dry.

Here is a picture of my nails with the water cup that inspired part of the design!

Let me know what you think!

Recreations? #countryclassdiy

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Shop with me! Avon and Storenvy