How to remove a Shellac manicure/pedicure at home

I have had two Shellac manicures and a pedicure so far. Whilst I absolutely love them, they are a bit of a bastard when you want the polish removed. The first time, when I was sick of the manicure and it was starting to chip anyway, I picked it off like I would with normal polish that had begun to chip, and in the process I completely destroyed my nails. Bad move. When it came to removing the pedicure I decided to get it done at a salon when I was getting another pedicure done, and they charged $5.00. Highway robbery of you ask me! Especially as they pretty much just peeled it off themselves. After these two experiences I decided that I had to learn how to do it myself. This is my method:

 

What you will need:

• Cotton balls
• Aluminium foil
• Acetone based nail polish remover (I used Sally Hansen Strengthening for Weak, Thin Nails)
• Tweezers (optional)

  

Step 1

Rip the foil into 10 pieces (or however many nails you are doing) into squares that are about 5cm x 5cm.

Step 2

Soak a cotton ball in the nail polish remover. Place the nail polish soaked cotton ball on your nail then wrap the foil around the whole finger.

 

Step 3

Repeat until all nails on one hand are done. It is best doing one hand at a time as you need your fingers free on the opposite hand to remove the polish. Leave for at least 10 minutes. 

 

Step 4

After 10 minutes check one nail. The Shellac should be lifting up by now. Using a pair of tweezers or a nail from your other hand (I used nails from my opposite hand), gently scratch the Shellac polish off. It should come off easily. If it doesn't, put the soaked cotton wool and foil back on for another 5 minutes. 

 

Step 5

Repeat on second hand. 

 

Step 6

Using a new nail polish remover soaked cotton ball, give all of your nails a final scrub to remove the last stubborn flakes of Shellac. 

Tips

If the Shellac isn't coming off easily then it needs more time with the nail polish remover. If you try to peel it off rather than scratch it off you will ruin your nails. I got impatient with my second hand and have damaged these nails (see below). 

 

I was also impatient (as I was busting to take my new Gelicious kit for a test drive) and did both hands at once. It was very difficult to wrap the second hand and I think that might have compromised the results on that hand as I couldn't wrap the foil tightly. Unless you have an assistant to help you, you are better off being patient and doing them one at a time. 

 

 

What method do you use to remove your Shellac manicure or pedicure?

Gelicious Hybrid Gel Nail Colour swatch: Watermelon Gelato

My Gelicious Kit arrived yesterday and I had to play with it straight away (well, once Kiki and The Crazy Kid had gone to bed)! I received three colours to trial and decided, since it has been such a shit winter and I am totally over it, that I would take the deliciously summery Watermelon Gelato for a test drive! Watermelon Gelato is part of their 99% Fat Free Fluoros range. This is a hot, hot, hot pink with the slightest orange hue to it. I can see me getting a stack of wear out of it in the spring and summer months. The colour is better in real life than what is displayed on their website. This is much more fluoro.

I applied two coats of colour plus one of top coat and found that it gave me smooth, uniform colour. It is not 100% opaque - the underneath of my nails was dirty (thanks to a painting sesh with The Crazy Kid) and I can sort of see this through the colour. I think I might invest in their base coat to see whether this helps the colour to become more opaque and not show my dirty nails through!

Application was no more difficult than with normal nail polish although I did have one little mishap (though this was entirely operator fault and not a Gelicious issue). Kiki had a bit of a rough day yesterday and woke unexpectedly for a feed at 9.00pm when I was half way through my second hand. I had just finished applying the second coat so I made Hubby deal with her whilst I quickly cured the coat under the UV lamp. Though the second coat was cured, it was still sticky (this is normal and is mentioned in the instructions) so when I put Kiki back to bed some fibres from her lambskin rug stuck to the nail. I should have wiped them off with acetone but in my impatience to finish I painted over them instead. Unfortunately, this has left my right hand looking a little lumpy but a valuable lesson was learnt: Don't paint over pieces of fluff. Remove them first! The massive plus was, had I been applying normal nail polish I would not have been able to pick Kiki up for at least 5 minutes without wrecking my manicure - with Gelicious I could quickly cure them in one minute and they were essentially dry, manicure saved!

So far I am impressed; however, I will wait to do a full review of Gelicious until I have seen how long it lasts before chipping, how easy it is to remove and until I have had a second attempt at applying it to perfect my technique a little more. The purpose of this post was more to swatch the colour. It wasn't an easy colour to photograph as it is so fluoro...it's almost like it hurt my camera's eyes with its brightness! I have taken 4 photos - the first two in daylight and the third and fourth were taken last night so in low light. Hopefully this gives you a good idea how the colour looks.

What do you think of Watermelon Gelato - would you wear it? Have you studied the other Gelicious colours available? If so, which ones are on your wishlist? As I mentioned in my original Gelicious post, they currently have a sale where you can buy 3 colours and get the fourth one free - so that is 4 colours for $87. If the polishes pass the chip free for two weeks test I am going to buy another 4 (it's my birthday next month so this will be my present to myself!). These are the colours that I have on my wishlist (need to cull one!):

• To Help girly pink from the Breast Cancer Awareness range
• Tiara Tantrum sparkly yellow gold from the Commoner Done Good range
• Lights out sparkly black from the Shag on a Rug range
• Curiosity Does Mars sparkly pale pink - new colour
• Fake Tan sparkly brown - Spring into Action range (I usually steer well clear of browns but this looks like it might have some blue shimmers in it)

I also have Afterglow from the Shag by the Fire range and Yacht Race from the Boxing Day range to swatch - which one would you like to see next?

All opinions are my own and I received no remuneration for this post. This product was provided for consideration.

Avon: so much more than a brand your mum used to sell

My mum used to sell Avon when my sister and I were young. I am sure a lot of you had mothers who did similar. I guess, because this was my introduction to the brand, plus the fact that it's main mode of being sold is via mum entrepreneurs I have never really thought of it as a cutting edge brand. Sure the products were nice enough, but I never thought of them being in the league of the big Department Store brands. Today, my perception of Avon was completely and utterly smashed!

I attended a round table discussion with fellow bloggers and Avon's Head of Skincare Research and Development, Anthony Gonzalez at the Balla restaurant at The Star (formally known as Star City). Anthony discussed some of the research that Avon is conducting and it is absolutely mind blowing. They are currently working on a line tabled to be released in 2015 (though he wouldn't tell us any more about it...can't let the secrets out!). We were shown images of their research facility - the Global Research & Development Facility in Suffern, New York and I think that I might have had a science-gasm. It was exactly the type of lab I would have loved to work in - row after row of pristine white benches, loaded with some seriously high tech equipment.

Anthony started by telling us the back story behind Avon. Avon was founded in 1886 by a gentleman named David McConnell, who was a travelling book salesman. Book sales were slow so he started mixing alcohol with flower petals to create perfumes and essences which he gave his clients as a gift when they purchased his books (perhaps the first gift with purchase!). Soon his clients no longer wanted his books, only the perfumes, so he did away with books and thus Avon was born. From this humble beginning, Avon has gone on to become the third most successful cosmetics house in the world.

Each of Avon's skincare lines has an amazing scientific discovery behind it. Avon's scientists study all research papers that are being released across various fields and then determine whether any of the findings can be applied to cosmetics and skincare. I will go through the science behind each line as I review them; however, I want to share with you the story that resonated with me most - the discovery behind the Anew Genics line.

Around the world there are certain blue zones or blue spots. These are areas where the population that resides within it have much greater life expectancy than in other areas. One such blue spot was discovered in a rural town in Italy. In this town there were over one hundred residents who were of good health and were aged 100 or older. Scientists researched this population and discovered the gene that was responsible for their longevity. This gene released proteins that protected the cells contributing to their longevity. We all have these gene's but they are not necessarily turned on - they need to be exposed to a trigger to be turned on. In this population, the gene's were all turned on and produced the protective protein. Avon scientists read this paper and contacted the scientist involved in the research to determine whether skin cells may also contain this gene. They then obtained skin samples from the population, grew them in a petri dish in their lab (this technique is called cell culture) and were able to identify that skin cells do in fact have this gene. They then had to discover what trigger, or substance, activated (turned on) the gene to make skin cells start producing the protective protein. It turned out that it was an Australian botanical (that I have damn well forgotten the name of). They then bought a plot of land in northern Australia and grew a crop of this botanical. The skincare line was tabled to be released in 2009; however, kangaroos ate the entire crop so they had to replant it and grow it again! I find it hilarious that Avon can do all of this impressive cutting edge research, only for the release of their product to be delayed by a bunch of hungry kangaroos! But this story goes to show just what a global company Avon is - from Italy to America to Australia to create a skincare line.

I know you all would previously have heard of Avon but what were your perceptions of the brand. Were they like mine, before today, or were you aware of just how cutting edge the research they do is? They really are one of the big guns in the field of cosmetic research.

Do you currently use any Avon products? Did your mum also sell Avon when you were young?

Gelicious - UV cured gel nails that can be done at home

I recently wrote about how I had lost my Shellac virginity. Soon after this experience a friend and I decided that we wanted to be able to do Shellac at home so started looking into options but all we came up with were either too expensive or had terrible write ups so we filed it into the too hard basket and gave up. Yesterday I discovered that there may be an viable option after all with the Aussie brand Gelicious.

Gelicious is the brainchild of Libby Malcolm. Libby had seen that these salon products weren't all that hard to apply and that there must be a way that they could be done at home. When she found no such product available she decided to create her own and with the assistance of leading nail salon manufacturers Gelicious was born.

I was a tad concerned that home application would be difficult - especially with removal - but it actually looks super easy. Before applying, you just need to lightly buff your nails to remove the oils then you are ready to go. You apply the gel exactly like nail polish and seal it with the UV light between coats. To remove the gel, all you need to do is soak your nails in a 80% acetone nail polish remover for 10 minutes and the gel simply slides off. Have a look at the video below and you will see just how easy it is (the video only goes for just over 2 minutes so it's not a long one).

Now I haven't tried the brand just yet, I will be reviewing it in the coming weeks, so we will be able to see just how easy it is for someone without beauty training to apply it at home. I just wanted to introduce the brand to you first as they have a couple of amazing specials going on at the moment.

The first one is to celebrate their latest colour, Curiosity Does Mars, which has been inspired by the Mars landing. For $99 you get a travel sized UV lamp, plus three Gelicious polishes - Curiosity Does Mars, Hot Toddy and the high shine top coat. I paid $65 for my Shellac manicure and pedicure - so, for less than the cost of two salon Shellac sessions you have a kit to do it yourself at home.

The second special that i want to share with you is their Winter Special. They currently have all of their Gelicious polishes on sale for $29 (usually $45) and have an extra special deal that if you buy three then you can get a fourth colour for free. So that is 4 Gelicious polishes for $87. That is only a couple of dollars more than the cost of 4 bottles of OPI, yet these will last up to two weeks. They have a huge range of colours - 35 to be exact with more being created all the time. The entire range can be seen here.

Gelicious also have a cool voting system on this page where you get to choose the next colour that they make. They have a list of colours in the running and the one that gets the most votes will be created. I have voted for Gun Metal Does Glitter but it is being whooped by Beachy Peachy Coral so I need you to get voting for me!

Anyway, until I have swatched the colours I won't know for sure how good they are but I am really excited to find out so stay tuned for further updates!

What are your thoughts on being able to do gel manicures yourself at home? Awesome or would you miss the pampering of a salon experience too much?

An update on Kiki & Crazy + posts you might have missed

I have never quite been able to work out how to mix personal news into my blog. I know that it is my blog and that I can write about whatever I damn well want but I keep telling myself that my readers are here for beauty articles and not baby news. I think I might have found a solution...I am going to smuggle in my personal news in with my Sunday review post - beauty during the week and the weekends are for whatever I feel like writing about!

Kiki turned 3 months last Monday and I am shocked by how quickly it is going this time around. I think that Crazy is keeping me so busy that Kiki is growing up without me noticing. So, far she has been a really easy baby so that is making the transition easier for all of us, and especially Crazy. Apart from when she needs a feed, she is pretty contented although when Crazy is occupied and we are able to actually give her some attention her face lights up and she is all smiles and giggles - this makes me feel a tad guilty as it seems like she is craving attention. Ah, the trials and tribulations of a second born!

Kiki at 3 months

All smiles (because Crazy is asleep!)

Crazy and Kiki telling secrets

Now, back to beauty! Here are a few posts you may have missed from the past few weeks (I am feeling uninspired so no theme to the posts this week!).

Have you entered my HUGE Alpha-H giveaway? Plenty of Liquid Gold goodies to win.

I have been working my way through a stack of reviews on gorgeous products from The Jojoba Company. These include their Botanical Hydrating Face Mask, their 100% Natural Makeup Remover and their Australian Jojoba Oil. If you are wondering why Jojoba is so good for your skin then it is all explained here.

I found out that a gorgeous Aussie brand that I had previously experienced in a hotel is now available for purchase by the general public - hooray! If you haven't already heard of Romy then they are definitely worth further investigation!

Finally, in case you missed it, Lancôme have release a follow up product to compliment their hugely successful Visionnaire [LR 2412 4%] Advanced Skin Corrector serum, the Visionnaire [LR2412] Correcting Polishing Cream. This hit shelves in Australia and Asia on 29th July, 2012.


So, do you have any news that I missed over the last week? 

Why I love the Olympics so much: my memory of being a medal presenter (+ giveaway alert)

As you may have noticed, I have been running a couple of Olympic themed competitions (this one has closed but this one is still live if you would like to enter to win some Alpha-H Liquid Gold goodies). I though that I might share with you my special Olympic memory.

During the Sydney 2000 Olympics I was Medal Presenter - not one of the people who placed the medals on the athletes necks but one of the girls who carried the tray of medals - and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Unfortunately it was back in the days before digital cameras became mainstream so I don't have any photo's to show you. I took one roll of film of photos but have since misplaced the prints. However, I did manage to find a picture of myself online from the National Library of Australia Collection. As I don't have the copyright permission to reproduce this image I can only provide you with the link: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an23419631. In the photograph (you will have to take my word that it is me), I am presenting the gold medal so I am the third girl along in the line.

The medal presentation teams were split up according to height and then were assigned to sports with similar height. As I was in the shortest team we were assigned to gymnastics - probably the sport with the shortest athletes (well, apart from jockey's). In addition to gymnastics, I also presented medals for Synchronised Swimming, Fencing and European Handball.

In the lead up we had deportment training to learn how to walk properly; were taught makeup skills as we had to wear quite heavy makeup each night; we were invited to watch the dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony and we were in the Closing Ceremony. It was such an exciting time of my life!

Up until this point I hadn't really seen much gymnastics so it was a real eye opener for me. The strength and flexibility of these athletes was absolutely incredible.

Four moments stand out in my memory from this experience, that I will share with you.

The first one actually occurred just before the Olympics. It was at the Telstra Swimming Trials - the selection event for the Olympics. They also used that as a test event for the medal presenters to get some training before the Games. I was sitting in the holding room waiting for the next presentation when in walked Grant Hackett. I was like omg (internally of course, externally I was cool as a cucumber!). Then behind him walked Ian Thorpe so I was like OMG! Then in walked John Howard so I was like OMG!!! Now, I was 19 at the time so quite awe struck.

As I mentioned before, prior to this I was unfamiliar with gymnastics but I was about to get acquainted with a couple of the superstars of the sport. One of these was Alexi Nemov from Russia - every one of us girls was a bit in love with him - he was just gorgeous!

Alexi Nemov wearing a medal I might have
presented to him!

 The other superstar I became acquainted with was Svetlana Khorkina. I think just about all of us were shit scared of her! This brings me to the second memory that I want to share with you. We were standing in line waiting for the presentation to go ahead. I was carrying the gold medal for this one. I think Russia were expected to win gold but were beaten (I can't remember who by). I was standing there holding my tray of gold medals when Svetlana walks up to me and picks up one of the medals. I promptly shit my pants because we had been taught not to touch the medals - it was protocol that the athletes be the first people to touch the medals (they had to be manoeuvred onto the trays using the ribbons). I was freaking out thinking what the hell was I supposed to do if she didn't return it - would have been a bit awkward getting to the presentation being one medal short! But she then tapped the medal, huffed and dropped it back on the tray - situation avoided!

Svetlana Khorkina and a medal she won
(not stole!)

The next memory I want to share with you came from the presentation of the gold medal for the men's European Handball. In high school I had dreams of going to the Olympics for Handball. I had been invited to try out for the NSW team but never did as I snapped my ACL playing soccer (and in all honesty I don't think that I was good enough!). But, as host nation, Australia got automatic qualification for every team event so at the time I had thought that it was my best opportunity to go to the Olympics. Since I had an interest in Handball, I 'bagsed' carrying the gold tray for this presentation (we had an agreement between the presenters that if there was one particular ceremony you particularly wanted to present a medal on, you could 'bags' it!). The was a general rule that you would only carry a maximum of 5 medals on a tray at once as they were quite heavy. However, this presentation fell on the last day of competition when all the team events were being presented, so it was all hands on deck as there were not enough presenters available to split the load. This meant that I had all 15 gold medals on my tray at once. That was a hell of a lot of gold!

The delegate presenting the medals to the athletes for this particular ceremony was Juan Antonio Samaranch so I was super excited about that. The teams involved in the ceremony were Gold - Russia, Silver - Sweden, Bronze - Spain - so a very vocal crowd. When we entered the stadium the athletes were directly behind me. So, as soon as I entered, the crowd saw the athletes entering and erupted in the most roof raising cheer. Deep down I knew the cheer was for the athletes but it honestly felt like it was for me. I think I experienced the biggest rush - I was on such a high! I'm guessing it is what it is like for rock stars to perform live. Once that ceremony was completed we had to rush to assemble for the closing ceremony -which brings me to my final memory for you.

In the closing ceremony they used the volunteers to act as a human wall to prevent the hyped up (and possibly drunk!) athletes from charging onto the stage and interfering with the entertainers. They had two rows of the normal volunteers then a third row of us presenters. I think it was because our uniforms were more formal we were made the final row between the entertainment and the athletes. That meant that I had a completely unobstructed view of the show from approximately 20 metres from the stage! It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! I got to shake hands with most of the entertainers as they left the stage. Kylie performed 'On a Night Like This' and I swear for about 3 months afterwards I teared up every time I heard the song as I was so sad that the Olympics were over (now it is a happy song for me and we actually used it as our farewell song from our wedding). Once it was over we got to mingle with all of the athletes who remained behind afterwards to party. I traded the Akubra hat from my uniform with a Canadian athlete for their jacket. I kind of regret doing that now, though. My reasoning was that I could always buy another Akubra afterwards but of course they were special ones made exclusively for the Olympics so my uniform is now incomplete. Oh well - its not like I will ever wear it again!

So, those are my memories and now you can see where my fondness of the Olympics comes from.

If you have any great Olympic memories (and they don't have to be of you - anything to do with the Olympics) make sure you enter them into my giveaway so you can go into the draw to win a bottle of Alpha-H's Liquid Gold Perfecting Daywear. The details of teh giveaway can be found here.

Aromatherapy Associates now available in Australia

Last year I wrote about some amazing bath oils from Aromatherapy Associates in this post. These are not your pretty smelling bath oils that do nothing other than leave you smelling like a florist. These are seriously therapeutic. As you might have read in that post, I was absolutely shattered from nursing the Crazy Kid and the Big Man through a shocking case of gastro. What I didn't mention in that post (as I didn't know it at the time), I was also pregnant. I was absolutely shattered, right own to my bones, yet a bath with the Relax bath oil completely restored me.

This is just a quick post to let you know that Aromatherapy Associates are now available for purchase in Australia and they actually have a sale on at the moment. You can see their entire range on their website - http://www.aromatherapyassociates.com.au/.

So far I have tried three of their bath oils - Relax, De-stress and Revive. I can't say that they are especially pretty smelling; however, they absolutely do work an they do exactly what their names suggest. I now have my eye on their complete bath oil range! I think I will try that then select which individual oils I want to buy (though will probably want them all!).

Have you heard of Aromatherapy Associates before? If so, do you have any product recommendations for me?

All opinions stated in this blog are my own. I have no affiliation with Aromatherapy Associates and received no remuneration for my comments.