Claire’s birthday is today – it sort of landed on a crazy week. Lots of other events and commitments, and it’s the beginning of spring break, so a lot of her friends are out of town. She had a really fun birthday party last year, and this year she was cool with getting to do a little outing with her best friend and her best cousin in lieu of a party.
Claire’s girlie to the bone and begs (BEGS!) to go to the nail salon all the time. She went once with me in New York (the cheapest and greatest mani-pedi is at Candy Nails in the Fi Di for about $20 total and that includes tip! And it’s cheaper for kids, obviously). And then I took her with me again recently when I went to get a shellac mani (my favorite) before Alt Summit. She was so excited and had so much nervous energy, the poor nail tech kept asking her to hold still :)
Anyway, so we’re going to the nail salon with a couple of cute girls tomorrow (wish me luck). I’ll probably get shellac for my nails because a regular mani will get trashed in 24 hours with all my projects. When I don’t have shellac on my nails though, I am the HUGEST fan of this drugstore nail polish made by cover girl. It’s cheap and so good! They claim it lasts a full seven days and I would say they come really close to delivering on that promise.
I find myself often wandering over to the nail polish aisle at CVS just to see if they have any new shades. And when I ran out of my go-to winter color recently (Essie’s Wicked), I bought this one, called Wine Stain, from the CG line as a stand in.
The peach color is a recent favorite though. I love wearing grays and nudes on my hands and fun colors on my toes, but this peach-pink (called Peek-A-Boo Pink) feels perfect for spring without being too crazy.
Any nail product favorites for you lately? I also recently discovered the complete genius of the nail polish remover tubs, where you just dip and twist your nails in the spongy-thing. It’s amazing and they last forever, surprisingly. I like this one a lot.
I had heard good things about the CG polish too & just bought my first this month. It is a lovely gray.
I love Seche Vite top coat. As the name implies, it dries you polish and makes it so glossy and much tougher than without.
My manicurist has used Zoya nail polish for years now. It is great polish without the smell many will have. I am also able to go two full weeks with this polish. I realize not many can do this but for whatever reason I am able to! Love it!
I also have been drawn to them because of the square bottles (looks like the Chanel polish bottles!) but told myself not to buy them because I liked the bottle. You may have just changed my mind. :)
Sounds like a fun event! Love following your blog, have a fantastic week! Love, Jamie Herzlinger
Yep I love CG nail colors! I am wearing a coral color on my toes right now and just bought another one at Target over the weekend.
Love all those colors. Just painted a painting with almost the exact same colors.
My favorite nudee color for my hands is OPI Bubble Bath. It goes really well with light pinky toned skin but also looks nice with a tan.
I thought I was the only one who buys things because of the square packaging! All my perfume is in square packaging; I don't even think I sniff any that are in the wrong shaped bottle! I only like square watch faces too I just realized. Yikes!
And Happy Birthday to Claire!
And Happy Birthday to Claire!
I love this polish too! The only one that lasts more than 5 minutes for me. Will def have to check out the peach!
We just discovered Topshop's nail polish range, http://peachparade.com/topshop-nails/ they have a really good range and they last for ages too ( I am also the worst at ruining my nails at record speed!) meabh
http://www.peachparade.com
Great tip! Those colors are to die.
xo Lily
http://whilemyboyfriendsaway.blogspot.com/
This is my favorite polish too! I used to be a restaurant manager and got a full 4 days before the most minor of chips set in. It's amazing and their colors are always trendy and fab.
I can't believe you only paid 20$ for a full mani-pedi! It's so much more expensive here! Last year, I had manicure for 26 euros and it only lasted 2 or 3 days, with OPI nail polish. Pedicures are around 30 Euros, I never do it!
So jealous!!!
I kind of hate myself for writing this, because I am such a massive, massive fan, and I hate to write anything in a public post that would seem negative at all…but… when I clicked on the links to amazon for the products (polish, remover), it looked like a link whereby LGN is credited in some way, but you never mentioned anything in the post about it. I 1000% believe you love these products and would never write about them if you didn't, but if there is any kind of arrangement with amazon or cover girl with respect to the links that you included, would you mind including some kind of disclosure at the bottom of your post? Or, if there is no affiliation in any way, shape or form, could you also disclose that? I absolutely trust your judgement, but I think the blog world can be tricky sometimes regarding these types of things.
Hi Zoe!
Thank you SO much for your question, and for giving me the benefit of the doubt on my intentions! :)
Sometimes I am so in my world of blogging, with blogging friends and friends who read a lot of blogs and know a lot about blogging, that it's easy for my to assume that everyone knows the drill, so to speak, about blog sponsorship and monetization.
There is so much to say about the subject. I've written a few blog posts about it – I know one of them is called On the Business of Blogging, or something similar that could be a good thing to read if you're interested in the subject, though the industry is changing very quickly and it's probably time for an update. Lots of other bloggers have written about it too and with the exception of just a few bloggers, I do what most everyone else does in this industry.
A few times a month I have sponsored posts, but I really try hard to make these interesting with unique content. If I'm getting paid by a company to write about something, I will always put a disclosure statement up so then you can take it with a grain of salt and pull out the message you want.
I turn down more opportunities than I accept. In a perfect world the sponsorships end up being a vehicle for content I was going to produce regardless.
This post was not sponsored by Cover Girl, but the links to the polishes are embedded with affiliate codes. There are companies that give bloggers a commission for selling their products. Amazon gives a very small kick back for sending qualified traffic over to their site, so any time I can link to Amazon, I usually try to remember to embed the links, just to help pay the bills and cover my costs for projects.
I hope you know I would never write about something just for the commission. Never. If I can share something I use and actually love AND I can help pay for my new assistant and my site redesign and hosting fees and front my book costs, etc, then all the better!
I hope that helps answer some of your questions! Feel free to email me if you have any other questions or concerns.
Thanks!!
jenny
Hi Zoe!
Thank you SO much for your question, and for giving me the benefit of the doubt on my intentions! :)
Sometimes I am so in my world of blogging, with blogging friends and friends who read a lot of blogs and know a lot about blogging, that it's easy for my to assume that everyone knows the drill, so to speak, about blog sponsorship and monetization.
There is so much to say about the subject. I've written a few blog posts about it – I know one of them is called On the Business of Blogging, or something similar that could be a good thing to read if you're interested in the subject, though the industry is changing very quickly and it's probably time for an update. Lots of other bloggers have written about it too and with the exception of just a few bloggers, I do what most everyone else does in this industry.
A few times a month I have sponsored posts, but I really try hard to make these interesting with unique content. If I'm getting paid by a company to write about something, I will always put a disclosure statement up so then you can take it with a grain of salt and pull out the message you want.
I turn down more opportunities than I accept. In a perfect world the sponsorships end up being a vehicle for content I was going to produce regardless.
This post was not sponsored by Cover Girl, but the links to the polishes are embedded with affiliate codes. There are companies that give bloggers a commission for selling their products. Amazon gives a very small kick back for sending qualified traffic over to their site, so any time I can link to Amazon, I usually try to remember to embed the links, just to help pay the bills and cover my costs for projects.
I hope you know I would never write about something just for the commission. Never. If I can share something I use and actually love AND I can help pay for my new assistant and my site redesign and hosting fees and front my book costs, etc, then all the better!
I hope that helps answer some of your questions! Feel free to email me if you have any other questions or concerns.
Thanks!!
jenny
Jenny, thank you so much for your thoughtful and thorough response! It definitely answered my question. It makes sense and I understand why you would include embedded links for products you wholeheartedly believe in or love (and I'm thankful you use amazon, since that is an easy and almost universal place to shop). I usually take your advice and suggestions on products, so I'm glad they are a part of the blog! Re: sponsored posts, I think you do a really great job with those. I was just telling someone about that post you did on the 7 minute workout, that happened to be a Poland Springs sponsored post, but whatever, the content was great! And, I keep meaning to check out Target for their workout gear options, which you also included there. Lastly, I forgot to mention this earlier, a big happy birthday to your little lass, Claire. I'm a Bostonian, so I love that she was born here, right around a big holiday for the city. So fitting.
I always love seeing your cute colored nails when they are in one of the shots. Always wondered what kind you used! I picked up a couple bottles today (on clearance) at Target! Thanks for sharing!
Reporting back! I'm a dope and didn't read the directions before bringing the bottles to my manicurist. Don't use a normal base and topcoat with this polish…You could probably use one of those super light stain protector bases, but the polish is meant to be used as a base, polish + topcoat in one. So, I have those terrible bubbles on my nails now, because it was applied WAY too thickly, and with a topcoat. I definitely don't blame the polish… This product is probably awesome for at home manicures…I mean, it sounds like it's a one coat wonder!