Good evening my lovely readers :D I hope you have all been enjoying your weekend! Did everyone survive Black Friday shopping? I managed to get some deals on polish, and even managed to snag some mini indies for future giveaways :D Who's pumped for that?!
Today I have a review for a product that was introduced to my by
Lustrous Lacquer -- Simple Nail Art Tips Pure™ Nail and Cuticle Oil. That's a mouthful, but let's take a look :)
Ana at Simple Nail Art Tips (
Facebook page,
website) developed her own nail and cuticle oil because she is allergic to almond, and most of the nail and cuticle oils on the market have almond oil in them. Big problem for someone with allergies :( For all the background information, visit
here.
So when I saw Lustrous Lacquer posting about this, I investigated as I am always trying to find great products to keep my nails healthy and looking beautiful :) I'm a little vain about my nails now that I am a non-biter ;)
When I saw Ana's before and after pictures, my first thought was "holy man, I want those nails!!!"
So I went ahead and ordered myself 3 pens. I was unsure how many I would need, so I just went with 3 to start :) Little did I realize until after I had received the pens and was just checking out the site again did I notice that she had "US Only" on it... :S However, she didn't message me back and say "sorry, I only sell to US residents right now" so I figured I was ok :)
Then I messaged her on her Facebook page to tell her I had received her shipment and told her that I would be willing to do a review of it for her and she was so happy :) So here we are! I'm going to warn you right now that this post is going to be VERY PICTURE HEAVY!
First off, let's take a look at what I got in my shipment.
The 3 pens were in a snack Ziploc baggie so that they didn't leak all over the place if something happened in transport.
For size comparison, here is a pen side-by-side with a standard-size Sharpie permanent marker.
Ana also included 2 little baggies with new scents she will be releasing. Unfortunately, these leaked during transport so they both smelled the same. However, I have faith that they smell just as wonderful as the "Crisp" scent (her first-released scent). These scents will be available later -- Spring will be available near the end of winter, and Summer near the end of Spring :) can't wait!!
And a Thank You card came with it as well, with the instructions on how to use the oil inside.
When I first read the 3-day steps I thought "oh no, can I still use this while wearing polish?!" because I know I would not be able to not wear polish for the rest of my life! So I posted on her Facebook page to ask and she assured me that it is just for the first 3 days that you shouldn't wear polish to get the full effect of the oil. After that, you can still wear polish while using it :) WHEW!!! Dodged that bullet!!
So I had these for almost a month before I was able to get to using it, because of the 3-day start days with no polish I had to make sure I didn't "have" to wear polish (for a nail art Challenge, etc.).
First things first -- scent. I know this important to a lot of people because scent is probably one of the things most of us notice about anything. This oil has a really nice scent that is there, but not overly noticeable. It's kind of a sweet smelling scent, but woodsy at the same time, if that makes any sense... I'm one to really be put off by products (and food) if I don't like the smell, so trust me when I say this is a winner! If I didn't like the smell I wouldn't be using it :) For those of you who have the Julep Cuticle Oil, Pure™ has a much lighter scent.
October 28 - BEFORE USING PURE™
I know my cuticles aren't that bad, but you'll be surprised how much oil I used just on the first day!
October 29 - AFTER 1 DAY OF USING PURE™
I applied Pure™ 9 TIMES on the first day! Yep, you read that right, 9 times! I couldn't believe it! I feel that even after only one day of using Pure my cuticles look much better, even though I got a paper cut on my middle finger -- *sigh* the war-wounds of having a desk job!
Application of this is really easy, even with your non-dominant hand. Basically you twist the end to get the oil into the bristles and swipe along the sides of your nail, along the cuticle and even under the nail. **NOTE** when you first use the oil, you will have to twist the end to get the oil to come out. If you have an air bubble in your pen, hold the pen bristles up and twist to force it out (Ana's analogy is "like a nurse with a needle" .. *shudder* I hate needles!), your oil will follow. If you don't do this, I found that it didn't dispense the oil as well.
October 30 -- AFTER 2 DAYS OF USING PURE™
I applied Pure™ 8 TIMES on Day 2. Yep, even though I applied so much on Day 1, my cuticles were still thirsty!!! These pictures show my fingers with the oil on them. That is the only downside to using an oily cuticle treatment. I am finding that I leave little oil smudges on papers at work, hehe!
October 31 -- AFTER 3 DAYS OF USING PURE™
On Day 3, I believe I applied Pure™ 5 or 6 times. I did have all this written down, but have lost the paper :( When Day 3 rolled around and I was getting really anxious to paint my nails, not going to lie. It was killing me walking around with bare nails for 3 days in a row, lol! We had a bit of a "casualty" on Day 3, my index nail decided to have a corner break off, so I had to file it down to even it out. Here are close-ups of my break pre-filing.
Poor nail :'( My nails peel in layers, and I'm terrible for not leaving well enough alone and I always peel them apart. This causes the peeled section to become weak and break off like this :(
November 5 -- AFTER 1 WEEK OF USING PURE™
So within a week my nails have grown out quite a bit (sorry they are so yellow!), except for my poor index nail. My cuticles look really nice, that papercut healed nicely, definitely loving the results so far!
November 12 -- AFTER 2 WEEKS OF USING PURE™
After another week, I have gained even more length :) This is a really good thing for people who are trying to grow their nails out! I really love it!
November 19 -- AFTER 3 WEEKS OF USING PURE™
So after 3 weeks, I'm looking at my nails and thinking "ok, it's soon time to hack these bad boys down!" because they are starting to get in the way for typing, and it sure is tricky to blog (and use a computer for my job) when you can't type.... I do have a little hang nail on my index finger, but again, I'm terrible at leaving well enough alone. If I see a hangnail starting I pick at it rather than clipping it off. I think that comes from when I was a nail biter.
November 24 (today) -- AFTER 25 DAYS OF USING PURE™
Today was the last straw! I wanted to hold out until Monday (the 4 week mark) but I couldn't! My nails were starting to get too long to type even for the smallest amount of time (I type with the ends of my fingertips rather than the pads of my fingertips) and it was actually getting painful, so they had to be cut down! I took these pictures before I did and holy crap! I can't believe how long they are!! I really wish I could deal with my nails being so long, I would have kept going.
As I was taking these pictures I was also working on a chart of sorts with my progress, but the pictures ended up being really small so they are a little hard to see the progress, but here it is :)
So! If you are interested in purchasing some of your own Simple Nail Art Tips Pure™ Nail and Cuticle Oil, you can do so by following this
link (
http://www.myblisskiss.com/#aid=4116). Ana has incorporated an affiliate link to her products, so by clicking that link, you can help me make a little cash ;)
I also meant to show you how much of the oil I used, but I wasn't planning on hacking my nails till Monday, so I didn't bring my used pens with me to Tyler's for the weekend. I have used almost all 3 of the pens I originally purchased (I have since purchased more :) ) and they each contain 2ml of oil.
