product reviews
Gel Nail Polish Removal: Long Lasting Shellac Manicure for Natural Nails – Photos & Details
Monday, August 1st, 2011 | Nail Polish, Photos, Product Testing | 2 Comments
Meilily Photos & Swatches: Shellac Gel Manicure Removal: After Week 3!
Concluding the first ever Meilily gel manicure photo and swatch series, which tracks one gel manicure over three weeks, this finale explains how to remove a gel manicure, at home, by yourself. It’s not pretty, folks, but it can be done!
The Meilily Guide to Removing Gel Polish at Home
They say you need to go to a salon to remove your gel manicure and, while it is true that there are special products for removing gel polish currently only available to salons, where salon removal consists of wrapping, soaking, and sliding the gel off, removal can also be done, perhaps less gracefully, at home.
Meilily Gel Manicure Removal DIY How-To:
1) Find the loose edges around the gel polish on each nail - By week 2 or 3 you should start to see a lot of nail growth and possibly a few loose edges on the gel polish. Identify the areas around the edge of the polish on each nail that you may be able to loosen. › Continue reading
Gel Nail Polish: Long Lasting Shellac Manicure for Natural Nails – Photos & Details Week 3
Thursday, June 9th, 2011 | Nail Polish, Photos, Product Testing, Swatches | Comments Off
Meilily Product Pick, Photos & Swatches: Long-lasting Shellac Gel Manicure: Week 3!
Wondering how a Shellac gel manicure looks by week 3? Well, so far so good, with one random chip from earlier, some nail growth, and still a whole lot of shine! Check out these photos and swatches from Week 3 of my CND Shellac gel manicure in shade Strawberry Smoothie!
In general, my gel manicure still looks great a full three weeks later – › Continue reading
Gel Nail Polish: Long Lasting Shellac Manicure for Natural Nails – Photos & Details Day 5
Friday, February 18th, 2011 | Nail Polish, Photos, Product Testing, Swatches | 1 Comment
Meilily Product Pick, Photos & Swatches: Long-lasting Shellac Gel Manicure: Day 5!
So far so good, with only one chip and a whole lot of shine! Check out these photos and swatches from Day 5 of my CND Shellac gel manicure in shade Strawberry Smoothie!
*If you missed it, you can view photos and swatches from Day 1 of my Shellac manicure here, with details on the gel manicure process and where to get it done! As you may have heard, gel nail polish is supposed to last without chipping between two to three weeks if done right. Is that true? Find out here!
Day 5 Shellac Manicure Results & Photos…
I was still very happy with my gel manicure, even on Day 5! The shine and gloss lasted impeccably without any dulling, and my nails looked freshly manicured. Amazing! The only chip to report by Day 5 actually happened on Day 2 of this gel manicure- How embarrassing!
I swear my Day 2 chip resulted from a fluke nail-caught-in-teeth accident that I cannot explain. › Continue reading
Gel Nail Polish: Long Lasting Shellac Manicure for Natural Nails – Photos & Details Day 1
Thursday, January 20th, 2011 | Nail Polish, Photos, Product Testing, Swatches | 5 Comments
Meilily Product Pick, Photos & Swatches: Long-lasting CND Shellac Gel Nail Polish Manicure!
If you’re like me and can’t help but mess up a manicure before even leaving the salon chair – painted nails a scraggly mess by day two – then you’re in luck! There is a revolutionary new nail polish, gel nail polish, that is rapidly rising in popularity. It is a cross between a regular polish and gel nails set with UV light. This gel polish is painted onto natural nails just like regular polish, but cured under UV light layer by layer.
I recently tested out this new gel manicure and came away with my fingernails transformed into glossy, shiny gems of polished goodness, an effect that lasted two whole weeks!
The salon I went to used CND Shellac polish and also Harmony Gelish products. The shade I tried on and photographed is CND Shellac in Strawberry Smoothie. Love it! › Continue reading
Product Pick: Aveda Comforting Tea
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 | Photos, Product Picks | 1 Comment
Meilily: Aveda Comforting Tea
Meilily Product Pick! Aveda Tea!
If it is anywhere as cold where you are as it is here, you may enjoy curling up and drinking lots of hot Aveda Tea. This is one of my favorite teas out there from one of my favorite beauty brands, Aveda. While I will admit it’s a little odd to be drinking tea from a company that is best known for its natural haircare and skincare products, I have gotten past the point of caring. Aveda Comforting Tea – and they only make one kind – is a unique tea that, I’ve heard, can get even coffee lovers hooked!
Aveda Tea has a warm and naturally sweet flavor that is not overly herbal or astringent, and it instead manages to taste nothing like the typically overdone flavors of mass-market caffeine-free tea. It tastes more like a unique beverage that fits somewhere between asian loose leaf tea, mellow kona coffee, and Guiness. Ok, perhaps it is far from tasting anything like Guiness or coffee, but I would say Aveda Tea is to tea as Guiness is to beer. It’s just › Continue reading
Product Pick: Sula Paint & Peel Nail Color Mini Sets
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | Nail Polish, Photos, Product Launches, Product Picks | Comments Off
Meilily Product Pick: Sula Paint & Peel Non-toxic Nail Colors!
Sula Paint & Peel nail colors are fun and safe non-toxic nail polish alternatives that come in modern and fun shades. Now, Canadian company Sula has come out with fantastic new mini sets that allow you to try three different shades of peel-off Paint & Peel nail colors for little more than the price of one.
I highly recommend these cute new Sula Paint & Peel mini sets, especially if you are new to these non-toxic peel-off nail paints. You get to try three Sula minis for $12.50 (instead of $9 for one full size)! I’d also suggest getting one of the two available top coats ($9) to extend the wear longer than a few hours.
More Details and Photos of Sula Paint & Peel sets… › Continue reading
Product Pick: Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 | Makeup, Product Picks | Comments Off
Meilily: Giorgio Armani Luminous Skin Foundation
Meilily Product Pick! Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation!
I don’t know why it has taken me so long to rave about Giorgio Armani’s Luminous Silk Foundation (LSF)! Armani LSF has been one of my favorite liquid foundations ever since I first picked up a bottle in Europe, and I just re-purchased another bottle during a recent Neiman Marcus Armani beauty event.
Let me warn you that the money spent on a bottle of Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation could probably feed a small village, but fortunately this foundation › Continue reading
Product Photos & Swatches: La Bella Donna Vision of Mineral Lights Compact
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 | Makeup, Photos, Product Picks, Swatches | Comments Off
Meilily Product Photos & Swatches: La Bella Donna Mineral Makeup Compact
While in Kauai, I made sure to get swatch and product photos at the beach, so with some help, here are some amazing product photos and swatches of a La Bella Donna product…
La Bella Donna Vision of Mineral Lights Compact Colour Quad – Photos & Swatches
Vision of Mineral Lights is one of several La Bella Donna Compact Colour quad products, and comes in several shades that can be used as bronzer, eye shadow, blush, and highlighter. › Continue reading
Lipstick Queen: New Chinatown Glossy Pencils
Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | Makeup, Photos, Stores | 5 Comments
Why I haven’t written about Lipstick Queen products yet, I don’t know!
Available at high-end department store Barneys New York, the Lipstick Queen cosmetics line by Poppy King seems to have developed from a mixture of luxury noir glamour and tongue-in-cheek vision. (The line first become known for its fascinating Saint and Sinner lipsticks, light and intense versions of the same lipstick shade.)
Now, the latest example of why Lipstick Queen products so effectively capture our imagination is their new product, the Chinatown Glossy Pencil, inspired by both the Roman Polanski film, Chinatown, and also by New York’s Chinatown. The minute I found out that the pencil has “Lipstick Queen” written on it in Chinese, I knew I had to try it!
The Lipstick Queen Chinatown Glossy Pencils currently come in 5 bright-but-sheer colors, and these jumbo pencils even come with their own sharpener.
More Details, Review and Photos of Chinatown Chase Glossy Pencil › Continue reading
Gabriel Cosmetics Lipstick – 100% Natural Ingredients
Monday, May 4th, 2009 | Makeup, Product Picks, Swatches | 7 Comments
Meilily Featured Product! Gabriel Cosmetics Lipstick
Meilily: Gabriel Cosmetics Lipstick Raisin Maple Shimmer
Attention Whole Foods Shoppers! Check out Gabriel Cosmetics Lipstick in the beauty aisle for a natural lip treat!
I recently sought out Gabriel Cosmetics products because I had heard good things about their lead-free lipstick, and because I liked their no-animal-testing and natural ingredient philosophy. Hey, we could all use a good natural lipstick these days!
The founder of Gabriel Cosmetics, Gabriel DeSantino, developed the line of natural animal-friendly beauty products based on homeopathic family traditions that incorporated marine-derived botanicals. The products are made from 100% natural ingredients, and according to Gabriel Cosmetics, “No synthetic chemicals or animal by-products are utilized and no testing is ever done on animals.”
Details on Gabriel Cosmetics Lipstick, Another Photo, & Swatches
The first thing I noticed when I tried my first Gabriel Cosmetics Lipstick was that the texture was extremely smooth and the color (Raisin) was › Continue reading
Meilily Product Pick: Stylish Hi-tech Jawbone Headset
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 | Photos, Product Picks, Style and Technology | 1 Comment
Check out Meilily’s product review and exclusive Jawbone headset photos …
Meilily: Jawbone Headset in Black
Meilily says: Hi-tech hands-free headsets can be stylish too!
While geeky gadgets don’t typically fit in the realm of fashion and style, Jawbone headsets made by Aliph are changing that. While other bluetooth headset makers have started targeting fashion-conscious female consumers with girly colors and blinged-out carrying cases, Jawbone is really the first headset to truly turn heads, both male and female, based on good product design alone.
Jawbone headsets originally rose to stardom in the gadget world for their patented NoiseAssassin noise elimination technology (once developed for military use), however the original Jawbone headsets were a bit large and clunky. The second generation re-designed Jawbone headsets (a.k.a. Jawbone II) were smaller, sturdier, and used different ear hooks, and unfortunately they started making them in market-pressured metallic-frost colors like Rambling Rose and Babbling Blue. IMHO the basic black Jawbone looks just fine!
*Now, Aliph is launching their newest re-designed Jawbone headset, the Jawbone PRIME, available (in candy colors) in stores May 2, 2009 or by pre-order online.
Does Jawbone NoiseAssassin Technology Work? › Continue reading
Product Pick & Photos: Harajuku Lovers Fragrance in Love
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 | Fragrance, Photos, Product Picks | 10 Comments
Meilily Product Pick: Harajuku Lovers Fragrance in Love
Meilily Product Pick and Product Photos!
Harajuku Lovers is an award-winning fragrance line by Gwen Stefani and Coty, inspired by playful girlish street styles from Japan’s fashionable Harajuku district and by Gwen Stefani’s backup dancers. The Harajuku Lovers fragrance line includes six unique fragrances bottled in sugary cute packaging, each representing a unique girl and a unique style. The scents are named Love, Lil’ Angel, Music, Baby, and G.
My favorite scent from Harajuku Lovers is Love, a light yet complex musky fruity-floral. Keep reading for my more detailed review of the scent….
The best part is that the Harajuku Lovers Love bottle is extremely cute as you can see in these additional photos of the 10ml (.33 oz.) bottle… › Continue reading
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