Tuesday's Treats: Korres Wild Rose + Vitamin C Advanced Brightening Sleeping Facial

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Being in my mid 30s, I am always on the lookout for great skincare products. I am fortunate to have very even skintone, but this "Sleeping Facial" also claims to provide a brighter complexion too. The description on sephora.com states, "This overnight facial-in-a-jar is a breakthrough in beauty sleep. More than a mask, more than a night cream, it contains the Korres Phos Compound, a proprietary blend including a brightening agent and stabilized vitamin C. Day after day, week after week, uneven tone and dark spots will continuously improve. After only 14 days you'll see skin that's brighter, more even-toned, and exceptionally radiant."

At about $50 for less than 1.5 ounces, I would hope that it was an amazingly good product. Maybe one day I'll splurge on it and see if it as awesome as I hope it is.

What are you lusting after or loving today. Share it on the Tuesday's Treats blog hop.






Has anyone tried the Korres Wild Rose + Vitamin C Advanced Brightening Sleeping Facial? Have you heard about it?

Current followers, don't forget to enter my giveaway!


Enjoy your Tuesday!

~Alexis

A Gift for One of my Current Readers

Pin It First, this giveaway is ONLY for my current public readers as of Saturday, May 26 or bloglovin followers who contacted me this past week and it is only for those who live in the US or Canada. If you became a follower after that date or live outside of North America, don't feel left out; I have another giveaway planned. Check the website in the next couple of weeks for information.

Now that the housekeeping is done, to my wonderful readers, thank you. I have only been writing this blog for about three months and I'm just starting to get my stride. I am so grateful that you have stuck it out while I stumbled along. Each time that one of you reads my words or shares your thought with me, I appreciate it. I wanted to show you how lucky I feel to have each of you in my blogging life by guaranteeing that one of my very first readers receive a gift from me.

All right, I'm done with the sappy stuff. Now let's move on to the goodies...

The winner of this giveaway will receive:

A new bottle of either Sinful Colors Green Ocean, Sinful Colors Cinderella, or Sonia Kashuk Fairy Princess (winner's choice).

L-R:  Sinful Colors Green Ocean, Sinful Colors Cinderella, Sonia Kashuk Fairy Princess

An 8 ounce tube of JASON Lotion in either Soothing Cocoa Butter or Natural E.F.A. You can see my comparison of both lotions here and choose the one that you'd prefer.

A bottle of Aili's Violet Dream franken polish mixed just for you.

Index:  1 coat, Middle and pinky:  2 coats, Ring:  1 coat over purple polish with topcoat.

A tin of Badger Cuticle Care.

All items for the giveaway have been or will be purchased by me.

Just post a comment in response to this post with your GFC name, throwing your hat into the ring. I will accept comments until Thursday, June 7 and announce the winner the very next day. The winner will be selected using random.org. The winner will have 3 days to respond or another winner will be selected.

Which polish and lotion would you select if you won? Good luck and just know that I would love to give a present to each and every one of you.

~Alexis

Julep Kelly in the garden

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Hi again, lovelies. I had an interview on Monday, so I wanted a subtle, classy manicure. I wore Julep Kelly. It is a very pretty pale pink polish. Application was a bit difficult. It seemed to thicken up as I was applying, so one nail would turn out fine, but by the time I got to the next nail, the polish was a bit gloppy. I would close and gently mix the polish to fix the texture problem, but as you can see, I must not have mixed as gently as I thought because this resulted in a very bubbly manicure. The bubbling was not really noticeable until two days into the manicure when I did some work in the vegetable garden. Then the bubbling looked like brown dots, yuck. To get a fairly even finish, I had to paint three layers.

After four days, the manicure was really beat up. Planting and weeding take a toll on my manicures even when I wear gardening gloves. Even though it is hard on my nails, I love spending this time of year outside playing in the dirt.

My little girl and I had so much fun and she did a great job cleaning up the weeds from the walkway between my garden beds and getting rid of slugs. I was called in for a second interview on Thursday and my peonies are blooming too, so overall it was a beautiful week. Looking at this picture, I can almost smell the flowers! I'll go out and gather a small bouquet today.

Before I go, any followers other than GFC followers, if you are interested in a giveaway that I'll post about this weekend, let me know that you follow the blog and how you follow. This is your last chance to let me know.

Does anyone else have Julep Kelly? What do you think of it? Any tips for great polish application?

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!
~Alexis

A Wine-Tasting Fairy Princess

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Hello. I hope that you all are doing well today. I have lots of pictures for you today. I was wearing this really fun manicure for a really fun wine-tasting bachelorette party. I love the little grapes on the shimmery background of Sonia Kashuk Fairy Princess. Fairy Princess was a very thick and hard to apply. I actually got frustrated and added three drops of nail polish thinner to the bottle and that fixed the application problems completely, but you can see my middle finger in the picture above is not as smooth as I would have liked. The middle finger was painted before thinning the polish and the ring finger was painted after thinning the polish. I added a coat of Melissa to my ring fingers which just gave a bit of a frosty, shimmery green finish to those nails.

I stamped all nails with bornprettystore plate m71, a floral pattern in Revlon Minted and stamped over that with the grape pattern from bornprettystore plate M71 using Revlon ColorStay Amethyst and Sally Hansen Emerald City. I have been very pleased with the performance of ColorStay polishes for stamping lately.

With my nails ready to face a day full of wineries, I hit the road with a bunch of my favorite girls. I loved the view from this winery, the grape vines and then the lake in the background. It was an absolutely beautiful day in every way!

Noble Winery, Westfield, NY

I removed the polish after five days of wearing it, one day after the wine tour. You can see that there is one big chip on the middle finger and some chipping on my index finger, but the manicure quickly deteriorated after taking this picture. I spent the day at the beach, finding sea glass in the sand with my daughter.

Day 5

Sunset at Lake Erie

I am wearing a very traditional, pretty manicure right now, Julep Kelly. It is pretty beat, so I'll post about it in a day or two.

Join the Nail Files link-up and check out what's going on other fingers.

What do you think of coordinating your manicure with a special event or holiday? If you've done it, what was the event and what did your manicure look like?

~Alexis

Tuesday's Treats: Tatted Ankle Corsets

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Hello, dear readers. I'm linking up with Frances again for Tuesday's Treats. The first time that I saw tatted ankle corsets on etsy, I loved them. In fact, I even taught myself to tat lace so that I can someday make something so intricate and beautiful.



Check out the other treats and join the link-up yourself if you have something fun that you'd like to share.

Are there any accessories after which you've been lusting lately?

Have a good Tuesday.
~Alexis

Green Ombre Gradient Manicure

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Hello there. I put a lot of effort into this manicure. I used the tutorial  for gradient nails from The Nailasaurus and transitioned between Revlon Bare Bones to China Glaze Fast Track, Julep Sofia, Sinful Colors Irish Green, Sonia Kachuk Fairy Princess, and concluded with Sally Hansen Emerald City from index finger to pinky. I then stamped Emerald City over all the nails and dotted them with Bare Bones and Emerald City. The manicure was my entry in Midnight Manicures Green nail art for Lyme Disease Awareness and Mental Health month contest. You can see all the entries on the Midnight Manicures facebook page. There is one nail art manicure that I think is fabulous and I really want to try out something similar. See which ones you like the best.

The next time that I try out that gradient, I'll use polishes that differ in color a bit more for a more pronounced effect.

By the second to last day wearing this manicure, I wanted something a little different, so I added a coat of Matte about You. I think it looked pretty matte. I find that my sponged manicures tend to hold up pretty well and this one was no exception. There was a little bit of tip wear and chipping at the edges of index and middle fingers after five days. My favorite nail color was the Irish green with Fairy Princess sponged over the top of the polish. Someday I'll do a full manicure with that combination.

I liked my middle fingers a lot too, just because I think it is so cool that Julep Sofia glows in the dark.

Check out the Nail File:  Week 20. Look at great nail polish finds, fun manicures, and join the link-up yourself if you have some eye candy to share!

Next week, is a Fairy Princess manicure. I can't wait to show it to you all! Have any of you tried out the gradient tutorial from The Nailasaurus? I'm also curious, how long does it usually take you to do your manicure?

Take Care.

~Alexis

May's Mini Mani: Aili's Violet Dream

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Hey, bloglovin followers, I have something special planned for my current followers in celebration of reaching 50 followers. GFC followers, I know, but if you follow via bloglovin, I don't know who you are. If you would be interested in participating in a little contest I have planned, either comment on this post and tell me you're a bloglovin follower or send me an email, if you'd prefer. Please let me know by Thursday, May 24. Thanks!

Now,onto the manicure. My daughter Aili, loves and I mean absolutely adores the color green. The brightest green you can find and she's smitten. Recently, she has voiced a passion for purple too. I created this polish as a tribute to her. I figured that I'd let her little fingertips show off the polish.

Aili's Violet Dream is wonderful as a one coat topper to liven up another polish or by itself with two coats as you can see here. It has a shimmery sheer blue base with silver holographic glitter, dark purple, and lime green opaque glitter finish it off.

I painted the ring finger with Sinful Colors Irish Green and topped it with two coats of the glitter polish. Unfortunately, my little girl did not sit still for the several minutes necessary to prevent major smudging, but hopefully with some imagination, you can see what the glitter polish would look like on top of a bright green polish.

Give me a little while and I'll try out the polish myself, ideally a little less smudged up.

Tuesday Treats: Badger Cuticle Care

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Hello, darlings. This is my cuticle cream love. It is Badger Cuticle Care. I used to use Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, which smells and works wonderfully, but it does not have as smooth a texture as the Badger cuticle cream. The Badger cream melts into my skin much easier and faster.

I love that the first ingredient is shea butter and that I know what all the ingredients are, basically healing oils, beeswax, and some essential oils. There are no weird chemicals. The cuticle cream has a slight fragrance of geranium for the first couple of minutes after application, kind of like a green, slightly peppery rose scent.

And the last thing that I love about Badger Cuticle Care is the packaging. When I open the container, I can nest the container inside the cap, making it a lot easier to apply while I'm on the go.

What do you think of Badger Cuticle Care? Do you have a different favorite cuticle cream?




Check out the other treats on Frances's link-up. During last week's link-up, I found a whole load of lust-worthy products.

One Lucky Momma: Lex Cosmetics

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Happy Mother's Day! I hope all the wonderful mothers out there are feeling as special as I do today. Last night, I drastically modified the brioche recipe from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" to create a Belgian waffle recipe. My husband cooked them up today and oh, my, it is great. I felt like I was back on the streets of Brussels while eating them, perfectly caramelized sugar, buttery, bready goodness. They didn't need toppings of any sort; they were so good.

My husband and daughter also gave me these three nail polish beauties from Lex Cosmetics. Jessica at Nail Polish Anonymous posted about Lex Cosmetics Tuilleries earlier this month and it was love at first sight . . . I mean c'mon, it's like the nail polish was named for me! From left to right, you see Cayman Cabana, Lucky in Love (which I'm wearing on my toes and it applied like a dream), and Tuilleries.

Must go now. We are going to an amusement park for the first time this season today and I must get ready for our day of family fun.

Have a great day!

~Alexis

China Glaze Optical Illusion

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indoors

outside

Hello, lovelies! Welcome to my sparkly, shimmery, glittery post. Allow me to introduce you to Optical Illusion from the China Glaze Prismatics collection. This is a very sweet blue green holographic polish packed with hot pink, orange, yellow, green, silver, and baby blue metallic glitter. Once applied, it looked like a blue-green foil basecoat topped with tons of multicolored glitter. I own several glitter polishes, but none of them are anything like this.

Application of Optical Illusion was unbelievably smooth and even. I topped the polish with one coat of Gelous and one coat of fast drying topcoat. When I use this polish again, I will top with two coats of Gelous for a more glass-like finish.

Optical Illusion stayed on my nails much better than I thought it would. I did have to repaint one small chip two days into the manicure, but more severe chipping only took place after four to five days wear. On the plus side, the polish patched really smoothly. The patched area looked just as smooth and even as the rest of the nail polish.

Check out week 19 of the Nail Files. Do you have a great manicure or polish to show off? Then join the Nail Files link up too!

What do you think of the Prismatics collection? Any favorites?

Next week I'll show you a green ombre gradient manicure with some stamped art. Have a good weekend.
~Alexis

Tuesday's Treats: JASON Hand and Body Lotion

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I have been looking for a great, petroleum and paraben-free hand lotion for years. I had given up and been using Gold Bond Ultimate Healing Aloe lotion, which smelled nice, left my hands feeling good, and was reasonably priced, but it contains both petroleum products and parabens.

About three months ago, when I most recently needed more hand lotion, I couldn't bring myself to buy the Gold Bond. I looked through the natural skincare aisle at the grocery store expecting to pay a bit more. Surprisingly, these JASON lotions cost less per ounce than the Gold Bond lotion (JASON lotions cost me a little less than $8 for an 8 oz tube) . I could not choose between the Natural E.F.A. lotion and the Softening Cocoa Butter lotion, so I brought them both home.

After three months, I love them both. The Natural E.F.A. lotion is a thick, white creamy texture. It has a slightly citrusy floral scent, more like smell of soap than flowers. The scent dissipates pretty quickly. The lotion leaves my hands just the slightest bit tacky for about two minutes after application and then my hands feel very smooth and well moisturised.

The Natural E.F.A. lotion contains both black current seed oil and evening primrose oil (EPO). Black current seed oil is reputed to increase skin's elasticity and EPO is high in antioxidants which help to protect the skin from environmental toxins.

The Softening Cocoa Butter lotion is the same texture, but it is beige. It has the typical cocoa butter lotion odor. This lotion feels a little tacky after application too, but it smooths a little bit faster than the Natural E.F.A. lotion. Cocoa Butter is know to absorb really quickly into skin, and like EPO, it has antioxidants that can help to protect skin. It is also a wonderful lubricant.

Both lotions have sunflower seed oil, which even in small amounts increases moisturizing and the skin's ability to ward off dryness. Avocado oil, in both lotions can be healing to both aging and sun damaged skin.

Like I said, I love both of these lotions. I only feel the need to reapply lotion after washing my hands with dish soap.

So, which one of these lotions sounds the most appealing to you? Have you tried either of these? What is your favorite hand creme?

Check out other bloggers' "treats" at Spot of Tea.





Finally, I'd like to take a moment to thank Puja of Cute nails for nominating me for the Sunshine Award. It was so very kind of you. It makes me feel wonderful to know that you enjoy reading my blog!

Take care.
~Alexis

Untested Polishes

Pin It Hi again. I know, two post in as many days! I just wanted to show you my load of polishes that haven't been used. . . Let me clarify: These polishes may have been used as minor accents for nail art and I think that one was used for a pedicure quite a long time ago, but they have never been highlighted by themselves on my fingernails. Which one or ones would you really like to see? Any special layering of these polishes that you want to check out?

L-R:  Revlon Timeless, Popular, Royal, Bare Bones, Rich Raspberry, Nfu Oh 51

L-R:  Sonia Kashuk Golden Ticket, Fairy Princess, Hard Candy Beetle, China Glaze Fast Track,  Prism

L-R:  Julep Eva, Sofia, Emma, Kelly, Melissa

L-R:  Sinful Colors I Love You, China Glaze Harvest Moon, Dorethy Who?, Trendsetter, Zombie Zest

L-R:  China Glaze Cling On, Drawn to You Liang QiEr  NL001 (bornprettystore magnetic), China Glaze Cracked Medallion, Finger Paints Twisted

L-R:  Revlon Midnight Affair, Sephora by OPI Under my Trenchcoat,  Trendy gold nail foils, gold nail foils from bornprettystore

Check out the Nail Files-Week 18 to see some stunning colors and manicures.


Have a good weekend.
~Alexis