My Nail Routine + Favorites

Hey Lovelies!!!

I'm here to tell you all about my current nail routine and favorite nail polishes and tools. I'm going to start with my favorite part which is the actual nail polish. I have a pretty extensive collection and I'm quite proud of it! However, I do have my favorites! And these are them!

For my finger nails, these are my five favorite colors:

♥ Sally Hanson Complete Salon Manicure in 470 Red My Lips

♥ Revlon Colorstay in 060 Café Pink

♥ Revlon Parfumerie in 090 Bordeaux

♥ essie in 754 Mint Candy Apple

♥ Sally Hanson Complete Salon Manicure in 817 Gold Roses *Limited Edition*

And the color that is on my toe nails 99% of the time:

♥ Sinful Colors in 854 Boogie Nights

Now let's get into the routine that I stick to (quite religiously...)

First, I start out by cleaning up my nails. I'll trim them a bit if they need it with nail clippers. The pair that I use are by La Cross, but there's nothing extraordinary about them.

Then after that, I file my nails with a nail file. I have no idea what brand this file is. It gets the job done like any other nail file.

After that, I like to push and trim my cuticles. I know... Trimming your cuticles is not the best thing to do but sometimes you just have to trim them. Plus I find that it's much easier to apply nail polish more accurately after doing this. For trimming my cuticles, I use a Revlon tool.

Then, finally, I like to buff and smooth my nails with this four-sided Trim Buffing Block (featured in my February Favorites). I think that this tool makes the biggest difference in maintaining your manicure for an extended time. You nail gets smooth after using it and it helps hold the nail polish in place with a smoother application.

I always use a base coat after I finish buffing and smoothing my nails and before applying the colored nail polish. This base coat is pretty good! It is very, very slightly colored a pale white which also helps the colored nail polish appear more opaque. And, base coats also work to prevent your nails getting stained by the colored nail polish. For a base coat, I use:

♥ Revlon Colorstay Gel-Smooth Base Coat

After applying two coats of my colored nail polish, I always finish it off with a top coat. I'm not completely satisfied with this top coat, but it works for now. I prefer quick dry top coats, but I'm trying to finish up this bottle before I buy another type (maybe Seche Vite...?). Anyways, for a top coat, I use:

♥ Revlon Colorstay Gel-Shine Top Coat

Typically, my nail polish lasts about a week on average. When it's time to repaint my nails, I use the Target brand (Up & Up) Strengthening Nail Polish Remover. I've tried so many different types and formulations of nail polish remover and, to be completely honest, this one works the best, in my opinion. And I use cotton balls to remove the polish. I've tried cotton rounds, but I don't feel like they remove as much as the cotton balls.

In the situation where I need to remove my toe nail polish but my finger nails are painted, I use the handy little tool. It is a little rubber UFO looking thing that my mom found at a store (I have no idea what store though...) Basically, you put the cotton ball with nail polish remover in the little cut out and it acts as a barrier so that you don't get any nail polish remover on your finger nails. It works so well! If anyone knows where this can be found, leave it in the comments below!!

So, I've gotten my four closest friends to stick to this nail routine too! Almost every weekend, the five of us get together to do laundry, paint our nails, eat a bunch of food, gossip, and sometimes watch a movie. After I painted all of their nails once, they realized how long their manicures lasted so now we've made it a weekend tradition.

If you guys are interested, try out this nail routine or something similar and let me know how it works out for you! And if you have any suggestions or recommendations for my nail routine or even nail polished to try out, please leave them in the comments below. I'd love to test out some new products! I hope you like this post... Until next time, stay beautiful!!!

♥♥♥

My (Pathetically Small) Brush Collection

Hey Lovelies!!!

I've been wanting to do a blog post like this one for quite some time but felt slightly uneasy about it because of my lack of brushes. I still have very few brushes but they work for my everyday makeup look, which is basically all that I wear while in college. I have intentions to expand my brush collection, but since I'm in college, with no proper job and very little money to spend, it may not be for a while... :( I feel like sharing my collection with you, however, because I love most of the brushes I use and want to share my opinion to those of you who are looking for one.

And before I begin my post, I just wanted to point out that I'm in school until the beginning of May. I will continue to do at least a post a week. However, for those of you who follow me on Instagram or have found me there (@megsmaquillage), the posts on there will probably be much less since taking #ootd especially is very difficult in my dorm room. However, I'll try my best to get a few photos up every once in a while. And if I buy some stuff (which could be rare- #brokestudentprobs), I'll definitely be posting and Instahaul! But still, go follow me on Instagram!!!!

 

So, back to the brush collection. As you can see, it's very small; only eight brushes at the moment. But those eight brushes work really well for my on an everyday basis. I've changed my everyday makeup quite significantly since my previous post (http://megsmaquillage.blogspot.com/2013/09/makeup-collection-and-storage-dorm.html). And just from looking at the brushes, you can probably tell that I REALLY LOVE the Real Techniques brushes. In case you didn't know, Real Techniques brushes are made by Samantha Chapman is a makeup artist and has a YouTube channel with her sister (http://www.youtube.com/user/pixiwoo) and she makes these amazing synthetic makeup brushes and continues to release more and more brushes and tools and they're just flawless. Go check out the website if you haven't already (http://realtechniques.com/). And for those of you who are new to makeup, they even have video tutorials of how to use the brushes and also makeup looks!

My current makeup brush collection consists of eight brushes. I guess I'm proving that you don't need 100 different makeup brushes to wear makeup! :) I'll give the name of the brush and also what I use it for:

♥ Real Techniques Expert Face Brush- My most recent addition. I use it to apply liquid foundation. And it applies it FLAWLESSLY! It's super dense and SO soft! Highly recommend it to anyone that uses liquid foundation!

♥ Target brand Crease Brush- I actually use this brush for concealer (occasionally, I usually just use my ring finger). It's not the best brush, but it was pretty cheap and I thought I'd give it a try. I would actually recommend getting an elf brand brush over Target brand brushes, it will save you some money and they tend to be a little softer.

♥ Real Techniques Powder Brush- I use this brush for face powder (obviously). It's not nearly as dense as the Expert Face Brush but just as soft. It's really big and fluffy and really evenly applies powders. Again. I highly recommend!

♥ elf Professional Total Face Brush- I use this brush for bronzer (when I wear it). It's decent, especially for the price ($1). It applies a pretty good amount- not too much, not too little. I'm using this brush for the meantime until I get something a little better (Real Techniques Mulit-Task Brush from Travel Essentials kit maybe???). If you're on a budget like myself, this is a pretty good brush.

♥ Real Techniques Blush Brush- I use this for blush, like it says. I really like the shape of this brush. It's quite small but narrow. I do find that right after I was the brush, though, it doesn't really apply a lot of blush and takes a bit of building up to have the color show. Although that could just be the blush I use too. I would recommend this as well.

♥ Real Techniques Shading Brush- I use this brush for an eye shadow all over my lid. I love the shape of this brush, thick but flat, so you can really control the eye shadow placement. It's very soft and quite dense. It's not super flimsy so you have added control over the brush. I really recommend this brush!

♥ elf Professional Defining Eye Brush- I use this brush to apply dark brown eye shadow to my lower lash line. The shape of this brush is perfect- thin and angled. It's extremely cheap ($1) and totally worth it!! I would definitely recommend!

♥ Maybelline Cream Eyeliner Brush- I got this brush with my cream eyeliner and I really like it. It's thicker on one side and thinner on the other, so you can really customize how thick you want your eyeliner. A lot of companies make eyeliner brushes/tools but I like this enough that I'll just stick with this one! I recommend trying this brush along with the eyeliner it comes with!

And here's how I store it all:

The brush holder is an old, used Bath and Body Works candle that got GIYed by following the steps in MissGlamorazzi's video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRPvlXJbzGI). It's the perfect size and looks so adorable! It's a great way to up-cycle old candles.

So, there you have it! If you haven't already tried the Real Techniques brushes, I really think you should. You can get them online, at Ulta, Walmart, online at Target, and maybe a few other places... And, just a disclaimer, these are completely my own views and opinions. This wasn't sponsored by Real Techniques or anything like that, I just really love their brushes as do many other people.

Anyways, it's almost the end of January already. I'm going to be posting my January Favorites on January 31 (next Friday) which will have beauty, fashion, food, entertainment, and other categories so stay tuned for that! I'm not sure if I'm going to post twice next week yet or if I'm just going to do January Favorites. Let me know what you think in the comments! As always, I'll see you very soon and stay beautiful!!!

♥♥♥