Press On Manicures: Yay or Nay?

So for the latest Influenster box I received, I must say I was much less than thrilled. Before I go any further, I should explain what was in this box.
The contents of this box actually intrigued me at first I must say. I know I've said it before, but I'll explain a little again. My nails essentially are the worst things on earth. I hate them. I kind of wish I could just wear mittens all the time without sweaty nasty hands, so I wouldn't have to let people see them. My body has a serious issue with keeping my iron levels at even a meager level. Where the "normal" for most people is 14 (insert appropriate unit of measure here), mine is forever sitting between 1 and 1 1/2. And, where the simple fix would be to take iron pills, again my body will have none of that! I have a tendency to actually be unable to digest the pills, and end up throwing them up within about 10 minutes. Same for the liquid, except in a much accelerated pace. Oh. Fecking. Yay. So, as a result, my nails peel. I can literally peel them off in layers. The crack, and break and are just not pretty. The only real way I've found that works to deal with this, is to either keep them super short to try and prevent the peeling (which really isn't as effective as I would like) or to use gel nails or something like that. When I found out that the Influesnter box I was getting contained the Broadway Nails imPRESS press on manicure, I was actually excited to see if this was possibly something that would work for me. Before this, I honestly think the last time I used press on nails, I was like... 6? So I wasn't too sure what to expect. When you get the product, the nails are actually in a polish bottle shaped container, which I must say is a cute idea. While I wasn't the biggest fan of the designs I received, after looking at them on Instagram and at my Walmart, they do have some really adorable designs that I would quite enjoy wearing. And those two things are about the only positives I can think of about this product in my opinion. I think I've also mentioned before my nails aren't the most normal shape, especially my thumbs and my middle fingers. So right away I had an issue fitting those nails with some of the press ons. Fitting these to my fingers was reminding me a lot of me trying to go shopping for jeans. If they fit my waist, they never fit my legs. If they're the perfect fit in the leg, they definitely don't fit in the waist. The nails were either too wide, or too long for me. The length for my thumbs was absolutely perfect. The width, not so much. The jabbed into my cuticles, and almost ended up lifting the skin around my nails. Not happy. The ring finger and pinkie weren't terrible, but the length was totally off. Where the others were all the same length and were a totally manageable length, these two fingers made me look like I had an Edward Scissorhands thing going on. I still tried to stick it out. They say that when applied correctly, they can last up to a week. I really can't vouch for this because mine didn't even make it two hours. I've heard from a few other people that they were able to wash dishes, and shower and do all their normal activities with these contraptions on. Not I. I attempted to shower and while massaging my shampoo into my cranium, I actually ended up pulling out a fair amount of hair that got caught under one of them. Before I showered I made sure everything was well pressed down, because this is definitely not one of my favorite things to have happen. So, after exiting the shower, I promptly removed them, and haven't had any interest in reapplying them. Honestly, if I had to give a score out of 10, I would probably have to go with maybe a 3. Only because the colours and designs are really awesome, and the packaging is cute. Otherwise, no. I will probably never buy these or really recommend them to anyone. What about you? Has anyone else tried them? What say you!?

VoxBox #2: Mystery Brand Challenge!

I'm now 10 days post surgery. And I'm going insane. I've left the house once in total, and being stuck at home is driving me insane. Daytime TV is terrible, and staring at the ceiling isn't much better. I'm finally at the point I'm able to get up and hobble around (think Igor) the house a bit before swelling kicks in and I have to go back to bed with my ice packs. So for my trek today, I figured I would check the mail. I was quite honestly expecting bills, hoping and praying for a big fat check. I found neither. Instead, I found this:

Which of course I had forgotten I was chosen to receive. So not only was this exciting to find, it also gave me a little ray of happy! After I wobbled back upstairs and tucked myself back in, I got down to business. First thing I noticed was the smell. Normally, when you get a package with a smell, it's not always a good thing. But this smell... Magical. It's all I can smell right now, and my nose is in heaven. Once I finished sniffing the box and actually opened it, I found 3 bottles.

One bottle of shampoo, one conditioner, and one split end serum. Obviously, I needed to remove the caps and sniff them (product quality assurance folks!) even more. Okay, now that I was again sated, I finally read my instructions. The run down is fairly simple. This VoxBox has two parts to it. Week One, which I just got, has 3 bottles of mystery product from L'Oreal. For the next week, I will substitute the mystery product in place of my usual shampoo and conditioner routine. The product is "specially formulated to reconstruct hair's strength by 90% from root to tip, it repairs hair and prevents further damage." What makes this possible? It contains Phyto-Keratin Complex, and Cupuacu Butter. Let me also point out, when I first read Cupuacu, I definitely read Chupacabra. (I told you I've been watching a lot of TV.) 

Since I just showered this morning because of a ridiculously early doctors appointment, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to try out my products. But being that simply by touching my hair, I know that it is dry, and a little damaged thanks to my straightener, I'm quite curious to see what kind of impact these three items will have, and how much of a difference I'll notice. I'll make sure I do a follow up in a couple days to let everyone know if I notice anything, and when the second box comes in about a week, I'll follow that up, and give a final opinion. If nothing else, the smell is fantastic!

Day 10: Follow up on My Sally Hansen Nail Polish.

So, if you remember from my last post, I was sent three complimentary bottles of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure nail colour from Influenster. You may also remember that it is the preferred nail colour after ten days length by a test group of women. Now, here we are 11 days later, and lets see shall we:

 For the most part, I have to say this nail colour held up pretty damn good. I"ve been deep cleaning my house and prepping for my upcoming surgery, so I've spent the last ten days doing several sinks of dishes, thousands of loads of laundry, showering multiple children multiple times, scrubbing bathrooms, showering myself... Well, you get the drift.  Normally, after even one sink of dishes, my nails look like I painted them six months ago. With this stuff, I noticed that it chipped first around my cuticles, which for me is very common. However, it didn't chip as much as other brands I've tried. I also noticed my right hand chipped worse than my left, which makes sense. My right hand is my dominant hand, so that was the one scrubbing the dishes, and grabbing the laundry. Considering all of the abuse I put my hands through, and will continue putting them through in the next two weeks, I have to say despite my initial skepticism for this nail colour... I'm pleasantly surprised, and quite pleased.

Something A Little Different: Salyl Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Review

I spent the afternoon yesterday taking my three year old shopping for her birthday. Which, if you've ever been shopping with a three year old, you know to be a time consuming, repetitive action. I think we walked all the isles about four times each, and each time she was compelled to touch everything. Lets just say after that, I was ready for a nap. Once we were home and I was comfortably tucked on the couch working on 

some orders, Ginger decided to check the mail. Lo and behold I had a package (YAY!!). For a few minutes, I really had no clue what it was, and I was really just praying it wasn't a grenade or something. After prying it open (and cutting my thumb on it) I find nail polish. I fought with the bubble wrap, and was delighted to find that my Influenster package had arrived! When I had received the email that I was in the running to review some products, I honestly wasn't too excited. I'm that person that enters continually, but I never get picked. So I applied and kind of forgot. A couple days later, the next email came: I was in. So that was exciting for me, and made my day! Friday, I got the package, and was excited to start. So, before I get all into my review, let me just say a few things. First, these products were complimentary from Influenster, and were sent to me for testing purposes. Which of course, YAY! Second, I am not the person who always has fabulous nails. If anything, I have ugly awkward hands. I have three kids, and almost everyday I'm up to my eyeballs in cleaning, dishes and messes in general. So long ago I gave up trying to have nice hands. I don't do the gel nail thing anymore, nor have I been big into nail polish, mainly because it seems every time I do my nails, the polish can't hold up to the intense dishes/cleaning/showering/bathing regimen that occurs in my house. I also have lousy nails that peel and chip no matter what. So 

of course I keep them cut short. Low, low, low maintenance here folks. On the other hand, (haha, that was awful) I enjoy painting my toes and making them look pretty. You can thank me now, I'm not going to post photos of my feet. The nail polish, which is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, according to self-assessment from 375 women, is the preferred brand after 10 days. Each bottle has a base coat, strengthener, growth treatment, colour, top coat, chip resistant, and gel shine finish. Obviously, not having to do a base coat and then colour, and then top coat saves me time, and makes me happy. As for the chip resistant, I'm hoping for the best. I received 3 bottles to test; Pat on the Black (510), Red My Lips (470), and Jaded (540). I decided to try out Jaded first, because the colour is gorgeous, and, out of all the nail polishes I own, I don't have a turquoise colour. The bottle recommends two coats. Personally, I thought it was still too light, so I did three.

Second coat.

                                                  Third Coat.

The three colours I got. So far overall, I'm pleased with the coverage and colour saturation. It's yet to be seen how it will hold up to daily wear in my life, but so far, I'm happy! I think I'll do another update at day 5, and then at day ten just to show how it has held up. Here's hoping this is the first of many VoxBoxes!

Have any of you used the Sally Hansen CSM line? What did you think about it? Let me know!