Polish of the Day: OPI California Raspberry

The No!No! Hair Removal System Review

I remember when this first came out in the fall, the blog-osphere was all abuzz, Sephora was going to sell something that offered permanent hair removal. For about $225. When you add up all of your razors and creams and such for a year or two that is actually quite the bargain. Unfortunately it isn't quite that easy. It takes time, it isn't painless and it does require refill cartridges. But, apparently it really does decrease your hair over time!

Polish of the Day: Essie Viva la Vespa

Today's color of the day is a little bit controversial. Essie recently re-released two of their most popular and hard to find discontinued colors, Viva la Vespa and Starry Starry Nights. VLV is this beautiful purple, which I love. Starry Starry Nights is a dark blue with silver shimmer (which I recently picked up for Ellery if Nancy is reading this!).

Nailies like myself and my friends over at MUA's nailboard were very excited about the re-releases, but many were angry about the pricing. They were priced at twice normal retail! If you can find them, I do think that these colors are worth the extra cash. Some are lucky enough to be near supplies that sell at wholesale to the public (like me). Otherwise, I'd check out stores like ULTA and Trade Secret if you're looking for a bottle!

Polish of the Day: Orly Razzle

I was on a prolonged search for the perfect dark pink with a slight berry leaning and nice shimmer last summer. After about 20 or 30 polishes I finally found the winner, it was this Orly!

Braun's Silk-épil Xpressive Epilator Review

I know what you are thinking. Is Christine really writing about the Epilator, that torture device that so many of us are afraid of using? Yup, and it really is not as bad as everyone thinks.

First, what exactly is "epilation"? Really, it's pulling each hair out from the root. That's exactly what you do when you wax, except the epilator is basically a rotating collection of tweezers that grab each hair. Since the hair below the skin is also removed your skin will be hair free and smooth longer than with shaving. Over time your hair will grow back finer and weaker.

For me, removing hair below the skin surface is very appealing. I have very pale skin with darker leg hair. I can see the hair below the skin when I wear shorts, which I hate! I also tend to get cold, and with goose bumps I swear that the hair comes out! I get stubble a few hours after shaving because of this. Removing hair below the surface is just the answer I needed for these problems.

The epilator is pretty easy to use. I run my hands up and down my legs to "rough up" any little hairs so they will be easier to grab. The hair can be pretty short actually, as small as 0.5 mm long (you need 2-5 mm for waxing by comparison). Braun includes some Soothing Wipes which they developed with Olay for pre-treatment. I'm not sure that these actually helped me at all. Run the epilator against the direction of hair growth to remove.

The epilator comes with a huge array of heads to use, each pivot by 15 degrees to make them easier to use, they lift the hair up to be grabbed and there are even heads to be used in sensitive areas like the underarm area. I especially liked that on the epilator itself there is a "SmartLight," which was basically a very bright light that really showed me where the hairs were.

I'm not going to lie to you. This process definitely hurts. At first it hurts a lot and it takes a few treatments to get used to it. The pain does lessen with treatments, and it is helped quite a bit by epilating after a bath or shower (so skin is softer) and by holding down your skin. In the end, the pain is well worth it though, you will be surprised by how much hair is removed. Even with short subtle it looks like you have removed quite a bit of hair.

My skin did have a bit of irritation after epilation, really it looked like each hair follicle was red and irritated and would just hurt if touched for about an hour afterwards. But, with a bit of cream or lotion (I liked my Cetaphil cream for this) the irritation was better and even without cream the irritation was gone within the hour.

I did not achieve perfectly smooth legs with this process. If I was planning to wear shorts or a skirt that day I did need to shave a few missed areas to have the perfectly smooth legs that I want. However, my legs definitely stayed smoother longer when epilated and I will continue to use it as with each use it hurts less. I loved not having subtle a few hours after I shaved just because I was cold!

The newest version of the epilator is available this month, the model numbers are 7280 and 7681 (the difference is added caps in the 7681 for facial and underarm hair). If you have the same issues I do, I really do recommend using the epilator in combination with shaving, I know I'll be using this more often!

The Hair Removal War: No!No! vs Silk-épil Epilator

It feels as though every day a new form of hair removal comes on to the market. You can shave, foam, spray, wax, epilate or even laser the hair off of your legs (and other areas). I'm not a particularly hairy person, but I admit that I really hate being hairy. I am the girl that shaves every day in the shower, even if I am wearing pants that day, just because I don't like the feeling of short stubble.

I was given the chance to try two the the newest at home hair removal technologies at basically the exact same time. Neither of them are pain free, nor are they particularly cheap (though with time those razor blades and shaving gel definitely add up as well).

So, I decided to offer myself (and my legs) up as an experiment for everyone's benefit! For about 3 weeks or so I've been using both of these technologies. My left leg is my No!No! leg, the right is my epilated leg.

How did they fare? Well, I'll have posts on each of the technologies over the next few days, but I think that they are both good. I think the choice between them is personal and depends upon your own wants and needs.

The Silk-épil removes hair below the skin but is more painful. The No!No! uses heat to affect the hair follicle and to basically burn off the hair above the skin.

Only the No!No! promises to decrease the amount of hair growth over time, though I'm sure we all know from tweezing that over time the epilator will also decrease hair over time.

The epilator can be used anywhere (you can even buy a model that comes with heads for use on the face and underarm areas). The No!No! does not recommend facial use.

Stay tuned over the next two days for the review of each machine!

Polish of the Day: Essie Raspberry

Polish Tip: Easy Clean-Up

See those items? They are my secret to a perfect manicure and pedicure!

I don't always have the steadiest of hands, though you might think I do after seeing so many swatches of polishes this month! While it is definitely true that with practice I am much better at applying nail polish, I still slop over onto a cuticle every now and then.

I've tried the clean up pens, dipping an orange stick in acetone, even Q-Tips. For me, all of those options either did not remove enough polish, were not precise enough or left trails of cotton in my polish. So, I started using a brush like the one pictured here, a stiff angled brush meant to be used with eyeliner. The brush is stiff enough to remove polish, but is very precise and can even easily fit underneath my nail tip for improved clean-up. I simply dip it into the dampen dish (that little glass cup) that I've filled with Acetone, but be careful to not get too much acetone in the brush. Brush off excess polish, and it can help to have a piece of cotton around to wipe the brush on.

That's it! Perfect nails quick and easy! I will sometimes clean up between coats of polish, but often I only need to do so at the very end of application.

I bought my brush at Target, you really do not need an expensive brush for this tip to work. Just don't buy a painted brush since the Acetone will melt the paint on the handle (which happened with my Sonia Kashuk brush).

The dampen dish is from a nail supply, but you can check Sally's Beauty Supply or head to Head 2 Toe Beauty to order one of your own!

Elizabeth Arden's Color Intrigue Effects Lipstick

Elizabeth Arden's newest lipstick, Color Intrigue Effects isn't ground breaking in new technology. It is simply great lipstick. For that, you should check it out.

The lipstick is formulated with a lot of emollients to really help moisturize your lips, really it feels more like thick lip balm than a lipstick once on. It applies easily and stays put and I still had most of it on even after eating lunch. The color and shine were just fantastic, there was no fading or color change throughout the day!

I tried out Teaberry Shimmer (a peachy color with shimmer) and Cherry Pearl (a deep berry color with a blue tone), both of which I loved! They are both on the darker side, so you can bet that they will be my constant companions all fall. I'm thinking of picking up Pink Pink Shimmer (a blue toned light pink) for the summer, and Cranberry Cream (dramatic, deep rich blue red) is the color that Catherine Zeta-Jones says is her favorite.

If you're looking for a color Kelly Jordan, the Director of Product Development Cosmetics and Skincare says to look at the 'Good for Everyone' shades. "GFE is used to indicate that a shade is basically neutral because it has both warm and cool elements to it. As a result, these shades are extremely wearable by all women, whether they have warm or cool tones."

The shades that are GFE are: Geranium Shimmer, Ruby Pearl, Mango Cream, Teaberry Shimmer,Cayenne Pearl, Mocha Shimmer, Cocoa Bronze Pearl, Wood Rose Cream and Bronzeberry Pearl.

There is already a huge array of colors available on-line and they'll be popping up at counters sometime in May. I'm hoping that this is a formulation that sticks around for years to come with new shades added each season!

Elizabeth Arden's Color Intrigue Effects Lipstick

Polish of the Day: OPI Strawberry Fields