Gel Nails

I'm a huge fan of doing my nails and if you know me in person you would know this for sure! Recently, my best friend gave me a UV lamp for gel nails for my birthday! You can't even imagine how happy I was, it was by far one of the best presents I have ever received! So far I've only painted my nails with it a couple of times, here in 'Chestnuts Roasting' from Quo by Orly and in my previous post you can see that my nails are painted in 'Shine On' from the same brand. For this post I'd like to list all of the pros and cons for gel nails, and I ask that you remember that this is my personal opinion from my own experience and naturally yours may be different.

 

Pros:
1. Durability- the most obvious benefit of all; gel nails last up to 2 weeks, unlike regular nail polishes which chip after a few days

2. Thickness- I find it very nice that my normally thin nails become thicker, and such thick polish covers up any defects on the nails that you may have, leaving them perfect.

3. Scentless- this seems a bit strange, but some regular nail polishes don't smell very nice, but these ones don't have any scents.

4. Texture- I find it that once the polish is cured the nails look salon-perfect!

5. Hassle- this goes back to the durability topic in a way, but once you finish your mani, there's absolutely nothing else to do (such as having to sit still for 1/2h in fear of smudging the almost dry nails) and you can go about with your daily businesses straight away!

 

Cons:
1. Difficulty- the first time is the hardest, and you must do you nails with a lot more care than with regular nail polish because it's harder to go back and fix something.

 

2. A certain chemicle, butylated hydroxyanisol (BHA), that is found in some gel polishes, is considered potentially harmful.

 

 

As you can probably tell, for me gel nails are the winner! I love them so much! I hope I'll learn to do gel French manis soon!

Some of my current favorites by OPI: "Golden Eye", "Deutsch You Want Me Baby" and "Cajun Shrimp"
What are your thoughts on gel nails? I'd love to hear your opinions in the comments!

Happy Holidays!

Before I begin, I would like to wish all of my lovely readers happy holidays, and may you all have a great break from school or work! I'm so glad that we've finally reached the break! My last couple of school weeks were really difficult and unfortunately that's why I wasn't able to blog properly or interact with you all and I'm very sorry about that. I already know that January will be the same because of government exams, but by February I think this will all blow over.
So today I decided that I really want to share one of my Xmas presents with you, I got a set of 7 mascara testers, and the best part of it all is that once I'm finished them all, I can pick my favorite and receive up to $31 of its cost! I'm planning on testing and reviewing them all for you, which I'm very excited to do! Here are the mascaras:

Shieldo Perfect Mascara Full Definition

Lancome Hypnose Doll Lashes

Lise Watier 24 hrs. Glam Mascara

Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Lash Extending Treatment Mascara

Benefit Badgal Lash

Smashbox Full exposure Mascara

Clarins Paris Intense Black 01

Have you guys tried any of these? What do you think about them? xoxo

What's In My Purse?

I've always loved watching videos of this sort on YouTube so I decided to give it a go and try it myself! Hope you enjoy! Don't forget to watch my last video too and if you want to subscribe to my channel it's "officialDashaLoves"

I would also like to apologize for not being on my blog as much as I'd like to but it's because of exams, once winter break begins I'll be sure to post and interact with you all much more! Xoxo

November Photo A Day Challenge Results

So there you have it! This is my month in pictures and I'm pretty sure that none are missing, I'll double check a little later. I really enjoyed doing this, but unfortunately I'm far too busy with school at the moment to do this anytime soon again. Perhaps I'll do this in the summer that would work well! Anyways I hope you all enjoyed the fall and are ready for my fave season of the year... the Holidays!!! Yay! OK that was a bit weird I'm sorry... well I'll do my best to post soon!

French Nails Tutorial

 I've always wanted to make YouTube videos, but it scared me so I decided to take things slow and start a blog, and then make a safe little video... so here it is! I'm really excited to hear your reactions and advice, so please tell me what you think of it! I'd appreciate it if you'd subscribe to my channel (officialDashaLoves) and liked the video on YouTube too!

 

 

  I hope you'll find this method useful, especially to those of you who aren't too experienced in doing French Nails, this is a great way to start! All you'll need is the nail polishes of your choice and a rubber or elastic band!

OOTD- Late Fall

coat: The Bay, boots: Spring, scarf: n/a, jeans: Seven

 

 

As we go further and further into November, the weather is constantly getting colder. Although I love December, and the skiing season, I have to admit that I wish I didn't live up North, but rather somwhere closer to the equator! (Florida anyone?) At least our climate isn't as harsh as it is in other places, I've got to give it that! Unfortunately whenever it's sunny (in the winter & fall) here, it tends to be cold, but when it rains, it's warm! (you can imagine how annoying that is and it means that there's little if not no snow) The past couple of weeks have been quite rainy, so on the only sunny day during the week I decided to give you guys a taste of what my favorite (and usual) f/w attire is like!

Revlon "Moss" Nail Polish, NYC "Matte Me Crazy" Mattifying Topcoat

Summer Throwback

Before I start with my post, I would like to point out to all of my lovely followers and visitors that I now have a bloglovin' button, and it'd be wonderful if you could follow me there as well as on GFC! Thank you all- and now, back to the topic! :)

I've seen thousands of different types of nail art, and I'm a really big fan of it myself. This week I decided to try a design that I've seen all over Instagram, but didn't look too challenging to replicate on both hands. I did these flowers by layering blobs of nail polish with a toothpick, and it's as easy as it sounds! I know that the design is quite summery, but it's my way of channeling its' spirit into the fall, and somewhat continuing the floral trend that was so big during the s/s!

For my background I used Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle Nail Color, the base of my flowers was OPI Nail Laquer 'Do You Lilac It?' and on top of that I had OPI Nail Laquer 'Lincoln Park At Midnight'



The finished effect! Naturally they aren't perfect, but it was my first time doing this design, and practice will make perfect! Hope you guys enjoyed this!

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