Dita Von Teese Nails by Kiss

I am super into old Hollywood glamour. 30's and 40's retro style is totally my thing. I adore Dita Von Teese, the international burlesque star who brought the style mainstream. She is truly a style icon. Her look has long been coveted and copied by women everywhere.

I have long been interested in her nail style, she wears them long with a tapered oval shape, in a deep red shade with a silver half moon, just like the famous starlets of years gone by. Attainable with lots of time and patience yes, but now thanks to a collaboration with Kiss Nails, this style has become a whole lot easier to achieve.

Image via http://www.ditasdomain.com/

I got the opportunity to try these out and I absolutely adore them! They're just long enough to be luxurious but not so long as to be troublesome. I personally love the nail shape more than anything, because I can't grow my natural nails out like this, it's nice to be able to fake it.

These gorgeous press-on nails are available now on Dita's website, www.DitasDomain.com (although they are temporarily sold out) for $9.99. The nails come in 12 sizes in a package of 24. They are a must-have for any Dita fan!

Products provided for review.

My Valentine's Nails

Hey folks, hope your Valentine's day was sweet and full of sugar and luuuuuvvv. I'm not big into the holiday, never have been much of a romantic. Plus I'm single haha :P Thought I'd make it a fantastical nail day anyway and I wore this set of falsies from Icing. They remind me of Ke$ha or Gaga. Really impractical and gaudy. I loved them instantly.

These were fun but I had a hard time fitting my nails perfectly as there were only 10 nails total and um I have 10 fingers and guess what not every person's nails are the same size. So that was a little lame, filing almost everyone of the nails. I doubt I'd buy another set from Icing like this, even though they were fun. I wasn't too concerned about showing accurate color like I am most of my swatch photos, so I put some vignette on the edges. Sickening, no?

Born Pretty products

I recently had the chance to review some products from the Born Pretty web store. One of them is of course, a nail polish. This polish is definitely not big 3 free, as far as I can tell, because it has a telltale very strong chemical scent. It is a mini polish, even though the bottle says 0.6 oz, it is clearly not. They are $3.51 each, and are even cheaper the more you buy. This color doesn't have a name, and in fact the sticker on the bottom said "OPI Original Nail Envy"....so yeah. Anyway, it's a fuschia pink foil glitter, very attractive. This swatch is two coats.

The next product is a set of press-on nails that have red tips with white polka dots and 3d bows. They remind me of Minnie Mouse! Very cutsie and almost nautical. Normally this is not something I would wear, but I just fell in love with them and wanted to try them out. They were very long, but I could file down the bottoms if I wanted. They were also a bit larger and wider than my natural nails so they weren't super comfortable. But look how cute! They also unfortunately didn't come with the gel tabs that stick for temporary application, just glue. I don't like to use glue on my nails so I'm glad I had a few tabs left over from a different set I had finished with.

Jessica from Born Pretty is giving my readers a special 10% off their orders with the code: GONZO15. Take a look around, she has quite a variety of nail art products, including crackle polish, which I'll be showing you a review of soon.

xoxo,
kelliegonzo

These were sent for review.

Broadway Fashion Diva Chrome Nails

Have you heard of Minx? The hip nail design sensation that has been flashed all over the media, from celebrities to us regular folk. Basically it's a flexible film that adheres to the nail by way of heat, applied by a nail technician in a salon. Their designs are practically limitless and many other companies have taken note of this idea and put a spin on the product so the average woman can get her tips to look as perfect as a professionally applied set of Minx.

Their most popular "design" would probably be their mirror-like gold nails, as seen on singers Beyoncé and Katy Perry. I would RAWK those gold suckers, as you know I la la love my gold! However a sister design, this time in silver is also making it's way around the runways.

*Sigh* what's a girl to do if she doesn't have access to a salon that applies Minx Nails? Or more likely, what if a trendsetting diva just doesn't want to fork over the money that a set would put her back? Well you can imagine my surprised and astonishment when I found out Broadway Nails sells a super awesome set of false nails that have the mirror-like silver/chrome look, for loads less moola!

This pack of Fashion Diva nails comes with 24 nails, both in plain chrome and zebra print chrome. And there are 12 sizes, so you can best fit the tips to your nails. The box is about $5.99, and you definitely know I'm going to get their worth--my nails are unhappy nubbins right now, so I will totally be rocking these for a while until they grow out some. These are "medium" length, but seem a bit long for me. No worries, though, as you can always clip or file them w/o damage. They're supposed to last for 7 days, I hope it's true, because chiiiillllddd these are some fierce talons!

I am impressed with these so far, because they are very comfortable, unlike some other false nails I've tried.  They're very light and easy to apply and I did not have any trouble fitting them to my nail beds.

Would you ever wear these or something similar? I would love them even more if they came in gold! There are lots of different designs from Broadway right now, available in your local CVS, Kmart, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid, and online at www.beautyonlinesupply.com.

xoxo,
kelliegonzo

These were provided for an honest review.

kiss nails halloween giveaway ***CLOSED***

another contest?? have i lost my marbles?? nope, just must be in the giving mood! this time i have some halloween goodies up for grabs! kiss nails has some ADORABLE false nail designs this year for halloween, including a half moon design with almond shape nails that almost look like Dita von Teese nails.  I bought a few of these myself before Kiss even offered to sponsor a giveaway so you know i love them!

here's what you can win: 3 packs of limited edition Halloween Nails, 2 packs of limited edition Halloween nail art stickers, 1 pack of limited edition Halloween eye and face art stickers, and 1 pack of limited edition Halloween body art stickers.

and here's the best part. since there are 7 prizes, there is going to be 7 winners! all you have to do is be a follower and put a comment in the section below with a way to contact you :)  ends October 21st and this is open internationally.

special thanks to Kiss Nails and Dark PR for sponsoring this contest and Happy Halloween!!

xoxo,
kelliegonzo

this giveaway is sponsored by the company/manufacturer. please see disclosure statement for more information.

nailene couture

this review is looong overdue, i apologize :) i got some products from nailene a few months ago and decided to give them a go. these artificial full-cover nails are part of their couture line, which features designs that are "straight off the runway". i don't usually wear falsies because i don't like to think of putting glue on my poor natural nails haha, but i was excited to try these because they're super pretty. nailene also boasts a "no chip" technology and a natural look that makes theirs some of the best artificial nails available. i've only tried a few other brands ever, but these are definitely the best i've used. they are super light, they fit better than i expected, and they come in a variety of sizes--even in the small boxes like these. they have full nail sets available too, with even more sizes and fits to accommodate almost every shape and type of nail there is.

i love this design too, you know i'm not big on nail art, so this simple but fancy look was perfect for me. i realized after i had them glued that the stripes could be all facing the same direction, but oh well haha, they turned out in a wave for me :) the glue is pink tinted, which is nice, makes it less noticeable under the bed of the false nail.  i put a layer of seche retain on before i glued them on, even though they suggest for maximum adhesion and longevity to glue them on clean, freshly buffed nails.  i just can't get around putting glue on my natural nails haha, they're my babies!

these were easy to apply, but can be tricky to take off.  i soaked them in acetone for about 10 minutes, as suggested, but the nails were not dissolved as the package denotes.  even though technically i shouldn't have scraped at my nails, i used a wood orange stick to get the "goo" off that they became after the soaking and then finished with a good scrub with acetone on a felt square.  i think if i hadn't have used a base underneath, removal could've been even more difficult.  so, in conclusion, if you want a fast, fashionable mani but fail at art or application, these are a great option.  but be sure to give yourself plenty of time and care with removal.

what do you think of these? i think the reason falsies look so great on is because they can sort of hide your cuticles, and we all know those bad boys can make or break a hot nail look.

xoxo,
kelliegonzo

this product was sent to me for review purposes. please see disclosure statement for more information.

halloween manicures

i love halloween and orange and black and these are some fun manicures i was sporting on or around the week of halloween this year :)

this is awesome china glaze fortune teller, an amazing black with copper/orange colored flake glitter. back-up worthy. amazing amazing polish. china glaze hit this one outta the park.
this is fortune teller a few days after (i know, i can't believe i wore it that long!) after i mattified it with essie's matte about you topcoat.
these are some cutie little press on nails i got at walmart for like $2 or something :) wore them the friday before halloween at work. this is the length i aspire mine to be naturally one day. ahh wishin and hopin! they were pretty sturdy considering how cheap they were, but the glue that came with them was crap so i had to use krazy glue (am i the only one who is peeved when companies use the letter "k" for things that should have the letter "c" to make them sound cool or something?) I used a few coats of base first so the glue wasn't on my nail bed, cuz i know you're worried ;)
this is nc2 fresh squeeze (discontinued) orange with the spiderwebs done with some striper polishes, inspired by the lovely Colette's awesome manicure over at My Simple Little Pleasures. the ring finger was my first try, but as i kept going i got the hang of it.
i decided it looked to "pretty" so i used sinful colors UFO on the orange and then mattified it with essie matte about you. the final product turned out fun and kinda deconstructed. the pictures don't do the look justice, but take my word for it haha.
this is china glaze's dreamsicle, which is a great great bright orange glitter. it's one of the 50 specialty glitters that came out this fall that i happened to snatch up at sally beauty by chance, even though my local stores didn't carry hardly any of the new glitters :( this shot was taken in my short lived rounded nail phase this past month too haha, i broke a few corners and decided to try the "squoval" shape thing again. needless to say, it didn't last long. now that i look at this picture tho, it doesn't look bad! i just felt weird looking down and not seeing my normal squares...i'm weird haha.
my last minute costume was a devil haha, this wig had the horns like glued in haha it was so fun to wear. it looked kinda rock-a-billy and i had a glitter pitchfork & forked tail. we have a family halloween party every year so we had a great time just eating and playing jeopardy and having a costume contest and lots of other stuff :) i hope everyone had a spooky fun weekend!!