Essence 24h Hand Protection Balm

Winter can be a real enemy for your hands. Today I want to show you my little help. I bought this a few days ago and I became addicted to using it. For me it is a perfect everyday hand cream. It is not greasy, it just leaves a very soft film on your hands. I have it at work and whenever I feel I have dry hands I use it. I like how it smells and I will definitely buy more of these because they are super cheap (CZK 34.9 which is about two dollars for 75ml). The balm contains coconut oil and shea butter. If you have very very dry hands this might not be the right product for you but I like it a lot. The quality you get for the low price is very good.

Sally Hansen Moisturizing Polish Remover

I wanted to show you the nail polish remover that I have been using lately. I am already on my fourth bottle and I will keep on using it. I like it for five simple reasons:

1. It is cheap
2. I can buy it in my local drugstore
3. It doesn´t have that nail polish remover smell
4. It doesn´t dry my cuticles
5. It removes polish well

I also took a picture of the ingredients. Yes it does contain acetone but that is what I was going for. With all the swatching I have to do I need something effective. And although it does contain acetone it does not dry my cuticles which is a big plus. I am sure you don´t want to see ugly cuticles on my macro pictures. 

I am not saying this is the best nail polish remover out there. But we have  limited possibilities of what nail polish remover to buy in my country. If I would be a normal nail polish user I would maybe go for something more expensive but I use tons of nail polish remover and don´t print money, so this is my choice and I am really happy with it.

Still I would love to know what nail polish remover works the best for you?

Four Seasons Nail Fortifier (Posilovač nehtů)

A few months ago I changed my base coat and I wanted to let you know what product I am currently using. Sadly I think this product is available only in the Czech Republic. I didn't find it anywhere else. So this post is mainly for my Czech readers. I used to have Essie Protein Base Coat as my HG. Before it I tried a lot of base coats but I saw no results. The only problem with the Essie is the price and because I do my nails very often I used a lot of the product. So I started looking for something more affordable. Then I found this..

I am on my third bottle now and I must say I am very happy with this product. I feel it is even better for my nails than the Essie. I feel they are strong and much less stained. It has a very similar milky consistency too. The only thing Essie was better at was the drying time, it dried faster. I really recommend this to all my Czech readers. I already recommended this to a friend of mine, she had very weak and short nails. After one month she had them much longer and thanked me so much. She said her nails really are stronger. I was so glad to hear that. This stuff is great.

Below I also wrote the ingredients so that you can compare. I highlighted in green the ingredients that they have same. I am no chemist so please if you understand this let me know if there are any major differences.

Oh and the price? Essie costs CZK 310 ($18) and Four Seasons is CZK 40 ($2.3). Of course you can get the Essie cheaper from the states, I just wanted you to see the official prices on both.

Four Seasons Nail Fortifier ingredients: butyl acetate, ethyl acetate, nitrocellulose, phthalic anhydride, trimellitic anhydride, glycols copolymer, acetyl tributyl citrate, isopropyl alcohol, stearalkonium hectorite, citric acid, panthenol, hydrolyzed corn protein, hydrolyzed wheat protein, hydrolyzed soy protein

Essie Protein Base Coat ingredients: ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, nitrocellulose, isopropyl alcohol, dibutyl phthalate, toluenesulfonamide / formaldehyde resin, stearalkonium hectorite, camphor, titanium dioxide, talc, hydrolyzed vegetable protein

CND Cuticle Eraser - Review

Sometimes you try a product and you say to yourself...why didn´t I try it before? This is what I am thinking about CND Cuticle Eraser. Where has such a product been all my life? You can have the most beautiful nail polish in the world but if your cuticles are a mess, it is useless. Moisturizing them is one of the steps but you also need to exfoliate (please don´t cut your cuticles, you can do a lot of damage).

The time when your cuticles suffer most is in winter so I thought this post would be helpful. I have been using this product for two months now and I am so happy with it! It does exactly what it says. Helps prevent cuticle build-up and very gently exfoliates the cuticle area. The key thing is that you have to use the product regularly. The directions say: "Message a small amount into the cuticles daily." You really need a small amount. The amount I am showing you on the picture below is good for both hands for me. The eraser has a light scent, which I don´t mind.

The CND Cuticle Eraser comes in two sizes (14g or 49g). The packaging is great. A small tube from which you squeeze just the amount you want. For me together with a good basecoat, topcoat and cuticle moisturizer a must have product for a perfect mani. I love it! You will start seeing results in a week.

Have a look on the CND pages to find a store near you.

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Ingderients: Aqua, Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil, PPG-2 Myristyl Ether Prpionate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Propylene Glycol, Glycerin, Polysorbate 60, Tocopheryl Acetate, Glycolic Acid, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Fower Extract, Actinidia Chinensis (Kiwi) Fruit Extract, Saccharum Officinarum (Sugar Cane) Extract, Symphytum Officinale Leaf Extract, Achillea Millefolium Extract, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Malic Acid, Allantoin, Panthenol, Sorbitan Oleate, Polysorbate 20, Dipropylene Glycol, Fragrance (Parfum), Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Butylparaben, Ethylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Propylparaben.

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* the product(s) in this post were sent to me by the manufacturer or their PR company.

Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

You may be asking why write about something that everybody knows :) But from my experience there are still a lot of people that never heard of this and if my post could help just one person out there I will be more than happy.

Seche Vite is my HG nail product. It is a fast drying top coat from Seche that is applied over your last coat of nail polish to speed up the drying time from hours to minutes. And you know what? IT WORKS! I think I could never become a nail polish addict without this. I am sure you all know it...you paint your nails and then start waving your hands up and down like crazy, then are very careful not to ruin the mani, go to sleep and in the morning find sheet imprints on your nail. I had it the same before I bought my first bottle of Seche Vite. Now here are my thoughts about this product after using it for about three years:

+ dries your polish fast - it really does! I have my polish perfectly dry in about 20 - 30 minutes. I have tried some other top coats and sprays but none worked so well for me as Seche Vite. Remember! It is important that you apply it onto WET nail polish so that it can go through all the layers.
+ cheap - it isn´t very expensive which is great because I use tons of it :) (a 15ml bottle costs $4.20 on transdesign)
+ great brush - I really like the brush of this one. Very easy to use and to get the right amount of product on your nails.

- not available everywhere - if you are from the US you will have no problems in getting it but you might have problems if you are not. Seche Vite doesn´t sell in my country but you can always get it on the internet.
- goes thick - after you use about two thirds of the product it starts to go thick and is hard to work with. I tried a thinner (not Seche Restore - must try that) but it doesn´t work much so I just buy another bottle :)
- not for holographic polishes - like most top coats don´t use this over holographic polishes. The effect will show much less and we don´t want that to happen :)
- shrinkage - it desn´t happen often but sometimes it can. Make sure you wrap it around your tips to avoid it.

I hope this was helpful. I really LOVE Seche Vite and because of it I can paint my nails every day and have fun with it.

Skin MD Shielding Lotion Review and Giveaway

I had the opportunity to review Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion. I have never heard about this brand before and after I read the info on their web, I was very curious about the product.

This is the description of the shielding lotion on their site:

A shielding lotion is unlike any other conventional, artificial moisturizers because it works with the skin to naturally moisturize and heal. Most conventional, artificial moisturizers only add moisture to the surface of the skin, but do little to repair the skin's natural barrier against moisture robbing irritants. Continued use of artificial moisturizers can cause the skin to actually begin producing less of its own natural oils, thinking that the skin has enough moisture. This can cause skin to form a dependence on the moisturizer for hydration. Skin MD Natural breaks the dry skin cycle by working to help restore skin's natural protective abilities by bonding to the outer layer of skin, strengthening skins natural barrier against toxins and irritants that can dry the skin, while locking in the skin's natural oils. 

My review:

I tested this product for four weeks not only on myself but also on my mother and sister. I even got my boyfriend to use this for a while. We all used this on our hands only, as this is a nail polish blog, so I thought you might be interested in that the most. I have to say that we were all very pleased with the results. This lotion applies so smoothly and you need only a very small amount. I still have a lot left in the bottle and it was four people using it. The great thing about this is that it soaks in your skin real quick and is not greasy at all. That is why even my boyfriend used it. The more you use it the less and less you need it, I really saw improvement and so did my mother and her hands were really very dry. I think this lotion saved my hands in the freezing weather we had this February (we had even -25 ºC = -13 ºF in the day). I have to say that we were all really happy with this product and will keep on using it.

You can read more about Skin MD on their site. The price is $18 which is a bit more than an average lotion, but then again you really need very little.

GIVEAWAY!

Skin MD offers my readers one bottle of Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion.
Now the rules:
In order to participate you must write a comment under this post with a list of your entries, your name and your email. Just one comment per person. Then you have to:
1. To get the chance to win please go to their site and write me in your comment something you learned about their products. You must also be a follower in order to participate (this counts as 1 entry)
2. For additional entries you can put my blog on your blogroll (1 extra entry) and blog about this giveaway on your blog, or tweet on twitter (2 extra entries).
3. This is international, everyone can join.
4. The giveaway ends on the 19th of  March.
So remember to leave just one comment per person.

Dnes pro vás mám stručné zhodnocení Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion, který mi poslali a taky máte šanci jej vyhrát. O téhle značce jsem nikdy předtím neslyšela, ale když jsem si přečetla info na jejich stránkách, tak jsem byla moc zvědavá. Tohle mlíčko jsem nakonec testovala já, mamka, sestra a dokonce i přítel a všem nám moc vyhovovalo. Snadno se aplikuje, okamžitě se vstřebává a stačí ho opravdu trošičku. Výsledky jsou vidět docela brzo a opravdu působí i jako ochrana. V únoru byly velké mrazy a tak přišlo vhod, chránilo ruce před nepříznivými vlivy, jako mráz a vítr. Výhodou je, že není vůbec mastný a proto se nechal překecat i přítel.

Pokud vás mlíčko zaujalo a chtěli byste ho vyzkoušet, máte šanci jedno vyhrát. Pravidla jsou v anglické části, ale není to nic složitého. Hodně štěstí :)

* the product(s) in this post were sent to me by the manufacturer or their PR company.