&*(Nail Tutorial -- Flashy & Flare)*&

Hello loves! So I'm back again with another nail design! I promise I'm working on some reviews as well, haha I just have to unpack some of my makeup and such so I will have something new for you this week! Promise! But until then, I decided to go ahead and post a new design tonight since I start college tomorrow! Even though I will be working on my business degree, I will still make time for you beautifuls on here! :) Thank you to everyone who has followed my blog, viewed the blog, told friends, just you all are amazing! Hope you know that! =)

Oh.. an update on the contest! haha I am currently at about 760 views! Remember at 1,500 I will have  3 lucky winners of some beauty products! Top winner will even get the products used in their favorite design I've created! (as long as I can find them, if not I will find dupes of the products!) Exciting, right? Plus lots of makeup goodies! I will have two other winners to get prizes too!

Without you all, this blog wouldn't be successful so I definitely will be giving back too you all!

Also, the facebook contest... when I reach 150 friends on the fan page I believe is what I said lol there will be another contest! I'm already collecting items for the give away! You can find that fan page by looking up LB BeautysMagic. =) I know not everyone who reads this will add as a follower or even want to make a name to connect with me here so facebook is always open for questions, requests, whatever you all want to talk about! Introduce yourselves! =) The beauty of makeup and nail art, whatever is that you can share what you love with others too.. it's a way to express yourself, so EXPRESS AWAY! haha

Now I've talked too much, time for the nail tutorial!!! haha

Neat, huh? I found those decals at the local Rite Aid! As well as the colors and top coat so you can get all of this at your local Rite Aid or maybe at Walgreens,.. don't quote me on that!!!

What you will Need:

Left: my favorite top coat Sally Hansen Insta-Dri anti chip top coat

Middle: Pure Ice in the color, Rio (this color is beautiful.. a purply fushsia color with blue and purple fine sparkle that the camera didn't pick up)

Right: Wet n Wild FastDry nail color in Hannah Pinktana (Name is corny, right? haha Color is beautiful though! Almost sheer purple with lots of multi colored sparkles!)

Sorry this picture is not turned the right way, it is resetting it to match the other picture's size..

I got these decals at Rite Aid. They are called Broadway Deluxe Nail and Body art Kit.

This comes with a top coat, glue to put the gems on your body, and a wooden stick to pick them up and such..

I used the stick but just used my favorite top coat, not the one they provided. Not sure how that works!

For this design, I just used Wet n Wild FastDry nail color in Hannah Pinktana as the base coat because I couldn't find mine and this is a really sheer color... This is a no no in nail designs but I did it anyways.. Don't copy me on that part! haha Always use a base coat to protect your nails from being dyed the color of your polish! I'm crossing my fingers that mine won't be messed up!!

Anyways...

I used two coats of Pure Ice nail color in Rio. It makes a beautiful purply blue color! This was the best pic I could get to show some of the blue tint too it.. Sadly I did my nails at like 3 AM and I didn't have the greatest lighting. Sorry lovelys! I will be getting better lighting ASAP!

Beautiful color, right? I've been wanting to use this color for awhile now! haha This design will definitely stay awhile! lol

I then took Wet n Wild FastDry nail color in Hannah Pinktana and put only one coat over the Rio color. I love all the sparkles!! I think this is just a beautiful combination for summer and will definitely do it again! lol

The Hannah Pinktana was a color I found on sale awhile ago but even now I think it's only like a 2 dollar polish! This is a little thicker than the other polishes I usually use but its not hard to use!

Now for decals!

To apply them, its a little annoying and you have to have patience. lol I reccomend if you use this set, make sure you set out all the decals you are going to use for all 10 nails. I found out I didn't have enough of the little pinky tear drop shapes for all the nails to have two of them. lol So only my three middle fingers are this design.

For my pinky finger, I just made a butterfly almost looking shape with some of the other decals they have in this set!

But the beauty of doing nails is you make it how you want it! Be creative! You don't have to do the same as I did! I just loved this combination! =)

My thumb, I decided, to make almost a flower pattern. =) I thought the colors were pretty together.

Usually in my designs you'd find some striping of silver glitter or something but I felt with all the shimmery of all the multi colored glitter, this worked perfectly without anything extra added.

I did 2 coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip top coat over this and it dried seriously fast!

Well lovelys, I hope your week starts out well and you have been doing well since the last time I posted! I promise to keep posting and keeping up with you even though I maybe getting a bit more busy in my everyday life! I always make time for creativity though! I'll post again soon! =)

Thank you again! You are all beautiful, never forget that! Stay smiling!

Until next Time,

XoXoXo,

LB

&*(Nail Design -- Mix Matched)*&

Hello again lovelys!

I've been super busy getting up some new posts on here. I know I've been MIA for a bit but I've been enjoying time with my family and been super busy lately! So I'm trying to make up for it and get you all some new blogs! =)

So here is another nail design. Now usually all my nails are the same, other than maybe some of the decals or whatever.. So I wanted to bring something a bit different and super trendy this summer.

You may have been out and seen people who will do two different colors as their base colors on different nails.. On top of that, you may see people who have done different designs on different nails! Well I brought the same idea in these nails!

Now this is not a tutorial (although if requested for colors of the products and a tutorial I will break it down for each nail!), this is just a design idea. :)

I have a few pictures as I did this design, but not of the products and such, again unless requested. This is meant to be an open design, you make it how you want too. I took five designs such as writing love on my thumb nails, hearts on another, stripes, dots, etc. and then did the same 5 on my other hand just different fingers other than the love being written on both thumb nails.

I took two different nails for each hand and painted them green, the other nails are a bright blue.

I went back over the green with a sparkling green color to make it stand out against the blue color.

To do the designs, I took a green striping polish the same color as the green nails and did the designs on the blue. I did the same thing for the green, putting blue designs on those nails.

After I did the designs, I added some almost clear pink gem stones that popped against the colors. =)

This is up too your imagination!! You can do whatever you feel looks good. That's the beauty of mixing patterns and colors! They are up too you! I posted this to show that you can be creative and not have to match all your nails the same way. I will be showing more nail designs like these coming up in the next few weeks. I'll be posting roughly once a week for the next few weeks showing how to make your nails all different and not have to keep them all one color or one pattern! Including stormy nails, beach scenes, etc! =) Keep a look out of them!

I will again post the colors I used and such if you are interested. Main reason I didn't post on these is some of the striping polishes I used, are not available everywhere.. I will probably put together another nail design like this with striping tools you can get at WalMart or where ever so you can all find the products I used!

Until next time, stay smiling and remember you are beautiful just the way you are! =)

XoXoXo,
LB

&*(My Organization for my Nail Polishes)*&

Hello loves!

As promised, here is another post to keep you all busy! haha So the theme for my haul posts and such seem to be deals on things! I went to Michael's, the craft store, and found the most amazing storage boxes for the super girly like me! lol I have been trying to figure out where to put my nail polishes since I have quite a few and I didn't like having to carry a seriously heavy box around... SO I got these boxes!

Now, I will start this blog with I am NOT trying to show off the amount of nail polish stuff I have. I have bought ALL OF IT with my OWN money and do not get free stuff from companies. The products I show you are things that I get for myself to share with the rest of you! I wanted to just show how I organized the boxes as well.

Now with that covered, let me show you these amazing boxes that I got for 40% off!

Here is the first box! They have a magnet closing lid so they are not super secure if you drop them or anything! They are also paper boxes so imagine a cardboard box, and that's how protective these boxes are! But I have them for keeping the colors and such organized and they stay on my desk unless I'm doing my nails of course! =)

What's inside! =) This box holds my Sally Hansen's Salon Effects designs, my glitter nail polishes, I keep my nail tools in here, lotion, my nail polish pens, and I have the bride series of small polishes by Ulta in here as well. This is more my tool box than anything. =)

Next box! Super cute, right? haha

In this box, I keep my blues and green polishes! I'm super girly so I have more pinks and purples than anything else so I didn't need a large box for these colors.. Now I know I will have to get different boxes as I get more but this works for now! =)

This is the smallest box that I got and it stacks on top of the pink one, as well as the next box goes with this set. =)

This box, I keep all my decals in. I love how all the sets I've bought fit perfectly in this box. Gotta love staying organized as well!

This is the largest of this set so obviously I stack this first then the smaller ones on top.

In this box, I keep my grays/silvers/blacks/whites. I would usually use these colors as base colors so I put them in this box which is like my top coats, nail treatments, and all my striping polishes. I have all the colors of my striping polishes in here so I can keep up with them. I will be going through and putting a dot of each of the colors on the top so I can easily find the colors I want! =)

This is my second largest box that I bought. I have one very large box but I'm going to use it for holding my acrylic paints/art supplies/etc. I do all kinds of art so I keep all my supplies in that large box. This one is.. you guessed it, more nail polish! lol

So this one has my purples, pinks, peaches, neutrals, yellows, oranges, and reds. =) Now this is full of all my different brands that I have and if I get more, I'll have to organize my extras in another box BUT for right now, this works perfectly for me and when I switch to new larger boxes as I have too, then I'll use the others for something else! haha They are super cute and a great cute way to organize your stuff!

I just thought I would share these because I love the boxes and love how everything fits! =)

Remember, to stay smiling and keep looking for my next blog posts!

XoXoXo,
LB
=)

&*(Victoria's Secret Sale Haul)*&

Hello lovelys!

I AM BACK! Finally, right? haha So I have several posts for today to catch you all up on what has kept me so busy! haha I hope you all enjoy all the new posts and at least find something you really enjoy!

Also, I currently have had 628 views on my beauty blog. First off, I have to say WOW and Thank You! I never thought I'd be hitting a number that big. lol I seriously thought just friends would be viewing this blog and it has just blown up to where I'm getting at least 25 views a day.. So what way to give back to my viewers? A give away of course! When I reach 1,500 views I will be doing a give away for 3 lucky viewers! =) This will be out of my own money just to thank you all for everything! I will also be doing a give away on my facebook page that I am currently working on updating!

Once I reach the 1,500 views, I will post a blog post on here of how to qualify, what the gifts for each of the 3 winners, and when to look for a facebook page give away as well! This will be for all USA viewers, I won't be able to ship outside of the states.. I'm sorry in advance for that! I want to put together really great give away prizes so I won't be able to ship outside the USA! =(

Anyways, enough about that exciting news.. Now to the good stuff! The haul of course! haha


So I went to the mall the other day and saw so many stores were doing their cleaning out old stock type sales including Victoria's Secret!

Now I love some of their fragrances so I found a lot of their PINK fragrances on sale. I believe they were 50% off!!

You all know how I love my makeup as well so I decided to pick up some of their makeup they had 5-% off as well!

Pretty right? haha

Now the third large perfume in the back, I actually bought from Bath and Body Works for 50% off because they wanted full price at Victoria's Secret. haha Way to beat the system and find deals!

Anyways, so the four fragrances in the back in order:

PINK with a Splash -- Fruity & Bright

ALOHA PINK -- Tropical & Juicy

PINK with a Splash -- Warm & Cozy (my favorite that I bought from Bath & Body Works)

ALOHA PINK --Vibrant & Beachy

The two small perfumes are:

(Left) ALOHA PINK -- Wild & Breezy

(Right) ALOHA PINK -- Lovely & True

The two boxes in front of the perfumes are lipsticks. I'll show swatches coming up. :)

The purple tube is a purple mascara in the color called Violight.

Then the eyeshadows.. The four eyeshadows and the quad I also have swatches coming up..

My opinions --

So the perfumes are all amazing, obviously since I smelled them there and bought them! haha I personally was disappointed that they were charging full price for Warm & Cozy (my favorite fragrance of all time lol) and I had to go to Bath & Body Works to get it on sale! I went right to Bath & Body Works after this store to get that fragrance since I already knew it was on sale before I got to the mall!

I have to admit, I'm completely blown away by the cosmetics at Victoria's Secret! The lipsticks are so creamy and they don't take much to have full color and last a long time! Plus, can you beat 50% off! lol Talk about great savings for great products!

So now for swatches!

(Left) Lipstick in Instinct (Middle) Beauty Rush Soothing Lip Balm in Clear Shine (Right) Lipstick in Heated

My opinions on the lipsticks -- These are amazing! I especially love the creamy neutral color in Instinct. It is such a soft color but great color payoff. They are extremely creamy, I seriously can't get over the formula of these! Feels like a lipstick and gloss in one! On the color Heated, it's a pretty color on light skin! Super pigmented and just as creamy! This color stays like crazy! haha I love it! There is a swatch in the middle but it really is just a clear balm. haha I love it though because it has a minty smell and tingle too it when you apply it too your lips! Definitely a great product although just like most glosses, it can get sticky over a long period of time.

For this swatch, you can click on the picture to make it bigger since it is really small for the blog..

The top four swatches are Beauty Rush wet/dry shadows. Left swatch is dry, right is wet.

I know they green and purple got switched around in the top of the image, lol Sorry about that.

The colors are as follows:

Glamerald (green shade)

Violet Femme (purple shade)

Gold Rush (gold shade)

Flower Girl (pink shade)

Okay these are okay and I don't think I would buy again. I am not a huge fan of them dry, they go on kind of flakey because of the sparkles in them. None of these are matte, they are all frosty with glitter in them. I do on the other hand like these wet. They go on well, are great colors so if you wear yours mainly wet, these are a good pick for you! I personally do not like how big the glitter is in it that I didn't notice in the store. That's about the only downfall to these unless you like glitter! lol

The bottom swatches are of the quad I got called Uninhibited. Now if you are a sucker for packaging like I am, lol these are adorable! The lipsticks and this quad all have the zebra print in the packaging! So cute and I'm really impressed with this quad! The top line is dry, the bottom is wet! 

I definitely recommend if you don't like paying full price for their stuff, check out this sale! I think its every store having it now! I do not know how long this sale is but check it out! =)

I want to know your opinions as well! I want to know what you'd like to see more of or less of on this blog! Do you want haul posts, nail tutorials, more swatches? What would you like to see? I'd love to hear your opinions! 

Thank you again to everyone who has followed me, viewed this blog, shared it with friends, you are all amazing! Remember to always stay smiling! =)

XoXoXo,

LB

&*(Reivew -- Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips)*&

Hello lovely's, thank you for being patient and sticking with me through this move and getting set up. I'm still not set up with my own computer here yet but my family has let me play with their Apple computer and I'm in love! Took a bit to figure out since it's been awhile since I used one but FINALLY got it figured out and am getting to post again! I have missed you all and thank you again for all the support!

Today I have a review of the new Sally Hansen Salon Effects, real nail polish strips. I was at first not going to even try these because of the fact that at my Wal-Mart they are being sold for $7.50 and I thought for something I get to use one time, that's not really worth the price. I WAS WRONG! haha I wanted something new to show you all since I'd been doing a lot of designs with decals I got at a not really widely known store so here is something you can pick up at your Wal-Mart or drug stores! Definitely worth the price if you want a quick nail look that doesn't have a lot of wait time for all the layers to dry! haha Keep reading if you want to know how they apply, what they look like on, the wear time, my review, etc.

So here is how these strips work!

Step one: Clean your nails, shape them, and leave them dry with no polish underneath. 

Step two: Find the right strip that fits your nails.

Step three: Remove plastic backing.

Step four: Stick the strip to your nail and smooth with the smooth end of the file that comes with it.

Step five: Fold end of nail polish strip over the end of the nail and file it up against the end of your nail.

You're done, or so they say.. haha

MY REVIEW.

First I was kind of surprised when it smelled like nail polish when I pulled the backing off. I know it said it was real nail polish strips but it wasn't what I expected. To place them was super easy!! I'm serious from start to finish, it took me 10 minutes with even filing the extra polish strip off. When I first pulled the strip over my nail I was kind of confused how to file it off but it actually is really easy. :) I was pretty happy with these. Now, the wearability.. No, it wouldn't last more than 5 minutes without a top coat. THAT IS A LIE! You can not just apply these and leave it like that. They peel at the edges of the nail. Now, EVEN with that, I'm still impressed! If you have a fast drying top coat, it still dries quickly and it still is faster than trying to do detailing on your nails. They come in a variety of looks. I picked the lace/fishnet one. It is black design with my skin tone color underneath. I did this design three days ago and still is going strong! 

So for the price, yes I will buy these again! Just remember to keep a fast drying top coat with you when you do these! Definitely check these out! They are fun, have lots of styles, and easy to do!

Hope this helps you find other alternatives to having to wait forever for nail polish to dry! If you can place a sticker, you can place these! I even had a nail that I didn't like how it lined up and just carefully pulled it off and placed it again! :) Easy right?!

Have fun with these! Here is a pic of my finished nails!

I was going to post a review on the philosophy acne line but I want to try it for a full month so I can give a good review on it. I haven't been able to use it everyday when I was packing and moving so I will start that today! :) 

Anyways, until next time (which should be soon I promise haha), stay smiling and remember you are beautiful just the way you are!!

XoXoXo,

LB

&*(Been Away WAYYYY Too Long)*&

Hello lovelys. I want to apologize on the delay of new posts and getting my youtube channel going. I feel really bad because I said I'd be back sooner but I've been getting settled in with my family. My husband is military and is deployed for a year so I moved back to be with family and we had an interesting 3 day trip in the car with my three dogs and cat in one car, and my family their two dogs and my stuff in a trailer STUFFED of my stuff. lol I feel really bad because we left later than we planned and we had to pack the whole house for getting ready to leave. So thank you all for having patience! I still haven't even set up my computer here yet so I promise sometime this week I will have a post up for you. Most likely a nail tutorial and product reviews since I haven't done one in forever. lol

Anyways, thank you all again. I'm so glad I got online today to see I had almost 400 views since I started this blog! Makes all the hard work worth it! Glad everyone loves it as much as I do. Until next time, remember to stay smiling and be proud of who you are! Lately I have just felt better than before and found even more self confidence. I will admit even in here that I have had weight problems. I gain it easily but to lose it, well it's a challenge. I lost alot of self confidence recently with all the changes going on in my life and finally decided to take back my life. I started weight watchers recently and I feel fantastic! No, I am not a spokesperson for them or anything nor am I being paid to say this but I really am happy with the new system. I have already lost weight and once I get a good pair of walking shoes, its on! lol I challenge each of you to not be afraid of change and take back your life. Confidence is something so many people have issues with. I'm learning that I'm beautiful the way I am BUT I want to be healthier is my main goal. I know what I was eating before and how I was letting stress and things take my life over, that I wasn't doing the best for myself. To each their own, I'm just saying don't be afraid. I was afraid it'd be hard, afraid to do it alone, afraid of change but now that I've embraced it, BRING ON THE WORLD! lol I will keep you all informed as to how it is working for me if you are interested. I just want you all to be happy and healthy! :) I wouldn't normally talk about this topic but its been something I have had issues with so I thought I'd share my story with you all too. I'm not perfect. I have acne (that is starting to go away with eating right Score for eating healthy!!) and I'm short so weight shows easily on me. I just challenge you all if you want something in your life to change, take hold of it! Never let fear stand in your way!

Until next time, be beautiful, be you, and be happy! =)

XoXoXo,
LB

&*(Nail Tutorial -- Medieval Times)*&

Hello lovelys! As promised, here is my second nail tutorial of the day!

I recently found a store called Jewelry in a Box where everything in the store is a dollar. Yes, a dollar! For nail stuff, hair accessories, makeup, fashion jewelry, and much more! I was beyond excited when I saw that the El Paso store had more items than the one they had in Las Cruces. Anyways, I've been looking for nail decals that didn't cost an arm and a leg! Luckily the store in El Paso had a lot of decals to choose from! I was super excited and spent more than I should but happy with the quality of everything I got.

Anyways, here is a tutorial with a few of the items I got from this store! Hope you enjoy!

NOTE: I am sorry that some pictures are turned and others are not.. all the pictures are aligned right and are how all my other posts are but for some reason, some are turning when loaded on here. Not sure what is going on! =(

Here are the products I used for this nail design:
1.) Sinful Colors Basecoat
2.) Sinful Colors nail polish in Black on Black
3.) Kiss Nail art Striping nail Polish in Black
4.) Nabi Striping nail Polish in Black Glitter
5.) Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hardener

Decals from Jewelry in a Box

Abella Glamour Nail Art Kit

I used the gold glitter beads.

Starting with clean natural nails, I put a layer of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails hardener to help strengthen my nails to protect them from breaking. This hardener is a great product and is the reason I can grow my nails out like I do. I just recently cut them after doing the number one mistake people make with nails: To peel nail polish off... I knew better but did it anyways. lol Oops!

Next, I put two layers of Sinful Colors basecoat. I like this basecoat with dark colors to protect my nails from staining. It leaves your nails with a milky white base color.

Next, I painted my nails with one coat of Sinful Colors nail polish in Black on Black. This is such a pigmented color that you really only need one coat.

Again, I'm sorry the pictures are turned.. Can't figure out why they are loading that way but when I view the pictures they are all aligned the same way.

Next, to add some detail in the background of the stick on decals, I decided to do stripes of the Nabi striping nail polish in Black Glitter.

If you make too large of a stripe, you can always use the Kiss Nail Art striping nail polish in Black to fix mistakes. =)

Now time for decals! These decals are super easy to use. Literally I just picked them off the sheet with tweezers and placed them.

NOTE: After you do most of the decals and the french tip beads, the Nabi striping nail polish in Black Glitter doesn't show very well. I found it didn't give as much of detailing that I wanted. It's very subtle.

To do the french tip in these really small gold beads, I put a small amount on a paper plate and put the hardener nail polish on just the tips of my nails where I wanted the beads to stay.

Then I dipped my nails in the gold beads and shaped them the way I wanted with a wooden stick used for nails.

I personally liked doing this where the black was a little wet on the tips to darken some of the beads to give different tones to the beads. I think these turned out really cute. Just be careful not to let too many beads stick or it'll make the tips of your nails very thick.

Top with a top coat of your choice and you're done!

I personally used the hardener for my top coat because I feel it holds to decals better. Just my opinion though!

Have fun with these and I hope you all find a store like Jewelry in a Box near you!! I am always driving the like two hours to El Paso now since they have an Ulta store as well as the Jewelry in a Box! Gotta love it!

Until next time, Remember to Always Stay Smiling!

XoXoXo,

LB