A Fine Cruelty Free Cuticle Oil. Not using one? Get one!

My next manicure will be with LeChat. It means "the cat", hence the clever little feline on the bottle! The best news is that LeChat is Cruelty Free! YAY! I invested in a bit of it, if I like it I will invest in more because I really, really, really want to stay as cruelty free as possible. Also, I have tried the LeChat Nobility line of cuticle essential oils, one scent so far, the citrus lavender. Love love love. I just ordered another set of 4 for a really great price off of evilbay. I may go back and see if I can't find more scents because I love the stuff. It's an oil but it soaks right in, left my cuticles nice and soft and the scent is nice but not cloying. I've read the cucumber variety is really nice, I may have to institute a search.

It comes in a nice size, .85oz, most come in .5, which isn't a lot, really. I thought it was a bit spendy until I found it for roughly $4.95/bottle on the evil site which we don't want to name.

It comes in these pretty bottles with the little rampant lion on them for the Nobility line:

It's a nice hourglass shape, as you can see, and it's also a frosted glass, which makes it easier to handle. The top of the bottle cap is the bladder for the dropper. In a pro environment you can't use a brush because cuticle oils are not self disinfecting like polish so you need droppers. I've actually ordered a small stash of droppers so I can use things that come with brushes if I want, plus stuff gets broken, it's the way of life. 

The dropper on this is interesting. It's a very wide one, not the usual tapered end. What I'm discovering is the beauty of this is that it is very economical, surprisingly! I don't feel I have to use the bladder much because the shape of the dropper already wants to distribute a nice drop without the bladder. I'd say you can maybe even only use the bladder to get product into the vial end and then let it do the rest of the work dispensing. Pretty clever stuff. Here is a shot of the vial end of the dropper, emptied so it didn't get all over my chair:

 Please ignore my nails, I'm in the process of taking off the Nein! Nein! Nein! Ok Fine! That you saw in my last post. I'm moving a little slowly. It's a tough job when you can't lift your lower arm!

Part of what I want to present on my table is a collection of pretty but useful items so when a new client steps up she (or he) knows that I'm aware of the aesthetics of this business. That this is cruelty free is just...well. Psht. How can I not be thrilled with that!?! This bottle definitely does it, from it's regal little roaring lion, to the shape, the essential oils have a markedly different scent to the watered down scents one gets with diluted nut oils, and the silver cap just looks elegant. Recommend!!!

The scent itself, you are wondering. I love it, but I am a big fan of lavender and citrus mixed together. I'm also a big fan of amber and other so called "Oriental" scents used in perfumes as a frame of reference to my schnoz. If you are not, this isn't going to be a good one for you. It's more lavender than citrus, the citrus adds more of a middle note of sweet tart to the lavender. I like this, personally. It lasts nicely, but not hours. I am thinking this scent would be a good ending to a nice spa manicure or for a client who tends to like to sit and be quiet through their service. It's relaxing, which is what lavender does, and the feel is so lovely. I am really excited and hoping the other scents are as wonderful as this.

I hope you're taking good care of the skin around your nail plates out there in Talonland!!

Stay tuned! I may post something in another month or so. **eye rolling at myself**

Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!

So today I'm showing you a couple shots of OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! Gelcolor. This is about wow, 10 days old, you can see I'm growing it out.

OPI Gelcolor has some odd habits. It likes to shrink back from the tips and sometimes pools. I've found that if I go back on a third try and just do the tips quickly, I can get the free edge covered, but it creates a little swoop shape instead of a nice smooth axis. I can live with this. I get a ton of compliments on my nails while I'm working at school and more than once I've had clients eyeballing my nails and hinting they want that on them, but it's usually not something we have at school because I'm a dingbat. However, I will be able to offer my professional clients whatever I am wearing because duh, I bought it for them.

I have read online that doing two base coats will take care of this shrinkage. I will be trying that and will try to report back my findings. My next manicure will be with LeChat, more on them in my next post, which believe it or not, is scheduled and will actually post Saturday. Ha. Yes, making good use of my I used to be a ballet dancer but I wiped out and sprained my shoulder and that's way more humiliating because I used to be a ballet dancer time. I can barely move my right arm. It sucks. I can only type because I can rest my hand on the keyboard tray and I wish I were playing.

Nein, as I will heretofore lovingly refer to it because while the name is amusing it's freaking long to type out (Sorry to my German Friends, I know you guys will forgive me *waves to Chicago and Frankfurt*) was a part of, get this, the German collection. I know. Right?? The gelcolors I purchased as The Divas set, which...not sure why the Germans are considered Divas, but whatevs. This manicure has been on for about 10 days, I put it on in my usual ritual of painting everything black for the wretched You Suck Cause You're Single holiday known to the rest of the world as Valentine's. (When you have a good male friend who hates Valentine's too, but he lets you know he's thinking of you...that's pretty special. Thanks, darling!)

Nein is a dark charcoal with a greenish hint in it. It's an interesting color and I know it's been really popular but I found it a tad drab. On my uber white skin it was a striking contrast, and it was elegant. I have to admit that. As I'm looking at my talons, one hand with the top coat buffered off, I'm thinking I might actually like it better matte. Let me take a snap of that to add to this post because...I think you should see it, really. It's not a great matte job but you'll get the idea. It softens it, gives it that stealth bomber feel, makes it seem a little dangerous. Or...my pain meds are getting the better of me. You decide.

Take a look:

I have abused the crap out of this manicure. You can see I'm growing it out. I wish I had a better shot, but forgive me please. I can't really maneuver around to get shadow free. I managed to get you a couple good nails here. This has been hit with the electric file, foot files, I've tried to get it to rub off on paper (it doesn't) and it's still ticking. This was one tough set of nails, and you know, that being said, the Diva moniker seems even sillier, don't you think?

You can see here very well that there is a hint of olive drab to this, it's definitely grey and not black, there is also a brown feel to this. But you see what I mean about drab? Maybe it's just my skin tone. I like it, don't get me wrong...it served it's purpose So well.

Here's the buffed down version. Interesting, don't you think? OPI does do a matte top coat for gel now, I may try this again with that instead. I might like it better softened. I don't know, something in the original gloss makes this kind of off for me. Maybe matte is the answer. Or glitter. What problems of the world can't be cured with more glitter? It's even better than cowbell.

So there it is! And another post to actually follow in a timely manner, you can't stand the prosperity out there, can you? Huh? Anyone?


Anyone?


**cricket**


Sigh.