So with that aside, these are the products I’ve been using (picture courtesy to Rich, these are official pictures):

First of all, the Rich Pure Luxury Intense Moisture shampoo. This is a really nice shampoo, lathers very well and cleans without stripping hair color. I dye my hair red and red is a really picky color when it comes to washing it. This shampoo keeps my red intact which is a huge plus. It also cleans very well. I wash my hair twice a week because I simply don’t need to do it more often and this doesn’t cause me to need to wash more often which is a big plus.
The scent is reminiscent of salons, it’s not a fruity or a sweet smell, it’s one of those really hard to describe ones. I like it a lot, I’m not one for sweet smelling hair.

After shampooing I use the Rich Pure Luxury Hair Repair treatment. You’re supposed to keep it in your hair for at least 3 minutes. I usually start with shampooing, then put on the treatment, put my hair up with a claw clip, go about my business in the shower and finish with rinsing this off and conditioning my hair so on average I keep it on for about 10 minutes.
This is a really interesting product. After rinsing it off, it doesn’t seem like much has changed but after conditioning you really get the full effect. I have skipped the treatment and with just conditioning, the end result is never as brilliant as with using this. I get baby soft hair with this which is a small miracle with my thick coarse hair.

And the last product I use is the Rich Pure Luxury Intense Moisture conditioner. This makes my hair super soft and silky without leaving any residue or weighing my hair down. The result with this is better then with any of my previous hair care products, even the ones where I’ve used a mask and then a conditioner, with this, my hair is still softer and prettier. Amazing!

The whole range is bigger then this, this is just what I have tried. As a leave-in treatment I use the Paul Mitchell Super Skinny serum which lasts forever so I haven’t had the need to try out new leave-in products but I definitely do want to try the Rich ones at some point, specially the intense repair leave-in treatment.

These come in 250 ml sizes and also big 750 ml pump bottles which are much more economical to buy. I’m still finishing up my first 250 ml bottles and have purchased a duo of 750 ml ones. I thought I was buying a duo of shampoo and conditioner but later discovered I apparently can’t read since I grabbed the duo of shampoo and treatment instead (which for some reason was stuck into the pile with shampoo-conditioner duos). It’s a bit of a bummer since now I need to find a 750 ml conditioner somewhere alone and also because I use less of the treatment then I do of the shampoo and conditioner so while my shampoo and conditioner 250 ml ones are almost out, I still have over half of the bottle remaining of the treatment.
Which leads me to the only con I could come up with – the bottles look exactly the same. So you have to double check what you’re buying just in case (as in… read ) and since I am blind as a bat without my glasses, it’s a tad inconvenient in the shower to try to read the texts to figure out what I’m about to use.
And that’s all the cons there are. The pros list is longer then the way to the moon. I’ve tried Tigi, Goldwell, Wella and most of the cheap drugstore shampoos and nothing, nothing comes close to this line. My hair feels nicer then it has ever felt. The only problem I still have is my dry scalp which this line doesn’t help but it doesn’t make it worse either so I’m all good with that.

So as a conclusion – THUMBS UP!

Rich hair care products home page – go see if this got you interested

Nubar Tiara is a glitter with relatively small particles. It’s all rainbow-y but there are more greens in there then other colors.
Nubar Gilded Gold is on a hazy base, not quite clear and the gold is not shiny, it’s not so much of a glitter as an effect polish really. Though you can layer it up and it will go opaque as well.
Essie Pure Pearlfection is a very tiny and dense silver microglitter. In daylight, it’s just silver. In lamplight, not so much but we’ll get to that in a moment.
Essie As Gold As It Gets is a gold glitter, it’s on a clear base and it’s shiny. So it’s very different from Nubars Gilded Gold.
China Glaze Fairy Dust is one interesting glitter. It looks completely like silver microglitter in daylight but in lamplight it goes holo-nuts
China Glaze Snow Globe is a chunkier glitter with tons of different colors flashing through even in daylight. The glitter particles are varied, they’re not all the same shape and size.

Now lets look at this in lamplight and out of focus (since that seems to bring out what the glitter looks like best), it’s still nowhere near as good of a picture as I’d like but you should have seen me taking it, you’d understand :

So same order: Nubar Tiara, Nubar Gilded Gold, Essie Pure Pearlfection, Essie As Gold As It Gets, China Glaze Fairy Dust, China Glaze Snow Globe.

I only managed to get Fairy Dust to show a little of its color but trust me, if the light hits it right, it goes ablaze with color.
Other than that, there aren’t many changes in the coloring of glitters. Essie Pure Pearlfection loves to go holo at times as well but that happens under very specific light conditions which I didn’t manage to replicate. You can however see the effect in I think my second post where I layered it on top of Midnight in Moscow and gave you guys a crappy lamplight picture. But don’t go digging for it, here it is:

In any case, I hope this is helpful somehow. I’m still gathering up the Essie Luxeffects collection slowly but surely but other than that, I think I’m fine when it comes to glitter now Except for the China Glaze Luxe and Lush (was that the name?) which is coming in March in the Capitol Colours collection. That one is a must-have as well.

I still haven’t taken off the Freaky Boheme manicure, haven’t had the time. Hopefully I’ll have you guys a new manicure on Thursday though! Until then, take care! And happy.. er.. Bun Day? It has no name in English as far as I can tell but this is what awaits me today:

Photo credit goes to Elina kokkab.

Pros:
* Really pretty red
* No streaks or bubbling, fantastic formula really
Cons:
* Insanely expensive and hard to get (it was a limited edition from 2002)
* The old thin brush
* It’s a dud

Taking everything into account, I’m still happy that I have La Boheme, even if it is a dud. But I definitely would have preferred the duochrome version. Still, it’s a very pretty red, just the shade that is my most favorite.
I am thinking about dressing this up into a nail art because I get restless with simply colored nails so stay tuned for that

I must say, this took forever to do, mainly because of the Bubble Bath. I have the old version and it’s not only very sheer but also very streaky and dries forever and then some. But it is a pretty color for a base, softer then a stark white. Once that eventually dried, I sponged the rainbow of colors on the tips, most got two layers, some three (yellow, I’m looking at you!). Then applied Nubar Tiara on the tips, sandwiched Essie Pure Pearlfection (can you tell I’m totally loving this? ) in over the entire nail and topped it off with more Nubar Tiara, this time going a bit higher with it. So the result is a crazy glittery rainbow look So not wintery!

Hopefully this look will give you some ideas Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Since the majority of this look is Blue Year’s Eve from the Holiday collection (2011), I’ll talk about that.
Pros:
* Very good coverage, opaque in two layers
* No streaks or pooling or other sort of monkeybusiness
* No chipping or even tipwear so far (I’m on my third day with this manicure)
* Very nice price
Cons:
* Dries forever and then some, it dented three hours after painting
* It’s addictive, already have tons more lined up in my wishlist

All in all, I can’t wait for the Colours From The Capitol collection to be released to the general public (read: me), now I’m not hesitant about them at all! I’m so running for Stone Cold and Harvest Moon. And quite likely Agro and Riveting as well. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, Google the collection if you’re not worried for your wallet

I’m going to be a little slower posting for a little while, life became a bit busy, tons of work to do So I think for a while, two posts a week sounds like a plan!
Hope you’re all having a great day!

What I used:
* OPI Black Onyx
* Nubar Absolute
* OPI Alpine Snow
* Essie Pure Pearlfection
* Makeup sponge
* Dotting tool
* Kongregate games to keep me entertained while the various stages dry

Step 1:
First of all, before step 1, apply your base coat of choice. Then decide whether you want to do this step at all The easiest color choices for this one are black or white, depending on whether you’re going for a look with darkened or lightened tips. If your main color is going to be dark and you want it to darken, then do the main color first and THEN come back to step 1 because if you cover black with a dark color, it won’t show. The same goes for thicker polishes. If your polish isn’t to the sheer side, then do main color first and then this.
So. Once you have decided what colors you’re going to use and if you’re going to do this step at all, whip out your sponge. In theory you can probably do this with any sponge, makeup sponges are just smoother, with better control and provide a less gritty look. Though I bet if you do this with a kitchen sponge, the end result might be quite interesting! Or disastrous
Give the sponge a tiny lick of paint with the brush and get to sponging on your nail! This part is probably going to be crazy messy, don’t worry about it, you can clean it up later.
I did three gradual layers of sponging with OPI Black Onyx, starting from the middle of my nail and the two following layers concentrated towards the tips.
Important part with this: wait until your sponged layers dry! Don’t start sponging away on a wet layer, you’ll just pull the color up that you already put down. Luckily the sponged paint is a thin layer and dries quickly (yay, take THAT, tower defence level 17).
This is what you should end up with and also how I hold the sponge:

Step 2:
Once you’ve successfully conquered the sponging and cleaned up the resulting mess (though you can do that in the very end too, I just like to clean up as I go along to see what I’m doing), lets paint the nails with the main color!
Again, do know the nature of the paint you’re using because if it’s thick, it will cover up your sponging and make all that happy mess you just went through totally pointless.
Here’s how my progress looks after this step, I used one layer of Nubar Absolute for that wintery blue look:

Step 3:
Now it’s the fun part! Dotting! Yay! If you don’t have a dotting tool, don’t fret! You can just as well dot with tooth picks, the ends of bobby pins, anything will do. Or you can skip the dots if you’re not a polkadot maniac like I am. If you want dotting tools but don’t have them, they’re really cheap on Ebay. If you like dots, it’s a good investment. Dotting tools are also good for drawing stuff on the nails so there’s that use as well.
If you’re by some weird coincidence using Nubar Absolute (or any other color from the Prisms collection), then if you skip the polka dots, I suggest doing two layers of the color instead of one because the dots pull attention from the dual-toned look and thus I left it stronger then I would if it was left alone after that.
I used OPI Alpine Snow to make the nice snowy dots in a relatively random fashion. I did dots in two sizes, smaller ones towards the cuticle, bigger ones towards the tip. But you can do these however you want. You can do tons of teensy ones or all uniform or however you please. And ofcourse, you can make them neon yellow if you so wish
This is what my dots look like:

Step 4:
This is also completely optional. Once the polkadots are completely dry, use a sparkle coat. If you do this too quickly, the sparkle will mess up your dots. I used Essie Pure Pearlfection for subtle sparkle, to give the dots some shine. The difference is subtle but to me it was worth the extra waiting time.
This is what it looks like with a bit of sparkle:

And as the last step, add a top coat of your choice, clean up whatever mess you made and you’re done! Enjoy your Funky Winter nails

If you have any questions, comments, want to show me what you did with this or just want to say hi, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me: kirikadawn@gmail.com. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Sally Hansen Maximum Growth – this I use as a base whenever I’m out of anything else and also on my daughters nails as just a gloss. She’s 8 so she can’t wear colors to school yet.
This is what it looks like:

Pros:
* Cheap
* Does protect nails from staining from the nail polish
* Nice and glossy
* Dries quickly
* Still in great condition even though the bottle is half empty and over 3 years old
Cons:
* Doesn’t really do anything in the growth or strength department (which it should since it’s a treatment rather then a base coat)

OPI Nail Envy, original – this is my current attempt at finding a treatment that works. I use this as the first base layer.
This is what it looks like:

Pros:
* Does seem to help prevent cracks
* Dries fast
* Looks nice on its own, glossy
Cons:
* Expensive
* Creates a bit of a weird surface to work on, nail polish doesn’t seem to want to stick to it very well

Nubar Ridge Filler – since I have some nails that are quite ridged, I use this. When I’m lazy, I use it alone, when I’m less lazy, I use it on top of the Nail Envy. Though you really should just use one layer of base coat but this is for a good cause!
This is what it looks like:

Pros:
* Does fill ridges as it promises
* Provides a great surface for nail polish
* Prevents staining from nail polish
* Pretty bottle!
* Dries quickly
Cons:
* A bit tricky to obtain

Nubar Diamont Top Coat – yeaah, the scourge of my existence. I’m 99% sure that my bottle is from the inbetween hell period where they hadn’t changed the formula back. Because it just pretty much sucks. But they DID change the formula back to the old good times and apparently this is supposed to be the next best thing since Christmas so if you get a new bottle, this shouldn’t apply to you. I think I got a bottle from an older stock.
This is what it looks like:

Pros:
* Er… high gloss?
Cons:
* Pretty tricky to obtain
Cons specific to the yuck period:
* Dries forever
* Kind of gloopy
* Bubbles
* Shrinkage even with Nubar nail polishes

Sally Hansen Salon Speed Shine Top Coat – believe it or not, this is actually quite good! I’m currently using this again until I find something that blows me away.
This is what it looks like:

Pros:
* Dries quickly
* Doesn’t shrink
* Glossy
* Smoothes out most glitters
* Doesn’t smear the polish (it DOES say to wait 2 minutes before applying though!)
* I really like the cold sensation of it
Cons:
* Dries to the touch only, even if you waited like a good girl inbetween layers, the polish still dents for a long time (though this is something that is probably utopic to want from a top coat)
* Tends to dull down after two-three days

So this is what I use and what I think of it. The one thing I’m not questioning at all is the Nubar Ridge Filler. If you have ridges, this is something that I’d recommend trying out! The rest have quite a balanced pros and cons list I think. But at the end of the day, for me the decision comes down to deciding which cons I can live with!
I think I will try Seche Vite top coat since there’s so much praise for it. Though there are also those who say it causes shrinkage (which is one of the most major cons in my book). We’ll see! If you have suggestions on what else I should try, please leave a comment or e-mail me: kirikadawn@gmail.com
Next time I’ll have you a tutorial! See you then and have a great day everyone!