How long does your manicure last?

 

How long does your manicure last?  

 Mine usually last for 4 days without chipping, gone on the fifth day.  I usually don't pay much attention because I want to paint my nails again... This time, I wanted to know just how long my mani could last... I broke the record and passed 6 days... here are some pictures :) ~ Some tips at the end of this blog ;)

Here's how the fresh manicure looks...
since I did this in the morning, this would be DAY 1

Here's some chores I performed today for reference on how hard this manicure worked.
Day 1 was an easy day,
usual tidying up of the house, dishwashing (i do this everyday ;),
and some beauty routines including nighly mini-facial and washing my hair.

DAY 2
Still looking great.
Chores include the same as yesterday's plus
handwashing about 10 pieces of delicate clothing.
BTW, i use hand-gloves when doing dishes or washing clothes ;)

DAY 4
Today I re-applied glitters on the middle finger
and clear top coat on the rest ;)
Out and about includes shopping... plus the usual.
Made stew for dinner :)  Mani still looking great!

DAY 5
Impressive huh?
Usually by today, my manicure would have been chipped to half of the are of the finger.
That is without the re-application of top-coat.
This time, still looking awesome at day five...
My nail growth isn't very noticeable yet, but when I removed the polish the next day,
my nails have grown a lot longer!
I think they still look nice because I use cuticle oil every night,
and hand-cream everytime I wash my hands ;)

I wonder if my mani lasted even longer if I re-applied the top-coat before going to the waterpark... :)
I was just too happy that I passed 5 days, I did not even think of it...
I could have patched up the chip and wore it longer since the rest of the nails are still looking great?
hmmm... the what if's, hahaha....

DAY 6
Baby-sitting day for my niece (6 yrs old) and nephew (2 yrs old) for the whole day.  Besides the usual activities, there's hiking to the park, playing in the park and the water sprinkler too...  The polish on my pointer finger (right hand) peeled off, the rest was still looking great.  Since I had one chipped, I started peeling off the rest, then it looked unpleasant ;( ~ bad, don't peel your mani, lol... must remove it properly... ~  Ok, so this mani retired at the end of the 6th day... that breaks my record of 5 days!

This is what helped my mani last up to 6 days:

* Applied basecoat to clean, dry nails before the color, and applied top-coat after.
* Cleaned out polish that got into my cuticles and skin before drying.  I find that if I do not do this, the excess polish cause lifting (peeling).
* Capped the tips of my nails when applying the polish. (I make sure I brush some polish on the tips of my finger nails too to seal it.
* Applied cuticle oil every night and hand-cream everytime I wash my hands.  Having healthy cuticles makes your manicure look better.
* And of course, I don't use my nails as tools.  I try to treat them gently and use gloves whenever I can.

Want to make your manicure last even longer?

* Try using Julep's Polymer Top Coat
* Even better, paint your favorite polish in between a gel polish base coat and top-coat (fondly called gelly-sandwich).  This may make your manicure last for up to a week.
* And the winner?  Wear your manicure for up to 14 days if you use gel-polish or shellac (but there's a price to pay... hahaha)

How do you make your manicure last longer?

Have you heard about JULEP?

    

Nail art collection and 

How to get your first box free :)

    Many of you already know Julep and their Julep Maven Program.  For those who are new at this, it is essentially a Nail Polish and Beauty Products monthly subscription.  If you sign-up for this, you are then dubbed "Maven."
 

I just skipped this month's box :( so sad....

     How does it work? You can take a short fashion quiz at the beginning and then you are assigned a fashion style.  I took the quiz and I was dubbed the "Classic with a twist."  For the love of nail polish though, I opted instead for "It girl."  (Yes, you can change Fashion styles, lol)

From this, you are to receive either a box of 3 polishes or a box with 2 polishes plus a beauty product or a box with purely beauty products and no polishes. As of May 2014, Julep introduced a few more options such as customizing the contents of your box.

In the end, you can stick to the fashion style assigned to you based on your answers or try others styles by switching manually. Of course you can also get more than one box for that particular month or get the entire wardrobe (upgraded box)!  That means all the products in each style.  That is about 9 polishes and up to 2 beauty products.  Sometimes Mystery Boxes are also offered where as the name implies, you can't be too sure what you are going to get.  It will always have nail polishes of course. 

     Some girls had problems with being a Maven and eventually cancelled their accounts.  Personally, I love the polishes and I don't mind the subscription.  I can't always afford to get the monthly box.  So I am very glad that Julep allows you to skip a month for any number of months without loosing your membership.  Many complain that the polish does not stick well to the nails, therefore the manicure only last for a few days.  Well, this has always been the case for me even with other brands.  So I can't blame Julep for that.  Some complain about the formula or the consistency... bad frizzy brushes and the like... I must be a very good girl because I haven't had such troubles... yet :)  Seriously speaking, I think this are random occurrences which are unavoidable if you are producing thousands of polishes.  Customer service has always been accommodating as per my experience.

    

Smart Shopping
This is regular price $84.00
Got it only for $35.00 :)

     Price? A bottle of polish is very pricey ($14.00 or $11.20 for mavens).  This is so if you buy the polish at regular price.  My advice?  Stick to the monthly box or shop during special sales like a "warehouse sale"  or during special holidays.  You will be able to get polishes for as low as $2.50 each!  

For example, I have been drooling over Ophra's Favorite Things Collection but it cost $84.00. That's steep.  So I waited and waited and it paid off!!!  During the past "warehouse sale" it costs only $35.00 (see photo).  What do you say to that?  Other polishes were, as I mentioned as low as $2.50... Well, they were $4.99.  But when you do the Beauty-Bio quiz, you get a promo code for 50% off...  See what I mean by shopping during sales?  Now that is smart shopping :)

    

The three bottles on the right were from my first box ever.
I paid a penny for that :)
The rest is the Glamour Box Collection
I got for FREE courtesy of the referral program.

     Another perk that I really like is the referral program.  When you refer a friend, you get 1000 JULES (referral points).  Buying a monthly box gives you at least 300 points.  Jules increases as you upgrade your box. 

Your birthday and Julep anniversary earn your Jules as well.  This month, I had both my birthday and anniversary.  Hence, I was able to collect enough points to get me the "Party's Over" glitter remover set for free. 

What's the benefit?  Well, well... You can get a free monthly box of any style for 2000 points!  Or you can get the entire wardrobe for 5000 points! Guess what I did?  I told all my friends and family about it, showed them a couple of polishes and told them I want to earn a free box.  Then 5 of my ever wonderful, loving family and friends signed up and I got the points I needed to get the entire month's collection.  The happy, happy thing about this is... when I accumulated the points, the month's collection included the Polymer Topcoat and Oxygen Treatment.  Plus 2 bottles of polishes extra with the Lacquer Jewelry box!  How awesome was that?  Yup, I hit the jackpot, lol...

So dear, if you want to join Julep please give the referral bonus to a friend.  If you don't know anyone, uhmmm, I will be more than happy to refer you, lol... (no, really :)  O yeah, I got me the DD cream and concealer as well.  Cause you know, I had enough Jules.  Awesome huh? :)

     Overall, I love being a Julep Maven.  I wish that one day I would win a Golden box, where you get the entire collection as a prize.  Indeed, free! One Maven gets this every month.  Sometimes you can find a really great surprise on the box too like a gift card or vacation... yes vacation... I have not won any of these... but who knows?  Someday?

Would you be interested in knowing more about Julep?



Basics:

Frequency & Cost: Starts from US $24.99/a month or $19.99 if you pre-pay for three months each time. Price increases with add-ons, upgrades and contents-customization.

Products: at least two nail polishes and one beauty product; or three nail polishes; or pure beauty products (your choice).  You may swap and add products to customize.  Or you may also shop for individual products and deals besides the subscription box.

Perks:  New Mavens earns a "Skip" every 6 months.  You may also choose to send out your box to someone else as a gift.

Ships To: US and Canada 

Shipping Cost: FREE standard shipping (5 - 10 days) for Mavens (subscriber)

Promo Code: Use code FREEBOX or FREECOLOR to get your first box free! (small shipping fee applies for first order only; Shipping for free box is waived with a minimum purchase of $10.00) 

Point System: Referrals and Subscription purchases earns reward points called "Jules," redeemable for free Julep Monthly Boxes or add-ons.  Referrals who order for the first time will earn you 1000 Jules (2000 Jules = 1 free subscription box).  Subscription boxes earns at least 300 Jules and increases with upgrades.

Thank you kindly if you sign-up using my referral link.
Or copy/paste this URL in your browser: http://www.julep.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/35704/

If you'd like more information, please feel free to 
email me at prettynailsandtea@gmail.com
or send me a message on my Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pretty.Nails.And.Tea
or send me a direct message on my Instagram @prettynails_andtea
or kik me @pnat_jar

I am looking forward to hear from you...
~*Maya*~

  
    

Berry Kiwi Collada Herbal Tea (by Teavana)

It is quite exciting that this beautiful tea tin also
contained such a beautiful tea blend inside.
My dear sister in law definitely has good taste :)

I served the tea just like this.  Let the tea steep into the whole
teapot, giving the ingredients a lot of room to move around.
Not only that, I found it so pretty...
And then I used a tea strainer when pouring it into the glass.

     Yum, yum, yum!
     Not only is it so beautiful it's really good too, in my opinion of course.  Hubby says, as he often does about herbal teas: "eww, watered down juice," hahaha. Because it's herbal, it very well is. Served hot, it's a nice dessert (well, i did put quite a bit of rock sugar in there).   Served cold, I needed more sweetener.  Tastes very yummy but maybe not quite good for your health that way, lol... It is very tart without the sweetener.  I taste and smell the "berry" there most of all.  I don't know, but my taste buds does not find the coconut.  Hmmm... The citrus flavor and aroma is also quite dominant.  Overall, I am excited about this tea.  (p.s. I was quite surprised to find a carrot in there, lol)

This mug is similar to a french-press on the go.
So the tea stayed in the cup for the duration of my drinking it.
(about 2 hours)
 Because it is herbal, there was no yucky taste of over-steeping.
Not so true when there's tea leaves in there too :)

      My only downside to this tea is the price of course.  But that does not apply to this one right now because it is a gift from my ever wonderful family :) Also, to make the taste become more profound, more tea is needed.  Since this tea is quite pricey, I added some rose buds and hibiscus on my next cup.  And the flavor became even more enchanting...  Hibiscus adds a really great berry flavor.  And the scent of the tea just captured my senses. (oh really? lol) It was a very hot day but I took it out with me in this new mug.  It provided a nice, relaxed feeling while working outside.