Whenever I paint my nails, whether I use a base coat and top coat, or just do two layers of colors on bare nail, it chips and peels only a day or two after I painted them. Do you have any tips to make a manicure last longer?

Asked by
bluefeathergal

I think maybe your polish is bad?? What top coat and what polishes are you using? Even if they are a reputable brand (say, Essie) some colors just don’t last at all for whatever reason. I think NCLA and Seche have my favorite top coats at the moment — even if I’m using mediocre polish that chips fast on it’s own, those topcoats make the polish last a long time. Here are some product recommendations I did awhile back that are still my favorites at the moment. Try one of them if you don’t own them already and let me know if it works out. 

Sunscreen Protips

fashinpirate:

powderdoom:

I’m reading this utterly fascinating book called The Original Beauty Bible in my free time and I highly recommend it! I’m learning so much. I thought I’d share you some relevant sunscreen/spf tips since it’s summer and it’s more important now than ever to know whats up. We’ve also been getting lots of sunscreen related questions.

  • SPF - Does SPF rating matter?  ”A sunscreen’s SPF rating is incredibly important, but it is not the only guide when you are buying sunscreens. All the SPF number lets you know is how long you can stay in the sun without burning while wearing that product. For example, let’s say you’re like me and you can stay in the sun for about 15 minutes before your skin starts to turn pink. Applying a sunscreen rated SPF 15 will allow you to stay in the sun 15 times longer (three and three-quarters hours: 15 times 15 minutes) without getting pink. In other words, the SPF number, 15 in this case, multiplied by the amount of time you can normally stay in the sun without getting pink, is how long you can stay in the sun after you’ve applied the sunscreen. If you normally can stay in the sun 25 minutes without getting pink, applying an SPF 15 sunscreen would let you stay in the sun six and one-quarter hours (15 times 25 equals 375 minutes) without burning.
  • SPF only refers to UVB Rays. You want UVA and UVB protection — because although UVB rays can’t penetrate glass and you won’t get a sunburn from them if you stay inside, UVA does penetrate, there are more of them, and they are more damaging because you deal with 100 times the amount of them as compared to UVB. 
  • Applying once is not enough.  “Research indicates sunscreen users are only applying 50% of the recommended amount, so they are only receiving 50% of the SPF protection.” The reason why sunscreen directions usually say apply 20 minutes before you go out and reapply when when you sweat is because you’re probably not applying enough in the first place, and you need an ample amount and you need to apply often because you’ll have sweat some of it off. 
  • The more products you layer on over sunscreen, the less effective the sunscreen is. As a rule, it’s best to apply sunscreen over the rest of your skincare and makeup. Those other products might dilute or break down the products in your sunscreen if you apply them over it.
  • An SPF 5 Product over an SPF 10 product does not mean you are getting SPF 18 coverage. If you want SPF 15 (the minimum you should be wearing) find a product that offers that coverage specifically.

Bringin it back

Sorry if you know of this but just thought I would alert you to Milan Rowe lipsticks, I have the blue one called alter ego and it made me think of you two.

Asked by
ro-zap

No, never heard of them — thank you for the heads up! I have more than enough lipsticks to swatch and test at the moment (I have two large bags full of things to review and/or give away…waugh) but I will put it on my list of things to check out. :)