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Does dark nail polish dry faster than light nail polish?
I got asked this most interesting question today about nail polish.. The question I was asked was does dark nail polish dry faster than light nail polish?
After looking into this question being that it is dark nail polish season (WOOT! Bring them on baby!) this is what I found out. No dark nail polish doesn’t dry faster than light nail polish does. For some reason it takes dark polish longer to dry specially if it has glitter in as well. BUT I have found that BB Couture dark nail polish colors dries faster than OPI’s when testing them against each other. In fact light dries faster and doesn’t show if you chip it or smudge it either as much as dark nail polish does. When it comes to applying dark nail polish one must use less and wait at least 2 minutes between coats. I have found that some either need 3 coats of polish when applying some dark nail polish colors over light nail polish colors.
The best thing you can do is after you have applied your nail polish either dark or light color use a good top coat. I have personally found that Top Rock by BB Couture is the best there is! Top Rock top coat comes Raspberry scent and those with a little extra time Extreme Top Rock is even better! Pretty hard to beat Top Rock but Extreme Top Rock has been tested out on my fingernails wearing Dragon’s Breath and has lasted up to a week before chipping! Now I am someone who isn’t easy on her nails, I type a lot so I am always busy and not having your nail polish chip within a few days is great!
Top Rock
I hate chipped nail polish and I don’t really care if some famous actors are into showing off their nails with chipped polish. I think it just shows they are too lazy to get their nails fixed.
In fact from Overall Beauty here is a review for Top Rock!
“This top coat is awesome! So far no chips or peeling! Which is a major plus, but come on how can you not like a top coat that dries and smells like raspberries after. That is some crazy cool effect! It also applies really great, just like their regular polishes. The application of all their nail products are way smoother than most of the other nail polishes.” ~ Jen
For those looking for a great nail polish deal, all orders of BB Couture nail polish if you order 3 or more nail polishes get a FREE Top Rock! From now till the end of the year! Its that good and I want everyone to test it out and give me their thoughts. Don’t you want the best for your nails?
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Bachelorette Gifts Ideas
My sister is getting married a little later this year, and as her sister I have lots of planning to do. One of the big events will be a bachelorette party along with bachelorette gifts. We’ll probably have a little shindig at my house, followed by some sort of gallivanting thereafter. I have a feeling her bachelorette gifts will lean towards the naughty and the risque to make her good and embarrassed and put on the spot in a way only a good sister can orchestrate.
Some ideas for bachelorette gifts that we will likely bestow upon her include: all sorts of jellies and powders and creams and sprays to enhance her love life, teeny tiny items of material that resemble dental floss and yet are meant for wearing, and of course some heftier items including a lightweight whip, and maybe a pair of handcuffs for good measure. Most of these bachelorette gifts will be meant as pranks and jokes, however, I’m sure she will also receive some valuable items including lingerie, bath items and possibly some actual items that the happy couple can enjoy together. Massage candles are a really good gift idea, and not just for smelling either!
BB Couture Massage Candles
I’ve had to buy bachelorette gifts in the past. One of the funniest bachelorette gifts I ever purchased was a cardboard carton called ‘Make-out Take-out’ which contained a variety of naughty toys and gags. The actual carton was similar to the old-style Chinese food cartons, and it really made for a novel bachelorette gift.
I doubt we will include strippers in our evening. The bachelorette gifts will be naughty and good for a laugh, but none of us are likely to go so far as to create a potential problem for the couple. Marriage is pretty serious business – it’s okay to lighten things up a bit – but we’re of the opinion that including strippers (even as a joke) is going too far and it undermines the seriousness of marriage. We can only hope that the grooms friends feel the same way.
Even still, we love a good joke, and I quite look forward to terrorizing my sister will all manner crazy, risque and off-the-wall bachelorette gifts. After all, she is my sister and part of my job is to embarrass her and get her laughing. We have many close friends who will also be dying to get in on the action. I have no doubt that the bachelorette gifts that they purchase will be right out-on-a-limb and we will have an evening full of laughter, embarrassment and fun. My sister is nearly 29 and she has waited a long time to find just the right guy to marry. We are all very relieved that the big day if coming up quickly. This should be a bachelorette party and a pile of bachelorette gifts to remember for a good long while!
Copyright Kim Snyder Offering only the finest in gift-giving beauty products for self and all your holiday season needs. Visit us today at Overallbeauty.com
Gift Giving Ideas for your Teenage Boy or Girl
Giving gifts to teens can be easy or hard really depending on your teenager and what they might be into at the time. Giving simple gift baskets to your teenage girls can be super simple to buy or create yourself. As parents we know what our teens may or may not be wanting this year. Here are some gift ideas for the teenager in your life.
Nail polish gift sets. All teenagers specially girls love nail polish! Why not put together a nail polish gift basket with some of the hottest nail polish colors out this year? Popular colors in nail polish are purples, browns and reds for all ages. Then add to it a gift certificate to visit your nail tech for her very first manicure or nail set. All girls love feeling pretty and having fingernails with the latest nail polish colors or styles are sure to be a winner this year.
Gamer gift baskets for the guys or girls. These are easy to put together, add snack foods that they can eat while playing their favorite games. Be sure to ask your teenager what games they are into and what they might be wanting this year. New games for all play systems come out often and teenagers love to have the most up to date games to play with or against their friends. Maybe give them a coupon book filled with coupons for days you won’t might having a little party for them with just their friends over. If they have gaming accessories they been wanting why not add them as well? If you can’t think of a game or don’t want to ask them, why not add a gift certificate to their favorite game store? This will be sure to be a hit this year!
Manicure/Pedicure Gift Sets. These are great for boys and girls of all ages. For the girls you could create a whole gift basket all about caring for their nails and toes. With the latest in BB nail polish colors, cuticle oil, top coats, base coats, nail files etc. And why not add a book on tips for caring for their fingernails and toes naturally? Or write your own little tips book on how to give yourself a manicure/pedicure. The information is easy to come by all over the web. For the guys there are manicure sets made just for men. The guys tend not to take too much about their nails but if you drop hints that girls like men with well cared for fingernails, I’m betting they will start using it right away!
As always there are gift baskets that come pre-made with the latest in organic/natural handcrafted bath and body products. With a little thought and understanding your teenager’s likes and dislikes, you can create a gift basket filled with their favorite bath products. Or you can save time by having one created for you and shipped to your home. What child of any age doesn’t love getting something in the mail?
Copyright 2008 Kim Snyder Owner Overall Beauty, where beauty rules!
Offering only the finest in mineral makeup, natural skincare and BB Couture nail polish, manicure/pedicure gift sets and more!
Attn: Ezine & website editors. You may reprint this article in your ezine or website as long as byline and copyright are included with it. Visit Overallbeauty.com today!
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What are The Effects of Smoking on Aging?
If you have ever watched the makeover programs that they have on television from time to time you will notice that the people they often chose for the shows where they are trying to make people look ten years younger or thereabouts are those who smoke. Even though after they are finished with their makeovers they at times do not stick to it.
There is a very good reason for this and that is simply because smokers will generally look a lot older than others of the same age. Smoking does so much damage to your face that you don’t see because its below the skin. It will dry out your skin and make your fine lines wrinkles around your mouth and eyes show up sooner.
Smoking is only second to over exposure to the sun for making the skin look old, tired and unhealthy. Of course there are the other factors that need to be considered with smoking such as lung cancer that will certainly shorten your life and decrease the quality of life along the way.
Smoking will also discolor teeth and teeth discoloration is something that is associated with aging. The smokers hair will also usually be somewhat discolored too. The smell doesn’t leave you either specially if you smoke in your house.
Smoking leaches a lot of goodness out of the body and that is shown in the skin causing a lifeless dry condition.
Wrinkles also form around the lips of smokers from the action of sucking on the cigarette on such a regular basis and it is common for smokers to have more frown lines due to the fact that they often have to look through the smoke haze that they are expelling in front of their eyes.
When you add all these negative effects together it becomes easy to see why smokers look so much older for their age and how eliminating smoking can stop the speed of the aging process and to some extent reverse the trend.
Once smoking has ceased then various skin treatments, tooth whitening procedures and other positive anti aging processes can be implemented that will help the person to look considerably younger and healthier, provided they don’t resort to smoking again.
Halloween Nail Polish ~ You Got Yours Yet?
Halloween is this time of year where everyone gets to be a little crazier than normal. So why wear boring nail polish when you can wear really cool colors like Cash Black or Tangerine Scream? Well BB Couture over at Overallbeauty.com has got the Halloween nail polish set that you must have for all your haunting you are going to be doing this year.
Cash Black and Tangerine Scream!
And get this, they are only $15.00 for the set! Yeah wow huh? BB Couture nail polish is usually $8.00 a bottle so buying these as a set saves you money! Even bigger secret is this, if you buy this set of nail polish and tell them that you saw it over at Secrets of Beauty? You get a FREE Makeup DVD to go with it! Can’t beat that deal huh? Ok not everyone wants to be the undead on Halloween, some of us love to dress up and do our makeup to make us look super hot. Halloween is fun time to play around and be someone you aren’t.. Like Marilyn Monroe! How to do her makeup is on that Makeup DVD! How that’s for coolest?
Halloween Makeup Tips ~ Who Do You Want to be this Year?
Halloween comes around every year, and every year there is some Halloween party you been invited to. And as usual you are not even sure you want to go, why? Because you never seem to be able to create the right look to go along with the Halloween costume you just spend money on. Most men really dig going looking as grossed out as possible and some years you are cool about it but what if this year that just isn’t your thing? What if you want to really be that sexy playboy bunny or Marilyn Monroe, evil genie, a fairy or something like that? And you are just not sure how to do your Halloween makeup? You just don’t want to go one more year wearing ripped up clothes, and dirty things.
This year you are going to be wearing a costume that is going to turn you into a knockout! Making every man in the room wish they were your date! Now you know if you buy the wig, shoes and more its going to cost you almost $100.00 plus costume! Do you want your Halloween makeup to reflect you normal everyday makeup or do you to really look like a playboy bunny, or farm maid, sexy cop? They show all the amazing Halloween makeup looks on the packaging, how do you feel about creating one like that?
Besides one of the reasons we dress up for Halloween is to truly be someone we would never be in real life. Temptress’s of the night anyone?
The style of Halloween makeup you will need to do is going to be a bit harder to do because you need more but not looking like you went at it with a paint brush.
You never know who you might be meeting at all those Costume parties, Costume Contests, Masquerade balls, Themed Night Clubs that we as grownups love to be at on Halloween right? A lot of these parties happen all year around, but Halloween just seems to bring more grownups out to play. Why not go looking like Super girl this year?
Some Halloween makeup ideas are going to take a lot of different colors to make the whole look come together. What’s different about going glam instead of ghoul is the style of course of the makeup and what you do to create it.
After you have pick out the costume you want to wear this year its time to decide how to do your makeup. Don’t bother going out and buying more makeup, you wear makeup everyday anyway right? Why buy makeup that is geared and created just for Halloween? Unless you really dig black nail polish, most makeup colors you will need you already have. This is you we are talking about, use what you know works with you, not some cheap stuff you are not even sure who makes it, just use yours.
Have you checked out the makeup they offer at the local Halloween Store? Are they nuts? Its grease paint at best, sure its only a few dollars but can it be used for creating the Genie you want to be? Probably not. That makeup you find there is good for kids not good for the looks you are going for. You really need a Halloween makeup DVD to walk you through the best ways to use your makeup to create the most stunning looks you see on the packages when you view the costumes. Some of those looks such as Marilyn Monroe, Evil Genie, Playboy Bunny really need a step by step video you can watch to make it work correctly. If I were you I would be looking into getting the Halloween Makeup DVD Collection Vol. 1 with 13 Hot looks you can create. Wow its so worth the money! I even heard that if you buy 3 mineral eye shadows you might even get the Halloween Makeup DVD for free! Check out Overallbeauty.com for details.
Take a good look at your face and decide which your best feature is and as always work with it. For our example, we are going to use farm maid. All of these ideas and tips can be found on a DVD called Halloween Makeup Collection Vol. One with more information on the how’s to step by step.
For a farm maid, or cowgirl you are going to want simple, but it still needs to be seen. So more makeup than usual will be needed but tasteful done.
Start off with your best feature you are going to want to play up, and we are going to use eyes as our example.
A farm maid is going to have a simple innocent look such as doe eyes. As virgin as the day you were born. It’s not the easiest look to pull off but if you really think about what your makeup needs to be and you will need to plan out because you want it to last all night no matter what.
Start off with your makeup primer, or foundation all over your eyelid. A cream eye shadow will work just as well if you have one, only make sure it’s a nude color. This is to keep your makeup in place. Next you will need a all over color and for this look pick something really light such as a cream or white.
Smudge your base color on the lid, blending up and out towards the brow till it pretty much just fades away. A nice gray or soft brown will would work well for this.
Next you need to intensify that color with a darker color by adding it to the crease of the following the natural curve of the socket. Lighten under the brow line and use a round makeup brush to smudge it the two colors together starting from the outside in.
Go easy on your eyeliner and do wear mascara. If you look younger than you are, your eyes will be just right for this look. Just make sure that your black magic mascara doesn’t get all over under your eyes, it will take away from this look. No smoky eyes here! You need to look young and innocent so stay simple with what you are wearing as well. Pretty doe eyes, looking like you just came back from milking the cows, in Daisy Duke short shorts. That will drive them wild at the next party you go to!
Don’t forget your blush so use a pretty baby pink and place it on the apple of your cheeks for your farm maid or cowgirl look.
This is the Halloween you need to set away from looking like you are going to be playing with dead people all night and walk out into the spotlight looking totally hot! Make the guys wish you were their date, and they came as James Bond 007 instead of the walking dead. Anyone can be a ghoul but only those with the true know-how of how glamorous makeup is done can pull off the more beautiful looks. This year let it be you! Have fun this Halloween, and watch out for all those ghouls!
Continue reading Halloween Makeup Tips ~ Who Do You Want to be this Year?
Creating Intense Smoky Eyes
Smoky eyes come in many different colors these days from grays and black, to purple, blues and browns. . It has been said you must use dark and neutral colors, like dark grays or blacks. But not so true in today’s modern world. When you really think about it, smoky eyes are the bedroom eyes of the sirens of yesteryear. The sirens of the past all had a signature look that even you yourself can create.
Your basic smoky eyes take only a few items to create with.
Two eye shadow colors that are in the same family of color. Grays work well with black or another shade of gray. Dark colors are the norm, not forgetting you need one color to contrast the other.
You must have eyeliner! Either liquid eyeliner, pencil or just use the dark color eye shadow as eyeliner but eyeliner is a must have. Along with a black mascara and if you want your lashes to be way out there, don’t forget Hollywood’s secret weapon Magic Lash! Works better than false lashes and just easier to work with.
Also don’t forget your basic tools of smoky eye creating, two makeup brushes, one to apply your eye shadows and one to blend/smudge with. A smaller tip makeup brush works great adding depth to your crease as well as applying eye shadow to be used as eyeliner. Q-tips are great to have on hand as well. As well as a eyelash curler to really open your eyes with.
Other items you could use if you really wanted, a makeup primer to keep your eye shadows in place, concealer under your eyes to lighten up the area and even a matte white eye shadow to put in the corner of your eyes just above and around the tear duct. We are going for intense here but this look is yours to have fun with.
In your 20’s using liquid eyeliner is truly fun to go bold with. Paint a black line above your lashes that widens and extends upward at the outer corner of your eyes, letting it dry for at least 5 minutes before touching it. While in your 20’s smoky eyes can be easily pulled off using this dramatic effect without looking like a clown.
In your 30’s black liquid eyeliner maybe too harsh for you. Not counting Angelina Jolie eyes that is. Her look is not a smoky look per say, but she has the most asked for look in today’s Hollywood elite! The reason why it said that’s its not really smoky eyes is because of the choice of color eye shadows that are used. But still she has the sexiest eyes on the planet!
To really enjoy the truly sexy look of Angelina Jolie, check out her signature bat wing black liquid eyeliner, her expertly arched eyebrows, she often reminds you how truly elegant she is with yet a touch of a rebellious edge.
The major reason why her eyes are such the focus is how she wears a pale, translucent hue that provides an amazing contact to her rich black eyeliner. The look is created in two stages, first liquid eyeliner is applied to the upper lashes only, winging out at the edge. Then a matte black eyeliner is dotted between her lashes for extra eye definition. Even while pregnant her eyes are to die for!
The rest of us in our 30’s and beyond try using smudgeable pencils as it can be a better answer than liquid eyeliner. Use the color that most matching the dark eye shadow you are using for your smoky eyes. To use pencils in smoky eyes layer your eye shadow over your pencil. The color of choice needs to applied at the base along your lashes. Applying eye shadow over the pencil deepens the color and helps pull the whole look together.
Also with eyeliner don’t use it on the bottom lashes from inner corner on out, start in middle and then wing it out. That doesn’t close off the eyes making them smaller, your want your eyes to look as big as they can and still be smoking!
Just remember that no matter how dark your eyes are, you need to match them with nude lips. Nothing better to steal the spotlight off your eyes then a pair of bright red lips. It also ages you as well and not one wants to look older than they really are!
Copyright 2008 Kim Snyder, owner Overallbeauty.com. Great lover of all natural beauty care and products. Offering beauty products at quality prices. Check out Magic Lash & Overall Beauty Minerals today! Visit to see the latest in cosmetics and so much more.
Attn Ezine editors/website owners Free feel to reprint this article in its entirely in your ezine or on your website. As long as you leave the links in place. Do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.
Vote for me!
I entered a contest for the top 100 home-based businesses and would love it if you took the time to hop on over and vote for me. Here is the link:
http://www.startupnation.com/homebased100/contestant/361/index.php
And thank you so very much for taking the time to do so.
Makeup: Have you ever Wondered About it’s History?
Cosmetics as a whole have been around for thousands of years. In the past some really strange items were used to enhance beauty, even a few of been down right lethal. What do you know about the history of makeup?
Origins of makeup
The use of natural materials, such as minerals and vegetable dyes pre-dates civilization as we know it. Such items where used in rituals and as adornments.
It was in Ancient Egypt that manufacturing cosmetics and scents on a large scale was first perfected. They say the greatest Egyptian Queen Cleopatra is credited to compiling what has to be the earliest books of beauty hints.
Many of their preparations were used for religious and symbolic reasons. The Egyptians love for their paints can be seen today in the exquisite work of the jars found in the tombs, many with their contents still intact. Beauty was important to both men and women. A high-born lady of the time most important feature were her eyes. With the use of Kohl to emphasize the eyebrows and it was used to give their eyes their distinctive winged look. Not unlike the cat’s eye look of today which is now created with the use of liquid eyeliner.
Moving on in our makeup history lesson.
Next we have the aristocratic women of ancient Greece who apart from enhancing the color of their lips with vegetable dyes, used very few cosmetics. The real users of cosmetics such as white face powder and Kohl was restricted to the courtesans, as a sign of their profession.
Roman women on the other hand couldn’t use enough makeup. Some were known to be so enthusiastic about hair dyes and bleaches that partial or even total baldness often happened. The wearing of exotic wigs and using smelly conditioners to save the hair was often used to try to hide the facts of going bald.
After the fall of the Roman Empire makeup fell out of favor until around the 11th century when the Knights returned from the Crusades. The Knights reintroduced makeup, fashion and other toilet preparations that the women they left behind in the Palestine were using.
You know there had to be resistance but it didn’t come from the women of that time period, no it came from the all mightily Church itself.
Then around the 15th century and the time of the Renaissance that our natural love for all things of beauty were allowed a free reign.
Renaissance Makeup or lack of.
In the Renaissance time, makeup was an almost ghostly white complexion that was ideal for both men and women. It was thought of as a way to distinguish the upper class from the peasants and laborers in the fields. One of the biggest examples from the time period was Queen Elizabeth I of England. It was her use of cosmetics that popularize facial cosmetics among the women. The queen had a naturally fair complexion that was reinforced the fashion of whiter than white skin. With the use of egg whites, ground alabaster and clay, masks and that now infamous white lead, all these were used to aid in the illusion of super white skin.
In the 17th century makeup really had a major influence from the fact that theater became popular. That parts once played by young boys could now be played by young ladies. Young ladies playing the part of young ladies, who would of thought?
Moving on down in makeup’s history time.
It was the 18th century that beauty and pain started walking hand in hand. All types of beauty aids of exceptional discomfort and as well as absurdity came about. Rouge was still popular as ever for men and women. This was the time that lipstick in pencil form was introduced and hair? Well hair took off in all types of strangeness. Hair styles were so complex and it took days sometimes even weeks to create. It was set and left as long as they could before redoing it. There was also time of bugs in hair, even mice were reported.
It was towards the end of the century public opinion turn against excesses of the earlier decades.
The Regency period of England saw a return to the more natural look were herbal preparations, many home-made came into favor. Face powder and rouge was still popular but the women of this time had to be more discreet about using it. Powdered wigs and complex hair styles also fell out of favor. The desirability for cleanliness as a health and beauty need was now widely recognized. Respectable Victorian ladies were even more demure with their uses of cosmetics. Barest a trace of rouge of the lips and cheeks was considered ok but they usually had to apply it in secret. Maybe this was the time it because fashionable for ladies to visit restrooms in groups like we do today.
Home-made skincare preparations and beauty hints with recipes were found in the women’s magazines and journals of the day. Rich society women would visit Salons under disguises in fear of being found out that they were enhancing their looks.
Thank goodness for the popular actresses of the day because towards the end of the century, they helped pave the way towards a more liberal attitude using of cosmetics as beauty aids.
This takes us up to modern times before World War One. Now you may have a better understanding of were our love for beauty, cosmetics, hair care, skincare comes from. Thanks to earliest man for trying to please their gods, to the ancient Egyptians, Romans, and good old Queen Elizabeth the First. All who have taught us what not to use and what to use for beauty. Kohl was made popular by ancient Egyptians and is still as big today. Some of your home-made recipes may of come from the turn of the century. Beauty and the use of cosmetics will always be a sign of our times.
Beauty will always be a part of what is going on in the world as a whole and what we see on the movie screen. Hope you enjoy your little lesson is the history of makeup.
Copyright 2008 Kim Snyder, owner Overallbeauty.com. Great lover of all natural beauty care and products. Offering beauty products at quality prices. Check out Magic Lash & Overall Beauty Minerals today! Visit to see the latest in cosmetics and so much more.
Attn Ezine editors/website owners Free feel to reprint this article in its entirely in your ezine or on your website. As long as you leave the links in place. Do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.
Continue reading Makeup: Have you ever Wondered About it’s History?