Guest Post: A Makeup Brush Lesson from Beyond Beauty Lounge!

Please join me in welcoming Mercedes from Beyond Beauty Lounge as our guest blogger today! She will be giving us a great introduction to the world of makeup brushes that I hope you will enjoy! 

Hey dolls, so first off I have to thank Chelsea for the opportunity to write a guest post on her blog. As you know from following her, Chelsea has starting writing more posts about her venture over to makeup, so I thought a quick introduction to some basic makeup brushes would be suitable. Not everyone wears foundation so I thought more of you could benefit from post about eyeshadow brushes, so here we go.

There are many choices in brushes from high end to low end and everything in between.  Not to mention all the different shapes it’s all just so much, right?  You may look at all the varieties and just think are all these really necessary? The quick answer for most people is no. So today we are going to focus on five basic eye brushes from Real Techniques. 

I really like the brushes from Real Techniques, the brushes are very affordable, good quality, and are made from the synthetic fiber taklon, so they are vegan and allergen free.  No joke these are some of softest, fluffiest brushes I have ever used. I have no problem with shedding with these and they wash well. Let’s face it not everyone needs or can afford brushes on the high end, some basic high end brushes are around $60 each, aacccckkkkk. Real Techniques brushes range in price from $6 - $10 for individual brushes with most sets priced around $18 so these are a great value.  The type of brush you use combined with technique can make a huge difference in the overall look or your makeup. My best piece of advice for a beginner is to invest in some brushes, start small if you need to but do yourself a favor and take that sponge applicator thing that comes with your eyeshadow and throw it away. Even if you only buy one eyeshadow brush get rid of the sponge tip applicator, you will thank me later.

This eye brush starter set retails for $17 and is available at Real Techniques.com,  Ulta, amazon.com and drugstore.com and contains five brushes.

Base Shadow Brush: This is the basic brush to apply color to the lid; 

Deluxe Crease Brush: This brush is for contouring or applying color to the crease of the lid;

Accent Brush: This brush is for detailing, highlighting and smudging. I also use this one to apply color under my lower lashes. It can also double as a concealer brush; 

Eyeliner Brush: This brush is for applying eyeliner and can also be used to soften the harsh line that is present when using pencil eyeliners; 

Brow Brush: This brush is used to fill in eyebrows but can also be used for eyeliner: 

In my opinion the base shadow brush and the deluxe crease brush are must haves. They deposit color nicely and make blending effortless.

Real Techniques brushes are on sale this week at Ulta for buy one get one 50% off + you can use your $3.50 off a $10 purchase coupon so this week is  a great time to snatch these up! That would bring this set down to $14.49: a steal.

What is your go to brush for applying your eyeshadow; do you use a brush, a qtip or maybe even your fingers?

Guest Post: Polished Cousins Reviews Cult Nails Scandalous!

Hello everyone! Anna here from Polished Cousins. I'm so excited to be doing a guest post for Chelsea today. Seriously, The Nail Network is one of my favorite blogs. If you're not familiar with our blog, there are three of us who blog together about our love for all things lacquer! And, duh, we're cousins. :)

Today I wanted to share with you one of my new favorite polishes, Scandalous from Cult Nails. Scandalous was originally offered as part of the "Divas and Drama Collection" this year. Simply put, it's a gorgeous coral jelly. It doesn't get much shinier than this! I picked up Scandalous in one of Cult Nails sales. All of the polishes regularly retail for $10 a piece plus shipping. Every now and then Maria, the genius behind Cult Nails, hosts a sale and that's when I jump in for a bargain. I got this shiny beauty for $7!

I used Essie Fill the Gap! base coat, three coats of Scandalous and my favorite HK Girl topcoat.

Pros- The color is beautiful, the finish is SHINY and I just couldn't stop staring at it for the 3 days I wore this mani. 

Cons- I had to use three coats to get full opacity and there's still a little bit of VNL (visible nail line). I love a good VNL but I know there are plenty of you who don't. Maybe layering this over a nude base would be better to protect against VNL.

Overall- This is easily one of my new favorite polishes. I'm pretty excited that it's not limited edition because I think I might go buy myself a back up bottle. I didn't expect to love this color so much!

Be sure to follow the Cult Nails blog and Facebook pages to keep up with the newest collections and sales.

And a big thank you to Chelsea for the opportunity to guest blog for you today!

Thank you so much for your post, Anna! How did you know that I am obsessed with coral?? *runs off to add Scandalous to wish list...*

Guest Post: Tall Girl in Heels Shares a Jelly Sandwich!

Happy Monday and Labor Day everyone! I moved into a new house over the weekend and have been very busy unpacking and organizing, so unfortunately I don't have any posts of my own to share with you this week. Thankfully, I was able to wrangle up some awesome guest bloggers for you! There are be five bloggers who graciously agreed to write up guest posts for me, so I hope you will enjoy what they have to share and will check out their pages as well! Have a great week! :D

Hello readers of The Nail Network. My name is Tamala from Tall Girl In Heels. Today, I'm happy to be guest hosting for Chelsea. I want to share a pretty jelly manicure I did. I have really been in love with Jelly sandwiches, lately and thought this one would be perfect to share with The Nail Network's readers.

If you are unaware of what I'm referring to, it is when you take a Jelly polish and layer a glitter polish and sandwich it with another coat of jelly polish. The jelly polish I'm using for my sandwich is Zoya Paloma. I reviewed Paloma here. Paloma is a one of Zoya's buildable jellies from the Fall 2012, The Gloss Collection. She is also my favorite of the three from this collection.

The glitter I chose to use is Spoiled Trust Fund Baby. Trust Fund Baby has fuchsia, blue, black and gold glitters suspended in a clear base.

Here is the picture of two coats of Paloma with a two coats of Spoiled Trust Fund Baby.

I chose Trust Fund Baby to layer over Paloma because I thought they would compliment each other.

Trust Fund Baby layered over Paloma with no issues at all. I will say when doing a jelly sandwich make sure each layer is dry completely. You don't want to smudge the layer below  because you were rushing.

Next you will add one coat of Paloma on top. This manicure has depth, the glitter seem to look suspended in the polish as if it were one polish. I really like the look of this. The below picture shows the comparison of leaving the glitter on top and the sandwich.

Take a look:

Which look do you like best?

Here's the completed manicure:

One tip I learned while doing this manicure is to use very thin coats. You are using so many coats of polish and you want to make sure that each coat dries quickly and completely. Also, add a fast dry top coat. The manicure will be dry to touch, but not entirely dry. Just be careful and allow ample dry time and you'll be great!

What do you think you this "Jelly Sandwich" look? I hope you enjoyed this post.

 I can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. My blog is Tall Girl In Heels.

Thanks for reading,

xoxo -Tamala

Lynnderella A Neutral Party Swatch

I know that Lynnderella polish is a touchy subject lately, but I received A Neutral Party in a swap and I think it's really beautiful, so I wanted to share it with you guys. I layered one coat here over Milani Chocolate Sprinkles (totally my new fav brown) and as you can see, it has a shimmery base packed with different shades of brown glitter. I love that there is huge hex glitter in the mix as well (you can see one near the tip of my pinky nail).

 

I'm curious to know what your opinions are on Lynnderella. Do you care about the drama surrounding the polish? I personally only own two Lynnderellas at the moment that I got through swapping, but I'd love to have more!

Dior Riviera Swatch

Hey guys, today I have something really fancy for you, my very first Dior polish! This is Riviera and it's a beautiful bright shade of orangey coral. It's so bright that it really messed with my camera, but I think I got it back to being very close to accurate. This is one of those polishes that can look totally different each time you look at it; it can be pink, coral, orange, or even red at times. Dior polishes have really wide, curved brushes that can just about cover my nail in one swipe, which is awesome! And the formula? Incredible. But would you expect anything less, really?

Dior nail polishes retail at $23 each and can be purchased on the Dior website or at stores like Sephora or Macy's. If you own any Dior polishes, what is your favorite one? If you don't own any, would you ever spend $23 on a nail polish?

Sonnetarium Hong Bao, After the Rain, Sundance, & If We Could Meet By the Sea Swatches

You all know how much of an insane love I have for Sonnetarium polishes, right? Good, let's get started with this next round of shades then!

First up is Hong Bao, which has a red jelly base filled with gold shimmer and gold and black hex glitters. I layered two coats of Hong Bao over Zoya Rehka.

After the Rain is just one incredible polish. It has a shimmery sky blue base filled with rainbow hex glitters and big white glitter that reminds me of clouds. This is three coats of After the Rain on its own.

Sundance is a mix of marigold glitter and gold shimmer in a clear base. I layered two coats of Sundance over Rescue Beauty Lounge Santa Fe Road. I've never seen anything like this yellow glitter before.

And lastly for today is If We Could Meet By the Sea, a mix of dark turquoise and white hex glitters and little mini bar glitter. I used two coats here over Zoya Wednesday. LOVE this one!

As always, Sonnetarium polishes can be purchased through Etsy and you can sign up for an e-mail notification when the shop opens again. Do you own any Sonnetarium polish yet?

*Products in this post were provided for my honest review.*

Butter London Trustafarian, Shag, & Gobsmacked

Hello pretties! I have three shades from the Butter London's upcoming Autumn/Winter 2012 collection to show you today and you guys are going to be thrilled... there are holos!

The first color I have today is Trustafarian, a yellow-green holographic shade. This polish is absolute perfection in a bottle. It's a gorgeous color, it dries super shiny, and it's holographic... how can you top that? You're seeing two coats here.

Shag is a beautiful warm red/brown shimmer. It totally reminds me of fall and crunchy dried leaves on the ground. Two coats here as well with a fantastic formula.

Gobsmacked is an absolutely gorgeous charcoal glitter, but unfortunately had a really terrible formula. It got thick and gloopy really quickly but I'm hoping that this can be remedied with some polish thinner. Two coats here with a thick coat of Seche Vite on top; you might even want to consider using two coats of top coat as well since this is one gritty glitter!

These shades, as well as all the other Butter London shades, can be purchased from a couple different places, including the Butter London website, Ulta (in store and online), and Sephora (in store and online) and retail at $14 each. Which ones are you loving?

*Products in this post were provided for my honest review.*