Tea Beauty Review: My newest drugstore find

So I'm on Instagram now (hit up @mommydoeshernails), and the addiction has it's claws in me. Following Steph @imperfectpaint may prove to my downfall....she posted one morning about a new brand called Tea Beauty she had just found at Walgreens and the next thing I knew I was grabbing the bag off the beauty counter and taking my receipt from the lovely lady who helped check me out.

So I got two of the six pretties: Tea Beauty Vanilla Petals and Tea Beauty Mint Leaf. Yummy names for yummy smelling nail polishes. Yes they are scented. Hubby, though greatly weirded out about smelling my nails, said the smells were definitely pleasant. He doesn't get the point of it and, to be honest, neither do I.

Super cute bottles, but as you can see from the photo above the white detailing on the caps starts rubbing off almost with the very first use. Sad but I suspected that would happen.

So I am in LOVE with the light caramel colored nude that is Vanilla Petals. I love the white based baby blue Mint Leaf too but Vanilla Petals has my heart in these two.

The first image is direct sunlight and the second is shade.

My fake-it-till-you-make-it macros of these colors. Isn't that nude to die for? I can't believe how amazing it looks on my skin!

These swatches are two coats each. The formula isn't the most amazing but totally workable and builds, as you can see, in two coats. Self levels for the most part as well. The blue won't get a ton of use but the nude. Yes I know I said it over and over. LOVE IT!

These retail for 4.99 at Walgreens and I'm not sure if they can be found elsewhere.

So onto the disaster part of this post. I tried stamping with these. They are not for stamping:

Yeah not so much. Ah well I had to try! Thoughts on these? There was about four other shades - all varying hues of pinks and berry tones.

Hubby's Picks (HP29): The backlog!

Hi! I have a HUGE back log of posts now. We had a keyboard mishap and a Groupon mishap (got hacked and became the temporary benefactors to someone and bestowed on them an iphone, Galaxy tablet, and FIVE digital cameras. One wasn't generous enough apparently).

I have a laptop but it won't let me install my photo editing software so I was stuck with no real way to post.

At any rate I have LOADS of posts coming including (FINALLY) a Glam Polish spam post, the Tea Beauty review, a dupe alert, and *most importantly* my giveaway announcement!! The final goodies finally showed up!!!!! Dude I'm so stoked you just don't even know.

Ok enough babble. Last week's lineup was JulieG Rock Candy, Nailventurous Floam, Tea Beauty Vanilla Petals, and Glam Polish Wonder (not a part of her regular line).

Get THE look:

• The biggest issue here was how to deal with two, very gritty, blue based glitters. Never be afraid to layer. This turned out to be an incredible pair to layer. I laid down one layer of JulieG Rock Candy and did two, thin layers of Nailventurous Floam over that. The sparkle of the gumdrop was insanely amazing with the matte neon of Floam. Be brave!
• Next was tips using Tea Beauty Vanilla Petals. I used french tip guides by Essence. Then I topped those layers with a coat of Seche Vite to make a flat surface. I used a dotting tool for the "splashes" and then pulled the dots out at a curve using a light hand to taper to a tip. 
• Last was the Glam Polish Wonder accents. When I face two clashing glitters my goal is usually to try to seperate them so that a joining color can create harmony. 

A close up on the layered look created by Rock Candy and Floam. Never count out your textured polishes as a base for your glitter. They can produce fantastic looks!

See you all in the extreme catch up this week!

Mustaches and nude....oh my!

An inappropriate title from a mommy? Oh the scandal. What will they ever say at the bus stop. *mischievous look*

Moving along I got my sample package from Kelly Baas (Ooh La La Polish!) of some of the new Jamberry nail shields! Be sure to use her site: KellyBaas.JamberryNails.com to shop for your shields!

So yeah. *happy dance* Yup. More awkward dancing. But what gal doesn't love trying new nail awesome?

In the CUTE letter with instructions was two sets of sample shields in various designs. Mustaches. The nerd in me could go no further. Pair this with the fact that I ACTUALLY bought a nude *gasps all around* and it just had to happen.

For starters I cut the design away from the others for ease of taking a photo. Here's the shield in comparison to my nail. Long enough for at least two nails. I've heard that if you have nubbins there's three nails worth here and I believe it.

Super easy to apply. I grabbed my fine Stila tweezers and picked up the sticker, used my hair dryer on low till it got floppy, positioned it on the nail against my cuticle, and pressed from the bottom center out. I used a rubber cuticle pusher like the directions said to press it on there really well, applied another round of heat and was done. Whole thing took 2-3 minutes tops. It was EASY.

Yes there's a gap. That's because I wanted that one on my ring finger because I'm stubborn and refuse to use any other finger as an accent finger. But since the designs come in a whole pack I'd just need to choose the next size up for proper fit. As it is it wasn't noticeable and I got compliments like mad crazy! Here's the other designs I got:

 Sadly one of the designs came loose. :( BUT when you order each nail shield set comes safely and securely in it's own plastic sleeve.

Here's some other designs that were at the bottom of the adorbs letter she sent (hit her up with a like on her Facebook page!). The flip flops *dies*.

Oh and guess what?! She's giving away a set of your choice!!! Go here to score some entries.

The nude pictured is Vanilla Petals by Tea Beauty:

The retail is 4.99 and it's super fun! I'll do a more in depth post on this one later.