Reddit Swapping

             Okay, so I have entirely too many nail polishes in colors that I either have never used or have seldom used. My husband gets irritated because like a special toddler I take them all out and line them up, put them against the light, oooh and aaahh at them and forget to put them away. He is a collector of video games and swaps games online when he finds cheap games at goodwill, so he suggested I go through my polish and swap a few. I will tell my story in great detail about all the awesome shit I traded, but bottom line: it's awesome and fun.
   So the first thing  I had to do was look at what other girls are trading on the site. The best place that I know of to swap nail polish is on http://www.reddit.com/r/RedditLaqueristaSwap. On this site, women go through their polish that they are willing to swap, and they make a swap list. The best swap lists have a full organized list of the polish you are willing to trade, at home pictures of the bottles to prove that they are yours, and links to swatches of the polish so people know what they look like on the nail. Needless to say, in the beginning I was overwhelmed, a good swap list would take me hours to complete, especially because I wanted mine to be perfect.
   It took me a couple of weeks to actually sit down and do it, but one night I got the energy and put twenty polishes together, took all of their photos, created a reddit list, and linked them all to swatches. the first time it took me (and my husband) like two hours.  It was such hard and annoying work and I was happy to be done with it. I made sure to put a mix of rare and not so rare polishes so i would get a lot of responses- and i did! So far,  I have done like, six swaps and nearly doubled my nail polish. So even though my husband was hoping my polish collection would downsize because of this, it actually increased (woops).
 As of today, I've done about ten swaps and gotten rid of stuff I haven't used.... and got more stuff I probably won't use! I don't know what it is, but I am a sucker for this. It is excited to exchange things with other women across the country.. even if you know you probably won't wear those polishes either.. I guess.

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Nail Polish Swapping and why you should do it

             Okay, so I have entirely too many nail polishes in colors that I either have never used or have seldom used. My husband gets irritated because like a special toddler I take them all out and line them up, put them against the light, oooh and aaahh at them and forget to put them away. He is a collector of video games and swaps games online when he finds cheap games at goodwill, so he suggested I go through my polish and swap a few. I will tell my story in great detail about all the awesome shit I traded, but bottom line: it's awesome and fun.
   So the first thing  I had to do was look at what other girls are trading on the site. The best place that I know of to swap nail polish is on http://www.reddit.com/r/RedditLaqueristaSwap. On this site, women go through their polish that they are willing to swap, and they make a swap list. The best swap lists have a full organized list of the polish you are willing to trade, at home pictures of the bottles to prove that they are yours, and links to swatches of the polish so people know what they look like on the nail. Needless to say, in the begginning I was overwhelmed, a good swap list would take me hours to complete, especially because I wanted mine to be perfect.
   It took me a couple of weeks to actually sit down and do it, but one night I got the energy and put twenty polishes together, took all of their photos, created a reddit list, and linked them all to swatches. the first time it took me (and my husband) like two hours.  It was such hard and annoying work and I was happy to be done with it. I made sure to put a mix of rare and not so rare polishes so i would get a lot of responses- and i did! So far,  I have done like, six swaps and nearly doubled my nail polish. So even though my hsuband was hoping my polish collection would downsize because of this, it actually increased (woop)

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Summer=Blogging time Brief Topcoat review!!

      hellooo everyone!!, its been almost a year of my nail blogging hiatus, and I realized that I still am buying nail polish like crazy so I need to put it to good use that I miss blogging so much! I have a lot of polishes I need to review for you guys, but first I must tell you about a problem I have been having for a while, that I sort-of resolved, which will result in this blog post. 

      Top coats, they are impossible for me. My nails repel polish, between teaching highschoolers in the Bronx, getting arm surgery,  washing dishes(HAHA), doing laundry(HA), typing and drinking too much(thats more like it), my nails chip on a regular basis, and its usually the SAME DAY or the DAY AFTER that they chip.

      I know what they say- go gel!  Get gel manicure! It lasts forever! My Nails look great!  Well, Gel manicures do last me a long time but the problem (for me) with Gel manicures is that I can't change my polish on a daily basis. And all of you who know me personally know that I MUST change my nails at least every two days otherwise I will go insane(part of the reason why I change it also is because they chip and I know that makes no goddamn sense but whatever).  I really just like being able to change my polish on a too-often basis because it might not match my outfit, or I might get bored of it, or I'm just insane, or I have too much nail polish that I've swapped or bought and its getting out of hand. 

       So I went on a hunt of different base coats, top coats, and combinations of them to see which ones work the best, how much they cost ect. There is one top coat that I need that I haven't been able to find,  and that is Sephora X topcoat, the internets say it is amazing, but I will talk about that later. The Contenders of this challenge are:

Seche Vite- many of you know this brand I am sure, it bonds all the layers of your polish so it doesn't chip, creating a bond. The problem with this is that it also shrinks the polish on the nail, which many of you also probably know and I HATE. I have also experienced that, when combining the Seche Clear base coat, a polish, and then the Seche Vite top coat, sometimes the entire polish will literally peel off of my nail. What I have done in the past to try and prevent this is put alcohol on my nails to dry them out a bit/get rid of excess oil. It didn't always work however. 

 A serious pro about Seche Vite- if you like glitter polishes or indie glitter polishes or putting glitter on your fingers and don't want a bumpy finish, two to three coats of Seche Vite will do the trick for you. I know that you may think that your using a lot of product, but the finish comes out smooth and amazing. Also, Seche Vite sells online in giant bottle plus a smaller bottle for like $15. I got mine on amazon, so don't go to the small beauty places and pay $7 a bottle when you can buy this product in bulk for less. 

GelATO-This is something I saw at claires, claims to have a gel top coat finish and prevent chips for days. I used it once, and was disappointed because it had many bubbles inside. This week, I will use it again and give it a try. I need to do more research on it, because it was $7 and theres no reason why this shouldn't work except that its from Claires and what was I thinking.

Ruby Kisses- This is another great topcoat, from what I hear, it lasts longer on people who don't use their hands a lot/repel polish like I do. I used it and only had minor chipping, no bubbles, great. The best part about it is that you can find it for like, 2$ in a local beauty supply store. Mine unfortunately sold it for 3$, whatever. This brand has many good base coats that I have used for various things, strengthening  garlic, growth, ect. I like their base coats VERY much and have been using them for years, and to be honest, the best part about this brand is the fact that they are very inexpensive. A downside is that (I THINK) they are not three free or vegan, and the polishes have a strong smell. 

Julep Freedom Polymere Top Coat- This is my favorite. Probably not because it prevents my nails from chipping, but more so because you can sure it under a 60 watt bulb for 2 minutes and, I feel like I'm doing something extra fancy to my nails. I got my first bottle for free in a Julep Maven box, and then I bought my second as an add on for 7$. This thing retails at Sephora for 18$ and on their website for a similar price. Its pretty expensive and not worth it if you can deal with the downsides of the top coats listed above. 

Sephora X topcoat- This week I SHALL find and buy the Sephora X topcoat because based on multiple websites, videos and reviews, the consensus is that this works exactly like Seche Vite but without the shrinking of the polish- which is great! So far I have bought some colors and effects top coats from the Sephora X line and LOVE the formula. My favorite from them is the chaotic effects topcoat- I will show you some manicures in my next post where I used Chaotic, and I just know that you will love them :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my rants about various top coats that I tried. I'm sure you polish know-it-alls have learned nothing, but maybe some of you had fun. 

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