Napa Valley-Road Trippin' With Bonne Bell

Welcome to my second road trip. Today we are taking in Napa Valley. Last week we were enjoying the beauty of Honolulu.

Today I am showcasing  Bonne Bell’s Napa Valley, which is a dark wine red glossy cream. Napa Valley has a nice consistency and took only two coats to reach opacity.

 

Napa Valley was the polish I wore during all of Christmas week. I also added some large glitter that I will show below. After seeing me with this polish at Christmas, my daughter got herself a bottle. She liked it so much she wanted her own. 

The glitter that I chose for Napa Valley was Red Dog Design's Cold Nose Warm Heart. I did do glitter placement for this one. With glitter this large, it's no problem. I just wanted to make sure each nail had a least one heart on it. 

Macro of Red Dog Design's Cold Nose, Warm Heart

Napa Valley With Some Mentality Stamping

I decided to forgo the hand painting this time and try some stamping. I used Mentality's Prosper (which they don't make anymore) and Konad's Plate M89. I will admit that the stamping is not the best, but you got to start somewhere and Napa Valley looks great with copper or gold used with it. 

Markwins, Please do Right by Bonne Bell
By now most of you know that Bonne Bell sold their makeup and US Lip Smacker distribution to Markwins. Fans are unset and I don’t blame them. Change is always scary and you never know what a big corporation will eventually do to make a buck. 

Markwins also owns Physician’s Formula and Wet N Wild. I don't use Physician's Formula so I don't know if it has changed a great deal since the ownership. Wet N Wild has always been the same, a low end brand that is carried in Drugstores and a brand that is probably 99.9% made in China (but not sold in China).

On a good note, Markwins is on Peta's Cruelty Free list and that is an important point to me. 

There were some questions from fans on Bonne Belle's Facebook page about the China connection. I always knew a lot of my Bonne Bell products were made in China, long before Bonne Bell sold out. Here a few that I have and where they were made.

*All lip products such as Lip Smackers, Lip Lacquers, Lip Lites and Lipd'devotion are made in the US. However, my Lip Play Set is made in China. I could not tell where my Lip Color was made.

*The Eye Shadow Box sets are made in Taiwan.

*Gel Bronze is US made. 

* Blend'n Go and Glimmer Bronze were both made in China.

*The Nail Lacquers are US made. 

*Blushn'Go, which is not longer available, was also made in Chine. 

So you see, it was already a mixed box before the company was sold. 

Formula 10.0.6

The Bell family has retained the formula for 10.0.6 and I guess will distribute it. In fact the full line can be found at Ulta. 

The Bell Family also will distribute Lip Smackers everywhere but the US. That is probably where some of the mix up happened when fans thought they were not ever going to see a Lip Smacker again. 

I think I am going to wrap this up today. It has been one of my longer winded posts. This finishes out the nail portion . After the jump is all about Napa Vally and one of my favorite movies about Napa Vally, Bottle Shock.  

If you want to read a little extra, just click. If you don't, I understand and I will say good by to those here and take care until next time.  
 

Golden Fall Leaves

Hello on a Sunday.

This is a rare one. I usually don't post on a Sunday but today is special. I am hooking up with other members of The Hobby Polish Bloggers for a "Fall Nail Linkup".

We could do anything we wanted. I chose to create a design using one of my favorite brands, Nubar. The base color of my design is Nubar's Wildlife which is a gorgeous duochrome that flashes from green to bronze. 

After applying Wildlife, I stamped simple leaves using Mentality's Prosper,  Konad's Light Bronze and HB21 stamping plate. This provided a base of leaves.

I then painted larger outlines of leaves with my Stripe Rite gold. And that's it.

I love Nubar's Wildlife and had to throw in some extra shots. 

This color is so perfect for Fall. I know it can be found on it own or with the Going Green Set that it is a part of. I will tell you I bought my set off of Ebay. I would give you a link to Nubar, but they seem to be having trouble with the site today. At least, I couldn't get anywhere on it.

The Lineup

The Going Green Collection

 

And now a word about our sponsor. I have been a member of the Facebook group Hobby Polish Bloggers for not quite a year. It's a great group of ladies and I have learned so much from the more experienced bloggers. I am so happy that we are now having a monthly blog hop.  

Check down below to see some other beautiful nail art.  


As usual, until we me again, take care and shine on....................

Pick-N-Mix #5 Getting Excessive Over The 80s

Hello again. It's Pick-N-Mix Week 5 and the theme is the 80's which were just a tad bit excessive.

My nail design specifically took it's inspiration from the German fashion house Escada which was started and directed by Margeret Ley during the 80s. 

The Escada design that I used, is actually from an Escada jacket that I have collected. I have grabbed a few Escada things from Ebay during the last few years. 

My family dubs this "The Christmas Tree" jacket. And I pretty much only wear it around Christmas. But the embroidery and rhinestones were just to hard to resist. 

And the group of polishes that made this excessive look.

From left to right

1. Mentality's Proper
2. Butter London's Marbs
3. No Miss's Havana Hibiscus
4. Essence's Black Is Back

Oh, Those 80's

Other over the top inspirations 

When Donald and Ivana ruled NYC society. This was Ivana's pre-Cougar days. But I always have liked her but always considered him a jerk.

The Carringtons of Dynasty. All that wealth, all the melodrama, and all those cat fights.

And if you wanted to dress to excess, Margeret Ley of Escada was the lady to turn to.

This ends my contribution to this "Nail Hop". And I sure had an excessive amount of fun doing it. Check out below for all the other great designs by my other nail artists. So, until me meet again, take care...........Terri

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Zoya's Reece

Reece is the first of my May Zoya order that I have gotten around to wearing. First, just it as a single color and then with a simple design. This was a time when the polish dictated the style. The day after putting it on, I remembered that we had a reception to attend for a new sculpture in Nelson Atkins's Sculpture Garden. 

Usually I have a fairly modern look when I attend art openings, but Reece is a dark rose/gold duochrome. In my eyes, it called for something else. Out came the rose silk scarf and pearls. I still added a modern touch with a blush pink gold zippered bag.

NOTES

ZOYA'S REECE

Reece, as mentioned above is a rose/gold duochrome. I chose it because I love duochromes. Even with the duochrome, this is an old fashioned color. I am sure this color was even back in the fifties. But it a gorgeous shade and wears well. The duochrome is not that strong. It shows up great in the bottle but not so much once it gets on the nails. That part was a little disappointing.

MENTALITY'S 24K GOLD 

Mentality is one of my favorite Indies. It is now also available internationally. I have had this bottle of 24K for over a year and it still can be purchased. The more it is used, the gold breaks up into smaller pieces. That is fine by me. I noticed that there are some darker pieces now in my bottle and am not sure what that means. It's handy to top out something for a quick look. 

Mentality's polish line just keeps growing. They have one of the best stamping polish collections that I know. The link to their home page is HERE.

STRIPE-RITE-GOLD

If you go to Sally's Beauty, you know Stripe-Rite. This is my go to. I love the stiff long brushes. The metallics stay good, but the other colors will need thinning after a bit. Silver is next on my list to get. 

So here is the whole look. That is how I usually see my polish, as part of the whole and not an entity within itself.

This post is actually continued on my other blog-MeadowTree Journal . Click HERE is see some of the sculptures that we saw that evening.

That's it for this round. Until next time, take care, Terri

p.s., disregard the "read more". It is now the link to Meadowtree. I even took that HTML out, but the page break is still there. 

And the give away starts Friday-stay tuned!

Gray Suade Re-post

Here is another transfer from Meadowtree Journal-This was originally published on 2/25/2013

It was symphony time again Saturday night. Here's the nails I did for it. I wore the same LBD. I guess it is my official symphony going dress. Everything I wore with it was either gray, silver, and black. I wanted understated nails to go with it. 

My Holo looks pretty ragged, but it is much used.

I first put on a base coat of Stroke Of Midnight by L'Oreal. On top is one of my favorites Holo by Mentality. It's hard for me to leave the tips alone when I'm dressing up and picked My Pointe Exactly by OPI, a mini from NYC Ballet Petite collection.

At the first glance, my fingernails just look a silvery gray. But, Holo being what it is, reflects a multitude of colors, depending on the undercoat and what kind of light it is in. That's it for this time.

It's Raining Men!

Here is a new "bring over" from my Meadowtree blog to B..Nails. I did this during colder weather but this blue is an all season color in my book.

The two combined-I repainted Raining Men on the tips to show the difference of the two polishes. 

I went a little blue this weekend. I have wanted to wear these two together for a long time and this was the weekend to do it. The two polishes that I combined in this mani were Spa Ritual's It's Raining Men and Mentality's Holo.

Spa Ritual's It's Raining Men is a silvery blue that is great on it's own. I just like Spa Ritual. It is the only mainstream cosmetic company that has the Leaping Bunny logo. Peta lists it as also being Vegan. At the time of this update I have eight Spa Ritual (see my stash above for the ones I have) colors and have a sneaky feeling that is just the beginning of this love affair. 

It's Raining Men is a beautiful polish on its own.

Mentality is one of my favorite Indie brands on ETSY. They offer great service and get back immediately with you with any questions that you have about their products. Some polishes are developed with certain social causes in mind and with a purchase a certain amount of money is donated to that cause. The causes that you can support through Mentality are: breast cancer awareness, ADHD awareness, PTSD awareness, child abuse awareness, and domestic violence awareness. I know that I will be making more purchases from them in the future. 

Mentality's HOLO which is a holographic topcoat adds an incredible look on top of It's Raining Men. 

Close up of Mentality's HOLO

I love the look these two give my mani. Here are the links to the various sites that I have mentioned this time around. 

Leaping Bunny
Mentality Polish
Peta's Beauty Without Bunnies 
Spa Ritual

Both Spa Ritual and Mentality are cruelty free.

So until next time and I hope today brings you a beautifully polished life.......Terri