The Body Shop Almond Hand & Nail Overnight Manicure Butter (+ NOTD!)

It seems that I can pretty easily separate my adolescent years into phases based on my allegiances to different "personal care" shops. In elementary school, it was the ever-popular Bath and Body Works. By high school, I'd become hip to the artsy whimsy of Lush. Middle school, however, was all about the Body Shop. The simplest and most no-frills of them all, it offered single-note fragrances across a wide variety of products, all priced just right to drain a 13-year-old's stash of birthday money. Their strawberry body butter was basically my entire reason for living in 8th grade, along with the green tea lotion and moringa "body milk" (or, in layman's terms, an extra-thin lotion that left me smelling like a delicate li'l flower). After discovering Lush in my freshman year of high school, I left the Body Shop, which seemed so pedestrian by comparison, in the dust. Now that Lush has gone more mainstream, retiring most of my favorite products and raising prices to unjustifiable heights, I figured it was about time to return to my old reliable.

This is the Almond Hand & Nail Overnight Manicure Butter. What a name! I can't be the only one with a soft spot for frivolous specialty items like this. For someone as obsessed with their nails as I am (and struggling with dry hands during the winter), this was a no-brainer. Since my purchase in December, it appears that this has been discontinued, as it is no longer visible on the Body Shop website. However, it can still be found elsewhere for just about retail price ($20), and I'd imagine that some locations still have leftover stock. They also offer a cream formulation in a squeeze tube, though I haven't tried it and am unsure of how similar it is to this product.

I can hear you already: "wow, $20 is pretty steep for a 3.3 oz. tub of gunk". I would be inclined to agree with you, but in all reality, a little goes a long way. I've been using it a bit more liberally than I typically would because I recently came to a realization: I don't think I've ever finished any of my lotions. I'm entirely too precious with them, using them so sparingly that I either forget about them or they spoil before I can use them all up. I'm pretty sure my aforementioned vat of strawberry body butter is still sitting around somewhere, several years past its expiration date, collecting dust. I should probably find it and toss it...

but anyway, yes, you don't need much of this to get the desired effect. And you will desire the effect once you try it, believe me. This stuff is extremely thick in consistency – if you are familiar with their body butters, it's about the same – so you will really only want to use this as an overnight treatment. Gloves may be a good idea if you don't feel like smearing it all over your bedding, because it will not sink in before you fall asleep. I applied it the other night during one of my bouts of insomnia, and it hadn't even gotten close to drying down in the hour I spent tossing and turning. The tradeoff, though? The softest, silkiest hands you've ever had. Babies wish their butts were this smooth. I can't vouch for its effect on the nails, though I'd imagine it's good – cocoa seed oil, shea butter, and sweet almond oil all sound very promising, in addition to providing a lovely almond fragrance. Even if it does diddly for my nails, it still stands as a phenomenal hand cream. A day and several hand-washes later, my skin still feels significantly more moisturized than it did before I used it. No more dry, flaky hands catching on my sweaters! I feel so pampered and nourished.

To close out this post, I figured I'd share what's currently on my nails: Zoya Frida. This polish is so weird and I love it. I'm immediately into anything that can be described as “unlike anything in my collection", and such is the case for dear Frida. It's a murky medium teal jelly that will never, ever be opaque – this is 4 coats, and I'd estimate that you'd need about 7 before your nail line was obscured. Something about the combination of the jelly finish (my favorite) and the offbeat color just really, really works for me. I imagine some might call this "ugly-pretty" or "so bad it's good", but not me. I'm just honestly, unironically in love with this. And in love for what it means coming from Zoya – I'm always impressed when bigger brands take chances on experimental colors. Clearly it paid off, seeing as they’ve been producing this shade for over a decade now. I hope they never stop! 

And until next time... peace out!

Zoya Gelie-Cure: All it's cracked up to be?

As someone with fragile nails and a penchant for growing them long, I'm always on the lookout for ways to strengthen them. I've heard great things about overlays and clear dips, but before taking the plunge, I wanted to try something a little more beginner-friendly. For this reason, Zoya's new Gelie-Cure system instantly appealed to me. What exactly is Gelie-Cure, you may be asking? Zoya describes it as a "demi-gel" that is easier to apply and remove than traditional gel, but with many of the same benefits. I was sold! I grabbed the travel kit during the Thanksgiving weekend sale, prepared to be blown away by the results, and... well, let's just say that I was not impressed. I haven't touched the kit in a couple of months, but I'm trying Gelie-Cure once more in an attempt to ascertain whether my initial experience was the result of user error or product failure.

The first step to any Gelie-Cure mani (after washing your hands, of course) is the application of the Rescue Serum, which is massaged into the nails to moisturize, strengthen, and repair damage. (I am skeptical of these claims and worry that the moisture may affect the longevity of the final result, but I'm trying to follow the instructions as closely as I can.) Zoya advises that a pea-sized amount split between all ten fingers is sufficient. I admit that I may have been ever-so-slightly too generous with it, which Zoya indicates may lead to lifting. However, I did allow the serum to soak in completely before moving onto the next step. 

Next up is the Repair Base, which is said to lock in the Rescue Serum and provide a smooth, ridge-filling base for the next step. It's fairly straightforward: apply like a normal base coat, making sure to cap the tips and avoid the cuticles. It's a little thin, but nothing that most people won't be able to handle, though I will say that the tiny brush of the travel-sized bottle can be a bit hard to maneuver. All told, I had no issues with this step. 

Now, it's time for the star of the show: Naked Gelie. I have a major bone to pick with this stuff. Not only is the formula much thinner than I was anticipating, but the brush is one of the worst I've ever seen. It's supposed to be a wide brush, but since this is a travel-sized bottle, it ends up being larger than a standard thin brush but smaller than a standard wide brush. This makes it awkward to cover the nail without overloading it with product. This happened to me MANY times. A quick tip: pop your nails under the LED lamp for a second to spot any cuticle flooding and remove with an orange stick or angled brush with acetone. Make sure to cap your tips as well.

Here's what the USB-powered LED curing light looks like in action. Nail rave, woot woot! Despite its funkadelic appearance, this step is akin to watching paint dry... literally. I promise that my application was much more even than this photo makes it look. The lamp has a built-in 60-second timer, so over-curing (if that's even possible) is pretty hard to do. Under-curing, however, can be achieved if you are an idiot like myself. I kept checking out my nails for a few seconds at a time to scope out any errant Gelie and remove it, so I assumed I didn't need to sit for the full minute when it came time to cure. I was proven wrong by smudges and marks in my half-baked Gelie. They put that timer in for a reason, people. Please do as I say, not as I do... 

Here it is after curing. Oooh, shiny! (Yes, my nails really are that yellow and translucent. No, I'm not happy about it either). You could stop here after wiping with Clear Shine and a lint-free pad, but Zoya advertises the "2-10-2" or "sandwich" method. This consists of all the steps thus far, plus some colored polish and an additional layer of Gelie. Zoya promises gel-like shine and a wear time of 7-14 days when following this method. To give it a fighting chance at lasting that long, I used a Zoya polish (Midori, one of my favorites) as my color of choice. I probably should have gone for something with a better formula, as Midori is quite finicky and requires 3 coats for full coverage... but who could resist that pretty golden green?

And here is the finished result. Is it shiny? Sure, but not any more so than the Seche Vive topcoat I usually use. In no world is this comparable to the look of a fresh set of traditional gel, but by no means does it look bad. 

And now for the wear test. How far did I get before it chipped? Just under 24 hours! The corner of my right middle nail began to peel following a hot shower. Yes, hot water and nail polish are not friends, but shouldn't something that touts itself as a long-wearing gel alternative be able to stand up to a 15-minute shower? It's not even like I was using my nails to scrub my scalp or anything. This is exactly why I stopped using Gelie-Cure after the first couple of times. A regular manicure prepped with dehydrator and consisting of Orly's Bonder base, a Zoya color, and Seche Vive topcoat will last me at least 5 days before significant chipping occurs... so why should I ever use this? Maybe I'll try it again someday minus the Rescue Serum, which I believe is the culprit. Until then, though, I'll be sticking to my normal routine: much less labor-intensive and much longer-lasting.

And until next time... peace out!