Dr.'s REMEDY Review

Not long ago I received some information about Dr.'s REMEDY, a new line of doctor-inspired cosmetics made with clean, hypo-allergenic, anti-fungal ingredients. The website suggests that the polish is especially suited for people who suffer from nail fungus, brittle or discolored nails, those who are allergic to chemicals in commercial nail polish, for pregnant women and kids. Of course, you might also like to try it out if you are trying to be conscious of the substances you use on your body, including cosmetics. There is an FAQ with more information here.

The polishes are big three-free and are enriched with natural ingredients like tea tree oil, garlic bulb extract and wheat protein. These substances are naturally occurring, antibacterial and healthier for nails. The impetus for the line came about when the co-creator's wife became pregnant - you can read more about that backstory here.

Dr.'s REMEDY recently introduced their winter collection, which includes four colors:

- Healing Heather Grey, described as "a seductive pewter with deep blue undertones;"

- Revive Ruby Red, "a shimmer-infused, Wizard of Oz-inspired shade of crimson;"

- Desire Dark Brown, "a cocoa-meets-hot-fudge handsome hue;"

- Nurture Nude Pink, "a delicate, damsel-in-distress barely-there beautiful." 

I was able to try Healing Heather Grey, Desire Dark Brown and Revive Ruby Red.

I chose to try Revive Ruby Red first.

Dr.'s REMEDY polishes are packaged in square bottles with square, slightly rubberized-feeling caps. The square overcaps are removable, revealing a narrow ribbed cap that is more convenient to hold while polishing. The overcap was a little stubborn coming off, so make sure you remove it carefully and before you do your base coat, treatment or ridge filler so you won't mess up your work. The brushes are fairly standard round brushes.

(I wondered if this polish would smell like tea tree oil...but...it smells like good old regular nail polish! Perhaps a bit less intense.)

Revive Ruby Red is a beautiful color. It looks like molten glass on the nail - very deep, shimmery and gorgeous. This is a classic color, and has a lit-from-within effect that I love in a shimmer.

The formula for all of these polishes was good. If anything, Revive Ruby Red was perhaps a bit on the thick side. It took me a while to get comfortable with how much product I was getting on the brush. (You could just add thinner if this was a real problem for you, although that would of course add chemicals back into the formula.) I didn't have to do a lot of clean-up with this color. It was fairly easy to control. I just had some problems getting the polish to lie smooth on the tip of the nail. No cuticle drag with this color. 

Here's a picture after four days of wear. Ignore the large chip on my middle finger - I cracked my nail against a kitchen cabinet so that one was kind of inevitable. Except for minor tip wear, this polish held up very well with no other big chips. It stayed very shiny.

Next, I tried Healing Heather Grey. Luckily I'm a huge sucker for grey cremes so I was very eager to give this one a spin. I was totally delighted - I would almost call this a grey jelly - the finished effect had a squishy, dreamy quality! The formula on this was slightly easier to work with than Revive Ruby Red. I used two coats and my only real issue was with the brush, which had a crazy stray bristle. A quick snip of the scissors solved that.

I wore the grey for three days with no chips and very little tip wear. (With both of these manicures, I used Palladio Fuse, Palladio ridge filler and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat in the red bottle.)

Finally, I swatched Desire Dark Brown. This formula was super - the picture below reflects absolutely zero clean-up. Dupe alert: in the picture, my index and ring finger are Desire Dark Brown and my middle and pinky finger are Essie Little Brown Dress. As you can see, they're quite similar. However, if you're interested in the health-conscious formulation of the Dr.'s REMEDY polishes, this is a great chic color with superb application.

Speaking of dupes: Dr.'s REMEDY Healing Heather Grey is very similar to Rescue Beauty Lounge Concrete Jungle and Misa Working Hard or Hardly Working, though it does have that jelly-ish texture that some people (me included!) find very appealing. It's really a beautiful grey color. I couldn't find any duplicates to Revive Ruby Red in my collection.

I can see these polishes appealing to a lot of people - pregnant women, people who have specific issues and concerns with their nails and, of course, people who just love nail polish and beautiful colors! (Dr.'s REMEDY has some great pinks, a purple shimmer and a bright, bold blue on their site that all look intriguing.)

Dr.'s REMEDY nail polishes $16 each and are available online at www.remedynails.com or by calling 877-323-NAIL.

These were sent to me for review.

Cherry Culture order & reviews

I have some nail posts planned, but I got an order from CherryCulture.com last week so I thought it might be fun to talk about that.

A lot of the women on the nail board at MUA talk about CherryCulture, but this was my first time ordering with them. I ordered on February 1 and my order shipped on February 9. I received it on February 11 via USPS.

I say all this as an FYI because people seem to get awfully worked up about shipping issues. I know the immediate nature of the internet - not to mention fast shipping from places like Zappos.com - leads us to believe we should receive things instantly after buying them, but the truth is no one's figured out teleportation yet. So waiting is still part of the game.

I also liked ordering from CherryCulture because they accept PayPal (Ulta does now, too!!), which is great for when you want to order something but can't be bothered to get up and find your wallet. (I am only sort of kidding about this.)

In any event, the site was having a little sale and I found a few things I wanted to try at very agreeable prices.

I ordered the Milani Buzz Worthy lip glosses in Bee Rich and Bee Gone.

I love these! My love is due in no small part to the smell: Bee Rich smells exactly like Jolly Ranchers and Bee Gone smells like cake. Normally I'm not a fan of candy scents (too strippery) but these are fun and not too cloying.

Angled applicator/dispenser.

I did a fair bit of research on these before I ordered, so there were no real surprises. They are sticky (your hair will get caught in them) but have the color payoff I wanted and don't run down my face. Bee Rich is just spectacular - much as I would like to, I just can't wear super pigmented, rich red lipsticks, so this kind of clear red gloss is a good substitute. Bee Gone has some shimmer to it and is a nice understated shade.

I'm not always the world's biggest fan of arm swatches, but I gave it a try, just for you.

Bee Gone, Bee Rich.

I've heard a lot about NYX eyeshadows on blogs and MUA, so I decided to give some a try. I ordered Taupe, Matte Gray and Exotic Green.

NYX Exotic Green.

Thus far I've only tried the taupe and the gray on my eyes, and I really like the taupe. Matte Grey is not very pigmented. (Based on a quick swatch on the back of my hand, Exotic Green is very pigmented.) The texture of these is very soft and velvety. I like the "quilty" look of the unused shadows although I realize that has no bearing on the quality. It's just cute.

Finally, I also ordered some nail polish (doy). I chose LA Girl colors in Hustle, Head Banging and Deep Sea Mica. I wore Deep Sea Mica already and it's a very pretty teal/green jelly.

Hustle, Deep Sea Mica, Head Banging.

LA Girl Deep Sea Mica

I don't know what was up with me not polishing my whole nail for this manicure, unless it's the fact that my back was still hurting pretty bad when I did this and I wasn't bending over as far as I usually do. I like to get my face right down in there so I can really see where the polish is going.

As a comparison, you can see the manicure I did for Valentine's Day is much less bizarre.

(That's OPI Big Apple Red, one of my all-time favorites. Just a great, shiny red.)

I'd definitely order from CherryCulture again and I'm really happy with all of the products I picked, particularly the Milani glosses. I've heard good things about several of their products and I think it's great they are so widely available.

Later this week, stay tuned for posts about the Misa 9-5 collection (I ordered five of them...yikes) and some nail colors from Dr.'s REMEDY.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips

A while ago Sally Hansen introduced these Salon Effects nail polish strips, which are designed to last up to 10 days. They are available in patterns, solid colors and glitters. The look is similar to Minx, which you've probably seen on Beyonce or Katy Perry. The strips allow you to get the Minx-like look at home for a fraction of the price (however, the process to apply them is different).

I purchased a set of these (a bright flowered pattern) several weeks ago but had yet to try them. Then I found a coupon in this week's Red Plum mailing for $2 off the strips. I also had some CVS ExtraBucks laying around, bringing the cost of the strips down from $10 to $5.50. So I picked up the Kitty Kitty pattern, a metallic leopard print.

I am nothing if not subtle!

With some spare time on my hands (har har) Tuesday night, I decided to give the leopard print pattern a go. Here's what comes in the package with the nail polish strips:

16 nail polish strips, mini orange stick, mini file/shaper and instructions. The picture in the instructions indicates that you can just gently file off all the excess nail polish strip, but I suspected I might need scissors, so I got a wee pair out to do a bit of trimming.

The strips were not hard to put on at all, but it did take me some time - nearly an hour. They're not overly delicate, but you do have to be careful not to gouge them if you're using the orange stick to smooth out the wrinkles. And if your nails are very curved, you will have to be careful not to wrinkle the strips.

I was really happy with the results. It's nice to finish applying these and then just go on about your business without worrying about denting or creasing your manicure. Because I just put these on, I have no idea how they'll wear - I did put a top coat over them and used it to wrap the tips. So I'll have to report back to you about the removal process and how long these last.

Couple things: I had to trim the sides of some of the strips because there were not enough smaller strips to fit my nails. If you were careful and willing to do a lot of shaping, you could get two manicures out of one package; I don't really have the patience. The strips do get kind of stiff and difficult to work with if they're exposed to the air too long - I warmed them up by putting them between my palms or blowing on them. This just makes them a little easier to shape.

Even at full price, I'd definitely buy these again, but for me, I wouldn't waste my time on the solid colors. If I want a nice red creme on my nails I'll just take 10 minutes and paint them. The patterns are really fun, though, and I'll purchase them again for sure.

I've seen these at CVS and Rite Aid. Highly recommend!