One of the best times of the year to experiment with manicures is during the winter. Because most of us cannot show our toes, decking out our hands can be fun and add some extra interest to our wardrobe on a daily basis. Also, getting a smooth and sexy manicure is the perfect way to put the finishing touches on your holiday party look.

Whether you’re looking for the perfect shade for yourself or stocking stuffers for friends, make sure to go natural. Some of the worst kinds of beauty product toxins are found in nail polish, and you can really save yourself from major exposure to harmful ingredients if you opt for polish that is toxin-free. Look for polishes that are free of formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate.

These colors are great for this season and healthy, too!

Kendal by Zoya

This is the perfect neutral for the season. It’s laid-back for day, sexy enough for night, and has a tone that feels fresh, rather than a repeat of the pinky beiges that were popular all summer. This shade will go great with any neutral, as well as the hot jewel tones coming out this season. Or pair with a grey snakeskin print and get compliments all day.

Holly by Zoya

Speaking of jewel tones, this sexy green shade from the new Gems and Jewels collection by Zoya is super modern and has that quality that just catches the eye. Pair it with a huge, soft knit in a brown or beige, or try it with a jewel tone print.

Red Ace Rose by Priti

You can never go wrong with a shade of red, and this dark, dusty version feels perfect this season. Wear it with anything! Just make sure not to try to match it with your shoes or bag…

Priti French Manicure Kit

Buy it for yourself or as a gift. These are the perfect French manicure shades and will go with absolutely anything. If you’re doing your own nails, try nixing the French manicure look and just using one of the cream shades as an all-over color with a shiny top coat. If you’re heading out to treat yourself to a manicure, bring this kit along and ask the manicurist to use it for your treatment.

This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online courses.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.

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The M. Asam Classic Beautiful Hand and Nail set has everything that you need to do your own perfect manicure. It includes the following:

• Hand Scrub –This scrub contians sugar crystals soaked in grape seed oil.  I loved this item and the way it gave a light exfoliation and conditioned at the same time.
• OPC Hand Cream – With vitamin C and green tea, this cream is a nice general hand cream.
• Intensive Nail Serum – Contains panthenol, biotin and silica to moisturize nails and brittle, dry cuticles. The serum does a nice job at conditioning and leaves a good shine.
• Cuticle Care Pen – I love this cuticle pen! The formula contains natural oils such as soya, jojoba and avocado oils that are applied to the cuticles with the soft tip of the care pen. The pen includes replacement tips.
• Polishing Nail File – This is another great product! The file has a green side for buffing and a white side for shining—and boy does it bring out the shine! buff your nails with this and you might be quite happy leaving your nails bare!
• Nail File – This 2-sided file features a rough green side for shortening and trimming your nails and a softer white side for finishing. It comes in its own pouch.
• Cosmetic bag – Included is a satin bag embellished with a white faux leather bow and the M. Asam logo in black at the zipper top.
• .10 oz. Face Mask sample packet.
• .10 oz. Day and Night Cream sample packet.

The M. Asam Hand and Nail kit is featured in episode 7 of HSN’s online series Faces of Beautiful You. This is the best all around nail kit that I have tried. So, if you want a good manicure kit, or if you are looking for a great gift, check it out!

Comparison shop for M. Asam products

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Today’s guest post is from Sam Radakovitz who tried out a Dazzle Dry nail polish kit:

Dazzle Dry is a quick dry nail polish system that was designed to cut the time you put into doing your nails. I’d like to describe Dazzle dry as a nail polish miracle. The kit I received included three different nail lacquers including rapid red, rose quartz, and heart of fire. It also included the nail prep, base coat and top coat.

The nail prep/base coat combination is designed to prepare the nail bed for application of the nail lacquer and remove any natural oils as well as nourish your nails. What was really nice about it is that the polish does try amazingly fast, so there is no long waiting and only one coat is needed. Normally with any other polish I use, by even the second day it is already chipping. With dazzle dry my nails almost looked the same after a whole entire week (picture below).

I would recommend the product for anyone who has a busy schedule. It’s like having your own manicure army at home.  If you check out the Dazzle Dry website you’ll find more shades as well as other products.

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I grabbed a bottle of Maybelline Salon Expert Nail Color because I loved the bright summer pink shade (pink splash, number 822). Turns out that I also love the polish in general.

Maybelline Salon Expert covers really well. You can get away with only one coat of this stuff, but I went ahead and did two. It has a great shiny look when dry, and boy does it last! I type so much and tend to be hard on my nails, so I generally chip the heck out of polish within a day or two. I managed to make the Salon Expert lacquer last about 5 days, then I stretched it a few more by tossing another coat on top.

I was so impressed that I went and bought another bottle in a different shade. It is affordable, quality, easy to find, and has some great shades. What more can a person ask for?

Shop for Maybelline Cosmetics

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When I first started writing Beauty and Fashion Tech, I reviewed Olay Definity. I loved it then and I still love it. Now I have had the opportunity to try both the Olay Definity Foam Moisturizer and the Olay Definity Facial Lotion. Each are excellent companion products for the cream.

Olay Definity works on skin discoloration using a glucosamine complex. This relatively simple mix of glucosamine and niacinamide has been shown to lessen hyperpigmentation and melasma, thus making it worthwhile compound to add to treatment for those conditions. I tend to be sure to use one or more of the Definity products in conjunction with a melasma treatment serum such as or .

I love the Olay Foaming Moisturizer! The light foam is formulated to penetrate the skin deeper than a standard cream or lotion. It absorbs incredibly quickly and can be used with other moisturizers, but I find it particularly nice for days when my skin is extra oily because it provides very light moisture by itself that won’t overwhelm oily skin. Then on drier days, adding something over it is easy.

The correcting protective lotion is also a joy to wear. Formulated with SPF 15, this is a great light day cream that can be worn alone or over the foaming moisturizer. It absorbs quickly and fully and feels quite light, but actually provides a pretty good amount of moisture. One thing to note though is that while Olay products tend to have a light feel to them and tend to absorb fast, that doesn’t mean that the moisturizing properties are all that light. I have seen some people state that they though Olay was not moisturizing enough, but keep in mind that a cream or lotion does not have to feel heavy or leave a film on your face to provide sufficient moisture. I think people tend to underestimate the amount of moisture that Olay products actually provide. The lotion is lighter than the cream, but still quite moisturizing.

You can find Olay products at just about any drugstore or big box retailer.

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I was sent a lovely sink set from the Thymes Company Gardener Collection to try, and I found it rather unique. first, unlike the standard soap and lotion sink sets out there, the Gardener set includes a nail brush, something I made good use of after planting flowers last weekend!

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I’m no nail polish expert, I’ll leave that for the women at All Lacquered Up and Nail Tech Secrets. But I do know when I find something that I particularly like. Sally Hansen Salon Nail Lacquer is one of those.

I have always leaned toward purchases of Sally Hansen nail polish. I suppose that is largely because they are so easily found, have a large selection, and are affordable. But I also have always like their quality over OPI, which is another more expensive brand with a huge number of colors. Lately, I go right to the Sally Hansen section because I adore their Salon line.

The Sally Hansen Salon nail polish line comes in attractive bottles with a no slip cap and the colors are amazing. In no other line have I found so many shades that I just love. There really are not all that many, it is just that I love almost all of them.

The polish itself goes on smooth, dries relatively quickly, and lasts without chipping pretty well, which for me is just a few days because I beat the heck out of my nails! I definitely get as long as or longer time with the Sally Hansen Salon polishes than I get with other brands.

Sally Hansen Salon Nail Lacquer can be found in most drugstores.

Shop for more Sally Hansen Products

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The shopping list posts are winding down and next week will return more to standard product reviews as usual. I wanted to get the lists out in time for online shopping! For those like me who wait until the last minute (yeah I am a procrastinator), I might yet run a gift list for last minute drugstore shopping.

Looking for cosmetic and beauty items to use as stocking stuffers or small holiday gifts? Take a look at some of these options:

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The M.A.C Blue Storm Collection is a collection based on blues hues released just in time for fall. The shades are also utilized at fashion week for the spring looks.

The shadows range from a beautiful light blue/gray to a rich teal, to a deeper and brighter blue.

Also available are cool tone lipglass shades in silvery violets and plum, and eye pencils in a teal and black.

My favorites of the collection though are the nail lacquers, which come in a teal blue frost and and gray frost with lilac undertones. Both are unique and interesting shades that should work well with the blues, blacks and other darker nail polish colors that are in style this fall. They also should provide interesting looks well into next spring.

The Blue Storm collection consists of mostly limited edition products. So take a look at it while you can!

Shop for more M.A.C Cosmetics

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“nubar announces the Collection for the Cure for 2008. A collection of four nubar nail products which are great for everyday wear. Two beautiful pink shades, Pink Cami and Je’Taime, a foundation base coat and Diamont Seal & Shine. 10% of the retail price of the Collection for the Cure will go towards St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Cancer Treatment Research Foundation and the City of Hope. nubar offers products that are free of harmful ingredients such as; Toluene, Formaldehyde or DBP (Phthalate). Your purchase is a commitment to help support education, outreach, research and all of our critical programs throughout the country.”

I tried the polishes and the shimmery colors are quite nice. I used the darker pink on my toe nails and the lighter on my finger nails. I particularly liked the very light, yet quite luminescent quality of the lighter pink shade. The base coat and top coat were fine, and everything went on nicely. The shades would also work well for French tip manicures.

If you are looking for some nice pink shades to try and want to send a bit of money to a good cause, check out this set!

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