Welcome to another installment of Bionic Beauty Homemade with Joycey Couture!

What do you get when you wash your hair everyday in the midst of winter? You guessed it- dry hair!
In my quest to find a solution, I came across this recipe. Time for show and tell!

Has the winter months wreaked havoc on your hair? Try this DIY cucumber hair drench!

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 eggshell’s worth of olive oil>
• 1 quarter of a peeled cucumber

Directions:

Blend the egg, olive oil and peeled cucumber together in a large bowl and spread it evenly through your hair. Leave the mixture on for at least 10 minutes and rinse thoroughly. For the best results, use this treatment monthly.
Also great during those beach and pool filled months we call summer.

Oo la la!

Stay Bionic,

I got into the Olympic spirit these last few weeks and decided an Olympic themed-pedicure would help even further. I used Vancouver’s Olympic color scheme of greens, blues, whites and teals blended with arches, mountains, a various other graphics. Of course, since toe nails aren’t the largest canvas out there, things came out a bit squishy… but I think you still get the idea due to the colors.

My "Bionic" Olympian nail polish colors

So here it is…

The colors I used in order of application…

1. Color Club matte nail polish in Ghost of a Chance (semi-matte white cream polish from the 2009 Halloween collection)
2. Essie in Great Expectations (very, very light gray with very subtle shimmer)
3. Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine in Glow (an “alien green” metallic frost – this is one of my favorite polishes ever!)
4. Barry M in Mint Green (semi-translucent minty cream)
5. Sally Hansen Salon in Honeydew (Spring 2009 Limited Edition “Tracy Reese” collection – Honeydew is a turquoise/teal with subtle silvery shimmer. Very pretty!)
6. Color Club in Pure Energy (A neon blue with lots of duochrome shimmer, what more can you ask for?)
7. China Glaze in Frostbite (a medium brilliant blue frost, available at most Sally Beauty stores)
8. Sinful Colors in Pearl Harbor (clear polish with teal glitter flecks, available at Walgreens stores for $2.49)
9. Super Dry top coat (My $1 bargain buy, super quickie dry top coat. It’s the best quick dry top coat I’ve ever tried, not the longest wearing but for nail art or a quick polish job, it’s the best. I found mine at a Dierberg’s grocery in St. Louis, MO.)
10. Sally Hansen Nail Art pen in Silver (I suggest applying this after several hours, otherwise it pushes through the polish layers, and you end up with dents. Be SURE to apply a top coat after or it just rubs right off!)

My Olympic themed pedicure & nail polishes (Click for a larger image)

Have you ever created nail polish art inspired by an event, artwork, sports team, movie, etc? And if you’ve been watching the Olympics, what has been your favorite part? (If you follow me on Twitter, you *know* my fave part is the Men’s Hockey and the fact that we are IN THE FINAL FOUR!! Ok, I’ll stop shouting now…)

In the majority of locations, winter translates to closed toe shoes, boots, thick socks and slippers. This week’s Bionic Asks… When you feet are covered constantly do you bother to keep your toe nails painted?

I’ve been painting my toes since I was in high school. It’s habit for me, and a relaxing ritual that I happily indulge. I consider my toe nails small canvases waiting for artwork… so they stay polished year round. I do try to give them a “break” for two weeks every few months; outside of that, I’m always anxious to try a new nail polish color!

This week’s Bionic Asks… Will you be creating a special makeup look this holiday season? Maybe you are headed to a work party, or a family dinner, or out for New Year’s Eve. Whatever the case, the holidays give us a chance to play a bit with makeup.

Wear an extra sparkly brow highlight, a shimmery bronzer on your cheeks, or even some fine glitter sprinkled in your hair. Just be sure not to overdose on the bling-factor. If your dress is sparkly, stay with a matte eyeliner but adding a shiny lipgloss would still be fine. Amp up your little black dress with a smokey gel eyeliner (like Black Cherry from Purely Cosmetics or Pencil Me In’s eye liners in Champagne Sparks or Emerald City) that has some extra shine- it’ll really make your eyes pop!

So, I’m calling all the Bionic Beauties out there… what are your tips for holiday makeup looks and what will you be wearing this season?

I’ve launched a new poll on Bionic Beauty. Are you planning a special a makeup look for the holidays?

Whether you have the social calendar that rivals Paris Hilton or plan to lay low this holiday, I want to know if you’ll be creating a special makeup look. Perhaps for an office party, a night on the town with friends, or sitting by TV with your significant other. Extra sparkles in your eyeshadow, or a deeper red lip… stepping away from your traditional makeup can be fun this time of year. Cooler weather seems to let our creative makeup side run a bit wilder. We can use bolder shades and looks than what we’d normally wear.

The new poll is available in the right sidebar of Bionic Beauty (under the appropriately labeled “Polls” section), so go on… and vote! And feel free to leave your comments below.

Below are the results of the previous Bionic Beauty poll…

Do you rotate your shampoo and conditioner between different brands?

• Yes (85%, 110 Votes)
• No (15%, 20 Votes)
• Total Voters: 130

The overwhelming majority of us rotate our shampoo and conditioners. Various reasons were given from: buying what’s on sale, the desire to try new brands, being influenced by coupons and freebies, recommendations from friends, and experience that hair does best when a variety of hair care is used.
See? We are all more alike than we realize!

Thanks for voting, and thanks for being Bionic Beauties!

If you’ve been a Bionic Beauty reader for a bit, you know that one of my favorite makeup brands is PRIIA Cosmetics. Well, I’ve got more reasons to love them… In honor of the upcoming holidays, PRIIA has launched some new products!

• Body Sparx™ is a scented body shimmer powder ($16 for a 20g jar). Contains all-natural and organic fruit extracts such as pomegranate, apricot and wild cherry bark. Available in two shades- Goddess (for light to medium skin tones) and Diva (for medium to medium/deep skin tones). I love having some body shimmer around for the holidays and special events. I dust it on my chest for glimmer or add a bit to my body lotion to use on my arms and legs. Ta-da! Legs look instantly more toned!
• 6 new lip colors available in the “About 2 Pout™” lip gloss formula or the “Pucker Upz™” lipstick formula. Also launched is a clear lip gloss!

In other news… PRIIA has some great samples! They are pretty darn cheap and let you try which colors are best for you. Check out their makeup sample page for details.

And last, but not least, it wouldn’t be very Bionic of me to neglect mentioning PRIIA’s current sale. All their vegan lip and eye liners are currently 50% off!! Lots and lots of colors to choose from!

This holiday glitter nail polish is everywhere. It seems the two main nail trends this winter are at complete polar opposites. It’s either super matte or blinged out glitter.

Color Club’s new Wonderland collection is no exception- green, silver and red glimmer will brighten any jewel-toned dress.

Color Club's Under the Mistletoe nail polish

Under the Mistletoe is a celery-green which is refreshing instead of the usual forest greens. The polish is slightly cool toned and was my favorite of this collection.

Color Club's Wonderland nail polish

Wonderland is a bright sterling silver. I actually prefer this silver glitter over many of the frosts and metallics I’ve tried before. Wonderland is very wearable due to the depth of a jelly, offset with the glitter. I’ve already decided that I’m wearing this color for New Year’s Eve.

Color Club's Yule Love It nail polish

Here’s one for the more traditional gals out there. Yule Love It is a medium red jelly base loaded with red glitter. It’s on the cool-toned side and is very wearable for both fingers and toes. This color is absolutely stunning in person- it’s lit from within!

True to Color Club’s reputation, these polishes applied very smoothly. I love that the glitter is uniform, distributes evenly on application, and dries quickly. All three are set in a self-toned jelly base which really adds to the depth. My swatches are all shown with 2 coats of polish.

Color Club’s Wonderland collection contains 4 mini-sized bottles (all 3 colors above, plus a clear top coat) and is only $7 at Head2toeBeauty.com. At that price, they’d make great stocking stuffers!

FTC Disclosure: This item was sent to me free of charge in return for an honest review. The opinion in this article is based on my personal experience and was not influenced by any source. I was not compensated for this article. Feel free to read my disclosure policy for more information.

In my article comparing a variety of matte polish top coats, I promised you some tips on embracing this trend. After months of wearing matte nail polish myself, I came up with these tips to help your manicure and polish last and to get the best results possible.

China Glaze's Recycle polish with Rescue Beauty Lounge's Matte topcoat for the designs.

1. Try to use as little hand lotion or cream as possible. If you do apply lotion, gently wipe it off your matte nails with a soft cloth or old T shirt. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a glossy finish.
2. Really take your time applying your colored nail polish. Focus on getting it smooth and even. Matte top coats and polishes show every little ridge, bubble and mistake.
3. Use a quality base coat like CND’s Stickey ($19 at Sally Beauty Supply) and Dermelect Launchpad Anti-Aging base coat (at $18 at SkinStore.com). Both of these are my go-to base coats for any nail polish. Some people recommend not using a base coat with matte colors, but I tried that- and I just ended up with peeling color immediately. These two base coats help adhere your polish color and really increased the life of my manicure!
4. Experiment with colors! Grays, taupes, navy, red, lime greens all look super cool when mattified. But think outside the box too- Glitter polish with a matte top coat is very unique! It’s almost like frosted stained glass. In the photo below I left my pointer finger glossy, all the rest have one coat of essie’s Matte About You.


Glitter polish topped with essie's Matte About You produces a softened effect.

5. Combine gloss and matte finishes. You can do a monochromatic French manicure by applying a matte top coat on your entire nail and a glossy top coat across the tips, or reverse it! Stripes and dots also look fresh and subtle.

If you’ve tried the matte nail trend, what was your experience? Do you have any tips to share?

I just found out that e.l.f. Cosmetics will be available in all Target stores starting November 1st! This is super news for us bargain makeup shoppers. They’ll be carrying an assortment of the $1, $3, $5, and $10 products in special black packaging exclusive to Target.

Over the upcoming holidays, Target and e.l.f. will feature the $1 Holiday Collection makeup pieces. Perfect stocking stuffers for teens, moms, and yourself. You can’t beat one dollar makeup!

I use my tinted moisturizer for traveling (don’t miss my review!); and the concealer is truly amazing- its my favorite e.l.f. product (here’s my concealer review). I also love their cream eye shadow duos: I use them on their own or as a base/primer for powder shadows.

After the holidays, you’ll even get a chance to checkout and buy the Studio line in Target (here are some pictures from the elf Studio line). If you’re a hands on gal like me, this is nothing but good news. Finding e.l.f. at a store you frequent will allow me to study a product and color before I purchase.

What are your favorite e.l.f. Cosmetics products?

So I got mostly non-beauty related presents this holiday season. Most importantly, I got my upgrade for my Macbook. She’s now furiously running Leopard OSX. Yippee!

But back to beauty… here’s what I got from family and friends.

I got an incredible set of makeup brushes from Smashbox! It’s their Holiday 2008 set. My friends knew I needed to expand my brush wardrobe and this did just the trick. My favorite so far is the Smudger brush. It works great for smudging eyeliner, mineral shadows and applying precise regular eyeshadows. (Click the photo for a bigger version.)

And then a very adorable set of mini Lip Tints from Bobbi Brown. My sister knew I was a huge fan of theirs after getting some of their lip glosses this year, so she increased my collection. These Lip Tints also have SPF 15 so I can’t wait to sport them on the beach this summer! Colors are Cherry Tint, Tea Tint, and Blossom Tint.

And here’s how they look on…



I love ‘em! Thanks Sis!

So, did you get anything beauty related for the holidays???