Pocketful of Joules

In my imagination, I’m one of those people with beautify painted nails. However, in reality… I never really bother with making them pretty. My toenails are painted year-round, but my fingernails are typically just trimmed short without polish.

I got a gel manicure in September for my brother’s wedding and it looked fantastic, which made me want to be one of those pretty nail girls again. A long, long time ago I tried Jamberry. I liked them fine, but found the removal process tedious. Which brings us to Color Street.

Color Street nail polish strips are actually made out of 100% real nail polish, just in thin strip form. You apply them to your nails much like I did the Jamberry strips, but when it comes time to remove them you just use normal old nail polish.

SOLD!

They were running a buy 3, get 1 free special, so I ordered: Penny Lane, El Dorado, Only in Vegas and Rio Red. They cost $12 per pack for 16 strips. Penny Lane not included in the photo, because I ripped that one open to try.

Once they arrived, I googled around and found this application video. I wiped each nail with the provided alcohol wipe, lined up the polish strip and applied it just like the video. I was able to get two nails out of each strip. So, since there are 16 strips in the pack I can get 2 full manicures and also use the leftovers for accent nails. Which brings the cost per use down to less than $6 for a manicure… not too shabby.

I found that the strips go on quite easy and look A LOT nicer than when I attempt to paint my own nails. Here is it after my very first try of doing a full set:

 

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A post shared by pocketfulofjoules (@pocketfulofjoules) on Oct 29, 2018 at 12:15pm PDT

By the way, it is REALLY hard to take a good fingernail photo. I even looked up a couple nail polish hashtags to figure out how those ladies do it. This is the Penny Lane color, and I actually really like how it’s kind of subtle with a little shimmer.

Here are my nails exactly one week later:

I totally copied this ‘fingernails on a phone case’ pose from Instagram people… Anyways, as you can see, there was some wear on the tips but no huge chipping issues. Many people say they get 2 – 3 weeks out of their set, but I went ahead and removed them after a 1 ½ weeks. The removal process was just like removing normal nail polish and my cheapo no-name polish remover did a great job.

I was planning to use these before my sister’s wedding on the cruise, but when I went in for a pedicure I splurged and did a gel manicure as well. However, once I rip the gel manicure off (no, I don’t pay to get it removed and yes, I know it ruins your nails to rip it off) I’ll stick some Color Street on my nails until they look pretty again.

Have you tried Color Street nail polish strips? What do you think of them?

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored review. I was not compensated in any way and all opinions are my own.

I am currently out of the office. I will not be available at all. Not by phone, or email, or Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram, or carrier pigeon. I’m turning off my phone and sticking it in a safe for an entire week. It’s going to be weird, but it is a MUCH NEEDED social media (and life in general) break.

Instead of working, blogging, or staring at my phone, I will be having so much fun on an amazing cruise with my family to celebrate the wedding of my sister, Katie.

I’ll be back on Monday, December 10^th.

It’s bimonthly Clothing Purge Report time! Rather than just showing you what I purchase, I also like to show you what items leave my house and how I sell or donate them. I also like to do a purge round-up to keep myself thinking about what else can be purged from my closet!

You can find my previous Clothing Purge Reports here:
Clothing Purge Report: August & September
Clothing Purge Report: June & July
Clothing Purge Report: April & May

Here’s my criteria for where I sell:

• Poshmark/eBay: items that are in perfect condition.
• My Instagram page: items that are in perfect or near perfect condition. I’ll typically post a collage of what I’ve listed elsewhere.
• Facebook Sale Groups: items that are in perfect or near perfect condition in specific brands, such as Anthropologie, Boden, and Stitch Fix.
• ThredUp Clean Out Bag: items in very good condition, but not perfect enough for me to sell on my own.
• Donate to Thrift Stores: items in good condition or showing wear.

Poshmark
I had the majority of my sales on Poshmark, with 8 items selling:

I thrifted both green sweaters and decided that I no longer loved them, so I sold them for a profit. The sparkly heels are gorgeous, but I’m at the point where ALL my heels have to go. I bought these at TJMaxx and broke even on the sale. I was going to donate the black flats (I have a replacement pair that I like better), but decided to list them and see what happens. Boom, $12 is better than nothing!

The spotted tote was from Causebox and I knew I’d never use it… so it was nice to get a little of my money back for that (Causebox costs $50 per quarter for the whole box). I’ve had the Fossil organizer for ages and it never met my needs, so that got listed and sold too. I bought the Anthropologie sweater skirt a couple years ago and wore it a handful of times, but it always made me super warm, so I listed and sold that one too.

Now, let’s talk about the bridesmaid dress. It can be so hard to sell items with feelings attached to them. I wore this dress at my brother’s wedding in September and I knew I’d never wear it again… so typically I’d stick it in the back of a closet for a decade before finally getting rid of it. This time, I forced myself to list it ASAP because I figured that since the color is still selling on the David’s Bridal website, there may be another thrifty bridesmaid that could use one at a discount! This dress was originally $180 but I’m pretty sure I got it on sale for 20% off or something. I listed it on Poshmark for $85 and accepted an offer within a week for $75. MUCH better than letting it sit in my closet and take up space!

I ended up making 8 sales and my total earnings were $250 before Poshmark fees (20%).

Facebook Sale Groups
I belong to some brand-specific Facebook groups: Boden Mamas B/S/T, Anthropologie BST, Non Crap Mama Clothes, Rothy’s BST, Stitch Fix b/s/t Large and Stitch Fix B/S/T. If you are interested in joining any of them, you need to submit to join and then the administrator will approve each person (I am not the administrator of any of these groups).

Items sold on Facebook groups:

• Stitch Fix top – wore a few times last year and no longer love, sold for $29
• Stitch Fix funnel neck sweater – bought a few years ago and no longer wear, sold for $38

My total earnings for my Facebook sales were $67. I love selling through Facebook Groups because I don’t have to pay any Poshmark or eBay fees, just a small PayPal fee for the sale (usually a couple bucks). So all I have to subtract out is postage costs and the rest is MINE ALL MINE!

How did you like my bi-monthly ‘what I sold’ posts? Did you find them helpful? Do you have any clothes selling tips?

I last begged for book recommendations a couple years ago with In Dire Need of Good Reads and I’m right there again. I’m about to go on a trip, so I want to download a bunch of books to take with me on my Kindle, rather than weighing down my luggage with books from the library.

I have Amazon Unlimited, so there are a ton of books that I can borrow for under that membership, but I could really use some recommendations!

Here’s what I’m looking for:

• FUN
• Sassy
• Romance
• Mysteries
• Silly Chic Lit
• YA is cool too
• LIGHT AND FLUFFY!

What do you suggest? Bonus points if it’s available on Kindle Unlimited!