Do you have any idea what I just did?  Well, I just microwaved my socks! Yes that is right I put my ankle socks in the microwave and warmed them up.  Any idea why?  Well if you guessed I am crazy, you might be right.  Maybe it is because I am cold, again you might be right. The real reason I just microwaved my socks..... well it was a suggestion from a wonderful company I just had the pleasure of discovering.

BARIELLE is a company that specializes in nail, hand and foot care. BARIELLE caries a range of high-performance products at affordable prices.  First let me give you the background of how this company came to be.

More than 30 years ago a husband and wife team (Howard & EsteLee Price) developed a product to condition the hooves of their million-dollar thoroughbred racehorse. What they discovered is this miracle cream they had created not only helped the horses hooves from splitting and cracking, it also had the same effect on the jockey's nails that were applying it to the horses.  They went to work and re-formulated the cream so it could  be used on men and woman. The result was the creation of a new Nail Strengthener Cream and the beginning of a company called BARIELLE. Now over 30 years later this cream that helps your nails grow healthier, stronger,resists splits, peeling and breaking is still one of BARIELLE'S best selling products.

As I mentioned earlier, BARIELLE now carries a wide variety of different specialty products. Everything you could possible want for your nails, hands, skin and feet.  Each product is specially formulated to help prevent and heal some of our common everyday problems. It could be as simple as wanting your nails to look amazing with a new shade of colour for summer or as complexed and worrisome as calluses treatments or anti-fungal solutions. No matter what interests you I will bet BARIELLE can help you find the solution.

So back to why I just microwaved my socks.  First off it is really chilly in my office tonight and warm socks just make me toasty.  Secondly my feet are so sore from running around all day at work in the most uncomfortable sandals. So a little bit of warmth is soothing.  Thirdly, and the real reason, I nuked my socks is I am trying out a product I just received from BARIELLE for review.

The Total Foot Care Cream.

This is a conditioning cream that helps eliminate calluses and cracks on your feet while leaving them feeling soft and silky.  The cream I received is the travel size and came in a 70.8 gm tube. You just squeeze some out and apply it all over your feet. It has a thick consistency much like toothpaste, but it quickly becomes more thin once it comes in contact with the warmth of your skin.  It massages in well and I found that you really don't need to use very much at one time. I love the fact that this BARIELLE Total Foot Care Cream contains NO harsh peeling ingredients, acids or camphor.  It did not irritate my feet at all and I have been using it now for over a week and a half.  BARIELLE suggests applying their foot cream once in the morning after showering or bathing and again at night just before bed.  Well I am too busy running around in the morning to remember to do this, so I have been only using it at night. However I have taken a suggestion from the BARIELLE website and started mircowaving my 100% cotton socks for about 10-15 seconds and putting them on right after I apply their foot cream.  This enhances the moisturising effect to your feet and it just feels amazing when you want to get cozy on a chilly summer night like tonight. Leave your socks on all night and you will wake up to softer, smoother feet the next morning. If it is time to pamper those toes and heels than the Total Foot Care Cream is a great way to start.  It will help you get your feet back in sandal-wearing shape in no time at all.  It has eliminated the unsightly dry skin I had around my toe nails. Softened my heels and soothed the dry skin that was persistently on the side of my big toe.  My feet don't look all dried out anymore. I still have a callus on the underside of my foot, but that has been there through 14 years of being on my feet in high heels everyday.  With more time hopefully it will soften as well. I really am enjoying using the BARIELLE Total Foot Care Cream and feel good knowing that it is made with natural products such as beeswax, glycerin, paraffin, sunflower oil, lanolin and vitamin E. All great ingredients that will help restore and heal my feel and help prevent future dryness. Oh and one last thing it smells amazing.  It smells exactly like baby powder. The fragrance is so clean, fresh and light, just what you want after a nice hot bath. Smoothing foot cream that smells great and a warm, fuzzy pair of socks. The stuff that dreams are made of.

BARIELLE Total Foot Care Cream is the proud winner of Allure Magazine Editor's Choice Award 2003 & 2004

If you want to show off your feet this summer, go out a get a killer new pair of sandals and BARIELLE'S Total Foot Care Cream, you won't be sorry (both will make you feel amazing)

BARIELLE Total Foot Care Cream Retails for $12.00 (travel size)-$29.50  (for full 340 gm size)

Well the gracious people over at BARIELLE had yet another surprise in store for me.  I was given the opportunity to also product test and review one of their brand new nail colour shades.  Now this had me really excited.  I love nail polish and do my nails at least 3 times a week if not more.  I work in a high-end retail store and I am constantly showing customers products.  My nails have to be perfect, but since I neither have the time, energy or extra money to have manicures done every week, I do them myself. I actually prefer to do my own manicures since my nails are natural and I find I can do a better, quicker, less expense job here at home.

I was excited to read that BARIELLE'S nail shades have salon-strength but are completely free of chemicals like dibutyl phthalate, toluene and formaldehyde. In fact they are completely pregnancy safe (not that this is a concern for me anymore)

So I had my choice of many fabulous shades offered by BARIELLE. There were too many choices, how would I decide. I love all different colours. Reds, browns, pinks and purples. I wanted to try something different. Than I had a thought.  I recently was treated by my daughter (liljj) to a pedicure at a local salon for Mother's Day.  While getting my toe's painted in a deep grape purple, I noticed the lady beside me was going for a funky bright yellow.  I commented on how fantastic her toes were looking and how awesome the bright banana colour looked with her tan.  She replied that she was a little scared to try this shade the first time, but was back to do it again since it looked great with her new sandals.  I had previously noticed all these new shades while shopping a couple of weeks ago. New bright greens, yellows and oranges.  Every new nail colour was intense, bright and bold.  I wondered if I could pull it off. Were they too bold and fun for work? Well when I had a look through BARIELLE'S new shades of nail colour -  there it was. A bright orange colour called Joytini.  It is described as a cantaloupe orange.

Did I have the guts?  Was I too old for this?  I let the thought ride for one day before making my decision.  There were lots of safer shades. Red, pinks, beiges. All very work-appropriate colours.  So I went to work as usual and guess what happened?  The very first customer of the day walked in wearing a bright opaque orange nail polish.  It was fun, and screamed it is summer!!!  That was it decision made.  So my Joytini polish by BARIELLE arrived and I must admit I was a little shocked when I first saw the colour.  It was intense, bright and bold.  I am generally a conservative type. Again I questioned my decision.  I prepared my nails and sat down to give it a go.  The first thing that I noticed is the BARIELLE polish goes on very smooth, but so does a lot of other polishes. The coverage of the first coat was really quite impressive.  With other brands sometimes it looks dark in the bottle but barely there when you first put it on.  The colour is nice and opaque which immediately lead me to believe I wouldn't need to apply too many coats. BONUS. The first coat dried relatively quickly and I applied a second coat. My nails were completely covered and were not streaky at all.  Bonus. The coverage was even and looked the same all over my nails. Bonus. Once the BARIELLE polish was dry I held my hand up and had a good look. "Wow"- that is sure orange" I still wasn't sure I had made a wise choice, but what is done is done and it is not like a tatoo or anything, I can just take it off if I want too.  Looking at my nails I noticed that they appeared shiny and almost glossy. This is different, I have never seem shine from nail colour unless you use at top coat. BONUS. Well my nails were now fully dry and it was time to try out yet a third product provided by BARIELLE.  Their Ultra Speed Dry Manicure Extender. Now that is a mouthful.  This is a formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate free top coat clear polish that claims to be super quick drying.  So I read the directions on the box before applying the top coat and this is what it said;

Apply a protective top coat over polish. Wait approximately 60 seconds and nails are ready to go.

Are you kidding? 60 seconds? I didn't believe this for a minute. OH LOL (a minute = 60 seconds) Sorry.

I applied a top coat about 5 minutes after applying two colour coats and waited about 70 seconds.(10 extra because it couldn't really be true)  I wanted to really see if they were pulling my leg.  I  touched my newly manicured nails. Amazing they were dry. Not dry like you could viciously gouge the opening of a cardboard box, but dry enough that I could do things like change my clothes even type on my keyboard. BONUS. Another interesting fact is this top coat is developed with a UV absorber that helps prevent dark colours from fading and light colours from yellowing. It also provides a hard, chip resistant coating over your nail colour.  I am very hard on my nails.  They are natural and relatively long.  I work hard. I type, I open boxes, I generally use them as tools. I am constantly chipping, cracking and destroying my nail polish, hence the reason I re-do them 3 or more times a week.  So lets find out how BARIELLE really stacks up.  Wednesday, my last day off I tried my new Joytini BARIELLE polish again. Two coats of colour and one coat of Ultra Speed Dry Manicure Extender.  Today is Sunday.  My nails are bright, shiny, and have absolutely no chips. There has been no cracking or peeling of this polish either. I have been just as hard on my nails for the last 5 days as I ever am. I have no intention of re-doing my nails today.  They are still fine to go to work in the morning. Bonus. Oh and by the way I now love the colour.  It just took a while to get used to. In fact I think it just might be my new favourite colour for this summer.  Since my feet are looking better I think am going to treat myself to a home pedicure this afternoon and liven up the toes too.

I was very pleased with the results from all three products BARIELLE provided me with to try.

Please take the time to discover all the wonderful products BARIELLE has to offer here.

Exciting News................... BARIELLE has been kind enough to offer one of our lucky readers the chance to win their Top-Selling BARIELLE NAIL STRENGTHENER CREAM.

To Enter: Just simply visit the BARIELLE website and have a good look around. Then come back here and tell me which item interests you the most and why? Leave you comment below and you will automatically be entered to win.

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Good Luck Everyone!

Contest Ends: June 27th/11

Open to: Canada & USA

Disclaimer/Disclosure: I have a material connection because I received a gift or sample of a product for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was/am not expected to return this item or gift after my review period.