'Birthday Cake' for my birthday!

Hey everyone!

Today is my birthday & i'm 23! ...

meh, birthdays are so anticlimatic nowadays, haha.

BUT, i did use my birthday as an excuse to purchase a certain indie polish ...

I give you, 'Birthday Cake' from Lush Lacquer!

'Birthday Cake' is a milky white base with loads of confetti glitter in every color of the rainbow. It also has multicolored bar glitter (sparingly), along with some silver holographic glitter.

Here I've used 2 coats.

THIS. POLISH. IS. AWESOME.

For those of you who haven't tried any of Lush Lacquer's polishes- DO IT. They're such fantastic quality, especially for indies where many can be spotty.

The formula for this polish is fantastic- not too gloopy and not too runny. The bar glitter is sparse so it doesn't look like pubes, like much bar glitter is wont to do ;p

I love how this totally looks like confetti cake batter! I've had my eye on this polish for monthsssssss & I finally had an excuse :)

This dried a tiny bit gritty, but nothing a coat of SV couldn't fix!

I got this for $8.75 on Lush Lacquer's Etsy site. It's a little pricey, i know, but totally worth it. Unique and great quality. I've swatched two other Lush Lacquer polishes here and here if you want to check it out!

What's your favorite Lush Lacquer polish?!

Let me know! :D

200 Follower Giveaway!!!!!

Woooo!

The time has come! I've reached 200 followers, so OF COURSE I have to host a giveaway! ;p
 I really appreciate those of you that follow me and take the time to read and comment! It means a lot that i'm not just typing this all to myself :)

Since my last giveaway was all nail polish, this time i'm going back to my roots- makeup! I'm giving away products that are personal favorites of mine, and many are perfect for the upcoming Fall season!

Here's a sneak peek of the goodies up for grabs!

UD's 'Last Call'

UD's Foundation Sampler

Maybelline Great Lash mascara & Baby Lips chapstick

UD's 24/7 Pencil Stash!

(these 2 pictures aren't mine; but it's unopened so I wanted everyone to be able to see swatches)

HERE'S HOW TO ENTER:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Note: this IS open to my international followers, too!!
The giveaway closes at midnight eastern time on October 8, 2012.
I will pick a winner and they will have 48 hours to respond.

Neon leopard print nails!

Goooood afternoon, everyone!

Please look what I just saw outside my window:

SO. CUTE.

My neighbor leaves birdseed or something all over their patio (ugh), but it WAS cute to get to look out and see these tiny guys. adorable.

ANYWAY,

I finally played around with some stamping again,

and using my daughter's leopard print leggings-

here's what I came up with!

Tada!

 I totally love this mani. It's by far my favorite that I've done in awhile :)

I'm still not that great at stamping, but i'm slowly getting better.

I used:

China Glaze's 'Pelican Gray' as base

Konad stamping polish in black for spots

Konad stamping plate m57

CG's 'Purple Panic' & 'Yellow Polka Dot Bikini' for accent spots w/ dotting tool

SV

What do you guys think?!

Also,

STAY TUNED because I justtttttt might be announcing a giveaway tomorrow! ;)

Atomic Seas

Happy Wednesday! 

I know many of you don't watch and don't care, but the NFL officially kicks off their season tonight! Woo! I prefer college football to pro, but i'll take any football I can get after being deprived from it all spring and summer ;P

Today I have another look for you using some Beauty From the Earth shadows. I'm not that fond of it, but I figured I'd post it anyway :/

(prior to eyeliner on upper lid)

' 7 Seas' & Atomic Teal'

I used:

Too Faced's Shadow Insurance

BFTE '7 Seas' on lid

BFTE 'Atomic Teal' in outer corners/crease

UD's 'Zephyr' as highlight

Covergirl liquid eyeliner in black

Too Faced's Lashgasm mascara

 '7 Seas' is a sea-green matte that leans words a uber bright teal. 'Atomic Teal' is a shimmery, blacked teal. Both are loose shadows. 

I don't usually use matte shadows, and this look reminded me why. My past experience with BFTE shadows have all been shimmers and they've been AWESOME, but I had issues with blending and balding with this matte. It's a vivid, gorgeous color- but just not the type of shadow I prefer to use. As a result, the look didn't blend well at all and it came off very amateur-ish, in my opinion :/

'7 Seas' is the ONLY shadow from BFTE I've tried that I didn't like, however. Their stuff is absolutely fantastic. You can get samples of both these shadows here for $2 or a full jay for about $6 or $6.50!

'Liberating', nighttime look!

Hey everyone :)

Hope those of you who had a long weekend had a fantastic and relaxing time.

It's back to the daily grind now, though :/ meh.

Is it bad that i'm already desperate for fall break?

:p

Anyway, today I have a nighttime look for you using a shadow in The Black Palette from Urban Decay (swatched here)!

I used:

UD's Primer Potion

UD's 'Libertine' on lid & lower lash line

UD's 'Mildew' on lid, highlight over crease & lower lash line

UD's 'Maui Wowie' on brow bone/highlight

Covergirl liquid eyeliner in black

Maybelline Falsies mascara

So I really wanted to focus on 'Libertine' with this look and not take away from it with much else. I used 'Mildew' to highlight a few areas, but that's it. As usual as of late, I used 'Maui Wowie' as a highlight. This little sucker really has been a favorite lately.

I find this to be a bold, sultry nighttime look. I love the shimmery green that 'Libertine' already provides, and with 'Mildew' added- it really makes it pop.

What do you guys think?

Would you wear this out?

Thanks for reading! 

:)

look w/ & review of Maybelline Color Tattoo

Happy Labor Day!

I'm celebrating today by taking advantage of sales and buying my daughter's 1st birthday outfit :)

CAN'T WAIT. Yet I can at the same time, because I don't want her to grow up :'(

But anywayyyyyyyy,

I bought several products from Maybelline the other day,

and two of them were the new Maybelline Color Tattoo shadows.

I chose my favorite of the two and dutifully did a look with it,

and I have that + a small review here :)

This is 'Tenacious Teal' :

(not my picture!)

Despite being described as teal, I found this to be a BEAUTIFUL bright blue (see swatch here). I love wearing bright blue on my eyes so I was excited to try this sucker out.

Initially I did something very simple. I noticed this shadow was primarily used by itself in the commercial and I wanted to see how I liked that on myself. Though it's definitely bright and gorgeous, the look just felt naked with the shadow and mascara alone... so I added to it a bit.

That's better! Here I added Urban Decay's 'Haight', 'Evidence', and 'Maui Wowie' to my middle lid, outer corner/crease, and brow bone respectively, along with UD's 24/7 Eyeliner pencil in 'Peace' on my lower lash line. MUCH better looking, in my opinion. The look just seems more whole.

Now for the pros and cons of Maybelline's Color Tattoo in 'Tenacious Teal':

Pros:

- GORGEOUS, vivid color

- packed with shimmer

- smooth texture

- applies easily, without much balding

- cheap, compared to many of the prestige cosmetics I use

- lots of shadow for the price

Cons:

- STILL creases and crumples, despite myself letting it dry for a good time. This is marketed as lasting 24 hours- which has got to be total bull. I gave this about 6 entire minutes to dry and it immediately started clumping some

- an exact dupe of Urban Decay's Peace', which I already have loads of, so no use in having a dupe of this, for me personally (see look using 'Peace' here)

- a little pricey for the quality

Whether or not I would recommend this product depends who I'm talking to.

 If you're like me and already have this shade from another (& better) cosmetic company, then you're probably not going to find much use for this particular Color Tattoo, especially since it creases, where UD never does. HOWEVER, if you don't already have this shade OR can't exactly afford the hefty price tag prestige cosmetics cost (which I often can't), then I think this product would be great for you, on the condition that you don't expect it to last more than a couple hours. I DID dab on some 'Haight' in the spots that were trying to crease or clump, and that seemed to take care of it, so a similar tactic could be used to preserve it, maybe.

As you can see, I DID have more pros than cons- so for most people I think this would certainly be something worth trying! :)

You can get this at any larger supermarket like Walmart or Target, as well as most (if not all) drugstores, beauty stores like Ulta, and online for about $7-8.

SO, what are your thoughts?

If you have 'Tenacious Teal', or any other shadows from the Color Tattoo collection,

what has your experience been with them?

cotton candy gradient nails

Happy Saturday!

Thank God we get a long weekend this weekend. So awesome.

So going back to my cotton candy eye post the other day,

I said I loved the color combo so much that I wanted to use it again with some nail are or something. In lieu of that, I decided to try a gradient with them.

Here's what I came up with:

(*sorry for lack of great clean up- was so over it by the time I got to my cuticles)

So, this was a slightly unsuccessful combination.

Though I LOVE the colors together, these 3 polishes just didn't mesh because their finishes were totally different, and in the end they didn't fade into each other very well at all :/

I used:

Sinful Colors' 'Cinderella'

NOPI's 'One Big Happy Fame-ily'

China Glaze's 'Pink Voltage'

So the Sinful Colors is a jelly, NOPI is a shimmer, and the CG is a neon matte... none of which looked great together. You can hardly see the purple and the China Glaze was too harsh against the other two. Something I DID like, however, was how the shimmer from 'Cinderella' and the NOPI spread over onto the CG, which did give the mani some form of consistency. Still, not my favorite that I've ever done. I love the color combo, though!

What do ya'll think?

Thanks for reading!

Tennessee Vols look!

It's FOOTBALL TIME IN TENNESSEE!

Sorry. Had to get that out.

Being a past UT student and devoted football fan (despite our past couple years of playing like crap- thanks a lot, lane kiffin).

ANYWAY,

the best time of the year is upon us and today is our first game.

Hopefully we won't lose :/

In honor of my beloved team,

I created a look using our school colors of orange and white!

I will preface this by saying I was totally indecisive with what I did and kept adding to it until I was finally happy with it.

First,

So I found this to be way too plain,

therefore I shaded over the white in the corners with orange:

I hesitated to add any eyeliner initially because I thought the look was already pretty bold,

but it soon became clear that it looked naked without it. So I finally added that:

There! That's better.

I love the simplicity and brightness of this look.

It's nothing fancy, but it still packs a punch.

I'm not sure this would be something I'd be brave enough to wear to a game,

but you never know ;)

I used:

Sugarpill's 'Tako' in inner corner & brow bone

Sugarpill's 'Flamepoint'

Covergirl liquid eyeliner in black

Covergirl Lashblast Volume 

What do you guys think?!

Go Vols!!

August favorites!

Hellooooooooo.

So the end of August is already here. wtf. Time absolutely flies by nowadays :/

BUT, the end of August means my favorites from this month- and I have some great ones this time ;)

***WARNING: Some of the following material is sexually explicit and could be offensive to some. Please do not read on if you are under 18 or are offended by such material***

So i've been to a couple 'adult' or 'sexy' parties in the past month, and some of the products are just so awesome that I HAVE to share them with you!

1. Slumber Parties' 'Coochy Cream'

This is 4oz of awesomeness. This little number is THE BEST product i've ever used to shave the Queen Victoria. This is perhaps a topic that many of you don't like to talk about, but we all do it (or need to). However, razor burn (among other things) can make it such a pain. 'Coochy Cream' enables me to shave EVERYDAY with NO razor burn ever AND it's as smooth as a baby's butt. I've yet to find any shaving cream or soap that can do that! You can get this off Slumber Parties website for $12 ;)

2. Slumber Parties' 'Basic Instinct'

Slumber Parties describes this as the following: "attract all the right attention with synthetic human hormones. It contains essential oils, so the scent will change based on your individual body chemistry," Basically, you rub this little sucker over your biggest arteries (like behind your ears and on your wrists) and seduce the world. The only reason I got it is because, uh, it totally works. At least for me and who I want to attract, haha. But I know several people that put it on, go into a bar, and literally have 3 guys approach them. Really neat, no matter what your desired outcome is. This is something I'd definitely recommend to any of you single girls! It's $27 which is a littttle hefty, but it lasts forever and is totally worth it ;) You can buy it here.

3. X-Scream

Okay, so this barely fits into the 'beauty' category- but I'm going to say it does ;) This sucker is the most sexual of them all. It's desired to "enhance" your sexual experience. This can be used be both men & women. It's gives you an instant tingling sensation that pretty much makes you horny immediately haha... but really :x It totally makes orgasms 10x better. Only a tiny dot is needed (for the ladies, anyway) & you're good to go! You can get it here for $19.

OKAY, DONE WITH THE SEXUAL STUFF ;)

4. Pastel purple nail polish

(not sure why this looks pink... ?!)

Pastel purple nail polish like Essie's 'To bUy or Not to Buy' has really grown on me this month. Even though it's more of a spring shade, I've just discovered it and really like how these colors look against my skin tone.

5. 'Maui Wowie'

This is a nude colored shadow that's packed with glitter. This has been my latest favorite to use for highlight on my brow bone. Most have my recent looks have incorporated it at some point :)

That's it for my August favorites!

Do any of you have these?

Maybelline haul, swatches, & look! (pic heavy)

Hey guys!

So after miss Nancy over at The Dark Side of Beauty featured some Maybelline eye shadow products, I decided that I was going to go ahead and give and buy them, since i'd been considering it for awhile.

Here's what I bought!

Maybelline Color Tattoo in 'Painted Purple' & 'Tenacious Teal'.

Maybelline 'Amethyst Ablaze'

Maybelline 'Sapphire' quartet.

Woo! I haven't used any Maybelline eyeshadows in manyyyyy many years,

but I have to say the pigment and shimmer in swatching these totally surprised me! :)

Now I didn't have time to do a look with everything,

but I DID attempt one with this last quartet of shadows.

Here's that:

This is very simple and straightforward. It's exactly how the back of the package suggested the colors be used, and honestly i'm not sure I would differ from it that much myself if I was determined to use them all together.

These didn't blend quite as easily as I'm used to with Urban Decay or Sugarpill,

but they weren't too bad. AND like i've already mentioned, I couldn't believe how great the pigment and shimmer was- I was really afraid they would be flat :/ I didn't wear this long enough to see how much staying power they had, and that will be a big determinant in if I reuse or purchase any more of these. I'll test that and then give a full review of these shadows later :)

I'll post looks with the other products soon.

Do any of you have any of these?

What do you think about them?!

Thanks for reading! :)