FINALLY!- 'Whimsical'

Hey guys!

Super stoked tonight because I finally laid my hands on Revlon's 'Whimsical'. 

Unfortunately, by this point everyone has seen it & knows what it's about,

but it's lovely enough to see again :)

'Whimsical' is a light blue base with large blue & pink hexagonal glitter, and it also some blue micro glitter throughout... annnnnd it's basically a dupe of Deborah Lippmann's 'Glitter in the Air'.

'Whimsical' is SUPER sheer and best used as a top coat. However, I wanted to get the full effect first of the polish alone, so the above photos are with 5 (yes, FIVE) coats- which is at least what you need to be even near opacity.

Next I tried this over NOPI's 'All About the Glam' (which is a shimmery white, because I didn't want to take away from the natural color of 'Whimsical') but the effect was about the same & it came off after 1o seconds so I didn't take pictures of that.

Likely due to the fact that it takes so long to build up, even after applied over a base polish AND with a solid coat of SV, this polish was just too caked on and it rubbed off/wrinkled in minutes, which was pretty disappointing. I guess the only way this can really be used is if you only use a couple coats :/

I've been so excited about this polish, but it didn't quite meet up to my expectations. I do love it, though, and it's totally unique (aside from the whole dupe thing :X) so I'm still glad I bought it :)

zesty nails!

hellooooo everyone.

I've been wanting to use my daughter's cute little dress as inspiration some nail art for quite some time, but I was waiting for the warmer weather :) Despite the fact that today just happened to be the coldest day we've had in awhile, the rest of the weather lately has indeed been almost hot!

Luckily I almost have all the colors in it, so I used those plus BM04 plate for this mani!

*close up

I used:

PureICE's 'Wild Thing' as the base

Konad stamping polish in 'pink'

Zoya 'Pippa'

Sally Hansen's 'Sun Kissed'

& here's the inspiration!

I like this mani more than I thought I would, but it's still only meh. I wish the yellow & orange  slices had shown up better, but they weren't polishes specifically for stamping so i'm not surprised.

The worst part was the base polish. It's one of the polishes I've had the longest, & it's consistency was just CRAP. But it was the only polish I had that matched the dress, soooo :/

As soon as I got the plates a couple months ago & saw that stamp, I knew exactly how I wanted to use it. All in all, i ain't mad at it. It's okay :x

What do ya'll think?

let's talk about lashes: mascara reviews & comparisons - LONG post!

Hey guys!

My daughter's gums are REALLY bugging her because her first tooth is due just any day now, but despite the fact that I've done everything I know to do- she's still fussy & screaming her head off sometimes :(

Wears me out.

Haven't had much desire or energy to blog lately,

but tonight that changes :)

I wanted to dedicate this post tonight to one of the products that I view as part of my basic regimen- mascara! I've had several people ask me what I use or would suggest, so

I figured I would share with you my recent favorites (& least favorites) in case any of you are looking for something new.

So here goes...

First off,

Tarte's Amazonian Clay Mascara

I've tried a ton of mascaras, & this stuff is one of the best yet. This is advertised as the first and only "smart" mascara. It's supposed to 'read' your lashes needs when it's applied (for hydration, strength, etc.) and improves upon the qualities they're lacking in, which is great for brittle or dry lashes. It also has been proven to increase lash volume by a crazy 121% ! Of all the mascaras that claim to give you volume, length, etc. i've found this mascara to deliver the best. When applied it didn't tend to clump, like loads of other mascaras. The brush is great and helps apply evenly, even with a couple coats. A great product that you can get it here on their website for $19.

Next up,

Too Faced's Lashgasm mascara

First of all, the name is awesome, haha. One of the things that drew me to it in the first place :x This product as certain oils that ensure longer wear, and one of it's biggest claims is to really improve length- which I've found it to do. The skinny brush has "micro hooks" which are designed to really grasp each lash and extend. I already have fairly long eyelashes, but this mascara makes them look twice as long, I feel like. Another bonus, it's super easy to remove EVEN as it lasts long throughout the day :)

The only downside I've found to this particular mascara is that it CAN had a tendency to clump a bit :/ Nothing to serious, though.

You can get it on Too Faced's website for $21.

Now,

Urban Decay's Big Fatty Mascara

Well, you guys are going to be shocked. You all know I LOve my UD products, but this one just failed to deliver and is certainly not worth the $20 price tag. Aside from the cute packaging, I just wasn't that impressed. It has a super fat brush (thus it's name) but I just didn't find it to flatter my lashes. It's supposed to "thicken" your lashes, and it definitely does that... but way too much, even with just 1 coat. Mine clump and bunch up together and it's just horrid. 

NOW, if you have very thin lashes or are older and looking for a way to appear to have more lashes than you do, than this mascara is probably a great one for you. For me however, it just was a little too much.

Now onto something besides prestige cosmetics...

My #1 & the 'little black dress' of cheaper mascaras:

Maybelline's Great Lash mascara

This is one of the best selling mascaras from the 'basic' brands, & it's a title it definitely deserves. Besides my favorite perk of being contact lens safe, this little sucker (claims) to double your lashes and condition them as well. I've personally never had any problems with it clumping, either. PLUS it's in a great, small size that you can easily fit in a small purse or your pocket. PLUS, it retails for just about $4 or $5 bucks! :D

Another recent find,

Hard Candy's Lash Call Lengthening Mascara

...

Do not buy this, people. Though you can get it for a cheap $6 at Walmart, isn't not worth it. To begin, the brush is a wimpy, basic spiral brush. WTF. no thanks.

This product claims to be add length, which it DID, but while everything else clumped and it all came over super easily, so that basically cancels out it's one pro.

Avoid this one.

Finally,

COVERGIRL's LashBlast Volume Blasting mascara

I've used a version of this mascara over the past 5 years or so, & I loved every single one of them. It applies evenly, really DOES give great volume for a 'basic' brand, & lengthened a bit as well. You can get it at most stores for about $5 or $6, and it's well worth it :)

So there you have it! (if any of you managed to make it to the end of this ridiculously long post)

I hope this helped!

Do any of you have these?

What are your thought about them?

Thanks for reading!

a beachy combo

happy saturday everyone!

Today I have 2 interesting polishes for you.

I bought them without the intention of putting them together, but once I got home I figured i'd give it a go, & i'm okay with how it turned out. It's not my favorite combo ever, but I like it all the same.

First the base- Revlon's 'Dreamer'

'Dreamer' is a pale, almost baby blue creme with seemingly grey undertones, depending upon the light. This is only my second Revlon polish (the other being a glitter) &, despite their iffy reviews, I was rather pleased with this one. It's consistency was pretty good and it was opaque it 2 quick coats. I don't know if it was because of the SV or what, but mine actually refrained from chipping longer than many of my other polishes O_o

On top of that I used Milani's 'Teal' from their  Jewel FX line.

'Teal' is a clear base with large deep blue, green, and silver hexagonal holographic glitter. The polish reminds me very much of the water in the Caribbean, which is where the beach combo idea came into play.

ANYWAY,

I used 2 coats of it over 'Dreamer' & got this:

Tada!

I'm not usually a fan of bright blues on my hand (though they are growing on me i general) but I quite liked this combination together. It feels springy & makes me anxious for the beach, even though that's not for another month or so.

This was my second polish from the Jewel FX line & it was just as awesome as the first!

All in all, pretty pleased with this mani.

What do ya'll think?

Have a good Saturday!

'Meltown Makeup Remover' review

good morning, bloggers!

My daughter is entertaining herself & giving me a rare moment of 'me' time! :)

hoorah!

So if you've been following my blog for any amount of time, you probably know that I LOVE me some Urban Decay :L

However, today's post actually does not center around eye shadow, for once.

Today I want to talk about their makeup remover:

So if you're like me, you wear a lot of Urban Decay's makeup (or other prestige cosmetics), and though they have fantastic staying power, they can be a BIT of a pain to remove.

In the past I've found that Vaseline worked best than any other makeup remover out there- at least for eyes, which is where I used it. And though it IS a great, cheap way to remove mascara, eyeliner, shadow, etc., it does leave a greasy residue behind :/

So after using cheapo Vaseline forever, I randomly decided one day to branch out and try UD's makeup remover...

and this stuff is definitely worth the price ($24 on their website).

Beta Carotene (a source of Vitamin A) and Gatuline In-Tense revitalize collagen production while Sea Fan Extracts combat inflammation. This smooth formula removes tough products in a flash (for the most part- i HAVE found with UD's glitter eyeliner & a few other products, you have to apply one or twice to remove it) WHILE smelling great & leaving NO residue behind! Cranberry & Raspberry Seed Oils, along with Kukui Nut & Oat Oil, moisturze & replenish your skin while leaving it with a lovely, subtle fragrance.

It even works great on the rest of your face. My facial cleanser never could seem to completely get off foundation or blush, but UD's Meltdown Makeup Remover does! Which is a nice plus.

I don't know what most of you are using now,

but I definitely suggest this product if you're looking for something new!

a great 'go to' polish :)

HeyHey!

Sitting here laughing to myself about North Korea's little embarrassment today. heh heh :P

Serves them right.

Anyway,

I'm excited about tonight's post AND polish because it's one I've been meaning to feature for a long time. I wear it often but somehow have just never got around to blogging about it.

SO, without further ado,

Orly's 'Gorgeous'!

*sunlight, no flash

'Gorgeous' is a vivid fushia with a deep blue/purple shimmer- almost duo chrom-y.

*fluorescent light, no flash (sorry for the blur)

Here you can see the purply-blue shimmer. Pretty amazing!

*indoor light, no flash

Tada! Totally one of my favorites that I use often. It never lets me down. It's consistency is rather thin, but I actually don't mind it with this polish. It's not runny and it's super easy to build up opacity- here I've just used 2 coats :)I don't have many Orly polishes for some reason... but the couple that I have are in my top 5 'go to' polishes for sure.

Do any of you have this polish?

watermelons :)

helloooooo.

Sitting here watching the Stanley Cup & it's intense!

Go Preds!

Also regretting eating Zaxby's earlier... I don't eat much fast food/greasy stuff anymore so the rare times that i DO0 i get sick :/ meh.

ANYWAY,

I'm rather pleased with today's little mani.

I bought a polish yesterday aptly named 'Watermelon' so you can see where the idea came from, obvi.

First the lovely base polish:

*sunlight

*indoors, no flash

Essie describes 'Watermelon' as a "juicy red creme",  but I disagree with that. As you can see in the pictures, particularly the last one, it's much more of a coral-y, fushia, medium hot pink. But whatever :P Surprisingly, it applied like a dream, I often had a hard time with the varying not-so-good formula of cremes, but this wasn't like that.

Now for the melons,

For the rind i Used China Glaze's 'Watermelon Rind' as it seemed more than appropriate. I used Konad Special polish in black & a dotting tool for the seeds. For some reason, I have a hard time with the dotting tool. My dots never look as nicely round and even as everyone else's... any suggestions from you nail pros?!?

I wish my left hand was steady enough so that I could paint my right hand without crap going everywhere, because the nails on my right hand are longer  and just overall better looking :( but oh well.

As amateur as it is, I still like it :) It's summery and makes me happy. and hungry. nomz.

What do you think?

What's your favorite summery fruit?

ice!

good evening, friends!

So apparently yesterday was my 100th post! yay!

ALSO, hello, welcome, & thank you to my new followers :))

So after the creatively lacking title of yesterday's post, I decided to follow that same theme and title today's 'Ice'.

I'm a little disheartened because my pictures did not translate the actual look, even though I tried them in every kind of light, including daylight (which is usually the best). Despite that, I decided to post them anyway :/

*outside, no flash

*me and my shnoz

*close up

** inside, flash

So, there you have it. meh.

In these photos, it looks a lot like other stuff i've done :(

BUT I PROMISE IT LOOKS DIFFERENT.

I used:

'metallic white' from Ulta in the inner corners

Urban Decay's 'Crystal' on the middle lid

'metallic blue' from Ulta on outer corners

Urban Decay's 'Uzi' on inner corners

UD's 'Zephyr' on brow bone and eyelashes

To me, this look is icy. I really liked the look 'Zephyr' gave when dusted on my eyelashes (though of course that was one of the things that didn't translate well in photos).

ANYWAY,

that's 'ice' for ya.

Wish it had translated better, but oh well :/

Hope everyone has a great night!

fire!

Hey guys :)

I've cleaned the whole apartment, got most of the laundry done, my daughter is in bed... & I don't know what to do with myself :p SO I SHALL BLOG.

Today I have a look for you that's one of my favorite 'bolder' looks. I've worn it a couple times over the past year &  gotten several compliments on it, which brings at least some relief that i'm not crazy in what I come up with on my eyes :p

I dubbed it 'fire' because i feel completely lazy in the creativity department right now & just went with stating the obvious :x

* shade, no flash

*inside, with flash, before eyeliner

So there you have it.

I absolutely LOVE these shades together on brown eyes; they can really pop... though I feel like these shades look best together when at least 2 of them have a shimmer or metallic finish to it.

I usually wear it with something that has red or at least 1 of these other colors in it. 

This look is actually SUPER simple to do. I just applied them in sections & did a teeeeeny amount of blending!

I used:

'metallic white', 'yellow', & 'orange' from Ulta's metallic palette

Urban Decay's 'Skimp' on brow bone

So there you have it.

I think it's a nice, summery look :)

What do you guys think?!

Easter eggs!

Happy Easter night!

I know this is my second post today, but it's technically my 1st since the post earlier was on a mani i'd done a couple days ago... O_o

Anyway, I love pastel colors, so I've been excited about having an excuse to use a LOT of them due to the Easter holiday.

Tonight I tried a little Easter mani,

though I like it better before I attempted the nail art :/

Even so, I shall show you anyway!

*indoor, no flash

** prior to nail art

So clearly I still need to do loads of practice when it comes to the dotting tool... but I rather like my middle & ring finger :p It looks completely amateur obviously, but that's what I am when it comes to nail art... and practice makes perfect! (or so they say)

Besides, my favorite part about this was the polishes I used, not the art :)

I used:

NOPI's 'Ladies in the Limelight' as base on thumb

NOPI's 'One Big Happy Fame-ily' on pointer

Zoya's 'Kylie' as base on middle

China Glaze's 'Re-Fresh Mint' on ring

Zoya's 'Phoebe' on pinky

'Zoya Week' Day 7: 'Gilda'

happy easter!

:) 

Today has a couple different meanings. Last night, I thought my mac had finally bit the dust :(( I was super depressed about it.

Then this morning I figured 'what the hey' & figured i'd try one last time to turn it on and see if it would work...

and behold! It rose from the dead today alongside Jesus. holla!

:DDD

Okay really quickly,

today (or really, a day or two ago) was the last day of Zoya week and I chose to end it with my favorite- 'Gilda'!

*shade

*sunlight

Zoya describes 'Gilda' as a "fashion pink sparkling metallic". It DOES indeed sparkle- it's PACKED with it- it's fantastic!!

It's a gorgeous, beautiful spring color.

Hope everyone has a great day!

:)

Easter look #2

Hellooooo.

 So today was cloudy and rainy & totally NOT a good day to end Zoya week on... so I'll continue that tomorrow, if the weather allows :)

Instead, I decided to try my hand at another Easter look, this time something a bit more bold.

After surfing Google images a bit, I saw this look recreated a few times, so I figured I'd have a go at it.

Here's my version!

*eyeliner

*no eyeliner

** fluorescent lighting, no flash

* indoor, flash

Voila!

No obviously this isn't a look I'd do out in public with to the grocery or something, but it was super fun to do. This is probably the craziest I've ever done, & it definitely got me excited to try some more.

I used:

Too Faced's Shadow Insurance

'metallic yellow' from Ulta palette on corners

Urban Decay's 'Graffiti' (green)

UD's 'Peace' (blue)

UD's 'Junkshow' (pink)

UD's 'Ranson' on brow bone

Woo!

I feel like this is super festive and fun xD

What do you guys think?!

Have a good night!

'Zoya Week' Day 6: 'Miley'

Bonjour, friends!

I'm in bed cramming my face with Reese's Puffs & reading some last minute material for a paper that's due... now :f

oops.

Anyway, tonight's polish is 'Miley'! It has an unfortunate name, seeing as how it reminds me of Miley Cyrus & I can't stand that thing. but oh well.

xP

*shade

*sunlight

Zoya describes 'Miley' as " a pale, delicate lilac creme with light blue undertones". This polish is very sheer, but it's surprisingly easy to build up opacity (I used 3 coats). I randomly picked this up in Ulta  the other day and i'm pleasantly surprised with how much I like this polish. The shade is great for Easter & it's a lovely, soft polish (& I don't feel like I have very many of those!). This is one I'll definitely be using often this spring.

:)

'Zoya Week' Day 5: 'Pippa'

HEYSUP.

Sorry for the lack of posting the past couple days. I've been in Knoxville having a BIT too much fun. I'm really getting too old to do somethings nowadays :/ Went to an amazing show, but was yawning before it even started & had cramps in my side after only like 15 minutes of dancing.

...

 pathetic. I feel like i'm 35, not almost 23.

ANYWAY, on to the remainder of Zoya week!

*shade

*sunlight

Zoya describes 'Pippa' as "ultra bright, sunny, and cheerful medium lemon yellow creme". "Sunny" is a great word to describe it. It's definitely a happy color. Unfortunately, the formula (at least with my particular bottle) was pretty runny (which is kind of odd for a creme) and balding happened constantly. The above picture are with 3 coats, which is definitely needed to optimum opacity and a consistent look. I'm not a huge fan of yellow on my hands, and sadly this was no exception. BUT, on others I'm sure it would look great because the shade itself IS so fun and happy.

Do any of you have 'Pippa'? 

What are your thoughts?

'Zoya Week' Day 4: 'Ivanka'

Hellooooooo!

I'm heading to knoxville for the weekend, HOLLA!

So excited :)))))

So today I have a gorgeous metallic for you, 'Ivanka'!

*shade

* sunlight

Zoya describes 'Ivanka' as "mermaid green sparkling metallic". Depending upon the light, it can look more forest green than grass green. Either way, I love it. It's packed with TONS of sparkle and is just dazzling. I used 2 coats here & application was great.

I wish I'd bought this in time for St. Patty's day because it would have been perfect... but oh well :)