A Blonde Obsession

´•.¸(•.¸NEW BLOG¸.•´)¸.•´

2011-08-20T00:20:00.000-07:00

Hey there! I don't know if any of you follow me anymore, but I wanted to let you all know I have a new blog! I'm really excited about it and hope you will follow me over there! Its going to be the same kind of blog, with better photos, and a fresh start. =)

Please click HERE!

New Revlon Glitter Top Coats!

2010-07-23T22:02:00.000-07:00

While strolling through Rite Aid this evening, I saw a few new displays of nail polish. Revlon's new collection being one of them. Being as forgetful as I can be, I forgot my BlackBerry and now can't remember the name of the collection. It is really cute how they set it up though. There is a set of two nail polishes for each color-one solid, one matching glitter . Two red ones called Ruby and Slipper, two silver ones called Silver and Bell.. and so on. I got the 4 glitters and one of the solid colors which I will swatch and review later! Here are the glitter pictures! Enjoy!

New-ish Milani Product and Cheap Stila?!?!?

2010-07-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

I don't know if any of you guys love the Milani 3-D Glitzy Glamour Glosses like I do, but I think they are fantastic. I love MAC Dazzleglasses but I hate putting them over lipstick because it changes the base color of the gloss, but I absolutely love the look of the Dazzleglass over lipstick which is where the Milani gloss comes in. They are cheap and I don't mind if they get lipstick in them. Milani normally had 4 colors- hot pink, light pink, red and orange and now they have blue! Its called Movie Star! Totally gorgeous. I'm super excited that my local store has finally put in a Milani display chock full of eye shadows, lip products, and nail polishes. I am SO excited to take the time to look through it all! I just want to plop down on the floor of the store and go through it all, but people would probably look at me weird which is fine with me, until I get kicked out. LOL

Here's a picture:

Milani 3-D Glitzy Glamour Gloss in Movie Star and Milani nail lacquer in Disco Lights.

Another thing I thought was fun is the $10 Stila palette! Its called Road to Radiance- Across the USA. It comes with 4 shadows and 1 convertible color! Totally fun! I had to get my hands on it. There will be 5 more I think including July's which I haven't seen yet. Here is a cute web l ink dedicated to them: http://www.stilacosmetics.com/feature/travel/map.asp?map=usa. I highly recommend that you go and buy this now and each of the upcoming palettes! They are too cute!

Here are a couple pics of mine:

What do you guys think of these items?

Nail Polish Haul/Swatches!

2010-07-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

Today while grocery shopping I found a new display of Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear nail polish! I couldn't resist them, but then again, I can never resist nail polish. These all applied pretty well. The only ones I had any trouble with were Golden Child and Purple Gala. Golden Child was kind of streaky and Purple Gala was kind of goopy. Well worth the extra trouble though, in my opinion. Without further ado, here are the pics!

L to R; T to B: Cherry Punch, Fireberry Red, Golden Child, Cosmic Blue, Plum Burst, Concrete, Mystic Lilac, Purple Fiesta, Purple Gala, Blue Icing.
R to L: Cherry Punch, Fireberry Red, Golden Child, Cosmic Blue, Plum Burst

R to L: Concrete, Mystic Lilac, Purple Fiesta, Purple Gala, Blue Icing.

From index to pinky: Purple Gala, Purple Fiesta, Mystic Lilac, Concrete

From Index to Pink: Plum Burst, Fireberry Red, Blue Icing, Cosmic Blue
Golden Child and Cherry Punch.

I think my favorite is Mystic Lilac. The green glowy shimmer is amazing but subtle. I would say you could easily consider it work appropriate. These are all fun colors and I think the glitter in them is so festive! Great colors for transitioning from late Summer to Autumn!

What do you guys think? Have you seen these yet?

I Am Such A Slacker: Haul Time!

2010-07-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

From L to R, top to bottom: Essence Surfer Babe Powder Blush in Big Wave Survivor, Essence Surfer Babe eyeshadow palette in Surfur's Kit, Conair Hi-Styles Volume & Lift, Sinful Colors nail polish in Boogie Nights, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Petal Pusher, Essence Surfer Babe nail polish in Hang Loose, (no label),Pointbreak, The Worlds Coolest

Top to Bottom, L to R: Bookmark from Barnes and Noble, two adorable little notebooks also from Barnes and Noble, Redken Extreme Anti-Snap leave-in treatment, Tresemme Fresh Start Dry Shampoo for oily/straight hair

T to B, L to R. Dove Pomegranate and Lemon Verbena, St. Ives Restoring 24 Hour moisture.

This is a closeup of the Essence Sufer Babe palette... Very pretty colors, the picture is pretty true to life.

Have you seen these Essence products around yet? I found them at my local Fred Meyer/Kroger. I know Essence is sold at Ulta, as well.

Thanks for reading, and hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Playing Catch-Up: 4 New Product Lines I Love

2010-05-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! How have you all been? It has been quite some time since I last posted, which is why I am here to do a catch up post! I have pictures from 4 new collections that I absolutely adore!

Wet N Wild - Color Icon
Maybelline Color Sensational -The PearlsL'Oreal - Passport To ParadiseNYC - Blushable Creme SticksHave any of you tried these products? What do you think of them?

Sneak Peek! Maybelline's New Collection (Salsa Rose I think?)

2010-04-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

Hey gals! Just wanted to post a few pictures previewing the newest Maybelline collection... I believe it is called Salsa Rose, but I'm not 100% sure. I'll have to double check! There are 4 eyeshadow palettes, 2 blushes, 2 main nail polishes, another separate display of nail polishes and a couple of other things including new lipsticks! I'm loving the colors! Swatches coming soon! All of you earth tone color lovers, try not to drool!

Swatches and Quick Review

2010-04-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

Hi ladies! How are you? Today I'm going to do the swatches and review as promised!

To start off, I have the kind of nails that nail polish hates for some reason. No matter how many vitamins I take, how many nail strengtheners I use, how many times a day I massage my cuticles, my nails suck. They crack and break halfway down the nail. Layers peel off. Ugh. It is not fun. I just want healthy nails that I can paint and they look pretty for 2-3 days. That's not asking too much is it? So, I find that my nails take best to more shimmery metallic nail polish and brighter and darker colors. Cremes tend to look awful on me! I wish I knew what to do. So this review of the Revlon Scent of Summer nail polish is purely my opinion on my nails.

All in all I really love these polishes. It seems like everyone these days is trying to make thicker nail polish that requires less coats, but in essence they are actually making it more of a battle to paint your nails. One coat is like two and it takes 10-15 minutes to dry, then you put on a second coat and all of a sudden its like you have four coats of nail color on instead of the two you were going for. Revlon's Scent of Summer is great about this. They go on sheer and smooth the first coat and completely opaque the second, on most of them. The Peach Smoothie and Gum Drop were the hardest to work with. The color kind of ran into the sides of my nails despite two thin coats. Cotton Candy was similar but was less streaky than the other two. The rest of the nail colors were a dream for me to work with! Thin coats that looked fab on my nails! The hardest of the metallics was the yellow-green color, Beach. It could probably use a third coat.

On to the smell. Ocean Breeze smells kind of like that teal colored Calgon spray from a while back. I don't know how to describe it really, but it's not overpowering at all. Beach smells like sunscreen, hands down. Orange Pop reminds me more of a cherry scent. Grape Icy smells kind of sweet and grape-y but its not quite grape enough. Cotton Candy, Bubble Gum, Peach Smoothie, and Gum Drop don't smell like much to me other than just sweet. It could be because they we're all next to each other on my nails, so they mixed together. I'm not sure. Definitely a cool concept, but I'm here for the colors, not the smell! They are very lightly fragranced and you probably wont notice them unless you're picking your nose. Eww. =D

Here are the swatches!

Top to bottom: Gum Drop, Peach Smoothie, Cotton Candy, Bubble Gum

Top to bottom: Grape Icy, Orange Pop, Beach, Ocean Breeze

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

Revlon Scent of Summer

2010-04-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

R to L: Ocean Breeze, Beach, Orange Pop, Bubble Gum, Grap Icy, Cotton Candy, Gum Drop, Peach Smoothie

Oh my gosh, girls, I have finally found Revlon Scent of Summer nail polishes! Eeeek! I'm doing a little happy dance because I'm so excited! Haha. How have you all been? You've been so quiet lately!

On to some pictures of these beauties! There are 8 in all and they are all super gorgeous! Each one is so unique which is what I absolutely love about this collection. Also, they range from a glowy teal to palest peach with subtle gold shimmer. This collection is absolutely stunning.

This is me trying to show you the subtle gold glimmer in these two shades: Cotton Candy and Peach Smoothie (no flash)

R to L: Ocean Breeze, Beach, Orange Pop, Bubble Gum (no flash)

Review and swatches coming soon!

Hot Rollers...

2010-04-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! How are you? Today's post is all about unruly hair and my quest to tame it in a quick, multi-tasking fashion. I have long, color-treated blond hair. See? Please excuse this terrible picture. It is from a while ago, and it was quite a late night. I look terrible!!!! But this is my hair after giving it a half-@$$ flat iron job. It is naturally curly and totally frizzy unless I curl or flat-iron it. Which means showering is a PITA (but I do it anyway lol). Honestly, I HATE washing my hair. If I scrunch it with some Aussie hairspray in the purple bottle and some anti-frizz serum it looks pretty decent, but its still frizzy. I hate blowdrying my hair. HATE IT. Its just more damaging, you know? And once my hair is blow dried, I have a huge, blonde frizzy 'fro a la Lady Gaga here.My hair doesn't turn into the Ken Paves $200 blowout. Nope. I get the rat's nest look. So rocker chic. NOT. So I have been on the hunt for an easy way to tame it and thought of hot rollers. I mean they smooth the hair shaft, add wave or curl and eliminate most of the frizziness with their heat. Its like heat-styling without the curling iron attached to my hand for half an hour. I can do it while I do my makeup! So today I purchased The Revlon Ionic 20 Roller Professional Hairsetter from Ulta for $22.99. This baby came with 20 small, medium and large rollers. I thought about getting all jumbo rollers, due to the length of my hair, but thought that the different sizes would give nice dimension to my layered hair. So I got this home, took a shower, let my hair air dry and popped these babies in. Now I have only used hot rollers on myself maybe 5 times, so my technique isn't the best, yet, but I followed the directions I put together from my go to how-to website- YouTube. I let the unit heat up for about 10-12 mins, then put these guys in and waited about 15 mins. Then I blasted hot air from the blow-dryer on them for a couple of seconds, then used the "cool shot" air button to set them completely. I came out looking like a poodle, or maybe a beauty pageant contestant. I knew the curls would fall out a bit, so I finger combed them and set them with hairspray and they turned out pretty decent a couple of hours later. Obviously I need to experiment, but I am now contemplating getting some of the Jumbo rollers to add to my hair instead of the teeny 90s perm look ones. This picture of Blake Lively is more the look I was going for, but I like my hair to look a little more classy a little less "just got caught in a thunder storm of afro sheen greasy".

Anyway, does anyone else out there have hair like mine? If so, how do you control it? What do you do as a fast fix when your hair looks like you stuck your finger in a light socket and you want to look put together without doing a pony-tail or the over-done braid (thanks to she who shall not be named but starred on The Hills)? Any product suggestions, or styling tips SO welcome.

Organization @ $1 A Pop!

2010-03-31T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well hello everyone! How have you all been? Sorry I have been MIA, life is crazy right now! I'm back though, yay! I have to say that there has been a total lack of new products at the drugstore lately. I have been in every Rite Aid in the greater Portland area and have not found any of those scented Revlon nail polishes yet. =( I am practically heartbroken. I want Gum Drop, Ocean, and Beach SO BAD! Arg.

Anyhow, on to my newest organization debacle. So.... I have about 190 MAC eyeshadows- singles. Now, mind you I have been wearing MAC for about 10 years. I was 12 when I started and am 22 now, so this collection didn't just grow overnight! Point being that I recently started de-potting them so I could see them without having to dig through 5 different color coordinated bins and then getting frustrated and grabbing a cheapie palette from the drugstore. They have been sitting in CD cases carefully tucked away until I could get my hands on some 15 palettes from MAC. I have been trying like crazy to swap for them on Makeup Alley and everyone seems to think that their used, scratched, empty MAC 15 palette is worth gold or something. You have to be joking yourself if you think I am going to swap a brand new $32 NARS duo for a dumpy looking 15 palette from MAC that cost $12. Really. So I was in Kmart and came across a small e.l.f display. YAY! I had never seen it before, but have heard great things about the brand. So whilst browsing I came across these quad palettes that were selling for $1. Intrigued, I took it out of the box and examined it. It looked like MAC shadows would fit. So I bought 5 of them for $5 and went home to test them out. Lo and behold they fit!!!!!! Yay! No more CD cases or little pots lying around. Organization at last. For only $42 more dollars(maybe $43 because MAC's new collection comes out with 4 new limited edition shadows on the 8th of April I think...) I can have them all in these great little cases. If I were to purchase 15 palettes I would end up spending around $132. What a joke! Plus I love the e.l.f. ones because they even have a mirror on them -a big one- for a buck. And to think that MAC makes a killing of their empty quads with no mirror. Hah. They are also really high quality. Both of my MAC quads have broken already. The hinges just kind of snapped. These little guys are sturdy and you can either color coordinate them, or put together your favorite eye combos so they are right there! Yay e.l.f!

Here are my completed 5!

Diamonds + Makeup = Love!

2010-03-17T23:20:00.000-07:00

Hi girls! How are you? Doing well, I hope. I am a very happy camper, thanks to finals being over! YAY! Anyhow, to celebrate I took a trip to my local Kroger. I found some very cool things!

First off is Maybelline Colossal Diamond! Oh my, I almost had a heart attack from sheer delight- glitter and big lashes make me a very happy girl- then I realized that it was probably more gimmicky than anything, kind of like CoverGirl Lash Blast Luxe was. Which, sad to say, while I could see the sparkle in the mascara on the wand and on my cotton ball after I removed it, I really didn't see a noticeable sparkle on my lashes. But hey, I'm all for a mascara that has glitter in it, even if no one but me knows it's there. It can by a dirty little secret. Plus the sparkly pink letting on it is kind of to die for. So if you're a believer in Maybelline Colossal, the you have to check this out.

Second are the eyeshadow duos that accompanied the Colossal Diamond mascara. They came in three sets of two called: Copper Diamond, Turquoise diamond, and Amethyst diamond. All are gorgeous and buttery textured. Very good quality. I would say that these beat out some of my MAC favorites, for example, the Amethyst duo has a shade comparable to MAC's Trax eyeshadow, except I would pick the Maybelline one before I picked the MAC one because it isn't chalky like Trax, and it has more visible specks of gold glitter. Fab-u-lous. Seriously. You have to go buy the Amethyst one right now. The other are very pretty too. The copper one has a gorgeous coppery gold color that has amazing texture and color payoff.

I also found the new Prestige Skin Loving Minerals gloss in Soft Peach. It is a really wonderful gloss. It applies smooth and silky, but not sticky. It lasts forever on my lips and is the prettiest glowy pale pinky peach color with teeny tiny gold sparkles in it. It is really a wonderful product. I cant rave enough. I also purchased one of the new lipsticks from them and it is a great product too, as is their My Longest Lashes, it gives volume and length with no clumping. I am super excited to try the rest of Prestige's new products, because they have far exceeded my expectations so far, and I am a picky gal when it comes to makeup, especially lip products and mascara.

Finally, I picked up two lipsticks from Revlon's Super Lustrous line that were mared "new". I'm not sure if they are still new or not, but I love them anyway. I picked the colors Porcelain Pink and Berry Haute (which is a dupe for MAC Up The Amp lipstick). I am pretty much in love with Porcelain Pink, I wear it everyday now. It's a gorgeous pinky nude. I haven't tried Berry nude except to swatch it, but it is very pretty. Perfect for spring!

Hope you are all having a happy and safe St. Patrick's Day!

Look What I Found....

2010-03-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

Prestige's new summer bronzer with the free lipgloss! YAY! There are two of them, however I could only get my hands on one last night(purchased by me, myself, and I), but I fully intend on searching the other one out. The one I got reminds me of MSF's from MAC. Its called St. Tropez and it has the gold shimmery veining through it. The other one is more like Bobbi Brown Shimmer brick-esqu, but not shimmery like that, and in a circular compact. It's just kind of a gradient bronzer. It's pretty neat looking, but I am a shimmer/glowy skin freak, so of course I got the one that shimmered in the light. I don't know if the other one is matte or shimmery, but I will let you know! I"m going to wear it today and review it for you after I can give my honest opinion.

Thanks for reading. Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

2 New Products I Am LOVING and 1 That Failed

2010-03-11T23:59:00.000-08:00

Hey Ladies! Sorry about the lack of posts in the last few days. I have had a ton of stuff going on, including finals. Yuck. Seems like I just had midterms! Anyhow on to the important stuff.

The first set of products is by Milani and they are called 3D Glitzy Glamour Glosses. I saw them in Glamour this month( I think it was Glamour, maybe it was Cosmo. I'll have to double check that) and I was SO excited to see them in the magazine, because it was something I had JUST purchased. There are four or five different colors in all, and I bought four of the ones I found at my K-mart(I couldn't find the 5th!). Anyhow I think these are an awesome drugstore dupe for MAC's Dazzleglasses, which I absolutely adore, but lets face it, who can afford to drop $18 per lip gloss? Anyhow, these have some really great pigmentation. The red tinted one gives an amazing pink toned red glittery lip! The orange comes off more coral on the lips, the bright pink punches up the natural lip color and adds a hint of fuschia, and the light pink is pretty much just that, not a milky light pink, just a hint of clear cool pink. I absolutely love these and for $4.99-6.99 they are totally worth it!

The second set of products are high end. I went to Sephora and completely fell in love with Tarina Tarantino's blushes. I bought two ($25 each) and i HAVE to go back and get the other 3 immediately. The packaging is just to die for, the mirror is just the right size, and the color, texture, and pigmentation is just superb. The two I purchased are in Parasol and Charm. Parasol is a pinky coral with shimmer, and the Charm is dusty cotton candy pink/rose with no shimmer. I can't rave enough about these blushes. One swipe of your brush is all you need for beautiful, glowing cheeks, that actually last all day. I am super excited for Carved Rose (cool vibrant pink) and Feather (shimmering peach). I do, however think that there might be some drugstore dupes to be found for a couple of these, so I'm going to test that out once I get the full set of them!

The third product is another Tarina Tarantino (TT) lipstick I purchased in Pendant because the model on Sephora's TT Get The Look (Doll Face Wonder) section had it on and it was gorgeous and just shiny enough. I was so excited to try this and when I put it on, it felt chalky and like old lipstick. The worst part is that the lipstick is called Conditioning Lip Sheen. Ugh. It was terrible. Revlon's Color Sensational and Rimmel's Moisture Renew beat the heck out of this $22 lipstick. Maybe it works for other people, but that was not what I hoped for after spending $22 on it!

St. Patty's Day Mani

2010-03-03T22:20:00.000-08:00

Hey girls!

I have seen some great new colors popping up on the Sinful Colors display, predominantly greens! Perfect for a St. Patrick's Day manicure as they are only $1.99! Here are some pictures I snapped quickly of the newest greens I have found!

Pointer finger to pinky: 940 Rise and Shine, 946 Happy Ending, 944 Innocent, 947 Mint Apple

Pointer finger to pinky: 940 Rise and Shine, 946 Happy Ending, 944 Innocent, 947 Mint Apple

Pointer finger to pinky: 940 Rise and Shine, 946 Happy Ending, 944 Innocent, 947 Mint Apple

I think my favorite is Happy Ending. It's a bright green with smooth gold shimmer in it. The application of all of these was pretty good. Mint Apple was a little on the thick side, though. These swatches are 3 coats of each with one coat of Seche Vite over the top. Rise and Shine and Mint Apple are definitely more different in real life. Mint Apple is more of a muted turquoise and Rise and Shine is more vibrant turquoise. If you have any questions, or want me to swatch any other Sinful nail polish colors, feel free to leave me a comment!

Thanks for reading!

-Cynthia

Wet'n'Wild Quad Swatches!

2010-03-03T16:03:00.000-08:00

Well, I played with these little babies for a little bit last night and found out that I really love the shadows, but I don't love the cream shadows. Here is why: I love the shadows because they are pigmented, and buttery textured. They don't feel like they cost me $4.49. I feel like they could easily go for $8-$10 because of the color payoff, the non-chalky texture and how easy they are to use. As far as the cream shadows, the glittery top does wear off after you stick your brush or finger in them, but I am not a huge glitter person (for the face at least)so that didn't really disappoint me. The cream shadows underneath the glitter are pretty, but sheer. I could see them being great for a younger person or a makeup newbie, to use as a base, but other than that I feel like the most one would use them on a daily basis is over your standard eyeshadow base like Urban Decay, Too Faced, NYX, elf.... any of those. I would have liked the iridescent glitter shadow to have stay put, because I feel like that could have been a fun accent to a going out look, but the silver, gold and blue are just too obvious for me. Anyhow, there is my review so far. I'm going to wear one today, so I'll let you know how they turn out!

Please excuse the scratches on my hand. My cat and the vacuum are not friends.

Opulence, Sumptuous, Majestic, Regal

Opulence and Sumptuous

Opulence and Sumptuous

Majestic and Regal

Majestic and Regal

I purchased these at my local Kroger. I checked the website, and couldn't find these, so I'm not sure if they are promotional or just not on the website yet. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed and I hope they pop up in a store near you soon!

**EDIT**

Here is the eye I did using the Sumptuous palette and a matte highlight from the 6 shadow palette (Wet'N'Wild also) in Vanity.

Does anyone have tips for getting those unruly hairs under my brow? I wax them and tweeze them and I can't see those hairs in real life, but pictures catch them and I hate them! If you have any ideas, please let me know!

Thanks!
-Cynthia

Small-Medium Haul

2010-03-02T22:56:00.000-08:00

I went shopping today and found some great stuff that I'd like to share with you! I found a few new lipsticks, 5 new palettes from Wet'n'Wild, a new Prestige mascara(and lipstick), Wet'n'Wild Acapulco Glow "Bronzzer"(so sad this is being discontinued!)and three body sprays from Bath and Body Works in Twilight Woods, Sweet Pea Forever, and P.S. I Love You-Spring Fling. It was certainly an exciting day. I am trying to find as many backups of my Acapulco Glow as I can. I have only been able to find one so far, but tomorrow, the hunt will resume. LOL. Here are some photos for you!

These new Wet'n'Wild quads are super cute. I love the design on the packaging!

What do you think? Cute? Want to see swatches? Have you tried any of these products? If so, what do you think?

February Ins and Outs

2010-02-28T22:47:00.000-08:00

IN

1. Revlon Photo Ready Foundation! I LOVE this. It gives my skin a lovely glow to it and it stays put all day with, or without powder. A lot of people have complained about shimmer in it, but I like it! I think it makes my skin look healthy and youthful!

2. Revlon Color Burst lipsticks in Soft Nude and Carnation. So far these two are my favorite, but I love them all so much!

3. Vaseline- This is the ONLY thing that has saved both my cheeks/nose area and my terribly dry lips. I have been putting this on over my night cream in my driest areas and it has worked WONDERS. Literally.

4. Wet'n'Wild Color Icon palettes in Lust and Greed. LOVE these! Tons of different ways to do your eye shadow in one little palette for under $5! The Lust (purple) one makes the most gorgeous purple smoky eye.

5. Pure Ice nail polish from Walmart. They have some amazing, and different shades of nail polish. The wear-time is ok, but definitely longer with a decent base coat and top coat. They are only $2 and I feel that they give Sinful Colors a run for their money. (Blog post on this, with swatches soon)

OUT

1. Revlon ColorStay. Eew. I know many people LOVE this foundation, but I found that it settles in my fine lines (that I didn't even know I had until wearing this. I'm only 22! Geez! LOL). I also think it looks cakey and heavy. I much prefer a dewy, youthful, healthy looking glow.

2. Dry skin/lips. Many of the products I have tried haven't give me any results. Things like Olay Regenerist Deep Hydration Regenerating Cream and Philosophy Hope In a Jar, have done absolutely NOTHING for my skin. It was quite sad, however, I fixed it with my beloved Vaseline.

3. Overgrown, dry cuticles. Yuck. Anyone else been struggling with this? No matter how much hand lotion, cuticle cream or exfoliating I do, these things take over my nail bed. It makes me so sad because I have a decent size nail polish collection I want to share with you all! I want pretty cuticles. =(

4. Cloudy days and rain! Living in the Pacific Northwest is sure to depress anyone. I am looking forward to Spring and Summer. I miss the long, dry, hot days of Las Vegas. Oregon is too dark and gloomy for me!

5. MAC's generic collections. I was FINALLY pleased with Spring Colour Forecast, and am excited to see how long MAC can ride out this wave of good collections. It had been quite awhile since I fell in love with a TON of stuff from a collection, but I admit, I DID get all the eyeshadows(quads too. LOVE them!) from this one. I didn't get the glosses or lipsticks because my lips were in terrible condition(this was before Vaseline) and I fear I have missed out on "Victorian". =( Oh well, I am just happy my lips are in good shape!

What are your "Ins and Outs"?

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils

2010-02-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

I. Love. These. Haha. In all honesty though, I really could not live without them. They give my eye makeup so much more dimension and an overall glow. If I could only have one, it would be Milk. It is the starkest white you will ever find. Milk makes every single eyeshadow I own look ten times more intense. Milk is the perfect base(AFTER your normal base or they will crease!!!!) for those colors you love, but that don't have the payoff you love. Black Bean is probably my second most useful color. It is a great base for smoky eyes, but it also doubles as a great liner! I sometimes use it to touch up my liquid eyeliner when it gets those little "skip" marks in it. Black Bean on a tiny script brush (small sharply pointed eyeliner brush) makes my liquid eyeliner flawless. It's also great for the winged liner look as well, as it is VERY easy to correct if you mess up. Just remember, if you use Black Bean as an eyeliner, set it with some form of powder to make sure it stays all day. I usually use a black, dark brown, or navy shadow depending on my look.

I don't know if any of you have watched Lauren Luke (Panacea81) on YouTube, but she used to start every look with a ShadeStick from MAC called Sharkskin. Well, ladies, Slate kind of reminds me of that! NYX has a Jumbo Eye Pencil in whatever color your heart desires, including Yellow, Cherry, and Orange! I have yet to find those, in addition to the Lavender, Hot Pink, and French Fries. You can buy these at Ulta, or at Cherry Culture: http://www.cherryculture.com/cosmetics/makeup/nyx-cosmetics/nyx-jumbo-eyeshadow-pencil/16196&cat=0&page=2. I am a big fan of instant gratification, so I must find them NOW, in person, not online. Haha. Anyway, here are swatches. I highly HIGHLY recommend trying at least one of these(or all). Please remember to USE A BASE under them though, like L'Oreal De-Crease, Urban Decay Primer Potion, Too Faced Shadow Insurance or heck, even try NYX's eyeshadow base!

THESE IMAGES ARE CLICKABLE FOR LARGER VIEW!!!!!!

Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick

2010-02-24T21:49:00.000-08:00

Hi girls! How are you? Sorry I have been slacking on the posts lately, I have had to take my midterms for Winter term. It was a nightmare! LOL Anyhow, I'm back! Unfortunately, I don't have too many "new" things to report on so I decided I would talk about a semi-new product and take it a step further.

I have seen and heard a lot of buzz about the new Revlon ColorBurst lipsticks, so of course, I did my research and then had to go out and buy some of my own! The only colors I have heard anything about are the Soft Nude and Baby Pink ones. I was curious about some of the others so I picked a few of them up, but my Ulta was out of the three reds I wanted: Ruby, True Red, and Crimson =(. The good news is that I have 4 others to swatch and review for you! Without further ado here are the pictures!

I pretty much adore these lipsticks! I am so excited to have found them. I have very dry lips, and no matter what chapstick, lip balm, vaseline products I use they stay dry and flakey. Eww. That pretty much makes wearing lipstick a no-no. Sadly, as I have just recently developed a love for lipstick. These lipsticks are awesome though! Super creamy and they have incredible shine. They glide right over my poor lips and leave them looking healthy and perfect! I am definitely going to go back to the store tomorrow and get: Ruby, True Red, Crimson, Grape, Mauve and Peach. What can I say? It's LOVE!

Maybelline Eye Studio Duos

2010-02-17T17:34:00.001-08:00

Is it just me, or has Maybelline been stepping their game up? I bought these some time ago and thought that some swatches were in order. I think that these are pretty decent quality for drugstore product. They remind me of MAC's Mineralize duos. I really like them and would recommend most of the ones I own. Some of them, I have noticed, are a little too similar in color on each side to really justify buying unless you adore the color. The two that are like that are: 70 Ivy Icon, and 10 Lawless Lavender. Other than that they are gorgeous! Here are close ups of the ones that I currently own. Please excuse the shimmer dust all over them, I swatched them using a Loew-Cornell brush as I think you tend to get better color payoff with those than the MAC 217. I tried to clean them off as best as I could!

90 Silver Starlett, 10 Lawless Lavender, and 80 Sinful Sinnamon

30 Khaki Craze and 70 Ivy Icon

05 Carbon Frost and 60 Bronze Blowout

Those pictures are pretty true to life in color, for me.

Here are some swatches over Urban Decay Primer Potion:

Silver Starlett, Sinful Sinnamon, and Lawless Lavendar (Clockwise)

Khaki Craze, Ivy Icon, Bronze Blowout, Carbon Frost (Clockwise)

Silver Starlett, Lawless Lavendar, Sinful Sinnamon
Khaki Craze, Ivy Icon
Carbon Frost, Bronze Blowout--- Flash

Silver Starlett, Lawless Lavendar, Sinful Sinnamon
Khaki Craze, Ivy Icon
Carbon Frost, Bronze Blowout--- No Flash

What do you think of these? Have you tried them? Do you have ones that I don't and if so, how do you like them?

Thanks for reading, lovelies!

Thinking of Doing a Giveaway

2010-02-16T16:56:00.000-08:00

Since I have seen/read a lot of excitement over these Maybelline Shadow sticks, I'm thinking of doing a giveaway to kick off my blog! I need your votes on your two favorite colors or which two you would like to try... Then, once I get 10-15 followers, I will do a quick contest! What do you think?

More Maybelline Swatches!

2010-02-16T00:02:00.001-08:00

Today I am going to talk a bit about the new Maybelline Cream Shadow Sticks. They are fabulous, if you ask me! They stay put ALL day with no base. I swatched two of them on my hand this morning and walked around with them on all day. They stayed with me through thick and thin... From hand sanitizer to my frequent hand-washes(I can be a tad OCD... swine flu anyone? Not me!), and even through my trusty Neutrogena Oil Free Makeup Remover. I had to put some serious elbow grease into getting these shadows off. The ones I wore all day were the silver called "Frosted" and the pinky beige color in "A La Mauve". I really can't see the mauve-ness of the shade, but that's just my opinion. These go on very smoothly and it doesn't take much to get color payoff. They are fairly easy to blend and give more of a sheer wash of color than a pop of brightness, but I really think they are wonderful as a base for your eyeshadow! My favorites happen to be the silver and the "mauve". I absolutely think that anyone who loves a fun, new, good-quality product should go pick one of these up. There are a couple of neutral shades that could easily go under any and all eyeshadow colors, like "Oh My Meringue" and "Frosted". Love them? Hate them? Let me know what you think!

L to R: Oh My Meringue, Touch Of Toffee, A La Mauve, Frosted, Lovely Lilac, Minty

L to R: Oh My Meringue, Touch Of Toffee, A La Mauve, Frosted, Lovely Lilac, Minty

L to R: Oh My Meringue, Touch Of Toffee, A La Mauve, Frosted, Lovely Lilac, Minty

Maybelline Sweet Thing 2010 Nail Polish Swatches!

2010-02-15T02:31:00.000-08:00

I just have a few quick swatches to show you today! I finally saw this on another blog recently, and I thought that it might be helpful to post some swatches. I could not, for the life of me find the pale peach called Sweetie Pie, so I decided to swatch Essie's Van D'Go. Here they are for you!

Left to right (bottles) Essie Van D'Go, Maybelline Pie In The Sky, Goody Plum Drop, Minty

Top to Bottom: Minty, Goody Plum Drop, Pie In The Sky, Essie Van D'Go

Top to Bottom: Minty, Goody Plum Drop, Pie In The Sky, Essie Van D'Go

Application was pretty good. The Essie formula wasn't to die for, but it is very opaque which is nice. All are two coats. The Maybelline polishes went one streaky and sheer the first coat, but evened out beautifully on the second. I absolutely love the Maybelline ones and will purchase more in the near future.

All of the products in this blog have been purchased by me, and the opinions and reviews in this blog reflect my true and honest feelings toward the prodcuts.

Maybelline Sweet Thing Spring 2010 Collection!

2010-02-12T00:41:00.000-08:00

I am so excited about this new collection I found in my Fred Meyer(Kroger). I "Googled" it and haven't found anything about it, so maybe I'm the first to show it to you! Hopefully! =) Here is a poor quality photo of the display in the store, taken on my "high quality" Blackberry camera. LOL

There are eyeshadow duos, blushes, nail polishes, lip glosses, some cream shadow sticks(which remind me of MAC Shadesticks SO much)and I believe a mascara that has been out for some time... Define A Lash, maybe?

This whole collection reminds me a lot of last year's Spring collection by MAC, Sugar Sweet(Sugarsweet), down to the two main nail polishes. Much like MAC's pale green, Peppermint Patti and creamy peach hue, Seasonal Peach, these two are called Minty and Sweetie Pie and are pale green and peach cream polishes. The Eye Express Cream Shadow Sticks are pretty close in color to the ones MAC released last year as well. Oh My Meringue, Touch of Toffee, Minty are close match-ups to Butternutty, Cakeshop and Lemon Chiffon respectively. Maybelline also has a light purple called Lovely Lilac and a silver and deeper toffee/copper color which is probably comparable to MAC's Penny. The blushes are really adorable from the Sweet Thing collection due to the darling flower print they have stamped into them. There were three blushes altogether but I only purchased two of them because the third did not have the flower print, it had the standard "MNY" emblem in the center, so I figured it was "filler".

Here are some close up pictures of what I purchased: