Elf Contour Palette Review and Swatches

Today I have a review and swatches of the Elf contour kit. The contour kit comes with 4 shades of powder in one convenient palette. The palette comes with a nice cooler toned powder that is the perfect contour shade for lighter skin tones. A medium toned bronzing shape. A cream colored powder that is nice for setting concealer or for a subtle highlight shade. And lastly a bright white shade that is a beautiful highlight shade. All four of these shades are matte, super finely milled and not super powdery. They all blend on into the skin beautifully for a very natural look. You can get a very dramatic contoured face with this product, without it looking caked on or stripey. I was very pleasantly surprised with how beautifully smooth te powders were and how easy they were to apply and blend.

The packaging is really nice as well. The palette is about palm sized with a huge mirror. The four powders can be popped in and out so that you can easily customize this palette. You can pop in a blush from the blush palette that elf has available in the same packaging, which I think is an awesome option for if you're on the go or traveling a lot.

Overall, I really like this product. Especially if you are a light to medium skin tone. If you have a darker skin tone you might have to really build these shades up to get them to work for you. This palette is available from elf's website for $6! I think it's a great value for the money and I highly recommend it!

e.l.f. Studio Ultimate Kabuki Brush

I was perusing instagram one day when I saw that this amazing looking brush was available from e.l.f. I immediately went to their website (eyeslipsface.com) to buy it. You guys know what a sucker I am for Elf products. When I saw the price on this baby, my mouth dropped. $10! Ten dollars is not a lot of money for a good quality makeup brush by any means, But it's a lot for an elf brush. Elf's prices are usually dirt cheap, so 10 bucks just seems like a lot. But, I went ahead and ordered it because I am a sucker for Elf products. When it arrived in the mail I was surprised to see how big it is. The head of the brush is very fluffy and incredibly soft and flexible which I thought might make it difficult to use. That has not been the case however. I use this for applying and blending out bronzer, blush, powder, etc. I find it realy versatile. What I do is turn it and use the corner of the brush, which is rounded and quite nice to apply the product, and ten use the flat edge to blend the product out. It's big fluffy head makes blending over large areas a snap. I love to use it to blend bronzer down my neck and chest and around my forehead and because it's no big it takes no time at all. It's luxuriously soft and blends powder products beautifully. If you are leery about picking up this brush because of it's higher price point, I urge you to give it a try. It has quickly become one of my favorite elf brushes, and now that I have it I wouldn't want to be without it!

5 For Fall: Blushes

I wanted to share with you 5 blushes that I will be rocking this fall. 4 are drugstore options and 1 is higher end. They are all great shades for fall and are all individual blushes. Nothing in palettes! They are also all available, no limited editions here! So if you see something that strikes your fancy, you can get your hands on it!

E.L.F. Pressed Mineral Blush in Wanderlust ($5)- This is the only one of the pressed mineral blushes I own from Elf but it's amazing. It's soft and easily blend-able and quite pigmented. It's also completely matte, which I quite like in the fall! A little goes a long way with this one! It's a nice, neutral plummy rose-y blush shade that would look great on all skin tones!

E.L.F. Pressed Mineral Blush in Wanderlust

E.L.F. Studio Blush in Blushing Rose ($3)- Another E.L.F. Selection! What can I say? I love how high quality the Elf blushes are for the price. Blushing rose is a deeper rose shade with a hint of shimmer that is subtle but beautiful. This gives you that perfect, "just stepped in from the cold" flush to your cheeks. It can be swept on lightly for a subtle color or really packed on for a touch of glamour.

E.L.F. Studio Blush in Blushing Rose

Wet n Wild Color Icon Blush in Heather Silk- ($2.99) These Color Icon blushes from Wet n Wild are superb. They are so soft and blend-able. Totally high quality at a drugstore price. What's not to love? Heather silk is a brighter option for fall if you want something that's rosy toned, but not too dark. This one has quite a bit of pink to it, and would be fabulous of darker skin tones. This blush is PIGMENTED! A light hand will do!  I do a very subtle wash of this on my light skin and it's very pretty, This one is totally versatile and completely matte, so if you're in the market for a matte rosy toned blush with a bit of brightness to it, this one's for you!

Wet n Wild Color Icon Blush in Heather Silk

Nyx Mosaic Powder Blush in Peachy ($6.99)- When I am looking for a peach toned blush to go with a smokier eye, this is the one I am going to be grabbing for. I really like the nyx blushes, and it's a brand that I would like to discover more of in the future. This particular blush is great because it's got panels of different shades of peach and nude that can be swirled together to get a perfect neutral blush for that peaches and cream look. This has just a touch of shimmer in it so it's very versatile, and so neutral that it goes with everything! It's soft and easy to blend and pretty affordable!

Nyx Mosaic Powder Blush in Peachy

Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 hour blush in exposed ($26) - This is one of my all time favorite blushes. It's just so beautiful. When tarte says 12 hours, they mean it, this one stays put! It's a beautiful nude blush with just s hint of mauve that makes this a very wearable shade I like to wear this one on the back of my cheeks with a brighter blush on the apples and I think it gives such a classy look. The price tag on this one is steep, but it's worth it in my opinion. This blush just screams fall!

Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush in Exposed

So that's it. 5 blushes I am totally going to rock this fall! What blushes are you planning on wearing this fall? Leave me a comment and let me know! Thanks for stopping by!

E.L.F. Brightening Eye Color Quads: Review and Swatches

Some products that I have had in my makeup collection for a really long time, but have never really talked to you guys about in too much detail before are the brightening eye color quads from eyes lips face. I thought I would go through each of them individually with you, tell you what I like about them and whether I would recommend them, as well as show you swatches. So hopefully you find this helpful!

So each of these quads comes with 4 triangle shaped eye shadows. The packaging is pretty basic. Just a plastic palette with a clear lid. One of the things I dislike about these quads is that the pans are quite small and shaped in such a way that it is difficult to get a brush in the pan, especially a big fluffy crease brush. Each quad comes with a tiny little mirror inside, which is pretty much useless, as well an eye shadow applicator that is a bit flimsy and again, is pretty much useless. These eye shadow palettes are available for purchase from eyeslipsface.com for just one dollar. Not all of these shades are still available, however. It seems they might be phasing these out, so if you are interested in trying them I would snatch them up asap!



Blue Moon

This quad contains a nice selection of colors that look great in the pan and overall perform decent on the skin. There's an extremely chalky and patchy beige shade that blends away to nothing, so it's pretty pointless.But the rest of the shades are okay.  There's a mid toned, cooler toned brown which is actually quite nice. And there's a navy blue which is very soft and decently pigmented. Overall I would recommend this one as it's one of the nicer quads in this collection.

Brownstone

Brownstone is a quad with cooler toned neutral shades. A good basic palette for someone just starting out with makeup. It contains a cream colored shade with silver shimmer, a light brown, a mid-toned brown and a deeper grey toned brown shade. The quality on these ;particular shades is pretty decent. The shadows have decent pigmentation and with the exception of the cream colored shade there's not a lot of fall out. The deep grey toned brown in particular is very nice and blend-able and the color is gorgeous. This one I would recommend.


Day to Night

This quad is one of the better ones in my opinion. I feel like the shades are all pretty cohesive and you can create a nice look with this one. There's a neutral cream shade that is actually quite nice quality. A plum shade with nice pigmentation. a slate grey that I wish was more pigmented but it's quite pretty over a creamy base. And the star of this quad is a bronze-y shade which is incredibly creamy, easy to blend and has a gorgeous metallic look to it. I would recommend this one!

Drama

Drama is a quad that would, conceivably make for a good smokey eye. It contains a matte white shade, a shimmery slate grey, a matte black and a shimmery silver. While these are great basic colors to have for a classic smokey eye, the pigmentation on the matte shades is lacking. They are a bit chalky and hard to blend. And the shimmery shades have quite a bit of fall out. These are also not quite as pigmented as I would like. This is a decent quality quad but overall not as nice as I would have hoped.

Ivy

This is a very disappointing quad. I feel like I threw my dollar away on this one. The four shade look quite nice in the pan. There's a pale pistachio green. A deeper forest green, a beige and a light brown, but none of these shadows show up on my skin whatsoever. There is zero pigmentation. I have tried rubbing my brush through or scraping off the top layer of product and it's no use. There is no color to this one at all. It's very disappointing.

Luxe

Luxe is one of the better palettes in this collection of eye shadows. The colors in it are unique and perfect for fall and are of decent quality. There's a cream colored neutral shade that is ok, but nothing to write home about. There's a gorgeous sort of metallic looking pink-y red shade that totally makes this quad worthwhile in my opinion. It's a gorgeous shadow with quite nice pigmentation and is quite soft, but not terribly crumbly or anything. There's also a sort of taupe-y grey shade that is quite nice quality as well, and a bronze-y shade that is very pretty, soft and blend-able. I would recommend this quad to anyone. It's one of the better of the bunch!

Nouveau Neutrals

This is another neutral shadow palette, but this one pales in comparison to brownstone. The shades in this one are lighter and less pigmented in general. The shades in this one are a very pale almost minty green shade that just shows up white, and is incredibly patchy with lots of fall out. There is also an olive green which hardly shows up on the eye at all, a cream shade that has no pigmentation whatsoever and is very hard and a sort of light copper shade that, again, has zero pigment. I would not recommend this palette for anyone, not even the youngest of makeup enthusiasts.




Ocean Dreams

Ocean Dreams is a palette with 4 blue toned shades. There is a light sky blue shadow with shimmer, that is very patchy when applied to the eye. There is a brighter based mid-toned blue that is a bit dry but overall quite nice. There is a deep navy blue that is quite pigmented and nice and there is a sort of cornflower blue shade that isn't quite as pigmented, but still decent. If you are looking for blue eye shadows, but blues aren't something you wear often so you don't really want to invest big money into them, this quad might be an option for you. It's not the best quality in the world, but these shades, with the exception of the lightest in the palette, can all be worked with.

Pretty in Pink

As the name suggests this palette has pink toned shadows. There is your basic white, which is decently pigmented, but a little chalky and patchy. There's a mid-toned warmer pink that is nice and soft and decently pigmented. The star of this quad is the mauve-y toned pink that is the darkest shade in this quad. It's pretty pigmented and easily blend-able and a very unique color that I think makes it worth the dollar price tag for this shade alone. And lastly there's a mid-toned cooler pink that is just so so. Overall, I recommend this one for that mauve shade. It really is something special and the quality far exceeds a lot of the other shadows in these quads, especially if worn over a cream base!

Punk Funk

This is a fun little palette. It contains some pretty bright electric shades. First, there's a white shade which is, better quality than some of the whites in the other brightening eye color quads, but is still quite chalky. There's a bright electric blue, which is unlike any other shade I have in my collection, so i'd say it's pretty unique. It's not the best pigmentation or quality but it can be built up and usable over a base. There's a bright purple which rocked my socks in the pan and works quite well on the eye as well. It's decently pigmented. A little chalky, but usable! And lastly, there's a bright electric pink that is, again, not the most pigmented in the world, but still usable. I'd recommend this quad to anyone who wants to experiment with bright shades but are a little uneasy about it. It's a great stepping off point!

Rocker

Rocker is another disappointing quad for me. I really want to like this one because it's got shades that are right up my alley. There is a shimmery white which, as I am sure you have come to expect, is quite patchy with lots of fall out. There's a cream shade that is equally patchy. There's a stunning mid-toned purple which I so wanted to work for me, but there's very little pigmentation and it's dry. And lastly there's a slate grey that has some decent pigmentation but is difficult to blend and doesn't make up for the other sub par shadows in this quad. I wouldn't recommend this one, unless you really want to have to work with the shades. \

Silver Lining

Like Rocker, I had high hopes for this one. The shades are right up my alley. Lots of purple-y shades which are easily my favorite. But, like Rocker, this one is pretty disappointing. There's a pale lavendar purple that is hard and chalky and doesn't show up too well on my skin. There's a brighter mid-toned purple that has decent pigmentation but nothing to write home about. There's a lighter medium silvery grey color with shimmer that blends away to nothing so it really needs to be packed on to show up at all, and a light pale pinky purple that is quite nice and soft, but really shows up more like white on my skin. Overall, disappointing and I wouldn't recommend.

Teal Dream

This quad has some nice, light mermaid-y shades, but I wish the over all pigmentation was better. There's patchy cream shade. A decently pigmented sort of oatmeal shade. a lighter blue which is quite nice and soft but blends away to nothing, so you really have to pile it on to get it to work. And lastly here's a pretty teal shade that is soft but again blends away easily so you really have to work with it. This quad is nothing special and you could easily skip this one.

So that's all of my quads. Overall, I really wouldn't recommend these eye shadows as a whole. The pigmentation and quality on these little palettes are very hit or miss. In general, they are a bit dry and chalky and have quite a bit of fall out, especially in the shimmery shades. Some of the shades are more buttery and blend-able, and are worth picking up, but in general, these are not great quality. If you already have a ton of eye shadows in your collection, you could definitely skip these altogether. However, if you're just starting out, or looking for a product to purchase as a gift for a young girl just getting into makeup, some of these quads would be nice for that.

Hopefully you guys found this helpful! Leave me a comment down below and let me know if you have a different opinion of these shadows, or if you have a specific product you would like me to review next. Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Ipsy May Bag Reveal

I apologize that this is so late. I have been suffering from some pretty severe back pain for the last week, and it's pretty much had me laid up. It still hurts like hell, but I am pushing through to bring you this very late post. I received my ipsy bag last week, and as always, wanted to share it's contents with you all!

The theme this month was Fresh picks, and it seemed to focus less on makeup and more on skincare. The contents of this bag were not the most exciting ever, in my opinion, but the bag itself is just beautiful. It's a sturdy canvas bag with a green leaf design. Very nice, and I will get a lot of use out of it.

Now for the actual products. In my bag I received:

Avene Thermal Spring Water: This is basically spring water made for misting your face or irritated skin, from what I can tell. It's basically water in a can. Let me tell you, this might just be the most useless item I have ever gotten in an ipsy bag. I suppose it would be handy to have on a really hot day outside to help cool off or something, but I am just not at all impressed.

Eva Nyc Therapy session hair mask: I was pretty excited to see this in my bag. I've never heard of the brand before, but I am always anxious to try hair products. This smells nice and it's a fairly large sample. However, I have already tried this and it does nothing for my hair. It really seemed to leave my hair looking dull and flat. I am glad I got to try it, but bummed that it didn't work for me.

Jersey Shore Sun Sans Tan Anti-aging sunscreen SPF 35: Sunscreen isn't exactly the most fun product ever, but as a woman with very fair skin that tends to burn easily I was pleased to see this. It will definitely get some use!

Pacifica Mineral eyeshadow duo #2: I have so many eyeshadows I will never in a lifetime use them all up, but I hadn't tried pacifica's eyeshadows before so I was psyched to get the opportunity. The duo I got comes with a shimmery white eyeshadow and a purple shadow. I love purple shadows on my eyes because they really bring out my green eyes in my opinion. However, the purple shadow does not seem very pigmented, and the white shadow is incredibly powdery. I haven't tried these on my eyes yet, but I wasn't impressed with the quality of these when I swatched them.

Calvin Klein Endless Euphoria: Lastly was this little sample size of the calvin klein endless euphoria perfume. It's a little rollerball, and is easily my favorite product this month. It's a light floral scent that I find very pleasant. I wasn't expecting this to be the favorite product. I have so many perfumes. But it's a great little size that I can toss in my purse if I want to take it with me throughout the day, and the scent is quite lovely.

So that's it. That's my ipsy bag for this month. As you can see, it wasn't the best bag ever but I will get use out of most of the products, and I am always excited to try new things. If you are interested in signing up for ipsy, you can feel free to use my link. If you sign up through my link, I get points that can be saved up and used to redeem extra goodies for my ipsy bag, so I would really appreciate it! http://www.ipsy.com/r/1cwc

Elf Lip Balm Tints Review and Swatches!

It's been quite a while since I did a review on my blog, and I really want to get back into it. And I thought this would be the perfect product to start out with! The Lip Balm Tints from Elf have been out for a little while, and when I finally made an order from their website I had to include a couple of them because I have heard really good things about them. I am super glad that I did!

Here are the details on this product, straight from Elf's website, eyeslipsface.com

The lip balm tints are available from Elf's essential line and cost just 2 dollars each. Each lip balm tint contains 4 grams of product and comes in a clear tub with a white lid. They are available in  4 shades. Nude, Peach, Grapefruit and Berry. When I placed my order only two of the shades were available. The others were out of stock. So today I have a review of the lip balm tints in Peach and Grapefruit.

I found the lip balms to feel very nice on the lips. They are very moisturizing and made my lips feel very soft. They do not seem to have much of a smell, but they do taste a bit sweet when you lick your lips. I did not find them to be sticky at all, and while the color is not super long lasting, it's what I would expect from a tinted lip balm. I am generally not a fan of the style of lip balm that comes in a pot that you have to stick your finger in to apply, but at this affordable price, I don't mind, and you can easily use a lip brush.

The color is not incredibly pigmented, but again, from a tinted lip balm you don't expect it to be. "Grapefruit" is the more pigmented of the two. It's a lovely sheer pink shade that I find quite flattering. It's also a lovely glossy shade that is incredibly easy to wear!

"Peach" is slightly more sheer than "grapefruit" and a good option if you are more concerned with moisturizing your lips and less so about the color. It's a lovely super sheer peach shade that appears pretty much translucent on my lips except for the glossy finish.

Top: Grapefruit Bottom: Peach, with flash

Top: grapefruit, Bottom: Peach, no flash

Overall I am very pleased with these lip balm tints! I like the color payoff, the moisturizing quality and I even like the simply packaging. For the price, I think these are definitely worth checking out if you're in the market for a product like this! These are available for purchase from eyeslipsface.com and while I haven't seen them pop up in my local target yet, I did notice them in my local walgreens, so you might have luck there! I hope you found this post helpful! And I will be back again soon with more reviews of the products I have picked up recently from Elf, so if you are interested, make sure to check back soon!

April 2014 Julep Maven Box: Classic with a Twist

I have been a Julep Maven for about a year now. If you are not familiar Julep is a nail polish subscription service. You pay just 20 dollars a month and you get nail polishes and products delivered to your door. The wonderful thing about Julep is, there is a window of time towards the end of each month where you can choose between multiple boxes, so you can customize the box to your liking, and you can also add on additional nail polishes from the other boxes at a discounted rate. Also, if you just aren't feeling the collection, you can choose to skip the month and not be charged. I generally tend to skip the monthly boxes and instead opt to order from them when they have sales. I have gotten a ton of Julep polishes for 99 cents, and since I am a maven, I get free shipping with every order. It's a fantastic deal!

But, I just couldn't skip this month. I was way too drawn to polishes this month. The collection is called the vivids collection, and it was all I could do to keep myself from buying an upgrade and getting every single one! Plus, The beauty item this month is blush, and if you know me, you know I am a sucker for blush! So I immediately logged on as soon as the maven window opened and made my selections. After much hemming and hawing I went with the Classic With a Twist box (I am usually an It Girl!) and decided on the pearl pink blush. My maven box shipped on the 27th of March and arrived in my hot little hand on April 1st! Super fast!

I chose Classic with a Twist because the nail polishes are just gorgeous. These are going to be perfect on my toes for summer. The polishes included are Caitlin and Mariska.

 Julep describes Caitlin as a shocking hibiscus with Gold shimmer. It's a bright in your face beautiful pink with the tiniest hint of shimmer on the nail. The formula is fantastic. A little thin, but not too thin, if you know what I mean. It's got a bit of a sheer jelly finish but is opaque in 3 coats. It's beautiful!

Julep describes Mariska as a juicy tangerine shimmer. It's a gorgeous bright orange shade that I instantly fell in love with. I am generally not an orange nail polish fan, but there is something about this polish! It's a bit thicker in consistency than Caitlin, but not at all gloopy. Very easy to work with, and very opaque. It's practically a one coater. The shimmer in this polish is not discernible on the nail, and it's so bright that it's practically neon, which means it dries to a sort of matte finish. But that's easily remedied if you don't like that look. Just add your favorite shiny top coat!

Caitlin and Mariska, with flash, so you can see the finish

Caitlin and Mariska, no flash, best representation
of the true color (sorry for the blurriness)

I am very pleased with the nail polishes and I can't wait for warmer weather so I can pull these beauties out and wear them. I think they would even look good together in a color blocking manicure! 

The blush that I chose to accompany my pretty polishes is pink petal. The other choice was a peach-y shade, and I had a really hard time deciding but ultimately went with the pink. The packaging is really nice and sleep with the julep logo in the corner. And the blush itself is really nice. I am very impressed. It's a very pigmented bright pink with a nice sheen. It's very soft and easily blend-able! I haven't worn it on my cheeks yet but it swatches beautifully! It's supposed to be a pore minimizing blush, so I have high hopes for it! 

petal pink blush, with flash

petal pink blush, no flash

So there ya have it. There's my overview and mini review on the April Julep Maven box. I am very pleased with it! If you are interested in signing up for Julep, feel free to use my referral link. 

http://www.julep.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/158571/

And you can also use the coupon code FREECOLOR and receive your starter box for free (just pay shipping) It's a great service, and I think you will really like it! 

Radiant Orchid Trend: NYC Lincoln Square Lavender and Spring Bling

If you are looking for an inexpensive nail polish that fits right in with the pantone color of the year, Radiant Orchid, I may have just the nail polish for you! This little gem has been in my nail polish collection for years. In fact, it was one of the first polishes I purchased when I first started getting into nail polish, and it was so well used and loved that it was all dried up and I had to purchase a replacement. I am so glad I did because I am re-discovering just how much I love this color, and in my opinion, it fits right in with the radiant orchid trend. It's New York Color's In a New York color minute quick dry formula in Lincoln square lavender. It's a beautiful purple-y pink orchid shade in a cream finish. It dries relatively quickly. Under 3 minutes and you're out the door. It's not too thick or too thin, I find it to be a dream to apply. And the best part is, the wuick dry formula polishes from New York Color are just two dollars!

For a bit of fun I added another New York color polish as an accent nail! This polish comes from their normal, long wearing nail polish line that retails for just a dollar. It's a pretty pink and silver micro-shimmer polish called spring bling. I thought it was the perfect compliment to lincoln square lavender. I had this manicure on for 3 days before I saw some minor chipping. So while it might not be the longest wearing brand of polish ever, for the price, I don't think you can beat this nail color if you're looking to follow the radiant orchid trend without breaking the bank! Love it!

The color in the photo is a bit off, it leans a but more pink in real life.

What is your favorite nail polish that follows the radiant orchid trend? I would love to hear from you! Leave me a comment and let me know!

Julep Joanna and Zoya Monet

Hey guys! I've got more nail polish goodness to share with you today. This time, a quick Review on Julep's Joanna and Zoya's Monet. I wore the two together for a fun manicure so I thought I would share it with you.

With Flash

no flash

Julep describes Joanna as a lilac frost. I sort of agree with that description. It is a lilac shade but it has a dusty sort of grey undertone that sets it apart from other lilac polishes in my collection. Neither of my photos represents the true color of this polish, though it's closer to the second photo- the one with no flash. It's truly a unique color- I don't have anything in my collection quite like it. And while it is a frost it's not super frosty, so I find it to be quite wearable.Application was pretty standard for Julep polishes. The brush on Julep's polishes are quite long, owing to the unique bottle shape, and so often, if you're not careful, the nail polish can drip down off the wand onto the brush causing the flooding of cuticles, or just too much polish. But if you're careful, it applies quite nicely. I didn't find it gloopy or streaky, and this polish didn't show brush marks like frosts often do.

To add a little something to this manicure, I opted to apply Zoya's Monet to my ring finger and thumb for some pretty accent nails. Zoya describes monet as a multi-colored cellophane holographic special effects topper. It's a very pretty polish. I found that the base that the glitter was suspended in was quite thick, so it wasn't the easiest polish to work with. I did have to dab a bit to get the glitter exactly where I wanted it. But this polish is just gorgeous. It reminds me that easter grass you get in an easter basket. Just beautiful, and worth the little bit of extra work in my opinion.

So there ya have it! Hope you enjoyed and found this helpful. I'll be back with more manis soon, I am sure!

Zoya Magical Pixie Dust in Lux

I am going to go ahead right off the bat say that the photo does NOT do this amazingly beautiful polish justice. The magical pixie dusts from Zoya are a new release for spring. They have all the beautiful texture of the regular pixie dust with the added bonus of holographic glitter. These polishes are absolute stunning. ,I purchased Lux, this gorgeous pink I am sharing with you today, as well as Vega, which is a stunning blue. I am sure you will see Vega featured in a post very soon, but for now, let's get back to my rave review on Lux.

If you like textured polish, than you probably are already aware of how amazing the zoya pixie dust polishes are. Theeir sparkly textured goodness that can not be betat by any other brand of textured polish in my opinion. The formula on this new Magical pixie dust is a bit thicker, owing to the extra holo glitter they have packed this polish with, but it's still fantastic. I got an opaque finish in two coats. Because of the extra glitter, this polish is a lot more textured and so I chose to add a coat of top coat on top, so my nails wouldn't snag on anything. The texture still comes through with the top coat, it's just not quite as rough. This polish is a stunner and might possibly be my new all time favorite! I love it. I wish I had been able to capture this polish better, but sadly all my photos paled in comparison to the beauty that is this polish in real life.

If you are a fan of textured polish and holographic glitter, run to your local zoya retailer (or to zoya.com) and grab this polish! You won't regret it!

Revlon Parfumerie Nail Polish in Wintermint

Among the lovely gifts my husband got me for Valentine's Day was this lovely little parfumerie polish from Revlon. It is the first of its kind that I have tried and I have to say I absolutely love it. 

Revlon's Wintermint is a sweet mint green color with blue glitter specs in it. It's gorgeous! It reminds me of the ocean for some reason. It took 3 coats to be opaque but was an absolute dream to apply. It wasn't patchy or thick. It just glided right on the nail And it's scented! It has the most lovely mint smell. Even now, hours after I polished my nails I can still smell the minty smell. It's so much more pleasant than the typical nail polish smell. The bottle is adorable as well, and while I was concerned that the small, rounded cap would make polishing difficult, I had no trouble with it at all. The Revlon Parfumerie line of polishes is quite extensive and I can't wait to try more of them! Have you tried any of this line of polishes? I would love to hear about your experience, so leave me a comment down below! 

Wet n Wild Candy-licious and Hard Candy Pink Taffy

Hey guys! It's been a while since I shared a nail of the day post, and since I did a pink mani for the first time in ages I thought I would go ahead and share it with you!

natural lught

With Flash

No Flash

I started out with two coats of The Wet n Wild Megalast Polish in Candy-licious. It's a beautifu mid-toned candy colored pink. It's a cream formula that glides on effortessly with the Manicurve Pro brush that I love so much! This is a fantastic color for spring and summer, and I figured, why not wear it in winter too? It's been so cold and dreary here, I just wanted a nice pop of color! Then to add a little bit more fun. I painted one coat of Hard Candy's pink taffy on top of candy-icious on my ring finger and thumb on each hand. This is a super fun polish. It looks just like taffy to me. This can be worn on it's own, but it takes about 3 coats to be completely opaque, so I decided just to wear it as a topper today, and I love the way it looks with candy-icious. Overall I really love this mani!

Wet N Wild Megalast in Candy-licious can be purchased for $1.99 or less anywhere that wet n wild products are sold. (I picked up mine at wal-mart for about $1.75)
Hard Candy Pink Taffy can be purchased exclusively at Wal-mart for $4.00

Dr. Scholl's for Her Cozy Cushions Review!

I was super excited when I opened up my Rose Vox Box from influenster and saw these show inserts from Dr. Scholl's for her. I thought these would be the perfect thing for the cold winter weather here in Southeast michigan. What better way to keep my feet extra toasty and dry then to pop these cozy inserts into my shoes.

Well, I popped them in to a pair of boots I just recently purchased from Justfab, and thought all was well. Until I tried to put my foot into the boot. The added padding in to boot from the insert made the area around my toes quite tight and uncomfortable. I thought that the cushion just needed to be broken in and shape to my foot and it would be more comfortable so I wore it for a few hours. Ouch! Still tight. So I thought I would try it in another pair of shoes. I have a pair of looser fitting shoes that I slipped them into and it was much better. So, if you're going to use these, I would suggest buying your shoes half a size up to accommodate the extra bulk. Once I put them into shoes that were a bit bigger I liked them a lot. They were very comfortable and kept my feet nice and toasty and dry for the time that I wore them. I like that you can easily slip them into and out of different shoes. Overall I am pleased with them, I just wish they didn't add the extra bulk, because it makes it hard for me to fit them into some of the shoes I already own!

note: I received this product complimentary from influenster for testing purposes. All opinions are my own!

Rimmel London ScandalEyes Retro Glam Mascara Review

I received a tube of the Retro Glam mascara in my Influenster Rose Voxbox complimentary for testing purposes. I am always excited to try new mascaras, but I was hesitant about this one, because I wasn't a fan of the previous scandaleyes mascara I tried. But I was pleasantly surprised with this one!

I really like this mascara a lot. The packaging is cute. It's this super cute retro style black and white tube. The wand of this mascara is nice and large, without being too large, so I find that it gets in and coats my lasehes well without getting mascara all over my face.

 The formula is a dry formula, which I usually don't like, but this gives my lashes good coverage and adds a lot of volume. It's not a super lengthening mascara, in my opinion, but adding multiple coats of the product does help the length some. It's a really black formula which I like, and it doesn't clump, or flake off. I found that the product lasted all day and didn't weigh my lashes down, which I find sometimes with wetter formulas.  I recommend that you curl your lashes, and then apply two coats of this mascara for best results. I found that the formula really helped hole the curl of my lashes, which was an extra bonus that I Wasn't expecting! This mascara really lasts. I wore it yesterday with a cream shadow and some pencil liner and after 10 hours of wear the rest of my eye makeup was smudged off, but my mascara still looked great!

This product is hitting shelves this month, so I highly recommend that you check it out if you're looking to try out a new drugstore brand mascara.

September Ipsy Review

From now on you will be seeing reviews of my ipsy bags each month on my blog. I usually film a reveal video where I share with you the items I got in my ipsy bag for the month, and at the same time review the items from the previous months bag. It has occurred to me recently that people don't necessarily watch my ipsy videos to hear about past products, but just to see what comes in my bag each month. So from now on, the reviews will be here. So without further ado, let's go over my bag from September.

Last Month's bag theme was Classic Beauty and the items I received in the bag were all classic items that I was sure to get a lot of use out of, and for the most part, I did. When I first got my bag, I was actually pretty disappointed with items in the bag, but I did find after using them for the month that I liked a few of them quite a lot! 

-Nyx eyeshadow in the color in Morrocco. I really loved this eyeshadow. It's a gorgeous deep purple color that is not at all powdery, very easy to blend and quite pigmented. I used this color a lot over top of the my Mac painterly paint pot as a sort of one color eyeshadow look and I liked it a lot. It was really pretty especially with my green eyes. 

John Frieda Full repair full body Shampoo and Conditioner- I was really disappointed with these samples. While it was a good size sample for me to be able to try out this shampoo and conditioner, but I found that this did nothing for my hair. It cleaned my hair, but I felt like it dried it out and didn't leave it soft or healthy looking like I like. So I only used these samples twice. :(

Elizabeth Mott It's so Big volumizing mascara in black- I was not at all excited to see yet another mascara sample in my ipsy bag, because I have a ton of mascaras, and generally don't like the samples I receive. However, I LOVED this mascara. It is a super wet formula which I generally do not like, but this mascara gives my lashes so much length and volume. It doesn't flake or smudge on me at all, and it's just one of those miracle worker mascaras. I have no idea how much a full size of this mascara costs, but I am assuming it's quite expensive. If that's the case I probably won't re-purchase it, but I am definitely going to use up every bit of the sample size provided! 

Starlooks Kohl Eyeliner Pencil in the color Obsidian- This is another product I wasn't super excited about. How many black eyeliner pencils can one girl have? But I used it a lot this month and I did like it. It doesn't drag or pull when being applied and it's super easy to smudge for the perfect smokey look. It's not my favorite black kohl eyeliner ever but I will defenitely get a lot of use out of it, so that's great! 

So, while it wasn't my favorite bag ever, and I wasn't initially excited about a lot of the products, I did get a lot of use out of them all, except for the shampoo and conditioner, which I will pass on to a friend who I think will like them better. All in all, I am pleased with the bag overall. If you are interested in subscribing to ipsy and receiving 4-5 full size or deluxe size samples of awesome products each month, I highly reccomend that you sign up! There's a waiting list at the moment so the faster you sign up the faster you will get your goodies! You can sign up here! http://www.ipsy.com/?refer=u-h050i4dtdcr313k3

And if you're interested in seeing what I got in my October Ipsy Bag, you can check out my video below! 

Thanks for stopping by! I would love to hear form you! Leave me a comment down below or use the contact bar on the right side of the blog to get in touch!! 

Elf Disney Villains 2013 Collection: First Impression and Swatches!

If you've been reading my blog for a while then you might remember my excitement about the E.L.F. Villainous Villains Limited edition collection of products from last year. Well, they're back, baby, and better than ever. This year, E.L.F. has come out with FOUR villain look books (last year only three villains were featured- Maleficent, Cruella and The Wicked Queen. This year they added Ursula into the mix) as well as a collection of mini nail polishes. These products are all exclusive to walgreens. Last year, these were incredibly difficult for me to find. I searched high and low, went to about five different walgreens and finally had a very kind saleslady hold them for me until my husband could get down there, and he bought the very last ones! This year, I had zero trouble finding these babies! I walked into my local walgreens and spotted them as soon as I walked through the automatic doors!

 The look books were on display along with the nail polishes from Ellf, as well as other dsney villains themed products including false lashes from ardell, some hair things and some makeup bags. Let me tell you, I LOVE the disney villains, and it was so hard not to put one of everything in my cart!

But, I didn't. I pushed away the urge to buy everything and walked out with just one of the Disney Villains Look Books. I chose Ursula, since there wasn't a book available for her last year. And because I am a sucker for purple eyeshadows!

Elf Disney Villains Ursula Look Book

Isn't it just gorgeous! These books are quite a bit bigger than the ones from last year and feature white packaging with a gorgeous watercolor style image of the villain, in this case, Ursula. The packaging on this is so pretty and stylized. I love it! The book opens up in a sort of french door style (I am blanking on how else to describe it) and on either side of the products, there are written instructions on how to create both a day look, and a night look. These tutorials aren't as in-depth as the ones from the books last year, but useful nonetheless. I will be doing a separate post later on the looks that can be created, so be on the lookout for that!

Each of the look books comes with 1 eyelid primer, 6 eyeshadows, 1 brightening eyeliner, 1 liquid eyeliner, 1 mascara, 1 lip color ans 1 eyeshadow brush. Unlike last year's books, where the products were built in and couldn't be removed, these are all individual products that can be removed, which makes application super easy. Let's go over each of the products included in this book and look at them a little closer!

Elf Lengthening and Defining Mascara in black- This is the mascara from Elf's essential line. It can be purchased from their website for $1. I have never actually used this mascara before, so I am interesting in trying it out. The wand on this mascara is a regular bristle wand, not a rubberized one. Normally I prefer the rubberized wands, but we shall see. The head of this wand is also a bit smaller than some of the other wands I have tried previously, so that should be helpful in really getting in close to the lashline. I will have a full review on this mascara in an upcoming post.

Elf Brightening Eyeliner in Black- This is the eyeliner from Elf's essential line. It can be purchased from Elf's website for $1. That's for the full size. This is a mini travel size pencil. This isn't the blackest eyeliner ever, but it's nice and soft and easy to use. You can smudge it easily which makes it nice.

Elf Liquid Eyeliner in Midnight- I really like Elf's liquid eyeliner. This is from Elfs essential line as well and can also be purchased from their website for one dollar. I find that elf's liquid liners are easy to apply (well, as easy as liquid eyeliner is to apply) and dries relatively quickly, and lasts for quite a while! I don't find that it flakes on me, though I have heard that complaint from others. Still, it's a nice addition to the set.

Liquid liner in midnight, brightening eye liner in black

Elf Eyelid Primer- this is one of my holy grail products from Elf. It's just $1 from their essential line and it works just as well as higher end primers, on me. I find that it really helps to make colored eye shadows pop, which makes it a perfect addition to this colorful collection.

Elf professional eyeshadow brush- This is another one of my holy grail items from elf. This brush is fantastic, especially for it's price tag, which is $1 on Elf's website. It's a flat shader brush that is perfect for laying down color. I highly recommend this, and I am so excited to have an extra!

Elf Lip Color- This is an absolutely beautiful opaque lip cream. The one in the Ursula look book is a gorgeous mid-toned pink that isn't too muted or too bright. I found this lip color to be incredibly pigmented, long lasting (for a gloss) and very glossy. I love this!

Ursula Lip Color

 The eye shadows that are included in the Ursula Look Book are:

Coral- a shimmery pale lavender shade
Sea witch- a bright, matte fuchsia purple shade
Shell- a gorgeous green with a satin finish
Kiss the Girl- a super pigmented midtoned brown
Triton- a brighter mid-toned purple with a matte finish
Bewitched- a matte charcoal gray

Sometimes Elf's eyeshadows can be quite hit or miss, but I found, overall, the quality of these eyeshadows to be quite good! You can see, below, the swatches which are done on bare skin. I am certain that with an eye primer, these would really pop and be gorgeous! I apologize for my photos, which are looking quite washed out, but you can get an idea on pigmentation here. And just look at that gorgeous brown shade, called Kiss the girl.

Coral, Sea Witch, Shell
Kiss the Girl, Triton, bewitched

So there ya have it. That's the Ursula look book. I was so pleased to be able ti find this and add it to my collection of books from last year!

But wait! There's more!

My amazing husband got me a present. I was more than happy with my ursula book, so he got me my next favorite Disney Villain! Maleficent!!

Elf Disney Villains Maleficent Look Book

This book comes with all the same products as the Ursula one. Only differences are, the eye shadows and the lip color.

The Maleficent Look book comes with these eye shadows:

Flora- a cream color
Fauna- a sort of khaki color with a gorgeous sheen
Spell- a gorgeous shimmery green
Deep Sleep- a silvery light green shade
Thorns- a dark ruddy brown
Raven Black- a matte black

You can see in the photo below some are more pigmented than others and the black is a bit chalky but these can all be worked with!

Flora, Fauna, Spell
Deep Sleep, Thorns, Raven Black 

And the Maleficent Lip Color is this gorgeous red:

Maleficent Lip Color

Overall I think, of the look books I have tried, this is a great collection! Heck, just the novelty alone makes this worth the $9.99 price tag to me, and the products are all product I will use!! I am going to try very hard to contain myself and not buy the other products in this collection, but its so hard!! Which Disney villain is your favorite? I would love to hear from you! Leave me a comment on this post, or else use the contact card below to get in touch!! Thanks for stopping by, guys, and be on the lookout for posts on the looks I plan to create with these sets!