My Favorite Beauty Products from 2014

Happy New Year! I know it's been a while since I posted a blog! One of my New Years Resolutions is to stay more up to date with this blog, so hopefully you'll be hearing more from me in 2015! But before we start thinking about 2015, I thought it would be fun to talk about some of my favorite products that I used in 2014. These are tried and true favorites that I used a to throughout the year. Not necessarily products that were new! I will just give you a quick laundry list of my favorite products.

Makeup:

Foundation
Maybelline Fit Me Foundation, Covergirl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 Foundation

Concealer
Maybelline Fit Me Concealer, Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circles

Powder
Elf HD Powder, Elf HD Undereye Setting Powder, Rimmel Stay Matte Powder

Blush
Tarte Blushes, Elf Blushes

Bronzer
Revlon Photo Ready Bronzer, Pixi Subtly Suntouched Bronzer

Highlighter
Elf Baked Blush in Pinktastic

Eyeshadow Primer/Bases
Mac Painterly Paint Pot

Eyeshadows
Wet n Wild Color Icon Singles, Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette

Eyeliners
Urban Decay 24/7 Liners, Julep Gel Eye Glider Pencils

Mascara
L'oreal Voluminous Mascara

Lip Balm
EOS Lip Balms, Maybelline Baby Lips

Lipstick
Maybelline Lipsticks, Elf Lipsticks

Lip Gloss
Juice Beauty Lip Gloss, Nyx butter glosses

Nail Polish
Zoya, Julep

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!

My Valentine's Day Manicure

Hey guys!Happy Valentine's Day! I feel like all I ever post is nail polish related things, and this is no exception! I promise to get back into posting reviews and things of other products. Eventually. But fo now, I wanted to share my Valentine's Day Manicure with you!!

I went with a super simple, very pretty mani this year. I started out by painting all of my nails with one of my new favorite pinks, Zoya's Dot. I got this polish in my Ipsy bag (if you want to see what else I received in my bag, check out my video here) and it's the perfect milky baby pink. It just reminds me of strawberry milk. The formula on this polish is amazing. I didn't find it streaky or difficult to work with at all, and I was able to get it opaque in just two coats, practically unheard of for a pastel! Once the polish was dry, I did a single stamped accent nail. I used the BM02 plate from Bundle Monster and stamped using Wet n Wild Megalast polish in "I Red a Good Book" Because it was just a single thin coat of polish, it turned out a dark pink color, which I think looks perfect with "Dot".I topped it off with Sally Hansen's Strengthening Top Coat for some beautiful shine, All in all I am quite pleased with how it turned out!

November Mani Instagram Photos!

I have been neglecting my poor blog lately. I just haven't had much time to write up blog posts! My most popular blog posts are usually my nail of the day or mani monday posts, so I thought to get back into blogging I'd show you some of the manis I wore in the month of November! I took all these photos from my instagram page. If you aren't following me on instagram you should definitely do so! I always post my current mani photos there as well as mini hauls, cute photos of my kids and pets and hubby, selfies, food and so much more. It's like a mini peek into my life! So fun! You can find me on instagram under the name Jwhackers!

Anyway, on to the manicures! I rocked a lot of jewel tones and especially blues this month so far!

Jelly Sanwich using Zoya's Katherine and Julep's Clio

Wet n Wild Fast Dry in Buffy the Violet Slayer with
Wet n Wild Megalast in Sparkle and Grey accent nails

Wet n Wild Fast Dry in Saved by the Blue with the Sally Hansen
Fuzzy Coat polish in Tight knit on top

Butter London's Swinger

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Nightwatch with
New York Color Big City Dazzle on top

Zoya Neve

Julep Reiko

So there ya have it! A random collection of my mani photos! It's not all the manis I wore in November, though! If you want to catch them all be sure to head over to instagram and follow me! Leave me a comment and let me know your instagram username and I will follow you back! Have a great day everyone!

Beautiful Blues: A Guide to Blue nail polish!

I enjoyed bringing you all a guide to purple nail polishes from the drugstore so much that I decided to give you all an overview of some more of my polishes. This time it's blues! I have quite a few polishes to show you and compare for you, so I will just get right into it.

1. Zoya Blu- $8

The first polish I will share with you is the polish that has most recently entered my nail polish collection. I just received this in my May Ipsy Bag. This is a beautiful opaque baby blue. There is a lot of white in this polish. It's very, very opaque. You can get full coverage in just one coat, which is what you see in the swatch above. It's a great formula. This is the first Zoya nail polish that I have tried, and I really love the formula. It's a but more expensive than the other blues I have to share with you, but I think that the formula makes it worth it.

2. Sinful Colors Cinderella- $2

This is another very pale blue, but this differs from Zoya Blu because it has a lot of silver micro shimmer running through it. It is a beautiful color. I have said before that Sinful Colors is a great brand because it's super inexpensive and there is a huge variety of colors. Cinderella is a must have polish if you love blues as much as I do. It is opaque in just two coats!

3. Sinful Colors Endless Blue- $2

The picture for this polish does not do it justice at all. Endless Blue is a beautiful deep bright blue that is gorgeous. It is a cream formula, and it is opaque in just two coats. I wish I had a better picture to better represent how truly beautiful and unique this color is. It's a must have blue in my opinion, and can't be beat for 2 dollars!

4. Sinful Colors Nail Junkie- $2

Sinful Colors also does a ton of really awesome glitter polishes. Nail Junkie is chock full of small pieces of blue and green glitter. There is so much glitter in this that it is totally opaque on it's own. You can layer this on top of another polish, but it's not necessary. It can be worn on it's own. It's a beautiful shade, and a must have, in my opinion, if you like glitter as much as I do! Also, you can see a much better representation of Sinful Colors Endless Blue in this photo to the right of Nail Junkie. You can see how deep but bright the color is.

5. Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Blue Moon- $1

Blue Moon is a gorgeous, super inexpensive blue from Wet n Wild. At just one dollar, this is a fantastic value. It's a deep, navy blue with some super finely milled green shimmer running through it that makes this color truly unique, especially for the one dollar drugstore price tag. I have a couple of the Wild Shine line of polishes from Wet n Wild and they are all very nice quality for the price. If you're looking for a navy polish with some shimmer, this might just be the one for you.

6. NYC Long Wearing Nail polish in Empire State Blue- $1

This is another super budget friendly blue polish. This time, from the brand New York Color. You can get the long wearing version of NYC polishes for under a dollar at most drugstores. I personally get mine from walmart. Empire State Blue is a medium toned, brighter blue, and this one, too, has some green micro shimmer. I like these sort of blues a lot. The Long Wearing formula isn't the best ever. It gets opaque in 2-3 coats, and lasts about 3-4 days without chipping with a good top coat.



7. China Glaze Mosaic Madness- $6-$8 dollars

Now for something completely different. If you are looking for some dark blue chunky glitter to top one of your favorite polishes, look no furthur than Mosaic Madness from China Glaze. I LOVE this polish. China Glaze makes some amazing chunky glitter top coats. Mosaic Madness has small, medium and large pieces of glitter as well as bar glitter. It's very pretty and very unique! The price for China Glaze ranger from 6-8 dollars, from my experience, and they can be found at Sally Beauty Supply.

8. Revlon Princess- $5

This is a very unique color, and one of my favorite blues in my collections. It's a very frosty, almost metallic, blue. It's got a ton of shimmer in it which makes it a more of a silvery looking blue. It's unlike anything else that I have in my collection. I love Revlon's line of nail polishes. And this one is one of my favorite blues! I highly recommend it!

9. Revlon Whimsical- $5

Here's another awesome Revlon nail polish. Whimsical is a sheer baby blue base with medium sized hexagonal glitter in pink and blue. I think the name of this polish is perfect for this polish. The glitter is very sparse throughout the polish making it look very unique. This polish really needs to be used on top of another polish, in my opinion. It's not really opaque enough to be worn on it's own,. But over another baby blue polish, or even white, It's gorgeous! 

10. Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear nail polish in Pacific Blue $2

This might just be my all time favorite blue nail polish. This is a cult avorite in the beauty community online. Pacific blue is a gorgeous cornflower bluedifferent from all the other blues in my collection. It's one of those polishes that doesn't look all that special but is beautiful on the nail. It's opaque in two coats and has amazing lasting power. But, the color is just so pretty and unique, this is a must have polish. If you have just one blue in your nail polish collection, in my opinion, this should be it! It's super inexpensive. I get mine at walmart for two dollars or less! Run, don't walk, and get this for your collection. you won't regret it! 

There ya go! There's just a quick guide to blues! I have a lot of other amazing blues in my collection as well. This isn't even close to all of them. Blue might just be my favorite nail polish color. But I think this covers a lot of different styles and shades of blue, and if you don't see something you like in this lot of blue, than perhaps blue just isn't for you. Hope you found this helpful, and I will talk to you guys again soon!