Deborah Lippmann: Glitter and Be Gay

It seems this holiday was one for nail polish as gifts, glitter nail polish to be exact. Admittedly, I did request for specific Deborah Lippmann shades but it wasn't my idea to begin with and the other polish was an unexpected surprise. So in the end, I ended up with 3 Deborah Lippmann glitters and one ButterLONDON glitter and a reputation for having decked out nails apparently.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear: Confetti Punch

It's been a few weeks since I picked up this little bottle of glitter fun. I really liked the contrasting colors in it and couldn't resist especially since the Xtreme Wear line is rather affordable.

Sephora Pantone Universe Full Spectra Eye Shadow Palette: Daybreak

I have been eyeing this particular palette ever since it was released, but I couldn't justify spending money on another eye shadow palette I didn't need that was full priced. So as I was browsing for a new concealer to use for an upcoming wedding, I found this palette in the sale bins. I hesitated for just a bit before I grabbed it. I was still able to find it on sale at the Sephora website today for $19.

NYX Glam Shadow Stick: Rose Gold

Recently, I discovered that the Target I go to for household essentials also sold NYX. When did that happen? Granted, the selection was in a rather sorry state, I still couldn't help but pick up this shadow stick when it's name was Rose Gold. I was just in some kind of spending mood that night...Oops.

Let's start with what was good about this shadow stick. The packaging is super convenient and user friendly since it twists up and the clear cap lets you see the shade. I also thought the size of the crayon was perfect for my lids and made for an easy quick application process. In addition, I experienced no tugging whatsoever because it went on smoothly and blended easily.

The color is also quite similar to rose gold, at least for a make up product. It's sort of a pinkish peachy shade with lots of shimmer. Very pretty and a great shade to wear by itself.

Now, the biggest downfall of this shadow stick, was the fact that it creased. I hadn't worn it for an hour before I found those dreaded crease lines on my lids. I did use my NYX eyelid primer underneath, but did not use any powder eyeshadow on top. Considering the fact that I don't actually own any rose gold sort of shade in powder form, anything I set this shadow stick with will dull or alter the gorgeous color, the whole point of purchasing this in the first place.

I suppose I could use Rose Gold as a base, but I didn't buy this shadow stick for that purpose. I wanted the color in all its glory. Plus, all the shimmer in this stick makes me think it's not really meant to be a base anyways.

I guess it's a good thing I'm only out around $5. I should've resisted the urge to buy! Excuse me, while I pity myself.

OPI: Haven't the Foggiest

With the release of the OPI San Francisco collection, I really couldn't help but purchase at least one of the shades available. My brother was with me while I was in the selection process and we narrowed it down to Haven't the Foggiest. My brother and I do love our fog since we basically feel like melting once the temperatures start hitting the 70s °F.

Haven't the Foggiest stands right next to the fence in nearly being gun metal, but at the same time definitely not. Although silver in color, it is not as bright as the usual slivers available out there. I have seen this shade described as a shimmer, but I can't agree and would prefer to call it a foil. You can't see the foil texture in my photo because this shade is seriously light reflective and I was dealing with the ever changing sky of San Francisco for lighting.

The formula went on so smoothly, this was one of the fastest manicure sessions I had. I will admit that there are some faint signs of brushstrokes but once I had my topcoat over it, those strokes became unnoticeable. This polish was also only a two coater although I would say one coat is possible because the color is so dense. Overall, I'm really pleased with this polish.

On a side note, I have started a new job that is keeping me very busy with nearly 9 hour work days and it requires taking work home to do as well on most days. I also plan to go back to school for basically 9 months (I just mailed my application last week). My free time to update on this blog will be cut down greatly but I don't plan to stop. I did want the reason for the lack of updating to be known though. Thanks!

Color Club: Over the Moon

Here I am with another Color Club holo polish. This one is also from the Halo Hues 2013 collection and just as awesome as Miss Bliss.

Color Club: Miss Bliss

I've had this holographic gem for a couple of months now, but never got around to actually trying it until now. I blame Cuti-CLUE-les since her recent post of her own Color Club holographic nail polish prompted me to finally pull out mine for my current manicure.

Zoya Independence Day Deal!

I was on Facebook when I saw this offer so I thought I'd share it on my blog.

Photo credit to Zoya

Unfortunately, this offer is limited to the Continental U.S. only. Plus, shipping and handling will be applied.  However, if you are in the U.S. and would like to try Zoya, this is a good deal to take advantage of. I really love the shade Liberty so I definitely wouldn't worry about the mandatory purchase of it. It's an amazing color.

You can find out more on Zoya's blog and if you'd like to see a swatch of Liberty, I had posted about it last month on my own blog. 

Zoya Pixie Dust: Liberty

Say hello to my new favorite summer color! Everytime I look at this shade, I wish I had picked up the other summer Zoya Pixie Dusts, but then I remember that I was able to see the swatches on a nail wheel in person and this blue, goodness gracious, was the most vibrant of them all.

Etude House: Drawing Snow Dot Liner

I'm back with another Etude House post, this time it's an eyeliner! The first time I had ever heard about a dot liner was from Fleur De Force about the Clarins version and although Clarins is available in the U.S. that particular product was not. It seemed to be a U.K. only release. The long and short of it, I really wanted to try it and luckily, I was able to have my mom pick up the Etude House version while on her vacation.

This dot liner comes with a felt tri-tip that can be pretty flexible if need be. Unfortunately, the cap does not snap onto the back end of the liner, which I find is usually convenient for adding length, allowing me to hold it more steadily. Lessening rolling clutter around my makeup area would have been nice too, if I could have done it.

This liner is in no way waterproof since a bit of water and some light rubbing will wash it right off. However, away from water this liner is pretty smudge proof.  The dots and lines that you can draw turn out quite clean, but you do need a light touch. The liner itself can be inky so if you aren't light handed with the dotting, you can end up with a mess before you know it.

As you can see in the photo above, delicate dots can be made and they are nicely consistent in size. I don't know when you would ever need three equally spaced lines, but that is possible too! Lastly, if you're looking for a solid line, which is the example on the box itself, that can be done as well. Don't mind some of the bleeding you see in the photo. The back of my hand isn't as smooth as my lid and there's no primer to help out. I did not experience any bleeding while using it on my lid.

Personally, I don't see why I would choose my dot liner over my other usual liquid liners if all I want is a solid line. Despite not understanding the logic of it all, I did go ahead and try out a full on eyeliner look including the cat eye flick. It all turned out quite nicely, but one single fine point is much easier to control.

Personally, I really like using the dotting effect to thicken my lash line. I make a line of dots as close to my lashes as possible and you can barely tell it's there. It's great for people who don't want to mess with drawing a perfect line but want a more emphasized lash line. 

Maybelline Color Tattoo: Lavish Lavender

Well, I'm a bit behind on posting about this but I did pick up one of Maybelline's new summer Color Tattoos when they first hit the shelves.

Lavish Lavender is a highly metallic, grayer side of lavender. It's not quite as blue or pink-toned as most lavender shades I've seen. Although, the extra sheen from the metallic finish also does not make for easy color analyzing.

The consistency is just as creamy as the other Color Tattoos and the wear is as long lasting too. I've been able to wear this Lavish Lavender past the 8 hour mark without any major creasing.

The other two Color Tattoos I do own are very wearable colors that I usually just throw on using my fingers for the whole process. Lavish Lavender on the other hand is bolder than I had anticipated and needs more precision. Application with my fingers left me with a bit of a mess so I had to employ the use of a brush for some blending. Now I'd rather just apply this shade with brushes instead of my fingers.

Lavish Lavender is a great purple shade if you want a pastel approach that is a bit more substantial. The gray really anchors the color making it a great shade to wear all by itself. 

L'oreal: The Palace Life

I had planned for my next post to be eye make up related, but I loved my new manicure so much that I had to share it! Strangely enough, although I have way too much nail polish in my possession already, I didn't own any sort of pastel pinks before this one.

I'm aware I'm late to the game on this one, but for some reason the Versailles Romance collection was impossible to find where I lived. I came across The Palace Life quite by accident at Target. I can't say that this shade is especially unique, but it does go well with the soft colors so popular during spring. I needed 3 coats to achieve full opacity though. I think I could  have done it with 2 coats but that would have required thicker layers and the drying time for this polish wasn't as fast as I would have liked it to be. I also needed a top coat to really even out the look as well. I would say this was a decent polish overall, though not the best I've tried.

For accents, I layered Sonoma Nail Art's Parasol glitter over The Palace Life. I bought this a month or two ago, but never got the chance to try it out. I can't believe I waited so long, it looks fantastic. I'm currently thinking of other shades I can layer Parasol over.

Sinful Shine: Pragmatic

Today I bring you Pragmatic, a lovely purple shade from the new Sinful Shine line that is exclusively at Walgreens. This line promotes something called "Gel Tech for ultimate gloss." Each bottle is sold for a pretty affordable $2.99.

China Glaze: Fade into Hue

I have to confess that, recently, I totally splurged on nail polish I don't actually need. However, this store I went to had such great discounts and that included some of the more current collections! I was able to get a couple of China Glaze polishes for just $3 a pop. Zoya was only $4 and the Pixie Dust collection was just $0.50 more. I believe OPI was $5, of which I really couldn't help but buy Which is Witch at that price. And, I was finally able to get my hands on Color Club for $2.50 a piece, although their holo polishes were $7, but considering I can't find Color Club anywhere in San Francisco, I picked up a few also.

So moving on from my gushing about the great deals I encountered, I picked up Fade into Hue from the Avant Garden collection from the very same store I've been going on and on about in this post. It's a wonderful hazy periwinkle creme shade. The only other color I've seen that carries the same type haziness of color is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Delphinium, which is one of my absolute favorites. Personally, I think Fade into Hue is the perfect shade for spring in San Francisco. 

Application was relatively smooth. Most of the time, I was able to get completely even opaque color in two coats. There was one or two nails that needed a third coat though. The overall formula was quite nice. I experienced no streaking and I found the drying time to be quick.  I spent a quiet no fuss evening painting my nails with this shade and the process wasn't driving me up the wall, unlike another Avant Garden shade...ahem, Mimosa's Before Mani's.

If you're looking for different type of pastel than your usual Easter egg kind of shades, I highly recommend Fade into Hue.

Etude House Peach Cheek Blusher: #2 Smile Pink

Hello again! I hope March has been good to all of you. It's been a busy month for me with plenty of attention splitting events, so I haven't been putting my focus much on makeup lately. When I did have the chance to wear makeup, I made sure to reach my Etude House Peach Cheek Blusher. I really wanted to give this one a full test run, so this was my only blush for this month.

Etude House: Juicy Cocktail Gradation Nails

Last week my mom returned from her vacation in Vietnam. Before she left, I had asked her to buy some Asian beauty products. However, it turns out that my favor turned out to be harder than anticipated. The only brand she was able to find sold reputably was Etude House.

Nail Magic: Base Coat & Ridge Filler

Happy New Year! It is officially the year of the Snake. Life and work in general has been pretty busy for me so I haven't been taking the time to work on my blog although I did have some posts already had in mind to do. Add San Francisco weather into the mix and days I was inclined to post, I couldn't take pictures since it was way too gloomy. I have been trying out this base coat for several months now and I felt had enough sufficient observations to be giving a review on it.

Nail Magic is a brand I came across while browsing around in Sally Beauty Supply. I had been using Sally Hansen base coats before this, but I found that it didn't help protect my nails when I used a color like ButterLONDON's Disco Biscuit, which was guaranteed to stain. And since Nail Magic was under $10, I decided it couldn't hurt to try, plus the fact that it was a ridge filler was even better.

Although this base coat looks cloudy in the bottle, it applies clear. The formula is very smooth and easy to use as well and fills in any ridges I have wonderfully. In addition, I found that when it dries, it does feel a bit tacky to the touch. But once you have your nail polish and top coat on the tackiness is no longer a problem.

I really wish I had taken a picture of my nails before using Nail Magic, since they were slightly orange tinged from the fuchsia, berry, and red toned shades I had been using. They were just that apparently stained from the nail polish. Since then, the holidays have come and gone and I did go back to the shades that originally stained my nails to be festive but it seems that no additional staining occurred. My nails are now more normal looking since the stained portion finally grew out and I haven't had anymore obvious staining after that.

Nail Magic really seems to be protecting my nails against staining and it's really affordable for how long it's lasted me so I highly recommend this one if you're on the look for a new base coat. 

Physicians Formula: Organic Wear Jumbo Lash Mascara

The few things I expect from my mascara is that it doesn't clump or smudge despite not being waterproof and that it thickens while lengthening. Through trying several mascaras, the one point that has never been completely met has been the smudging. With this Physicians Formula mascara, I think I've come the closest to that goal to date.