China Glaze: Snow Globe

I had heard about the new China Glaze holiday nail polishes since October, however I was unable to find a single one anywhere. My local Sally Beauty Supply suggested that I come back in November to check again, so I waited and when I was able to I dropped by and picked up Snow Globe. I love opalescent or pearly glitter and when I heard about this one I was basically on the hunt for it. Realistically, I wouldn't wear this on bare nails, but I have great plans for layering it over colors.

Here I have on Essie's Smooth Sailing and on top of that I have on China Glaze's Snow Globe. I think this looks quite fun, although not quite fall in spirit. Still, I'd rather satisfy my whims when it comes to my nails than be a slave to seasonal trends.

I will have to give fair warning that this formula is on the thick side, just a bit. Also, even though the formula is thick, the application of glitter isn't. For the photo above, I had to apply two coats for it to look that way. However, I like the hexagonal and smaller round glitter this one has. I had seen that Orly also released a similar polish except it had much smaller glitter and formula was a bit murky while China Glaze was clear. I also hear that Deborah Lippman, Stila, and M.A.C. are also releasing glitter polish along these lines but the price tag packs a wallop. So for price point and appearance, China Glaze won it's place in my collection.

Wet n' Wild: Baked, Not Fried

I've finally gotten around to posting about the new Wet n' Wild Baked, Not Fried palette. I'm quite excited about these eyeshadows, however, San Francisco has been rather gloomy and overcast so photographing the swatches were a bit of a pain. I could never get the lighting right and good lighting would disappear so very quickly.

Now as you may have noticed from the photograph, this palette has actually been called Bake-Off Contest prior to the release in Walgreens stores. I suppose decisions were made to swap the names for the neutral and blue baked palettes. This particular set is now officially sold with the name Baked, Not Fried and comes with a copper shimmer pencil.

Wet n' Wild: Baking a Cake

Last week my local Walgreens finally stocked the new Wet n' Wild baked palettes. I picked up two of them but have only been able to play around with the more pinky purple palette.

Working with this palette, I would have to say that four out of the six shades give great pigmentation when dry. Now as for the sort of periwinkle and magenta shades, although quite bold in the pan, don't perform very well when dry at all. The magenta shade was even actually kind of chalky when I attempted to swatch it.

Sally Hansen: Gilty Pleasure

There's a 2 for $10 sale going on at my local Walgreens for the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. I've been ignoring it for a while now but yesterday they had new colors that I haven't seen carried at this one before and I couldn't help myself.

It's quite a pale metallic gold, but this is what really convinced me into buying this shade. It's so wearable and sort of a non-conventional neutral. It's a great color for all seasons. I applied three coats of polish in the photo above but I think two would have sufficed. The formula is very smooth and easy to apply as well. Plus, the name, Gilty Pleasure, is kind of clever and fun.

Reese's Pieces Nails?

In the spirit of Halloween, I thought I'd try painting my nails to match the theme. However, they ended up reminding me more of Reese's Pieces candy, except for the yellow but whenever I think of Reese's the dark brown and orange are the dominant colors anyway.

For this look, I used China Glaze's Midtown Magic and Sally Hansen's Nailgrowth Miracle in Perfect Peach. I also alternated the colors on my nails so both hands so the position of the colors are different on each hand.

As you can see, one hand has an orange pinky while the other has a dark colored pinky. Keeps it interesting I think. I do wish the photos were better able to show the warmth of that Midtown Magic though. It's showing up more black than I would like it to. Still, I'm liking how it looks and I want to try this with other colors in the future.

Essie: Smooth Sailing

This week's nail color for me is Essie's Smooth Sailing, a shade from their Braziliant collection this summer. Described as "a breezy lavender blue with a reflection of pearl," it definitely comes off as more of an understated and relaxed color instead of bright and loud.

This shade is just so very lovely and I love the periwinkle and lavender shimmer in it. I did have to apply 3 coats since this polish was a bit streaky for me. Apparently, this isn't the case for others that have used this particular polish. Still, the application wasn't too difficult and the drying process was fairly quick. For $8, this polish was a bit of a splurge for me, but it was worth it.

Sephora Standing Brush Set

Are you looking for a nice travel brush set? I've been putting off getting myself a nice brush roll because I wasn't able to find the "right" one yet. Well, I was browsing the new arrivals on the Sephora website and came across this set, not a brush roll at all, but the design really called out to me for practical purposes.

 

After seeing this online, I told myself that I would be on the lookout for this set the next time I was at Sephora. I was actually pretty lucky to get my hands on this one because it was the last one in the store. For just $25 this set includes the fold over pouch and five brushes. Quite the steal actually. You'll have three eye brushes: a medium eyeshadow brush, a dome smudge brush, and an angled liner brush. As for face brushes, a powder brush and small contour brush are included. I've been using the brushes for about a week now and my favorites are the liner brush and small contour brush which I find works really well as a blush brush. I personally found the dome smudge brush to be a bit rough but still decent. The eyeshadow brush was a bit too big and fluffy for me and realistically I don't need that many all over type of eyeshadow brushes so I wish they had included a small eyeshadow brush instead.

Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara

I've been hearing quite a bit about this mascara and how it it's brush is comparable to the Diorshow's brush. Although I do think this is a very good mascara for a drugstore brand, it does fall a bit short when being compared to Diorshow. On it's own though, this product is a great deal for the quality.

For nearly over a week, I've been using this mascara everyday. I can't say much on whether it made my lashes any stronger than they were before, but it does give my lashes instant length and fullness. The formula is drier, which is a total plus for me because I have the type of eyes where the mascara can smudge under my eyes if I blink while the mascara is still wet on the lashes. Doesn't happen all the time, but is very frustrating when it does. It's definitely not as dry as the Diorshow or my new Bad Gal mascara, but it's dry enough to satisfy me. There is minor clumping, nothing a spoolie can't fix, but there is some. Overall, I have to say this mascara pleased me so much that I would choose it over my Clinique mascaras.