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.