Confessions of a Nail Junkie Part 2

My heart is sad and weeping. I never thought it would come to this. When I brought each one home, I promised to love and cherish them equally. But as the days, months, years passed, I knew I had lied. I quickly picked favorites and pushed all the others aside. Finally seeing how much I had hurt the ones I neglected, I gave away 20 of my babies....this is what I am left with.

Just me  and 80(ish) of my closest babies :(

Hahaha, ya'll I had, had enough. My "nail" drawer was over flowing and quite frankly it was time to downsize. I threw some away, gave some to my sis, and yup this is what I have. Apparently I like purple :)

Still not liking the idea of  digging through a drawer to find the perfect shade, I bought me a bunch of practice nail wheels off ebay for like a $1 for a pack of 5 and now I can just check the nail wheel for what color my heart fancies for the day and bada-bing bada-boom, cuts down on clutter time since I don't have to dump the drawer out no more.

I am a work in progress, and  I swear no more nail polish till I wear each color at least once. Happy painting everyone :)

SIDE NOTE: I lied.....after writing this post, I went to Target for a loaf of bread and toothpaste  and came back with 2 new polishes...whoops :)

Hi, my name is Sara, and I have a shopping addiction

Yup, I have hit an all time low.

I knew I had a problem when I had to beg my roomie to go shopping with me because I just HAD to spend $20 or else I would go crazy, but yesterday when I got a Julep Maven box in the mail and didn't even know I ordered it, I knew I had a problem!

Now I like goodies in the mail, but like I said in a previous post, $20 for two nail polish and some extras is just a bit much to rationalize. While I'm airing out my dirty laundry, might as well admit to purchasing the US Glossybox, yet another monthly subcription beauty box, and making an impromptu Clarisonic   purchase......arghhh I am out of control.

BUT there is a silver lining here, I think. Being an avid online bargain shopper I have come across some fabulous websites that actually save me money, case in point ebates.com.

If it wasn't for ebates, in the past two years I would have spent an excess of $150 on products I purchased online. WOWSER! So how does it work? You sign up for free, click on link to store you want to  shop at and BAM get a certain percent back.

EXAMPLE: I went on ebates, saw drugstore.com was giving double back, so 12% in stead of 6%. Clicked on the link added what I wanted to my virtual shopping cart, added some coupan codes from retailmenot.com (another MUST for online shopping) and checked out. In the end, I ended up saving a whopping $52!!!!

So get to it my fellow shoppers, click onto ebates and shop away guilt free (or a little less guilty anyways)   Happy shopping :)

Below is a referral link if  u are interested in ebates, and NO I AM NOT being sponsored, just wanted to share the awesome savings :)

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=ffrFOYg%2F7pAer6R4rybKRw%3D%3D

June 2012 Birchbox

The theme for this month was "Jet Set" So join me on my journey won't u....

Lol, you know u all saw the Band-Aid pack first! Oh my bad, the "fancy" Band-Aid by Cynthia Rowley

To go along with my fancy wound covers, we have some wipes

And if my wounds leave a scar or stretch marks, this sucker can help 

But if my injuries are too serious, I can slather on some of this

Make myself look pretty by dabbing this on my lips and cheeks

And plop down on my couch as I get high off of yet  another perfume sample

All the whilst staring at my fancy art of far away place because I too broke to go anywhere for reals

Hope u enjoyed my journey :)

Side Note:

TheBalm Staniac: Love the concept of a gel like stain, that blends very well, but does not last on oily skin but where I swatched it on my dry arm, it stayed all day

Makeup Tips & Tricks That REALLY Work!

He ya'll so last week I read a blog  about this 30 day makeup challenge where you have a different task to do daily.

At first I was all psyched, like "Yeah, cool got me some new ideas! Totally gonna do this! " (said in radical white surfer dude voice), but here I am four days later and well, lets just  say it....FAIL! :)

So what I decided to do instead was pick and choose the tasks that I liked best and share my idea with you all. The first one that stood out to me the one about sharing tips and tricks that I may know....so here I go:

1. Concealer brushes were made for a reason! While I do believe you can use any brush for any task you want, concealer brushes are that perfect size to cover your problem areas. So ladies put down the spatulas, and brushes the size of your head and just use the tiny brush (or ur finger) to only cover the problem area. You save product and you avoid the cake face. So conceal, dab dab dab to blend edges...done

2. Clear Mascara isn't just for your lashes! It is also a great brow setter and a quick way to make your wispy fly-away hairs stay in place.

3. Lipstick is a multi-tasker! Lips, cheek stain, eye primer...it does it all.

4. Gloss=gorgeous lips! Just dab some gloss in the center of your bottom lip and BAM! sexy lips...OH add a small highlight to your cupids bow for extra plumpness

5. Bronzer is your friend! I was never a bronzer girl cause I always feared looking like Snooki or overdone. However, with the right color I found it can do wonders. Applied in a "3" motion on my round face and then WATCH OUT sexy face! (Plus I can now hide my double chin without dieting :)  OOOOO and if you dont want a powder bronzer, just buy a foundation colors a few shades darker and tada you got your self a liquid bronzer

6. Look wide-eyed with white: I think everyone already knows that if you put white liner on your lower inner lid that it will make your eyes look wider and alert. For me I find the white to be too harsh, so I  use a nude pencil which works the same way 

7. Baby Powder/Baking Soda to the rescue: If you are a grease ball or just lazy and don't like washing  your hair, use baby powder or baking soda to suck up all the oils in  your head. Get a small amount, work it into roots, comb out, done! (more suitable for lighter hair)

8. STOP smiling when applying blush! This is as an old school trick that we have all used but need to stop. When you smile your cheeks are higher, when you stop smiling they go back down. So while you might have thought you just applied some sexy blush to your gorgeous cheeks...think again because now its down to your jowls :)

9. Use mascara to cover your pesky greys! Enough said.

10. Make your own tinted moisturizer! Foundation+ Moisturizer=$ saved

11. Make your OWN exfoliator: Recipes everywhere online but basically sugar+oil/lotion= cheap natural alternative

12. No SPF for photos! I know this is controversial, but in order to avoid the ghost face in pictures, avoid makeup with titanium dioxide or SPF. Usually the setting powder is the culprit.

13. Brush your lips! For smooth kissable lips, gently exfoliate your lips with your toothbrush to buff off all the icky dead skin and apply a balm to finish off.

14. Layer you Mascara! Love the idea of water proof mascara but hate taking it off? Well first apply a regular mascara and then top it with a waterproof one. This way the water  proof formula locks onto the regular mascara and not your lashes making it easier to remove :)

15.Instant facelift! Go look at yourself in the mirror and smile. anywhere you see a shadow (upper and lower lip, corner of eyes) apply a small amount ofshimmer or off white color to give you a quick pick me up effect :)

16. Base coat and buff your nails! If you have ever worn nail polish only to find it stained your nails once you removed it, don't worry. Simply use a buffer to remove the stain and apply a base coat next time.

17. Burn you pencil Liner! When your pencil  liner dries out or breaks and you can't sharpen it, use a lighter to gently warm up the tip and within seconds, you got a functioning pencil.

18. Starighten Up! For extra volume when straightening hair, pull hair up and away from scalp instead of straight down for instant volume

19. Suck a finger! NOW DONT YOU ALL GET ANY WRONG IDEAS! LOL! when you wear a darker lipstick they have a tendency to get on your teeth. To avoid that after you have applied the lipstick, put you finger in your mouth like a lollipop, close mouth and pull finger out.  All the excess color will have come off on your finger :)

So ladies, these are just a few tips for you all to try if you  didn't already know them, I have TONS more to share  with you all, but I would love to read about your tips and tricks so please do share in the comments or make a post of your own :)

Ahhhh!!! THERE'S A SPIDER ON MY EYE!!!!

So a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine gave me a coupon for $5 off of any ebay purchase. Not having shopped on  ebay for months, I browsed, perused and SHOCK FACE!!!! Look at what I found!!!!

Ya'll I just bought two packs of 10 lash sets each and I don't even wear fake lashes...EVER!!!

So why waste my money on something I don't use? Because it cost me $1.98 shipping included!!!

Excited I ripped open the boxes and this is what they look like inside. I bought numbers 127 and 128, and as you can see I've been playing dress-up with some of them :)

127 are dense all the way and very thick the 128 are more "natural" with a dense base and a slight flare towards the edges.

So what do I think:

Not being a lash wearer I feel these are a really fun product to experiment with.  Yes they feel heavy, look fake if not applied right and are the creepiest looking thing when you wake up in the morning and find them on your bathroom counter, but they give a great effect.

NAKED EYE vs DOLLED UP EYE

(I feel like the Asian woman on YouTube who shows the power of makeup  :) )

Both eyes have the same products expect left eye (your right) has lashes

FINAL WORD: If you have 99 pennies to spare I say order a pair!  My suggestion however,  if you are a newb to the fake lash world, is to start off with less dramatic lashes because they take a while to get used to. Plus because they are a little heavy they gave me a droopy eye kinda look, which would look really sexy with a smokey eye, but for an everyday look, I just looked stoned :)

Seche Vite Anyone???

If you read my post "Confessions of a Nail Polish Junkie" then you know I have a serious nail polish addiction :) And  while I know this addiction is harmful both to my wallet and my poor roommate who has to smell the stench of polish almost daily, I just can't help it.

So while rummaging through my rainbow of colors  trying  to find the color of the day, I came upon Seche Vite, the over-hyped, over priced, fast  drying top coat that some manicurists swear by. So is it worth it???? Read on :)

Packaging: Clear nail polish top coat looking bottle with a normal sized brush.

Price: $7-$20 USD depending on where you buy it. OUCH!

Product/Application:

PROS:

• After applying nail polish and all the bejeweling details you want, apply one coat of this sucker and VOILA! Dry in less than twenty seconds. No joke!
• Bottle lasts a while depending on how much of a nail polish junkie you are :)
• DRIES SUPER FAST
• DRIES SUPER FAST
• DRIES SUPER FAST

CONS

• Price is crazy
• Smell is HORENDOUS!!! It takes a while to get used to the  lacquer smell
• Doesn't really help MY nail  polish last longer, and instead of chipping it does more of a peeling affect which is fun to remove like a sticker :)

Overall:

I REAALLLLYYY like this product. I think it does exactly what it says and who doesn't want dry nails within seconds :) However because it is pricey I hesitate to recommend it to my budget conscious beauties who read this  blog and are just looking for cheap, readily accessible beauty products. BUT if you want dry nails ASAP, got some extra bucks for a great top coat, then go for it.

As for me, I think after I finish my bottle I might hold off on  buying another because I change my nail polish SOOOO much, that putting on such an expensive top coat just is not worth it to me.

Quick Pick Me Up Face Mask

What are they:

$1-$2 Mud/Gel masks available  at most drugstores. They come in multiple colors, smells and functions. While some are face brighteners, others are hydraters, pore cleansers, and even "anti-aging"

What do they do: Rehydarte the skin and help bring it back to life and are just fun to use.

Do they work: HECK YEAH! (Some better then others depending on your skin and needs)

Why do I love them: Because they are so darn cheap! Pop one of those packets and BAM within 20 minutes your face will thank you :)

Final Word  of Advise: If you are a product snob, then I'm sorry this might not be for you because lets face it, a home facial just isn't the same as a professional one. HOWEVER, if you're like me and don't mind trying out new things, go pick up one of these delicious  smelling face packs and give them a try :)

HUGE E.L.F HAUL!!!

I'm covered in swatches and I'm loving it!!! I love getting goodies in the mail, especially if they are free or I got a great deal. In this haul I got both!!! YAY!

For about $30 USD I got all the following and yup you better believe my face is going to be or is already decorated with all these goodies :)

These are all the goodies

• 1 Blushed and Bronzed Kit
• 5 Nail Polish
• 1 Natural Lash Kit
• 2 Shimmer Lip Gloss
• 1 Hypershine Lipgloss
• 2 Lipstick
• 1 Mineral Infused Face Primer
• 1 Eyeshdow Lid Primer
• 1 Angled Eyeliner Brush
• 10 Mineral Eyeshadows

MINI REVIEWS/ SWATCHES

Packaging and product is a wanna be dupe for NARS Laguna/Orgasm. Don't know if it really is, but on my light/medium skin this looks great :)

Just the right shade of bronzer and really nice blush

Top to Bottom:  Hypershine Gloss in Joy, Shimmer Lipglos in Inspire and Fantasize

Really like the colors, the top one is a really nice transluscent type of effect but hate the brush on applicator. It's supposed to look  and work like the Stila lip thingy majigers, but it doesn't. The middle one is a really nice baby pink that I actually really liked and the bottom one has a nice sheen affect, but the once again the doe foot applicators were so flimsy, they seemed like they would snap.

Left to Right: Light Pink, Mint Cream, Coral Dream, Dark Navy, Party Peach

The light pink is invisible, the coral dream is a gorgeous creamy orange, the mint cream is a long distant relative of For Audrey by O.P.I, the party peach is a neon red-orange (more orange) and the dark navy is....dark navy :)

Top lipstick is Classy bottom is Charming. Classy is a wanna be impersonator of the MAC Viva Glam Nicky/Gaga Family and charming is a great neutral coral color for me because it is just a few shades brighter than my natural lip color

(Epic swatching and photo taking skills at their finest ladies and gentlemen:)

All the shadows are very glittery/frosty and require a good base. Expect a lot of loose fall out because they are loose pigments, but the color pay off is wonderful and they are very blendable/wearable. Would look AWESOME on darker skin :) (Sidenote: these were all "free" with ELF's 10 mineral shadows for free promotion)

Left to Right:

Sweet- A soft baby pink

Elegant- Cream colored, great for highlight

Bronzed-Reddish/Brown bronze

Trendy-Gorgeous Mauve

Wild- Earthy brown tone

Glamorous- Deep pinky plum color

Wild-combo of mauve and purple

Earthy- gorgeous earthy green....LOVE

Royal-Blue

Dreamy-teal

Ya'll I am having so much fun playing dress up right now, I can't even explain :)  More detailed reviews will be coming up shortly as soon as I am done playing :)

Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs

Woke up Monday, looked outside, nice sunny dress wearing weather. Looked down at nice white legs.....yeah not happening.

I'm not a fake tan kind of girl. I always found them to look so orange and fake on others that I never wanted to try it out myself. However, I'm a curious kind of spirit and I love trying new things and this month it just so happens I'm into dresses and dresses require a nice pair of legs.

Now while I'm willing to expose my thick hammy calves to the world, I refuse to subject the world to their blinding whiteness :)

So off I went to Target and picked up this little bad boy for $7 USD.

Packaging: Metallic aerosol container, product squirts out like thick hairspray

Product: As I said above the product is like a thick hairspray that kinda bubbles and foams, depending on how close you aim it. Basically you spray it into your  hands and rub  onto desired area. You can apply a light layer or thick, depending on the affect you are going for. The product does dry quickly so work in small patches and work fast. Also it says its water  proof, which it is to some extent. Just don't wear white or go swimming and you will be fine :) Oh,  use a hand soap and it comes off your hands easily when done applying.

Overall: I can honestly when I first tried this "tan in a can" I hated it! It made me look like I was wearing orange nylons and made my legs look like I had purposely rubbed foundation on them.  But then something wonderful happened. After about ten minutes, after the product had settled, my legs looked great :) The tan looked "natural"  and all the little discoloration I had from sports scars were covered. 

Whats more, I even got comlimented.....BY A BOY!  (it was a good friend of mine who I adore)

So should you buy it....yeah why not. You have to work with it a little, but remember to use a light hand and pick the right color for the affect you are going for and you'll be fine.

SIDE NOTE: This is just a cosmetic fix product so with gentle exfoliation it washes off easily so if you are looking for a long term tan then this is not for you, but if you just want a quick tan for the day then go for it :)

I wore my tan all week but forgot to take pics, so here's a borrowed picture from online showing how the tan works.

$3 Gel Liner SMACKDOWN!

Contestants:

                       

Essence Gel Liner in 01 Midnight in Paris

 Wet N Wild Gel Liner in 886

E.L.F Cream Liner in Black

SWATCH

Essence          Wet N Wild            E.L.F

All three are very intense black. However Essence is the most creamy while Wet N' Wild has a drier formula.

WATER SMUDGE TEST

Took some water, rubbed it across all three, and excuse my horrible swatching skills but no one  budged.

MAKEUP REMOVER TEST

Took a contain swab dipped in makeup remover, ran it once over all three. Essence faded, Wet N wild barely moved and  with one more swipe E.L.F  would have disappeared.

CONCLUSIONS:

If you are looking for an awesome liner all around, then get the Essence Liner. It is creamy so it goes on SOOOO smooth. It doesn't smudge and lasts all day. Plus they have a very nice color selection for those divas wanting to experiment with colored gel liners :)

If you are looking for a liner that won't move for days, go ahead get the Wet N Wild Liner.  That little sucker stays on even after you remove it. Although a little drier in texture, it is very easy to apply.

Side Note: Thank u all for the congratulation's, it really meant a lot, and as far as putting up pictures, im so sorry but I can't. Mi familia decided that they needed to be in every picture so when I asked if I could share them online, they all shied away :) But no worries, someday I will put up pics:)

NYX Lip Product Review/Rave

OH NO!!!!! Ladies..ladies...ladies, tisk, tisk, tisk. I'm ashamed to even be telling you all about this, but today during lunch with my girlfriends, while taking pictures....I made..THE DUCKFACE!!! AHHHHHH!

But I SWEAR on all my makeup, I have never done this before! I don't know what happened, one minute the nice waiter was saying  "say cheese,' and the next my lips took on a life of their own and.....sigh, the duckface.

But you know what, after looking at my atrocious picture  and thinking about why in the world I would pose my face in such an idiotic manner, I realized I am not to blame. It was my lipgloss! Yes, ladies, my lipgloss made me do it! :)

NYX Extreme Lip Cream

 

Packaging: Typical. Tube & doe foot applicator. One interesting thing though, the cap is almost the same size as the container the product is in

Product: This is exactly as described on the packaging. This is not a lipstick, this is not a lipgloss, but rather a really creamy combo (haha eww). It's a liquid lipstick and the lasting power of this sucker is  crazy! I put it on in the morning and by lunch time all though it was a little faded, the color was still there.

(This is BUTTERY NUDE a really nice mauve/coral combo, an exaggerated version of my natural lip color)

So why the duck face? Because I loved the way my lips look with this product on. It's a little glossy, a little matte, very pretty.

Overall: Buy it, Try it :) I bought one to try, and loved it so much I am going to go buy more. A little tip though, they can be a little drying at first so make sure lips are very well hydrated and do not just gloop this product on like a lipgloss! It is very thick and dense so I normally just dab dab dab, and press my lips together.

:) :) :) :)