A few of my favorite things: Christmas edition!!

Happy holidays fellow beauty addicts! Today, I thought it would be fun to do a blog about some of my favorite products used not just during the holiday season; but year round. These products are a nice mix of both high end and indie goodies as well so there is really a great range of affordability and appeal for just about everyone!

First up we have one of my all time favorite perfumes: Burberry for women, with top notes of black current, bergamot, and green apple this fragrance opens up to cedar wood, jasmine, moss and sandalwood (my favorite); with base notes of both musk and vanilla making this a perfectly balanced warm and sensual fragrance! Pricing for this fragrance really range, but you can grab it for as little as $26 on overstock.

Next, we have some wonderful indie perfume oil blends from both Darling clandestine and Black Violet. Darling Clandestine, an Etsy shop run by owner Evonne produces complex scent oils which take you on a journey! Tilt-a-whirl is an amazingly complex and fun scent that has a fizzy fruitiness to it, a slight herbal undertone, and a dry down which is remenisant of red vines! It is really a very unique scent which I have really come to enjoy. Black violet, a wonderful bath and body shop run by owner Leilani, produces everything from amazing perfume oils to shower gels, body butters, and even wonderful face washes! I find Black violets scents to be very pure, long lasting, and not as complex if that makes sense? (forgive my lack of perfume knowledge). What I am meaning to say is that when it comes to Black violets scents, it is much easier for me personally to find an agreeable scent because there is not a lot of scent morphing happening with the scents on my skin. I believe really complex scent blends and the morphing of all the blends with your own body chemistry is what makes finding a compatible perfume oil so difficult. Both Darling Clandestine, and Black violet have fantastic options for ordering minis of their products which allows you to test out scents and products affordably.

Hair oil is a must, for me anyway. I have found that after years of abuse, and of course changes in the water and weather my hair just isn't as lustrous as it once was. This is where hair oil comes into play! Haus of Gloi makes a fabulous hair oil which you can order for just $12 in various yummy scents! I picked myself up two bottles of this amazing oil which I apply to my wet hair just after a shower. I find that it not only provides my hair with much needed additional moisture but also leaves it smelling great, and bonus, any oil left on your hands gets easily absorb and makes for a great nightly hand treatment.

Who doesn't love lip balm! I have an entire bag devoted to various lipsticks and lip gloss, but the one product I wear consistently is lip balm. My personal preference in lip balm happens to be an awesome one from a great little indie cosmetics shop called Notoriously Morbid. at a mere $3 a pop these Coffin Kissers are a great deal. They feel and smell absolutely amazing!

Bath products! You want it, you need it, and you are constantly on the hunt for great bargains right? By now you may have heard of Fortune cookie soap, if not well then sit on back and let me tell ya a little about them. Fortune cookie is a great bath and body company based out of Jenks, Oklahoma run by awesome husband and wife duo Shannon and Justin. This company offers pretty much everything you could imagine, wax tarts, all natural perfume sprays (alchohal free yay), perfume oils, body wash, hair oils and of course Fortune cookie soaps..thats right soap in the shape of fortune cookies! these little cuties actually come with adorable little fortunes inside them as well. Each of the amazing products offered at fortune cookie soap also has a really great price tag attached with prices ranging from $3 to $12 for some of the bigger items! Oh and did I forget to mention that each quarterly subscription box contains a $10 coupon code.. Long story short, there is just a whole lot of awesome happening at this place, so def check it out :)

Last but most def not least is Darling girl cosmetics, because this blog post would not be complete if I didn't include some actual makeup right? Darling girl is one of my all time favorite indie cosmetic companies run by owner Susan; who is just one of the most amazing people you will ever encounter! Her devotion to her company as well as to her customers is really unparalleled. Each product she hand makes is unique, and I can honestly say I continue to be wowed time and time again by her creativity and overall talent!

 

I feel like that was the longest blog ever right?. Well I hope you enjoyed, and I wish you each a very Merry Christmas :)

 

Mani Monday feat Sinful colors!

Mani Monday!!

I'm back ya'll and this time I bring you my very first Mani Monday post!! Yes that's right I did my nails, and took pictures of it (I am just so darn talented).. So I happened to be in target the other day browsing the polish section when I found a couple sinful polishes that literally just jumped off the rack and into my basket; I know, I know who am I to deny the little guys a new home!! I need more nail polish like I need a hole in the head but you know how it is when you walk down the beauty isle, you break out in random Ariel singing " I've got blushers and bronzers aplenty,  I've got lip balms and lipsticks galore; (You want mascara? I got twenty) But who cares? No big deal, I WANT MORE!" Meanwhile your husband lingers behind saying FML.. Ohh that familiar struggle, yes beauties it is real!

So, needless to say me and my newly adopted polish headed home and had ourselves a sparkle-tastic time! If you aren't familiar with Sinful polish I would say its more or less hit and miss quality wise being that is about a dollar a bottle. The colors are really fun ranging from really vibrant to more wearable with glitters as well. I have a really great jewel tone green which has fantastic formulation and a not so awesome vibrant blue which comes out a bit watery if that is any indication of the hit or miss I was speaking of. I will say though you can work with the polishes for sure; they can be built up which is great! So for the price why not give them a go.

For todays manicure I used Sinful polishes in both Endless Blue and Frenzy as a glitter top coat.

Endless Blue & Frenzy

 

The results were pretty awesome! I feel like Katy Perry would appreciate this combo :) Surprisingly enough neither of these polishes took long to dry either which is a major plus in my book (and I used a few coats of the blue as my base).

 

 

The biggest down side to doing such an awesome sparkly mani is the fact that you have to take it all off.. I know I am not the only one who despises taking glitter off; that little moment when you sit there cursing yourself for ever putting the shit on! Ohh well at least its awesome for now :) Until next time beauties, stay polished --

How I feel when I need to remove glitter polish

Who ya gonna call??

When there's something strange in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call?!?.. Darling girl duh! Yes boys and girls its the moment you have all been waiting for the Darling Girl Cosmetics Halloween collection release is just around the corner and as you may or may not already know the theme for this year is Ghostbusters :) I must say this entire collection is pretty awesome, from the overall theme to the actual colors in it down to the artwork on the jars!! Ya'll are in for some EPIC goodies!

So, should I keep going on and on, or would you like some pictures now?? lol..

 

 

 First up we have don't cross the streams which is an amazing blue with badass copper sparks, the stream you might ask? Well my friends check out the animation above ;)

Up next we have one of my favorite colors, lets see if you can guess what it is hmm :) Its a gorgeous almost glowing green with an orange sheen to it! Really cool

The final little goodie I have to share with you is a shade which has already been leaked and it is called "There is no Dana", for those of you unfamiliar with the movie's Dana gets possessed and she has on this really killer dress during said scene. Long story short the color was amazing and Susan captured it perfectly!!

This color is a beautiful golden copper shade with a burnt reddish shift to it. One of my favorites for sure!.. Honestly the whole collection is amazing, these are some of the best shadows I have seen in awhile because most collections are usually hit and miss but its rare for a whole collection to be awesome :)

Hats off to the amazing Susan, owner of Darling Girl Cosmetics for creating such a gorgeous collection of pretties! Do be sure to check back when this collection goes live in September because you really do not want to skip out on these goodies! And my advice on getting you hands on these babies,

RUN!!!

Sinfully Gritty EOTD feat Notoriously Morbid

I created a little look for Notoriously Morbid recently which is goth/supernatural inspired using all Notoriously Morbid shadows applied over a black base enhanced with Vaseline to add some texture. Its not a wearable look by any means, really its just something I started doing and went with lol.. Looking at it now, it reminds me of the grit and mild gore from the show super natural which I love!! So that's what we will be calling this look, a sinfully gritty eye of the day!

Products used:

1. Nyx black bean
2. Notoriously Morbid war shadow (LE, from the sealed judgment collection)
3. Notoriously Morbid famine (LE, from the sealed judgement collection)
4. Notoriously Morbid Hallows eve (LE from Halloween collection)
5. Vaseline

So there I sat in front of my vanity looking at my collection of Notoriously Morbid, trying to decide what I was going to do that day, when I pulled out some colors and brushes and started going to town on my eye..(That's the process)..

Cas popped in long enough to get a look at what was going on...I, get the feeling he wasn't feeling my look though because he didn't stay to chat and then all the sudden the room started looking a little something like this

Freaking crazy right!! Yeah, and apparently there were gravestones and trees and whatnot too; just utter madness I tell you!

 

Next thing I know I end up with this look, Cas is gone all the crazy black smoke is gone and Crawly is in the room waving at me like we are BFF's...

Cool beans, I can deal. I mean he's pretty decent looking ;)

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy my sinfully gritty look and my delightfully silly post! Gotta keep it light you know :)

Grace Note Gifts..Divine soy wax melts and a lot of Texas heart!

    Ahhh Texas, how do I love thee let me count the ways!!.. The food, the land, that big ole Texas hair (kidding), ohh and Grace Note Gifts; yes Texas you brought me yet another indie vendor to discuss today and one which happens to make one of my favorite things in life; soy melts!

 

    I first heard about Grace Note Gifts all the way out here in Hawaii from a local kiosk which happens to stock her divine smelling scents! I really became interested about the time I learned that fall scents were rolling out, because if you know anything about Hawaii you know that we DO NOT experience Fall or Winter in the traditional sense; so that being said I like to "pretend" I get to go through those seasons in my nice cold house with some amazing smelling candles aiding as a gentle reminder of what should be happening outside (soo sad I know)..

Everywhere but Hawaii...

 

 

 I have been a regular Scentsy user up until this point, and probably would have continued to purchase Scentsy had I not discovered Grace Note Gifts. In discovering Grace Note Gifts what I found was that not only were the scents much better in my opinion, but also a lot more affordable as well! Each individual bar of soy wax created by Grace Note Gifts cost approximately $3.50. Grace the owner routinely offers up discount codes to use in her shop on her instagram account as well as including codes within orders; and there are great discount packages available for purchase as well such as buy 3 for $10. Scentsy bars retail for $5 per bar with a shipping cost of $10 per order, my personal shipping cost with my order through Graces Etsy store on the buy 3 for $10 was only $4 bringing my grand total to $14! Another major plus in ordering from this fab indie vendor is the fact that upon request she is able to do custom orders, something that is awesome considering sometimes we become really partial to certain scents which might become discontinued or maybe we might just have a really specific scent in mind such as Lychee!!

 

 



 

    The wax: an "All natural, richly scented soy wax melts made using high quality fragrance oil, for use in any wax tart warmer. Included in each tart container are 6 (1/2) ounce cubes for a total weight of 3 oz. per container. " Whats the difference between this and my scentsy wax? well first off this is nothing like scentsy wax! not in the least..I would say this is a lot more potent as far as scent goes, it does last longer than my scentsy cubes, and one of the other very noticeable differences is the fact that this wax is not pliable. What do I mean? well have you ever noticed that when you finish a scentsy cube you can just take a knife to the cooled wax, make an air pocket under it and out it pops? That will not happen with this wax. You either need to get this wax out with a cloth while it is still in liquid form or chip away at it (I do not recommend that).

 

(L-R) Homesick, warm vanilla sugar, Harvest pumpkin, Lavender & vanilla

 

 

    All in all I really do recommend these soy wax melts! They smell incredible, they are extremely affordable and they are coming from a vendor who lovingly hand makes each of them!! Do yourself a favor and check this shop out, I promise you wont be disappointed.

Indie Spotlight: Glamour Doll eyes, DinoSpotz

Welcome, welcome to the first annual Indie spotlight..That was so Effie Trinket!

Anyhow, for our first Indie Spotlight we have Glamour Doll eyes DinoSpotz; one of my all time favorite colors! DinoSpotz is described as being a brown/red with a hint of green glitter. For those of you familiar with Mac cosmetics, too faced, or even prestige cosmetics you may already have something similar to this shade in one form or another because it has been done by numerous brands out there. However that being said; what I absolutely love about this shade is its ability to transform! This is a color that you could wear on its own and it look as though you have two or three different colors on. apply this shade over various colored bases and you can really amp up the red/brown hues, or the blue/green hues within it depending on what type of look you are feeling that day!

The badass that is DinoSpotz! Photograph taken with a Nikond5000 using a Micro lens

This color is amazing foiled, as it really brings out that metallic red/brown with a blue flash to it, however my own personal preference to working with pigments is to apply them with too faced glitter glue, over whatever shade base I happen to be using at that time in a patting potion in order to ensure that the pigments really adhere to the glue and retain visible shimmer. I find that the glitter glue also allows me to blend out harsh edges along the crease line while locking onto the shadow I have placed into the lid firmly.

DinoSpotz applied over Maybelline cosmetics Pomegranate Punk cream shadow using Too faced cosmetics Glitter Glue adhesive

You can purchase DinoSpotz as well as many more amazing shadows, blushes, custom glitter blends, lippies, and more at Glamour Doll Eyes

Mother and Earth, Shes full of secrets!?!..Yay for more Notoriously Morbid!!

Hello my loves, did you miss me? Probably not lol, but nevertheless I am back after a super long break from posting anything (I know I suck right) and I bring you more Notoriously Morbid goodies to oh and ahh over :)

So recently I placed a small order with Notoriously Morbid during the first launch of the Vanishing Cabinet which is a new monthly release of limited edition collections based on various themes. Last months cabinet was themed around the ever popular movie The Craft and contained 4 shadows a sample body butter from Black Violet and an awesome lip gloss! My absolute favorite shadow from this collection was the shadow Mother and Earth, which is hands down one of the most amazing shadows I have ever seen! It is a little difficult to actually describe because it is so much more than a blackened olive gold with copper sparks, it is like looking at the golden side of a labradorite.

Notoriously Morbid Mother and Earth from the LE (June 14) Vanishing Cabinet

Mother and Earth

I also placed an additional order along with my vanishing cabinet order once the superticio collection was released in order to pick up a gorgeous shadow by the name of Black Cat Crossing. I really love BCC because it is one of those colors that has the ability to change on you. What I mean is over primer it becomes a bit darker, layered over bases it will take on something from whatever shade it is applied over, foiled it becomes this amazing vibrant blue/green, and in the light well its just another beast altogether!

Notoriously Morbid Black Cat Crossing swatched over too faced glitter glue

Black cat crossing, natural light

With every Notoriously Morbid you get some awesome samples, and I have to say Notoriously Morbid is one of the best indie companies I have met that really gives you awesome sized samples (they are big!). One of my awesome samples with my order was a shadow that I have had my eye on for a good while and was kind of on the fence about purchasing; but Carrie the owner was awesome enough to include it as one of my goodies :) so what was it you ask? Well none other than the amazing "She's full of secrets". Such a beautiful purple taupe duo chrome shadow, just absolutely amazing! I had a chance to play around with it today and created a little look for you all.

Notoriously Morbid She's full of secrets applied over Benefit cosmetics Skinny Jeans cream shadow, with Urban Decay tornado liner on waterline

Bobbi Brown Hibiscus pot rouge for lips and cheeks - swatches & review

Hello beauties,

Today I thought I would take a little break from indie product posts and do a bit of a review on a more high end product. It isn't very often that I indulge in more high end brands, but every now and then you come across one that you simply cannot resist and well; it finds a new home in your collection! This is exactly what happened when I stumbled onto the new Hibiscus pot rouge by Bobbi Brown while browsing my local Military Exchange.

I cannot deny that I drool over pretty much all of Bobbi Brown's products, I mean those shadows are AMAZING right!! Well, I was just about to walk away from the counter ( I know, I know I am so strong); when I happened to spot the prettiest cream product I have ever seen. I asked the girl working the counter if the product was just your average cream blusher, and came to know that this product doubled as both a cream blush as well as a lip product; and even better it did not leave behind that God awful sticky feeling that you get when you apply most cream products!! Needless to say I bought it and yeah... So onto the photos (YAY!!)

Photo swatches:

This is what the Hibiscus Pot rouge compact looks like. The packaging is very sleek and nice

The back labeling of the #31 Hibiscus Pot rouge for lips and cheeks

Here we have a photo taken before swatching the product, as you can see this is a gorgeous hot candy coral shade!! It might look a bit scary in the pan but don't let the vibrancy of this shade turn you off because you can absolutely build it up or sheer it out

The top swatch is a heavier swatch in order to show you how this color can be built up, especially for the lip use while the bottom swatch is a much lighter version which has been blended out with my finger. I will note that this product blended out fantastically as well as applying like butter!

 

Wear:  I tested out this product on both my lips and face while out and about yesterday here in Honolulu. For the lips I just dabbed it on with my fingers for a sheer wash of color, more of a stained look rather than a full on lipstick appearance then topped that with a bit of lip balm. I will say that this product on the lips does feel dry so while it is a gorgeous color I would suggest that you top it with a little balm before heading out the door. For the face, I applied my normal foundation first then applied this product to my cheeks using just my fingers. It blended out very easily. I then went over my whole face with just a bit of my smashbox halo finishing powder to set, and topped the look off with just a bit of MACs stereo rose which complimented the color perfectly. It was very humid outside, and even while being in the sun pretty much all day dealing with humid conditions my look was still intact by the time I came home that evening! This cream product held up very well :)

 

Final thoughts: All in all I am super happy with this purchase, I really think this product is very worth the money considering the awesome pigmentation, the ease at which it applies, and its overall longevity 



EOTD: feat Notoriously Morbid!

Hello beauties, today I thought I would do an EOTD break down since I am really feeling this look I just did! Most all of what I used came from the recent slay me collection wave 1 put out by Notoriously Morbid, which I have to say I really love! I know sometimes matte shadows get a bad rep but trust me, these are NICE! So anyhow, let me show you what I put together for you and you can be the judge ;)

Products used:

1. Nyx milk- base for lids and eye brow
2. NM-she names the stars
3. NM-teacher in tweed
4. NM-quiet storm
5. NM-boca del inferno
6. Catrice- navy liner
7. Milani- mascara
8. Tarte for True Blood- Fairy shadow

 

 

Breakdown:

This look as pretty simple to create, first you want to take your milk pencil or any white base you have and lay that down all over the lid and into your brows as well. Make sure with your brows if you have dark brows like I do you coat them fairly well and just blend it a bit with your finger (if you have a little comb even better!). Once the base is down, get a flat stiff brush out and pick up she names the stars with it. Make sure you press that color into the lid before you apply it, this will help minimize any fallout onto your face. So basically we just want to pat that color all over our lid stopping at our crease. Once you do this you can take a blending brush and softly blend out the edge so there isn't a harsh line. She names the stars when blended will go a bit blue ;) Next we will pick up teacher in tweed and take that into our crease as a transition color. Starting from our outer corner run that shade back and forth in the crease then blend just above with a fluffy brush. For our brow, and to further diffuse everything we will take quiet storm which is a faint pink shade. We will apply this just above where we blended out teacher in tweed and onto the brow. For some sparkle on the brow I used Fairy from the Tarte cosmetics True Blood palette, but you can use anything you like up there. Along the lower lash I took a mix of Boca del inferno and she names the stars on a liner brush and lined just under the waterline. I then added a navy liner to the actual waterline. The brows are also Boca del infero and She names the stars applied with a liner brush. I simply started with the one shade then began about the middle of the brow for the second shade and built up the color a bit by wetting the brush. To finish I added a coat of Milani mascara

 

I hope you enjoyed this look of the day!

 

Where to purchase: Notoriously Morbid



Candii Blossom Cosmetics Review

Halo & Purple Rain

Hello loves, I am back today with a review of another fab indie cosmetics line known as Candii Blossom cosmetics . Candii Blossom Cosmetics is a cute little Etsy shop run by owner Brenda Ortiz, who first began making her own products as a more economical way of simply enjoying make-up; because lets face it make-up is an expensive love (am I right!). Located out of Ephrata, PA,  Brenda has been gradually growing her business to ship worldwide.

Brenda was kind enough to allow me to review a few of her gorgeous shadows, and was excited to have me be her first shipment to the Hawaiian islands as well! I was able to choose four shadows from her collection to conduct my review, which she shipped to my hot little hands within about a week and a half roughly :)

My picks:

1. Halo
2. Purple Rain
3. Fairyland Green
4. Radioactive

Shipment: The package arrived in a small sealed plastic envelope with all of the clamshell samples wrapped up snuggly in bubble wrap. Brenda also included a thoughtful note for me as well :)


The contents of my review pack: 4 sample sized shadows, adorable business card and very thoughtful note (love personal touches!!)

Here we have a shadow shot prior to digging in for swatches, Top left is Purple rain, top right is fairyland green, bottom left is Halo, and bottom right is Radioactive.

Swatch of Halo applied over too faced glitter glue. I absolutely love this shade of gold, for me this is the perfect shade of gold, that tarnished color!! Agh perfection, ohh and it pairs beautifully with Purple rain ;)

This stunner is Purple Rain Aka the most beautiful purple in all the land! You see all that going on, ohh yeah ;)

Fairyland green!! This is a heavy swatch of fairyland applied over too faced glitter glue just to show how the color can be built up however you can totally layer this color over other bases to get different effects from it! It is such a unique and amazing color

Last up we have Radioactive which is so very pretty! I absolutely love duo chrome shades because you are getting so much more than one simple color. This shade goes from a golden green in one light to a reddish brown similar to Mac club in another light. It is so stunning

Affordability: Sample sizes of each shadow will run you $1 each, collections range between $10-$18 and individual full sized shadows (5gram jars) run at $4

Customer service: My experience with customer service has been great, Brenda makes a great effort in maintaining communication; and even kept track of my package as it made its way out to me :)

Product rating: of the shadows I was able to test out I give them a 10, each had great pigmentation good blend ability and they weren't fussy at all which is a huge plus in my book

Would I recommend? Yes, yes I would! This little shop is slowly growing and if what I was able to test out is any indication of its potential you are in for a very pleasant surprise because I really enjoyed these goodies

Where to buy: Candii Blossom shop
Where to like: Candii Blossom Facebook