Monday, September 22, 2014

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

Thursday, August 14, 2014

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 :)

Thursday, July 24, 2014

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

Saturday, June 28, 2014

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

Sunday, May 18, 2014

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