Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Halloween Nails

 
 
I love painting my nails to coordinate with holidays. Since I was planning on painting my nails to coordinate with my Cotton Candy Costume this year, I decided to keep it simple.

 
Left hand, Coral by American Apparel with Cassandra by Shimmer Nail Polish on top.
Right Hand, Black Crème by Wet N Wild with Cassandra by Shimmer Nail Polish on top.
 
I really like this look, and I plan on trying it out with other color schemes!
 

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Halloween Make up Look - Cotton Candy

This year for Halloween, I went as Cotton Candy. I went to a couple different Halloween parties on different nights, so I had slight variations to my make up and hair.

On all three nights I wore the same eye shadow. Rimmel Scandal Eyes eyeliner in Light Blue topped with a matte baby blue eyeshadow (part of an old Sephora eyeshadow palette). With giant thick eyelashes of course.


This was the first party I went to. I wore Mac's St. Germain on my lips
 
 
This is the second party I went to. I made that hair fascinator out of tulle (it cost about $1). On my lips I wore Mac Gaga lipstick.
 
I used Spirit gum to glue on sequins. But each day I did a slightly different pattern. I can't decide which I like better. The sequins were just random ones that I had in my craft box (all purchased from Michael's).
 
On actual Halloween I wore my make up like this. I wore Revlon Lip gloss in Pinkissimo.
 
 
 
Here is a photo of my boyfriend and I on Halloween. Adam went as Guile from Street Fighter. I painted on the American flag using Mac "waveline" gel liner, nyx jumbo stick in "Milk" and a red lipstick. We bought yellow hairspray so he could look more like a cartoon, but it made his blonde hair look green for some reason.
 



  
 
 I had so much fun doing this type of make up application, I think I'm going to try something similar but more subdued for my New Year's Eve Makeup.
 
Happy Halloween!
 
 

Kiss Nail Dress- Nail Stickers

$6.99 at Rite Aid
 
As much as I love paining my nails, I have never tried one of these stick on nail appliques before. Since I had such good luck with the glue on nails, I decided to give these a try.
 
The kit came with 28 nail stickers and a mini file. I chose this snow leopard print with rainbow jewels. To be honest, this color option looks quite tacky in the box. But I really liked it on my nails.

 
The direction make it sound super simple, which it is, but it is also time consuming. All you have to do is clean your nails, place the sticker on and file off the edges. But it takes forever to file.
Here is a nail before I filed it away. It was easier to cut off the excess nail with scissors, and then file the remaining sticker.

 
As you can tell, my first few nails look like garbage. The closer to the real nail I got, the harder it was to file it away without filing my skin. My fingertips felt sore by the end of it all. It would have been less painful if my nails were longer. Which is funny, because I clipped them and field them down right before I started to apply these.

 
From far away, they look nice, but up close you can see bad placement of the sticker and extra sticker hanging off the side.

 

 

It being my first time with any type of product like this I found them to be a total pain in the butt. However, I loved the way they looked when I was done. I think it took me about 45 mins to apply them and file them appropriately. The next morning however, I felt like they still didn't look perfect so I kept filing away. As much as I did, I never felt like they looked perfect. But I got tons of compliments on them, and I enjoyed the overall look. They lasted a full 7 days. I think I could have gone a bit longer with them, but I was tired of them and wanted to change the color(I usually change my polish every 3 days because I get bored). Hopefully I will get better at applying this type of nail applique because I definitely want to try out other colors because they are just so cute on the nail.
 
Overall:
Time consuming, and they don't look perfect, but they are super cute so it might be worth it if you are into nail designs.

 

 

 

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Vita E Brushable Hold Professional Hairspray

$6.49
Sally Beauty Supply

 
I felt like I had been on the hunt for months looking for a great flexible hold hairspray that wouldn't leave my hair feeling gross if I didn't wash it the next day. Duh, Sally Beauty has like a hundred hairsprays to choose from, and I finally found this one. It is EXACTLY what I was looking for.
 
 When I wear my hair natural and wavy, I always put it up in a high pony tail in the morning. I slick back my hair with hairspray and a soft brush and leave it like that for about an hour, then I let my hair down. This always helps with fly aways and frizz for the rest of the day. With medium to heavy duty hairsprays, I would always get crusty hair when I would let my hair down. And the next morning my hair would be funky from the hairspray(I wash my hair every three days, so I always need my hairstyle to last). So I tried light hairsprays, that felt nicer in the hair, but they didn't hold my frizz down. 
 
Then I found this Vita E Hairspray! It does it all for me. I love it so much. I can even spray it all over my hair from root to tips, without crunchy or flaking. I can't believe I went so long in my life without it. I have been using this for about six months now and it is my favorite hairspray. I was inspired to write a review on it because my sister has started using it and is in love with it too. 
 
It has medium hold that is completely brushable, moveable and feels soft in the hair.It also leaves no funky hairspray residue behind in your hair. I have used it to set styles done with a curling iron or because it isn't a very "wet" hairspray. It has little to no scent.
 
 Just so you know, this will not replace a more heavy duty hairspray for up-dos and styles that you want to be indestructible like for special events. But for everyday use, this is a WINNER!
 
The only thing I don't like about this hairspray is the packaging. It has this old, 1970's vibe to it. But I can get over that.
 

These photos were taken without the white cap because my sister lost it. But the cap is nothing special, its just plain and boring.



Moon's Harvest Bath Melt and Bath Bomb

Bath Melt-a-way in Fairy Dust $3.85
Bath Bomb in Rain $3.85 + $0.75 for butterball
 
 I usually only take baths in Fall/Winter because summer in California is way too hot for a bath. But now that I am living in Washington, freezing my butt off, I have been hopping in the tub a lot more. Here are two of my favorite bath additives I have been using lately.
 
Moon's Harvest website here.
 
Moon's Harvest is a bath company that sells bath bombs, soap, lotion and more. I think of it as a cheaper, better version of Lush, but with out the skincare. I have ordered from them a few times, and each time I am very impressed with the quality and quantity of product.
 
 
Fairy Dust : This Melt-a-way can be used by crumbling over the runningbath water. It makes the water a light pink color and makes my skin feel nice and soft. These bath melts can be hard to rinse out of your hair because they are so moisturizing. The scent lingers for about 10 minutes, but I can still smell it on my skin when I get out to dry off. It smells gorgeous. The site has a really long fragrance description:
"Fairy Dust- Fresh lemon peel creates a sparkling accent for the sunny fruit accord that opens this fragrance.  A rich fruity floral signature balances night blooming jasmine with fresh cassis, while hints of ozone create a shimmering effect.  Complex musk tones intertwine with rare woods and a hint of vanilla at the base of the scent."
Ok so I don't know all about that, but the best way that I can describe this scent, is that it smells like a Lush store. That kind of everything all at once smell that is amazing. Which is why this is my second favorite scent from Moon's Harvest that I have tried.
 
 


 
Rain : Is a huge bath bomb (30-50% bigger than a Lush bath bomb) that is almost the size of a softball. I recommend chopping it in half and getting two baths out of it. You have the option on their site to add a butterball, which is basically an extra dollop of moisturizer in the center of the ball. I almost always add it because I have dry skin. And it really works. My skin is sooo soft after a bath with this. The bath water was a a light grayish blue color. The scent, Rain is amazing! It is my favorite scent from here. I originally received it as a sample size lotion and fell in love with it and started buying it in another items. The website's scent description is:
"Rain-A fresh, crisp, moist scent. Refreshing and green, strong and uplifting!. Inspired by the scent of rain, this scent combines lush greens & sweet muguet with a slight woodsy bottom note..."
To me it is the best version of a clean rain or ocean scent I have ever experienced. It smells cool and fresh and clean. I know it is weird to describe a smell like that, but that's the best I can do :) I feel like the bath bombs pack more punch when it comes to scents.
 


 

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Glue On Nails

Pretty Woman Advanced Nail Care
$6.99 at Rite Aid

PRO Professional Nail Glue $2.49 at Rite Aid


I had been itching to get acrylic nails but didn't want to commit to them so I started looking around the nail aisle at Rite Aid. I tried a pack of these glue on nails when I was in high school and they popped off within a day. Ever since, I have never thought twice about trying them again. But with nail décor so popular right now, there are tons of these on the shelves and they have been really hard to ignore recently. So I thought, what the hell, let's give them a go. I didn't trust the glue that came with them, so I bought some.

I chose this matte purple with metallic silver tips. It came with 24 nails, and I think both tiny and jumbo nail beds could find a match.
 

 

 
 The whole process took about 15 minutes. I covered my entire nail with the glue and then pressed the nail down for about a minute. Each one worked great, except one of them cracked a little towards the cuticle. I couldn't believe how quick and easy it was! The next morning I woke up and I was missing a pinkie nail :(  But it was on my pillow. Just what I expected, but I glued it back on anyways, thinking my experiment was over. But it wasn't!!! I ended up being so SURPRISED. All the nails lasted 5 full days before another one fell off(while putting on a seat belt). I glued that one back on and then on day 7, three flipped off, and I decided to take them all off. I pretty much just tore them off with tweezers. Some came off easy, some were difficult to get off. One of my pinkie nails would not budge. It took another day to get that one off. The nail glue left behind some residue for about a week, even after I tried using acetone and buffing to remove it.
 

 
I absolutely loved the way these came out. And I got SOOOOO many compliments on them. I was able to save six of them when I tore them off, and since there are another 14 still in the box, I plan on getting 1-2 more uses out of them. I might try to be more careful next time when I take them off to preserve more of them.

 
Have you ever tried glue on nails? What did you think?

 

Monday, October 7, 2013

Revlon Top Speed Nail Polish "Lily"

$5.99
Rite Aid
 
I have had this nail polish for a while now, and I love it. I for some reason thought it was a spring time limited edition, but I've seen it a few different places so it must be permanent.
 
 
 
 
As we have already been plunged into Autumn, I have been noticing all the deep vampy shades of nail polishes (wine, emerald and navy) everywhere. However, I am still digging pastel nails. Sure, they always look better with a tan, but I'm just gonna keep on rockin them!
 
As lavender nail polishes go, this one is really good. Lavender polishes tend to be thin and streaky, requiring upwards of 3-4 coats just to get solid opacity. "Lily" by Revlon is great, two coats is all you need to achieve the look in the pics. I own quite a few pastel purple polishes, and this is by far the best. Easy to apply and it lasts 4 days on my nails before chipping(I am extremely rough on my nails). When I run out, I will most definitely re-purchase!