Two Great Nail Colors & Happy New Year!

Hey Lovelies!  I just wanted to share swatches of a couple of drugstore nail polishes. 

The first is called Taunting Teal by Sonia Kashuk, which you can find at Target stores.  It's a dark, true teal with no shimmer.  Gorgeous!  The second color is Hard Candy's Mushroom, which can be bought at Walmart, and also comes with a matching plastic puffed heart ring.  Mushroom is a dark brownish-taupe and can sometimes look a little more mauve-ish or a little more taupe-ish, depending on the lighting.  Mushroom ended up being my OPI Over the Taupe "close enough dupe", since I couldn't find it anywhere!

So New Year's is coming up and I want to wish my readers a very happy and safe New Year.  My resolution is to make more use of what's lying around - like makeup or nail polish I hardy touch, little sample packets that have been sitting around forever, clothes and shoes that have been neglected, or whatever beauty or non-beauty item that's laying around the house and needs more attention.  (Not to mention the tons of swatches I've been meaning to do!)

Once again, Happy 2011!

Lil' Saturday Haul: Shoes & Lipstick!

I headed out today ONLY to get these over-the-knee boots from Forever 21 and ended up hauling three more items I didn't intend to.  Don't you hate when that happens?  I tell myself not to whip out the credit card, but I just had to get these really cheap Madden Girl shoes at Ross.

First up are these Matte Leatherette boots ($39.80) that I've been feening to get since I saw them on Forever 21's website.  I like the matte finish and opted for these instead of a faux suede, since that would get way too linty.  They fit true to size (I'm an 8) and there's still room to wear a thin pair of socks if I choose to.  The toe is semi-pointy - sort of almond shaped - but they do not squeeze my toes like my other almond-toed shoes (see last pic below).  I don't even think I need to break them in!  The zipper goes up two-thirds of the way, and there's a patch of elastic banding on the back of the boot at the very top.  A seam starts from the tip of the toe all the way up to the shaft.  I notice that they kind of bunch up at the ankles, but other than that, I'm in lurve with them!  Also, the lining is super soft if you choose to wear them bare-legged.

Then I headed over to Target to pick up another Maybelline Color Sensational (~$5.69) lipstick in Totally Toffee.  In my previous post, I had swatched Warm Me Up, but it was too much of a berry-pink, whereas Totally Toffee is more of a brown tone with a hint of pink - totally up my alley!  You can see in the swatches how much pinker Warm Me Up is compared to Totally Toffee.  It's funny how both of these colors are in the "Naturals" family when Warm Me Up is clearly a pink color.  Hey Maybelline, you got that wrong!

This holiday season, I may be traveling to another state, so I wanted to try out a dry shampoo.  I usually have to wash my hair everyday since I have an oily scalp, and it gets gross and greasy the latter half of the second day if I don't wash it.  So I picked up a dry shampoo from Sally Beauty Supply by Batiste.  I haven't tried it yet but hopefully it'll work for me, because I want to cut down washing my hair if I won't be staying at home for the holidays.  As a guest, I don't want to be hogging someone else's shower for too long!

Lastly, I found a cute pair of Madden Girl peep toes at Ross for only $17.99.  Score!

SOMETHING EXTRA

 Ever try to stretch out your shoes using the Freezer Method?  These almond toe pumps were killing my toes!  So I filled up a Ziploc bag a quarter way with water, stuck it into my shoe and let them sit for almost 24 hours.  When water freezes and turns into ice, it will expand and stretch your shoe out.  Well...it worked somewhat, but I still had to wear them around the house with some socks to further stretch it out.  I may try it again with more water.

I just thought this pic was funny. Hey, just throw your shoe into the freezer with a large tub of Cool Whip, Magnolia Ube ice cream (bomb!), pizza and waffles!  At least the Boca Burgers in the red box are healthy!...lol

Have a great weekend! =)

Give Me Some Lip: Revlon Soft Nude & Maybelline Warm Me Up

Do I really need some more lipsticks when I already have tons?  No.  Do I need to try them just because? Yes!  The following will be a review of a Revlon ColorBurst lipstick and a Maybelline Color Sensational lipstick.

 Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick in Soft Nude

THE RUNDOWN

PRICE: ~$6.50+ (I bought it at Target)
AMOUNT: 0.13 oz or 3.7 g
PRODUCT COLOR: Soft Nude #070 - a creme, peachy nude with no shimmer
TEXTURE: Creamy and moist, but still requires gloss over it
PIGMENTATION: Good, but with this color, I find I need to rub in on several times until I get my desired look since my lips are so pigmented.  But it's still nicely pigmented.
SCENT: I really can't detect any scent whatsoever
PACKAGING: Square, matte black tube with a quilted or fishnet etched pattern on two sides of the tube.  It has a round edge at the tip instead of the usual point, and the Revlon name is etched into the lipstick itself - very nice!  The colored swatch at the top of the cap seems to be very accurate to the actual product.  The sticker seals the tube so people can't test them in the stores, ensuring you get a clean product.
INGREDIENTS: Check them out at Drugstore.com (They also have very nice product photos of the other colors)

PROS: I find everything about this color and product is totally awesome! =)
CONS: I really can't find anything I don't like about it.

Top: True colors with flash; Bottom: Natural light

FINAL WORDS:  A perfect creamy and moist peachy-nude color with good pigmentation and lovely packaging.  It's now one of my favorites!

Love! <3

This is my FAVORITE lipliner: Flesh by Ulta. I used it with Revlon's Soft Nude and it works perfectly, but I also use this with my nude pinks. It's a matte, peach-toffee sort of color.

Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in Warm Me Up

THE RUNDOWN

PRICE: ~$5.50+ (I bought it at Target)

AMOUNT:  0.15 oz or 4.2 g

PRODUCT COLOR: Warm Me Up #235 (in the Naturals family) - a berry pink with a very subtle golden shimmer, which I didn't notice until I took macro photos.  I don't notice any shimmer when applied on the lips.  I don't understand why this is in the Naturals category, when it clearly is a berry pink color!  There's no brown in it whatsoever. A lot of pinks turn sort of purple-pink on me, and this one does that.  I don't know why; it could be my natural lip color or the lipstick just oxidizing?

TEXTURE: Creamy and moist. A hint more moist than the Revlon ColorBurst.

PIGMENTATION: Well-pigmented

SCENT: I can't place the scent but it's like a light candy scent which I actually love.  Those sensitive to scents may be turned off by it, though.

PACKAGING: Square transparent tube with a color-coded cap that corresponds to each lipstick, either belonging to the Pink, Plum, Red or Natural family.  It has a shiny silver base and the lipstick has a pointed tip.  Since the cap is almost the length of the whole lipstick, it can be a little hard to grasp onto the small base while opening the lipstick.  This is the only thing I don't like about it.

PROS: Great pigmentation, creamy, moist and inexpensive. Comes in 48 colors, not including the new Pearl colors.

CONS: Scented. May be a little hard to open since the base is so small and hard to grasp.  It's not sealed so the lipsticks in stores may have been tested on, so you might have to sanitize it when you get home, which is what I did just to be safe.

Lips are little crusty here...lol..because I just got done eating so I'm sorry for that. Also, this was before I decided to swatch Soft Nude by itself, hence, the half-lip swatches.

FINAL WORDS: I love the pigmentation and texture of Warm Me Up, but it wasn't really the kind of pink I was looking for. (I really want to try Pink Please or Totally Toffee.)  Other than that, it's a great, inexpensive lipstick with nifty color-coded caps.

Have a great day everyone! =)

My First OPI: Coney Island Cotton Candy

Hey lovelies! Can you believe I barely got my first OPI nail polish?  I was hoping my Ulta had Over the Taupe, but to my dismay they didn't, so I decided to go with a sheer pink called Coney Island Cotton Candy.  It's a peachy-pink that's not very exciting but office-friendly.  The swatches below are with three coats of polish since two coats were still too sheer for me.  I'm happy to say that this lasted for one whole week on my nails with Seche Vite top coat, with very minimal chipping. 

Hmm, what will be my next OPI shade?...

Outdoor in the shade, three coats

Outdoor in the sun, three coats

Sheer peachy-pink, no shimmer

What's your favorite OPI shade?

I Love Target Shoes!

Just a quick post because I love these Mossimo Black Kat faux suede booties in grey that I purchased from Target.  I had to drive to 3 different stores just to find it in a size 8.  At the first two stores, a lady at each store were checking out the same shoes, and they probably had my size in their hands!...lol.  They zip up in the back, have a hidden platform and are pretty comfy, although they can get a little tight in the toe area.  Check out the link for more info if you're diggin' these cute booties.

My tights are from Forever 21 and I also LOVE them!  I don't know what the pattern is called, but  I need to go back to get another pair.

I also Twitpiced my recent Sephora haul so check it out.  Happy Monday! =)

I'm Alive!

Just a quick "Hello" to my bloggers, old and new.  Yes, I'm still alive and I'm sorry for not blogging since the beginning of the year.  Here's a picture of some of the random items I've purchased since I've been gone, and honestly, I haven't bought as much makeup as I did in the past.  Maybe it's because I'm running out of storage space...lol.

But my favorite item pictured is CoverGirl's Liquiline Blast eyeliner in Brown Blaze.  It's the first CoverGirl product that I absolutely love and it's making me cheat on my Revlon ColorStay eyeliners.  Shh, don't tell them.

I also bought Aquolina's new perfume called, Pink Sugar Sensual, without smelling a sample of it.  That's probably the last time I do a crazy thing like that because I ended up returning it.  I liked the "oriental" scent, which reminded me of Armani Code, or Fantasy, but after five minutes it gave me a headache.  Thank goodness Sephora has an awesome return policy for purchasing items online.  Even if you open a perfume and use it a few times, you will be able to return it for a full refund, which I had not known before.  Love you, Sephora!

Well, that's my quick hello and I hope all of you are doing well!  I'll try to start doing more reviews in the future.  Thank you for following my blog.  <3

NOTD: New Year's Nails

Happy New Year! Here's my current nail polish, a simple but blingy and sparkly design for the new year. I'm using Rimmel Underground Play Fast polish in Street Wear, which is sadly discontinued. If anyone knows a dupe for this absolutely lovely and unique color, please let me know. It's a grayed and muted mauve-lilac color that has a subtle rosy shimmer. I use this bottle sparingly because I don't ever want to run out of it. Over the Street Wear, I used a nail art polish with a skinny brush - So Easy Stripe Rite in Silver Glitter, which you can get at Sally Beauty Supply. I just made a simple lattice pattern at the tips of my nails and voila, instant bling. I would normally do a thinner stripe but I laid it on thicker for extra sparkle. Happy 2010!

Rimmel Underground Play Fast polish in "Street Wear" is discontinued. =(
Why, Rimmel?!

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