Makeup Withdrawal

Winstonia July Grab Bag

Friday, July 5, 2013

Hello!

Today I have the Winstonia July Grab Bag to show you. If you recall, I already used some of the studs in my Lady Liberty manicure. Here's the basic info:

Link: http://winstoniastore.com/grab-bag

End date: July 31st, 2013

Price: $10 - free U.S. standard shipping. Priority and international services are available during checkout.

Items included:

Nail Art Stud, design 2 (details)
Nail Art Stud, design 3 (details)
Nail Art Polymer Slices (details)
Nail Art Wooden Sticks (details)
Multi-purpose Eye Brush (details)

The Grab Bag has a retail value of $24 (before shipping charge). Orders will be shipped starting July 8th. Coupon codes do not apply on Grab Bag.

I really really REALLY liked this month's bag because of the nail wheels containing all the nail studs. If you're a stud lover (lol, see what I did there?) you'll find these nail wheels to be absolute GOLD. They contain some really unique studs, some of which I have never seen before. For example that giant gold sequin? Fantastic. 24 kinds of studs? That pretty much means I can do at least 24 different manicures (and don't forget combinations of studs).

Also a wheel of fimo butterflies. I don't use fimo too often only because my nails are pretty curved but I have seen some cute acrylic sets with butterflies worked into them.

I have been using these manicure sticks for ages! If you recall, these are the type that I mentioned in my nail care products post. I like them because one side is pointed and the other is beveled making them easy to use with cuticle remover. I prefer them to metal implements because I know I'll never accidentally damage my soft nails and that they're disposable so I don't have to sanitize them. This pack contains two sizes.

Lastly, there is a double sided brush. Made of synthetic hairs, it is really soft. I've been using this for my brows, using the angled side to fill them in and the round side to apply concealer to "clean up". Will also be bringing this brush on vacation next week.

Here's a manicure I created with the hexagonal silver studs form one of the nail wheels. I used American Apparel Dynasty as the base, taped off sections with triangular piece of Scotch tape and painted on Julep Nora, a gift from a friend. I then removed the tape and used nail glue to adhere the studs. I really love how it turned out, actually.
For me, this was a great Grab Bag this month because I'll definitely use most of the items in it. What about you? Do those awesome studs appeal to anyone else?

Products featured were sent to me for review. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Give Me Liberty!

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Hi folks!

Happy Independence Day for my US readers! Happy normal 4th to everyone else.

I recently was sent an amazing package from Michelle of Laquerlicious, you should have heard the unlady like squeal that came out of me when I opened it. One of the polishes that I immediately fell hard for was Lady Liberty. It's a soft jade creme with bronze and gold glitters and flakes, I don't think the name could be any more perfect. It looked amazing with three coats, great dispersion of glitter and fluid formula.

I immediately started some nail art to go with Lady Liberty.

I used American Apparel California Trooper as my base and mixed American Apparel Pacific Beach with Essie Turquoise and Caicos for that perfect Statue of Liberty minty aqua. I then used Wet'n'Wild Black Creme thinned out with Orly Nail Lacquer Thinner to draw the shadows and accents. The final touch were applying these gorgeous matte copper studs from Winstonia's July $10 Grab Bag.

Lady Liberty is available for $9.50 here. For the latest updates and sale codes, be sure to follow Michelle on Instagram (@creativenailchick).

I hope that everyone who is celebrating this holiday enjoys a safe and great holiday with friends and family!

Products featured were sent to me for review. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

ES The Bright Peacock Lashes from KKCenterHK

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

I recently was sent a pair of paper lashes from KKCenterHK from the brand ES. I picked the peacock set because I thought they looked very cute in the pictures.

Pros:
-They're pretty comfortable considering how big they are and the odd paper texture.
-From certain close up angles, they do look pretty neat.
-Extra long band that can be trimmed easily.

Cons:
-Not reusable. I tried to wear them twice but they ripped while I tried to clean them.
-Unless you're taking close up editorial shots that are extremely close up, you can't tell what they are. They just look like really big, weird lashes.
-Not as "crisp" as in the pictures. Peacock looks kinda melted.
-Rather pricey for one time use (though admittedly cheaper than the Paperself lashes) on sale for $9.99 right now.

I used:
Brows: NARS Bali, NYX Brow Shaper
Eyes: LORAC Behind the Scenes Primer, NYX Jumbo in Milk, MUFE #83,92,171, Sephora + Pantone Universe Shades of Nature Palette, MAC Museum Bronze Pigment, LORAC Beige

Basically while cool in concept, I think they're not quite suited for use actual use.

Products featured were sent to me for review. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Zoya Textured Stars & Stripes Tutorial

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Hi folks!

Zoya's PixieDust polishes are my favorite textured polishes in terms of formula and final gritty effect, so I used two shades to create a 4th of July manicure to share with you.

You'll need:

-Zoya Chyna
-Zoya Liberty
-Zoya Purity
-a piece of foil or other surface for nail polish
-a dotting tool, birchwood stick or toothpick
-a fine nail brush
-Q-tips or brushes and polish remover for clean up.

Paint your nails using Zoya Chyna and Liberty. I used Liberty on my pointer and Chyna on the other fingers, two coats each. Wait for them to dry completely.

Pour out a bit of Purity on the foil. Then let it sit for a while, stirring it with your dotting tool to occasionally to test it.

You want the polish to pull away in strings. Too runny and it'll drip away in big blobs, too dry and it'll get chunky and break instead of creating thin strings (like pulling taffy!).

Pull up strings of polish and wrap it around your nail, a circular motion with your tool. Each time, dipping the tool into the polish to pull up more strands of polish. If the polish starts drying out, add a drop of fresh white polish.

When you've spun enough of the strands around your red nails, use the thin brush and fresh white polish to draw white stars on the nail painted with Liberty.

Finish the look by cleaning up with remover around your cuticles. Since it's a textured look, no topoat is necessary!

Zoya Pixie Dusts are $9 each and can be found on the Zoya website.

Easy patriotic manicure, right? Did anyone else do any 4th of July or Canada Day nails?

Some of the products featured were sent to me for review. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Polish TBH Summer Aquarium Collection

Monday, July 1, 2013

I recently got my mitts on Polish TBH's summer collection to swatch and share with you folks. The collection is called Summer Aquarium and consists of five bright, fun shades that seriously makes me want to go scuba diving (and/or watch Finding Nemo).

Anemone is a hot pink creme with very fine holo running throughout that gives it almost a pearly soft holo look. It's very quite opaque and needed only two coats. It's such a bright and eye catching color.

Sun Coral is a orange yellow jelly with pink and rose hexes, square holo piece and gold flakes. Here, I'm wearing three coats. This one really jumped out at me because I've been so into orange lately and really haven't seen too many orange jellies out there, even in the indie world.

Stackz is the thermal of the group. It goes from near clear to a deep green jelly. It's filled with circle gold and green glitter as well has small gold hexes and holo bits. Since it's been so hot here, I wore one coat of it over Urban Outfitters Slime. Even though my AC is on, it was hard for me to capture the "cool" half of this polish, but I took the macro after the polish had been in my fridge for a few hours. If you look at my ring finger, you can see the a bit of the transition.

Blue Reef is quite possibly my favorite shade out of the whole collection. Three coats of this beautiful blue (I don't even know what I'd call this blue, it's like cobalt but the purple flakes makes it SO much more) jelly is just perfection. It is filled with blue hexes and shards as well as tiny purple flakes. It's really beautiful.

Moon Jelly, another great shade. A purple jelly (three coats) loaded with small purple glitters and tiny blue flakes.

This collection is really beautiful for summer and I definitely feel like there is something for everyone here. Blue Reef was hands down my favorite but Anemone came in second. Most were three coaters to really show off the squishy jelly but Stackz could be worn as a topper (and by itself).

Want more good news? Polish TBH has moved to BigCartel and to celebrate this grand opening, you can take 20% off any order $20 or more using GRAND20 at check out. Offer is good from July 1st to the 7th.

Polish TBH Summer Aquarium shades are $8 each and can be purchased here. Be sure to follow (@polishtbh) on Instagram from all the latest updates, pictures and cute kitten pictures.

What shades are you rocking for the summer (or winter, for those of you in the southern hemisphere)?

Products featured were given to me for review. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.