Laquerlicious Valentine's Day LE Polishes

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Hi there! Today I have three polishes from Laquerlicious to show you. The three shades are A Card & Candy, Cupid's Crush and Cherished Cherub. I think these polishes speak for them selves so let's go ahead and see some swatches!

First we have A Card and Candy. A white milky polish with hexes, squares and short fat bars in pink red and purple. It reminds me of a Valentine's Day version of Christmas Snowfall! I did three coats here but you could also do a single coat on top of a coat of white.


 Cupid's Crush is a purple sparkle filled jelly with matte shards of blue, white and red. This was three coats. I thought that the formula would be hard to work with because of all the irregular shards of glitter but it was actually really smooth!




My favorite for last! Cherished Cherub. I really love this one! A magenta jelly with sparkles and so many types of glitter, I can't even name them all. I see various round, hex and a few red hearts. I loved wearing this at three coats by itself, or one coat over black as you can see on my ring finger accent. There were only a few hearts in my bottle, I couldn't find any to wear when I swatched all my fingers but I did fish one out to wear on my black accent finger.

These three fun Valentine's Day polishes are limited edition, once they're gone, they're gone! These are $8.50 each for the .5oz size and can be found in the Laquerlicious Etsy shop. While you're there, be sure to check out the wonderful Polish for Pit Bulls collection of polishes- such a good cause!

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

50 Words or Less Reviews, Vol. V: Various Bath & Body Products

Hi folks!


Here's another volume of my 50 Words or Less Reviews, where I distill lengthy reviews into fun sized portions. Today I'm featuring a few things that I've been using including Organix Hydrating Macadamia Oil Shampoo & Conditioner (which gets 100 words since it's a pair!), Avalon Organics (recommended to me by Catherine from Strawberry Mochi) Vitamin C Moisture Plus Lotion Broad Spectrum SPF 15, Essence 24h Hand Protection Balm, Murad Clarifying Cleanser and finally Alba Kukui Nut Body Cream.

Organix Hydrating Macadamia Oil Shampoo & Conditioner. Usually $8 each (13 oz. each).

Picked it up on sale, since I was almost out of my usual Paul Mitchell Awapuhi Wild Ginger S&C which has started to become less effective for me. Sulfate free, which was a big seller. Shampoo is not too harsh but the flip side is that it is not super cleansing, would not be great for oily hair. Conditioner is very mild, does not weigh heavily on hair. Ideal for fine to normal hair that is not damaged (unlike mine) for daily cleansing use. Smells absolutely heavenly!


Avalon Organics Vitamin C Renewel Moisture Plus Lotion SPF 15. Around $15 for 4oz.

Bought it because I was looking for a physical sunblock for daily use on hands and face. It smells lovely and citrus-y, but I found that upon initial application it stings my face. Also is very white and does not blend in well, leaving a sticky/rubbery texture. Will finish this bottle but definitely won't repurchase.


Essence 24h Hand Protection Balm, Winter Edition - Apple Cinnamon Punch (unsure of price).

Sent from a German blogging buddy. Nice texture, absorbs quickly but has more moisture than a true cream- more like lotion. Does not leave hands feeling greasy, merely silky. This scents reminds me of apple and cinnamon potpourri. Not super long lasting on the skin though.


Murad Clarifying Cleanser. $26 for 6.75oz.

Very effective foaming cleanser. Contains Salicylic Acid 1.5%, is rather drying. Also contains menthol which leaves skin tingly (don't particularly like). A bit too harsh for me for daily use but I definitely use it during bad breakouts.


Alba Botanica Kukui Nut Body Cream. Around $14 for 6.5 oz.

Was curious about this cream because I read a few pretty favorable reviews on it. Very rich, emollient but absorbs surprisingly fast for how thick it is. Particularly great for elbows and ankles and other areas with thicker dry skin. Very strong sweet scent though- if you like warm vanilla or brown sugar, you might like this.

Have you tried any of the products that I've featured today?


Products featured were purchased by me, for my own use. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy. 

New Pure Ice Swatch Spam: Part 1 - Velours

Monday, January 28, 2013
Hi folks! As I mentioned yesterday, I was really fortunate to win 100 Pure Ice polishes recently. 96 of them made it to my door safely and quite of few of them were repeats (a total of 16 multiples, a few of the shades I even had triplicates) so grand total of 80 new shades.

I swatched them on sticks but was not happy with how they photographed so I decided to swatch them all on fingers. This is no small undertaking, so I'll do it in installments, the first one being the soft matte shades, the new Pure Ice Velours. I think I have all of them, with the exception of Black Magic which broke. It was  matte black shade. This post is really picture heavy, since I did one picture matte, followed by one of each polish with a shiny topcoat and finished with comparisons at the end, so please bear with me!

 Crushed. Gleaming Gold. Three coats.


 Grunge. Matte mauve with silvery shimmer. Three coats.


 Temptress. The least matte out of all the polishes, it took a while to dry. However it is possibly the prettiest. A dark purple with golden shimmer. Three coats.


Stunning. I think this one might be pretty close to Man Glaze Lesbihonest, though maybe not as complex bu don't have it to compare. Bright magenta. Three coats.


Touch Me Softly. A truly stunning berry. Three coats.


 Femme Fatale. Rich forest green. Three coats.


Ruffled Sheets. A pure silver matte shade. Quite unique to me, don't own anything else like it. Three coats.


Over the Top. Golden orange, the shimmer is softer than in the other shades. Two coats.


Blue Midnight. Denim blue in color. Two coats.

Here's how they look compared to some of the other matte shades I own.

Left to right: Zoya Harlow, Pure Ice Touch Me Softly, Pure Ice Grunge, OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Suede. I think owning only Harlow or Touch Me Softly would suffice, the difference is minimal in my eyes.

Left to right: Zoya Savita, Pure Ice Temptress, OPI Ink Suede, OPI Russian Navy Suede, Pure Ice Blue Midnight. None of the shades are all that close, I think they're all really pretty.

Left to right: Revlon Emerald City Suede, Pure Ice Femme Fatale, Zoya Veruschka. These are all quite close, only difference is a slight variation in the hue of green and the particle size of the shimmer. Again, I think owning just one would be enough. 

Left to right: Pure Ice Over the Top, Orly Glam Rock. Really different in terms of shimmer particle size and Glam Rock is more burnt orange. 

The formula on these was ... well, you know, similar to mattes in general. They can be tricky to apply, I highly recommend adding a couple drops of lacquer thinner to improve application if you find that it gets "clumpy" on the nail. I'd also advise doing quick, thin coats taking care to use as few strokes as possible for each coat. I love that there were very unusual shades of matte/suede/velour/what have you polishes, I particularly love Temptress, Grunge, Touch Me Softly and Crushed. At $1.99, these Pure Ice Velours are definitely the most budget friendly matte finish of them all. 

I warned you, that post was long, wasn't it? I hope you found all the swatches and comparisons helpful! Which one was your favorite?

Products featured were sent to me as a prize. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

A Couple of Pure Ice Browns

Sunday, January 27, 2013
Howdy!


Guess what? I'm so honored that Pure Ice chose my nail art as one of the winning contestants for their #PureIceMyCity contest. As a prize, they sent me 100 of the new Pure Ice polishes! Crazy right? I'll have pictures up soon, but in the mean time check out the first few that really caught my eye.

Usually brown isn't exactly a color that I really want on my nails, but these are absolutely gorgeous. On my pink and pointer I have Alter Ego which is a brown with sparkles and silver irregular jagged flecks. On my middle and ring fingers I have on Pardon My French, a dark coffee jelly shade with pinky-peachy glitter. Both colors only took two coats!

I must say, I think that Pure Ice is REALLY stepping up the game with their new polishes. I can't wait to show you guys all the once I received!

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

EOTD: Fyrinnae Tyr & Book of the Dead

Saturday, January 26, 2013
I don't know if this happens to anyone else but every year I have a phase where I fall in love with indie shadows again. To be honest, I don't particularly like loose shadows at all. I'm clumsy, there's a lot of loose shadow fallout during application and they do not travel well at all. Actually you should see all my mini indie shadows, half of them spilled during my move even though they were tightly closed inside their compartments (should have taped them all, argh). It looks like a sparkly explosion, but not the pleasant kind.

Now, every year I find myself ooohing and ahhhing over sparkly Shiro and Fyrinnae shadows then the other 11 months out of the year I question why I bought them. I know I have the option of pressing the loose shadows but I find that a lot of the time, the complex natures of some of these shadows is lost during pressing- especially shadows with dark matte bases.

Anyways. Here's what I used for today's EOTD.


Brows: NARS Bali
Eyes: NYX HD Eye Shadow Base, NYX Provocateur Mascara, Essence Volumizing Lash Powder, Fyrinnae Tyr, Fyrinnae Book of the Dead, Graftobian HD Glamour Foundation (just to clean up a bit around my brows).

I love how Tyr looks green-grey in the pot but once brushed on my lids looks like a vibrant green with a inky black base. Book of the Dead also is a really lovely color.

Does anyone else struggle with this sort of dilemma? Where you keep buying something that you know you don't particularly love using just because it looks really, really pretty?

Products featured were purchased by me, for my own use. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Lacquer Lust #notd

Friday, January 25, 2013
Hi folks!

Today I have another indie to show you, given to me by a very good friend. I'm a huge fan of green and holographic nail polishes so it's only natural that the combination leaves me drooling, right?


#notd is a very, super sheer granny apple green polish. It's so vibrant, it's practically neon. Unfortunately, I used four coats and you could still see my nail line. Though it is holographic, the effect is super mild. I could barely see it outdoors on a sunny day. I think this polish had a lot of potential, though sadly it did not live up to its full holographic capabilities. I want to force feed it Spectraflair and see what happens.

Have you tried any polishes from this brand? What did you think? Lacquer Lusts are sold on this website for $7.50 each (which I think is a great price point). Be sure to follow @lacquer_lust on Instagram for updates on restocks.

Products featured were given to me as a gift. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Make Up For Ever #58

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

I found myself hankering for a matte cranberry blush a while back. The shade I originally had in mind (I think #49) was out of stock so I found myself settling for Make Up For Ever #58.

Left side heavily swatched, right side lightly swatched. Both over bare skin.

It is a matte magenta shade that I've used as both a blush and an eye shadow. The formula is MUFE's trade mark, superb pigmentation but a rather dry formula. It does seem to stain slightly when I use it as eyeshadow though not as badly as some of the other MUFE shades. The color does all sorts of crazy things to both my old camera and the new DSLR. It is really pretty but does not photograph true to the color. It has a tendency to photograph more red, more cranberry looking than it actually is. It definitely leans more purple than swatches shows.

#58 on the cheeks
You really need a light hand when applying it as blush- I use my MAC 188 skunk. On my skin however, I was disappointed to find that it looked rather like a ruddy flush instead of true magenta. Though I don't particularly like pinks (along with corals and reds) on my eyes, I did play around with this shade while wearing my colored contacts yesterday.


I also used for this EOTD:

Brows: NARS Bali, NYX Brow Shaper
Eyes: NYX HD Eye Shadow Base, NYX Milk Jumbo Pencil, MAC Copperplate, a white NYX shadow from some long forgotten trio, La Femme Eyeliner Sealer, Calvin Klein Night Dust, Prestige Total Intensity Deepest Black liner, NYX Provocateur Mascara


For the FOTD above I also used:

Face: Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk mixed with MUFE HD, G2Organics Hickey Stick*, Guerlain Emilio Pucci edition Meteorites
Brows: NARS Bali, NYX Brow Shaper
Eyes: NYX HD Eye Shadow Base, Wet'n'Wild Comfort Zone, NYX Provocateur Mascara, Prestige Total Intensity Deepest Black liner
Lips: Bite Beauty Carménère

I like this shade quite a bit, but I think I should have waited for that cranberry shade like I had originally intended.

Do you have a favorite shade that you use for both your eyes and cheeks?

*Indicates a product that was sent for review. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.