Nail Spam!

While looking through my phone, I found a bunch of nail pictures I've taken to upload to my Facebook page. They're not amazing quality, but you can still see the colors and that's all that matters!

I tried my hand [ha! nail pun] at a little bit of nail art in support of the Miami Heat playing in the finals [a lot of good that did!]. The red is OPI Vodka & Caviar.

This is Sinful Colors Fiji and--wait for it-- Sally Hansen HIDDEN TREASURE!

Revlon Royal. I love love love how bright this is.

 

China Glaze Recycle and a no-name brand for the light pink. I love the combo of grey and pink. Please check out my Hello Kitty bathrobe in the background!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps. I love this color, it has so much depth. The pictures don't do it justice.

 

This is one of my favorite nail looks. The base is Finger Paints Aren't You Gladiolus? and the crackle coat is Sally Hansen Vintage Violet.

Another Hidden Treasure combination.The base is China Glaze Custom Kicks. 

Hidden Treasure turns gold when combined with the turquoise and it looks amazing.

Revlon Starry Pink Nail Polish

I love nail polish. I'm pretty sure it's my favorite cosmetic in the world [sorry, mascara!.] That being said, I find myself not really being wowed by polishes lately. Perhaps it's because I've seen and worn too many, or maybe nothing amazing has been released for a while. Whatever the reason, I haven't found a new polish that makes me stare at my hands admiringly for minutes at a time, until now.

Revlon's Starry Pink, part of their Expressionists line, is stunning. Stunning isn't even the word for it. I love that the base coat is a light pink and the glitter is silver.

** I left my camera at a friend's house and won't have it back for a few days. So, please excuse the horrible camera phone quality. For better pictures, you can go to The PolishAholic's blog, she has great swatches!

 From far away it looks like a very plain pink color, it even looks like an "office polish". However, when you get up close, you see the large hex glitters and the smaller round ones and it's so great. People's reactions are usually "oh that's prett- oh wow!" the latter being when they realize it's not just pink polish.

Do yourself a favor and pick these up ASAP. From what I hear, they'll be part of Revlon's core collection, so there's no need for the limited edition panic attack. The only place I've been able to find this and the other polishes in this collection is at Target.Don't look for them in a special display, they're right in with the other polishes, and this week they're on sale!

August Favorites

These are the products I found myself reaching for constantly all month long.

The majority of these are products I'd never tried before, which is great because I love when a new product turns out to be so great that I don't stop using it after the trial period is over. 

First up is Nuance Salma Hayek Beautiful Blends Eye Quad. 

Nuance Salma Hayek Color Vibrance Lipstick in Dusty Rose. 

L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes Mascara [Waterproof]

 

Maybelline Expert Wear Eyeshadow Trio in Bronze Glitz

e.l.f. Studio Blush in Blushing Rose

NYX Shadows Swatches and Review

I LOVE NYX eye shadows. In my opinion, they are the closest any drugstore brand has gotten to MAC quality [though I'm not sure if NYX even counts as a drugstore brand since I can't find them ANYWHERE around here!.]

Recently, Cherryculture had a 50% off NYX sale and I took advantage by buying a ton of shadows and nail polishes. Because the swatches on the NYX site are atrocious, I often have to rely on blogs and youtube videos to get some idea of what I'm buying. I figured I'd do the world a favor and swatch the ones I go, just in case someone out there is dying to buy one of these shades but can't figure out what the color actually is!

All pictures first without then with flash

Swatched on bare skin, no primer.

From L to R:  Gypsy, Pine Nut, Latte Foam

Gypsy has a TON of fall out, and it's quite glittery. Pine Nut is basically the same shade as Gypsy with without the glitter. Latte Foam is somewhere in between the other two shades, also quite glittery. 

From L to R: Cryptonite, Sparkle Cedar, Morocco 

Cryptonite and Sparkle Cedar are glittery and have a lot of fall out as well, but the colors look great together. Morocco is very shimmery and not as blue as it looks in the pan.

From L to R: Purple, Sweet Oleander, Prune

All 3 colors look great together. Sweet Oleander came out looking more purple than pink, but I think that has more to do with my skin tone than with the shadow.

 

From L to R: Skin Tight, Sunset Ray

I'm not a huge fan of Skin Tight, it seems like a matte version of their Champagne color [which I love with all my heart.] Sunset Ray is amazing, probably one of my favorite orange shadows.

 

All in all, a great purchase!

Revisiting Maybelline SuperStay 24 hr Concealer

** read original review

I couldn't resign myself to the idea that SuperStay was just a bad concealer with limited colors and tones. So, I kept looking for reviews and comments from other bloggers, trying to see what they saw in it that I didn't. Finally, one day I had an epiphany!

SuperStay is not a good concealer for me, but it's the perfect corrector.

The difference between a concealer and a corrector is that while a concealer is there to hide your dark circles and is usually skin colored [sometimes with a bit of yellow in it,] a corrector uses colors to mask other colors in your face.
Example: My NC35 concealer makes my dark circles the same color as the rest of my face, but sometimes [most of the time,] they're too dark and the darkness shows through. Putting a pink-based corrector on my yellow toned skin cancels out my dark circles and brightens up the eye area. [I've been doing a bit of reading about all this and it seems that pink based correctors aren't necessarily just for yellow toned skin, so feel free to give it a shot.]

Although SuperStay isn't marketed as a corrector, I found that it is much too pink to work as a concealer, but as a corrector it works wonders.

I apply the too-pink SuperStay to the inner corner of my eye and first half of my under eye area where the circles are at their worst.

I blend blend blend blend until it looks passable [though always a bit powdery,] and then I put my MAC Pro Longwear concealer in NC35 over all of it. Sometimes, I skip MAC and go for the Maybelline FitMe concealer in 25 because the color looks really great.

By mixing the two colors, my circles are effectively wiped out [or at least, as much as they'll ever be.]
I'm really really happy with SuperStay now that I've figured out how to use it to my advantage. I still say that as a concealer, it's incredibly limited because of how thick it is and the very few color options, but as a corrector, it rivals Bobbi Brown's line [that's right, I said it.]

** As a way to deal with how powdery SuperStay is, I always make sure I put a little bit of extra moisturizer under my eyes and I apply the concealers right after so the area is still smooth enough to work with.