Month: October 2014
This is Halloween
It doesn’t get any Halloween-ier than this!
Sinful Colors “Mystery Moonshine” is one of those polishes that you only set to wear once a year – or maybe twice – it has a kind of Mardi Gras thing going. It’s a metallic green, purple and orange jagged glitter in a clear base. I carefully chose my solid colors to match up with their respective glitter colors – Sinful Colors “Pine Away” for the green, Sinful Colors “Amethyst” for the purple and Julep “Zoe” for the orange. (I felt naughty mixing brands, but “Zoe” was just too perfect.)
Each of these polishes looked great after a single coat over Orly Bonder. I’m weary of Sinful Colors “Pine Away” now – it stains like a sonofabitch. I had to dab the “Mystery Moonshine” a bit, but it didn’t take a lot of work to get a good glitter spread. I topped it off with NYC “Grand Central Station”. I really need to get another good top coat.
Confession…I’ve never seen The Nightmare Before Christmas. I know, I know…
October Beauty Box 5 – Effortless Allure
I just got the email that my Beauty Box 5 shipped yesterday and I already got it today! Woo Hoo!
October’s theme is “Effortless Allure”. Inside my box: Chapstick Hydration Lock (double headed Chapstick – one for day and one for night); Bellapierre Cosmetics Cheek and Lip Stain in “Pink” (Creative name?); Extend Your Beauty Cosmetic Tool (it’s a skinny little spatula to get that last bit of product out of your bottles – I LOVE THIS!); Nanacoco Nail Polish in “Illusionist” (Violet shimmer- yay!); and Lashem Picture Perfect Instant Wrinkle Reducer.
One of the things I like about Beauty Box 5 is that it seems that I am pretty much guaranteed to get a nail polish every month. That might annoy some folks, but not me!
Flash! Ah Ahhhhh…
So I was going for a Flash Gordon, lightning type thing…it didn’t exactly turn out how I imagined.
After Orly Bonder, I did one coat of Sinful Colors “Yellow Spotted”. To get a glowy effect, I then did one coat of Julep “Casper”. In retrospect, I should have done 2 coats of the “Yellow Spotted”, because “Casper” totally obliterated the yellow and made it look like a muted gold. Oh well. I then did one coat of Sally Hansen “Star Burst” Crackle Overcoat. Crackle polishes are very unpredictable. You may get a beautiful crackle, like on my thumb nail – or you could get very little crackling, like on my ring finger. “Star Burst” was very thin and grayish, but a coat of NYC “Grand Central Station” made it dark and glossy.
I tried to get a pic of the glowing, but “Casper” doesn’t glow as brightly as Funky Fingers, but maybe that’s just because I only did one coat.
Did you know that one of my nicknames in High School was “Flash”? (My BFF started it – and yes, we’ve been BFFs THAT long.) I’ll divulge no further details, other than it wasn’t for my running speed.
Fall 2014 Freeman Beauty Mystery Bag
I couldn’t resist another box filled with a mystery assortment of beauty products! This one is from Freeman Beauty is only $30 for over $100 of products – and it’s STILL available on their website!
Here’s what I got in my box: Freeman Facial Creamy Scrub in “Apricot”; Freeman Facial Purifying Clay Mask in “Acai”; Freeman Vita-K Professional for Deep Facial Lines; Freeman Barefoot Moisturizing Massage Cream; Freeman Barefoot Repair! Overnight Foot Cream; Pssssst! Instant Dry Shampoo; c. Booth Milk Bath & Shower Cleanser; eclos Night Booster Fluid; eclos Daily HydraPrimer SPF 30; and a stack of 7 different samples of masks and creams. I am gonna be sooooo smooth! My only disappointment was that I didn’t get a Charcoal scrub – my little sister uses Freeman’s charcoal sugar scrub and highly recommends it…Alas and alack.
This box of goodies was finally the last straw with my husband…as I was opening it, he issued an ultimatum about all the boxes that I get in the mail…HE wants a box, too. Muahahahahaaaa….I knew he would get sucked into my evil trap…
Hemi Harlow
I found it…after trying maybe a zillion polishes…the perfect polish to match my car!
This is Zoya Matte Velvet “Harlow” – not to be confused with Julep “Harlow”. Zoya “Harlow” originally came out in Winter 2009 (along with “Veruschka” and “Savita”), but they’ve re-released them all! Zoya describes “Harlow” as a rich, saturated rose plum packed with sparkling metallic shimmer in a velvety MATTEVELVET finish. Fancy!
I didn’t read the site first – like the Pixie Dusts, you aren’t supposed to use a base coat or a top coat with the Matte Velvets. Oops. I used Orly Bonder first. It seemed to work okay – no bubbles and it dried really quickly. The site also warned that it’s not as long wearing as regular polish…Oh snap!
I can claim that this is a Halloween themed manicure, since my fingers are dressed up like my car, right? The only thing missing is the racing stripes (sorry, Dave).
I Swear…I Only Went in for a Haircut
Really! I hadn’t gotten my hair cut since February, so I figured it was time…OK, I kind of knew that I would probably buy some stuff if I actual went to the salon in Ulta to get my hair cut. Shhhh,,,
Ulta was running a special on Zoya polish – buy 2, get a free gift – “A Matte Story”, which came with Zoya Matte Velvet Top Coat (I’ve been needing one!) and Whore Red Matte Velvet Lipstick. the two polishes that I got were Zoya Matte Velvet “Harlow” and Zoya “Remy”.
I went to the fragrance section to sample “Stella” by Stella McCartney. There was a placard for it, but no bottles. A clerk offered to go check the back and came back with a single bottle – saying they had discontinued carrying it. I made a split second decision to go for it and buy it…not realizing that it was the $72 50 ML size. Uhhhhhh…I got it anyway and in my excitement, I totally forgot to use my $3.50 off coupon. The blow was softened, however, by a VISA gift card I had gotten as a “thank you” from my AVP last week.
I was so excited, that I opened “Stella” in my car and started spraying. I LOVE the way it smells on me, but I was a bit disappointed in the scent’s staying power. It’s just a few hours later and I can barely smell it on me. I had read online that the new 2014 version has less staying power, so I guess I need to be on the lookout for one of the old bottles. Trader’s Village, maybe – or one of those Indian perfume places?
Bruise Violet
I couldn’t NOT try out Julep “Logan” first.
Julep’s site describes the color as sultry aubergine shimmer – I would replace sultry with earthy. There’s a vegetable like brownish undertone – this color feels very organic.
Well, duh – aubergine is a fancy word for eggplant. It’s not as inky as “Padma” and has a subtle shimmer, but could still be mistaken for black at first glance.
I went back to the Revlon Quick Dry Base and Top Coats. There’s something about Julep polish that doesn’t mix well with base coats – bubbles, no matter what brand I try – even Julep’s own base coats. I only got 2-3 bubbles this time, but each one is like a pinprick to my soul.
I also painted my toenails with “Logan” last night…right before I broke my pinky toe, tripping over my daughter’s metal lawn chair.
(Yeah, we keep metal lawn chairs in our living room. That’s normal, right?)
I was astounded at how well the polish matched the violet bruises – I couldn’t have planned it better!
The last time I broke a toe was during Hurricane Ike, stumbling around in the dark. As clumsy as I am, that’s a pretty good record.
October Julep Maven Box – The Black Magic Collection
My BFF and I both got our boxes yesterday! Thank you mail carrier!
October brings us a spooky box – “The Black Magic Collection”. This month’s beauty product was Night Shift Sleeping Mask – a reparative moisture mask that does the heavy lifting while you’re fast asleep so you wake up to a brighter, smoother, firmer complexion. I put it on my face last night before bed, but I can’t tell if I am brighter, smoother or firmer.
For polishes, I HAD to pick Classic with a Twist “Logan” – sultry aubergine shimmer – because my son’s name is Logan. (He was SO disappointed in the color – he wanted “Logan” to be his favorite color – blood red.) I also picked It Girl “Dana” – white with electric blue sheen (black light reactive). (There is no “Dana”, only Zuul.) I added on “Casper” – glow-in-the-dark shimmer, from last October’s collection. I really don’t need another glow in the dark polish, do I? Whatever.
There was even something for my husband in the box – I gave him the little bag of candy corn.
Not a Julep Maven? CLICK HERE to join! Get a special 4 piece Welcome Box with code FREETREATS!
He Sees You When You’re Sleeping…
Well, originally, I was going for a sexy Freddy Krueger look, but what I ended up with Xmas fingers. Oh well, both of those assholes see you when you’re sleeping.
After Orly Bonder, I painted one coat of Rimmel 60 Seconds “Passion”. I painted stripes with Sinful Colors “Pine Away” and then topped it all with Julep “Shoshanna”. Since “Shoshanna” is gold with red and green highlights, I thought it was match the red and green really well – and it did, although in a very Xmas ornament type of way.
I got one final use out of my Sally Hansen Diamond Flash and then threw the bottle away. My husband asked me if I was going to “have a funeral for my dead solider.” He’s silly…but I considered it.
I Want Dry Hair and Fleek Eyes
All I needed were bread crumbs and tortillas…and well…
I couldn’t resist the $1 off Milani Coupon – I picked up another Milani Baked Shadow in “Intermix”. It’s a shimmery copper cream color.
I also picked up a cheap Conair Shower Cap in the most old lady looking flower pattern I could find. (I heard this rumor that men find shower caps irresistible. Like if a dude sees you in a shower cap, he is overcome with a passion he cannot control…an ANIMAL, if you will.) No, seriously…I just wanted to keep my hair dry when I take a shower.