October Julep Maven Box – Dark and Stormy Nights
Oooooh! More Halloween polishes!
Julep’s October theme is “Dark and Stormy Nights” and the polishes are dark and foreboding. I picked Boho Glam “Skylla” (black coffee ghost shimmer) and It Girl “Ebony” (graphite holographic). All Mavens also got a free bonus polish – It Girl “Desiree” (high-gloss holographic top coat). I’m ready to rock some dark and stormy nails.
I also picked another Night Shift Deep Sleep Facial Mask – the one I got last October is almost gone. I use it a couple of times a week and I love using it after using my Clarisonic and Love Your Bare Face Cleansing Stick.
No candy or treat this month – what’s up with that?
Not a Julep Maven? Click HERE to join – I’ll get a $15 credit and you’ll get your first box free!
Play Dead
Hello October…I’ve been waiting for you.
Even though it is still like 90 degrees every day, just the fact that it is now October has put me into the Halloween spirit. I started off October with one of my new Halloween polishes – Sinful Colors “Play Dead” from the new “Guise and Ghouls” Collection (so clever).
“Play Dead” is a pewter glitter filled with larger rose gold glitter. Cameras cannot quite capture the finish – it’s too blinding. Just look at the light reflection. This is two coats over Sinful Colors Base Coat and under “HK Girl”.
It is a tough polish – it lasted a full five days with just minor edge wear. It was also a smooth glitter – no catching in my hair or on my clothes. Everyone needs “Play Dead” in their life.
All Your Dip-It are Belong to Us
There is no worse feeling than when one of your favorite products is discontinued at a store…or even worse, discontinued by the manufacturer. It may been a product that you’ve been using forever or one you’ve just fallen in love with. It’s like your guts have been ripped out and stomped on.
I’m suspicious that Target is the latest retailer to rip my guts out – I’ve had a really hard time finding my beloved up & up Nail Polish Remover Dip-It. In fact, I haven’t been able to find it on the shelves at the last 3 Targets I’ve been to…last Friday, there happened to be a Beauty Consultant wandering around when I was looking and I asked her…she said she hasn’t seen them in a while and she thinks they don’t carry them anymore. No. NO. NO!
I started to freak out a little bit. They didn’t even have any of the Sally Hansen version, which suck anyway, because the soft sponge doesn’t take off glitter like the plastic nubbies in the Target version. But as I sat at my desk back at work, I had an idea…I looked online and there it was on Target’s website! Of course, they wouldn’t ship it to me – too flammable – but they would let me order online and pick up in-store. It doesn’t make a lick of sense that I was able to order 3 of them from the Target nearest my house, when I couldn’t find them there just 2 Saturdays before…but the order went through and I picked them up this past Saturday.
Relief! Now to stalk the rest of the Targets in my area to build up a hoard…
Angelik
I have no illusions that Kylie Jenner actually designed and formulated these polishes herself…but I will concede that she had a really talented Design Team on her side…so far, her polish collections are OUTSTANDING. The colors, the textures, the formulas…all are on point. I’ll give her 1% credit and 99% credit to Sinful Colors.
Sinful Colors “Angelik” is another polish from the “Trend Matters” Shimmer Matte Collection. It’s a pale, pale pink – almost white – with gold shimmer. It reminds me of a fancy Christmas Tree Angel – one of the $25 ones from Wal-Mart, even. This is the perfect polish to wear when you won’t be able to paint your nails for a while – you can’t see edge wear or chips unless you have a microscope.
I started with Sinful Colors Base Coat. The first coat was streaky. The second coat was fairly smooth, but there were still a few thin spots. I decided to stick with the two coats though – I didn’t want to risk the third coat being too thick. No top coat.
Sephora Play! September 2016 – The Unbasic Basics
Finally…on the last day of the month, I get to the last subscription box of the month…just a matter of days before I start getting a new batch of boxes.
“The Unbasic Basics” is this month’s theme – no basic bitches with this month’s picks. I am most excited about Living proof. Perfect hair Day night cap overnight perfector. I’m absolutely in love with the Living proof. 5-in-1 Styling Treatment from this month’s ipsy bag. Can I please continue to get Living proof. products in every box?
I also received Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in “Trooper” (number 4 or 5); Sephora CollectionRouge Brilliance Rouge Shine Lipstick in “Love Spell” (so pink); Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel (I don’t know that I have enough brows for a gel); Dr. Jart+ Water Drop Hydrating Moisturizer; and Tory Burch Jolie Fleur Verte (smells so green – love it).
If you haven’t signed up yet – you are missing out! This is by far the best subscription box I get every month. Sephora Play is only $10/month. You can sign up at sephora.com/play.
Pining for the Fjords
Julep “Acacia” has me pining for the fjords. (Or maybe I just feel like I’m dead because of this sinus infection?)
I’m pining because Julep describes “Acacia” as blue fjord chrome – I was like huh? Then I had to google fjords – I was thinking that the tall cliffs themselves where the fjords, but technically, the fjord is the water-filled inlet. Well fuck – my whole life is a lie…or at least the geography part.
“Acacia” is a true one-coat polish – I really could have gotten away with just one coat…but the perfectionist in me required two coats – just to be sure. For some odd reason, I got bubble…in the base coat. I used Julep Oxygen Bonding Base Coat and I’ve never seem that bubble before. A few of the bubbles were visible through the two coats of “Acacia” and “HK Girl” – I don’t know what’s up with that. Am I going to have to get all anal and start using alcohol wipes on my nails before painting?
I also used “Acacia” on my toes. I had promised my husband “Danica” on my toes, but I decided that he gets “Acacia” instead. He LOVES blue toenails.
This is it – I am all caught up…I think. This is the color on my nails RIGHT NOW. Aw shit, I still have one more subscription box sitting on the counter…
Vogue
Strike a pose…there’s nothing to it…
Great, now I’m going to have that song stuck in my head all night…
Sinful Colors “Strike a Pose” was the first polish I grabbed from my big sale haul. It’s from the new “Luxe Fragments” Collection – a jelly base filled with glitter shards. I’m in love with glitter shards, I think. I was drawn to the black and gold…plus, it also matched the ipsy bag I just got.
Sinful Colors Base Coat and then two coats of “Strike a Pose”. I was afraid that it wouldn’t be opaque enough after the first quote, but the second coat came through for me – it sure covered up my stained green nails. “HK Girl” sealed the deal and provided a ridiculous amount of shine.
I feel like my nails are getting shorter and shorter. My unpacking and cleaning has slowed WAY down – maybe they’ll get a chance to grow without breaking and peeling?
September Ipsy Bag – Glamazon
I am LOVING this month’s ipsy bag – top notch products that I will actually use!
The theme is “Glamazon” – too glam to give a damn. Yes, these products are glam to the extreme: Too Faced Lip Injection Extreme (Ooooooh it tingles like Lip Venom – it’s the capiscum AKA the same shit in pepper spray; I just put it on and my husband noticed a difference within 60 seconds…arghhhhhh, it BURNS); Eau Thermale Avène Hydrance Optimale Hydrating Serum; Dr. G Daily Safe BB in “Fair” (So many “Dr.” products these days); Living Proof Perfect hair Day (PhD) 5-in-1 Styling Treatment (I’ve loved the other products I’ve tried); and Dirty Little Secrets Cosmetics Eyeshadow in “Teaser” (orangey tan).
Oh, and did you see that the girls on the bag are YMCAing “ipsy”? So clever.
If you’d like to try Ipsy – click here. I’ll earn 250 points if you sign up through my link.
An Offer I Can’t Refuse
I know, I know…I just bought a shitload of clearance Kylie Sinful Colors…but 2/$3 is an offer I can’t refuse. Not when my work Walgreen’s has all the new collections.
I started my hunt looking for the “Guise and Ghouls” Halloween polishes. I didn’t get all of them – I’d been burned by their elusive glitters and didn’t feel like playing Go Fish again. I did pick out 5 though: “Cloak and Swagger”, “Play Dead”, “Dead On”, “Where O Werewolf”, and “Nice Guise”. Lots of silver and gray this year.
I also picked 5 polishes from the new Luxe Fragments Collection: “Strike a Pose”, “Walk the Walk”, “Don’t Flake”, “Gold a la Mode”, and “Silver Slivers”. This collection wasn’t even on my radar, but I’m glad I spied it on an endcap.
Oh, and I found the clearance polish I had been looking for – Barbie “Little Pink Dress”.
Lots of people on Instagram are waiting for these new collections to hit their stores…be patient! The Beauty Advisor at my store had just put out these displays on Tuesday morning, the day I was there…the 2/$3 sale ends tomorrow, so get your ass to Walgreen’s and looook…
Precious Kargo
Sinful Colors “Kargo” is just…WOW.
My nails were already stained green from “Peggy”, so I figured I would stick with the theme and go with a blue or green. I had a suspicion that “Kargo” would be a textured polish. My suspicions were correct…plus, it’s a matte glitter texture. I am loving the Sinful Colors matte formulas.
I started with Sinful Colors Base Coat, then two coats of “Kargo”. The formula was rather thin for a textured polish – I was quite pleased that I didn’t end up with a case of the goopies. No top coat.
“Kargo” is very, very similar to Julep “Jennine” – but a bit less glittery and iridescent. It also had better staying power – I was able to make it Sunday to Thursday before repainting my nails.