Tag: Zoya

 
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Mostly Purple Haul

The fact that most of the products in this order were purple was entirely coincidental!

The intentional part of the order is the purple hair dye – I’m sampling a few different semi-permanent dyes to see if I can get my hair purple enough to claim the title of MEGA-MOM. I mean, dying my hair school colors would make me the MEGA-MOM of the year, right? I picked up a sample packet of Lime Crime Unicorn Hair in “Pony” for $2.50 (I have reservations about Lime Crime, but since they’ve sold out, I’m less concerned about supporting the questionable creator) and Keracolor Travel Size Color + Clenditioner in “Purple” for $8.99. I’ve only tried the Keracolor, but it did NOTHING to my hair. I only left it in 5 minutes in the shower, so I am going to try it again for 30 minutes before making a final verdict…but I’m not optimistic. I may have to break down and try Manic Panic – but I’m hesitant to stain every single thing I own.

The other purple products I picked up: Zoya Remove + (always needing this) and Nexxus Frizz Defy Active Frizz Control Shampoo and Conditioner. I’ve had a bad case of the frizzies lately, so decided to try these while they were 40% off. What I don’t understand is why the Conditioner is so much more than the Shampoo, $19.99 ($11.99 on sale) for the Conditioner, versus $13.99 ($8.39 on sale) for the Shampoo. Fingers crossed for smooth hair soon.

I also picked up some other 50% off products – my holy grail eyebrow pencil, Ulta Ultra Slim Brow Pencil in “Dark Brown” ($5, down from $10) and a wet n wild Megalast Liquid Catsuit Metallic Lipstick in “Life’s No Pink-Nic” ($2.49, down from $4.99). The lipstick looks reddish in the tube, but is a dusty rose/copper – neither of which are pink, as the name implies. So confuse.

I got two different sample bag with my order, a hair sample bag and a brow sample bag. Inside the hair sample bag: HASK Cactus Water Shampoo & Conditioner (excited to try this); Alterna Haircare Caviar Anti-Aging Replenishing Moisture CC Cream; Wella Professional Invigo Volume Boost Crystal Mask; Seed Phytonutrients Scalp & Roots Oat Mask (WEIRD); System Professional Smoothen Shampoo Hair Structure Softener (WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN? This product scares me); Curlsmith Scalp Stimulating Booster; and Macadamia Professional Essential Repair Daily Deep Conditioner. Inside the brow sample bag: Urban Decay Brow Endowed Brow Volumizer in “Brown Betty”; Benefit Precisely, My Brow Pencil in “3.5 Neutral Medium Brown”; Tweezerman Micro Mini Tweezer (OMG, it’s miniscule); Covergirl Clear Brow Setting Gel; Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel; and essence lash & brow gel mascara style & comb. What am I going to do with all this clear brow gel???

No good coupons when I ordered, just the usual $3.50 off $15 coupon. $460 to Diamond status.

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Fanny Pack Haul

I never thought I’d see the day that my children would be fighting over a fanny pack!

I really try NOT to buy things just for the “gift with purchase”, but there was a little bit of that in this purchase. A $20 NYX purchase gets you a Coachella hot pink NYX Fanny Pack with NYX Pore Filler and NYX Matte Finish Setting Spray. I was gonna use it myself, so I could be like my bestie Sally…but Lily is BEGGING to use it for Frightmare next weekend. My son says he wants it too, but I think he is just being annoying – I’ll probably let Lily “borrow” it. Good thing I am IN LOVE with all four lippies that I picked up – no guilt. The NYX Soft Matte Metallic Lip Creams were on sale for $5, down from $7. They are my absolute favorite NYX formula – I picked up “Rome” and “Budapest”. I’ve been alternating them the past few days. I also tried out two of the new lippies. NYX Glitter Goals Liquid Lipstick in “Cherry Quartz” was a bit pricey at $9, but worth it. It starts out matte, but turns to glitter with friction and wear. It lasts well. NYX Line & Load All-in-One Lippie in “Ride or Die” was $8 and a genius product. It’s a super thin doe-foot applicator that alllows you to line your lips with precision and it DOES NOT BLEED. I need this in red – ALL red lipstick bleed on me.

So…last week, I found out that my son was scrubbing his face with a toothbrush (not the one he uses in his mouth – ew). I freaked out and ordered him an Ulta Advanced Cleansing Rotating Facial Cleansing Brush ($12.50, on sale from $25) and replacement heads ($4, on sales from $8). I mean, if I was rich, I would’ve bought him a Clarisonic like mine – but he can rough it with the Ulta version. Lily was bugging me for some bobbie pins the other day, so I added some of those, too. All Ulta Skin was on sale, so I added a few Single Use Face Masks to my cart ($1.50 each, down from $3) – a Calming Rose Sheet Mask and a Soothing Calamine Mud Mask. I used the Calamine Mask yesterday and it was wonderful. It applied like a regular mud mask, but it didn’t dry down like a normal mud mask – it stayed flexible and felt almost hydrating.

Did I forget to mention a few bottles of Zoya Remove+? My Holy Grail…

No order is complete without a freebie bag. The coolest thing in the bag is the Real Techniques Travel Sponge Case – I’ve just been throwing my Beauty Blender into my makeup bag like a savage! Also in the freebie bag: Sun Bum Revitalizing Dry Shampoo; Carol’s Daughter Hair Milk; OGX Argan Oil of Morocco Dry Shampoo; Vichy Liftactiv Supreme Anti-wrinkle and Firming Correcting Cream; Wunder2 Wunderkiss Essential Lip Scrub; Tweezerman Browmousse (weird); Maybelline MasterPrecise All Day Liquid Liner; L’Oreal Pure-Clay Cleanser Detox-Brighten (m y favorite one); and wet n wild Megaglo Highlighting Powder in “Royal Calyx” (interesting – a blue highlighter).

On top of all the freebies and gifts with purchase, there was that 20% off coupon. I’ve just one or two more orders to get to Platinum status – $64. I’ve also managed to accrue another $33 in points. Diamond Status isn’t out of the question this year…

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Everly

‘Bye Bye Love’ – that’s the only Everly Brothers song I can think of, off the top of my head. Oh yeah, and ‘Wake Up Little Susie.’ All their songs sound the same to me.

Zoya “Everly” is a warm red holographic polish – it reminds me of a juicy piece of wet watermelon. Not all watermelon is wet. One time, my mom put watermelon in the food dehydrator to see what would happen. What was left was akin to chewy a piece of meat gristle. I do not recommend it.

Zoya polishes are almost always a pleasure to work with and “Everly is no exception. This is two coats over Glisten & Glow Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat. I will say – be careful applying the top coat. My left hand is perfect – but I dragged a few bald spots on several fingers of my right hand. Make sure that you have good coverage before you pull out that top coat.

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Godiva Leopard

Okay, I think I did it right this time!

This time, I started with Glisten & Glow Base Coat and then two coats of Zoya “Godiva” PixieDust. I then did a quick, thin coat of the Zoya Leopard Spots Topper and it worked! By worked, I mean…crackled into slightly smaller spots than when used over regular polish.

I know, I know – it’s not really impressive. But it still looks cool to me. No top coat, so I could enjoy the Pixie texture.

My favorite thing about “Godiva” is that when the polish on my tips gets worn down, you cannot tell at all. Nude polish FTW!

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Lara Leopard

I told you, I was READY for the Zoya Leopard Spots Topper. But maybe I should’ve done some research first…

I started with Glisten & Glow Base Coat and a single coat of Zoya “Lara”. I then topped with the Leopard Spots Topper. I was expecting a petite spread of spots – but I was disappointed to see that the topper was acting like a regular old shatter polish. Whaaaaaat?

I actually don’t hate this. I topped with Glisten & Glow Top Coat and wore the Leopard Lara look for several days.

I did some googling…and DUH, the Spot Topper was designed to use over Zoya’s PixieDust polishes. Good thing I have a bunch of those – let me try it over one of those…

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HUE19

Oh Zoya, it’s been so long…

I get all kinds of good information from my fb Groups. I had somehow missed the HUE19 promotion – no emails, nothing on from the brand on Social Media – but an online friend clued me into the HUE19 sale – any 4 polishes “FREE”, just pay $15 shipping. I took advantage of a similar sale in 2015, except it was just 3 polishes. Nice!

I only picked one from the newest collection – “Winter Holos” – and that was “Everly”, diamond holographic fuchsia red. I skipped straight to the “Jubilee Holiday 2018” collection for the last three: “Juniper”sparkling teal textured PixieDust, “Kateri”midnight brown cream, and the one I’d been lusting after for months – the Leopard Spots Topper.

Of course, I jumped on the Leopard Spots Topper first – I’ve already used it twice!

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Cyber Fundays 2018

 

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This Xmas, I did my Ulta shopping BEFORE Thanksgiving, during the “Cyber Fundays” event. They had some smoking deals that I couldn’t pass up! There were also some decent Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, but mostly on stuff I already had, like half price Modern Renaissance and Naked Heat. Boo!

If you’re thinking that this order looks skimpy…it’s because I pulled out the gifts I ordered for my daughter. She doesn’t come here, but her brother does – and I trust him about as far as I can throw him with one hand.

I was excited to snatch the NYX Lip Snacks Soft Matte Metallic Lip Cream Set ($15, down from $25) for myself. It’s a set of 12 minis of my favorite lip formula from NYX, specially scented like buttercream. I’ve onlhy sampled 2 so far, but they are the BEST. I also got a half-price Urban Decay Razor Sharp Water-Resistant Longwear Liquid Eyeliner in “Demolition” ($11, down from $22) – I think a shiny brown cat eye will look good on me.

The biggest bummer was a broken bottle in the China Glaze The Grinch Grinchworthy Nail Art Duo ($10). It wasn’t the “Grinchworthy” polish itself, but the “For Rhinestones Only” adhesive – the stem of the bottle broke inside the cap and it leaked everywhere. I called Ulta Customer Service and they sent me out another one immediately, no questions asked – so now I have 2 bottles of “Grinchworthy” and 2 pots of green felt. I cannot wait to make my nails look like Astroturf! Oh, and I got another tidbit from Customer Service – they won’t be including samples in orders again until January. Cheap bastards.

I added a bottle of Zoya Remove+ to get me over the $65 mark, to get the glittery pink 18-piece Cyber Fundays sample bag. The sample bag was STUFFED – it had: Too Faced Glitter Glue (saving for a special occasion); Cover FX Blurring Primer; Urban Decay Perversion Mascara; Patchology Flashpatch Restoring Night Eye Gels (this is the third set I’ve gotten – I guess I should use them); philosophy Renewed Hope in a Jar; Clinique Happy; 2 Anastasia Beverly Hills Lip Glosses in “Vintage” (2!!!); Lime Crime Unicorn Hair in “bunny” (ugh, another one); bliss lemon & sage body butter; Biolage Hydra Source Shampoo & Conditioner; L’Oreal Paris Voluminous Primer/Base for Mascara; philosophy Amazing Grace; Armani Code Cashmere; Skin Laundry Hydrating Cream Face Wash; L’Oreal Paris Pure-Clay Cleanser Detox-Brighten (this black one is my fave); MAC False Lashes Mascara in “Extreme Black”; and Clinique Moisture Surge Hydrating Supercharged Concentrate. There were also 2 hot coupons – $15 off $75 (only good in December) and another $5 off $15 Ulta Beauty Collection (good until 2/1/19).

I was also able to use a $10 off coupon, bringing my order down to $64.49 before tax – but I still got the bag. I was sweating for a hot minute! Just $301 to Diamond…I do predict another order before the end of the year, but not that much!

 

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Platinum Order

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Another Ulta order? So soon?

I’ve started doing this thing where, if I run out of something or if I see something I want to try, I stash it in my Ulta account and wait for a gift with purchase to hit (usually the Wednesday Beauty Break). Wouldn’t you know it, my basket got full and there was a NARS Beauty Break the week before last!

This Ulta Haul is pretty boring, to be honest. Just like almost every order, I got a Zoya Remove + ($10). I ended up buying 2 Japonesque Solid Brush Cleaners ($20), because they were BOGO Half. Freeman Masks ($4.29) were also BOGO Half, so I got Anti-Stress Dead Sea Minerals Clay Mask (I’ve had this one before and it’s very refreshing) and Brightening Green Tea + Orange Blossom Peel-Off Gel Mask (this one is new to me). The fun item that I picked up was the Memebox Black Cat Headband ($6). Do I really need a fuzzy headband with cat ears? Yes, if only because my daughter wants to steal it.

The NARS Beauty Break included 4 lip products – Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in “Dolce Vita” (I already have the lipstick); Powermatte Lip Pigment in “Starwoman”; Velvet Lip Glide in “Bound”; and Lipstick in “Orgasm” (which I just got, so I’ll give it away).

No other samples – boo, Ulta! Oh, but this order made me Platinum for 2019.

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Fish Fry Nails

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Here fishy, fishy!

My father-in-law had his big annual fish fry last weekend and I decided to follow the theme with fishy nails.

I started with Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and a single coat of Zoya “Remy”. I was gambling that one coat would be enough – and luckily, it was. To get my scales, I topped it with not one, but TWO thick coats of Sally Hansen Pearl Crush “Rainbow Fish”. I really glopped it on there. I finished with a thick coat of Glisten & Glow Top Coat.

“Rainbow Fish” did a great job of lightening up “Remy”. I tried not to get any of the disc glitters on my cuticles, but a few overlapped and I had to peel them off during clean-up.

I couldn’t wear this combo for very long – the edges of those disc glitters are a bit sharp – even with a goopy layer of top coat holding them down. I was starting to want to pick at my nails – that’s a big no-no!

 

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The Infinity Gauntlet

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Come on, Infinity War is the biggest movie on the planet right now. How could I NOT do Infinity Gauntlet nails?

I put down a single coat of Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat to get started. I get anxiety when I mismatch my polish to my base coat, but I’m using so many brands that I compromised.

My thumb holds the Time Stone – two coats of OPI “My Gecko Does Tricks” topped with Sinful Colors “Green Ocean”.

My index finger became the Power Stone – two coats of Julep “Paulette” topped with Zoya “Monet”.

The Space Stone resided on my middle finger – two coats of Sinful Colors “Prized Plume” topped with Sally Hansen “Family Jewels”.

My ring finger became the Reality Stone – two coats of Formula X “Boundless Berry” topped with Sinful Colors “Unwrap Me”.

My pinkie got the Soul Stone – Sinful Colors “Courtney Orange” topped with SpaRitual “Citrine Luminary”.

I finished off the Gauntlet with gold metal studs, sealed with Glisten & Glow Top Coat.

Alas, I just have five fingers on each hands, so I had to hold the Mind Stone. Oh, and I don’t have a Mind Stone, so I used a peach from our peach tree in the backyard. It was eaten shortly after this picture was taken.

What other movie manicures should I try?