Author: Lara
April Birchbox – Mad Men California
My Birchbox has been sitting here at least a week, calling to me…
I admit it, I’ve only seen a few episodes of Mad Men, so I’m not all heartbroken about the final episodes. But the products in the California box were compelling. Inside my box: 12 Benefits Instant Healthy Hair Treatment; CLEAN Original Eau de Parfum (the card says it was inspired by soapy – it’s way TOO soapy smelling, but my husband liked it and actually put it on); Cynthia Rowley Beauty Brightening Illuminator (yup, another one); LAQA & Co. Sheer Lip Lube Pencil in “Honeypot” (Honeypot!); and Not Soap, Radio Body Wash in “Bathing with sharks” (a fresh clean smell – my husband said it smells “yummy”.)
There was also a New York box – it was so hard to choose!
If you would like to try Birchbox, click on my referral link – https://www.birchbox.com/invite/5453f – I’ll get 50 points if you join.
Back from Hiatus
Somehow I managed to get stacked with a business trip to Dallas and a Girl’s Weekend in New Orleans within the same week.
It was like I was on another planet for over a week!
At least I had the pleasure of coming home to a nice healthy pile of boxes – Birchbox, Ipsy, Beauty Box 5 and Influenster!
I’ve managed to open them all and peek inside, but it will probably take a few days to post them all…
Since we were going to New Orleans, I had to bust out “Bitchcraft” from Delush Polish’s Scream Supreme Collection.
My nails had to look good as long as possible, so I used my best base coat – Orly Bonder – and topped it with 2 coats of Glisten & Glow “HK Girl”.
After 2 coats, my nails were as hard as rock.
Let me tell you, it was a sonuvabitch to get off – it took over 30 minutes.
We had planned on doing a full American Horror Story Coven tour, but my hangover prevented us from going on any tours. I’m not as young as I used to be – I can’t hang with the big dogs. We did, however, go find Madame LaLaurie’s mansion in the French Quarter before we started drinking too heavily. They don’t allow tours anymore, which is a bummer, but we did peek into the courtyard and look into the windows.
I guess that just means we’ll have to go back again soon to get to see the Garden District house and all of the other locations we had planned on going to see!
Smurfy
Looks like I fibbed a little bit when I said “no more purple”.
Julep “Danielle”, from this month’s Paradise Collection – is a cerulean wave duochrome – in layman’s terms that means smurf blue with a purple flash. I took like a dozen pictures and this is the best I could do to show the purple.
I am so excited – “Danielle” is a Julep polish that doesn’t bubble! Absolutely NO bubbles on any of my nails. Maybe it’s the comb I used – Orly Bonder and “HK Girl”? Or maybe they finally just perfected their formula?
April Julep Maven Box – The Paradise Collection
I got my Julep Maven Box on Friday (Yay for quick shipping!), but I have been so busy with Easter festivities that I hadn’t had time to post it.
April is “The Paradise Collection” – colors like a bright tropical bouquet. This month’s beauty product is “Don’t Leave Your Brows at Home” – a two-in-one tool includes brow powder and an angled brush. Even though I love my Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz, I’m excited to try it. I got “Cool Brown”. For polishes, I picked It Girl “Danielle” and Bombshell “Cassidy”. I normally wouldn’t have picked 2 blues, but I kept thinking about my Cuz’s little girl Cassidy – so I had to have it! For an Easter treat, my box had a little bag of Everlasting Gobstoppers – one of my favorites!
I just did my toes and nails in “Danielle” – pics tomorrow!
Not a Julep Maven? CLICK HERE to join! Get a FREE Spring Welcome Box with code SPRING!
Cadbury Mini Eggs
Cadbury Mini Eggs – that is what my nails look like!
I tried out Julep “Kimberly” last summer, and I thought to myself that I would pull it out next Easter – I am shocked that I remembered. Last time, I left it shiny, but I decided to use Zoya Matte Velvet Top Coat. Matte is SO much better suited to this polish.
“Kimberly” stuck well to Orly Bonder and I didn’t have any crinkles like I did last time. I’m getting pretty good at this…
NO MORE PURPLE – I’m purpled out.
Purple Diamond
I said goodbye to the Grease nails, but the Jamberry “February Host Exclusive” still looked good – at least on my left hand. My right hand was peeling and shredding to shit, so I peeled it off.
After Sinful Colors Base Coat, I did two coats of Sinful Colors “Purple Diamond” and then “HK Girl”. I was disappointed that it wasn’t a deeper, richer purple. Look at the bottle and then look at my fingers – maybe with 6 or 7 coats I could get that rich purple. SIGH. Even so, “Purple Diamond” is a nice lovely lavender-y purple.
Review – Kat Von D Lock-It Tattoo Foundation
If you need a foundation that will cover face tattoos, then you might want to try Kat Von D’s Lock-It Tattoo Foundation…because who else could sell this foundation but a woman with face tattoos? Seriously, Mike Tyson could cover his ginourmous face tattoo with this shit.
Lock-It is a bit too much for me. My skin is very uneven right now, but I don’t need quite this much coverage. I felt like I was wearing a kabuki mask. Plus, I don’t think the sample I got (Light 48) was exactly the right color for me – it was a bit too yellow. Again, I was left feeling like Data from ST:TNG – I get that feeling a lot. I tested it out with Urban Decay Pore Perfecting Primer Potion, which was just a so-so combination.
Lock-It retails for $34, only available at Sephora – about in line with other prestige foundations.
We Go Together
So I finally got a chance to try out my new Jamberry Mini Heater – it’s SO much easier than the one-handed hair dryer method. Not only is application easier, I was able to avoid wrinkles. Now the only thing I have to figure out is how to trim the wrap on my right hand without stabbing myself.
I paired the Jamberry “February Host Exclusive” with Funky Fingers Grease themed polishes – “Pink Ladies” & “Beauty School Dropout”. These are some intense jelly glitters! They look very “little girl-ish” – I may be using these on Lily more than myself.
I used Orly Bonder to make the glitter stick and “HK Girl” to make my nails smooth as glass.
March Beauty Box 5 – Hustle
Finally! My box was shipped on the 10th, but I didn’t receive it until the 27th. Really, USPS? It took 17 days to get my box from Austin to Houston?
Kind of ironic that March’s theme is “Hustle”, isn’t it? Inside my box: Eslor Introductory Collection – Second Edition with Soothing Refiner and Cleanser, Botanical Peeling Gel, Chlorophyll Lifting Mask & Firming Collagen Day Cream; Elite Therapeutics Rosemary Eucalyptus Body Cream, Scandalous by Nanacoco Thickening Mascara (the flexible silicon ball brush scares me – I’ll probably stab myself in the eye); Styli-Style Line & Seal Twist Mechanical Eye Liner in “Brown Glitter” and Laugh Out Loud by Nancoco Lip Gloss in “The Lift”. The box also came with a $5 off $10 code for Beauty Box 5’s website.
BB5 sure loves Nanacoco, don’t they? I’ve never seen that brand anywhere else…
Truffle Butter
Whatever you do…do NOT google Truffle Butter. Here’s a link to Emeril’s recipe for Truffle Butter. Trust me, you don’t wanna go any further than that. It’s not for the faint of heart.
You googled it didn’t you? Nasty, huh? Don’t say I didn’t warn you…but doesn’t this polish make you think of Truffle Butter? It’s Sinful Colors “Nirvana” – so named because…it’s grungy, maybe? It’s not doo-doo brown or even dirt…it’s a brown I cannot describe, except as…Truffle Butter.
Sinful Colors Base Coat, underneath two coats of “Nirvana” and then topped with “HK Girl”. So, so shiny! I am thinking I need to add gold flakies…