Category: Nails
Call My Agent
I am digging the bonus polish from last month’s Allure Beauty Box – ncLA “Call My Agent”. It’s a plasticky, orange leaning red creme. Sure, it SCREAMS summer…but I live in Texas – it nearly hit 80 degrees last week, and it’s February.
This is two coats of “Call My Agent” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat. I probably could’ve gotten away with one coat, but why would I do that?
“Call My Agent” is definitely taking a turn on my toes this summer!
February 2019 Julep Box – A Star is Born
This is it – my very last Julep Maven box.
Yes, it’s true – Julep has shut down their monthly subscription box program. Customers were notified of the decision on February 15th. Not only is the program canceled, but we also lost all of our Jules – I think I had close to $40 worth. It’s a bummer, but not shocking after hearing that they had declared bankruptcy and were closing the physical salons in Seattle. I am disappointed, but also slightly relieved – that’s $20/month I can pump back into my beauty budget.
My first clue that the program was coming to a close was that there was no February Collection – the curated boxes included makeup and the new version of “love your bare face” Replenishing Creme-to-Foam Cleanser. I kept the cleanser in my box and added two polishes from last year’s Zodiac Collection – “Vibrant Virgo”, luxe rose gold multidimensional, and “Tranquil Taurus”, grounded honey wheat metallic. My mom was a Virgo and my younger sister is a Taurus, but I don’t believe any of that shit.
The face wash is rather nice – it’s a pretty big tube and it rinses clean. I still prefer the stick formula – it works well with my Clarisonic and leaves my skin feeling squeaky clean, but this one will do.
According to the breakup email I received, all Mavens will continue to get a 25% discount off of regular prices, but I don’t know how much I’ll be shopping at Julep. I do need more Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat, but they’ve been out of stock for months. So frustrating!
Yes, it’s the end of an era.
Prismatic
I was feeling like something different for my nails. I hadn’t done a green polish in a little minute, so I dug DEEP into my ever-shrinking basket of untried polishes and found…Formula X “Prismatic”.
“Prismatic” is an emerald teal jelly shimmer. The formula is so smooth and shiny – I love it.
This is two coats of “Prismatic” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat.
I really miss Formula X – Sephora, please bring it back.
Ulta Birthday to Me
I needed a haircut, my kids had been bugging me for a haircut, I had a birthday gift waiting on me…time for an in-person Ulta trip.
Let me just say – my haircut was fine. My daughter’s haircut was fine. My son’t haircut was…NOT fine. I didn’t realize how much he hated it until we got home. It was so bad that he had my husband buzz his head with clippers. I felt HORRIBLE. I bought him a bottle of my hair & nail vitamins and promised to take him to Sport Clips next time. Oh well, at least I got 2x points on all the haircuts.
So the coupon in my email said I would be getting a Full Size NYX Lip Lingerie as a birthday gift, but in-store, they gave me a totally different gift – a mini Lancome Monsieur Big Mascara. Google says that it was the December gift – I guess they give em away until they’re gone.
Oh, I also picked up a few generic Diamond buffers for my nay-nays.
Just like that, $241 to Platinum!
Half-Off-entine’s Day
February 15th is is the best, am I right?
Instead of the usual pink and red shit, I decided to celebrate my REAL love – chocolate. I started with two coats of Sinful Colors “Hot Toffee” over Sinful Colors Base Coat. I then got out my most candy-ful glitters. The hearts are Funky Fingers “Queen of Hearts” and the multi-colored bar glitters are Funky Fingers “Cupcake Sprinkles”. You know, I never noticed until now that “Cupcake Sprinkles” is cupcake-scented! I got to enjoy it for a few brief moments, until I topped the whole thing with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat. Doesn’t they look good enough to eat?
By the way, I went by Walmart today, but I couldn’t find any new Sinful Colors OR any dark chocolate. What the shit? At least I found the special Cap’n Crunch – Chocolately Berry Crunch.
The Full Monte
I’ve never seen ‘The Full Monty’, but I know what it’s about – pasty English Strippers. And unlike Magic Mike, they bare it ALL.
I myself am fairly pasty, er, alabaster, so Sinful Colors “The Full Monte” is fairly close match to my skin. It’s a pale pinkish nude, full of flakey sparkos.
This is two coats over Sinful Colors Base Coat. It was fairly shiny on its own, but I couldn’t resist trying it with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat. Like I always say, “Matte all the polishes!”
Target Birthday Shopping
Nothing burns a hole in my pocket like a Target coupon. For my birthday last week, Target sent me a coupon code for an additional 5% off a shopping trip – I had to use it before it expired!
I really didn’t need anything specific, so I just wandered. The first thing I grabbed was a replacement up & up dip-it and a bag of Exfoliating Cotton Rounds. That was the point that I noticed the rack of Sinful Colors Nail Polish. I’ve been so bummed that Walgreen’s no longer carries them. Walmart will have the new collections soon, I’ve heard – but until then, I had consigned myself to going without. What did I spy, but random bottles with “New Shade” Stickers in the Core Collection Display. Don’t mind if I do! I picked up three of the new shades – “Hot Toffee”, “Raisin the Roof”, and “Spring Fling”. I also picked up an older shade I had never seen before – “The Full Monte”.
As I moved on through the aisles, I came upon a HUGE display for Flamingo Products. Flamingo is a service similar to Dollar Shave Club – basically, a subscription box for razors and wax strips. We’re quite happy with Dollar Shave Club, but I thought I’d give the Flamingo Face Wax Kit a try. At $9.99, it was a bit more expensive than the Nads Kits I had been using, but I feel like it was much more gentle to my face AND I was able to use less strips to get the job done. Nice!
And yes…that IS a Spongebob Squarepants Outfit for my Barbies. It says, “Sponge On!” – it was very important for me to have it!
January 2019 Allure Beauty Box – Thrill of the New
I’m not even gonna apologize for running late on reviews – I been busy as shit.
2019 brings big changes to the Allure Beauty Box – gone is the shiny red box, instead replaced by a generic cardboard mailer. That’s okay though – because now the monthly goodies are coming inside a sleek plastic pouch. No word yet on whether we’ll be getting the same red pouch every month, or they’ll mix up the design – stay tuned.
In this month’s all new pouch: Mally Shadow Stick Extra in “Burnished Bronze”; OUAI Scalp & Body Scrub (Hmmmm, not sure if I’m ready to be picking sugar out of my hair for a month – also includes a 15% off code for theouai.com); Sunday Riley C.E.O. Glow Face Oil; Sunday Riley A+ High-Dose Retinoid Serum (How did they know I’m retinol aged now?); Doucce Relentless Matte Lip Crayon in “Winterberry” (with a code for 25% off at doucce.com); and a pack of 2 Beautyblender Micro Mini Sponges.
And as a bonus this month, each subscriber received a nail polish from NCLA. I got and orangey red called “Call My Agent”.
The Allure Beauty Box is $15/month, but they give you $5 off your first box. They also offer an option for $150/year – a savings of $30. Sign up via my referral link..
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.
Williamsburg
When I get a new polish in my hands – I just cannot wait to use it!
This is Color Club “Williamsburg” from January’s ipsy bag. It’s a dark, dark, inky blue, with a magnificent shimmer. The pictures do not do it justice. In passing, it looks black – which is a shame. Have you ever had a blue ink pen burst in your pocket? THAT’S what this polish looks like.
This is two coats of “Williamsburg” over Glisten & Glow Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat.
I don’t have much experience with Color Club nail polishes – this is only my second one, I think. I’ve been fairly impressed with them however, and may look into more.
We went to Colonial Williamsburg a few summers ago, and I don’t remember seeing anything this color. What an odd name for this amazing color.