Wet N Wild Hot Rocks Collection

Happy Friday! I went out to another one of my local CVS' to check out the big 50-75% off sale and stumbled upon some beautiful new nail polishes from Wet n Wild. It's a collection called Hot Rocks, it's a line of nothing but gorgeous glitters! There are six colors available, if you are interested in seeing all six check out Nouveau Cheap's post, and they are only $1.99 each! I only picked up two of them, Rocking Rubies and Caught on Sapphire.

Rocking Rubies is just that, it looks like crushed up rubies in a bottle, oh my gosh it's so pretty! It has big circle glitters and some tiny glitters, both red, in a clear base. Caught on Sapphire has the same round larger looking glitters, but it also has a bluish/purple iridescence to it, set in a clear base.

I have swatched each of these polishes alone, over white and over black.

I have to talk about this too, hanging on the display for these nail polishes was a tag that said buy one get on 50% off, one of the main reasons I picked up two of them. When the lady was ringing up my items I asked her if it took half of one of the bottles and she said no, I told her about the tag I had seen, so she went and checked. She said the sign was old, but she was nice enough to actually refund me the money for one of the nail polishes and not just the half I should have got off, but the entire $1.99. So always make sure that your items are ringing up properly.

Gorgeous right? Have you seen these at your CVS? 

Sneak Peek: Rimmel

I wanted to give you a sneak peak today of a brand new mascara that Influenster sent me to try out and review. This mascara is so new that it is not even available in stores yet! It is from Rimmel and is called Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara.

My first thoughts are:

• I LOVE the packaging. It's attractive and would catch my eye on the shelf at the store. 
• Wonder if it will do all it says it will.

I will be using this mascara over the next week or so and will give you a full run down of what this mascara is supposed to do and if it holds up to all it's claims!

***Product was sent to me for review***

ABC Nail Challenge: Letter U

Welcome to another ABC Nail Challenge post! Letter U was an annoying letter for me LOL I only have 3 polishes that start with letter U, Unicorn by Sinful Colors, Under Your Spell by Wet n Wild, and Urban Grey by Avon. I tired a mani with Unicorn, but I did not like the looks of it at all, so I went with Urban Grey and did a little dotticure too.

Urban Grey is a very pale and sheer milky white polish with a hint of grey. Looking at the bottle it appears to have some shimmer, but once it's on the nail, there is no shimmer to be found. I used my Avon Cosmic polishes for my dotting.

I also thought I would share a few pictures from the motorcycle event I went to on Saturday, that I mentioned in last weeks ABC Nail Challenge post. The event was called Ride for a Vet, there was around 150 motorcycles there! Hubby rides but I don't so I just go to support the cause and check out all the bikes. They also have entertainment throughout the day as well as recognizing local veterans.

Hubby and I ♥

Hubby and I walking around. Someone got a pic of us :)

Hubby's Bike

Some of the bikers coming back from the ride.

Old Highway Patrol Car

Here is a video of all the bikers taking off for the ride!


Also be sure to check out what the other ladies did for the letter U!

Review: The Pink Panel & Julep Nail Products

A few months ago I signed up with The Pink Panel, what is The Pink Panel you ask? Well they are a consumer panel for beauty products. It is super easy to join, just go to their Facebook page, click on the 'JOIN' tab and follow the instructions to fill out your information. Once you have signed up you are automatically entered in to their weekly giveaways and it gives you the opportunity to receive information about up coming testing groups. If you get in to one of the testing groups, not only do you get to test out some products, but you also get paid for it! It's a win win situation, right?

About a month ago The Pink Panel had posted on their Facebook page about an upcoming testing group for some nail products, directed specifically at weak, peeling nails and cuticles, an area that my nails were in much need of some help. I filled out the survey and I qualified for the testing group! At the time I was selected and sent the information about the testing group I had no idea what brand or type(s) of product(s) I would be receiving. Much to my surprise when I opened the package it was products from Julep! I've never used a single Julep product in my life so I was doing a happy dance! After I received my package I was sent an email with all the information that I needed to complete the product testing, such as how and when to use the products.

The products that were included in my testing kit were:
A tube of Glycolic Hand Scrub, a bottle of Oxygen Nail Treatment and Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum. These were the products that I was testing out. In addition to those products I also received 5 One-Step Polish Remover Pads and a tube of SPF30 Hand Cream.

I was not allowed to use any other items in my hand and nail care regimen for the next 14 days!

I would like to share the before pictures with you now. I will share the after pictures on down in this blog post after my review of the products.

As you can see I had some serious peeling going on with my nails and my cuticles looked pretty rough too.

Glycolic Hand Scrub

Up first is the glycolic hand scrub, it is described as a facial for your hands, with natural apricot seeds. Claims it will whisk away dirt and oil, noticably softer and younger looking hands after one use, promotes cell growth, glycolic acids provides chemical exfoliation, while the apricot seeds provide manual exfoliation, gentle enough to use everyday. Does not contain parabens, sulphates or phthalates. 

I enjoyed using the glycolic hand scrub. I felt like it did a good job at cleaning my hands and a great job at gently exfoliating them. It left them feeling very soft and smooth. My hands also appeared brighter. The scrub has a light floral scent to it. It smells very fresh and clean.

The glycolic hand scrub comes in a 3oz tube and retails for $23

Quality: 5/5

Price: 2/5

Packaging: 5/5

Scent: 5/5

Overall: 17/20

Glycolic Hand Scrub Ingredients

Oxygen Nail Treatment

The oxygen nail treatment allows nails to breath while conditioning and restructuring nails in just four weeks. Has anti-aging properties and a protective UV filter.

I like the oxygen treatment a lot, it gives my nails a very nice pale pink tint and leaves them looking super shiny. It also camouflages any peeling that I had had going on, on my nails! It was not too bad about chipping and given the thickness of the oxygen treatments formula, it has a decent dry time.

I only used the oxygen treatment for two weeks not the four weeks that it states on the packaging and I seen results. I still have some peeling, but not as bad. I do not feel like it has made my nails stronger. I will continue to use the oxygen nail treatment once a week till it's gone.

The oxygen nail treatment comes in a .27oz bottle for $18

Quality: 4/5

Price: 3/5

Packaging: 5/5

Formula: 5/5

Pigmentation: 4/5

Longevity: 4/5

Overall: 25/30

Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum

The mighty nail and cuticle serum contains peptides that help build keratin and collagen to transform dry and damaged cuticles, plus get visibly stronger, smoother nails with fewer ridges and less splitting and brittleness in 2-3 weeks.

I used the nail and cuticle serum once in the morning and once at night and seen a big transformation in my cuticles. Honestly I don't think my cuticles have ever looked this good. I don't think it really did anything for my nails though.

The only thing I don't like about this product is the packaging, it's a twist click brush pen. The outside of the packaging looks great, love the silver. The brush is great too. My problem is with the twisting/clicking, it seems like either nothing much comes out or too much comes out. I would rather have just had it in a bottle like the polish came in.

The Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum comes in a .09oz tube for $28

Quality: 5/5

Price: 3/5

Packaging: 3/5

Overall: 11/15

Overall I am very pleased with the performance, quality and results of these products. I will do a separate review on the hand cream and polish remover pads.

Now time for the After photos:

Have you tired any of these three products from Julep? What were your thoughts about them?

**All the products were sent to me by The Pink Panel for testing**

Collective Shop and Share

Over the past month I have made a couple of purchases from Avon, one from Amazon and today I stopped by CVS to check out the clearance sale they are having. They have this sale twice a year, head over to Nouveau Cheap's post about it, it has all the details about the sale and what products are on clearance!

From Avon I bought three of their new nail polishes from a couple new collections they have. One is Mandarin Magic from the Forbidden Fruit collection. It is a beautiful bright orange with gold shimmer. The other two came from their Cosmic Nail collection. I was sorta skeptical about getting one from this collection, they are described as 'stardust luster finish' polishes, but I was so impressed with the first one I bought, I bought a second one! I got Saturn, which is what I would call a burnt orange, will be a great polish for the fall! The second one that I got is Aurora, a beautiful purple shade. These have some sort of shimmer to them, to me they kinda look holographic.
I also got a couple of the i-Mark single eye shadows, one in lotus, a lavender color. I also got Biscotti, which is a cream color.

Left-Right: Mandarin Magic, Aurora, Saturn

Biscotti

Lotus

L-R: Biscotti, Lotus

From Amazon I got a couple of polishes, that I'm not too happy with and a couple of nail stamping plates. The polishes are from KleanColor and are described as holographic, which is why I wanted them. One is called Chunky Holo Purple and the other is called Chunky Holo Bluebell. They look absolutely gorgeous in the bottle, but not great on the nails. They remind me of the Essie Luxe Effects collection, which obviously are not holographic polishes, they are flakie polishes and I like flakie polishes, but would have rather had them be holographic like the were described. And they have the strongest stinkiest smell ever! Sorry if that sounded like a rant LOL :/ These polishes were $1.65 each.
The stamping plates are made by MASH. I love them and they were only $2.99 each.

L-R: Bluebell, Purple

Mash Plate 48

Mash Plate 45

From CVS I picked up three of the Maybelline Color Show nail polishes. Each of these were 50% off! They retail for $3.99 each I got them for $1.99 each! I got two of the metallic polishes, Amethyst Ablaze and Navy Narcissist. I also got one of the shredded polishes, which I assume is supposed to be like a crackle polish, called Magenta Mirage. If it is a 'crackle' polish, I can't get it to crack LOL. If you have one of these, let me know if my assumption is right or not and if it is, how do you crack it.

L-R: Magenta Mirage, Amethyst Ablaze, Navy Narcissist

Swatches of all the polishes:

L-R: Bluebell, Purple, Mandarin Magic, Saturn, Aurora, Navy Narcissist, Amethyst Ablaze, Magenta Mirage

Have you got any good beauty products lately?

If you read my ABC Nail Challenge: Letter Q post, you know I was doing a nail product trial test. I have finished my trial and am working on a review of the products I used. I will tell you that they were Julep products. I hope to have the review up by the end of next week :) Review will be up tomorrow morning :)

ABC Nail Challenge: Letter T

Today I am back with an ABC Nail Challenge Post! We are up to the letter T.
With Memorial Day coming up I wanted to have something to go with that, since I will be attending a Motorcycle event for Veterans. I went with Twist and Shout by Pure Ice, it is a red and blue glitter mix in a clear base. I put a white cream polish on as my base color.

Check out what all the other ladies of the challenge did

ABC Nail Challenge: Letter S

I can not believe that we are already on Letter 'S' in the ABC Nail Challenge and that we only have 7 letters left!!!

For letter 'S' I decided to use one of my new polishes that I have never worn, Savage by Sinful colors. It's a very pretty turquoise type color, which to my surprise when I swatched it dries to a matte finish. I do like matte finishes from time to time, but I always know that I can top it with a shiny topcoat if I'm not feeling in a matte mood.

When I began to paint my nails with Savage I was impressed that I only needed on coat! Who does not like a polish like that! Of course with it being a matte polish I dried very quickly. However, it did leave my nails with a bit of a blue tint when I took it off :/

I wanted to add just a bit of bling to my nails, so I used My Wonderland by Pure Ice on my ring finger for an accent nail. I liked this mani, just hate that it left my nails a little blue.

My nail product trial ends tomorrow, so I will finally get to paint my nails again! 14 days is a long time to go without painting them lol!

Check out what the other ladies did for the letter S

BBHQ May Task: Beautiful Collections

May's Beauty Blogger Headquarters task is all about 'Beautiful Collections'. I love seeing other bloggers collections and how they store/organize them. I'm always looking for new ideas.

Since this task was about our collections I thought it would be easier to do it in a video as opposed to taking a bazillion photos :)

 

Lip products before the big clean out

I hope you enjoyed the video :)

A few additional details:
Where do you keep your collection?
I keep my hair products in my bathroom and all my makeup and nail polish in my bedroom.

What furniture or organizer do you use?
I love, as you seen in the video, to use small baskets. You can get these from Walmart, The Dollar Tree, Dollar General, ect... I also love using the storage drawers from Sterilite, which you can also pick up from Walmart. Also check out your local Big Lots as they carry these sometimes too.

Do you have a cataloging system? If so, can you share your secret?
I love to organize things, it's a bit of an obsession. I like to have things grouped by type, like all my eye shadows together. I also like to have things organized by color. I worked in retail for several years and that taught me a lot about colorizing and it has stuck with me :)

Do you have any special displays for your favorite items?
Not currently, but that may be something that I do in the future.

When you get new items, where do they go?
Typically when I get new items they usually start off in my office till I get a change to take photos of them, if the product is something I want to share on my blog. From there it finds its way in to the appropriate drawer or shelf.

For fun, share your top 5 Favorite items in your beautiful collection :)
My current top 5 favorite items from my collection are:
1) Baby Lips in Quenched
2) Mabelline Studio Gel Liner in Charcoal 
3) Any of my Wet n Wild eye shadows
4) Wild Honeysuckle Fragrance from Bath & Body Works
5) Cover Girl BB Cream

I would love to see and hear about your collection! Leave me a link below if you have shared about your collection. If you would like to a more in-depth look at my collection or have any questions feel free to leave them down below.

Also be sure to stop by and visit the other bloggers that are participating in the Beauty Blogger Headquarters Tasks!

 

Fragrance Rotation: May

I have really been enjoying switching out my fragrances once a month. It helps me to remember to put on my fragrance before I leave the house because I don't have to sort through all of my fragrances, just four. Here is the photo that I took of my fragrances for April:

And again at the end of the month: As you can tell I used my Bath & Body Works Sweet Pea the most.

The fragrances I chose for the month of May are Wid Honeysuckle from Bath & Body Works, Country Chic also from B&BW, Wonder Moon Orchid from Avon, and Luscious Temptations from Avon in Naughty Orange Blossom. 

Do you rotate you fragrances? If so what fragrances did you choose for this month?