Empties: June

I only have three empties for the month of June and they are all hair products, so let's just get down to business!

Up first is Touchable Finish hairspray from Suave. This is my absolute favorite hairspray, it holds your style, but does not leave your hair feeling crunchy. I have already repurchased this product and will continue to repurchase :)

I also used up all of my Tresemme Climate Protection mousse. I've had this since September 2012! Says it fights humidity, UV rays, static and wind. I didn't see any difference between this and the other mousse products that I've used. I might purchase this again, but it's not a product that I'm gonna rush out to get, it's like $4 a can!

Lastly, I used up my Biolage Hydrating Shampoo. I actually got this from my churches yard sale, it was a full bottle and I got the conditioner too. To me it was nothing special, definitely not something that I would repurchase. I seen this in CVS and it was $19.99 a bottle! Um, no thanks.

What products did you use up this month?

Just a reminder GFC will be gone tomorrow so be sure to follow me on Bloglovin' so you don't miss my posts :)

Favorites: June

Wow how quickly did June fly by!?!? Another month gone by means another round of beauty favorites! I had a handful of products that I was loving this past month.

Up first is the ELF Makeup Mist and Set. I love this stuff! It's great to wear all year round, but I find myself using it more when it's warm and humid out. I use this to help keep my makeup in place all day and I also use it to help powder products not look cakey on areas of my face where I may have some dryness. I like to spray it all over my face then I take the ELF flat top powder brush and pat it around on my face to create a nice finish.

I have also been loving my Avon BB Cream. So far it has been the BB cream that has worked the best for me. I will have a full review on this BB Cream on Monday, so be sure to check that out!

I tend to keep my makeup neutral all throughout the year, but especially in the summer time, I go for the barely there look. So I have been pairing my Milani Shadow Eyez pencil in Champagne Toast with my Wet n Wild Walking on Eggshells trio. I think these look great together and make a very pretty neutral eye look. I have been using my Rimmel Lash Accelerator Endless mascara a ton as well. I have a full review on this mascara.

Keeping with the natural/neutral look, I have been loving my Cover Girl Nature Luxe Gloss Balm in the shade Grenache. My new favorite lip product!

Top to Bottom: Cover Girl Nature Luxe  in Grenache, Milani Champagne Toast, Wet n Wild Walking on Eggshells Trio

What products have you been loving this month? Let me know in the comments!

Haul: Dollar Tree & Big Lots

The Dollar Tree and Big Lots are two really great places to find awesome beauty products at a very low price! I went and did a little shopping at each of these stores last week and wanted to share with you the items I picked up.

We'll start with the items I got from Big Lots. Usually when I go there I will find a least a couple of good beauty buys, this time was no exception. I picked up a pack of epielle Green Tea Cleansing Tissues, not sure how well these will work, I will let you know, but for the price I could not pass them up. You get 60 wipes in the package and they were only $2.00. They also had 30 count packages for $1.

I also spotted some of the Goody Spin Pins. I got one of these from Influenster a few months ago and I love it. I have seen these at Walmart and they retail for around $6-7, Big Lots had them for $2.50! Of course at that price I had to pick one up.

The last few items I got were nail polishes (like I need anymore lol) They were $1.00 each. I got a Sinful Colors Magnetic polish in the shade Polar Opposites, I don't like the magnetic part of these polishes, but you can wear them just like regular polishes. I also got a Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in the color Blizzard Blue, it's a sheer color, but looks awesome layered over black. I got a NYC polish in the shade Python Green and a polish from the Holiday Lights line that was out in Rite Aid stores last Christmas. It does not have a color name on it, but it's just a clear/white flakie polish with the super cool light up brush!

Left to Right: Sinful Colors Polar Opposites, NYC Python Green, Holiday Lights, Sally Hansen Blizzard Blue, and Milani Pink Pop (Dollar Tree)

Also from Big Lots I found a set of Sally Hansen mini polishes called Happy Manicures with Gem Crush, never seen any of these before. The set comes with Big Money, Be-Jeweled, Bling-tastic and Lady Luck. The names are not on the bottles so I do not know which is which. These glitter polishes can be wore alone with two coats. They are super pretty and so sparkly! I got the set for $3.00

Moving on over to the Dollar Tree. I went there specifically because I heard that they had Milani products, ummm Milani products for a $1.00, I think so. I only got three items, a nail polish in the shade Pink Pop (pictured above) and two of the HD Advanced Lip Colors, one in Classy Nude and one in Raspberry Blush. I really like these lipsticks they are creamy and feel very moisturizing on the lips. Also they are kind of sheer, which I like, but if you like darker lipsticks you can build them up.

Top to Bottom: One swipe of Raspberry Blush, A few swipes of Raspberry Blush, One swipe of Classy Nude, A few swipes of Classy Nude

While I was there I seen some L.A. Colors Trio and picked up a couple of those as well, I got Sunflower and Orchid.

Sunflower Trio

Sunflower Trio Swatches

Orchid Trio

Orchid Trio Swatches

I also wanted to pick up one of the NYC Sunny Bronzers, so I had been looking for it at Walmart cause I thought it would be the cheapest there. Well all of them had been opened, so I thought I'll just run by Rite Aid and see if they have it, they did and to my amazement, at a cheaper price than Walmart! $2.99 at Rite Aid versus $3.97 at Walmart! I'm hoping this will make a good bronzer for me since it is kind of light and so thankful that is does not have shimmer!

Have you bought any new beauty products lately? If so, what did you get?

Just a reminder that Google Friend Connect (GFC) will be leaving July 1st, so please follow me on Bloglovin'

ABC Nail Challenge: Letter Y

Oh my goodness, we only have one letter left in our ABC Nail Challenge! This weeks letter is, you guessed it, Y. When I was in high school I had a slight obsession with yin yangs and recently while on a trip to my moms house she had pulled out some of my boxes that I had stored at her house and in one was a big yin yang key chain and I thought, well that's what I'm doing for Y nails!

My vision did not quite translate on to my nails as I seen it in my head, but I still really like them. I paired two colors that I absolutely love together, hot pink and black! The pink is Beach Baby by Jesse's Girl and the black is Blackout by Pure Ice.

Please excuse my messy cuticles, Beach Baby is a pain to clean up :)

Stop by and see what the ladies did for letter Y

Review: Nail Studs from KKCenterHK

KKCenterHK sent me some Circular 1.5 mm circular nail art studs to try out and review. I have never used any studs for manicures before so this was a fun product to try out and a good challenge for me. The studs were quite easy to pick up with a pair of tweezers and place on the nail. The only difficulty I had was that my polish had dried to much and was not as tacky as I would have liked it to be. I really like that these studs are pretty flat on the bottom so they sit low on the nails. I was amazed at how well these studs stayed on my nails. I honestly thought I would hit my nail over something and they would fall right off, I was so wrong. I even tried to pick them off with my fingernail and could not. I am very pleased with these studs and looking forward to creating a couple more manicures with them. They are small in size, but I have short nails so they worked great for me. They come 50 to a pack.

The studs were super easy to remove and I was actually able to keep some of them to reuse! I don't know if they were designed to be reused or not, but if you want to take the time to pick them off the cotton ball you can reuse them and you can't even tell that they had been used before.

Studs can be purchased for $4.23 a pack. They have a wide variety of studs and nail decorations to choose from.

Now on to the manicure I used Maybelline Color Show in Amethyst Ablaze and sealed everything in with a top coat from NYC.

Would you or have you used nail studs?

Take 10% of your order with coupon code: SBB2013

Review: Sally Hansen Double Duty

Sally Hansen's Double Duty claims that it will protect and strengthen nails. Using as a base will smooth nail surface and help to grip the nail color for longer wear. Top coat shields nails with a hard shiny, chip resistant finish. Designed to give you stronger, flawless manicures that last. Double Duty is a strengthening base and top coat in one. Formulated with nylon and pro-vitamin B5. It does not contain DBP, Toluene or formaldehyde.

I got this product because I was looking for something that would help strengthen my nails and the fact that it doubled as a top coat helped seal the deal of me purchasing it. Boy was I disappointed, this has not done a thing for my nails. I see no difference in the strength of my nails. I have a terrible time with my nails peeling, I thought this would help that too, but it didn't. A fellow blogger suggested sealing up my nails, which was something that I only did when one broke and I needed to smooth or reshape the nail. Now I have been sealing them every time I paint them and that seems to have helped a thousand times more than this Double Duty.

For me this product was mostly a fail. I don't think it meets all of the claims. I see no difference at all in the condition of my nails. It does have a shiny finish, but if you use it as a top coat, it takes forever to dry, I'm talking like 30 minutes. I accidentally hit my nail about 20 minutes after painting them and I got a big dent in my polish. I do however like this for a base coat, it does seem to really grip the polish and help it to last longer.

I would not repurchase this product. I picked this up at Walmart for $3.97

I'm giving the quality of this product a 2/5 because it does work well as a base coat.

As far as the price goes 2/5 because it does not do all it says it will.

I'll give the formula 2/5 again because it does not do all it says it will, but it does make a good base.

Longevity 3/5 it does help manicures last longer when used as a base

Overall: 9/20

Have you used the Sally Hansen Double Duty? What were your results, opinions?

Haul: CVS Clearance Sale

Y'all know how I love my beauty products on a budget and one of the best place to stock on on some products or try 'new' products that are to expensive when not on sale, is the 50-75% off sale at CVS. This sale is held twice a year, usually spring and fall, and if I have some extra money I try to shop it!

I had posted previously about a few polishes that I had found at this sale, this post is my last CVS sale post for this particular sale.

First up are some nail polishes that I got. I picked up another one of the Maybelline Color Show Shredded polishes in the shade Purple Possibilities, a Sally Hansen Crackle in Wave Break, a Spoiled polish in the shade Mind Your Own Beeswax, and a Maybelline Color Show Metallic polish in the shade Blue Blowout.

Left to Right: Sally Hansen Crackle Wave Break, Color Show Purple Possibilities, Color Show Blue Blowout, Spoiled Mind Your Own Beeswax

 I also got a few new lip products, I figured this sale would be a great time to re-stock my lip drawer since I had recently cleaned out all of my older products. I picked up a Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in the shade Porcelain Pink. Cover Girl natureluxe gloss balm in the shade Grenache. Milani Crystal lip gloss in the shade Fruit Punch, and two Revlon Super Lustrous Lip glosses, pink whisper and peach petal. I will have a follow up post with in the next couple of weeks with swatches of these lip products :)

Break down of the great deals I got from this sale:

Maybelline Color Show Polishes: Original Price $ 4.19 each I paid $ 2.09 each

Sally Hansen Crackle:  Original Price $7.49 I paid $ 1.87

Spoiled Polish: Original Price $1.99 I paid $.49

Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Stick: Original Price: $8.99 I paid: $2.25

Revlon Super Lustrous Glosses: Original Price: $8.79 I paid: 2.19

Cover Girl Nature Luxe: Original Price: $7.99 I paid $3.99

Milani Lip gloss: Original Price: $5.79 I Paid around $1.45 ( I lost the receipt from this purchase lol)

Did you shop the CVS sale? What did you get?

ABC Nail Challenge: Letter X

Today's letter for the ABC Nail Challenge has had me racking my brain since we started this challenge and last week it came to me in a flash 'X' Marks the Spot! Now the vision I had in my head looked like one of those old treasure maps that you would see in moves with the little dashed black line leading to an X. I tried my best to transfer my vision to my nails. Not the best but I kinda like it. For my base I used NYC Mulberry Street, black cream for the dashes and Hot Hot Heat from Sinful Colors for my X. The little rhinestone I got in a set from Avon.

I love to take pictures so I thought I would share a picture of a cute little visitor that keeps coming around my house. A cute little groundhog :)

Be sure to stop by and see what all the ladies did for the letter X!

Review: Rimmel Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara

I was lucky enough to be one of the few that received a product so new, that it's not even available in stores
yet, from Influenster! It's the Rimmel Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara. I have been using this for about a month now and wanted to share my thoughts on it.

Rimmel claims that the Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara will enhance lashes beyond the limits for instantly longer and stronger lashes, conditions lashes, lash catching brush gives you perfect separation for a clump free look, lashes stay flexible, never stiff or brittle and that after 30 days lashes will appear longer, stronger and more numerous.

Lash Accelerator Endless has what Rimmel calls the Grow-Lash Complex of Procapil, Keratin, and Antioxidants. Its micro-fiber formula is what helps to keep lashes flexible.

Like I said, I have been using this mascara for about a month now and for the most part I like it. This mascara does enhance my lashes and makes them look longer, and even though Rimmel does not claim that this mascara will make lashes look fuller, I feel like mine look fuller when I apply the Lash Accelerator Endless. I can't get the brush to separate my lashes as much as I would like for it too, but this mascara does provided a clump free look. As far as the length or strength of my lashes when not wearing the mascara, I do not see a difference as of yet. I was really surprised by the fact that my lashes did still feel flexible after applying the mascara, even throughout the day my lashes still felt flexible. The formula of this mascara is a fairly wet one, which I like. I feel like it helps the mascara go on smoother. I have not experienced any flaking of the mascara, but I have notice a couple of times that I wore it, it has smudged on my lower lash area, but nothing a Q-tip wouldn't easily fix. Other than that, this mascara wears great and last all day long. It is not a waterproof formula so don't wear it if you plan on getting your face wet :)

Rimmel Lash Accelerator is currently not available for purchase, but according to their website, it will be available in July! Comes in Black and Extreme Black. Their website does not provide a price for this product and one was not provided through Influenster.

Quality: 5/5

Packaging: 5/5

Formula: 5/5

Pigmentation: 5/5 

Longevity: 5/5

Overall: 25/25

Would you try this mascara?

Giveaway Winner

Thank you all for entering my belated Blogiversary giveaway!

The winner has been picked, announced and notified.

If you didn't win this time, don't worry, I'll have more giveaways in the future :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NOTD: Starburst

Today I wanted to share with you a beautiful polish that I purchased from Avon's new Cosmic Collection line. The Cosmic Collection is a line of holographic nail polishes. These polishes are a scattered holographic, not a linear holographic like most of the holographic polishes. With that being said it is still a beautiful polish. I have two other colors from this line that I will get put up on my blog at some point :) The regular price for these polishes is $6.00, but if you shop Avon often, you know their products are almost always on some kind of sale.

My camera does not like reds or pinks so it tends to mess with the actual color of this polish, but I think I captured it good enough to get it's beauty across.

The polish is called Starburst and went on very smooth and easily and was opaque in one coat. I only used one coat in the photos below. Dry time was average and it has wore really well on my nails. As with most holographic polishes, it looks pretty much like a regular nail polish in indoor lighting, but when you get out in the sun it looks amazing!

Quality: 5/5

Price: 3/5 unless it's on sale

Packaging: 5/5

Formula: 5/5

Pigmentation: 5/5

Longevity: 4/5

Overall: 28/30

Have you tried Avon's Cosmic Collection yet? If not are you planning on it?

ABC Nail Challenge: Letter W

Today's ABC Nail Challenge post features a manicure that is probably my favorite from this challenge and the one that I spent the most time on. For the letter W I decided to try out a new technique that is similar to water marbling called water spotting. Like with the water marbling technique, water spotting gives each nail a unique look. To do water spotting you drip drops of nail polish in water like you would if you were going to water marble, except you use only one color and instead of swirling the colors to make a design, you spray it with alcohol to make the polish sorta break up and create holes or gaps between the color, so you base color will show through. Hope that makes  sense :)

I think that there is a lot of trial and error when it comes to this type of mani, you have to find colors that will spread well in the water and colors that work well together. I love the way my middle and ring finger came out. The other two the polish is not separated enough for my taste. I think it would have came out a little better if the bottle I was using to spray the alcohol with did not spray such a fine mist.

I wanted something bright so I used Beach Baby by Jesse's Girl as my base color and White on the Spot by Milani for the spotting. On my ring fingers I used a black cream polish for spotting.

Also be sure to check out my current giveaway :)

Don't forget to check out what the other ladies did for the letter W