Favorites & Empties: January 2014

Happy Friday! I'm combining my favorites and my empties this month, because I only finished two products. So let's get right to it.

Both of the products that I finished up this month were hairsprays, Vintage Glam Thermal Freeze Spray and Suave Touchable Finish. Suave touchable finish is pretty much my all time favorite hairspray, it is the one that I purchase over and over, and will more than likely continue to. The Vintage Glam was a product that I won from Sally's Beauty back in September last year. I have a love hate relationship with this hair spray. I love it because it holds my style, but leaves my hair feeling touchably soft. I also love that it comes out in a fine mist, but that also leads to why I hate it, the spray lingers in the air for a very long time. First time I used it I sprayed my hair went off to do some other things came back about 10-15 minutes later and you could still see the spray just hanging in the air. Probably not a product that I would repurchase solely based on it's price, $8.49 Just can't see paying that when I can get my Suave for $2.97

Now on to the good stuff, my favorites from January!

Mish Mash Challenge Week 27: Green

Happy Wednesday to you and welcome to week 27 of the Mish Mash Challenge! This week our theme was Green, I have a couple of green polishes, but I just wasn't really feeling either one of them, so I went to one of my untried polishes that had the word green in the name, NYC Python Green. This is a polish that I picked up on one of my Big Lots trips for $1

I'm kinda on the fence about this polish, I think I was expecting something more from it. It's not really green, more like an olive brown with some gold shimmer. The formula on this was a little thin too, it wasn't running into my cuticles thin, but thinner than what I'm used too. I applied 2 coats, wish I would have used 3 as you can still see my nail line. I'm wonder if this would looked good layered over black?

Let's check out what the other ladies did for Green!

TIOT: Finger Paints Dolled Up

Today I am trying on another polish from the Finger Paints Vintage Glam Collection, Dolled Up. I usually do not like the way blue polishes look on me, but I love this polish.

I would say it's more of a tealish blue and not a true blue and has a nice metallic finish. My camera did pick up just a few little brush strokes, which I didn't really notice on my nails until I seen the photos. As with most metallic polishes it does enhance the flaws in the nails, like the peeling issue I'm having with my index fingernail. Application was very smooth, I applied 3 coats and it dried in about 10 minutes. I wore this for about 4 days and only had minimal tip wear.

How gorgeous is this color! I found myself looking at my nails a lot when I wore this. First photo was taken in the sunlight and the second one was in the shade.

Review: Born Pretty Stamping Plate

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Today I have a nail look that I created using Stamping Plate Elegant Bowknot Flower Pattern QA61, that I received from the Born Pretty Store.It's one of those plates that has a lot of potential for some awesome looking manicures. It is a good quality plate for only $2.99 To me it feels exactly like a Konad or Mash plate. Since it is in an odd shape I did not have a holder to put it in when I was using it like I do with my round plates, but I was still able to use it easily. You can purchase the holders for these plates from the Born Pretty Store for only $1.99 I did not have any issues getting the images transfer from the plate to my stamper. The image stamped clear and sharp on my nails. Really pleased with this plate.

For my manicure I used two coats Avon suede finish polish in Touch of Taupe for my base color and used Klean Color metallic polish in Metallic Yellow, it's a fast drying polish, so I had to work quick. I topped it off with NYC Grand Central Station. 

I absolutely love this manicure, I think it's elegant looking. I also love how well the two colors complimented each other.

You can save 10% of your order from the Born Pretty Store by using coupon code: SMBW10

Review: Miss A

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I ran across a link for an online store called Miss A, where everything is $1 and shipping is only $3.95 for any size order. We're talking makeup, nail polish, jewelry, etc. so I had to check it out. I browsed around on the site and made a few mental notes of things that I would like to try out at some point and I signed up for their Newsletter. Well a few days later I got one of their newsletters telling about some new products and they had this really cool charm locket necklace, I've been wanting something like that for a while, so off to the site I went again, this time knowing I was going to make a purchase.

The charm locket necklace is mostly what this post will be about because I think it is such a unique and affordable way to express yourself. I have seen the Pandora bracelets and loved the idea behind them, picking out charms that mean something to you, but it is way out of my price range. With Miss A you can choose between a locket necklace or a bracelet, I opted for the necklace because I didn't know how a bracelet would hold up getting knocked around and what not. Above I mentioned that everything on their site is $1.00 these necklaces and bracelets are the exception, in order to bring exceptional quality they charge more. The cost of the necklace is $7

Mish Mash Challenge: Favorite Nail Art Technique

Welcome to week 26 of the Mish Mash Challenge! I had a little bit of a hard time picking my favorite nail art technique since there are three that I love, water marbling, gradients and stamping. I opted to go with stamping for three reasons, it's the least messy in my opinion, I got some new polishes that I wanted to use for stamping and because stamping was really the first nail art technique that I tried out.

I used Klean Colors Sea Ice for my base color, and no matter what I tried I could not get my camera to capture the accurate color, it's a beautiful dark yet bright blue cream. I then used Metallic Navy, also from Klean Color, to stamp with. I used plate M57 from Konad.

I really love how this came out, even my hubby said it looked really pretty! The two colors go together like peanut butter and jelly.

TIOT: Finger Paints Whatta Dish

Finally getting around to trying out some of the polishes from the Finger Paints Vintage Glam Collection that I won from Sally's Beauty back in September. Whatta Dish is a beautiful nude polish with a little bit of a shimmer. I've been so used to wearing darker colors on my nails, so this was a refreshing change. It would be a great choice if you worked at a place that did not allow you to wear wild looking polish, or for events such as a wedding.

The application was great as was the drying time. Had no issues with the polish dragging or having any visible brush strokes. The wear time on this polish was pretty good as well, I wore it for about 4 days and only had minimal tip wear. For me 4 days s a long time to wear the same polish because usually I either get major chips or get tired of looking at the polish.

I used 2 or 3 coats, I honestly can not remember LOL, I'm leaning more towards 3. This photo was taken in the sun with no flash. Beautiful, right?

Next Tuesday I will be back with another polish from this collection.

Year in Review: Favorite Blogs/Bloggers

Today I will be finishing up my Year in Review series with a quick post about my favorite Blogs/Bloggers that I found in 2013!

Jasmine - Green Eyed Monster Jasmine covers different topics on her blog, but one of my favorites are her tips and reviews on skin care.

Martha - Quick Cheap and Pretty Martha also covers several different topics on her blog. A couple that I love seeing are her 10 on Tuesday posts and product reviews.

Elle - Elle Sees I love reading her product reviews and beauty tips.

These last four blog are all about nail polish and I love reading them for the same reasons: Fabulous nail art and nail polishes reviews and swatches!

Lizzy - Lizzy's Place
Lisa - LozLosa
Liz - Mani-Maniac
Kristine - Pink and Polished
Dionne - Glittery Fingers and Sparkling Toes

Stop by and check out these ladies blogs, they are all awesome!
What are some of your favorite blogs?

Review: KKCenterHK Foil

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KKCenterHK sent me some nail foil to try out and review. The foil that I picked out was the Purple Gold Black Irregular Nail Foil Transfer, I thought I would get a cool gradient effect with just a little bit of work. I was really excited to give this a try, as I have been wanting to for quite sometime. 

You get a pretty good amount of foil it a plastic container. Just cut off the amount you need for your manicure.

With the roll of foil I also received a small bottle of adhesive to use with it. The foil alone costs $6.92 if you want a bottle of glue with it the cost is $8.86 (small bottle) or $10.80 (larger bottle). Basically you are supposed to 'paint' your nail with this adhesive, wait for it to dry a little, so it's tacky then you place the foil over your nail and use your finger to smooth out the foil. When you lift the foil sheet off your nail it should have transferred to it and give you a really cool looking nail. 

I tried and tried to get this product to work great for me, but I feel like it was a total fail. I feel as though I did everything properly, but still could not get it to look good. I could not get a seamless transfer, I would have to go back and fill in spaces where the foil did not adhere to. Maybe it's not supposed to fully cover your nail? I don't know.

I took photos of my nails when I used this product and accidentally erased them off my SD card before I got them put on my computer, thus the reason for the nail wheel. I found this process to be slightly messy on account of the glue so I opted to just 'swatch' it if you will on the nail wheel instead of on my nails.

Even though the glue was just tacky when I placed the foil down, it make the finished product on my nails feel tacky as well. Foiling nails apparently is just not for me.

Have you tired nail foil?  Any tips to make it work better?

If you shop at KKCenterHK you can save 10% off your order with this coupon code: SBB2013

Mish Mash Challenge Week 25

Why hello there! Have you been missing me the past few Wednesdays? I have missed doing the challenge, but I've been challenged the last couple of months with some health issues (under control now) and the bitter cold this past week causing frozen pipes. But I'm here today and I have, in my opinion, a really cool manicure!

This week our theme/prompt was two colors we wouldn't normally pair together. Can I just say I have a hard enough time deciding on one color I actually want to wear, so I knew there was not hope of me finding two colors that I wouldn't pair together on a normal day, so I had my hubby go to my polish shelves and grab me two polishes :) I think he did a great job! He chose Wild Thing from Pure Ice and Why Not from Sinful Colors, definitely not two I would have picked for a manicure. The colors are not quite accurate, I took the photos indoors at night.

I decided to do a diagonal mani and accent (cover up the line) with some rhinestones. I really like the way this came out, but it's not functional. I could not use a topcoat because it makes the stones look cloudy so I lost 2 stones about 30 minutes after I finished them. Luckily I got the photos prior to that.

I'm really excited to see what the ladies did for this week! Check them out below.

TIOT: Spoiled Let's Get Sushi

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Today I am trying on Let's Get Sushi from Spoiled. I really love the way this polish looks in the bottle, a nice coral color with a bit of a shimmer/sheen. It does not look anything like that on my nails, it comes off as a bright orangey (is that a word LOL) cream, I don't see any shimmer at all. I really don't think I'll wear this polish again, I may use it as a stamping polish or something, but as a polish on it's own I don't think so.

These pictures do not give the accurate color, they are much more bright orange looking in person.

Application was not the greatest thing either. The first coat left me with streaky, brush marked polish, but the second coat did even that out. Drying time was average about 5-10 minutes, depending on how thick of a coat you applied. Wear time was pretty decent too, I got a good 3 days out of it before I started noticing a lot of tip wear. I didn't have any issues with it chipping either.

Don't you just hate when you see a bottle of polish at the store and think to yourself, now there is a pretty polish, then get it home, try it on and it's nothing like what you thought it would be? Glad this was only $1.99

Year in Review: Favorite Manicures

Today in part two of my year in review I will be sharing my top 10 favorite manicures from 2013! I was a part of two nail art challenges last year, one of which is still going on, that really challenged me with great prompts for some awesome nail art results, so 8 of the 10 come from the challenges. Let's take a look at my favorite 10:

1. My first ever fan brush manicure. I have tried recreating this look with different colors, but can't not get it to look like this one to save my life.

2. Even though it's messy and tedious, I love doing water marbles. One of my favorites from last year was my black and orange one from Halloween.

3. I call this my Minnie Mouse manicure, it is the mani I did for the letter I in the ABC Nail Challenge.

Review: KKCenterHK 2.5mm Circle Glitter

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Today I am reviewing the N.NAIL 2.5mm Circle Glitter-Gold Dark Khaki from KKCenterHK, they have a wide range of nail art supplies at awesome prices!

These little glitters are made from plastic and were super easy to work with. I started off by painting my nails with a base coat, then I applied two coats of Creative Fantasy by China Glaze. After my first two coats had dried I applied a third coat to one nail and then used some nail art tweezers to pick up the gold glitters and place them on my nail. After I did that to each nail I applied my NYC quick drying top coat and noticed that the glitters still looked raised up from my nails so I added another top coat, but in the end some of the glitters still looked raised up.

They were very easy for me to pick up with the tweezers and place on my nails, I do wish they would have set farther down on my nails so they would not have been raised up because this caused me to

Try it on Tuesday: Maybelline Color Show & China Glaze

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I am finally back with Try it on Tuesday posts! Today I have a couple of polishes that I bought when I went out shopping after Christmas. I got a Maybelline Color Show polish in Urban Utopia from Big Lots for $1, love find great polish finds there! Urban Utopia is a beautiful teal color cream, applied like a dream, no drag marks. I applied 2 coats for full opacity.

The polish that I used as a topper is one that I first seen on Amazon and put it on my wish list, but was hesitant about getting it because it was like $8 for a mini bottle, just couldn't see paying that much for a small bottle. I stopped by Sally's on my little shopping trip and what did I find, the exact same polish, mini size and all for $2.49, Score! The polish is Travel in Color from China Glaze and it is just gorgeous! It is a white, shimmery, iridescent polish.

On top of Urban Utopia I could see hints of pink, blue and purple which of course was hard to capture in a photo, it did not help matters that for the first few days that I had these polishes on, that the sun refused to shine. Finally the sun did come out and I was able to get a half way decent photo of these polishes together. My picture does not do Travel in Color any justice at all. Please excuse my chips and tip wear :)

I will definitely be trying Travel in Color on top of other shades of polish! Do you have this in your polish collection? Is it one that you would add to it?

Year In Review: Favorite Products

Welcome to the first of four posts in my Year in Review series! Today I'll be sharing my favorite products from 2013! I have quite a few things so let's get started. Also if I have reviewed the product I'll link to that post in case you want to know more about it.

I'll start off with my favorite lip product, Maybelline Baby Lips in Quenched, since I don't have a photo of it because I'm out of it and I can't find a photo that I took of it, but we all know what it looks like. I went through several of these lip balms in 2013 I think they moisturize my lips well and I love that it has SPF in it.

I tired several new skin care items this year and came out with three that I really liked. L'Oreal Hydrafresh Toner, eclos Skin Prep Cleanser and Avon Moisture Boost Daily moisture lotion. I hear a lot of people say that you don't need a toner, but I feel like it really helps my skin and it makes it feel really fresh. This toner did not leave my skin feeling tight or dry. I have been using this same bottle of eclos cleanser for months, and it is probably my most favorite cleanser ever, hands down. It cleans my face well and leaves it feeling soft and smooth. The only issue I have with this product is the price. I have used several moisturizers this year as well, but I stuck with the Avon one the longest, it's a really light moisturizer, but it gives my skin all the moisture that it needs.

Next are face products that I used the most in 2013. I instantly fell in love with the Olay Fresh Effects BB cream, I have been using this since early summer. It gives me the moisture my skin craves and evens out my skin tone, it does not give much coverage though, that's where my NYC Sunny bronzer comes in. I love this bronzer and will probably never

Haul: Christmas Gifts and After Christmas Shopping

Today I thought I would share with you some of the beauty related gifts that I got for Christmas plus a few products that I picked up at the after Christmas clearance sales. I'm in no way trying to brag, just thought this would be a fun post :)

First up are a few things that my Husband got me. He is so great, he will listen to me go on an on about beauty products even though most of the time he will admit he has no clue what I'm talking about, but his gifts proves he really is listening. He got me two bottles of the Garnier Sleek and Shine Moroccan Argan Oil and this awesome set from Suave which contains the Moroccan infusion products. It comes with the shampoo, conditioner, a hair mask, a bottle of oil and 3 of the Goody Ouchless elastics! He also got me a $25 Gift Card to Bath & Body Works.

My Mother-in-Law got me some styling products from Sally's Beauty Supply. I've never tried any hair products from Sally's, I usually only shop there for nail stuff, so I'm excited to give these products a try. Two bottles of Volumizing Sculpting Foam and a bottle of finishing spray, these are supposed to be comparable to Paul Mitchell products.

My Best Friend got me a few things from Bath & Body Works,

Empties: November & December 2013

I did not get around to blogging about my empties from November, so I thought I would combine them with my December empties. I have quite a few as you can see from above, so lets jump right in.

Up first I finished two hand sanitizers from Bath & Body Works, Papaya Melon Scoop and Apple Wreath. The Papaya smelled pretty good, nice and fruity. Would have been a great one to use in the spring or summer. I love Apple Wreath, you can smell hints of apple and Christmas trees, and absolutely love the way Christmas trees smell. I was bummed when I ran out of it and I looked when I was in Bath & Body Works earlier this week and I could not find it or anything like it.

Up next I have three nail polishes, I used these to make Christmas ornaments! I used Glitter Wonderland from Color Club, Get Low and Lost in Vegas both from Pure Ice. These colors made great ornaments since they were shimmery. I used the Glitter Wonderland to make my best friend one since purple is her favorite color and I used the other 2 to make my Mother-in-Law 3 ornaments since her theme for her tree was burgundy and gold.

I also finally used up the Equate makeup remover wipes that I got back in September! I think these good removing wipes, they work just as good as the ones that I get from Big Lots and the Simple wipes. I finished up my Secret deodorant and a bottle of the ELF Mist and Set spray. I would buy all these products again, I already have a back of the deodorant and I think 3 back ups of the spray.

Lastly I have some hair products that I finished up. First up is the Salon Selectives shampoo that I picked up from Big Lots, honestly this was like the bottle of shampoo that would never end! I did not like this at all, the consistency of the shampoo was weird almost gelatin like. I felt like I had to use twice as much of it as I would any other shampoo just to get it to lather up good. On the plus side it smelled pretty good and was inexpensive. I would not buy this again. I also finished up two different oils, my Garnier Sleek and Shine Moroccan Argan Oil and my Macadamia Healing Oil Treatment. Between the two I definitely prefer the Garnier, I just feel like it worked with my hair better and it's about half the price of the Macadamia one. I would repurchase the Garnier Moroccan Argan Oil, but my wonderful husband bought me two bottles of it for Christmas!

Wow, I feel like that was a lot of stuff! Did you finish up any products the last few months?

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! This year has been amazing for my blog, I have reached and surpassed some goals that I had set for myself. I got to work with a handful of great companies and 'met' some awesome bloggers that share my obsession for beauty products!

I want to thank each one of you that stops by to read and/or comment on my posts, it means a lot to me that you would take time out of your day to read what I write.

In the upcoming year I want to focus on my blog more than I did last year, and post at least 3-4 days a week. I will be continuing with Try it on Tuesdays and adding some more weekly and monthly features to the blog. I would also like to get your input on what you would like to see more of this year, so please leave your suggestions in the comments below. Another goal that I have set for myself this year is to get more likes on my Facebook Page, I share things on there that I may not end up sharing on the blog :)

I have a few, in my opinion, exciting posts planned for the next few Mondays! I'm going to do a Year in Review series, it will be a 4 part series: Favorite Blogs, posts, manis and products from 2013! Exciting right?