Haul: ELF

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It has been a really long time since I placed an order with ELF, May of 2012! I had been seeing a lot of blog posts about the ELF Smudge Pots and I just had to give them a try myself! I also ordered couple of other things because they were having a 50% off sale on their best sellers and new items.

There are 9 different Smudge Pots, I only ordered 6 of them because I didn't really see myself wearing the other 3 colors. The ones I ordered were Ain't That Sweet a light pink, Gotta Glow a light gold, Back to Basics a bronzy color, Cruisin Chic a taupe type color, Brownie Points a coppery brown, and Hit the Town a dark grey. The ones I did not purchase are called Pearls of Wisdom a white, Poppin Party a plum, and Ocean Bound a darker blue.

L-R: Ain't That Sweet, Gotta Glow, Back to Basics, Cruisin Chic, Brownie Points, Hit the Town

I love the packaging on these, super convenient containers that feel very sturdy. I don't see them being cracked or busted easily. The opening is big enough so you can use your finger to apply them or use a brush. I have only played around with a few of these so I will give a more in-depth review at a later date, but for the most part I like them and once they set the are pretty much smudge proof!. Love the price on them too, only $2!

I also picked up some of the Jumbo Eyeshadow Sticks. I've not heard a lot about these, but I enjoy using shadow sticks, I think they are great for traveling, so I wanted to try these. I got Little Miss Thing, French Lace, Bali Bound, Feeling Lucky and Check me out. Also available are Rock out, Turkish Coffee, Forest Nymph, Like a Boss and Midnight Rendezvous.

L-R: Little Miss Thing, Bali Bound, French Lace, Feeling Lucky, Check Me Out

Unlike the Smudge Pots these shadow sticks are smudge-able. I'm not sure how I feel about the packaging on these yet, unlike other jumbo shadow sticks that I've used before, these you don't sharpen you twist them up.

L-R: Little Miss Thing, Bali Bound, French Lace, Feeling Lucky, Check Me Out

The last thing I got was a bottle of their Brush Shampoo. I've been wanting to try this for a while, just never picked it up. I've used this once and it seems to work pretty good. Not bad for $3, I usually use baby shampoo.

Have you purchased any ELF products recently? What were they?

I hope it is starting to feel more like spring in your area! After some really crazy weather this weekend in my area, this whole week we are supposed to have mid to upper 60 degree weather!

Who is up for a Giveaway?? Next month will be my 3 Year Blogiversary!!

Haul: Sinful Colors

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I love Sinful Colors nail polish and for me the best place to find them is at Rite Aid, and the closest Rite Aid to me is like 30 minutes away in the opposite direction I usually run my errands in, so I don't get there as often as I like. Lucky for me I had an errand the other day that took me that way, so of course I stopped in to see if I could find any of the Crystal Crushes textured polishes. I found that display plus another one called Glitz & Glittered, I got two polishes from each collection. From the Crystal Crushes I got Treasure Chest, a beautiful Turquoise color with some gold shimmer and Ruby Mine, which is a pretty cranberry pinkish color also with gold shimmer. From the Glitz & Glittered Collection I got Charmed, a super pretty silver glitter polish that has a small amount of pink and blue glitter mixed in. I also got Gilded which is a mix of gold and reddish/pinkish glitters in what appears to be a very very light grey almost translucent base.

L-R: Ruby Mine, Treasure Chest, Gilded, Charmed

L-R: Charmed, Gilded, Ruby Mine, Treasure Chest

I think the glitter polishes are going to be great for Christmas manicures and I just love the texture and color on the Crystal Crushes, can't wait to try them out!

Do you have any of the Crystal Crush polishes?

Duri Truth or Dare 2013 Collection Part 3

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Today I am back with my the final part of the Duri Truth or Dare 2013 Collection review/swatches.

Just in case you missed part one and or two of my series: If you are not familiar with Duri Cosmetics they were established in 1990 and carry over 200 shades of nail color, nail and hand treatments as well as some depilatory supplies. These products can be found in spas, salons and purchased on Duri's website.

Duri was nice enough to send the entire 2013 Truth or Dare Collection out to me, to try and review. Today I will be sharing the last four shades from the collection with you; Berry Vague, Murky Answer, Grey Area and Lucky Strike

Up first today is Berry Vague, a gorgeous berry toned creme polish. I am in love with this polish, I think berry shades are great for fall and winter and would look fabulous with some gold glitter accents! I would like to point out I have 2 coats of this polish on all fingers except my middle finger, I smudged it so I just added another coat to smooth it out. I personally think it looks better with 3 coats. The only issue I had with this polish was the cleanup, as you can see from my cuticles. I have a hard time cleaning up colors of this shade.

Up next is Murky Answer, I really love this shade! It is a purpleish grey creme color, my swatch is showing up a little more on the brown side :/ This is with 2 coats. I also think this one would look good with gold glitter.

Now we have Grey Area, which is like the name says, a Grey creme polish. I really like grey polishes in the fall and winter because it's a great alternative to black. You get a nice wintry color that's not so harsh looking. If you haven't already noticed I love glitter/shimmer in my polish, so in the 2nd photo of this color I added some pink glitter just to show how you can play up this polish. Each photo is 2 coats of Grey Area.

Last, but certainly not least, we have Lucky Strike a beautiful shade of blue. In the bottle I can see a hint of blue shimmer, but it did not transfer well on to my nails. If I was out in the sun I could get a very slight hint of the blue shimmer on my nails but not a lot. In any case this is still a gorgeous polish and quite unexpected in for a fall color, but I really like it!

I love the quality of these polishes, and for $6 each I think you are getting a great product! The all go on your nails so smoothly, they all have rich colors to them, and my favorite things about them are how fast they dry and how incredible shiny they are!

What color(s) was your favorite from the collection? Mine would be Berry Vague and Grey Area.

Thanks again to Duri for letting me try out this collection!

Duri Truth or Dare 2013 Collection Part 2

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Today I am back with Part 2 of my series on the Duri Truth or Dare collection. I am still loving these polishes and all the great colors. Just for an FYI my camera does not like pink or red colors, I adjusted some of the settings when taking the photos for a few of these polishes in a effort to get the most accurate color of the polish as I could, so if my skin or the grass in the background looks a little off, please disregard that and just focus on the fabulous colors in this collection :)

L-R Coral Start, Fuschia Finish, Question Mark, Double Dare

Just in case you missed part one of my series: If you are not familiar with Duri Cosmetics they were established in 1990 and carry over 200 shades of nail color, nail and hand treatments as well as some depilatory supplies. These products can be found in spas, salons and purchased on Duri's website.

Duri was nice enough to send the entire 2013 Truth or Dare Collection out to me, to try and review. Today I will be sharing four more shades from the collection with you; Coral Start, Fuschia Finish, Question Mark and Double Dare.

Coral Start is one of the prettiest coral colors I have seen. It's a creme polish and goes on really smooth, I did have to apply 3 coats of this so my nail line was not visible and with as quick as this polish dries that was not a problem. My swatch below came out way more orange that it actually is. The bottle shot above gives the accurate color.

 

Up next is one of my favorites from this collection and is currently on my toes, is Fuschia Finish. It is a gorgeous fuschia/berry creme color that I think would make a good spring or summer shade, it's just so bright and vibrant. I also think this would be a good alternative to red during the Holidays. Was opaque in 2 coats.

Next is Question Mark, a deep berry colored creme polish. I will be using this shade a lot this fall and winter. I think it would look great with some gold nail art or a gold accent nail. Swatch is 2 coats with no top coat. It was a little difficult to clean up, but I have that issue with most berry colored polishes. It's just a beautiful shade and I can't get over how shiny these polishes are without a topcoat! 

Last one for this post is called Double Dare. If you are in the market for a classic red creme polish for the Holiday season I highly recommend this one, opaque in just 2 coats and such a beautiful shade of red. This is more of a true red in person.

Next Monday I will be bringing you the final four colors from this collection; Grey Area, Murky Answer, Lucky Strike and Berry Vague. 

Duri Truth or Dare 2013 Collection: Part 1

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Welcome to a new mini series I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks! I will be showcasing the 2013 Truth or Dare Collection from Duri Cosmetics!

If you are not familiar with Duri Cosmetics they were established in 1990 and carry over 200 shades of nail color, nail and hand treatments as well as some depilatory supplies. These products can be found in spas, salons and purchased on Duri's website.

Duri was nice enough to send the entire 2013 Truth or Dare Collection out to me, to try and review. Today I will be sharing four shades from the collection with you; Sheer Bluff, Naked Truth, Pink Player and Lilac Liar.

L-R Sheer Bluff, Naked Truth, Pink Player, Lilac Liar

All four of these polishes went on like a dream, very smooth. I did not have any issues with balding of the polish or with it running down and filling my cuticles. I was really impressed with the formula, not only for the aforementioned reasons, but also because it dries super quick, we're talking 5 minutes! The finish is super shiny, in my swatches I did not add any topcoat and each swatch was with 2 coats of polish.

Let's take a look at the colors!

First up Sheer Bluff I'm gonna call this a gray lavender. It is a nude gray color but it has a hint of lavender to it, which did not show up in my photo, beautiful color. The only thing I did not like about this polish is that in the bottle you can see tiny flakes of gold/brown shimmer, but it did not show up when I painted my nails.

Naked Truth is a very pale, pastel pink cream polish. It's is a very delicate looking pink, would be great for a wedding!

Pink Player is a rosy colored pink cream polish. When I put this on the first thing I thought of was my Grandma, it's a very pretty color and something that she would totally wear on her nails.

The last color for today is Lilac Liar, also a cream color. To me this is a pink shade that leans toward purple, I don't really have a good way to explain the color, but I really like it! Beautiful color for spring.

I also want to comment on the packaging, I'm a sucker for unique or interesting packaging. Duri's polishes are bottled in a square shaped glass bottle that features the company name on all four sides. I really like it because it is raised up off the bottle just a little, which is not something I have not seen with any other company. I just think it looks really classy.

The brush is just a standard polish brush. There were no stray bristles and they were all even.

Duri polish comes in a .5fl oz bottle and retails for $6.00

Can't wait to see the rest of my swatches from the collection? Be sure to check back next Monday when I will be showing Coral Start, Fuschia Finish, Double Dare and Question Mark!

First Look: Avon Urban Splatter Nail Polish

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When I first saw Avon's Urban Splatter polishes I automatically thought of the Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots collection, and I love the way that collection looks, so I thought I would give these a try. Urban Splatter comes in 6 shades; Blue Vandalism, Urban Green, Blackout (swatched below), Purple Graffiti, Underground Yellow and Pink Splatter, they retail for $6.00

From my swatching that I did, I don't think these would be good for wearing alone, you would want to put a base color down first. I love the way this polish looks, something different besides straight out glitter bombs (which I love) or just a plain color. While swatching I did not have any issues with placing the 'glitter', it went on very smoothly with hardly any work at all. I will be purchasing more of these in the future.

L-R Urban Splatter Blackout, over Jesse's Girl Beach Baby, Over Sinful Colors Why Not, Over Sally Hansen Bubblegum Pink

Have you seen or used the Avon Urban Splatter polishes? If you are interested in purchasing feel free to shop my online store.

Haul: Pure Ice (pic heavy)

As I mentioned in a previous post Pure Ice was nice enough to send me several samples of their nail polish. I wanted to share with you the shades that they sent me. I received a total of 13 polishes, six were from the 2012 Holiday Collection and seven were from their Runway Collection. I will have swatches of all 13 shades at the end of this post.

First up are the colors I received from the 2012 Holiday Collection (L-R): Five Some, Twinkle, Twist and Shout, Playtime, On His Saddle, Red Hot Mama

Play Time is a beautiful gold glitter polish with some red or copper colored glitter mixed in. When dry this looks like a matte polish, so if you want a shine, a top coat is necessary.

Wet n Wild Nail Swatches (pic heavy)

Finally getting around to getting better swatches from the Wet n Wild mini set that I picked up from CVS in my Mini Shop and Show, as well as the other two polishes that I picked up from Rite Aid.

I'll start with the swatches of the Wet n Wild mini set. I really wanted to get these up soon because on Black Friday CVS is going to have the set for $2.99 if you have one of their rewards cards!

Here are the bottle shots

Here is a swatch of Ants in my Pants by Spoiled and Gift Wrapped by Julie G

And finally a swatch of the Sinful Colors Sinfully Magnetic in Captivate me, which I am currently working on a review for.

CVS 75% off Sale Swatches

Here are the swatches from the polishes I got from the 75% off sale at CVS

Thanksgiving Weekend Haul Swatches

Here are the polish swatches from the polishes I got over Thanksgiving weekend.

So first up is the Color Expression Wet 'N Wild Set I got from CVS! I think all of the polishes in this set are just beautiful! I love the names of the polishes too, very clever :)

 Next up are the Sinful Colors, NYC, and Confetti polishes that I got! Loving the Winterberry for the winter. And the Starry Silver looks great over the Silver polish from the Color Expression set!

Last but not least are the polishes from the Wet 'N Wild Little Luxuries set I picked up from RiteAid. I did not swatch all of them because I ran out of room LOL.

ELF Mineral Shadows

I LOVE these shadows! They have very good pigmentation, long wearing, don’t crease and are shimmery! I feel like a little bit of these shadows go a long way! Well worth the money!
Colors from top to bottom:
Angelic, Sweet, Smoldering, Earthy, Elegant, Caffeinated, Socialite.
You can find all these shadows at E.L.F under the Mineral category!