Back to School Nails

Aahhh....finally! I have been longing for this beauty from the Zoya Smoke and Mirrors collection since it came out. I like some of the others, but this one above all. It was the LAST bottle at Ulta. $6.75 with my coupon, and Jeremy said he'd buy it for me if I spent less than 5 minutes lol. 

Zoya Yara

She is a dusty army green, ever so slightly blackened and a bit darker than I expected. Something else I didn't expect though - the gold glitter is actually flecky!And it isn't just gold, it's bronze, gold, and light green. Amazing! Click the pic for maximum aweness. 

Sunlight

 Shade outdoors

Her grayish side

Indoors

Totally got a compliment on Yara for my first day of school!

EOTD: First Day of School!

This is the first day of this semester, my last year of college, wahoo!!! Here is my look for the day:

 Nothing too special, just me and what I like :).

I used my Urban Decay Ammo Palette that I got in a swap. I love it!!

I didn't take pics in stages, just the finished product.

I used brown Almay eyeliner and Rimmel Lash Flirt Mascara. 

I added a little accent to the corner of my lower lash line with Mildew. It really doesn't show well in the pics but does in person. 

 I used Sin all over, with Smog along the lash line and thicker on the outer edge. Maui Wowie has a little glitter and a grungy browny greeny bronzey look to it, so I swiped a medium line of that above the Smog to add some fun. 

I am loving my eyeshadow palettes lately! Anyone else have the Urban Decay Ammo Palette?

Madison the 5yo Vlogger - Giveaway

I came across this awesome video today...have you seen the 5 year old beauty vlogger Madison? I heard about her a month or so ago and she's just the cutest thing. She really knows her stuff too. Well she's holding a sigma brush kit giveaway where you sent your entry through the mail, so I thought it would be fun to enter :). You should too!

Here is her video:

Isn't she adorable? "I know my hair is pretty." Watch some of her other videos too. They rock.
I wrote her a little letter and added my favorite polishes of the moment at the bottom just for fun since I know she's into polish :D.Then signed it:I thought it was fun and an interesting take on giveaway entries :D. Don't make fun of my handwriting...
Anyone else <3 Madison?

EOTD: At A Wedding

My boyfriend best friend got married yesterday! It was actually supposed to be today, but with the hurricane imminent (it's about to pass over us within a couple hours actually) they bumped it up a day. Here is what I wore and my overall look.

You'll want to read on if you're interested in eye makeup. I used mostly the TrueBlood Tarte palette, with one MAC and one Urban Decay from the Ammo palette.

Closeup of eye makeup. Here is what I did:

This is only the shadow primer from the Tarte for Trueblood palette. I like to put it up quite high, which is why I have my eyebrow in the pic so you can see. It goes pretty close. If you don't put it up high enough and your shadow goes over the edge of the primer it looks weird and doesn't blend right.

I used brown eyeliner from Almay, then covered the whole lid with a toned down brown neutral - Tarte Dusk.

Then I used a darker brown to accentuate my eyeliner and apply in the crease - MAC Swiss Chocolate. The eyeshadow does have a touch of red to the brown, but not as much as the pic. I'm really not good at the crease thing by the way. Feel free to offer tips lol.

The dress I wore was teal, brown, and burnt orange. So I used Tarte Charmer to fill in the space between my eyeliner and crease about 3/4 of the way in from the outer corner. The brush in the picture helps you see where I applied it.

Here is Charmer finished on both eyes.

I love to play with color, so I pulled a color from my dress to line about 1/3 of my lower lash line. I used Urban Decay Shattered from the Ammo palette.

Here is the finished eye, with Blinc Water-Resistant Mascara.

Here is my finished face right before the wedding.

Inspired By Me?

My sweet friend Michelle from If It Shines has been working on a nail art series inspired by bloggers she knows and loves. I was lucky enough to be featured in her series!

Here are the pics of the mani she did inspired by me :D (used with permisson):

How sweet of her!!

Isn't this a cute idea!? The way she posted them was really fun because you see the mani and get to guess before she tells you which blog it was inspired by. Really fun! Go check out the series and see if you can guess the rest.

She also started a contest inspired by the series inspired by the bloggers haha. You have to do some nail art inspired by her blog. Awesome! You can find the details at the bottom of this post.

Eaarthquaaaakkkeee!!!

Yesterday afternoon a 5.8 earthquake hit Mineral, Virginia. I felt here in Virginia Beach, VA, and others even felt it as far as Ontario, Canada, Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia, all over the eastern US. It was my first earthquake experience, and given that there was no local damage, I thought it was pretty awesome :D. SO it inspired me. EARTHQUAKE!!!!!

Awesome right? 

 I started with OPI Barefoot in Barcelona...isn't she pretty? I like this tan nude on me. 

 Then I sponged on some Nina Ultra Pro Macchiato (burnt orangey brown) and a little Golden Rose Scale Effect 3 to give it a bit of a magma feel without making it too volcano-y. Earthquake, remember?

To bring back a little more dirt feel I sponged it lastly with Rimmel Steel Grey, which is totally more brown than grey. I kind of like this dirt look on it's own, but I couldn't resist.

I topped it off with China Glaze Cracked Concrete for....the cracked concrete lol. Fun huh? This is the opposite hand to the first picture. I love how each nail crackles so differently. 

Anyone do or see an earthquake mani? :D

Barry M Dusky Mauve

Ah yes, my first Barry M from my European birthday haul. Thankyou Amber love :D. Meet Barry M Dusky Mauve, a dusky grey brown with slight lean towards purple and a purple chromey shimmer. Formula fabulous and lasted days longer than my recent manis.

This is how she looks most of the time. The purple duochrome is kind of difficult to see on the nail. 

Here is the purple shimmer coming out in the sunlight. Click to see it bigger and appreciate the shimmer more. It really is a bit more obvious in person than in pics, but still not ever wow. 

Bright sunlight

Pretty pretty

This is in dim light so you can see her darker side. 

And on my purple comforter to see that she really does have a tint of purple to the gray/brown. 

Overall I totally love Barry M for it's application and wear. It really held up to gardening, dishes, and more. Do you have any? Do you covet any?

Tarte for TrueBlood

That's right, I got it :D. I wasn't sure what to use the rest of my birthday Ulta giftcard on...I walked past it, stopped and stared at it, every time I went in. Usually multiple times in one visit. So I finally decided I must really like it haha.

So here is the outside of the palette. This is what's so awesome about palettes. They usually aren't boring. They're really intricate and stylish. This one is super hot vampy :D. 

Here are the gorgeous shadows. I avoided this palette at first because I thought there were too many dark colors - vampy. Really when you look at it, many are neutral, and many are light and pretty. The others are fun to play with too or to use for smoky eyeliner. 

 Here are the names of each eyeshadow (click to enlarge). Notice the TrueBlood theme :D. 

And don't forget the secrete compartment! This palette comes with black gel-liner. It's kind of in between liquid liner and the normal twisty stick liner. It goes on like butter and feels kind of cold, which is interesting lol. Also included are mini sizes in eyeshadow primer and Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara. I gotta tell you that mascara rocks. 

Here is the insert it comes with that gives you ideas on how to use the kit to create different looks. 

I absolutely love this eyeshadow palette! You can create so many looks, and you definitely aren't limited to vampy goth looks. <3

Anyone else a TrueBlood fan? :D

(",..,")

Lovie Giveaway Winner!!!

Want to know who won my Because I Love You Giveaway?
So I counted up ALL the entries *whew*. 496 entries. I only threw out one person for cheating. There were 496 entries with a total of 189 entrants. That's a lot! I'm really happy with all the comments I got from you ladies in the form and glad that so many entrants seemed happy to read my blog and enter my fun giveaway.

Random.org ---> 1-496, and the number it picked was 80! One of the earlier entries, hrmmm :D. So I went back and looked and it's someone from my super awesome facebook group. My lovely friend, and online polish girlfriend :D....

*drum roll*

Michelle Wray!!!

Yay Michelle :D! So glad it's someone I know and love that won, I always enjoy that. How funny too because when I went to announce it on the FB group she said I hope it's me haha! Well it is!! Hope you ladies have fun and better luck next time! :D

Birchbox Update

I've been trying some more of the products from my Birchbox and wanted to give you an update.

Twirl by Kate Spade: I used the perfume a couple times now and even Jeremy likes it! I like how the sample bottle had a sprayer like normal instead of the usual dabby wand. It's pretty nice and not too expensive. You can get a 0.25oz rollerball at Ulta and Sephora for $18. If it were expensive I wouldn't buy it again, but I really might buy this one!

Blinc water resistant Mascara: This is awesome! It says water-resistant, not waterproof, but I was playing in the pool with Isabela at work and she splashed me in the face multiple times and it didn't run! I'm really happy with this! It coats and separates the lashes nicely. It isn't super bold, so it's more of a natural look with a bit more emphasis. I did realize the size I got doesn't look like a full size, but it's definitely bigger than a usual sample mascara. You can get this on Birchbox.com and Drugstore.com for $24. Not sure I'd really buy it again at this price, but it is nice!

From last month's Birchbox, I've been working on some more products :D.

Philosophy Purity One-step Facial Cleanser: I really like this stuff. I'm not sure about the effects as far as reducing acne, it's always hard to tell. This is my go to face wash when my face is feeling sensitive, or when I know I'll be out in the sun and don't want to put the acne products on my face that increase sun sensitivity. It is so silky smooth and creamy, and smells like honey. A little really goes a long way and a pea size does my whole face. You can buy this for $10 for 3oz and $20 for 8oz at Ulta, Sephora, and Philosophy.com.

Kind Almond and Apricot Granola Bar: This was freaking amazingly fantastic. It had coconut in it and that made it for me. It was absolutely delicious and nutritious. I love that they focus on natural ingredients and stay away from unnecessary chemicals. I think they're $1.50-$1.99 in stores, which is a bit pricey, but they're tasty. I wish they were lower in calories for people like me who are trying to lose weight. I really would like to try these as my go to granola bar for a while though because I keep some in my purse to help control my blood sugar.

Have you tried anything from your recent Birchboxes and loved it?