Lovely Autumn Pedi

I got my Hautelook order of 3 Barielle's recently and couldn't wait to use Elle's Spell! It's like autumn on my nails! It's a rich ruby red jelly with iridescent irregular flakies throughout. The flakies show a range of orange, yellow, red, gold, and light green.

Bottle pic

Sunlight toesies! I added one large and two medium red rhinestones at the end for fun. They're not terribly straight :P.

Super love the flakies!

Pedi outside :)

Have Barielle Elle's Spell? It's pretty!!

Birchbox September 2011

I got my box a little late last month, about a week ago, but I don't mind. It was only hard not to look at the other Birchbox posts so it'd still be a surprise lol. They always package things so cutely!

Here is the monthly note for this box.

And what's in the box:

Liv Grn perfume Earth - Smells really nice! Really hard to open though lol.

Jouer Conditioning Lip Treatment - This is nice, it's like liquid chapstick but more effective, cuter, and no petroleum! Yay!

Pangea Organics Facial Cream - Haven't used this yet. Just don't know if I need a day cream really. I often use my Proactive Daily Oil Control instead of moisturizer because my face looks greasy rather than dry.

Super cute bracelet with the Birchbox symbol!

Incoco nail strips

Closeup of Incoco nail strips - Anyone want to trade lol? I'm just not wild about this pattern. I'm sure we could swap with stamp/envelope postage so it'd be way cheap.

Liked the lip stuff, liked the perfume, not crazy about another face lotion, would like to try this brand of nail strips, loved the bracelet. Overall not a bad box, but nothing too exciting either. Let me know what you got in your box this month!!!

By the way *cough*....did anyone notice something....different in this post? :D :D :D

Zoya Meadow

This is a mani from a while back in my to-post stash, so ignore the short nails. They're much more fabulous now thanks to OPI Nail Envy. This is Zoya Meadow, the same color I used as a base for the earrings I made recently.

She is a lovely, soft, slightly dusty, baby pink with a superfine but very noticeable gold shimmer. Lovely and girly! This is two coats.

I took some pics in different lights so you can see her different tones.

Here are outdoor pics with cute black flower nail stickers

She's so pretty and feminine :).

French Tips with Fowl Play

I was in the mood for a french, but wanted something more exciting.

This mani lasted for days and days, at least six. It still looks good today but I need a change.

Here is a great bottle pic of Orly Fowl Play that shows the flaky awesomeness on the tips too. Orly Fowl Play is a rich dark purple polish loaded with red and blue flakies.

For this mani I used 2 coats Orly Fowl Play on the tips, 1 coat Zoya Sari for the french color, and WetNWild Glitz on the tip line.

Here is Zoya Sari by itself, one coat.

And since Moose always likes to be in my pictures, here is a chinny chin scratch with me new mani.

Blue Liner with UD Ammo Palette

I love eyeshadow palettes! They're so versatile for really intricate club night makeup or a quick and easy before school look. I went with the latter. 

I used a cheap blue eyeliner, Urban Decay Sin all over the lid, and Smog in the crease. I really need to work on my crease technique so I've been trying it more in a subtle way. 

Then I used Urban Decay Shattered on the outer corner of my lower lid for a pop of color. What's so cool about this color is that it's a duochrome. It's super bright blue, but it flashes a greenish gold too. 

Polish Jewelry - First Try

I've been crafty all my life, and making jewelry for years, but this is the first time I have tried to make polish jewelry! Behold!

I wanted pink earrings because I'm an earring whore and have no pink earrings. I didn't want just polish colors, but something fun...then I got the free nail wheel in that a bunch of us got ages ago from FB or something..and it had flower rhinestones. Cherry blossoms! It's Zoya Meadow with Soho Punch and OPI Teenage Dream as the base color. The branches are Barry M Dusky Mauve.This is a picture before the resin so it isn't filled up.

Stuff looks so awesome under a black light! I used UV resin and my fluorescent blacklight to cure it.

I love hair accessories so had to make some of those too!

Zoya Rica

China Glaze Atlantis

I'm sporting the teal one here!

I'm also working on polish bobby pins too (under blacklight). Stay tuned!

If you'd like some custom polish jewelry, or really anything as you can see, Facebook message me or email me at itsrainingstars13@hotmail.com with an obvious  subject like "Polish Jewelry" or something so I don't miss it :).

Barielle from Hautelook Here!

Today I got this!

Well in a box of course lol....It was my first Hautelook order!

Barielle (LtoR): Elle's Spell, Gotta Have Fate, and Falling Star

Excited to try them all! Hoping Gotta Have Fate is more coral like I wanted and less hot pink/neon. Which are you most excited about, which do you own, and which do you want to see first?

Glitter Toes With Ginny

It's been a while since I painted Ginny's nails! Check out last time and learn a little more about her in this post. She always likes it and we have a good time :)

Here are her glitter toes - WetNWild Glitz! I'm wearing Zoya Meadow.

All done! You can't really see the polish in this one but I think it's cute. I usually paint her toes while she's in her chair getting her gtube feeding so it won't get all over the carpet.

And we foot cuddle :)

I used WetNWild Glitz on her toes for a sheer pop of colorful glitter. This is just one coat, because she's squirmy lol. It is a clear base with hot pink, light pink, and baby blue glitter.

And because this pic is just too cute, I'm using it again. Ginny blows you a kiss and says thank you for looking at my cute nails!

Giveaway and Review: Apothica!

I recently made my first order with Apothica and it was great! The package got here two days quicker than I thought it would, so the shipping is quick! They have a million well known brands including Deborah Lippmann, Cargo Cosmetics, Too Faced, Stila, Essie, Estee Lauder, Burt's Bees, Smashbox, SpaRitual, and the list goes on.

I have never tried a lip liner, but I have read good things about them. I thought to myself that I didn't want a whole bunch...I wonder if there is just one that just magically goes with every color you want. Well there is! Meet Too Faced Perfect Lips Lipliner in Nude!

When I first saw this I was like no way...that's way too dark. It won't go with my skin tone and it will stand out too much. What if I want to wear a gloss with it and it shows? Well something made me get it anyway, and I'm glad I did! I have been wearing this Too Faced lip liner for days now and it's great! It's easy to apply, goes on smooth, feels comfortable on my lips, and lasts just the right amount of time. What I mean by that is when your lippie fades, you aren't left with this ring around your lips that looks dumb. It's subtle enough that even if your lippie does fade before the liner, it doesn't look obvious and weird. It can be applied light for subtle color or dark for bold color, can be used all over as a base to help your lippie stay on longer, can be worn alone, pretty much awesome.

Just to prove it, here are some pics with different colors and kinds of lippies with different opacities:

Alone

With sheer untinted Chapstick

Covergirl Natureluxe Gloss Balm in Grenache

Loreal Ripe Melon

WetNWild bright red: This was a fun test where I put it on one side and not the other. You can see one side is fuzzier and kinda all over. It didn't make the two sides look different so much as the side with lipliner applied so much easier. The cheap bright lipstick didn't bleed outside the lines, didn't smudge past the edges, and I didn't have to wipe it off the side of my lips a hundred times because it kept screwing up. 

Final note: If you want a fabulous lipliner, from a tried a true brand, and you just want one to go with everything so you don't have 15, this is it! = Too Faced Perfect Lip Liner in Nude

On to the giveaway!!! You have the opportunity to win a $25 giftcard from Apothica to spend on fabulous makeup and nail products!! Here is how to enter the giveaway:

Option 1: Facebook

1. Visit Apothica.com
2. Write on Apothica’s Facebook wall about what you think of Apothica. Include the direct link to your comment in the form (click on time below comment, copy that url).
3. Bonus: Opt in to Apothica’s Newsletter, which is at the bottom left of their page. If you can't see it, try a different browser.

Option 2: Twitter

1. Visit Apothica.com
2. Tweet about Apothica on your own Twitter account. Include the direct link to your comment in the form (click on time below comment, copy that url).
3. Bonus: Retweet Apothica’s tweet about this giveaway

Option 3: Blog

1. Visit Apothica.com
2. Write something on your blog about what you think of Apothica. Include the link to this blog post in the form.
3. Bonus: Write about the brand Too Faced, mention Apothica in the post, and have a link in that post to Apothica.com. Include the link to this blog post in the form.

In order to be entered, you're only required to do one option. You are allowed to do all 3 options and all 3 bonuses, which equals a total of 6 entries. Please fill out the form below with your entry information. Commenting won't count for entries. This giveaway will be open for 3 weeks - Closes 10/6 12midnight EST.

My First Glitter Sani!

I haven't tried a glitter sandwich until today! In case you don't know what a glitter sandwich (/sammy/sami/sani) is, it's glitter layered between coats of a jelly polish so you can still see the glitter through it. I picked up 3 of the 4 Revlon Just Tinted polishes because they're all jellies and I don't have enough jellies :D.

This is Revlon Dawn from the Just Tinted collection.

This is the glitter I used, two different ones. The left is a tiny round/irregular/flaky pink iridescent glitter, and the right is a small pink iridescent glitter. I got these on super discount from Michael's for 50cents a bottle. Typically, you would use a glitter polish in a glitter sani, but I wanted to use some of my dry glitter just for fun.

Here it is on my first nail after two coats of Dawn. I sprinkled it on really quick after I painted the second coat on so it would still be wet, so I didn't get a pic of her on her own. The pics give you a good idea though, just minus the glitter. Squint :P.

Here are my other nails after the glitter, before the next coat of jelly polish. You can see in this one and the thumb pic that Dawn (and assumedly the others from this collection) dries to a somewhat suede finish - in between matte and glossy. I believe this is what we call a sorbet finish.

Here it is after one coat of Dawn on top, three coats total. You can see the glitter more in real life because the iridescence catches the light more.

Isn't she lovely here? Dawn is quite corally, leaning towards a juicy berry pink. I really can't decide which. I love her jelly feature. I keep thinking it looks like I just stuck my fingers into a ripe strawberry! With three coats there is a still a bit of vnl, though it's diffused by the glitter. I really don't mind some vnl with polishes like this, just not a ton.

Link your glitter sanis in the comments if you've done one!! :D