Nail of the Day!

Every once in a while I am going to have a "nail of the day" post.  For the first time, today I painted my nails with Essie's Nice is Nice polish.  It is a gorgeous light lavender color that is perfect for the spring time.  Recently, instead of wearing traditional winter nail polishes which are dark and metallic, I have been wearing my pastel and bright spring time colors.  I personally am not a fan of Essie nail polishes only because I really don't like the applicator, but that never stops me from purchasing their polishes because they have beautiful colors!

Feathers!

I feel like I am seeing feathers everywhere recently in jewelry pieces and even in hair extensions!  Gwyneth Paltrow wore some hot pink feather earrings in her Grammy performance of the song "Forget You" and since then I have been obsessed with the look!
I found these earrings at Forever 21 and picking these out was difficult!  They had so many different colors and styles of feather earrings to choose from.  They also had headbands and necklaces with feathers on them, but for me that's way too much!  I love to wear these with my hair down.  They are on the longer side and mix into my dark hair so they stand out when I push my hair aside.  I love them!  Another thing I was interested in was feather hair extensions.  You can click the link and it will take you to the site where you can find so many different styles.  There are thick or thin feathers, and feathers of all different colors and shapes.  Adding just a few of these extensions to the underneath strands of the hair adds an interesting touch, and they are so easy to put in and take out.  They even withstand heat so you can style the way you would normally.

Birchbox #1

Yesterday in the mail I found my Birchbox package!  If you don't know what Birchbox is, it's a monthly service where you are sent about 4-5 deluxe samples of beauty products.  This can be related to makeup, hair, skin, or even little edible treats!  It's $10 a month and it gives you a chance to try a fair amount of products without committing to buying the whole thing.  You don't get to choose the products you get, but I have never been disappointed with what was sent to me.   This months package was dedicated to Valentine's Day.  When you open the package you get a card explaining the package and the products found inside.

In the note it said this package was all about indulgence.  In the beautifully wrapped package, I found the above five products.  From left to right: Bare Escentuals Flawless Definition Volumizing Mascara, Befine exfoliating brown sugar cleanser, Nars Orgasm Illuminator (my favorite of the bunch!), Pomega5 green tea mattifying moisturizer, and a Birchbox treat in sweetriot chocolate-covered cacao nibs.

These deluxe size samples are great!  I'm most excited for the Nars illuminator because I always wanted to try them but never wanted to pay $29 for the full size.  This is a very good sized sample because a little goes a long way with this product.




Along with this service, you can go and give feedback on the products that you received and for each product you give feedback on, you get 10 Birchbox points.  Once you acquire 100 of these points you get $10 off your next box OR a product from their site.  They sell full size products that were found in the Birchbox on their website.

Stila Make me Blush Set

How adorable is this set?  I finally got this in the mail today from sephora.com and it was only $20 for a full sized blush and two full sized lipglosses.  I love these Valentine's Day sets!

Every time I use this blush it puts a smile on my face.  The hearts are so cute and it is a really pigmented blush!  The gold overlay goes away with 1-2 uses.  I suggest wiping it off because that is a lot of gold glitter that will end up getting on your face (even though the gold accents make this blush adorable).  A little goes a long way with this color so do not rub your brush to roughly in this product.  You can go for the lighter pinks, darker pinks, or do my favorite and swirl all the shades together.

I absolutely love Stila lip glosses, I have so many of them.  These two are called hugs and kisses (yet again, how adorable is that????)  On the lips these sheer out.  Hugs (the red with gold sparkle in it) is a perfect topper to any lipstick to add some shine and subtle color.  Kisses on the other hand is a creamy baby pink.  One of my favorite every day colors.  This is going to go very nicely on top of my Angel lipstick from MAC!

Cute Love

I finally finished my 20 page research paper today and finally got a chance to go through some magazines I recently received.  As I was flipping through my Free People catalogue, I came across this picture and just fell in love!

The whole style of the catalogue tied together with this picture, effortless.  Now, I would not say this is my style of clothing, but that's not why it caught my attention.  For some reason this brings about the feeling of deep and true love, and since Valentine's Day is approaching I thought I would share this picture.  Every time I look at this photo it makes me so happy!  It's adorable :)

NYX Power Lipstick

When the Liberty of London collection came out last Summer from MAC, I passed up on the lipstick Blooming Lovely, which I soon came to regret.  It was a very unique lilac/pink lip color.  I had heard NYX had a dupe in their collection called Power and I finally came across it!

I of course never swatched these two colors next to each other, but the NYX lipstick seems to have the same lilac/pink undertones in it.  The picture is not showing just how much lilac this lipstick actually contains.  This was $4 rather than the MAC price of $14 so it was worth a try.  I'm glad I ended up finding it because it is such a pretty and unique color.  Also, the formula is very creamy and just glides onto the lips.  It goes on pretty opaque on the lips.  For $4 I am impressed on the quality of the lipstick because Wet & Wild has $2 lipsticks, but they have a very drying formula to them which enhances the dryness and lines of the lips.  Not very flattering, and what I was kind of expecting out of this lipstick.  It ended up giving me a pleasant surprise!

NYX Tango with Bronzing Powder

At work today I learned that I got a perfect store on my midterm.  My luck continued at Ulta.  I'm usually never able to find NYX products at Ulta because they are always sold out!  However, for some reason tonight they decided to stock their NYX display just as I entered the store, and I was finally able to get a hold of some products I had my eyes on.

 On the left is their 04 "When Leopard Gets a Tan"  This really reminded me of Too Faced Pink Leopard Bronzing Powder except for I bought this for $15, not $28!  This gives a really pretty pink/bronze shimmer to the face.  I would use this as a blush, not a bronzer.  However, one sweep of this on your cheeks and this creates a really pretty glow and combines your blush, bronzer, and hilight in one step!  It gives the face warmth and a nice glow.


On the right is their 03 Tribal Odyssey Bronzer.  This one reminded me of Smashbox Soft Fusion Lights.  This was also $15, the smashbox product is $30.  This is not a very dark bronzer and it is   shimmery so I wouldn't recommend this if you aren't a fan of shimmery bronzers or are darker than medium skin.  However, this adds a really pretty bronze glow to the face!  You could even use it as a blush if you like.




Underneath both of the bronzers is this brush.  I would definitely not recommend using this brush.  It is not soft at all and hurts to even run my hands through it.

The compacts also both come with mirrors which is handy when applying on the go.

Origins VitaZing Moisturizer

I had heard so many good things about this moisturizer that I had to go out and try it myself.  For such a small bottle, I did find it to be pricey at $35.  However, I am in love with this!  It's meant to be used as a daily moisturizer.

When you squeeze out the product, it is a white moisturizer with brown looking beads.  Once applied to the face it goes from a white color to a slight tint.  It isn't advertised as a tinted moisturizer, and I also wouldn't classify it as one either because it gives less coverage than a tinted moisturizer would.  However, some days I just put this on and apply powder over top.  That gives me just enough of an even skin tone.  I also love how it has SPF.

It claims to be energy-boosting, but I don't really feel those benefits.  However, I feel like it does make my face look more glowy because it almost reflects the light when you look at your face in the right angles.  It looks so natural on, and I will definitely repurchase this once I finish this bottle.

The woman at the Origins store said this works on all skin types.  I personally have dry-normal skin and I think this works fine for me.

Katy Perry Nail Polish!

I finally got my hands on the Katy Perry by OPI nail polish!  Luckily I didn't have to wait in line for them like the lady at Ulta warned me about.  I got Black Shatter, The One That Got Away, Teenage Dream, Last Friday Night, and Not Like the Movies.  I recommend Teenage Dream and Black Shatter if you can get your hands on them!  The other colors were nothing special added to my nail polish collection.

Black Shatter works the best when you apply just a thin coat of it to any color you choose.  The way the nail polish "shatters" depends on how thick you apply it.  In the picture above is Teenage Dream under one coat of the shatter polish.