Nail Polish Haul

If you saw my string of posts about the Sephora and Cinderella line, then you'll notice a severe lack of swatches. Well part of that comes from the fact that two of my makeup nail polish orders arrived at the same time and some nail polishes that I was coveting finally arrived in my local drugstore. You see, my favourite holiday is Halloween so I've been holding out for the treats that will be released in October -- but my other love is Disney and the two just happened to occur at the same time. So here's a chance to look at my nail polish hauls! 

In my own collection I have several bottles of black nail polish but it recently dawned on me that I didn't have an orange colour. Nor did I have a black crackle nail polish. So on one of my "routine" checks of Walgreens, I found that some of the Halloween nail polishes were finally in stock!

From left to right I grabbed the Black Crackle (1019), Pumpkin Spice (1135), Let's Talk (929), and Courtney Orange (30). The crackle nail polish retails for about $3.99 and the rest go for $1.99. Even though I have a lot of purples, I didn't have that hue so I just had to. I am excited to see what kind of combinations I'll come up with with just these four alone. As usual though, I probably won't be posting that much about manicures, so rest your troubled soul if you were worried that I'd change directions about the blog. ;)

While in Walgreens, they finally got the Revlon Moon Candy nail polishes in stock which I've been stalking since release. Almost every store nearby that had them were immediately sold out of my favourite colours and finally I had my moment. The first two are mine and the last two I bought for a friend (but let me take a quick picture of it -- I'm looking forward to seeing her manicure with the two).

From left to right is Orbit (280), Galactic (210) and for my friend is Eclipse (240), and Satellite (230). They retail for just under $10 each which seems a little bit on the high side (do keep in mind that they are 0.26 Fl. Oz. which makes them less then your standard nail polish bottle) but honestly, they are absolutely gorgeous and so very much worth it. I did end up using the Galactic (pictured at the very bottom of this post) after I wrote my Cinderella posts and I'm very much happy with their look. I'm new to flakies and I have to admit, I'm incredibly impressed (and also gullible since these polishes have a space theme -- this is strangely similar to how I got suckered into Angry Birds Space).

It terms of arrivals, the Cinderella Sephora nail polish arrived a few hours after my order from Lucky 13 Lacquers which made me an incredibly happy person. Lucky 13 Lacquers is an indie line created by Kyoti who blogs about nail polishes. She created  a Humble Indie Inspired Bundle, which took 6 indie games and turned them into gorgeous glitter nail polish. She is also donating 15% of the proceeds going to the actual Humble Indie Bundle. After careful thought (of all of 2 minutes), I decided to buy it especially since I played about half of those games and loved it. Plus with part of the proceeds going toward a good cause and supporting an indie nail polish maker, I couldn't quite resist.

As usual, I'm super excited to be posting about all of these items but it's probably going to take me a bit of time to finally swatch it all. But I can't wait!

Revlon Moon Candy in Galactic.

Sephora + Cinderella, Part 2

As promised, this is a continuation of my post about the Sephora + Cinderella (click here for Part 1) lineup -- in the first post I mentioned the DVD release along with the Sephora screening and now I present the collection. Or at least the ones that I purchased. When the items became available, I immediately got the Compact Mirror, Moonlit Kiss Lipstick Set, and the A Brush With Fate Nail Polish Set for a variety of reasons. So let's take a look.

The compact mirror -- I admit that it doesn't look that impressive when I first saw the promotional pictures. However I'm a sucker for watches and when I saw the false watch face, I really couldn't help myself. So I sprang for it and figured that of everything I got, that would be the best purchase that I made.

And it was.

Right out of the box, I fell in love with the item and I wish that pictures could do it justice. The inside top mirror says "Time for your moment" and the outside is so beautiful with the clock face and castle in the center. This is a beautiful mirror that I think is just classic and will be with me for a long time. For $20, I'm incredibly happy with this purchase.

The next item was the set of lipsticks and I knew upon looking at them that three of the four wouldn't show up on me. But considering how pretty they were, that was a risk I was willing to take. This four piece set is $25 and I honestly can't wait to swatch it next.

The colours in this pack are as follows: Lady Tremaine which is the berry, Pumpkin which is a light pastel peach, Who Is She? is a warm rosy mauve, and finally My Moment which is a pink champagne glitter. Gorgeous colours which will probably look like lip balms on me but to be honest, that Lady Tremaine looks amazing and the packaging is perfection.

The last item I got was the nail polish set -- now please note that they are miniature sizes so don't be surprised if you get them and find that they are much smaller than normal. There are six small bottles in this set and it costs $24.50. The one thing that annoyed me was that the bottles themselves aren't labelled with the colour but here's the rundown of them: So Totally Enchanted is glittery silver, Step Off, Sister! is glittery purple, Blue My Curfew is the glittery royal blue, Bibbidi, Bobbidi, Pink! is glittery pink, Self-Maid Millionaire is glittery gold, and finally Rags to Rhinestones is glittery bronze.

Hopefully I'll be swatching these soon so stay tuned for that!

Sephora + Cinderella, Part 1

Yesterday was the Sephora screening of the Diamond Edition Cinderella -- wait, hold on. If you're like me then you know that Disney releases movies "from the vault" and sometimes does a bit of work on them, but what is a Diamond Edition? The long of the short is that it's digitally remastered and made for Blu-rays. If you're familiar with the Platinum Editions then note that the Diamond Edition is possibly just better quality. Now that that is out of the way, the Cinderella version is being released on October 2nd which is why you've probably seen a spike of Cinderella. If you haven't, well...

To commemorate the release, there have been numerous partnerships. I'm not going to get into them all but here's a quick recap. In addition to the Sephora line, Disney released some "Classic Cinderella" items that used artowrk from the original 1950 movie poster, reimagined Cinderella (so she's a bit more modern), teamed up with Alfred Angelo to make a special Cinderella wedding dress, and finally released shoes with Christian Louboutin and DSW. I'm pretty sure I'm missing quite a few things. Supposedly this is part of the "Disney Reigning Beauties Collections" and others will get the same treatment in the future. (I have a strong suspicion that these collections are correlating with the release of the Diamond Editions and if that is the case, then The Little Mermaid is up next).

About the screening -- it's been a very long time since I saw Cinderella and since I rarely use my Sephora Insider Points for anything (hey, I'm picky) this seemed like the perfect event. I asked my boyfriend and told his sister, and before we knew it, we had a nice little group of four. We showed up early and sat in line (though to be fair, we took turns to walk around and grab food). At 7 PM, they let us in and we saw the movie (no previews, commercials, just the movie [which was awesome]). Upon leaving, they gave us all a small bag with a slip of paper that described the DVD release and the Sephora line, along with a gift card.

The movie looked fantastic and even though I knew that it was better quality then when I saw it as a kid, it was just the way I remembered it. There were also a lot of little details that I forgot, like how animated the King was (or how grandchildren crazy he was), or the arrival of Gus, and so on.

If you're a fan of the movie then the movie is bound to be right up your alley, along with this collection. Speaking of the collection, let's move on.

I ordered the Compact Mirror, Moonlit Kiss Lipstick Set, and the A Brush With Fate Nail Polish Set. I came super close to ordering the perfume and the eyeshadow set, but luckily I remembered that I'm really picky about perfumes and I had a friend that was ordering the eyeshadow palette. Please note that I actually ordered everything before the screening because I'm addicted to Disney.

Since this post is already running long, I'll be breaking up the post (which I'll be following up later on tonight) so stay tuned for the images of the collection. I haven't swatched any of it yet because today marks the celebration of the nail polish haul (more on that later) so look for that in the future.

Click here for Part 2, where I show you some of the collection.

Kara's Way: Sante Mascara Giveaway

Some time ago, I did a post about Mascara Endless Lashes № 03 by Sante Naturkosmetik (read the review here) which was one of the full-sized products that was in the first Kara's Way box. Kara's Way is still on a hiatus, but they are gearing up for October.

In anticipation of their return, there's a mascara giveaway and in order to enter you have to hit the "Like" button for Sante Naturkosmetik on Facebook and then fill our your information. There will be a random drawing and they'll be selecting 150 people. If you haven't had a chance to try the product, this would be a great way to try to snag it!

Review: NECTRESSE Sweetener

Nectresse was another interesting addition to the box this month. A few months ago I tried out another natural sweetener that was okay and while it was something that I did recommend to others, I didn't really pick it up for myself (please note, I am not a fan of sweeteners only because I'm hypoglycemic and actively avoiding real sugar as done harm in the past). 

Picture is subject to be used again. :)

Upon first tasting it, I put the whole packet into a cup of coffee and the initial taste was terrible. (Keep reading, it does get better). After the first few sips, the aftertaste went away and it seemed to be just like normal sugar. I only got two packets to try so for the second try, I decided to have it with a cup of tea. I tossed the majority of the packet in and saved a tiny bit. The second try there was no aftertaste and my assumption was that I was so set on what sweeteners generally taste like that I may have projected a bit. My cup of tea was delicious and not super sweet. I decided to take that little bit that I left behind and just try it straight. It just tasted like sugar -- there's no scent to it, you get a light hint of fruit but that goes away quickly.

But let's get into the ingredients a bit here. Despite the packaging and how it is perceived, this sweetener is not 100% monk fruit. They don't lie about it -- they do say that 100% natural and that is had monk fruit, but it does have other natural sweeteners in it. It contains monk fruit extract, erythritol, sugar, and molasses. I tried reading up a bit about erythirtol but goodness knows I can't make heads or tails out of a 4 carbon sugar alcohol so make of that what you will.

Overall, I liked it! Even as a person that usually doesn't like it, I actually liked the taste (after getting over my initial aftertaste shenanigans that I can't really explain). I'd definitely recommend it, especially if you're actually not a fan of sweeteners. Give it a shot!

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Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary through the VoxBox product testing program.

Review: The Original Drying Mat

Right out of the box, this was the second thing that I gravitated toward. I normally don't have very many dishes to wash at home but my boyfriend does. I felt it would be somewhat unfair to judge the powers of this mat at my place so I used it at his.

Notice that the mat is missing already.

I was doing some dishes and ran out of space in the dish rack so I ended up breaking out the Original Drying Mat. It does what it was intended to do -- dries dishes but they seem to dry out much faster.

What I like about using this (in comparison to just spreading a towel out and letting them rest on that) is that water doesn't get everywhere. I'm not left with a drenched towel -- I'm just left with a slightly damp mat which you can then hang out to dry. The fantastic part was that after the first use, it wasn't all that wet so I didn't have to hang it up to dry. (I mean, it's not always going to be like that, but it was a nice change).

Shortly after that, I moved it to the bottom of the dish rack in order to clean the drainboard. After the drainboard dried out, it was then placed under the mat as a precaution. See the big issue we were having was that the sink ridge was a bit higher than the rest of the countertop. This meant that the drainboard couldn't actually drain out properly so it wasn't a matter of the drying rack and drainboard not doing their job, it was a matter of logistics. Even if we propped up the drainboard, it was still too high.

So having the drying mat underneath now keeps the water from spilling onto the counter and keeps the dishes from coming into the contact with the water that pools up. Overall, this was a great addition to the household so I'm very happy about it.

As I might have mentioned in the previous posts about this Naturals VoxBox, that we have the same kind of mat at work so I already know that it works so I'd definitely recommend this.

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Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary through the VoxBox product testing program

Review: GEODEO Natural Deodorant Plus Detox Complex

Straight out of the Influenster Naturals VoxBox, this was the first item I tried and I've been trying it out for the last week. This deodorant comes at a great time as my Crystal Essence Roll-On just finished and I noticed that I'm half way through my Naturally Fresh Roll-On. I was about to open up my Lavanila but this arrived just in time.

A bit of a background here, originally I thought that GEODEO was completely different from the Naturally Fresh and Crystal Essence line -- turns out that GEODEO is under TCCD, which also owns Naturally Fresh. While they are owned by the same company, they are not the same. 

Moving along, it looks like the GEODEO stick will be offered at $5.99 for 2.3 Oz (which is the size I received) but it looks like for now it can be ordered online and there's a slow release to brick and mortar stores. Basically (according to the website) the deodorant is 100% natural, allergen-free, vegetable based and derived from renewable resources. It contains volcanic minerals and Icelandic algae which fights impurities, enzymes that neutralize odors and to nourish skin there's bamboo and aloe. Finally there's Vitamin E to fight free radicals. So basically... ah... let's move on with my review.

I got the Island scent which I LOVE (I'm a Caribbean kind of girl) so I was very happy with it right out of the box. I tried it on for the day, then wrote about receiving my VoxBox then I've gone the last week using just this deodorant. I adore the scent since it seems to stay the whole day -- the other two that I used (Crystal Essence and Naturally Fresh) had great scents but they wouldn't last the whole day (and nor they should, all things considered). I did like that this deodorant boasts 24 hour protection and it actually delivers. I found that I didn't even need to reapply it throughout the day (sometimes for the roll-ons I'd have to reapply 2-3 times a day).

Thus far, I've been very impressed with it and I can definitely see it being a staple in the future. Don't get me wrong, I love the other two that I had, but there's something to be said about a natural deodorant that lasts. The part I also love is that it's a solid -- I'm not a huge fan of liquids, but this works. It smells good, lasts for a full day, and is natural. Overall, I'm sold.

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Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary through the VoxBox product testing program.

Influenster Naturals VoxBox

Once I found out that I qualified for the Naturals VoxBox, I got really excited because this was right up my alley. Now normally I like to take my time and really evaluate the products for a few days (or at least a few tries) to have a good comparison between whatever I got compared to what I was using before. As you might know, VoxBox is not all makeup so I'll warn you now that I didn't get any makeup products so my reviews won't be technically in line with the normal posts that I have on this blog.

Now, if you got the VoxBox then you might notice that the mat is already missing. That's because I've already put it to work (I'll have a review for it in another post). My Naturals VoxBox came with the following items:

• The Original Drying Mat
• LypSyl Intense Protection LypMoisturizer
• EBOOST
• CleanWell Individual Hand Sanitizer Wipes
• GEODEO
• NECTRESSE
• Country Life Maxi-Hair Maximized

Now for a quick overview of my feelings about this box and the items that were included. I already kind of knew what was going to be in the box (I checked Influenster on Facebook) and I knew that only one item would change based on demographics (this is where I got the Country Life vitamins instead of some of the other options).

I was really excited for some reason for the drying mat because I'm not a huge fan of my current drying rack. We actually have one of these at work that was placed underneath the rack (but on top of the plastic tray beneath). I always welcome a new type of lip moisturizer so that was bound to be a hit. The CleanWell brand I'm familiar with since I use it at home but I wasn't sure how much a single wipe will help me determine if I'd want a sanitizer but hey, I already trust the brand and like it so who knows.

The EBOOST I'm a bit on the fence about -- I take a Vitamin C daily so I'm not sure what the difference would be between the two but we'll see. The vitamins (Country Life Maxi-Hair) I was super excited about because I do take a daily dosage of biotin so it'd be nice to try a mix (this has B-vitamins in it). 

I was super excited (yes, I know, I keep saying "super excited" but as I mentioned, this box is right up my alley) for the deodorant. My bottle of Crystal Essence is finished and my Naturally Fresh bottle is half way through so I'm already testing that out.

The NECTRESSE I'm kind of hesitant about only because I'm not a fan of sweeteners but this one looks like it is made of fruits so I look forward to trying it out in my tea.

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Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary through the VoxBox product testing program.

A Look at the Disney Designer Line

For those who haven't figured this out yet, I'm a huge Disney fan (you can read all about it over at etceteros so I'll spare you the details). Last year they put out this amazing Disney Designer Princess line and I got myself the nail polish and lip gloss amongst some other items. This year, with the return of the Designer line, they've gone with the villains, so I couldn't help but pick up the nail polishes and the lip glosses again. I haven't used them -- not once, and I "unboxed" them for the first time to post pictures but this is not a review since I haven't used them. 

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Lip Glosses

In the Princess line (click here for a closeup), you have Belle, Mulan, and Snow White. They all look very glittery and look to be quite beautiful. Belle is a warm golden bronze, Mulan is "sassy pink with silver sparkle," and Snow White is the "sheerest apple red."

In order of translucency, Mulan comes in at the top as being practically see through with just a hint of pink with a bit of glitter. I suspect that the Snow White is second with the red being sheer (again, I'm not sure what it looks like out of the tube), with Belle seeming to be the most solid of colours.

Last year the princesses lip glosses retailed for $24.50 and it's 5.0 mL at 0.17 Fl. Oz each.

This year, the Villains line (click here for a closeup) is a bit smaller in packaging (length wise) however much sturdier. The plastic feels much better as do the caps. You might have noticed that there's a lot more product in those tubes and they utilize less plastic. The Villains lip glosses don't have official descriptions so... watch as I mangle this.

Cruella De Vil s my favourite -- it's a shimmery red but a bit darker then the Snow White (much darker, actually) with a bit of glitter that you can make out. Evil Queen is plum with lots of shimmer. The Queen of Hearts is a golden colour which comes out to be just a tad bit lighter in comparison 

The Villains line is available online through Disney and will slowly be hitting the stores. It costs $24.50 and it's 6.7 mL at 0.22 Fl. Oz each.

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Nail Varnishes

I'm a bit of a addict when it comes to nail polish but worse so, I can run into a being an odd collector when it comes to two of my favourite things clashing. You might notice the Princess nail polishes separating because I refused to use them -- I never even took them out of the box till I was ready to take photos of them.

With the Princess line, there are 10 polishes in all for each of the princesses and from left to right:

• Mulan, a very light and somewhat sheer pink.
• Jasmine, a shimmery teal.
• Snow White, a clear base with lots of red glitter.
• Cinderella, a clear base with silver glitter and specks of rainbow glitter.
• Aurora, a brink pink and French Rose colour blend.
• Ariel, clear base with teal glitter (although it looks more like a blend of blue and green glitter.
• Rapunzel, which looks like plum but it's more of a Rose Vale colour (a blend of darker pinks and purples).
• Belle, gold glitter.
• Tiana, a very light, pearl-like green.
• Pocahontas, which is a bronze glitter.

The total weight is 6.0 mL at 0.2 Fl. Oz. each and the cost for this set was $24.50.

This year the Villains nail polish is much smaller with 6 colours. The bright side though is that there's a lot more of it. The pictures to the right shows the comparison of the princess bottle (which is much smaller) and the the larger one with the tapered top is the Villains. 

 The Villains line includes:

• Cruella De Vil, which is red. This red is quite reminiscent of the Snow White red in the lip glosses.
• Evil Queen, black with purple glitter. (I love this one).
• Maleficent, sea green with hints of darkness to it but lots of shimmer.
• Mother Gothel is a deep dark red (likely burgundy).
• Queen of Hearts, which is a gold shimmer with hints of glitter.
• Ursula, a very light purple (thistle) with hints of glitter.

The Villains line is 15 mL at 0.5 Fl. Oz. each and it is going for $29.50.

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I love this line and I love the reinvention of the princesses and villains alike. I'm definitely enjoying the products that they have been coming up with (though I admit, I wish there were more). I still love my Jasmine shirt and mug, and this time round I was happy to add the Queen of Hearts mug to my collection. I've seen the snapshots of the supposed eyeshadow that should be coming out with the rest of the line eventually but eyeshadows and I rarely get along so I might be skipping that.

There is also supposed to be a collaboration between Disney and Sephora coming up in the future (rumour has it that it's slated for October and that this year will be focusing on Cinderella [Source: Makeup Talk]) so I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully there's a Jasmine line in the future. :)

Sephora + Cinderella

Generally I don't blog about advance notice items but this was awfully wonderful and I couldn't find anything else about it. So as some of you might know, Sephora will be teaming up with Disney to put out a Princess line. This year is the year of Cinderella and there's another lineup anticipated for 2013 and 2014 (my guess is that the princesses will be Snow White and Aurora).

The picture above is the teaser image for the items that they are anticipating to release and over at MakeupTalk you can get a quick rundown of what else will be released. Today Sephora sent out an email entitled "Compliments of Prada..." and the snapshot of the first image that shows up in the email is on the left. Of course, I skimmed through the email and saw nothing that was really appealing but I did what I always do. I scrolled to the bottom to check out the full creative and I'm quite happy I did. Along the very bottom was this image.

Oh my goodness. I haven't used my Beauty Insider points for anything in a long time so I was so happy that something popped up that I'd actually want or rather, need to go to. At first I was a bit skeptical because Sephora for a long time would send me offers that were in New York City so my fear was that it was for that location rather than San Francisco. Turns out there are multiple screenings in different locations. 

So if you got the email and you're at all interested in this, scroll down! This seems like an awesome experience especially if it's near you.

As a side note, my friend and I were discussing it and I told her that I'd personally love to see a Jasmine and Ariel line. Her vote went toward Jasmine and Belle. You know what I think would be super cute but not at all feasible though? A nod to the animals of Disney -- come on, a Marie (from the AristoCats) mirror compact would be sensationally cute.

Review: Miss Jessie's Quick Curls

A while ago I got wind of the Miss Jessie's line for curly hair. I'd had never heard about it before but found out that they send free samples so I got a few and saved it for later. (Hey now, I was on a hiatus, I had to save some of the new stuff to report on but just so you know, I ordered the Crème de la Crème Conditioner Packet, Crème de la Curl Shampoo Packet, Pillow Soft Curls Packet).

I actually haven't had the chance to try them out because my friend surprised me with a bottle of the Quick Curls formula. Now a heads up on my hair type, it's fine with medium to coarse strands, and the hair strands are a cross between 2a or 2b. Basically what that means is that my hair doesn't quite benefit at times from curling cremes but sometimes add a bit of a pop. A while ago I reviewed the Bumble and Bumble Curl Conscious Defining Creme and while it worked when my hair was shorter, add on two inches and the creme started being ineffective (well, that's more so my own hair's fault).

The first attempt with the Quick Curls was a bust. I had temporarily switched to a silicone heavy conditioner which just dragged down my hair. Putting in even the tiniest amount of the Quick Curls didn't do anything. My hair lost all of it's curls and waves and just ended up limp. I quickly saw the error in my ways (by checking the ingredients on the conditioner) and I realized that the silicones might have had something to do with missing waves and curls.

The second attempt I had switched to a natural shampoo and conditioner and then very lightly added the Quick Curls. Huge difference from the first attempt. My hair appeared a bit curlier but also a bit frizzier but I did love how much the curls popped -- even a day later. At this point I've been successfully using this curl creme for about a month now and I'm very happy with the bit of bounce that it adds to my hair. There is a bit of a drawback whereby I feel as though my hair gets a bit greasier on that second day however it really comes in at the end of the day so it's not a huge deal breaker.

Overall, pretty happy loose bouncy curls (they tighten at certain spots, but not all over) so I think for those with wurls, they are actually quite nice. I know that I need to post a better before shot but the picture above was two days after an application with dry shampoo. The wurls hold up well, if I do say so myself.

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Product: Miss Jessie's Quick Curls
Price: The 8 oz is priced at $32.00 and the 2 oz goes for $9.00.
Would Recommend? Yes, but for those with wurls.
Takeaway: Good performance overall for those with S-curls -- for those who lean on the wavy side (I can't speak to the other sides of waves since I don't have the hair to speak to that experience). Loving the performance over the last month as it makes my hair shiny and a tiny bit bouncy (which is a lot for my hair, trust me).

Sephora + Pantone Color IQ

I went in to Sephora (in San Francisco, Powell Street) to do this in early August (probably within the first week of it's release) and I was really excited about this. I've always had the hardest time picking foundations and figuring out what's right for me. Since starting this blog I've gotten a little bit better; I know my undertones, I know what looks good, and what doesn't (sometimes) but I still need help in that vast world of makeup. 

I went in when I had some time during my lunch break so I had makeup on my face. Lawrence (the sales associate that helped me) removed a bit from my forehead, jawline, and chin and then used the device on all three places. It take very long (perhaps 5 minutes tops) and I had a number which was my Pantone colour. 2Y11. Of course, this number doesn't mean much unless you enter it into the application which then tells you what your current colour is and gives you the option of choosing foundations that are lighter or darker than your current tone. 

Of course, getting a bunch of recommendations right off the bat can be a bit daunting but they give you the option of emailing your list to your email address. The email (pictured to the left) is really simplistic and lists them all out along with the colour which is quite handy.

Basically you get a listing of all the items, their picture link, their Sephora click-through link, the colour name and prices. 

I do kind of wish that email were put together a bit better but it does the job. Another thing I wish is that the Pantone system was available online so you could enter it and get all your recommendation (or perhaps tie it to your Sephora account). It's still pretty nifty and I did enjoy the ease that came about with this process because I no longer have depend on the sales associate to help me narrow down this wide field. Now I can just get a list and take it from there. You still do need to narrow it down based on your skin type, but this makes the colour matching a bit easier.

For my results, I parsed some of the information together below (but I didn't add the prices). Overall, I actually really like this system a lot and I am just so happy that it exists.

And I'm Back!

The last month was a nice breather for a lot of the things going on in my life -- I had decided to take a slight break not only from blogging (well, seriously blogging -- I was still having fun over at Etceteros), reading (120 books for the year), knitting, and crocheting. I was idle and it was awesome but now I've got to pick back up on something. During the month of August, I really didn't experiment much but I did notice a few things that I wanted to touch upon. It's time for Product Updates!

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Eyes

I went easy on the eye makeup and only used mascara here and there, the one stand up champion that I loved was Physicians Formula Organic Wear Jumbo Lash Mascara. I have long lashes and generally when I'm wearing mascara, the only thing I'm looking for is a slight pick me up to widen my eyes and darken my lashes a bit. A lot of formulas I've used have been on the clumpy side but this one does the trick without looking like it's too much.

Part of the reason why I haven't been using too much eye makeup is because my eyelids have been a bit dry (whereas the rest of my face has been acting oily). As a result, every night I put on some eye cream and I've been using Avon's Anew Retroactive+ Repair Eye Serum. I've had this bottle for quite some time now and it refuses to finish but overall, I do love the results that I get with it. This particular product is discontinued though but once I finish it out, I'll be switching back to 100% Pure eye cream.

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Hair Care

I've been switching back to my standard hair care routine -- no parabens, no silicones, and low sulfates (or no sulfates). During the month I finished out the last of my Renpure Organics then realized that the other bottles I had picked up had either parabens or silicones. I ended up returning them and I've been sticking with Garnier Pure Clean (which is not sulfate free, but it free of parabens and silicones -- my hair does not like silicones so it was a compromise I was willing to make).

Items I ended up getting rid of are the Bumble and Bumble Curl Conscious Defining Creme and the Not Your Mother's Clean Freak Dry Shampoo. These items are not inherently bad but as my hair has gotten longer, they really aren't working the way that they should The Bumble and Bumble Creme was actually weighing down my waves (or wurls) and wasn't giving me the lift I desired. My hair is thick and fine though so I imagine that it would still works for others, just not me. As for the NYM's Dry Shampoo, I prefer the cornstarch method now that my hair a little bit longer since it felt like it was weighing my hair down.

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Foundation

As I mentioned, I'm trying to go natural (again. A quick note about this, I had gone natural but stopped for a bit in order to incorporate SPF into my routine. As a result, I ended up drifting away but then realized, I had drifted away from SPF makeup as well which meant that I should probably just go all natural again). I've also been experimenting a bit more with different foundations as well.

Although I love and adore CoverFX, I finally did get my hands on the right Everyday Minerals foundation that matches me. So as a result for the last month I've been using the EDM foundations in lieu of the CoverFX. (And please note that CoverFX has SPF 10 and is paraben free, oil free, fragrance free, wax free). Anyhow I found that two of the EDM foundations works and I ended up ordering a bunch of foundation samples from Meow Cosmetics. I still think that CoverFX is the best so far but we'll  see what happens when I start experimenting again.

I did end up giving up my Illamasqua blush -- I was very happy with it's overall performance and pigmentation however I decided that I really wanted to stick to my goals and ended up getting a Tarte blush instead. I'll be working on a review for the Tarte item(s) later on.

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Well, I think that's it. My Guest Bloggers are missing in action but I do know that a lot of them are getting into the busy season so I can offer them a little bit of leeway. ;)