When I have time...

August 2012 Birchbox

I'm so addicted to sample services. Even if it's not something I ever thought of using, it's cool to know it's out there. Of course, it's hard to give a proper review when samples only give 1-2 uses, but I guess it's enough to give an idea!

One service I subscribe to is Birchbox, I'm sure everyone knows what this is by now but for those who don't I'll give a blurb at the end of the post :)

August's box was supposed to be a "back to school" theme. I didn't really get the theme vibe from the box, but whatever :p Sorry, but I didn't take individual pics of each of the products...they weren't really that interesting to me!

My Box

Shu Uemura Art of Hair Full Shimmer Illuminating Shampoo/Treatment:

Pros: Smells like roses! My favorite smell! The sample was enough for 2 uses. My hair feels softer than it does with my regular shampoo/conditioner (Living Proof no frizz)

Cons: I don't like the sample packets grrr. They're hard to tear open. It doesn't calm frizz as well as my current s/c. I don't know if this is sulfate free, but it felt like it when I was using it...you know? Sulfate free hair products don't feel very luxurious during use, I don't know if I'm the only one who has that complaint :p But as soon as it rinsed out it felt amazing (not a con, duh)

I have fine, color treated, frizzy hair that tangles easily and most hair products make it feel sticky. It's frizzier than after the Living Proof but softer, less tangly and not sticky. The real test would be to use it for more than  a few weeks. I'd also be interested to see if the color preservation properties work, since I have reverse-ombre-ish hair that's dark red on the bottom and it fades like crazy.

This stuff is even more expensive than my Living Proof but I might have to offload some BB points. At the very least I'm glad I got to try it, even though I have to put it on my wish list for a little while.

Juicy Couture Viva la Juicy La Fleur:

I have the regular Viva la Juicy, I haven't met a Juicy perfume I didn't like...mmm. This smells pretty much the same, just more...flowery? IDK I don't review perfumes for a good reason :p If you like the original VLJ I would say this is a safe bet. It's got that same candy sweet but fresh smell, but with a hint of floral. The bottle is super cute.

Jouer Moisturizing Lip Gloss in Birchbox Pink:

I love this! It looks terrifyingly bright in the package but goes on very sheer, it looks like you've eaten a popsicle. It tones down to something that looks very good on my skintone, which as you can see from my pictures is light with cool/neutral undertones. I would normally show this on my lips but the weird heatwave we're having in San Diego is doing some funny things to my skin ...I'll spare you guys. This has no taste or smell, didn't feel sticky and felt moisturized. I don't think it lasted very long but no lip gloss does on me, YMMV. I've heard so many good things about the Jouer lip glosses but never got to try one before now.

This color is JUST the right amount of pop on me.

Apothederm Stretch Mark Cream:

Umm...this one's hard to evaluate. I have a few horizontal stretch marks on my legs from growing at a ridiculous rate when I was younger, and I guess they just never went away. But I was under the impression stretch mark treatments had to be used for a matter of weeks or months for results. This sample will probably get you about 3-4 uses. I really don't like it...it's sticky and it smells funny, it *smells* unscented, if that makes any sense? I would just stick with cocoa butter :) Per the blurb on BB's product page it sounds really great, but I would have to see a study with amazing results before I'll put up with the sticky and weird smell LOL!

Schick Hydro Silk Razor:
Another ummm...sure...*throws in guest drawer* I've been all about men's razors since my roomie turned me on to them back in college. They're less floofy and have a heft and sturdiness to them that I didn't get back when I used the Venus or Schick Women's Quattro. I currently use a men's Gillette Fusion, it just feels less flimsy than the women's razors I used to use. But you never know when you'll need a one-off razor, so in the sample bin it goes! FWIW, this one looks very nice and I have not tried the Hydro Silk specifically.

The box also came with a "Beauty School" book with tips and tricks, a lot of the stuff in there wasn't anything wild but if you're just getting started I could see how it would be helpful :)

Hit up the product title links for the Birchbox product pages! I'm kinda ticked at them right now, Myglam is lapping them in every way each month, but it's too fun to get a box of samples each month to unsub. If you don't know what Birchbox is, it's a $10/mo (monthly or yearly) sample box program, they collect up 4-5 deluxe samples and send them out to you. I've gotten some real duds (teabags? bahahaha) and some real treasures (mini Color Clubs, Eyeko eye sticks, blinc mascara). You can sign up at Birchbox.com or use my referral link here: https://www.birchbox.com?raf=kgpq4

Again, thanks for reading! Did anyone else get anything of note in their Birchboxes this month?
K x

NOTD: Zoya Daul + DRK-A

My Zoya BOGO order came yesterday; first order of business? Wear Daul. (I also got Gaia, Ray, Bijou, Reece, Pheobe, Frida and Cheryl.)

I'd heard some assorted complaints about it being flat, or not covering very well, etc. etc. but happily I didn't experience any of those things. I did three coats because I was stamping black over it. Unfortunately, I chose INM Out The Door topcoat and this might be strike three- it dries slowly and dulls whatever I put it over. Back to my SV.

From the DRK-A jumbo stamping plate (I got this from Llarowe a while back, Ninja Polish has it currently) I chose the leopard print, I don't normally like leopard print but for some reason it was appealing to me today. I used Konad special polish in black, I know everyone says you don't need to use the Konad polish but I get better results. YMMV.

This looks so much better in real life. It WOULD NOT photograph. Plus I accidentally brushed my hand against something while the Out The Door was still wet, because it sucks and it won't dry. Your bad, OTD. So please ignore both the streaking on my ring/index finger and my crappy stamping ability :)

Thanks for reading, lovelies! 

K x

Sassy Saturday: MORE DOTS with butter LONDON

PART TWO of my PVA trip report! This is amazing! The only thing I would change is a thicker glue coat next time...I put the glue on really thinly and it was hard to get ahold of in places.

I wasn't able to get the glue off in one piece in most cases, but removal maybe took 2 minutes. All I had to do was run a q-tip with acetone down the sides of my nails. No damage! No dry nails! No foil hands for 15 minutes (I do one hand at a time)!

For my Sassy Saturday entry...well, for those who don't know, the first Saturday of every month Shelly's Sassy Nails holds a nail art competition. This month's theme was dots! I can do dots! Sorta!

I've been dying to use some of my new butter LONDON polishes (Cake Hole and Squatter were two of the Macy's exclusives I was talking about in the Brummie post). Gobsmacked is just WOW. It was meh at first, all grainy and boring, but after a second coat, Gelous and SV it's perfectly smooth, deep and sparkly. 

Look how sparkly!

The ring I got for $2 off of eBay :)

Finally, here's the Photo Grid I made up for my entry at Shelly's page...

And because I can, I leave you with this! Thanks for reading! K x

ABC Challenge "D" + TIOT: Julep Daphne & Elevation Polish Ama Dablam

Hi friendsies! (is that less lame than nailistas? Probably not.)

You maaaaaay have noticed but we have a new layout, it's sort of weird I guess but if anyone has any comments please let me know!

Anyhow! For this overcast, muggy TIOT (which also happens to be ABC Challenge "D" week) I had just gotten Elevation Polish Ama Dablam in my mailbox and really really needed to wear it. But that doesn't start with a D, you say! So I hunted through my spreadsheet and figured out which "D" named polish would work underneath, and settled on Julep Daphne. Daphne reminds me of Zoya Wednesday, but just not as nice. More on that later :/

It was also time for Round 2 of PVA Basecoat Fun. I found some Aleene's Tacky Glue in the back of my storage closet, and according to Duncan's site it's a water-based polymer emulsion. The bubbles in the below pic are totally my fault, guys, I tried adding some water to the glue and shaking it was a bad idea. Oops. Once the basecoat, polish and topcoat go on you can't tell, but Round 3 will be focused on eliminating the bubbles.

Drying time was about 10-15 minutes for both hands. The water in the glue made it sort of lumpy, I don't recommend this for even drying times. I followed the glue with Barielle basecoat, then Julep Daphne. I just don't like these colors on me. I love them in the bottle or on other people, just not me. Plus it had my usual complaint with Julep polishes, which is the runny + globby, crappy brush problem. I had to slap this on in 2 thick coats to get it to look OK. Like I said before the color reminds me of Zoya Wednesday but I like both the Zoya color and formula better.

I feel like my camera makes it look a little brighter and less green here than it really is.

After loading that up with SV I used tape to do angled Ama Dablam tips. AD is awesomeeeeeee. Elevation Polish describes it as being packed with micro multi-colored glitter, micro copper colored glitter, green teal square glitter, blue teal holographic hex glitter and copper colored round glitter. It makes me so happy to look at. Here are bottle shots of both, isn't that just amazing?

This is 2 coats of Ama Dablam brushed over the tips, I didn't need to place the glitter at all.

Julep polishes can be purchased at their site for $14. Elevation Polish announces her releases on her blog, but you can also check out her Etsy or their website. Unfortunately Ama Dablam is no longer available and will not be restocked, according to the preorder page, but her other polishes are gorgeous as well!

So far I see no difference between the glue basecoat and normal basecoat (and I've showered, washed dishes, etc. since last night) but I will follow up with removal either later today or tomorrow.

Has anyone else tried the PVA basecoat?

Thanks for reading!

 K x

NOTD: Julep Pippa + Barielle Buddha-Ful

Hi nailistas (ok that was a little ridiculous but I've had some champagne)

This NOTD is a long, sordid story of FAIL. Argh. The Mr. is gone at a friend's house right now (I chose ME time over Street Fighter time, so I'm holding down the fort) so it's just me, my dog and my blog. LOL. All this free time means you guys get to hear the story.

So last night I planned out a funky french in my head: dark green sparkly tips, silver glitter striping and some nice OPI Coney Island Cotton Candy. Um, that's where everything good about this idea came to an abrupt end. Since everyone's talking about this PVA basecoat business, I picked up a few different glues to try my hand at it. One of them, Tombow Mono Multi, is a PVA according to Google but features "removable application" that I didn't notice at the store. This is so you can reposition photos, etc. as you choose. Turns out, this means this glue dries to a sticky finish. Oooooops. I kept thinking "it'll turn out OK, it'll turn out OK..." No. I ended up with some very nice and sparkly green tips (Smitten Polish I Want It Now) but this lumpy, gluey MESS of a nail bed. At this point I just gave up and took it all off. Note to self, read the glue next time.

After that I was pretty mad so I went for simple. I had recently picked up Julep's Pippa thinking it'd be a pretty good match for my skintone, as a one coat neutral to put under sheers and glitters. It actually is a decent match, but I could probably go for something a little more true neutral, this leans a little pink on  me. Either way I'm really happy with it. The formula is bleh coming out of the bottle, I feel like the brush just keeps dripping forever (thick but runny, the usual) but it has the nice wide brush most of the Juleps have. The below are two coats. I like the simplicity of it. Dry time was a little longer than I'd like but that's just what I expect from most Julep polishes.

After I was done I tried adding a paw print accent, but the base wasn't dry enough yet and things went slightly awry :s

When I was less mad I decided to add a topcoat of Barielle Buddha-ful. I love this polish even if it is a bit goopy and bubbly, it's this gorgeous nude base packed with green iridescent flakies. It bubbled on a few of my nails as you can see but overall I feel pretty happy with this. I used one coat.

Look at those flakies!!

Here's a bottle shot of Buddha-ful.

Pippa can be purchased from Julep's site (price depends on membership) and Buddha-ful can be purchased from barielle.com for $8.00.

Thanks for reading!

K x

Darling Diva Polish - Channeling Coco: Alphabet Challenge "C"

Hello lovelies,
Tonight's post is very special! It marks the culmination of an epic trifecta: finally changing out Brummie, Lustrous Lacquer's ABC "C" week and my first on-time contribution to Try It On Tuesday!

For this I chose Darling Diva Polish's Channeling Coco. I saw this on her Etsy shop and had to have it (along with like 10 other of her polishes :p) Her polishes range from $8-12 per full size bottle and have some seriously cool/hilarious names. Plus the girl has a Battlestar Galactica collection, ok, let me hand over my wallet now, thanks. /love

Isn't this cute? She describes this as a pale warm pink base with small black and pink glitters. Yup, that's about right.

So, this didn't turn out very well on me. I shook it, turned it upside down for a while and fished like crazy but I could barely get any glitter. The Etsy picture for the item has a decent amount of glitter but I just couldn't coax it out. I was sorta bummed about this :(

This is five coats!

First of all, I probably should have put this over a nude base coat...but on the other hand, the only reason I got as much glitter as you see above is because I had to coax 5 coats onto my nails and be careful not to sweep the glitter off with the brush. It looks pretty and milky and only a tiny bit streaky, which is most likely due to me babying the glitter :p Topcoat is a must for this one because without it looks a bit uneven. However, it dries smooth, this glitter doesn't eat topcoat :) I feel like if the base was a little thinner and the glitter a little more dense in the bottle I could have gotten the results I was expecting, but don't get me wrong - I do think this is very pretty.

I've also picked up Ringer, Space Beetle, Princess Celestia, Fancy Nancy, Cherry Jubilee (LOVE) and Enchantment and can't wait to try them. 

Thanks for reading!
K x