First Impressions: Ipsy October 2013

For some reason it took me awhile to try any of the stuff in my subscription bags from October. I have finally got around using them so there is my First Impressions review of Ipsy.

First up is the bag. Not a huge fan of the bag. I looks just like the bag we got a few months ago but now with a quote.

The first item in my bag is Zoya nail polish in Neve. Out of the three Zoya polishes in the bags this is the one that I wanted. Yay! Zoya is my favorite brand so I’m always happy to get one in my bag.
Neve is a gorgeous navy blue with purple undertones. In some lights it looks blue and in some purple.

The next item is Bella Terra Mineral Cosmetics mineral shimmer in Emotion. This was nice, nothing special mineral eyeshadow. It is a medium purple that works as a lid color or as a crease color.

The next item is Style Sexy Hair Spray Clay. This a hair spray and I don’t have a need for hair spray. If you have curly hair and use hair spray let me know. Maybe I’m missing something but I just don’t see a need for hair spray with curly hair.

The next item is Coastal Scents medium shadow brush BR-C-N02. This was a good brush with a good balance between firmness and softness. It picked up the eyeshadow really well. The only bad thing I would say is that this brush is a little too big for my eyelid so I think I would only use this for my brow highlight.

The last item is the Nourish Organic Deeply Nourishing Coconut & Argan body lotion. This is sold exclusively at Target so if you are interested in this you can find it there. I didn’t find anything special about this lotion. It is a light lotion and absorbs quickly. My hands are always dry, one of the downsides to working in a library, and I like heavy duty lotions. This one doesn’t seem to make much difference after using it. This smell is a little weird, not quite coconut and also a weird floral scent.

So that was my October Ipsy bag.

Julep Maven October 2013 box

Hi, reader! Long time no blog! I’m back with my latest Julep Maven box. I had a hard time picking a box this month. I didn’t like the polishes in my normal It Girl box but I wasn’t thrilled with the product featured in the other boxes, though it was interested in trying the face mask in the Modern Beauty box. After much personal debating I went with the Bombshell box. So without further adieu here’s my Maven box.

The quote of the month.

The extra this month is candy corn. I love candy corn so I was happy to see these. No one in my house likes these so I don’t buy them because eating a whole bag of candy corn would be bad. Pretty sure that would put a person into a diabetic coma.

The product this month is a double ended Kajal Eye Glider liner and sharpener. The brown side applied nicely but the black side was dry with an uneven application. Also after five minutes I swiped my hand, the brown smeared but the black stayed still. This also isn’t waterproof.

Now on to the polishes. Cleopatra is described as a latex polish, it is called latex because of how it looks not because latex is in it.

Of course I had to get add ons and I got three polishes. Casper is glow in the dark and Ciara is probably the most unique polish in my collection. I hope it looks just as good on my nails as it does on the swatch nail.

So that is my box. The two polishes I’m most excited about are Valerie and Ciara. They are both gorgeous and can’t wait to wear them.

Julep Maven September 2013

Julep Maven for September was interesting. I wasn’t thrilled with the colors but I really wanted to try their new oil cleanser Bare Face since I love the Dermalogica one so much. I went back and forth on what box to get and settled on the Bombshell box. The polishes looked interesting and I would get to try the new cleanser.

So the first thing in the box was the beauty extra, one polish remover wipe.

The Bare Face is Julep’s new oil face cleanser. First off I love how this smells, nice and citrusy! I pumped two pumps into my dry hands and apply to my dry face. After the oil has been massaged into my skin I wet my face and scrub some more. I then take a wet cloth and hot water and get the oil off my face. It takes off my makeup and doesn’t make my skin feel oily after using it. My only complaint is that it doesn’t take all my waterproof eye makeup off. So for that reason I like the Dermalogica Precleanse better.

Before I get into the polishes I got I should let you know that Julep polishes have a new look. Well, the bottle themselves look the same but the outer package is new.

So the first polish in the box is Daria. This is a cream polish in a medium gray. I don’t have any grays in my polish collection so I thought this would be good addition.

The other polish in the box is Karmen. This is a micro shimmer of red and golds. As I’ve said before red polishes are not my thing but this polish is gorgeous! Probably like it because of the gold but I’ll take it.

Here is another picture to show the different colors.

Of course I got some add-ons. Dang you, Julep, and your excellent marketing statergy!

The first thing is the Konjac sponge. This sponge is designed to go with the Bare Face cleanser and to provide a gentle exfoliation. It comes with a string built in to the sponge and comes with a hook so you can hang up your sponge to dry. That is my favorite part of the sponge. I just don’t think there is anything special about this. Maybe I’m using it wrong, who knows.

I also picked up two polishes, Reece (a blackish purple with holographic shimmer) and Candace (brown and gold micro shimmer).

So that is my September box. My next manicure will definitely be Karmen. I have to say I was surprised how much I love a red polish.

August Favorites!

Another type of video that I love watching on Youtube is favorites videos. If you haven’t seen them before the beauty gurus talk about items that they have been loving that month. I wrote one when I first started this blog but my computer shut down and it didn’t save. So this is my first favorites post. (Fingers crossed that it saves and uploads!)

So without further ado these are the things that I have been loving for the month of August.

The first thing is the bareMinerals READY eyeshadow 4.0 palette in The Statement Piece. I feel bad showing this because I got this in auto delivery from a QVC Today Special Value so you can’t get this in stores. I decided to show this anyway because this is truly what I have been wearing almost everyday this past month. So all the eye pictures that I posted where I have no idea what I was wearing, it was probably this. I love the READY eyeshadows, they go on so well and have great pigmentation. This one I’m surprised I love because these are neutrals and I like eye looks with more color, but this is great for work and this palette has such great neutrals that they go with any bold color.

The next item is the Dermalogica Precleanse oil cleanser. I got this in my August Popsugar box and I loved it from the first time using it. This takes off my makeup so quickly it is crazy, even my my waterproof mascara and waterproof Tarte liner that my eye makeup removers have trouble doing. When I finish using this sample size I can definitely see me buying the full size. If you want more information on the product click http://www.dermalogica.com/precleanse/1,default,pd.html?cgid=cleansers&start=4&cgid=cleansers.

The next item is the Beauty Protector Protect & Detangle spray. This is perfect for my curly hair. It detangles very well but the reason I love it is that it adds to perfect amount of moisturizer for my hair. I am getting curls with this and another product that I would have to use 3 or 4 products to get before, but I even get second day curls! Look for more info about this in a future post. 😉

The next items are a duo from the Zoya Color Lock System. They are the Get Even Ridge Filling base coat and Amour topcoat. I am very hard on my nails and as such nail polish usually only lasts a day without chipping. Very depressing seeing as how I’m obsessed with nail polish. But, but! with these two items I am getting my polish to last three days without chipping! It is a miracle! The only downside I have is that Amour is not a quick drying topcoat so I have to remember to be careful to not smudge my nails.

This is Julep Blakely I put on Friday and I took this picture on Tuesday. There is a little chip and some tip wear but I can’t complain about that.

The last thing I have been loving is this necklace I got from Charming Charlie’s. I think this is so cute and I worn it so many times.

So that is what I’ve been loving this month!

Nail of the Day: Seafoam Green Shimmer

I had two polishes on my hand that I thought were okay but nothing spectacular. Zoya Wednesday is nice but kinda dull, well dull for me as I like bright nails. I had seen pictures of Orly Sparkling Garbage and loved the color. I couldn’t find it in stores so I ordered it online. When I got I was disappointed that it wasn’t an opaque halo polish. I then noticed Zoya Wednesday and had an Ah Ha moment. I love the result and I think it brings out the best in both polishes.

So now what you were waiting for, some pictures.

The polishes used:

The nail look:

Sparkling Garbage by itself:

The pictures don’t do the halo aspect justice so you’ll just have to trust me how pretty this is. 😉

Julep Maven box August 2013 and Golden Mystery box

Time for another Julep box! August celebrates Julep’s 2nd anniversary of their Maven program. Since it was their anniversary they had a special mystery box in their Secret Store. If you don’t know, the Secret Store is available to people who got their Maven box and includes discounted items and special nail polish sets.

So enough chit chat let’s get into these boxes.

Inside the box.

The monthly quote.

The extra item for the month. I have a black thumb so I will probably not use these. Cute idea though since the monthly theme was Garden Party.

Since I forgot to say before, the box I got this month is Modern Beauty. This is the box that has two beauty products and no polish, which is a box I never thought I would have ever have gotten. I wasn’t a fan of any of the polishes this month enough to get one of the polish boxes and I really wanted to try the masks, which only came in this box or as a $15 upgrade. Just wanted to let you know I haven’t used anything in the box yet so this post is just to show you what I got.

So the first item is the DoubleStep foot treatment & friction stick. This similar to the Band-Aid brand version of their friction stick.

The next item is Moisture Mask Trio. This has 3 masks, one for nails, one for hands, and one for the feet. I can’t wait to use these as my hands, feet, and nails need all the moisture it can get.

Of course I couldn’t go a month without getting at least one nail polish so I added Sylvia to my box. The polish side of the picture is more accurate than the swatch side. This is a smoky purple polish that is perfect to go from summer to fall.

Now on to the Golden Mystery box. So this is how my box came. I was worried that the items would be damaged or missing things. Luckily everything was okay!

I believe this is box version #1. Here all the goodies.

First up are these super cute earrings.

The next item is the hand cream with SPF 30. This is a chemical sunscreen so I probably won’t be using this.

The next item is Oxygen Nail Treatment, which is a treatment to help with thin, weak, and nail prone to peeling. I have this and haven’t noticed any great change in my nails.

Now on to the polishes. I got four in this box and no repeats! This is the only box that didn’t have repeats for me so I really lucked out with this box.

So that’s what I got! When I get a chance to use the masks I’ll be sure to let you know how they work out.

Nail of the Day: Blue and Glitter

Here is another addition of Nail of the Day. This nothing fancy but I wanted to show you. I started off with Butter London Keks. I hated how it looked. This was a difficult polish to work with, weirdly thick and applied very unevenly. After two coats the polish looked lumpy on my nails. It also dried to a weird half matte finish. That wasn’t too big of a deal because a shiny top coat can take care of that. But overall I just didn’t like how this color look. I needed to fix this and what better way to improve a polish you don’t like? That’s right, GLITTER!!! So I added Butter London Lovely Jubbly on the tips. Here is the final results.

Here are the colors I used.

So that’s my look. Once I added the glitter I liked the blue much better. Hope you like it too.

Julep Summer Days Mystery box

This is Julep’s mystery box for the month of July. They had three options, summer days, summer nights and combo of both for $15 more. I also got an additional Maven box. If you don’t remember I got the It Girl box, which doesn’t contain product. Well, I heard so many good things about the dry oil spray that I wanted to try for myself. For $2 more I got the Boho Glam box, which has the dry oil spray and the two polishes.

First up is the mystery box. As I said before this is the Summer Days box, version 1.

Here is what I got.

Not too great of a box for me. I already have the green polish and I certainly have no need for a nude polish.

The non polish product is the Lip Vernis in Peony. This is a nice lip gloss, not too sticky and adds a nice color to the lips.

Now for the polishes. Every box included two new glitter polishes, Monica and Kyla. Every polish has two coats on the swatch except for Gemma, which has three.

Now on to the Boho Glam box. These polishes are gorgeous and really enforces the silly decision I made in not just upgrading for the complete collection.

First up is the Beach Tonic dry body oil. I think the packaging is so cute. Anyway this spray is to be used right after you get out the shower before you dry off. I liked this and found it moisturizing but I do think this is little too much perfume in it for me. The scent doesn’t last too long so I have been able to use this.

Now for the polishes.

So that is what I got in my mystery box this month.

Book and Beauty: “Code Name Verity” and

Time for another Book and Beauty. I really loved this book, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein so I had to have another Book and Beauty to share it with everyone.

The Book:. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Plot: This book is set in WWII England and is a story of a friendship between two women. One is a pilot and the other is an officer. When the book opens up one of the women has been captured by the Nazis and is being kept alive to write everything she knows about the British war plan. To find out more about this book click here.

Why I loved it: This book is just amazing! I was thinking one night that I was happy that I was about to go to bed so I could read the book and spend more time with these characters. Then I was sad because I had finished the book the day before. This book is so good, and has the awards to prove it, and it is nice to read about strong women that don’t need a man to save them. Also it was fascinating to find out what role women had in WWII.

Read if you like: Another favorite of mine is another book set in WWII, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. You can’t go wrong with a book that is narrated by Death. Click here for information.

Where I got the book: I checked this book out from my public library, which is why the book is so shiny as it has the protective cover on the book.

The Beauty:

Here is my nail look. I used SinfulShine with Gel Tech in Come Hither as the base color on all nails and on the accent nail I used Essie in Shake Your $$ Maker as the leaves. I didn’t realize that this color was so sheer which is why I have these ugly brown leaves. That will teach me to use a color I haven’t swatches before in nail art. I then used my pink and green stripers to accent the colors.

This is my first time using a SinfulShine with Gel Tech nail polish (got it free in my Influenster VoxBox) and I am impressed. For $3.99 this polish covered and lasted just as well as my more expensive nail polish. I was so impressed I went to Walgreens, where they are exclusively right now, and picked up two more colors.

So that is another segment of Book and Beauty. If you have read this book let me know what you think.

Influenster Sunkissed VoxBox

In case you have never hear of Influesnter, it is a site similar to BzzAgent in that the site gives you products, if you qualify, for free to try in exchange for a review and exposure on social media. I was lucky enough to be selected for the Sunkissed VoxBox. If you are interested in Influenster I have five email invites I can send out so the first five people toemail me will get an email request from me.

Due to the nature of the Influenster program I will have individual reviews in separate posts on the items instead of a general first impressions review.

So here are the products in the box.

And here is the product card with more information.

The first item in the box is the Dr. Scholls for Her high heel insoles. I don’t actually own any high heels as I am on my feet a lot at work to justify wearing heels. Plus flats are just way too comfortable to wear heels. I will see how they work in flats I guess.

Price: $10.99

The next item is the Olay Fresh Effects BB cream Skin Perfecting Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 15 in the shade fair/light. This comes in two shades, the one I got and also in light/medium. This has chemical sunscreen in it and while the sunscreen smell isn’t too strong it still smells like sunscreen. Yuck! The one nice thing is that this is light enough for my fair skin. Too bad about the chemical sunscreen in it.

Price: $12.99

The next item is the SinfulShine with Gel Tech nail polish in the shade Come Hither. This comes in 32 different shades is for a limited time exclusively at Walgreens. While I’m not thrilled with the color, it did swatch very nicely and was opaque easily with two coats. This is also has great shine without even applying a top coat.

Price: $2.99

The last item in the box is the Goody Ouchless Ribbon Elastics. These are just like the Twistband hair ties but much cheaper. Probably my favorite thing in the box.

Price: $3.99-$4.99

So that is my box. Look for more detailed reviews of these products coming soon.

Note: I received these products complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster.