Saturday, March 2, 2013

Friday, March 1, 2013

February favorites (I'm back)!

I know I went a little M.I.A. during the last couple of months of 2012, but I'm back to beauty and blogging. I even started a YouTube channel to help switch up my methods of posting!

In my first beauty-related video, I talk about my most loved and least liked beauty products of February 2013.


Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Check out these giveaways!

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been making note of beauty/nail polish-related giveaways to mention in a blog post. I thought I would point out just a few, in particular that any visitors of my blog might be interested in entering!


As always, be sure to check out the sidebar, as well as my Giveaways page, for more giveaway opportunities around the web! I won't always post about a giveaway I find right away in a blog post, but I do update the giveaways page somewhat frequently.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

A new favorite lip product for fall: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain

Inspired by autumn, I set out to add some darker shades to my lip product collection. Instead of opting for a typical lipstick or lip gloss, I decided to test out the Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain, or Just Bitten 2.0*.

I chose the two darkest shades, Adore, a warm burgundy, and Crush, a cooler plum/berry color.

Top: Adore
Bottom: Crush
Stains left after immediately wiping away product
with dry paper towel
The above swatches show the product swatched heavily on the back on my hand.

The product itself is like a twist-up crayon. The texture of it in the tube and going on is similar to a lip balm, but once on the lips, I found it to dry somewhat more quickly than would a good lip balm, like Burt's Bees, and definitely more so than the Revlon Lip Butters (which, on me, never seem to dry so much as disappear). To remedy this problem, I found myself layering the balm stains with a clear or complimentary lip gloss.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Adore
What I love about this product is that the lasting power really is something to write home--or blog--about. I've never found a lip product to last longer than a few hours or past a meal, but I applied each of these in the morning and saw that they had indeed stained my lips until well after I was back in my dorm until the late afternoon. They lasted me several hours and through more than one snack/meal without reapplication (excepting lip gloss/"top coat"!).

I find both of the shades I chose to be flattering for a variety of skin types and lip pigmentations because they do go on very sheer--at first! One minor annoyance I might note is that in application they do drag a bit at first and have to be built up for the color to show. However, I sometimes find myself spacing out a bit after the first three or so coats, and BAM--there's your color! So, consider yourself forewarned and don't overdo it.

Have you tried this product? What are your feelings on lip stains?

* There is another Revlon product on the market of the name Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm, which is a dual-ended stain and balm product. This product hasn't received as many positive reviews, though I haven't tried it myself and, therefore, do not recommend it.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Bring a mani back from the dead!

After three good, long days of wear, I finally did have to admit to some noticeable chipping on the tips and dulling of my top coat from my beloved Wet n Wild Haze of Love mani. (I won't blame this on Wet n Wild--polishes never last long on my claws. I may be a wild woman myself, or maybe I just need a better base coat!)

Wet n Wild Haze of Love on my nails, with noticeable chipping

However, being the stubborn girl I am, I wasn't yet ready to part with all of that basework I'd done--one layer of base coat, two layers of color, and all that drying time.

I decided this would be an excellent opportunity to play around with a recently acquired polish--my very first indie, in fact!

Say hello to Feenix Polish Embers.


Embers has a brown sheer, jelly-like base with red, orange, and silver micro-glitters. I suspect it takes its name from the embers of a fire--because that's exactly what it looks like on the nails! It can be layered and worn on its own, but I prefer it as a top coat over a dark base, and that's exactly what you'll see here!

Something I love about densely-packed glitter polishes is how well they work at covering bald spots on the nails. Glitter polishes alone are known for chipping even more than, say, cream or regular jelly polishes, but the great thing about them is how easy they are to touch up (or to be used as touch-ups!). Just paint back over the chipped spots, and it's pretty difficult to tell you were ever there a second (or third!) time.

As you can see way above, I only had major chipping on one nail, so I decided to do glitter accent nails, including the nail that had chipped, and touch up the remaining nails with new layers of top coat. This was the result:

Wet n Wild Haze of Love on all nails,
with Feenix Polish Embers as top coat on middle two

I just wish I had better photos to illustrate exactly how the glitters of Embers look on the nails!

The most important thing? No chips to be seen here! My mani was able to last me until the end of the week, and Embers gave it that little extra oomph that made it just a little more interesting.

If you're interested in Embers, you can check it out (as well as many other polishes) at Feenix Polish on Etsy. I was generously supplied with my bottle free of charge, thanks to a giveaway I won at Chestnut Mocha. (Thank you to Ben and Katie of CM and Suzette of Feenish Polish!)

Do you have any emergency mani tips or tricks?