Wet n Wild Color Icon Eye Shadow Trio

So I know these have been out for a while and you can easily find swatches but I just got mine and wanted to see what the colors were like so I thought I'd swatch them for you.

335 Silent Treatment:

380B Walking on Eggshells:

Description:

• Beautifully enhances any eye color
• All-day crease resistant color
• Creates the perfect eye look

Price: 5/5
Size/Count  0.12 oz for $2.99
Great drugstore price, unlike so many of the drugstore products >_<

Product: 4/5

L to R: Eyelid, Crease, Browbone

(the eyelid is more pink than the browbone but the picture didn't really capture it that well. I would say the bottom picture is the most true to color)

Packaging: 3.5/5

Typical, cheap drugstore plastic packaging. Nothing unusual. Comes with the usual sponge eyeshadow applicator and a odd shaped brush which is a ton softer than it looks. I was fairly surprised. It wouldn't be half bad to use I think lol Although I still prefer to use my regular brushes ^^

Overall: 4/5
As it's been said before, it's great quality for a great price. I find it easy to use, especially in the mornings when I don't want to fuss with my makeup when I'm already running late. I use as directed. It's very pigmented, a little on the chalky side but smooth and blendable. I would probably repurchase if I run out.

Wet N Wild is 40% off at Rite Aid this week!

E.L.F. Eyelid Primer

Description:

E.L.F. Eyelid Primer

• preps your eyelids for smoother, longer-lasting, crease-proof eyeshadow
• the ultra sheer, nude color works to increase eye color longevity
• lightweight liquid formula quickly absorbs into skin for comfortable wear

safe, gentle formula

Directions: Apply a thin coat to the eyelid and blend in. Allow formula to dry before applying eyeshadow.

Tips: For best results, use with e.l.f. brightening eye color

Instantly beautiful, healthy-looking eyes

designed, formulated and tested by our professional team of makeup artists

Ingredients: cyclopentasiloxane, octyl palmitate, disteardimonium hectorite, dimethicone, kaolin, triacontanyl pvp, propylene carbonate, titanium dioxide, barium sulfate, iron oxides (cl 77491, cl 77492, cl 77499), mica (cl 77019)

Price: $1 for .17 fl oz for the ELF Essential Eyelid Primer

Top to Bottom: Nude, Sheer, UDPP

 So you probably can't read it but the colors are Sheer, Pearl, & Champagne for the top picture
and the bottom picture is sheer and the UDPP.

Packaging: 3.5/5
It's ok, nothing fancy. I haven't tried the tube version of the Urban Decay Primer Potion or the Too Faced ones but I feel like those are your options when it comes to primers. I wonder how I will end up using the last bit of it but since it's so cheap it's no biggie.

Product:

L to R: UDPP, ELF Sheer, Sheer, Pearl, Champagne

Blended in (Same order as above)

same order as above, except top eyeshadow swatch is with no base

Overall: 4.5/5
for the original ELF primer aka Essential Eyelid Primer I will definitely re-buy over and over again. It works just as well as UDPP in my opinion, definitely not different enough to warrant a $18 difference. Granted, the UDPP does contain more product, nearly double the amount but if you buy 2 ELF primers you still save $17.

The ELF primer is a little more "slick" feeling, but I think it's because of the silicones and thus takes a few seconds longer to dry than the UDPP, but once again I don't find that a huge dealbreaker. In addition, I suppose shadows might be a teensy bit brighter with UDPP but personally I don't find it noticeably so.

for the "Essential Beauty School Eyelid Primer Collection" I would NOT rebuy this. I would give it a 1/5. The only color I found usable was the Nude and it's the same as the original sheer color. Since the collection is $3 for 3, it's $1 for 1 but you get half the product in these. Each primer has 0.08oz of product or 0.24 for all three. The Pearl color had slightly chunky glitter that caused a bit of fallout and the Champagne was shimmery and changed the texture of the shadows that I was working with. I did not like these at all and regret buying them :( However, if you do want your primers to give your eyeshadows different textures, these might be worth trying. They are online but all the Targets I went to were out of them except one.

NOTD: Essie Sand Tropez

So the fall nail trend is supposed to be nude nails and I guess after such dramatic colors, I wanted to settle for something a little more calmer and got an early start on the nude nails. This was from the French Affair Collection so I'm not 100% sure they still sell this but I'm pretty certain you can probably find it somewhere.

The formulation on this is really good. It was almost bottle color with one thick coat and completely opaque in 2. It's not hard to work with at all and the pigmentation is pretty good. It does seem to chip easily though so I'd highly suggest a top coat.

sorry for the super short nails >_< i'm learning guitar and its difficult enough without longer nails to hinder me T_T i've never had them this short but hopefully nail polish makes them look more feminine xD

Sally Hansen Salon Formula Polish Remover

So I had the crappiest nail polish remover of all time for the longest time. And of course as with many crappy products, it just would not be used up! I still have a ton of it left and I'm debating whether I should just throw it away or not. Is it dangerous to throw away nail polish remover by itself or throw it down the drain? I should research that >_< anyway here it is. It's a non-acetone remover which might explain the sucky-ness. I honestly have no idea where I bought this from but it's prolly a bajillion years old and out of production but if you do find this. Run far far away.

Pros: it's non-acetone (i dunno if this is a pro...), it lasts a long time (?)
Cons: it smells really horrible, it doesn't remove nail polish well

And yes...on to the REAL review...hehe

Price: 5/5
10 fl oz (295.7ml) for $1.99
No complaints about the price here

Product:
One mini-gripe about the packaging. Why are the holes on the nail polish remover so huge? The Korean ones that I use have the cap so that it does use up so much product as fast.

And a mini completely unscientific test comparing the two polish removers:
Here are the 2 nails that are to be used. Similar amounts of polish on both nails and about the same size.

Using the American Fare non-acetone polish:

I stopped counting after eighty but I think it took around 100 swipes to get rid of all the nail polish >_<

And here is the Sally Hansen formula:

I'm pretty sure it was all gone by around sixty swipes. Much more efficient.

End test results. ^^

Overall: 4.5/5
I liked the Sally Hansen formula. It doesn't smell too awful and I didn't find that it dried out my nails too much. Will have to test it out a bit more to see that if it's worth a rebuy. I do think it does get used up quite quickly though xD

August Haul

Heh I think instead of favorite posts monthly I have haul posts >_< ugh I mos definitely am going on a shopping ban after this!! anybody want to join me? hehehe...

first up! I recently got into Mac pigments T_T which is hard on the wallet >_< The 2 full size ones are Violet & Tan and then i got some sample sizes. I will prolly do a collective pigment swatch post as soon as the other ones I ordered come in xD So addicting and I can see why people collect them.

Then I went to Kmart for the first time in like ten years xD slight exaggeration but not really. There's only a few kmarts left in my city and it's not really on the way to anything so I had to make it my purpose to go there but it wasn't too bad. Milani was on sale for buy one get one free and I picked up the Liquif'Eye eyeliners that are being raved about everywhere. They only had a limited selection of colors though so I picked up the only 2 colors they had -_-" black & silver. It's cheaper at Kmart than the drugstores though. I picked it up for for about $5.29? Last time I went to CVS they were like 7.99 so I was relieved to see they were cheaper here. I found Milani at a nearby Target also but I think it was 5.99 so I think in general Kmart is cheaper than Target too. I finally forced myself to pick up a new nail polish remover and this exact one was $1.99 at Kmart and $2.19 at Target and I couldn't find it at Wal-mart where I'm sure it would have been cheapest. ELF stuff is $1 at Kmart and Target but I bought some MAC eyeshadows to put into an ELF quad because I didn't want to buy a separate MAC quad. I also heard good things about the ELF primer so I shall do a review comparing that to the Urban Decay Primer Potion soon.

I got a sample kit of Mario Badescu skincare which you can get from their online website but I was a little disappointed because I really wanted to try their drying lotion & buffering lotion(?) but those 2 things they don't give samples of so I'm contemplating buying it anyway. I'm not too interested in trying their other skincare items though :/ Picked up MAC Emote & a Stila pigment from a blog sale. Been dying to try out MAC Emote for contouring and I was kind of surprised at how grey-toned it is. It's pretty decent for contouring I would say. I will do a swatch post soon. 

saving the best for last!

So I won Liz's giveaway and won Bella Bamba & the highly sought after Bourjois Chocolate Bronzer! I never win anything so it was pretty exciting :D When I first saw the prizes, I thought the chocolate bronzer was actually a chocolate bar and was slightly let down when I found out it was a bronzer but then got super excited again once I realized I couldn't pick it up in the US. Also my first Benefit blush! Gotta see if it's worth all the hype. Will have swatches up once I get around to it xD Kinda random but I actually got a MAC postcard/invitation/mailer thingy and was super excited since it's the first one I ever got.

And as another random sidenote, I went Zumba today and I highly recommend it for those of you who are looking for some kind of workout. It's totally intense but super fun. And it's definitely not restricted to any age group. There was elderly grandmothers in my class and they were totally working it ;D

Youtube clip

Lip Pencils

So I don't own a ton of lip pencils. I never really saw the point, except in the case of a red lip where the color bleeds off your lip and looks really bad but I don't ever wear red lips so I owned a total of one lip pencil. A cheap 99 cents N.Y.C. pencil in the color 954. It's super cheap considering it's 0.04 oz  or 1.2g for basically a dollar. The color was one that I thought would be pretty versatile but I really never used it.

From L-R: Stripdown, Spice, Whirl, & NYC

Then I read about Kim Kardashian's famous lip combo of MAC Stripdown Lip Pencil + Angel Lipstick + Nars Turkish Delight and how could I resist but own that lip pencil to create that stunning combo on my own lips. So buy it I did. (Sorry it's so beat up...the abuse that goes on in my purse >_<) With that I discovered that lip pencils can change the color of the lipstick, much like a lipgloss but underneath and not sticky. I discovered that with Stripdown, Angel became less pink and more nude. Jazzed became this gross brown color (hence I never combine the two). And my fascination grew just a bit. When I bought Ever Hip, the MA showed me the combo she was wearing, which was Ever Hip with Whirl Lip Liner and it looked so gorgeous that I couldn't help but buy it. Ever Hip is pretty similar to Jazzed, which are two lipstick colors that I love wearing on a daily basis. And then somehow I also ended up with Spice since it seemed so raved about. And that is how I ended up with a grand total of 4 lip liners today.

According to MAC, a  lip pencil is designed for shaping, lining or filling in the lip. Lip Pencils have a smooth, creamy texture that is perfect for lining the lips or filling them in. They are long-lasting and available in a wide selection of colours that each work well with many different lipstick shades.

 From top to bottom: NYC, Whirl, Spice, Stripdown

MAC lip pencils retail for $13 for 0.05 oz or 1.45g. which is basically almost 12 more dollars expensive than my NYC ones >_< but I find that I like the texture of the MAC ones better. It's more creamy and a bit more long lasting imo. However, because it is creamier, I find that it gets used up more easily. To be perfectly honest, I'm not 100% sure that it's worth that $12 difference, but it's a small luxury I indulge myself in :D

 MAC WHIRL

WHIRL + EVER HIP

NOTD: Water Marbling

This is my second attempt at water marbling and I do find it a vast improvement from the first time ^^ I still haven't mastered creating a uniform design across all nails but I think I'm slowly figuring it out. =D Next time I wanna try the star/flower design on all my nails! ^^ Ambitious I know but practice is definitely necessary.

Colors used:
China Glaze Midnight Mission
Sinful Black on Black
Sinful Snow Me White
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City

Target Shoe Haul

As much as I love makeup, I figure I can include fashion related posts as well :D After all, I love seeing people's OOTD as much as I love seeing reviews of things that are only sold online right? So since none of these were available in store, I had to resort to buying online, which for shoes...I hate doing. Personally, shoe shopping is not something I enjoy doing. Because for the longest time, I could not figure out what shoe size I was. I wore sizes up to a 8.5 before figuring out I was between 7 and 7.5 for most shoes. My feet tend to swell up easily, especially if I walk a lot so I usually buy 7.5 to be safe. Target had a lot of shoes on clearance and since none of the were available in store, I went ahead and bought a few to try out.

Merona Kamiyah Suede-Heeled Boots in brown

Size: 7.5

Fit: I think it's a little tight in the toes so people with wider feet might want to order a size up.

Quality: It's made of suede but seems pretty decent. The heel is not that high so it's not too uncomfortable to walk around in.

Verdict: Return. I bought this thinking it was knee high, but turns out it's mid calf. And I really dislike mid calf boots since I feel it emphasizes my calves which I'm not a huge fan of >_< If it was knee high, I totally would have kept it since the material's not bad, the shoe has a good height that is still comfortable


Mossimo Supply Co Brown Kalayla

Size: 7

Fit: So the reviews I read online, suggested ordering a size down saying it came out a little large and I guess I agree with that. However, those with wider feet might want to stick to their normal sizing.

Quality: This is also suede material and I wouldn't say they're excellent quality. I can see these wearing out if worn in snow or excessive conditions.

Verdict: Undecided. I'm still debating whether I like these shoes enough to keep them or not. I've been looking for a pair of brown ankle boots, but I don't know that I'm a fan of this color. I think I want something a little lighter than this brown and the boots are a bit too pointy for my taste. They kind of remind me of elf shoes for some reason haha which is cute in it's own way I guess ^^

Mossimo Versie Pumps Grey

Size: 8

Fit: If you look at the box, you can see that they had a size mismatch problem -_- I ordered a 7.5 (written on the side of the box) but ended up with an 8 (as seen in the box). And sadly, 8 is too big for me :(

Quality: It's pretty good. I wouldn't go so far as to say they're great quality but they're definitely not bad. I think the wooden heel actually makes the shoe look more expensive and the fit doesn't seem too bad. I may order the nude version if the price drops.

Verdict: Return! I would keep these if they were the right size :( So sad they messed up my order T_T and now my size is sold out. Even though they're gray, I think it's a good color and despite it's height, it's not uncomfortable.

Mossimo Supply Co Kaden Buckle

Size: 7.5

Fit: I'd say it's pretty true to size. A little narrow in the front though.

Quality: Not the highest quality boots I've seen, but for the price I'm completely satisfied.

Verdict: Keep! These boots were the reason I made the order and they met my expectations and I'm very satisfied with them. They're great boots for the price and I've been searching for a pair of knee-high boots like these. They're super cute and comfortable enough and even if they don't last a long time, I'm still happy that I own them ^_^.