Feb 16th Weekend "shopping"

 I wanted a dotting tool, so I dragged the bf to Sally's. I was "just" looking for the dotting tool, but I always look at polish and beg the bf to buy them for me XD

 Well he said no! That meanie! Which is totally fine, but then I saw a bunch of Orly bottles at the register and I asked the girl about a promo I heard they had involving Orly polishes. She told me I could grab two, then she said I could grab three, well, I ended up getting 4! For free!! Woooot! 

 Literally just spent like $5 and got 4 polishes and a dotting tool! How cool is that? It's as if each item was $1. 

  I got a white because I really needed one to try to do some nail art...key word here is "try".

 Blue Collar

 Wild Wisteria

 Two-Hour Lunch

White Tips

Odd enough these are my first Orly polishes. I've heard of the brand, I know they are good, but I just haven't gotten to try them yet, until now. And this doesn't mean I have a small polish collection, right now I have over 100, which I think it's a decent sized collection, I just didn't get a chance to try them until know.

I think it's funny that the only reason Sally was giving these away is because Orly is changing packaging...not changing formula just changing the bottles! Lol.

Maybe I could have grabbed more polishes, but I thought it would be too much, I got enough, I was greedy enough, didn't want to be more greedy! 

Weekend purchases Feb 9th

 I'm super delayed with these posts, so I'm gonna try to post all my recent purchases constantly now, so I can catch up.

 I heard on MakeupTalk, that Big Lots had 2 Revlon polishes for $2, so I went to my local Big Lots to check it out. To be honest, I don't care for the store, if they have cute polish cheap, I'll buy it.

 Also, I've noticed most of my weekend purchases are either polish or polish related lol! Anyways...

 I was expecting a bunch of cute shades, they only had the scented ones, which I guess they are launching new ones or something and have to get rid of these? Don't quote me on that, just guessing here.

 Anyways, they had like 6 different shades or something like that, but most of them were muted and really boring, I just bought one pair to say I bought something.

  I got Strawberry Cream and Sugar Glaze. They smell amazing! Which I don't think it's a good idea for polish, specially with kids...Luckily I don't have kids! Hah!

 They are really sheer, so I know they will take a couple of coats, or maybe even more, but I think both shades are quite cute :3

 OK, now that I looked this up a bit more, it does seem to be discontinued, because I think they launch new colors, like every year or something like that. Either way the shades I saw on Ulta for the current scented ones look amazing! 

 On a funny note, I spilled Sugar Glaze on my house pants and...well at least it's smells nice and not like regular polish!

  I tried one of these, Sugar Glaze, I think and it was taking forever to dry, that mani didn't get to see the light, but I'm sure I will eventually try it out!

Which Revlon Scented Polishes would you love to have? I'm in love with Ocean Breeze! 

Disclaimer: I purchased this with my own money, and this is my own personal opinion :)

February Beauty Army (Reviews+Swatches)

 I had to get this month's box, because I forgot to get the mascara last month. Also, I was hoping I would get to try the Olive Oil soap and get the last of the Whip Hand Camo Collection pigments, so I could complete the collection.

 This one arrived on time, but I'm lazy and forgot to write about it. To be honest, I rather have a good or at least decent opinion about the products before I talk about them. And by that I don't mean I have to have a positive review about them,I mean I formed my opinion after trying them out.

I wish all my boxes were black, they are so much prettier!

Looks like so much when it's all together like that!

Grand Central Beauty - Smart Skin Perfecting Mask (1 mask): $18.75, full size has the ingredients for 4 masks and goes for $75. First of all, this mask stinks! Like fish! Seriously, I kinda gagged a bit when I put it on. This is supposed to smooth, moisturize and tone skin, reduce redness and have anti-aging properties. Clearly, I wasn't able to tell a difference after one use. I could say that my skin felt a bit more moisturized, but that's about it. However, I can say this provided the bf with a good laugh lol. For some reason, he loves when I put on peel off masks and then peel them off. This looked like skin, because it was like peach colored. Either way, I won't be purchasing this, because $75! Is just too much for a mask.

Karuna – Renewal Eye Mask (1): $9, full size goes for $36, for 4 sets of eye masks. This felt cool, literally cool! I don't think it really made a huge difference, then again, I don't have a lot of puffiness, but it was fun to try. I took before and after pictures, but I'm a genius and took them in different rooms with different lighting, so they look...different of course! I've heard the other eye mask Beauty Army has is better, so I will definitely try to get it next month.

 Olive Natural Beauty – The Olive Bar Lemon and  Lavender (1 oz): $1.25, full size is 8oz and goes for $10. Isn't this packaging the cutest? I haven't noticed anything special or different about this soap, besides the scent, it smells amazing! I've been using it in the shower to wash my face in the morning. I haven't gotten any bad reactions to it and my skin is somewhat sensitive, so I would say it's OK on sensitive skin. However, I would still advise you to try it out on a small spot on your face or somewhere else and see how your skin reacts. Smells nice, but it's not wowing me enough to make me want to buy it full size.

Yes to – Tomatoes Daily Pore Scrub (.1 fl oz/3ml): $0.26, full size is 4oz/113g and goes for $9.97. I liked this scrub, it wasn't too rough on my skin and did just what it was supposed to do, exfoliate my skin. However, some of the "scrubby" product, what ever this uses to scrub, stayed in the package and I couldn't take it out. I do think I will be getting this full size, because I'm willing to try anything to take my blackheads away. I didn't see any improvement, but then again it was just one use.

Whip Hand Cosmetics – Loose Pigment Eyeshadow in Medal Of Honor(.02 oz/.75g): $2.80, full size is 0.10oz and goes for $14. The color of this shadow is gorgeous! It's shimmery and super vibrant. BUT and this is one big but! The fall out! OMG, it's insane, I've never seen an eyeshadow with as much fall out as this one. It's really sad too, because the color is so pretty. If you want to use it for a shimmer effect, it will work out well enough, but if you want the color to actually show, it might be a bit of a challenge. I had to apply a cream eyeshadow as the base, because it wouldn't just stick to regular primer(Too Faced Shadow Insurance). I won't purchase a full size, because the sample itself will last me a while. Either way, I'm sure I would be able to find a shade close to this one without the insane amount of fall out.

Swatches:

Look: I did a little look inspired on some of the pigments from the Camo Collection.

 I applied Special Force (January box) to the lid, next to the inner corner. Medal of Honor to the middle of the lid and Lock + Loaded (December Box) to the crease.

mark.– Scanda-Lash Hook Up Mascara: $6.50, full size. This mascara basically just gave color to my lashes, no length, no volume, nothing extra, just color. I, ofcourse, won't repurchase knowing there are far better things out there that will provide volume or length, or both.

Swatch(?): 

Boo–Boo Cover-Up - Boo-Boo Covers(3 1x1" squares): $1.66, full size is 6 2x3" covers and goes for $19.99. This did cover my boo boos! However, none of the colors matche my skin tone D: Like, not even close! I think this is a cute idea, it's basically a temporary tattoo type thing that is just skin colored. I wore this on my hand for a day, until I applied Argan Oil to my hands and I accidentally removed it(yeah you can remove it with baby oil, so I guess any oil will do). Foundation didn't cover this or even out the color. Only a lot of concealer did, and for that matter, I could just apply concealer with a heavy hand. This might be tough, because it wasn't the right shade for me and it might work correctly on someone with the right shade. I like the idea, but I won't buy this, I can just wear concealer instead.

Value and review: 

 The value of my box this month is: $40.22. Really decent, considering is $12 a month.

 

 It wasn't hard to get the products I wanted to show up this month, but that is because I did it at 9' O clock PST, otherwise, the stuff in my selection window would be only repeats. Even doing it at 9, I found some repeats, which means I might be exhausting my selection of products and might need to start skipping months for Beauty Army.

 So far, I've been really happy with this subscription, it does accomplish it's purpose, to get me to try new products and new brands. I definitely recommend Beauty Army, it gives you the "bang for your buck" and you get to try different brands you probably wouldn't try otherwise. Also it's fun to be able to pick what you get yourself and get a little box of surprises every month.

 I really hope they add more new stuff to their selection window so I don't have to skip my box! 

 

If you want to subscribe to Beauty Army, you can click here, or just copy and paste this link on the navigation bar:https://beautyarmy.com/account/registration/?referral_id=4ac4804c5a82a5427d88b75ca6031bcc
 

Disclaimer: I purchased this with my own money, and this is my own personal opinion :) Link is a referral link.

NOTD: February 25th

 Sticking to the "vampy" colors, I wanted to do something with Revlon Vixen, but not just plain nail color, because I have been doing that a lot lately.

 So I decided to venture and try out Chevron nails. I thought I'd do at least one accent nail.

 I have this theory about manis that are cursed since the moment you think about doing them. Well this one was one of them. And by this I mean I'll smudge my nails all over the place over and over again without ever being done with that mani! 

 That was the case with this one, most nails were done and perfect with Revlon Vixen, but for my accent nail I decided to go with Essie Sand Tropez for contrast. I did the accent nail on my ring finger and I kept on smudging it! When it was finally dry and I was finally done with a perfect chevron, the top coat dragged the color and screwed it up! Ughh I was SO mad! But I didn't give up! At the end it wasn't as perfect as I would want it to be, but at that point I was just so tired that I would take anything.

 So as you can see, it's definitely not perfect, but you get the point. I'm OK with the color combination, but it's not my favorite. I wanted to try to do something more serious and not so colorful. Not like there's something wrong with colorful, I LOVE colorful, but I wanted a change at least for one mani.

  I did this with regular transparent tape.

All nails, but ring finger: 2 coats of Revlon's Vixen.
Ring Finger: 2 coats of Essie's Sand Tropez, "chevron" part 1 coat of Revlon's Vixen.
Top coat: Seche Vite

 I know it's not the best, it's not even close to decent, but it was this or no mani at all, so I decided to go with this. 
 

February Love With Food

 This was my last Love With Food box, I subscribed with a coupon from Groupon(3 months for $15). 

 I heard about a promotion from Red Trycicle's Fb and I got a coupon from them. The coupon was for a free box + $2 shipping. I used it too soon and got 2 February boxes. Oh well, at least it was a good box.

I know this is way late, but honestly at this post I'm just procrastinating. Bad bad bad! I'll try not to anymore LOL.

Such a packed box!

Nom! So many goodies!

Beanfields - Bean & Rice Chips Pico De Gallo: I absolutely loved this! If I hadn't known it didn't have corn I wouldn't be able to tell. They are super tasty, a bit salty, but then again I'm used to low sodium at this point. The bf loved this and even said it was better than Doritos(he's not a fan of Doritos). I loved these chips! Super super tasty! Nom!

Funny Face Cranberries - Choo Choo Cherry:  I really liked this, the bf and I were confused, because it says Choo Choo Cherry and then it says: dried cranberries. I guess it's cherry flavored dried cranberries, confusing huh? Either way, super tasty! I really liked them, they are not too sweet and the flavor is amazing. Definitely cherry flavored. I might be a bit biased here, because cherries are my favorite!

Hagensbrog Truffle Pig - Peanut Butter and Milk Caramel: Nom nom chocolate, these were OK. Just regular chocolate, nothing super special and different about them, but tasty!

Donsuemor - Chocolate Madelines: So good! Not super sweet or with a super strong flavor, just a really tasty chocolate flavor.

Millies Savory Teas - Tomato Basil: OK, this is soup! But soup flavored tea? Haha I've never really  tried something like this, but basically it's powdered soup in a tea bag, just add water and you get a really tasty broth, perfect for the winter! At first, I thought this needed a bit of salt, but after drinking it for a while it was just perfect, really tasty broth! Definitely something that would come in handy for a quick snack at work!

Bobbysue's Nuts: Super tasty nuts!Sweet, but not too sweet and crunchy, but not too crunchy. These nuts were actually pretty tasty.

Jer's Squares: Another chocolate, which is something I'm totally cool with, I love chocolates! This chocolate was tasty, again- nothing that would just blow my mind, but tasty.

Nektar - Honey Crystals: I didn't try this out, because I personally don't really like honey all that much. But the bf's dad tried it out and he said it was OK, but it didn't really taste like real honey.

 This was a pretty cool box, of course I say this because of all the chocolate, I'm not going to really miss Love with Food. It's an OK subscription, but nothing I really feel like I "need". If I want to try out a different kind of snack, I can just pick it up at the grocery store. This introduced me to new products, but nothing that I felt like was super different and exotic. 

 Love with Food is a good subscription if you want different snacks to take the work or something like that. But for me, it's not out of this world special. 

 Also, one little thing I was NOT happy about. I don't like when companies don't have a phone number and only have an email as a way of contacting them. Well, I had some questions for them and sent 2 different emails about them. It's been over month so far, no reply STILL! That does not make me happy, actually it kinda makes me afraid that if I had a problem with the subscription, nobody would actually do a thing.

 If you want to subscribe to Love with Food, you can click here. Or copy and paste this link onto your navigation bar: http://lovewithfood.com/

 

Disclaimer: I purchased this with my own money, and this is my own personal opinion :)

Feb 10th weekend "shopping"

 I looked up a bunch of Revlon Polish swatches and made up my little Revlon Wishlist. On the top of my list I had: Girly and Heavenly. 

  When the bf's dad told me he was going to Walmart I decided to tag along to pick them up! 

Heavenly is the one on the left and I used it for this look: http://beautymadn3ss.blogspot.com/2013/02/notd-february-14thvalentines-day-look.html

Girly is the one on the right and I used it for this look:
http://beautymadn3ss.blogspot.com/2013/02/notd-february-11thfirst-jelly-sandwich.html

Aren't they super cute?

NOTD: February 19th

 I needed to take advantage of my gorgeous dark colours before the winter is over! So I went for a super vampy dark grape color. I'm so super in love with this polish.

 That's 2 coats of Borghese Carnevale Grape, under one coat of Seche Vite. I got some shrinkage close to my cuticle, which also happened with my Chanel Le Vernis. I can't recall if I let this dry and then applied SV and maybe that's why I got shrinkage, but for sure the Chanel one was dry when I applied SV, so it makes sense. 

 I'd say the real color is a mix between the last two pictures, it looks really dark by itself, almost black, but with light it looks like this really dark purple with a bunch of red, I loved it!

 I absolutely loved this polish, I loved it so much I wore it for like 4 days in a row! Such a gorgeous color! 

 I don't think you will be able to find this shade anywhere, but maybe Amazon or Ebay, because Borghese's nail polishes are discontinued.