BeautyTicket 50% off sale

Taking a little break from posting until the new year, but I got this email and I had to post it cause it seems too good to pass up:

50% off of everything at BeautyTicket.com with code NEWYEAR50. While supplies last, ends January 1st.

Just a disclaimer: I've never ordered anything from Beauty Ticket so I can't vouch for their service. Normally I don't like to post sales for places I've never ordered from but this seemed like too good of a deal for me not to post! So, if anyone has purchased from this place before, feel free to share your experience.

Christmas Eve Mani

I really like how this one turned out. Very appropriate seeing that it just started snowing as I type this :)


This was:
Two coats of China Glaze Frosty
Konad m59 in Light Blue Konad Special Polish
Color Club / Art Club silver gems from the holiday gem wheel
INM Out The Door Northern Lights in Silver, fully shaken

I originally tried to do holo silver snowflakes but they didn't show up at all! So then I tried to do gold snowflakes (you can see it on my pinkie) but it looked to warm and un-snowlike. Finally settled on the baby blue Konad polish and it was perfect. Not much contrast, which I like for this design. Added the gems because it didn't look icy and sparkly enough for me and then the Northern Lights because it still wasn't sparkly enough.

I did fewer gems on the left hand just to see how it looked:

I think I like more gems better.

So, I guess it's not specifically Christmassy... More like a winter-themed nail art. Ooh, it would even make a great Hanukkah mani, too.

I'm thinking I want to do something with a green base on Christmas Day. Maybe start with China Glaze Jolly Holly, then do something with gold and red and jewels? Hm. Better start brainstorming.

Since I probably won't get a chance to post tomorrow, I want to wish you all a merry Christmas! ♥

Christmas Stamping Nail Art

I've been wanting to do some Christmas Konad nail art... Problem is, I can never come up with an idea other than using one stamp and one color... Plain... So I tried something different this time. One of them turned out perfect, the other not so much...



This is the one that turned out great. Subtle yet sparkly and very festive. I stamped Bundle Monster snowflakes in GOSH Holographic and SpaRitual Golden Gleam over my day old Essie Silken Cord mani. It's hard to see the holo on the snowflakes in these pictures, but they were subtly holographic in real life.


And then I had this great idea for some Konad stamping...

... That didn't turn out the way I pictured it at ALL. *sigh* Why can't I do nice Konads?! I partially blame the Migi nail art pens I tried to use. They're so runny and watery, I can't figure out what to do with them, which is partially why I have never reviewed them. This was China Glaze Snow as a base, snowflakes with Konad m59, candy canes with Konad m12 and Konad Red Special Polish, Bundlemonster holly leaves with the Migi green pen.

I tried to fill in the bows on the candy canes and the veins on the holly leaves with the Migi pens, but they were so runny they just oozed into a blobby looking mess. I should have just left them alone. I filled in the berries on the holly leaves with Konad red special polish which was nice and thick and made good, non-runny circles.

Did this on the other hand. The star on the Christmas Tree is from the Color Club holiday nail gems wheel. I like the way these holly leaves look much better.


I need more practice. I think I'm going to try something different tomorrow.

Hard Candy First Flush and Glamazon Glow Kits

Here's some more of the new Hard Candy line I picked up from Wal-Mart. I know that Wal-Mart has changed their logo to remove the hyphen, but I think "Walmart" looks even more grating... Anyway. These were another matching set- a pink and a gold version of each.




First Flush is the name of this kit. It comes with a Blush Crush Baked Blush in Living Doll, a Glow All The Way Face and Body Luminizer in pink (shade might be 'Doll Face' but I'm not certain), a Plumping Serum Volumizing Lipgloss in Uptown Girl and a Sheer Envy Face Primer. All are mini sized.

Up close.



Living Doll, Luminizer and Uptown Girl.


This is the Glamazon Glow set. It contains a So Baked Bronzer in Tropics, a Glow All The Way Face and Body Luminizer in gold (Glamazon Bronze?), a Plexi Gloss Glossy Lip Shine in Genie and a Sheer Envy face primer. All minis.

Look inside...


Tropics, Luminizer (Glamazon Glow?) and Genie.

I like these items a lot more than the Naturally Naughty and Bad Girl Next Door kits. The Sheer Envy face primer is the item I'm especially surprised by- it's great! It's a thick silicone-based primer- think Smashbox Photo Finish. It feels and looks and performs just like all of my $30+ price range primers. Very impressed. They give you a really good size in these kits, too - almost half an ounce!

I also love the glosses. The plumping gloss doesn't seem to do anything plump-wise, but it does have a subtle cooling effect. The color is a light milky pink with shimmer. The Plexi Gloss is a clear with gold flecks in it. They both have the same strong vanilla-cupcake-frosting-marshmallow smell to them and I love that. It's not quite the same as the old Hard Candy gloss scent, but it's similar enough. They're quite strongly scented and a little bit sweet, so they're winners in my book. Sticky texture, though. But still... cupcake scented. Can't complain.


The luminizers are neat but... I'm not really sure what to do with them? They're so opaque and frosty that I can't imagine using them on my face. I can see using them to highlight my collarbone or maybe as sheer eyeshadows or maybe even as body bronzer with the gold one... Or I could go all Goldfinger and cover my whole body in it.

The blush and bronzer are they only fail for me. They're SO FROSTY. Think MAC Mineralize Skinfinish and then amplify the frosty shimmer by ten. I don't want that much shiny frosty frost on my cheeks. It highlights every imperfection in your skin- tiny hairs, scars, bumps, everything. And I don't want reflective cheeks, so.... Yeah. These would probably make decent eyeshadows, though.

After trying the items in these kits I kinda want to go back for some full sized lipglosses and maybe a full sized tube of this primer.

Yellow

This one's from November. I wanted something with yellow, but at the same time I wanted something dark and I think I got exactly what I wanted.


This was:

The shadow, I'm unsure of. It was either the Kat Von D Metal Orchestra palette or the HIP Platinum duo.
Black liner is Milani Eye Tech in Black
Yellow liner is MAC Primary Yellow applied wet over Fyrinnae Bifrost
Cover Girl Lash Blast

I started out with Bifrost as the liner but it was too shiny and gold for what I wanted, so I covered it with Primary Yellow. That ended up being perfect, I was happy with the intensity of the yellow.

I love yellow eyeshadow... and also yellow nail polish. Wanna see some yellow polishes?

China Glaze Celtic Sun


China Glaze Happy Go Lucky


China Glaze Lemon Fizz


China Glaze Solar Power



China Glaze Yell-O-Neil


China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini


Color Club Almost Famous


Essie Funky Limelight



MAC Phosphor


Misa A Sunny Smile Makes Me Go Wild


Misa Jester Ate The King Cake


Nicole Lemon Lime Twist



OPI Banana Bandanna


Sephora by OPI Cab Fare


OPI Lemonade Stand By Your Man


OPI Need Sunglasses?



OPI The "It" Color


Orly Lemonade


Orly Livewire



Times Square Yellow Pastel


Barielle Shades Lemon Drops


BB Couture Daisy Dweller



BB Couture Little Deuce Coupe


BB Couture Peacock


Chanel LA Sunrise

L'Oreal Bijou Gems B. Outrageous



Models Own Lemon Sherbet


Maybelline Express Finish Bamboo Yellow


Maybelline Wet Shine Banana Puddin'


NYC Taxi Yellow Creme


Nyx Rainbow Sparkle


Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Traffic


Dazzle Dry Sahara



Piggy Polish Dog Daises Of Summer (Why is it Daises and not Daisies?)

Sinful Canary Yellow


Wet n Wild Tweetie



Jessica Yellow Flame



Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening (again, why lightening [to lighten / make lighter] and not lightning [goes with thunder and rain]?)


Zoya Creamy



Zoya Pippa