Buxom Goodies at Sephora

By
August 24th, 2011
My Buxom goodies! Isn't the passport holder gorgeous?

I’ve been a Sephora beauty insider for quite some time now. That said, never before had I redeemed any of the points that were steadily accumulating in my beauty bank. I don’t know why, I guess I just wanted to keep seeing that number go up. For the longest time, after each purchase, the sales associate would tell me how many points I had and ask me if I wanted to redeem them for a selection of fun goodies. I always resisted. Just a little while ago, though, this habit came to an abrupt end.

Having accumulated well over 500 points in my beauty bank, I was often tempted by the full-sized products that are offered to beauty insiders who have reached this level. Finally, I was taken. The culprit? This Buxom international insider passport.

It is a box set, containing a Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Stick in Sydney, Big & Healthy Lip Polish in April, Buxom Lash Mascara in Blackest Black, and a Buxom passport holder!


My Buxom goodies! Isn't the passport holder gorgeous?



The passport holder is so cute, and it just may have been my tipping point. Obviously, amazing Buxom goodies are tempting enough in and of themselves, but the fact that I was leaving for New York the next day made it impossible for me to resist tucking my passport away in this adorable black patent and hot pink holder.

Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Stick in Sydney



The Big & Healthy Lip Stick is absolutely phenomenal, I honestly adore it. The color matches my lips just perfectly and it really flatters my complexion. I love that it can be used as a lip liner and a lipstick. The only thing that I’m not too crazy about is the tingle when I apply it. The whole purpose of that is to give you a big, juicy pout, but my lips are very sensitive and it irritates them just a tad. Not enough to make me not love this product, though!

Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Polish in April



The Lip Polish is definitely a close second to the stick, April is a super glittery pink and it looks so pretty on. The only reason it comes second is because the tingle in this one is even stronger than the stick. It definitely plumps up my lips, but the sting is almost too much for me! However, keep in mind that my lips are rather full on their own, so I wasn’t really looking for plumping products. I’d definitely be happier to deal with the tingle if I really needed it!

Buxom Lash Mascara in Blackest Black



The Buxom lash mascara is a great product, and the blackest black shade really helps to bring out all of your lashes. I love to use it on my bottom lashes, because the applicator makes it really easy to reach all of those tiny baby lashes! I love the shape of the brush, too, it’s got curves in all the right places to really hug your lashes. I am a huge fan of this one!

All in all, I’m extremely happy with this beauty insider perk. Thank you so much, Sephora! For all of you insiders who are intrigued by these Buxom goodies, hit up your local Sephora on the double, before they run out!

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Zoya Polish & Pumpkins

By
August 9th, 2011
Polish

For those of you that have read my “About Me” page, you’ll know that I absolutely love pumpkins. No joke. Autumn is my favorite season by a mile, and Halloween is definitely one of my favorite days of the year, so it makes sense that I’m kind of crazy about the little orange gourds. Imagine my surprise (and glee!) when I saw that the Zoya nail lacquer that bears my name is an absolutely gorgeous orange/clay brown with a beautiful creme finish. Zoya’s “Natalie” instantly reminds me of autumn, pumpkins, and warm spices, I can’t get enough of it!




For some reason, autumn trends have hit me rather early this year. We’re barely in the second week of August, but I’m already loving the browns, burgundies and mauves. That said, I couldn’t wait until the fall to rock this polish! Especially considering the fact that it was named after me (and thus, practically made for me! I jest :P ) I purchased it yesterday as soon as I found out about it and rushed home to try it out.

Look, it's my name!



The color itself is absolutely gorgeous on the nails, and matches up perfectly with what you see in the bottle. Creme polishes are my favorite, they’re just so smooth and… creamy! The application of this product was great, the brush is just wide enough and the seemingly small lid is actually quite comfortable to hold onto. The only aspect of this polish that I found a bit hard to deal with is the opacity and how thin the polish itself is.

I found the polish to be a tad runny, so the opacity was slightly less intense than I would have liked. That said, the photos above show two coats of the polish, and this gave me a nearly flawless application. Honestly, I’m probably being totally nit-picky here because I just can’t seem to find anything wrong with this polish!

As an added bonus, the color matches up perfectly to that of my absolute favorite scent, my Pumpkin Nutmeg Pie scented candle. How lovely!



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The entire kit that I used

So I’ve been contemplating dying my dark brown/black hair blonde for a while now. To be honest, this probably started when I was in high school and I’ve just never had the courage to do it. I’ve been thinking about it a bit more seriously this summer, and yesterday, I finally decided to take the plunge!

I contemplated which product I wanted to use very carefully, as I wanted to do the process by myself at home. I know, most people will tell you to go to a salon for such a drastic change, but I’ve had so many mishaps at salons that I really trust myself more than anybody else with my hair. After looking into the process for a while, I decided to buy a couple of at home highlighting kits and take my hair through a slow transition to blonde, finishing off with an all-over hair color kit. The process will take a couple of weeks, but paired up with some intense conditioning treatments, I’m hoping this will damage my hair as little as possible.

The at home highlighting kit I decided to use is Revlon’s Frost&Glow for dark hair. It doesn’t have any ammonia in it, and the reviews for this product are generally great. Plus, one of my favorite Youtube gurus, MakeupbyMel, turned her dark brown hair blonde with this product and it looks absolutely fantastic! Hottie and a half :)


The entire kit that I used



The kit comes with all the stuff you need to highlight your hair – a hair cap with little holes through which you pull your hair with a hook that is provided, a highlighting powder and cream developer, a little plastic bowl and spatula to mix the dye, instructions, plastic glove, a cap to put over your hair cap while you wait for the dye to set, and some shampoo and conditioner for when you’re washing out the dye.

In terms of results, I’m super pleased with my first go. I left the bleach on for 40 minutes and got significant results. You can leave it on for up to 60 minutes, but I really didn’t want to risk damaging my hair.


My new hair with flash

My new hair without flash



When taking your hair from black to blonde, you essentially have to pass through the red shades. I’m totally okay with this, I’d rather be orange for a week or two and pass gradually to blonde, rather than fry my hair trying to go platinum right away. So, I’m rocking a cool orange ‘do à la Katy Perry for a little while (after dying her hair, Katy tweeted: ‘So I didn’t get to the exact color I wanted from being black for so long! 2get to goal I have 2b GINGER for 3WKS #paybackfromGINGERGodsFML). Katy Perry’s super stunning though, ginger or not, so I’m not complaining!

I’m planning on re-highlighting in a week or two, so I’m hoping to get closer to the blonde I’m looking for then.

Now, I need to find a really good leave-in conditioner. I’ve been contemplating a couple of brands like Redken, Neutrogena, or Bumble & Bumble, but I really don’t have much experience with these. Anybody have some advice?

Product was bought using my own money. All opinions stated are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

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UD jewelled logo

Yes, it’s true, Urban Decay has come out with a new limited edition palette and I just had to run to Sephora to pick one up as soon as they received them. I actually bought this palette a week ago, and at that time, 5 or 6 different Sephoras near me had already sold out of them. If you want to get one of these palettes sometime soon, I’d suggest you look into it ASAP because they’re selling out super fast!

The collection features 15 all new shades (how appropriate!) in an absolutely gorgeous gunmetal case. The front of the lid displays Urban Decay’s logo which is not only 3D but also beautifully bedazzled, were you expecting any less? The sides of the lid feature a gorgeous laser-cut filigree design, allowing you to see the sleek purple base. The entire collection sits snugly inside a rich purple velvet box. Everything about this packaging is gorgeous, even the millions of fingerprints that are bound to be left on the sleek metal.

Let’s move on to (arguably) the most interesting part of this palette, the inside! The inner wall of the lid is a convenient mirror which reflects the beautiful shadows in this collection. At the bottom right corner of the tray of shadows is a tiny hole which allows you to lift the tray and access a secret compartment, complete with velvet lining. All in all, the design of this case is absolutely stunning. However, I’m sure you’re more interested in hearing about the 15 brand new shadows! Read on, my lovelies!

Going down the columns, from left to right, the colors are Midnight Rodeo, Midnight 15, Vanilla, Flow, Chase, Tainted, Junkshow, Omen, Evidence, Deep End, Deeper, M.I.A., Ace, Blackout and Half Truth.

The colors in this first column are gorgeous neutrals and are all rather metallic and shimmery. Midnight Rodeo in particular actually has a lot of relatively big chunks of glitter in it, I could see myself having a lot of fun with it.

This second column is my favorite, I can’t wait to play with the colors. I was surprised by the blue shift in Omen, it is my favorite color in the collection and I think it would go gorgeously with Evidence. I was a tiny bit disappointed with Junkshow, I expected it to be more pigmented and was hoping for more shimmer. I was also a bit thrown off by Tainted – I was expecting it to be more of a pink but it turned out to be a really pretty pale purple.

This third column has all the basics you need for a gorgeous smoky eye. My favorite of this batch is Half Truth, I expected it to be more grey but the purple in this one is simply gorgeous. Can you tell that I have a bias towards purple eye shadow?

Finally, let’s finish it off with some gif action I’ve made for you – it’s my secret compartment!


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Improptu Park Photoshoot OOTD

By
August 2nd, 2011
final10

So I was hanging out with my boyfriend yesterday, on the two year anniversary of our first kiss, when we decided to do something special. Grabbing my amazing Canon Rebel XSi, which doesn’t get used nearly enough, we took a quick ride to a nearby park for a spur of the moment photoshoot.

Vrooom, I pretend to be the driver when we get to the park

It was a breezy summer evening but my outfit was inspired by my favorite season, fall. I wore a super comfy brown cotton tee with three quarter sleeves and a wide neck, which I paired up with an equally comfy ankle-length yellow cotton skirt. The skirt has adorable crochet detailing which makes it easy, breezy and perfect for the summer!

I loved pairing warm brown with yellow! I thought that this was a really nice combination, the vibrant yellow complemented the neutral brown beautifully and this is definitely a look that you don’t see much. I wouldn’t have originally thought that these colors would look so nice together, but when I put them on, the first things I thought of were caramel and sponge toffee and I was smitten. There’s just something so warm and sweet about this look, what do you guys think?

I love how warm all of the colors in this outfit are :)

I definitely wanted to keep it simple with the accessories, so I threw on a vintage watch and sunstone pendant, a leather belt from American Eagle, and some nude stilettos with a wooden platform. Anyway, enough with the descriptions, let’s get to the rest of the photoshoot! To see a bigger version of any of the images, just click on them.

Taking a well-deserved break!

Monkeying around in stilettos

Crochet detailing and pretty shoesies <3

My favorite ninja-turtle-slash-photographer of all time!

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BlogFail

By
August 1st, 2011

So apparently my blog was down for a couple of weeks and I didn’t even notice because I’ve been so busy with school and work and such ;-; Sorry sorry sorry, I promise this won’t happen again! I’ve got lots of free time, so that means lots of time to post tons of interesting stuff. This is just a quick update to let you all know that I’ve fixed the problems, keep your eyes open for a new post coming real soon.

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