Thursday, August 25, 2011

Orly Fowl Play

I wasn't real moved by Orly's Birds of a Feather collection that was released a few weeks back, until I saw a display at Ulta. Most of the colors seemed ordinary, with the exception of Fowl Play. It stuck out like a colorful parrot in a cage of canaries.



This is a very blacked plum jelly base with tiny silver glitter, small blue glitter and coppery flakes suspended into it. As you can see from the side of the bottle that the coppery-red flakes will also reflect green and gold at times. I love seeing flaky polishes readily available as they add that special something to the polish.


Now for the bad news. This formula is horrible. I managed to get this opaque-ish in two coats - but two quirky coats. I was trying to keep the coats thin, as it is a jelly and I didn't want to wait forever between coats. However, that thin coat looked absolutely horrible. It was streaky, it dragged and was just terrible. For the second coat, I just put a thick coat on and prayed that the Seche Vite I use as a topcoat would help the drying time (it did), but you can still see some drag up by the cuticle in the closeup shot.

I do love the color, but I'm not sure it's enough to overcome the horrible formula. I will have to see with time.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Chanel Soft Touch Eyeshadow in Fauve

Chanel recently released a few new products for fall. Part of the release is a set of single Soft Touch eye colors. Being the taupeaholic that I am, I was drawn to Fauve like a moth to flame.





Fauve is a mauve taupe color with loads of shimmer. The shimmer is abundant, but not a chunky, clumpy glitter. It's soft and blendable and looks nice on the eye.


I love this color. I have been wearing it non stop for the past few days. It makes a quick and easy elegant eye look. Sweep some Fauve over a primed lid (I used UDPP) and then add a thin line of Urban Decay's new 24/7 liquid eyeliner and voila - you're done.






I love this color and will be using it often in the future.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Balm Shady Lady, vol 3

I love getting a beauty bargain. Love it. Well, not just beauty bargains, but bargains in general. I love shopping in the outlets, and I love shopping at Marshalls and T.J. Maxx. You can get some great deals there. For example - right now T.J. Maxx has stocked various The Balm products over in their beauty area. I was pawing through the various lotions and toners when I came across this:



Now, I only have one product from the Balm - it's a single eyeshadow in a taupey-purple color. It's a nice color and formula and I wear it quite often. I know I've seen this palette at Sephora, and even pawed through it a couple of times, but I never fully committed to buying the $39.50 item. Until now.



All of the colors have goofy names, but they also have a really nice formula. Some of the colors are listed as a shadow color, and some are listed as a shadow/liner color. The only color I had a problem with is the black with multi-colored glitter in the lower right-hand corner - guilty gwen. It was very hard and gritty and the glitter went everywhere.



The pigmentation was nice, not the best, but not too bad. They will probably pop a bit more over a primer. I can foresee quite a bit of use from this palette.

The best part of it? I paid $16.99 for it! Less than half of what it currently sells for at Sephora! So, keep an eye out at your local Marshall's/T.J. Maxx as you never know what kind of deal you may scoop up!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Can't... Wait... So.. Excited...

Wow - I know it's a teeny, tiny picture, but it's a twitpic from Neiman Marcus (follow @neimanmarcus on Twitter)

It's the latest in the Ken Downing colors for Le Metier de Beaute Neiman Marcus collection - Bodacious Bordeaux. 

Share photos on twitter with Twitpic 

I raved about the last one.. this one will also be mine, mine, mine!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Bling Nail Appliques -or- the only nail art I can do

I am not one for nail art. Primarily because I simply do not have the dexterity to accomplish nice-looking nail art, see exhibit A. If you want to see some great nail art - please go on over to The Daily Nail. Then come back, of course! :)

So, in an attempt to try something a bit different, I picked up a couple sets of Bling Nail Appliques from Sally's.



These are little silver dots on a clear nail sticker. Now, these aren't like the Sally Hansen nail stickers which act just like nail polish - these are honest-to-God stickers. They're textured and they can be removed are repositioned until you get it right on the nail. I had Chanel's Mimosa on my nails to begin with, and I just wasn't feeling it - so I added these over it.



They were a bit labor intensive for stickers, only because I was stingy and because I have short little nubbins - I was able to make one sticker go on two nails. So, I would put the sticker on my pointer fingernail, *very* carefully trim it close to the nail tip with cuticle scissors, retrim the ends and place on the pointer fingernail on my other hand. So, now I still have another manicure available! See - stingy!


After adding and trimming the sticker, I carefully filed the edge to smooth it out - which actually was harder than it sounds to get a nice, even edge. It took a little persistence and it came out nice with a few little bumps. At that point, I added a coat of Seche Vite, although it probably wasn't necessary. I just wanted it extra shiny.  I like this, and even though removal will probably be a bear, I'll probably do another manicure like it, not to mention the other styles I bought as well! Quick and easy nail art even with unsteady hands.

On another note - this is my 100th post.. woo hoo!
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