My the odds be ever in your favor

Yep, I'm one of those.

I had no desire to read The Hunger Games. The thought of kids killing kids turned me off. However, my two sister-in-laws kept bugging me to read it. There was one thing that finally pushed me over the edge into "read it" status.

Lenny Kravitz

Yep. I looked on IMDB and saw that Lenny Kravitz was playing Cinna and I was completely on board. Shallow? You betcha. I own it. So I read it. In two days. Now, I'm getting ready to drop the spitfire and little miss off at the babysitter's house (aka my parents) and head off to see the movie. While I do it, I will be wearing this:

I may just wear some Urban Decay El Dorado eyeliner as a homage to Cinna - but probably not.

Ombre Manicure

I am not one for intricate nail art, however, I have been a bit more adventurous with minor nail art. I've delved into the accent nail, and now, I've tried an ombre manicure.

Ombre manicures consist of 5 different shades of the same color group, one on each finger. Honestly, even with my fairly large collection, it's difficult for me to pick out a set of similar colors. This time I just let myself go. I picked shades of black and gray. With the exception of one gilttery polish, I picked cremes.

On my thumb I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White on. It's awful. I don't know why I have it. It's a thick and gloopy, but at the same time streaky white-out type of polish. On my pointer finger I used Zoya Dove. Middle finger is Nails, inc. The Thames. Ring finger is Orly Rock Solid and pinky finger is Orly Liquid Vinyl.

I've had this manicure on for three days now, which is normally my limit for nail-polish boredom, so it's probably going to come off soon. I actually received a lot of comments (many confused) on it, but I actually kinda like it.

Next I have to start looking for a good green polish for St. Paddy's Day even though I don't have a drop of Irish blood in me.

Maybelline Super Stay 10 Stain Gloss

Lip stains are the current wonder product. There are a wide range of lip stains out on the market right now. I have tried the marker-type stains and I don't like them. Yes, I love the color staying on all day, but it actually looks like I grabbed the spitfire's markers and colored my lips.  So, now two companies (one high end, and one drugstore) have come up with a stain/gloss hybrid. YSL has their own for $32, and Maybelline has theirs for $7-8, depending on where you buy it. Yeah - I'm going for the more budget-friendly one.

I will say right off the bat, I have not tried the YSL one, so I don't know how this compares to it. From the Maybelline Website, it says:

Why You'll Love It

The first 10HR Stain Gloss:
• Vibrant and shiny wear; never flat
• Feels fresh all day, never dry.
• Glides on wet and smooth, never drags
• Shine enhancing formula provides a lightweight layer of lasting color

Some of those claims hold up, some don't. First up, the wand. It's kind of cool - it's donut shaped and actually holds a little reservoir of color within it.

It does glide on easily and smoothly, with no drag - that clam is good. The formula, like most stains, is very thin. It's not runny, but it is thin so you will need to go slowly and take care when applying as you can very easily go outside the lip lines. It has a very strong synthetic fruit punch smell, so if you are sensitive to smells, I would be pass on this one. It does dissipate quickly, though and has no taste, but putting it on, especially a product that goes directly under your nose, it's quite strong.

I grabbed two colors:

The coral is not very coral-colored, but a mauvey-pink, and the mauve color is a light burgandy. Yeah, so the naming of the colors is a wee bit off. Cool Coral is listed as color 150 and Mauve Dream is listed as 180. Don't get me wrong, I like the colors, but they're nothing like how they are named. They do go on very shiny, and they stay quite shiny for awhile, but then it begins to dull around the two hour mark. So the claim of vibrant and shiny wear, never dull is half correct. It goes on vibrant and shiny, and stays like that for a little while, but then it begins to go dull.

Cool Coral

Mauve Dream

It never feels dry on the lips, in fact, once it's dried down, it doesn't feel like anything at all. Nothing like traditional long-wearing lipsticks that completely dry out your lips where you have to add lip balm all day, just nothing. In fact, when I'm wearing these I check in the mirror to see if they're still on. And here's where the claims fall a bit short.

All claims of lasting all day, or long wearing - yeah, uh.. no. They do last awhile, but not 10 hours. Lipsticks don't tend to last very long on my, 2-3 hours at the most. I can get about 3 hours before they fade, and after about 4-5 hours there's a bit of a ring around my lips where it's faded away. Better than a gloss? By far. Better than a lipstick? Yep. 10 hours? No way. 

Mauve Dream after 1.5 hours and two cups of coffee.

It hold up well against eating and drinking during the first few hours.

All in all, I like this. I like them quite a bit, actually. I've actually purchased 3 of them, and wear them a bit. Since Little Miss was born, I've not worn much on my lips because I can't keep my lips off her head and end up kissing her very often - this stuff doesn't smudge off on her.

I would very much recommend them.