I Love Nail Polish Multichrome Swatch - Nostalgia and Sweet Serenade

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and your family. I hope you're having a great one. Finally, the day has arrived! We can enjoy the festivities, open our presents, and get on with your lives. I woke up to an excruciating painful leg cramp that got me bouncing off my bed as if it was set on fire. Not a nice way to start the day but it's good to be home and relaxing because tomorrow is another day at work.

So today, I am very excited to share with you two new multi-chrome that I purchased from I Love Nail Polish. I actually received it about 10 days ago but my nails weren't in good shape for swatches so I decided to wait until they grow a little longer.

Nostalgia was newly released earlier this month and the moment I saw this beauty my jaw literally dropped! It's beautifully named as well. Nostalgia makes me think of the most cherished and tender memories. It brings me back to a distant time and place where my heart was content and at peace. Memories I've visited quite often this year in my lonely mind. Nostalgia, the nail polish, evokes an essence of beauty and harmony. Its multi-dimensional and multi-chromeness are like colors on steroids. Vibrant, beautiful, and intense...much like some of my past memories. The color shift is very strong and changes from a glowy emerald green to a shimmery bronze and a flash of burgundy. The formula is slightly sheer and requires 3 coats for full opacity. It's prone to show brush strokes, therefore, you'd have take your time and carefully apply the polish so that your brush strokes are nice and even. Nostagia is the perfect multi-chrome. It's so unique, it's a must have for any nail junkie (or dreamer) out there. Having it in my possession makes me want to smile and cry at the same time, lol. I know I'm a little weird like that but I can't help myself when I see a nail polish this gorgeous.

Sweet Serenade reminded me at first of a peacock feather. The strongest colors are dark blurple and teal. And depending on how the light reflects on the polish, you can also take notice of a glowy dark blue. It also has some sparkling blue shimmers that adds a bit of whimsical flair to the polish. Because the overall colors are a little darker in this polish the multi-chromeness is more apparent under bright lighting. This polish was opaque in two coats and I didn't have any trouble with the formula or trail of brush strokes.
After I applied it on my nails, my perspective of a peacock feather started to change. The colors took appearance of Northern Lights on my nails. The way the teal moves and dances with the light over the contrasting dark purple very much reminds me Northern Lights in a dark blue sky. I hope that someday I can enjoy the view of real Northern Lights in the sky. I've only seen pictures and there's something magical and beautiful about it. For now, I think Sweet Serenade is a sweet contender to the real Northern Lights. Wouldn't you agree?

Each nail polish contains .4 oz or 12 ml. I Love Nail Polish makes fabulous multi-chrome nail polishes. I'd gladly exchange 3 of my regular nail polishes for one of these multi-chromes. That's how beautiful they are and totally worth every dollar I spent. If you'd like to see swatches of the other I Love Nail Polish Multi-Chrome that I own, you can view them HERE.

Price: $12.50 each
Availability: ilnp.com

Happy Holidays <333

Finger Paints Swatches - Golden Kisses, Kiss By The Tree, and Sparkle In The Sky

Hello lovelies,

Here are the swatches of the new Finger Paints polishes that I just recently picked up. I believe these are part of their holiday collection. 

Golden Kisses is a textured nail polish with fine silver shimmers and small pale gold glitters. I did not expect this polish to be textured so it was a surprise. The texture is more rough that most I've tried. The formula is a little thick so application was a little uneven on the first coat. The second coat is a little more even though you still have to be careful during application. Two coat is enough for opaque coverage.

2 coats of Golden Kisses with a clear top coat

Kiss By The Tree has a clear base with small and large red glitters, white bar glitters, and small and large white glitters. It's quite a fun looking mix. The base is not too thick or too thin but the glitters are rather sparse and move around easily; therefore, you'll have to dab and shuffle the glitters around a bit. I had use two coats over Nicole by OPI Sea How Far You Go.

Sparkle In The Sky is another texture polish that I wasn't expecting to be textured. I think they need to have a different packaging or label and much to my surprise, it looks like a good dupe for OPI Alcatraz...Rocks. It is a dark dusty blue with a slight purple undertone and green, gold, and purple sparkling shimmers. I only needed two coats for opaque coverage. The formula wasn't as thick as Golden Kisses and was much easier to spread evenly. I forgot to take a picture with a top coat but I think I like the way it looks much better with the top coat.

Orly Macabre Masquerade Swatch

When I saw this polish at Sally Beauty, I was debating whether or not I should pick it up. I was attracted by the pretty tiny and colorful sparkles so eventually I gave in and scooped it up.

Macabre Masquerade has a dark shimmery cobalt blue base and it is loaded with small multi-colored glitters. The formula was very thick, almost goopy, and sheer so when I applied the first layer it looked patchy and uneven. To my surprise, the second coat provided opaque coverage though I had to be careful about my brush strokes to distribute the color evenly. I wasn't expecting opacity on the second layer since it was so sheer but I think the thickness of the formula contributed to that. Overall, application isn't the nicest but it's doable.

I think this polish looks like Christmas even without the traditional red and green combo. I also added a clear top over the swatches.

Sally Beauty Haul

Happy Sunday! 

I hope you're having a lovely weekend. Last night, it snowed pretty heavily and we ended up with 6 inches of snow. Not in the mood to be outside for sure. I've yet to clean up my car and dig it out of the parking stall so that I don't have to do that in the morning tomorrow before going to work. 

I stopped by Sally Beauty Supply a few days ago. I wished I had waited till this weekend because they currently have nail polishes on BOGO free and the sale ends today. 

I intended to grab a hair conditioner but mistakenly got the shampoo, lol. I hate it when the shampoo and conditioner bottles look the same. 

The main reason I had to go there was that I needed a nail polish thinner. I'm about to run out and needed a back up asap. I have some nail polishes that could use some thinner as they are either starting to feel drier or they are a little goopy and need to be thinned out. I've seen some people use nail polish remover to revive their nail polishes. I've never tried it but it must somehow work for people to do that. I heard it could ruin your nail polish so I'm not taking chances. This bottle cost $3.79 with Sally Beauty Club Card and trust me, it is going to last a very long time since you only need a few drops at a time. 

I saw these two Hair One conditioner trial packages and figure wanted to give them a try to see if I like them. They're about a dollar each.

Golden Kisses, Kiss by the Tree, Sparkle in the Sky

And of course, I couldn't help myself but scoop some sparkly nail polishes. Stay tuned for swatches. 

Macabre Masquerade

Prestige Brow Perfection Brow Building System Medium-Deep Review

This review is way overdue. I've been using The Prestige Brow Perfection for over a month I think. I wish there was more of these kind of tinted brow gel on the market because filling your brows with a pencil or powder just can't do what these brow gel do.


Packaging

• This is a dual brow product with one side being a tinted fiber filler and the other side being a clear setting gel. Both end has a mascara type wand applicator. 
• .30 oz or 8.87 ml

Product

• What I normally do before I use the Brow Perfection is fill in my brows with either a pencil or a powder to give shape and fullness to my brows. 
• The first step is to use the tinted side, which comes with fibers and is supposed to make your brows look thicker. The gel is on the thin side with an ok pigmentation. I normally do two coats and it dries fairly quickly between coats. There aren't that many fibers on the wand. I don't know if they do anything but I do notice a subtle difference. I think it's mainly because of the tinted gel and not so much because of the fibers. 
• Once the tinted gel dries, the second step is to add the clear setting gel. Quite honestly, I don't find this step necessary but I would agree that it does help brush off some stray fibers. However, you're going to end up with the tinted gel color on the wand. If you don't want the clear gel to get tinted you will need to clean the wand before dipping it back into the tube. 
• I took a before and after picture and you can clearly see that after I'm done, my brows look more defined and a little thicker yet still very natural looking. I really love how it keeps my brow hair in place and looking nicely groomed. 

Final Thought

I think the tinted gel could have been just a wee bit thicker and more pigmented. The result yield slightly thicker, defined, and very natural looking brows that stays in place all day. I didn't have any issues with the product fading or flaking off. So if you are looking for a more affordable way to thicken and darken your brows, I think this does a fairly decent job. 

Rating: 8.5/10

Price: 7.49

Availablity: K-Mart, Ulta

Lancome Le Lipstique Mauvelle - Swatch and Review

This is another shop my stash discovery. This Lancome lip liner was part of a free gift with purchase that I got quite a while ago. I seriously badly neglected it until one day my daughter was wearing it all over her lips and I asked her "oo this lip color looks nice on you, what are you wearing?" When she told me it was the Lancome lip liner, I was like damn! I need to show it some love! lol.


Packaging

• Thought it's just a pencil, it looks elegant with the gold lettering. 
• The pencil also include a lip brush. I find the brush a little flimsy. It'll work better with something creamier like a lipstick.
•  .04 oz or 1.2 g

Product

• Mauvelle is a matte medium berry mauve. 
• Since I've had it for a while it felt slightly drier than when I first received it. I remembered it being creamier when it was still new. It's still creamy but just not as much. 
• The pigmentation is very good. It is smudge-resistant and long-wearing. You could pair it with a lipstick or wear it alone but I would suggest using a lip balm first since it's not very hydrating. 
• It does a wonderful job at making the lipstick last longer and prevent it from feathering. 

Final Thought

The formula is really nice. One of the best lip liner that I have because it's creamy and pigmented. You definitely can feel the quality if you want to compare this to a drugstore lip liner; however, for the price, it kind of makes me think twice. Lip liners are the least used and most neglected products in my beauty regime, which is why I don't own that many but if it's a must have for you and you don't mind paying a little extra for a good quality lip liner, then I would suggest you give Lancome Le Lipstique a try.

Rating: 9.5/10

Price: $25.00
Availability: Any Lancome counter

Sephora + Pantone Universe Velvet Lipstick Earth Red - Swatch and Review

Hello lovelies,

I've been lazy with my blog and just exhausted these past few days with the daily craziness at work. It's almost getting to the point where I just have to accept that crazy is a normal part of my job...eh that almost didn't sound right. Anyways, I picked up this lipstick at a Sephora store about a week ago. It's no longer available online but my local Sephora had a lot in stock so you might get lucky if your local Sephora store hasn't sold out.

Packaging

• It's a little bulkier than your typical lipstick tube. It has a silvery and clear packaging with a rectangular shape. I forgot to include a picture of the top of the lipstick. It has a small rounded mirror that I don't find very useful and the reflection is a bit distorted. 
• The mechanism of the lipstick has a different twist. To open, you would push in the bottom of the lipstick to release the tube from the case and then pull it out. When you're done you just push it back in until you hear a click.  
• .12 oz or 3.5 g

Product

• Earth Red is a muted cranberry red with a satin semi-matte finish. It's such a beautiful red color that I find more wearable than the traditional red. When I first swatched it in store, I knew I had to get it.
• Texture feels nice and is quite pigmented and creamy. I didn't find it hydrating or drying but if you wear a lip balm before applying, it will remain comfortable for hours. 
• The application was smooth and I like that it doesn't emphasize dry patches. 
• It has a very faint scent but no weird taste. The scent is so subtle you'd barely notice.
• It wears well for 4 1/2 hours without drinking or eating before it starts to fade. 

Final Thought

Personally, I love the shade, which was the main reason I purchased it but aside from that overall the formula is rather quite nice, creamy, and pigmented so for me it was worth it. If you fancy the color and the semi-matte finish, I think you'll be pleased with this lipstick.

Rating: 9/10
Price: $12.00

Availability: it's limited edition but might still be available at certain Sephora stores