NYX Glam Liner Aqua Luxe Waterproof Review and Swatches

A week ago, I picked up these new eyeliners from NYX. They were BOGO 50% at Ulta. I just received a coupon for 20% off and I wish I had it before I went shopping.

Packaging

• Packaging is practical and standard but I really like the fact that they color coded the packaging with a color band in the middle of the tube and on top of the cap. Definitely a bonus in my book so whichever way you store it, you can see what color you're grabbing.
• The applicator is a thin brush, which I find pretty similar to the Urban Decay 24/7 Waterproof liquid eyeliners. It's just slightly longer by a hair. It provides a firm yet flexible and precise application. 
• .10 oz or 3 g

Swatches from left to right

• Glam Azure - medium shimmery sky blue
• Glam Golden - dark brown with gold shimmers
• Glam Lagoon - shimmery teal green
• Glam 24 Karat - shimmery bright yellow gold

Product

• The formula is a bit thin and watery but still hold a decent pigmentation on the first pass. However, the first pass applies a bit unevenly so you would need a second pass to even it out. 
• The formula take a bit longer to set so try not to accidentally get it over your eyes when you blink or look up. 
• I found the brush applicator fairly good and precise. It's got just the right amount of firmness and flexibility.
• I don't know what it is is but it mildly tingles my skin for like a minute or two after I applied it. It's not painful but annoys me a bit though I don't see any alarming redness or irritation.
• They are quite long-wearing and do not budge for up to 6 hours. After that I do notice minor fading.
• These claims to be waterproof and I think that's partially true. Once it sets, if it touches water, it will stay intact, as long as you don't rub it. But even if you rub your skin, it will take some pressure until it comes off. 
• The blue and green shade stains a bit. 

Final Thought
These liners are highly shimmery, so depending on your preference you might or might not like that aspect. NYX as a nice range of colors to choose from to tickle your fancy so if colored liners are your thing, you might want to check these out. They are long-wearing, somewhat waterproof, and pretty affordable.
They are probably not your every day eyeliner but for fun and a pop of color, these will do the job nicely.

My rating: 9/10.

What are your favorite colored liners?

Nicole By OPI - Me + Blue and Canadian Star

Hello lovelies,

I picked up this duo from TJ Maxx for 5 or 6 bucks, which was a pretty good deal. But if I had my ways, I'd probably only get the one on the right (Canadian Star). 

Anyways, Me + Blue is still a nice color to have. It's a shimmery medium blue with micro holographic glitters. The holo glitters are so little that when I took the pictures, they look like tiny grains of salts, lol, but I assure you that it's not like that in person. They do look holo, just not on my my pictures. I have two coats here and the pigmentation is fairly good and application easy.

Ok so I almost had a heart attack when I swatched the first layer of Canadian Star. I mean just look at it, it looked so watery and sheer, I almost cried. I tried to see how far I could go with the layers until I find happiness.

I did 4 coats in total to reach a good opacity but I wanted to just show you how it looked as I built my layers. So I can honestly say that on the forth layer, I was floored! The result was out of this world that I literally wanted to do back flips, lol. I know 4 layers is a lot of work but I will go the extra mile in some cases. The layers were rather thin cause the formula is thin. The dry time wasn't too bad either for 4 layers. So yes, it's a bit of work but to me that was so worth it. The duochrome is very strong and stunning!

So what do you think? Would you mind 4 coats if you knew you would get this kind of result?

I'm Quiting Luuux

Hello Lovelies,

You may or may not know this but for the past couple years, I've been a pretty active member of Luuux, a blogging network site, which offers incentives for people who like to blog and connect with others. The incentives are pretty simple...you blog, you comment, you interact with others, and you earn points while you're doing all that. Points you can save and redeem for some nice prizes. It was a great incentive because it was engaging and interacting, which is one of the great thing I enjoyed about it other than redeeming my points for prizes.

The first and only prize I cashed in was my Canon Rebel T3i, and it took me 2 1/2 years of blogging labor in order to make it happen. I was very close to reaching my goal within the first 18 months of joining but they suddenly increased the point value by almost double. I was only a couple thousand points away from getting it and I nearly died when that happened.
I finally earned enough points to redeem for the T3i a year later and I was very lucky that I had received it right before the Luuux shop went down. It was down for over six months and nobody had a clue what was going on until this morning.

This morning, we got an email from Luuux letting us know that the shop is back in business and that they will gladly send us a free brush set or give us 9120 points for the inconvenience of the shop being down for so long. Soon enough, we all discovered that a lot of the items that were on our wishlist were no longer there and the ones that stayed tripled in price. I nearly had a stroke when I saw the new pricing. Ain't no freaking way, I'm going to ever earn enough point to get anything that I actually want from the shop. It will literally take me 5+ years. Who knows by then they probably will do another price increase. Geez!! This is the second one already and that's the last straw for me.

With that being said, I'll still continue blogging here as usual but if you joined Luuux through my links or were referred there through my posts, I would say don't even waste your time there anymore. There's a lot of commotion and disappointment with this new change. All of us who have been there for a while are very upset and feel cheated that they would put in place such a ridiculous price inflation. On top of that, as if that wasn't bad enough already, we would be required to pay with a credit card or Paypal for shipping and handling, which before we could actually use our luuux points to cover that. Not anymore.

So that's my rant for the day. If you read through my ordeal. Thank you, I appreciate.

H & M Cosmetics Review and Swatches

So this is my first time trying out H&M cosmetics and I'm reporting back to you my findings. For the record, they are fairly inexpensive and range about $5-6.

The lipstick shade is called "Being Perfect" and it's a warm peachy pink kind of shade, a color flattering for most people. I'm not really a fan of the formula, though it's not the worst. It just accentuates any dryness and imperfection so you definitely would need to exfoliate and prime with a lip balm before reaching for it. The formula is creamy, decently pigmented, and has strong and overly sweet scent. It also has a slight waxy taste. Not really a deal breaker but for those with a sensitive nose, it might be a bit much. It doesn't do much as far as moisturizing but it doesn't feel dry either and last a couple hours. I probably wouldn't repurchase though. There's a lot of drugstore products that works much better. 

My rating: 7.5/10.

H&M Liquid Eyeshadow Gold. I have a soft spot for cream eyeshadow and they are usually my go to eyeshadows when I'm in a hurry but just want a quick wash of color. I also like to use them to bring out the intensity of another powder eyeshadow.

The first time I swatched this, I was like WOW...Highly pigmented, creamy, and blend easily! It's a light, cool toned gold with a slight greenish tinge to it. And what you're probably dying to know at this point, is it worth running to the store and buy it?

This cream shadow didn't really work for me. I have slightly oily lids and because I have hooded lids on top of that, I noticed it creased much faster and easily on me after a few blinks. Whether I wear a primer or not, that doesn't do anything to prevent it. Setting it with a powder eyeshadow, slightly improved the wear but I still do notice a bit of creasing after an hour or two. Chances are if you are prone to creasing with cream shadows, this will not work for you.

My rating: 5/10.

I apologize for not taking the pictures in natural light but sometimes, I just don't have the time to do my swatches during the day. Confetti Time looked like a fun glitter when I first spotted it. The packaging has that Juicy Couture flair to it. It's got gold, blue, and pink glitters in a clear base. I have 2 coats of glitters layered on top of a Love & Beauty nail polish. The clear base is not too thick or thin but you might find yourself fishing for glitters if you are not happy with two coats.

Have you tried H&M Cosmetics? What are your thoughts on them?

Luuux Shared Link

Color Club Gift of Sparkle Swatches

I think they found the perfect name for this polish. Color Club truly has given me a gift of sparkle when I acquired this polish not long ago. It was actually part of their 2012 collection, which I missed out on this shade but was lucky enough to find it for cheaper at TJ Maxx.

I'm in love with the finish and the shade. This is a reddish purple glitter with holographic glitters. Formula is a bit thick and the first coat is a bit patchy but the second pass fixes the issue. Without a top coat, it has that sandy grainy finish that's been growing on me. With a top coat, the holos really come to life and it gives another dimension to the overall look and makes it super sparkly. I love it both ways. It's so mesmerizing.

If glitters is up your alley and you have not gotten this yet, do yourself a favor and buy yourself a gift of sparkle :).

Luuux Shared Link

Illamasqua Powder Blusher Nymph - Review and Swatches

Hello Beautifuls,

I spent most of my day yesterday finagling with my computer because it just stupidly decided that it doesn't want to work with Photoshop anymore. I haven't been able to resolve the issue in spite of doing a system restore, uninstalling and re-installing the program, online research and trying out a few of the suggestion, checking for virus, cleaning and defrag, pulling my hair out...to no avail. So until, it decides to magically fix itself, lol knock on wood, I have to resort to other editing options. Fortunately, there are many free online photo editing programs that will get most of the job done but still have limitations, which kind of annoys me but I'll live. Have any of you used GIMP? I hear it's the next best thing to Photoshop and it's FREE. That might be my next option. You can check out the reviews and download it HERE if that is something you might need. I don't know how much edit you do on your pictures but I do crop, rotate, and resize a lot, along with adjusting the exposure, colors, and watermarking. This may seem like a lot for some but they are simple and easy adjustments that can make a huge difference, especially if the quality of your pictures matters to you.

Ok, now aside from the geek talk, this is a blush I've had for a while and never got to review it. If you've been following me for sometime, you may have noticed that I've wore it on a few of my makeup looks.

Packaging

• Slightly bulky but good and practical
• 1.5 oz or 4.5 g

Product

• This particular shade has a matte finish. If you love matte blushes, you'll love the formula of this one.
• It's not powdery and feels very soft and silky. 
• Pigmentation is good, buildable, and product is easy to blend. 
• This shade looks light but will show up on most skin tone I think. I've slightly over applied on the picture above but that's just to show you how much you can get out of it. Typically, I don't use that much and it can look quite natural.
• Product last on average about 5 hours and I notice some slight fading a couple hours after.

Final Thought
This blush was given to me as a birthday gift from my sister. I personally really like it and the Illamasqua Cream blushes are just as good. This is probably one of my favorite high-end blushes. Price ($26) can be a con for some but if you can justify the price, this is a great blush to have in your beauty arsenal.
My rating: 10/10.

Luuux Shared Link

Bundle Monster Stamping Plate Haul

Hello lovelies,

TGIF. I'm a bit stressed out since yesterday because I can't get Photoshop to open. I've tried messing with the DEP settings and even did a system restore and nothing worked. I'm thinking about uninstalling and re-installing the program but I can't find the freaking CD. Ughhhh...I guess I'll have to resort to other options until I can see if re-installing the program fixes the issue. It's so annoying when things don't work like they should.

Otherwise, on a happier note, I'm excited to share with you these new stamping plates that I just received the other day.

I received 25 plates, with 6 designs on each plate. The plates are also paper backed and had a clear blue plastic cover. I see a lot of designs that I like but there's also a few that I probably wouldn't care much for but that's part of the bundle, what can I say? All these were $21.99 with free shipping, a pretty reasonable deal. It's like paying 88 cents per plate. Here's the link to the seller http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008AMKZUU/ref=ox_ya_os_product

I'm going to have to decorate my nails this weekend :). As expected, you can be sure that I will share any manicure I come up with using these plates.

Do you stamp your nails? If so, do you have any recommendation? I still want to get more designs but perhaps after I've had the chance to play with a few of these.

Luuux Shared Link

OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sand Swatches

Hello Beautifuls,

I decided to go with the mini set of liquid sand on my last trip to Ulta because I wasn't sure if I was going to like these or not.

From left to right: Get Your Number, Can't Let Go, The Impossible, and Stay the Night
I did two coats on each of these and they had a pretty good coverage. I personally do like the gritty, sandy, sugary texture of these polishes but I find the colors a bit boring. I wished the colors were more interesting. When I saw the full size bottle of The Impossible, it was packed with star glitters in it too but with the mini bottle, I can hardly see any of them unless they all sank to the bottom.

I added a top coat on the last picture. I still think it looks nice with or without the topcoat but for the purpose of it, I'd probably go without topcoat.

Luuux Shared Link

Zoya Swatches - Apple, Paloma, and Katherine

Hello lovelies,

I didn't get a chance to show you the haul, so I might as well just skip straight to the swatches. A few weeks ago Zoya had a promo, where you can get 3 polishes for just $10.00. I'm always waiting on these promos to pick up my next Zoya shades.

Apple is wow...super shimmery and shiny with a metallic foil finish. It's green but I see a bit of teal highlight and gold shimmers. Gorgeous color though it may not be everyone's cup of tea. I have 3 coats on the swatches.

The first jelly I tried from Zoya was Frida and after doing my first jelly sandwich, I was hooked! Jelly has definitely become my new favorite nail polish finish. I'm very pleased with the jellies that Zoya made so I picked up the rest of the shades, which is just these two. I really wish Zoya would make them in more colors.

Paloma is a sheer raspberry jelly. I was able to get this color payoff in 3 coats, which is really not bad actually. It's very glossy and squishy looking. I love it.

Katherine is a deep black cherry color. I was also able to get a really good color pay off in three coats. This shade looks sexy and vampy.

Did you take advantage of the Zoya promo? If so which colors did you get?


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