Blue and Teal Eye Pencils and Liners - Swatches

I've got the blues too! I think I'm almost done swatching all of my eye liners. Well, I've swatched the bulk of it and I'm sure I missed a few but I think that should be good for now.

If you missed my previous eyeliner swatches, feel free to check them out on the links below:

• Swatch, Comparison, and Dupes - Nude, Brown, and Gold Eye Pencils
• Brown and Gold Liquid Eyeliners - Swatches
• Purple Pencil Liners and Liquid Liners - Swatches
• Green Eye Pencil and Liners - Swatches

Light Blues

1. Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eyeshadow Pencil Clash - shimmery cyan blue with some sparkling silver shimmers. Glides smoothly, pigmented, budge-proof, crease-proof, long-wearing.
2. Prestige Total Intensity Lively Turquoise - shimmery and vibrant cyan blue. Glides smoothly and is pretty pigmented. It's a pretty good dupe for Clash. The only difference is that it doesn't have the silver shimmers and is relatively cheaper.
3. MAC Chromographic Pencil High Def Cyan - muted cyan blue with a semi-matte finish. Glides smoothly, pigmented, budge-proof, long-wearing.
4. Rimmel Scandaleyes Khol Kajal Light Blue - very pale light blue. Almost white. matte finish. Long-wearing, smooth, and pigmented.

Dark Blues

1. Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil Binge - shimmery blue with a purple undertone. Smooth, pigmented, long-wearing with minimal smudges.
2. Rimmel Scandaleyes Khol Kajal Deep Blue - matte dark blue with grey undertone. A little dry but pigmented and long-wearing.
3. Prestige Total Intensity Fierce Blue - dark navy blue with a satin finish. Smooth, pigmented, long-wearing with minimal smudges.
4. MAC Pearlglide Intense Eye Liner Petrol Blue - navy blue with blue shimmers. Very intense color payoff, super smooth, long-wearing with minimal smudges.
5. Sephora Waterproof Khol and Liner Keep Blue - dark navy blue with matte finish. Smooth, pigmented, long-wearing, and waterproof. Excellent for the waterline.

I really thought I was going to get some dupes here but surprisingly no.

Teals

1. Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeshadow Stick Blamed Blue - Gorgeous shimmery teal blue! A must have. Very smooth, pigmented, budge-proof, and long-wearing.
2. NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil Electric Blue - shimmery light blue with teal shimmers. Very smooth and pigmented. Prone to creasing and fading. Works best as eyeshadow base with a primer and eyeshadow to set.
3. NYX Retractable Eye Liner Gypsy Blue - dark shimmery teal. Formula drags a bit but pigmentation is good. Long-wearing and budge-proof.
4. Milani Liquif'Eye Aqua - medium shimmery teal. The color is close to Blamed Blue but a bit lighter and slightly greener. Smooth, long-wearing, budge-proof.

Blue Liquid Liners

1. MAC Superslick Liquid Eyeliner Signature Blue - dark navy blue with a satin finish. Smudge-proof, budge-proof, long-wearing, water resistant.
2. NYX Glam Liner Aqua Luxe Glam Azure - bright shimmery blue with a metallic finish. Good pigmentation. Thin and watery. Long-wearing, budge-proof, water resistant.
3. Milani Ultrafine Liquid Eyeliner Sparkling Turquoise - medium shimmery turquoise. Good pigmentation, long-wearing, budge-proof, water resistant

I think that should be it as far as eyeliners go. Next swatch spams will involve cream eyeshadows :)...Who's excited?

Sally Hansen Healthy Cuticles Now! Vitamin Treatment - Review

A little while ago, I picked up this Sally Hansen cuticle cream because it was on sale for half off at Walgreens. I don't usually do anything special with my nails and cuticles. I'm pretty low maintenance with them. I clip or file my nails weekly. I push my cuticles weekly and I try to remember to use hand cream and cuticle creams daily. I love painting my nails with a new and cool nail polishes and having healthy cuticles is important. I'm fortunate that they are generally in good shape so I don't have to do much with them.

What Sally Hansen claims about this cream...

Nourishes and helps restore dry nails and cuticles. Exclusive Bio-Active Vita-Soy Complex penetrates with essential nutrients for healthy nails and cuticles. Moisturizes and nourishes cuticles with Aloe. Nourishing anti-oxidant vitamins A, C, E and Pro-Vitamin B5 promote strong, healthy nail growth. Moisturizing Aloe conditions for visibly smoother, healthy cuticles and stronger nails.


Packaging

• This little pot looks like an eye cream jar and contains .48 oz or 13.6 g of product. I honestly really dislike this type of packaging because it would mean that I'd  have to dip my fingers into the pot and get creams all over the inside of my nails, which is a huge pet peeve for me. My only consolation is that I got it on sale, it's supposed to be good for my cuticles, and I wanted to review it for you.

Product

• This cuticle treatment comes in form of a very light cream that looks like it's been air whipped. A little goes a long way. 
• The cream is thin, absorbs fairly quickly, doesn't feel greasy, and helps moisturizing your cuticles. Now, as far as the moisturizing goes, it helps but won't do much. If you have very dry and cracked skin around your cuticles, you'd need something more heavy duty than this. I find that the conditioning effect doesn't last very long and you'd definitely need to reapply after you wash your hands because soaps will strip this cream off your cuticles. If your cuticles need serious help, I would recommend the Dior Creme Abricot nail cream. 
• It has a soft pleasant floral scent. 

Final Thought

It's ok for daily use to help keep your cuticles hydrated and in good shape but I prefer something more moisturizing and longer lasting. It's not potent enough to heal severely dried cuticles, moisturizing effect doesn't last very long, and washes away easily. Overall, it's just an ok product. I wouldn't repurchase though.

Rating: 7/10

Price: $5.00-$7.00
Availability: Walgreens, Target


Do you have a favorite cuticle cream?

Accidental Haul...Well Sort Of...

The other day I stopped by the Dollar Tree store because I needed to get some cotton rounds...For some reason, they didn't have any. Fortunately, CVS emailed me a $3.00 coupon so I figure why not stop by CVS and get it from there with my coupon. As you can see, I walked out of there with more than just cotton rounds, lol. This triple pack of cotton rounds was $6.99 and contains 80 rounds per pack.

I remembered that I also needed an eye makeup remover so I picked up this Almay one, crossing my fingers that it will work. It was $6.29. Another case of not properly labeled prices. I could've sworn it was less than $5.00 but when I looked at my receipt, they charged me more :(

Freeman Facial Anti-Stress Mask Dead Sea Minerals, $1.99. I've been wanting to try this mask but didn't want to commit to the full size tube yet so I was glad I found this sample size packet. It also has a coupon attached to it in case I want to buy the full size tube.

Yay! Finally, I spotted these new Nicole by OPI Gumdrops nail polishes. I've been wanting Cinna-Man of my Dreams but I also decided to pick up That's What I Mint too. They were on sale for $6.99, which is a dollar less than what they normally retail. More textured polish to add to my stash :D

And lastly, even though I didn't find my cotton rounds at the Dollar Tree, I did manage to pick up a Microfiber Headband, which I find pretty helpful when cleansing my face or applying facial mask. I normally use a regular head band but this is so much better for the task. It does a pretty good job at staying in place and grabbing every strand of hair to pull them away from my face. Plus the microfiber fabric is soft, comfortable, and won't slip off easily.

I came across this Milani Eyeshadow at the Dollar Tree as well. Not like I needed it but what the heck, it was just a buck and I wanted to let you guys know you may find it at your local Dollar Tree too. Well aside from that I wanted to try it and review it as well :)

That's it for now...Will have more hauls coming up but that's up to whenever UPS or the mailman is going to deliver them.

Kleancolor Silver Lining and Salsa Much

Here I go again...More polishes swatches for ya!

Salsa Much is a new favorite glitter...just take a peak at the photos and you'll know what I mean. It looks somewhat interesting in the bottle but when I paired it with a dark nail polish, it's jaw dropping gorgeous! It has a lot of red, gold, and blue micro glitters suspended in a clear base. These colors look like a mix of citrine, sapphire, and ruby stones crushed into very fine glitter pigments, The base was not too thin or thick. Just the perfect consistency. I did two coats on the swatch but it would have looked just fine with one coat. Because the glitters are so fine, I didn't have any problem with them spreading out evenly. It's so pretty! The sight of it makes me wanna drool. Definitely one of those that looks much better in person.

Silver Lining looks pretty in the bottle but I've yet to find the right polish to pair this with. It has very fine silvery gold glitters mixed with larger lavender glitters suspended in a clear base. The base is slightly on the thin side so I had to really fish for the big glitters, which is no fun. I paired it with a very light nude beige color and did two coats over it. The combo isn't the greatest and I've tried it over several other colors and still couldn't find one that makes me happy. Ironically, I've yet to find the silver lining for silver lining. Any suggestions?

Kleancolor can be found at select stores, online, Ebay, and Amazon. They are usually between $2.00-$4.00.

Maybelline Fit Me Shine-Free Foundation Stick - Swatch and Review

A few days ago, I impulsively grabbed one of these new Maybelline Fit Me Shine-Free Foundation Stick. I've never tried a foundation stick before so I was very curious to find out if this could become a new favorite.


Packaging

• I consider the packaging rather compact. It's small and light-weight, which is rather convenient for traveling. 
• I feel that the cap can potentially become loose over time. I haven't had it long enough to confirm that it will happen but based on my observation it looks a little flimsy.
• There's .32 oz or 9 g of product, which doesn't seem like much. When I twisted the entire product out, the diameter is probably around 3/4 of an inch and the length roughly about 2 inches long. 
• There's an anti-shine core at the center that is supposed to help control oil and give you a matte finish.

Product

• There are 12 different shades to choose from and I did have a bit of a hard time figuring out which one would be the best match for my skin tone so I grabbed 120. I find it to be a bit too cool and slightly lighter than I would prefer for my skin tone but once blended the shade actually worked. It does make me look flat and pale but I don't mind it much since I can easily fix that with contouring and blush. 
• The texture of the foundation is quite emollient and feels like gel. It blends easily and I feel like it doesn't really absorbs into my skin but kinda just sit on top of it, which helps smooth out pores. I apply it directly from the stick unto my face and then use a brush to blend and buff the foundation with my skin. It feels very light and can give you light to medium coverage. It does a very good job at evening out my skin tone, blur my freckles, and minimize the appearance of small scars. Please forgive the horrible picture and ghostly face below. I'm quite pale and I've been breaking out one pimple after another so my skin is in bad shape. Those little acne scars are going to take some time to go away. 
• Once blended it give a soft powdered and almost matte finish. I guess it's more like a satin finish. 
• I found that the foundation lasted fairly well on me. It held up to 6 hours before I start noticing signs of fading. It also does a very good job at controlling shine from my T-zone, which I'm pretty happy about. 

Final Thought

The amount of product in that stick isn't much and if used daily, you can certainly go through it quicker than your average liquid foundation. Overall, I do like though. I don't really need to set it with a powder since it seems to go from cream to powder finish. It offers decent coverage, does an excellent job at keeping the shine at bay, and last through most of my day.

Rating: 8/10

Price: $7.00-$10.00
Availability: CVS, Walgreens

Planning on picking this up? Do you have a favorite foundation stick?

Wearing Fit Me Shine-Free Foundation on the left, no makeup on the right

Wearing Fit Me Shine-Free Foundation all over face

Nanacoco Nail Polish Swatch - Mystic and Fly to the Galaxy

Another day, another dollar. This was a rather rough Monday and boss lady just reminded us that we need to bust your butts all week in order to make the cut for our monthly deadline. Today wasn't a productive day and I'm gonna have to tell everyone to hold off on questions and problems until next week cause I really won't have time for that this week. 

I stumbled upon this new brand of nail polish at my local nail supply store and after going through the colors that they had available, I settled with just two to try and mainly because I thought the colors looked nice.

Fly to the Galaxy has a semi-sheer jelly dark blue base with a purple undertone to it and lots of scattered fine holographic glitters. Looks absolutely lovely on the nails. I love catching a glimpse at the sparkling pretty holos and seeing how they twinkle on my nails. The formula wasn't the greatest. It's a bit thick and hard to spread evenly. This one could use a few drops of thinner. I was able to get fairly good coverage with two coats and the visible nail line is barely there.

Mystic comes in a very cool looking bottle. It has a rounded triangular shape to it and a very shiny and metallic bottle cap. It's a metallic silvery pewter with a light green undertone to it. It seems to have some very fine silver glitters in it, giving it a bit of texture, though when I touch it, it doesn't have the sandy gritty feel of a textured polish. The formula wasn't the greatest and but doable. It's thick and very saturated. I might have been able to get away with just one coat but I needed a second pass to smooth out the application. The first coat was actually a bit streaky.

So far, these are the first two polishes I've tried from the brand. I'm not overly impressed. I didn't find them too difficult to work with but they're not too shabby for the price I suppose. If your local stores don't carry this brand, you can actually find them on Amazon for about $2.50 a pot.

Maybellline Color Whisper Coral Tease (Limited Edition) - Swatch and Review

The long weekend gave me plenty of time to relax and catch up on my blog. My sister even nagged me for blogging and tells me I should spend time with my kids on my day off. I was like watchu tryna say girl and why you be all up in my business? I don't go around and tell her what she should be doing with her kids. Hmm...wait, I did tell her she should take them out to play at the park sometimes because she always keep them at home. She replied that she doesn't want to cause they might catch germs and get sick. Ok, I guess we're even, LOL...Aya family! I swear my younger siblings talk to me like they are my parents. Well, enough of that family business...They can be annoying but you still gotta love them.

I had to stop by Walgreens the other day to pick up some mayo and as usual I'm always checking out the beauty isle for new beauty products. I saw some new limited edition Color Whisper. Didn't think I needed them but when I saw Coral Tease, I felt like I should give it a try.

Packaging

• Sleek and slim lipstick tube with a semi-transparent cover. 
• Net weight is .11 oz or 3 g

Product

• Coral Tease isn't really something I would describe as a coral but I can see how the warm red color would contribute to it. I would describe the shade as a coppery warm red with fine bronze and copper shimmers/glitters. 
• I don't really feel the glitters when I'm wearing the lipstick but I do feel its grittiness during application.
• The shade is semi-transparent yet still yield a fairly good color payoff. 
• The formula doesn't feel as slick as the other shades I've tried, probably because of the glitters. The application is not quite even but that's not very noticeable unless you stare really closely at it.
• I found it to be somewhat hydrating and comfortable but certainly not drying.
• I get about 3 hours of wear with this shade before it starts fading.  
• It has a subtle sweet artificial scent. I didn't find it offensive but that's subjective.

Final Thought

Lasting power is average. Formula and pigmentation is fairly good. I don't really like the grittiness of the glitters when I'm applying it, otherwise I don't really feel them when I'm wearing it. I definitely prefer these Color Whispers sans shimmers. However, if you like the shade, I think it's worth a try. It would be a nice one for summer and fall.

Rating: 8/10

Price:$7.49
Availability: Walgreens

OPI Solitaire Swatch

This was a nice long relaxing weekend for me since I took Thursday and Friday off work. It was more of a staycation. I didn't really go anywhere or do anything special. I liked that. I usually tend to plan ahead and do stuff on my days off but all the work and activity put into it doesn't always feel like a vacation. 

White polish isn't typically something I would get excited about but this one is special. It's a liquid sand. Solitaire looks like a mix of crushed white pearl, white diamonds, and a little sprinkle of silver glitters. 

The formula is somewhat thick but easy to work with. It doesn't quite look opaque in two coats as I can still spot some faint visible nail line so I would suggest a third coat if you really want it to be completely opaque. It dries fairly quick, like most texture polish do. I love the classy chic look of this white polish. 

What do you think of textured nail polish? Do you have a favorite? I only like the ones that are sparkly. I don't like those with a matte finish.