Summer challenge, a couple days late! & review

God, I have been so MIA this past week!  Sorry y'all =/

It really would be easier if I had my own computer, that's definitely a goal for the nearish future, so for now I have to find some spare time between work, school and sleep to not only do my nails daily (which I have actually usually been keeping up with on most days) but uploading gets put on the backburner til I absolutely have no clothes to wear and my poor boyfriend just suffers and tries to find a cleanish t shirt to wear to work.

So anyway, onto the mani!  I did this one a few days ago for the Summer Challenge that I've been slacking on, for Friday's theme was: Swimming Pool!

First let me say that I did enjoy this ombre mani, and wanted it to definitely be more swimming poolish.  My first thought was to stamp over it with a lovely design in alternating colors.  My second idea was to do a marble.

What the eff do you know, I tried to marble and failed miserably..luckily I got these shots before I messed it all up!

Thumb: Pure Ice French Kiss
Index: Kleancolor Neon Aqua
Middle: Maurices no name aqua color
Ring: China Glaze For Audrey
Pinky: Revlon Blue Lagoon

I love it! All based with Sally Hansen Double Duty, and topped with Seche Vite (In case you couldn't tell by the shrinkage on the thumb..)

Onto more business:
My makeup haul for school!  I've got good news about everything=]
I researched the shit out of makeupalley.com before going shopping, I wanted to know what would most likely work for me, my fair freckled combination complexion.  I have an oily-ish T zone, visible pores on and around my nose (and chin)  I don't have a complete need for full coverage, but that really would help on the days I wanna go full on rockabilly, so I chose medium since this would also be my everyday makeup and any rockabilly critics out there can suck it. I do recommend trolling makeupalley.com as well as any other review sites you choose, but be smart about it.  For one girl's bad review there are five good ones, and vise verse.  You have to know and understand your own skin type before you go along with someone else's review of a product if you haven't tried it, as well as factoring in little details, like did this girl start with a fresh, clean face?  Did she use primer?  You don't know her life!

WARNING:  This is a makeup haul AND review.  You can see from the photo directly below that it is a pretty freakin sweet haul.  You already know I can get wordy with my reviews.  Stick around if you're up for it, but don't go crying saying I didn't warn you, sweetheart.

Anyway:

Woo, okay let's roll this off:
32 cosmetic sponges from I don't remember what brand but I bought ALL of this at Walmart.  I bought the kind that says Latex Free. Revlon Photoready 3D Volume Mascara, Colorstay 24hr Creme Gel Eyeliner, Colorstay 16 hr eyeshadow quad in Precocious, Lip Butter in Creme Brulee, Colorstay foundation with softplex SPF 15 in Buff, Photoready Color Correcting Primer, Cover Girl Classic Color Blush in Rose Silk, Coty Airspun loose face powder in translucent, the brushes I think are Paris Presents Limited Edition, but don't quote me on that I have since forgotten and can't really find anything to match it online...hmm..

Here we go!
 I bought the latex free makeup sponges, because I'm pretty sure I've read that the kind with latex are harder to clean I think?  Anyway, you can use these wet or dry (I prefer wet) and use em a few times, clean them with a makeup brush cleanser, and re-use them.  I do wish they sold Beauty Blenders at walmart, but we can't have everything.

Revlon Photoready Color Correcting Primer! I think. I can't remember if I got the Color Correcting or Perfecting.  Why the eff would you make two Revlon?? Such a hard decision.. Anyway, This stuff works awwwessoooome.  I actually have no idea if the foundation even lasts 24 hrs like it says, at least not without this stuff.  I haven't used anything without this stuff yet. It's verrrrry smooth. Goes on smooth, glides over your skin.  It doesn't pill up in little white gross looking bits all over your face like I've had some primers do (ahem, talkin' to you, Hard Candy!) I'm no expert, I've definitely never ventured outside of the drugstore world of brands for makeup.  I'm cheap!  This stuff works great though, and it's not gonna break your wallet to do the job of holding that makeup in place! My mom has the receipt for everything so I'm googling prices here (walmart sucks and doesn't have this on the website) $10.39 is the price for this baby.

Above that in the photo is the Revlon Colorstay foundation with Softplex SPF15.  The claim on the cap of the foundation is that this will last you 24hrs.  I have not tried that one out yet lol, but I have however gone about 16 hrs with this on top of the primer.  I use a wet sponge to apply and blend, and I love it!  There was a lighter shade than Buff, and normally I go for the ivoryest of ivories, but almost all of the fair skinned reviewers on makeupalley.com said that this was the one to go for, that the lighter shade was just way too weird looking.  This shade works perfectly on my light skin, so they were right!  I did get the normal/dry skin formula, as they have that and an oily/combo skin formula.  A lot of the reviews also said that the oily/combo kind had a weird smell to it, and was pretty gloopy to boot, and that the normal/dry was the one to go for and worked a lot better.  I must say, again, they were right.  This does not make my skin more oily, I think it actually does help with the oil a bit.  I think I touched this up with a compact powder after about 8 hours of wear?  And I literally just dabbed a little powder on my nose.  It wasn't a noticeable oiliness, like it normally is.  I did it purely out of the sake of habit.  This was $9.98.

Revlon Colorstay Gel eyeliner.  I thought this was so neat!  The packaging is really cool, and smart!  I hate buying gel eyeliners, and having to keep up with the tiny little brush that gets black gel everywhere in my makeup bag, also getting dirty in the process of storing it in my makeup bag.. Not so anymore!  The swatch is just a quick little swipe, not really trying for any precision or boldness. This can definitely be built up and made darker simply by applying it normally instead of swiping this on your arm...Overall, i do love this product, and it definitely does stay until you take it off! It won't fade or smear into your crease, or mess with your shadow. Note, I don't use the Revlon primer on my eyes, I do however use Mineralogie Natural Cream Concealer in N1 (from Birchbox $16.00) as a primer on my lids.  Works wonderfully with this! $7.99

I will say that I don't recommend this for the cat eye look, which I'm trying to perfect right now..I'm on the lookout for a liquid with a precision tip.  I'm terrible with regular liquid eyeliner, but I so want to perfect this look!  It really is a must.

Covergirl Classic Blush in Rose Silk.  I was looking for something natural, and they were out of the lighter shades =/ so I got this, and I don't mind that it isn't what I originally wanted =]  It looks nice against my skin tone, and though it is a powder (I wanted to try a cream) it does not fade on my cheeks!  This is the best makeup haul ever, seriously..no problems! $4.84

Revlon Lip butter in Creme Brulee.  This is the perfect nude!  I've never tried nude shades on my lips, I'm always the girl who has to wear bolder shades if I wear color on my lips.  But sometimes I do feel like I should play up my eyes more, and I don't want to seem overpowered by my makeup.  As I said before, I will definitely be buying more lip butters!

Coty Airspun loose powder.  If you have not tried this stuff, for fear it looks and smells like something your grandma wore years ago, seriously don't let that stop you!  This powder is AMAZING! Controls shine like a boss, and has been around since the 30s.  A lot of people on makeupalley.com couldn't stand the smell.  I happen to not mind it so much, it smells like flowers and sweet candy...like I'm covering my face in crushed smartees with a hint of old lady smell.  But not musky and gross like old lady smell can be. No offense to any old ladies, you smell like a freaking bed of roses!  The smell doesn't even linger, it's gone by the time you're out the door.  If you're more sensitive to smells than I am and you hate me for reviewing this in such a way, uhh don't care.  This product is freaking awesome. $6.99.

The Revlon Photoready 3D volume mascara is up next, I got this in blackened brown.  I'm gonna be honest, I do like mascara, and I do like this mascara.  Probably more than any other mascara I have tried.  My lashes don't necessarily NEED mascara, but it's part of beauty you know?  I definitely hate putting on fake lashes, I have yet to perfect doing that in a way that doesn't leave me a blinking teary eyed makeup everywhere mess.  I can say that I do recommend this for your lashes, it does seem to coat all of them uniformly, and lengthen and volumize the way it's supposed to.  $7.19

I forgot to swatch the eyeshadow!  Review on that later.

More on life and school and most importantly, nails here soon=]  Thanks for sticking around!

Aqua Zebra!

I will never regret the day I bought my stamper =]

So, my Cheeky plates had a few different animal print designs, and I feel like a lot of people do those, so while it might be a little overdone, the still young and fun girl inside of me (way down in there, stifled by work and sleep and soon school! I feel old..) just could not wait to get some zebra tips.

I started out with Gelous as my base coat, then for my thumb and ring fingers I layered two coats of a super pretty no-name aqua color that I bought at Maurices a few months ago.  Application is really good for this one, opaque in two coats, and it dries semi-matte.  I have another polish that I bought at the same time from Maurices and they are my only colors that dry semi-matte..I'm iffy about that type of finish.  Are you trying to be matte because you know how cool it looks?  Why are you still satin-y and almost shiny?  PICK ONE!! Eh..

For my index, middle and pinky I used Kleancolor Neon Aqua.  I do love this blue!  Again, the application is really great with these polishes I have found, and I'm almost 100% positive this is opaque in two coats.  I keep feeling like these neons from Kleancolor are going to show my nail line, but this one did not.  Anyway, perfect color combo in my eyes =]

Sorry about the mess! I was excited because it actually went really well, unlike my first attempt at stamping which I am sure I will eventually post lol  I used Pure Ice Black Rage and one of the zebra print designs from my Cheeky plates.

So You can't tell from the picture of my left hand before I cleaned up, and I didn't post of my right beforehand, but I did miss a couple of spots.  On my left hand it wasn't a big deal, I remembered that with my bottle of Seche Vite came a little strip with some tiny rhinestones that look like diamonds along with about 25 little pink breast cancer awareness ribbons.  I think some of the money went toward that cause, and that's why I bought it.  I mean I was going to get the bottle anyway but I only had to pay maybe a dollar more for this one.  Anyway, so I fixed my left hand, and then finished my thumb with Seche Vite (I didn't have nail glue, so this was the only way I could think of to get the rhinestone to stay) and the rest of my fingers I finished off with Hard Candy's matte polish (I think it's called Matte-ly in love?)

For my right hand, there were a couple of extra problems that I fixed the same way.  As you can see, my thumb has a missing part of the zebra design on the right side.  I knew that my stamper hadn't picked up all of the design (my fault, not Konad's lol) and I thought I could make that work for me.  BAM! Two rhinestones.  Then on my ring finger the same thing happened in the left corner, so I fixed it the same way.  Sorry for my middle finger being in the way lol I finished my thumb and ring finger in Seche Vite, and the others in Hard Candy's matte.

Also, my pinky was just beyond repair and I did not feel like taking it all off and putting it all back on again.  I felt accomplished, nothing was gonna bring me down!

You can probably tell that I did not wait for my stamping to dry before putting my top coats on.  If you're a beginner like I am, please please please please wait for your stamping to dry for a bit lol  You won't regret it!  You might however if you have to look down at your nails and see veiny streaks all over.  I do a little teeny bit, but I know that I'm just going to get better at this, and I think I did pretty well for my first zebra stamping attempt.  I still only know of my Pure Ice Black Rage as being my go-to polish for stamping, but I don't see why Pure Ice's other cremes wouldn't work as well.  I will find out though=]



Dot Experiment

As I said before, my dotting tools are here and I have begun the fun!
My skills are still needing improvement, both in the steady hand area and placement and whatnot of said dots...
this ain't my old high school pointillism assignment!  Though it could be, and that's an idea I'm putting into my head..someday it will become real.

Anyway, here is the mani that I had to completely redo because I realized I was basically subconsciously copying off of a friend, and that's just lame!  This is my cheap-o base coat (i think it's LA Colors..) plus two coats of Sally Hansen's HaN French White on most of my nails, and then for my accent nail I used Kleancolor Neon Aqua for my bases.

Next, I grabbed a dotting tool and started dottin'!  I went over my white nails with mediumish sized blue dots in the Neon Aqua, and decided that could not be enough.  I went back with a much smaller dotting tool and used Finger Paints I have no idea what red I used still.. and randomly put them in white spaces.  I even made a little heart at the tip of my accent nail, by making two dots next to each other with a tool and then just drawing them together to make the heart bottom. I went over it all with a nice coat of Poshe, and viola!

 

Sorry about the messy clean up, I really thought I got it all and then my camera tells me otherwise...

I still haven't really swatched my Kleancolor mini collection, except for my blue accent nail above.  From what I can tell from doing that one nail, it's a nice creme, opaque in two coats with a nice shiny finish.  I don't have any full-sized Kleancolor polishes but the brush is surprisingly nice and wide for the little bottles.  I will definitely be wearing these colors this summer! 

Anyway, I'll post more about my even better Kleancolor dotted manis tomorrow!