What time is it?

Aaaaaaaaaaadventure Time!

Happy Halloween! It's been a crazy weekend. The party I was going to wound up being cancelled because of the SNOW STORM New England received (trick, not treat) The power wound up going out and there were trees and power lines down all over the place. Including on top of my car.

Not to worry, though! There are some pretty good scratches here there and everywhere, but nothing broken or inoperable. In fact I went in for my oil change today and the only things they brought up had nothing to do with said tree.

I decided to wear my costume to work today since I couldn't wear it to the party. Before we get to the finished product, though, some progress pictures:

(My new baby, the Singer Prelude. Got it for $75 with a 50% off coupon!)

(I made a pattern! It's just a half circle, but I was still proud)

(Frontsies and Backsies)

(The shell is complete, needs stuffing and straps)

(Straps!)

(Aaaaand, done. Made from scratch based on a picture)

(My hat, also made from scratch, though not my own pattern)

(Finn the human)

(and Jake the dog!)

So there you have it, I was Finn the Human from Adventure Time. What did people think I was? A bunny, Hello Kitty, Pikachu and a bumble bee...

I'll leave you with a quote from the Adventure Time episode I'm watching as I type. "I blinked my balls. My eyeballs." (Lumpy Space Princess while getting her photo taken)

Earring Envy

Good luck permitting (and when do I have good luck?) I'll have some Halloween costume shots for you soon. The party I made it for is tomorrow. The problem? It's supposed to snow tomorrow. SNOW. And of course my costume is a t-shirt and shorts. I don't know whether to look forward to this weekend or not, lol.

Do you have a jewelry-type of choice? I've gone through almost everything (rings being my least favorite, they just irritate me and I can't stop taking them off and on) Lately I have been feeling "statement earrings." I have so many pairs of big bold earrings, some I've never even gotten around to wearing! Here are a couple of my favorite for you (and of course some makeup shots because I can't resist)

Seriously, make the above picture bigger if you can't see the detail because these earrings are too cute. They're Alice in Wonderland and have a red crystal heart on top, a cupcake under that and all the dangles are silverwear! I love how from far away they look a little classy but they're fun up close.

These ones are newbies to my collection. They come from a store called Charming Charlie's which I don't have really locally so it was like walking into heaven when I first went in (accessory heaven).

Hope everyone's weekend is off to a good start. If you're going to any parties this weekend, have fun and be safe!

Darling Girl is ghoulishly darling

My latest dip into the indie makeup pool was with Darling Girl Cosmetics. After some enticing reviews, I could't resist any more and decided to check out the Halloween collection (as well as the special edition Breast Cancer Awareness Month color Twin Peaks... just think about that one a minute, lol)

Darling Girl is a one-woman operation, so turnaround time on orders is a little on the longer side. This is stated up front when you order and my products did arrive within the stated 14-16 business days. I absolutely take no issue with the time frame, it's just not somewhere that you'll be able to put through a last minute order (think ahead if you're getting gifts!)

The order came in a bubble mailer and within was a cello-bag and a tissue paper packet. Each contained a mix of things I ordered and some awesome gwp/freebies:

Like candies:

Stickers:

And a spider ring:

My purchases included 4 shadows (3 petit Halloween colors and 1 full size which was the Breast Cancer Awareness color) The petit shadows were $2.25 and the full size was $5.50:

I was also sent a petit of a gwp color and a couple of same baggies (sample sizes are being phased out) :

There were even special cute labels for the Halloween shades!

Ingredients were only on the back of the full size (but all available online) Everything notified if lip safe or not, though:

Size difference between a full size and a petit:

There were sifters in all the jars:

Swatches! I had this genius idea that I should try them over a base as well and chose Stila's Kitten Smudge Pot (champagne nude) In the end it was a terrible idea and I won't be doing it again, but didn't want to waste more product re-doing everything. From here on, dry will be on the left and the same item over the base will be on the right:

Monarch (bottom), Chocolate Cosmos 

Ghost Light (bottom), Witch & Famous

Corpse Candle (bottom), Twin Peaks

Verdant Dream (this one is from the unreleased diamond dust collection)

Like I said, it was a huge mistake putting these over this particular base. It made some of the prettiest colors look pretty funky. For instance, it makes Verdant Dream look dirty. The only color I think it didn't totally destroy was Twin Peaks. 

My opinion based off my first order? I like this company a lot. Darling Girl brings a lot of fun to makeup and I will look forward to purchasing again. 

Oh, and to not just be leaving you with my junky swatches, check what else was in my bag-o-goodies...

Edited to add: Darling Girl just announced a shop closure beginning immediately. Don't fear, though, she does this sometimes to get caught up on backed up orders or if something comes up which will take her attention off of orders. I think it's admirable that she knows her limits and doesn't leave people 2 months in the lurch or something like that. 

I'm now a card carrying Rite Aid customer!

Let's start by laying blame for this where it belongs, on Scrangie again. She posted MORE nail polish which I needed immediately. Check out that link and the amazingly cute pumpkin polishes! I thought I was safe at first because she mentioned getting them at Meijer (which doesn't exist in Connecticut and I'm not even sure how to pronounce...) Then someone just HAD to comment about seeing them at Rite Aid. Though I've never been to one, I knew I had two close by which I needed to check out.

I actually wound up at both stores searching and unfortunately didn't find ANY of the colors Scrangie featured (though I did find the pumpkin polishes) I did manage to find plenty of other things, though, including a Revlon polish that Larie posted about not long ago.

My haul (which was super reasonably priced, who knew Rite Aid had such awesome sales?):

Mood Struck Color Changing Polish (supposedly goes from purple to light blue even though it doesn't look all that purple in this picture)

Wet N Wild - Wild Shine - Ring In The Year (this is again purple. thanks flash)

Wet N Wild - Wild Shine - Tipsy On Bubbly (this one is accurate, yay!)

Revlon - Facets of Fuchsia

Revlon - Starry Pink

Revlon - Blue Mosaic

NYC - Long Wearing Nail Enamel - Starry Silver Glitter

Snowman (lol, that's it. all of them are called Snowman)

Snowman (see?)

Pumpkin (this one is a glow-in-the-dark)

I am very happy with my purchases even if they're not what I went in looking for. I spend less than $20 on everything (including tax!) which is about how much I spent on that one magnetic polish I showed you yesterday :X I do need to knock it off on the polishes, though, I think I have enough for now (don't worry, I never listen to myself)

Sweet new Sephora purchases (literally, one is made of sugar!)

Sephora birthday gift card #2 spent!

I was browsing blogs a few days back and found Scrangie's post on Nails Inc's new magnetic polishes. Since one was purple, that was the end of that. Then I got an email from Sephora (or maybe Sephora was before Scrangie... stupid s's confusing me) saying they had a gift set of Fresh Sugar Scrub items for $28. As the set includes a full size lip treatment stick (which retails $22.50 on its own) this was an awesome deal. The lip palette is something I have been meaning to throw onto an order for ages now, I need to do something with all my almost gone MAC lipsticks (something that does not involve trying to shove my pinky finger down the tube to get the last bit of product out)

The lip palette comes with a little bowl to melt your lipsticks down in and then an 8-well palette to pour them into. There is a lip brush and mirror in the palette, so it's definitely meant to take on the go once filled. 

Nails Inc Magnetic Effect Polish. It is a little (ok, a lot) pricier than I look for with my polishes. These are $16/ea. The good thing is the magnet is built right into the lid of the polish and there is even a built in cuticle rest which should hopefully make this fool proof (if it's not, this fool will be first to know)

Fresh's Sugar Lust set comes with a lip polish pot (lip scrub) a lip treatment (lip balm with SPF) and a body cream (I wish I could share the smell though the computer, it's amazing) It all came in a shiny red clutch. Honestly not sure what I'm going to use it for, but it can just be a backup makeup bag I guess. 

I will admit I spent a little more than my gift card, but I was having a rough last week/weekend and needed some pick-me-up goodies. I will share one of my downer moments which was getting my mom's sewing machine all set up to work on my Halloween costume just to find out that it is taking a (possibly permanent) vacation. I did wind up getting a new machine (one of my very own!) at AC Moore and sewing has commenced (and pretty much finished) Excited to share my results with you guys, but that's going to have to wait until Halloween-time!

The Mascara Chronicles (part 7)

Something I have never mentioned before on these posts is how long I will test a mascara for before I give you a post on my findings. Most product you are seeing has been tested several times, but I try not to wait so long that it would start becoming dried out. I want the consistency of the formula to be new, but want to leave some time to make sure my results are "the norm" for the product and not just a fluke good/bad day. That said, on to the show with Make Up For Ever Smoky Lash.

The manufacturer claims:

This ultra-pigmented mascara was specially designed to give the lashes an exceptional volume-enhancing effect with infinite lengthening and immediate curling.

The product:

This mascara comes in a pretty run-of-the-mill black tube with the manufacturer name on it. It seems to be a MUFE "thing" to keep everything simple and black. It's not a bad thing, just not a tube that drew my eye in. The brush is bushy and comes to a taper at the very tippy top, but is otherwise uniform. When you take the brush from the tube, it comes out with a little more product than I think is needed, but nothing too extreme. 

The application was lopsided, literally. Start at picture one, it's kind of clumpy and spidery. Almost dry, too. Then picture two (my left eye) and it looks pretty good! Then back to the right eye (with a dash of left visible) on picture 3 and you can kind of see that one side is dry-ish and clumped while the other is more separated and volume-y. Look left, look right, look left again (it's like what's-his-face in the Old Spice commercials)

After a full day of wear, I was really unhappy with this particular mascara. It flaked off on me all day (if you enlarge picture 2, you can see all the little specks under my eyes) It also gave me goopies all day (which my boss nicely told me about, but it was embarrassing!) 

My Conclusion:

What sealed the deal on this mascara was the quality control. This is actually my second tube of the same mascara (the first came dried out so bad that the wand broke into the tube on my first try opening it)  This one wasn't completely dried out, but it's only been opened a week and a half and it smells like death. Like seriously I have smelled this same thing before and I can't put my finger on where, but it smells like rotting. I'll assume whatever turned the mascara so quick is also what gave me the goopies. 

You can buy this mascara in several colors through Sephora ($22) My suggestion, though? Don't.