I stand around a lot, that keeps me busy

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving (those that celebrate such things at least) My mom made dinner, but we're not the kind of family that gets together to sit down and eat. I was watching tv in my room, she was playing Cityville on Facebook and my brother was asleep because he had to work a 24 hour + shift starting Thursday night (the joy of working 2 retail jobs I guess) We just ate when we felt like it and then she and I went over to Walmart for our first ever Black Friday experience (6 hours of sitting on their dirty floor? check)

Friday my mom surprised me by asking if I wanted to go see the Muppets movie. I'd mentioned I wanted to go, but no one else seemed interested. We had a nice time and she actually ended up liking it, too. Anyone else see it? It's one of those things where you either need to be a little kid or you need to be old enough to have grown up with Muppets. I don't think the tweeners will get the appeal.

All of that said, I haven't been buying much interesting (for myself at least) because of the holidays coming up. My favorite thing is coming up with perfect gifts for people (not that I always succeed) so that is where my focus has been. I also haven't been wearing makeup much, but here are some thing I've done over the last few weeks.

This was the Costal Scents Think Pink palette for my eyes and Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in Berry Haute:

An assortment of purples (surprised? I'm sure) including Sugarpill Paper Doll on my lids with some purple possibly non-eye-safe glitteron top. Bonus shot of my awesome seahorse earrings that Kristen gave me for my birthday last year:

Trying my Illamasqua liner in Glister out for the first time. It's an odd light flesh colored liner. I don't know who needs a liner that pseudo-matches their skin. Oh wait, I did:

And that brings us up to yesterday. Eyes are MAC's Blue Candy and Short Shorts shadows. Lips are MAC Movie Star Red CCB with some Fyrinnae purple stuff on top. It got smudged while I was making faces. Oops:

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday! For those like me who are back to work after a nice long holiday weekend... I feel your pain.

A place for nothing and everything all over the place

A while back, someone asked me how I store all of my makeup. My honest answer is in a jumbled (yet somehow organized) mess. Also, since it's for my use and my use only, not as cleanly-like as I should. This is a disclaimer because some of my stuff has smears and prints on them from being used and I just stuffed my brushes back in the holder post makeup on the day I took these pictures. If smudges and unwashed makeup brushes gross you out, please fast forward to your next activity of the day.

(The mostly-whole shebang)

(some of my MAC pigments, all old-style jars)

(Indie and drugstore makeup. I spy Darling Girl, NYX and Sugarpill)

(More indie/drugstore makeup. Sugarpill, Kiss My Sass, Revlon and Fyrinnae)

(Non-MAC blushes. Bobbi Brown, ELF, NARS, Stila)

(MAC blushes/msf's)

( except for the two random things in front that were the only things small enough to fit)

(Liners and mascaras)

(The misc. drawer. Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy, NYX jumbo pencils, eyeshadow primer, etc.)

(Lipsticks, mostly non-MAC with only the overflow from my MAC-only drawer below it)

(Hello Kitty! There are some brushes inside)

(I tacked a brush belt to my wall to keep my brushes in)

(The spares and overstock bag. I keep this in my room for now)

Sorry for skipping several of the drawers. They're just such a mess and I wasn't up for a reorganization party before I took pictures (or ever really) While I am ok with the setup I have for now, I am looking forward to one day having more space than over the toilet (classy) and in a bag on the floor (classier) to keep my stuff. One day.

Ice Ice Baaaaaaaaaby Beluga

A couple of posts back, I'd mentioned my Aunt Sharon might have found me some of the Ice Baby glitter polishes that Scrangie had found to be possible/definite Nails Inc dupes. I have only purchased one of the Nail Inc glitters, Connaught Square (which I actually bought because of a Temptalia review), so I was looking for any of the other colors. What I didn't expect is what showed up at my door.


This box looks pretty big for the 2 or 3 polishes I wanted. Then again, she always wraps Christmas stuff super well so it made sense-ish.

(I blurred out any personal info, but it made the box look a little mutilated)

Turns out that isn't why the box was so big, though. Not that she didn't package the polishes super well, but...

Couple more than 3 in there, right? More like all 8! She bought me the whole collection. (Don't worry, I got her back even though she told me to just call it a gift. I'm not a good listener)

(Back Alley Deals)

(Believe Me, It's Real)

(Diamond In The Rough)

(Give Me A Price Quote)

(Rockin Rubies)

(24 Carats)

(Cost Is No Issue)

(All In The Cut)

I was beyond thrilled that she found all of them as Rite Aid and Walgreens around here let me down. She and a couple of her kids actually work at Walgreens, so they all teamed up to help a girl out. Thanks Aunt Sharon, Tony and Eric!

For funsies, this is the first one of the collection I decided to use (All In The Cut). I put it over a lilac Sally Hansen just to make sure the final result came out opaque. 

This is 1 coat of the Sally Hansen polish, 2 of the Wet N Wild and 2 Seche (oh, and some base coat, but who cares about that?)

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm keeping it as quiet as possible on the account of having a Black Friday purchase I need to make at the end of the week. It's the first time I'll ever have gone Black Friday shopping, so I'm kind of nervous to be honest...

Ask and ye shall receive (eventually) (maybe)

When I first posted that I bought Nails Inc's new-ish magnetic polish, a few of you asked me to post after I tried it out. It's taken me almost a month, but I finally have some thoughts and pictures for you! My main goal was to see if this stuff was idiot-proof (unlike Konad stamping which I'm still convinced you need special schooling and a degree to operate.)

The polish (for your viewing pleasure once again.) It's a mid-dark purple color and called Houses of Parliament. You can get it through Sephora for $16/bottle.

The top has a built in magnet to use for the design effect. The lip on the bottom rests on your cuticle to help position the bottle. As you can see by the polish mess on the magnet, it does take some level of skill not to accidentally touch your nail as opposed to just hovering over it. I failed at that a few times. You also can't hold the magnet to far away, though, or it doesn't do anything. 

My just completed left hand with a coat of Seche Vite top coat. I literally just finished and hadn't cleaned up around the nails. This hand looked better because I'm right handed. 

The right hand. You can see on my pointer finger where the design got messed up when I touched it with the magnet. I thought it looked kind of neat, though, so I left it. In general, though, this hand came out a little messy. I get really shaky trying to paint with my left hand. 

Back to the left hand, but after I cleaned it up some. I like how it came out. 

My conclusion? It's not idiot-proof, but definitely idiot-resistent. When I accidentally touched with the magnet, I found it easy to just slap on another coat of the polish and basically try again. It's thick, so I suppose you don't want to do that tooooo many times per nail. I did it about 3 times on one of my fingers, though, before I got the hang of where to hold the thing. I also found that the magnet needs to be rocked a little width-wise on wide nails (like the thumb nail) It's only going to make the pattern on what's directly below, so the lines fade out towards the sides of some of my nails. 

That's pretty much it, though. It's not necessarily hard to do, but definitely is a little extra work over just a basic coat of a single color. I'm also still a little caught up on the price per bottle, but am happy I got this. 

The Mascara Chronicles (part 8)

I actually did my testing/pictures for this one around when I posted the last Mascara Chronicles about a month ago. I didn't want to post another of these too close to the other, but now I hope I remember all I wanted to talk about! The next mascara on the chopping block is Smashbox Lash DNA. 

The manufacturer claims:

Long lashes not in your genes? Our revolutionary new scientifically-engineered mascara is packed with proteins and amino acids that bind to lashes for genetic defying length and strength. The unique double helix brush grabs each lash, no matter how small, for the ultimate fanned out effect. Dramatic jet black shade intensifies and defines. Defy genetics with Lash DNA Mascara. Revolutionary Double Helix Brush- Specially-engineered design lengthens, separates & defines each lash- Delivers intense, jet black lashes- Lashes instantly look bigger, bolder, longer & more defined- Sweeps lashes up & out for a gorgeous, doe-eyed effect.

The product:

I apologize for all the smudges on the tube, this one actually got a decent amount of use before I decided I would post about it. The packaging is, as many have been, a basic black tube with the brand name. The brush is big and I mean BIG. Pretty much uniformly round and bushy. Some of the stock photos I've seen make it look slightly thinner in the middle. I think they photoshop a skinny waist in the pictures, though, as mine is just chunky through and through. Probably not the best brush for those of you who like to do bottom lashes with your same brush. For reasons mentioned in my very first Mascara Chronicles post, I do not. 

Application for this formula was nice and smooth. The big brush lifted all my lashes and got color on them without too much effort. It dried quickly and was comfortable to wear.

I decided to give this mascara a pretty rigorous test. Not for any reason in particular, it just happened to be the one I chose to wear on a busy day. I started out at the gym for about an hour (and got nice and gross), went shopping, came home and took a nap, went out shopping again (grocery shopping for dinner, I'm not that bad I swear!) and actually fell asleep AGAIN while it was cooking (I wasn't the one cooking) I think for a mascara that was on for 12+ hours and went through gym time and 2 naps, this still looked phenomenal. You can see the rest of my face didn't hold up so well and was splotchy red by the end of my day. 

My conclusion:

I love it! I wish the manufacturer claimed a few less things, that section was painful to get through with all of their talk of genetics defying. I don't think any of my genetics have been defied, but what I have has been nicely enhanced.  This is actually my 4th mini-tube of this mascara (you would think I would just buy the full size by now) I do think this mascara is actually being phased out of the Smashbox line, so if you like what you see you should buy now! You can get the mini version in one of Sephora's current sample sets (which I recommend) for $30. You can also buy the full size through Smashbox for $19.

Product FOTD Update News Thingy

Today's going to be a little bit of a mishmash of things. Hopefully it will make as much sense to you all as it does in my head. That's asking a lot, but hear me out!

We'll start with a purchase. I went back to Rite Aid about a week ago on the hunt for the Wet N Wild Ice Baby glitters that Scrangie posted about. No luck on that front (though I think my Aunt Sharon found them and is mailing them to me!) but I did remember I had a coupon for $2 off a Revlon product, so it wasn't a total loss of a trip. They didn't have any more polishes I wanted, but I found an eyeshadow that looked like it would be either really awesome or a really huge waste of money:

I will say that this photographs absolutely miserably. It's not that the pictures don't make it look nice, but it's more of a black with rainbow glitter, it's not metallic silver...

I've swatched this shadow a couple of time and was meaning to post it, but honestly the swatches looked just as terrible. I wish I had more time to go out and take picture in the sunlight, but work has me cooped up in an office from before the sun is up enough to late enough where its started to go down. Since none of the pictures were good enough, I just didn't bother posting. I got inspired to play with it tonight, though, along with the Blue Candy I posted about here but haven't picked up since.

My verdict on the Revlon shadow? Go buy it now. The pictures don't even do justice to how amazing it is. It's the first shadow I've used that the glitter literally translates onto the eye like it looks in the pan, not just a sprinkling.

Several blogs I read have recently posted "closing down" notices due to personal issues. I totally understand this, but for me it's the opposite. Blogging kind of makes me feel better. Maybe it's because my blog is still small scale and I feel like those of you who read and comment are almost like my friends. Some of you have really made me smile on some rough days, though, so thank you. That said, some sad news. We found out yesterday that another of our dogs is not much longer for this world. Angel (or Fancy Pants as I like to call her) has a liver full of cancer. What's weird, though, is she seem almost happier now than she's ever been. We're going to keep an eye on her and just love her until she tells us she's had enough. We don't know how long that will be and since I am a "stresser" anyway, I'm sure I'll just be on edge constantly. That's just me. I did want to share her with you, though. 

These are from before her sister and brother died. She's the one with the blue bows. Don't mind our dirty floor, no matter how much you clean, 4 dogs made it dirty again quick. 

This one is last night. Don't let her grumpy face fool you, she just doesn't like pictures. She got really happy again when I gave her a baby carrot for her "troubles"

It's been a weird journey from 1 dog to 5 and soon back down to 1. One that I'm glad we've been through, though. Anyway, thank you all for listening and for making me smile.