Nope, sorry that was a total lie. It's only 2 shades of blue. Just enough to do some diagonal color-blocking on my accent nails.
I used 3 coats of Essie's Lapiz of Luxury on all of my nails. Once those were dry, I placed a small strip of an Essence Nail Art sticker (shown here) across my ring and thumb nails on a diagonal, then painted above the sticker with Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue.
Before that dried, I quickly used a pair of tweezers to peel away the sticker and then topped everything with a coat of Seche Vite to smooth out all the lines.
I was actually originally planning to do this two-tone mani with a kelly green and a turquoise, but my bottle of Turquoise & Caicos was SUPER gloopy when I removed the cap! Guess I'll need to replace that. Both Lapiz of Luxury and Turquoise & Caicos came from the same Resort Collection from Essie, and I featured them together in one of my more Pinterest-popular manis here.
Also - I'd love to draw your attention to the adorable rings in the picture above. I spotted the coffee cup ring on Pinterest and literally clicked right through to the Etsy page and bought it. For only $9 plus shipping, it was absolutely worth it. And to my delight, the seller, Lorelei, included a little hand-written note in the parcel, as well as a surprise extra midi ring!
I didn't yet own any midi rings so this was pretty exciting for me. Bonus point to you, Lorelei! #FistBump. And just FYI, she had no way of knowing that I have a blog or that I was going to shout out her shop, so this isn't at all sponsored. But if you are as charmed by these delicate and affordable rings as I am, you should prolllllllllllly head over to her Etsy shop - My Rings and Things - and support some hand-made craftsmanship. Tell her I sent you, for good measure ;)
In other news entirely, this has been a week of dental issues and acupuncture... separately, not at once. (Though maybe the acupuncture could relieve the gum pain I'm having.) I've got a wisdom tooth coming in that's not treating its host very kindly right now. It's growing in at an atrocious angle and digging into my cheek, so I had to get a consultation today with an oral surgeon to see what I should do about it. Perhaps you remember the tale of getting my first wisdom tooth removed (if not, you should go check it out - it's even illustrated). Well I should probably have gotten all four of them extracted back when I was living in Canada with affordable dental insurance... but the first one just hurt SO MUCH that I couldn't really bare the thought of getting the others removed. Especially because none of them were even erupted yet - they were all still chilling deep under my gums.
Anyway, now it'll probably cost me quite a bit to get them removed, so.... to everyone who told me to just bite the bullet and get that shit taken care of when I was in Canada... you were right, you sonsofbitches. I was wrong. HAPPY NOW?
As for the acupuncture - that was just a random thing for me to try out, because I figured with all of the emotional and physical turmoil I've been through over the last 6 months or so... it couldn't hurt to try. My friend Kara has been going to an acupuncture place in Cambridge, so I headed there on Wednesday to check it out. The place I went to - Acupuncture Together - has you sit in a comfortable chair in a room of others who are doing the same, and you just kick off your socks/shoes, roll up your pant legs... and relax while they stick you with needles. The needles - shockingly - don't hurt as they go in. I know, you probably don't believe it. They do feel a little itchy/burny if you move the wrong way while they're in you, but it's nothing as bad as what I'd been anticipating. And no, I didn't feel any differently after my first session, but Kara and I are going back there together tomorrow morning for another round!
Alright I've clearly rambled enough for now... I hope you have a great weekend!
Anyone else dealing with unruly wisdom teeth or have any tips about relieving teething pain?
Have you ever tried acupuncture?
What are you rocking on your nails today?
Oh well hello there, Friday. Fancy seeing you here again.
It's been another week of muscle relaxers and chiropractor appointments over here, trying to make my shoulder stop misbehaving. I can't tell if the chiropractor is helping or not, but at least I've got a man massaging my neck for me twice a week. Don't tell him I said that.
In other news, I have been taking walks outside in the refreshing sunshine that Boston has had this week - and the autumn leaves are really looking spectacular. I've got a ton of pictures to share with you soon, so please come back on Monday to leaf-peep some of thooose!
On a related note, my nails today were inspired by a tree right outside my window that has slowly been turning from green to yellow over the last couple of weeks. Everyday it's a little more amber and a little less emerald, which inspired me to break out my makeup sponge and do a sponge mani with green, yellow and orange.
I'm not entirely thrilled with how these came out - honestly, they're not what I envisioned. But they're not awful, so that's why I'm sharing them.
I started out by painting all of my nails this Hunter Green color from Love & Beauty. Next I used some white polish on a makeup sponge to dab some random splotches around my nails. (The white splotches would serve as my "blank canvas" for the next steps.) Once the white was dry, I repeated that step with a yellow polish (Little Miss Sunrise by Essence), then an orange polish (Metallic Mango from Milani), and finished it off with another dabbing of the yellow polish.
At the very least, this is something out of the ordinary and different. It can also be done with pretty much any color combination you'd like, so... go forth and dab with your sponges, ladies.
I'd personally like to pretend that my last blog wasn't so depressing and somber and just move ahead with this nail blog like it's any other Friday. This change has been difficult already and it's only been a few days. Tomorrow, if all goes as planned (and for the love of god, I hope it goes as planned), I'll be moving into my new apartment with the help of my Dear Ol' Dad. Thank you to all the people who sent me messages and left me nice comments on Monday - that was really nice of you and it helped me feel a little less alone.
Now, ugh. Nails, I guess? Sure, let's show off some bright nails. Those are always cheerful. I picked out this polish pairing before my move and have kept these bottles safe in my carry-on bag so that they were easily reachable for today's polish post.
I wanted to use my wonderfully mustard Essence Little Miss Sunrise polish again, after having not used it since last fall. But rather than use it with other jewel tones and autumnal tones, as I have in the past, I wanted to pair it with something really bright and summery. Enter Sally Hansen's Fuchsia Power.
Annnd that's pretty much all there is to it. Fuchsia Power only needs two coats for opacity but Little Miss Sunrise needed three. By the way, one of my other nail polish looks that used Little Miss Sunrise has been a pretty big hit on Pinterest. Feel free to refresh your memory of that mani here.
Alright bitchessssss, wish me luck tomorrow. And everyday after that. Thanksss. And in case you were wondering... yes, I've had Dunkin Donuts twice this week. #PraiseJesus.
Y'all know me - accumulating a nice stock of new beauty products every couple of months and just DYING to share the fun here on my blog. The rest of this post is going to be hella long, so I'ma keep the intro short and dive right in. Sidebar, you guys have no idea how long it's taken me to write this blog. I swear I started it in March.
LONDON DRUGS Maybelline's The Rocket Volum' Express Mascara (on sale - $5.99)
The end of my current tube of The Rocket is nigh, so I needed to re-up on this trusty mascara. It's one of my very favorite mascaras - particularly for any night-time looks. It was even a part of my 2013 Favoritesround up, if you want to read more about it there.
Maybelline's Great Lash Lots of Lashes (on sale - $4.99)
Even though Maybelline's Great Lash mascara is probably the most ubiquitous mascaras of all time, and a seemingly timeless staple of drugstore makeup departments, I've never tried it before. This new "Lots of Lashes" version of the product piqued my interest just enough for me to scoop it up. I've used it a few times now and am forming my opinion. So far, I'm really impressed with how the uniquely shaped brush head hugs my lashes during application, especially the bottom lashes. The first swipe of the first coat leaves my lashes a little wet, but the second swipe separates and combs through quite well. The actual mascara packaging/wand feels really cheap - almost like it's toy makeup. There also seems to be an Achilles heel in the wand, just beneath the brush head. If you aren't careful with it, you could accidentally bend the wand quite a bit at that point when you're replacing the wand into the tube. But despite those last two things, this mascara is doing its job so far. (Which is to make my face look less corpse-like.)
Update on 5/27/14: My opinion on this mascara is now growing increasingly dismal by the day. You know how some mascaras give you a false negative impression in their first few uses, as they kind of settle into their formula? Well this Maybelline mascara did the opposite of that - it gave me a false positive impression in its first several uses, and then settled into its true formula... CLUMPY. Seriously, this stuff is making it nearly impossible to achieve separated lashes. Spend your money on a better mascara than this.
Revlon Parfumerie Polish in Moonlit Woods (on clearance - $3.99)
There were a few varieties of the Parfumerie polishes on sale that day in the London Drugs clearance bin, so I tested them all out and selected Moonlit Woods. I adore the scent of it. It's quite similar in color to the Nicole by OPI Gumdrops polish that I also picked up recently - Blue-Berry Sweet On You - but without the texture.
SHOPPERS DRUG MART Aveeno Fresh Essentials Hydrating Night Cream ($4.49 because of pricing sticker discrepancy!)
So I was looking through the face creams at Shoppers when I noticed that there was a row of these Aveeno products on sale for $4.49, marked down from $20.99!! Whaaat!? But upon closer inspection, I realized that the $4.49 sale sticker had been placed on the wrong product. I brought it to the attention of a nearby store clerk and asked if he'd honor the $4.49 price for me, since I'd so nicely spotted the problem and quietly pointed it out to him. He did!! Ladies, that's how you spend $4.49 for a $20.99 night cream! I've been using the cream (almost) every night for the last couple of weeks, and I'm obsessed with the way it smells. It also makes my face feel soft and moisturized in the morning, which I appreciate.
Revlon Fuchsia Fever nail polish ($7.99)
You guys have seen this on my blog already - I bought it specifically for my Emma Stone Met Gala nails. I can't say enough about this polish - but I already raved about it here!
SEPHORA.com Urban Decay Naked Lipgloss in Lovechild - 0.13 oz ($20.40)
This is the product that I was actually shopping for on Sephora.com that day. All the rest were just bonus add-ons. After receiving a sample size of this lip gloss as a 100-point gift from Sephora earlier this year, I fell in love with it and decided to get the full size.
Marc Jacobs Honey perfume - 0.04 oz (free sample with purchase)
I was so happy to have gotten a sample of this perfume because I'd been wanting to check it out for a couple of years. With the overflowing box of sample perfumes that are already in my stash (a confession I made in this blog), there was a chance that this Honey sample would just get lost in the abyss of them all. But I'm happy to report that I've used up almost all of this sample already because it smells SEW DAMN GEWD. If you love sweet scents, you will no doubt love Honey.
GlamGlow BrightMud Eye Treatment (free sample with purchase)
Ok THIS is a weird product that I do not understand. I still don't, even after using it. It's an undereye treatment that comes in little individual pods, one for each eye. It's supposed to somehow brighten the undereye area, but after smearing on the gel-like, slimy, seemingly seaweed-infused substance, leaving it on for 5 minutes, and then wiping it off... I noticed absolutely no difference.
Kat Von D Unlock It Makeup Remover Wipes (free sample with purchase)
There are two wipes in here and I haven't used them yet because I'm so infrequently wearing enough face makeup that would require a remover wipe like this. Normally I'm only wearing mascara for makeup, which I'd remove with my Almay gentle eye makeup remover, rather than a face wipe. But one of these days, when I have something fancy to look nice for, I'll use my special Aveeno + DD Cream combo on my face, plus some bronzer (see Essence purchases below), plus some blush, plus some eye makeup... and ON THAT DAY, I will try out these Kat Von D makeup remover wipes to see how they do.
Buxom Full On Lip Polish in Sophia - 0.07 ozsample (100 VIB points)
Oh heeeey, tingle city! This is a lip-plumping gloss that leans more "cool, tingly" than "burning," if that's your thing. The color, Sophia, is a rosy pink with golden microshimmer. It's a skosh on the sticky side, I'm not gonna lie. But it's not the very stickiest in the world, and the cool plumping sensation lasts for quite awhile. It also tastes/smells like... mocha? Sort of coffee-ish? All in all, I'm very pleased to have spent 100 points on this one.
ACACIA HAIR BOUTIQUE
Kevin Murphy Young Again treatment oil - ($40)
When I (finally) got my hair cut back in March, the treatment oil that the stylist used on me that day made my hair feel SO amazing that I actually purchased a bottle of it right then and have been using it almost daily ever since. Guys... get some. Two pumps of this Young Again oil applied throughout damp, towel-dried hair will make everyday a good hair day. After my hair dries, it feels nourished, healthy, soft, moisturized, AND it's shiny. As a little bonus, rubbing any leftover product into your hands will even leave your hands feeling amazingly soft! And as a further bonus, the oil smells like yummy vanilla perfume.
CANVAS HAIR SALON
Davines Melu Anti-Breakage Shampoo ($26)
Again, going back to the hair appointment I had in March, my stylist also recommended that I switch to using the shampoo brand/line that complemented the conditioner that I was already using - a Davines Melu Anti-Breakage Conditioner. Shampoo and conditioners apparently really do work best when the same kind is used in tandem, rather than using one brand for shampoo and another brand for conditioner. So to give my "anti-breakage" regimen a boost I went into a neighborhood hair salon, Canvas, and picked up the Davines Melu Shampoo. I have to be honest... I do NOT like using this shampoo, but hear me out.
The #1 reason that I'm frustrated with this shampoo is because it does not lather. And yes, I know, I KNOW, that's actually a good thing. Shampoos that lather up nice and frothy with big bubbles actually contain ingredients that aren't great for your hair. This is a well-known fact among people who pay attention to hair stuff, so when this Davines shampoo didn't lather up during use, I knew that it wasn't a mistake or a product defect. I knew it was a sign of the quality ingredients in the shampoo... but that doesn't make it any easier to spread the product throughout my long hair! Bubbly shampoos are easy to disseminate throughout a full head of hair, because you can just work the frothy bubbles all the way down the length of your strands, and all the way down to the nape of your neck to scrub them in and get everything clean. But when there is no lather to disperse, what the hell do you do??? Does anyone know what I'm talking about?? It's so hard to feel like the shampoo is reaching every part of my hair and head when there are no bubbles.
Anyway... despite that frustration, I don't think my hair is feeling any negative effects of the non-lather yet. It certainly still feels clean and smooth when I'm done using this shampoo. So basically I've got lots of conflicting feelings about this product, so I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW I FEEL. #HidesInACorner.
IN MY EASTER BASKET (AKA... gifts to myself)
I like to make Easter baskets for David and myself every year (when I remember), because why the heck not? It's fun to go shopping for tons of small items and candies to put together for a Sunday morning surprise. This year I made our "baskets" by trimming down a couple of paper bags, folding over their tops, and stuffing them with shredded magazine pages for "grass." Atop the bed of mag-grass went all of the other goodies. Some of you may remember the picture I shared of it on Instagram:
Among all the other candy treats, these were the beauty products that the Easter bunny left in my basket this year: Essence Sun Club All-in-One Bronzing Highlighter (in shade for blondes/lighter skin) ($3.49?)
YouTuber Tati recently reviewed a whole line of summery Essence products, one of which was this Sun Club bronzing highlighter, which looked really pretty to me. Knowing how insanely affordable Essence products are, this product went onto my list of things to try. I love this stuff! It's my very first bronzer, EVER, if you can believe it. I know it's not a full-on bronzer, but still - more bronze than anything else I own. I got the shimmery "blonde" shade, but this also comes in a darker, brunette version. Of note: this product smells like summer - a piña colada, specifically.
By the way, if you're interested, Tati is one of my new favorite YouTubers to watch. She's gorgeous and has tons of knowledge about makeup and beauty and life, but one of my favorite things about her is her voice! It's so soothing to listen to, and I literally don't even care how creepy that sounds. Check out her channel here.
Essence Lipstick in #53 All About Cupcake ($1.99)
It was the cute packaging that made me buy this raspberry-coral lipstick. I didn't notice until writing this blog that it's got an adorable name too (All About Cupcake). This is totally not a lipstick you need to buy, because it's nothing extra special. It's a relatively sheer lipstick that takes a lot of work to build up, but it does apply really smoothly and smells like candy necklaces... so. You decide if you want to spend your hard-earned $2 on this 'stick.
Eos Lip Balm in Passion Fruit ($3.99)
Just another eos to add to my stash! This is the passion fruit flavor - lovely.
Lush Fluffy Egg bath bomb (I can't remember how much this cost!)
I've not used this yet, so there's not much I can tell you besides the fact that it smells super sugary sweet and it will allegedly fizz up when it hits the water.
Oh my god, are you still reading? If you are - thank you for sticking it out. We've reached the end of this beauty round up!
Now tell me - have you tried any of these products? If so, let me know your thoughts! Shop them below using the Shop The Post widget ~
Well this is kind of a wacky mani, sooo... deal with it. A few weeks ago I went into a London Drugs and accidentally came out with this little batch of things, which included both of the nail polishes that were used in today's mani: Revlon's Diamond Texture and a polish from Nicole by OPI's Gumdrops collection called Blue-Berry Sweet On You.
I really like both of these polishes and was excited to use them together, since they're so pretty and sparkly. Diamond Texture is jam-packed with tiny silver glitters, with some slightly larger round glitters mixed in as well. I love the effect of the two different sizes of glitter - it gives the polish so much more dimension. Blue-Berry Sweet On You is a periwinkle/dusty blue filllllllled with tiny holographic glitter. I didn't actually know what the "Gumdrops" aspect of this polish meant. There was no display there to explain the name, so I just grabbed it and assumed it was some sort of a textured polish.
This is how the OPI site describes these Gumdrops polishes...
"Introducing eight new limited edition matte texture shades designed to give nails a mouth-watering manicure. Gumdrops feature a 'sugar-like' finish that lightly shimmers with fine glitter particles for a brilliant candy colored finish."
........ Anyone else think that "matte" and "shimmers with fine glitter particles for a brilliant candy colored finish" seem completely contradictory? The last thing I expect a "matte" polish to do is "shimmer" or be "brilliant" - right?? Do you guys think that the copy-writer may have been on crack? Just a quick poll of the room.
Both of these polishes dry to a coarse, sandpapery finish, for sure. And they both are certainly sparkly.
Alright enough chit-chat about the polishes - here's what I did with them:
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my "sneak peek" from yesterday that showed how I did this. After painting all of my nails with a base coat, I applied some Essence nail stickers (package shown here) like so:
Next, working on one nail at a time, I applied two quick coats of each polish on either side of the sticker and then removed the nail sticker with tweezers to reveal the "naked" stripe in the center. #SheSaidNaked.
The last time I used these nail art stickers, I wasn't jazzed with the outcome. The stickers didn't result in super straight or clean lines. But Joey gave me the tip to only do one nail at a time, rather than painting all of my nails and then going back through with the tweezers to remove each sticker. This results in less tacky polish, and thus a cleaner line when you remove the strip. THANKS JOEY!
So yeah the negative space thing was a bit of a gamble - I wasn't sure how it would look. It still looks a little strange to me, but in a "unique" type of way as opposed to a "What the Actual Fahk?" type of way.
What do you think of this look?
Have you tried any of these Gumdrops polishes yet?
What's your name? Who's your daddy?*
I had high hopes for today's nails, as I prematurely boasted yesterday on my Facebook page. As it turns out, even with the aid of nail stickers, the "stripes" aspect of my "stripes and polka dots" nails didn't turn out perfectly. My stripe game needs some work! But my polka dot game is pretty on-point in this mani, if I DEW SAY SEW MYSELF, so hopefully you'll still enjoy it:
For anyone curious, the dotting tool and detailer brush were part of a Quo by Orly set called Instant Artist. I bought it last year in this haul.
I started by painting all of my nails black, except my ring finger, which I painted white. Then I added the white polka dots to all of the black nails using my fail-safe method of making polka dots. After trimming down a few of the nail sticker strips, I lay them carefully across my ring finger and pressed them down firmly to (TRY TO) make sure that no polish would bleed around the edges. Then I used the black polish to paint over all the exposed white stripes on my nail and quickly used my tweezers to remove the strips before the black polish could dry or become tacky.
After removing the strips, I wasn't really super pleased with how my stripes looked. There was some bleeding, and the polish had apparently become slightly tacky before I'd removed the strips, so there was a tiny bit of "string-age" going into some of the white stripes.
Guys, I've never spent so much time on detailed clean-up of a mani. I know you wouldn't know it by looking at the final product, but I really did spend awhile trying to make that striped finger look better! First I used the detailer brush dipped in white polish to try to clean up the white stripes. Then I spent foreverrrrr using that same tiny detailed brush dipped in acetone to try to clean-up all around the cuticles on that nail. It's really hard not to make a mess all over your nail edges when you're using the striped lines tape/sticker method. If you know a secret to keep it clean, please share with me.
David is gone today and tomorrow, off on a hiking and camping trip with a friend. I'll have to keep myself entertained the next day or so, which shouldn't be too much of a problem. There is probably a solid amount of ice cream, laundry, take-out, writing, photo-editing and YouTube-watching in my near future. SHOULD BE A SOLID TIME.
What are you up to this weekend?
Know any good movies I should try to Netflix/RedBox?
What's your favorite YouTube channel?
Random update on 2/24/14: I completely forgot to mention that this mani was inspired by a fashion blogger's outfit! Alison over at Get Your Pretty On did a blog post where she was rocking a white-with-black-stripes top with a black-with-white-polka-dots scarf, and I thought the combo of the two B&W looks with two different patterns was so cool! I pinned Alison's outfit onto my Nail Polish board here! Sidebar, follow me on Pinterest for a good time. ;)
Alright, it's not really madness. Just a few new things!! These were all going to be a part of the "Beauty Products" blog I posted on Monday, but it was just getting so long that I decided to split it up into two posts. Hopefully you checked out the LUSH blog with the first half of this bundle of goodies! Now onto the drugstores.
Shoppers Drug Mart: Soap & Glory Hand Food - $10 for 125 mL / 4.2 fl oz
I mentioned in my LUSH blog how busted my hands have been and that I've been scooping up some new hand creams to try to remedy the problem. This Soap & Glory hand cream is like a wonderful, non-greasy whipped cream for your hands. It seriously comes out of the tube like a whipped little dollop of sweet-looking goodness - like you're squeezing a tube of soft, white marshmallow. Hand Food actually does contain marshmallow, as well as shea butter, macadamia oil, and a whole slew of other weird shit. I'm so happy I bought it. I'm actually kind of flying through this tube - maybe I should pace myself!
I always browse the Essence section at my local Shoppers Drug Mart because there's often something new in their "nail art" line, and it's always inexpensive. This time was no diffffff.
Essence Nail Art Stickers - $1.99
I'll likely use these as striping tape, rather than as actual stickers. I've only attempted taped stripes on my nails once before, but since the strips of tape were a total DIY on my part, they weren't that uniform... and the stripes overall didn't turn out that great once the tape strips were removed. Hopefully these strips of nail stickers (which I will trim down and use as needed) will make my stripes look like a big girl made them, rather than a first grader. At $1.99, it doesn't hurt to try them out!
Essence Effect Nails 3D Glitter (in black and silver) - $2.49
So you may remember that several months back, I tried out the Essence 3D Effect nail art pearls. (Actually it's one of my most popular blogs!) The success of those cute little pearls gave me high hopes for the Essence 3D Glitter in the same line of products.
Guys, I can't stress enough how bad of an idea this glitter product is. I immediately regretted using it, but still I pressed on to try to make it work. I even removed it all and tried again, I was so willing to make it work. But no.
First, I'll show you what it looks like...
Doesn't it look really cool - like it wouldn't suck at all? Yeah, that's what I thought, too.
Here are the problems:
1. The glitter adheres to your wet base coat but it leaves stubborn patches, so it was terribly impossible to achieve uniform density of the glitter across my entire nail.
2. Loose glitter makes a huge mess, in general. I don't know what I was thinking! On top of the normal surface area that gets dusted with glitter, there's also the "after" effects of dealing with glitter - you know, when you discover a rogue speck of it next to your eyeball three days later. #IKnowYouKnowWhatIMean. #DontFront.
Those two problems were pretty killer. I almost wish I hadn't bought it at all. Almost.
As a final note about this glitter - if you DO buy it, do not try to roll your wet nail into it, the way you would with the Essence 3D Pearls. That will result in a weird, chunky, smooshed, goopy glitter application. And whatever you do - don't add a top coat. You will feel like a total chump if you do that. Go ahead and try it if you don't believe me. I dare you to see how it looks with top coat. Hint: It's not attractive.
The Doctor's Night Guard - $36.99 (ON SALE. FML. This thing costs $20 in the States!)
I didn't take a picture of my new night guard before I molded it and started using it, but you can see what a new one looks like here. I wear a night guard every night while I sleep because otherwise I will grind the bejesus out of my teeth. This night guard needs to be replaced every once in awhile, and I was due for my replacement... even though the price tag almost made me want to barf. It's definitely more affordable in the US! Anyone else grind their teeth? You better take care of that shit! You'll regret it, if you don't!
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Jade Jump - $6.49
I saw this nail polish and was all, "Whaaaa?!" and then I snatched it off the shelf before anyone else could beat me to it. It comes off a bit minty in this picture, but in real life it's got more of a jade-mint quality to it. I hadn't seen this color before from the Insta-Dri line... it's new to me! I'm a sucker for anything jade OR minty, so this was a double-whammy. I haven't used it yet but it swatches beautifully - super, super opaque... and potentially non-streaky. We'll see.
London Drugs: London Drugs is the other "big" drug store in Vancouver that I was introduced to after moving to Canada. There's a sizeable one down the street from my gym, so there always seems to be a good (enough) reason to juuuust pop inside to see what they've got. Some of the beauty blogs I'd been reading while I was home in Massachusetts were the catalyst for these next two purchases...
Baby Lips Dr. Rescue Medicated Balm in Berry Soft - on sale for $3.99
With a handful of Baby Lips balms already in my stash, it's safe to say I am a fannnn of these inexpensive little guys. When they come out with new flavors or new varieties, I am - how you say? - all about that shit. I heard about the new Dr. Rescue medicated balms and scooped one up as soon as I could! These balms are medicated with menthol, which gives them a eucalyptus smell and creates a cooling sensation on your lips. Dr. Rescue comes in 6 different shades; I chose Berry Soft, which definitely goes on lighter than it looks.
Maybelline claims that Dr. Rescue balms do the following: "In 1 minute, lips feel soothed. In 1 day, lips look more smooth. In 1 week, lips are renewed." That's probably not all 100% accurate, but the product actually has made a difference for me. My lips felt noticeably smoother after about 3 days of use. Note that the package says not to use this balm more than 4x per day - it doesn't say that anywhere on the tube itself, so it's possibly important to note this before you throw the package away. Not sure what will happen if you go ahead and use it that 5th time... Maybe your lips turn into MJ's werewolf character at the beginning of Thriller? I'm not going to risk it.
Revlon Parfumerie nail polish in Balsam Fir - $6.95 for 0.4oz
These are a scented line of polishes from Revlon. Throwback to the 90s, you say? Maybe. And that's fine with me! This polish actually does smell like some sort of a fir tree - I will give them that. I love this color, and it would have been helpful if I'd found it when Emerald was the Color of the Year. If all goes as planned, you'll see this polish in a mani on Friday.
Sally Hansen Strengthening Fast & Gentle Nail Polish Remover - $3.99
I haaated the smell of my last polish remover. I had to wash my hands 3 times before the smell of it would start to fade from my fingers. The end of that bottle was finally near, and I couldn't wait to get a replacement. Once this Sally Hansen remover came home with me and I realized how much more pleasant it smelled than my Quo remover, I literally dumped the last half-inch of my other remover down the drain. I wanted nothing else to do with it!
Well thanks for making it through another obnoxiously long blog post about new beauty products. I didn't realize that it was going to turn into several mini-reviews! Hope you found some of it useful in your own beauty product endeavors.
