Research!

I recently inquired with SinfulColors nail polish as to whether or not they test on animals. They are a subsidiary of Revlon, for those not in the know on such things, and Revlon is a known animal testing company. I received this email in return;

Problem solved, right?

Oh. Except for when that doesn't really solve much.

By their own statement (which is a form letter, blogs all over the internet have gotten the same statement), Revlon complies with laws by country, in order to assure that their product can be sold there, in order to allow women the "opportunity to express themselves with makeup".

China has REQUIRED cosmetics that were imported in to the country to be tested on animals until just last summer (I even googled it for you, it's sadly true). 

So up until Summer of 2014, Revlon seems to have been talking out both sides of their mouth, swearing that they NEVER did animal testing...while doing animal testing.

And I know, there are some people that don't especially care about this sort of thing. And if that's your prerogative, that's fine. But, I do feel like I've got the responsibility to pass along the word, because if you DO care, then you need to be able to plan your cosmetic purchases accordingly. And a company who loudly and proudly proclaims that they're not doing a thing...while doing that thing, deserves everyones attention, whether you care about animal testing or not.

Later, my lovelies!

I'm back, baby!

So I'd promised this post over the weekend, and didn't get to it, but darn it, we're back, baby!

I've made no secret of the fact that I love Sinful Colors. A lot. Here are swatches of a few that just got their shot at my nails.

First up, "Burn Rubber" from the "Full Throttle" collection of textured polishes. This was my first foray in to textured polishes, and I'm honestly just not sure I'm a fan. There's something really contrary to the idea of not only allowing bubbles in your mani, but being really excited by them!

Here's a close up, for the texture:

See? Odd. Any other time, if my mani looked like that, I'd be upset!

The application, and performance of the polish were on par with what I'd expect from Sinful Colors, and I'm not at all disappointed in it, it just wasn't quite what I liked.

This color was from the "Full Throttle" collection, which as far as I can tell, was released Summer 2014. This collection is still languishing in stores though (my local Wal-Greens is not suffering for a shortage of Sinful Colors displays, that is for SURE!), so if you'd like to try it, you might still be able to find it.

And another!

This is "Beige of Honor" from the "Practice Your Accents" collection. I'm not totally sold on this one either. You know how when you try to buy a neutral lip color, and you get too close to your own skin tone, and it gets dubbed "concealer lips"? I feel like this was concealer nails for me. I'm a fan of contrast - I rocked those early 2000's Kelly Clarkson chunky highlights pretty hard - and I'm not especially won over by the neutral nails trend anyway, so...meh? I'm not in love, but I don't especially hate it either.

The "Practice Your Accents" collection was put together to be a nice collection for nail art, and I do agree that this would be a nice base for some nail art work.

This is another collection that came out in Summer 2014, but is currently languishing in stores, so if you're intrigued, you should still be able to find it!

This week, I've got so many treats, I'm undecided on what to talk about! I've got some Jamberry nails to try out, and new Sinful Colors, and Almay eyeshadow, and...and...and...ooh, all the makeups! :) See you at the makeup counter! :)

Ipsy, Ipsy, Ipsy!

Like any good beauty blogger, I recently subscribed to Ipsy, and I've recently mentioned Ipsy to several people who really didn't know what it was. And, like any good blogger, I'm here to solve that problem

Ipsy is a subscription based service. For the low cost of $10 a month, you receive a small makeup bag full of five new treats to try, every month! You can subscribe from month to month, or you can buy a years subscription for $110, which gives you one month for free. When you subscribe, you take a quick survey that gives them your product preferences, and even allows you to talk about your brand preferences, and then every month you get a new bag, that comes in a cheerful pink envelope!

The bags are each themed to the season - July was my first bag, and it was themed for "fun in the sun", so my bag included a bronzer, a tanning oil, and a beach spray for the hair, along with an eyeshadow and lip pencil. This months theme is "back to school", so I received a makeup primer, eyeliner, mascara, blush and lip balm. Some of the products are sample size, and Ipsy has negotiated for you to get a sale price if you buy the item full size.

I only just received my August bag on Saturday, so I'm not ready to give super detailed reviews on any of the products in it, but I can speak to each of them a little;

My treats! Included in the bag;

A sample size of Urban Decay Perversion mascara, as well as a small pamphlet on the virtues of the mascara. I'm not 100% on it yet. It lengthens considerably better than my current mascara - which is nice, my lashes aren't what they used to be, I could use the help. But one of the big selling points behind Perversion is how pigmented it is, and I'm just not convinced on that point yet. Don't worry, I'm not giving up on my research!

Dr. Brandt "Pores No More" pore refiner and primer. I've currently got multiple pore refining and priming products in my makeup bag, at a variety of price points, and I pretty instantly noticed a major different between those and this one. They go on much thicker than this - they dry to a silky soft finish, to be sure, but they start out much thicker. This one starts thinner, it feels much more like a foundation than a primer. So if you've never been able to get on board with a primer because you didn't like the thickness, you might actually like this. It's also tinted, which I think I like as well. If you were going for a nice, no makeup look, this could make a great foundation. Supposing, I guess, that you were light/medium skinned, because there's no mention of color.

Coastal Scents "Forever Blush" sample. I really wish these were full sized! These colors seem really nice, if a bit cooler than I might pick otherwise, but it's hard to judge for sure, when the sample is so small!

Lord and Berry Silk Kajal Kohl-liner in black. My membership is new, but I've gotten a couple of really pleasant surprises so far, and this is one of them. Goes on really smooth, lots of pigment, and long lasting. This would be another that I would have to consider buying full sized!

And lastly, Absolute New York "You're The Balm" lip balm in green apple. This balm comes in a pot, which not everyone likes, so that might not be something you're in to. But it's got a great green apple scent that will take you right back to your Bonne Belle days. It even layers well - I tried it over the top of a lip pencil to give it a little more shine, and it works great! My only wish would be that the shine and moisture lasted longer - it's all gone too soon! :D

If I've said enough, and you're kind of intrigued, please click this link: Ipsy! I get credit for referring you, so we both win!

I do greatly recommend Ipsy, for the makeup geek in all of us. I am not certain if they ship outside the US however, so if you're from outside the US and reading this, that's certainly something to look in to as well.

And as an aside to any Sinful Colors nail polish fans, of which I'm clearly one; they're on sale for 99 cents this week at Walgreens if you have a Wellness Rewards card! All the colors, even the new summer collections. Go stock up! :)

Revisiting an old favorite...

Thanks to a bit of a "comedy of errors" type of week, I had trouble getting ready to blog. I spent all last week - which is when I'd normally prep a new post - at my moms, and then today I went "Oh, I'll do it today!", and it stormed all day, so I couldn't go outside to take any new pictures anyway! See what I mean? All the quirky, weird things that you need to have go alright, all kind of went sideways.

At any rate, I decided that we'd revisit an old favorite this week. I had it pointed out to me, and I think the person that said it what was probably right, that sometimes my pictures read a little warm, which distorts the look of the product. So with that in mind, I decided I'd go back and revist one product in particular that I was really fond of, Sinful Colors Professional in "Let's Talk".

My original post was here. This is a deep, bright purple, with no glitter or sparkle to be found. Now, don't mistake - I'm not talking matte, but it's just a great royal purple shade.

In the effort of doing it more justice than I did the first time, I retook the picture!

This time, I used Wet N Wild "French White Cream" as the base coat, and applied 2 coats of "Let's Talk" over the top, with no top coat. If memory serves, the previous picture was no base coat, no top coat, 2 coats of color.

It's still just as fantastic as before, and still wears as durably! If you want a flash manicure that will last, I recommend it! I've found Sinful Colors a tad hit and miss, but this one is a hit, all the way!

My good run of bad luck...

I'm having a good run of bad luck with Sinful Colors lately. I've been through two manis in a week with this stuff!

Introducing Suspect Number One, otherwise known as "Daredevil". This picture actually makes the color look a little warmer than it is - it's a neutral hot pink. Pink like a highlighter marker. I used Maybelline Color Show in Porcelain Party as a base coat (I'll actually be blogging about that soon...)

I'm willing to concede I got probably got a bad bottle, but it was really bad - the brush was thin, and inflexible. The color was runny, and hard to clean off the skin, and chipped almost instantly. In fact, this picture was about the only time the color was chip free. By the time the color was 24 hours old, I was already having to patch chips, and after going strawberry picking with my gramma (and sidebar? If you ever have the chance, do. You might think the strawberries from your supermarket are good, but they don't have anything on the ones that are fresh off the plant...), the color was pretty demolished. So I just took it off and started over. I like Sinful Colors, typically, "Let's Talk" is a gorgeous purple, and "Sugar Sugar" is a fantastic deep red. But if Daredevil had been my first experience, for obvious reasons, there probably wouldn't be a second experience.

With that said, enter Suspect Number Two:

"Cinderella". Cinderella is a really pretty light blue, with a bit of pink iridescence, and a fine pink glitter running through it. It's a bit thin - it'd probably make a fantastic top coat. To get a strong look at the color, I used Wet N Wild Wild Shine in "French White Creme" as my base coat.

Everything started out better anyway - soft brush, color went on smooth, not a lot to clean up, by way of color on the skin, getting the thumbs up from me so far.

Oh, then last night? I'm taking a shower, and I see a little bit of color coming loose around my cuticle (if you're following the numbers at this point, Cinderella has been on my nails about 12 hours by now...), so I go to get it off.

HALF THE NAIL proceeds to come off in the process. Really, Sinful Colors?! So the picture that you're seeing above is my attempt at a patch job, which I was pretty pleased with! It's not pretty if you look at it real close, but since people rarely do, it's not too bad!

So I've struck out twice in a row with Sinful Colors. Curiously, only with light colors. I mentioned "Sugar Sugar" and "Let's Talk" earlier, and their both dark (red, and purple, respectively). Light colors, maybe? Possibly. Good run of bad luck? Absolutely. I'm not discouraged completely though - I have a new color from their "Silks" collection to try, that I'm pretty excited for! :)

See you later, beautiful!

I've been binge buying nail polish lately...

...and figured someone may as well benefit from my efforts! Hah - Wal-Greens had a couple of good sales on nail polish, and I ended up with four different bottles in one week. How many nails does one girl have to paint?! Let's find out!

The color I'm here to tell you about today is Sinful Colors Professional in "Let's Talk". This color was inspired by wanting a purple to go with a teal that I'd bought earlier in the week, but after seeing this, I can't tell this baby no!

This polish comes with a standard issue nail brush, and it's medium in thickness, as far as nail polishes go. It wasn't runny like some can be, but went on smooth and easy.

The color is a deep, rich, marvelous purple. No sparkle or glitter in it anywhere to be found. And I don't have a lot of experience with the Sinful Colors brand, but so far, this stuff is wearing like a BEAST. I'm on...I think day 4? And not a chip or nick in sight. And I teach dance classes, and have been rocking the open toed shoes this week (warm weather!), so my feet have gotten some use!

The important stuff...

My toes. I think this color actually makes my toes look kind of slim. LOL! And I didn't notice until after I'd taken these that there was a bit of polish on the cuticle as well. Oops. :D

A different shot, so you can see how the light hits the purple. It's fantastic, I love it. I'd recommend it! And last week when I went to fill my prescription, Wal-Greens had it on sale for 99 cents!!

My only tiny beef, that even I acknowledge is silly? I like beauty product packaging, and the purple is so dark, you can't read the writing on the bottle. So if you're a packaging junkie, this one isn't all that satisfying. But other than that tiny problem? This polish would be a steal at twice the price!