It's "Test a tip off Pinterest!" Week!

This week on Pinterest, I read a tip from a makeup artist that said that people should be wearing PURPLE eyeliner, because purple will help the eye pop, better than black or brown liner. I went "What, really?!", and promptly went out to look for some purple liner to test this little tip out for myself.

To make sure that it was genuinely my eyeliner that was making my eyes pop, and not my eyeshadow, or something of that nature, I kept all my makeup exactly the same over the course of this little experiment.

My little helpers:

From top to bottom, we have;

Boots No. 7 eye color duo in "Royal". It's a gold, and what I think is purple. And I say "I think", because it's one of those shape shifter colors. In certain lights, it looks like a real deep purple, in certain lights navy, and on my pale skin, it looks black. It's really rad. I think they've changed up their products, but I hope that's one I can find again.

Rimmel Scandal-eyes mascara in black. While I do like it (and I do - goes on smooth, doesn't clump, regardless of how many layers I put on), it's not as exceptional as Rimmel would probably want you to believe. Everybody wants to talk about their mascaras like they're exceptional...they aren't.

Rimmel Scandal-eyes eye shadow stick in Paranoid Purple. And if you'll let me go off on this one for a second - this one had a CRAZY tight lid. I'm perfectly healthy, getting that liner off shouldn't have been that hard! And I got halfway through lining my first eye, and the point BROKE. And of course I can't find a sharpener to keep going, so I end up painting the shadow on with a q-tip. Irritating, for sure! I'd be a little bit pressed to buy another one of these, even as much as I liked it, just because of all the trouble I had with it!!

Rimmel Scandal-eyes waterproof Kohl-Kajal eyeliner in black. I got this in a GWP with the mascara, and this, I like. It's like the kid sister to the new L'Oreal eyeliner that's out right now. Nicely pigmented, long lasting. I feel like I'd buy this one again if I ran out of it.

Lastly, Wet N Wild Color Icon pencil in Purple. I let myself get a little intimidated by this one, and I really shouldn't have. The pencil makes this look like it was a REALLY vivid purple, and I kept looking at it, and getting eighth grade royal blue eyeliner flashbacks (we were all there once...), and talking myself out of wearing it. In reality, it's a nice royal purple, and wears nice. It was much better than I had imagined, which is always a pleasant surprise. :D I'd buy this one again, for sure.

So I tested this out three different ways;

Just purple. This is the Rimmel purple, because I hadn't yet convinced myself to go Wet N Wild. And I had quite the Murphy's Law experience with this one (I already spoke to some of it, in my description of the pencil, so I won't go over it again, haha...), but I'm not disappointed. My eyes are blue, and I felt like the purple actually made them look lighter, and greener, which was a surprising development.

This is the Rimmel black liner, with the same eyeshadow/mascara combo. There's nothing to hate here, but you don't get quite the same POP that you get from the purple.

This look was the purple and black put together. I used the Wet N Wild purple this time, rather than the Rimmel purple. I put together the entire look, with the black liner, and then drew the purple liner, up over the top of the black. This might have been my favorite look of the three. At first, when this was fresh, this felt like an absurdly large amount of makeup - then as it settled in to my skin a little bit, and was a lot happier with it.

I know sometimes Pinterest can be full of craziness, and impossible to duplicate tips, but I think in this case, there's no disputing - the purple does in fact pop the eye (well, my eye anyway), better than black does. Purple! Who knew, am I right?!

See ya later, gorgeous!

Yes, another pedi...

Does my current nail polish obsession know no bounds?!

And will I ever remember to trim my finger nails, so I can paint them too?!

Let's find out together!

This weeks find was 60 Second Nail Polish, by Rimmel, which promises to dry in only 60 seconds. I hardly got out a timer, but it did seem to dry pretty fast. So, on the question of "does it live up to the promises?" My answer is a solid, "Um...maybe?"

The color I selected is called "Red, Steady, Go!", and is a bright, neutral red. Not especially warm, or cool. Bright, and solid. The color has a nice brush, and goes on smoothly, evenly, and streak free. It's really a fun color, another one that was a little outside of my realm. My seven year old picked it out - he's got a real eye for color, he wanted me to try this one. I like it! I might let him pick more often!

The packaging is clearly written, and easy to read. The bottle, like most, is the color of the product inside. Which means for a bright, neutral red, this one would be easy to find, just about anywhere! The bottle is small though. Like, surprisingly small. But having said that, I'll tell you this. Actually, I'll tell you two things:

1)This polish is cheap. It retails for $1.50 (USD) at my local Wal-Mart. So they're charging the right prices, not to mention, for that price, you can change your polish a lot!

And 2)Rimmel puts out coupons a lot. Like, a lot. In fact, the whole reason I bought this color was because I had a good coupon. I had a coupon for $1 off any Rimmel product, so I got this tasty little viddle of nail polish for 50 cents! Can't beat that!

The beauty shots:

The bottle! Easy to read, easy to find in the dark (lol...)

The polish, on my toes. Goes on smooth and extra glossy. My husband and son, both of whom profess to not be nail polish guys, have really enjoyed my testing out all these colors, and I've only had on this color about 10 hours, and it's already drawn both of their attention.

Will update next week with the chippage alert!

Until next time!

Chip Update: 6 days, which actually puts it right up with some of the best that I've tried from the drug store. Although, there was some staining on my toes when I took it off, and that's no good. It prompted the joke that I'd been "stomping strawberries" at the Memorial Day Cookout my family had. So pretty, long lasting, gonna stain your toes. You take the good, you take the bad, you know?

Just another pedi Monday!

Today, I went to the well that is Wet N Wild, thanks to some good couponing and a pink I couldn't resist (serious - I usually go with blues or purples, this is way out of character for me...), and tried out Fergalicious, from their Fergie collection.

First, let's chat about the good:

This color is super fun, and super summery. If you can't wear bright pink on those June (err...middle of May), 90 degree days, when can you wear it?! Some colors aren't particularly seasonal, but pink says summer, all day long!

This polish also comes with a wide brush. In fact, I did my whole pinky toe in one stroke!

Since I mentioned being a bit of a packaging junkie in my last post, I'll also point out - this packaging looks fantastic, it's one that will fit in nice on your vanity. I was having a few technical difficulties that were making me think you wouldn't get to check it out, but I worked it out! So, see?

So fun and summery, and in nice, pretty packaging to boot!

Now let's get to the downside. That great big brush? Delivers really runny product. Like, I know I'm not dealing with super glue or anything, but I ended up with as much polish around my toes, as I did ON my toes, just for working with this runny polish and big brush. As much as I initially loved the big brush, I feel like if the formula is so runny, the brush needs to be smaller, otherwise you just end up with polish smeared from one end of your foot to the other. And that's no bueno. :/

There's the shot you've all been waiting for! It looks great on, but I've only had it on about 20 minutes, so I can't speak to chipping, yet. I'll update when I've got more information on that front!

Later, beautiful!

Chipping Update! Made it to day 5 before I started noticing chipping! So not great, but none too shabby either.

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!

Gave myself a pedi today...

...let's talk about it. ;)

I'd spied Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in Mermaid's Tale at Wal-Mart, and kind of couldn't stop staring at it. It's a navy polish, with small bits of navy glitter, and bigger bits of greenish blue glitter. Funnily enough, it looks a whole lot like what you'd imagine a mermaid's tale would actually look like.

So I finally decided I had to have it, and the deal was done.

Now, let's chat about the things about this polish I found sort of surprising:

-The brush was wider than I expected to see. It's no paint brush or anything, but it was no dainty, tiny brush either. I used the polish to give myself a pedicure, and could get across my big toe in about four strokes.

The polish went on smooth. It was a little thin, but not overly runny. Why is the polish being smooth a surprise? With two different kinds of glitter, you'd expect the polish to go on a little chunky, this didn't. Although I've not yet removed it, so I can't speak to that.

The polish wasn't as dark as I expected. To look at the bottle, you'd expect an opaque navy. To look at Google reviews, it looks like an opaque navy. To look at Pinterest, it looks like an opaque navy. To put it on, it's not opaque navy. It'd probably be a fun top coat for another color, actually.

But, as a positive - the color did seem to layer well, and dry reasonably quickly. As a bonus too, the glitter isn't really the stand out star of the polish - it's not navy with green flecks, it's navy that you can see green flecks in certain light. So, if you're of an age where you probably shouldn't be wearing glitter (which, if we're being honest with each other - I may not be at that age, but I'm comin' at it fast), but you want a little something funky for your summer pedi, you could work this polish, without feeling too young.

When I looked closer at a lot of the Google reviews that looked a lot darker than mine, trying to understand why they all looked so much darker than mine, I realized that a lot of them were using this color as a top coat. These pictures are this polish only, no extra colors.

The first picture is both feet, my left foot had one coat, and the right had two. In the second picture, there is a close up on two coats. You can see that there really is a nice depth to the color - it looks like I've got on multiple layers of color. The third picture that you see is a close up of one coat. You can see by looking at this picture why I keep saying that this would make a nice top coat - you can easily take another color, and punch it up with a little glitter over the top.

I'm very happy with this polish. It layers nicely, seems to wear well, and the glitter makes me feel kind of sassy. :D My opinion might change slightly when it comes time to take it off, but as of right now, I'd recommend it to a friend. :D


ETA: Woke up this morning to a couple of chips. The most physically exerting thing I did yesterday was pick my son up from school. That's pretty frustrating.

Dear husband of mine...

...you might be crazy. Let me back up a little. My husband is old school. My husband redefines "old school". He's what old school hopes to be when it grows up. And he doesn't really get beauty. He doesn't get why I like it, he doesn't like to pay for it, he wants no part of any of it.

And one of the weirdest parts of the beauty spectrum, for his entertainment dollar, is waxing. He swears that there's absolutely no difference, he doesn't notice, he doesn't care, he doesn't know why it bothers me when my eyebrows are marching across my face.

I went this afternoon to get my eyebrows waxed. I actually go to the beauty school in town for this sort of thing. I have faith in the beauty school girls - they're so supervised, and so diligent, and careful, that there's no way they could screw it up. And the girl that waxed my brows this morning is so close to being done, that she's even got the look down. Her coat was tailored, she's got long black hair, styled without so much as a single strand out of place, positively flawless skin, and even a facial piercing, lest someone think she was just a little "too" buttoned up. She's ready to go!

Just for the laughs, I took a before and after:

The "Before". Somewhere along the line, my one brow decided that it was going to start growing straight up and down. Whatever. I don't know what that's about. Anyway, no brow pencil, no makeup of any kind. Just my mangy brows.

The "After". Slightly better lighting (it was later in the day, and all...), but again, no makeup, no brow pencil, no nothing.

Try to tell me that there's not a difference? Because there SO is...It looks cleaner, it opens the eye up. And besides, it makes me happy - and isn't that worth the money? I don't remember the girls name off hand, otherwise I'd recommend her by name. I'll just say - don't be afraid of the beauty school. The one in my town brings up VERY good estheticians, and very good (if a bit cautious) hair dressers. Their nail students are a bit hit and miss though, I've had some good and some not as good. :/

Am I the only one with a husband that just doesn't quite get the whole "beauty" thing? I can't be...right? RIGHT?! :D

Bright on schedule? You betcha!

(Note: my seven year old helped me with these pictures, so some of them aren't great. We tried. Haha...)

After seeing the latest commercials for the Olay Fresh Effects line, promising a full nights sleep, no sleep required, I knew that I had to have it. I don't get a full nights sleep...well, ever - and I know I'm not unique in that. Even the slightest.

Olay promises that their Fresh Effects line will give skin a "refreshing blast of hydration" with honeysuckle and white tea. And judging by the looks of the advertisements, I'm a few years removed from their target market (ahem...), but I'm also a sucker for new products, so...you know how that goes. :D

The Bright On Schedule eye awakening cream uses a unique three roller ball system as the applicator. And I know that the roller ball applicator system isn't unique (Garnier has been doing it a while now), but Olay has THREE! They promise that it cools the eye. Does it? On it's own, I find it hard to believe that it would. But I popped mine into the fridge, for a little extra cooling power. Wowza!

The cream is easy to use - give the tube a little pinch, and apply to the eye. Bingo, bango. If you can apply lip balm, you can use this. I typically find that it absorbs quickly and easily, although the other day, I had a little trouble - I guess I went a little overboard, and found that the excess, rather than absorb, formed a crust under my eye. I went in to several stores before my son was nice enough to point that one out...oops. The texture is light, and silky smooth, so if you know you need eye cream, but don't generally like the feel of thick lotions, you should get along nicely with this one.

The one thing I've noticed in using Olay products for the last few weeks? They smell. It's perfumey, and it's a nice enough scent, but if you don't like smells on your face, you'll have a hard time with this particular quality. I was initially so thrown off by it, that when my seven year old got to me in the school pick up line, I promptly bent down to his level, and went "Smell my face!" He liked the smell, I've gotten used to it.

It takes almost no product to satisfy your needs, and as such, one tube lasts a long time. I've had it probably two months, and I've hardly scratched the surface!

The good stuff. Bright, cheerful packaging. Easy to use, easy to understand.

The three ball roller, with a little bit of product squeezed up. This is slightly blurry, this is one of the ones my seven year old took. :)

How easy the product is to use! Like I said - if you can use lip balm, you can figure this stuff out! :)

My rolled, rested, refreshed eyes! Instant sleep, no sleep required!

I totally bought this eye roller just on a larf - saw the commercial, went "Huh, that looks interesting...", the spokesmodel had gorgeous skin (because of COURSE she did...), and ordered it on Amazon. I love this stuff. I'd buy this again in a minute. I highly recommend it. The ingredients seem pretty standard issue for lotion, so unless you've got trouble with scents, you're probably fine that way. I recommend!

I've actually talked about this one more than once - the other time, I did it on video!