Showing posts with label nail polish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nail polish. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Quick updates to previous reviews

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One of my bad teacher habits is, when students ask questions, to say, "Oh, that's a good question! I don't know. I'll look it up and get back to you!" And then I completely forget about it and never follow up. So I'm going to try to be a better blogger than I am a teacher and follow up on some points I said I would come back to after more testing. This is an especially important thing to do because the condition of my skin tends to vary quite a bit seasonally, so if I test something even for a few months in spring-summer, my experience might change in fall-winter, and vice versa. So here we go!

Marc Jacobs Beauty Glow Stick Glistening Illuminator in Spotlight

Marc Jacobs Beauty Glow Stick Glistening Illuminator in Spotlight (original review here): When I tested this cream highlighter last summer, I found that it tended to disappear from my skin after just a few hours. I wondered whether it would last longer in the winter, when my skin was slightly drier. Verdict: no. It's still completely gone save for a few sparkles by about the 3-4 hour mark. Too bad, because it's so lovely.

Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Gel SPF 50+ PA++++

Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Gel SPF 50+ PA++++ (original review here): Same sort of deal here--though in this case I wondered if the sunscreen would be worse, i.e. feel more drying, in the winter. Verdict: no. I've had no problems at all using this, regardless of how dry or oily my skin happens to be on a given day.


Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Intense Black (original review here): I didn't specifically say in my review that I wanted to update this one, but I had to stop using it long before it had started to dry up, because the tip became hopelessly frayed. If you missed it, I recently reviewed the Physician's Formula liquid liner, and it's much, much better. From what people have said, the tip holds up, too.

Sephora Bright Future Gel Serum Concealer in Butter Cream (original review here): In my quick post about the second shade of this concealer that I bought, I wrote that it performed exactly the same as the first shade, Fondant. After using it for several more months, I have to say now that I don't think it's quite as good. The shade match for me is perfect, and the application is identical, but Butter Cream seems to crease a bit more and not to last quite as long as Fondant. So I think maybe these concealers, like many other products, vary in performance based on the shade you choose. If Fondant (reviewed here) seems like your match, though, I still heartily recommend it!


I posted about Hollar as a source of, among other things, discounted Essie, OPI, and China Glaze nail polish. I bought a bottle of Essie Leggy Legend from them for $3. Shipping was quick, products were as described, and the packing (above) was excellent. I recommend! (I also bought a cheese grater, two candles, and some hair elastics.)

I also added an additional photo to the end of my glitter primer post to show how it wears (and if it creases) after a full day, so if you missed that, check it out.

Oh, and in case you've been wondering if I've worn Kat Von D Poe (reviewed here) out of the house yet . . . . um, no. The shame. Oh, the shame.

That's all I've got for you right now, but always feel free to ask for updates on things I've reviewed in the past!

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

(Sort of) free "luxury" beauty sample box from Amazon for Prime members (plus Zoya deal)

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I'm working on a swatch-a-thon right now, so please accept this small offering in the meantime. Amazon is selling a box of samples for $20 (which probably isn't worth $20), but then you get a $20 credit to use in their luxury beauty department. So if you were planning to buy something from that department anyway (Stila, Mario Badescu, Jack Black, Oribe, OPI, Bioderma, La Roche-Posay, L'Occitane, theBalm, LORAC, etc.), you would basically be getting the box of samples for free with your purchase. Here are all the products that are eligible. Note that they say the samples in the box "may vary," and that this offer is only available for Prime members.

Also, Clara reminded me that Zoya is doing their usual deal where you get 4 "free" bottles of polish (or lipstick, this time) with $15 shipping. Or, as I like to think of it, 4 bottles for $3.75 each with free shipping. Use code 4ZOYA, ends Jan. 16.

Obviously, I will not be indulging in these deals, because of my No Buy, but if you decide to go for one of them, please allow me to live vicariously through you.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

More Sephora X shades available for $5 on website

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Just a quick update to let those of you who are mourning the loss of Sephora X nail polish that there are about 21 shades available online for $5 right now. Centigrade looks nice! There are also some interesting metallic/glitter shades. I think this is about the same number my local store had, though I'm not sure if they were the same colors.

Monday, December 5, 2016

Is Sephora's Formula X nail polish discontinued?

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How did I not notice this before? It looks like there are now only 5-6 shades left on the website, and everything is marked down. Boo! I've liked all the polishes I've tried from the brand and they had really unique options. Maybe they should have priced them lower to begin with. I know I never bought a bottle at full price, personally.

Has anyone seen the display in the store recently? I'm wondering if there are still more options on sale there. I might pick up the set with the top and base coats for half price.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Poe: I'm not too old for this?

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Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Poe

Ok, I know I just posted a review of a metallic silvery-lavender lipstick and complained that it made me feel old, and now I'm posting a photo of myself wearing navy blue lipstick and feeling fine. Well guess what? Fuck consistency.

I bought this set from Sephora, and it contains a mini Formula X nail polish and a mini Kat Von D Studded Kiss lipstick, both in the shade Poe. They've been on sale for $7.50 for a while now and going in and out of stock, so you might have to keep an eye on the page if you want to order online.

When I applied the lipstick at home for the first time, I immediately regretted buying it. I mean, I should have known better, because I've read a lot of pretty negative reviews of Poe, but for some reason I bought it anyway. I was curious. It's not easy to apply this shit evenly and opaquely. Just do a Google image search for it and look at all the iffy lip swatches--consider the worst ones the most accurate. The most annoying part was that, while it looked okay immediately after applying it, as soon as I so much as touched my lips together, all the color completely disappeared from the inner part. Blah.

I decided to give it another shot the next morning, however, and this time I applied it over top of Too Faced's lip primer (reviewed here). Surprisingly, the primer made a noticeable difference, despite the fact that I have tried it with many lipsticks in the past and it never helped. It does help with gloss, however, so this slippery-as-fuck lipstick must have something in common with lip gloss. I applied a layer of Poe, blotted, and added another layer. Then to clean up the edges, I used Tarina Tarantino eyeliner in Cute Robot, which is almost a perfect match, as you can see here:

Swatches of Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Poe and Tarina Tarantino eyeliner in Cute Robot

These are the results, which aren't perfect, but at least it's not complete garbage anymore:

Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Poe

I actually liked how this color looked on my face. It wasn't as jarring and weird as I'd expected. (Excuse my sad-puppy expression. I know people object to the term Resting Bitch Face, but there has to be a reasonable substitute--Resting Grump Face? Nothing's Wrong That's Just My Face?)


It's interesting that both the lipstick and the nail polish really look purple in the tube/bottle, but they are definitely navy blue when you apply them. I think it must be the iridescent/multichrome shimmer, which shifts between a bunch of colors: purple-pink-orange-gold-green. The lipstick contains the same shimmer as the polish, which you can see in the bullet, but it doesn't show up much on my lips other than to add some extra dimension.

Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Poe

I posted a nail swatch on Instagram earlier this week. The nail polish is very opaque and pretty, in keeping with the generally good results I've had from Sephora's Formula X polishes, though it chipped slightly within 24 hours (not unusual for me).

So in the end, I don't think this set, at $7.50, was a waste of money, because the nail polish is nice and I managed to get the lipstick to work. On the other hand, I can't really recommend the full size lipstick at its regular price of $21, since I had to use two other products with it to get it to work. When Poe first came out, it was difficult to get your hands on blue lipstick, so it might have been worth the hassle--but now even Maybelline offers very similar options.

I don't know if I will wear this out of the house. I should. We'll see.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Sephora has some good sales right now

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I'm trying to save my money, so I am just going to do some fantasy shopping and inflict it on anyone who cares to read about it. The sale section on Sephora's website is full of things I'd like to try if I gave myself free rein. Of course, even in my fantasy, I only pick out things that have great reviews and are a good deal/significantly marked down.

The Urban Decay Electric palette is on sale for 50% off at $24. I've heard lots of people who use bright eyeshadows say that this palette is one of their favorites. I don't wear bright shadows often, but maybe I should? The indigo and teal shades definitely speak to me.

Urban Decay Electric palette $24
From Urban Decay, they also have the Spectrum palette marked down to $29 for a mix of brights and neutrals that might be more versatile. And the excellent Primer Potion in the discontinued packaging is only $10.

Other interesting looking palettes with a significant mark-down are the Bareminerals Neutral Attraction palette ($29) and Make Up Forever Artist Palette V. 2 ($34).

The mini sets of Kat Von D Studded Kiss lipsticks and Formula X nail polishes (that I heard about from Auxiliary Beauty) are on sale for $7.50 a set, or you can get 3 of each for $14.75. I haven't tried anything from KVD, actually, but I've liked all the Formula X polishes I've used.

Studded X set $14.75

Speaking of Formula X, a whole bunch of the polishes are marked down to $5 a bottle, which is a great price. There are some really interesting and unusual nail polishes in that line.

Formula X Capricious

A lot of Tarte stuff is also on sale, including the LipSurgence Lip Tints (which are horrendously overpriced at their full price but otherwise nice) for $12 and the Cheek Stains for $16.

If you tend to place more than two online orders from Sephora per year, it's really worth it to buy the $10 flash shipping for a year. Also, I think it saves me a little money because I don't become obsessed with adding random shit to my cart to meet the free shipping minimum of $50. Although I have to admit that I usually try to get to $25 in order to get one of the GWPs from the specials page (you can find these right at the bottom of the site on the right side at the Weekly Specials link), if there's anything interesting there.

So I've added a bunch of this stuff to my cart, and now my plan is to ignore it until: (a) I get bored with these things and don't want them anymore; (b) I have more room in my budget for makeup shopping; or (c) they all sell out. I'm guessing that (c) is the most likely to happen first.

How about you? Anything look good? Is that Electric palette really as much fun as I've heard?

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Zoya raises prices to $10 a bottle

Hope you bought any Zoya polishes you wanted in their last sale, because they are now $10 a bottle! Sorry, as much as I love Zoya, that's way too much for me. They've raised the price $2 in just over 2 years--that's pretty steep when you think of it in terms of percentage.

I know there are much more expensive polishes out there, but I've never been inspired to buy them. I've tried some out and read lots of reviews, and I don't see a big (or any) difference that can be correlated to price. What's your upper limit for polish?

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Four "Free" Zoya Polishes

Zoya does some version of this sale every year, and while it's a good deal, I kind of hate the way they promote it. According to them, you get 4 free polishes of your choice (some products excluded), but you have to pay "promotional shipping" of $15, which is higher than their usual shipping cost. So really you're getting 4 polishes for $3.75 each with free shipping. At least that seems to me a better way to think about it. Great deal, still--last time it was only 3 polishes for $15!

Details here. Use code 4YOU. Ends Jan. 13.

Are you going to get in on it? Zoya is probably my favorite nail polish brand. You can see some of my swatches in my Zoya tag.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

And now I can die: Color Club Oil Slick multichrome nail polish swatches (with excessive photos)

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I felt like I was pretty much over nail polish after amassing a ridiculously large hoard and then purging dozens of bottles from it and not being able to find anyone to take them off my hands (pun intended?). The rejects are still sitting in a box in my closet taking up space. Anyone want them?

But then I saw photos of the Color Club Oil Slick Collection on beautygeeks, and my acquisitive drive fired right the fuck back up. Multichromes are my absolute favorites, and these ones looked as stunning as the many indie options out there, but more accessible. I've just never really got into indie polishes. There's definitely some fascinating stuff out there, but the prices and (often) the need to pounce before things go out of stock just don't appeal to me. ILNP, for instance, has dozens of multichromes - but the choice is overwhelming, and they are more expensive than Color Club. I've used and liked Color Club before, and I really hoped I would be able to find these polishes at Meijer, where I once got some of the Halo Hues (holos) for under $4. No such luck, of course.

Color Club Oil Slick collection: Cash Only, It's Raining Men, We'll Never Be Royals, and Burnt Out
Color Club Oil Slick collection: Cash Only, It's Raining Men, We'll Never Be Royals, and Burnt Out
I'm not impulsive. I told myself that I wasn't allowed to buy them until I could redeem 200 coins in Habitica. In the meantime, I wanted to find the cheapest possible price online. I only wanted four from the collection: Cash Only, It's Raining Men, We'll Never Be Royals, and Burnt Out. You can find them on ebay, and I'd heard that some people had picked them up there for about $6 each + free shipping. I checked several times over the course of a few weeks and never found anything lower that $8 + $3-4 shipping per bottle. Amazon's prices fluctuate, but over the weeks I was looking, they didn't go lower than ebay. I looked at several other beauty and nail supply sites, but when Color Club had a 31% off sale on their site for Halloween, I ended up getting them there for a total of about $33 including shipping for the four bottles. If you want a few bottles, I'd recommend getting them from the Color Club site, if you don't mind waiting for a sale (right now they have 25% off), though if you just want a single bottle, $10 + free shipping on Amazon is probably a better bet.

Color Club Oil Slick collection: Cash Only, It's Raining Men, We'll Never Be Royals, and Burnt Out
Color Club Oil Slick collection: Cash Only, It's Raining Men, We'll Never Be Royals, and Burnt Out
Anyway, enough shop(ping) talk. I have them now and they are nearly everything I imagined and we are very happy together. Some general points about the formula of all of them, and then I'll move on to photos. They are nice and opaque, so you only need two coats. If you're very good, you might be able to get away with just one coat. But all four of these polishes are quite thick, so I anticipate having to thin them sooner rather than later. That also means that you have to wipe the brush off carefully or you might end up with a big glob rolling down the wand as you're painting your nail and messing everything up. Dry time is average, but I always use a quick dry top coat, because I am not at all patient enough not to. I used Orly Polishield (reviewed here, but I've found recently that I like it much better when I use a thick coat of it) for all the photos below. I applied Cash Only without a basecoat and it chipped the next day. For all the others, I used Orly Bonder basecoat and went at least two days without chipping (it's rare that any polish lasts much longer than that for me).

So let's get on with the swatches. It's impossible to capture all the shifting colors in photos, because it's really movement that brings them alive. I did my best with my mediocre camera. I exercised almost no restraint, so I've put many, many photos below the cut. Indulge me! I haven't been this excited about nail polish in a long time.

First up: Cash OnlyThis was a surprise. I hesitated about getting it, but it turned out to be my second favorite of the bunch. It's really amazing and not like anything else I've seen. It would be hard to name all the colors in there. It goes from rosy beige, to gold, to steel grey, to silver, to lavender, to blue, to green, with a bunch of other shit in between.

The photos below are in all sorts of different lighting, and let me warn you one last time that I went overboard with the number of photos here (you can enlarge them by clicking on them). But they're all different! All equally important.

Color Club Oil Slick collection: Cash Only

Color Club Oil Slick collection: Cash Only

Color Club Oil Slick collection: Cash Only

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Sunday sales (Urban Decay and Zoya)

Urban Decay has 20% off everything right now with code TAKEITOFF. Just today and tomorrow, but the code works on the sale section. Their primer potion is already 50% off, so with the code it's down to $8. That is a decent price for a good eyeshadow primer (reviewed here in Eden). There are also palettes and other things in the sale section. Shipping is free over $50; otherwise it's $8.

Zoya has $5 off plus free shipping on orders over $25 from now until Oct. 18. Zoya is my favorite nail polish brand, I think. So many interesting colors (some swatches in my Zoya tag).

Those are the best I've seen today. Anything good I missed?

Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Downside of Indies: Mentality Polish and "Sensitivity"

Buying from indie cosmetics companies can feel really noble and gratifying. I think supporting small, independent businesses rather than massive corporations is a good thing. Also, indie companies tend to put out some more interesting products than mainstream companies, since they are only making small batches and don't have to try to appeal to the broadest audience possible.

The downside is that, when something goes wrong, a small business might not have the infrastructure or resources to fix it. That's what seems to be happening with Mentality Polish, who sold some products this spring that caused what they call "sensitivity" for a number of their customers. People's nails have been lifting from the beds and it's all pretty gross and painful-looking. A major company would do a proper recall at this point (or would have been able to do extensive testing of their products beforehand to avoid these results in the first place). In the case of this indie nail polish company, they seem to have started out trying to replace the products of the people who got in touch with them, but ran out of money to do so and are no longer making amends (and posting on social media about "bullies" - not enough eye rolls for that). They also didn't communicate the issue to all of their customers, so there are likely people out there having bad reactions without knowing why. You can find out more about the issue and the company's response in this post from The Mercurial Magpie (warning: graphic photos of injured nails).

I'm posting this tonight in case you bought anything from Mentality during the problem window (April-June 2015; see above link for details) and also just as a word of caution about dealing with independent cosmetic manufacturers. I'm curious about people's thoughts on indie cosmetics in general. Do you think they are likely to be more or less reliable than mega-corps?

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Butter London 50% off + free shipping (and other beauty deals at Macy's)

Disclosure: This post contains a referral link.
Okay, I'm just going to make this the day that I spam my blog with sales. It's not what I usually do, but it's what I'm doing today. I blame you, Amazon. Macy's has a big beauty sale going on, and among other things, BL polishes are $7.50. And everything has free shipping, apparently. Check it all out here.

Ebates also has an extra 8% cash back for Macy's, so your best bet is to shop through their link. There's no downside. (More info about Ebates here.)

Monday, June 15, 2015

Instagram Mini Reviews

I'm away from home at the moment, and don't have the photos I need to finish any of the posts I've started recently. Instead, here's a quick round up of some mini reviews I've posted on Instagram in the last couple of months for those who don't use it. If you follow on Instagram: sorry - I'll have something more interesting for you soon.

It's a 10 Miracle Leave In Product

Maybelline ColorSensational Lipstick in Maple Kiss: On my lips here and swatch comparison here

Derma-e Evenly Radiant Brightening Day Crème SPF 15

Sally Hansen Triple Shine Making Waves: Nail swatch, then 4 days wear and 5 days wear

Suave Natural Infusion Strengthening Light Leave In Cream

Plus: how to paint your toenails without making a mess and my final Birchbox

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

3 Zoya Polishes for $15

The way that Zoya words their promotions is pretty ridiculous. Technically, they are saying that you get three free bottles of nail polish, but you have to pay $15 shipping. Come on. It's three bottles for $5 each, which is a decent discount, since they are usually $9. Use code KICK. Full info here.

Zoya is my favorite nail polish brand, and you can see some of their polishes that I like in my Zoya tag.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Butter London is on HauteLook today (50% off or more)

Disclosure: This post contains referral links.
Dammit, I was just going to pass this information along and ignore it, but Two Fingered Salute is included in the sale, and I've been wanting that for two years (or however long it's been around). Should I?

Individual bottles are $7.50 (i.e. half price), and there are also sets, and lip products, mascara, etc., for a variety of prices.

Doing any Memorial Day shopping? (It's kind of weird that this is a shopping holiday, right?)

ETA: Oops, I bought Two Fingered Salute and Posh Bird.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Is your 3 or 4 or 5-free nail polish really free?

By now you've probably read the NYT article about nail salon and human trafficking/exploitation (if not, get on it). There's been lots of interesting discussion stemming from the article as well. I would recommend, as usual, skipping the Jezebel commentary on the topic, in which the author goes apeshit in the comments - as she's been doing in the comments of other articles, including ones she didn't even write herself (I am hesitant to link from here to such ridiculous antics, but let me know if you want some directions to the train wreck). But Wondegondigo has a thoughtful discussion, for example.

As part of describing the poor working conditions of salon employees, a link in the NYT article pointed to a study done in 2012 on 3(+)-free nail polishes that showed that many of them still included the chemicals that they were supposedly free from (including formaldehyde, DBP, and toulene). In fact:

"Toluene was found more frequently, and in higher concentrations in products with toxic-trio related claims than in traditional products. Ten of the twelve products with “toluene-free” claims did, in fact, contain toluene."
You know that I am not overly concerned about "chemicals," but if these particular ingredients, which do pose potential health risks when used frequently or in the wrong way, are a concern for you, well . . . maybe you should still be concerned. Or you should be extra careful to paint your nail in a very well-ventilated space.

It was nice to see that the Zoya they tested in that study did turn out to actually be 3-free, so I can blissfully go on loving my Zoyas.

Zoya Dream
Zoya Dream

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Illlamasqua is on HauteLook today (bigger selection than usual and 50%+ off)

Disclosure: This post contains a referral link.
Looks like a good sale. All sort of lipsticks, cream pigments, nail polishes, etc., starting at about $7.50. Some things are already sold out, so you might have to make up your mind soon.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Zoya Earth Day promotion: 50% off 6-24 bottles of polish + free shipping

For Earth Day, Zoya always does this promotion where you can get a discount in exchange for sending unwanted bottle of polish to them for proper disposal. You're not supposed to throw nail polish in the trash, since it counts as a hazardous material, so this is a way to get rid of it properly.

But you can get the deal even if you don't send them anything back. They say it's on the honor system, and they suggest that you might also donate some nail polish instead of disposing of it. You'll get each bottle for $4.50 with this deal.

Use code EARTHLUV from April 21-28. All the information is here.

Zoya's one of my favorite nail polish brands. Possibly my very favorite. They just make such fucking interesting shades and they have a million of them. I've been happy with almost all the ones I've bought, and I've never paid full price, because they frequently have good sales. I'm going to have to sit this one out this year, because I just can't afford any more polish, but if anyone goes for it, show me what you get!

Here's one of my favorites, Giovanna (more here):


And here are links to some of my other Zoya swatches: EvvieNeely, IbizaArizonaOdette, SongLotus, and Fei Fei. And those aren't even all the ones I own.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Illamasqua is on HauteLook today (nail polishes for $7.50, lipsticks, glosses, and eyeliners for $12)

Disclosure: This post contains a referral link.
Unless things have changed recently, Illamasqua is no longer being sold in the US outside of ebay - and sales like this one on HauteLook. Last time the showed up on HL, things sold out pretty fucking fast, so you might want to get on that. I don't have any Illamasqua stuff personally, because it's pricey, but there are some major fans out there. The beloved Raindrops nail polish is included in the sale. I'm tempted, despite my anti-hoarding plans.

I've said this before, but the upside of HL are the prices, obviously. I've ordered tons of things from them with no problems - they're not particularly shady, since they're affiliated with Nordstrom. The downside is that your stuff will take weeks to ship. So don't order anything you want immediately.

You need an account to browse or buy, so here's my link, if you want to use it.

(And if you're going to buy something anyway, you should add the Chella pencil sharpener from $2.50 to your order. I got mine form Birchbox, and it's the best sharpener I have ever used. Even sharpens fat lip pencils without making a mess!)
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