Laura Mercier Second Skin Cheek Colour in Wild Bouquet Review and Swatches

Keeping on my "hey self, let's remember that you're a beauty blogger and should maybe, like, blog about beauty or something" kick, here's a lovely nude blush! Liz had suggested it, and I bow to her in all things blushy. She did not lead me astray!

untouched pan porn! It's very wee, and the compact is correspondingly small,
which makes it excellent for travel. You can also pop it out and stick it into a palette
(LM makes some, but I'm sure a Z palette or something similar would work, too).

Manicure Monday

Hi, y'all! Sorry I've been so MIA (I mean, even more than usual). I'll ease into posting again with a new Manicure Monday––it's been more than 2 months since my last one (wtfffff), but I've been trucking along with my NY resolution. It might go faster if I stopped buying new polishes, but...well, I'm only (a nail polish addicted) human. This isn't everything I've worn, but I'll include the rest in my next MM :)

Color Club Eternal Beauty

This is a polish I haven't already posted, in spite of having had it for, like, a year. It was part of the set gifted to me by the lovely Amanda! All the CC holos are super holographic and incredibly pigmented (this was one coat!), and really fast to dry. Unfortunately, it doesn't get along with uneven nails, and chipped on my middle fingers (both of which had lost the upper layer of nail on the tip). It's real pretty, though, and good for days I don't have much time to devote to my nails. I also want to use it with others from the line in nail art! Rainbowy holo goodness.

MAC Viva Glam V Review and Swatches

Larie threw this in with my order from her blog sale awhile back, because she is generosity incarnate :) I have many lippies, but few nudes, as they tend to make me look dead, but I thought Viva Glam V, which has been hailed as "universal", might work. And so it does!

Bite Lush Lip Tint in Juice

Larie recently had a blog sale, and I picked up a couple of Bite lippies I'd been wanting to try (and, because she's amazing, she included a pile of other wonderful goodies!). I figured I'd start the reviews with this Lush Lip Tint. I like sheer lipsticks for low-maintenance days, or when I'm wearing bold eyes, and I don't have a lot of lippies in this particular color family (being warm/nude pinks).

Too Faced Boudoir Eyes Soft and Sexy Eye Shadow Collection Review and Swatches

Look! I'm reviewing something that's not a lippie! *pats self on back* I picked this up during Sephora's F&F because I wanted a cool-toned palette of "neutrals", since I gravitate towards those shades during winter and felt a lack in my collection.

Manicure Monday

These reviews are all super wordy, so I'll skip the introduction.

Revlon Wintermint
This is one of the new scented polishes released by Revlon (they're permanent, no worries). I picked it up because I was just dying of curiosity as to whether it would be a dupe for my beloved Mermaid's Dream. It's not. In fact, I kind of hate Wintermint, even though they are really similar.

2 coats Wintermint on all except
pinky, which has 2 coats Mermaid's
Dream. All with 2 (or 3? damnit)
layers of top coat

Here's the deal: Wintermint's base is much thicker and more opaque than Mermaid's Dream, so it covers up the blue big glitters and gold little glitters in the base much more than in MD, and since there are less glitters to begin with in Wintermint, the end result is much more muted and less sparkletastic. And where MD dries uniformly bumpy, allowing all sorts of different layers of glitter to sparkle (and giving it a cool fish-scale effect, without the 3 coats of topcoat necessary to smooth it), Wintermint is lumpy and uneven from where the larger blue glitter pokes up.

theBalm Nude 'Tude

I picked this up from Birchbox several months ago when I had a coupon. I'd heard good things about it, and I was wanting a replacement for my Too Faced Natural Eye, which has deteriorated in the pigmentation department over the years.

Manicure Monday

Two more Turkish polishes for your viewing pleasure! I think there's only one left––I wore it, but neglected to photograph it, so you'll get to see that...eventually. But here's the ones I did snap!

Flormar Duo 2x Chrome DC05

There were a few polishes in this Flormar duochrome line, but this one was by far the most duochrome-y of them all, so it's the one I got. It is exactly the same color/shift (green-to-blue) as in China Glaze Unpredictable, but the formula is better––DC05 is opaque in 2 coats compared to Unpredictable's 3, and it's less prone to brushstrokes, though as a metallic, there are still some. It's pretty and fun, and it cost 4,49 TL, I think (about $2.25).

Manicure Monday

Another Monday, some more manicures!

Color Club Halo Hues Beyond

Another one of the polishes I got from Amanda a few months ago. Like the others, the formula on Beyond is flawless––it could have been a one-coater if I'd been more careful in applying, and it just glides on like butter. No issues over my current base coat (p2 8-in-1, purchased in Berlin), and super holographic. Awesome stuff.

Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited BG 935 Review and Swatches

Sorry for my most recent absence! I went down to LA for a wedding of a friend of the boy's, which was lots of fun but didn't leave much time for blogging (or work, but shhhh, don't tell). I'm back at home again, though, and hopefully will be staying put for awhile! Which means more posts for you! Hooray!

So, I know the lipstick marks on the inside of the cap
are gross, but I figure it's good to show you what it
actually looks like after being used! (That, and I'm
too lazy to clean it. You're welcome.)

Manicure Monday

Finally, nail polish! On my fingers! Aaaah. It's nice to be back.

First up, Zoya Godiva, purchased when they had free shipping and waiting for me when I got home. Yippee! Unlike Miranda, I preferred Godiva without top coat. I actually liked it best at one coat, when it was sparkly and not too nude, but I didn't photograph it then. You'll just have to wait until I wear it again! It was quite opaque; I used 2 coats, and it's a bit too nude for my taste, but the silver sparkle helps. Very, very sparkly. It's fun!

Without and with top coat, respectively.

Quick Review: Hourglass Extreme Sheen High Shine Lip Gloss in Child Review and Swatches

I purchased the Sephora lip favorites before Christmas to give as gifts, but I selfishly kept one for myself: the miniature Hourglass lip gloss in Child, a nude. I wanted to see what it was like formula-wise, and I also hoped it would serve as a good nude lippie.

Manicure Monday

Whee, another week's worth of manis!

Zoya Avril (3 coats) with Revlon Girly (1 coat)

Avril is a pretty color, but I'm not in love with it––partly because it's not self-leveling, so I find that it builds up in some places while being sheer in others, even after 3 coats, and partly because it's a creme, and I find creme finish polishes to be generally super boring. I did like the accent nail, though! Girly is really sheer on its own, though it can be built up in 3 coats, but I liked how it looked over Avril (and, as a bonus, I only had to do 2 coats of Avril on my accent nails). I'll be holding on to both of these to use in the future! An unstoppable combo, in spite of it being pink ;)

Quick Comparisons

Here's a very brief post of comparison swatches for two of the polishes featured in Manicure Monday.

The Purples

Left to right, 2 coats each of: Milani Hi-Res, Zoya Aurora, Zoya Carly

Hi-Res is, as I suspected, lighter and sheerer than Aurora, and has finer holo particles. Carly is a similar shade to Aurora, but completely different in opacity (almost a 1-coater) and finish (not holo).

Look, Ma, A Real Nude! Becca Sheer Tint Lip Color in Gisella Review and Swatches

I tend to gravitate towards bolder lips and lighter eyes, but sometimes I feel like changing it up. I have a sizable collection of eyeshadows, and in spite of my glasses hiding pretty much everything, I like to give it the old college try occasionally. (The irony, of course, is that I don't actually have the time to do elaborate eye makeup when classes are in session, but that's neither here nor there.) And so, I like having the option of a true nude. Until this point, Le Métier de Beauté Purple Haze has served that purpose, but it really only works with cool-toned eye looks, so when I needed to reach the $50 free shipping at Becca, I figured I might as well try to find a nude lipstick there. Some quick browsing led me to Gisella as the most likely shade to work that purpose, so into my basket it went. How well did my online peeks serve?

A Nude Lip for the Cool and Fair: Le Métier de Beauté Lip Crème in Purple Haze Review and Swatches

I love my LMdB Fraise Crème lip crème, but it's quite bold and the gold shimmer requires decidedly warm accompanying makeup so I don't wear it all that often (also, it was a gift from L so I don't want to use it up too fast!). But I love the lip crème formula, with its creamy texture, long-lasting color, and nice moisture, so when I received some money for my birthday, I decided I needed to pick up another in a more neutral shade. After much internal debate and googling, I settled on the limited edition from last fall (though still available online) Neiman Marcus exclusive shade, Purple Haze.

Zoya Pandora Nail Polish (From the Touch Collection) Review and Swatches

Next up for the Zoyas: Pandora, the one neutral in my collection. I figured I should actually try the nude trend out, since it's ever popular, and figured that even if I didn't like it, it was free (ignoring shipping)!

Zoya Pandora