Essence Holographics.Com LE Nail Polish in Prism@tic White Review and Swatches

Essence came out with a "holographic" collection (scare quotes because the products were not, in fact, actually holographic, but rather duo/multichrome, a distinction apparently lost on the German brand) a few months ago, and I happened to come across a small display of some of the products in Ulta a few weeks ago.  I decided to only pick up one polish, Prism@tic White (stupid name, guys), that I thought I could use for wintry-themed nails and to layer over other polishes.  I decided to wear it over black to start with, because I knew its duochromeness would show up better over a dark polish.

Essence Prism@tic White

theBalm at TJ Maxx: Deals and Steals to the Max(x) (I hate myself)

I was feeling the need to check and see if TJ Maxx had gotten another shipment of theBalm products, since every time I've gone on the weekend there's been nothing, and lo and behold: oodles and oodles of theBalm holiday sets and individual products (though not the one I've been particularly lemming, namely Cabana Boy blush).  I snapped some crappy pictures for y'all (you're welcome):

A whole load of makeup kits from theBalm, ranging from eye to face to lip kits, with some combos thrown in for good measure

Shady Lady eyeshadow palettes, Vol. 1, 2, and 3, each a mere $12.99 each, $39.50 normally. If you like eyeshadow and enjoy pops of color (unlike some people who only wear neutrals, *cough*), this is an absolutely unbelievable deal. 

4 full-size lip products! I was so tempted to get this, but then I remembered I hated the sample of Stainiac that I got, and I don't really like or wear lip gloss, so that would basically be $25 down the drain. But it's a fantastic deal for those who would be able to make use of the products!

Close-up of the Green Eye Kit (as in, the kit for people with green eyes, not the kit with green eyeshadow...I was confused by this for a bit), which comes with Overshadow loose mineral shadow, 2 Shady Lady eyeshadows (I can't remember exactly which ones, sorry!), Balms Away makeup remover, and Cheater mascara

And my favorite Balmbini palette!

There were other kits and sets available too, including a bunch for skincare (I was also tempted by the Clear Skies Ahead kit for combo/acne-prone skin, but decided my skin is too unpredictable to risk the $23), several nail polish sets, and some super-cute pouches with nail, lip, and eye/cheek products (some had Betty Lou-Manizer, others had eyeshadow).

I picked up the "You're Giving Me a Complexion" set because I've been wanting a new liquid foundation/tinted moisturizer, and thought the other products sounded promising, too.  I opted for the Light option, only to discover upon opening it at home that all of the products were Medium (2 shades down from what I needed!).  Extremely annoyed, I did the 20 minute trip back to TJ's to see if they had a light kit that actually had light products, and after establishing that the moisturizer and TimeBalm were both as they were supposed to be, exchanged it for another.  Of course, upon getting home, I realized that the Liquid TimeBalm concealer was Nude, not Fair like the box had claimed, so it's a shade darker than I was promised (boo, hiss), but I'm going to continue playing around with the products to try and get them to work for me.  The TimeBalm Tinted Moisturizer in Light (which is the lightest it comes in, though it's only a small 3-shade range) is still a bit dark for me, but I'm going to try cutting it with moisturizer to see if I can't sheer it out and make it wearable.  Fingers crossed!  I'll write full reviews of everything after I've gotten the chance to wear it all more, but if you're interested in any of these products/kits, get to a TJ Maxx soon, because I don't know how long they'll last!  Just be sure to open the packages and check the contents to save yourself some misery.

Soap & Glory The Righteous Butter Body Butter Review and Pictures

Thanks to living in the Pacific Northwest, I don't have to worry about the flaky dryness that comes from snow and dry-as-bone air (oh, the Northeast, how I don't miss you).  My hands, however, do still have a tendency to get dry and tight, as I tend to favor overwashing them in hot water (because who wants to wash their hands with cold water? No, seriously, why would you ever do that, especially in the winter?), so rather than change my habits (see previous parenthetical rambling), I choose to apply lotion.  I do, however, like to make it as exciting as possible by trying to find yummy smelling lotions, and have found that mini containers of body butter make for an excellent indulgence.  My Nivea Soft gets the job done, but sometimes I just want to be able to creepily sniff at my hands and smile to myself.  One product I recently added to my collection helps me do just that, so thank you, Soap & Glory, for enabling my sniffoholicity (=sniff + [alc]oholic + ity, yay morphemes!).

Revlon Carbonite LE Nail Polish Review and Swatches

Chanel came out with a trio of polishes this summer, including a sparkling gunmetal-gold called Graphite (and a truly lovely green duochrome, Peridot), that was very popular.  Of course, at $25/bottle, it's way out of my price range.  Revlon came out with a "dupe" a couple months later, Carbonite (clever, guys), which I happened to recently see on clearance at Rite Aid, so I picked it up so I could see what the hype was all about (you can see Cafe Makeup's comparison of the two here and here).  For me: major letdown.

Revlon Carbonite

Skincare Saturday: Bare Escentuals bareMinerals Deep Cleansing Foam Review

I'd been wanting to try this cleanser since Christine reviewed it several months ago, but as my skin is only dry in the winter, I had no real reason to buy a new cleanser to try and treat that.  The past month or so, though, my skin has been feeling tight and I've had some dry patches (in large part from the acne treatments I'm using), so I figured Sephora's F&F sale was the perfect time to pick it up.  I've been using it for a month and a half now, on-and-off (more on that shortly), and feel equipped to review it now.

Bare Escentuals bareMinerals Deep Cleansing Foam

Fragrance Friday: BCBGMAXAZRIA and Taylor Swift Wonderstruck

I feel like Fragrance Friday often ends up just being me ranting about how much I disliked the scents, and I'm afraid this week will be no different.  The saddest part?  I actually like the celebrity perfume better, which pains me because I loathe Taylor Swift (so many of her songs perpetuate the view that women need to be "rescued" by men, ugh).  Anyways.  Here are my thoughts.

Image from Nordstrom

BCBGMAXAZRIA (why so much capitalization and no spaces, guys?) was a free sample I got with a Nordstrom order.  It's described on Nordie's as follows: "An intriguing mix of kir royal, wild strawberry and black cherry introduces the scent before settling into a sensual and sophisticated note of jasmine, lily, rose and violet. The drydown entices with the luxurious and rare orris, one of the finest and most precious ingredients in nature, accented by musk and sandalwood."

I Finally Caved...

...and joined Twitter.  I thought it would be a good way to keep tabs on what's going on in the beauty world, and that it'll be much easier for me to share posts and links I find interesting there rather than waiting for Sunday Summary (which, you may have noticed, has been MIA lately, because I've lacked the motivation to go back through my feeds and find the posts I really liked).  I promise to keep my posts to a relative minimum and only tweet (my inner linguist is so amused about that use of the word) things that are actually relevant and/or interesting.  My name on Twitter is @BeyondNurBeauty (and you can follow me by clicking the handy "Follow" button on the left!); nur is German for "only" or "just", and since BeyondJustBeauty was one character too many, I decided to do that instead of BeyondJustBeaut, which would just annoy me with its incompleteness.  If you're on Twitter, let me know so I can follow you!

You're welcome to just add me to your RSS feed if you don't have a Twitter account (which is how I read all my non-beauty-related tweeters), and equally welcome to ignore it entirely––though I should tell you, I will probably post pictures of baby marsupials and/or food there rather than straight on the blog.

I hope nobody is too angry about this development; I still rather hate Twitter, but I think it can be a very useful tool when not, well, misused.  Here's hoping this doesn't end up being a complete disaster!

Philosophy 3-in-1 Shower Gel in Cinnamon Buns and Peace on Earth Review and Pictures

I used to be a one-shower-gel-at-a-time kind of girl...but then the Philosophy shower gel sale happened, and there that went!  Before, the only decision I had to make in the shower was whether I wanted to shave or not (usually not).  With the increase in the size of my shower gel collection, though, I've doubled the amount of thinking required.  And yet my pre-breakfast cognitive daze is as strong as ever.  You can imagine how this could be a problem.  "So, self, which shower gel would we like to use today?" "Gee, self, we used up all our decision-making power when we decided not to shave..."

Of course, there are many worse things in the world than indecision regarding one's choice of body wash, especially when there's really no wrong answer.

Tip Tuesday: Discount Beauty Sites

I'm changing it up with Tip Tuesday!  Because who wants to pay more than necessary?  Here are some great sites for budget-minded beauty folk.  I haven't ordered from all of them, but they are all well-respected and -reviewed by other beauty bloggers.  Some of them are dedicated discount beauty sites, whereas others are the sale section of beauty brands (always a great place to look).

All Cosmetics Wholesale (and its new sister site, Suite 7 Beauty)

ACW is the motherlode of discount beauty websites.  Their selection is truly mind-boggling, and I have spent many hours perusing it and idly adding items to my shopping bag (though I've yet to actually purchase anything from them).  They have some really great deals on stuff (their clearance section often has oodles of 50% off+ sales), though it varies by brand, and they also have a huge selection of discontinued MAC products (at a marked-up price due to their rarity, of course).  I've got several lipsticks from Urban Decay, NARS, and Clinique in my shopping cart right now, and I'm just biding my time until I feel I can afford it to order them…Suite 7 Beauty carries Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, NYX, Lime Crime, and Sugar Pill, among others, though the prices there are usually the same as retail.

Best Affordable Makeup Brushes

See the updated version here!

Note: I considered breaking this down into a Tip Tuesday and Recommendation Thursday, but ultimately decided it would be more trouble than it was worth to try and separate them in a way that still made them make sense.  As a result, this post is really long (and it took me so many hours to write, I don't even want to think about it), but I've tried to organize it in such a way that you can find specific parts easily and skip what doesn't interest you.  I'll be including reviews for the brushes in my collection under their respective categories, so keep an eye out for those.

My makeup brush collection is frighteningly large.  They all fit in a coffee mug (because I'm too cheap to buy an actual brush holder, duh), but only barely!  I've been amassing my collection over the past few years, and have finally decided to post about them so you can hopefully learn from my experience (and I from yours!).  This brush is dedicated to L, whose prompting inspired me to actually get around to a) washing and b) photographing my brushes, neither of which is very labor-intensive, but I'm just so lazy I'd never gotten around to it.

Okay, crash course on why makeup brushes matter: Using quality tools to apply your makeup will ensure you get the most out of your products, or, put more accurately, using bad brushes will make even the nicest makeup look and behave like crap.  Regardless of whether you use high- or low-end cosmetics, you want to get the most out of your collection, and good brushes are a vital part of that.

So, what makes a brush good?