OPI Pirates of the Caribbean Polish Collection

I initially found the PotC because there was an advertisement in my cosmo. Once I saw it, I knew I had to have it. My polish collection at the time had zero pastels, now it has six, and two shatters!

Without Flash

With Flash

First color, from left to right:

Skull and Glossbones. This is a really interesting white nude color. It looks like newspaper, and I plan to use it to try out newspaper nails.

Steady as She Rose. The magazine advertisement showed this color as a light pink. It's not as pink as all that. As you can see in the pictures, it's a very very light pink, with a lot of murky white in it. It's almost a grey with very light dusty pink in it.

Sparrow Me the Drama. This color came out pretty true to the advertisement color. It's a darker pink with a little bit of a dustiness to it.

Planks a Lot. This color is darker than the advertisement shows, but is still a gorgeous purple shade.

Stranger Tides. I'm not too hot on this color. It's a very murky dusty, dull green/yellow.

Mermaid's Tears. This color is just gorgeous. It's a bright dusty green. It's not as pastel as is shown in the advertisement, but it's still amazing.

Silver and Black shatters.



Ok, So when I got the polishes, I spent FOREVER deciding which one to use first, and went with Planks a Lot, the purple shade. I like it- a lot. The polish is smooth, easy to apply, dries fairly quick, and is just gorgeous.
I topped the purple with the silver shatter. I'm not sure how I feel about the silver shatter. It's really, really pretty, but with these dusty pastel shades, it seems like the silver just covers them up, rather than letting them pop.

Without Flash

With Flash

Ok, forgetting that the camera on my phone is pretty terrible, I just don't think the silver provides enough contrast for the colors in the collection to show through. They seem much better with the black.

Inglot eyeshadow review and swatches!

I've been talking about doing this review for awhile, but was so busy with work I didn't get the chance to swatch, use, play with the shadows, and put together a decent review. Well, I have today off and am finally writing the review.

I first heard about Inglot at this video on amarixe's youtube channel and I wanted to try them. I did some more research, and saw that they got a ton of great reviews from a lot of people- makeup artists and regular consumers alike. That got me really excited. A lot of the time, high end makeup that meets the standards of artists is just so expensive(IE- MAC) The quality is awesome, but it's just too expensive for regular consumers. So when I heard about Inglot and checked out their webpage, I was totally shocked by how low the prices are.

Inglot has a system called the freedom system- you can choose a pallet, and then choose colors to go in it (think MAC pallets and their refills) Whats so awesome about Inglot's system is that their eyeshadows are HUGE(2.7 grams each!) and their prices are really affordable. And, the more shadows you purchase, the more affordable they get.

• 1 eyeshadow= 7.00 usd
• 3 eyeshadows= 5.00 usd
• 10 eyeshadows= 4.50 usd

The pallets list prices are kind of expensive, but when I made my order, the prices for both a 20 pallet and a 10 pallet were lowered to just 5.00 each. That's a whole pallet for the price of one eyeshadow. So yeah, their prices are just awesome. It's incredibly affordable for a high quality product, and because of all the rave reviews, I had no hesitation about making a large order from them. I ordered one 20 pallet, one 10 pallet, and 20 colors.

So far, I've only been able to use a few of the colors, but wow, they're just beautiful and incredibly smooth and buttery. and So, so, so pigmented and dimensional. The colors themselves come out pretty close to the color in the pan, but there are a few that will surprise you, so be sure to swatch them when you get them.

I went ahead and swatched all the colors I got and here are my swatches. The pictures were taken outside in the sun. Some of the colors aren't quite the same in the pictures are they are in person. Possibly because I'm using a cameraphone instead of a real camera. Please forgive the second picture having kinda sloppy swatches. I was going to do them both on my left arm, but there were a couple colors I honestly couldn't get out of the primer side of my swatches. *glances at arm* Yeah... The colors are still there.

Anyways! Here are my swatches:

From this arm I had primer on the top half of the swatches and none on the bottom half..... 352 I have been using as a kind of a highlight color. It's matte, so not very shimmery, but still adds a decent amount of pop to my eyes and helps me look more awake. 46 is a more shimmery highlight. 397 has been getting a lot of use as an allover color for me, but turned out to be a bit too shimmery for work. I haven't really used 407 yet, but after swatching it I'm thinking it's going to get a LOT more use. It's one of those that's not very true to pan color. In the pan it's kind of a shimmery muddy copper looking color, but on my swatch it's not muddy at all. 74 and 72 had to be built up to the pigmentation on my arm. It's not that the color itself wasn't pigmented, but they spread out a bit more powdery and so didn't spread onto the skin as well as the other colors, which are more buttery.

For this arm, primer is on the bottom half of the swatches. I've only really used the 399 from this set of swatches. Very pretty, but again, a bit too shimmery for work. 440 is another of those colors that's not very true to pan color. In the pan it's a light purple, like a light pastel. On the swatch its very light, much lighter than in the pan. It couple probably work as a highlight on a purple eye look. 63 had to be build up a bit to the pigmentation on my arm. Again, it went on a bit more powdery. Of all the colors that I purchased, if I had to pick one that I was totally unimpressed with, it would have to be 63. The color in the swatch is built up, and as you can see, it's just very.... sheer for a black.

As you can see from the swatches, primer doesn't really make too much of a different as far as pigmentation goes. Primer does however, affect how long it will remain crease-less and how easily it can be removed. On both arms, the non primer side wiped off easily with one or two swipes of a cottonball with my eye makeup remover. On the primer side.... It took some scrubbing. The lighter colors came off without a lot of a struggle, but a few of the darker colors are still there, several cottonballs and 5 minutes of scrubbing later.

All in all, I am officially a convert, will be buying more pallets and colors, and would recommend inglot to anyone without hesitation. If you're looking for a high end eyeshadow and don't to pay a high end price, Inglot is the way to go.

Vampire Diaries chenille blanket

This Pier1 chenille blanket is used in an episode of The Vampire Diaries. It's on clearance at pier1 stores for only 10 dollars, so I decided to grab one. Pier1 has an online catalog, but you can't order online, you have to go in to a store. You can't even order over the phone. But, luckily, I talked with a super nice woman at the store closest to me(which was like, three hours away) and she took into consideration me being military and it would have been a three hour drive for a clearance item, and she took the order over the phone and shopped it straight to me! yay!

Anywho.... the blanket arrived a few days ago, and it is just amazing. It's 50"W x 60"H, so kinda big, and super, super soft. It's fairly warm- not hot enough for a winter night, but not so cold it feels like nothing. It makes a nice little throw, or wrap for days when you're just lounging around. It has been shedding a little bit, but I think that's just because it's new and hasn't been cleaned yet. And my nightshirt is white, so the little red bits show up really well.

Only downside I can think of is that it has to be dry cleaned. I have a feeling that if I ignored that tag and washed it normal, that it would just fall apart. I don't get... any of my laundry dry cleaned, so I have no idea how much it'll cost.

I totally recommend picking it up at your local pier1 if they've still got it. It's a really nice blanket, very "rich" feeling, and at 10 dollars, it is totally worth it.

Big Haul next week

I've ordered a TON of stuff, and pretty much all of it will be coming in next week, so I'm super excited! I'll wail till it all gets here and do another haul post.

I think that I'm the most excited about the nail polishes that I ordered. I saw a magazine advertisement about the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides nail polish collection and completely fell in love with all the colors. I decided to order the whole collection for a couple reasons:

1. I don't have any pastels in my collection. None at all. This collection is gonna give me 6 pastels, and they're all so pretty!
2. They're all so pretty!!! I looked up a bunch of swatches, and I love all the colors. They look especially good with the silver crackle over them, which I ordered as well. I also thought that they would look great with the black crackle, so I grabbed that, too. 

I just love the colors and am sooo excited to expand my collection.

Oh yeah, and I ordered a little minisize set of the polishes that I think I'm gonna do a giveaway with once I hit like... 50 or 100 subscribers.

Makeup Organization

Organizing makeup is no easy feat. When you first start collecting, sure, it's easy then. Owning just a couple lipsticks, a mascara, and a blush makes organizing simple. But as your collection grows, a little wire basket no longer suffices. And some collections, as though watered with miracle grow, just keep outgrowing organizers bought for them.

My current collection is rapidly approaching that point, so I thought I'd do a quick blog on how I organize it. I am completely open to suggestions, and will be doing another "after" blog once I redo it.



Ok, so by the numbers:

1. This little drawer stack holds all my hair accessories- ties, pins, headbands, clips. The little wooden box on top of it holds jewelery that I don't wear. Well, wear often.
2. This is a nice little jewelery tree that I picked up in a store in the mall.... claires or some such similar store. In front of this is my inglot 20 pallet.
3. My brushes. There's two little jars. The front one holds all my sigma brushes, and a blush brush from another collection. The back one holds just a bunch of other brushes that I don't use too often, but can't get rid of.
4. Cotton squares, cottonpads, and Q-tips. On the left of that is my bikini's and a bunch of makeup bags that I throw stuff in when traveling.
5. Perfumes and my MAC loose powder and kabuki.
6. Various skin and hair products.
7. Nail polish. In the back of this drawer is also a bunch of random stuff- a empty inglot pallet, some plastic brush protector things for traveling, other small odds n ins.
8. Lip products. I'm constantly looking for a HG lippie. This drawer holds all the ones that I've tried. If I truly hate something that I try, I just get rid of it. It doesn't go in the drawer.
9. Eyeshadow and face products. I have a ton of eyeshadows in here, a couple blushes, mascaras and liners, and a few foundations. But mostly just eyeshadows.

And that's it! Unfortunately, my drawers are filling up, and leaving me with no room to put more stuff! So I am looking for a new storage solution. I would love to get something pretty, but I'll more likely end up going with something utilitarian and trying to decorate it.

MAC Prep+Prime SPF50

So I grabbed this product recently to try it out- here's my initial impressions.

I tried it the second I got it. Once I opened the package, I washed my face, and then applied only it to see how it felt. So far.... it's not too bad. Very light feeling on my skin. When I touch my face however(I know I'm not susposed to- oils and whatnot from hands can increase likelyhood of pimples) I can feel... something. I dunno. It's not a greasy feeling, and no grease comes away on my fingers... it's kinda, "balmy" feeling. Thats the best I could think of to describe it. It feels kinda like there's a very thin layer of a balm of some kind on my skin. But, if I don't touch my skin, it feels fantastic. I can't even tell it's there at all- no odor, it doesn't show in the mirror.

It was kindof difficult to spread, the formula isn't nearly as thin as what I normally work with. But so long as I dot it around enough, then I can spread the dots around fairly well.

The bottle is... hard. It's like, really hard. I've read a bunch of reviews where peopl have to cut of end off the bottle and scrape the product out and into another container to use all the product. But if the product itself is good enough, I'm prepared to do that.

The worst thing about it is the price. It's 30.00 for a 1 fl ox bottle. That's *really* expensive. But. Considering that I use two expensive face products daily, and that product acts as three, when I break down the math, this may be a better deal. I've got to go and break down the math.

So that's my initial impression- I'll do a more detailed review in a few weeks.

"Makeup is a supplement, not a requirement"

~missglamorazzi

Haul- MAC, Inglot, Sephora

OK, before I get started, I thought I would let you all know a little about how I shop. I shop mostly online, through recommendations. I watch a lot of videos, and when I see something I like and want to try, I put said item(s) in my basket and wait, usually about a week. That week gives me time to think and consider and decide if the item is really something that I can see myself using. Sometimes I'll see something great in a video and I'll be like "OMG! That's Awesome!" but in reality, it's not something that I would do or wear. My eyebrows are a good example of this. I don't do anything except getting them waxed, pluck the strays, and use my fingers to groom them the direction I want them to go. So while I'll see really great eyebrow tutorials, brow products just aren't something I would sit down and use enough to make the purchase worth it. If, at the end of the week(ish) waiting period, it's still something that I want and will get use out of, I check my budget(which I'm terrible at sticking to, but I do try) and if it fits, I'll purchase it. If it doesn't fit, I'll just wait till the next month.

As with all things, shopping online has its pros and cons:

PROS

• Because I'm usually after specific items, that's all that I grab. I'm saved from seeing and lusting after everything in the store. You know how grocery stores stack like, 50 types of gum right at the register? It's cause they want you to buy some gum. Even if you don't need it, you see it sitting there and you're like "oh, well I might get around to using it" even if you already have a pack in your purse. And so you buy more than you intended.
• I don't spend gas money. My closest Sephora is about 150 miles away. MAC, the same distance. LUSH, about 200 miles. A decent mall, 68 miles. Gas where I am is currently 4.09. I'm saving a ton of gas money. And I don't end up spending that gas money on shipping, because I can usually find sales and coupons online that will eliminate shipping.
• Coupons. retailmenot.com gets a lot of traffic from me. I don't carry coupons in my purse, nor do I go coupon hunting in newspapers or elsewhere. BUT. Before I make every online purchase, I check for coupons. I can usually get free shipping, and sometimes get a certain percentage off of the whole sale.

CONS

• Color swatches aren't as accurate online. They just aren't, and that's all there is to say about that.
• There's not as much people interaction. Sometimes, interaction makes the trip as good as the shopping itself. Not to mention, people watching. So I miss out on a bunch of that.
• Explaining all the packages to my co-workers. A lot of the companies send through UPS or FEDEX, which has to be shipping to my company and signed for at the front desk. I'm usually never there, so one of my co-workers signs for it. And they're always asking whats in the packages. Well.... One time I told them. They just didn't get "it". Now I tell them crazy things like, 'it's porn magazines" or "I'm ordering part to build a bomb" or something else crazy. And you know whats weird? They're way more accepting of those answers than when I told them the truth. Seriously, what is with THAT?! anyways...

So I've decided that the pros outweigh the cons. When I really absolutely must go to a store, I make sure it's in conjunction with a trip that I've already got planned, so as to save fuel. Gas prices are just crazy.

ok! On to the haul! I ordered a bunch stuff and it started arriving today so I figured I would write this as I got the shipments. By the time I publish it, all the shipments will have arrived and been written about.

First up is MAC. I've been buying from MAC for awhile. I just love their packaging and quality. Now, you really do end up paying for that quality. Their prices are crazy! but I really have loved all the purchases that I've made from MAC. Well, most of them anyways. there's a few that I haven't warmed up to and that I just swap away.

• MAC Prep+Prime Face Protect SPF 50. This is a sunblock, a primer, and a moisturizer(maybe?) all rolled up into one. Normally, I apply Shiseido's Ultimate sun protection lotion SPF60, then juice beauty's oil-free moisturizer and skip primer altogether just because of the weather out here makes me feel so "ick" about putting on a ton of stuff, and usually I don't have the time while getting ready for work. When I do use primer, it's Too Faced Primed and Poreless. So I got MAC's prep+prime to try out and see how well it did at rolling all three steps into one. I almost started writing a whole initial impression on this and then realized I was doing it, so I stopped. I'll do that in like a week or two. The only thing I cringe about with this product is that it's very pricey. It's like... 30.00 for 1 fl oz. If this product turns out to be awesome, I'll have to do some math and see if it's cheaper or more expensive.
• MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in light. I've always been experimenting with foundations cause I haven't found a HG foundation yet. I've tried a few other MAC foundations as well as their tinted moisturizer and just haven't hit on anything that I really like yet.
• MAC Paintpot in rubenesque. I already have one of MAC's paintpots in the color bare study. I just love it. It's really creamy, a lovely sheer wash of color, and it acts as an excellent primer. I grabbed this color after seeing a bunch of tutorials using it. The color is kind of bronzey pink and I am so looking forward to using it.
• MAC CUTiE limited edition 4 eyeshadow pallet. I just really liked the colors. One is a kind of a darker pastel purple, one is a light sheer pastel purple with shimmer, one is a light sheer pastel pink, and the last is a sheer pastel green-white. On swatching, the color payoff isn't as great as I'd hoped, but the colors are very light, airy, spring colors.
• MAC Sheen Supreme lipstick in supremely confidant. I saw this used as the lipstick in a really awesome nude lip video and grabbed it to try out. I really don't like statement lips- I prefer to go with neutrals, so if this color works out for me, I can see myself getting a lot of use out of it.
• MAC Lipglass in C-Thru. A nude gloss to go with the lipstick. I forget if this is the same one used in the video or one I grabbed myself.

Next up is Inglot. I've never ordered from them before, but I've heard so much about them. I'm always seeing them in tutorials, hauls, etc and always, always, Always hearing amazing things about them. They're a Polish brand and they have a really amazing system called the "Freedom System". With the freedom system you can pick out of all these different kinds of pallets- there's different eyeshadow pallets, blush pallets, lipgloss pallets. By different I mean you can get like, two eyeshadows, or four, or five, or ten, or twenty. And you can choose between square or round eyeshadow pans. And in the actual stores you can get a pallet that mixes shadows and blushes and glosses so one pallet will have like, five eyeshadows, two blushes, and two lipglosses. Anyways. So after you choose what pallet you want, you get to go through and select the shades to put in it. They have a HUGE selection of colors and finishes. I think there's five(don't quote me) different eyeshadow finishes, and a couple hundred different colors(again, don't quote me!)

Beyond just having a massive variety, their prices are very affordable, and they go down the more you buy. I know that's just a trick to get you to buy more, but the shadows are seriously inexpensive. One MAC eyeshadow refill costs 11.00 and has 1.5 grams of product in it. One Inglot shadow costs 4.50 and has 2.7 grams of product in it. So you might be thinking that the quality of Inglot sucks to get the prices so low? Not so. The quality is retty awesome. I haven't used them on my eyes yet, but I did go through and swatch a few of the colors I grabbed. The color is really intense and vibrant and gorgeous. So gorgeous. I cannot wait to use them. Oh! And another comparison! A MAC empty 15 pallet will put you back 15.00. The Inglot 20 pallet says it's 25.00 on the store, but once you get all your eyeshadows to fill it, the price drops down to 5.00. I really loved that.

• Inglot 20 square eyeshadow pallet. I kinda needed a spot to put the eyeshadows. The eyeshadow pallet is really unique, too. My MAC pallets feel, honestly, really cheap next to these. The MAC ones are plastic, with a hinge top. they're plain black. These Inglot ones are...wow. Incredibly sturdy. I wouldn't drop them on purpose, but if I did, the shadows might crack, but I have complete confidence that the case wouldn't. the lid is also unique. It's a clear frosted sheet the size of the bottom that has INGLOT printed diagonally across it, and it has four magnets, one on each corner. The magnets are fairly strong and hold the lid in place with no problem. in fact, the way to remove the lid is not to yank it up, because of the magnets, but instead you're supposed to slide the lid off.
• Inglot 10 square eyeshadow pallet. The price on the 10 also dropped to 5.00, so I grabbed one of those as well. It's sitting empty at the back of my nail polish drawer right now, but I'm sure it'll get filled soon enough. I may pull my favorites from the 20 pallet and throw them into the 10.
• 20 square eyeshadows. Normally, when making a first purchase of a new brand, there is no way I would make it such a large purchase. However. Because of all the rave reviews and positive feedback, I was completely confidant in making this purchase. I'm not going to list all the colors right now because... well, there's a lot. I'll be making a review later and I'll talk about all the different colors then. Honestly, based off of just swatches, pricing, and reviews, I can see myself switching from MAC to Inglot for all my future eyeshadow purchases.

And last for this haul is Sephora. I usually hit sephora for odds and ends. Various things. They have a huge brand list and consequentially, a huge product list, so I can usually find whatever I'm looking for directly on their page. And they give free samples!

• I grabbed two nail polishes from sephora. First is a deep bright purple with a little bit of an iridescence called Just a Little Dangerous. The second polish is more of a topper. Not a topcoat, but between the second coat of color and the topcoat. It's a clear polish with a TON of different sized copper flakes in it and it's called Traffic-Stopper copper. I cannot WAIT to try it out. I just did my toes yesterday, but I might have to redo them sooner than normal to try out this polish, because it is just so pretty.
• NARS blush in Deep Throat. I got their Orgasm blush awhile ago and loved it, so when I started seeing hot reviews on Deep Throat, I figured I'd grab it as well.
• Benefit 10 box. It's a box that has bronzer and highlighter in it right next to each other. The idea is that you use the brush provided, sweep across both colors, then onto the cheek to contour. I haven't done any contouring, always afraid that I would jack it up. Then Blair did a video guide on it, it seemed pretty foolproof, so I thought I'd pick it up and give it a shot.
• Bobbi Brown Treatment Lip Shine SPF15 in Desert Rose. I saw this in a guide and wanted to try it. I put it on right out of the box and so far, not too bad. I like lip products, I do. I just don't like feeling them on my lips. This is one that I'm not really feeling, but at the same time it gave me some color. We'll see how it goes, and I may be writing a review on this later.
• Benefit BAD Gal Liner in extra black. This is probably one of those products along the line of my brow product rant at the very top. I do use liners, but I use gel liners to tightline, and that right there is my HG of lining my eyes. I'm not sure how I'm going to work this product into some use.
• Samples! I don't normally list my samples, but I'm kind of excited about a couple of them so I thought I would. The Body Shop Mango body butter, Carols Daughter Rosemary Mint purifying shampoo and conditioner, Benefit Girl meets Pearl, and Clinique pore refining solution correcting serum.

And that's it! Really big haul, I know. I'll be writing reviews on a bunch of the products.