NOTD - Bejeweled Violet

I decided to start doing NOTD (nail of the day) posts because I change my polish quite often and lately I have been layering different polishes because I have a very limited collection with me at the moment. So today I bring you Sally Hansen Violet Voltage and Sally Hansen Be-Jeweled. To get this look I did one coat of Violet Voltage and one coat of Be-Jeweled. I will apologize now for the bad cuticles and all the hang nails, my hands got really dried out and I forgot to moisturize.

November Julep Maven

So this month I was faced with a huge dilemma when it came to choosing which box to go with. I have been waiting patiently for the suedes to be released in the monthly box and since there were only 5 different colors I wanted them all! I was debating for days during the selection period and the last option I had chosen was the Fall Warmth upgrade. Which meant I paid $50 to get the entire collection.

So What exactly was in the box?

Sally Hansen Happy Manicure Limited Edition Set- Xtreme Wear

 

This was the one collection that really confused me, the colors just didn't really go together at all in my opinion. 

 

Included in this set are:

 Bubblegum Pink

Bubblegum Pink with opalescent shimmer

 Violet Voltage

Lavender purple with pink shimmer

Celeb City

Silver metallic

 

Blue Me Away!

Bright teal creme

 

I am not a huge fan of Bubblegum Pink at all, Violet Voltage is a great purple for spring but also looks great with a glitter top coat (Be-Jeweled), Celeb City almost rounds out my basic metallics and chromes, and lastly Blue Me Away! is a great blue and it matches a crochet project of mine perfectly.

The application for all of this was great all I needed was two coats and they looked great. 

Of all three limited collections I could find I found only the Gem Crush one to work well for the holidays. So I am confused as to why the colors were paired up.

Beauty Army September #1

October Beauty Army Box #1

This month I received a pink box instead of the normal black box and so I checked my account and this is my 6th box so maybe pink boxes are for 6 months? I am not sure but I hope to receive more pink ones in the future.

So what all did I choose?

Sally Hansen Happy Manicure Limited Edition Set- Insta-Dri

I finally bought the other two Sally Hansen Happy Manicure sets and in this post I am covering the Insta-Dri set. This set includes:
Fast Fuchsia
A bright fuchsia color with a purple iridescent micro-shimmer

Lightening
A bright yellow creme

Lickety-Split Lime
A bright lime creme

Vigorous Violet
A bright violet with a purple iridescent micro-shimmer

 I had a really hard time picking up the micro-shimmer on Fast Fuchsia and Vigorous Violet.

I do like this collection of colors but they don't really work for the holiday season so I probably won't get much use out of these this winter but come spring I will.

Fall Loose Button Luxe Box

My Fall Luxe Box From Loose Button

I did not have the best experience with Loose Button company from the start so I will sum up what happened before going over the box contents. First off I paid for my box in early August and they estimated that the fall box would ship early September but they never informed the subscribers that they changed the ship date a couple of times. By the time they got around to letting the subscribers know when the boxes would be shipping it was already the end of September and I was getting ready to move to Germany. I had written the company to cancel my box but they wouldn't refund me so I changed the shipping but they still sent it to wrong address. It ended up getting forward to Germany but I was so tired of waiting 3 months for this box that when I opened it I was very underwhelmed.

So what did I get?

Color Club Almost Famous

I picked up this polish after finding it in the clearance section at HEB in San Antonio. This was released in the Poptastic collection in 2010. I wasn't too keen on color but I needed to start rounding out my collection with different colors. I found that after two coats it was still on the streaky side and it would need a third coat to look perfect. It was a little hard to photograph the color.

With Flash

Without Flash

Organic Hydrating Sugar Scrub by Moody Sisters

I was excited to try out this scrub to see how it compares to the scrubs that I make for myself but I found that I both love and hate this one. It is that time of year again where I have to start keeping my skin moisturized because it gets really dry in the fall/winter. One thing that I liked/disliked was that it was from an Esty shop, I like supporting people who make handmade items but I don't like ordering beauty products on Etsy. I would prefer to go to a farmers market or local boutique where I know that the people selling don't have to pay to have their items there or pay a fee for every item sold. So with that out of the way I'll move on to how it actually worked for me. So I was expecting one thing from description on the product listing and kind of got the other. 

"Our Hydrating Sugar Scrub EXFOLIATES and SOFTENS your skin leaving you with a feeling of renewal. For use on normal to dry skin (Exfoliating is not meant for sensitive skin). Scrub daily to see TIGHTER PORES, softer skin and a more even skin tone. This is naturally age-fighting and an essential step for a healthy-glowing look."

So after reading that little bit of information I quickly hopped into the shower and started using the scrub on my legs and arms. One thing that shocked me was the scrub was peppermint scented which was not listed on the sample or on the website at all. I have no problem with peppermint but I don't usually like using it all over my body just on my feet. The scrub worked good at exfoliating the problem came when I went to rinse it off, it left a lot of oily film behind and I instantly felt like I wasn't clean. Normally scrubs like this do leave some oil behind but my skin will quickly absorb it so long as I rinse off and pat my skin dry with a towel. So I did what I normally do with a scrub and towel dried my skin but I still felt icky. I figured I would see if my skin felt differently in the morning. 

Next morning I get up I felt gross and promptly took another shower and washed away the remnants of this scrub. At this point I need to figure out why the scrub left me feeling icky so I turned to the website again and read the ingredients:

"KEY INGREDIENTS
Fair-Trade Evaporated Cane Juice (Sugar), Shea Butter and Coconut Oil

For a full ingredient list, please scroll down and click on the "Show Item Details" link."

Okay so I am used to those ingredients they listed as "key ingredients" so I looked for the other ingredients under Show Item Details and found these ingredients:

"peppermint, mint, Shea butter, coconut oil, cocoa butter, beeswax, castile soap, fair trade evaporate cane juice, sunflower oil, apricot kernel oil"

I found several ingredients that must have been the reason it felt gross, the combination of cocoa butter, Shea butter, and beeswax. This are great products but shouldn't be used in a scrub that should just be rinsed off, they would be great in a lotion but not a scrub.

Now that the mystery was over I still had some scrub let so I went ahead and used it on my hands. I worked great on my hands until I noticed within an hour my hands started to dry out again. Now I don't know why I didn't realize it but the castile soap is the one soap I never use on my skin because it is one of the most drying soaps I have ever used. Why would you pair castile soap with moisturizing ingredients? It is a contradiction! 

If you remove all the unnecessary ingredients you would be left with sugar, coconut oil, sunflower oil, apricot oil and peppermint. Those ingredients alone would make a great hydrating scrub but I think I'll stick to my homemade sugar, olive oil, and grapeseed oil and glycerin scrubs. I now hope that the other scrubs I have to try out will be better than this one.

Tokidoki Vegas Arte Palete Swatches

 This is the my other Tokidoki palette and at first I thought I was going to love this one but I don't love it as much as the Lion Pappa one.

This palette contains Cromatico eye shadows in pearl white, pearl grey, iridescent purple, pearl dark purple. It also includes a Bellina blush in soft bronze pink. I love the colors of the shadows but I really found the pigment lacking on these and I have to use primer no matter what. The blush is almost too pink for me but I am sure I will find a use for it.

Tokidoki Lion Pappa Arte Pallete Swatches

 

I picked up this little palette for really cheap since Tokidoki is no longer making makeup anymore.  This palette has some amazing colors that work great for me. The eyeshadows in this palette are pearl nude, matte light brow, pearl gold, pearl dark brown, the blush is golden peach. The eye shadows are actually from Tokidoki's Cromatico's eye shadow line and I found that these four eye shadows are nicely pigmented and blend well but they should be worn over a primer to make sure the color has its maximum potential. The blush is from the Tokidoki Bellina blush line, this blush is just the right shade for me and it is now the first blush I reach for when I want a more natural look.

Sally Hansen Happy Manicure Limited Edition Set- Gem Crush

Since moving to Germany I have been trying to keep an eye out on post for nail polish but there is a very limited selection. Then I noticed three little sets of mini polishes from Sally Hansen. I have been eyeballing them for about a week and I finally caved and bought one set. These little mini bottles are just so irresistible.

So tiny but so cute!

Sally Hansen has 8 colors in the Gem Crush collection so I am glad I can try out half the collection without committing to a full size bottle. I know these colors have been around for about a year but since I don't normally buy drug store polishes I hadn't seen these before.

On to the swatches!