Month: March 2019
Sephora Play! February 2019 – Lovestruck Beauty
Oh hey – I’m still doing February stuff. Shut up, I haven’t even received any March boxes yet.
This month’s box is all products I’ve received before – or at least, similar products. Like the Bite Beauty Amuse Bouhce Lipstick in “Rhubarb” – I’d received not the lipstick, but a pencil in “Rhubarb” in my 3rd Play box.
Also in this month’s box: Milk Makeup Mini Blur Stick (I have a full sized one I use all the time – this will be great for travel); Fresh Rose Face Mask (I haven’t used up the first one of these I got); Wander Baggage Claim Gold Eye Masks (yup, have bunches); Caudalie Vinosource Moisturizing Sorbet (love the way this one smells); and Stella McCartney Stella (have a full size).
A great box because even though they aren’t new products to me, they are products I’ve enjoyed.
Sephora Play is a really good subscription box with high-end products. Sephora Play is only $10/month. You can sign up at sephora.com/play.
Rainbow Wishes
I have unicorn nails!
I had totally forgotten about Nails Inc. “Rainbow Wishes” – I found it hidden in a cabinet in the living room. I am pretty sure I have random bottles of polish stashed throughout the house. Isn’t that what alcoholics do – stash bottles around the house? I’m definitely a polishoholic!
This is two coats of “Rainbow Wishes” over Glisten & Glow Base Coat and topped with Glisten & Glow Top Coat. I looooooooove it.
And, since this polish is so light and sheer, I could probably get away with wearing it for EVER. Edge wear and chips blend in – you cannot even see it.
February 2019 Allure Beauty Box – Stronger Together
So there’s my answer – we’re getting a vinyl clutch from Allure every month, but in a different color. January was red and February is black. Hmmm…I am gonna guess BLUE for March.
I am not particularly wowed by any of the products that month, but that doesn’t mean they’re bad – it just means that I haven’t heard of them yet. There’s something to be said about fresh, new products.
Included in the February box: Wander Beauty Mile High Club Mascara (plus a code for 20% off at wanderbeauty.com,– in fact, there are discount codes for ALL of the product websites, except Mally Beauty); ModelCo Metallic Eyeshadow Trio in “Mykonos” (Isn’t that the island where Lindsay Lohan runs a beach club?); Moda Metallics Triad Eye Brush; Mamonde Petal Spa Oil to Foam Cleanser; Mamonde Flower Lab Essence Mask; The Browgal The Instatint Tinted Brow Gel (I don’t have enough brow for this); and Mally High Shine Liquid Lipstick in “Orchid”.
I feel like this is a pretty high value box – I’m excited to try the Mamonde products especially.
The Allure Beauty Box is $15/month, but they give you $5 off your first box. They also offer an option for $150/year – a savings of $30. Sign up via my referral link..
Copper a Feel
I let Lily select which one of the Sinful Colors “Naughty Nudes” I would try first. She narrowed it down to “Copper a Feel” and “Skinny Dip” and I decided to go with “Copper a Feel”, a rich copper polish with greenish gold shimmer.
“Copper a Feel” is a rich, vibrant polish. It’s thick like a creme polish, but packed with shimmer – almost flakies. I might have been able to go with one coat, but I went with two coats over Sinful Colors Base Coat.
I couldn’t decide on top coats, so I used Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat on my thumb and ring finger, and regular Glisten & Glow Top Coat on the rest. Although I like both the glassy and matte looks, the matte look wins, although just barely.
Naughty Nudes
Oh, how the tables have turned.
When Walgreen’s carried Sinful Colors Nail Polish, I’d wait for the sales, hoping for 5/$5, but 3/$5 or 2/$3 were good, too. The sales were few and far between, but at least they still carried it…until now. Walgreen’s no longer carries Sinful Colors, but their main outlet is now Walmart. I’ve seen displays at HEB and Target, as well as buckets at Big Lots – but the new collections are dropping at Walmart.
I had to make an emergency cat litter work after work one night last week, so I made a reconnaissance run through the makeup aisle and there it was – the brand new Sinful Colors display, barely touched. I filled my carts with two full collections – the Naughty Nudes Collection and the Sinful Mattes Collection. 18 bottles of nail polish, rolling around in my cart. I looked for a bottle of Base Coat, but there wasn’t a space for it in the display – I’ve got to search for it. I passed on the new Sinful Shines, a bit pricey for me at $2.98 each.
Ultimately, only the Naughty Nudes ended up coming home with me. when I was checking out, the Sinful Mattes were also $2.98 each. I didn’t feel like spending another $30 on nail polish right this second – $17.82 is bad enough.
The Naughty Nudes Collection consists of (clockwise, starting with the lightest color at about eight o’clock) “Strike a Pose”, “Tease”, “Nakey Nay” (my personal favorite name), “Copper a Feel”, “Come Closer”, “Body Language”, “SkinTillating”, “Nude Mood”, and “Skinny Dip”.
I have regrets about skipping a few of the Sinful Shines, specifically “Poison Apple” and “Let’s Flamingle”. I need to go back…
Carla Calamine
Do they even sell calamine lotion anymore? Now that there’s a vaccine for chicken pox, what else can you do with calamine lotion? Oh, I guess people still use it for poison ivy, but I’m guessing that the vaccine has really killed the calamine industry.
I, though, am from the generation that had chicken pox – and boy did I ever. I still have very prominent scars from the chicken pox I got in 2nd grade and I remember how I looked, covered in calamine lotion. It’s not even lotion – it doesn’t absorb, it just sits on your skin and crusts. And that’s Julep “Carla” in a nutshell – it dried on my nails like calamine lotion. The first coat was super streaky. The second coat helped, but it was still super streaky. I think part of the problem was that base coat. I squeezed one more use out of my almost empty bottle of Julep Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat – but that last coat was not even and did not give a good start to the manicure. (I am devastated that I cannot get this base coat anymore – nothing works as well with my Julep polishes, as their own formulation.)
I finished with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat, which was adding insult to injury. It showed every imperfection and of course, I managed to get several dents in it while getting ready for bed. It didn’t last long – I took it off after 2 days.
February 2019 Ipsy Bag – Swoon So Hard
Oh shit, Ipsy has finally joined the 21st century and started including the products included, with descriptions, on the insert in each month’s glam bag. Hallelujah!
Inside this month’s “Swoon So Hard” bag: Elemis Superfood Facial Wash; Chella Eyeliner Pen in “Purple” (I wonder how this would work on eyebrows?); Glamglow Glowstarter Mega Illuminating Moisturizer in “Nude Glow” (will be using this definitely); Meech N Mia Pressed Eyeshadow in “Caramel”; and F.A.R.A.H. Brushes Powder Brush 50F.
Speaking of swooning so hard, this lipstick bag is the tits – I need to switch it into my purse. The contents are just so-so this month, but the bag makes it worth the $10.
If you’d like to try Ipsy – click here. I’ll earn 250 points if you sign up through my link.
Vibrant Virgo
Can you tell that this nail pic was taken in the middle of lovely Chicago Midway Airport? I was stuck there on a layover for five hours on Saturday, so I had plenty of time to take care of Instagram business.
Julep “Vibrant Virgo” is a multidimensional rose gold polish – and it. is. EVERYTHING. It matches everything – even my new wedding band.
This is two coats of “Vibrant Virgo” over Julep Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat.
I was kind of trying to riff on Jim Morrison in February’s box review – here’s the real quote:
“I don’t know how many you people believe in astrology…Yeah, that’s right…that’s right, baby, I…I am a Sagittarius. The most philosophical of all the signs. But anyway, I don’t believe in it.
– Jim Morrison – “Roadhouse Blues”
I think it’s a bunch of bullshit, myself.
But I tell you this, man, I tell you this…I don’t know what’s gonna happen, man, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.