Friday, September 30, 2016

Lush Rose Jam shower gel featuring Zoya Courtney

Hey guys! Today's post is a simple love letter to my favorite scent from Lush, Rose Jam!



Rose Jam is by far, hands down my favorite thing Lush makes. I can't even describe how amazing it is. Its rose-ish but not overly perfumey, and sweet but not sickening like fake fruity flavors. It was only available in this tiny bottle (which is not as big as it looks in my hand..it's definitely travel size)in the Rosie gift box set I ordered a while ago, because it's a seasonal item only available around the holiday in the larger size! What the heck, Lush! Luckily I don't have to wait much longer for the holiday stuff to come out, and then I will be buying all the things! It even comes in a ginormo 1Kg size! I can't decide if I want to get several of the "average" size bottles or just one of the big ones, which should last me a year, and just refill the bottle I have! Decisions!

Husband opinion: he liked it. He said that the smell reminded him of what you smell when you walk in a Lush store...all the scents together. 



On my nails is Zoya Courtney from their fall line, and one of my favs! Zoya does deep vampy wines really well, my favorite being Toni! Courtney is more of a jelly/crème hybrid and is much juicier. And it matches! :)


Zoya Courtney
Zoya is available at Ulta and online at Zoya.com, this bottle was received as a press sample. All my Lush items I purchase from Lushltd in the UK online!

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Lush Rose Jam bubbleroon review featuring Zoya Harper

Hey guys! Today I have another Bubble Bar from Lush, its the Rose Jam bubbleroon! They have 3 of these macaron looking bubbleroons, I'll have the other 2 coming soon! These bubblebars have two halves sandwiched together by shea butter "icing". Dreamy!

In case you haven't read any of my Lush reviews yet, I'm just a regular gal using laymen's terms reviewing these items I purchased myself!

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Lush Twilight bath bomb review plus matching mani!

Howdy! Today I have a review of the super popular Lush Twilight bomb and a matching mani! Find out what's on my nails and if I think Twilight lives up to the hype!



Friday, September 16, 2016

Pipe Dream Polish Mellowed Out Cremes collection: swatches and review

Hey guys! Today I have the Mellowed Out Cremes from Pipe Dream Polish. I bought these several months ago and I'm pretty sure they're not available anymore, so sorry about that! I've worn a few already and have posted them but they still deserve their own post, now that I have time! :) The colors are unique in my collection-they are pastel cremes but some of them almost seem neon-pastel....who knew that could be a thing?!

Each of these swatches is 2 coats plus topcoat. I'm enjoying taking pictures outside again while we still have sunny days here...but sometimes it doesn't quite make colors as accurate as they look in real life so in those cases I've included pictures under my lights or in the shade.

Take it easy is  raspberry creme-we all know that's my favorite shade of pink!  


take it easy

Unwind is a nice neural nude with yellow undertones, which pair nicely with my skin tone. I've already worn this one! 


unwind

Keep calm is an aqua/melon green. I love this shade and I've worn it also-it reminds me of the Caribbean. Ah I want to go back!


keep calm

Peace out is a grape jelly purple creme. I've had some separation in all of these, and despite my shaking them like crazy this one in particular the white seems to want to stick to the sides of the bottle. Strange! It mixed up just fine though. 


peace out

Chillax-a darker turquoise sky blue. I love it obviously! My fav of the collection :)


chillax

Positive vibes is a peachy coral neonish creme. This one was so tricky, it looked completely different on my hand as it did in the picture. I went all over the place trying to get an accurate picture of it, and settled on the picture in the shade!


positive vibes

Here is positive vibes in the shade-which was the closest to color accurate as I could get! No amount of photoshopping was going to get the sun picture accurate-believe me I tried!


positive vibes (shade)
I'm not sure if these are still available or will be restocked, for more information I would check Pipe Dream Polish's website and sign up for the newsletter! :)


Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Sephora solid brush cleaner review

Hello! Today I have a quick little review of a new makeup brush cleaner I picked up! Usually I just use Mrs Meyers soap and a little brush egg. I've been hearing about solid brush cleaners so I thought I'd give it a go!

On my nails is China Glaze Dope Taupe, from the Fall Rebel collection, you can see the full line of polishes HERE!


Sephora solid brush cleaner

When you open it there's a little scrubby pad in there. 





To use this I put the pad in the cap,


Got my brush wet and swirled it around on the soap. 



Then I swirled it around on the silicone pad. My foundation brushes get the grossest so I had to repeat it until it rinsed clean a couple times. 



You can probably tell by the picture of this container in my hand, it's not too big but it was big enough to get my largest brush in there, the power Real Techniques brush. 





I also thought I'd give it a go for my sponges, which I'm using the most right now. It was a little awkward but got them pretty clean. I just loaded them with water then rubbed them on the soap some. 



All in all I'm pretty happy with this cleaner.  It has a nice scent, lightly floral but the scent doesn't linger in the brush. It also contains Argan oil to condition the brushes. What I like most is that it rinsed out really well-especially with my sponges with take forever to rinse clean with the dish soap. When I was done I rinsed the soap and left the container open to dry before I closed it up, so it doesn't get gross!

This is how I dry my brushes, I usually shake them out really well and lay them flat with the bristles hanging over an edge.


This soap retails for $14 at Sephora, I purchased it myself for use (and review!) I also use Real Techniques brushes and sponges, also purchased by me.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Lush Tisty Tosty bath bomb review featuring Polish My Life

Hello! Today I have a review of the Tisty Tosty bath bomb from Lush and a matching mani :) This is my second time using Tisty Tosty, I previously bought it about 6 months ago and wasn't super impressed, but had a chance to try it again when it came in the Rosie box I recently purchased! Click read more to see if I changed my mind or not!



Friday, September 9, 2016

Island Girl Polish collection (Volume 1)

Hi guys! I'm finally getting around to posting about my Island Girl polishes, some of which I've had forever! I really haven't even worn them that much so this is a good refresher. I have a pretty good amount so I'm going to be splitting them up over the coming weeks and months!

Island Girl polish is only available at ABC Stores in Hawaii and Las Vegas. I have one from Hawaii and the rest either I or my husband picked up on various trips to Vegas (him for work)!

Island Girl polishes also have a quirky naming/labeling system, the older ones have names and numbers, but the newer ones only have numbers! What the heck, Island Girl! So I looked at all the numbers and codes on my bottles and tried to roughly divide them into similar groups. Today's group (with the exception of the first one) have an "R" in front of the numbers so I'm gonna guess that means "regular" polishes? haha! Others have "N" for neon and "P" for pastel and "M" for metallic....that's the system I invented and am gonna go with ;)

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Lush A French Kiss bubble bar review featuring Zoya Finley

Hello! Today I have another Lush review. This is the "A French Kiss"  bubble bar. I paired it with Zoya Finley from the fall collection called Urban Grunge Metallics, you can see my review of them HERE! It smells divine, of lavender but not super strong. The ones in the store have a little lavender sprig sticking up out of them, but since I ordered mine online I think it broke off. That's ok though!



Here's a look at Zoya Finley under my lights indoors. So So So gorgeous!




Zoya Finley

Let's get to the review, shall we! The first time I used it, I only broke off a little at a time. I just crumbled it under the water running and swooshed it around a little. I actually wound up using a tiny bit more than shown here, but still definitely less than half. I elected not to use a sieve like a lot of people do.  By the time the bath was full all the little bits had dissolved.


Even that tiny bit was more than enough to fill up my whole giant tub with bubbles! This bubble bar did not change the color of the water like some do. But it did smell pretty good :)


The bubbles are so pretty! I have used a couple of these bubble bars so far and the bubbles they make are definitely different that the liquid bubble bath I've been using from Bath and Body Works. They seem a little more fluffy if that makes sense? These bubbles lasted until the end of my bath so it's nice they didn't dissolve!


Overall, this bubble bar is about half the size product than you get from The Comforter (review coming soon) and others of the like. Even still with a big tub you can easily get 3-4 baths out of this breaking off a bit a time like I did. I really liked the scent and will definitely be repurchasing! 

Friday, September 2, 2016

Picture Polish swatches and review-recent haul

Hey guys! Today I have a few new Picture Polishes to share with y'all! I recently (well, a few months ago) took advantage of one of the major sales they have and added some more to my collection! I have too many to do in one post so I'm splitting them up! I also will be finally getting to my last couple of untried Picture Polishes-if you can believe I still have some!

Spring is a lilac scattered holo creme. The picture shows it slightly more purple than it is in real life but I could NOT get the color adjusted correctly so you just have to take my word for it! This is 2 coats plus topcoat, the formula is amazing as always. 
Extra note-recently PP has been putting these little drawings on some of the bottles, I just think it's so cute! I need them all :)


Spring

Chillax is one I've had a while, I know for certain I've used it before, I guess ive just never swatched and blogged about it because it wasn't marked (with my system!) This is 2 coats plus topcoat. One of the most perfect creme formulas :)


Chillax

Whimsy is one that was on my wish list FOREVER! I never ordered it because I have to make a conscious effort to not just offer/buy all blues and greens so it always got bumped. When I was making this order I noticed it was marked down and being discontinued-aw man! So I grabbed it right up. It does not disappoint ! It's the prefect Cinderella blue, much like Sinful Colors Cinderella, but a bajillion times better formula. The gold shimmer is suuuuper strong as well. It was a tiny bit streaky after 2 coats so I went ahead and wore 3 plus topcoat. 


Whimsy

New York is a more recent release featuring skylines! There's only a few polishes that are named after cities and have skylines, I have another one (Paris) but need them all! Aren't they so cute?! This is a gorgeous magenta scattered holo, and I don't know why for the life of me it makes my skin look so red in the pics. I tried everything to get it out, I'm not that good at photoshop! The formula is flawless, almost opaque in one coat but I went ahead with 2. 


New York

I am still in love with Picture Polish as much as I ever was, I think they are worth the extra money it costs (especially to get over here in the USA). The formula is consistently great and I'm a huge fan of the brushes/wands. This is the only brand i have my full collection displayed of out on a rack on my office-they are so cute. I have a nice little rainbow going now :)