Loose Powder

I’m very behind on reviewing Sephora’s Princess Collection, but I’ve just barely gotten around to using the Cinderella nail polish set, and the Jasmine set is already out and before you know it the next Princess set will be out. From what I heard, the next princess may be Ariel.

The first color I tried out was “Step Off, Sister!” This color consists of mostly blue and silver glitter. I’m not sure why the second picture (indoor) has the polish with a pink hue, but it is blue and silver. The first time I did this manicure, I used three coats and a clear top coat, but that manicure only lasted one day before chipping.

Since I really liked the color, I decided to give the manicure another try. This time I used Orly’s base coat and topcoat along with three coats of “Step Off, Sister!” This time the manicure lasted two days before I noticed some very minor chipping around the nail tip edges.

As much as I liked this color, I still need to have at least three coats to get the glitter close to the bottle, and this makes the polish chip easily. Maybe next time I’ll use this polish as a top coat for a color polish and see how that goes.

1. Indoors

                    2. Outdoor under shade.       3. Outdoor under sun.

Del Sol’s Superhero is a metallic baby blue color polish that turns into a metallic purple color. The blue in Superhero is quite similar to the blue color in Electrik, which instead turns metallic green under the sun. However, I think the blue color does look like a “superhero” blue.

The polish is very sheer, and I had to place at least three coats of the polish to get it opaque. I like the color, but unfortunately the metallic polish also streaks.

This manicure consist of three coats of Superhero and one coat of Orly’s polishield. Even with the polishield, the manicure only lasted three days before cracking, and it started to chip after the fifth day.

Even though Del Sol’s polishes aren’t very durable, but if you just want to have fun colors on your nails for a few days, you can’t go wrong with color changing polish.

I got this little sample bottle of Zoya‘s Bevin in a Birchbox.This color was part of Zoya’s True Spring collection.

Bevin is a dusty sage green that is opaque with two coats. With base coat and top coat, I was able to get a little more than a week of wear before I removed it. There was some edge-wear, not no chipping.

I’ve  already purchased a full sized bottle of this color and have passed the sample bottle along for a friend to try.

Zoya nail polish is 5 free, containing no formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, toluene, camphor, or dibutyl phthalate. The polishes cost $8 each, but Zoya has occasional sales.

I finally got around to using the sample of Deborah Lippman Stripper To Go that came with my March 2012 Birchbox subscription. The Lavender Nail Lacquer Remover Finger Mitt comes in a small flat package, so it went into my 3-1-1 carry on during my trip to London. The ingredients list aloe vera extract, glycerine and lavender essential oil after acetone, so I guessed that the remover would be rather moisturizing.

When compared to the other single use remover pads I’ve used, I did appreciate the design of the mitt. It’s like a finger puppet so you can slip your finger into the mitt and easily rub off any extra polish. I also liked how the mitt wasn’t overly saturated with solution and didn’t have too much of a chemical smell, but I’m not sure if this was due to my taking over 5 months to use the sample. Regardless, there was enough oomph in the mitt to remove the dark purple polish I was wearing from all my fingers. I also liked that the solution didn’t dry out my nails. My cuticles–right around the corners of my nails where I typically get dryness–were soft after using and I didn’t notice any traces of white from drying out.

As its name suggests, The Stripper To Go is handy if you want a quick way to remove regular nail polish including base coat, polish and top coat (I don’t think one mitt would be sufficient to remove any glitter or foil polishes). A pack of 6 mitts runs $8.00-$12.00.

This month’s Birchbox is a special Glamour curated box with the Senses as its theme.

Inside this fun summer box were six great items:

• Color Club Blue-Ming
• Eyeko Skinny Liquid Liner in black
• Harvey Prince Eau Flirt
• Supergoop! City Sunscreen Serum
• Lifestyle Extra: Tea Forte Minteas in Ginger Pear
• Lifestyle Extra: Birchbox Exclusive earbuds

I keep getting Harvey Prince fragrances, but they haven’t impressed me. Most commercial perfumes smell the same to me and Eau Flirt is more of the same. I can smell a bit of the  jasmine and amber, but there’s still the basic floral chemical perfume smell.

The Supergoop! City suncreen I haven’t had a chance to use yet. The Tea Forte Minteas are okay, but they have a bit of a medicinal/vitamin taste. I appreciate the ear phones, but I have several pairs already – never hurts to have a backup, though!

I love the Color Club Blue-Ming polish, but it looks similar to China Glaze’s For Audrey or Wet ‘n’ Wild’s I Need A Refresh-Mint. It’s a great color that’s going in my stash, though.

I’ve used the old Eyeko Graffiti Eyeliner pens and I’ve been excited to try the new Eyeko Skinny Liquid Liners. This draws a great, sharp line and once set doesn’t smudge. Mostly. This eyeliner is not water resistant and moisture will cause it to smudge a little.

The tip on the Eyeko liner is very sharp and stiff. I’ve found the best way to apply it is to press the tip at an angle against my eyelid and make a line that way rather than just drawing straight across.

So, I’m not entirely sure how long I’ve been a Birchbox subscriber, but the company sent me a special thank you gift separately in the mail. It was a lovely leather keychain!

It’s designed to hold a small sample or maybe a small lip product. It was a fun surprise and I appreciate the company sending out a little gift to customers.

Birchbox is a monthly subscription service. For $10 a month, you’ll receive a box of four to five deluxe sized samples in the mail.

Here’s a quick look at a great sheer polish from OPI, Princesses Rule!

This pretty pink polish has shiny crystal flakes, which gives it a shimmery glass look. I’m not usually interested in sheer pinks, but this color is gorgeous! It’s a perfect color for those times when you want something a bit more fun than the usual french manicure.

Look at those flakes! Very, very pretty. This is  two coats with a top coat and I was able to wear it for almost two weeks.. Because it’s so light and sheer, edgewear and chipping are not obvious, which allows you to wear this color longer.

I’ve actually worn this color twice already, which is rare considering the amount of polish I have waiting around to be tried. It’s fair to say that Princesses Rule! is a keeper.

The Mari Moon collection by Brazilian brand HITS are a collection of 8 multichrome nail polishes. They have some amazing coloring shifting, which you’ll see in the photos below. I purchased mine from Llarowe for $8 per bottle.

Cutie Pie has a blue to purple shift that’s really difficult to capture in photos! Below are a bunch of photos in different lighting to try and show you how the color changes.

This is two coats over a base coat. I haven’t tried this over a black polish, but I’m sure it would look pretty amazing! It lasted about a week with minimal edge wear and I would definitely wear this color again.

I’m fairly new to the Ulta brand as we don’t have a local store and I’ve only been able to shop in one when I visit Liz. On my last trip in April, they were running a promotion where you could get a free 13 piece gift set when you purchased $17.50 worth of Ulta brand items. I thought this was a good opportunity for me to try a selection of their products.

There is a lot of stuff packed into that makeup bag! There are two eyeshadow quads, a blush, a volumizing mascara, two eyeliner pencils, a lipstick, a double-ended lip gloss, mini nail polish, and three travel brushes.

I didn’t take any photos of the eyeliner pencils, but they were very standard – and hard. I’m not sure I would use them to line my eyes.

The eyeshadow squads are a good travel size and there is a small mirror as well as a sponge tipped applicator. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very impressed with the quality of the eyeshadow. They have a chalky texture and aren’t very pigmented. Between the two, the neutral quad is a bit better, but I probably wouldn’t have purchased either one.

The lipstick and lip gloss were better. The lipstick is in the color “211”. The peachy gloss is Princess and the reddish gloss is Mischief. The lipstick has a nice, creamy consistency but doesn’t last very long. The glosses aren’t too sticky and both are very wearable colors. The only thing I dislike is that it’s a double-ended tube. I’ve always found them kind of annoying to carry and use, but that’s a personal preference.

The blush (in Sweet Cheeks) was very unimpressive. It was chalky and even though you see a bit of shimmer in the compact, once it’s on the skin it looks powdery and there is no shimmer. The color was also very light and definitely wouldn’t work for me as a blush.

The nail polish is called Lav-ish. It’s a dusty lavender color with gold shimmer. I haven’t actually tried it yet (mostly because I forgot about it), but I’m excited to try it out.

Finally, this is the Ulta Voluptuous Volume mascara. I’m not sure I would call this voluptuous as it adds very little volume and barely noticeable length. Although other reviews said this mascara was runny, I found it to be very dry.

I am wearing five coats of mascara in the above photos. Five coats. On the other hand, after five coats, there was not clumping and it does look quite natural. My lashes didn’t feel sticky and they stayed flexible. This also washed off easily with soap and water. I do like the way this looks, but putting on five coats of mascara takes forever and I can’t see myself spending that much time on it for such unimpressive results.

Overall, I thought the nail polish, lip gloss, and the mascara were the best items in the gift bag. As for the rest of the items, I probably wouldn’t purchase the full sizes.

This is a quick look at Sinful Color‘s Cinderella nail polish. It’s a light blue cream with golden pink shimmer. Very pretty!

The shimmer isn’t very obvious, but it adds a little something extra to this pale blue. Here are some closer photos of the polish on my nail and in the bottle.

I purchased this at Walgreens for $1.99. This polish wore well for a week with little edge wear.

For the accent nail, I used Skylar, which is part of Zoya‘s True Spring 2012 collection. It’s a dusty medium steel blue with gold and silver shimmer.

I actually originally purchased this because I couldn’t decide between OPI’s I Don’t Give a Rotterdam and I Have a Herring Problem. Skylar is like a cross between the two, so I was glad to pay the $5.99 at my local beauty supply store for the Zoya polish rather than two OPIs.

Okay, photos of this manicure are about a month over due. Following my Iron Man Avengers manicure last month, I did a Loki themed manicure based on the dark green and gold of his costume. The movie is still out in some theaters, so if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it!

First, here are the colors I chose for this look:

Butter London British Racing Green, China Glaze Jingle Bells, China Glaze Medallion, and Sephora OPI Only Gold For Me.

I had a couple of ideas for a Loki themed manicure, but had some difficulties stamping the gold polishes that I owned onto the dark green. I also wish I had a dark green with a bit of gold shimmer in it, but this still came out quite nice.

The gold triangles in Jingle Bells are painted freehand. I keep meaning to use tape too mask of areas, but I can never get it to work right. A thin layer of Medallion was added to the gold nail and on top of the green, with a tiny bit of Only Gold For Me to add some extra  gold sparkle.

This wore well for a little over a week. Glitter is always tough to remove and the British Racing Green stained a little bit. I like this look a lot, but next time I will probably not apply so much glitter over the green.