Friday, August 23, 2013

Icing Fall Nail Polish

Icing has redone their polish!  You may know Icing from the mall.  They carry cute fashion accessories and beauty items, always in style and at a great price.  Icing was kind enough to send me some colors from their Fall New York Fashion Week collection.


 Everything arrived in a beautifully wrapped box!  Thanks Icing.


The colors are in new square bottles.  The square tops remove to reveal a round top underneath.  I was sent Oil Spill, Rustic Red, Sun of a Beach and Space Cadet.  


They also were kind enough to send me this adorable travel bag!  


It hangs down with four zipper containers and a pocked on the top.  The containers all fit together when wrapped to form an easy carrying case.  


Space cadet is a blue duo chrome shimmer that is mainly ocean blue with shimmer and turns violet at angles.  The formula was a bit thin but three coats gave me good coverage.   The brushes on these polishes are very large.  I was able to cover each nail in two swipes and used only one on my pinky.  The brush edges can be slightly frayed but I actually found them easy to work with because they held so much polish.



In the sunlight the shimmers become very bright and the purple is not as visible.


At an angle the purple shows up very strongly.


Rustic Red is a deep crimson.  It went on slightly sheer at first but two coats created an opaque color.  Indoors Rustic Red stayed more of an oxblood color.  


Outdoors Rustic Red caught the sunlight and brightened up appearing almost more of a cherry red.  


Oil Spill is a much more colorful duo chrome shimmer than Space Cadet.  You can see the color shift from purple to green indoors easily on the nail without any angle.  This formula was also sheer but became full in three coats.  


In the sunlight Oil Spill became a very bright shimmery purple.  


At an angle Oil Spill is almost completely green.  I was very impressed with the depth of this polish.  Every light setting or angle showed me something different.  


Sun of a Beach is a textured, matte, gold glitter polish full of large gold hex glitters.  The formula on this polish was absolutely amazing!  It was pretty much a one coater but I added two for good measure.  


In sunlight the matte and glitter have a really beautiful effect.  

You can pick up Icing Nail Polish at your closest Icing.  Even better the traditional Icing Nail Polish bottles are on sale for buy one get one free on their website.  The new square bottles are on sale for buy one get one 50% off.  The New York Fashion Week colors will be released any day now so keep your eyes peeled!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

August Julep Maven 2013

Happy birthday Julep!  I can't believe Julep has been established for two years now.  I'm so glad I've been able to be along for so much of the ride.


This months box is The Garden Party themed.  I switched to the It Girl style since I wasn't very interested in the Double Step Food Treatment and Friction Stick.


Maven's two year anniversary message is inside the box with a pretty little floral pattern inside.  


Inside there is a pastel color theme with this months card, my three polishes all packaged up nice and pretty and this months extra, forget me not seeds!  Julep, how did you know that my favorite flowers on earth are forget me nots!?


My colors this month are Nellie, Marjorie and Fiore....I think Julep may be running out of female names to give their polishes.  


Nellie is a pink fuchsia creme.  The coverage and color pay off was spot on!  This is the standard Julep that I've come to expect!  Two coats for this deep color and coverage.  


Fiore is an espresso brown creme.  I actually found it had some subtle deep purple tones in it as well....tell me if you think I'm crazy.  The formula was Juleps top notch stuff!  Only two coats for perfection.


Marjorie is a citrus orange frost.  The orange hue to the polish is already gorgeous, add into it the golden shimmer and this color is straight out of the park.

I loved my August box and I'm so glad that Julep is celebrating with us this month.  I can't wait to plant my forget me nots!  Thank you Julep!

Want a free Julep box of your own? Just click here and take the Julep style quiz.  They will send you a box of Julep polish for free when you use the code FREEBOX at checkout!  Keep in mind that Julep sells for $14 a bottle at Sephora so you will be getting a great deal.  After that Julep will continue to send you boxes each month for $19.99 or you can just cancel your subscription and keep your free box with no penalty.  Who doesn't love free stuff?

Monday, August 19, 2013

August Ipsy Glam Bag 2013

My August Ipsy bag is here!  This month Ipsy is sending you back to school in style.  The August bag is adorable.  It is a purple base with gold lettering and a crest for the Ipsy Beauty Academy.  There is a small strip of faux purple leather on the top.  Tres cute.


Ipsy continues to just get me.  I loved my products this month!  I got Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Anarchy, Michael Todd Jojoba Charcoal Gentle Exfoliating Facial Scrub, Pixi Beauty Lash Booster Mascara in Blackest Black, Lime Crime Nail Polish in Creme de Limon, Mica Beauty Eye Shadow in Bronze and a Chella Dazzling Dark Brown Eyebrow Color Pencil.  



The Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick, Pixi Beauty Mascara and Michael Todd Facial Scrub are all deluxe sample sizes or travel size while the Lime Crime Nail Polish, Mica Beauty Eye Shadow and Chella Brow Pencil are all full size products.  



Lime Crime Nail Polish in Crema de Limon: $8.00 Full Size


This product was an extra and is not usually included in regular Ipsy glam bags.  If you invite two friends in that months billing cycle to join Ipsy they will throw in a nice extra for you.  Every month has been different so far.  I have one Lime Crime polish in Lavendary that I absolutely love and I was so excited to try out another shade.  Crema de Limon is a pastel creamy yellow.  The shade was translucent looking with two coats so I used a third to get a full opaque color.  It is a great spring shade!

Mica Beauty Mineral Eye Shadow in Bronze: $14.95 Full Size


I have received a Mica Beauty Eye Shadow from a previous Ipsy Glam Bag in a different color and I really enjoyed the texture and application of it.  I'm happy to have a second Mica Beauty shadow in a new color!  Mica Mineral Eye Shadows are very gentle and free from chemicals and preservatives.  They are milled extremely fine for easy and smooth application.  



Bronze is a light metallic that applied beautifully in one swipe.  It picked up the light and shimmered beautifully!


Pixi Lash Booster Mascara: $7.14 Sample Size (3g)


I have recieved a few Pixi products in previous Ipsy bags before.  This mascara was impressive in how incredibly light weight it was.  My eyelashes felt like they had nothing on them and were flexible and soft, not clumpy and crusty like I get with other mascaras.  


Chella Dazzling Dark Brown Eye Brow Pencil: $18.00 Full Size


I love Chella.  Ipsy is the one that introduced it to me!  I have gotten Chella products before in Ipsy bags and have loved every one.  I even bought a Chella Brow Pencil in Blonde!  This one is the same thing but in dark brown.  I am brunette, but I like to have brows that aren't so crazy defined so the blonde works well for me.

The dark brown is creamy in application and had great pigmentation.  I wore it out on my brows to a banquet for a more severe defined brow look and it worked really well.  I think I'll be sticking with the blonde Chella pencil for my day to day look and use the brown for my going out looks.



The application on these pencils is always great!  The tips are super fine and easy to use to get any brow shape you may desire.  
Michael Todd Jojoba Charcoal Facial Scrub: $5.14 Travel Size (1 fl oz)


This was the only product that was ehhh in this months bag.  I haven't used Michael Todd before.  I followed the directions and cleaned my face then used the Jojoba Charcoal  Fical scrub followed with a toner and a face moisturizer.

You know how when you eat Captain Crunch cereal and you eat too much and the top of your mouth is all raw and cut up?  Thats what my face felt like after using this face scrub.  It does warn you not to scrub or rub too much and I was careful not to, but I still felt like I rubbed my face around in some fluffy pink house insulation.

I may try this a few more times to see what my skin does but if I don't see much of a big change I probably won't be using this product.

Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Anarchy: $9.78 Sample Size (.04 oz)

I have been dying to get my hands on Urban Decays new Revolution Lipstick.  I was super psyched with I opened my Glam Bag to find this cute little sample inside! 


Urban Decay Anarchy is a bright magenta pink with cool undertones.  The application of this stuff was amazing!  Just one or two swipes and I had a deep opaque coverage.  I was so impressed with the pigmentation and color payoff of this lipstick.  I wore it out to a banquet and there was no feathering or smudging throughout the whole thing.  After it sets on the lips it doesn't rub away or disappear.  Check out my nude lips vs with Urban Decay Anarchy!


I was blown away by the long lastingness of this lipstick.  After four hours of wear I still had bright tinted lips with no reapplications or touch ups.  I'm sure it would last longer than four hours too, this just happens to be when I snapped the pic.


Overall I loved all my products this month besides the face scrub.  I love being exposed to Urban Decays new Revolution Lip Stick!  I can't think of any other subscription service that goes out of their way to get you the newest beauty products.  My value was over $60 in this little $10 subscription bag, over $50 worth of products if you took out the Lime Crime nail polish extra.  

If you are interested in signing up for Ipsy yourself it's easy!  Just go here and take Ipsy's beauty quiz.  They will match you with products for you every month all wrapped up in a cute little makeup bag for $10.  If you refer two friends to join they'll throw in an extra product too!  The value is always much more than the $10 I pay for it.  Ipsy continues to be my absolute favorite subscription for makeup.  You can cancel your subscription at any time without penalty.  

Anyone else an Ipsy lover?  What did you think of your subscription bag this month?