Maybelline Color Blur By Lip Studio

Purchased by me.

Good morning lovelies!! How was your weekend? Mine was so-so. I was supposed to hang out with my dad but he didn't feel well so every plan we had went down the toilet. I was pretty bummed but I'll get over it as I always have.

Today I want to show you  a new product from Maybelline and has become one of my favorite lippies to wear. Maybelline has certainly become one of my favorite drugstore brands over the years and I love anything matte for the lips! I think I own more Maybelline products over any other brand.

A while back I had heard they released a matte velvet lip pencil over in the United Kingdom and after seeing some of my favorite British beauty bloggers talk about them I KNEW I would need them if they were ever to be release here. Well of course about a half a year later Maybelline released them but under a new name and different packaging. I don't have a problem with that as long as the product is good.

Review: Not Your Mothers Way To Grow Long And Strong Shampoo and Conditioner

Purchased by me.

Hi lovelies! So this post is a day late... but better late than never right?

Today I bring you the first in a series of reviews of one of, if not my favorite hair care lines!

The brand is called Not Your Mothers, cool name right? Well they have even cooler products. I discovered them last summer when I was perusing the hair care isle at Walmart. Where else would I be perusing right?  I was looking for a product that would help me maintain my hair that I was trying to grow out at the time, and Not Your Mothers caught my eye.

As I stood in the isle reading the packaging as I do with many things I was intrigued to see that the shampoo and conditioner help stimulate hair growth. However they clearly state it does not make new hair growth. So if that's what your looking for then this product is not for you.

I decided to give it a chance and at $4.74 each I couldn't say no, your talking to a girl who religiously bought Brilliant Brunette  at $8 a pop for a time, while in college.

Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser Review

Hi! *waves frantically at all of you*

Its Wednesday! My longest day of the week! Seriously I'm at work from 6AM to 230PM today. One day I will not have to wake up at 5am for work.

Today I am bringing you a review of my go-to facial cleanser. I have tried cleansers from every walk of the drugstore shelves. I have used Clean & Clear to L'Oreal and a few brands in between. Now these cleansers got my face clean I don't doubt that, but every time I used one more than once a day or more than twice a week they made my skin feel super tight and dry. That in my book is a huge problem. I don't usually have dry skin on my face, I have combination skin where it can be normal one day and oily the next.

I had always seen Cetaphil in the drugstore and always wanted to buy it but never really heard much about it. One day I picked up a bottle and read the claim on the front that said "Removes excess oil without drying. Rinses Clean." On the back of the bottle it also said it removed makeup as well, so I threw caution to the wind and bought it. The 8oz bottle of Cetaphil retails for about $6 at Walmart so for price point it was a pretty good deal.

I forgot to mention that I use 'For normal to oily skin' formula.

The first thing I noticed about this cleanser was the smell. It has a high fragrance to it. For some reason I think it smells like concentrated baby powder. Don't ask me how I came up with it, that's what I smell. If you don't like highly fragranced cleansers you may not like this. However the smell does NOT linger on the skin, its only when you are washing your face with it.

After my first use of Cetaphil I was really impressed. Besides the smell (which I quickly got over) my skin felt nice. It was smooth, and it felt really clean but not that squeaky clean where you need to apply moisturizer right after. Oh and here is the best part, IT DIDN'T DRY OUT MY FACE!!! That was the best part indeed. I then gave it the use twice a day test and I did notice a little bit of drying, so I decided to use this primarily at night usually during a shower and supplement with a facial wipe in the morning to get anything the cleanser missed.

As for the makeup removing claim. Its true. It gets at least 85% of my make up off in one wash and I can go in with a wipe to clean up the rest. Although today my makeup removing technique has changed that I use a cleansing oil first before the cleanser. I'll have a review on that soon.

All in all this cleanser is pretty awesome. Since I got this last summer I just finished off my first bottle back in March. When I repurchased it I upgraded to the 16oz bottle that retails for $10.99 at Walmart.

I hope you enjoyed the review and maybe it gave you a new option if your looking to change your skin care routine!

Have a great day and see you guys on Friday!
<3 Nicole

Maybelline Baby Skin Review.

Hi guys! I hope you all had an awesome weekend. I worked mine as usual, what else is new!

Today I bring you a beauty review on a product that made a huge splash in the drugstore market back in January/February.

What I'm talking about is the Maybelline Baby Skin Pore Eraser. Why is it that drugstore  and high end products are becoming more mouthfuls to say?

Free For All Beauty Friday: Almay Smart Shade Skintone Matching Makeup.

Hi guys happy Friday!!! Who is ready for the weekend?? I am, even though mine will be filled with working, school work and blogging. Although I do NOT mind the blogging part!

Today I have another edition of Free For All Beauty Friday for you! I have only done a handful of these over the last year but hopefully there will many more in the future!

There are lots of new amazing beauty products out at the drugstore right now. I have definitely been sucked into buying quite a few of them and loving them! This being one of them.

Almay has always been a cosmetic company that my mom mentioned to me when I first started getting into makeup. She informed it was makeup she used because she has sensitive skin and Almay was one of the only brands she didn't have a problem wearing!

I don't always get to purchase Almay at the drugstore, I always ogle at it but its a little too expensive where I live. However, I have owned a couple of pieces of Almay makeup in the past, eye shadows, a mascara, a blush and now a foundation I am completely in love with.

Let me introduce you to Almay Smart Shade Skintone Matching Makeup.

I first saw this at my local Rite Aid, you know as I do. I saw the display and that they had a tester out. I thought that this was tinted moisturizer at first, the tester was my shade so I tested it on the back of my hand. As I rubbed it in I realized this was something different and really cool and I would need it my life.

This skintone matching make up comes in three shades, light, light/medium, and medium.
Almay according to their website says that this: 

• instantly transforms to your perfect shade 
• Lightweight coverage with a soft satin finish 
• broad spectrum SPF 15 
• Hypoallergenic and Dermatologist tested. 

You can see I am shade #200 Light/Medium. You get one fluid ounce of product which is standard for liquid foundations.

What I like about this foundation is that it is light weight, has an SPF that is broad spectrum, is hypoallergenic, and has pretty decent coverage for being classified as a light coverage foundation.

Your probably thinking how does the smart shade technology work? Well here is a quote directly from Almay's website " it adjusts to the natural tones and nuances of your skin with breakthrough new almay tonemimic™ shade-sensing bead technology which intuitively transforms to your skintone for all day natural looking coverage in your perfect shade." 


That "tonemimic" technology is what made me want to try this stuff out. Take a look.

This is what the foundation looks like when it comes right out of the tube. It looks kind of grayish and you can see tiny flecks of the skintone matching beads throughout.

As you start to rub it into your skin with your fingers you can see that the beads break and start to release color and somehow starts to match my skintone.

I found this foundation to be really great at evening out my skintone, and moisturizing. I also found the best way to apply this foundation is to use your hands. Usually I am a brush using girl. I just don't normally like the feeling of having foundation on my hands, but this foundation I feel with a brush you do not get the best application and most of it gets caught inside the brush. I also think the heat of my hands helps burst the skintone matching beads.

As you can see or hardly see for that matter that this matches fairly well. I do set it with a setting powder just to get the shine off my face since I have naturally oily/combo skin. But I do notice the satin almost matte finish before I set it and if I didn't get oily I wouldn't use a setting powder.

Overall I love this foundation and have been using every day since I bought it. I will definitely be repurchasing this foundation sooner than later. If you want to try out the Almay Smart Shade Skintone Matching Makeup, you can find it at your local drugstore, Walmart, etc. I got mine from Walmart for $9.99 instead of the $14.99 price tag I saw at Rite aid.

I hope you enjoyed this review and I'll talk to you all soon!
<3 Nicole 

Loreal Paris Nail Polish: Tea and Crumpets!

Good morning my dears!

Hope you all are well and ate lots and lots of turkey and did some Black Friday shopping! I went shopping on Saturday and scored five polishes off my wish list. They were never up here on the blog though b/c I'm horrible at updating those pages!

Today I have for you the last of the Loreal Paris Polishes from tr British collection. This one is called Tea And Crumpets. It is a fantastic nude color. Defnitly a palette cleanser for me. I don't have anything like this in my stash.

It's a very pale nude/grey cream that is opaque in 3 coats, the first coat is sheer and patchy but buy the second coat it starts to even itself out. If your too quick to apply each coat you can get some unevenness and visible brush strokes.

I plan on using this polish for the base color for some nail art ! I started over Thanksgiving trying out different designs and decided on my first tape mani. I haven't really attempted one because I always screw if up! But this time I managed quite well! Usually people use scotch tape but I didn't have that on hand so I used masking tape and just ran it over my hand once or twice and then placed it where I wanted it to go.

I then used China Glaze Pink Plumeria on the part that wasn't taped off. I have to say that the manicure is very work appropriate and just overall nice and clean. I feel like one could get away with wearing such a manicure in a more strict office setting.

Okay that's it for this post! Stay tuned for the next one and check out the pictures below! All taken in natural light!

Pure Ice Draped

Hello!! Happy Saturday!

Wow long time no post! I know it's only been like 4 days but that's a long time for me since I've been really good about posting!

Today I bring you one of the Pure Ice Polishes that are now available at Walmart! They retail for about $1.97! So affordable !

They have tons of new shades and lots of glitters! If you are glitter addict like me then I suggest you grab them while you can because they are limited edition (well all the shades are limited edition). I have 8 so far and still want a few more, not all the shades are for me but I would like to have one from each category they offer.

Draped is from the velour colors they have out, yes that's right matte colors! To explain the color of draped is a very lovely raspberry color that leans more magenta/pink then red.

In the bottle it looks super sparkley and just an amazing color, and even though these are meant to be velour colors the addition of a top coat brings the sparkle to life!

Three coats are well enough for capacity but you could probably use two if they were thicker. Dry time is normal nothing special. I myself always have a problem wearing matte colors, doesn't matter what base coat I use they always chip, I don't think I'm alone in that area though.

In my photos are three coats and no top coat for the last photo and the first is a crappy photo with top coat.

Remeber also that matte polishes are not very forgiving if you have any rough spots on your nails so it might be helpful to wear a ridge filling base coat for undies.

Hope you all enjoyed this post and Ill talk to you all soon.
<3 Nicole

Stop Flirting and Where's my Chauffeur???

Hello and happy Sunday!!

I apologize for not having a post for yesterday, my usual schedule of posting every other day has been going pretty well until Saturday morning when I went to put the post together. The polish I had swatched/wore was a beauty. It was one of the new Pure Ice Polishes that are exclusive to Walmart and limited edition. I won't go in to much detail about it since I plan on re-swatching it and posting it eventually. I thought the photos came out well but when I pulled them up on the computer they looked horrid. In the end I had to trash those pics and start from scratch.

So that's where today's manicure came from. It took me all day to decide what to put on Saturday and I decided I wanted some glitz but not all out in your face glitz.

I started out with my base coat of course. Besides using the matte top coat I also did a layer of Orly Bonder before hand because my nails were fraying a little and I always noticed Bonder seemed to help with that.

After my base was dried, I applied one of my newest untireds, Essie's Where's My Chauffeur?. This is from the Essie Winter Collection and you can find it wherever Essie Polishes are sold, it was the only one that stood out to me, the other colors are ones that either I have from a different brand or just not me.

Count 'em 3 coats to make WMC opaque. The formula is nice, easy to handle, the only thing I noticed was brush drag if I didn't let each coat dry completely. The color of this polish can be compared to China Glaze Aquadellic although I feel WMC is a little more dustier, which I think Jen from the Polishaholic has swatches up on her blog.


OK now for now for the glitz! In the new Pure Ice Polishes, there are two glitters I purchased that seem to resemble the OPI Muppet's Polishes. The one I added on for the sparkle is called Stop Flirting it is a blue glitter with larger silver hex glitter mixed it. I believe the OPI polish it resembles is Gone Gonzo. I don't own that polish so I cant do a side by side comparison.

Stop Flirting is actually a smooth glitter, I added three coats to my ring finger over WMC  and even with out top coat it was smooth. That is a huge plus in my book!

Okay so I hope you enjoyed this post! Stay tuned for the next one soon.
<3 Nicole

Loreal Paris Nail Polish: Brit Invasion!

Hello! Its Friday once again, and I'm glad its the weekend! My dad will hopefully be coming home tomorrow if he can catch the train on Long Island!

Today I bring you a nail polish that I was super excited to find finally, after thinking no drugstore in my area was going to get it. A while back Loreal put out a collection of nail polishes that all have names that are relative to England! I am obsessed with England, I want to visit there someday, maybe meet a nice British boy and meet Benedict Cumberbatch. If you watch the show Sherlock that airs on PBS here in the states every so often or if you have watched it on Netflix, both seasons are up on there then you know who I am talking about! He is also going to be in the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek Sequel! Yeah I'm a nerd *pushes up her nerdy glasses*.

I apologize for my rant but I love British Television I just think its a tiny bit better than U.S shows and plus the U.K has Doctor Who. Do not get me started on that!

So I think the polish I have today is very fitting for my obsession! Its called Brit Invasion! About two weeks ago or so I posted a picture on instagram of the three polishes I snagged from the collection and asked which polish did you want me to wear after the Halloween nail season was over, and only one person responded. Amanda from The Nail Polish Enthusiast said Brit Invasion, so Amanda this one is for you! And for me too because I love this polish!

Brit Invasion is dark taupe polish with golden shimmer added in. It is most certainly a fall color but I would wear it all year round. I do stick to certain seasons to wear certain polishes but sometimes you just have to break the rules and go all out!

I got this polish along with the other two at Walmart, I've been finding a lot of great polishes at Walmart lately. The three retailed for $4.97 each, which I feel is reasonable since in Rite Aid or CVS they would be like $7.99. Prices may differ in your area, just to remind you.

I liked the formula on this polish, a little sheer on the first coat but I've noticed that with a lot of polishes I have purchased recently. Once you add on the second to third coats you are good to go. The shimmer in this polish is beautiful, I can't wait to see it in the sun, whenever the sun decides to come back out. Even though Hurricane Sandy is gone, the clouds are still here, I can't tell you how much I want to see sunshine!

Okay so on to the pictures!

 Can you see all the pretty shimmer!? It truly is a lovely polish!

So that's it for this post! Talk to you all soon! <3 Nicole

Cover Girl Stay Brillant Nail Gloss in Wine Stain.

Hello! As I type this we have a hurricane-a-brewin' outside. Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on us here in Northeast. Last year on this very day we had a freak snow storm, so I'm pretty sure the apocalypse is happening....haha just kidding....maybe. Next it will be zombies or something....

Anyway I haven't forgotten that Halloween is in three days and today I have a very simple nail polish for you that would go great if you are going to be a witch or a vampire or you just don't like nail art and just want a color that says vampy but still somewhat work appropriate.

I know a polish is work appropriate for me when no one notices it at work. So this polish is by Cover Girl! I have never seen Cover Girl Nail Polish before, but I should refer to it as they call it Nail Gloss. I had heard they would be releasing a line of polishes and I was excited to see what they would produce. While at Walmart preparing for this lovely hurricane we had to go past the beauty section to pet supplies and low and behold there on an end cap was the new collection. I was immediately drawn in to the display due to the bottles. They look like Chanel Nail Polish bottles. Tiny little square bottles. Then the excitement dropped as I didn't particularly like the color choices. they had some nice what I call ' mom' colors or colors my mother would wear. I then picked up a vibrant purple color that was the brightest in the display and decided to get that and then I saw the one I am about to show you today.

I love a good vampy red color, it looks the best on my skin tone, so when I grabbed for Wine Stain, (the name of this perdy color) I definitely saw Halloween, and also it made me think of all the 'Oxblood' polishes that I have seen some people get excited about.

So now two new Cover Girl Nail Glosses were making there way home with me, the only other downside was the size of the polish and price, you  get 10ml of polish for $4.97. That's kind of steep even for Walmart. I would expect that price at CVS or Walgreen's, even Rite Aid. The Maybeline Color Show Polishes which are the same size only go for $2.97 at my Walmart the last time I looked. So its up to you as the consumer and nail polish addicts to decided on whether five bucks a pop is worth it to you.

Here are my swatches of Wine Stain. I like this polish a lot, two coats is good for opacity, and clean up is not such a bitch as it usually is with dark red polishes. The finish is very glossy and shiny, and it kind of has that jelly-esq finish to it.

I'm still wearing this polish as I write this and after a long night at work I only have two small chips on my right hand on my thumb and pointer fingers. So...so far so good I guess, and let me remind you what I do for a living. I work in customer service lifting heavy objects and register tills and constantly digging my hand into till to pick up change and money to count, then there is the dreaded self-check out which are metal bins that I have actually sheared my pinkie nail off of before. In conclusion only having two small chips is pretty good :) The only bad thing with the bottle is the top, trying to hold that square top and paint your nails gets bulky and almost blocks my vision to my nail so I have to crane my head to see I get it on the nail and not on the finger.

Okay so that's it for this post. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post to see how I used this polish in nail art!

Talk to you soon
<3 Nicole