Shakeup Your Makeup

Milani has a few new items on their permanent display at Meijer, including two lip products and a new collection of Gold Label nail polishes.  Above, the Lip Intense Liquid lip colors - there were four bright colors ranging from red to a purple.  Interestingly, right next to the liquid lip colors was a lip liner pencil in a clear shade, to help prevent feathering.  I'm kicking myself for not picking this up, as I have a couple of lipsticks that I love, except for that pesky feathering they do!  

Lastly, below are the new Gold Label polishes that are popping up on the permanent displays.  Closeups of the bottles below, these are all "sugar" themed, and remind me of Easter.  Not glitters, per say, but definitely unique top coats for the spring/summer seasons.  

Have you seen these before?  After reading the names I feel like I need to go play Candy Crush! 

The new products keep coming!  Another new collection from L'oreal - Extraordinaire by Colour Riche is a new lip color collection boasting richer color, smoother lips and shinier finish!  I have seen the advertisements in the January catalogs, but the color selection in person is fantastic.  I had a couple in my hand and decided to wait (not sure why!).   

I can't find much about the new Maybelline nail color collection, called Straight From the Shows (the Color Show line), but it was a collection of mostly rich cremes, and maybe one or two shimmers.  There were three colors that really stood out to me - two glitters (Emerald City and Diamond in the Rough) and a shimmer called Frozen Over.  Closeups of these are below.  

(Emerald City - Left and Diamond in the Rough - Right)

Frozen Over reminds me of a Sinful Color's shade called Cinderella, although Cinderella had more blue/color to the base.  Both are pictured side by side for comparison!

So have you seen either of these collections out yet?  Did you pick anything up?  Love to hear what your thoughts were!

Something new from the makers of SensatioNAIL, FUSE is a simple, two step process for at home gel nails!  Paint your nails and flash dry with the FUSE LED light, and you are ready to go!  No more base coat, color coat, top coat - this is an all in one collection, with the starter kits running $24.98 and the various colors approximately $9.99 for the polish.  

A picture of the display is below.  There are a lot of colors to choose from, including creams, basic reds, pinks, and some fun colors like blues, teals and shimmers.  Definitely an interesting, and simple, concept!  There are a lot more colors online on the FUSE website, as well.  

Have you seen these all-in-one FUSE nail sets yet?  Think you will pick one up?

The newest nail polish collection from Revlon is called Perfumerie.  The collection includes shimmers and cremes, all named for their fragrance - display picture below, from CVS.  

Walgreen's, as well as the other drug stores, have started to put out their holiday displays.  On top of the shelves I saw a couple of boxes with the Revlon Perfumerie polishes in them  -  gift sets of two polishes for $10.  The two gift sets I saw were Indulgent (Spun Sugar and Bordeaux) and Paradise (China Flower and Pink Pineapple).  Cute little gifts or stocking stuffers (or an in expensive way to pick up two!).

Have you seen these yet?  How about the Perfumerie polishes?  Have you tried them yet?  I just picked up Autumn Spice from the display above at CVS, so I am anxious to give it a try.   The color looks beautiful in the bottle.  

 

Finally a beauty magazine dedicated to nails!  Nail It! was launched and hit newsstands earlier this week and is jam-packed with tips, techniques, brands, and of course, the latest trends.  I picked up my issue at CVS, but I have heard it has been seen at Target, Walgreens, and other drug stores. 

 

You can also follow Nail It! on Facebook here, Twitter here, or Pinterest here.  Their Pinterest page is full of inspiration.  I could spend hours looking through all the posts there!

 

I am really excited about this.  I have a hidden passion for nail polish and nail art - something I don't do a lot of on this blog, but might have to start doing more of now. 

 

Below is one of the mani's that I loved from this month's issue: Anne Hathaway's nude and bling'd mani.  Here's a step-by-step how to:

 

 

 

 

Have you seen this magazine yet? 

 

Spring is so close, I can feel it.  In honor of my desperate need to get past the winter blues, I grabbed a bottle I had been holding onto for warmer weather - Flower by Drew Barrymore in "I Lavendare You".  The new line by Drew is a complete collection, including BB Creams, blushes, nail colors, lip sticks and butters, eyeliners and mascaras...you name it.  Most range from $4.98 (as the nailpolish is) $13.98 for the foundations.  Really a nice price for a new cosmetics line. 

 

I picked up the Nail'd It Nail Lacquer in I Lavendare You (below) and a Lip Butter in Haute Honeysuckle.  I will swatch the butter later. 

 

I Lavendare You is a gorgeous, extremely pale lavender shade with just the slightest (and I mean slightest) hint of an iridescent blue shimmer.  It was so slight, it was difficult to capture, but I think you might get the idea in the second picture.   There are a variety of shades, from rich wines to pale nudes, and a couple extravagant colors like a turquoise and orange as well.  The bottles squat square bottles, but easy to hold.  The brush was nice, thin, and applied an even coat.  The actual consistency of I Lavendare You was much thinner, more jelly like than I anticipated.  I guess by looking at it in the bottle, I was expecting an opaque creme, but it did not apply as such.  With that said, I was very pleasantly surprised with the outcome.  

 

 

 

This closeup (above) gives you a feel for the shimmer in this color.  Not over the top at all - in fact, I can't say it actually translated onto the nail.  When I look close up, I do not see any shimmer at all.  Just a pleasant little surprise in the bottle. 

 

Below, my swatches.  See how gorgeous this color is?  I mean, it screams spring.  Just a light, beautiful pastel.  I actually thought of those conversation hearts for Valentine's Day when I saw it on.  This could easily have used one more coat to get full opacity (I did two here), but I am very happy with the color and slight transparency of this.  With one coat, it is streaky, so I would suggest two.  Application was a breeze - runny enough to get a nice thin even coat, but thick enough to hold on when you are getting close to the cuticles.  Dried quickly and didn't shrink with a top coat, which is another added bonus. 

Final verdict?  I will certainly be picking up another color or two in this collection.  I really love this shade, and hopefully the wear will live up to the hype of everything else I have experienced with the color.  I would definite suggest picking this shade, I Lavendare You, if you are needing a little spring pick-me-up.  You won't regret it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in July I read that Selena Gomez would be partnering with Nicole by OPI to create a collection of nail colors, available through Kmart.  Well, now they are out, and they are absolutely gorgeous.  The Kmart I went to only had the glitters, although there is a range of creams/shimmers as well (see below and click to enlarge).  This is a beautiful, fun and girly collection of polishes - a perfect pick me up in the middle of winter!

 

 

Since this Kmart only had the glitters, I thought I'd take a closeup of each, below.

Stars at Night - holographic silver strands of glitter.

Mi Fantasia - Lavender small/micro glitter with holographic bar glitters throughout.

Confetti Fun - various sized glitters in a rainbow of colors.  Similar to Milani "Gems", but this appears to have more colors throughout.

Kissed at Midnight - Large gold and silver hex glitters with smaller gold microglitter. 

Inner Sparkle - My personal favorite of the bunch - lavender and gold large hex glitters suspended in a gold microglitter.

Heavenly Angel - Iridescent shredded glitter/foils.  This looks absolutely gorgeous in the bottle.

Sweet Dreams - Turquoise/Aqua and silver larger hex glitters suspended in small lavender micro glitter.  This is beautiful too!  Similar in color to Mi Fantasia when sitting side by side, but the glitters are completely different.

 

This Selena collection is so pretty.  The glitters are so girly and the variety is nice - not your basics for sure!  Have you seen these out yet?

 

Also, the new collaboration with Nicole by OPI and Modern Family was at Kmart.  There were some beautiful pastel creams, but the shimmers reminded me of a lot of colors already out there.  Still, a collection with a little of everything!

 

Ulta always has some neat products around the holidays.  When I went in the other day over my lunch, there was a display of Layla Cosmetics nail polishes called Soft Touch Effect and Ceramic Effect.  These had a matte finish (Soft Touch) and the Ceramic Effect are long lasting and quick drying.  Smooth and sleek bottles, and a variety of colors to choose from.  I have never heard of this brand, but they look interesting - especially if you like matte nails!

 

I had heard that CVS was getting one of those permanent display pieces, similar to Walgreens, to feature some of their polishes but until now had not seem them in my area.  Well, in time for the holidays, I went in looking for some of the CVS Beauty clearance, and found the display up and running with some of the new Sally Hansen Complete Manicure colors.  I took a snapshot of some of my favorites (especially the glitters!). 

 

I love that copper color (Copper Penny), and the gold is really pretty too.  Both had multiple sized glitters suspended in clear polish. 

 

Also, I found Black & Blue, which has been posted about a lot online recently.  A rich, deep navy duochrome, that flashes purple and teal.  Next to the Sally Hansens were the new Revlon Brilliant Strength colors, one of which was very similar to Black & Blue, called Beguile...just in case you can't find the Sally Hansen. 

 

Have you tried any of the new colors yet?  Which one is your favorite so far?

 

I took some time off work last week for a little staycation, as I'm sure was evident by my lack of posts last week.  I was due for some time with my family, and although I didn't get much accomplished off of my "to do" list at home, I do feel refreshed, which is nice going into the hectic holidays. 

 

It's hard to believe that Halloween is only a couple of days away, which means The Holidays are only a blink of an eye away!  In honor of carving jack-o-lanterns with my son yesterday, I decided to try out the Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail strips in Patch-o-Lanterns.  Such a cute one, I love all the little faces.  I have tried these strips before, and I really like them.  They are a less stressful way of accomplishing a neat holiday manicure without all the prep-work. 

 

Sorry for the blurry pictures - I had to settle for my iPhone since I forgot my camera...whoops!

 

Meijer never fails when it comes to all the new products and various Halloween makeup goodies this time of year.  The Halloween aisle wasn't as packed as normal, but I still found lots of things to share with you.  First up, Sinful Magnetic polishes.  Of all the magnetic polishes I've seen, this is the first one I've seen with a removable magnet, meaning you could collect various different patterns to use on all of your magnetic polishes.  Smart! 

 

You can see the "ring" that has the magnet on it in the picture below.

 

Next up the Kiss Nail Artist Halloween Stickers.  I love their seasonal stickers - they are so fun and cute, and a really simple and easy way to add some holiday spirit to your manicure, without a lot of time or effort. 

 

Also from Kiss, the Lip Dress lip tattoos.  These are definitely outside of my comfort zone, but they would be a neat way to really snap up a Halloween costume (i.e. the Cheetah lips if you were dressing up as a cat, etc).

 

There were also several varieties of Nail Stickers a-la-Sally-Hanson-Salon-Effects...

 

First up, Kiss Nail Dress.  Several varieties here, but I think I already showed you these from a Walgreens spotting. 

 

Also, Fright Night had some Nail Wraps and new polish colors for Halloween.

 

These nail wraps aren't exactly Halloween specific - they are bright and could certainly be worn anytime.  Below are some closeups of the wraps. 

 

Have you seen any of these?  Have you tried the Lip Dress by Kiss?