Another Quick Post: Essie A-List

 

Now, this isn't the greatest photo, but it is the greatest red nail polish-- Essie's A-List. I adore this beautiful, true red and it is almost always on my toes. 

I have to apologize for my absence. In about one week I am graduating from college! I have to get all my papers done and turned in. For some reason, all of my finals this semester are papers, nothing in class. I'm not sure how I feel about that but I've counted the total pages I have to write before my graduation ceremony and it is a staggering 50+! 

Wish me luck and I'll be back soon with beautiful posts of all the lovely beauty products I plan to buy as a graduation treat to myself!

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Instagram post: Revlon Whimsical on Essie Mint Candy Apple

Love this combo!

It is one coat of Mint Candy Apple with three coats of Whimsical on top.

Garnier BB Cream Review

 

A couple months ago I was lured into the promise of a great drugstore BB cream. Due to my college finances, I had been unable to purchase some of the other, more expensive BB creams. I ran to my local grocery store and picked up Garnier Skin Renewal Miracle Skin Perfector BB Cream in light/medium.

***Disclosure: My skin is probably at the worst it has been for a few months. I do not contribute this to the Garnier BB Cream but more that I've got uber loads of stress from school combined with some bad food habits!***

  At first, I thought the formula made me way too greasy and I mean GREASY! Seriously, when I put it on my face looked like an oil-slick. I was let down. I had all my hopes on a drugstore BB cream and I didn't like it. But, I tried experimenting. I put a little bit of Revlon Colorstay foundation around my chin and nose (the oiliest and most acne prone part of my face) and then dusted the rest of my face with a little translucent powder with my fluffy Sephora powder brush. I also started using a flat foundation brush to blend the Garnier BB cream into my skin. It seemed to help the formula be less shiny, although I still definitely needed powder afterwards.

This little combo of foundation products did the trick! I didn't look so oily anymore even though the process took a little more time than I wanted. Using a BB cream was supposed to take time out of my morning routine, not add to it. Throughout the day whenever I glanced in a mirror I noticed my skin was still looking fresh and clear. When I was just using my Revlon Colorstay my foundation melted off my oily face within a few hours, but the combo with Garnier's BB cream it was staying on all day long, like into the nighttime bar hoping long.

So far, I'm still doing my little foundation combo. On days where I am just running errands or hitting the gym and don't care if people see my acne, I just use the Garnier BB cream. So, so far, I'm going to keep using Garnier, but the moment I have some spare cash I'm going to grab some Clinique or Dr. Jart++ BB cream. I want to invest in a BB cream that is just more than a tinted moisturizer with SPFs. I'm hoping my next BB cream has more of the skin benefits that BB creams are supposed to have, i.e. anti-fine lines/aging, skin clearing/evening, moisturizing without greasiness, etc.

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Finger Paints in Shades of Dark

 

Like most dark polish shades, Shades of Dark was extremely hard to photograph! The nuances of the color's purple-y blackness don't show through the camera lens very well. The formula is very shiny and wearable with one coat but not totally opaque. One coat shows more of the polish's reddish-purple undertones but stays a little too streaky for my liking.  With two coats the polish is dark and edgy without being high school goth black.

Revlon Nail Enamel: Flirt

 

Can I just say that I'm in love with this color? Flirt is Barbie pink meets a very pastel Easter lavender. Like the Revlon Colorstay Polish in Pale Cashmere the drying time leaves a little to be desired. I kept smudging my nails just by touching them to see how dry they were. Compared to my OPI and Essie polishes these Revlon formulas take AGES to dry. However, beauty is a pain and if you like a color you just have to stick it out. 

 I think the picture below shows a little better how this polish has a slight pastel lavender tone to it. I would love to do some kind of pastel nail art with it. Maybe a moon manicure with white? Or even a pastel green like Essie Navigate Her?

Also, next time I have any free cash I'm going to order this NARS Sea of Love set or the NARS Beach Lover set both from Sephora. I've never owned a NARS product and this would be a great starter set.  

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Revlon Colorstay: Pale Cashmere

 

Yesterday, I celebrated my birthday and as a treat to myself, I decided I could go buy $20 worth of drugstore makeup. I posted my small haul yesterday on the blog. I painted my nails with Revlon Colorstay's Pale Cashmere last night and I'm loving the pinky-creamy color. 

The application itself was a little rough. I'm so used to the drying time of Essie colors that I kept smudging my nails thinking they'd be dry already. It took forever, I swear. Also, the brush itself is a little wide and stubby. It isn't bad, just different than Revlon's regular polish which is thinner and lengthy. 

I'm too much of a polish addict to test Revlon's claim that this polish can stay on up to 11 days continuously. Maybe next time I'm on vacation I'll see if it really does. Which, for my sake, I hope a vacation comes a long real quick! I'm drowning in homework! 

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Quick Drugstore Makeup Trip

 

I ran to the local grocery store and ended up grabbing around $20 worth of products. First, I snatched up three Revlon polishes which is a brand I've never picked polishes from. I'm usually an Essie or OPI kinda girl, so I'm excited to try these babies out! Pictured left to right-- Revlon Colorstay in Pale Cashmere, Revlon Whimsical, and Revlon Flirt. 

I'm absolutely in love with all three colors and Pale Cashmere is currently on my fingers. Whimsical maybe be the hardest to apply but it is definitely a funky color. I've noticed a lot of Revlon's polishes with glitter in the creme colors mimic a few Deborah Lippmann ones, just FYI. I can't name a Deborah Lippmann polish off the top of my head that Whimsical is a dupe for, nor can I attest to their formula being similar. However, they look really similar in the bottle. My DL polish Bad Romance looks just like Revlon Facets of Fuchsia .

 

My next grab was Maybelline's new bronzer. Bronzer isn't a product I'm super familiar with, so I'm excited to start contouring and bronzing my pale little face. 

Glitter Wave!!

My sad, little, ombred easter eggs

 

When you don't live with your parents you tend to forget to do all the little holiday thing you did as a child. In the last 4+ years that I've been living out of my parent's home I haven't dyed any eggs for Easter. Not one little egg. Last year I tried to-- I even bought a little egg tie-dye kit! Today I remembered I had that little kit stashed in the back of one of my kitchen draws and decided to try it out.  

The tie-dye process seemed a little flawed to me. Using one egg at a time, you popped those hard-boiled suckers in to a plastic baggy then dripped a few drops of one color of dye in. Then to get another color you switched bags and repeated the process. I ended up getting dye everywhere anyway, so I just used my fingers by my second egg. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll buy one of these weird kits again. I'm just going to stick to the old-fashioned dip-dye.

I tried to create an ombre effect on the two eggs below. They are probably my favorite out of my measly batch of four dyed eggs.

Quick Post

Everyone should go look at this tumblr Pinners Be Crazy. It is really hilarious how there is a clash of generations, backgrounds, and ideas on Pinterest. You can definitely tell a few users have not been around the internet block before.

Also, I've added to right of my blog, a little Instagram widget. If you use Instagram follow me! My user name is LaptopsandLipgloss! I need to follow a few more people, so I'd love to see your feeds!

A quick swatch of Julep's Sofia

Since I liked Julep Maven's Natasha polish, I decided to do a quick swatch of their varnish Sofia. The polish is a springy green with fine, blue glitter. From looking at the bottle, I wished I would of had it on St. Patrick's Day.

But, I'm sad to be the bearer of bad news. I really disliked this polish. The formula was very thin. My swatch is three coats and you can still see through the polish. For those who don't mind translucent polishes this probably won't bother you. Just make sure to apply a topcoat, after I let the varnish dry the color was a little dull. 

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Currently Reading: Middlesex

 

In addition to beauty blogging, I love to read. I just started Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. I've never read any of Eugenides' work, but I've really only heard good reviews about him. If this novel ends up being fantastic I just might have to check out his latest book The Marriage Plot.

I'm hoping I like this book because the last one I read was a dud. Even though I really thought I'd like it, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter wasn't as good as I was expecting. 

*Semi-Spolier* *Don't read this paragraph if you don't want to know anything about the book*

I sort of found it to be insulting that Lincoln's entire reason for wanting to get rid of slavery was because of the vampires involved. The author could of made it a part of his dislike for the disgusting practice of slavery and made Lincoln more complex. All of the characters were flat for me and towards the end of the novel and Lincoln's life I was just bored, so bored I flipped through a few pages without reading. 

*End of the Semi-Spoliers*

 Anyway, what books have you guys been reading?

Julep Maven Varnish in Natasha

 

I've got two different kinds of pictures taken by my iPhone (DSLR was dead! I hadn't noticed till I went to go use it!) of Julep Maven Varnish in Natasha. The top photo is in indoor light with a little sunlight filtered through a window. The lower photo is out in direct sunlight. 

Natasha is very similar to Essie's Meet Me at Sunset. It is very opaque, even with just one coat of polish and has a fairly good sheen to it. The color didn't chip at all during the three days I was wearing it. Really, the only reason I took it off was because I painted my toe nails with Essie's Ole Caliente and ruined my Natasha manicure in the process! 

My only minor gripe was the formula was a little drippy! When I would take the brush and dip it into the bottle and pull it out polish would drip every where! Even when I tried to regulate the amount of polish that got on the brush and the stick it would still run and drip down from the plastic stem. I accidentally dripped a few dots of orange onto my carpet! Oops!

In non-Julep Natasha news, I have got a major sunburn on my chest. Which, for me, is my number one burn spot other than the part of my hair. I need to be a little more vigilant about applying sunscreen if I don't want to age my skin so much! For some reason the burn is just absolutely itchy and it is driving me insane!

 

 

 

 

Loaded Baked Potato Fries from Budget Bytes

The other day I decided to try out a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Budget Bytes. The recipe, Loaded Baked Potato Fries looked absolutely delicious, not to mention I had all of the ingredients. 

Per Beth's instructions, I cut up my potatoes, added all of the ingredients and baked my fries in my janky old oven.

Love me some Lea & Perrins!

The end result was absolutely amazing. I ended up throwing some leftover barbecue chicken on top of the fries before melting cheese on them. It was amazing and cheap. I didn't have to buy one thing, nor did I really have to do much other than chop up some potatoes. 

Mmm... cheesy barbecue goodness.

I really recommend you all check out Budget Bytes. Seriously, I have made some delicious and cheap meals from her recipe index. 

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