Part 2 of my Sephora haul from Black Friday shopping! (Part 1 is here). Sephora has the most incredibly makeup deals during Black Friday, usually involving awesome samples. This order was much smaller than the first one that I posted, but it still wasn't a bad haul. Here is what I ordered:
Anna Sui Mini Coffret. I have the Anna Sui Forbidden Affair rollerball that I actually ordered last Black Friday. I love Anna Sui's scents, so I had to get this set, which includes .14oz sizes of Flight of Fancy, Fairy Dance, La Vie de Boheme, Secret Wish, and Forbidden Affair. The bottles are glass and the toppers are plastic. Behind the bottles is the packaging that it came in; this is another one of the gift-ready sets that Sephora offers! It was $50, which I think was a good price for owning samples of Anna Sui perfumes, in a form that looks fancier than the tiny samples or rollerballs.
The three free samples that come with every order. I chose Lancôme NUDE MIRACLE, Marc Jacobs Daisy, and KP Duty Body Scrub. I always try to test out all of their perfume samples but they sadly did not have many at the time.
They had a code for different grab bags, but by the time that I placed the order, a lot of the Black Friday specials were out or the codes had disappeared. Since I am obsessed with manicure and nail polish, I figured I would try the Manicure Bag they were offering. I probably would go for one like I ordered with the other package instead, this one was a disappointment.
Actually, I take that back. It wasn't bad, I just would not order it again. I always carry around different beauty bags (since I can never remember to switch the bag, and I have so many products that it doesn't matter too much), so these are the perfect size to toss in your bag. I might re-order on the nail remover wipes, they're just so handy. I remember having to keep a full-size bottle of acetone and a bag of cotton balls in my locker at school because colored nail polish was against the school's uniform policy, but it was hard to resist (and I was already blogging at that time). This would solve that problem! Plus, if your nail polish is chipping (like mine currently is) and it bothers you when you don't have a bottle of remover handy, this is a quick fix.
So that is that for makeup splurges! I paid $53 with tax and (free) shipping, so I think that overall it was not a bad deal.
(No affiliate links are included in this post, I just wanted to provide an easy way for you guys to check out the products. All products listed were paid for by me.)
I am back! I swear, I did not plan on taking so long to return to my blog, but I have a ton of excuses (finals, malfunctioning computer, no time, etc.). However, as you might have noticed, I am revamping the blog and I am planning on doing a ton more posts, so be on the lookout for them!
Since Christmas is only four days away, I am planning on doing a post of Christmas/winter/holiday-themed nails every day until then!
First up is a super simple and quick design. This manicure, from start-to-finish, only took me about fifteen minutes. (Admittedly, the lines on the french manicure part are not perfect (I have not figured out the trick yet)), but even with touch-up it should not take too long, so it is the perfect design for beginners.
The cast of characters for this design are:
China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Butter London British Racing Green, and Art Deco Gold.
The method: Paint two layers of Ruby Pumps as the base on all five nails, then use a striping brush to paint the Butter London British Racing Green on the nail tips of every finger except the middle finger (I just used a brush from one of my Art Deco polishes). Using the Art Deco Gold, paint a line between the green and red on each nail.
For the little Christmas tree (which was inspired by a post on my pinterest board, I used the striping brush to paint three triangles on top of each other. When that dried, I used the Art Deco gold to draw a line at the base of each triangle. I could not find any brown nail polish, so I used an Essie (cannot find the bottle... I think it is taupe something) to make a blob to serve as the stump.
So yep, a super simple design that looks amazing and catches the eye (because of all the glitter), and uses Christmas colors!
Tomorrow, I am thinking a snow/snowman design. Stay tuned!
In honor of my favorite holiday of ever, I did my nails! This is exciting because it has, unfortunately, been awhile since I've had time to do that. But here's a quick and simple design that I did.
I chose red and gold because they are lucky colors in China. The thumb, middle, and pinky finger are all Zoya Stella. My pointer finger is China Glaze Ruby Pumps because it was glittery and I wanted to see how it looked. It was too dark though, so the rest of the nails I did in Zoya Stella. The glittery gold is Butter London West End Wonderland. Such a perfect gold (both for this design and in general!)
The red and gold design: Paint your nails with base coat (I used Essie's Ridge-Filling base coat), then two coats of your red. Use the gold polish and swipe it diagonally across your nail. It took me about three coats to get the gold to be opaque, but it dried really fast and it is SO glittery and eye catching, especially in the sun!
I had wanted to be able to do more Chinese New Year designs, but I ran short on time. No matter! Chinese New Year lasts for 15 days! So expect at least one more red/gold/Chinese New Year-esque nail design before I move on to Valentine's Day nails! If you're looking for a quick design, I posted a cut-out hearts design last year. I picked up a gorgeous pink Orly at CVS today, so I plan on putting that to good use! (And yes, I realize that I haven't posted any new nail polish purchases. Truth is, I haven't been able to buy nail polish lately because the nearest Rite Aid is kind of far and it's really cold here in Michigan. Oh well, it'll be a good chance to finally use the half of my collection that's been sitting untouched.)
My first post back and I am posting a review of a fabulous website. B-glowing describes itself as being a "leading online specialty beauty retailer featuring an extraordinary collection of hard-to-find niche beauty products alongside some of the worlds most coveted beauty brands." They feature a "multifaceted search - you can search by formulation, skin type/concern, fragrance notes and more, improved browsing and navigation, a new men’s category (great for gifting), seasonal fragrance flights with a clean elegant look and feel. Look for other great improvements throughout the holiday season including 200% larger product images and 3 Beauty Archetypes – b-natural, b-classic or b-creative."
Let me just say that I had such a fabulous experience with this company! They told me to pick a few items off of the site to review and so I browsed around the site and picked out a few things that looked nice and would look great as gifts (in fact... I might give some away as gifts. If I don't keep them all for myself...).
First, let me write about the packaging. Since this isn't quite so important, I just collaged it so that it would take up less space. As you can see, it was shipped in a box via FedEx two-day shipping. The website says that standard shipping (5-7 days) is $5.95, 2 Day shipping is $16.95, and overnight is $25.95. But free standard shipping on orders over $75, and free 2 day shipping on orders over $100. (Also, I am horrible at this editing thing, so I don't edit my images. For one thing, watermarking is enough of a pain that I am too traumatized to do anything else. So! Please don't mind if my pictures are slanted/a little dark/weird.)
I just have to note: the order didn't get lost in the mail! Now that I'm living in a dorm, I have to write my address a certain way or it might get sent back (which has happened with my elf order and coterie order). This got here fine, thankfully! Anyways.
When I first opened the box, there was this pretty tissue paper. Seriously. You could ship this straight to a friend's house (I'm not sure about the receipt though... You would want to check that) and save yourself having to bring it in person or mail it second hand. It's already packaged so nicely! The tissue paper is such a nice touch and even had a little sticker with their logo on it. It's little details like that. With the holidays coming up so soon and all the chaos going into preparing it, I think b-glowing would be great to send quick gifts to friends! You might not even have to wrap it! *swoon*
One cute little thing that they sent that I didn't expect was a pack of samples! This kind of bag is my very favorite in the world because I love putting random trinkets in it. It came with a small sample of Baume De Rose multi-protector balm that "repair[s], hydrate[s] and guarantees a maximum volume effect. Lips are soft, smooth, pulpy and nail contours perfectly defined." The sample is .007 oz, and it sells for $59 for .34 oz on the website. Also, a By Terry Touch Expert Advanced Multi-Corrective Concealer Brush. (I can't find it on the website, but the picture shows a concealer pen. Inside the sample is just the concealer liquid, though.) Last, a .3 fl oz packet of Neil George Indian gooseberry treatment oil. A container of 3.7 oz sells on b-glowing for $42. I actually already used this sample because I've had to dry my hair a lot lately which equals split ends (the bane of my existence). I loved it! The site says that it is meant to "calm frizz and ease styling, leaving hair beautifully smooth and wonderfully healthy." It did! My hair was so shiny and silky and styled really easily. I might buy a full-size of this.
I asked for the beautyblender holiday candy cane trio of sponges. The water here at college has been really hard on my skin and I've had to start learning how to use foundation and cover-up, which I've never used before. So I don't really have the right tools (although I did a huge order of eyeslipsface), and these looked so pretty. Also, I've been debating with buying the Soho beauty sponge (the bright pink one... I can't find it on their website), not based on anything but how pretty it was! Anyways.
So, the website says that it comes with two original beautyblender sponges and one beautyblender pure sponge. This is true. And let me just mention how pretty the packaging for this product is. You can easily wrap it or throw it in a gift bag and give it away as a gift. It even comes with a cute little gift tag!
Now, the sponges aren't quite true to color. The pink is a little more vibrant than my pictures and the stock pictures. It's way closer to the Soho beauty sponge, which is why I'm glad that I got it. They're pretty small, too, but perfect size for using. And they're soft! I really like it. I also like how they packaged it (into three separate containers), because I can totally see myself giving one or two away and keeping one for myself. I haven't used it yet (I got this right before finals week) but it has rave reviews on sephora.com. I think the price is fabulous, since you get three of the sponges for $50, when sephora sells one for $20.
I also asked for the Sara Happ luxe lip scrub & slip gift set. The one they sent me is a little bit different than the Red Velvet that I linked to, and instead it is the Black Velvet lip scrub but with the same lip slip balm. This is packaged so beautifully! In a sturdy cardboard box, that looks very neat and classy.
It comes with 1 oz of the Black Velvet Cherry scrub (on the left) and .5 oz of the lip slip, the hydrating balm (on right).
Now that it's winter and getting colder (and I always forget my chapstick), my lips are starting to get chapped so I tried this out. It works fabulously! Rub the scrub gently in a circular motion, then wipe off with a tissue. And then apply the balm right after. It made my lips so smooth (no before or after picture... I don't want you guys to see a) the poor state of my lips and also b) my mustache). Also there's a ton of product in both jars, so it will definitely last all winter.
The next thing that they sent me that I honestly did not expect was Butter London nail polishes. They sent me La Moss, which is this beautiful, vampy red nail polish that is better suited for fall than winter (not that I ever follow nail polish trends...). I haven't gotten around to testing it (Finals ;-;), but you can expect a swatch coming soon!
They also sent me Butter London British Racing Green, a super pretty dark, cool toned green with an emerald sparkle. I reallyyy can't wait to try these out!
Finally, they sent me the Paul & Joe Eye Color and Lip Balm set. I can't find it on the site right now, but I will update when I find it.
As with all of their products, the packaging is pretty and really holiday-y (maybe it's limited edition...) and ready-to-give. It contains a 0.56 oz tin of lip balm (with a cute deer on the top!), a .21 oz tin of a smoky eye color, and a .17 oz tin of glistening eye color. Perfect for a holiday party. The lip balm is a gorgeous pink-red (I know, descriptive) color. It doesn't really have any odor, nor is it waxy. It gives your lips a nice tint and, best of all, doesn't really wear off (I tested by drinking coffee not five minutes after putting it on). The smoky eye color is a very, very dark brown that is long lasting and applies smoothly. I'll try to post a shot of my eye makeup using that. The glistening eye color is two sided: a light bronze on one side, and a pearly pink on the other, both with glitter in it. It is stunningly pretty, I kid you not. (I will edit with a picture soon. My camera battery managed to die just before I had unscrewed all the tins, and I can't find my charger. I might have to just take a picture with my poor quality iPod until then).
A note about the containers and the packaging: all three were set into this plastic container... thing then inserted into the box. The plastic container was perfect because it had grooves between the containers, so you didn't have to shake the container to try and get the tins out and then pray that nothing got damaged. So points for packaging!
My thoughts:
Service: 10/10. I asked them to treat me as a regular customer and they promised to. (Other than the 2-day shipping, which I needed since I wanted to post this as soon as I could before holiday shopping).
Shipping: 10/10. I asked her how long it would take to reach me (so I could plan out my posts. I actually have a lot more posts due up), and she told me that they would be sending it two-day. It was sent really nicely packed, no damage to anything and (like I've said multiple times through the post) you could easily give the box as a gift.
Products: 10/10. They really, really spoiled me. I gave them a few options and thought they would just pick the cheapest one or two of the batch and send it to me, but they sent me everything I liked (that's actually a lie. I was short on time so I just picked a few things that I like and now as I go through their website again, I'm cursing myself for not getting certain other things). They clearly only stock high quality products. And I love that they re-opened in time for holiday shopping! I know my friends are going to love, love, love me when/if I choose to give them something from b-glowing.
There really were no cons. The website is easy to use; you can choose from "skincare," "makeup," "bath+body" "hair" "fragrance" "men's" and "sale," as well as inputting by brand or keyword.
I really recommend them! I'm keeping them bookmarked because I have a ton of birthdays coming up (poor me... so many right after the holidays!), and I will definitely be ordering from them.
(These items were sent to me by review from b-glowing.com, but they are all my own opinion.)
