NOTW - Orange Punch!

Hey everyone. So I went a little different this time when painting my nails. Usually I pick a neutral or pink color, but this time I decided on something a little bit different. During my little shopping excursion in Plattsburgh last weekend I ended up buying a few nail polishes because they were on sale. One of them in particular was a bright orange called Orange Punch by Orly. This color is really bright and vibrant and I am really loving it! For going out of the box I am really loving this decision haha. Now we will have to see which crazy color I choose next!

I tried to get as clear of a picture as I could..but somehow it looks more coral and pink than bright orange. I assure you that it is a really bright vibrant orange haha. I would almost even say it may be a neon color too!

Also I was working on my collective haul post and somehow managed to delete all of my pictures which included the products and swatches! So now I have to retake them....not fun! I should hopefully have the haul done by the end of this week!

Updates

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I've been really stressed out with work and sick with who knows what. I originally thought it was from drinking spoiled milk but now I really have no idea...

I have quite a few mini hauls from Hautelook that I think I'll just combine into one for another haul. My favorite purchase so far is the new Deux Lux purse I bought! It's humongous and I think I can easily carry two puppies in it...it's that big!

Anyways, I'll work on that and have it up soon with hopefully some pictures taken from my sister. She's been swamped lately with projects and assignments and I don't want to burden her by asking her to do mini photo shoots for me. So we'll wait until her semester is over for her to take pictures for me!

Until then, I'm excited to go away this weekend and get these bad couples of days behind me! Going away with the girls for a bit of shopping, should be fun!

See yas!

Hautelook Stila Haul

Hey everyone! I have another haul yay! Hautelook had Stila Cosmetics on sale a few weeks ago and I couldn't contain myself so I purchased a few things! I bought the backstage eye shadow palette, lip glaze color set, a cheek color, a mineral matte eye shadow, and the biggest of them all, the color wheel eye shadow palette.

After buying the Valentine's Make Me Up set by Stila, I was really loving the two lip glazes that it included. When this lip glaze set was available on Hautelook I decided to purchase it. It came with an array of 7 different colors. Including neutrals, pinks, purples, reds and even a bronze color. The colors included kitten, seashell, blush, guava, majesty, merry merry, grapefruit and apricot. Seashell, blush, majesty and merry merry are limited edition shades and I'm not sure if you can buy them separately or only in this set.

I really love the texture of these lip glazes and their colors. The color is really pretty and the glaze itself doesn't make my lips super sticky. Another pro is that I don't need to apply a lip balm before applying the lip glaze to try and avoid getting that sticky tacky feeling. It's wonderful haha!

Aside from the lip glazes, I bought a cheek color in Clay. It's a really nice pink with touches of brown. Off the top of my head it's similar to NARS Dolce Vita but lighter and with more brown undertones. I find it's great for an everyday cheek that gives me a pop of color without being too much. Perfect for office wear and more!

I love to apply this blush with either my large angle contour brush by Sigma (F4) or my kabuki brush by Bare Escentuals! I think this is going to be my new go to blush since the one I bought from the v-day kit had a little accident!


The eye shadow that I purchased is called Tolima. I believe I have found the perfect brown eyeshadow for my crease when I do my neutral looks. It compliments my skin color, isn't too dark or too light and has a really nice texture when applied. Another plus is that it's a mineral eye shadow and it's matte. I'm not always a fan of having glitter in my eye shadows. If I want some then I will add some!

But yeah, I'm really loving this color and how it compliments not only my skin tone but my eye color as well. I switch between using a blending brush and an angled shadow brush (The E25 and E70 from Sigma)

The Backstage eye shadow palette consists of six different shadows and it comes in really cute packaging. It's similar to how my friends and I used to fold notes to each other before passing them around in class! On top of that, the design on the packaging is really cute too! And I love how it's cardboard so that if I don't keep it it can be recycled! So smart!

The six colors included in the palette are chiffon, flamingo, pacific, luster, poetic and coal. I think this palette is really great to carry around in my purse because of it's size, and with the variety of complimenting colors it's great for on the go. I can create day time and night time looks easily! The shadows are very pigmented with a hint of micro glitter mixed in. It's a subtle glimmer for when the light catches your eye, making them really pretty!

Last but not least is the Color Wheel eye shadow palette! It comes with 37 eye shadows and 2 double-ended brushes for application. Inside of the box includes a built in mirror, a 16-page lookbook with model shots and how-to's. I like the idea of the color wheel because it helps to figure out what's a good complimentary color and what's a good contrast color. We use this method in design and I think it's amazing that Stila is helping makeup lovers from beginners to masters create looks that are as easy as 1-2-3! The shades are numbered so that when looking through the how-to's it takes the guess work out of which shade to use. And they also follow in order of color range.

The shades included in the amazing set are peach, burnt sienna, brick red, light orange, copper, sepia, gold, tan, antique gold, light olive, dark olive, mint, teal, gunmetal, light blue, turquoise, midnight blue, sky blue, periwinkle, cobalt, light violet, violet, purple, white, lavender, eggplant, light pink, pink, fuchsia, pale pink, dusty rose, aubergine, nude, mauve, brown and black. Now that's a lot of colors to mix and match!

Giveaway Winner!

I first want to thank everyone who participated!

If you didn't win this time, please check back for more giveaways!

And now on to who the winner is....drum roll please...

Mitsuko

Congratulations! To claim your OPI Shattered nail polish from the Katy Perry collection please check your messages. If I receive no reply within the next 72 hours then I will randomly select another person!

Giveaway Updates

Hey everyone! So I just wanted to remind everyone that the giveaway is still ongoing. I'm missing a few more entries before I can do the draw. Don't forget that if you haven't entered yet, it's open internationally and not just for Canadian residents! Also, you have the chance of winning the new OPI Shattered nail polish from the amazing Katy Perry line!

Click here for more information on my giveaway and to enter!

As a general update I'm trying to think of a new tutorial to record. The lighting in my room is pretty drab so I'm trying to improve that! I'm also wondering if I should do a cute spring look, another every day look or something for going out/special occasions? Let me know what you think!

On another note...HAPPY ST-PATTY'S DAY!! Hopefully everyone is celebrating in their own little way today, whether it's wearing something green, going out with friends/family or consuming green beer! Which always amuses me...beer is good, but making it green makes it even better!

Sigma Beauty Haul

Hey everyone! So I recently purchased two items from Sigma Beauty. I purchased the MAXbag in Violet and the Miss Taylor Flat Top Kabuki.

Now I know that the MAXbag is supposed to be large, but I didn't know how big until I received it in the mail and OMG it's HUGE!!! It's 14 ¼ inches in length and 11 inches in height.

Sigma's description is the following: Introducing the new Sigma Beauty MAXBag! The MAXBag was especially designed to fit your entire makeup collection. It can even fit our full size complete kit with brush roll! Never leave your favorite products behind. Carry all of your beauty essentials wherever you go!

I still have yet to test it's full capacity but lets just say that I can easily put in all of my brushes, my larger palettes, skin care, face products and more! It's more like a purse than a makeup bag haha!

I really love the detailing on this bag too. It has a pillow type embossed effect and I love the shimmery purple color too! If you're looking for an ideal makeup bag for travelling then this one is perfect, and for only 20$ it's a steal! My mini ones for carrying a few things in my purse were almost 10$ so to get something even bigger that will fit basically EVERYTHING, that's just fantastic and worthwhile in my opinion. It makes for a great investment since I'm travelling more now and because I'm a pack rat. I end up packing way more than I should only because I'm afraid I'll need something and not have it...my idea is it's better to be safe than sorry; with that...everything and I mean everything (blushes, powders, liners, creams, shadows, palettes, brushes etc) come with. It turns into quite a process when I bring more cosmetics than clothes with me!

My other little investment was a retractable flat top kabuki. I was hesitant in buying it because I didn't know if I wanted a regular one or the flat top. Though the incentive for buying the regular one was because it was on sale at the time, I ended up caving in and buying the flat top because of the purple color. And yes, I know, it might not be the best and most practical way of choosing things, but even though the other one was on sale, I would prefer having the purple kabuki to match my purple brush set. Red wouldn't have matched so well!

Sigma's description for this little beauty is the following: Get some Hollywood Glamour! The Sigma Makeup retractable flat top kabuki is the easiest way to apply powder products such as blush, bronzer, foundation, and highlighter on-the-go. Practical and classy, the Hollywood Glamour collection is a must! Featuring the SigMax fiber for high definition application. 

Well after getting this little kabuki in the mail, I was amazed with how soft this brush was! The packaging is really cute with the metallic purple casing and I really like how well made Sigma products are. There were no fallouts for the bristles, it came with care and cleaning instructions, was double wrapped for protection and more.

I believe I have yet to be disappointed with a purchase I've made from Sigma Beauty. They go above and beyond my expectations and I'm really loving them! Next purchase will be one of the traveling kits! I need something cute for my trip to Alberta this summer!

Anyways, back to the kabuki haha! It's a lovely little brush that's super soft to the touch and blends seamlessly. I used it for the first time at the office one night when getting ready to head out to the movies. Using it to apply mattifying powder, bronzer and blush I was amazed how all three applied. If one of them goes on sale again I believe I will be buying a second one so that I can always have one at home and to keep the other in my purse. It's an ideal size to carry around and what I love most about it is that it can be used for more than one thing. Although a neat trick is to also apply your powder to the brush, close it and apply it when needed. Great for on the go!

Let me know if you already own one of these or another type of kabuki brush! What do you use it for and is it a flat top?

NOTW

Okay so last weeks nails didn't stay on too long. I got stressed out and ended up peeling them off :/ Another bad habit of mine when I'm either bored or stressed out!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway! There's still 5 more spots remaining before I hold the draw!

This week I received my order from Amazon which contained the full set of China Glaze crackle polishes. Aside from trying to contain my excitement at the office and paint my nails then and there, I had to wait until I got home from a dinner to try them haha. In the end it was well worth the wait! I ended up taking a really bold blue (OPI's Ogre-The-Top from the Shrek collection) and paired it with the black crackle polish (Black Mesh).

I really love the effect the crackle polishes give and I can't wait to try out the other five colors!

The five colors consist of Lightning Bolt (white), Crackled Concrete (grey), Black Mesh (black), Crushed Candy (blue teal), Broken Hearted (hot pink) and Fault Line (purple).

The combinations with these polishes are endless and you'll never get the same design twice! How it crackles depends on the thickness and amount of polish you apply to your nails. It's really fun to apply it and watch it dry. The crackle effect looks like shrinking plastic. Really neat stuff!

What I really like about these polishes is that you can take your boldest colors like neon yellow or a really hot pink and it won't be so overwhelming with the crackled effect on top of it. It's still a wow factor without your nails making someones eyes bleed by being too bright haha! I have a really bright neon yellow polish that I've been worried about wearing to the office. It's not exactly an every day shade. But paired with one of the crackled polishes and I've got a cool new look that I can pull off!