February 2013 Sweetheart VoxBox review for Influenster

Hey all! Today for you, I have a review on the February 2013 Sweetheart VoxBox i received from Influenster for complimentary testing.

So in my box, this is what i received! 

Olay's Fresh Effects Va-Va-Vivid Power Contoured Cleansing system, Skinnygirl Daily On The Go granola bar in greek yogurt blueberry crisp, Not Your Mother's Beach Babe sea salt texturizing spray and Secret Clinical Strength Deodorant.

I REALLY enjoyed the Va Va Vivid cleansing system! It did a wonderful job to reduce shine and best part, was that the  battery operated, vibrating scrub brush wasn't abrasive but still did an excellent job sloughing off dead skin. I would DEFINITELY recommend this to anyone looking for a new cleansing system. It had a nice citrus smell and didn't irritate my skin at all.

Skinnygirl On the Go bars are great! If you're looking for a low calorie, high fiber and filling granola bar, these are the bars for you! At 180 calories, with 8 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber, you can't go wrong. I usually don't care for greek yogurt or blueberry flavored foods but this was surprisingly good! I would definitely recommend these if you are on the market for a healthier granola bar.

This deodorant, Secret Clinical strength, is hands down, one of the BEST deodorants i have ever used...and i've used A LOT in my day between my military days and living in very hot climates like California, Florida and most recently, New Mexico. I spend a lot of time outside in the summer and let's face it, EVERYONE sweats. This deodorant is one of the best smelling, strong and long lasting deodorants i have ever used. I used to carry around a stick of deodorant in my purse at all time for freshening up throughout the day, but since using this, i haven't had to reapply it once! I will be buying this over and over and will recommend it to ANYONE in search of a good deodorant!

I recently discovered the Not Your Mother's brand and was really excited to see that this beach babe sea salt texturizing spray was included in my voxbox! I have tried other brands of texturizing spray, but this was one of the better ones i have used. It left my hair soft and truly looking like i had spent the day frolicking in the waves at the beach. My ONLY complaint is that it doesn't taste very good, haha. I live in a very windy city and on the days i used it, when the wind would blow my hair into my mouth, all it tasted was salt! Now i guess tasting salt is better than tasting chemicals...so i won't complain too much :) I would definitely recommend it to someone who is looking for a texturizing spray! Below are some pictures of when i did my tests of it. Wet on top, dry on bottom.

I REALLY enjoyed being apart of this experience as it was my first time. I loved all the products and will be on the lookout for them to be on the shelves here locally, though the only one i've seen so far is the sea salt spray..hoping the others will find their way here soon! 

I hope you enjoyed learning about these products and will be curious to try them too! 

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Hey all! Sorry i've been so quiet lately! Life has gotten VERY hectic around here. But I promise to have some new posts up soon, to include reviews on my influenster sweetheart voxbox! So stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you haven't heard. Supposedly Google reader is going away, so be sure to add my blog to your blog lovin blog list!

Mani Monday-Orly and Liquid Sand and studs!

Hey guys! Today for Mani Monday, I have a few new polishes I used for an edgier look... I used Orly's Monroe's Red and OPI's Liquid Sand in Stay The Night. This look was very basic. Two coats of Liquid Sand that applied like a dream. Two coats of Monroe's red and when dried, i added Hard Candy's Matte Top Coat and then topped it with a square stud to give it some character.

I really enjoyed doing this, spite being very basic. I am on day two and still no chips from either polish! How do you feel about matte finishes? Are ya for em?

Milani Textured Creams

Hey guys! Today for you, I have two of the new Milani Textured Creams I recently picked up from my local Walgreens. I picked out Aqua Splash and Yellow Mark. These polishes retailed for $3.99 and for such a small price tag compared to some other brands that are currently following the same trend of the gritty finish, they are a much cheaper option-not to mention the only ones that are neon colored!

First up, is the lovely Aqua Splash. A lovely aqua/teal color that has a seafoam green tint to it. It is a super pretty color. I only have one issue with this polish, and it may just be me being sucky at the application, but the 'grit' or 'sand' or whatever it is they use to give it texture, seems to show through a bit. I had to use three coats to get the majority of the 'grit' which looks white, to mostly be hidden. Perhaps it was because it is more sheer than the yellow one, but I still like none the less.  :)

Yellow Mark is an awesome lemon peel yellow. VERY pigmented and applied wonderfully. Honestly, one coat would have been enough, but out of habit, I did two. I really enjoyed this color. It is so fun, bright and screams HELLO WARMER WEATHER! Now if only the weather would actually warm up...

 

I think you can sort of see what i mean about the Aqua Splash looking some what whiteish in the coloring on the left...

After having seen swatches for the whole collection, I am really kicking myself for not grabbing the purple and red...I am going to have to fix that soon! I really do love these polishes though. They are very durable. No chipping or anything so far and I've done some scrubbing since doing this mani.

How do you feel about textured polishes? Yay? Nay? Meh? Let me know what you think in the comments! I'd love to hear from you!

Spring themed Watermarble

So with spring rapidly approaching, I decided I wanted to squeeze in a spring colored mani before diving into the greens and golds for St Patty's day! For this look, I use China Glaze's Dance Baby and Aquadelic, which are both from last spring's Europop collection. I also used Sinful Colors' Candy Coated from their current spring collection as well as Orly's Prelude to a Kiss.

 

I decided to do Dance Baby, Aquadelic and Candy Coated on my other nails and saved my ring and middle fingers for water marbling, which used the prelude to a kiss as well. I used Milani's White on the Spot for the base for the marbled nails. 

 

 

I was really pleased at how well the polishes worked for marbling and that it actually came out pretty! Or at least I think so! These just might stay on for more than 24 hours! Haha! I think these just might be my favorite colors for spring...What are your favorite colors of spring?

Milani Hot Pink Frenzy, Nail Stamping and a photobomb

So I picked up Milani's Hot Pink Frenzy right before christmas and haven't had a chance to try it out til now. Boy have I been missing out! 

In addition to being a fast dry polish, it is extremely pigmented and held true to being 'one coat formula'... one easy coat provided full coverage and was completely dry in five minutes. Yes it says 60 seconds but 60 seconds in, it's still definitely smudge-able... 

As the name says, it truly is a HOT pink...looking nearly red in some lights...The photos with the bottle is pretty true to color. 

 

So this afternoon, i was trying to get some more natural looking photos and my son was sitting in my lap...and his hand and oh so important car decided to photobomb my picture lol!

    

I decided to try out a new stamping plate i ordered recently off of Amazon that has skulls, boats and anchors on it. I thought a bow would be a cute touch..so here it is!

Overall, i was thoroughly impressed with the quality of this polish. Fast drying, one coat coverage and a gorgeous color. Hope you enjoyed!

The Taste: Tuesday at 8|7c on ABC

So recently, I was selected from Influenster to partake in the 'The Taste' badge. The Taste is a reality cooking show on ABC. The best way to describe it, is it's a lot like The Voice..but with food. The judges are given one spoonful of food made by contestants (the judges don't know who made what) if they like it, they get to choose yes, if not, they choose no. Now this is where it reminds me of The Voice. If only ONE judge likes that particular food, that judge automatically gets the contestant. IF more than one judge selects them, then the contestant gets to then choose which team they would like to be on! The judges are Anthony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson, Ludo Lefebvre, and Brian Malarkey and they are a hoot!

I recorded the episode from last week and just got to sit down and watch it today, and I must say, I REALLY LIKED IT! My husband is a fan of some cooking shows on the food network, such as Chopped, and he also really enjoyed the show. We only had one complaint. The background music was like the same level as the voices. So spite turning the TV up to 45, you had a hard time hearing what was being said. But that isn't going to stop us from watching it...that's what captioning is for!

There is an all new episode on tonight at 8/7 Central time. So if you haven't tuned in to this awesome show, you are just in time for tonight's new episode! If you want to see last week's episode, check it out here>>> http://abc.tv/Z3jimp 

Enjoy! I know I will!

FantaChic etc GIVEAWAY!

Good Morning all! My friend Kyla of FantaChic etc is having a giveaway on her page! It is a surprise giveaway valued at $65.00!!! Be sure to enter HERE!! Good luck to all!!

What does everyone have planned for Valentine's Day?

Another Valentine's day mani and other in between manis

Okay, I have one last post for the day...I entered a nail art contest the other day with the valentine's day theme...below is what i came up with: A valentine letter on the thumb, a white heart on my index finger, an attempt at a rose on my middle finger, the word LOVE on my ring finger and lastly, an interlocking red and white dotticure...

 

Below is just some nail art i was screwing around with, like the cloud design and practicing the interlocking dotticure as well as a close up of my heart and rose. Please ignore the unsightly dry cuticles as my fingers were taking a beating from all the nail art   >.<

These photos here  ⬇⬇⬇  are just some in between manis i had done through out the week but hadn't had a chance to get around to blogging about, so here they are! 

First up  ⬆⬆⬆ is my Zoya, Ninja Polish, Nicole by OPI and Heaven nail lacquer mani. For this i used Zoya Kelly, a nice dark charcoal gray and topped it with Ninja Polish "Girly Floam". My accent nail is Heaven Nail Lacquer in Island Surf and is topped with Nicole by Opi "Glitter Fun"

Here ⬆⬆⬆ I used Wet n Wild's Fashionista Lisa and did an accent nail with blue striping tape and the bottom half is topped with Sally Hansen's Rockstar Pink glitter.

This ⬆⬆⬆ is the mani i currently am rocking. A dark purple and white interlocking dotticure. For this look, I used Milani White on the Spot and topped it diagonally with Sinful Colors Let's Talk. Then used the largest dotter and got to dotting! 

I hope you've enjoyed all this spam!

Julep Swatches

The day I won the Saved By The Bell giveaway, I also happened to win another giveaway from the lovely lady behind And Then There Was Polish!! This time it was a surprise box filled with wonderful goodies!!  <<<BIG FAT THANK YOU TO HER!!

 

Included in this box, were not only FOUR Julep polishes, Kiss Nail Dress strips, a pack of mini scented cuticle oils, striping tape, chevron nail striping tapes, julep lotions, pedicure toe foam separators, a cute little valentine with sweetheart candies, a super sweet thank you note as well as a pot of glitter that exploded and made everything glittertastic. <<<<That wasn't supposed to happen!

I was SUPER excited about getting some Julep polish because I haven't tried them yet and I have heard wonderful things about them!

The first polish i tried out was the super dark vampy plum-y purple "Viola"  It was very easy to apply and was completely opaque in two coats. It looks nearly black in most lights, but in some lighting, you can tell it's actually purple.

Up next is Stella, and boy was Stella a pain to photograph! Applied like a dream but good grief not easy to capture the true color! It reminds me of a 'softer' mustardy yellow if you will. Almost like potato salad, where mayo and mustard mix... 

The middle shot taken is about as true to color as i could capture...

Up next is Popova, from the Trina Turk 2012 Fall collection. It is a super pretty creamy kelly green. Again, applied like a dream, but thankfully wasn't anywhere near as difficult as Stella to capture in color.

Again, the middle shot is pretty true to color.

Lastly, We have Colbie, a really pretty glitter...that refused to show it's green hues...i had a very difficult time trying to capture the green shimmer..all i was getting was the gold. But i promise, it's got green to it! 

Here you can see where i've layered it over Stella and Popova.. One coat.

Overall, I thought these were great polishes, not so cooperative when it came time to photograph, but good quality for sure! The lotions are wonderful as well as the cuticle oils. I haven't used the Kiss nail dress or the striping tapes, but when i do, i'll be sure to blog about it!

Thanks for stopping by!

WNW: Saved By The Bell Collection and a NEW swatching pose

Okay I meant to get this up sooner, but darnit, it's difficult to keep up on mutliple things when you've got kiddies running around!

Anyways! Last month, I won a giveaway from Destany of Confessions Of A Sarcastic Mom and my prize was the AMAZING, HARD TO FIND Wet n Wild Saved By The Bell collection!! So you can imagine my excitement! :) I have swatches of all six fabulous colors for you today!

So I have a funny story... As I was swatching the fabulous Pink- Pom Pom Kelly...I had a photoshoot mishap as you shall see...

So, yeah...everything is going fine and great..With and without flash and then my fat ring finger had to go and smudge the crap out of my pinky...So i decided that i would photograph the next with just three fingers...which made me decide that i wanted to maybe make it my 'signature' pose of three fingers- kind of like the Three Finger Salute that is featured in the Hunger Games..and if you read my Versatile Blogger Award post, you would know that I am a huge nerd :) 

Thus, I bring you the three fingered swatch!

So, trying that again, here is Pom Pom Kelly. A super hot pink. Application was good. Completely opaque in one thicker coat. So you can see, it looks almost hot red in certain lighting but boy this baby is BRIGHT! This is topped with one coat of Seche.

Next up is the amazingly highlighter yellow in Pin Em Slater..As you can see, there is  a majorly noticeable VNL going on...so i had tried it out again another day with white undies for the Yellow and it gave it so much more pop!

Next up to bat is the wonderful purple, Fashionista Lisa..a wonderful polish that applied in three easy coats.

Straight A Jessie....A SUPER HOT FIERY ORANGE! This was two coats as well and boy is it HOT! In some lighting, this and Pom Pom Kelly look similar but don't be fooled, one is definitely pink while the other is definitely orange!

Who didn't love Screech and his major nerdiness? Up next is Nerd Alert Screech- a super bright green with a hint of shimmer to it! I really thought i wouldn't care for this with my skintone but i was pleasantly surprised at how much i actually really did like it! I used three easy to apply coats.

Last but certainly, not least...Everyone's crush, Chick Magnet Zack... A gorgeous darker teal... It reminds me of a darker version of China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise...by no means a dupe, but a nice deeper colored cousin if you will. I used two coats with easy application as well.

Overall, I LOVED this collection and have a feeling I will be reaching for it quite often. I would highly recommend you get yours hands on it, should you get an opportunity!  And i must throw out a HUGE THANK YOU to Destany for being so great to host that giveaway and another huge thanks to her for me winning it!!  

Thanks for reading! Til next time...