Awesome Deal Alert: TheBalm Shady Lady Palettes 3 for 1!! Today only!

I just caught this post on Temptalia. Apparently TheBalm is running a special deal today only: buy 1 of their Shady Lady eyeshadow palettes, get the other 2 free!! That's $119.85 worth of gorgeous, buttery shadows for only $39.95! How freakin sweet is that?

Hurry over to TheBalm and get yours while the gettin's good!

Revlon Just Bitten Balm Stain in Lovesick-swatch and review

I was in Walgreens earlier and stumbled upon a display for the new Just Bitten Balm Stains by Revlon--win!! And then I noticed the "30% off Revlon" sign stuck onto the display--double win!! So of course I had to snatch one up-- I went with Lovesick--the fuchsia one, of course (yea I'm a creature of habit, what can I say)...with the 30% off deal, it cost me a whopping 6.49.

First up, I love the packaging! It's this awesome plastic pencil/tube hybrid. The product twists up (the bottom silver part is the twisty part), so no sharpening--woot! I also love that Revlon decided to continue with the "make the packaging the same color as the product" theme it started with their lip butters. 

Here's a close-up of the tip. Of course, with more wear, it's gonna get more and more blunt but, honestly, that is not a problem for me. When it gets to that point, t will just be like working with a slim tube of lipstick. No biggie. 

Now onto the swatches:

Blue-based fuchsia awesomeness. There's a trace amount of silver shimmer in this, which I personally love. The formula is amazing--nicely pigmented but not totally opaque, it slicks on with a true balmy feel. It has just the right amount of slip, not even the slightest amount of stickiness and your lips really do feel and continue to feel moisturized the whole time you are wearing it. When it first goes on, it has a nice shiny finish--it's not superduper glossy or anything. After a few hours, the shine wears away and you're left with that gorgeous flush of color so it truly does live up to its 'balm stain' name. 

I should also mention there is a bit of mintyness to this lippie. Nothing ridiculous, it's just enough to give the slightest, very pleasant cooling sensation to your lips.

So, to sum it all up, I am a BIG fan. Love the color, love the formula, love the performance and love that it actually does what it is supposed to do. Revlon has really been on a roll this past year with its lip and nail products! I'm definitely adding this to my "awesome junk I need every single shade of" list!

Salt N Peppa Popsicle

Look, ain't I funny? I did one of those thingies where you combine the names of polishes in your post 

title to make it sound like something completely different. That's right, peeps. You better be scared of me & all this cleverness I got over here...

Alright, enough senseless rambling...

THIS, people, is the amaze-bawlz, retina-seering, practically radioactive insanity that is Orly Melt Your Popsicle from the line of neons they just released. Yea, these photos? Not even CLOSE to the redonk brightness these babies give off. Let's just say that, if your power goes out and you're wearing this polish, you will have no need for a flashlight....These 2012 Orly neons are the BRIGHTEST polishes I have ever come across in my entire career of polish-obsessing.

OH, and the awesome black and white speckly things on top of Melt Your Popsicle? That would be none other than Salt N Peppa, beautisimal (yea it's so awesome, it needs a whole new word to describe it) creation of Karin and Lexi of Lush Lacquer, who (as I've mentioned before) serve up sparkling indie  fierceness over on Etsy. Seriously, if you haven't already, go buy their polishes! These ladies have some kind of crazy sorcery over glitters. I've never met such gorgeous, well-behaved glitters in my life. I know I must sound like a broken record but, once again, these glitters come out of the bottle with no problem, lay down nice and happy on the nails (a few of the bar glitters might hang over a nail's edge but ALL bar glitters are guilty of that) and spread out beautifully. Love love love and love some more!

(oh God, the cuticle horror show. For your own safety, look AWAY from the base of my nails)

(note the gorgeous iridescent microglitter that is also mixed into Salt N Peppa & ignore my tip-wear...frickin housework always wreaking havoc on my manicures)

This mani consists of:

basecoat of Beauty Secrets nail hardener 

1 coat of Finger Paints Papier Mache

2 coats of Orly Melt Your Popsicle

2 coats of Lush Lacquer Salt N Peppa

1 coat of Seche Vite Quick Dry Topcoat

So are you on board with the neon trend this summer? What about the black and white glitter bonanza currently happening in the indie polish world? I, personally am in SO much luuuuurrve with both these things!

A bag in a bag (and what's in the bag in a bag)

When you have a 19 month old child, there's no way you're getting out of the house without a big honkin bag full of baby paraphernalia...but if you're like me, you make sure to stash another mommy bag inside the baby bag.

Left: big honkin baby bag (complete with skull print and I <3 zombies pins). Right: lesser but still honkin mommy bag that lives inside big honkin baby bag.

I got this bag on clearance at Target. I'll buy anything with skulls on it...especially when those skulls are accompanied by unicorns and the price is greatly reduced.

And here's what lives insider the mommy bag!

Neutrogena makeup remover wipes

Udderly Smooth lotion (best lotion EVER and not just because of the cow print on the tube)

Maybelline Baby Lips--the minty one with no pigment 

Ecotools retractable kabuki brush

Neutrogena pimple-zapping pen

Gaudy bejeweled gold compact with a shoe on the front

Plastic thingy full of q-tips

CVS oil-absorbing sheets (Lurve those)

Physicians Formula Healthy Wear foundation powder

Burt's Bees lemon cuticle balm (which I have to actively refrain from nomming every time I smell it)

Nivea hand cream (yes, that's a total of 3 different moisturizing hand products in here)

The blush I happened to be wearing the day I shot this pic (Physicians Formula Happy Booster)

The lippie I happened to be wearing that day (Wet N Wild Fuchsia with blue flash)

Pill box with little black dresses printed on it--chock full o' Tylenol for when the kids won't stop screaming...

Nice and neatly organized--and still room for tons more crap.

Glitter Me Up Friday, Vol 4!

Well shoot, it's Friday again, isn't it? Time for some more glitter!!

And Oh what a glitter this is!! This beauty is Birthday Cake--amazing sparkling creation of Lush Lacquer, an awesome and super sweet mom and daughter polish making team who can be found HERE on Etsy.

(click to enlarge)

Let me first apologize for the suckage that is New England's weather--yet another photoshoot that had to take place outside under thickly overcast skies...but this polish STILL shines.

Birthday Cake is a white sorbet-type polish chock full of pink, purple, orange, gold, blue and green small glitters, bar glitters AND large holographic silver hex glitters. Ok, did I say glitters enough times?? This. Polish. RULES!!! Seriously I can't get over all those gorgeous glitter colors embedded in that white. This is 2 coats of Birthday Cake by itself with 2 coats of Seche Vite on top (accent finger is Essie Mojito Madness stamped with Essie No More Film and vice versa--was testing their stampability. As you can see, No More Film is an excellent stamping polish...but I digress)...

I don't know what else to say except I LOVE LUSH LACQUER. Their polishes beautiful and they have none of the issues that Indie polishes sometimes suffer from (like glitter that refuses to come out of the bottle or clumps of pigment or separation issues). They are as expertly made and mixed as any big-name salon polish and the color and glitter combos are just stunning. I now have a total of 5 Lush Lacquers--Slime Time, Salt n Pepa, Camo Queen, Tutti Fruitti and this one (seriously I'd have WAAAAY more if I had more money or less self control) and every one of them is consistently awesome...

So um, why are you still here?? Go get some Lush before it's gone! and then go check out my awesome Glitter Me Up Friday sisters:

http://parisianbluesky.blogspot.com.au/

http://polishedperipherals.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.prettypurplepolish.com/

http://www.kellyskolors.com/

http://sgnails.blogspot.com.au/

New Hot Topic skully polishes 'Royally Screwed' and 'Deceit' swatches and review

Look who was a good girl and got her swatches done (well, 2 out of 3 of them anyway)...so here's a closer look at those awesome skull polishes I picked up yesterday at Hot Topic....

First up is 'Royally Screwed'--large and small royal blue hex glitters in a clear base. This is one coat of RS over Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Cherry Red:

The polishes have impossible to read labels on the back. If you wanna know the names, you gotta go check out the Hot Topic website.

Left to right: Royally Screwed by itself at 1, 2 and 3 coats.

So I'm totally digging this glitter. Good formula, nice amount of glitter in each swipe and the glitter behaves itself and doesn't try to gang up on you. I also LOVE the cobalt blue awesomeness. This is SO destined for many a jelly sammich! I know there are other blue glitters out there in the world but I personally don't have one like this, so I'm happy I got it! And I would have gotten it even if I DID have a dozen polishes just like it cuz....THE BOTTLE IS A FRICKIN SKULL! Skulls rule, damnit.

Next up is 'Deceit,' multi colored glitters and large copper flakies in a lightly tinted pink jelly base. 

Please excuse my ugly, hateful cuticles...also the general sloppiness of my application. I totally disrespected poor OPI Roadhouse Blues (well, that's what it gets for being a blurple and not the true navy blue cream I was hoping for). This is 2 coats of Deceit with a coat of Seche Vite on top to help smooth it out. The flakies are large and in charge and if you don't top-coat them, you can feel some of their points on your nails. I am seriously LOVING this. The shards of copper mixed with the blues, teals and purples of the smaller glitters is just such a gorgeous contrast. The formula was a little goopy and chunky but I busted out my trusty Beauty Secrets polish thinner and took care of that. 

So who else is wondering how this compares to OPI I Lily Love You from last summer's Nice Stems collection?

Can't really tell in the pic but I Lily Love You's base is slightly more purple.

I Lily Love you on the left and Deceit on the right. OBVIOUS differences here. The flakes in Deceit are much larger and there's more of them, while the glitters in the OPI are smaller but slightly more dense. I personally like Deceit better. I can't get over the gorgeous broken glass look of it.

Anyway, so I'm a fan. The novelty of the bottle is awesome enough--it's just a bonus that the polish inside is so gorgeous. Stay tuned for swatches of the third bottle I got (they call it 'Party Action'...I call it 'Clown Puke')!

Are you a fan of novelty polish bottles? Skulls?

Look what I found at Hot Topic...

Skull-shaped nail polish!!

How freakin awesome are these?! There part of a new line of cosmetics called Blackheart Beauty that was just launched. The blue one is large and small hex blue glitters in a clear base, the middle one is a large and small hex multi colored glitter (you're standard clown puke glitter a la Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday) and the one on the right is a...wait for it....FLAKIE!! Looks pretty dupey to OPI's I Lily Love you...anway, I'll be swatching these up ASAP...in the meantime, you can check out some of the other shades here. They have crackles & glow in the dark shades, too.

Nail polish in skulls...it just doesn't get any better than that!