Ulta Celebrates 21 Days of Beauty, Starting this Sunday, March 16!

ULTA’s bi-annual celebration, 21 Days of Beauty, begins Sunday, March 16 and ends Saturday, April 5. This beauty extravaganza is celebrated in more than 500 stores nationwide. ULTA Beauty’s 21 Days of Beauty highlights the hottest spring beauty trends with special beauty product offerings, with makeup and skincare demonstrations from beauty experts – all to help prepare shoppers for a beautiful season! Beauty aficionados can stock up on their makeup, skincare and  nail products from their favorite brands including Amazing Cosmetics, Stila, Smashbox, bareMinerals, Mario Badescu, Philosophy, Tarte, Urban Decay & ck one color, among others.

Each day throughout 21 Days of Beauty, ULTA Beauty will feature:

• Beauty Steals: special pricing and “Buy 1 Get 1 FREE” offers
• Beauty Focus Days:  makeup and skin care specialists from selected brands provide makeup tips, trend updates and skin consultations.  Appointments for complimentary make-up and skin consultations are recommended by simply signing up at your nearest ULTA Beauty store

Brand highlights during 21 Days of Beauty include:

·         BareMinerals All Over Face Color & Blush in Warmth, $10 (reg. $19)

·         Philosophy Purity Wipes, $10 (reg. $15)

·         Stila In The Know Palette, $20 (reg. $39)

·         Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Mascara $10 (reg. $19)

·         butterLONDON nail lacquers 2 for $15 (reg. $15 each)

·         Too Faced Better Than False Lashes Extension System, $20 (reg. $35)

·         Mally Perfect Prep Poreless Primer, $24 (reg. $35)

·         Smashbox Try It Kit, $10 (reg. $19)

·         It Cosmetics No. 50 Serum Collagen Veil Anti-Aging Primer, $20 (reg. $48)

                                         

My SinfulColors SinfulShine Addiction Continues!

 Purchased by me.

I have another SinfulColors SinfulShine polish for you today! I seem to be collecting these like candy. This is the lovely SinfulColors Go Glossy, a red-purple crelly with a shine like nobody's business. Go Glossy is definitely more of a crelly finish than the other SinfulShines I tried so far. They were opaque in basically one coat, whereas this one needed more building up. This is three coats and I was very happy with the end result. It's very Jolly Rancher looking, isn't it? I still can't get over the shine on these babies.

These pictures are three coats of Go Glossy with no topcoat, just it's own beautiful shine. As I mentioned, this was a little less opaque than the other three I tried so far, but that is due to it's crelly nature. The first coat was also a bit streaky, but it evened out just fine by the second coat.

Purchased by me.

Go Glossy is not part of the first release of SinfulShines. It seems to belong to the newer set of them coming out now, just like Rise & Shinier, but I don't know if these are LE or not. SinfulColors SinfulShines are only available at Walgreens.

Maybelline Color Tattoo 24 Hour Eyeshadows

Left to right: Fierce and Tangy, Tough As Taupe, Audacious Asphalt

I've already mentioned a few days ago that I don't buy much drugstrore make-up, so I personally found it interesting how excited I was for these Maybelline Color Tattoo 24 Hour Eye Shadows. My relationship with the Color Tattoos was very similar to my typical relationship with a new NARS collection. The first stage is called "stalking" and that may include: reading every review of the product that I can find on various blogs, tweeting about how much I want said product, Googling the name of the product at least once a day to see if any new swatches or reviews have been posted, and making a list of exactly which shades of the product I want to buy.

Left to right: Fierce and Tangy, Tough As Taupe, Audacious Asphalt

The second stage of the relationship is "buying". I don't know about you, but I plan my beauty purchases. Last week, I knew I would be getting paid on Wednesday, and I also happen to get out of work a bit early on Wednesdays. Thus, the plot to stop at CVS on my way home from work began! Sadly, this turned into stopping at CVS, Walgreens AND Rite Aid because CVS was sold out of these babies, and Walgreens didn't even have a display for them. Rite Aid FTW.

Left to right: Fierce and Tangy, Tough As Taupe, Audacious Asphalt

Naturally, being that I am a blogger, the third step is "reviewing". Maybelline's claim that these shadows last 24 hours is a big one. I did not test these for 24 hours yet. I have no need to wear eye shadow for 24 hours normally, EXCEPT when I fly overseas. When I fly overseas, I usually put my make-up on at around 11:30 a.m. at my house. My flight normally departs around 9 p.m. I don't arrive in Europe until approximately 3 or 4 a.m. our time, and normally then have quite a journey to my hotel. So, I do actually probably wear eye shadows for almost 24 hours in that situation. Next time I fly overseas, I will definitely let you know how it goes!

Left to right: Fierce and Tangy, Tough As Taupe, Audacious Asphalt

OK, onto actual reviewing. The pigmentation of these shadows is excellent. For these swatches, I swirled my finger around in maybe two circles, then swept it on to my arm. When you use these in a look on your eyes, you do need to blend quickly, as they set very fast. Once set, they don't budge! I had to use make-up remover to remove these swatches from my arm. 

Left to right: Fierce and Tangy, Tough As Taupe, Audacious Asphalt, in shade

So far I have worn Fierce and Tangy and Tough As Taupe. I wore Fierce and Tangy for about 8 hours, and Tough As Taupe for about 10. I did choose to give these a difficult test and wear them each to a two hour dance class. I don't know how much Irish dancing you've ever seen, but let me just say that we SWEAT. A LOT. I can do other forms of exercise (running, pilates, Ab Ripper X) and barely break a sweat, but not so with Irish dance. Consequently, eye shadow normally doesn't hold up so well in my dance classes. 

Fierce and Tangy all over the lid, MAC 100 Strokes (burgundy brown) in crease

Both Fierce and Tangy and Tough As Taupe held up admirably. I must mention that there was very very slight creasing in both cases. The creasing occurred in places where I had applied MAC powder shadow over the Maybelline shadows, not where I had the Color Tattoos alone. I have yet to test these on a day that I don't have to be covered in sweat for two hours, but I will be doing that this weekend.

Fierce and Tangy all over the lid, MAC 100 Strokes (burgundy brown) in crease

I think Maybelline did an amazing job with the colors they chose to release these shadows in. I do not own any orange eye shadow like Fierce and Tangy. It is gorgeous!!!! Orange eye shadow may seem scary, but if you have blue or green eyes, you should try it. It will make your eyes REALLY pop. Just use some brown shadow in the crease and lots of black mascara, and it won't look too crazy.

Fierce and Tangy all over the lid, MAC 100 Strokes (burgundy brown) in crease

So far, I am a big fan of these eye shadows! I can't wait to see how they fair in a normal environment, minus the sweating. I want lots of the other colors, including Pomegranate Punk, Bad to the Bronze, and Tenacious Teal. I would have bought them this week if Rite Aid had had them in stock!!

Maybelline Color Tattoo 24 Hour Eye Shadows are available now at a drugstore near you, or online at Ulta.com.

Don't Forget This Deal!!

Just wanted to remind you about this special deal from Dr.'s Remedy. I hope to have the Dr.'s Remedy holiday collection swatched this weekend for you!! DR.'S REMEDY TAKES THE HEADACHE OUT OF HOLIDAY SHOPPING WITH A SPECIAL OFFER BLACK FRIDAY THRU CYBER MONDAY

Dr.'s REMEDY is a line of doctor-inspired cosmetics that is dedicated to using clean, hypoallergenic ingredients. The birth-child of two New York-based podiatrists, Dr. Adam Cirlincione and Dr. William Spielfogel, Dr.'s REMEDY proves quintessentially-perfect for any person looking to better the condition of her skin and nails. Dr.'s REMEDY is sold exclusively at www.remedynails.com or by calling 877-323-NAIL.

Deal of the Week- Zoya Intimate for $25!!

In case you haven't heard, in honor of International Women's Day, Zoya is selling the entire Intimate collection for just $25!

For swatches to convince you that this is a FABULOUS deal, go here

For details and the code for this deal, go to Zoya's blog

Best Hand Cream. Ever.

From what I've been hearing on The Weather Channel lately, Connecticut is not the only state to be experiencing the joys of winter weather. Snow storms, ice storms, freezing rain, Winter Armageddon... whatever your area's weather problem is, it can lead to some seriously dry hands. As nail polish addicts, dry hands is a major problem for us! Dry hands= chapped and red hands= makes your hot polish look kind gross. Plus, dry hands often go "hand in hand" with dry, torn cuticles.

So how I am planning to solve these problems for you? Invent a magical weather control device!! 75 degrees and sunny for all (damn you, San Diego).

No, I'm just kidding. I don't have a magical weather control device. I do have a REALLY good hand cream for you to check out though! My mom and I have been using Avon Moisture Therapy Intensive Treatment Hand Cream for probably 7 or 8 years now. No matter how many other hand creams we try, we continue to buy at least 3 tubes of this cream every winter.



This hand cream actually creates some kind of protective barrier on your hands. After it absorbs, you can feel it smoothing and moisturizing your hands for hours, even through gentle hand washing! During the day, I only use a few small drops of this cream, as it is extremely rich. It takes about a minute to absorb those few small drops, but the wait time is totally worth it. I really recommend massaging this into your cuticles as well. You will really see a difference in their appearance.



Now, in my opinion, the real effectiveness of this cream comes out to play at night. I squeeze gobs of this onto my hands and cuticles (so much that it turns white on my hands when I rub it in) and then put on my hand cream gloves. When I wake up, my hands are so smooth and moisturized, I almost forget that I live in the Arctic Tundra. But then I look out the window, and my dreams are ruined. I do NOT recommend applying gobs of this hand cream during the day, however. People definitely give you funny looks when your hands are covered in white goo.

I personally love everything about this hand cream. The only bad thing I can think of to say about it is that when the tube starts to be a bit empty, it gets a little bit hard to squeeze. This doesn't bother me too much, but my mom has wicked Carpel Tunnel, so it does bother her. If I had to rate this hand cream, I would give it a 9.9 out of 10. The BEST part-- right now, it's on sale for only $1.99!!!!! Avon does put this on sale pretty often, I think I bought mine for about $1.99 as well. Avon also makes body lotions and creams in this Moisture Therapy format, but I haven't tried them yet. I would definitely be interested in trying them in the future though!

Avon Moisture Therapy Intensive Treatment hand cream is currently $1.99 at Avon.com

From Zoya: Today is

"FREE ZOYA COLOR SPOON FRIDAY

6 FREE ZOYA COLOR SPOONS*
TODAY ONLY
(12/10/2010 - Expires 11:59 EST).

Here's how it works...
First pick any 6 colors you would like to try on... Add the matching Zoya Color Spoon to your shopping cart on zoya.com. Add SP6 as your code. Process order. Zoya will ship them to you for FREE! Plus you will automatically earn a $3 Zoya Color Spoon credit code for use on a future zoya.com purchase. Feel free to order more at the regular price if you would like (shipping is always free on Zoya Color Spoons)."

If you're still confused about what color spoons are, I suggest you run over to Zoya's website and watch the video! While you're there, order your free color spoons! I'm going to order Tiffany and Valerie for sure, how about you?

Barielle Fall Sale!

In case you haven't heard, Barielle.com is having a 20% off sale site wide. Now is your chance to pick up some of their beautiful polishes. Are you hauling from the Barielle sale?

Also, I have a Sephora by OPI polish to review for you tomorrow! I would have done it today, but I got a spray tan for a recent dance competition and it left my cuticles a bit orange! See ya tomorrow!

Polish (BARGAIN) of the Week: Wet and Wild Glitz

Wet and Wild Glitz, three coats, no flash

The polish of the week is gorgeous, glitter-packed, and DIRT CHEAP. I'm talking about Wet and Wild Glitz. Look at this pink, baby blue and silver glitter!! These pictures don't do this polish enough justice. I couldn't stop staring at my nails. The best part? Glitz set me back a total of $1.39. Yes, you read that correctly. $1.39.

Wet and Wild Glitz, three coats, with flash

In these pictures, I am wearing three pretty thick coats of Glitz (the base is clear, so you do have to kind of load it on to get coverage). So you can imagine my surprise when I wore this for four days with absolutely no chips or tip wear. As much as I love OPI Absolutely Alice and Mad as a Hatter, I can't say the same for them. I get chips with those two in less than a day! My only wish is that Wet and Wild would make a ton more of these glitters in all different colors!! I would definitely buy them all!

Wet and Wild Glitz is available at your local Walmart or at Harmon online (they're a whopping $1.79 online though!).

Polish of the Week: Sinful Colors Timbleberry

Boy, the Polish of the Week feature sure got abandoned in recent weeks!! But I'm bringing it back because I still have loads of forgotten and obscure goodies to show you.

SinfulColors Timbleberry, two coats, no flash

The Polish of the Week this week should also be named "Bargain of the Week". SinfulColors Timbleberry is $1.99, like all other SinfulColors polishes! Now, I don't really know what a Timbleberry is, but this color is gorgeous and screams Summer! It's one of those orange-y/red/coral/little bit pink polishes that I think almost everyone loves during the summer months.

For some reason, I left this beauty sitting on my dresser for a month. I think I thought it was going to be kind of sheer and that I would need like 5 coats to reach bottle color (it did cost $1.99 after all!). But that was NOT the case at all! Shown is just two coats!! The coats coats applied super smoothly and dried in good time. The brush on this polish was kind of stiff, but I actually liked it. It just takes some getting used to. This polish would be fantastic on toes as well! I would call this a Must Have if you're looking for this kind of color. For $1.99, you can't beat it! I only got one picture in before it started to thunderstorm, but I think I'm going to do a coral/red/orange comparison post this week, so I'll post more pics then.

SinfulColors polishes are available at a Walgreens near you.

By the way, did you know that Chanel Particuliere is available on Chanel.com again? If you missed out the first time, you can grab it now, along with Chanel's fall polish, Paradoxal.