The Body Shop | Drops of Youth Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Frosso of Lacquer Me Silly! I LOVE LOVE her blog, her sense of humor and of course her nail polish posts! She is the winner of the Drops of Youth giveaway! Thank you to everyone for participating and for all of those tips on staying young!

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ipsy | August “Glamour Academy” Edition

Wow, so I didn’t think I’d be this busy this month, but I suppose wedding planning DOES take up a lot of your free time! I quite enjoyed the August Ipsy bag as the actual makeup bag reminded me of Harry Potter and the product selection consisted of items that I had been lusting for!

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First Post and New Collaboration with The Prom Show!

This has been a few months in the making and it has definitely been quite fun for me, but I am now officially a contributor for The Prom Show, a proudly Canadian site, that features everything from all things prom, fashion trends, hair and makeup, but most importantly a reminder to celebrate yourself! High school is such a fun/crazy/tough/memorable time in any young person’s life and it’s so important to remember to be true to yourself!

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Check out my first tutorial for The Prom Show is entitled “Rock Princess Paper Clip Hearts”!

Swatch It Up | KKCenterHk Ebalay Pink and White Glitter

Today I have my first actual nail polish review for you from KKCenterHk in a glitter colour called Ebalay Sweet Pink Shiny Glitter (this was the only name I could find!). Whenever I have a clear-based glitter, I always feel like I need to choose a unique colour as my base, but after many experimental swatches it turns out that a basic black always seems to be the best! In these swatches, I am wearing two coats of Essence-Black is Back with two coats of Sweet Pink Shiny Glitter which is composed of matte white and light pink hex glitter, matte white bar glitter and my favourite part, sparkly blue/purple glitter that makes the whole manicure twinkle! There was no glitter-fishing required making this polish very easy to apply. I chose this polish because it had that “indie polish” feel and was actually quite fun to wear!

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August Empties!

I think I was just wondering around my shelves of product unable to stick to one thing which has resulted in the fewest number of empties to date! Then again, some are better than none right? So, let’s get started!

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SeasonsBox | August “Get in Touch with Nature”

This is my FINAL SeasonsBox. I was told I wouldn’t receive this one, but it turns out that I had already paid for it so in the confusion, here it is! Thankfully this was a fairly good box and I can say goodbye to Seasonsbox (for now…) with a happy heart. I know, I’m so dramatic, but it takes a lot for me to end a relationship with a subscription box!

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Swatch It Up | Essie - Belugaria

Many of you, myself included, were very curious about the Essie polish I received in my September Chatelaine Topbox as it is a polish that has yet to be released for this Christmas season. Essie-Belugaria is from the Encrusted Treasures Collection set to be released this November. The idea behind this collection is to achieve a caviar nail minus the hassle of applying the beads and have them last just as long as regular polish! So, how did the swatch turn out? Interesting to say the least!

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I found application to be awful…there wasn’t enough liquid in the polish to apply more than two strokes per nail which made the texture quite lumpy. Application was also quite messy for me as I could not get the brush to apply the polish in a nice curve at the cuticle. There was just too much “caviar” per stroke for me to make this look pretty and unfortunately this manicure lasted all of 24 hours for me as a client even commented that it looked like I had 70 grit sandpaper on my nails (compliment?). The texture was so rough that I even hurt my face! This polish is different from a textured polish in that you can see from the photos that the beads are uneven in application unlike a textured polish.

Overall, I do like the idea of adding the caviar look to the polish itself and the hex glitter totally caught my eye, but the application was so unpleasant that I don’t know if I want to put myself through this again. The look is actually quite nice, but sadly my experience with this polish was not. I love Essie polishes, but I’m going to have to say no to Belugaria.

August Favourites

I feel like I have been subconsciously procrastinating when it comes to writing this post because it pretty much means the end of summer, doesn’t it? No more favourite sunscreens until next year (at least for those of us in this hemisphere!). I have just a few products that I have been enjoying over the last month that I am STILL having a hard time pulling away from!

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Nail Art | Getting Ready for Fall with Patchwork Nails

I know it’s not quite Fall yet, but I feel like everyone around me is just itching for Fall to come, myself included! I was about to try my hand at some leaf nail art, but decided on patches instead! For my base, I used two coats of Butter London-Crumpet from the Starkers Collection and then used a small nail art brush to paint the squares and outline them in acrylic paint. It was fairly time consuming, but I am very pleased with how they turned out!

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It has been a misty day in my neighbourhood so maybe Fall is coming sooner than I had originally thought!

Topbox | September Chatelaine Edition

September’s Topbox was very…long and came wrapped in pretty special edition paper because this month Topbox partnered up with Chatelaine magazine to bring us some of this season’s latest beauty product favourites!

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Make Up For Ever | Artisan Brush Collection #150 and #222

Just when we thought Make Up For Ever had come out with everything, I saw a preview for a new line of 76 revolutionary make up brushes that piqued my interest! The Artisan Brush Collection was designed by Creator and Artistic Director Dany Sanz and took 5 years to perfect. The collection is so complete that anyone from a novice to a makeup artist will be able to find what they need within this new collection. Each brush is constructed in 25 stages and hand-crafted by 30 people from start to finish. Talk about a high maintenance brush!

The collection is classified by number with 100s = complexion, 200s = eyes, 300s = lips and 400s = professional make up artists. I guess I won’t be even TOUCHING the 400s!

What I found really neat about this brush collection was the type of synthetic fibers used as they come in either wavy or straight depending on the intended use. When the fibers are straight, makeup application is more generous and precise, while wavy fibers are more splayed and allow for lighter application. I received two brushes to review: #150 and #222.

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Swatch It Up | Rainbow Honey - The Kraken

WOW. Just wow. I probably have about 20 Rainbow Honey polishes and can you believe this is the FIRST time I’m wearing one?! Shaaaamme! For my very first Rainbow Honey, I decided to wear The Kraken and it is AMAZING! My eyes are still coming out of my head! This polish could have been a one coater, but I am wearing two in the photos out of habit. This is an absolutely gorgeous blue-green jelly glitter with that shimmers like crazy and reminds me of gold coins at the bottom of the ocean floor. This polish is so pretty that I highly recommend everyone just get it. Seriously, I love it!

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WishTrend | Wish Box Plus Other Korean Makeup Goodies!

I am going crazy with Korean beauty products at the moment and my latest discovery is WishTrend and the Wish Box. The minute I saw the words “Wish Box”, my beauty antennae perked up and I knew I had to get just one. Each one is limited edition with a theme that consists of a variety of products and brands. What I love about WishTrend is that I am seeing brands that I have never heard of before. You’re not going to see brands like Etude House and Skinfood on this site. The only brand I recognized from WishTrend is Skin79 which really excited me because I have been curious to try brands other than the “popular” ones we’re used to seeing.

So, does anyone want to see what was in the Wish Box? I know you must be dying of suspense because even I wanted to see all the products in the flesh! The Wish Box came wrapped in a silver bag with 5 items inside.

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Topbox | August “Regular” Edition

For the month of August, I was once again unimpressed with the Prive box selections and opted for the regular Topbox once more. I have found that I generally prefer the regular Topboxes to the Prive ones, but I can’t tell if it’s because of the product selection or the element of surprise! It’s probably a bit of both, but I was very pleased with what I received this month even if I already had one of the products!

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Review | Born Pretty Sweet Color Polish in S095

Today I have a beautiful swatch from the Born Pretty Store Sweet Color series in the colour S095. This is my first Sweet Color polish and I really do not think it will be my last because there are so many to choose from! Each of these polishes retail for around $6 with the exception of the flakie polishes which retail for $11.79.

I am wearing two coats in these swatches and they were VERY easy to apply. I love the textured gold cap too! It really makes the bottles stand out against my nail polish army of black caps! The actual colour of S095 is darker than what is shown on the Born Pretty website leaning much more on the dark olive green in real-life. You can still see the hints of gold in certain light which really made this polish a beauty!

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Review | BA Star Mineral Eye Shadow in Chocolate Star Dust

My foray into eye make up really began with mineral eye shadow. I loved how easily it blended and with a primer, how long it lasted on my lids. Call me sentimental, but to this day, I still prefer loose and powder eye shadows to creams ones. I recently got to know a brand called BA*STAR that is a #1 make up brand with cheerleaders, dancers and competitors that obviously need to sparkle from afar during performances! The BA*STAR product line includes: glitter, eye shadows, mascaras, blushes, lip pencils and lip gloss and even cosmetic bags and glittery head bands!

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SeasonsBox | July 2013 “Get In Touch With Nature”

I write this SeasonsBox review with a bit of a heavy subscription heart as Seasonsbox will no longer be shipping to Canadians despite its Canadian origins. Founder, Agnes Kozera, decided to go to law school a few months ago resulting in the switch to America-centric operations. Ever since the switch, I have had a field day with shipping times and receiving multiple boxes of one month and missing some all together. The wait time for inquiries has grown from 48 hours to close to 1.5 weeks for me! Not that I’m complaining, but I received TWO July boxes, the other of which I gave away. I just hope that I didn’t deprive someone else of a box…at any rate, yet another Canadian subscription bites the dust…now that I’ve thoroughly depressed you all, let’s see what I received for July’s Seasonsbox shall we?

Edit: Sept.3/13 Seasonsbox has announced on their Facebook page that they WILL be shipping to Canadians once again. Shipping fees will vary and because their site is down have yet to be released.

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