Nighttime Special Occasion Nails/Tony Award Nails

Hi darlings!

I just wanted to quickly share the manicure I came up with yesterday to celebrate the Tony Awards tonight. It's also good for any glam nighttime special occasion party and it is really simple because you want to focus on having fun and not doing complicated nail art. For this look, I used Essie's Bobbing for Baubles which has a perfect formula so you won't have to stress about getting a smooth base color. You can read my original review at this link. http://smartandsarcasticwithdashesofinsanity.blogspot.com/2012/01/review-of-essies-bobbing-for-baubles.html

On top of that, I layered 2 or 3 coats of O.P.I.'s Piroutte My Whistle. I want to try layering it over different colors before I give my final review but I think it applied really smoothly and I liked the amount of control I had. Unlike other glitter top coats, this one only applied a few pieces of glitter at a time so in each coat I had more control over placement. And the formula was nice enough that successive coats didn't thicken up the layers too much.

I decided to dress up my thumb with some nail art. I just did a basic tuxedo nail. There are tons of tutorials online but my inspiration was cutepolish on youtube but inverted so it would be right side up. I jazzed it up by using O.P.I.'s Just Spotted the Lizard for the shirt color. I used Milani's Black Magic for the tuxedo, bowtie, and buttons which I found smooth and easy to work with but you can use any black you have in your collection. This design is super fun to play with because you can vary the color of the jacket or shirt or any component and have a different look.

SWATCHES

REVIEW of Sinful Colors Cinderella with SWATCHES

Hi darlings!

I'm not sure how I'm managed to avoid mentioning this at every opportunity, but I am a Disney fanatic. I grew up during the Disney Renaissance and those stories and that music completely informed the development of my critical faculties. That is why I've been hunting down Sinful Colors Cinderella like a maniac from the moment I saw it on Nouveau Cheap. I heard the formula was terrible, goopy and sheer, but the moment I saw swatches and heard the name, I wanted that color. Well, of course they were all right.

Cinderella is a shimmery light blue polish that attempts to capture the magic of Cinderella's ball gown in the animated film. I'm not sure if this was a Disney collaboration but it's pretty clear that was the kind of blue they were going for. Now the coloring of her dress changes throughout the movie, so they could have gone with a demure powder blue, or a deeper cornflower blue, or even a pale blue gray with a ton of sparkle to match that moment when her fairy godmother first transforms her dress. They went with a sheer pale blue with a TON of pink shimmer. The nail polish appears different indoors in dim lighting and outdoors in bright lighting though I couldn't capture the indoor shade. Outdoors, the pale blue does remind me of her dress but it's not really all that special. Indoors, in dim lighting (i.e. at night), the color gets darker, brighter, and more saturated and all of that pink shimmer comes out to the point that the polish looks greasy. Even though the polish is pretty sheer, you'll notice the shimmer in the first coat.

Application was a hassle. I needed four coats of polish to get it opaque and try and fix all the patchiness, though I still couldn't get smooth, even coverage as you can see from the swatches. The polish was watery and gloopy but it wasn't messy to work with. Applying the polish was not the problem, it was how the polish looked on the nail. It was pretty impossible to get even coats.

Conclusion: I think this is a very pretty color but it feels like something Cinderella would have worn before she met her prince (assuming she had the time to do her nails). If you really feel the need to have this polish, it costs about the same as a pack of gum but it might be better to hold out and hope that Essie or O.P.I. do a Disney Princess collaboration with Disney in the future. It's not completely implausible as O.P.I. has already done a collection for the Muppets and Minnie Mouse.

Question: Assuming O.P.I. did a Disney Princess or Disney Villain collection what colors would you love to see? Maybe a shimmery Kissed a Frog Prince for Tiana? A Colors of the Wind duochrome (like Just Spotted the Lizard) for Pocahontas? The easy choice for Belle would be powder blue or yellow like her two dresses in the movie but I'd love if they could somehow capture the colors in Beast's final transformation scene in a glitter or shimmer polish. In such a happy mood right now. :)

  SWATCHES

White House/Black Market Sale

As I was scoping out daily sale listings, I noticed one for White House/Black Market on Racked. I decided to pretend my browsing was productive by doing a quick post showing you my favorite items. Personally, I'm reluctant to buy anything online, particularly clothing because it's difficult to assess what you'll actually be purchasing from an online photo. But if you're braver than I am, maybe one of these might appeal to you.

I do like that the site has plenty of reviews for most of the items and a video for most of the garments showing a model moving around in the clothes and giving you a 360 view to give you an even better idea of how the item will look when worn. I'm not sure how long the sale is lasting so if you see something you like, I'd grab it before they run out of stock.

Happy shopping,
Cat


$29.98
http://preview.tinyurl.com/crtpbeo
Inexplicably it also comes in a red version that's $59.99
http://preview.tinyurl.com/bpjs3ea

$69.99
http://tinyurl.com/c2jss9c


$99.99
http://tinyurl.com/bs8uwan


$9.98
http://tinyurl.com/cz97o8w

 

Failed Products

Hi darlings!

If you have followed this blog for a while, you might be familiar with my Failed Products round-up. This is a post where I collect all my most disappointing, most aggravating, and usually returned products into one big rant. It keeps me from wasting more time than necessary on these unsuccessful products and you get to read bite-sized mini reviews of frustration. Shall we get started?

Benefit Porefessional Primer (available at Sephora or directly from Benefit)
I have very large, often clogged pores on my nose, making me the target consumer for this product. This primer wasn't horrible but it was tremendously disappointing given all the hype. Like many Benefit products, this primer is scented. I smelled lemon but Benefit products generally just have a nondescript sort of light, pretty, feminine scent. You might find it pleasant or irritating. I wasn't bothered one way or the other. I did think it minimized the look of pores slightly when initially applied. However, during the day, I found the product sort of rising out of my pores so I had a bunch of little bumps on the surface of my nose. I also didn't like the finish, which was sort of matte yet silky. I found that the product emphasizes how dry my skin (I used this during winter) and it looked especially bad when I had a cold and my skin was red and irritated from sneezing. When it first comes out of the tube it looks like it has a color but if you blend well, it's not really pigmented. However, my skin tone is pretty light (I usually wear the lightest or close to the lightest shade of foundation in any line) so I'm not sure how this would perform on darker skin tones.
Rimmel London Lasting Finish Lipstick in 006 Pink Blush

I follow some UK bloggers who love Rimmel products but this lipstick didn't do anything for me. I found the packaging to be a little cheap. The tube is a shimmery eggplant color with silver metal which I don't mind but the closure only seems semi-secure. I was really afraid this one was going to pop open in my purse. It clicks open and closed but it feels a little weak. The lipstick itself is a very pretty stain finish pink with no shimmer. Application was smooth. HOWEVER, it looked absolutely terrible on my lips. The swatches do not do justice to how bad it looked. It felt greasy, it was not opaque no matter how many layers I applied and it sinks into your lips to fill in any lines but leave the rest of your lips patchily covered. I think the color was nice from a distance but it looks so terrible up close I can't possibly recommend it.

CVS Eye Makeup Remover

I'm going to keep this one nice and short. Quite simply, I found this product useless. It was utterly rubbish at removing my eye makeup. Even the products that can be removed with warm water and a bit of soap were too much for it to handle. I know this is a favorite of a few bloggers but the best I can say about it is that it wasn't oily (like the Neutrogena eye makeup remover) and it didn't sting my eyes much.

SEPHORA COLLECTION Lasting and Perfecting Corrector in 02 Medium
I tried out this concealer for about a week, finding its performance tremendously average but when it melted under pressure, it went back to the store. First of all, I dislike how few shades there are. This means its harder to fully match your skin tone and unlike other palette products, you can't just mix different shades to get your perfect color. Sephora offers this concealer in light, medium, and dark. It's basically a cream concealer in a twist up pencil shape. The product is double sides, with a larger rounded ended for covering a larger area and a small, sharper-tipped end for doing detail spot coverage or getting close to the lash line for precision. I'd say this product offers medium coverage and while you can make it look reasonably natural it doesn't blend in fully and can be noticeable under your eyes. It wore pretty well during most of the testing period though I did find that it faded a bit throughout the day. My breaking point came on a hot, humid day when it migrated down to the tops of my cheeks and left cakey residue in the outer corners of my eye.

Drugstore Product Stalking: 540 Amsterdam Avenue CVS

Hi darlings!

Just wanted to do a quick post letting you know what I spotted at this CVS branch...Katy Perry brand false eyelashes. I read about this a while ago on Racked http://racked.com/archives/2012/01/10/katy-perry-is-designing-a-line-of-false-eyelashes.php but I'd forgotten about it since I don't use false eyelashes and I've never seen these sold anywhere. Well, now I have. I'm kind of reluctant to recommend trekking out to 86th St to get these lashes since this is probably the worst CVS I've ever been in and the staff is super incompetent but if you're really interested in trying these out, they do seem on the cheaper side at $7.99.


(Keep reading for more pictures)

La Perla Sample Sale at 225 5th Ave

Hi chickadees,

I was asked to do another promotional post for a sale going on at 225 5th Avenue (between 26th and 27th Streets) from Sunday, June 10th to Thursday, June 14th. This time it's for the sweet and sultry lingerie brand La Perla. I've always stayed away from La Perla in the past because it's a little too expensive for me but this sample sale might be a good chance for you to pick up items at up to 80% off or even just pick up something special for an anniversary or honeymoon. Summer is the season for weddings after all.

Anyway, here's all the basic info...

Location: 225 Fifth Avenue (between 26th and 27th St)
                New York City, NY 10001
                The easiest option is to take the N or R or 6 subway train to 28th St and walk. It's just a             block or two if I remember correctly.

Dates and Times: Sunday, June 10th to Thursday, June 14th.

• Sunday, June 10th: 12pm to 5pm
• Monday, June 11th to Wednesday, June 13th: 9:30am to 6:00pm
• Thursday, June 14th: 9:30am to 7:00pm

Pricing Examples:
I won't advertise sales I don't think are worthwhile. I chose to post this one because the pieces look gorgeous. Still a little out of my price range, but a girl can dream, right?

LACE BRA            Original Price: $230       Sample Sale Price: $80

BOYSHORT          Original Price: $135        Sample Sale Price: $50

 LACE BRA WITH RIBBON DETAIL      Original Price: $250        Sample Sale Price: $80

LACE HIGH WAIST BRIEF WITH RIBBON DETAIL    Original: $214     Discount: $50

BLACK LACE & EMBROIDERED TULLE BODYSUIT   Original: $392   Discount $90

I don't know if I'll personally be covering this sale as I'm going to be extremely busy for the month of June but if you're a fan of La Perla or high quality lingerie, I'd encourage you to check this sale out. :)