Saturday, November 21, 2009

ON HIATUS....But Not For Long!!



Howdy, beauties.

I just wanted to take the time to give you all a little update. Rather than just abandon the blog and never bother to update, I rather let you know exactly what's going on. The holidays are here and that means life in general gets kind of crazy. Family, shopping for gifts, dinner, decorating, family, family, and more family! Oh, and baking! I do a lot of baking this time of year too! Believe me, that takes up a lot of time. It's also winding down at the end of this semester in my class, and that means crunch time!! I have a huge paper I really need to dedicate my time to, as well as prepping for final exams (as well as preparing for my next class in the beginning of the year).

I would hate to continue actively post knowing I'm not putting all my focus into it, know what I mean? I want to give you full posts with in-depth, full-detail information. And I don't feel right not giving you my full potential. Anyways, I hope you all understand. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to drop me an email (located at the right). I will still be checking my email, and if you decide to leave a question in a comment on a post, I'll answer there as well.

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season!!!


Tanya

Monday, November 16, 2009

A Tale of Two Tinted Moisturizers.


Happy Monday!!! I hope you beauties are doing great. I've been slow to post again, due to the last half of the semester and it's crunch time in my class. On top of that, the Holidays are upon us and I'm starting to get into the spirit already :) One local radio station has started to play Christmas music!!! I was surpsied at first, but I don't mind it now While I was running errands on Satuday, it was pretty cozy hearing those cherrful songs (While sipping a Starbucks, of course. Those red cups are so danged festive!!).

I just wanted to share that I'm working on a comparative review on two tinted moisturizers. One is the Sheer Envy Tinted Moisturizer from Hard Candy. As for the other one, I've FINALLY got my hands on the oh-so-elusive Radiant Tinted Moisturizer from Sonia Kashuk a couple of weekends ago (Seriously, in all of the Targets in my area, not one has had this on the shelves for the past year or so). I've been using the two products routinely and alternatively, and I'm working on a review that I hope you all will like!

Posts for the week will pick up after Wednesday (I have a test in my class)- stay beautiful!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

A Fireside Chat With The Train Case.



Maybe you've noticed that I might have not touched upon one subject here on the blog lately. And honestly, it's because I don't really find myself too concerned with it. What I'm talking about are the new FTC rules and regulations regarding bloggers product reviews. In a nutshell, what it all comes down is bloggers have to disclose if they are receiving free product and/or being paid to do reviews. Pssssh. Please. It makes me laugh thinking about it. I don't even dare to really delve into the meat and potatoes of it, but you can read around the blogosphere or directly at the FTC website for more information. Kind of unrelated but this is also why you don't see any ads on the site. I want to keep my blog clean and easy-loading for YOU and ads just tend to bog it down (just my personal opinion, don't shoot me).

Honestly, 99.9999999% of the items I feature on my blog are and have been purchased on my own. I can literally count on one hand (two, to be exact) how many times a company has contacted me and sent me free product to review. You just haven't seen them yet because 1) One of the products I haven't had a purpose to use and review yet and 2) I honestly just forget to use them. And really, I've been nothing but honest on my blog. I would never fluff up a review for the sake of giving it good press or for my own or anyone else's incentive. I tell you what I like about a product. I tell you what I don't like about a product. I also like to tell you who it's good for and who might stay away from it.

Anyways, I can't help but think that this is a pretty petty thing to enforce on bloggers and there are much bigger things/laws/rules/regulations that should be at the top of the FTC's list. Especially me, who am I for the FTC to keep tabs on?? I'm just a small potatoes blog (I mean, how are they going to regulate ALL blogs?). Anyways, from now own (apparently this takes into effect on December 1st, so I'm still good to give you this disclaimer) I'll put a little blurb at the end of each review, telling you if it was purchased on my own or sent to me by a company for review or whatever the situation calls for (FYI I am not going back to edit all of my past posts. That's just silly).

Anyways, in the end, I do want to help you, the beautiful readers, in any way possible. And if this is going to help you in some way, then I am more than happy to do it. I guess the possibility that I could get popped with a fine from the FTC gets me kind of worried, haha! I would rather use that money for other things!
Do you have any opinion on this? Does this concern you in any way? I would love to know how you feel about it.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Got To Be Seen In Green.

Green may not be my favorite color, but I'm absolutely loving the shade on my nails right now. Thankfully enough, it's a hot color right now as well, making it a pretty easy to find shade in stores.

I stopped by my local Sally's Beauty the other night to see what kind of new goodies were in. They had a lot of Holiday items out, including some of the new releases from Finger Paints and China Glaze. If you love green, hold on to your seats....


Finger Paints Evergreen Dream


China Glaze Emerald Sparkle


Nina Emerald City

Evergreen Dream and Emerald Sparkle are pretty similar, but totally different at the same time. Evergreen Dream is more "shimmery" than actual glitter, while Emerald Sparkle is all glitter, baby. I don't know which I like more, they're both gorgeous, but Emerald Sparkle just has this beautiful glow to it. Emerald City has some blue undertones in it, but it's still rather gorgeous.

Here are some other new greens I recently purchased...


LA Girl Flare in Jade


LA Girl Matte in Alpine Green

LA Girl is becoming a fast favorite of mine. They have tons (tons) of colors to choose from, and they're so cheap! The first, Jade, was found at Forever 21. It was difficult trying to capture the true color, but it's not as blue as shown. The matte range is pretty new from what I understand, and was found at a local accessory store at the mall.

Then, of course, brings me to my NOTD...


Hard Candy in Envy

1) Even in the sunlight I still can't capture the shimmer well. Photography fail!!! 2) I know, my nails look to' up. I've had this on for a week, so I guess it could look worse. Anyways, this was pretty much love at first sight. It's a deep blackened green that looks black in normal lighting- but catch it in the light and it really pops.

I also wanted to share some other little goodies I picked up from Sally's. These are some new Sall Girl nail polishes out for the holidays. I love these! They're only 99 cents, but if you sign up for their card, they're an even better 89 cents!


(None of these have proper names, from what I can see on the bottle) First, a really pretty light blue. This is another color I absolutely love. Reminds me of China Glaze' s For Tiffany, but I haven't compared yet.


Awesome deep purple with a beautiful shimmer. Again, difficult to catch the shimmer, but there are hints of blue.


Glittahhhhhh!!!!!! Tis the season for glitz and glimmer and this is it!!! Amazing chunky silver glitter in different sizes. There was also a gold available as well.


Ahh, the best for last. I was most excited for this one!!! This is a gorgous pink with Holo. Glitter. I'll let that sink in for a sec......

I guess you could say I'm in a big nail phase right now. I'm finding myself buying less makeup, but more nail polish :) Either way I'm having to make more room!!

Thursday, November 05, 2009

NOTD - Debbilia # 77

Over the past weekend, I went on a small shopping excursion with my equally beauty-loving cousin, Alex. One thing that we love to do (other than eat sushi, eat ice cream, listen to Michael Jackson, eat, eat, AND EAT) is top at random 98 cent stores. You can actually find a lot of neat things in there, if you just look around. We both like to look for beauty items, my cousin loves to look for fake eyelashes and I just like to look for whatever I can get my hands on ;)

At the second store we stopped at, I noticed some rather large polish racks up by the register. I made a bee-line to the display and almost had to fan myself!!! Beautiful polishes, ahoy!!!!!


Debbilia #77

I wish I knew more about Debbilia polishes. Simple Google searches lead me nowhere (as far as a website with more colors or a place to order). This shade is #77, a beautiful dark olive and gold sparkle with a dark black base. Apologies to the lack of sun photos. Thanks to the time change, buy the time I get home the sun is down and, well, I have to settle for indoor photos. The formula was easy to work with and the color was opaque in two coats. This is one of those colors I'm guilty of just admiring in the sun while I drive, it's so hypnotizing!


#58, #80, #82

These are the other polishes I picked up. #58 is a light purple sparkle and #80 is a golden sparkle. These are both on the sheer side and would be beautiful for layering over darker polishes. #82 is a gorgeous blue/green with a similar dark base like the above #77. These little polishes cost me a mere 98 cents. Pretty groovy, huh?

I wish I could give you some more information about this mystery brand- have you ever come across a small brand that totally blew you away, only to find there's no information to be found?

Monday, November 02, 2009

Not So Spooky Halloween.

Halloween this year was unlike Halloween's of the past. I love Halloween, don't get me wrong. But this year the spirit has been lacking. Usually my house is decked from front yard to backyard with some kind of spider, witch, or pumpkin. I may have to attribute that to being out of the state for half of the month. My job is usually bubbling with excitement gearing up for the big Halloween potluck. I especially look forward to those. We have tons of food, music, and costume contests (Not to brag, but, I've won for the past two years in a row!). This year, for reasons which I dare not go into, the potluck was canned :(

There was still a glimmer of Halloween spirit, though. We were "allowed" to dress up in costume if we wished. But the way it was worded and handled almost made me not want to dress up, know what I mean? I didn't want to NOT dress up, but I didn't want to dress in my big usual get-up I always show up in. I still wanted to make a statement without being so flashy.

So, I came up with this "non-costume" costume for work Friday:



Surprisingly, it was a hit. People didn't know who/what I was supposed to be. I didn't know who/what I was supposed to be! It was all how you interpreted it. I was a widow, a 50s housewife (a dark one, I suppose), a French lady, etc. Personally, I either went with a 50/60s housewife that just killed her husband (AKA Betty Draper gone apesh*t crazy) or Mrs. White from the movie Clue (which would have been extra perfect if I were carrying around a rope- but, could be considered a weapon at work!). I was surprised that NO ONE at work had seen this classic 80s gem- so I had to explain that one.



The dress I had hiding in the back of my closet. I probably only wore it out once. It was perfect. The gloves were purchased at a local costume/party store. The hat, my favorite piece, is vintage. I picked it up at an estate sale sometime last year for a couple of bucks. Necklace and shoes were more things just laying around.



For foundation, I used Revlon ColorStay Active in Buff, which is usually a perfect color match for me, but I applied more than usual, giving me a slightly paler look, and used a lot of powder also making me look extra pale. My eyes were a simple, smoky eye (I somewhat based the technique off a look from Kevin Aucoin's book Making Faces) . I used colors a few NYX trios (Black & gray from trio #1. Nude and dark brown from trio #3) and used Urban Decay 24/7 in Zero to line. On my cheeks, a mix of NYX Mauve and Spice blushes. On the lips I used NYX lip liner in Dark Purple and Night Out lipstick from Hard Candy (@ Wal Mart). I wanted to do something dark, but not red. This dark, vampy plum/burgundy was perfect. And, even though I specifically bought it for this look, it actually kind of grew on me!

On Saturday, I was so tired that I just stayed in. I had a costume made in case I went anywhere, so at least I have something for next year. To be in the spirit, I threw on this comfy black cotton/jersey dress, tights (again), and some cat ears. Meow! I passed out candy all night for the kids, I really do love doing that, I love to see the costumes! We had the usual pirates, zombies and witches. I did have one boy dressed as Michael Jackson (Glove and everything! I gave him extra candy) and a middle school girl dressed as Lady Gaga. It was a nice, relaxing evening watching movies and drinking hot chocolate!

Now it's your turn, tell me about your weekend!