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!!

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?

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!

Paint It Black.

I look inside myself and see my heart is black

I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facin' up when your whole world is black


A small ode to a little nail polish.....

Yeah, I know it's Halloween-time. And usually the black nail polish comes out to those that don't normally wear it. But generally, it's become such a common color that it doesn't get the looks is used to (I remember my dad just couldn't wrap his head around black nail polish a few years ago when we saw it on someone a the mall. Now, he could care less).

Wet n Wild Black Creme

This little bottle of fantastic is under a buck, how great is that? In my opinion there really is no reason to go out and spend money on anything costing more than this. I generally like the formula of Wet n Wild polishes. One generous coat is really all you need. I've had this on for a week and have not experienced one chip or peel. With a top coat you have a deep, dark, sexy, glossy black. It can't get any better than that!

I've been feeling a little under the weather lately, I was even sent home from work (who wants a sick person at work?). Even though I was sneezing uncontrollably last night, I still managed to carve a pumpkin (and not carve a finger off). See if you can recognize it ;)

Yes....a Thriller Pumpkin!!!! I actually found a few (free) Michael Jackson/Thriller-Themed patterns, and this one was (what I thought to be) the easiest. The eyes were a little tricky, and thought it was going to break with every carve, but it came out! I'm very pleased- I hope others like it too!

Anyone else carving pumpkins? :)

Cargo's Eastern Eye Pencil Collection

Hello, beauties!!!! I'm currently spending this beautiful Sunday afternoon stuck at the computer writing a small research paper, lucky me, right? This is going to be a quick post, as I wanted to get these up before the weekend was over.

When I mentioned in my last post that I had ordered Cargo's Easter Eye Pencil Collection from Sephora's Friends & Family sale- I had immediate requests to do a whole post on them. You asked for it- you got it!

Cargo's Easter Eye Pencil Collection is a set of 5 mini-sized eye liners, cased in a sturdy, magnetized hard plastic case. The case has little grooves in it and the pencils fit perfectly. For comparison of the size of the pencils, here is an Urban Decay 24/7 mini against the Cargo pencil.

The colors in the set are fantastic. They include a black, purple, gold, blue, and olive.

I tested the blue pencil on Friday- which was a bad day because my allergies were kickin' that day and my eyes were watering like crazy. But I have to say, despite the water works the color stayed pretty true and only had to touch up a couple of times.

Black, Purple, Gold, Blue, Olive.

The colors when applied are beautiful, they go on smooth and the color is very vibrant (I didn't expect the blue to be so vivid when applied to my lower lashline! I even had to try and tone it down a bit). The black pencil actually comes off more of a steely gray, which is fine because it's still a pretty color. My favorite pencils are the purple and olive. The finish I would say is more metallic than shimmery, and the only pencil to have actual glitter would be the gold pencil, but don't worry, it's small so it won't irritate.

I think this a great set from Cargo- are the colors terribly unique? No, but they are very pretty and wear great. Plus, for $18 you can't beat the price. A perfect gift for the Holidays!!