Hey everyone. I'm sure most of you have noticed that my posts have been a bit stretched out lately. I apologize for not posting more often or as regularly as I had before. But I seem to always have a lot to do and not enough time to tackle it all anymore. As soon as it seems like things are slowing down a bit and I'll have more time to blog, something else pops up that I need to take care of.

There is something I had fleetingly considered quite some time ago and with the chaos that is life keeping me from being able to post as much as I'd like to I've been giving this idea more and more thought lately. I have been considering pooling together with a couple other ladies and making them authors on this blog. This way posts would be made more regularly. I also feel like with a couple authors with different skill levels and preferences it could be great to add some variety to the posts here.

But this would be a big change to the blog. And y'all know I don't like to make any major changes here without first getting your thoughts and opinions on whatever changes are on the table. Afterall, YOU are the ones who read this blog and come here looking for inspiration, swatches and tips etc. So what YOU think is very important to me. If you all could please just take a second to vote in this poll as to whether or not turning this into a group blog is a good idea I would appreciate it. The poll will remain open until the end of April. I will be making this a "sticky" post to remain at the top of the page until then; you will have to scroll down past this post to see new posts made between now and then.

At the moment I have one other blogger who would be joining me here if this change does happen. I am not sure yet exactly how I'd pick the others or how many others there should be. I'll start figuring all that out only after I know for certain if I will add more authors to this blog.

Also, if I do make this change I may also change the look of the blog to suit the new direction of the blog with multiple authors. Any input on color schemes/themes is welcome. If you have any input on any of this - adding more authors, color/theme changes, how many authors you think would be ideal etc. please feel free to comment and share your thoughts.


♥

 A while back I picked up a powder and blush from the new Physician's Formula Happy Booster line. 

(All pictures are outdoors in shade with no flash)

First up, the blush. The shade I chose is "Natural". 

This is a really pretty soft pink shimmery blush. It's well pigmented and has a very smooth, silky texture.

And for the powder I chose Translucent. (No point in swatching this one... obviously. lol)

This one also has a silky smooth texture.

Both products have a soft, violet scent to them that I LOVE! It dissipates pretty quickly after applying but it's still a nice touch when you're applying them. (I love violet scented things though so... could just be me.) The powder is shimmery also though so I use it as a highlighter. I wish it were matte so that I could use it for a finishing powder. Just my personal preferences that this has too much shimmer to be a finishing powder but I know some others who love using this as finishing powder. If I were about ten years younger I'd definitely be using this as a finishing powder, but these days I like to keep the shimmer to a minimum and usually it's only my eye shadows or lippies. 

Overall though I quite like both products - they're pricey for drugstore cosmetics IMHO, but Physician's Formula has always been on the higher end of drugstore brands. 

I kind of love this color. ♥ This is two coats in natural light (sunshine) and no topcoat. (Though it was still a bit wet when I took the pictures - it does dry down a touch less shiny.) The formula is slightly thick but nothing difficult to work with. Not really a whole heck of a lot to say about this one. It's 80's style hot pink.A perfect Summery/beach going color. (Meanwhile the cold Winter temperatures are still clinging on here like crazy. I am a total snow bunny but even I am ready for Spring to kick in and warm things up around here!)

I've been wearing a lot of darker nail colors lately and I wanted to change it up and do something softer and girly. So of course, I ended up deciding on a French mani. Soft and girly but still fun and amped up a bit with some glitter and rhinestones.

I started off with a coat of Color Club's Milky White base coat. Then I applied two coats of L'Oreal "I Pink I'm In Love". I actually wanted to Konad on some cute french tips but my stamper has gone missing. So instead I just freehanded some classic v tips with Sally Hansen Hard As Nails XTreme Wear in White On. Then I added a thin stripe of Stripe Rite pink glitter but that did not work out quite so well and the lines are thicker than I wanted. I had not used it for a while and it's thickened up a lot. Can you use regular polish thinner to thin these out? I don't have any anyway so I guess it doesn't matter. But anyway then I finished it off with small bright pink rhinestones and topped it off with a nice thick coat of Seche Vite. 

I like how having the Milky White base coat on accentuates the blue in I Pink I'm In Love - makes it almost duo-chromy.

My nails are finally almost sorta long again too - yay! But of course this happens just as gardening season will be getting under way. Oi. Never ending cycle!

Not too long ago I won some Jafra goodies through a contest that Blogs By Latinas had on Twitter. I'd never even heard of Jafra prior to the contest so I was super excited that I would get to try some products from a brand that was new to me. Check out the awesome prize pack that Jafra sent me:

The Beauty Book is a nice catalog of products as well as a great showcase of looks that can be achieved with their products and some tips and advice. The products that I received were:

Makeup Remover For Eyes And Lips

Eye Pencil in Black

Lash Maximizing Mascara in Black

Powder Eye Shadow Trio in Blue Jewels

Automatic Lip Liner in Fire Red

Full Coverage Lipstick in Very Cherry

Nail Lacquer in Burgundy

Oil Controlling Makeup SPF 15 in Bisque

Pressed Powder in Medium

Powder Blush in Perfect Glow

Of course since I am pale as can be, the foundation and powder are too dark for me. I'm giving those to a friend who can use them so no worries there. A bit of the eye shadow broke in transit so there was blue powder all over the compact of eye shadow but it was not a major break, not a big deal there either. The blush is really pretty but I've not used it yet, I only swatched it. Based on the swatch it is very well pigmented and nice and silky. Looking forward to giving it a proper try and seeing what I think of it.

The blush:

The lip colors are not what I'd have picked out for myself but I actually like them. I think the lipstick is too dark for me (probably in part because I don't usually wear lipstick and when I do it is a sheer, soft shade) but if I lightly dab it on it ends up being a PERFECT "my lips but better" shade for me and I love to wear it. If I apply it straight from the tube it's a deep, dark cherry red shade. The lip liner is a very bright red and I wasn't sure I'd like it at all but I actually really do like it a lot and kinda would not mind owning a matching shade of lipstick to go with it! 

 

The eye shadows are not the most pigmented and not quite as silky as they could be but they're not too bad. They blend well. The eye liner is ok. Not the smoothest application possible but it's workable. Nice an opaque in the swatch but doesn't apply quite as dark; it has a softness to it that I like. The mascara I've not yet used - it will be a while before I give it a try as I just got a new mascara and I don't like having multiple tubes of mascara open at once. Once one of the two tubes I have open right now is ready to be tossed I'll give this one a try though. 

Left to right: lipstick, lip liner, eyeliner:

The eye shadow:

The nail polish is a beautiful, dark, vampy burgundy/wine shimmer shade. One coat was a little streaky but a second coat evened it out and made it perfectly opaque. It's a little darker on the nails than it is in the bottle. The brush could be better, it's a little thin and the bristles are flat across the top. I like the bristles that are cut with a convex curve to them, I feel like it's easier to get precise application. The formula is a little on the thin side but it's not too bad. Dry time was average.

The makeup remover is great - works very well and quickly removes lippies and eye shadow. Required a little bit of work to remove eye liner (Eyeko Graffiti liner) and mascara (Maybelline Falsies) but it did do a great job. I love that it can be used to remove eye AND lip makeup - nothing like a multi-tasker!

Overall, really happy with all these prizes. I'd definitely purchase from Jafra in the future.  You can check out their products at www.jafrausa.com

Along with the new polishes I posted about earlier, I also kinda couldn't help myself and picked up three of the new eye shadow palettes from Wet N Wild. I got one trio and two of the 8 pans. 

(All pictures are indoors with flash; all swatches are shown without primer)

First up is the trio: "Silent Treatment"

Then the 8 pan palettes; first up is Petal Pusher

And last but not least, Comfort Zone

All of the shadows are smooth and silky and for the most part are very well pigmented. They blend very well, and they have pretty decent staying power when applied on their own without a primer first. Applied over primer? They are kind of fantastic. And as always, you just can't beat the prices of Wet N Wild products. Roughly $5 for the 8 pans and $4 for the trio. These are a fantastic bargain!

Did this EOTD over the weekend with the Comfort Zone palette:


I will post more EOTD using these palettes over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned. =)

Hey folks. Just a heads up that this week Eyeko is going to MATCH Ambassadors' commissions made this week in a donation to help with relief efforts in Japan. Please head over to eyeko.com and when you checkout enter Ambassador Code E11100. 15% of your order total will become a donation to help the people of Japan!

I recently picked up these two shades from Wet N Wild. I just could not resist them. 

First is Gray's Anatomy

Indoors, natural light, no flash

This is my new favorite polish. It's pictured at three coats. As you can see it is sheer, but I still quite like it a lot. Depending on the angle and lighting I've seen this polish take on varying shades of gray, blue, pink, purple and green. Words just can't describe it and photos do not do it justice. My only wish is that it were a tad more opaque.

I attempted to capture more of the pretty flashes of color from this one but was not very successful. But hopefully these will help give you some idea what this polish is like. You really need to see this one in person to truly appreciate it, though.

First two pics are without flash, last one is with flash; all are indoors in natural light

And the other one I picked up is Party Of Five Glitters. I'll admit... I kinda only wanted it for the name. LOL I grabbed the last bottle from the shelf without a second thought when I saw the name, and I did not even look closely at it till I got it home. (Yep, I was an avid fan of Party Of Five when I was younger. You'd have never guessed would you?) 

indoors, natural light with flash

I've got it pictured at two coats over top of Gray's Anatomy. This one is a clear base with small, medium and large hex glitter in (can you guess?) five colors: red, green, silver, blue and purple. The glitter is sparse and doesn't apply very evenly; it requires quite a bit of work to get somewhat even distribution of the glitter on your nails. Makes me wish the glitter were a bit more dense so it would apply more evenly. But regardless I like it. (Because I love all things glitter.) The red and green glitter seem to stand out most and makes the polish feel quite Christmas-y to me. Not the best glitter polish I've ever used, but not the worst either. 

Heads up, Eyeko fans!

Starting Monday, March 14th at 12pm UK time: For one whole week the ONLY promotional code that will be accepted on the Eyeko website will be the Ambassador code. Be sure to spread the word and use Ambassador code E11100 every time you shop eyeko.com - you will get a free gift with all purchases over £15/€18/$20.

Pass it on and share the love. Happy shopping! ♥

My personal favorites from Eyeko:

Lip Gloss in Shoreditch and Primrose Hill

Liptastik in Loud Mouth

Nail Polish in Rain and Punk

Last week I recieved a bottle of Dr.'s Remedy Enriched Nail Polish Remover to try out and review. (In case you missed it I also had the opportunity to try a couple of their nail polishes.) Like the nail polishes, the remover is enriched with ingredients that can help improve the condition of your nails over time. You can find all the information you will need about the ingredients on the Dr.'s Remedy web at www.remedynails.com

First impressions: This comes in a small (2 oz.) glass bottle. As compared to a typical remover that you'd pick up at the store this is a very small amount of remover.My first thought was that I can probably go through this bottle very quickly.

I've used this about five times now since I got it and so far I'm pretty impressed. (I've done my nails more often than usual to try out a couple new polishes as well as give this remover a thorough test.) There is no strong odor to this as there is with typical nail polish removers. It still smells like a nail polish remover straight from the bottle of course it just is not a strong smell.  On your nails, it has a light, pleasant fragrance to it from the tea tree oil. It seems to be gentle while still doing it's job well. It hasn't dried my cuticles and skin around my nails at all. It works just about as well as any standard polish remover I've ever used. It requires a little extra time over other removers, but I don't mind that at all. I've also found that while this is a small bottle, a little product goes a long way. With some other traditional removers I've used, I've felt like I really had to saturate the cotton pads with them for them to work. But that's not the case with Dr.'s Remedy. I put the pad over the top of the bottle, turn it upside down then immediately flip it back over and that little bit of remover is enough for - depending on the nail polish (dark vs. light shade, number of coats, glitter vs. no glitter etc.) - 3 to 5 nails to be cleaned thoroughly. When I use a couple coats of darker colors, several coats of lighter colors or glittery polishes, I need a bit more remover to get my nails cleaned up well. I'm still working my way through the bottle a bit quickly but to be fair I go through any remover quickly. It'd be great to have a larger size available than the 2 oz. bottles, I think. But the 2 oz. bottle would certainly be sufficient for those who paint their nails less frequently.

Edited to add price: The remover is just $5 a bottle - a really great price for this product in my opinion! It's a little more expensive than the remover I usually buy but certainly nothing that's out of even my budget. It is worth checking out for those looking for safer alternatives to traditional nail care products. It works well and I really like it a lot and would definitely recommend it.

As far as the review part of this goes, my thoughts on this palette are about the same as for the 96 Eye Shadow Kit. All the colors are shimmery, some more so than others. Some mattes would have been nice, but it's not too bad. The glitter cream eye shadows are ok but I'd never use them as cream eye shadows - I dab a small bit on the outer corner of my eyes when I use them just to add a touch of glitter to a look. I'm not sure how well they would hold up as eye shadow, they seem like even with primer they would crease quickly. They stay "wet" after applying them. The blush is really pretty, it's a gorgeous soft pink pearl that gives a dewy look. Very well pigmented so you only need a tiny bit of it on your brush for both cheeks. One of the colors (I'll make note of which one on the swatches below) was disappointing in that when I first got the palette it appeared to be one color, but once I actually used it it was a completely different color - like it had a thin layer of that other color on top.

I have not looked at the colors closely enough to see for certain but I think there are a few colors that are the same as in the 96 Eye Shadow Kit. It's just too many colors for me to look at and be able to discern if they are all different or if there's some overlap between the two palettes. 

Overall I'm pretty pleased with it. I'm not sure how necessary it is to have both the Diamond palette and the 96 Eye Shadow Kit - especially if you already have similar palettes. But I like having both of them. Would recommend to those who want a palette of multiple colors without taking up a lot of space. As with the 96 Eye Shadow Kit the colors are somewhat soft and subdued with a few exceptions, so not for those who want a palette full of very bold, vibrant colors.

Swatches: All swatches are shown indoors with flash, no primer was applied first. The colors are in the same order as in the palette from top to bottom except the last set with the blush and cream glitters, those are in order from left to right.