Julep: December 2014, The Countdown Collection

 I would like to point out that I got this about two weeks ago.  I've just been too busy to post about it with it being the end of the first semester at school, holidays, and field trips, etc. I've also been hanging out with friends a lot more at work and working out almost every day, so by the time I actually get home and collect the mail, I'm beat. 

I haven't even opened the  December Ipsy bag yet and I got that last week.

However, I'm very happy to say that my box from Julep got her on time, with no issues with delivery, my address didn't get cut off this month, the package didn't have to be sent back to sender, so it's all good.

Julep is a monthly subscription box that specializes in nail polish, but also, especially within the last year, they've started making a lot of beauty products.  They have some pretty nifty nail polish colors, and I tend to like their eye makeup like eyeliner and such. 

Well that's a nice surprise. Apparently Julep upgraded my entire box for free. Sweet. Happy December to me?

December was the countdown collection... Makes sense with New Year's Eve and such.

from l to r: Rochelle, Aurora, Sharma.

Rochelle is a pretty cranberry shimmer color. 

Aurora is a bright silver creme. 

Sharma is a bronze glitter.

Those are all the IT GIRL colors. I really like Rochelle a lot, it's a color that I don't think I have much like. Aurora is meh, I feel like I have too many silver colors just like it. Sharma is a bronze glitter, no opinion either for or against. 

from l to r: Sienna and Ilga.

Sienna strikes me as the perfect holiday color. It's a gold creme, which I like because I don't have any gold color like that. Most of my gold colors are glitter and can't be used as a solid base coat, but Sienna is a gold that i could use as a base coat if I wanted to.

Ilga is a dark red. As I've mentioned before, I'm not much of a fan of red nail polish. But for a red color, it's not too bad. 

Those were the classic with a twist colors. 

from l to r: Soleil and Paula.

Soleil is a bronze creme color. I don't have anything like it, and like Sienna, I like how it's a metallic base coat.

Paula is awesome. It's a bright electric blue color with a purple and silver sort of shimmer.

These were bombshell colors. 

from l to r: Karissa and Chatoya.

Karissa is a bright red color. It's very red?

Chatoya is a silver pink glitter color. It's very different from other glitters I have. 

Those were Boho Glam.

The upgrade also came with all three eyeshadow colors, an eye shadow brush, and eye primer.

Airglow

 Supernova

Equinox

And then I went to open moonbeam and found this:

I'm sure I could've called Julep and told them what happened and they would've sent me a replacement product, but it didn't seem worth it really, when they upgraded my box for free, and I didn't initially pay for this as it is, so I just let it be.

But that's what the dust all over some of those nail polish bottles was in my pictures.

from  l to r: equinox, supernova, and air glow.

Equinox is a beautiful shimmery silver color. I absolutely love silver eyeshadow and this is an amazing silver color. It's a dark silver and it has just enough shimmer and glitter that it really looks awesome.

Supernova is an amazing molten purple glitter, I'm sad that I don't think my picture shows the details of the color. It's a slightly darker purple with some pink glitter and it's really an incredible color.

Airglow is a nude shimmer. It's a very pale nude color. It's one of the few colors that I probably could wear for every day use at work and it would have just enough of a sparkle that it would kind of be different than what I usually wear and I like that about it.

So overall, I really liked the December box. I loved the eyeshadow, and the nail polish colors were a little bit different than what I usually get. 

And thanks Julep, loved the free upgrade.

March: Wantable

 It's Wantable time again.

FYI Wantable is a highly customizable makeup subscription box.  It's a little more pricey than say Ipsy, at $36.00, per month, but it's always valued way more than you initially spend on the box. It's also personable.

They don't just have a makeup box. They also have an intimates box that sends you things like underwear, bras, and lounge clothes, as well as an Accessory box that sends you things like jewelry or scarves.

All the boxes that they send to you, are based on your very specific answers to their quiz that you take, when you become a member. Then they use your profile based on the quiz to send you a box.

This is mine. I apparently need to tweak it because I don't love medium and I'm not sure why it says I do. But other than that, it's pretty accurate, I love eye shadow, eyeliner, lash product, nail polish, and tools.  I like warm and cool colors as well as complexion products. Also, something I need to tweak, I don't like complexion products. And I dislike brows, highlighter, blush, bronzer, and lip color.

You're more likely to get products you love, you sometimes get products you like, and you never get products you dislike.

Their products are also ALWAYS full-size. 

They recently changed their style quiz, and I haven't retaken it since. I'll redo it after I write this entry, which is probably why mine isn't that accurate, at the moment.

The nice thing is, you can always tweak your answers, so if one month, you only want nailpolish and eyeliner. You can do that. Your profile isn't set in stone.

This was a first glance at my box.

Liberty Republic Spellbound Nail-polish in Lovespell and Enchanted. Both woth $14.00, so these two are worth $28.00 total.

Jordan Liberty was this month's featured stylist, so these nail polishes are exclusively for Wantable, made by him, it's the debut of them, which is probably why I go two.

Lovespell is a bright fuchsia color.

Enchanted is a bright teal color.

They're both colors I like, but other than being colors I like, I don't see what's really that special about them, to be honest, not that there's anything wrong with more nailpolish to add to my collection.

PI_ with a wink! eyeshadow in Perfection, worth $18.00.

It's a creamy nude eye-shadow. It'll make a good base for every-day makeup. It has a subtle shimmer that you can't really see in my picture. But again, nothing special.

MiA BelleZZa Ooh La La Eyeliner Duo in Spellbound, worth $24.50.

This is the one product I really like. It's a dual eyeliner that comes with a brush. The two colors are dark black pigment, and a shimmery glitter charcoal color. I love black eyeliner and I love glitter eyeliner, so all in all, this is a perfect product for me.

The total value is: $70.50, which is much more than I've paid, but I've had much better value boxes in the past. This also had only 4 items, instead of the usual 5-6 items, and it didn't have any sort of sample.

It wasn't a bad box, by any means, I've just had better boxes.

But seriously. Wantable is the best make-up box for your money because you do really get products, for the most part, that you'll use, and they also have a great return policy, if you don't like what you got. 

I've been subscribed to them for about four months, and I don't see myself giving them up, anytime soon. I do recommend them.

Now off to re-take my quiz.

Glamour Doll Eyes: January

Glamour Doll Eyes is an eyeshadow company that make pretty funky bright colored eyeshadows out of all natural ingredients.  I've read a lot about them, and was always interested to try their products. They have an eyeshadow of the month subscription and I finally got the opppourtunity to try them.

They have very limited spots in their monthly color program. It usually opens up on the 8th of a month, and then you can choose either a one month, two month, four month, or six month subscription. The spots fill up very fast, I happened to be lucky and I snagged a spot in the two-month slot.

I got my January color of the month today.

 It fit in my tiny apartment mailbox, which made me happy. In the envelope was this.

Inside the bag was this, and I love how the laffy taffy matches the bag and eye-shadow color perfectly.  The laffy taffy did not last very long after these pictures were taken.

 

January's color was social suicide. On the color are the ingredients, the name of the color, and it also tells that all products are vegan. 

This is the color next to the laffy taffy. To me the color is the perfect Tardis blue, which makes this Doctor Who fan very pleased. It's a bright blue color with silver sparkles.

Here's a swatch on my arm, done without primer,  just put on. You can very much see how bright the color is, the silver sparkles, and how hairy my arm is. 

This is the color on my eyes. Please ignore the smeared mascara and eyeliner. This is my, I just finished school, tested pre-k students for 7 hours, and attempted to cook my fiance lasagna look. It's a really beautiful color, and it brings out my blue eyes very nicely, and I really like how it looks.

So, overall, I'm really pleased with my first color of the month. I mean how can I not love a company that sends me candy? They have a lot of really cool colors too, and they're definitely worth checking out if you like bright glittery eye-shadows. So check out Glamour Doll Eyes if you get a chance :)

January 2014 Birchbox

Oh Birchbox, I have a love/hate relationship with you, mostly bordering on hate, sometimes you send me stuff I really like, at other times, it's just meh :/

Fortunately, I really LIKED January's Box, it might be the first box, where I actually have a use for every product.

Birchbox is a company that sends you a box of samples every month. It's ten dollars, and you get all sorts of samples sent you ranging from hair products, to skin products,  to perfume, to nailpolish and makeup. You can tweak your profile to try to get things you want, but in my experience, it doesn't always work.

There's usually a waiting list, I think I was on it for a month before I got my first box in June.

First of all, shipping sucked this month. Usually my box gets to me in a reasonable amount of time, but it came about five days after it was scheduled to get to me, but whatevs.

Here's the pretty birchbox.

This months theme is "Go Time", birchbox says 2014 is the time to take on more: "more things to try [maybe that's why I got a perfume sample this month], to conquer, to integrate into our lives."

The inside of the box.

Nail Rock, Sequin, and I got a full-size, so it's worth $7.00. It's "The UK brand's two step system for the world's brightest disco mani." I really like sparkly glittery things, hence the name of this blog, and my quest to get shiny Charmanders in Pokemon X [I think I've had 50 non-shiny charmanders born now, and they're all named after rappers and world traded], so I am intrigued. You paint your nails with two coats of the clear stuff, then stick them in glitter, and let it dry for a twenty minutes, and you get glitter nails. I so really like the color too, it's sort of a sea green glitter :) I'm not sure how I feel about waiting twenty minutes, however, so we shall see. I do like it though.

Beauty Protecter, Protect & Detangle. A regular size is eight ounces, and costs $21.95, my sample is maybe a quarter of that? I'm not sure, it's a decent-sized sample. So I'll price it at $5.50. It's a "best selling elixir that locks in color, protects from heat damage, and adds silkiness." I like water parks. My fiance likes water parks.  Every summer we go to Schlitterbahn, and a spray in de-tangler is a great product for me [and him, he has longer hair than me] to help with heat/chlorine damage, and it's a perfect travel-size. It also smells like vanilla marshmallows, which is a nice touch. 

INIKA Mineral Eye-Shadow in Eternal Marine, "packed with certified-organic ingredients, these natural pigments stay vibrant for hours." I got a full-size, which makes it worth $20.00. I really like loose eyeshadow, and this color is really pretty.

 

It's sort of a turquoise color. I did a swatch of it, and this is the color without any sort of primer, just swatched on my arm. It's a green/gray/turquoise color, which is my favorite eyeshadow colors because it brings out my blue-gray eyes, and it goes on so nice and thick, that a little bit will go a long way. 

Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy, a perfume sample, where "wild berries flirt with mandarin and soft floral notes for a scent that's fun and happy." It's about 70 dollars. [Seriously why is perfume so expensive?]. My sample is little. I'm not sure how to price a perfume sample. Maybe $3.00?  I don't like perfume, I don't wear it, I don't like it, this is the first time I ever got a perfume sample. It doesn't smell bad, for a perfume, it's sort of fruity? It's bearable.  I can't imagine when I'll have a use for a perfume, but if I do... at least it's one I don't mind?

Burt's Bee's Intense Hydration Day Lotion, and a coupon. This is a "Birchbox find alert", where you basically get it for free, and it doesn't count towards your samples, in any way. I really like Burt's Bees, and I like moisturizer, especially in winter, when my skin gets dry, so I'm happy with it. Probably worth about $2.00 or so.

Let's add:  I paid ten dollars for this box, and got products worth $37.50, so my box really paid out this month, and for once, I like most of what I received. Good job, Birchbox.

January has been a slow month for subscription boxes. I know Ipsy shipped, but they have notoriously slow shipping. There's a few more coming. A few more I may have to tweak the credit card on it, thanks to the Target identity theft ploy, where they got my credit card number, and I had to get a new card. Hm, I should get on that.

Shiro Cosmetics: There and Back Again: A Hobbit Collection

It should be no surprise to anyone, who knows me, that I like Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit. Granted, I struggled through reading them. I managed to read all of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, but was so bored, that I said frak it to Return of the King  and waited for the movie to come out. I've been attempting to read The Hobbit, since my fiance says it's awesome, and he doesn't read, so if he's actually recommending a book that he read, I want to do my best to get through it, I'm on Chapter four, it's just a slow process...

But, I love the movies, I have many happy memories of watching them with my dad and shipping Legolas/Gimili, and Sam/Frodo, and whenever I am home, and they're on, we make it a habit to watch them together.

I've also named all my Eevee's after the characters of the fellowship and characters in the movies... Jolteon is Gimli, Legolas is Vaporeon, Elrond is Glaceon, Arwen is Sylveon, and Boromir is Flareon. I'm working on evolving Aragorn into Umbreon, Frodo into Leafeon, and Galadriel into Espeon.

Oh I also have a cat named Gandalf the Gray:

So anyhow when I found There and Back Again: A Hobbit Collection by Shiro Cosmetics I couldn't resist.

Disclaimer: I am a poor pre-k teacher. I spent my hard-earned monies to buy this makeup. I am not affiliated with the website, and this is just my honest opinion.

The most awesome thing about Shiro Cosmetics is they're nerd themed. There's a Pokemon eyeshadow collection, a game of thrones makeup collection, a Link collection, and all sorts of fun nerd-themed makeup for geeks like me.

Also, they're 100% Vegan and Cruelty free, which makes this crazy cat lady happy.

AND THEY SEND CANDY WITH EVERY ORDER AND I LOVE CANDY.

Shipping was fast, and the best part was, the envelope is small enough that it fit into my tiny apartment mailbox, and I didn't need to go into the office to get it. YAY!

The candy may or may not have disappeared immediately after I took this picture.

These are all my Hobbit eye-shadows. There are three different sizes you can get. You can get a sample size, which is about 1/4th of a teaspoon, mini jars, which are 1.0 grams each, that's the size I got, or you can get jars that are 2.0 grams each. If you get a whole collection, it's 10% off. I chose jars because with my cats and my klutziness, I figured those were less likely to make a mess of my apartment. 

Each color is labeled with the name of the shadow, and the ingredients in the shadow.

I attempted to swatch the colors... Word of advice, DON'T USE MR CLEAN MAGIC ERASER TO CLEAN THE MAKEUP OFF YOUR ARMS, I thought it was just a normal sponge, I washed the swatches off, and about ten minutes later, my arms were covered in a chemical burn. I asked my fiance what happened, and that's when he told me it was a Magic Eraser NOT a sponge. 

from l to r: War of Five Armies, When the Thrush Knocks, Fifteen Birds in Five Fir Trees, There and Back Again, Chiefest of Calamities, Lingered in Twilight.

War of Five Armies is the color of dried blood. It's a brown that's a cross between coffee grounds and a sword stained with old blood. It's sort of rust colored. I don't think my swatch gives much justice to it, to be honest. I really like brown colors because I can do semi-neutral looks with them. 

When the Thrush Knocks is a pretty coppery color. It shimmers much more then my pathetic attempt at a swatch shows. 

Fifteen Birds in Five Fir Trees is GORGEOUS!!!  It's a dark forest green with reddish and silver sparkles, and I can't wait to wear it. 

There and Back Again is a pretty emerald green color. Think Emerald City in Wicked or the Wizard or Oz.

Chiefest of Calamities is Gryffindor colors. Think Gryffindor scarlet.. It's very much an orange-red color, I normally don't like orange. It's one of the colors my mother insists upon having in my wedding, and I refuse. But this eyeshadow color has a nice pop. I think it goes on more red than orange.

Lingered in Twilight make me happy. It's an amazing dark teal color with shimmer... think a starry Rivendell night, and that's the color. I cannot wait to wear it. 

from l to r: King Under the Mountain, Attercop Attercop, Riddles in the Dark, and Farewell wherever you Fare.

King Under the Mountain is a silver sparkly color, and I did an awful job trying to make a swatch of it. I apologize. It's a dark gray earth color with silver sparkles. 

Attercop Attercop is a black base shadow with loads of blue shimmer and glitter. It will look awesome on me with my blue eyes... and it sparkles.

Riddles in the Dark is a greenish black with gold sparkles.

Farewell Wherever You May Roam is a brownish gray and perfect for a neutral base.

from l to r: A Regular Bears Meeting, The Wandering Wizard, The Last Homely House, An Unexpected Party, and Not Drawing Room Fashion.

A Regular Bears Meeting is a dark reddish brown.

The Wandering Wizard is a light grayish blue, although I think it's more blue than gray, at least that's what it looked like when I attempted to swatch it. It will make a nice highlighter color :)

The Last Homely House is brownish with a slight shimmer of green. I like the color, but would think that a color invoking Elrond and Rivendell would be more of a light gray/white/blue color with silver sparkle like the waterfalls of Rivendell.

[I've just gotten to the part in The Hobbit, where they got captured by Goblins]

An Unexpected Party is a tan color with a slight greenish shimmer.

Not Drawing Room Fashion is an awesome gray color. I freaking love gray eyeshadow, I have silver in my eyes, and gray eyeshadows really bring out the silver, and it almost matches my Oil Slick 24/7 eyeliner pencil perfectly.

Sorry my swatches SUCKED!! I'll get better, I promise. And these were just color on my arm, no primer or anything, so I'm sure the colors would look brighter with primer.

I really like these colors. A lot of them I can use for neutral looks that may even be school acceptable, and the other half are all beautiful shimmery and glittery colors. I'm excited to see what sorts of looks I can come up with.

And I highly recommend Shiro Comsetics, they have some really awesome colors, and they have great service, and the stuff gets here fast!!!!

Julep: January 2014, the boudoir collection

Julep's speedy shipping always astounds me. Technically, this was the LAST box of 2013 because it arrived on New Year's Eve, but the apartment office was closed, so I couldn't pick it up till today. But I always get their boxes early, like before the month they're meant to be for starts.

Anyways, HAPPY 2014, I hope everyone has an awesome 2014, and it brings everyone lots of happiness and good things. As for me, I'm just hoping 2014 is better than 2013 was. 2013 wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best year for me either,  so hopefully 2014 can kick it's ass.

2014 also means about one year till my wedding!!!


I'm sad that break is almost over. I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to school. My first graders matured a lot after Christmas break, last year, which was great, here's hoping that Pre-K students do the same.

Mostly over break, I've done this:

Caught 9 different Eevees, so I can have every single Eeveelotion in my current Pokemon X game, which I just got on NYE, and I think I've already played it for 50 hours straight!

 

I will be very sad, when my video-game time is cut in half once the school year starts. 

But anyhow, onto the box:

This month, I didn't really do any upgrade. I wasn't impressed with any of the polish colors, really, and I was just like "meh" but didn't want to skip a month because I want my joules.

For those of you, who are new to Julep: It's a nailpolish subscription site, where for about 20 dollars a month, they send you a variety of nailpolish and makeup/beauty products. There are different profiles, your profile gets picked based on a quiz you take, but you're not stuck being that profile forever, at any month, you can change to any of the other boxes [or upgrade to the full collection] of you like what they get better.

 

I'm "classic with a twist", which means I get two nailpolish colors and one beauty product every single month. I've been a member of Julep since March 2013. 

 

As a Julep Maven, you do get some pretty awesome sales, and they have some pretty nifty mystery boxes, and they do have a variety of nailpolish colors and makeup products to choose from that are usually highly discounted during their sales, which are usually monthly sales. There's usually one mystery box sale per month, as well. 

 

If you're interested, you can click my referral link here

 

This is the inside of the box, and let's hope Julep is right and 2014 will be my year.

 

January is the "boudoir collection," which promises fancy finishes & top drawer products.

In the box I found the following:

Orange Sponges, which I assume are this month's extra. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but hey, they were free.

This is Julep's TADA! Quick Dry Drops. The directions state to wait one minute after your final coat of polish, then apply 1-2 drops per nail. The liquid smells good, sort of lemony and flowery. I'm interested to these drops. I always look for speedy ways to dry my nails, and I usually opt for sticking my hands in the freezer for two minutes, this seems slightly easier, and less colder, although the freezer method does work extremely well for me. I shall try these next time I paint my nails.

My two monthly colors: Mona & Abigale. 

Mona is a dark bluish gray color. It reminds me of cumulonimbus clouds on a stormy day/night.

Abigale promises a silky finish. I shall let you know what that means after I try it. It's a light pearly pink color with a nice shimmer. 

Overall, I like these two colors. They will get worn eventually. I don't think they're my overall favorite colors ever, but they are nice, and they won't just collect dust, in a corner. 

The other day, I painted my nails with Nellie, which was an It Girl color that I received in my Naughty & Nice mystery box that I ordered back in December. It's very much a neon fuchsia color, in my opinion. It goes on very nicely. This is only one coat of polish. I very much like how it looks, and it's barely chipped, and I've had it on my nails for about three days, already.

I've also been playing with Naked 3 by Urban Decay. This is a look I did the other day. The eyeliner was sort of a dark turquoise color, it was Zeppelin, which is a 24/7 eyeliner crayon from Urban Decay. I used the white shimmer eyeshadow that I got from my Ipsy Pop Beauty Smokey Trio bag back in December, and I used the colors: Mugshot and Darkside from the Naked 3 palette, and it gave my eyes a nice silvery gray sheen. And the Golden Rose Sexy Black Mascara that I got from my December Wantable box is amazing. It makes me look like I have eyelashes, and it's really easy to apply on my bottom lashes, which up until I got that makeup had always been a challenge for me. 

My birchbox has recently been sent in the mail, so I'm sure that will be arriving soon, as it arrives pretty early in the month. Upcoming boxes are Ipsy, Wantable, some eyeshadow I ordered from Shiro Cosmetics, and Nerd Block, which I just started ordering this month. 

Anyhow back to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey