Urban Decay Love

I have a hardcore love for Urban Decay. Their 24/7 eyeliner was the first eyeliner I ever bought. I used to buy their glitter eye gel in college that they don't make anymore. I wear their naked palette 3 every day to work. And their mascara makes it look like I have eyelashes.

Anyhow, I've been stocking up on their products lately thanks to amazing black Friday/cyber Monday deals and such.

I bought about three new eyeliner colors. 

from l to r: Junkie, LSD, and Delinquent.

 Here's a different view of the products.

I've been into "wilder" makeup colors lately. I tend to wear enough neutral colors during the school week so that I don't look dead, but when it comes to being social or whatever, I like to add a hint of color to my usual boring look.

Junkie is a greenish silver glittery color. I've always liked green eyeliner. I think it's because I have blue eyes, and green tends to bring out a lot of the blue in my eyes.

LSD is a bright turquoise glitter.

Delinquent is a purple glitter.

My eyeliner collection had severely lacked in the glitter department.

I really like all these colors, and I'm quite happy with the purchase.

A few weeks ago I went to Sephora, and I've been saving my Sephora points for years because there's never been a product I felt like cashing them in for until I saw this.

It was a palette that had an eyeliner and four eyeshadow colors. [for the record, the pinkish and black color did not come like that, this was after I had used it when I snapped this picture]. 

From l to r: skimp, bust, guilt, and oil slick.

I was OBSESSED with oil slick eyeliner for the longest time. It's a black color with silver glitter. The eyeshadow is the same color as the eyeliner. It's one of my favorite colors.

Skimp is very light and very neutral. It's a nice highlighting color or a good base color.

Bust is a little bit darker then skimp, but not by much. It's more brown. It's also a good base or highlighting color. 

Guilt  is a very pretty light pink. I really like the way it looks when it's blended with other colors.

The eyeliner is zero, which is the first black eyeliner I think I ever bought.

On Black Friday, the ammo palette was ten dollars, so of course I had to buy it, especially with free-shipping. 

 

 Top row from l to r: smog, mildew, oil slick, last call, chopper.

Bottom row from l to r: Maui wowie, shattered, polyester bride, grifter, and sin.

The best pic I could get of swatches. 

Smog is sort of a burnt orange color that's a bit more brown than orange. 

Mildew is an olive green color.

Oil Slick is black with silver glitter.

Last Call is sort of a light magenta color. 

Chopper is a nice neutral brown with a nice shimmer. 

Maui wowie is also a nice neutral brown, but it's sort of a cooler color than chopper with more gold than brown.

Shattered is a pale icy blue. 

Polyester Bride is a white eyeshadow color. I used to be OBSESSED with white eyeshadow in college, I'm sort of glad to have a white color again, it was really good to make me look awake. 

Grifter is a pinkish purple color.

Sin is a neutral shimmery brown, as well, though more taupe than anything. 

 

I'm very happy with this palette, it's a nice mixture of brights and neutrals and the price was amazing :)

 

Urban Decay= Love. 

November 2014: Julep "Friendsgiving"

Man, I can't even begin to tell you how much trouble I went through this month to get my Julep box. The box was supposed to be here on the 7th, it never got here. I checked the shipping status, and got that same error message I had gotten before about no such address existing. I called Julep and told them how whatever shipping company they use truncates my address, so the last digit in my apartment number is missing. They said I wasn't the first person to have that issue this month... SO YOU'D THINK THEY'D DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?

They reordered my box for me, and changed my address, so it no longer said "Apt" just a # sign... But the box didn't even send till a week after they said they'd reorder it, and I just got it Wednesday. I really hope I don't have this issue with December's box.

 Eventually it did get to me... in two shipments?

In the pink box was just the mascara that came with my "classic with a twist" beauty profile this month. Nothing else... Just mascara. 

Ignore my marker stained hands- that's what happens when you teach special ed.

It's mascara, I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I feel like the more mascara I have the better, so I'm eager to give it a try and see if it can help me fake the fact that I have no lashes.

This was the second box.

I kept my classic with a twist box, and just added one color. From l to r: Shari, Devon, and Kiki.

I wasn't really wowed with the color selection this month, so I kept my box and  just added Kiki to the order, although I did go add-on heavy with eyeliner :x

Speaking of which, I just realized that I never got a "bonus gift" for filling out all my add-0n spots. 

I don't really care, but it's sort of false advertising to claim you're going to do something and then not follow through with that claim.  It's totally not worth calling them about either... If I did, it would just take another two weeks to send me whatever the bonus product was and who knows if I'd even like it.

Anyhow....

Shari is a very light white pink color. I don't know if I'll ever wear it. But it isn't hideous.

Devon is pretty nifty, it's a gray color with a pink sheen:

[That was the best pic I could get that you can sort of see the pink sheen]

Kiki is a light blue glitter. It's nothing special, but I do like cooler colors like greens, blues, purples, etc as opposed to other colors.

This is every single gel eyeliner color minus the black one, which I own already.

I actually really like their gel eyeliner. It goes on smooth. I barely need primer. And it has amazing staying power, it's definitely up there as one of my preferred eyeliner choices, and it goes on the waterline quite smoothly.

Graphite Shimmer is a really dark gray color that looks more black than gray, and it's pretty awesome. I dig anything that is either black or gray.

Smokey Plum is a black purple. It's more black than purple, but it does have a hint of violet, it's a good color for when black is boring and I want something with a little more color but still dark. 

Bronze Shimmer is a nice neutral dark brown. I lack neutral colors for eyeliner aside from basic blacks, so it's an every day color that I can wear to school.

Regal Teal Shimmer is blue-green and bright. It's a nice wild color.

Smokey Taupe is a pale golden color, it has a nice sparkle, and it's also nice for every day neutral wear.

So as usual I spent far too much money on my monthly Julep box, but I would say I'm satisfied with the products I got, once they eventually got me.

Here's hoping December has far less shipping difficulties. 

Ipsy: Street Style, September 2014

I love September because my birthday is in September. 

So, this year, for my birthday, I asked fiance to get me a joint birthday/Christmas present of a fancy DSLR camera because my DSLR is way out-dated, as in I got it in 2007, and with our wedding, in exactly six months from today, and our road trip honeymoon up the west coast, I wanted a camera to capture it all.

So yesterday, he gave me this:

A Nikon DSLR, so maybe my pictures for this blog will be better now ;P

This came in the mail on Friday... Only I've been way too busy to actually open it and check it out. Gotta love the school year. Oh and then, I knew that I was getting my new camera this weekend, and wanted to wait till I had it to open it :P

Ipsy  costs a measly ten dollars a month. For that ten dollars, you get a brand-new makeup bag filled with 4-6 products based on a style profile that you make when you sign up for it.

It's a mixture of full-size and sample size products, and you always get a good value for your dollar. The bag itself is pretty useful to, I've used them to travel, for pencil and pen cases, and they have a myriad of other uses.

This month's Ipsy theme was "street style."

I like the color of the bag, I do like silver, but I would've liked it better without the silver studs near the zipper.

This is what was in my bag. Mind you, I hadn't bothered to check out spoilers or anything. So I really had no clue, nor do I know why I got two of the same product. I think it was just a lucky extra? Because when I checked my glam room, there was nothing missing from it that it claimed I was going to get but hadn't in the bag. 

Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair, deep conditioning mask, worth about $5.00, based on the prize of a full-size product, which is about 5 ounces, and this one is 1 ounce, and the full-price is about twenty-six dollars.

I've never tried a hair mask before, but my hair is dry and damaged, especially since I swim almost every day as a workout... gotta get in shape for the wedding... and chlorine is a killer to my hair. So I'd like to see if this does anything to my hair to make it healthier. 

If it does, I may consider picking up a full-size.

Nyx Hot Singles Eyeshadow, in Asphyxiation, full-size, worth $4.50.

I like eyeshadow. I like this color. 

This is the color on my hand. It's a nice matte color with the right amount of sparkle, and the color sort of reminds me of Tardis blue. Blue is a good color on me because I have blue eyes.

Pacifica Natural-Proof Eye Pencil, in fringe, worth about $6.00 because it looks like it's about half the size of a regular eye-liner pencil.

On my hand.

Eyeliner is my favorite type of makeup. I could use a good brown pencil. It isn't a color I would have chosen for myself, I prefer blacks/grays/blues, but it's a welcome addition to my eyeliner collection :)

Crown Brush, infinity Shadow/Crease duet brush, worth $7.00.

I like eyeshadow brushes. Lately I've been seeing how useful they are to apply to eyeshadow with, so I'm eager to have another one to play with.

Cailyn Art-Tinted Lip Gloss, in Basic instinct, times two, worth a total of $38.00

Like I said, I have no idea why I got two of them, the exact same product and the exact same color.

Here it is on my hand.

It's a nice nude pink, and the color looks nice on my skin tone. I don't really wear lip gloss too much, but if I do decide to wear it, I do think that's a good color for me.

So the total worth of my bag is... about $60.00

Not too shabby.

For the most part, I think this was a great bag, it had products that I may not always use, but if do chose to use, they're good for me.

Gotta love Ipsy, always a great bang for your buck :)

I'm already looking forward to the October bag, especially since I LOVE HALLOWEEN.

Julep: August 2014, The Wanderlust Collection.

I've been gone for a week. I went to New Jersey, to do tons of wedding stuff... like say yes to a dress... picking out flowers for the centerpieces. Picking out bridesmaid dresses... And while I was gone, my fiance apparently never checked the mail, so I'm not sure how long this was sitting in my apartment complex's office,.

My August Julep box.

Julep is a makeup subscription box. They send nailpolish and beauty products to you on a monthly basis. They also have also sorts of mystery boxes and warehouse sales, and sometimes you can score stuff for dirt cheap. There are two subscription options, My Maven, which is $19.99 with a three month subscription and allows you to customize a box full of products and Maven Luxe, which is $40.00 a month, and allows you to customize an even bigger box. 

As for me, I'm still grandfathered into the old subscription, which is where you pick a style profile, and you get whatever products are in that without customization except for say an eyeliner or lip gloss color.

This month was the Wanderlust Collection. I really loved a lot of the colors in this month's collection. I didn't love all of them enough that I wanted the ultimate upgrade or anything, but I loved them enough that I added on three other colors.

This was the inside of the box.

This was the extra. A cell phone screen cleaning thing. I got something similar from Birchbox once, and never used that one either. 

This was what was under all the wrapping. 

Since I had three add-ons, I got a bonus beauty gift. They send me an eye makeup primer. As extras go, that's really not a bad one. I do wear a lot of eye makeup and I do use primer, sometimes, so I don't mind having an extra primer lying around. It's a lot more useful to me than say something like lipstick or foundation. 

Anyhow, I actually kept my usual classic with a twist box this month.

The beauty product this month was a gel eyeliner pencil.

Classic with a Twist came with the black one, and I saw no reason to switch that to another color. The other choices were a brown color, a purple color, and a taupe color. The pencil went on my hand well, it had a nice point, and it's really waterproof. I took a shower after testing it on my hand and I still have hints of the color on my hand. 

I'm actually very excited about this product, I find Julep really does make excellent eye liner pencils. I love their Kajal eyeliner and I also bought some mini eye liner pencils back during their Christmas sale, and those go on great too.

from l to r: Avni and Katie.

Avni is a bright purple color with a hint of pink shimmer. I really like the color a lot. I also don't have many purple polishes, oddly enough, so I'm very happy to add a purple to my nailpolish collection.

Katie is a mulberry pink color with a purple shimmer. It's sort of the opposite of Avni. It's a really nice shade of pink. I don't think I have many pink colors similar to it.

from l to r: India, Waleska, and Neha.

India is a bright blue color with a green shimmer that you can't really see in my picture. It reminds me a lot of Caribbean Ocean water with the contrast of the blue and green, and I really like it a lot.

Waleska is gorgeous. It's a turquoise color with gold glitter. My picture doesn't do it justice.

Neha is actually not as red as it looks in my picture. It's a dark cranberry with a neon pink shimmer. It's more pink than red. It's also a gorgeous color.

I was very pleased with  Julep this month. The color selection was great. I'm excited to see what September brings from them. They totally made up for the July box that I hated.

So check them out, if you're so inclined. 

AND OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE SCHOOL STARTS ON MONDAY.

I don't know if I'm ready for another year yet!

Birchbox: April 2014

In its defense, my birchbox arrived early, last week, and it just sat on my table for almost another week because I just had so much going on that I didn't have time to even open it between doctor's appointments and outpatient surgery.So, it didn't actually get delivered as late in the month, as I'm posting it.

Birchbox is a subscription box service. It's one of the cheaper ones, at ten bucks, a box. In the box you get 4-5 items, samples sizes, deluxe sample sizes, or sometimes even full-sizes, that you can try out at your leisure. I find that birchbox has more of a selection of different types of samples than other subscription box services. In this one, you're likely to get all sorts of things like hair products, skin products, makeup, food, perfume, and in others, you're more likely to just get makeup. April's theme was Rainy Days.

I should also mention that I have a love/hate relationship with Birchbox. It tends to go towards the hate side because a lot of the time I don't get products I'm ever going to use, but sometimes they surprise me and I get decent boxes, but for ten dollars, I really can't complain too much. 

Miss Jessie's Original Transitioner's Magic, worth maybe $2.00. It's a decent size foil packet, but you don't get much use out of foil packets and they're hard to store. It's supposed to be a product to tame curly hair, which intrigues me since my hair is uncontrollably curly. So I probably will at least try this, I'm always looking for products that make me hate my hair less.

Sumita Contrast Eyeliner in Jamun [Deep Purple] worth about $5.00 because it's half the size of a full-size eyeliner pencil.

This is a product I will use, I do like eyeliner, and a deep purple is a color that I have used on my eyes before. The tip is also really nice and draws a smooth line. It's also very waterproof since I can't get it all the way off my hand no matter how much I scrub with soap. 

Paula's Choice RESIST Anti-Aging Clear Skin Hydrator, probably worth about $3.00, but it is a very decent sized-sample.  This is meant to cleanse your face and rid it of bacteria.

I sprayed some of my face now. The nozzle is sort of special, but I did rub it all over my face like it told me too. It feels cleansing, and gives my skin a nice cool feeling, which I like. However, it smells pretty nasty. 

Gilchrist & Soames Spa Therapy Body Wash, worth about $2.00. I like how it smells, it sort of smells like watermelon. It's also a good travel-size, for when I take my yearly plane rides back to Jersey, and get upset because there's no shower gel in my bathroom. 

Kind Healthy Grains Bar in Maple Pumpkin Seeds with sea salt, worth about .50 cents or so. I probably won't eat this because I don't really like pumpkin seeds, but maybe I can give it to my fiance and tell him it's a healthy snack.

Birchbox also sent along a tip for a rainy day in each box.

Mine involves brewing a perfect cup of coffee. I have a Keurig for that, and a Starbucks down the street :P Maybe one day I'll upgrade to a fancy schmancy coffee grinder and make my own coffee, but till that day, I'll stick with what I have.

Overall value: $12.50, still above what I initially paid, but not the highest value box I've ever gotten. 

This box was okay. It was sort of in the middle. I didn't love it, and I didn't hate it, and I am happy I got eyeliner.

So if you think Birchbox is for you, by all means, go check it out :)