Untried Wednesday: JulieG Rio de Janeiro and Laquerlicious Mocha Sprinkles

Hey all, I'm back!  My broken nail catastrophe has finally been repaired enough for me to feel comfortable posting pictures again.  It always drives me crazy when swatches are done on nails that are significantly different sizes.  So in an effort to give my lovely readers the best pictures I can, I gave them a break and let them grow out.  

So for today, I have brought two untried polishes.  First off, this beauty is called Rio de Janeiro from Julie G's Spring 2014 Cruise Collection.  I love Julie G creams.  They are great colors and have a great formula.  Rio de Janeiro, like other creams from Julie G, is a one coater.  It is that same radiant orchid color that Pantone made popular by declaring it the color of the year.  You can't tell in the photo, but there was a touch of bumpiness, but with a top coat it looks perfect again.  

To top off my polish, I added Laquerlicious Mocha Sprinkles.  I've had this polish for a good long while and never used it.  Wearing it now, I'm sad it took me so long to wear it.  It is a bit different from most of my other glitter toppers.  On the store listing, Mocha Sprinkles is described as "tiny-medium brown, copper, silver, teal and magenta hex and square glitter."  Now, I do not see any of the silver glitters in my polish, but I don't feel like the lack of silver took away from the polish.  

I want to put this on top of all of my light colored cream polishes now!

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Random Post: June Empties

Hey all, it's that time again!  It's Empties time!  Super exciting right?  Today I have nine products that I have managed to finish over the course of the past month that I want to share with you guys.

1. Beauty Secrets Pure Acetone (16 oz)- This is the house brand at Sally's Beauty Supply for regular pure acetone.  It works well on removing polish.  I usually just use it with glitter polishes and to clean up the edges of my nails.  As a result, it lasts forever.  Would I repurchase?  Yeah, next time I'm at Sally's I will.

2. Clean and Clear Morning Burst Body Wash Charge Pomegranate & Orange Zest- First off, I love the scent of this.  For lack of a better word, it is juicy.  Pomegranate and orange is one of my favorite scents.  It foamed up nicely and I felt sufficiently clean after the shower.  Would I repurchase?  I bought this at Big Lots on sale, so I don't know if I'd be able to get my hands on it again, but if I did I would.

3. Macadamia Natural Oil Deep Repair Masque (3.3 oz)- OMG I love this hair masque, so much.  It makes my hair so soft, silky, and smooth.  I used it once a week during my usual maintenance routine and I loved it.  It is pretty pricey for my blood, so I rationed it like crazy.  Would I repurchase it?  As soon as I get a chance I will!  Who needs groceries?

4. Julep Instant Warming Foot Scrub with Natural Pumice- I got this in my very first Julep Maven box ages ago and finally finished it.  It is a pretty decent scrub and did a good enough job, but I didn't think it was anything special.  It did warm when I rubbed it on my feet, but I didn't love it.  Would I repurchase?  Nah, I could probably find something better for cheaper. 

5. L'Oreal True Match Super Blendeable Concealer in W4-5- I really like the L'Oreal True Match foundation, I find that it is the liquid foundation that matches my skin tone the best.  I bought this concealer hoping that it would match my skin tone as well as the foundation does and it does a good job.  I had no problem blending it into my skin and it stayed around for a good while.  Near the end of the day it started fading away.  With a touch up, it lasted all day.  Would I repurchase?  Yeah, as soon as it is on sale I am there.

6. Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion- Ah, the ever popular UD eyeshadow primer.  This thing lasted FOREVER and it was great.  My eyeshadow lasted all day for the most part.  I think I got some creasing on some particularly hot days, but I was very happy with product.  I did have the old bottle, so I was able to use the doe foot applicator.  The new squeeze tubes don't seem as nice for application.  I'm always afraid that I will squeeze the tubes too hard and squirt out half the product.  Would I repurchase?  For the product itself, I would.  I'm not a fan of the new packaging, but if I cannot find a comparable product in a container that I'm not afraid that I will accidentally squeeze out a bunch of product at once.  

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Random Post: Fourth of July Mani

Happy Forth of July to all people reading this who are in the USA.  To everyone else, look another Captain America mani!  Super exciting right?  Let's try to keep this short and sweet so I can get back to snacking on stuff.  :-P

I am actually pretty proud of myself with this one.  I've had it on since yesterday and I kept getting compliments at work.  Everyone was surprised that I did it myself, even though I've started becoming a bit notorious.

For this mani I used four polishes, Zoya's Dream (blue jelly with silver glitters), OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls (gray tinged white), Stardust Polish's Miss Scarlet (red with a touch of microshimmer), and Julep's America (red white and blue dense glitter).

On my thumb and middle fingers I just used Polishednshined's pictorial from July 1st.  I wouldn't go into too much detail because I'd hate to steal her idea, but her instructions were really well done.  All you need are striping tape and a dotting tool.  Super simple right?  Just remember that when it comes to tape, you want to make sure that the previous layer of polish is REALLY dry.

My index finger started with two coats of Dream.  To get the stars I painted three even coats of My Boyfriend Scales Walls and once again waited until it was super dry.  When it was ready, I took a mini paper punch shaped like a star and made the shapes out of the white polish.  I just peeled off the plastic backing and stuck it on top of my still wet polish, making sure to press it into the edges and corners so that it didn't lift.  Finally I just trimmed off the extra bits and voila!

My ring finger is just a coat of Freedom over Miss Scarlet.

Finally, for my pinkie I used a decal that looked like Captain America's shield.  I got it randomly at a discount beauty supply shop, so unfortunately I don't have a store front I can just link for you guys.  It applied just like those temporary tattoos that we all used to rock as kids,  so I just applied it over two coats of My Boyfriend Scales Walls and called it a day.  As a side note, if you use decals like this, you want to be sure you trim it as close as possible to the image.  Any extra bits will cause lifting.

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)