Mascara Comparison

Maybelline Full 'N Soft has been my go-to mascara since sophomore year of high school; until receiving the recent samples in my Birchbox, I had tried very few other brands.  And before receiving said samples, it had also been quite some time before I had worn any makeup, period.  I was wowed the first time I used both the Anastasia and the blinc mascaras, but after comparing all 3 side by side, the results surprised me.

September Birchbox: Final Review

One of these days I'll get the final review post out before my new box arrives.

October Birchbox

I'm seriously on such a beauty high right now, playing with all my samples!  They're starting to overflow their containers on my vanity.  And I now have 2 empty Birchboxes, any ideas on how I should recycle them?

Target Sample Bag

I was so thrilled to open my mailbox today and discover not only my Birchbox, but my free sample bag from Target as well!  Every once in awhile, Target will send these out to the first certain number of people that sign up for them.  I got one last year, and now here is my second.  I found out through dealspl.us, when it popped up on their twitter account, and rushed over to Target's website to sign up.  The time is unfortunately passed (I ordered this one about a month ago), but keep an eye out and they're likely to offer it again.

August Birchbox: Final Thoughts

I know there were some complaints, at least amongst some of the YouTube vloggers, in response to this box.  But for my first one?  They really knocked it out of the park as far as I'm concerned.  I enjoyed quite a few of the products.

 01. Twistband

Like/Dislike? Ambivalent.

Thoughts? There's really nothing special about this.  The pros and cons pretty much balance each other out - it slips out of your hair easily, but it also doesn't hold as well as a regular scrunchie.  It looks OK around your wrist (which was supposed to be one of the main selling points - that you could basically wear it as a bracelet), but after several uses it starts to get twisted up, there's still the knot at the end, and the ends are now beginning to fray.  The knot at the end also looks just as silly in your hair as it does around your wrist - especially when trying to use the band at the end of a braid.  It doesn't leave as much of a crease as a scrunchie, but it definitely doesn't leave it completely crease-free.

Plans to Buy? No thanks.  It does seem to withstand time and repeated usage better than a traditional scrunchie, but at $5 for 3 Twistbands, it's just not worth the money.  Especially when I can get a pack of 20 plain scrunchies from the dollar store.

September Birchbox (#2)

HELLLLLLOOOOOO!!

Yet again, my plan of blogging consistently was derailed; this time by my missing camera charger.  But I finally sucked it up and bought a new one, so with any luck I can finally start making a dent on that backlog of polishes I have to review.  In the meantime, however - NEW BIRCHBOX!!

This month's theme is basically a Greatest Hits, because Birchbox is celebrating its one-year anniversary.  I have to say, the more I learn about the company, the more respect I have for the entire team.  Katia and Haley have built this thing from the ground up, and the amount of excitement and passion that they have for their product is amazing.

Bottom line, this box is awesome, and I'm so excited about using some of the products!

BIRCHBOX #1!!!!

Last month, I signed up for Birchbox.  Check out the link if you don't know what it is, it's a pretty cool service.  Especially for someone like me, who doesn't spend a lot of money on beauty - it's a fun and cheap way to get small amounts of a variety of high-end products.  Last month's box was a Cynthia Rowley collaboration, and though the boxes differ from customer to customer (you fill out a short quiz and they try and tailor the items to you), most that I saw included mini bottles of Zoya colors.  So that's a double win for me, polish + Cynthia Rowley, whose family I've gone to church with since forever.  Not that I've ever met the woman or reap any sort of benefit from my 3 degrees of separation, but it's still cool to me, and I like to support a family friend.  Plus her stuff is adorable.

In any case, they sold out of the July box faster than anticipated, so I didn't get my first shipment until August.

Camera battery charger is currently MIA, so please excuse crappy webcam pics!

Crackle Crazy

So what have y'all been up to?  My blogging got a bit derailed by the BFF coming in for a visit, followed by a trip out to SoCal to visit another BFF, followed by a wedding and all the attached familial drama.  Whew!  Excited to have my life go back to normal.

So while in California, we attended ComiCon.  Oh, wow.  My first time, and it was such a blast, I'm already counting down the days 'til next year!   And obviously, since the logo is black and yellow, my nails had to match!

Review: Ulta Lucky Penny

Next up for review is Ulta's Lucky Penny.  I purchased this after using Golden Cinnabar for the first time in years, and I was wanting a straight copper.  I got it BOGO with a gold metallic, 14 Carat, that I'll be reviewing next.  I have to say I really like Ulta's square bottles - they remind me of pictures I've seen of Chanel's polish line, though with a rubberized cap, which I'm a big fan of.

Natural light

Review: Sally Hansen Golden Cinnabar

So for my first real polish review, I'm going with an older Sally Hansen color of mine: Golden Cinnabar, from the Nail Prisms line.  When my Seche Restore came in the mail, this was the one I first thought of trying to salvage.  I've had the thing since high school, it seemed a shame to see it go to waste.  I think it could still use another drop or two, but overall Seche Restore seems to be just as magic as Seche Vite!

Disclaimer of sorts before I continue:  I have been a loyal follower of All Lacquered Up for several months now; as such I feel like it's kind of inevitable that my reviews will end up being similar.  I'm not aiming to copycat, I just find the separation of the review into separate categories like application and color to be very helpful.  Also it will become painfully clear that I am nowhere near as informed or professional as Michelle, so there's nothing to worry about.

Additionally, apologies for this being later than I intended; I was waiting for some sunlight so I could get a decent picture, but sunlight is something we have not been having an abundance of lately; ironic given that I live in Florida.

Now that all of that's out of the way, I shall proceed.