NOTD - Essie's Chinchilly (looove!)

I have been looooving Essie's Chinchilly lately. It fulfills my taupe cravings and also let's me wear a slightly more trendy color at work because its neutralness is office safe. Depending on the lighting this can look on me taupeish or grayish and even purplish and greenish. I love this so much I am contemplating buying/hoarding a spare supply.
Also my pug has been driving me crazy with her allergies! She has been scratching her face raw! I took her to the vet which wasn't too helpful and so now she is getting dosed with sleep-inducing benadryl and suffering the occasional donut head.

I shake my fist at you puny cold!

Being sick sucks so much. And getting a little cough and staying home from work is one thing. But what I have right now is a full on crazy mad cold that has grown and mutated among little kid germs. Seriously ever since I moved here and now see my niece and nephew regularly I get kicked by their little germs. My niece has a slight cough and fever but otherwise is fine and running around with 1000x more energy than me on a good day.  I dread the day they get chicken pox or something. Yeah I had it as a kid but its possible to get it again and knowing their super strong mutated germs it would so infect me.

I've been battling this cold now for 7 days! It started as a chest cold and is now well into my sinuses.  Yea. And I need to get better before Friday when I fly to Vegas with some friends! Bah! I shake my fist at you stupid cold! I hate you!

Upon the advice of a coworker I am going to Vitamin C myself like crazy. I forgot about these little emergen-c things. Hope it works! as I was buying this at my work's mini store I also discovered. This awesome limited time only Diet Snapple Papaya Mango Tea. Mmmmm! Why is it only for a limited time?! Why is there an Amazing Race logo? So many questions. I am getting back into a Snapple phase and am loving this one in particular.

Also, do you see my new ear buds wrapper? I loves it! I bought a bunch of fun and cute things from Cotton Candy Friends including a couple ear bud wrappers. I love them! Cotton Candy Friends sells a bunch of random fun Korean things.  It's a bit of a pain for shipping internationally but it never hurts to exercise my sorely underused patience skills.  My people know how to do cute and unusual things very well. Anyways I also got an adorable pink ninja one but it doesn't hold my wire very well.  Sadness. But this cute puppy dog does the trick! I see a lot of people staring at it during my commute. They are either thinking, " OMG where did she get that? It is so cute and practical! I must have that!" or "Um isn't that busted old lady too old for something like that? Ew did she just sneeze on me?" I choose to believe the former.

Butter's Scoundrel

I've been wanting to try some of the Butter polishes.  The colors are pretty and Butter was my family nickname (not because I love butter, which I do). I don't normally change my polish every day but because Essie's Splash of Grenadine was a bit too bright for me on weekdays I tried out Butter's Scoundrel. Now this is a color from their fall collection I believe and is a very pigmented creamy purple, but since it's almost lavendery and more muted than Essie's Splash of Grenadine I feel more comfortable with it at work and think its appropriately springy (especially with all the gloom of approaching April thunderstorms today). The one downside is that it kinda clashes with some colors in my wardrobe. So I'll keep this on for a few more days at least.
Butter's polish was very easy to apply. I did 3 coats but could have gotten away with 2 maybe. But I wanted to make sure it would be opaque enough. Definitely pleased with this one and looking forward to trying my other Butter polishes!
Oh and I added a couple pics of my fat lil pup. Life ain't easy for a pug. All the sneaking into my fridge and eating so much food exhausted my poor lil one. Hmmm, maybe I need a fridge lock.

Essie's Splash of Grenadine

A couple photos of my Monday nails - Essie's Splash of Grenadine. It's a pretty pinke purple but I ended up taking it off after work because it felt a bit too Barbie bright for the office. I want a springy color but don't want anything too glaring. So still a pretty color but maybe not for me right now. I used 3 coats but probably could've stopped at 2.

Essie's Lapis of Luxury

So I've really been into brighter colored polishes and have been a little more adventurous with what I wear at work. However, even I draw the line at blue nail polish. That my friends is a weekend polish. And so here is Essie's Lapis of Luxury, a beautiful creamy cornflower blue. I love this color and was so sad to take it off Sunday night. It required at least 2 coats but I did 3 just to be safe. And please ignore my fat pug. She was sleeping on my lap and using my arm as a pillow so I had to get creative with my poses.  Here are a few shots with and without flash.

NOTD - Essie's Chubby Cheeks

Today's nails are Essie's Chubby Cheeks. A beautiful and bright orangey coral. This polish goes on so smoothly and easily. Opaque with 2 coats and not as streaky as some of Essie's other polishes. Love it! Spring I'm ready for you! Now just stop raining so much.

NOTD - Sonia Kashuk's Tauped

I have been loving taupe nail polish recently. As I wait for new ones to come in from a recent order, I came across Sonia Kashuk's Tauped and decided to give it a try since I had heard great things about this line of nail polish. The color is great - a perfect purple/brown/gray taupe (I found Essie's Mink Muffs to be way too brown on me). But the application wasn't the best. A little runny and difficult to manage. But all in all I am pleased considering the price. This is 2 coats with base and top coats.

Essie Masquerade Belle

So when the weather turned icky and cold earlier this week I decided to put on a darker polish I've been wanting to try. This is Essie's Masquerade Belle. It's a dark blood red that almost goes black. I'm liking it a lot! Although it does feel more like a fall/winter color. I have been really craving big colors on my nails lately. No more nudes and sheers and light pinks. Color!
The rest of the pics are of my loving lil smug pug gazing at me adoringly as I tried to read a book on Sunday. She loves me even more than all of her "friends" that like to crowd around her as she sleeps. 

Urban Decay Eye and Hello Kitty Lips

As mentioned in my earlier post, today's eye has Urban Decay's Binge pencil on top and bottom, layered with Koji Dolly Wink black liquid liner on top and Urban Decay's Asphyxia in the inside corner of the lower lid. Look me in the eyeball!!! (ps - isn't that a really weird thing for Eminem to say in Love The Way You Lie? Every time I hear that I almost giggle.)
You can really behold the mightiness that is my monolid here.  Also what are those itty bitty vertical wrinkles on my lower lid?! What kind of wrinkles are those?!
Lips are Hello Kitty Sweet Gloss in Charmmy. I initially pur on Tarte's Adored in the morning but after that faded I put the Hello Kitty on after lunch since that's what I had in my purse. Now stare at my big fish lips! Muahahaha!
Update: Third photo is my eye makeup near the end of a work day. You can see the staying power of the liners. Some fading of course, but not bad! I should also mention that I use Nars Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base as a primer and today I have a light application of Benefit's Creaseless Cream Shadow in RSVP.

Update Review - Sephora Haul

I am so happy with my mega haul so far and wanted to do a quick update/review.

Dior Pro-Youth Sorbet Eye Creme - Looooving this! In the past couple years I've started to suffer from some eczema outbreaks on my face and neck (so now I have the joy of dealing with acne, wrinkles and eczema - oh joy!). Last summer i had a fierce outbreak on my eyelids. That was horrible! Itchy eyelids and not wanting to damage the already thin skin there! I think that may be part of the reason why I feel the skin around my eyes has gotten so much worse recently. I mean, i have no willpower in general so there's no way i can resist scratching something itchy. So that took forever and a day to go away last year because you cant use a lot of creams you would use elsewhere on your eyelids since the skin there is so delicate. I was able to make it go away with diligent and liberal applications of Shu's heavier creams (the phyto black line). Aquaphor and Eucerin sucked and just left me with greasy lids. So recently I noticed slight flareups on my eyelids again (curse you dad genes with your problem skin and large calves!). But a couple days of using the Dior creme made it go away completely!! The cream is very light but slightly sticky so its not super easy for me to rub in without feeling a little tug so I'm not thrilled about that. I think if I used more when I applied that would help but that is too rich and heavy for me. Well whatever, it helped clear my dry patches so I'm a happy camper.

Hourglass Aqua Sheer Cheek Stain (Rouge and Flush) - These are simply ah-mazing. They are actually very easy to apply and blend in so long as you don't dilly dally. And you can really feel the difference with their water based formula. Super duper light, with not a speck of grease or oil. I plan on using these every day during the spring and summer. LOVE. These were pricy but in my opinion totally worth it. I want all the shades! I havent tried the Givenchy one yet.

Dior Nail Cream - Hmm I am a bit torn on this one. On the one hand (hehe) it is super tacky feeling and takes fo eva to absorb. And even after it absorbs it still feels slightly tacky still. But on the other hand the skin around my nails and my cuticles already look waaaay better. So I'll keep using it, but only before bed. Sometimes I wash my hands real quickly and not too thoroughly after it absorbs in and I can still feel a slight tackiness so I think it's still there and working, but now it's just a bit more bearable for me and I don't have to walk around with sticky hands.

Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara - I am generally not a mascara person so I may not be completely impartial but I hate this. The brush is goopy when I pull it out and after using it on my nonexistent bottom lashes I saw no difference BUT I felt a difference when my lashes kept sticking together whenever I blinked. Wtf?! Sucks!

Hello Kitty Sweet Gloss (Charmmy) - Nice gloss stick and goes on very smoothly. Much much less sticky than a traditional gloss. Pretty color but nothing that special about this. I'll keep it and use it but probably wouldn't repurchase.

Tarte Lip Surgence Natural Lip Lusters (Buff and Adored) - LOVE these! Amazing to put on - they glide over your lips so so smoothly with beautiful light pigmentation. I was worried they might be too pigmented and I would end up with brown or pink pink lips but no. These are the perfect balance of sheer and pigmented so it just looks like my natural lips but better times 100. Lasting power is pretty good but not great. Not a true stain. But I love these. I want more shades!

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils 15 Year Anniversary Collection - LOOOOOVE! These glide on sooo smoothly and are beautiful colors. Sidenote, I did notice the smell that lots of people have complained about but thats from the packaging. It went away and besides I'm not keeping the pencils in that ginormous box. Where would I put it? These pencils don't really last all day, but they simply fade away instead of smudging. And they still last waaaaay longer on my lower lids than any other pencil, including MUFE.

So I have tested out a few of them and even worn them to work! The first day I wore Stash on top and bottom with Koji Dolly Wink liquid liner in black over on top and Mildew in the middle lower lid and Baked in the inside corner.

The second day I wore Binge on top and bottom with the Koji Dolly Wink liquid liner on top and Asphyxia in the inside corner.

Love love love these pencils. So many great colors to choose from. Great and easy application. And fairly good staying power with little to no smjudging.

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