Rant about Intense Debate

Hi Lovelies! I know a random post from me shocking and not exciting since it's not beauty related, but I am soooo frustrated right now!!! I have been using IntenseDebate for over a year now for my comments. For the most part, they've been really good and I liked the layout and how my comments looked on the blog. They were pretty good at weeding on spam at the beginning, but now it is just out of control!!

Today I received nearly 10 "anonymous" comments that all were posted to my blog. All spam. IntenseDebate says there is a way you can "moderate all comments" but that option is not in my settings. I don't even have a way to MAKE people log in before commenting.

I know I used to complain about having to type in the crazy letter/number code to "make sure I'm human" on other blogs, but I totally understand why now! This spamming thing is freaking annoying and honestly makes me hate my blog because I think it brings down the value of it.

So after going through IntenseDebate's "support" pages and not finding anything to help me, I wanted to contact them. TOO BAD THEY CAN'T BE CONTACTED 'TIL MONDAY AT 10 am PACIFIC TIME. Are you kidding me?

I am completely disgusted and will be uninstalling it tonight. I understand there's a good chance I'm going to lose all my comments from all you fabulous dears, and for that I am truly sorry. I just can't allow this to continue any longer. Every day the "anonymous" comments become more and more, and this is where I'm putting my foot down. Just wanted you to know why you may soon see no comments on any of my posts:)

Love and miss you all! Look for upcoming posts next week!

While I'm Away....

Hello Lovelies! So while you're missing me here at glitter gloss & glaze, you can still enjoy my fabulous writing at The Flairist!! I have a whole Makeup Monday series over there that posts just about every other week! I promise you'll love it and there's a lot of other fun articles to check out there as well! Lemme know what you think!:) And feel free to comment over there too!

Makeup Monday Articles

1. Discovering the Beauty Maven in You
2. Why We Wear What We Wear
3. The Eyes Have It

Reviews Are Coming!! (promise:)

Hi Lovelies! I know it's been a while! And I hate doing posts like this, but I wanted to at least drop in and say hello! Things have been crazy lately! (thus the lack of blogging). I've been busy with work and prepping for baby; and when I'm not doing those things, I'm sleeping. Seriously, I fell asleep at 6:20pm last night. Ugh. The baby is stealing all my energy! Forty more days 'til due date! Crazy, right??

We had the baby shower a little more than a week ago, and I did Angry Bird nails!

Anyway, I've still been using new beauty products for the benefit of you all;) Most you've probably already read reviews on, but I still plan to give you all my opinions as well! Hopefully in the next week or so:)

Here's a glimpse at to what you'll be seeing soon! (and yes, this is the first Beautysets layout that I've made;)

2 review
with OPI, COVERGIRL, Urban Decay

Review: NYX Box of Smokey Look Collection

Hello Lovelies! You know how there are some products that as soon as you buy it you just KNOW you're going to love it?? Then there's other products you're not totally sure about when you buy, but you grow to love them? This product is kinda somewhere in between... when I saw it sitting in Ulta in all its glory, I honestly thought it was going to be my new favorite product! But after nearly a month of use, I'm almost ready to store it away (or re-gift it? lol)

The product I'm talking about is NYX Box of Smokey Look Collection. Let's be honest, who *doesn't* love a smokey eye?? And this palette gives you options!

Classic? Purple? Bronze? Natural? The options are limitless with this grouping of shadows! Mix and match! Create your own looks! Who wouldn't love that?? But wait! There's more!

Don't stop your look with JUST THE EYES! Complete it! Use the bronzer, blush, and highlighter to contour your face! And there's a hidden eye liner and sponge applicator! This can all be found by sliding the shadows to the side. But wait! THERE'S MORE!!

Pull out the bottom drawer and you get lipsticks, lip glosses, concealers, and OMG GLITTER!

It should be obvious to anyone now why I thought this was such a genius product, right? Your whole face is in this one handy container! Multiple looks! Change day to night! Oh! The possibilities!! And NYX is really amazing company. Great products, great prices ($24.99 when I bought it.) Who wouldn't want all those products for such a cheap price??

*sigh* I am not in love. I realllllly wanted to be. And there are parts of this collection I really do enjoy. Here are my thoughts:

The shadows are okay. I do love all the colors and the combination, but I don't feel like they are very blendable. Wherever my brush lands on my lid is kinda where that shadow is going. They're just not as soft/velvety as I would have liked. But the color combinations are great! And I do like the versatility of doing purple, classic, bronze, natural, etc.

The light bronzer I actually kind of like! I think the formula is pretty good and it's not too dark for my Snow White-like skin! The darker bronzer will probably never work for me. lol. I like the bottom light pink blush--it proves a nice flush, healthy glow that compliments my cool skin tone. The highlighter is eh, ok. It's almost just like putting baby powder on my face it's sooo white. (it doesn't look white when applied). But I also can't really tell when it's applied...

I haven't used the lip products or concealers yet. I [tried to] use some of the glitter shadows (and we ALL know how much I heart glitter!) but they were more trouble than they were worth:(  Kinda flaked off and just made a mess. Maybe I'm not applying it correctly...

So bottom line? It's an okay palette, and I probably will use parts of it in the future, but given the opportunity, I would not buy it again. And I don't really recommend it to anyone else. I would've rather spent the $25 on something else that I would use more frequently.

Have you tried this box of makeup? What did you think? What's your favorite makeup product right now?

How to be Naked for Less--With Swatches!

Hi Lovelies! You may remember last spring I posted about a cheaper way to get the Urban Decay Naked 2's looks! I recently had a comment asking to swatch the UD shadows with some of the dupes in the NYX Caviar & Bubbles palette! So, here it is! Sadly, NYX doesn't name their shadows so you'll see the UD ones named with the NYX one next to them. All pictures are done without flash for a more natural lighting look. You'll notice that why not exact matches, I still think they're close enough to work:) Let me know what you think and if you've found any other dupes for the Naked 2 Palette!:)