Review: Revlon Photo Ready 3D Volume Mascara

OH EM GEE, Lovelies! I absolutely adore this mascara! Like, I feel I don't even need to write a whole review on it--just believe me when I tell you it's simply awesome!

Okay, okay, I'll still write the whole review.

I actually bought this several months ago, but still had a few other mascara's to try before I got to this one (what can I say? I'm a mascara whore). When I finally got to this one, I was pretty excited about trying it. I've always had pretty long eyelashes, but they just aren't as thick as I'd like. Therefore, I'm always looking for mascaras that are "volumizing" and promise to "thicken" my lashes. This mascara was right up my alley.

From Revlon's website: "Get glamorous, big volume lashes from every angle
Lashes look 100% more magnified, multiplied, amplified*
*with two coats " and continued, "Lash finding brush with rounded tip easily reaches every single lash for maximum dimension."

So true! Let me show you this brush!

I know the picture is kinda fuzzy, but it's hard to get a perfect shot just to show you how amazing the brush is!! There are all these tiny little bristles reaching out to lift up and coat your lashes! It is alike a miracle brush! The shape is perfect. Not too long, not too short. Not to thick, not to thin. LOVE IT.

I've even used this mascara without eyeliner a few times and my eyes still totally pop. It is by far my favorite mascara used lately and probably one of my favorites of all time! It's about $6.74 at Target and I would definitely purchase it again! (multiple times, probably!:)

Great formula! Well done, Revlon!

Have you tried this mascara yet? What are some of your favorites right now??

Review: Revlon Colorstay Whipped Cream Foundation

Hi Lovelies! This summer, I didn't use a lot of foundation because it is hotttttt and I hate having my makeup melt off (hint though, USE PRIMER!!;) and I honestly wasn't in the mood to try a whole lot of new foundations because I have still been loving Maybelline's Dream Nude Airfoam foundation! But when I see *everyone* talking about how much they love a new product, I have a hard time not trying it. So I picked up Revlon's Colorstay Whipped Cream Foundation!

I got it at Walgreens for $13.99... which I thought seemed like a lot for .8 oz, but whatever, everyone loves it, so it's worth it right? ;)

This is what Revlon promises: "The mousse-like texture feels like silk on your skin. And, the time release formula balances skin for a flawless look. All day flexible wear without flaking, caking or feeling heavy. "

I will say that everything they claim was very true for me! This stuff is so creamy AND light at the same time. I hardly felt like I was wearing anything at all. Which was actually surprising to me, because when I first put it on, I thought it was going to be a little thicker/heavier than I would've liked.

Even though it's a light feel, the coverage is very full; but like they say it definitely wasn't cakey at all. It blended so well, you could hardly even tell I was wearing any foundation (I LOVE that!)

first blobbed on

fully blended, you can see the skin with and without foundation

The biggest downside for me is that it's in a jar. While it looks super cool, when my nails are longer, I hate having to dip my fingers in and get foundation all under my nails ya know? But that is really the only complaint I have.

While I really did enjoy it, I probably won't purchase again. Not because of anything of the quality, but for the price. Yes, this .8 ounces does last a long time, but I think I can get more foundation for my money from another brand:)

Did you buy into the buzz of the whipped foundation? What did you think?? What if your *favorite* foundation right now?

Beauty for Every Body ~ Summer Edition

One of my favorite stores is Target. Target just has so many happy feelings and memories! The stores (especially the Super Centers) always seem so open! So inviting! So clean! And oh! They have those baskets that aren't just square/rectangles, but they curve in a bit to sit ever so perfectly on a woman's hip. And they don't have metal handles but rather soft plastic ones, so no matter how much stuff you pile into the basket, there is rarely any pain included:) And! Targets often have cheap popcorn (that is delicious) and Starbucks inside the stores! You can buy clothes, makeup, food, wine, shoes, jewelry, etc..

I imagine Heaven is like Target. Plus DSW. With a little bit of Dunkin Donuts mixed in....

Anyway, the reason I'm starting out with gushing about Target is because Target does some else super special! Every season, the put together these fabulous little sample packs to send to some fans on their Facebook page. (did I mention they are FREE??)

Last month, they announced their Summer Beauty Bag (and a special thank you to Whitney for reminding me to sign up for mine!) and I got signed up and waited for it to get here. I thought they said wait 6-8 weeks, but I'm pretty sure it got here faster than that!

When I first opened the box, I was greeted by a blue patterned makeup bag... it's a fabric kind of like denim; it's a Contents by Allegro bag and seems to be pretty sturdy!

Unzipping it showed all its goodies!

Ta-da! So full! So exciting!

1. A pack of coupons (yay! Saving money while shopping!:)
2. Tresemme Split Remedy Shampoo and Conditioner (1 fl oz each). Promises to reduce up to 80% of split ends after 3 uses!
3. Neutrogena UltraSheer Dry-Touch Sunblock SPF 70 (1 fl oz) (woohoo!! even more than my usual 50 SPF!)
4. Aveeno Smart Essentials daily detoxifying scrub (1 oz)
5. Garnier Fructis Fortifying Color Shield Shampoo and Conditioner (.34 fl oz each)
6. Revlon Lip Butter Peach Parfait--I remember when the summer beauty bags were first advertised a bunch of the girls on FB thought we might get a full size lip butter! lol, no such luck! 

But what I'm really excicted about using this card for is to keep track of all the lip butters I acquire! You may recall that when I first got Strawberry Shortcake, I was really not a fan like everyone else seemed to be. However, after giving them a second chance with Sugar Plum and Gumdrop, I definitely became a believer:) And now I want more.... ;)

Be sure to follow Target Style on Facebook to keep up with future beauty bags!

Did you get a summer beauty bag from Target? What is your favorite item? Have you tried any of the products that I received to sample?

Nail Challenge Week 25: Rainbow/Pride Nails

Another week and another challenge! I've got to tell you, one of my favorite things about these nail challenges is how open they are for interpretation. Like some of the past ones stripes, floral, dots, etc. it can be ANYTHING. And you can have 5 people doing the challenge and you'll have 5 different manis! I don't just mean the colors, like completely different styles!

This week's challenge is Rainbow/Pride nails. I figured a lot of people would do rainbows on each nail or possibly a different color of the rainbow on each nail--pretty straight forward right?

I, however, decided to go a slightly different route... I wanted something fun and festive but not *too* out there. I wanted to have the rainbow on my nails, but without my hands looking like clowns.

So here is what I did. After my usual OPI Base Coat, I used two coats of Revlon's Sheer Cotton. This is a fun color because it's kind of nude/neutral (at least for pale people like me;) but it's also got enough color in it that you can still tell my nails are polished.

Then, I picked out the rainbow from my collection. In order ROYGBIV. (did anybody else learn that acronym for learning the colors of the rainbow? Is it just an American thing?) Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet--ROY G. BIV. lol

Sinful Colors Go Go Girl, Sinful Colors Cloud 9, Sinful Colors Innocent, Essie Mojito Madness (thank you Klout!;), Teal (not sure what brand this is; funny story, this is the ONLY polish I have had since high school. I believe I came in a set of four and some of the polishes were scented!), and Revlon Grape.

And this, my friends, is what I did:

So it may not be easy to see, but what I did was put all the colors along the tips of my nails--French style--and the colors change from red to orange.. orange to yellow... yellow to green.. green to blue... then blue/indigo/violet ended up on my thumb. lol. Just like a little pop of color!

What do you think? How would you do rainbow nails?

Nail Challenge Week 23: Ombre Nails

Hi Lovelies! This was probably one of my favorite challenges from the past month or so--finally one turned out that I really liked!

Now you may be wondering what an ombre mani is. Or, perhaps you "know" what it is...but you may be wrong. The Swatchaholic did an amazing post a couple weeks ago describing the differences in ombre, skittles, and gradient. Many, many people are confusing ombre and gradient. So, if you think an ombre mani is when the color changes on the nail... I'm sorry to inform you, that is actually a gradient mani (which p.s. is coming in week 28;) When you Google "ombre" mani, sooo many of the pictures are gradient! So this is definitely a common misconception!


The whole point to ombre is that it is a gradual change of color.. so each nail is from the same color family but changes from dark to light or light to dark. I really thought  my nails would be pink this week 'cause I figured I'd have the most variety of shades there... HOWEVER, when I saw some of my purple polishes together, I knew I had a winner!

The polishes used were LA Girl French Nails Purple, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac, Ulta Tutu Cute, Revlon Top Speed Grape, and Orly Out of This World.

I did the left hand dark to light from thumb to pinky and the right hand was light to dark from thumb to pinky!

The lighting isn't perfect... but I promise in real life it looks so fun! I never would've thought I'd like to have a different color on each nail, but I think it is sooo pretty!! When I buy more polish, I'm definitely going to consider how it works with other shades I have so I can do ombre manis in other colors as well:)

Have you done ombre nails? Did you know the difference between ombre and gradient? What colors would you have used to do this challenge?:)

Nail Challenge Week 22: Splatter Mani

Hi Lovelies! Time to see another one of my nail challenges! I know there are a couple different ways to do this.. you can either take a small brush and literally splatter the paint on your nails or you can use straws to kinda blow the paint on to your nails.

I chose the straw method.

I did a base coat and two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White then taped around my nails. I'm usually really bad at this, but I think I'm using a better thinner tape that actually worked out quite well!

For my splatter, I wanted to do it kinda old school. Did anyone ever have their school pictures taken on the latter in front of the splatter paint background? It was all primary colors and just kinda crazy. That's really the splattered look I was going for.

I used an empty Birchbox cover and dripped in the polishes (Revlon Top Speed Fast Dry Nail Enamel Jelly, Sinful Colors Unicorn, and Orly Snowcone), used a straw for each color (two from Ruby Tuesday's, one from Wendy's) and blew each color.

I did one nail at a time. So like, pinky got red.. blue.. yellow... next nail...

This is how it turned out (still with tape on so it looks super messy):

Then after taking the tape off there were really just a few spots that would require some extra clean up:

Confession: I only did my left hand then took it off. I wear a lot of crazy things on my nails to work; this just seemed a little *too* messy for me. I like the splatter mani for the right occasion; but for me, I just couldn't rock it as an every day nail look.

Have you done a splatter mani? Which method do you prefer?

Revlon Lip Butters.... Revisited

Hi Lovelies! You know how sometimes there's a product you LOVE when you first use it, then after time you kind of start to hate it? Other times, you try something and you're just not sure about it... but you try it again some other time and then you like it? Or you use it for a while and it starts to grow on you?

So, a couple months ago, I did my first review on Revlon Lip Butters. It was shortly after they were released in the US and everyone was talking about how awesome they were! And girls were buying every color! Target was nearly sold out all the time! It was a huge craze!

I, however, was not a fan.

I got Strawberry Shortcake and talked about how pretty the packaging was and it was nice, but I wouldn't use it all the time, blah blah blah.

That was really my nice way of saying, "Are you all smoking crack?? Am I seriously the only person in the world who doesn't like this???"

I'd seen a few other sorta negative reviews and realized maybe I wasn't alone. Then, I saw some girls trying other colors and giving more positive reviews.

Fine, they're in the UK now. Now *those* girls like it. I decided I needed to give Revlon a second chance.

I picked up Gum Drop and Sugar Plum last weekend. I still love the packaging. But even better, I now love the inside too!

I haven't used Gum Drop much yet, but that's only because I have not been able to put down Sugar Plum! This color is perfect! Not too dark, not too light! Compliments my features perfectly, and I swear it looks just right with whatever makeup look I have going on!

So, I am fully invested in this product now! I might even try a few other colors! I love the texture of it--it's definitely more than a balm; not as shiny as a gloss; and not as heavy as a stick. Revlon, you nailed it with this. And I'm definitely now on the I Heart Revlon Lip Butters bandwagon:) I'm so glad I gave them a second chance!

How about you? Have you loved them from the beginning? Or did it take a few color tries for you to honestly love them? Have there been any products you've changed your mind about? :)

Haul Time! Ulta and Walgreens!

So Lovelies, there was a community yard sale this past weekend in my neighborhood! For those of you who don't know what that is, basically the community advertises and if you want to set up shop in your front yard, have at it! There's a lot of traffic that comes through and it's a good time to get rid of unwanted junk stuff!

I set out some jewelry (thanks everyone who gives me earrings as gifts, but MY EARS ARE NOT PIERCED, so I'm trying to make some money on it lol), shoes, nail polish, CDs, DVDs, video games, etc. and actually made a good little bit of cash! So, it was time to boost the American economy and go shopping!:)

First stop was Ulta. Oh, Ulta, how I love thee. I didn't really go for anything specific, just did a little browsing and left with the following:

1.) The China Glaze Magnetix polish in Drawn To You
2.) The Magnetix Magnet (sidenote, really?? $10 for each?! Can't there be some bargain deal or something! I suppose the bright side is, you won't need to buy it again with other magnetic polishes, but still...)
3.) Piggy Polish in Envy (for my Skittles Mani;)
4.) Orly polish in Out of This World (which to me looks slightly similar to Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl. Curious to see how they compare in swatches!)
5.) A new bottle of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (yes, I already have some; but I had the extra money and thought I'd pick up another; this is not something you want to run out of at an inopportune time!)
6.) Revlon Lip Butters in Sugar Plum and Gum Drop. (yes, I tried lip butter before; yes, I really didn't like it. But I've read some other reviews of girls who also didn't like Strawberry Shortcake [the one I had] and tried some other flavors and liked it better. Soooo, Revlon, I'm giving you a second chance. Plus it was buy one get one 50% off!) And I got to use my $3.50 off $10 or more coupon! I think all together I saved $7.25!! Yay! Bargain!:)

Then, I had to run to Walgreens. While there, I wandered through the makeup section (honestly, I could be at Walgreens for ANYTHING, medicine, tampons, a card, whatever; I always have to walk thru their makeup. I think that's why they put it so close to the front door, they know everyone will;)

You may recall during Christmas time I was obsessed with the Sinful Colors Extra Shiny Lipgloss and had to go to a couple different Walgreens to find them. Well! There's a limited edition *new* Sinful Colors lip gloss out there now! Lip Shine Lip Gloss--and they're all super glittery! I picked up the one that looked silvery called Crystallized! I hope when I do my full review I'll be able to get good enough pictures to show all the glitter! This was a dollar more than the regular lip glosses in December, so I'm hoping I'll love it as much or more!:)

Anyway, I picked up that and also got a new Sally Hansen Nail Art pen. My last white one went kinda crazy with my Skittles nails. Started leaking all over the place and whatnot!:( Now, at some point I want to do a whole comparison review of the Sally Hansen pens versus my Migi Nail Art pens... if you have opinions on the two, leave them in the comments!!:)

Have you done any shopping lately?? Picked up any new bargains?? And what do *you* think of Revlon lip butters?? I know they've been released in the UK now, so you British girls should even have an opinion!!:)

Nail Challenge Week 12: Skittles Nails

Helloooo Lovelies! And thanks for sticking around! I was blogging nearly every day for a while (okay, I was cheating, I'd write them all on Sunday and have them auto post, but still!:) Then after the cruise and trying to get back in the routine of work I slacked off. It's not for lack of material though! I have a whole list of things I need to write about, review, etc! So I promise I'm going to try to do better!

Now this was last week's challenge, and I've finally gotten around to do it! I was super excited about doing Skittles nails (which is why I still did this one instead of skipping it.) Skittles are one of my favorite candies! There's a little crunch on the outside then they're chewy and fruity on the inside! They come in a variety of different flavor packs (wildberry, tropical) but I stuck with just the original for my mani this week!

Started with Essie all in one base then I used Sinful Colors Unicorn, Sinful Colors Go Go Girl, Revlon Top Speed Grape, OPI He's My Boo, and Piggy Polish Envy (not just for toes!;)

After writing an S on each of them with Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen White and a coat of Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat you get this. Ta-da!

I was pretty pleased with how it turned out! When I was at Ulta today, the check out girl even asked, "Do you have skittles on your nails?" LOL Why, yes I do!:) I think it's a success when strangers know what's going on with my nails!

Did you do this week's challenge?? What other candies could you do on your nails? M&Ms maybe? Reeses Pieces? (yum!)

Nail Challenge Week 8: Corset Nails

Hi Lovelies! I posted a couple weeks ago about a nail challenge I was going to start that a bunch of other bloggers are doing this year! This week's nail challenge was "corset nails." *sigh* I Googled a bunch and found many pictures of what other girls had done. (There are actually a lot more images of "corset nails" than I would have expected! This is not something I would normally think to do for my nails!)

Now before I get too far into showing my nails for this challenge, I want to post a disclaimer. If this is your first time reading my blog, PLEASE do not judge my nail skills on this post!! I am perfectly aware they turned out quite horribly, and I promise I am not THIS BAD at painting  my nails. lol.

Here is a pic to show you how they turned out:

You should be able to see at least kind of what I was TRYING to do. Hahaha. Kinda a lacy look up the sides and the crisscross straps/ribbon up the back:) Here is how I got to this point.

After OPI base coat, two coats Revlon Top Speed Cotton

A coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lilac on either side and bottom

Konad Black with Shany Plate SH21 on sides

Migi Nail Art pen to create crisscross

So, there you have it! The good news is, I attempted it and count that as doing this week's challenge! The better news? I was able to take it off with polish remover right away and make my nails look better! haha

Did you try this week's challenge? Have you done "corset nails" before? How would you have done them? :)

NOTD: Pre-Valentines Week Nails

Hey Lovelies! So Valentine's Day is just around the corner! I've had so many fab ideas to do, I decided to let my nails celebrate the week before as well:)

Before I show you mine though, how gorgeous are these nails that I found on Pinterest? I figure with a few Sally Hansen nail pens, this is probably do-able. And simply FAB! Love, love, love these!

Okay, I'm starting to think I shouldn't have put that picture in with mine since mine hardly compare lol.

The polishes I used are: OPI base coat, Revlon Cotton Candy (it's SCENTED!! And yes, even with top coat, it still smells like cotton candy!), Konad pink stamping polish, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rockstar Pink, Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat. And I used the hearts design on Shany plate SH12 with the Konad scraper and double ended stamper.

Here's how they turned out!

And a close-up to see the heart design and the glitter!

I used the mutli-colored glitter just to add a little extra something at the tips:)

Have you tried any V-day manis yet? Or thinking about what you'll be doing?? I think for my actually Valentine's Day Mani I'll do red and white, but we'll see how many times I change my mind between now and then ;)