My Manicure :)

Last week, my cousin and I went to get manicures and pedicures! It was such a treat for me, because I've only ever gotten my nails done once in my life. I didn't go too crazy and get any designs or anything like that. I just love seeing the difference it makes to get your nails done by a professional! It looks sooo crazy even and your nails are so nicely shaped and it just feels so wonderful. Thanks Christina :) Best Birthday present ever!

I got my hands done in Lovie Dovie by Essie, and my feet (which I hate, just because they're feet and mine aren't particularly nice haha) in Cute as a Button by Essie.

The coral color in Cute as a Button isn't picking up too well on my camera, but I think I'm going to actually buy it! :) So maybe I'll put it on my nails and show the color in a future post.

Anyway, I hope you all like manicures as much as me! I know my cousin loves them :) She got this divine Essie orange color (can't remember the name for the life of me!) with China Glaze's white crackle on top, and it looked amazing!

Just like a Creamsicle ice cream confection haha! I'm already wanting to get another manicure but they are expensive ($15 adds up!) and I'm also so insanely shy. I feel weird getting people to service my hands and feet and always act apologetic and uncomfortable. :x I just do! I feel bad! So I probably won't go unless I have someone to go with haha, and if I have spare money lying around. :) Have a nice week everyone!

Birchbox

Birchbox is a company that you can subscribe to for $10 a month or $120 a year. The service they provided is this: they ship you your "Birchbox" once a month, and in it is a sweet haul of five little products, samples, or deluxe samples. These are usually high end brands. I couldn't resist subscribing. $10 a month for a monthly surprise box of awesome makeup/nail polish/skincare/perfume treats? I was a goner the second I heard about Birchbox. There's a british version of Birchbox called Glossybox which really pulled me in because one of the monthly products was a huge deluxe sample of a NARS product, and their packaging was divine. Girly, pretty, and romantic. However, Birchbox is what we have in the U.S. so no Glossybox for me!

I received my package on June 8th. In it contained one of my new holy grail products :) Here are pictures of the package, and the contents inside!

The back of the card lists all the products for each month's birchbox. They include a description of the product, and the full price and size if you were to buy the product in store (or on their website).

1. Archipelago| Pomegranate Soap (Part of Gift Set) $35

Unlike body wash, this triple-milled soap won't spill in your toiletry kit, plus it has antioxidants to keep skin soft and smooth.

2. Kate Spade| Twirl- 1.7 FL OZ| $65 &3.4 FL OZ|$80

This flirty scent feels carefree and joyful- just the thing to wear on your adventures at home and abroad.

3. Laura Geller| Baked Blush N' Brighten 0.32 OZ|$29.50

Made in Italy, this swirl of warm and cool tones is infinitely versatile- dust your cheeks for a flattering glush or use the lighter shades as a highlighter.


4. Sircuit Cosmeceuticals| Molecular Mist 2 OZ|$36
This high-tech spray uses heavy water to keep your skin hydrated all day. Use it pre-moisturizer, as an in-flight refresh, or to set makeup.


5. Deborah Lippmann| Stripper To Go Nail Lacquer Removers 10 Mitts $12
Fix your mani on the fly! Each handy packet contains a remover soaked mitt that erases polish without drying out nails.

I really liked my Birchbox this month, but had the Laura Geller Baked Blush N' Brighten product not been in there, I don't know if I would be saying that. That was DEFINITELY the stand out product. 1, it was great, and 2, it's huge! It was the FULL SIZE PRODUCT. That itself is $29 and I got it included in a $10 box. That's amazing.

What I would repurchase:
Laura Geller Baked Blush N' Brighten (but if they have just a highlighter product instead of the blush included I would buy that, because I liked the highlighter more then the blush)

That's it I think. At first I liked the Deborah Lippmann mitts but it says one packet is enough for 10 nails and that just wasn't true. It was enough for one hand before it dried out or maybe I just didn't work quickly enough, but I found myself swabbing my fingers inside the packet to try and get more remover (which I did, the packet was dripping wet with it, it spilled all over the notebook I had on the table). Also, it lists acetone as an ingredient, which most certainly does dry out your nails. So I don't know about all the claims it was making. I haven't tried the soap yet, but the molecular mist was interesting (Felt refreshing but smelled really strong) and the Kate Spade perfume is nice, like all perfumes, but I'm not particularly in love/ or attracted to it.

Blush N' Brighten swatched: Blush +Highlighter, Blush alone, Highlighter alone

Hope you all liked this review/first impressions, and I can't wait for next month's Birchbox!

Stila for J. Crew Convertible Colors

A couple of weeks ago I was at J. Crew with my sister and I saw right by the checkout line bowls of Stila for J. Crew cosmetics on clearance. I knew I had to buy them when I saw the price- $4.99 each! Each was originally $18 and on Sephora all the Stila Convertible Colors are $25 and have a 4.5 out of 5 star rating. It seems Stila only created 2 colors for J. Crew, a bright hot coral-pink, and a nude brown. Without further ado, the colors:

As you can see, one of the blushes has an imperfection on the outside. Unfortunately, it was the best one in the whole dish. I actually bought the same blush with a nice outside and it turned out inside was all used up and gross. I suppose J. Crew had a reason for making all those blushes clearance after all. So my sister went through blush after blush for me, trying to find one that didn't have a fingerprint on the inside. The only one out of at least ten, was the one pictured above, and that's the one I exchanged my damaged blush for. Not at all impressed with J. Crew about that.

W/o flash 

 W/ flash

I must say I was a bit surprised when I opened these up. The gorgeous light pale pink color on the outside casing of the first blush pictured does not at all match the inside. As you can see it's a dark brown. However the casing on the other blush does match the actual color of the product. Both colors are pretty though. After experimenting with these two products, I have to say I don't understand the high rating on Sephora. They're nice, but nothing I would rave about, and I wouldn't really use these on my lips. I tried, and the color didn't look too great on my mouth, but maybe that's just me. These are really pretty cheek colors though.

Spotlight On: Forever21 Nail Polishes

A few weeks ago I went to Forever21 and found some amazing nail polishes. For a long time I didn't trust the beauty products at Forever because it's a clothing store, not a beauty store. I figured that their products were cheaply priced and cheap in quality, and felt that their area of expertise did not lie in cosmetics. Seeing as how I really haven't tested their makeup I can't dispute this entirely now, but having tried a few nail polishes I'm really quite pleased. Without further ado, the colors:

How gorgeous are they? The names respectively are silver, purple/blue, and indigo. Not too creative. All in all though a great deal, and for only $2.80 each! I'm very impressed. I must say though that while the rainbow and blue polishes went on quite well, I had some difficulty with the purple/blue. Sheer and clumpy. Little more temperamental then the others. Still, no reason not to scoop up a gorgeous polish when you see one, especially for such a reasonable price. I'm happy with all these. :) They're such fun colors!

EVE PEARL HAUL!

It's the first Buzzed for Beauty haul ever! About a week ago I made an online purchase at Eve Pearl's site, http://www.evepearl.com/. Eve Pearl is an incredibly well-respected Emmy-award winning makeup artist and has worked for over 18 years in the makeup industry. She started out doing makeup in ballet, opera, and theatre, and is now a celebrity makeup artist. I am typically unable to afford Eve Pearl's cosmetics (a foundation is $54), but the Eve Pearl Black Pearl Promo was back! YAY!!!!! The Black Pearl Promo is a limited time event in which EVERYTHING, all products, are 40-50% off! That is an incredible deal, and quite generous of her really. No doubt her products sell well on their own without the markdown, but she seems like a good woman, and I'm sure she wanted to do something for all her YouTube fans and subscribers, and her customers in general.

As the Eve Pearl Black Pearl Promo was here and SUCH an amazing deal, I couldn't pass the opportunity up. I purchased six things:
-HD Dual Foundation in Medium  - $54
-Magic Salmon Concealer in Medium  - $35
-Finger Puffy  - $2
-Dual Performance Lip Color: Ultimate Palette  - $40
-Two pairs of Eve Pearl false lashes (104, 106)  - $18

With the promo, what would have been $149 came out to $86.70. Now that's a deal. I saved $62.30! That is the deepest discount I've ever enjoyed. However, with shipping (which was expensive, almost $9) and tax it came out to $103.40 :( Still good though.

I was looking at, but DIDN'T buy any of the lip glosses. But guess what? I got one for free!!

Eve mentioned in her YouTube video to write a note in the comments section about what your favorite Eve Pearl products are or what you want to try, and if you're a blogger, vlogger, or just a fan, because she said they had extra goodies they were including with the orders! I thought maybe only some lucky people would get the freebies, but maybe everyone got something, because I did! :D That's amazing to me. They really didn't have to do it, and it's just the perfect color for me. That was no accident though- before I made my purchase I emailed Eve Pearl to ask if they could help me figure out my shade for foundation and sent them a picture and not only did they give me my shade, but also a bunch of other reccomendations based on the colors I had on in the picture I sent. And she also said I was adorable, so that helps me like them. Haha

Getting back to the point haha, I was wearing a pinky mauve lipstick in my picture and so she (Karla Hirkaler) mentioned that I might like the Eve Pearl Pearlicious Lip Gloss in the color Foreplay. I wanted to buy it but decided not to break the bank, so I only ordered the lip palette. Karla might have mentioned to whoever filling the order that I would like that color, because I feel like it's no accident that I got the color Foreplay. A $20 lipgloss, for free. They really didn't have to do that, and I respect the Eve Pearl Brand so much now. I essentially got a $170, for $100, and all the wonderful customer service and thoughtfulness I could ask for. I am a very happy customer.

After I placed the order I wondered if I did the right thing spending $100 (pretty much my only birthday gift) on one purchase, but when the package came days later, I knew I did! I was so excited and oh my goodness, when I opened up the package it was everything I could have asked for. The packaging of the products is divine! In particular the HD Dual Foundation thrilled me. It's got real weight to it. It's not some flimsy compact, it has a hard shell casing that has a chrome finish to it, and comes with a big gorgeous mirror, and an adorable little flippable window screen for the makeup to protect it! It also protects the mirror from getting dirty. Lastly, there's another flipup compartment for flipping up the makeup to get to the sponge included in the most bottom compartment. Now that's cool.

I am in love with basically all the things I bought. The lip gloss feels AMAZING on the lips, by far the most comfortable lip product I have ever tried. It feels like a treat for my mouth when I squeeze a little out of the tube onto my pucker. It makes my lips feel so soft and the product really is non-sticky! The consistency just feels gorgeous, and it looks amazing on. I know this is going to become one of my staple lip products I re- purchase again and again.

The false lashes- okay, these deserve their own paragraph. Quality- amazing. I always see YouTubers wearing Red cherry or Ardell, but when I've purchased these lashes in the past I found them difficult to put on, and to be honest they didn't look too appealing either. The Eve Pearl lashes look like... quality. They look so beautifully arranged, and the sets of lashes truly look like works of arts. I usually hate false lashes, but go back to them occassionally because of how much oomph it gives to a look (at least to other people haha). These I'm actually excited about.

Anyway that's just a bit of my thoughts for now. I'll be sure to put up product reviews, thoughts, and reccomendations up after I've played around with these for a while. Happy shopping! :)