SPARKLE: Spoiled: The Parking Meteor Expired

One of the reasons I so enjoyed heading over to the US recently was the opportunity to check out the Spoiled nail polish collection carried in CVS drugstores. I had 17 polishes on my wish list and managed to get about 10 - but have no fear it did not break the bank as the Spoiled range is done by Wet N Wild and retails for around $2 US each.

So swatched here today is the colour 'The Parking Meteor Expired' which reminds me of a cross between China Glaze's Watermelon Rind and Emerald Fitzgerald. This is the first colour I tried and I am so impressed. All pictures are taken in natural outdoor light (unfortunately it is cloudy here so I couldn't get a sunlight shot). I am wearing 2 coats with no topcoat and this is day 3. No chipping -  did I mention I'm impressed? Want to see more...

 (the pink reflection here is actually my top - sorry)

Apart from the price and range (Spoiled comes in 70 colours - holy cow), the only other note worthy thing is the brush - it be thick and wide. I found this reasonably easy to use with some practice and I'll be sure to catch the brush in a pic next time I do a spoiled NOTD.

Unfortunately I have not found a way to acquire these online as they are a CVS exclusive. Lucky Americans ;)

What colours have you tried?

Jac x

TAG: I LOVE Drugstore Makeup

1. What is your favorite drugstore makeup brand?
Actually I really don't have an overall favourite - I have favourites by products - Revlon for lips, Wet N Wild for eye shadow, Face of Australia for foundations and Australis for Mascara. If you made me choose just one brand to use for the rest of my life it would be between Revlon and Wet N Wild.

2. What are your favorite face, cheek and lip products?
Face - Physicians Formula Happy Booster Powder and Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation
Cheek - BYS blush in Peach Sundae and Face of Australia Illuminator
Lip - Revlon lipstick in Demure and Revlon Lip Butter in Sugar Frosting or Peach Parfait

3. Least favorite product?
Maybelline mascaras generally and ESPECIALLY The Falsies. Yuck!

4. What is the best makeup bargain?
Walking on Eggshells palette from Wet N Wild or Essence's Blue Addicted Nail Polish (you'll see why under number 7).

5. What is your favorite underdog product?
BYS eyebrow pencils and blushes.

6. A drugstore product that is overpriced?
Well ALL OF THEM in Australia but, generally I think mascaras are overpriced even in the US. In Australia I would have to point the finger of shame at Sally Hansen - my base coat is $16 AUD but only $6USD  - I'm sorry but that's ridiculous.

7. Show your best drugstore dupe(s)!!

• Sally Hansen Extreme Wear in Blue Me Away is a dupe of Zoya's Robin.
• Essence's Blue Addicted Nail Polish is a dupe for Deborah Lippman's Across the Universe.
• Julie G's Nail Polish in Julie's Fav is a dupe for Essie's Cute as a Button.

8. Drugstore product that isn't worth the hype?
'BB creams' (don't even get me started on the fact these aren't 'real' BB creams at all either) - if you actually want to try one then go on eBay and check out brands like Skin Food, Misha and Etude House. 

If you got to the end of this post then consider yourself tagged baby. If you do decide to do this tag as a post please feel free to link your post below - I'd love to read it.

Happy Tuesday.

Jacx

I'm back (+ a little Illamasqua blush candy)!

Hello everyone!

I have returned from my holiday overseas and I had an absolute ball. I hauled shoes, jewellery, makeup, perfume and of course polishes as you would expect. I'll definitely be posting some haul pics for those of you who want to see it all but in the meantime let me share some pics of my current favourite blush- Illamasqua's Zygomatic. I just loves it!

While it looks like a simple colour (the first pic is most true to colour -sorry about the swatches they are a little brown) it is absolutely lovely on the cheek and that sheen makes your skin look like magic. High 5 Illamasqua!

Hope you are happy and well.

Jacx

I'm not sure what happened

I sit here in my pjs penning this post wondering where the month of September has gone and slightly freaking out that I am about to embark on my first overseas holiday in a little over 34 hours.

I had planned on doing some new NOTDs, posts about the ABC (because I had a ball), some reviews and a very overdue empty post - so what happened? I'm not sure but here a couple of things that have contributed:

• WORK -  has been challenging as we restructured as of the 3rd of the month, not to mention having work coming out of my ears.
• WORK AGAIN - I have been in an interesting recruitment process that took 5 months to tell me I had been successful. I am so happy with the outcome but in my role I have been supporting others who did not receive the news they were expecting.
• HOLIDAY PLANNING - because I have no idea what I am doing I have tried (with my husband) to work out as much of this holiday as we can. I spent an evening a few nights ago on google street view trying to work out what places were near our accommodation. Why? I have no idea.
• ANXIETY FILLED DREAMS - nothing better than waking up each morning after odd (sometimes disturbing) dreams before beginning another challenging day at work.
• WORRYING OVER MONEY - I want to punch myself over this one as we have planned so well that our holiday is fully paid for before we go. But I do love a good stress out over money.

And so it could go on blah blah blah...

The reality is that this month has been somewhat "too full" for me. If I use an analogy of my energy being on a budget of $20 a day, then my dearest blog I have run out of my $20 often before lunchtime. And because I do blog for fun, I haven't pushed myself to go past my limits.

To sum up briefly -sorry (my bad) for posting only twice in September AND sorry for October because I am on holidays overseas for most of it but if I can I will be posting a few pics on here.

Hope as always this post finds you happy

Jac x

So here's what happened yesterday...

Some of you may know that yesterday was the Adelaide Beauty Conference and I had a ball. I was so impressed by everything I felt compelled to jump on here immediately and post about how happy I am to be part of Adelaide's Blogging Community.

There are so many favourites I have for what happened yesterday (and I will do a proper recap post sharing pics and what happened in the next few days) that I feel like I have "stuff" inside me ready to burst. One of the reasons I got into blogging in the first place was because I have interest in learning more about products and ingredients so I was in my nerdy-heaven yesterday when we had a couple of different companies talking to us about their products and their philosophies.

But what I call the highlight was the blogging panel about monetising blogs featuring some bloggers who had monetised and some who had not. This is a topic I have felt uncomfortable about ever since starting to blog. There is so much finger pointing at people who receive PR samples etc... stating that they cannot be independent. Honestly I don't believe that receiving compensation makes you a sell-out but here is where it gets interesting for me.

After the last conference I did receive a number of samples from PR (which I am very grateful for), the problem was that I FELT COMPELLED to review them in a timely manner and where possible feature them on my blog. I was never asked to do this -but I didn't want to be a PR black hole so I put the pressure on myself. Ultimately because I am not willing to spend the time it takes to post everyday I found that I was no longer posting about stuff I discovered but rather stuff I received - which took the fun out of it for me.

Blogging for me is a release from my stressful and very serious full-time job and because I am the type of person who doesn't like to get something for nothing, PR samples are a bit of a double-edged sword for me. Let me guess - are you thinking did you take a goodie bag yesterday (hypocrite implied) - and the answer would be yes I did. And here's why I did.... It was stated several times that if you did not want to take a bag you did not have to, bags were provided to all bloggers rather than to me specifically and remember why I got into this in the first place - to learn about new things and products.

The products provided to us had a focus on Australian companies and natural products - which is right up my alley. There are several products included in the bags which I have been very interested to try and because I do not have an unlimited budget I may not have been able to try them for some time. I was never made to feel that my taking a bag I have to review them on here but I suspect I will (Sukin provided some items and you know how much I love them for starters).

So where to from here for my little blog - there are enough products provided yesterday to keep me busy for months so I'm not really 'open for business' but what I am is more educated about the monetising issue more generally. I know I will never monetise my blog because of my reason for starting this blog and what blogging means to me in terms of my whole life. But I am not and have not been looking down my nose at bloggers that do either.

The key to blogging for me is hearing your voice and what you have to say about things. If I start to just hear PR lines instead of what you have to say then the reason for me to read your blog has gone. It's the same reason why I don't read magazines. But that is just my personal opinion.

Anyway... I guess I just wanted to share and would be really interested in hearing your thoughts on this topic too. I am genuinely appreciative to the ABC organisers and the panel bloggers for sharing their thoughts on this issue.

Happy Sunday

Jacx

NOTD: Color Club's Revealed.

Color Club's Revealed is a pink-peach with subtle shimmer. I had hoped it would be more peach than it was and decided pretty quickly that this colour was actually quite unflattering on me. Lovely shade just not for me.

All pictures are taken in natural light with 2 coats. The difference between the first pic above and the second below is that the second one is not in direct sunlight.

 

Pretty and definitely work appropriate but not for me sadly.

Jacx

Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in Candy Coral

I love a good gimmick and I want to love cream blush (but I don't really) so I pounced when I had the opportunity to pick one of these up through my US-based friend and blogger Tammie.


I asked her to pick me up the colour Candid Coral in the hopes it would give me a peachy flush. I then proceeded to break my arm and leave this blush sitting for the best part of 4 months untried until this last week.

So here are my thoughts so far:

Packaging: Very cute no issues there. It also seems to close well which hopefully will slow the drying out process.

Smell: Not sure there is one. Kind of wish there was - is that strange?

Texture: It is kind of a play dough type texture somewhere between a cream and a powder. It's spongy and kind of strange. I have been rubbing it around and then applying it to my face with my fingers before blending out with my Real Techniques Buffing Brush. I kind of wish this had a shimmer as it seems to sit flat on my face.

Performance against it's claims: The back of the packaging (pictured above) says it melts into the skin and I am not quite sure of that. Maybe this works better if you have oily skin - on dry skin it doesn't seem to do much for me at all. Mind you it doesn't have outlandish performance claims either so it does get a thumbs up there.

Value for Money: Look this is at best a novelty item and for that it works nicely. I certainly wont be replacing my blush collection with the Bouncy blush range anytime soon but it's a nice reminder that makeup can be fun too. It is also quite sheer so probably best for light to medium skin tones only.

Have you tried this range? What were your thoughts?

Jacx

NOTD: Butter London's No More Waity, Katie.

Apart from the bucket I needed after reading the name of this polish I desperately wanted to LOVE this and I don't. It's lovely but the problem I have is that unlike China Glaze or Zoya, Butter London polishes are $14. I need this polish to be crazy special for $14 USD and it just isn't special. It's nice but that's it.

All pictures are taken with 2 coats in natural light.

The glitter in this polish was dull although the polish applied well but so it should given it's price. I feel quite depressed about my BL experiences so far - I hope they release something that blows my mind because I want to love them so much

Any BL suggestions?

Jacx

I don't like it.

Ever had that instant screw up the nose or hair stand on the back of your neck reaction to something - even if you are completely uneducated about it? Well I have and here is my Top 5 "I don't like it" topics even if I have grown to have a better understanding about them now:

1. Double Cleansing: I cannot get past the idea that if the first cleanser was any good you wouldn't need the second one. Yes, yes I know that if you use heavy superglue style foundations and waterproof mascara these are probably a god send but to me it seems like clever product marketing to have us buy 2 cleansers instead of 1.

2. White lab coats on cosmetic sales people: I must admit I do get my back up at the idea that there are magical medical ingredients in makeup and skincare and that you can trust me because I have a white lab coat on. I'm sorry but if you have to make up a word to explain what your product does then I'm probably going to be suspicious of you.

3. Made up words that sound like real ones: Drives me crazy! We've all seen it though, made up words that sound like real ones and it doesn't only exist in the cosmetic world either (yes Palsonic I am looking at you). At best it is misleading and at worst it is downright deceptive.

4. Our product lasts for 100 hours: I don't need my makeup to last for 24, 48 or 72 hours, you don't actually make any that last that long either so how about we stop with the bullshit claims shall we? There is a great line JFK about how theoretical physics can tell you that you can hang an elephant over a cliff from its tail and I kind of think these people are also responsible for the ridiculous long wearing claims we see on makeup now. And don't even get me started on the mascara claims (let's save that rant for another day).

5. Sheer nail polish: Ok I can accept the french manicure colours being sheer but anything else that's just crazy talk. Do not make a gorgeous shimmery polish only to have it be streaky and sheer with ugly VNL everywhere. In fact this hatred was one of the main reasons I swore off Essie and OPI for so long. I still will not purchase one of their polishes without checking swatches first. Sheer nail polish I hate you so hard!

Well.... that was cleansing and a little awkward lol. But I hates what I hates - logical or not. Am I alone here? Would you like to share- if you do happen to do a blog post about your "dislikes" link it below.

Happy Wednesday my friends

Jacx

p.s that is actually a picture of my cat Madison yawning but seriously it is perfect no?

NOTD: Orly's Sand Castle

This NOTD is a lesson in not buying nail polish by name. This colour is insipid on me and very unflattering despite the pretty name. The finish is dated and I would recommend almost any other polish Orly made in preference to this one.

All pictures taken are with 2 coats and please excuse the mess on my middle finger - clearly I was easily distracted even while applying this polish lol.

Me no likey. Have you been sucked in by the name of a product only to find it's actually hideous on you?

Happy Tuesday

Jacx

And now for something pretty: Sephora Prisma Chrome Eye Shadow in Moon Beam

This is why I should never buy anything pretty. I got this eyeshadow 6 months ago and all I have dared to do so far is swatch it for this blog. Just hopeless lol.

Do you have pretty things you can't bare to touch?

Hope this finds you well
Jacx

Jac

Sephora Wish List 1.0

With preparing to go overseas one of the things that has occurred to me is that when I walk into a Sephora I might get overwhelmed and end up buying a lot of things I don't really want just because I get all excited by the bright and shiny things. And I'm anal (lol) so that means I have started to prepare my Sephora wish list and here's a few things I have narrowed it down to so far...

Makeup Forever Face and Body Foundation - I've heard the coverage and texture is a little better than F&B from MAC. I am also wanting to get a Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua but that isn't sold at Sephora.

I would like to try 2 mascaras in particular - MUFE Smokey Lash and Tarte's Lights Camera Lashes. Apart from that I am really happy with drugstore mascaras like Australis TLC and Prestige's My Blackest Lashes (that I have recently grown to love).

Blush-wise I am interested in a few but have committed only to Tarte's Amazonian Clay blush in Exposed and Benefit's Coralista at this stage. I have way too much blush as it is.

Eyeshadow is definitely another danger zone for me. So far I am lemming after Dior's 5-Colour eyeshadow palette in Incognito and Tarina Tarantio's eye dream highlight duo in Elektron/Amber.

I've avoided lip products so far - but I imagine I'll want to pick up a Dior Addict or two as they are gorgeous. So finally I have a nail polish wish for Illamasqua's Jo'mina.

At this stage this list adds up to $229.00 USD without tax. It's going to be easy to get carried away.

Have you tried any of these products so far - what else should I consider for my wish list? Did you want to see more of my US wish list stuff for things apart from beauty?

Hope you are well
Jac x

* All images used come from sephora's website.

What's been keeping me busy?

Long time no post - I know.

Honestly though I always promised myself that I wasn't going to blog unless I wanted to and lately I have been really enjoying reading blogs and watching YT instead. But for some reason tonight I am feeling that creative urge to share what I've been up to lately:

1. Watching lots of You Tube videos and I am just a little bit in love with Cute Polish's Channel. 
2. Browsing Tiffany and Co's US website and plotting purchases for when I visit later in the year
3. I have been checking 3 blogs pretty much everyday for inspiration and they are - Scrangie, Nouveau Cheap and Temptalia. Between all 3 there is something to drool over everyday.
4. Reorganising my nail polish collection. Previously I was organsing by brand but I realised I couldn't see dupes this way so I did tip swatches of all my bottles and reorganised by colour. Not surprisingly I now have enough dupes to have a sizable blog sale which I will get to before I leave for the US.
5. Counting down my holiday using my 'Vacation Countdown' app - ah what did I do before I got an iphone?
6. Plotting the purchase of an ipad. I am pleased to say as of last weekend I have changed my mind on that one as I want to be able to load pictures from our cameras when we are overseas so a small netbook seems like a better option there.
7. Celebrating birthdays. Both of my stepchildren are born in June and so we have been celebrating their birthdays for the last couple of weekends they have spent with us. They got to choose where we went for dinner and pick out their birthday cakes. They are so very cute and I adore them.
8. Using up my stash. I started a 3 month no buy on the 1st of July but to be honest I have really only been purchasing nail polish anyway but it's a full spending ban (unless I run out of a necessary product) until I hit the US in Oct.
9. Organising passports, suitable luggage, accommodation, bus transfers and tours for our holiday. I am so lucky to have a knowledgeable friend in the lovely Steggers as well as Sarah and Tara. I'm so very excited - can you tell? (lol)
10. My least favourite task has been organising accommodation for my lovely kitties while we are overseas. We had planned for my mum to stay here with them but unfortunately she is having an operation close to our departure date and will be recovering. I am a cat lady and I fret over them being looked after so I am a bit nervous but I am sure they will be fine.
11. Playing with Sally Hansen Salon Effects. OMG these are so easy to do I have no idea why I waited so long to try them - apart from the price of course.

I have to say 2012 has been a mixed bag of lollies. I have experienced some moments of wonderful kindness and generosity from true friends, been completely stupefied by some of the behaviour of work colleagues and my employer, as well as battling to regain full movement in my arm after breaking it (I am so close now).

Some years just seem to go by and I don't really feel much of a change in myself but this year has been massive so far and the next 6 months seem to offer more of the same. I sincerely hope that 2012 has been good to you so far and that this blog post finds you happy and healthy.

Jac x

In the post: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain

 Pictured front to back: Rendezvous, Honey and Charm

Look what was waiting for me when I got home - squeee! I tried the original Just Bitten lip stain and I wasn't a fan. If I want my lips to look dry like that I definitely don't want to draw attention by having a colour on them too. So when I saw the balm stain I hoped these would work better for me.

I ordered 3 of the colours: Charm (035), Honey (001) and Rendezvous (040). These are very similar in design to Chubby sticks (which I do not own) and the Tarte LipSurgence pencils (I own one of those). Let's take a closer look shall we:

 Pictured front to back: Rendezvous, Honey and Charm

 Pictured left to right: Rendezvous, Honey and Charm

Pictured top to bottom: Rendezvous, Honey and Charm

This is not a review (I've had these in my hands for about 45minutes) so I can't tell you how well they perform. I can say they feel similar to the Tarte product on the lips with that minty taste but the Tarte ones taste much stronger.

These are not currently available in Australia so I picked mine up on eBay (seller: 702musthaves) and they arrived super quick. So impressed.

Have a great week guys

Jac x

NOTD: Orly Pixy Stix

Jac and Pink haven't always been friends, especially in the nail polish department. Pink has sat patiently while I gave all my attention to the purples, the blues, the greens and then the purple glitters....and so on. Anyway at some point I started to realise I didn't own any pinks and that needed to change. Enter Orly's Pixy Stix (which was released in their Sweet collection) probably my favourite pink poilish ever.

Quite frankly Orly should send this polish to everyone as it not only won me over pink-wise it also won me over to Orly nail polish too. I love their weird rubber coated lids! All pictures here were taken with 2 coats in sunlight after wearing this polish for 3-4 days.

Get this polish anyway you can FULL STOP

Jac x

Well look what the cat dragged in...

Hi. You may remember me from posts in 2011 and a feeble few posts this year but I am here to say I'm back and ready to play with blogger again.

A quick update -

1. My arm is healing nicely - at this stage I still have some weakness and still can't straighten it fully but I don't need to sit on the sidelines anymore.
2. Work is going bonkers but I am digging in there. I like me a challenge and it has been delivered this year.
3. Planning for the US trip is in full force with our flights being booked last month and my leave being approved at work just last week (yeah I'm a gambler).
4. After a pretty intense hate-relationship with Essie for the past couple of years I like them now and for my birthday did a haul of 9 polishes (through transdesign so all up it was $60 including P&H).

You may also have noticed some changes to my blog -including my blog name, my description and my "where does my stuff come from" section. Having a break from blogging gave me a chance to really think about what I could do that was more "the real me". So I have decided that I'll only post about stuff I buy or that is given as gifts. If I am lucky enough to be given something for free, I wont post about it unless I am prepared to buy one myself with my own money.

I'm not trying to make any kind of "statement" about what other bloggers choose to do and quite frankly I wouldn't do that anyway because I don't have a problem with people receiving samples when it's done transparently. I love reading posts with new collection stuff just as much as the next person and the only way that can happen with any regularity is with PR samples. My decision is based on what I could do that feels comfortable to me (given my work commitments do impact my ability to post regularly) and what could be a point of difference for my blog.

Anyway I am pretty excited to be back and I have a tonne of stuff to share - not because I have been buying a lot but because I haven't been blogging about stuff I purchased for most of this year.

For those of you with blogs out there - I have been reading but not commenting as my arm does get sore after work still. I'm hoping things will improve and I'll try and leave a smiley face if nothing else so you know I stopped by.

Hope this post finds you well.

Jac x

Quick Update and Easter wishes

Hi everyone it's so nice to be writing a post.

Gee it has been a hard few weeks trying to learn how to do things with my left arm but I'm pleased to say that my right arm has been healing nicely. I am almost back to working full time hours again and today I managed to actually touch the top of my head with my right hand - wow it's been ages since I could do that. I'm not going to lie and say it's all been sunshine and smiles because it hasn't. Some days have been very hard - especially when you come equipped with a voice that is happy to tell you how crap you are without any encouragement. But overall I am getting there and determined to remain positive.

I hope to be back writing posts and sharing my thoughts by commenting on your posts again soon (in my head I am thinking by May). The husband and I continue planning for our trip to the US and our latest batch of renovations are almost complete - so expect a pic heavy post about that when I'm back on deck.

Anyway I just wanted to quickly come on to say Happy Easter and I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday. Hugs and chocolate to you all.

Jac x

Haul: Zoya True Collection with swatches

SCORE - I found this completed blog post sitting in my drafts with pictures and all. Enjoy!

I've really not had my eye on the game as Zoya released both the True and the Feel collections without me even noticing. I also had a bloody hard time finding these online until I returned back to my faithful eBay seller who never ever lets me down where this brand is concerned. Now of course You can also find these on Nailsetc.

The True collection contains 6 polishes but 2 are nudes which I didn't order. After picking up the Touch collection last year and already owning Orly's Pure Porcelain (swatched here) my nude collection feels pretty full - at least I can be sensible sometimes lol. Let's take a closer look below at the four colours I did pick up Tru, Lotus, Bevan and Skylar. 

Bloggibis Interruptis

For those who follow me on twitter you already know this but for everyone else - I broke my arm 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately it was my right and it is broken in at my elbow end. Fortunately there is no cast - yay! I have been resting and keeping up with pain relief so hoping to be more mobile soon.

Breaks usually take around 6 weeks to heal (I had no idea as this break is my first). I am hoping to be back sooner than that but we'll see how my healing continues. Until then no posting or comments from me - I'm pretty much done just from typing this.

I've had some good ideas for future posts and some updates with my blog design but I'll explain more once I'm back on deck.

Hope you are doing well and thanks to everyone who's sent kind words while I have been going out of my mind with boredom. A special thanks to Tara (who actually sent me a pressie to cheer me up - so lovely) and those who supported her enabling to convince me to buy a Kindle - worth every penny.

Seriously now it's time to rest my arm.

Jacx

Haul: Salley Hansen Gem Crush Nail Polishes

 Pictured from left to right: Be-Jeweled, Showgirl Chic, Big Money and Razzle Dazzler

Yesterday happened to be the first day I have started to feel better in ages even though it was also the day it was confirmed I had been exposed to Whooping Cough.

You see the test for WC doesn't say yes/no you have WC, all it says is if you have been exposed (or maybe my Dr didn't ask for the right blood test?). Given that the WC immunisation lasts until your mid 20s and this is the first time I've had a nasty cough like this in ages, all signs point to me having battled through WC in the last month or so. So rather than feeling like my body let me down - which is what I had been feeling - I now feel like it's done an awesome job as I am starting to feel better already.

God I can be so long winded sometimes! Anyways... this was the first time I had been well enough to run errands and the first thing I did was go and pick up parcels from my local Post Office (staff there are THE best) and drop past Priceline. The result was a little haulage in the polish department. In a small burst of energy I have included bottle and tip swatches for your consideration below. Enjoy....