Manicure Monday: Hello Dalek

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Happy Monday! Today is my birthday, but if you saw me on Instagram this weekend, you already saw the cupcake mani I did to celebrate. I’ll likely post a birthday mani digest post in the future, because I have a lot of other special manis I did while I was on a break from swatching. The polish I’m using to celebrate my birthday today is Digital Nails‘s Hello Dalek.

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Polishes like this take me back to the old days of indie polish. Remember when black jellies with chunky glitters were a new concept? It’s kind of sad to me that the indie polish world has moved on. These are still some of my favorite polishes to wear. The big red dot glitters were what sold me on Hello Dalek, but the glitter mix as a whole is so colorful and fun. It was definitely a must-have.

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Of course, I had to add something, and what’s better for a birthday mani than actual confetti? I had a small bag of birthday confetti on my desk, something my father sent me in a gift package. There were some large pieces of confetti that said HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and I tried cutting them the size of my nail and sticking them on, but they were much too rigid and wouldn’t conform to my nail. Instead, I used a couple of stars. They don’t lay flat, either; the points keep getting snagged on things, but I think it’s a fun look.

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In the sunshine, this polish doesn’t look fantastic, but I think that’s user error. I used three coats, and a fourth might have kept it from looking thin and uneven, but it’s only in strong lighting like this that it happens, so I’m not too bothered with it. Look at the variety of glitters here! This really is a party in a bottle.

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Hello Dalek is out of stock; other Digital Nails polishes are available from their etsy shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Skincare Review: Valentia’s Night Revive Retinol Serum

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It’s another skincare review! This time it’s another product from Valentia; it’s their Night Revive Retinol Serum. I’ve never used a retinol product on my face, but I’m giving it shot. For science. I’ve been using it since last Thursday.

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I was given these products by Brandbacker and Valentia. My opinons are my own and are not swayed by free stuff.

You’ll remember I reviewed Valentia’s Pure Glow Moisturizer some time ago, and after sustaining a breakout caused by it, I had some reservations about the retinol treatment. I thought a retinol treatment wouldn’t be for me, that it would be better suited for someone with anti-aging needs. The box says it helps curb breakouts and premature aging, though, so it sounds like there’s something for everyone in this bottle. Valentia products contain natural and organic ingredients, are vegan, and cruelty-free. The Cosdna entry for the Night Revive Retinol Serum is here.

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The product comes with an eyedropper, as the serum is pretty liquidy. It’s milky in color, and runs when dropped onto the back of a hand. I found that one dropper-ful was enough to cover my face, neck and décolletage. It goes on nicely and absorbs quickly. There’s no added fragrance, and the product has a creamy mild scent. With the first few applications, I noticed a slightly irritating feeling, but it didn’t last long and went away after absorbing. I don’t notice it anymore. I haven’t been using it every night, so I’m not seeing the redness or peeling the box warns me about.

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I’ve read that it generally takes a few weeks to see the results of a retinol serum, so I may need to do a follow-up post to this one in order to really review its efficacy. That said, I’m probably going to keep using this. I had an epiphany halfway through writing this that my 31st birthday is upon me and I really need to get on the anti-aging bandwagon. This seems like a good product to start with. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

The Night Revive Retinol Serum retails for $35 on Amazon and on Valentia’s website. Follow Valentia on Facebook and Instagram to learn more about this and other products.

I was given these products by Brandbacker and Valentia. My opinons are my own and are not swayed by free stuff.

Skincare Review: Derma E’s Hydrating Day and Night Creams + New Packaging Preview

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Who loves skincare products? I do! I love trying new things as well. I was given the chance to review Derma E’s Hydrating Day and Night Creams, as well as showcase their new package design. I’ve heard so many good things about Derma E, and I’m excited for this chance to try them out. For six days, I replaced my regular moisturizers with these, and so far, I like what I’m seeing.

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I was given these products by Brandbacker and Derma E. My opinons are my own and are not swayed by free stuff.

Let’s talk first about the brand and their products. I’m excited to see these creams are free of parabens, phthalates, sodium lauryl sulfate, petrolatum, mineral oil, artificial colors, gluten, soy, and GMOs. They are also cruelty-free and 100% vegan. I love seeing long lists of what’s not in the product (even when some of them are givens). The products were not reformulated during the package redesign. Derma E’s hydrating products are for normal to dry skin. Here are the Cosdna entries for the day and night creams.

The Hydrating Day Creme is up first. The product consistency is pretty light for a cream, just a bit heavier than a lotion. I’m definitely more on the oily side, so I was pretty hesitant to try this on my actual face. I’m happy to report, though, that I didn’t have any adverse reactions. It doesn’t leave me any more oily through the day as my regular moisturizer. It also has a lovely scent; the box says plumeria flower, I just know it smells like Hawaii.

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One thing, though, is I’m not sure this product contains any sun protection. It doesn’t explicitly say it on the box, and it wasn’t until I was examining the ingredients list that I noticed it does contain some titanium dioxide, which is used in most physical sunscreens. Of course, this is also used for pigmentation, and as it’s also in the night cream, it’s likely being used for that purpose instead. Additional sun protection is recommended.

Here’s the night cream in all its newly redesigned glory! The formula here is a bit richer than that of the day cream, but doesn’t feel thick or goopy. Like with the day cream, I didn’t experience oilier-than-normal conditions in the morning. The scent is different from the day cream, but it’s still pleasant.

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What do you guys think about the new packaging? I really like it. I thought the old one was nice, but this new one is really sophisticated-looking. I like being able to see the product through the label, and I like the look of the matte label. It’s a really nice jar to have displayed on my vanity table.

Overall, I like these creams, they’ve performed very well in the past six days I’ve used them. However, I do not feel like they’re for me. They’re definitely perfect for someone with normal to dry skin, they deliver a lot of moisture and softness. As someone who’s still trying to master the art of oil control, I’m sorry to say it, they’re just not what I need. However, I am very likely to try any oily skin products Derma E offer, because I have loved using these two creams. I’ll probably also use these on the regular when I run out of my usual products.

Both the day and night creams sell for $29.50 each. While the newly redesigned packaging did officially launch in September, it will be rolling out with all products in March 2017. You can find Derma E products in Ulta, Target, CVS, and Walgreens, among others.

I was given these products by Brandbacker and Derma E. My opinons are my own and are not swayed by free stuff.

Manicure Monday: Highlander

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Happy Monday! I love wearing holos for Manicure Monday because I get the posts done so much earlier in the day. Wearing a holo is pretty awesome, too. The holo of the day is Digital Nails‘s Highlander; I’m wearing three coats with Seche Vite and a stud from Daily Charme. All photos were taken in direct sunlight.

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This is the first time I’ve used a Digital Nails holo, despite owning so many, and I really love it. Everything about it — the thin product consistency, the very sheer first coat, the gentle build to opacity, the smoothness of the holo flame — are not like any of the other holos I’ve used so far. I really worried at first, because the color is so deep in the bottle, yet it barely looked like anything on the nail. However, once I got outside, wow. The polish and my skin are about the same intensity, and in low lighting, it’s hard to see. Outside, though, the holo and the golden shimmer and the bronze color just light up.

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This is the reason I’ve come to like neutral holos. I never thought much of neutrals in the past because they weren’t bright and exciting colors, but as I dove into indie polish, I started finding neutrals that could be interesting. One of my favorite things ever is being blown away by something that’s unexpectedly awesome, and neutral holos do that. They take a typical SFW humdrum polish and make it amazing.

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I feel a little bad covering it up with a stud. The stud is basically the size of my whole nail and it’s covering a seriously pretty polish, but I was kind of burned out on the bows. I really need to invest in some new ones! Maybe some gold ones for polishes like this. I feel weird mixing silver with gold.

Highlander is currently not in stock, but other Digital Nails polishes are available in their etsy shop. My pyramid stud is from Daily Charme.

I bought these products myself.

Swatch Sunday: Tea Beauty’s Vanilla Petals

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Happy Sunday, reader! Today’s swatch is a scented polish from Tea Beauty! This is Vanilla Petals; I’m wearing three coats of Vanilla Petals without top coat.

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Vanilla Petals is a nude creme with a vanilla scent. Application was good; the first coat was a little streaky, which is not uncommon with light polishes like this. It evened out to full opacity on the second. The product consistency is pretty average, thick enough to carry color, not thin enough to flood cuticles. The polish dries with a glossy finish, but does take a while to do so; more than five minutes later, my nails were not smooth to the touch and still had some tack.

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As I mentioned, this is a scented polish, and I’m actually pretty impressed by how long the scent has lasted. It’s been about a day now since I applied it; I’ve washed my hands many times, I washed my face, I took a shower in the morning, and it still smells like vanilla. My experience with scented polishes — particularly the Crayola ones I got from Rite-Aid — is that the scent vanishes completely after one hand wash, and I’m really shocked this one still smells after putting it through so many washes.

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I don’t know much about this brand, other than they turned up at Walgreens one day, turned up in the sale bin on another, and all Google turns up are some blog posts from three years ago. The bottom label has a URL for a fragrance company, which does not list the polish on its site. Honestly, I don’t know if you can buy these anymore, which is kind of a shame.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Bound to the City Life

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Happy Saturday, reader! I don’t say this often, but I am in love with today’s polish. It’s just so glittery! This is Bound to the City Life from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

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Bound to the City Life is a deep indigo jelly with fine holographic glitters. Application was very easy; the product consistency is on the thinner side, but is still able to support the glitter well. The first coat was a deep blue, but still needed additional coats for opacity and deepened color. Though a jelly, it does eventually reach a squishy but opaque shade of blue. The glitter is very fine, leaving very little texture when dry. The polish does dry with a glossy finish; I still used top coat for extra smoothness and shine.

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Bound to the City Life is the blue cousin to Noticing Face, another polish I wore recently and loved a lot. I love how deep the color is; it’s dark and dramatic, but obviously still quite blue. Everything about it is pretty perfect. These are absolutely my favorite kinds of polishes, and BEGL always nails them (hah, because polish).

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Outdoors, the blueness and the jellyness is most apparent. You can see all the way through it. Every bit of glitter is visible and sparkling, but the things you don’t want to see — visible nail lines, for example — are not visible at all. These photos were taken in direct sunlight.

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Bound to the City Life has been discontinued by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer; other BEGL polishes are available in their online shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Empties Roundup: September 2016

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It’s the end of the month, and you know what that means: Empties Roundup! It’s the end of September, and I’ve got a lot of stuff to share. Let’s get started!

La Lavande French Triple-Milled Soap in Gardenia

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So obviously this wrapper has been empty a long time, you can’t really use a bar of soap without wrapping it. But yes, I did hang onto this wrapper longer than I want to admit just to photograph it and then write about it. It was really nice soap; it lathered well, had a strong gardenia fragrance, and didn’t dry me out. It took me a couple months, probably, to use the whole thing. I replaced it with another soap bar from my shamefully large soap hoard.

L’Occitane en Provence Shea Butter Hand Cream, 30ml tube

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I love this stuff. I love L’Occitane. This was the last tube from a L’Occitane hand cream sampler from Sephora and I’m so sad they’re all gone now. They all made my hands feel so soft and moisturized, and they were the perfect handbag size. My new handbag lotion is Pacifica’s Tuscan Blood Orange because it was on sale at Target.

Model City Cuticle Oil in Cactus Flower

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I’d been using this for so long there’s practically no label left. Believe it or not, I bought three of these bottles and this is the last one. It lasted forever! It did a fanastic job of moisturizing and smelled wonderful. I’m now using an oil from Smokey Mountain Lacquers from my expanding cuticle oil stash.

CeraVe AM Facial Moisturizing Lotion

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Here’s another product I use on the regular. I know it’s for dry skin, and as such, it makes me feel a bit oily after a while. It doesn’t break me out, so I just deal with it. I’ve decided to try a new one though, Cetaphil’s daytime moisturizer lotion. I’ll probably come back to it if the new one doesn’t work out.

Revlon’s Photoready Powder in Translucent

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Project Pan has its first casualty! This was actually most of the way used-up when I started the project, so I don’t think it counts, but it is nice to use up something. I’m actually undecided on whether I’d buy this again. I really liked it over BB cream; it helped smooth out imperfections that weren’t 100% covered, and made me look more done-up than I was. On the other hand, it wasn’t a setting powder, which was really what I wanted. It didn’t make me feel finished, it felt pretty creamy a long time after applying. For now, I’m using another powder from my stash, Benefit’s The Pore-fessional Agent Zero Shine.

Bath and Body Works’s Butterfly Flower Shower Gel

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Another month, another empty shower gel. I forgot how nice this fragrance was! It’s pretty strong in the shower, but after drying off, it’s really subtle. Of course, lotion in the same scent helps with a fragrance’s staying power, but sometimes I don’t want to smell like a perfumery. Also I’d used up the lotion months ago.

Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day hand soap in Peony

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I’m so glad I finally tried these! I was complaining to a friend about how hard it is to find a good hand soap. Antibacterial ones break my hands out so bad, and they’re bad for you in general, so I spent a lot of time looking for The Soap. A friend recommended I try this brand out and when I saw this at Target, I scooped it up. I’ve since replaced it with another Mrs. Meyer’s soap, this time in Geranium.

Shea Moisture Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Hair Masque

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I love Shea Moisture products, and their hair masques and deep conditioners are products I always rebuy. I probably use them more than I do actual conditioner. This one made my hair feel very soft and easy to detangle. It also smells lovely! I loved it, but as I like to try new things, I’ve replaced it with Carol’s Daughter’s Sacred Tiare restoring hair mask.

Lubriderm Advance Therapy Lotion

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This is my favorite lotion. It moisturizes, it smooths unhappy skin immediately, and it doesn’t have any fragrance. The fact that it’s fragrance-free is probably my favorite, because I can use it with any bath product. I hate it when fragrances compete! I have three bathrooms in my house and there’s a bottle of this in each one. That’s kind of a lie, because I haven’t replaced it right away. I bought a JĀSÖN lotion this time because it was on sale at Target.

MAC Prep + Prime Skin Primer

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Another Project Pan casualty that doesn’t quite count, because it was basically empty when I pulled it out. I didn’t expect to have to replace this AND the Revlon powder at the same time, but here we are. I’ve been thinking of trying another foundation — maybe NARS or Kat von D — and so I don’t want to buy another primer until I’ve decided on a foundation. For now, I’m using a backup Smashbox sample I’ve had bumming around, but I’ve already had to cut the tube open, so I’m kind of running out of time. It’s also the last empty I need for a Back 2 MAC lipstick, so I’m not too sad about it.

And there you have it, nine products that have gone to the big beauty counter in the sky. I wonder if I’ll ever have an Empties Roundup this large again. What did you use up this month?

I bought all these products myself.

HPB Presents Glitter Forever

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Hello, reader! Welcome to the Hobby Polish Bloggers Link-Up for September! Each month, this Facebook group chooses a theme, and participants can do whatever mani they want, so long as it fits the theme. This month’s theme is glitter toppers! For this look, I used American Apparel’s Galaxy and Nicole by OPI’s Confetti Fun over LA Colors’s Whipped, as well as Seche Vite and a bow from Daily Charme.

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I usually try to use one untried polish in every HPB mani, and the untried in this one is Confetti Fun. It’s the finer of the two glitter mixes; I paired it with Galaxy to fill the empty spaces. Galaxy is nothing but the really chunky glitters, and wearing them both together gives them both what they need for a complete look.

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It’s kind of a cop-out to use nude as a base for glitter, but I like it. It’s coverage without color; it’s the best way to let all the colors show without being obvious. Black and white get too dramatic; nude is just right. I regret not using an untried nude, because I do have so many. It does the job.

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I love metallic glitter in the sun! It’s absolutely blinding. All of the colors are brighter and better. I don’t know why I didn’t just take all the photos in the sun. Look at the flare on the macro!

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Galaxy and other American Apparel polishes have been discontinued. Confetti Fun and Whipped may be discontinued by Nicole by OPI and LA Colors, respectively; other NOPI and LA Colors polishes are sold in stores nationwide. My infinity bow is from Daily Charme.

I bought these products myself.

 

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Manicure Monday: Popples

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Happy Monday, reader! Today’s polish is so bright and happy that I’m cool with it being Monday. This is Pretty & Polished‘s Popples; I’m wearing three coats of Popples with one coat of Seche Vite and a bow charm from Claire’s.

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So this is super cute, right? This is actually one of the first indie polishes I ever bought. It wasn’t one of the very first, but in the grand scheme of things, it was a pretty early etsy purchase. It doesn’t seem like it, but 2013 was a long time ago! I can’t believe I’m just getting around to trying this polish. I love the neon glitters popping out from the white crelly. It’s one of the cutest things I’ve worn in a while.

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White crellies are my favorite polishes to buy (and make, sometimes) because the possibilities are really endless. There’s very little that doesn’t work with the crelly + glitter formula. I’ve always loved neons and white together, so this is really up my street.

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I took some photos in the sun, which were not really necessary. The colors pop just as much outdoors as indoors. Still cute though!

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Popples and other Pretty & Polished products are available in their etsy shop. My bow charm is from Claire’s.

I bought these products myself.

Swatch Sunday: Sweet Heart Polish’s Oh Look, A Firefly

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It’s Sunday!! For today’s swatch I’m excited to be wearing a new-to-me brand called Sweet Heart Polish. Based on Tinkerbell, this green jelly is packed with fairy dust. Let’s get started! I’m wearing three coats of Oh Look, A Firefly with one coat of Seche Vite.

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Oh Look, A Firefly is a lime green jelly filled with iridescent glitters and gold flakies. Application was good; the product consistency is perfect, being thick enough to suspend and distribute glitter without being goopy or sad. The green base is a very sheer jelly; nail lines are still visible even after three coats. The glitters are pretty fine and don’t leave a texture when dry, though it does dry with a satiny finish. I used top coat for shine and extra protection.

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This polish really is Tinkerbell in a bottle. It’s green, golden, and completely magical. I’m wearing it alone here, but it could be used as a topper over another green polish, maybe even a black one, and looks excellent with its original satin finish. It sounds like a really simple polish — it’s made with some pretty basic ingredients — but it’s a beautiful look and is a ton of fun to wear. Personally, I wanted more coverage, but that’s not a huge gripe at all, I can deal with the sheer.

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In the sunlight, the green looks a little washed out compared to the studio photos, but the glitter and sparkle is all there. These photos were taken in direct sunlight.

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Oh Look, A Firefly is the second half of a sold-out Peter Pan collaboration with Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. This duo is sold out in both stores. Other Sweet Heart Polishes are available in their etsy shop.

I bought this polish myself.