Maybelline Bleached Neons collection swatches

When I heard about the Bleached Neons collection coming out for a limited time for Summer 2014, I heard nothing but good things which made me immediately keep an eye out for it around here.

The main hype in this collection is the color tattoos. They are apparently identical to the ones that came out for a limited time last year...just under a different name! This is a bummer for people who bought both unknowingly but awesome for people who were sad they missed them the first time around (guess which camp I fall into)

So the one thing I remember most about the original color tattoos was that they were fine on their own but they really shined when over a black eyeliner/eyeshadow. I couldn't wait to buy these and try the technique out for myself.

My goods! Left to right. Maybelline master drama Chromatic eyeliner in turn on the teal, Color tattoo in Sunwashed Sky , Color Show nail polish in Bleached in Peach, and Color Tattoo in Shimmering Sea

Here's a close up of the color tattoos and nail polish

I tried showing the tip of this eyeliner. It's soft and wonderful.

Maybelline Chromatic eyeliner in Turn on the teal - with flash

Take a look at that swatch. I'm in love! I'm actually sitting here wondering this asking myself why I haven't used it in any looks yet. I don't know why, it's gorgeous! 

Maybelline chromatic eyeliner Turn on the teal - daylight bulb, no flash

Anyway I'm definitely smitten with this eyeliner it's probably one of my favorites! 

I am very tempted to go and pick up some other shades, as there was a pink, purple and more.

Unfortunately i don't have any better pictures of the nail polish. I purchased it to use in a Easter manicure which I never got to post because after a certain point it seemed odd to post an easter mani, am I right? 

Swatches of that polish soon. But for what its worth, I liked it!

Now for the real star of the show- the color tattoos

Maybelline bleached neons Color tattoos

Here are the two side by side...they look a bit different in pictures but in person they looked very similar to be honest. If you can't see the lids, Sunwashed Sky is in the left, and Shimmering Sea is on the right.

Let's take a look at Sunwashed Sky first.

Right away you can tell it's beautiful

Here I have a swatch of the color tattoo on its own on the left, and over black eyeshadow on the right. As you can see, the shadow really comes alive when placed over a black base.

I love the duochorme shift that becomes much more obvious over a black shadow. I had some trouble layering it but I think it's because I tried doing it over a powder eyeshadow. I think these would look good over a creamy pencil liner- like the cheap wet n wild ones I got in the packs I've reviewed lately. 

I think Shimmering Sea is my favorite of the two!

I like the way Shimmering Sea  looks on its own. It looks good over black but not as much as Sunwashed Sky does. 

All in all I think there are several things worth picking up if you see this display. Basically everything in this post! Haha! I highly recommend all of it. 

Have you seen this display in your area? I'll be honest I was surprised when I saw they restocked ours after I picked htese up. It still remains mostly full when I pass by! So you should still find them near you but don't wait too long as these are limited edition!

April IPSY Glam bag: Beauty Rocks

For once I have a legitimate excuse for posting my glam bag late. My grandma passed away April 17th and life has been pretty hectic since then, as you can imagine. So my blog has taken a back seat for the most part but I'm trying to make a comeback!

So let's start with the IPSY bag from April.

Starting with the bag...this is definitely one of my favorites. I am a huge music lover so "beauty rocks" theme with a record player is perfect. I really like it! Not as much as solid print bags in a print I love, but still.

Here's my bag's contents and I have to admit, I'm not stoked OVERALL. Of course I'll explain that all.

Let's start with the best of the bag which is of course this Urban Decay 24/7 Velvet glide-on eye pencil in black velvet.
Obviously anything Urban Decay is worth the rest of the bag to be honest. This is a pretty straight forward product. A black eyeliner pencil. Which came just in time as I was just recently thinking to myself in disbelief that I didn't have a go-to black eyeliner pencil anymore since I only use liquid or gel eyeliner these days.

A smudged out line to the left and a straight swatch to the right. See the little bald part towards the top? That was where a little bit of the tip broke off because I was pressing down too hard. This is definitely the kind of eyeliner that is soft to achieve the "glide on" effect and for the blendability. The website says it is waterproof but I didn't test that claim but I would be interested to know...

This is just a trial size and when I went to look for the weight/price on Urban Decay's website I got a little confused.
It says the trial size fill weight is .03 oz but it says the full size is .04 oz.
Very peculiar. Since you can't buy the trial size individually and I don't know what to make of the weight issue, I am making an educated guess about how much it is worth based on the other travel size kits.
This travel size is worth about $6
The full size is available at Urban Decay's website for $20 and you can also find it in store at Ulta or Sephora
Would I repurchase? Yeah mosty likely, but I would definitely buy a travel set because it is a much better value and you get to try multiple colors. Win/win!

I got this Cailyn tinted lip balm in Apple Pink.
Let's talk about how much is wrong with that sentence.
First off, when are apples pink?! And to be real I don't even think this is a pink shade. More like a peachy-nude.
But the biggest gripe I , and everyone else, has with this product is that it's somehow marketed as lip balm. As even the most casual beauty lover knows...lip balm is supposed to be moisturizing.
This sucker is pretty much the opposite of that.

It's super matte and as you can see it settles into fine lines and such. It is pretty drying. I have heard that it is long-lasting, which is nice, I guess? But I couldn't stand to have it on my lips long enough to find out.
Maybe this could work for you if you did some major prep work to your lips beforehand and slathered on a ton of actual lip balm before applying.

Another shot to re-affirm how drying this B is.
Unfortunately I can't see myself using this in the future since it makes my lips feel like ass.
Not actual ass cause that's typically a smooth surface.
It actually pisses me off that basically the main thing this "balm" claims to be is "SUPER moisturizing" uh, what? I can't even see that under any stretch of the imagination. Keep trying, biddies.

It also bugs me that the pictures on their website are super photoshopped. not only that but they photoshop a shine on to the "ultra matte" balms. Um, ok? That's smart I guess.
Also it says "coming soon, june 2013!" Really, you didn't have time to update your web page in the past year?!

All in all this product left me grumpy.
The plus sides are that it was a full size product and it has a built in brush which is pretty neat.
This product sells for $19 which literally made me say HA! out loud.
It can be bought on their website here 
I think you already know that I would not repurchase this.

The next product in this confusing bag was this Dr Brandt microdermabrsion skin exfoliant sample.
In case you haven't noticed by the lack of skin care reviews on this blog, I don't really use any skincare products.
I want to get into them but just haven't gotten around to it yet. So this was a nice sample to try although I haven't tried it yet. In fact I don't think I have ever used a skin exfoliant so I'm not sure if I would like it!

The website says it polishes away dead skin cells which is nice but that sounds just like any other exfoliator out there so I'm not sure what sets this one apart.

Here's a drop of it on my skin next to a swipe of the lip balm

This is another product whose price had me laughing.
This little shit retails for $78 on their website ... I know that skin care items are typically more pricey than cosmetics but damn. I don't have that kind of money!
This trial size is actually just an 8th of the full size with just .25 oz making it worth approx $9.75
That is an insane price for something I will probably only use once or twice.
Even though I haven't used it yet I can confidently say I will not repurchase since it is way out of my price range.

This little bugger stunk up my whole bag. I smelled it as soon as I opened the envelope. Once I opened my bag and discovered the culprit I found that the cap was loose. Nothing spilled out but I guess that's why the smell was so strong.
I was a little surprised since I have never gotten a fragrance in my IPSY bags.
This is just a roll on perfume oil in jasmine. it's a nice product but jasmine is not really a scent that I enjoy. It's too easy to be overpowering.
I will be either tossing this in a giveaway or giving it to someone who likes the smell.

This retails for $10 on their website which isn't a bad price I don't think. Their website actually has a LOT of fun scents!
With the 20% off coupon Ipsy subscribers get I might get another scent to try, there were quite a few that caught my eye! And I like that it's so portable and it's a roll on oil so the scent should stay around for a while.

Lastly I got this Elizabeth Mott pop goes the eyseshadow in Champagne.
I wish IPSY would stop giving me such boring colors. I get that they want to be widely appealing but geez.
Anyway, this eyeshadow arrived to me shattered. Womp womp womp.

This eyeshadow promises to change your life and I think that's extremely laughable. No champagne colored eyeshadow is ever going to change my life. C'mon. They are a dime a dozen. And everyone has Naked hahah

Anyway this eyeshadow is the full size product and retails for $12.99 at the Elizabeth Mott website.
I won't be repurchasing this product because to me that is far too expensive for just one eyeshadow.

So I investigated IPSY's website and found a form for what to do if something is broken. It said to write them and they will get back to you and ship a replacement. It also said that if they were out of the product they would replace it with a similar product. Understandable.

I was pleasantly surprised after dealing with IPSY Care (their customer service) their reply was fast and to the point. They had another eyeshadow on the way to me within 24 hours. I was satisfied.
Until I actually got said eyeshadow. Remember I told you they might replace it with a similar product. And hey, that's fine. But what I got was a BH cosmetics sample that I already got in a past Ipsy bag.
I mean.....I am pretty confident they have various eyeshadows laying around. They couldn't have checked to make sure they weren't sending me one THEY already sent me?!
A little disappointed by that, not gonna lie. Another item to add to the giveaway pile.

Overall if it weren't for Urban Decay being in this bag I would be so annoyed with what a bomb it was. It's like they knew they had an awesome eyeliner in there so it didn't matter what else they stuck in there.
Whateva. Still worth the $10 because let's face it ANY $5 will be worth $10 really!

This bag was worth approximately $57.74 although I would never pay that much for it I am glad to get it for $10.

If you want to get a bag full of goodies in the mail for only $10 a month and join in on the surprise, you can sign up using my referral link here.

Lana Del Rey Concert 4/28

I don't know about you but I'm completely obsessed with Lana Del Rey. In my eyes she's damn near perfect. She is often referred to in my household as 'the queen' (the other queens include Amy Poehler and Troian Bellisario).

Part of the draw of Lana is that she is kind of mysterious. Not a lot of people know a whole lot about her. She isn't a tabloid target. She's not underground by any means but she's also not completely out there, either.
In the time of being her fan I have never seen her announce a tour. I have known her to play one off shows and festivals and that's about it.

Until a few months ago when I woke up and saw an announcement on Facebook about her upcoming tour. And tickets went on presale in 15 minutes! Everything happened so fast, man. I realized I had the money in my account (thanks to my tax return...shout out to uncle sam!) and couldn't let this opportunity pass me by. So when tickets went on sale I was obsessively refreshing my browser until 2 general admission tickets were in my possession.

Now came the hard part: waiting for the show! I had some trouble finding someone to go with me since the show was in another town on a Monday night, but one of my close friends ended up going with me and we had a nice girls night out!

I'm going to start putting in pictures to break up the text, even though I'm not to the actual concert part of the post yet haha

So after an agonizing wait, the day finally came! We began with a small road trip to Orlando (about a 2 hour drive) and set up shop at the hotel. Due to some traffic we got a later start than we expected.
We drank and got ready for the show and tried not to watch the clock even though we were on a time crunch. We ended up getting a really cheap hotel because it was almost right across from the concert venue (which is kind of inside Universal Studios)

When we were just about ready we called a cab (so we could be free to drink without worry!) and took some pictures. Out of respect for her privacy I've cut my friend out of these pictures :P

I brought along a handful of clothes and decided what to wear at the last minute. This is a black crop top from Rainbow that actually hangs really annoyingly. I wore a teal maxi skirt with it which gave me the chance to move freely but also not worry about exposing myself in the crowd.
And of course no ensemble for Lana Del Rey is complete without a flower crown.
Just kidding. This actually made me feel like a basic bitch because almost EVERYONE was wearing one. Which is fine! It IS cute after all. I just, in general, don't like wearing the same thing multiple people are wearing. No matter how cute it is.

I kept my makeup basic with a theme of purple. I really liked the color scheme of purple blue and teal. Also because the purple and teal weren't next to each other it didn't look too weird.

I used the Elf lock & seal and a bh cosmetics purple to create purple winged liner. Other than that there is only eyeshadow from the Naked palette on my eyes. This worked pretty well but throughout the concert when I was sweating it got into my eyes and stung a little so I wouldn't advise doing this if you're going to be sweating or swimming or crying etc.
On my lips i tried the ombre effect I did on easter- MAC Punk Couture on the outside and Impulse Cosmetics on the inside. The ombre effect didn't work as well as it did on Easter so I still have to practice this technique.

So I only have phone quality pictures because the venue doesn't allow cameras so I didn't bother bringing mine. However I just switched to an Iphone 5s so I was excited to see the kind of pictures I could capture!

When we first got there WOW the line was long. I have been to a lot of concerts in my day and it was definitely one of the longest lines I've ever seen. So, being the practical, savvy people we are, my friend and I decided to go inside the Hard Rock Cafe to get a drink and wait for the show. Since the show was at the Hard Rock, we could keep an eye out to see if the line was moving, etc.

Doors were supposed to open at 7 but in reality didn't open until closer to 7:30. Our plan was to wait for the majority of the line to go inside and then waltz in after the crowd had died down (I have done this for many concerts that I didn't care for the opening bands) however Lana didn't have any opening acts. It was just her. So I started to get nervous that she would start while we were still waiting to get in. We watched the line start to move and finished our drinks to rush to the end.

Even though it looked like the line was moving fast from the front, the back had not moved at all. We stood in line for about 30 seconds until, miracle upon miracles, someone casually mentioned a second line for a different website. Immediately I zoned in on this as I somehow knew he meant the website I had bought our tickets from. A little prodding and sure enough there was a second "preorder" line for those that ordered from the different website. My friend and I happily skipped past the loooong line to find ourselves in a much shorter line. It was awesome. For once my over-anxiety worked out!

Once inside we were pretty far back in the crowd. The wait for her to take the stage felt like eternities. When she finally came on, all hell broke loose.

Everyone surged forward and we were instantly packed like sardines. I am used to this from going to shows but my friend was not. However she stuck it out and was a true trooper! Everyone was going so crazy during the first two songs that I barely caught any glimpses of the Queen, much less alone any pictures. I felt relieved that I didn't know or like those songs as well as the others, as I couldn't pay very much attention to them.

Before we knew it we were not in the back but found ourselves getting quite close. A fight broke loose and that was the final push we needed to be as close as possible. I was giddy. She was right in front of me! She was perfection in the flesh as she floated across the stage with her heavenly voice ringing out.

The big screen behind her played clips from her videos, montages of creepy vintage images, and live feed from her on stage. It was actually really cool. And the stage itself was covered in palm trees and a throne for her to sit in like the royalty she is.

Her set list surprised me. It wasn't as long as I would have liked, although to be honest I would be fine for her playing forever. But considering she didn't have an opening act a 14 song set is pretty short (this is according to Setlist.fm...I was a little too busy to count the songs!)

I'll be honest... I teared up a few times. She is so beautiful! And her voice is an angel's. I was truly on cloud 9 watching her.

Towards the end of her set I decided I really needed some water and was tired of being pushed from all directions. So I left the crowd and headed towards the bar in the back to get some water (which was free- props to Hard rock for that)

Even though I initially didn't want to leave because I was so close to her, I am ultimately glad I did. The back of the venue was a different world. Everyone had their own space! No one was screaming the (oftentimes wrong) lyrics in your ear! You could actually hear her!!!! So I am really glad that I got the best of both worlds.

I got to sip my water and watch her perform in peace and it was the perfect ending to the show.

Something that really surprised me is how interactive she was with the audience. At the beginning of the show and at the end she went down in front of the barricade of the front row and walked along it. In fact after the show for a good 15 minutes or more she walked down the front row taking pictures, signing autographs, and just generally being perfect. If I had known she would do this I would have honestly camped out the night before (I have done this multiple times for other bands) but I decided not to for her because I figured it would be too hot (it was unbearably hot) but for a picture with Lana? WORTH IT!!! Oh well, maybe next time.

When we were at our closest, she also got down and close to the crowd and was so close I almost cried again.

I couldn't get the best pictures because as you can imagine the crowd was going crazy. But still. She's so close!

The setlist was as follows according to Setlist.fm

1. Cruel World
2. Cola
3. Body Electric
4. Blue Jeans
5. Born to Die
6. West Coast
7. Young and beautiful
8. Million Dollar Man
9. Ride
10. Carmen
11. Gods & Monsters
12. Summertime Sadness
13. Video Games
14. National Anthem

Apparently Cruel world is a new song of hers but I don't remember that one being played. I am almost certain she opened with Cola (who can forget an opening line like that?) but what the hell do I know? *shrug*

Here is a short video I took of Young and beautiful. It's so short because I wanted to post it on instagram. Looking back I definitely wish I had taken a longer video but, what can ya do.

And there's my short video of Video Games, aka my favorite song by her.

Overall there were a few songs I wish she had played: Radio, Once Upon a Dream (the theme song for Maleficent which I'm guessing Disney didn't give her permission to play), and off to the races. I would have swapped a few out for those but other than that it was a great set and I am so happy I got to see her.

I left in a euphoria and went back to the hotel to order pizza and have some more drinks.
I also stopped at the Cosmetics Company Outlet in Orlando on the way home the next day but didn't see anything that caught my eye.

Well I'm glad I could share one of the best concerts of my life with you. If you ever get the chance to see Lana I highly suggest you do so.

Are you a fan of Lana Del Rey? What's your favorite song?

BA Star Spicy Natural eyeshadow palette review

*This post is sponsored by Brandbacker. I was able to try this in exchange for my review

If you've been reading my blog for a while you may remember that I have gotten to review this brand a few times before. So when I saw the opportunity to try their eye shadow palettes, I was all for it. Their products have always surprised me with their quality.

BA Star is a brand that specializes in performance makeup- for cheerleading, dancing, or stage makeup. Because of this you can usually bet on them being pigmented and long-lasting.

.
I got the Spicy Natural eyeshadow palette. I don't know what type of name that is...I definitely don't want anything spicy near my eye. The thought makes me cringe in pain!

But I suppose it gets it's name from the fact that the first half of the palette is natural shades, and the last two are a pop of color, to "spice it up". It also came with the BA Star eyelid glue.

The colors are nice but I must admit it's a strange collection of colors. When I think of palettes I think of being able to have a whole look inside one item. But this isn't always the case. I'm assuming the first 3 colors are meant to be the base colors and the purple and yellow can be added for small pops of color.

Notice the nick in the yellow eyeshadow...these shadows are definitely soft and just swiping my nail against it accidentally took out a chunk.

The bottom half of these swatches- aka the right side of the picture- are on top of the eyeshadow glue. You can see that the colors are more vibrant on that side.

The colors are rather pigmented and I like the orange-toned one more than I thought. The yellow ends up being more of a gold, and not as bold as I expected.

I think this product falls nicely into the spectrum with BA Star's other products. They are nice and affordable but they aren't mindblowingly unique. However they have never let me down, and that's nice.

I personally would prefer to use a different primer. I don't like the way their primer feels on my skin but as you can see it definitely improves the look of the shadow.

You can buy this and all their other palettes at bastar.com for $8.95.
A cool thing is that if you buy 6 or more the price drops down to $5 each. This is mainly for cheer and dance teams that might need to all have the same makeup. I think it's a nice deal since that is their target audience.

What do you think of these eyeshadows? Have you tried BA Star before?

Broadway Nails imPRESS press on manicure review

*I received this item courtesy of Influenster in their Vox Box that I blogged about here. 

When I saw this in my Vox Box I was super intrigued. I haven't used any sort of press on nails in years. In fact the only times I have ever used them were during sleepovers with friends. A fun activity but ultimately not a long-term commitment. I am sure that every time, all the nails popped off before going home the next day.

So when I saw the imPRESS Press on Nails from Broadway, I didn't have high expectations. From what I remember of press on nails they are messy and kind of a pain in the behind. I remember dabbing glue on and then quickly pressing nails (that were always too big for my nail beds) on and getting glue everywhere. I'm sure most of us have those memories of sleepovers doing the same thing. But these press on nails don't use glue. So I was instantly on board.

The packaging is cute- it's designed to look like a nail polish bottle but it's really a plastic container that houses the nails. You can see the design on the nails directly so it's easy to find a design that rings your bell.

Once you open them up there are 24 nails in 12 sizes. That was music to my ears because like I said I have rather small fingers/nails so I hate nail strips that you have to cut to size. This was perfect, in fact searching for a match to your nails is the hardest part of the whole process. Which is saying something since that is obviously not that difficult. 

Putting them on was extremely easy, you just peel off the sticker on the back of the nail and apply it to your finger. I held it and pushed down for a few seconds just to try and have a more secure bond.  I thought this would get tricky once I had nails on most of my fingers but it actually was not hard at all.

As you can see the design I got is a giraffe type print in black and white. What may be hard to see is that there was gold shimmer only on certain spots on the nail. It was an impressive design but I will admit that it wouldn't be what I would choose for myself- especially because they have so many designs, there has to be a design for everyone. 

So here's the thing. These were mostly the same length as my regular nails. In fact you can see above that my thumb nail was actually longer! I honestly did not think anything of it when I was putting them on and did not notice until after they were on. Sometimes I forget that my nails get so long so quick and I don't realize how long they actually are!

But even though they didn't add length, they added two things I didn't know I was looking for in nails: strength & uniformity. 

Honestly I always thought my nails were strong enough but with these over top of them they felt so thick and strong. And of course the uniform shape and length of the nails is very nice. 

In fact I liked them so much that after a few days I got curious and painted some of my nail polish over the design, to see if it worked.

It worked out pretty well! You may not be able to tell but I actually put a white coat down first since the majority of the design was dark and I didn't know how easily it could be covered.

I really like the idea of finding a design you like, wearing it for a few days, and then painting them again to shake things up. Then you can enjoy multiple manicures with the same nails.

To be honest I liked the feeling of them so much that I wanted to go out and buy some more for myself. These retail for around $6. While that isn't all that expensive- I would still hope for a coupon or sale because I would love to get these for even cheaper.

Now for an important question- how long did they last? 

I didn't have high expectations at all. And when my first nail came off maybe 5 hours after applying them, I felt that my fears were confirmed.

However my 2nd and 3rd nails didn't come off until 4 or so days afterwards. So it's possible the first nail was just a fluke. And my last nail wouldn't come off (no matter how hard I tugged) for a week. 

The instructions do say you can take these off with acetone but I avoided that because I wanted to see how long they would last without it. 

I think that the claim that they can last a week isn't a far fetched one. However it's hard to make all of the nails behave the same way and most times you want to take them all off after you've lost a nail or two.

Keeping both of those facts in mind I think this is a great option for a special occasion or a holiday weekend or even when you just want your nails to look better. 

I personally really liked these nails but I know they aren't everyone's cup of tea. However, for someone who is like me: you don't get acrylics, you don't use press on nails often, you like having better nails without the comitment- these might be right up your alley.

Have any of you ever tried this brand of press on nails? What did you think of them? 

If you go to the website/ and tell me your favorite designs, I just might pick one up and do a surprise giveaway! :O

My personal favorites are Space Cadet & TGIF.