Jewelry Stash

Hello again, dearests! As promised, here's the other half of my planned jewelry posts. I can do this more frequently, if you guys like it, or I can ditch it here. Let me know what you think in the comments! No response = I'm going to keep doing it, so speak now or forever hold your peace!

Today's post is my jewelry stash, which isn't impressive by any means compared to some of you ladies', I'm sure! I'm recently getting really into jewelry, especially since it's a much quicker way to dress up an outfit than doing a mani. So here we go:

Above are all my necklaces and bracelets. Since I live in an apartment, my walls are kind of blah and I didn't want to make a bunch of holes, so I bought those little removable sticky wall-strip hooks (great description, huh?) and put them up all over to decorate the wall. Bonus points if I succeeded in camouflaging the thermostat long enough that it wasn't the first thing you noticed.

And above are all my earrings and rings. The earrings are on a tree holder I got at Marshall's that is actually super adorable except I failed to remember that most of it would be covered by jewelry when I bought it... oops. Then to its right we have my little elephant ring holder and a box with a bunch of wire rings I've bought on etsy or made. (I'm kind of obsessed with those, too. If you guys like these posts, wire rings might be next!)

So what do you think? Do you like jewelry posts or no?

xoxo
Amanda

Facial Moisturizers

Hi girls! How's your day going? I hope it's going pretty well.. this is actually a scheduled post and I'm writing this a) the night I got my new kitty and b) in the middle of an anxiety attack in an attempt to calm my nerves (it's working!). Hopefully when I re-read this or when you read this, I'll be much better ;) but anywho, today I'm continuing my Face Friday posts (until I run out of products to test, and then we're in trouble.). I have some of the moisturizers I've tried on my face. I also used a Ponds-like face cream but, man, that's not even worth posting because it's so old-ladyish and it was too thick so I gave it to my boyfriend for his rosacea. ANYWAY. I'm queen of the off-track tonight.

From Polyvore.com

Clean & Clear Oil-Free Morning Glow
Pros: cheap; easy to find; nice scent; contains SPF; fun commercial pops in my head whenever I use it ;)
Cons: the microbeads were kind of weird to apply; the cream was kind of lumpy and strange on my skin; realized upon reviewing this that they test on animals :(
Overall: Not bad, good for a basic moisturizer if you don't have any special skin needs (moisture, rosacea, acne, etc.) but a MAJOR flaw for me is animal testing!

From Neutrogena.com

Neutrogena Oil-Free Moisturizer (Combination Skin)
Pros: cheap; easy to find; good texture (not too thin but not thick); pump makes it easy to use
Cons: no SPF; tests on animals :(
Overall: I liked this product until I looked up the animal testing portion, now it'll be a no-no for me as other products are available that I like that don't practice this!





CVS Brand SPF 15 Moisturizer Compare to Neutrogena's (no picture available online and it's at my boyfriend's! Oops, no pic! Sorry!)
Pros: liked this *more* than Neutrogena's; absorbs well; good texture (comparable to Neutrogena); cheap (even cheaper than any of the other options listed); easy to find; CVS is not on the "does test"; list from Peta.org; contains SPF
Cons: None that I can think of!
Overall: Great product, this is one I'd re-purchase.

From MakeUpForLife.net

Murad Anti-Aging Moisturizer with SPF 20 (sample included in Anti-Aging Acne Kit)
Pros: absorbs well; SPF 20; made for people with acne so it seemed good with my skin; not listed on the "does test" list
Cons: high price point
Overall: I love this moisturizer, but not sure I can justify the price point when CVS seems to be a comparable replacement

Exuviance Night Renewing Hydragel (included in Acne Introductory Kit)
Pros: *excellent* overnight moisturizer; amazing scent (to me, anyway); felt really lightweight; absorbs well and good texture; not on the "does test" list
Cons: high price point
Overall: I ADORE this product, truly. If it wasn't so darn expensive, I'd buy it. But right now I'm a no-buy especially for things like this where I don't need it and can buy alternative daily moisturizers instead. Someday, it'll come home with me again.

Overall, my favorites were Exuviance and CVS. CVS remains at my boyfriend's as my daily moisturizer until Neutrogena runs out here, then I'll buy a replacement bottle. Exuviance remains at Ulta, waiting for the day I have coupons or a splurge-excuse ;)

Have you tried any of these? Any suggestions or favorites of yours?

xoxo,
Amanda

FYI: Nail Documentary

Hi girls! Happy Monday (?)! Quick post today because I just wanted to share something my friend Julia showed me which I'm sure will be near and dear to all of our hearts. She shared with me a trailer for a documentary about nail art! I haven't seen this yet but thought it was really cool and is just another way that nail polish and art are becoming more mainstream. Here's the trailer:



There's one screenshot I took of a board of nails, one with a bunch of bows and it inspired me! I want to try this soon - and hopefully, it can inspire us all to try out our artistic side since we can only get better with practice! Nail wheels are a great way to try stuff out, which is shown on lots of nail wheels in the trailer. Let me know what you think! I didn't create this, but it seems really apropos :)

xoxo,
Amanda

Jewelry Trend: Stacked Bangles

Hello! How's everyone's day going? I'm writing this with cramps but with my kitten next to me... so it all balances out! As you're reading this, I'm away for the weekend with my BFF at the beach on Cape Cod, so I guess I can't complain, even though I just did.

I recently put up a poll (vote if you haven't already, please!) about whether people would like to see posts about jewelry or fashion. Right now, it's pretty split with people saying "yes, once in a while" or "absolutely not" so I'm going to go with "yes" for now... especially since some of my twitter friends encouraged me and, hey, who writes this blog anyway?! ;)

Today I want to show you one of my favorite trends lately: stacked bangles. If my IRL friends Julia and/or Sarah are reading this, they might be thinking: ARM PARTY! And yes, it's basically that.

Don't worry. I don't wear all of these all at once, I promise.

 I got these all over the place, but mostly from etsy. I'm obsessed with etsy and I have to stay away so I'm not going to link you to any of the sellers, and also because they were all one-of-a-kind sets and it'd be mean to tease you that way (here's a link, but you can't buy it because I ALREADY DID. muahahaha). However, I assure you, there are hundreds more out there for you. I did not buy all the bangles, try as I might.

These are probably my favorite, from Alex and Ani. My sister got me these for my birthday and I love them so much. The bangles themselves are made from recycled materials and are expandable/retractable to fit your wrist. They're pricy (about $24-28 each) but I love them! These are becoming more and more popular (in my area anyway) and I suspect they may be the next Pandora bracelet, but who knows. (If I'm right, you have to tell everyone where you saw them first. Promise?)

Next, these are another set of my favorites that I bought from etsy. There's three separate silver bangles each with its own golden charm: a pearl, a bird, and a leaf. I love these. I probably wear them the most and they're so simple and cute that when people notice the detail, they seem especially special. Especially.

So, there you have it. My recent obsession, possibly rivaling nail polish, but only because I'm only interested in indies right now and I can't keep up with restocking and all that nonsense. What do you think? I have one more jewelry post planned, but let me know if you like them so I know whether to keep going or not!

xoxo,
Amanda

Foundation Primers

Hi pretty ladies! Continuing my Friday Face tradition (for now) is my review of the primers I've tried. This is by no means an extensive list, but I think it's a good start for a makeup n00b like myself ;)

Image from BeautyTidbits.com

Murad Skin Perfecting Primer Acne & Shine Control
Pros: filled in pores; gave a good, clean finish; seemed to last a while but not the full day
Cons: tinted, might not work for all skin types; felt kind of heavy, as though I was applying foundation
Overall: 3/5 - nothing spectacular, but I'd buy it again if it was on sale or it came in a kit!

Image from DermStore.com

 

Exuviance Matte Perfection
Pros: good coverage; easy to use
Cons: not marketed as primer so people may not know its purpose; didn't last very long; did not really "matte-ify" my skin, which isn't even oily
Overall: 2/5 - not the worst out there, I'm sure, but needs work IMO.

Image from Kaboodle.com

Pur Minerals Correcting Primer 
Pros: lightweight; covered easily; absorbed quickly; good base for foundation/makeup
Cons: somewhat greasy, strange feeling on my fingers while applying; not sure it helped diminish pores
Overall: 4.5/5 - one of my favorites that I've tried, but the price point keeps me from buying until I try others to make sure it's the best product
 

Image from TheMineralMakeup.com

Bare Escentuals Prime Time
Pros: less costly than some other options; filled lines; long-lasting; good base for foundation
Cons: very thick, felt like applying some sort of clear face mask to my skin
Overall: 3/5 - it was okay, but not one I'd choose in the future.

Image from MusingsOfAMuse.com

Physician's Formula 3-in-1 Correcting Primer

Pros: convenient brush; easy to apply; filled pores to an extent
Cons: brush (I use my fingers to apply primer, so it was a con in my book); did not notice any "correcting" features; not especially effective for me; felt like I had to use much more product than any of the others to achieve results
Overall: 2.5/5 - not the worst, but could use some improvements for me, didn't find the brush helpful nor the product especially useful.

Image from Sephora.com

Tarte Poreless & Tarte Flawless
Pros: affordable for a high-end brand ($9 for the trio!); effective; liked the variety of primers; didn't need a lot of product to be effective; filled pores well (especially Poreless)
Cons: the "Brightening" one (Flawless) didn't really do much brightening and had a pretty strong citrus smell
Overall: 4/5 - I loved Poreless and Flawless was decent, would recommend the trio for girls to try it and it was a good value for sure! (Disclaimer: I haven't really tried the Eyeshadow Primer, and cannot vouch for that as I haven't tried others to compare.)



Bottom line: I'd choose the Tarte or Pur Minerals. The rest seem gimmicky or have major cons, in my eyes, especially since they are pricy, high-end brands (probably with the exception of the Physician's Formula which was about $10-12 even as a drug store brand).

Which primers do you use? Recommendations or warnings?

xoxo,
Amanda

OPI Avojuice Lotions

Hello out there! Today I want to show you guys one of my favorite products: OPI Avojuice Skin Quenchers lotion. This is my favorite moisturizing lotion for my hands and nails. This happens to be my favorite (or possibly second favorite, to their apple) scent as well: Raspberry Violet. I bought this at Ulta for about $8 for a 6.6 ounce pump.

This is the consistency, right out of the bottle, as shown on my wrist. It's kind of thin, which I like because it absorbs quickly.

This is it rubbed in right after.

And this is it, about 15-20 seconds later.

You can see it absorbs SUPER fast, and my skin definitely looks more hydrated. The scent is pleasant, and they have a lot of unusual scents (not your typical vanilla, apple, etc.) that combine two things that I normally wouldn't pair together, but go very well; including raspberry violet.

Do you guys use this? What do you use to hydrate your hands and nails?

xoxo,
Amanda

Kesha Makeup!

Hi all! A few of you requested to see my makeup from my Ke$ha costume, and that's what I will show you today! I actually really liked the way this came out, it was my favorite part of my whole costume!

To get this look, I followed the tutorial below, but changed the colors and such. I did mine in all black and put purple glitter over it, outlined in dark purple. I used mostly makeup from Hot Topic: an angled sparkly winged eyeliner, Nyx purple glitter pallette, and a purple eyeliner. I also wore fake eyelashes because, duh, it's Halloween! I should have taken a picture where I wasn't smiling so the stuff on my cheek wouldn't look warped but, trust me, it was good!




Bonus pictures: here are some shots of the ridiculousness that took place during and after my party that left me and 650,000 others without power for three or more days (reminder: this is October 29th, which, until now, had a record of 1" snowfall in past years).

Me shoveling the 8 inches of snow



A shot of my backyard and all the trees and branches down. Multiply this by my neighborhood and my half of the state and you can understand why we had no power!

 Hope you all had a safe Halloween: what did you and/or your children dress up as? We didn't get any trick-or-treaters because of the aforementioned insanity and because no power + downed power lines = not a good time for children to wander at night. :(

xoxo,
Amanda

15 Facts Tag

Hey girls! I was recently tagged in that 15 random facts thing I'm sure you've seen around the blogs. I didn't do it then (I'm not sure why) but I'm doing it now to give you guys a glimpse into the world of moi. Also, I have no pink wednesday post so I felt guilty posting polish :/

1. What’s a nickname only your family calls you?I don't think it's that weird, except that lots of boys have this nickname too, but my dad and sister call me Manny. I'm not a Mandy, no matter how much I tried.

2. What’s a weird habit of yours?
I can't eat in the dark, except at movie theaters but I think that's because I have no choice. I also can't lay on my pillows I sleep on to watch TV, I have to put another pillow over them so they don't get warm because I like my pillows cold.

3. Do you have any weird phobias?
Hahahahaha I have phobias of everything. My mother-in-law-to-be-someday calls me Wanda Worrier. But when I was little, I had the best weird fears. One was glass eyes.

4. What’s a song you secretly love to blast and belt out when you’re alone?
Really, anything with a vocal range that is out of my capability. Britney Spears, Rihanna, Katy Perry, etc. But right now, I'm really enjoying destroying the vocalizations of Adele, "Someone Like You".

5. What’s one of your biggest pet peeves?
People who can't drive. Drive too slow, too fast, swerve all over, pass people for no reason, cut you off, switch lanes a lot, etc. Life is too short for me to worry about speeding to wherever I need to be, and generally I run into those people down the road anyway and they must feel stupid.

6. What’s one of your nervous habits?
I'm a reformed nail biter. I stopped biting, but I still sometimes put my teeth under my nail, sort of like you would do if you were cleaning under it? I'm sure it's to blame for my nails weakening/breaking so I'm trying to stop.

7. What side of the bed do you sleep on?
I have a twin bed, still. There are no sides. Generally, though, if my boyfriend and I share it (yes, this does occur, two grown people sleeping in a freakin' twin...) I sleep on the right side, if you are looking at it from the foot of the bed.

8. What was your first stuffed animal and its name?
I'm not really sure what my first stuffed animal was, I never had a blankie or a toy I was really attached to. Except maybe my Gloworm, which I liked a lot for a period of time and is the only thing that I'm really conjuring as I think about this question.

9. What’s the drink you always order at Starbucks?
I don't drink coffee, or soy, or latte, or whatever... I save myself a lot of money and I order nothing, or I order a baked good, but not really a drink.

10. What’s a beauty rule you preach, but never actually practice?
I try not to preach anything I don't do myself, and if I mention it I admit I don't practice it. The aforementioned bad habit might be one of them. I also don't moisturize my cuticles as much as I should, but I'm working on that (just bought Hoofer's Choice and we'll see how that goes).

11. Which way do you face in the shower?
In general, back to the water. But my stuff is to the left of the shower head, so I do have to face the other direction to grab things or wash my face, rinse, etc.

12. Do you have any weird body skills?
Ummm, nope. I am not very flexible. My jaw used to dislocate and crack a lot because it was misaligned, but when I got Invisalign (hey, there's a weird fact about me! I had Invisalign!) it fixed it and I don't notice the cracking much anymore.

13. What’s your favorite comfort food that’s “bad”, but you love to eat it anyway?
Chocolate, oh my God, chocolate. I eat it basically daily even though I try not to.

14. What’s a phrase or exclamation you always say?
"Oh Lord", "Oh my God", you know, things that could probably be offensive but I stupidly say them anyway.

15. Time to sleep – what are you actually wearing?
Usually a big t-shirt or if it's not long enough, I wear shorts. I really like the feeling of sheets against my feet and legs, so wearing socks or pants to bed isn't my favorite even in winter (but it's a necessary evil sometimes).

Anyways, kudos to you guys if you actually read this! I'm throwing in a bonus kitty picture to make it worth your time :)

Here's Princess, she's a long-hair Russian blue. Her eyes look sort of cross-eyed in this picture but I assure you, they are not in real life. She's very very fluffy, I think I got her when I was about 13 from an animal shelter and that was what originally drew my attention to her. Then, I played with her and was like okay let's do this and my dad was like, "are you sure we shouldn't look at other cats first to be sure?" and I was like nope, her. She might remember this, because she's definitely my cat, she likes me best and since she's mostly petted by me, her fur is so soft from not being touched a lot... and I'm rambling some more. Yikes.

xoxo,
Amanda

Work Inappropriate #4 & Fried Koolaid

Hello girls! How are you liking this glitter series? Too much? Too often? Well, too bad ;) I have a few more planned as I top off my vacation so you'll get probably 3-4 more glitterbombs and I'll be back to normal!

Today I have a much sought after polish: Correction Tape by Wet n Wild from the On the Prowl collection. I'm stupid, though, and layered it over black when it contained black glitter. In the words of Homer Simpson: d'oh! Oh well, it still looked gorgeous!

After about a 18 hours, I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I put Love and Beauty (Forever 21) blue glitter over it:

 And then added their green glitter as well:

It was a little too far from the original at this point, so I just took it all off and started with another day of my glitterness :)

And finally, this is fried koolaid:

Those of you who read my tweets already know this (and lots of you were curious about it!) but I went to a fair (The Eastern States Exposition, or the Big E) which is here every year, and my friend Nikki (holding the container) bought Fried Koolaid for us to try. It looks so weird, but it's basically fried dough with koolaid mixed into it. It tasted like fried dough but a bit sweeter, and the aftertaste was like straight up koolaid mix. Weird, but not bad!

xoxo,
Amanda

Feather Locks

Hi girls! Today I decided to show you a little something different. Many of you may have heard of Feather Locks, which are the feathers that you can put in your hair. My sister works at a salon that does them, so I decided to have a few put in. I have a group of three on one side (with my deeper part), then one by itself on the other. These are the group of three:

They all have the black lines on them to look more like "natural" feathers, and the colors are off white, light salmon, and a lime green/yellow (in the center, kind of hard to see). They also come in solid colors, but I liked the black to make them more interesting, since the solid colors just look kind of like highlights. The cool thing about them is I can hide them under my hair if I need to look a bit more professional (like when I see older clients) but I can also wear them more out, like they are here. They stay in for as long as you want, although I have to go and have them moved up every so often as my hair grows out, but they are reusable (I've had these for about a month and a half now, but just added the greenish one - I can't tell a difference between the older or newer ones!).

Feather Locks clip in using a small bead that they string them through and then flatten the bead to hold it in place. My bead is blonde to match my hair color and help it blend in, but people don't notice it. (Most of the time, people think they're tiny braids.) The feathers can be washed, dried, straightened, whatever. I had them on my cruise too and they were fine in the salt water.

So what do you think, do you like having something different once in a while or should I stick to strictly nails? Do you like my feathers? :)

xoxo,
Amanda

Organization Tactics

Hi ladies! Today I decided to switch things up and show you a little bit about what my stash looks like and how I keep my polishes in order. I'm always interested to see how people store their polishes and keep track of them, but I like to be a little outside the box.

I tried to keep up with an Excel spreadsheet, but I would forget to update it once and then totally forget what polishes I hadn't added. Or piles of unlogged polishes would stay on my desk, taunting me. Instead, I keep index cards with one coat swatches of all my colors. At this point, I've started a few cards for every color, but you get the idea. (I picked Pinks #2 because my handwriting is the nicest... which isn't saying much).

Next, I have strictly nail art stuff. Glitter, flakies, fimo canes, polishes for stamping, my plates, toothpicks for marbling... you get the idea. I keep these in little plastic containers that they sell marketed as shoe storage, but I think is perfect for nail storage :) I find these everywhere for a dollar, so it's a pretty convenient way to store. I also keep all my polishes in them (right now I have about 4 "shoe containers" full, with one being my favorite polishes, one untrieds, and two with polishes I tried but weren't favorites. I can take pictures of those if anyone is interested?)

Recently, I invested in a tackle box to hold all my nail essentials:

Here are the bottom two trays (the top two are base coats and cuticle oils- booooring). The top tray is all my glitter topcoats (a few missing, they're in my untrieds). Yes, I am fully aware that the right half is all silver holo glitter.I have a problem...

Below that is all my crackles, nail polish remover, and vaseline (more on that in a later post...).

What do you think of my outside the box (aka no Helmers and no Excel sheets) way of organizing? How do you keep organized?

xoxo,
Amanda