I finally found it....

My new favorite nail polish, that is!  If you know me at all or have read any of my Facebook or Blog posts you know that I have struggled to find a good nail polish.  One that will last more than 24 hours and doesn't chip or peel, etc...  Well, I think I have found one and I have a new favorite color just in time for fall/winter!  The nail polish is Revlon of all things.  It's a bit pricey if you can't find it on sale, but I got a good deal at Walgreens last week when they marked it down to  $3.99.  I had a $1 off coupon and ended up getting a $3.00 Register Reward on top of that so it ended up being free!  I picked up a bottle of #909, Sheer Petal.  Normally I gravitate toward the brighter colors, but since it was a Walgreens special the shelves were pretty bare, thanks in NO small part to the lady at the cosmetics counter with literally the entire counter covered with stacks of coupons and baskets upon baskets of products all separated out into small transactions!  She had a nice hoard of these polishes.  I will have to do a whole separate post on this type of couponing!  Anyway, I browsed the nearly empty shelf and picked out my polish, oh and did I mention that this was only Sunday afternoon so the sale had pretty much just started!  I painted my nails with it last week and although it took about 4 coats to get the color I wanted it lasted me about 3-4 days, which in my book is a WIN on wear.  A note about the color, I realize it's supposed to be a sheer, but I wanted a nice light pink color that's why all the coats.

Now, here is my new favorite color, which I also picked up at Walgeens using a RR from a previous purchase so it was also free in the end.  It's #570, Vixen and it's AWESOME!  I had to do 3 coats to get a nice dark color, but it's so pretty!  I totally stole this picture from here, but only because her nails are so much prettier than mine are. (By the way you should totally check out her blog, she has tons of cool photos, fashions, etc... on there!)  I am going through a grow out stage from where I had artificial nails that I did myself and so my thumb nails have these weird ridges in them that are almost grown out to the end.  Since they are almost grown out they have been splitting and cracking where those ridges are and I have been keeping them cut all the way to the quick so they don't cause more damamge.

So, I think this is going to be my new go to color in place of black this fall!  I don't know if I talked about the top coat I have been using, but I just ordered 2 more bottles of it so I don't come so close to running out again.  I have been using Seche Vite and I LOVE it!  You put it on before the nails dry and it somehow penetrates through all the layers of polish and completely hardens them.  They are dry to the touch in just minutes and completely hard in less than 10 minutes.  This is a great product for someone like me, who ends up having to re-do my polish every couple of days.  The only draw back is that it starts to get thick after awhile, but Seche has created a Restore product that you just drop in the bottle and roll it around and it restores the topcoat to it's original consistency.  I had to add a bottle of this to my stash as well.  I have ordered my Seche products from Amazon because I have founds great deals on them, but I know that Sally carries the Top Coat in their stores.

Well, Bailey got her top braces on yesterday and this is what they look like complete with green bands!  Green is her favorite color so I am sure we will be seeing that color bands quite a bit.  Her mouth is sore today, but it from the pressure not the brackets scraping.  She has the wax, but she hasn't really had to use it on the brackets just on the backs where the little part of the wire sticks out.  I remember that being where I used the most wax when I had mine too.  I can't believe I have a child old enough to have braces...In a couple of years we will be doing this all over again for both boys!  Apparently they got the crowded mouth from me!

Well, I have tons of work to do, but I am also running out of everything and waiting for hardware to get here.  I  am going to get as much done as I can and then start cutting out bags so I will be ready for when all my stuff starts coming in the mail.

Have a great day!!

My makeup must haves...

If you know me very well then you know that I love makeup!  I only wear it a couple times a week, but when I do there are certain things that are must haves in my collection.  Here are a couple that I couldn't live without.

I start with either Clinique moisturizer or a tinted moisturizer that has SPF in it.  Over that goes my Bare Minerals powder foundation.  I started using this about 7 years ago and I don't think I will ever use anything else for foundation.  It's light and not greasy feeling like liquid foundation is.  I started of with another color, but I am medium now.  It runs about $25, but this one will last me more than a year!

I used the long handled brush that came with it for several years, but broke down and bought this full coverage Kobuki Brush and I love it.  It runs $28, but it's well worth it.  It's super easy to wash out, you just have to give it a couple days to dry all the way through and it's good to go until you need to wash it out again.  I use the long handled brush for blush now.

This is something that you really must have if you have problems with your eyeshadow creasing.  I came across this a few years ago when I was obsessed with makeup videos on YouTube.  It's an eyelid primer that really works all day to keep your eyeshadow from creasing.  It's Too Faced Eye Shadow Insurance, it's $18 at Sephora, but I have been using the same little tube for probably 2 years now maybe longer and it's WELL worth the money!  Just dab it on before your eye shadow and you are good to go for the day.

Now this is something that I just started using.  I have been using a similar product from Clinique and apparently they stopped making it or something so I switched to this instead.  I put this on over my Too Faced Shadow Insurance as kind of a primer for the rest of my eye makeup.  Now about 98%  of the time this is all the eye shadow I will wear.  This is L'Oreal HIP Cream Shadow Paint.  I have it in Lofty and Nervy, but I think I will get it in some of the other colors too.  I got this on Amazon for pretty cheap, but I know you can get in in stores like Target, Walmart and other drug stores.



I just bought my second bottle of this.  I know that lots of people don't like liquid eye liner and I never used to, but the more I use this one the more I love it!  It's from Sephora and it's Kat Von D's Autogragh Liquid Liner.  I use Metal Love, it's black and it's has little specks of glitter in it.  Now, I have noticed with this 2nd bottle that they have changed it a little.  There isn't as much glitter, but the brush is smaller and that makes it a lot easier to apply.  What I like about this liner is that when it dries it is dry and it stays put.  Sometimes I will use my Clinique cream liner and then use this over it for the shine and staying power.  Most often though I will just use this.




I do have a couple of must haves that I am not picky about though.  I almost always wear lip gloss as opposed to lipstick, but that's mostly because I can't find a lipstick color that I really like anymore!  I just wear pinkish lip gloss.  Mascara is something that I am not picky about either, I just buy whatever looks fun and I use it till it's gone and then try something else.  One of these days I may find something that I really like and then it will be another thing that I have to have all the time, but so far nothing I have used has been something I can't live without.  Blush is the same way, I don't have anything particular that I use all the time.  I bought a big makeup box combination thing from Sephora few years ago and I use the blushes in it, I also use the eye shadows in it when I use more eyeshadow than just the cream paints.  I am one who will match eyeshadow to what colors I am wearing too!  I am sure there is some big beauty "no-no" somewhere about that, but since I wear glasses sometimes I like a pop of color so you can actually see my eyes behind them!

So, do you have any beauty "must haves", if so, what are they?  Do you have any good mascara suggestions for me?!