So a week or so ago I made a post about this amazing site called Influenster.com and today I have some more stuff to tell you about it. Like I said in my previous post, Influenster rewards you for your participation on the sit (reviews, surveys, etc.) and I was picked to be rewarded for my efforts! I was chosen to receive the 2012 Cosmo Vox Box and it was mailed straight to my door on Wednesday. I was so, so excited when it arrived and so was my dog. If you don't feel like reading all this I made a video of my initial reaction to the products the day I received the box. It is at the end of this post.
Here's a look at the inside of the box!
Every Vox box comes with a card explaining the theme of the box and a description of the items.
Ghiradelli Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape:
These are the absolute perfect snack! When I first saw these I was a bit skeptical; salty chocolate? It didn't really scream tasty. I was so wrong! The salt is more of an accent flavor and it really compliments the almonds. The chocolate was so creamy and delicious and completely addicting. I love that they satisfy your salty and sweet cravings in just one snack. I will definitely be buying some more of these!
Venus Embrace
I actually use the disposable version of this razor and I love it. This permanent version was great too. I have really coarse leg hair so the 5 blades are perfect for a smooth shave. The blue stuff around the blade let's you shave without using shaving cream. I had not razor burn or anything after shaving either, which is always a plus!
Olay Refill Cartridge
Speaking of smooth legs... These blades are ahhhh-mazing! It isn't surprising that an Olay product works well. I can NOT stop touching my legs, they are so smooth and moisturized It smelled good too (like shea butter). A good thing about this Venus razor is you can use any of the Venus blades with this one razor. They also threw in a coupon for some refill blade which is great since I am totaly hooked on these Olay blades!
Forever Red Eau de Parfum from Bath and Body Works
I love Bath and Body Works so when I saw this in my box I was so excited. This is a .25oz bottle (retail $10 and $44 for full size) so it is pretty small, but it is really strong so it only takes one spritz to smell good for hours. It is a blend of pomegranate and vanilla rum so it is a more sexy/night appropriate scent but I find when you only use on spritz it lightens up enough to be a wonderful day scent. I may just have to run to Bath and Body Works soon to pick up these as stocking suffers for my ladies.
FriXion erasable pen by Pilot
As you can see my first photos of erasing the black ink got deleted. Anyway, I'll admit I was a but bummed when I fist saw these pens in my VoxBox.... I am not a huge pen user because I always smudge the ink plus... they were pens lol! However Influenster knew what they were doing because these were, hands down, the best erasable pens that I have ever used. The red one does not erase as well as the black one, I guess it is just a lot more pigmented but the black one is great. It erases pretty much completely and just leaves behind a similar smudge as a pencil. I guess it took like 20 years of disaster to perfect the erasable pen. They also write very well. They have a thin point and flow smoothly. I will definitely be buying more of these.
Overall I am so pleased with my experience with Influenster and I hope that I am chosen for another Vox Box soon. If you would like to earn your own Vox Box head over to www.influenster.com and set up your account for free!
I am finally posting the swatches from the three Butter London polishes that my lovely man bought me before Thanksgiving. I am heading into my finals next week so the last few weeks have been full of projects and papers. I didn't really have time to do the swatches like I normally do so all these pictures are after at least a day of wear. This actually turned out to be a good thing, I think, because these polishes really don't last long at all. All in all, I was incredibly disappointed by these polishes and I will most likely not be buying this brand again. For $14 a bottle I didn't expect to have as many formula and chipping issues as I did. They actually seemed to peel when they chip.
First up is Stag Do
This polish is pretty, but not at all what I expected. You can see in the bottle shot that it is loaded with all this really pretty green shimmer but it doesn't translate onto the nail at all. These pictures were taken about 24 hours after application and you can tell in the second picture that the pointer and middle finger are pretty worn down already.Pretty color, just wish it actually showed the shimmer.
Next, Trout Pout. I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the quality of these pics. It was all rainy/cold/dark outside so the lighting was bad and the color didn't film well. I promise the next time I wear this polish I will snap a quick picture to show it's truer color.
This one was VERY thick and it took two or three coats to even out. These pictures made the polish look a lot more orange than it actually was. It is actually a really pretty pink melon color. This was a huge lemming for me for a loooong time. I am so happy to finally have it but I am still overall disappointed with the quality. Hopefully OPI or China Glaze will come up with something similar.
Last up is Two Fingered Salute
This one is my favorite! Peeling and all. This color is perfection. It is this gorgeous pistachio color with lots of copper glitters. I've never seen any color like this and I definitely recommend it. It was pretty thick too but not as thick as Trout Pout. Two coats and you're good.
Overall I am happy with the colors, but for $14 the durability really sucks. Unless they put out another color I can't pass up (like Two Fingered Salute) I will probably never buy another Butter polish. Did you guys have the same problems with these polishes? What are your favorite Butter London colors?
How was everybody's Thanksgiving? Mine was great and filled with way too much yummy food. What all did you pick up on Black Friday? I wasn't brave enough to go out but I did pick up a few things today while I went put. I know in my last post I told you all about my Butter London polishes but we ended up visiting with family longer than we planned so to make up for it I thought I would post a quick shot of this holiday mani I attempted using two polishes from China Glaze's holiday collection.
I used With Love, a classic bright cherry red, and Angel wings, a stunning gold holo microglitter. I promise I will post a full review of both polishes and the other three that I purchased from this collection. Both of these are so pretty and have great formulas; I just had to find some way to wear them together. I wanted to try a half moon mani (here is a link to a great tutorial http://www.nailnerd.com/how-to-do-half-moon-nails/) but I didn't have any of those sticky circle thingys so they didn't turn out as cute as I wanted.
Isn't Angel Wings so pretty?! The sparkle is seriously wild. I love these two colors together and can't wait to play with them some more. What is your favorite holiday combo?
Well... looks like I didn't stick to my once a week post! lol
My lovely husband bought me my first Butter London polish and I plan on posting a swatch by the end of the weekend, I PROMISE! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday weekend and got in some good shopping today :)
I know this isn't really about polish but I want to tell you guys all about a really cool site that I signed up for recently. Influenster.com. Have you ever wanted to be rewarded for sharing your opinions? Good or bad. That is what Influenster is all about. Let your voice be heard about products that you use everyday. From video games to nail polish Influenster covers it all. If you give enough valuable feed back, you could also receive a box full of free goodies to try out and review! How cool is that? the site is super easy to navigate and there are tons of great reviews on products that I have yet to try. It is free to sign uo and in my opinion it is totally worth it.
http://www.influenster.com/
Click on the link and set up your free profile today! You won't regret it!
I'm a terrible blogger :p
So... It has been a few months since I have posted anything but I assure you that my collection continues to grow. I just don't think I have it in me to mass swatch regularly with my schedule. I do paint my nails about twice a week and I've been trying to keep up by taking pictures as I go. My new goal is to post something new at least once a week. I think I can do it! Since my last post was about China Glaze's Hunger Games Collection, I found it only fitting to pick up where we left off. Since I last posted I have bought 4 more polishes.
Left to right: Smoke and Ashes, Dress Me Up, Fast Track, Luxe and Lush
First up.... Dress Me Up! The formula on this one was ah-mazing! So creamy and wonderful. I used two coats but you could easily get away with one thicker coat.The color itself is pretty great too. It is like a mauve-y blush. This is the perfect subdued nail for when you want a neutral that isn't beige and boring. The finish was super shiny so I didn't bother with a topcoat for the pics.
One coat
Two coats:
Two coats outdoors:
One more:
Next up is Fast Track. Now, I know I just said that beige is boring but this one is definitely NOT boring. This one had a pretty fabulous formula too, but at least two coats is necessary to reach opacity. Fast Track is a really pretty yellow leaning beige with a beautiful gold glitter/shimmer. As much as I love this polish, I'm not sure this yellow fellow loves me back.
Once Coat:
Two Coats:
Two Coats Outdoors:
One More:
Next, Smoke and Ashes. I don't even know where to start with this beauty. This color is. SO. PRETTY! It is a deep forest, blackish green with stunning green glitter throughout. It just gets prettier and prettier the more you stare at it. The formula was pretty thick, but very easy to work with. The clean up kind of sucked though (as you can tell from my pics)
One Coat:
Two Coats:
Two Coats Outdoors (sorry for the glare!)
One More:
Last but not least Luxe and Lush! I love, love, love this shard glitter revolution that is going on right now. This one goes on very easily and gives every polish a different look. I personally like it over dark colors better. Here it is over the three polishes above.
Over Dress Me Up:
Over Fast Track:
Over Smoke and Ashes:
Overall, I think China Glaze did an unbelievable job with this collection. All of the polishes that I own have perfect formulas and I think the colors fit together very nicely. There is pretty much a color for everyone. My favorite out of these four is probably Dress Me Up. I think the color is adorable and that formula!!! Which is your favorite from the Hunger Games Collection?
