Color of the Month: Sapphire

September's birthstone is yet another precious gemstone: Sapphire! 

Sapphire is a variety of the gem species corundum, which occurs in a huge array of colors. If you've been to a jewelry store recently, you've no doubt seen pink sapphire, yellow sapphire, etc. Ruby is actually the red variety of sapphire. However, for this color of the month, I decided to stick with sapphire in its traditional blue form. 

I also decided to use silver (Zoya's "Trixie") for this look. I thought it helped the blue pop. And of course, my beloved Nail Vinyls make an appearance. 

For this look, i featured Zoya in "Dream". This rich, holographic beauty is like a sapphire in a bottle!

So sparkle. Much wow. 

I am also very excited for the mail to come today because my HIMYM box set will be arriving, as well as the last Zoya order I placed before my no-buy. And with new polishes, come new swatches, which mean new blog posts for you!

September Ipsy Bag Review

Fall is upon us, and with it, a new Ipsy bag to review! 

Even though I wasn't head over heels with all the products I received this month, I'm still totally in love with this subscription service, and September's bag design was my favorite of the bunch so far. It's definitely a bag I can get away with using as a clutch on a night out. 

Briogeo "Don't Despair, Repair!" Deep Conditioning Mask

First up is this deep conditioner. Its ingredients include avocado, almond & argan oils, keratin protein, rosehip oil, aloe, and vitamins B5, D, A, E and biotin. 

I was really excited to try this, because I color my hair fairly regularly and figured it could use some extra TLC. I also thought with all the superstar ingredients I would love it, which is why I was so surprised when I hated it. 

I used this multiple times, hoping maybe it would get better over time, but no luck. When I used it, it didn't even feel like my hair had been conditioned. It wasn't sleek to the touch. My comb didn't glide effortlessly through it. To be honest, my Aussie 3 Minute Miracle did a much better job at a fraction of the cost. 

This retails for $26 for 5.25 oz, but my sample was worth $4.95. 

Leeanni Eco 3 in 1 Revolution Light

This 3 in 1 product does the job of a moisturizer, toner, and serum. The "light" formula is made for normal to oily skin. It is supposed to help tighten skin, reduce breakouts, relieve dark circles under eyes, moisturize, fight aging, treat sun damages, and calm irritated skin, according to the product description. 

I am always a bit apprehensive to try new things on my face, since my skin is sensitive and prone to break outs. I used this product multiple times and really loved it! I did notice an improvement in my skin tone and dark circles, and it didn't make me break out at all. Bonus points for being vegan, gluten free, and natural!

This retails for $30 for 4 oz. My sample was only worth $2.62. 

Pacifica 7 Free Nail Color in "Red Red Wine" 

If you don't know how I feel about nail polish by now, you haven't been paying attention. This was the first polish I got via Ipsy. I was already familiar with Pacifica - they make a delicious blood orange solid perfume I used to wear as a teenager - but had no idea they made nail polish as well. 

The formula is "7-Free" (meaning it does not contain parabens, phthalates, toluene, xylene, camphor, formaldehyde, resin, or animals), which is very impressive. Most major polish brands are only 3 or 5 Free. I also adored the little golden shells on the brush handle. So pretty!

The polish itself was okay. It's a nice basic red to own, but doesn't stand out as a unique color. The formula also applied a bit uneven, but I'm not sure if that was my own error or not. 

Notice how some nails are darker than others with the same number of coats. 

Overall, it's a pretty enough color. And I bet it would look really nice over a black base. It honestly won't likely get a lot of use in my collection, but I would check out their other shades to see if any of the other colors were worthwhile. 

This product was full sized and retails for $9. 

Crown Brush C476 Crease/Shadow

I was sooo excited to get this in my bag! I don't have any nice shadow brushes (I really need a nice full set of makeup brushes in my life!), so I was thrilled to try this out. It did not disappoint! 

It has two ends: one fluffy side perfect for blending, and another pencil type side. I have nothing like either of them. 

The bristles are soft and don't shed, and the blending side... WOW! My shadows have looked so nice lately thanks to this brush. The pencil side is also perfect for applying shadows on the lower lash line. 5 stars!

This product retails for $7. 

Cailyn Art Touch Tinted Lip Gloss in "Love Affair"

Finally, we have this lip gloss. It's a great product! The formula itself leaves your lips looking strangely glassy with lots of depth. Really beautiful, and not at all sticky. I also loved the color. 

The color is also somewhat buildable, so you can layer more on for a darker look or throw it on top of a matching lipstick. Surprisingly enough, this product was the most valuable in my whole bag, retailing at $19. 

The shining stars this month were definitely the eye shadow brush and the lipgloss. Both were totally worth the cost of the subscription alone. The 3-in-1 product was a great new find, but I don't tend to get overly excited about moisturizers. The nail polish was just so-so, and the deep conditioner was a total dud, at least for me. I give this month's bag 3.5 out of 5 stars. 

Total bag value: $42.57, all for just $10. 

Interested in trying Ipsy for yourself? Sign up here! http://www.ipsy.com/r/c16l?sid=ipsypoints&cid=email

Wedding Anniversary and Negative Space Nails

As some (most?) of you may know, yesterday was my 1 year wedding anniversary! My husband Mike and I spent the whole day having fun and enjoying each other's company. 

Since the traditional theme for the 1st anniversary is paper, we had to get a bit creative with our gifts. Mike sent me on a scavenger hunt around the house looking for little paper clues that each had a letter on them. After I collected all the letters, they spelled the word "ALBUM". He sat me down and we looked through our wedding album together, and in the back of it there was a print out image of the How I Met Your Mother complete 9 season boxed set DVD collection, which he preordered for me as my gift!

Great minds must think alike, because I had ordered him a HIMYM fan art print of Ted and Tracey at the Farhampton station off Etsy a month earlier. A woman in India illustrated the print herself, and I bought a custom matte and frame to really make it pop. 

Team Yellow Umbrella!

I also bought him tickets to the Phillies game for that day, so we went to the ballpark together to cheer for the only sportsteam we agree on. 

For the record, they lost :(

After the game, we went to our absolute favorite restaurant for dinner: Maggiano's Little Italy. If you've never been there, go, and preferably do it up family style. For $30 per person they just keep bringing out plate after plate of each course until you tell them to move on to the next. And the food is just incredible. 

After dinner we went home and enjoyed champagne in our toasting flutes, and the top layer of our wedding cake, which, thanks to my mom's preservation efforts, was so yummy you'd never know it was a year old. 

#TBT our cake the day of our wedding

Of course, I couldn't go out in my fabulous hot pink Michelle Obama inspired dress without doing my nails up to match. I recently ordered right angle Nail Vinyls and I have to say, they may be my favorite shape yet. They are SO versatile it's incredible. I decided to recreate a mani I saw by sassyshelly129 on Instagram, using pinks instead for my color scheme. 

Inspiration. Check out @sassyshelly129 on Instagram!

Colors used: Orly in "Neon Heat" and Zoya in "Kirtridge"

Ta-da!

I really love negative space manis. They are clean looking but still provide so much interest. I can't wait to experiment more with these right angle vinyls. There's so much I can do with them!

I have lots of goodies coming up for you guys. I just wrote out 8 different blog post ideas that I'll be rolling out starting next week that will take us clear into November. Keep your eyes peeled! 

 

Music Equalizer Nails + Bonus Mani

I managed a Monday post after all! Yay!

Unfortunately, today you'll be receiving two half-assed manis in the hope that you'll accept it in lieu of one good one. I cannot stress this enough: don't bother doing your nails when you are in a rush. 

...or under the influence of multiple glasses of wine. 

ANYWAY. This was the inspiration behind my nail art recreation this week:

I absolutely LOVED the music equalizer idea! And the video tutorial made it look so easy (and I'm sure with a sober hand, it would have been). I saved the idea in my Instagram likes and waited until Nail Vinyls were having a sale to pick up some straights and some right angle vinyls (those, I'm sure, I'll be featuring next week!)

And, well.... Here it is. 

Stop laughing. 

I have to post a nail fail every once in a while on here, right? To be fair, the spacing on the bars on my right hand turned out a bit better, but my line work was just... Ugh. 

I will try these again sometime. I know exactly where I went wrong, and it would definitely help to have longer nails for this look!

Here is the other mani I did last week, just a quick guy to have on my hands while I brainstormed something more exciting to blog. I didn't intend on posting this one but I felt I owed it to you all. 

Classic Pinterest mani!

I'm also thinking of going back to my square nail shape. The almond looks great for long nails, but so far only a few nails have reached the length necessary for the aesthetic. But I'm so torn! 

Next week is my one year wedding anniversary, so I'll definitely be doing something jazzy with my digits ;)

Soft and Feminine Jelly Sandwich

Hey everybody!

Sorry I was MIA all this week. Monday was Labor Day so I completely forgot about posting and the rest of the week has been busy to say the least. This was the first time I got around to posting. 

I have another jelly sandwich for you guys today, but this one really surprised me with how beautiful it turned out. 

My friend Katie bought me a couple of Cirque Colors polishes for my birthday this year, and one of the ones she got me is called "Ophelia". 

It's a really beautiful periwinkle glitter and I've been trying to figure out what to do with it. Last week, inspiration struck me as I was driving home. I decided to pair it with NYC's "Kisses", a polish that I've had since long before I started collecting polish. 

The result was incredible. 

L to R: Cirque Colors "Ophelia", NYC's "Kisses"

I'm completely convinced that these colors were made to be worn together. The subtle blue-green shimmer in Kisses's sheer purple base was the perfect compliment to Ophelia's periwinkle sparkle. And the final manicure was feminine and work appropriate, yet completely eye-catching. 

Since I dropped the ball and was so late on posting this week I'm not sure if I will be on time next week, but I can promise you that my next mani will definitely be a really fun one, so keep your eyes peeled!