Monday, April 28, 2014

Revlon Colorstay Wild Strawberry

I picked this up last week at Rite Aid to use as a pedicure color this summer but decided to do a quick manicure with it today.

Outside, in shade

 I probably won't leave this on for more than a day or so since it's much brighter than what I usually like on my nails so I won't be able to judge the staying power of the polish.  I own a few other Revlon polishes but this is my only one from their Colorstay line.

Inside, Natural Light

Wild Strawberry is a bright pink shimmer with a bit of a blue tone to it when it catches the light, but not strong enough be considered a duo chrome polish.

Outside, Sunlight

Outside, Sunlight

The formula was good, it seemed a bit thin but went on smoothly and was opaque in two coats. All photos include a base coat (I'm currently using Essie Grow Stronger), two coats of polish, and a top coat of NYC In a New York Minute in Grand Central Station.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Pop Sugar Must Have - April 2014

So this is probably going to be my one and only post about this subscription service because I purchased it for one specific reason this month.  Pop Sugar Must Have is a monthly subscription that isn't specifically a beauty subscription but does often seem to include a beauty item.  This months beauty selection was awesome, which is why it deserves a post here.  The website describes the service as delivering "Hand-selected items in beauty, fashion, home, fitness, and food"  I believe Popsugar Must Have sends out only full sized items.


I've seen unboxings of this subscription on blogs and YouTube vlogs and while it often has cute stuff, at $39.95/month it is too pricey for me to spend on something that includes surprise items I may or may not use.  That said, for April they released a sneak peak that made me sure the box would be well worth the price.  I've been looking for a neutral eye palette and they leaked that April's box would include the Too Faced Natural Eyes palette!  I was also able to find a $5 off coupon code so I got box for $34.95 with free shipping.  The Too Faced palette alone is $36 so it's like I was buying the palette at a slight discount and getting 5 other bonus items.  Signing up for April did automatically sign me up for a monthly subscription, but after my April box shipped it was very easy to cancel online under the "My Account" settings.


The Too Faced Natural Eyes Palette (Retail Value $36) that came with the box is the newly released update that includes 3 new shades.  The packaging also changed from a cardboard box with the old palette to a nice sturdy tin.  I'll do a full review of this palette at some point soon once I've worn it a little more, but for now here's a couple of pictures of the palette itself.



The Blue Avocado Eco Shopper (Retail Value $25) is a cute and very convenient collapsible totebag.  I will definitely be using this and I'm glad it was included in the box, though I don't see myself paying full price for a second one.



The Graphic Image Pocket Notebook (Retail Value $20) is cute but not something I have much use for, I use my iPhone for most notes and reminders, and only use notepads for shopping lists, and for that I prefer the magnetic notepads that I can put on the fridge.


The Fresh Pastry Stand Totally Awesome Tea Towel Set (Retail Value $18) included 2 nice quality tea towels but they are not ones that I would display since they don't match my kitchen decor.  However I do have someone in mind who I think will really like these, so I will be passing them on to that person soon. 


The Caldera Rosewater Driftwood Hand Soap (Retail Value $10.50) is nice and has a pleasant mild scent.  I typically buy unscented hand soap, but I'll use this in the guest bath.


The Naturebox Popsugar Exclusive Must Have Mix (Retail Value $5) has soy in it, which I can't eat unfortunately, but I'm sure my husband will enjoy this.


Overall this was a fun treat this month (especially since it came just a few days before my birthday), but aside from the Too Faced Eye Palette I wasn't overly excited about the items.  The box did have a total retail value of $114.50 so it was well worth the price of $34.95 that I paid since I was considering purchasing the Too Faced Palette on its own.  I might get this box once a year or so, especially if I see a good spoiler, but I don't plan on getting it regularly.  There are a lot of bloggers & vloggers who do though, so if you're interested in seeing other months unboxings Google will definitely help you out.  I think Popsugar only releases spoilers some of the time, so some months it's a complete surprise.  If you want to go ahead and sign up you can do so here and use the code REFER5 to get $5 off your first months box.  That's a referral link but if you prefer not to use those you can sign up simply by going to musthave.popsugar.com.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Ipsy Bag - April 2014

A couple of months ago I joined Ipsy as a fun way to try out new products and build my makeup collection.  Ipsy is a beauty subscription service similar to many others out there, but is one of the more affordable ones available.  It is $10 a month or $110 for an annual subscription and you get 4-5 deluxe sample size or often full size products.  It has a mix of drugstore & higher end products which is one of the reasons I chose it over Birchbox; as much as I like trying the expensive stuff its more realistic for me and my budget that I'll repurchase something I can pick up at the drugstore.

April is my second month receiving Ipsy and I'm really enjoying it so far.  Ipsy ships mid month and around the 10th of the month you can either sneak a peak at the coming months products in your "Glam Room" or be surprised when it shows up in the mail.  I told myself this month I was going to wait and not look, but failed miserably so I knew what products I was getting. There were quite a few variations in the bags sent out this month, so while I didn't get a product I was really wanting to try (Lollitint!) I'm pretty happy with what I did end up with.  You'll have to forgive my photos, I'm new to trying to photograph makeup swatches and it turns out I'm not great at it.  That said, onto the bag...


The first product, which is the only item that was included in every bag this month, is the Urban Decay 24/7 Eye Pencil in Black Velvet.  This is a travel sized pencil but it has quite a bit of product and by volume estimate has an approximate value of $6.  It's also my first Urban Decay product so I'm excited to try it out.  I haven't used it on my eyes yet but it glided on my arm very smoothly for swatches and didn't budge once it dried so I think it's going to be easy to use.




Next we have the Coastal Scents medium shadow brush.  I've been slowly changing out my brushes, either for better quality ones or just because they are old and worn out so I was excited to get a brush in my bag.  This sells for $2.99.  It is soft and and worked well when I used it to do a quick swatch over my existing shadow with the Elizabeth Mott eyeshadow I also got in the bag.



This seems to be the month for eye products with Ipsy and I also got Elizabeth Mott Pop goes the Shadow in Champagne.  This is a full sized product worth $12.99 which is more than the cost of the whole Ipsy bag.
Its a gorgeous shadow and well pigmented for a neutral, but unfortunately with my skin tone and lack of proper lighting I couldn't seem to get any swatch photos that did the shadow justice.



The Starlooks Luscious Longwear Lip Pencil in Nude is the fourth item in my bag.  This is also a full sized product worth $14.99.  There were several lip products in the mix this month and I wasn't sure about this one as I don't usually use lip liners.  I decided to try it as an all over lip color and while it's a smooth pencil it was a little drying as a lip color.  It's a peachy pink color and goes okay with my fair skin tone though so I can see myself wearing it occasionally with a gloss over it.




The fifth and final item included was a sample size tube of dr. brandt microdermabrasion scrub.  It's a small sample but that's because the full sized product is $78 (yikes!) so the estimated value of this 7.5g sample is $9.75.  I put a small dab on my hand and it has very fine microdermabrasion crystals, not larger beads like some scrubs.  It also has a very lemony scent, I heard a reviewer describe it as lemon pledge and unfortunately I would say that's an accurate description.  I have mild rosacea so I'm a little worried about this product but have been able to use other scrubs in the past as long as I'm gentle with the application so I plan on trying this out in the next few days.


The bag design itself this month wasn't too exciting for me, it's cute and I like the square shape of it but it's not one I see myself carrying around.  I'm okay with the bag being hit or miss because if I continue to get Ipsy I figure I'll end up with at least a few I use regularly.  March's bag was an abstract print I wasn't sure about at first but it kind of reminded me of nail polish so now I'm using for my go-to nail supplies and it's growing on me. While there's no estimate for the value of the makeup bag itself, I have seen some bloggers estimate it at a dollar or so.  I'm just going to leave it out of the total estimate, but it is definitely nicer packaging than just a cardboard box.


Overall I think this was a pretty great bag.  I'll get use out of everything in it and it included 3 full sized items. I'd estimate the total value of the bag at around $46, which is well worth the $10 subscription price.  I can't wait for next month!

If you're interested in signing up for Ipsy I do have a referral link that you can use here (that will give me points for bonus items), or if you'd rather not use a referral link you can simply go to Ipsy.com to sign up.

First Post!

Welcome to Makeup Miscellaneous!  I've been interested in nail polish and growing my collection for the last several years and recently became more interested in makeup as well.  I've been reading lots of nail & beauty blogs and decided to join in and start my own.  This will be a place for random reviews and manicure pictures, Ipsy bag unboxings, etc.  Hope you enjoy!