Hanukkah manicures

Posted in Holiday, Manicures, Nail Art, pictures, reviews by Jessica W.

Good morning! I know some of you got to see these on my instagram last night, here’s the full post! 🙂

First up is just a simple blue & white manicure, using OPI Solitaire and Kiss Me At Midnight.

To switch it up, I then added Star of David to each nail.

For something different, I then did a menorah. The base color is Ulta Moody Blues; the menorah and candles are Sally Hansen Showgirl Chic, Dorien Grey; the flames are Sinful Colors Pullover and Sun Kissed.

I’d love to hear what you think! Did I miss the mark on these? I did them on the spur of the moment yesterday, so I didn’t have time to plan them out. I’ll have my Thanksgiving Peanuts manicure later today, until then,

22Sep2013

September Lip Factory Look

Posted in makeup, pictures, reviews by Jessica W.

*Products/subscription box reviewed were self-purchased.*

Hello there! This is a follow-up post to the Lip Factory post of the other day.

I’ve used the following products to create today’s makeup look:

–Skin79 SuperBB VIP Gold Collection
–Skin79 Diamond BB UV Perfect BB Pact
–Ulta Cheek Color in Sweet Cheeks
–Benefit Watts Up Highlighter
–Physicians Formula Sexy Glow Bronzer
-Sephora Arch It Brow Kit (no longer available)
–NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk
–JCat Eye Pencil in Charcoal
–Studio277 eyeshadow in Kryptonite (received in previous LF box)
-Ulta eyeshadow in Grey Smoke (no longer available)
–Manic Panic Creature of the Night mascara (received in previous LF box)

In the two following pictures, I have ModelCo lip gloss in StripTease on my lips:

I don’t really like the JCat eye pencil as an eye liner, but I think it will be a good “sticky” base underneath loose eyeshadow.

Close-up of ModelCo lip gloss in Striptease:

ModelCo lip gloss is a really really lovely nude lip gloss, and I’ve already used it several times since receiving the gloss.

The following picture, I’ve used Be a Bombshell Cosmetics lip gloss in Nude Beach on top of ModelCo Striptease:

Close-up of Bombshell lip gloss in Nude Beach:

The Bombshell lip gloss does add a bit of shimmer to the lips, without being overpowering.

I also did a comparison of the La Fresh makeup remover wipes to Sephora Waterproof Eye Makeup Remover:

La Fresh remover:

Sephora remover:

You can’t really tell a difference in the pictures, but it did seem like the La Fresh remover wipes removed the eye makeup a bit easier – I didn’t feel like I had to scrub my eye as hard. It also seemed to remove the mascara way better. The only thing is that I wish the wipes were smaller! In the above picture, I only used half the wipe. I just feel like it’s wasteful. (I might just cut the wipes in half.)

I hope this review was helpful! If you’d like to subscribe to Lip Factory, it is $22/month for U.S. subscribers, and you can sign up here. I would really appreciate if you used my referral number: 38343. Until tomorrow,

*Products/subscription box reviewed were self-purchased.*

25Aug2013

Ulta Swatch Spam

Posted in Manicures, Nail Swatches, pictures, reviews by Jessica W.

Good morning all! I have some swatch spam for you today from Ulta. I hardly ever see swatches from the Ulta line (maybe I’m not looking in the right place), so I thought I would share these pictures with you. They are older pictures, when I plastered my logo on the pics – just to forewarn you!

After Party, two coats, inside, flash:

Inside, sunlight:

Wicked, two coats, inside, flash:

Inside, sunlight:

Wicked with accent nail of After Party, flash:

No flash, sunlight:

Blues Cruise (index and middle), Indigo-go Girl (ring and pinky), each two coats, inside, flash:

Inside, sunlight:

Boogie Nights, two coats, inside flash:

Inside, sunlight:

Limelight, two coats, inside sunlight:

Limelight with accent nail of Boogie Nights, inside flash:

Inside, sunlight:

I don’t want this post to be humongously long, so I will save the rest for another day! What do you think of these? Do you like any of them? Until tomorrow,

5Aug2013

Work Appropriate Striped Pedicure

Posted in Pedicures, pictures by Jessica W.

Good morning everyone! I’m continuing my favorites from the OMD Rather Awesome Challenge with Glitteratzi’s striped manicure from Day 11. When I was going to do this, I thought to myself, “Self, how fun would this be as a pedicure?!” and so it was decided. 😛 I have several friends who have to be more “tame” in their pedicure and manicure choices for work purposes, and I think this is definitely a manicure/pedicure that would work either way!

I started off with 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow – one of my favorite whites. I then used striping tape to tape off sections of each toenail; afterwards I used a thick coat of OPI Did You ‘Ear About Van Gogh and pulled off the striping tape. Lastly, I used a brush to freehand a stripe of Ulta Eye Popping Poppy on each nail.

What do you think? I think it came out fairly well compared to Glitteratzi’s manicure. I still have it on my toes, and wore it to a wedding! Tomorrow I’ll have a manicure inspired by the Polish Playground (who in turn was inspired by elleandish). Until then,

12Jun2013

Ulta Material Girl

Posted in Manicures, Nail Swatches, pictures, reviews by Jessica W.

Products reviewed are self-purchased.

Remember the sale that Ulta had awhile back – Buy 2, Get 2 Free? Well, I picked up a bunch of polishes when that was going on – I mean, who could resist? Over the next few weeks, I’ll have swatches of the ones I picked up. Today, I have for you my favorite out of the 14 I picked up – Material Girl. This is a gorgeous purple toned holographic. The formula was flawless and easy to apply.

First picture two coats, no top coat; no flash, inside, natural light:

This is two coats, no top coat; flash, inside:

Also two coats, no top coat; inside, sunlight, no flash:

So far, pretty, but nothing special right? Then I put a top coat on. This is inside, flash:

Inside, no flash, sunlight:

Deliberately blurred:

This is such a gorgeous polish, I didn’t want to take it off! The way it sparkled, and even how it looked in the shade, makes it a perfect summer shade. What do you think? As always,

27May2013

Memorial Day and Manicure Monday

Posted in Holiday, Manicures, Nail Art by Jessica W.

Hello, and I hope you are having a good Memorial Day. I hope you have had a chance to pause and think of our servicemen and women who died while in the service of the United States. Today for Manicure Monday, I wanted to do something in honor of Memorial Day. My uncle served & died during the Vietnam War, and his body wasn’t recovered for almost 40 years. If you’d like to see some pictures, I put a few on facebook here. For my left hand, I used essie licorice and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. I need way more practice in writing on my nails, and doing designs. I was trying to emulate the POW * MIA flag:

Here are my nails. I wrote too big for the MIA and the star didn’t come out quite right, but hey, it’s the thought that counts, right?

For my right hand, I wanted to emulate the Vietnam Veterans patch, seen here:

I used Ulta Limelight, Zoya Creamy, and Sinful Colors Pur Rouge:

I also used essie’s matte about you to mattify all my nails. I did enjoy sitting down and doing my nails for this Memorial Day. What do you think?

Be Happy and Buy Polish

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Tag Archives: Ulta

Hanukkah manicures

September Lip Factory Look

Ulta Swatch Spam

Work Appropriate Striped Pedicure

Ulta Material Girl

Memorial Day and Manicure Monday