No Buy November, Palette Tour

Welcome to my fun and quirky little blog in the great big internet. In order to finish up my No Buy November I thought I would take you on a palette tour. I will open my palettes up and let you all take a peek. I will admit that this idea came to me while reading a Z palette review over at El's Glossy Glam Blog. She is a darling friend and an amazing blogger. I would highly recommend you go tour her blog and see what she's been up to. 

So onto today's palette tour!  I have 6 Unii palettes and I absolutely adore them. I know that if I were to drop a palette the chances are much slimmer for the products inside to break.  This palette offers a lock that ensures that the palette is closed and can't pop open unexpectedly. Another thing I really enjoy about the Unii palette is that they come apart for thorough cleaning. We all know that many cosmetics can leave fallout and it's easy to give this palette a good scrubbing! 

Now that you're aware of what the Unii palette is lets crack these babies open and see what's inside! My red palette is mostly full of MAC shadows with the exception of the half circle which is a L'Oreal HIP shadow. 

Top: Satin Taupe, Woodwinked, Vex, Retrospeck, Goldmine
Middle: Plum Dressing, Trax, Expensive Pink, Naked Lunch, L'Oreal Hip Wicked
Bottom: Sketch, Club, Passionate, Swish, Goody Goody Gum Drop

Next up is my white palette which contains mostly blushes. The three large ones are MAC and the Unii palettes are capable of holding the larger domed, baked blushes. 

Top: Breezy, Plum Foolery
Bottom: Giggly, I don't know, and Philosophy Supernatural Blush and Bronzer

My purple palette contains a mixture of different shadows from a variety of sources. Interesting tidbit of information, the Wet N Wild shadow that is half missing on the bottom row came from the I'm Feeling Retro Trio and it's a dead on dupe for MAC Stars N Rockets in the middle row on the far right.

Top: UD Blue Bus, UD Gravity, Mary Kay IDK, MAC Parfait Amour, Beautiful Iris, Boy Crazy
Middle: Flirt Gypsy Nights, L'Oreal Hip Wicked, Wet N Wild, Mary Kay IDK, MAC Vibrant Grape, Stars N Rockets
Bottom: Flirt Gypsy Nights, Wet N Wild, MAC Creme de Violet, Hepcat, Azuki Bean

Next we are going to dive into my blue Unii palette. This is a mixture of Urban Decay, Wet N Wild and a MAC Tartan Tale Christmas Palette

Top: Hijack, Crystal, Gunmetal, Bender, Cobra
Right side top to bottom: MAC High Spirits, Bows & Curtseys, Set to Dance
All others are misc Wet N Wild shadows

Next up is the yellow Unii palette which doesn't have much in it. Just a couple of blushes and a couple of shadows from the MAC Peacocky collection.

Wet N Wild Heather Silk, Physician's Formula Cashmere Wear Natural
MAC Dalliance (light), MAC Unflappable (dark)

Now onto the black Unii palette which contains all MAC shadows in shades of blue and green. The large ones are from the Peacocky collection.

Top: MAC Deep Truth, Tilt, Odalisque (lg), Dandizette (lg)
Middle: Freshwater, Steamy
Bottom: Shimmermoss, Bio Green, Juxt, Ego (lg)

Now onto my two MAC palettes. I originally had my MAC shadows in these palettes but I outgrew them. So, let me show you what I did with them. 

This first one contains the rest of the MAC Peacocky collection. I was absolutely mesmerized by this collection and fell in love with the quality of the shadows. As you can see there was an accident. :( Two of the shadows (top right) were dropped. I was able to put the purple one back together but I lost half of the brown one.

Top: Sexpectations, Paparazzshe, Spectacle of Yourself, Center Stage, Noir Plum
Middle: Top of the Posh, Tweet Me, Peek at You, Prance, Mating Call
Bottom: Crystal Avalanche, Moshi Moshi, Carbon

This last pallete is a natural or nude palette. Every time I think I would like to have one of the UrbandDecay Naked palettes (I own none of the three) I open this palette and wonder if I really need any of them.

Top: Wet N Wild Shadows
Second: UD Zephyr, Skimp, Midnight Cowgirl, Sin, Midnight Rodeo, Missionary, Bust, Lost
Third: 1st & 2nd Physician's Formula Canyon Classics, 3rd & 4th Wet N Wild, 5th & 6th PF Canyon Classics
Bottom: Philosophy Supernatural, MAC Lady's Prance, Philosophy Supernatural, Wet N Wild, MAC Rolled Gold, UD Baked, MAC Vainglorious, Yaby 

Now, a little update on my No Buy November. I will admit that when my husband and I were at Target we came across the Lady Gaga Fame rollerball. He was kind enough to buy it for me but I have not worn it nor will I wear it as it is going into my Christmas stocking. 

I did purchase the Sally Hansen Extreme Wear in Celeb City but I felt terribly guilty doing so. To be completely honest, I was doing the nail look for my Gelous giveaway and I needed a metallic silver to complete the look. I knew that was the look I was going for and didn't have one in my collection. So I did purchase two of them, one to giveaway and one for me to use for my blog post. I didn't feel it would be right to give away a used bottle of polish. So there is my confession. I did buy myself one bottle of polish but I didn't want to. 

I will still consider No Buy November a huge success because if I had not been doing a giveaway I would not have bought myself anything. I will not allow this one little bottle of polish to cause me to think of No Buy November as a failure.  However, I did want to come clean to all of my readers and the other no buy participants. I hope they can forgive my transgression. I hope you enjoyed my palette tour and the follow up to my No Buy November. I hope all of my beautiful readers had a fantastic Thanksgiving and are planning a wonderful Christmas. 

• Sleep is becoming increasingly elusive and it's throwing off my entire schedule. Such is life. This too shall pass.
• I am very excited about the beginning of #BeautyCrown. We have a great group of bloggers posting their yearly favorites at the same time. 
• I am thankful for my #BeautyCrown co-hosts. Jackie, Lily and Liz have become dear friends to me and I couldn't think of better women to host with! Love you ladies!! 

Maybelline Color Elixir

Welcome to my happy little blog smack dab in the middle of cyberspace. I talk a lot about makeup and a little about illness, life, and other stuff. Today we will be discussing the new Maybelline Color Elixirs. I realize that these have been out for several weeks and I'm probably late to the dance. But I thought I would go ahead and share my opinions with you anyway.

Maybelline Color Elixir in Dashing Orchid

I am not really sure which way is up here because as a gloss the cap would be on top and as a lipstick the bullet would be on top. Hmmmm. Maybelline's website says, " A trio of concentrates delivers the color of a lipstick, the cushiony care of a balm and the glass shine of a gloss. Our exclusive smoothing angora brush delivers a polished, even application and smoothing sensation to the lips." I will admit that it has great pigmentation and great shine. 

I will also agree that I really like the applicator. It is soft, smooth and does a great job of delivering the color to the lips. There are 20 different shades which is a nice selection for a new range of products. There are some cream shades and some shimmer shades but the shimmer shades are not overly shimmery. It's a great shad selection and the colors are beautiful. The color I purchased Dashing Orchid is absolutely beautiful. 

Maybelline Color Elixir in Dashing Orchid

So sounds great and I should theoretically be telling everyone to go buy this product. There's just a little problem. The smell and taste! They smell like old lady perfume and they taste like old lady perfume. It's that overbearing chemical taste that seems to linger in your mouth. I have tried on several occasions to wear this because I love the look of the product when it's on my lips. I just cannot keep it on my lips. I always end up wiping it off. This product might be work if you have dead taste buds but if they are alive and well I would steer clear of this product. I hate to say that because I really want to love this product; but I just can't get behind something that tastes this awful. 

BBBB, Meet Your Favicon

Welcome back to another installment of BBBB, Building a Better Beauty Blog, where we will be talking about your Favicon! You either have already changed your Favicon or are wondering what the heck I am talking about. 

In the image above the Favicon is the white be on the orange background on the active tab. You can see my Favicon on the tab to the left of the active tab. You can also see several other of my blogger friends' Favicons on the tabs to the right of the active tab. You can also see a few more generic Blogger Favicons to the right of my friends' Favicons. 

The term Favicon is short for favorite icon. It's a shortcut icon or a bookmark icon and is typically 16x16 pixels and less than 100kb in size. It is also extremely easy to change your Favicon with very little effort. Simply open your layout in Blogger and you will see your Favicon element. 

Load up any square image less than 100kb and your Favicon is set. You will not immediately see your Favicon change. It will take a bit of time and you might need to clear your cache in order for it to show up.

As you can see this is a pretty simple process with a huge impact. It's not unusual for me to have 3-4 blogs open in different tabs and having customized Favicons makes it much easier for me to quickly find a particular blog. I hope you enjoyed another installment of BBBB. Please remember that all BBBB posts both mine and Laurie's can be found at the top of my blog under the BBBB tab.

Bridge the Ridge

Welcome to my little beauty blog located in the vast universe of cyberspace. The thing that makes my blog is that I use beauty products to keep my attitude positive as a I battle a chronic neurological condition. I believe in beauty products that work and will always give you an honest review. Welcome and read on.

Bridge the Ridge is a ridge filling basecoat that creates a super smooth base for the polish of your choice. Bridge the Ridge is made by American Classics, the same company that makes my beloved Gelous. They graciously gave me the opportunity to try the Bridge the Ridge for free. However, I will tell you that they offered me the chance to try Bridge the Ridge as part of the launch of their new Instagram account. I am doing the review on my blog because I enjoy reviewing things and the fact that I received the product free will not affect my review. 

I always start my manicures with clean nails that have been lightly buffed with a file. This gives the basecoat a little texture to grab onto. Bridge the Ridge will smooth over any rough texture caused by lightly filing your nail beds. I apply a light coat of Bridge the Ridge allow it to dry. It dries quite quickly so this is a great addition to your manicure. This provides a nice smooth surface to lay your polish on. 

I will be the first to admit that I am rough on manicures. I can chip a manicure within 24 hours. I have a really hard time getting a manicure to last on me. I do a lot with my hands and I am not the kind of girl that can get a week out of a manicure. So the question is can Bridge the Ridge help me get extra wear time out of my manicure? 

I will explain that I tried Bridge the Ridge without any topcoat and manged to get over 48 hours wear without any chipping. This is really good for me. Without any basecoat I will not get a full 24 hours out of a manicure. With a topcoat I was able to get more then 4 days out of my manicure which is great for me. I really struggle with manicures because I pick at things all the time. I tend to pick labels off of products, price tags, and so on. I can honestly say that I have discovered my go to basecoat. I have never been loyal to a base coat before but I can honestly say that this one has given me cause to become loyal to a basecoat. 

Bridge the Ride is available at Sally Beauty Supply for $5.99. 

What's In My Weekend Makeup Bag?

Welcome back to my happy little blog. Today we are going to discuss what's in my weekend travel bag. Since the weather has turn downright dreadful with temperatures near freezing and a winter mix falling from the sky. I decided it was best to stay in the city rather than drive the 20 miles back home in questionable weather conditions. So we are currently staying at my parent's house. We are actually sleeping in my childhood bedroom and sleeping in the bed (though the same mattress) that my father slept on as child. 

I decided to do a what's in my weekend makeup bag after my beauty friend Jackie from Five Two Certified did this post a few weeks ago while staying at her sister's. Now granted Jackie's a New York City girl and travels on trains, subways, taxis, etc. I'm just a simple Okie girl and drove myself here in my car. So I don't have worry about traveling light like she does. She is aces at traveling light. I am quite the opposite. I always pack too much stuff; so, I really tried to pare it down this time. 

Let's get the boring stuff out of the way first.

Basic Necessities 

Dove Body Wash  

HSI Professional Argan Oil Leave In Hair Treatment 

Ahava Mineral Hand Cream 

AmLactin Moisturizing Body Lotion

EOS Lip Balm 

Lady Speed Stick

Alcon Opti Free Replenish Contact Solution

and my contacts.

The HSI Treatment is from my Ipsy bag this month. The Ahava and AmLactin were both free samples. The deodorant was free with coupons. No shampoo or conditioner as I will use Mo's. I am not entirely certain why I call my Mom Mo but she calls me Jo; so, it works for us. 

Facial Skin Care

Clean and Clear Acne Control Moisturizer 

Clean and Clear Acne Control Cleanser 

Simple Revitalizing Eye Roll-on

Clean and Clear Fast Clearing Spot Treatment 

Garnier Moisture Rescue Refreshing Gel Cream

La Fresh Makeup Remover Wipes 

I seem to be having a stress related break out so I pulled out the Clean and Clear Acne Control set. The Clean and Clear trio was a prize I won from a CVS contest on Twitter. The wipes were from an Ipsy bag. I am trying to finish the last of the Garnier so it came along too. 

Makeup

CoverGirl Clump Crusher Extensions

Chella Eyebrow Color

Physician's Formula Nude Eyes Palette

Wet n Wild Drinking a Glass of Shine Palette

Revlon Colorstay Cream Eyeliner 

L'Oreal True Match Concealer Crayon

L'Oreal Age Perfect BB Cream Samples

Philosphy Highlighter (mirrored compact)

Revlon PhotoReady Powder

Physician's Formula Organic Wear Blush/Bronzer 

Brushes

This is where things start to get interesting. I have discovered this lovely pencil holder for packing some of my brushes to go. The cool thing about this pencil holder is that it becomes a standing 'cup' for your brushes when you are applying your makeup. The majority of the brushes are MAC from the Tartan Tale collection 3 years ago. There are also some Eco Tools and some ELF Studio Brushes as well. Having the opportunity to change this zip up pouch turn into a cup is very convenient. 

Nails

In A Hurry Air Dry Top Coat

Ridge the Ridge Filling Base Coat

Nailtini Polish in Caviar Cocktail

File/Buffer

I am in the process of a reviewing of the top and base coats. They are made by American Classics who also make Gelous. This is where I pack too much since I am just going to throw my bag in the car. Plus since I have a quiet weekend at my parent's house it is the perfect time to catch up on some blogging. 

Drugs

Initially, I wasn't going to post this but this is my reality. This is what every day and every night looks like for me. It's frustrating but this is what I must do in order to combat the side effects of my condition. 

Lastly, on to what I didn't pack. Although they did a great job of looking cute and trying to get packed. 

• Boyet is enjoying his new job. He will have to work Thanksgiving as they do an all you can eat banquet for $49.00 a plate. 

• I am going to dinner and small girl's night party for a friend's birthday. We are going to play Just Dance 2014 on the Xbox One. This should be interesting. 

• Beauty Crown has taken off well. We hope to continue growing it, ultimately we would like to see hundreds of bloggers participating. 

Wonderful Team Member Readership Award

The dearest Louise from Kinder Health and Beauty nominated me for the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award which I think is incredibly amazing. As blog authors, we need to build great relationships with other bloggers. After all, we can learn a lot from our fellow bloggers; we can all help each other to become better bloggers. As women, we need to feel the support of other women. Girls begin to attack each other's appearance and character at a young age. Some of spend the rest of our lives trying to overcome that. As bloggers we have an opportunity to embrace diversity and beauty in each other and to inspire that behavior in others as well. 

This award is a little different in the fact that this is an award for my readers rather than for me. I recognize that my readers are part of what makes my blog great. After all what's a blog without readers? Just words floating through cyberspace. There is an energy that only readers can bring to a blog. The relationship between a blogger and reader is a bit different from the typical writer and reader relationship. Whether you are the writer or the reader you aren't able to almost immediately connect. Whereas with a blog you are able to have almost real time chats with the author or reader. I like that I can connect with my readers and with other blog authors. I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of my regular readers that keep coming back for more of my particular brand of quirkiness. 


The Rules

1. The Nominee of the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award shall display the logo on her blog. 

2. The Nominee shall nominate 14 readers they appreciate over a period of 7 days (1 week) – this can be done at any rate during the week. It can be ALL on one day or a few on one day and a few on another day, etc.

3. The Nominee shall name his or her Wonderful Team Member Readership Award nominees in a post or in posts during the 7 day (1 week) period.

4. The Nominee shall make these rules, or amended rules keeping to the spirit of the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award, known to each reader s/he nominates.

5. The Nominee must finish this sentence and post: ”A Great reader is…”

A great reader is someone who enjoys reading my posts and feels connected to me through the words I write. 

I pass this award on to the following lovelies:

Liz from My Pretty Obsessions
Jackie from Five Two Certified
Lily from Beauty with Lily
Cella from Never Not Fabulous
Louise from Kinder Health and Beauty
Sissi from Beauty4Free2U
Shannel from A Little Over Thirty
Brittnee from A Beauty Product A Day
Glossy from Glossy Glam Blog
Pilar from P Loves Fashion
Chelsea from Tiger Love Beauty
Tania from Makeup Maggie
Renny from Sincerelly Renny
Sik from Sik Glam 

Beauty Crown Reveal

My fellow beauty bloggers, Lily from Beauty with Lily Liz from My Pretty Obsessions, Jackie from Five Two Certified, and I, Shalunya from Shalunya & Boyet, have a very exciting announcement.  We would like to introduce you to the Beauty Crown Awards. Beauty Crown is a collective yearly favorites event for Beauty Bloggers worldwide. Readers and bloggers alike always love monthly favorites; imagine the excitement of a collective yearly favorites. Have you ever typed monthly beauty favorites into the Google search bar looking for a few more blogs? Think about how fun and easy it would be to go from blog to blog reading yearly favorites non-stop if they were all linked up. Beauty Crown aims to link up as many bloggers as possible. 

Each week we will pick our favorites in the following categories and post our selections on our own blog. Week by week we will take you on a tour of all of our most loved products for 2013. 

Week 1 - Personal Care Products - Dec 2 - Dec 8, 2013

Week 2 - Facial Products - Dec 9 - Dec 15, 2013

Week 3 - Lip & Nail Products - Dec 16 - Dec 22, 2013

Week 4 - Eye & Misc Products - Dec 23 - Dec 29, 2013

Week 5 - Facial Care Products & Tools - Dec 30 - Jan 4, 2014

After posting your selections for Beauty Crown in Personal Care Products on your blog any time from December 2 to December 8, then you will add your blog post to the link up of other blog posts. This will allow our readers to surf from blog to blog enjoying all of the fabulous selections for Beauty Crown Awards. 

We would love to create a great movement and work together to give all of our blogs more exposure. If we work together we can create a commotion within the beauty blogging community. In order to begin building the excitement we will be hosting a Twitter Party, Monday November 25th at 2p EST. If you would like more information on the Twitter Party please click the 'invitation' below. 

Click on invitation above for more information. 

If you are a blogger, why not upgrade your selections from a mere yearly favorite to a Beauty Crown favorite? If you are a reader, we would love to have you come back and read our vast offering of blogs from around the world celebrating their Beauty Crown Awards. Together, we believe we can create a movement to show the world the best beauty has to offer. 

Twitter Party Information

Thank you so much for your interest in joining us for the #BeautyCrown Twitter Party. You might be wondering what a Twitter Party is and how to participate. We hope to give you a better understanding of what it is and what to do.

In short a Twitter Party is multiple people tweeting about a specific topic at a specific time. In our case we will be discussing Beauty Crown on November 25 at 1pm Central and 2pm Eastern. You participate by reading and sending tweets using #BeautyCrown. That's the super simple answer.

However, I would like to offer you an additional option since Twitter Parties can be fast paced which can leave you feeling like you're being left behind. We would like to introduce you to TweetDeck which is a great website to help you stay organized and in control during a Twitter Party. Actually it does far more than that. 

First thing you will need to do is to sign up for a TweetDeck account which is quick and simple. Once you get signed up and signed in, your screen will look similar to this.

While the standard setup is perfect for daily use, we can optimize the columns to better serve us during a Twitter Party. What you should do first is to cancel all of the columns except for the Interactions one by clicking on the sliders in the top right corner of the column. Then click remove. Once you have only the Interactions column remaining, you will add a new column by clicking the + symbol on the left side. Then click the search button. Type in #BEAUTYCROWN and then click add column located at the bottom. This will add a column that follows all posts containing the Beauty Crown hashtag. The third and final column is the host column. Again you will need to click the + symbol. Then click lists then click the blue create list button. You can title the list BeautyCrownHosts or even just Hosts. You will then want to add @_j4ckie_, @lilianaayala07, @itzlizzo and @shalunya. This will ensure that you don't miss any information being given by the hosts. The last and final thing you will want to do is to open the new tweet box in the top left corner which will extend the column in which you can write new tweets. Just remember to always include #BEAUTYCROWN to ensure that your tweets are being shown along with all the others. 

We sincerely hope you join us for the Twitter Party. Please come  excited about Beauty Crown and full of questions. We are looking forward to the Twitter Party as the official kickoff to Beauty Crown. If you have any questions feel free to comment below. 

It's Time for You to Get Gelous Too.

Welcome back to my sunny little blog. It's a ray of sunshine beaming through the beauty blogosphere. Too much? Ok, you're right. Anyway, welcome! Today I will be doing this easy, yet cute holiday manicure. Buy my favorite part of this post is that I will be hosting a giveaway of the products needed to create this manicure.

The highlight of this giveaway is Gelous Advanced Gel Nail Coat which you already know I love from my post Are You Gelous of My Mani?  Recently, I discovered that American Classics Treatments, the makers of Gelous, launched their Instagram account and they are anxious to build a following. Through my support of their Instagram account and my love of Gelous, I was offered the opportunity to try Bridge the Ridge Filling Basecoat and In a Hurry Air Dry Topcoat. My review will follow within the next few days. I began discussing with them the possibility of a giveaway for my readers honoring my beloved Gelous. American Classics Treatments generously donated the bottle of Gelous for this giveaway. In order to make this giveaway more festive since the holidays are upon us, I decided to purchase an another set of the polishes I used for this fun and easy holiday manicure to be given away along with Gelous. While Gelous was a donation from American Classics Treatments, the other polishes included in this giveaway I purchased with my own money.

Gelous, Sally Hansen Celeb City, Wet n Wild I Red a Good Book and Pure Ice Dazzle Me
+

I prefer to chill my polish for about 15 minutes prior to use. So I place Gelous in the fridge while I am getting my things ready. When I take Gelous out I place the next polish in, repeating this process until my manicure is complete.

For this holiday manicure, I started with clean and prepped nails. The first thing I do is to lightly buff the surface of my nails with a file. This helps give Gelous a textured surface to really grip onto.

After washing my hands I place a light coat of Gelous on all of my nails being sure to wrap around the tips. Simply, run the brush around the exposed tips of each nail. Next you will paint your middle finger, pointer and thumb red. Then paint your ring finger and pinkie silver.

Once your polish is dry paint a silver French tip on your pointer fingers and paint a red one on your pinkies. With the right brush this is not a difficult task. I highly recommend you purchase a cheap, small, flat paintbrush with bristles cut straight across. This will help you be able to create a neater line with your polish. It takes a bit of patience to get comfortable with it but trust me you can do it. Due to my neurological condition I frequently have a mild to moderate tremor in my hands. I can manage to paint an acceptable tip and, therefore, I believe you can too.

On the middle finger use the glitter polish all over. Alert! This is where we may have subtle differences in our manicure as my glitter polish isn't the same Pure Ice in Dazzle me. Mine is an L.A. Colors in Glitter Bomb and the glitter isn't as 'tinsel' shiny as the giveaway polish.

The next step is to use a piece of tape to create a straight vertical line on your ring finger. You will want to remove some of the sticky from the tape by placing your fingers to the tape a few times. Place the tape on the side of the nail that you would like to keep silver. Paint the remaining half of the nail red and remove the tape.

Once that has had an opportunity to dry you will want to place your jewels along the line. I placed a small dot of Gelous on the line and then placed the jewel on the Gelous. After all of this has had an opportunity to dry, add one final coat of Gelous over everything including the jewels.

This is super simple styling my manicure brings a lot of attention to my nails without being too difficult or time consuming. Kindly take a moment and visit American Classics Instagram and Facebook page. This giveaway is open to the residents of  the U.S.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enjoy American Classics Treatments' Instagram account and explore the other products in their amazing line.

Gelous Advanced Gel Nail Coat - My review can be found here
Bridge the Ridge Filling Basecoat - My review can be found here
In a Hurry Air Dry Topcoat - My review coming soon
Growth Spurt Nail Treatment
Manicure Extender Manicure Treatment
Yellow Stopper Topcoat

Confessions of a Shopaholic Tag

I was tagged by the beautiful, kind and good Renny of Sincerely Renny! Today November 17 (even though it's still the 16th in America) is a delightfully special day for her! Please stop by Sincerely Renny and give her a little love, leave her a little comment. You can tell her Shalunya sent you over. Renny you may not know this but appreciate your gentle nature, your sweet disposition and you overwhelming positive attitude! I love you for just being you because you are amazing just the way you are.

Picture taken from google

1. Would you consider yourself a shopaholic?
I would not consider myself a shopaholic as I am able to control my spending. Immigration is expensive and that is much more important than a new tube of lipstick.

2. How would you classify your style?

I don't have a style. Expect the unexpected as is evidenced in my previous post as I am wearing a rainbow tutu. My closet contains combat boots to platform heels, cocktail dresses to sweatpants. It also contains no designer labels and plenty of unique one of kind items as I've been known to repurpose thrift store finds. 

3. What store can you not leave without buying at least one thing?

Fashion-wise any of them as I am not really a clothes horse. Otherwise it would be CVS as I love a new drugstore beauty item.

4. Where do you find the best deals?
CVS! I once bought 2 Revlon Superlustrous lipsticks and 1 Revlon Superlustrous lipgloss for $3.19! Wanna know how? Click here.

5. Do you have a go to shopping outfit?

No I don't, as my closet is a veritable hodge podge of mayhemary. 

6. What is your guilty pleasure? (not including beauty products)

Blogging! I enjoy blogging and have for years. I will continue blog for years to come. 

7. What is one staple clothing piece that you can't live without?

A long black dress coat. They are timeless and you can always add bold scarves and boots. 

8. What is a trend you hope never goes out of style?

Smiling at friends and strangers. Seriously the best accessory anyone can sport is a smile. It is the perfect finishing touch to any ensemble. 

9. What is a trend that you loved that passed away too quickly?

Women acting like ladies. No, I don't expect us all to cook dinner in heels and pearls but there is something to be said for politeness, snail mail greeting cards, the tv off at dinnertime and extending a proper thank you. 

10. Who is your fashion icon?

I really didn't know what pleased me. I sort of had to figure all that out. ~Natalie Wood. 

Versatile Blogger Award

The Versatile Blogger Award is to honor those bloggers who bring something special to your life whether every day or only now and then. In case you didn't know the Versatile Blogger Award actually has it's own blog! I was awarded this amazing award from the lovely Neya from Neya V Beauty Talk who is an amazing blogger, YouTuber and even more fantastic woman. Kindly go show her blog and her YouTube channel some love. Neya, thank you so much for the award I greatly appreciate it.

Way back in July 2010 I was previously awarded the Versatile Blogger Award and my previous Versatile Blogger Award can be found here. My blog has changed dramatically since then and I am pleased to still be blogging more than 3 years later. I guess that truly does make me a versatile blogger.

The Rules, per the Versatile Blogger Award website, are short and simple

If you are nominated, you've been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award

• Thank the person who gave you this award. That's common courtesy.
• Include a link to their blog. That's also common courtesy.
• Next select 15 blogs/bloggers that you've recently discovered or follow regularly. 
• Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award - you might include a link to the site.
• Finally, tell 7 things about yourself. 

So on with the fun! If you haven't figured it out by now I'm a visual girl so I love posting pictures. 

1. My childhood home is my North Star. It's true North on my compass and I still use it to recharge my battery often (or maybe my laptop battery as that's where I am now!) My parents moved into their starter home in September 1970 when I was 14 months old and they still live there today. And they do a pretty awesome Christmas lights display. 

2. I've been taken to secret rooms in Korea to buy knock off purses. The shop owner locked her shop; then took me to the adjoining furniture store. We went out the back door of the furniture shop which she locked behind us. Then she led us into the tiny secret purse room and she locked that door behind us too. I bought a gorgeous Louis Vuitton for around $40. 

3. I enjoy eating potatoes, raw. Always have and always will.

4. The last text I sent to my son was random song lyrics. "And Katie had a baby, so I guess Tom's straight."  Please feel free to leave your song and artist guesses in the common box below. 

5. I began cataloging my beauty collection in 2010 before I began blogging about it. 

6. I grew up strict Southern Baptist and almost didn't get to go to my senior prom. I threatened to run away from home just to go. I told my parents that they would look silly calling the police to tell them their daughter had run away but they could find her at the prom. 

7. I handmade a rainbow tutu and I have worn this tutu to a gay pride event. Yes I am shameless. No I am not gay, nor is anyone in my family. I have several friends that are I love all of them dearly. It is actually a white tutu with rainbow tips. My friend's tutu is black with rainbow streaks which I made as well. 

I hope you enjoyed hearing a little more of the craziness that is my life. I certainly have lived a crazy, wonderful, beautiful life and there's lots more to come. I sincerely hope that all of you are living life to the fullest as you never know what tomorrow will bring. 

I almost forgot the best part! Nominating others!
Sik Glam
Luna Solara
Mr Bears Little Room
A Beauty Product A Day
Tiger Love Beauty
Saffy Style
A Cute Little Beauty Blog
Kinder Health and Beauty
A Little Over Thirty
Makeup Maggie
Never Not Glamorous
Five Two Certified
Glossy Glam
Mystery Cloud
A Bit of Bubbly
In My Prime Time

Ipsy, Is It Worth It? November 2013

Welcome back to my blog where today we are discussing November's Ipsy bag. If you aren't aware Ipsy is a monthly subscription service priced at $10 per month. However, the value is always more than $10. The theme of this month's Ipsy bag is Glam It Up which is well suited to the upcoming party season. 

The first product is the Pixi Bronzer in Subtly Suntouched which is a great shade for my seriously fair complexion. It's great for giving my entire face a little color but it's a bit to shimmery for a contour. As you can clearly see this color is not orange at all and do not look muddy. Great bronzer and generous 3.2g size. The full 10.21g size sells for $18.00 and comes with a kabuki brush. I will guestimate a value of $5.00 since it did not come with a kabuki. 

Pixi Subtly Suntouched Top with Flash; Bottom without

Next is the full size Starlooks Gem Eye Pencil in Amethyst. It is such an amazing shimmery purple which is simply stunning. This gorgeous pencil is valued at $14.00

 HSI Professional Argan Oil Leave In Hair Treatment makes your hair silky and shiny. It also is a great thermal protector. A 2 oz. bottle sells for $29.99 making this 5 ml size $2.54.

Caviar Cocktail by Nailtini is a stunning shimmery gunmetal grey perfect for pairing with the seasons rich jewel tones. I am looking forward to this color gracing my nails. This full size product is valued at $13.00

Next up is probably the most disappointing product of the bunch em Lipstick in Cupcake Pink. Let me clarify, the lipstick itself feels great on the lips. It's creamy and smooth; yet, doesn't feel to heavy. The problem is that the pigmentation isn't all that great. It took 7-8 swipes to get the swatch on the left. Poor pigmentation is probably for the best as this color is not well suited to me. Keep in mind that I have an extremely fair complexion and this color is much to light for me. I am hoping to be able to wear it over a deeper lipstick since it does have a great shine to it. This full size item retails for $16.50 

The sixth and final item is the Be a Bombshell Lip Crayon in Shameless is a deep berry shimmer which is absolutely perfect for fall and winter. this formula is creamy and slightly sheer but can easily be built up to a beautiful opaque color in a couple of swipes. This full size lip crayon sells for $14.00. 

The grand total of this month's Ipsy bag is $65.04! Completely amazing for a $10 subscription. Ipsy you knocked it out of the ball park this month!! Thanks for an amazing bag!