Milani New Mascara & Eye Liner Releases for 2013: Review

Good morning! I have a couple of new eye products from Milani to review for you guys today. First is the Grandissimo Lashes mascara, which is a new voluminous mascara.

These are my bare lashes on the left and wearing the Grandissimo mascara on the right. I'm very impressed with this mascara! It applies very evenly and doesn't clump or smudge.

I also received some eye liners to try out as well. The four swatches on the left are the Liquid Eye Liquid-Like eye liners (here and here) and the two are the right are of the Eye Tech Bold liner. The Liquid-Like liners are sooooo smooth and creamy! From left to right the colors are: Perfect Purple, Brown, Graphite, and Black. The Eye Tech liner is a little too thick for my liking, but it works pretty well. You need at least two swipes to get a solid black line, but if you like your liner thick, this will surely be a great product for you.

These new products are available online on Milani's website and in drugstores nation wide. Are there any of these that you are thinking of picking up? The Liquid-Like liners will sure be getting a lot of use from me!

Products provided for review

KQC Flat Iron Review from Flat Iron Experts

Hello everyone! I have something a bit different for you all today: a hair product review! I received the KQC X-Heat Tourmaline ceramic flat iron from Flat Iron Experts to test out and review for you guys and spoiler alert: I love it! The flat iron heats up to 410 degrees Fahrenheit, so it works fast! As you can tell by my "before" photos below, my hair has a slightly wavy texture to it when I let it air dry or slightly blow dry it.

And here are my after pictures! It didn't take me more than five minutes to straighten my hair as you can see below. All you need is one swift motion down each piece of hair for you to get a sleek, straight style. My flat iron also came with a heat protecting spray and a flat iron holder that you can use to hold your hot iron instead of setting it on a counter. I don't typically use a heat protector when I style my hair, but I will definitely be using this spray from now on. The holder comes with suction cups on the bottom so you can stick it to your counter top and it'll stay put.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this flat iron if you are searching for a good one! I've tried quite a few in the past couple of years and this one beats them all, hands down! It is a little pricey as far as styling tools go (to me anyway) but it seems like a solid piece of equipment that will last a long time. Do you straighten your hair often or do you prefer to rock your natural texture?

Products provided for review

OPI 'Oz: The Great and Powerful' Collection Swatches/Review

Hey everyone! So sorry that this post is so late today; I had my engagement party on Saturday night and it was a really busy weekend! I have the new OPI soft shades collection to show you today. This collection is being released in conjunction with the new Oz movie staring James Franco coming out on March 8th.

Don't Burst My Bubble is a sheer white-ish pink. I used three coats here. I love this one, it's so fresh and clean and I love the way it looks on my nails. All of the sheers here applied very well with minimal streaking.

Which is Witch? is definitely the best glitter topper in this collection. It consists of a mix of holographic glitter shapes, including hexes and teeny tiny bars. This is one coat over Don't Burst My Bubble.

Glints of Glinda is a beige/peach sheer shade. I used three coats for the opacity you see below.

I unfortunately don't have much good to say about When Monkeys Fly. This is a glitter topper with large gold hexes and smaller silver holographic glitter. This is one coat over Glints of Glinda. The glitter in my bottle had started sinking in the bottle by the time it got to me; as a result of this, I had a hard time getting the large gold glitter out of the bottle even after I let it sit upside down so the glitter would re-suspend. In addition to that, the gold hex glitters curl in a taco form, making them stick out from the nail if you don't make sure the taco faces down. I suppose this could be remedied with additional coats of top coat, but I personally don't think that should be necessary. I think it's great that OPI is trying to make some awesome glitter toppers, but I feel that this one needed a bit more work.

I Theodora You is a lovely shade of baby pink. I used three coats here and as you can see, it's a bit more opaque than the other two.

Lights of Emerald City is another glitter heavy topper that has square matte white glitter and square iridescent glitter. This is one coat over I Theodora You.

What Wizardry Is This? is a new Liquid Sand shade for the Oz collection. This isn't my favorite Liquid Sand color, but it is gorgeous with top coat! This was two coats left to dry to a matte finish.

This is two coats of What Wizardry Is This? with one coat of top coat. The top coat really makes this polish stunning!

So what do you think of this collection? I know a lot of people were disappointed that the Oz collection was not more bold and colorful, but I can't help but love the soft, clean sheers. You should be able to find these in stores and salons now, but note that OPI has increased their prices to $9.

Products provided for review

China Glaze Glitz-Bitz 'n' Pieces Collection Swatches/Review

Hello! I know there are probably a lot of you who haven't heard much about this collection; I didn't even know about them under they showed up at my door. I wasn't sure what to expect of them from just looking at the bottles, but they are so awesome on the nail! All the polishes are the same composition, black with another color glitter in a clear base, and have the same formula. They needed to be dabbed a little bit, but one coat was all I needed for great coverage. 

Graffiti Glitter is emerald green and black glitter. I layered it over China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On.

Glitz 'n' Pieces is a mixture of silver and black glitter. I layered this one over China Glaze Fade Into Hue.

Scattered & Tattered is red and black glitter, although the red photographed slightly pink. It's layered over ChG Tart-y for the Party.

Mosaic Madness is royal blue glitter with black layered over ChG Snap My Dragon.

Bling It On has blue-toned purple glitter with black glitter. This is layered over ChG Mimosas Before Manis.

Razzle Me, Dazzle Me has pale pink and black glitter. I layered this one over ChG Pink-ie Promise. This is one of my favorite combos!

This collection was scheduled for release February 2013, so it should be in stores such as Sally Beauty and Ulta now. I'm sure that you could also find it through online retailers. What do you think of this collection?

Products provided for review

Zoya PixieDust Swatches/Review & Giveaway!

Hey guys! I finally have swatches of the Zoya PixieDust polishes to share with you! If you aren't familiar with these, they are textured matte polishes but they are sparkly too. These are definitely something different and while I'm not completely crazy about them, I know there are a lot of you out there who will love them!

Godiva is a sandy beige color that needed three coats for opacity. This would be perfect for some beach nail art *wink wink*

Dahlia is a black with silver sparkle. I needed two coats.

London is a smokey gray shade that needed three coats.

Nyx is a lovely shade of periwinkle and needed three coats.

Vespa is a fresh, minty shade. It reminds me of those sugary spearmint candies! Three coats here as well.

Here's a close up shot of Vespa so you can get an idea of how textured these are.

 
Chyna is the final shade in this collection, a deep red sparkler. This one needed two coats.

Here is Chyna with top coat. If you decide to wear these shiny, make sure you use at least two coats of top coat. I did one for the photo and as you can see, the polish already started eating the top coat on my pinky and ring finger within a few minutes of applying it.

So overall, I think these are a great representation of the texture trend. They are much more sparkly than I was able to capture on camera; you truly have to see them in person to appreciate them. I'm still not personally 100% on the texture train, but I would love to wear these are an accent with a shiny mani! Are you guys into these polishes? How would you like to win some? Enter below and five of you will each win a PixieDust polish of your very own!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Products provided for review

Disney Princess Nail Art Series: Rapunzel

I have more Disney Princess nail art today! Yay!! :) Today's princess is Rapunzel from the movie Tangled. I'm not picking these princesses in any particular order, I'm just going with which ones inspire me at the time and Tangled has become one of my favorite movies as of late!

I started out with three coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz on my pinky, middle, and index nails. I stamped those with Zoya Ziv to represent Rapunzel's hair. On my thumb, I painted Zoya Mira and then stamped a swirly design with Zoya Suri and painted the sun symbol with acrylic paint.

On my ring nail, I decided to recreate the front of Rapunzel's dress, starting with Essie Nice is Nice as the light purple. I stamped over that with Zoya Julie for the subtle flower pattern of her dress, then painted China Glaze Tart-y for the Party for the middle part. Once that was all dry, I very carefully dotted some eyelets and painted the ribbon of the corset with Zoya Kennedy.

Have you seen Tangled? Did I nail it? No pun intended! :P

Some Random KBShimmer Swatches/Review

Happy Friday all! I've got a couple of random KBShimmer swatches for you guys today, starting with Clown Puke, a glitter top coat with very carnival-like colors. I layered one coat here over Rescue Beauty Lounge Coral.

Berry Patch is a lovely, creamy light purple/pink with magenta, purple, and silver glitter. This is three coats of it by itself.

Lilac Dreams is a beautiful purple polish that shift colors depending on the light. This is three coats of it alone, but I bet this one would look amazing over a dark purple.

Band Geek is the last shade I have for today and it's probably one of the most unique. It has gold, silver, and copper glitter suspended in a deep brown jelly base. This is three coats.

KBShimmer polishes retail for $8.75 and can be purchased on the KBShimmer website. Do yourself a favor and go buy one or two! ;)

Products provided for review