I got my NYX haul in and I know the big anniversary sale ends tonight, but just in case it might help (or for future reference), I thought I would post my swatches.

My haul:
- lime glitter and last vegas nailpolishes
- eye and lip makeup remover
- felt tip liner
- jumbo shadow pencil in yellow
- cream blushes in red cheeks, hot pink, and rose petal
- mosaic powder blushes in rosey and dare
- single shadows in sunrise chic, irises, and luxor
- round lipsticks in jupiter, fusion, and power


My new blushes!


Rouge Cream Blush swatches
Rose Petal is very pretty. Looks tannish rose in the pan, but pink on skin.


My Mosaic Powders (including my old ones, highlighter and paradise)


Highlighter is a must-have for me, and isn't Dare lovely?


Swatches of Single Eyeshadows in Chic, Sunrise, Irises, and Luxor
(this is with no base! sooo pigmented!)


ALL of the Round Lipsticks I own: Jupiter, Power, Fusion, Louisiana, Doll, Indian Pink, Rea, Circe, Eros, and Snow White


Jupiter is really pretty on! Circe is good for a nude lip and Snow White is my HG (holy grail) red lipstick. It's the perfect shade for me.


And this is just me and my NYX goodies! HEAVEN!!



I have sooo much more that I want to post but I am still fighting this cough and life has been throwing me a quite few curve balls lately. I'd appreciate any prayers and words of encouragement you guys have. :)

Also, let me know in the comments what you guys picked up from the sale! I'd love to hear about your hauls and your favorite NYX stuff!

UPDATE: I just made a new, Spring-time layout update for the blog. Let me know what you think. :)

I received an e-mail tonight about prom makeup and I think the response would help a lot of you girls so I decided to post it. I hope all of you have a fabulous prom and feel beautiful all night!


*****

Hi Jen!
My friend and I are in a bind. We started making our appointments to get our makeup done too late so we're stuck with doing our own for prom this Saturday. We're both Korean so we feel like you'd know better than some random makeup consultants on how to do our makeup for prom. Do you have any recommendations? (By the way her dress is black and pink and mine is shades of blue.)
Thank you so much!!!!
Stephanie

*****

Hi Stephanie!

Your makeup for prom can either go 3 ways, color-wise. Matching your dress (my fav), neutral (brown or black smokey or cream vintagey), or contrasting. Since you are doing this for prom, I think you should go all-out with the eye makeup. Not necessarily heavy, but black liquid liner and false lashes are always pretty.

I think for hers, a black and pink smokey look would look really cute.
Similar to my valentine's day look.



For yours, I actually think a silver smokey eye would be super hot with a blue dress! The shadow from this look, but with pink or red lips instead of coral. Blue is a cool color so you want to stick with cooler shades.



Or like this



Here is a tutorial for a colored smokey eye. This can translate to any color you want.



Since you will be taking lots of pics, stay away from using shadows with glitter. Matte or satin finish is fine. Oh, and using a lighter concealer under your eyes and the tops of your cheekbones will make you look bright and healthy.

If you want a neutral brown look, here is my "wedding makeup" look.




Hope this helps! I hope you have lots of fun at prom. :)
Jen

A couple more words of advice, PRACTICE your final look before the actual day! You want to know what to expect when it is important and a trial run will help. For prom night, you can bring your lipgloss or blotting sheets with you but travel light because you aren't going to want to carry it around all night. Also, BE GOOD. You want this to be a day you will remember, not one you can't remember and puke at and have to suffer with a hangover the next day. (Haha! But I'm serious! You want to look sexy and fresh in those photos, right? :)

If any of you girls do follow my tutorials please let me know. I'd love to see your pics of the fun night. Good luck and have a fabulous time!

As promised, here is Part II of my recent nails. This post is actually going to be wholly about this amazing magnetic polish I had Polish Pixie get for me. Anyone remember those really cool Lancome Le Magnetique nailpolishes that made a really cool star pattern on your nail?

For those who don't remember, here is a refresher. Click image for All Lacquered Up's post on Lancome Le Magnetique - Bordeaux Esmee. Posted July, 2007.



Then, Lancome released a deep blue color last winter ONLY IN THE UK. What the...aksjlkasjflkajs?! Here is a photo. Click image for The Polish Addict's review, posted Feb 2009.



This comes to my story. After some research I found out that L'Oréal, the company that owns Lancome, decided to release some magnetic polishes in a few European countries (and not the US or UK even T.T) last Fall at DRUGSTORES to boot, called L'Oréal Star Polish. When I found out, I started asking every European friend I had.


Luckily, Inge from Polish Pixie (from whom I won the Hello Kitty fauxnad plate) happens to live in Denmark and willingly did a custom purchase for me (while also buying all of the remaining Star Magnet polishes in that store). A few colors were already sold out and apparently the store was told to ship the polishes back! I don't understand why it was only a limited edition release, but I am so happy I got my hands on 2 of them.

I've only worn Purple so far, but isn't it just incredible? I had trouble concentrating on anything because I was so distracted by my nails all the time. The dimension of these in sunlight is out of this world. Here are my pics.

The two polish bottles, Purple and Prune. They look more like a deep raspberry and plum color to me and they are quite small.


Here is the plastic cap-ring that has a circular magnet in it. There is a little ledge that the tip of your nail rests against to keep the magnet in place. The trick is to keep it steady for about 20 seconds and get close to, but not touch, the magnet.


Here is the result. Ring finger is 1 coat to show the polish plain, which is rather matte. Everything else is 1 plain coat + 1 magnetized coat.


Here is the completed hand with Seche Vite top coat. Look at this up-close because it is truly gorgeous and glowy. It reminds me of bowling balls. So cool!



Ahhh, I am such a sucker for anything shiny, sparkly, and unusual. This polish really hits the spot! If any of you can get your hands on these I recommend that you do. If any of you Europeans (Denmark? Finland? I think Singapore maybe got it? Anyone?) can find these in magnetic silver, magnetic grey, or red, PLEASE let me know as I'd love to have more. :)

I have chosen the winners of the Revlon nails giveaway. Congratulations to Lulu and Caroline :]! I hope you enjoy these! For everyone else who missed out this time, no worries, I have lots of fun giveaways coming up very soon.

I wanted to catch up on a few nail-related items. I have a couple of recent konadicures and nail swatches, my Revlon nails removal experience that I've had lately, and a very cool special magnetic polish from Europe, but it's not all going to fit in one post. So part I today and part II tomorrow. :) Anyway, on with the swatches.

Zoya Sienna is an incredible color. It is SUCH a fantastic spring color and it actually looks good against my skintone! Shock of shocks, I can wear orange! It looks chunky here, but it's just the flecks. It's really smooth, especially with a top coat.


I jazzed it up with a little houndstooth konad pattern in gold. Two pics, cause it's that good.



Here is Essie Chastity. This is a barbie pink cream with a very, very slight lavendar tone that wasn't picked up in the photos. I liked this color plain best.


This was a failed Konadicure, methinks, because it had too much going on. A little too extreme-baby-cutesy-frosty with OPI Pricess Rule! on top to be flattering on my skin.


This is a new favorite polish for me, OPI Hey! Get in Lime! It's a really pretty light green cream polish that has a bit of a jelly finish alone. Formula isn't that great but what pastel cream polish is? Results are worth it. And I LOVED this lace pattern Konad over it. Very vintage-classy!




I had originally tried a dark purple, OPI Who Are You Wearing?, as the dark color but it just wasn't stamping well. If you are looking for a cheap black that is good for Konad, I recommend Rimmel 399 Black Satin. This was a tough, delicate pattern to pick up and it got the job done.

As for the Revlon artificial nails removal, I can't say it was a pleasant experience. You are supposed to soak them in acetone and the nails "melt" away, but I realized it wasn't so easy. I only had drugstore-type Cutex acetone remover (vs beauty salon pure acetone) and it took about an hour to completely remove! Granted, it came up much easier than real acrylic nails, but my finger pads were rather pruney and numb by the end. Make sure you have a towel handy to cover your hands and the small bowl you soak in so the fumes don't make you crazy.

Here is a photo during the process.


AHHH! GROSSS! Nails from the crypt!

Thankfully, the condition of my nails underneath seemed good. I clipped them down again and filed off any remaining plastic bits with a glass file without any more chips than usual.

Like I mentioned before, more nail goodness to come tomorrow!