april hauls

 

hi guys! here's this month's damages... ~Lin-chan ^.~

ps, my ipsy bag got lost in the mail, so i sent them an email and i'm waiting for the replacement to arrive.

rimmel liner, master hi-lite in nude, copper chic quad, physician's formula natural nudes (top half, bottom half, mixed)

• target: garnier nourishing cleansing oil, sonia kashuk eye makeup remover
• ulta: maybelline master hi-light in nude, baby lips in blush burst, it's a 10 miracle leave-in plus keratin (free after $20 purchase!)
• omg, after using the it's a 10, i think i've been converted. my hair feels very soft and healthy after using this.
• sephora: bottoms up beauty spatula -- i still haven't cracked open the beauty spoon, but i like the design and size of this one. we'll have to see.
• walmart/cvs/walgreens:
• fuse gelnamel polish kit in sonic blue-m (see notd post, addendum post)
• Maybelline the rocket waterproof mascara--out of the gazillion mascaras that i have lying in wait, i don't have a waterproof one.. what?! so i bought one for our trip next month
• Physicians formula custom nudes in natural nudes--omg this is so pretteh. by recommendation of hollieeatslipstick
• Rimmel London kohl pencil in black -- this is a great and inexpensive waterline pencil--it stays put! ..but not so much as a lash liner because it fades and migrates.
• Venus travel razor---gahhh! chibi kawaiiii! super excited that venus razor handles can hold any of the venus replacement blades. a long time ago, my mom got me a bunch of refills and i still have a bunch, unopened. i'm not totally sure why they put a giant photo of the razor on the packaging though, it's stupid looking and the actual razor looks much better.

sephora 15% off: dome z palette (z palette review)
shoplately*/daisygem: silver chunky chain necklace, silver arrow midi ring

jennifer's nude, eva's nude, brazilian tan, ipanema beach; comfort zone palette (left side, right side)

cvs/walmart/walgreens:

• loreal lipsticks in jennifer's and eva's nude
• revlon lipsticks in brazilian tan, ipanema beach
• rimmel fix and perfect primer
• lumine waterproof eye makeup remover
• wet n wild comfort zone palette
• hard candy sculpting trio in 3x a lady (swatched below, another hollieeatslipstick recommendation)

elf concealer, fit me concealer, chestnut taupe, revlon honey bare lipstick, enchanting apricot, ud liner, jesses girl liner

• ulta 20% off: seche precious (notd) & urban decay ink for eyes in perversion
• target: sonia kashuk brush cleanser, up&up brushes (round foundation, eye brush set)
• bbb: maybelline master glaze blush stick in enchanting apricot, fit me concealer in 10 light
• walmart: fuse gelnamel polish in polar bare (notd), ecotools dual-ended eye brush set
• k-mart: wet n wild sea ya soon (notd), elf cover everything concealer in light, clarifying pressed powder in ivory, rimmel eyeshadow paint in chestnut taupe

dim light, incandescent light, radiant light

sephora.com: hourglass ambient lighting palette -- omg i was so excited when i heard these were going back on sale. before, they were limited edition, but from what i hear, i think they're permanent now..? or at least they're re-promoting them..because i gots one.

3x a lady, 3rd wheel, 3x a charm, 3 strikes

• gilt.com*: skylark by elle & blair memoir fragrance set. i'm a fan of #2, 1 & 3 seem like "grandma scents" to me...or it's just what my grandmothers would wear...i'm not sure.
• groupon: dermstore lip quench duo (only one is pictured up there..), jesse's girl eyeliner pen duo (swatched up above)--you guys don't understand, everywhere near me that sells jesse's girl does not carry the liquid liner. i don't know why. i have been wanting to try this for like three years now, and two for like $9 was a deal!
• walmart: hard candy sculpting trios in 3rd wheel (top), 3x a charm (right), 3 strikes (left); milani brow gel, brow wax, invisible lip liner; revlon lipstick in honey bare (swatched up above)

dream pure bb, vanilla cream pie, iced latte (swatched dry), turn on the teal; natural nudes & smoky nudes (swatched dry)

today's haul:

• walmart: maybelline dream pure bb cream with salicylic acid--woohoo!--in light sheer tint, loreal infallible shadow in iced latte
• cvs: cover girl katy perry shadow quads in natural nudes & smoky nudes--in reality these could probably be passed on; maybelline master drama chromatic liner in turn on the teal--this liner, omg is gorgeous. i love it.

notd: fuse gelnamel in polar bare

post has been updated.

hi guys! today i've got fuse polar bare for ya! i bought this polish because of the rotten luck i got with the sonic blue-m polish (see my review here) and i wanted to see if all of them suck or if it was just the blue one or what was going on. this polish is a really pretty pale or pastel pink with fine gold and silver glitter particles. i painted my ring fingers with one coat, and two coats on the rest. but i think that i like 1 coat better than two, because it's sheer and more natural looking. three coats might be opaque but i'm not patient enough to try it. ^_^ also, if you do purchase this and decide to only use one coat, make sure it's even before curing it. you don't want any streaks! anyway, i noticed there weren't many swatches of this polish online, so enjoy! ~Lin-chan ^.~

update:

so this polish probably got about the same wear as the sonic blue-m. pretty annoying. but i think it's a 2-coat thing. both of my ring fingers still looked pretty good when i went to remove them. the only problem was the polish didn't want to remove from those two nails as nicely as the ones that had two coats. i actually had to bust out a file and file the polish off my nails, even after soaking them for 15 minutes (i recently bought onyx professional soak off for gel & shellac). overall, i liked the one coat experience with this polish but i'm still reluctant about this line of polishes.

update: fuse gelnamel polish in sonic blue-m

hi guys! so here we are, making an addendum to my previous fuse gelnamel sonic blue-m post.

i previously mentioned how i really enjoyed how it was a 1-2 coats and go type process, with a small, one-finger lamp to help prevent polish from pooling on the edges. it's also a self-leveling polish, given that you allow enough time for it to do so, before you cure it under the lamp.

now onto the ugly: this is about 30 hours after my first application. (my other hand was ok still.)

ok. ok, so i decided to soak my thumb, pointer, and middle to reapply the polish.

removing this polish is pretty annoying. you need to ensure that (if you use the foil method) your cotton balls are thoroughly soaked with acetone and that you wait 10 minutes minimum before attempting to scrape it off. and don't expect the little baby orange stick provided in the kit will do you any good. the tip bent and kind of splintered off after a few tries. luckily i have a metal cuticle pusher, but still. this polish does not remove like most gel or shellac manicures. gel and shellac have cracks for the acetone to sink into and break the polish apart. this polish just kind of lifts from the nail and curls along the edges. but sometimes, even after the 10 minutes of the foil method, there's still patches that are attached. another issue i had with removal is that sometimes along the sides of the nail where it meets your skin, there are remnants that will not budge or remove completely. ugh.

and so i proceeded to paint the three aforementioned fingers. and two days later, this happened, along with a few other fingers on my other hand. really. really?!

now, i didn't take pictures round two with this polish just because i didn't think it was necessary. but basically, i had the same experience. within about two days of doing them, they were already starting to chip and it was still annoying to remove them. so i applied a dark polish on top (see post here) to avoid awkward blue edges sitting amid a light colored polish (see another notd post here).

overall, i don't think that this polish is all that great, considering the amount of time and effort it takes to paint and remove them, and their lasting power is awful. now, i have purchased another polish from this line to see if just this blue one is faulty or not, but we'll have to see about it later. ~Lin-chan ^.~

notd/first impressions: fuse gelnamel kit with sonic blue-m

update: i have made an addendum to this post, which you can view here.

hi guys! so on a recent cvs trip, i ended up walking in with like $5.50 in extra bucks, then made a purchase and got an additional $5. so i decided to spend it on a fuse gelnamel kit, which retails for $25. BUT cvs has it on sale for $20 until mid-april-ish (i think it said). so i got it for ~$11! granted, they only had 3 kits to choose from and had almost every color as singles (which are also on sale for $7ish instead of $10 until mid april-ish)..and they had a larger bottle of the fuse cleanser (i didn't pay attention if it's on sale as well or not), but they had the blue kit so what the heck!

this kit includes a usb-outlet plug, a usb mini cable, the "lamp" unit (which the top can be removed and be turned around to do your toes!), a mini cuticle pusher/orange stick, mini emory board/buffer, some lint-free wipes, and their cleanser (which smells like rubbing alcohol to me..but whatever..), and you pick up whichever box contains the polish color you want.

instructions (see instructions on fuse website): push cuticles back and buff nails. apply cleanser to a lint-free wipe and wipe down nails. do one thin coat of polish on each nail, one at a time. place your finger into the lamp and press the button. the lamp will turn off after 30 seconds. do not cleanse between coats, and cleanse your nail before moving to the next.

overall, the process took me about an hour to do both hands, with two coats on each nail. one coat looked almost like those gelly polishes..if you know what i mean. and i want it opaque. the instruction booklet is pretty good, it gives you the short and sweet version of how to and why you must follow the directions. it also includes some tips and tricks.

the polish itself doesn't apply too bad. but in the bottle, it's kinda gloopy. as you pull the brush out and wipe it along the side, it creates bubbles in the bottle's neck easily. which is kinda annoying because you're trying to remove excess polish from the brush..not add to it.

compared to the coture gel nail kit i received, this process was much easier and nicer since you're not using a full-sized lamp. with the "salon-size" lamp, since you do your whole hand at once and stick it in there, you have to have your hand flat in the lamp. but your thumbs don't sit flat like the rest of your fingers. because of this, polish tends to pool on the edges of your thumb nails while it's taking 90 seconds to cure. with the fuse kit, since only one finger can fit under the lamp at a time, there's no pooling issues--assuming you applied a thin coat and removed the excess polish before using the lamp.

i approve. i'll have to update this post later to let you know if/when it starts chipping. ~Lin-chan ^.~

also used: dappen dish with acetone, mua F3 brush -- both for clean-up before using the lamp