Little Black Bag

I keep meaning to share this product, but I always forget to.  I get too caught up on nail polish!  haha.  I recently heard of a service called Little Black Bag.  This is a subscription service for accessories.  It is a little pricier at $49.99 a month, but you get 3-4 accessories and its worth at least $100.  You can choose 1 item, and then they select 2-3 more items to put in your bag.  There are designers such as Kenneth Jay Lane, BCBG, Betsey Johnson, Steve Madden....well known names, with Purses, jewlery, sunglasses....that type of thing.  They also have cosmetics (Cargo) and nail polish (Butter London) available.  You do have an option to skip a month if you do not have the $50 for that month in your budget, which is a nice option.

The thing that makes this program unique is that you can actually see everything you are going to recieve, and then you get the opportunity to trade them for things you may like instead.  So for my initial pacakage I was going to recieve a sequin crossbody bag that I had selected, an ipad cover and a bangle bracelet.  After doing some trades this is what I ended up with:

I got the Olivia + Joy - Chatter Box Flap Purse ($70), R&Em - Nylon iPad Case ($30) and 'ZAD - Bow Stretch Ring ($15).  Everything is of great quality and items I liked and would actually use.  The ring is a little hard to see so here is a better picture:

So far I have liked this program (Granted I have only done 1 box).  If you are interested you can use think link for my referral, which is always appreciated: http://lbb.ag/12Nu.  Of course you can also go to http://www.littleblackbag.com/ and check it out and sign up that way as well. 

Now, to give a little polish news here is a look I was using last week.  I changed it before I could get it posted but it looked so pretty that I had to share it, haha!

Feels like spring!

I have my sandels on and my bright pink.....today I feel sunny and relaxed!  Could be the fact that I had yesterday off work and tomorrow is the weekend!  :-)

I wanted a bright email color for today, so I went with a newer Zoya I havent tied yet.  Sadly, the sticker had fallen off the bottom so I am not totally sure what it is!  I think its Phoebe, but not 100% sure about that.  I love the color, but while I love a matte finish it tends to chip so fast.  Is it worth it?  Hmmm, yeah, its worth it.  ;-)

Also, today my sephora order came in.  I was so excited to see Ciate is available so I was strong and only ordered 1 polish.  This is Superficial.  I didnt have a top coat in my purse but even without it, and only 1 coat it goes on so nicely.  I love it! 

Ciate is at Sephora.com!

Its possible that I am late to know this, but Ciate is at sephora.com now!  I have only had it at a salon I used to go to......I would pick their colors for manicures so I dont own any of them, but I loved their polish!  I just ordered one from sephora.  My store does not have a big polish selection so I have not seen these there. 

This is Superficial.  Once I get it in  I will do some swatches.  Since I just spent $20 at the Butter London site for Lillibet's Jubilee, I thought I should only buy 1 and want on getting others.  At least till next payday, HAHA!

Non-polish post time!

I thought I would try something new, and show what I recieved in my Birchbox and MyGlam bags this month.  I know people are very familiar with the service so I wont bore anyone with the details.  I recently decided to give birchbox another try, as I had cancelled it back in December.  They sent me an email to get 100 points on their site so I figured why not, lol.  I was plesantly surprised with what i got though.

This is the Yes to Blueberries towelettes, Pur Minerals Tinted Moisturizer (came in medium so it actually matches my skin tone!), Benta Berry Exfoliating cleanser, Kahina argan oil and facial lotion, and Wonderstruck perfum sample.  Given the sizes and the usability I think it was worth $10.  The last 2 I got were terrible and that was what made me cancel before but if it stays like this, I would be happy.  I did see that others got a zoya polish, but I didnt on this round.....darn!  LOL 


The other subscription I use is MyGlam.  I have been happy with their bags since I started.  I know some havent been happy with the amount of coupons they send, but I do not have any complaints.  They had a great dermstore coupon in this as well, $15 off a $30 order.

This bad had a Lip Quench treatment, urban decay eye pencil, ALl-Belle lashes and 2 brushes to add to the brush from last month.  I love lashes so I am looking forward to trying them, and the balm worked wonders on my chapped lips.  We had a big weather change and my lips were instantly chapped and dry but after using is this weekend my lips are soft again. 


Next purchase was a makeup brush from sigma.  I bought the F84, Angled Top Synthetic Kabuki. 

I admit, I love watching the MakeupByTiffany videos and she did a foundation video for summer.  I have used the same foundation mentioned for the last 2 years and loved it, but during summer I sometimes have issues with a matte full coverage foundation, but used her technique with this brush and it works great!  If you want to see it, the video can me found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znCcsYFnJ3Q


Lastly, I just got an email that the 3 wick candles at Bath and Body works are 2 for $20, which is a great deal!  They are normally $19.99 each so they are half priced with this sale.  These are one of my favorite brands for candles and my current one is just about gone.  I splurged and ordered 4 candles for $40.  However you can you the code s125536 thru the 19th and get 20% off your order.  This basically paid for the shipping.  I have issues when I go into the store, all the different scents leave me with a killer headache so I usually opt for buying online.  I know its hard to know the scents that way, but you can still get them 2 for $20 in stores. 

Julep mustery box!

I got my easter Julep mystery box in this week.  It was $19.99 and could have anywhere from $60-$200 value.  While I wasnt overly excited for what I got, it certainly was not terrible.  I have so many Julep polishes that dupes are pretty much expected. 

Base coat and cuticle oil are always good basics to have backups of, and otherwise I got Portia, Taylor and Melissa.  Nothing to exciting but I plan to donate my dupes for painting rainbows.  For more info look here: http://paintingrainbowsblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/polish-donation-drive-for-kids.html

As far as todays nail polish goes, i used Fantasy Fire from Max factor over Queen Vic for my accent nail.  It isnt overly obvious, but for work its perfect.  I still get to make it a little bit more "ME" but still work appropriate.

Burrrrr! Its cold outside!

How can we possibly go from shorts and flip flop weather to now frost warnings and coats!  Doesnt seem right, does it?!?!?!

So Monday night I had a room in Louisville since I had to be at the office at 7 AM (BLAH) and that morning, once I had already left the house, I realized I didnt have any foundation, tooth paste, tooth brush or hair brush in my bag.  I have such sensitive skin that I cannot use just any foundation.  I went to sephora to get a new bottle of my matte velvet plus and I noticed they had mini's of the "Color of the year" orangey polish.  I only have a couple orange colors in my stash so I thought I would give it a try.  I have no idea what the names are, but I just picked the 2 that looked pretty to me, haha.

I didnt do any swatches yet of these, but once I do I will post them.  The colors were pretty though, and a good size for a mini.

I got back home last night and realized I had managed to break 4 nails while packing around all kinda of boxes yesterday for a training class.  I was exhausted but I couldnt go around with nails that looked like that, so I went with a newer color that one of my secret bunnies picked out for me.  I totally love this color, and cant believe I didnt have it already since I have about 90% of the Butter London polishes anyway, haha.  This is Queen Vic by Butter London.

GMA sale at Zoya

 

GMA had several Zoya collections on their show week before last for spring/summer and in turn you could pick them up on the Zoya site 50% off.  I was a date late on this sale so the selections were limited but I managed to pick up 2 different sets for $12 each. 

This is GMA Tio 5; Creamy, Midori and Hayden

This one is Trio 7; Tobey, Lola and Yummy

Remover was also half price and I have fallen in love with this type so I had to take advantage.  I love coming back from vacation to find nail mail!  All of this, with shipping was around $30.  Time to change my nail polish!!!

Back from vacation! Nail polish buys from Pigeon Forge!

Vacation is offically over, so its back to the daily grind!  But that means I have a few updates to give about the buys from the week.  YAY!

Surpringly, I did not buy much.  Honestly, didnt see that much to buy.  At the cosmetics outlet they only polish I saw was MAC, and I dont like the quality of their polish.  To me, it tends to chip faster so I was not going to waste $10 on that polish.  I went to a Sally's Beauty supply though and took advantage of their buy 2 get 1 free sale.  Of course, I dont remember the names, and I dont have the bottles with me, but this is what I picked up.

I got back just in time for easter so I had to find something suitable to wear to church.  I didnt want to go too loud and pastels just dont look that good on me, so I went with the Butter London Knackered I picked up the week before i left.  I needed to swatch it anyway, so kill 2 birds with 1 stone, right?

Julep box for April

I got my julep box before leaving for vacation, which is always a plus!  I went with the American Beauty box, and love the colors I got; Eva and Renee.  There was an option this month to add 2 additional products for $4.99 each.  I opted to add 2 additional polishes, Niecy and Alyson.

Let me apologize for the quality of these pictures!  I normally use my Mercury phone, but the battery is dead so I used my iphone.  The camera just really sucks in comparison, but I wanted to get this post up before my vacation. 

The box also came with a foot cream, which is amazing!  I have only used it twice and I already feel the difference in my feet.  After breaking my ankle I really dont like to have anyone touch my foot, so I do not get pedi's anymore.  This cream left my skin so soft, and I will be sandle ready in a couple days!

I couldnt decide what color to put on, but I ended up going with the color that made me choose the American Beauty box, Eva.  Its a beautiful raspberry color.  Perfect for Spring and Summer.  I used the Butter London top coat for that extra shine.

I will be heading to the mountains this week for my vacation.  Ill be in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge Tenn.  I cant wait to get away.  Only sad part is that I will not be in Lexington monday  night!  I graduated from the University of Kentucky and we are taking on Kansas for the NCAA national championship monday night.  I am rooting for my cats and will be waiting the game from my cabin!

C-A-T-S

CATS! CATS!! CATS!!!!