Buy and Blog: NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel

Hello, my Pretties!

I made this purchase back on February 28th and I've been dying to share this haul with you but never got around to it.  Better late than never!

I had gone to my local grocery store, H-E-B, to buy the usual: eggs, milk, juice... but I got distracted by bins of colorful makeup at the store's entrance.  There were NYC nail polishes, Wet n Wild nail polishes, and lots of Revlon goodies.  So naturally, I stopped to browse.

I had all the Wet n Wild nail polishes that they had on sale.  The ones that they did have that I didn't have in my collection, I didn't care to buy.

But there were some new NYC nail polishes that I didn't have.  And with the coupon of $1 off any 2 NYC nail polishes, I couldn't resist.  Each NYC nail polish is regular $0.93 so with the coupon, each nail polish came out to only $0.43!

Here are the four I picked up:

NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel.
From Left to Right:
140 Empire State Blue, 142 Preppy Pink,
147 Lexington Lilac, and 151 Skyline Blue.

NYC Nail Enamel in 140 Empire State Blue.

After two coats of Empire State Blue.

Empire State Blue is a really pretty blue.  It applied so sheer at first but with the second coat, the coverage was much better.  It's a mid tone blue with shimmers throughout. 

NYC Nail Enamel in 142 Preppy Pink.

After two coats of Preppy Pink.

Love!  The one word that describes how I feel about his nail polish.  It is so cute.  I keep calling it Pretty Pink instead of PREPPY Pink.  Haha.  It's like a cross between bubblegum pink and Barbie pink.  This one is a crème finish so you know that's a major plus for me.

NYC Nail Enamel in 147 Lexington Lilac.

After two coats of Lexington Lilac.



 

Lexington Lilac is also a crème and so therefore, it is also one of my favorites.  I am truly in like with this color.  It is so perfect for Easter which is only a few days away.  I like that it is not all that pastel.  It is pastel but not a pale pastel.  You can totally see it's purpleness!

 

NYC Nail Enamel in 151 Skyline Blue.



After two coats of Skyline Blue.







And this one was the one I was most excited to get and the one that I was the most disappointed in.  DISAPPOINTED.  I grabbed this one first because it screamed "Cinderella!" to me.  I saw the pale blue and the silver micro glitters and I couldn't help but think of my favorite princess.  But as you can see, the polish leaves much to be desired.  After two coats, the application still looks blotchy.  In comparison to the other three nail polishes, this one was much thicker.  Hence the bad application??

 

 

Any how, 3 out of 4 isn't bad.  In order of love for me is:

 

1. Preppy Pink

2. Lexington Lilac

3. Empire State Blue

4. Skyline Blue.

 

Which ones do you like?

 

So, that's all for now.  But--big BUT--this is part one is my two part haul post.  I got some Revlon too.  Just a tease, I know.

 

Stay tuned!

 

♥♥ And just so you know, all items mentioned in this post were purchased with my sweet-tart's money.  These are my own thoughts and honest opinions. ♥♥





Review: Urban Decay Naked Basics

Hello, my Pretties!

This past Christmas I received a little gift that I wanted big time!  Yes, I realize we are in March and I am just now sharing a December tid bit.  That's what you call being lazy!

Anyhow, my mother in-law gave me the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette!

Urban Decay Naked Basics
Front of packaging.

I was so thrilled to have received this little gem!  I had been seeing so much of it on Twitter, Instagram, and of course, on other blogs that I just knew I had to have one.

I only have the original Naked palette that came out a while back.  I love it too but not as much as I love this mini.

Urban Decay Naked Basics
Back of packaging.

"Begin ANY look with these six essential shadows.  This palette of must-own shades (with four exclusives!) features both mattes and satins for lids, liner, and crease."

Colors in this palette are shown here left to right and include:
Venus, Foxy, Walk of Shame, Naked 2, Faint, and Crave.

Urban Decay Naked Basics
Actual palette.

I love the look and feel of this palette.  I love how streamline and simple it is.  Basic.  The colors are neutral and look chic.  The size of the palette itself is small and easy to carry in your makeup bag.  It feels like silky rubber.  Haha.  If that makes any sense.  Think along the lines of the NARS packaging.  And it also feels sturdy because in my opinion, it's heavy for it's size.

Now on to some swatches.  Swatches are everyone's favorite part!

Urban Decay Naked Basics
With flash.

Swatches with flash.
Top to bottom:
Venus, Foxy, W.O.S., Naked 2, Faint, and Crave.

I am totally enjoying the matte shadows!  I am in love with matte shadows these days.  I think the reason is that since my eyelids are starting to show their wrinkly selves, matte shadows tend to mask that while shimmery shadows accentuate my imperfections.

Venus is a wonderful high light for the brow bone.  Crave is the perfect eyeliner.  While Foxy is a little light for my skin tone, I also use that as a brow high light. Walk of Shame is usually my lid color while Faint goes in my crease and Faint in my outer V.

Urban Decay Naked Basics
Without flash.

Swatches without flash.
Top to bottom:
Venus, Foxy, W.O.S., Naked 2, Faint, and Crave.

As you can see, Foxy and Walk of Shame blend into my skin!

But aside from those two shadows that are a little harder to see on my darker skin, I love all the shadows!  The texture of them is very soft and silky.  They blend easily as well.  The only one I had problems with was Crave because it is so dark and extremely pigmented.  I did not notice any fading through out the day.  Fallout is minimal to none.  I believe it is the perfect everyday palette.

And now onto some looks I created using this sweet little palette.

A very natural look.

The UD Naked Basics palette can totally give you that "no makeup" look we all crave on busy weekdays of running errands to the bank and grocery store.  We don't want the appearance of wearing makeup, we just want to look a little better than our natural selves.  Mission accomplished.

A very dramatic look.

And after a week of work and running errands, comes the weekend!  The UD Naked Basics palette helped me achieve a sexier look for date night.  

As you can tell, I am wearing the same shirt in the 2 photos above.  I did the neutral look first, took a picture and then added some more shadows from the UD Naked Basics palette as well as changed my lip color.

That just goes to show that with your UD Naked Basics palette in your makeup bag, you can go from work appropriate to dinner out with the girls in no time!  Just add a couple of the darker shades and a darker lip and you are set to go!

And something in between.

And then there are the days in between.  We don't need to do anything as mundane as going to the bank or anything as awesome as date night.  I wore this look for Progress Report Night at my daughter's elementary school.  I didn't want to look too Plain Jane or quite as Sexy Rexy (as my mother would call it).  The UD Naked Basics palette gave me the perfect balance.

In all 3 photos above, I ONLY used the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette on my eyes (for the exception of my mascara, of course).  Granted, the looks were boosted with a change of lip colors but the eyes are all UD Naked Basics.  My eyeliner looks great and all I used was Crave!  It's so rich and pigmented.  Looks like liquid liner to me.

I'm totally into collecting collections so I want the entire UD Naked line!  Haha.

This Urban Decay Naked Basic palette retails for $27.00 on UrbanDecay.com.

Do you have the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette?  Do you want one?!

♥ The Urban Decay Naked Basics palette was given to my as a Christmas gift.  All thoughts expressed in this blog post are my own opinions. ♥

FOTD: Highs and Lows

Hello, my Pretties!

One of the first "backed up blog posts" I had to share with you was this one I titled Highs and Lows.  I posted this on my Ms. Prettyful Girl Facebook Page and on Instagram and I received a lot of love on it.  I have to admit, it is one of my favorite looks.

It's simple.  It's pretty.

I decided on the name Highs and Lows because I used both high end makeup, MAC, and E.L.F. which is on the other end of the scale.  My tag line was, "Bet you can't tell what is MAC and what is E.L.F."  Haha.

By looking at the photo above, can you tell what makeup is high end and which is not??

I can never tell by looking at someone's face if they are wearing expensive makeup or not.  I guess that is why I tend to use bargain priced makeup.  I own very few high end pieces.  I do have some MAC and Urban Decay but I own a ton of E.L.F. and Wet n Wild.

I guess the point of this FOTD was to show you that you don't need to wear only expensive makeup to look good!  Don't feel bad if you can't afford to buy department store makeup.  I admit, sometimes I still feel bad about not having an expensive collection but makeup in general makes me feel great!

My face makeup which includes foundation, face powder and blush are all by Avon.

My eye makeup which includes my eye shadows, eye liner, eye primer, and mascara are either MAC or E.L.F.  Care to guess what is what?

My lips are also drugstore.  I am wearing Jordana and Wet n Wild.

So, what do you think?  Do you have a habit of mixing high and low pieces together?

♥ All items mentioned in this blog post were purchased with my sweet-tart's money. ♥

Review: Prestige Cosmetics Valentine's Day Edition

Hello, my Pretties!

Wow! It feels so strange to write a blog post this time around.  It's been so long!  Haha.  But, I received a package, my second to date, from Prestige Cosmetics and I just had to share the goodness with you!

But before I show you the goods, let me wish you all a HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!  Or, if V-Day isn't your cup of tea and you are opposed to it and it's sappy traditions, well then, CRAPPY STUPID CUPID DAY to you!! Haha.  Me?  I'm not a real fan of V-Day.  Never have been.  I've had the same Valentine for 9 years now and we never ever do the whole fancy date and dinner thing.  Today, I'm walking out the door and I say, "Oh, yeah, happy Valentine's Day," and he responds with, "today's the 14th?"  And then he blows me a kiss.  Yes, that's how we roll.

Anyhow, we only saw each other for about 5 minutes this morning before heading out the doors for our respected jobs so we didn't exchange gifts or anything.  So, I pretended that my Prestige goodies were my gift!  Haha.

Here are my Prestige Cosmetics Valentine's Day inspired picks.
Lip liner, blush, eyeshadow trio, lipstick and sharpener.

I think this sharpener is adorable! It's hot pink and heart shaped!

 You can find this sharpener HERE.

Flawless Touch Blush in Pink Sobet.

Blush comes with it's own brush.

The brush is slightly curved and fits comfortably over my cheekbones
but the bristles are a bit stiff. 

The brush has a notch that latches onto the nub on the blush compact
to hold it into place.  Nifty!

Pink Sorbet swatches.
On top the blush is blended out.

My overall thoughts on Pink Sorbet:
I liked it a lot!  I loved the color. This blush blends out very nicely and you are able to build up on the shade intensity.  The texture of the blush itself is somewhat powdery.  If you use the blush brush included, pink powder will fly everywhere.  It's loosely packed.  I loved the concept of the brush latching onto the compact itself so you always have a blush brush on hand but while this blush brush fits nicely over the contours of my cheekbones, the texture of the bristles are a bit stiff.
PRESTIGE COSMETICS FLAWLESS BLUSH in PINK SORBET, $6.95.
You can find Pink Sorbet HERE.

Prestige Cosmetics Skin Loving Minerals
Shimmering Trios Mineral Eyeshadows in Prism.

I thought this was genius!  3 different shadows in one compact
separated in their own compartments!

This is a very pretty sparkly berry shade.

Swatch.  No base, primer, or foundation.  On bare skin.

This one was more matte than shimmery so it was more like a satin
finish in a pinky mauve shade.

Swatch.  No primer, base, or foundation.  On bare skin.

This silver is definitely eye catching.  It is so sparkly and shimmers
beautifully!

Swatch.  No base, primer, or foundation.  On bare skin.

I used all three of the shimmering eyeshadows in this look.  I applied the satin mauve on my lid, the sparkly berry in my crease and the metallic silver in my inner corner and along my lower lash line.

My overall thoughts on Prism:
I am in love once again!  The container is huge coming in at .26 net wt oz.  There is a generous amount of all three shades.  The shades are coordinated nicely.  The lids at the top of each well secures tightly so that the shadows will not spill out and mix.  While the opening to each well is a tad small, my eyeshadow brush still fit.  The shadows wore well, all day for me, without any primer or base.  Their texture is soft and blend-able.  Of the tree shades, the mauve was the harder one to work with but I think it's because it leans more on the matte side.
PRESTIGE COSMETICS SHIMMERING TRIOS MINERAL EYESHADOWS in PRISM, $11.95.
You can find Prism HERE.

Prestige Waterproof Lipliner in True Red.

Swatch.  No base, primer, or foundation.  On bare skin.

My overall thoughts on True Red:
This is a very good lipliner.  It is a really pretty shade of red.  Bright red. TRUE red. It is creamy to apply and doesn't feel too dry on my lips.  I used it to line and fill in my lips the other day and the staying power was amazing!  It lasted for hours.  Even after eating a burger, it was still there.  A little bit faded but that was after hours of wear and lunch.  Yay!
PRESTIGE COSMETICS WATERPROOF LIPLINER in TRUE RED, $3.95.
You can find True Red HERE.

Prestige Color Treat Lipstick.

Romantic Red.

Swatch.

Swatched on my lips.

My overall thoughts on Romantic Red:
Very nice.  First off, I love the packaging.  It's very cute.  It's gray with pink script.  The consistency is very creamy.  Feels like a lip balm.  While the staying power didn't last as long as the True Red lipliner on it's own, if you fill in your lips with True Red and top off with Romantic Red, now that's the way to go!
PRESTIGE COSMETICS COLOR TREAT LIPSTICK in ROMANTIC RED, $5.50.

You can find Romantic Red HERE.

I am honored to have been a part of this Valentine's Day edition review for Prestige Cosmetics.  The products were chosen with a purpose--to give us ladies the perfect look for Valentine's Day!  Of course, these products will look beautiful on anytime of the year.  I look forward to using mine in different looks.  Maybe a nice smokey eye with some red lips??

Any way, thank you to Prestige Cosmetics and Tilson PR for allowing me to be a part of this opportunity!

♥♥ All items mentioned in this post were sent to me for free in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.  All thoughts expressed in this post are my own and in no way swayed. ♥♥