Urban Decay Naked Palette

I know, I know, I know! The Urban Decay Naked Palette is old news now. But I'm still excited that I just got mine this past Monday. Like I said on Twitter, I'm still that same little girl in school who, if I was lucky, got all the cool stuff the popular kids had months after the "in" thing was no longer "in". LOL.

Anyway, I know you have all seen this palette on someone's blog or YouTube video. This thing was everywhere. Thus was the basis of it's appeal for me. So of course, as soon as I started seeing this UD palette all over, I knew I had to have one. I am NOT a "high end" makeup wearer so I could never justify spending the $48 on this. I didn't have to. It was a gift.

So, my boyfriend was off on Monday and we did a little shopping at Bath and Body Works (he wanted some Wallflowers for the home) and then a special trip to Ulta just for me. Every time we pass by Ulta or are in the neighborhood, I always say, "Let's go to Ulta!" It always happens that he speeds up and says, "Oh, we just missed it. Next time."

I guess to him, going to Ulta is like me going to Best Buy with him. LOL.

But this time he said OK so we went in and browsed around. I saw the Naked Palette right away and was shocked to see it in person. It was like a celebrity!! I'm such a geek. But right next to it was the UD Deluxe Shadow Box. Oooh, now that one had the colors I drool over. Of course, I could only get one and I wasn't sure which one to get, so, I asked for the bf's opinion. He said the Naked Palette. OK. Naked it is.

After it was paid for, I started feeling buyer's remorse. On this day I was wearing my bright green glitter Wicked eyes and I all of a sudden felt a little uncomfortable. "So, you don't like it when I wear bright colored eyeshadows?" He said, "I prefer you when you were bright eyes." Confused I asked, "So, why did you pick the Naked one?" He said, "Because it was more expensive." We both laughed. Then he added, "They only had one left. You said it's hard to find. I can always get you the other one later." Aww, my heart melted. He listens to me. All those times that I rambled on and on about who had the Naked Palette and how it wasn't being produced fast enough, he was listening. How sweet.

I just thought that was a cute day for us and how on days like that day, he can make me feel like the greatest person in the world.

Well, here we go. Here are the pics of MY Urban Decay Naked Palette:

Urban Decay Naked Palette
$48.00 at Ulta

Left to Right:
Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar

Left to Right:
Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse

Left to Right:
Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal

Left to Right:
Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar

Left to Right:
Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse

Left to Right:
Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal

Mini Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion

Urban Decay Shadow Brush

All I can say is that I love the shimmer shades like Sidecar, Half Baked, and Toasted. Sooo pretty. The matte shades are just OK for me. I do love UDPP very much and my full size one is almost out so I'm glad I got a little back up one. I did not like the brush. I don't know why, I just did not like it. It's pretty and it's heavy, well made, but it made the application awkward for me. Didn't like the finished results with the brush.

I'm happy I have it but since I'm not much of a neutral eye kind of gal, I wish I had gotten the Deluxe Shadow Box instead. But I am happy I have it. I will use it. And it means even more for me because my boyfriend bought it for me with good intentions. He's a doll.

Thanks for bearing with me through this monstrosity of a blog post. I must have gotten carried away!

Luv & Luk,
--L.

♥♥ This was a gift for me, bought by my boyfriend with his own money. These are my own honest thoughts and opinions. ♥♥

My Very First Giveaway Winner Is...

Here is my winner for my very first ever giveaway!!

I have just emailed the winner. She has 24 hours to email me with her address so that I can ship out her prize ASAP.

So who is lucky #13...

So, Ms. Belinda Rios please contact me as soon as possible! If you do not contact me within 24 hours, I will choose another winner. So HURRY!


Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who entered. I love my regular girls who always stand by me and are so wonderfully supportive. And I am happy to see some new faces join my blog. I do hope that you will stick around after the giveaway! I'm always up for more beauty buddies.

Again, CONGRATULATIONS to the winner and I look forward to hosting some more, bigger and better, giveaways!

Luv & Luk,
--L.

♥♥ To find out who the winner is, I made a spreadsheet on my computer and added GCF names in the order in which the ladies entered. I then used Random.org to generate the random winner. I swear that the number that popped up first, #13, was the first number that was generated. I did not contaminate the results. ♥♥

My Favorite 10 Nail Polishes: Part One

I've been thinking of some new blog posts to share with you, Pretties, and I've been coming up dry. But I did see this on another blog and I'm so sorry I can't say who did this or where I saw it. I forgot!

So, I'm going to share with you my favorite 10 nail polishes but I decided to split it in two segments.

I have no particular order in which I like these, I just know I do.

Left to Right:
Avon Speed Dry Nail Enamel in S312 Mambo Melon
Milani Nail Lacquer One Coat Glitter in 522 Silver Dazzle
Zoya Professional Lacquer in ZP609 Reece
Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Fast Dry Nail Color in 4917-22 Jumpin' Jade
L.A. Girl Matte Flat Finish Nail Color in NL538 Matte Baby Pink

Swatches without flash.

Swatches with flash.

Mambo Melon is such a pretty and vibrant coral with slight pink shimmer. Perfect for summer!

Silver Dazzle is pure glitter, coarse glitter. Like a disco ball!

Reece is maybe my #1 (if I was putting them in actual order). It is a pink with gold duo chrome.


Jumpin' Jade is awesome. One coat is so opaque. Very pretty teal. I see spring!

Matte Baby Pink is sweet and innocent. It's a really cute color.

**All nail polishes were swatched using 2 coats.**

Do you ladies own any of these? Do you like any of these??

Luv & Luk,
--L.

♥♥All nail polishes in this post were bought with my own money. These are my own thoughts and opinions.♥♥

LFI: Wicked

The first time I did this look was on Friday for a graduation party. I got so many compliments! I just had to wear it again!

The next time I wore it was the following Monday. My boyfriend and I went to do a little shopping at Bath and Body Works and Ulta. I got a lot of looks. Even the sales person at Ulta kept staring at me. Something I'm not used to!

Anyway, here is my Look For Inspiration which I decided to call Wicked.

To get this look I used my
E.L.F. Beauty Book and
a lose green glitter by Lanmei.

I must say, I'm really liking the color green!

I picked the name Wicked for this look because as soon as I was done doing my makeup, I looked at my completed face and I automatically thought of Dorothy's ruby red slippers. So sparkly! Except that it wasn't red, it was green...like the Wicked Witch of the East...or was it West?? You know who I'm talking about.

"I'll get you my pretty!"

Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy this LFI. I realize I could have blended it out a lot better and evened out the look. It is a bit lopsided. Oops. Sorry!

Luv & Luk,
--L.

Before and After

I'm going to be brave today and show you what I look like without makeup. Brace yourself!

Makeup, to me, is such a big part of my life. I use it almost on a daily basis. I buy it whenever I have some extra money instead of buying shoes or clothes. I look forward to a career in it such as a makeup artist. I would love to go to school for it because it's something that I find extremely interesting. Makeup will always be in my future.

Right now, I do sell makeup as my little "job" I can do from home. But I want more!

As an Independent Sales Rep for Avon, I help my clients pick out what colors would look best on them and steer them in the right directions when it comes to choosing the right makeup for them. It's not my job to tell women they NEED makeup. If they are interested in makeup and would like help purchasing it, then that's when I come in.

Because I love makeup, I don't believe that makes me vain. I don't believe that everyone should wear makeup to be beautiful. I don't think I'm ugly without it, I just think I look better with it. Some women even look better without it!

To me, makeup is an accessory. Just like we pay money for the right shoes or purse to complete an outfit, I feel that way about makeup.

Makeup is not a necessity, it is an accessory!!

With that being said, here are my before and after shots:

Before, of course.

Obviously, after.

I hope you all enjoyed this little blog post. Just an intimate part of me that I don't usually share with the world. LOL. Only my family have seen me sans makeup. You can see why I choose to wear makeup when I step out of the house!

But it's good to let your face breathe sometimes and go without makeup. No need to hide our naked faces. You must always remember, we are all beautiful, no matter what!

So, do you ladies think I have a future in doing makeup makeovers?

Have a prettyful day, my Pretties.

Luv & Luk,
--L.

Blogger Boo Boo

So I finally get a chance to log into my Blogger account after it had been down for a couple of days. I'm not sure what the deal was but I'm really upset and it might be safe to say that some of you are too.

Viewing my blog this morning, I see that it has changed. Comments that were posted a couple of days ago are now gone. Contests that I had entered, and posted on my sidebar, are now gone. My whole sidebar has changed! A lot of things are still missing.

The font has changed which isn't a big deal but it just doesn't look like my blog anymore. I took a lot of time and care into making my blog feel like me. Now all that was just wasted time.

Anyway, how many of you had problems after Blogger was up and running again? This is not cool.

I am especially upset because all the problems that I was having with Blogger before their down time, I am still having! What?? I thought it was down for maintenance and was going to come back running smoothly. But nope. Still wonky as ever. Booooo...

OK, well, not much to do about it now but try and fix it to the way it was before. Very discouraging. Very discouraging...

Luv & Luk,
--L.

Swatches: E.L.F. Nail Polish Collection

As part of my Mother's Day gift, I got a ton of E.L.F. products from my boyfriend and among those goodies, he gave me a 5 piece E.L.F. Nail Polish Collection. I have never tried any of the E.L.F. nail polishes before so this was really exciting to receive.

I've been wanting to swatch them for you since I got them but my nails and cuticles are in horrible shape. I have cuticle balms and creams to use but my problem is that I am not consistent. I am not regular with it and so I never really see a difference. I'll try harder. I promise! I hate to have to show you Pretties my raggedy nails every time I want to show off some nail polish.

So in advance, I am sorry!

I must say, as soon as I opened the package, I fell in love with these colors:

Left to Right:
Blue Mist, Lilac, Mango Madness, Fuchsia, and Purple Pleaser.

Swatches:
1 coat.
Sorry for the upside down picture.
Once again, Blogger is uncooperative.

Swatches:
2 coats.

I love the packaging of these nail polishes. Very simple. I like minimal packaging. I loved the way the colors looked in the bottle. My mind changed once applied.

For one, I did not like the Blue Mist at all!! NO NO NO! Very streaky!! Ugh. Even after 2 coats, you can see in the pic how streaky it still looks. Not cool.

All the nail polishes were very thin, almost watery. But, they all covered my nails very well after 2 coats except for the Blue Mist. Even the Lilac which is very light covered my nail after 2 coats.

The colors are OK. My favorite is the Lilac. I love this color. I have a feeling I will be using this one more than the others. The shade is so sweet and delicate. Very feminine.

E.L.F. claims that it is a quick dry formula but I don't think so. It took just as long as my other non-quick dry formula nail polishes to dry.

All in all, not bad for $5.00 for the whole collection. I did like 4/5 of them so that's not bad. I do plan on using these polishes on a regular basis. You do have to admit, they are pretty pigmented after a couple of coats.

Check out G-Rizzle's blog post on this very collection HERE. Read her thoughts about this and check out her swatches.

There you go, my Pretties. Let me know if you all have tried these or any E.L.F. nail polishes and what you thought of them.

Luv & Luk,
--L.

♥♥ This collection was given to me by my boyfriend. These are my own thoughts and honest opinions. ♥♥