My First Polish Swap!

A few months back Happyberrynaiad and I decided to arrange a nail polish swap. After seeing her lovely swatches of some of the gorgeous polishes from Singapore, I asked if we could do an exchange, and here are the beauties:

L to R: Blue Korean polish, Elianto Racing Green, Elianto Lilac, Tony Moly GT02 Earth, Essie Dive Bar

Aren't they fantastic?! I was so excited to have these lovelies! The first color I decided to try was the magnificent Tony Moly glitter, Earth.

Such a spectacular combination of glitters: pink, blue and purple, all set in a blackened base. My application was a little bit messy, but hopefully it doesn't take away from this lovely color.

And of course the beautiful and captivating, Elianto Racing Green.

Racing Green is a bewitching green and gold shimmer in a dark blue base. It's unlike any color I have, and it was love at first sight!

As you can probably tell, I'm finally getting the hang of cleaning up my polish with a brush and acetone. I decided to use pure acetone and it was like magic, wow! Now I can finally wear darker polishes without worrying they'll look like a globby mess.

Thank you again for the wonderful swap Sherry! I absolutely love all of these polishes. ♥

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Spoiled & Lush

Recently I picked up a few polishes by Spoiled, a new CVS exclusive brand made by Wet n' Wild. There were a few that were very lovely, but the one that really stood out for me was Are Mermaids Real?

Spoiled Are Mermaids Real?

This polish is an eye-catching purple shimmer with tons of gold sparkle, in the same vein as Zoya Faye and Orly Oui, but the purple is much more grape-y. I know we've seen a lot of polishes with a similar look since last year, but I really love them all.

Spoiled Are Mermaids Real? + China Glaze Luxe & Lush

The next day I topped AMR with China Glaze Luxe & Lush, a really cool shredded iridescent glitter from their Hunger Games collection. I think it looks particularly awesome with the gold in AMR, and although I used two coats of topcoat, it could probably use more still to fully smooth it out.

The Lovely Rica

Sparkly, shimmery, summery-- Zoya Rica is just perfect for this time of year!

Zoya Rica

Rica has a pinky coral base with TONS of gold shimmer that will blow your mind. It has a really beautiful texture, too. The formula is easy to work with, though perhaps a little bit sheer, and needed three coats. Shrimp on the Barbie by Spoiled is supposed to be a near-dupe, just a touch more pink.

This lovely sparkler is part of Zoya's Sunshine collection from last summer, all of which are super gorgeous and shimmering with gold awesomeness!

Target Beauty Bag

A couple of weeks ago I received my Target Beauty Bag in the mail, and boy was I excited-- check out the goodies!

I love the cute striped cosmetic bag they came in! I'm using it to keep my sunglasses in my purse. And below are all of the great samples that came inside.

1. Pantene Color Preserve Volume Shampoo

2. Nivea Extended Moisture Daily Lotion

3. Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes

4. Target Coupon Booklet

5. L'Oreal Paris Magic Lumi Light Infusing Primer

6. Neutrogena Visibly Bright Daily Facial Cleanser

I think my favorite product is either the Nivea Extended Moisture lotion or the Neutrogena Visibly Bright cleanser (consequently they are also the two that I purchased full-sized bottles of). The Pantene shampoo is okay; it didn't seem to lather particularly well and I needed rather a lot of it. I only used it once. The Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes are pretty nice! I've used them several times to remove a full face of makeup, which they did both effectively and fairly gently. I have somewhat sensitive skin so it's always good to find something non-irritating, although I'll probably continue to use my L'Oreal makeup remover (it's also less expensive). Honestly I don't think I used the L'Oreal Magic Lumi the way I should have. I applied it to my face over my moisturizer, and it gave my face a shimmery sheen but I wasn't really impressed with the look. So, I thought, "Primer? Let's find out!" and then applied my Revlon Colorstay foundation over that-- not a great idea. It made my pores super visible, and definitely doesn't work as a *primer*. I think if I had used it as a highlighter over my foundation, that would have worked out much better. But, I really love my Physicians Formula Happy Booster Powder as a highlighter (and it smells fantastic!) so I don't feel the need to re-purchase/retry the L'Oreal.

Also included was a wonderful little book of Target coupons for each of the products/brands included as well as a few others. So far I've only used the Neutrogena & Nivea coupons, and I seem to have misplaced my booklet for now so hopefully it turns up so I can try more stuff!

I love this moisturizer. Granted, I am a little obsessed with hand and face moisturizers in general, but the Nivea Extended Moisture works really well! It's extremely hydrating and long-lasting, and it's basically unscented so there's no, "I'm just not into smelling like raspberry pie mojitos right now" dilemma. The one thing I did notice though is that the formula of the sample and that of the mini tube are totally different. The sample was a little runny and took a little while to absorb fully, where the mini tube is much thicker and absorbs better. I like both-- they both work the same for me, I just wonder which one is the real formula. Observe in the photo below these contrasting creams:

The other product I couldn't live without was the Neutrogena Visibly Bright cleanser. Again, I just really love facial cleansers, but look-- there is gold shimmer in there, whaa? It doesn't show up on my face after I rinse, however, I love this shimmery gold soap. It also has a subtle and pleasant citrus smell that is delightful, and, oh yeah, it cleans my face pretty well, too! So, admittedly, I don't have truly convincing reasons for loving this cleanser. I don't see a dramatic change in the brightness of my face, but it certainly makes my skin feel refreshed and clean and kind of blingy, even though there really is no bling. It washes right off. (Do I want to cover to my face in gold shimmer now? Yeah, kind of. A little.)

Target actually just announced their Summer Beauty Bag giveaway yesterday, and sadly they are already all gone. So hopefully those of you who wanted one were able to grab it. After many attempts I was lucky enough to get one, so I'm looking forward to what this next one will have in store!