Impulse Co. Nail Polish.

Product purchased with my own money, opinions are my own.

New bottles! Yesssssss! I love these kind of bottles, I think they're funky and unique as compared to the typical cylindrical ones you find with most mass market branded ones. This is just a bunch of bottle shots prior to swatching them and comparing how they look in the bottle. These are all full size (15ml).

They bagged each polish individually and then put them in another one, and bubble wrapped it all up in a block of goodness.



Country Mile is a chocolate brown with an icey green duochrome.


Narcissa is a berry grape with an intense, fine, and bold green/aqua duochrome.


These two next to each other so you can see how different the duochromes are:

Sweethearts is a glitter topper that's only pink, blue and some iridescent. It seems to have 1 large black glitter in the polish (You can kind of see it in one of the pictures) and the iridescent seems to be more orange/red/yellow than blue/green.


Sweethearts with Petticoat and Gumdrop, and just Sweethearts and Gumdrop:

Impulse Co. Lipstick swatches

Product was purchased and gifted to me. All opinions are my own.

I got a new job this past week, now I'm feeling busy and behind. More Impulse Co. lipstick swatches! These are some samples I got a few months ago in a gift swap. It was my gateway to indies and Etsy. What a horrible and wonderful present!

Medusa: "is a dark, merlot red with a strong purple undertone." It is currently unavailable on their etsy store. I didn't blot to make it matte, so it's more shiny than it should be. Pretty accurate swatch.

Bombshell: "is a bright, watermelon/coral pink with an orange undertone." It is currently unavailable on their etsy store. The colour is very happy and bright. My indoor lighting was making my pictures look blue tinted, but their swatch is pretty accurate.

Femme Fatale Cosmetics

Non-affiliated links. Products purchased with my own money.

Femme Fatale is an Australian company that has jewelry, nail polish, and cosmetics with very unique colours and collections. I've always wanted to try it but  oversea shipping is normally what hinders me. They did a sale at the start of 2014 and I purchased eye shadow samples to try out some of their shadows and swatch them up!

There's two different options for the shadow samples, a 5 or 10 pack, with a 2 max of unique colours. Shipping is also free for the sample packs. I put insurance on the order (1$ or 2$ options) for peace of mind. Their TAT was 9 business days and considering it's oversea shipping, I was expecting to get this in February. Spoiler alert: Got it in less than a week once it was shipped! Initial reaction was surprise. They wrote a personal note in sparkly ink (Who doesn't love sparkly ink???) and the samples were packed really well, and very professionally. They included a business card and a glossy postcard.




The swatches are going to be broken up in a few posts since there's so many different colours and pictures. Some of these were difficult to photograph, the shimmer and sparkle in some of the shadows are very difficult to capture, but are incredibly beautiful in person.

All swatches are Urban Decay original primer potion (on the left) and bare skin (on the right). The shadows didn't cling to bare skin very well. Most of the sparkles and shimmer were extremely easy to buff out if the shadows weren't 'patted' on. I used a brush for all the swatches, and the strokes are very obvious, their shadows are so delicate and lovely! Some swatches were taken outside, and some are under an Ott-Lite.

Levitate as described by their website:  "A soft amaranth pink with lavender tones, Levitate has a frosty violet shimmer with a scattering of blue, red and pink sparkles."




Nexus as described: "Nexus is a deep navy with teal tones and brilliant red shimmers and sparks." The sparkles are very delicate and easy to buff out if too much pressure is used. There's only a small portion of where the sparkles survived in my swatches. Very unique and beautiful.




Wrath Baby: "An electric Majorelle blue with a hint of violet, Wrath Baby eye shadow also has a scattering of subtle blue and purple shimmer." My camera is impossible to deal with when it comes to intense blues/purples. I love the name also. I play World of Warcraft and wrath baby was a label for those who started playing during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Milani Sugar Burst

Product was purchased with personal funds, and I’m not compensated for my review. All opinions are my own.

A few months ago while I was at CVS, I found a crate of the new Milani polishes that weren't displayed yet, but an employee left out since they were organizing and changing the display. Here's a bunch of bottle shots of the new polishes and I was able to purchase 08 Sugar Rush and  09 Sugar Burst (these names are so cute). These swatches are one coat of Sugar Burst over 3 coast of Sparitual Improvisation, ring finger is one coat over Orly Liquid Vinyl. There is no blue shimmer in the polish, it's from the Sparitual polish, which I accidentally nicked my middle finger when the Milani polish was drying.



These are over L. A. Girl Disco Brites Deejay, Orly Liquid Vinyl on ring finger.

 
 


Isn't that dense for one coat? I took another of one coat vs 2 coats over Orly Liquid Vinyl. One is blurry to show how awesome yet subtle the holographic glitter is.



It has two different sized pastel pink hex, bars, and holo glitter. All the pink glitter is the same shade, and a top coat would smooth it over. Even though the bottle labels it as 'texture' it doesn't feel bumpy or gritty like Zoya's Pixie formula, it's just typical 'glitter texture.' A top coat will smooth is over perfectly. Lovely glitter polish!

January Ipsy Beauty Bag

Product was purchased with personal funds, and I’m not compensated for my review. All opinions are my own.

I got my January Ipsy bad very late, normally I get it before the 15th but I got mine around the 20th. My initial reaction was "WOAH THAT BAG SMELL" since it smelled like a chemical infused blob of plastic ICK! It's a blue basic design with a minimalist display of cosmetic and skincare bottles and jars. I like the design, but you could spruce it up easily with rhinestones or some paint if you're a crafty type. :D The products I received this month were:


Épicé Purifying Exfoliant, 1oz size with a safety seal on the squeeze tube. I love safety seals on products like this, it's a guarantee that it hasn't been used or 'spillage' has occurred while being shipped.

From the Ipsy website:
"Benefits:
Micro-fine polyspheres gently exfoliate removing excess dead cells and environmental debris.
Exfoliation helps open pores, which increases excretion of toxins.
Packed with emollients, humectants and barrier protectors to hydrate dry, irritated skin.
Contains several natural collagen boosters for damaged skin.
Softens skin as it cleans.
Non-irritating, antiseptic, bacteria and fungus fighting properties. "
After using this after my normal cleanser (CereVe), I really like the size of the physical exfoliant, they're small and didn't feel harsh at all. I hate it when scrubs feel like apricot shards and sandpaper since it makes me look like an angry tomato. I definitely didn't feel any of the 'softening' benefits, but certainly felt squeaky clean, almost to the point of being stripped clean. Once in a while, I can tolerate that, but not all the time. It's too severe for my dry skin. Overall, I really liked this sample, I was not looking forward to it initially since I do not like scrubs, I prefer enzyme/acid type of exfoliants. Nice product!


Elizabeth Mott Smooth Shadow in Pearl. It's a very thin and small shadow pencil and looks like it should be more of a liner than a shadow. Very sparkly that doesn't show up on the pictures at all! Very iridescent type of sparkle, not super crazy glittery, but just enough. I really liked this!





I liked this so much, I am considering buying another with the Ipsy coupon code.


MicaBeauty - Tinted Lip Balm in Natural. This is more like a balm lipstick since it's so pigmented, it's waaaaaaaaay beyond what I consider 'tinted.' I do like the natural shade, I don't have many lip products like this colour.  I was expecting something difficult to work with from a pot, but was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to scoop out. I normally use a small Popsicle stick, they're so easy to dispose of!

The bottom has a few cracks in the plastic jar. It doesn't effect the product at all, but worries me that if I drop it, it'll break completely. :[ This product is so creamy, and ridiculously pigmented. I don't recall any funky smell from it, and it's a very nice smooth texture, no stickiness at all.


Proactiv+ Mark Fading Pads. 4 were in the bag, and I hadn't bothered using them yet, I'm not really looking forward to using them since I use a Murad treatment already for a spot/pigmentation.  I'll probably give them to someone or trade.



Sexy Hair - Healthy Sexy Hair Soy Tri-Wheat Leave In Conditioner. This smells almost citrisy and I've not used it yet. My hair is long and medium/thin, and I'm looking forward to using this on my dry ends.




Overall, this month wasn't too bad! Better than I anticipated, even with one item I know I won't use.