NOTD ft. Julep Blake and theBalm on Hautelook!

A while ago, I visited my aunt and uncle in Seattle. My aunt is a Julep maven box subscriber, and she offered to let me try out her nail polish! Since I've never subscribed to Julep or tried any of their nail polishes, I was pretty excited. Since I don't own any yellow nail polish, I decided to try Blake, which was a beautiful pastel yellow. Long story short, I didn't get a picture with the bottle in hand. I loved this nail polish, it went 5 days without major chips!

I'm considering purchasing the full size of this nail polish, I really love it! I'm still at debate camp, so I'm having a bit of a hard time keeping up with my blogging as well. I'm currently writing a speech about conditionality (nothing to do with hair!) in policy debate and whether it's fair. Sounds fun, right? Eh. I am having a good time at camp overall, though.

By the way - theBalm is having another sale on Hautelook tomorrow, and I have my fingers crossed that they'll have some of their lovely blushes on sale - I know at least one is going to be up (FratBoy)! Here's the preview picture:

Anyway, thanks for reading, hopefully you are all having a fantastic mid-July!

Butter London 30% Off!

I normally don't post press releases, sales, etc. unless I'm really excited about them. I just found out from the lovely G over at Noveau Cheap that Butter London is having a 30% off sale for all online orders, with the code: FFSUMMER12
Butter London has fantastic colors, and I'm definitely considering picking up a couple polishes during the sale!

Image from Butter London Website

Are any of you guys planning on purchasing a nail polish or two during this sale?

I was not compensated in any way for this post. This was made freely of my own accord, and I am not affiliated with Butter London.

NOTD and Review ft. Sally Hansen XTreme Wear in Pacific Blue

I had 2 of my 5 finals today, math and physics. They were really difficult, I don't know anybody who finished the math final. Tomorrow, I have Chinese and English finals, so I'm studying for those. But I felt bad neglecting to post for so long, so here's a short NOTD/review post for you guys!
This one took a round of practice to apply, the formula is thicker than I'm used to. So I did a terrible job the first time I applied it. In fact, it was just too terrible to post. So I gave it a go again, but this time I was more careful and I applied it much better, although the application is still not perfect. Plus, I kept forgetting to photograph it, so there's some tip wear. I know, I know, beauty blogger sin. But anyway, this wore for about 3 days before chipping noticeably on one finger, but wore for about another 4 days without chipping again. I love this color, it's a gorgeous bright cornflower blue, perfect for summer and spring. I love this polish, I just wish the formula was a little bit thinner. Hope you guys are having a good day!

NOTD and Review ft. Butter London Trout Pout & Knackered!

I finally bought some Butter London polishes! I used my $25 for $50 coupon to DermStore and bought these, along with a concealer and a blush which I might end up reviewing later. Anyway, I had Trout Pout on all my fingers, but really wanted to try out Knackered, so I layered Knacked over Trout Pout but didn't really like the outcome, so I took all the nail polish on my ring finger off and just put Knackered on that finger as an accent.

Trout Pout is a salmony coral color that pulls a little bit peach and sometimes looks almost neon pink. It's so, so, so perfect for spring and summer! I love it! And Knackered is a blue-grey-purple-green duchrome with subtle iridescent glitter. It took me 4 coats to layer it to the opacity shown in the last 3 photos, but the layers dry extremely fast and there's no cuticle drag. Trout Pout was opaque in 2 coats, although it did have some cuticle drag and didn't dry very quickly. They're both fantastic nail polishes, and I'm hoping to try some more Butter London polishes soon, although the price bites ($14 a bottle, bleh)! The first photo doesn't show enough of the pink tones in this nail polish, and the other ones don't show enough of the peachy/salmon tones. Apparently I just can't win in terms of polish photos today.

On a happier side note, I went to my debate tournament today and my partner and I went undefeated in policy debate. The tournament was loads of fun! Winning is always fun, of course, but it was also fun because I hadn't been to a tournament in a couple months. This is my last one for this year, and it was a really good one to close out on. Sorry for the non-beauty related ramble, but I was just really excited about this and wanted to share with you guys. Anyway, on to what you came here for: the pictures!

Trout Pout alone on all 5 fingers

Trout Pout alone on all 5 fingers

Knackered layered over Trout Pout

Knackered as accent

Knackered as accent

Knackered as accent

May Birchbox Opening and Review!

I was a previous Birchbox subscriber who then went to MyGlam instead. However, this month's box was Gossip Girl themed. I used to love that show, and Blake Lively and Leighton Meester (a couple of the female stars on the show) always have the most fabulous makeup and clothes, both on set and off. So I decided to re-subscribe for this month's box. Read on to find out if I was glad I subscribed again or not!

First off, the shipping was SO fast, mine shipped out on May 8 from New York and on May 10, it arrived at my doorstep in the Bay Area. Um, incredible shipping time much? Anyway, I was super happy with that aspect of the service, since before my boxes took up to 2 weeks to get to my house. Here's the contents of the box together:

I'll individually review the box contents, then do a summary at the end.

Algenist Compete Eye Renewal Balm:

Sorry, the BB cream was kind of photobombing this picture since the pot of eye cream just rolled off the table otherwise. Anyway, this was a nice inclusion, but I don't really use eye cream regularly. I'll use this up, since it probably can't hurt, but this isn't a product I was really excited to receive.

Color Club Nail Polish in Disco Nap:

This is a nice, very basic gold color. Definitely metallic. I have more gold nail polish than any other color, though, so that was just bad luck in terms of getting another gold nail polish. However, I'll definitely give this one a try. I love nail polish, and I don't buy that much of it, so it was really nice to receive this.

Dr. Jart + Waterfuse BB Cream:

YAYYY! This is my favorite product of the bunch. I've been dying to try a BB Cream since about a year ago, but all the Asian ones scared me, since many of them supposedly have skin whitening properties. Skin whitening? No thanks! I'm pale as it is, I don't need to be any paler! Since then, a lot of BB Creams or BB Cream type products have appeared in American markets, but none of them have received glowing reviews as yet. This will be my first experience with a BB Cream, I'm so so so excited to give this a try!

Ojon Volume Advance Volumizing Shampoo:

I have colored hair, so I pretty much only use products for color treated hair. I'll probably give this to a friend or something, not quite sure what I'll do with it. I also don't have fine, limp, or flat hair, so this is just not really a product I'm going to use.

Birchbox Notecards:

Um, yay, notecards? I personally don't love the Birchbox extras that they include, but I thought this one was quite funny. Since Gossip Girl on the show always signs off with, "you know you love me. xoxo, gossip girl." This was a cute extra to include, I may use this for a thank you note or something. Not the worst extra (not like the paper coasters a couple months ago, I hated those).

Overall, this was a really solid box. I really liked the BB Cream and the nail polish, the eye cream was solid although I didn't really like the shampoo. Still, I got 2 products that I will definitely at least try out, and I think I definitely got a solid value for my money. I really enjoyed this month's box. I'm still going to unsubscribe since I can't really afford to have 2 beauty subscription boxes going and MyGlam seems to be getting better. However, Birchbox has always been a solid bet in terms of beauty subscription boxes, and I think it will continue to be in the future. If you decide you want to join after my post because the hundreds of other blog posts have somehow failed to convince you Birchbox is a good service and my post did, here's a referral link (I get points from it if you join, which I can use in their store as credit). Happy Thursday everyone!

50 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY!

Whoo, I promised you all a giveaway and here it is! I'm still working with Rafflecopter, so just ignore this post for now. But within about 5 minutes, all details will be posted! Here's pictures of the prizes. I've been going on about how great theBalm is for ages, so I thought I'd give you a chance to try their products. And I decided to throw some nail polish in their as well, just for kicks. :) These are all brand new products. This giveaway goes from now until April 30, and it is international!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NOTD ft. Zoya Ki

Wearing Zoya Ki. It's a gorgeous purple-gunmetal shade with green duochrome. Lasted about a week before chipping, I really like this polish a lot. Got this during Zoya's 2012 promo where you get 2 polishes free and only pay shipping. The other polish I got was Charla, which I will use when I hopefully get the time to paint my nails again.