The Loch Ness Monster Likes Makeup Too

Kiko is one of those brands that I've been dying to try for forever, but Kiko is kind of tough to get in the US, so I haven't been able to try it...until now. The other day, I was at the Oculus Mall in the World Trade Center, and they had a Kiko store there. I almost died of excitement (I mean, not really, but you know what I mean). Anyway, if you don't know, Kiko is an Italian cosmetic brand with fairly reasonable prices. Their products range in price from Wet n' Wild level to NYX prices. I picked up a few of their products while I was at the Kiko store, and today, I want to give you my *first impressions* (although, let's be real, I've been using this stuff for more than a week). Smart Nail Lacquer in #27 (Pearly Light Blue) - I'm back on the nail polish wagon after I fell off for a while, and I'm enjoying my return to makeup mountain. Kiko had their Smart nail polishes on sale for like $2, so, of course, I had to pick up some of their polishes....

My town recently acquired an H&M (so, basically, we have just entered the 21st century). Anyway, this was intensely exciting to me because, apparently, H&M now has a line of cosmetics. Also, you know, I like their clothes and stuff. Long story short, I swatched a ton of their new makeup and decided to pick up a few things. Full disclosure, I intended to pick up some of their face products (foundation, powder, concealer, etc.), but, after swatching them, I decided they weren't worth the money . In my opinion, all of their face products are extremely light coverage. I knew without trying them out that that wasn't going to work for me. Because I was able to swatch all the products before purchasing them, I bought the products I was most impressed with. However, over all, I would say that this cosmetic line is a mixed bag. There are some great products in this line; however, there are also a lot of products that are extremely disappointing. If you're interested in...

Last month, in my August/September nail polish favorites blog post , I talked out the issues I'm having with my nails. My nails have been really dry and damaged lately, and they've been breaking and peeling a lot. I'm trying to give my nails a break from the constant cycle of applying and removing nail polish; consequently, I left my nails bare for a few days between each polish change. So, unfortunately, I didn't get to wear too many polishes this month. However, I do still have a couple of favorite polishes to talk about. Snowcone by Orly - This polish is a favorite purely because of its formula. It has a phenomenal formula, simply phenomenal. It's opaque in one coat, and it practically applies itself. It dries quickly, doesn't run, and levels out beautifully. Ugh. If only all polishes had formulas this beautiful. The color itself isn't anything special to me (I have approximately 10 million blue polishes). However, it is a pretty polish. As you can see,...

This blog is a safe space, so I feel comfortable telling you that I have a problem -- a serious problem -- with buying nail polishes for the name. Like, I will not buy a polish -- even if I like the color -- if I don't like the name, and, if I really like the name of a polish, I will buy it even if I don't really like it/ will never wear it. Half the fun of nail polish collection releases is reading the names of all the new polishes. Themed collections are particular fun. Like, somehow or another I manage to convince myself that I need a particular nail polish because I like the name. Any nail polish brand can name any polish of any color after anything in Game of Thrones and I'll just be like, "take my money." For example, I have a polish that's named after one of my favorite characters on Game of Thrones , and I legitimately felt like I would be letting her down if I didn't buy it. Why? I don't know. I know that she's fictional, but I had to ha...

So, last month I didn't really have very many favorite nail polishes so, instead of writing a blog post about just one polish, I decided to cover both August and September in one post. I've been having a lot of issues with my nails lately; they've been peeling a lot and super brittle. Consequently, I'm trying not to change my polish as often so that I'm not constantly subjecting my nails to the stresses of nail polish remover. Unfortunately, it also means that I wasn't able to try out as many polishes this month as I would have liked to. I did have some favorites though: Mint Candy Apple by Essie - This was really my only favorite nail polish of August. It was such a busy month for me that I didn't really have as much time to play around with different polishes as I would have liked. However, this particular polish really stood out to me. As you can see in the picture, it is a gorgeous blueish green. In some lights, it looks like a Tiffany blue to me. A f...

So, I have a friend who jokingly says that she celebrates her birthday for the entire month of July. August is my birthday month, and even though I don't celebrate for anywhere near a month, I did feel like every day was my birthday this month because the makeup fairy kept visiting my house and blessed me with a fantastic birthday makeup haul! Not only did I get makeup (and nail polish) as birthday presents, I also got the standard Ulta and Sephora birthday gifts, and the Ulta platinum gifts. Plus, I got extra points on my Ulta purchases during my birthday month. Obviously, I am winning with my makeup collection this month; I literally can't imagine anything better. Mint Candy Apple by Essie - One of my friends gave me this product as an early birthday gift a few weeks ago. If you're familiar with Essie polishes, you know that Mint Candy Apple is something of a classic. It's a super pretty mint green, turquoise polish (if that even makes sense). To me, it's alm...

Lately, I've been trying to buy more "drugstore" beauty products because, obviously, they're cheaper, and I know that many of you will be more likely to try them out. I've collected a significant number of new, drugstore products, so I thought I would do a mini-haul for you. If you don't know, a "drugstore" product is usually a beauty product that can be purchased at stores like Wal-Mart, CVS, Wallgreens, Target, or the grocery store for a relatively inexpensive price. Drugstore brands usually vary in avalibility depending on where you live; however, you can typically find most drugstore products online as well. In my case, I bought all the products I'm going to discuss from Wal-Mart, Ulta (which sells a bunch of drugstore brands), and Wet n' Wild's website. Baked Blush   by Milani ($8.50) - If you live on Planet Makeup at all, you've definitely heard the hype around Milani blushes, specifically Luminoso . Well, folks, I'm here...

So, I want to try something new and different this month. Instead of doing a post about all the polishes I wore this month (as I've been doing since April), I'm restricting this post to just my favorite polishes of the month. After all, there's not much of a point to talking about polishes I didn't like. Hopefully, this will be a more helpful way of blogging about the month's nail polishes, and it will give you a better idea of the polishes I was truly impressed by. Let me know in the comments if you prefer this format! Anyway, without further ado, here are my favorite nail polishes for July: Virgin Snow by Essie - My first favorite of this month is one of my favorite Essie polishes ever. In fact, it's the only nail polish I own a backup of. (I bought the backup after KathleenLights talked about it because it was a limited edition polish, and everything KathleenLights talks about goes out of stock immediately). Anyway, for me, this polish is the perfect li...

So, if you're a nail polish junkie like me, you've probably heard of Essie's new line of Gel Couture polishes . I was really excited to try these polishes, so I picked one up a couple of weeks ago during Ulta's 20% off sale for Platinum members. In case you haven't heard, this line of polishes is being marketed as Essie's enhanced, long lasting, gel-but-not-gel line of polishes (similar to OPI's Infinite Shine 2 Lacquer line and Butter London's Patent Shine 10X Lacquer). Essie's Gel Couture is supposed to last up to 14 days without chipping, there is no light required, and it comes off with regular polish remover. It's also available in 42 shades , which gives you a good range of polishes to pick from. I have sort of mixed experience with these sorts of products; for example, I wasn't the biggest fan of OPI's Infinite Shine, but I love Butter London's Patent Shine. I decided to only buy one of Essie's Gel Couture polishes to s...

So, today, in honor of the 4th of July, I created a patriotic, red-white-and-blue manicure. I wanted to share it with you, even though I probably should have posted it a few days ago so that someone could actually have worn it for the 4th. Whatever, I don't plan ahead. Patriotic Nails Anyway, this is a very simple manicure because I was in a bit of a rush today, and I didn't want to mess with anything complicated. For this manicure, I used three polishes. You could use any red, white, and blue polishes for this manicure, but this is what I used: 1) Right Said Red by Sally Hansen 2) White On by Sally Hansen 3) Sailor by Zoya When selecting your polishes, I advise picking a blue-toned red (as opposed to an orange or yellow toned red). A red polish that has too much orange in it will look wonky next to blue. Similarly, I advise choosing a nice, deep blue for your blue polish. I picked Zoya's Sailor because it's a lovely, dark navy. I advise avoiding light bl...