Meet the Love of my Life

Three posts in ONE day! Wow, such a rareity with me. But upon looking through my pics for posts I ran into the adorable face of my Chihuahua/Mini Pinscher mixed puppy. He just turned 6 months and now weighs 5lbs 3oz....what a fatty.

I'll be MIA for a couple of days. My cousin and I are heading to San Antonio, Texas to go see New Kids On The Block/Backstreet Boys concert. LMAO, I still can't believe my cousin convinced me to go. But at least I'll get to see my 10yr old crush...Donnie Wahlberg from the SECOND ROW. I totally just dated myself. Oh well, NKOTB/BSB here I come!

So Close, Yet so far - Chanel Quartz, Sephora by OPI Already Famous, Afterthougths Racer Brown

After seeing various posts of Chanel's last fall 2011 nail colors, I like everyone else, could not wait to go and buy Peridot (which I did). But the quiet and demure Quartz was the one that really caught my eye. It reminded me of my favorite nail polish that I wore almost everyday my freshman year of high school. I bought it from a mall boutique Afterthoughts (I think they were bought out by the company that owns Icing. Don't quote me on this, I have no idea really). I was obsessed with brown. Brown eyeshadow, brown lipstick, brown accessories...what was I thinking?

So I immediately jumped at buying Racer Brown. A beautiful taupey brown with a subtle silver frost.  And it was love at first swatch. It looked so nice against my skin tone. And I constantly had compliments whenever I wore it. The head cheerleader even became my friend after I manicured her nasty talons with it. She in turn introduced me to my Senior crush who became my Senior boyfriend for a magical two months (ha!).   What more can you ask for from a lightly frosted brown nail polish?

Afterthoughts - Racer Brown, no topcoat

Sadly, my love affair with Racer Brown slowly faded when I discovered that glitter polish looked best over purple, blue and black. I tried my best to dupe Chanel's Ciel de Nuit (so THAT'S where it all started) layering my 99 cent glitter polish over any navy blue polish I could find.

It is now old and the formula lacks what it once was. Its now stringy and streaky and smells funny. I even tried to salvage it by thinning it and I have yet to be successful. I still cannot part with it. I almost did this past April during Zoya's Earth Day Exchange. Almost.

So when I saw the posts of Quartz, I thought I had found my long awaited Racer Brown doppelganger.




Afterthoughts - Racer Brown, Chanel - Quartz, Sephora by OPI - Already Famous

I was mistaken, pleasantly mistaken, but mistaken nonetheless. Racer Brown leans more red while Quartz leans more gray. I compared Quartz to Sephora by OPI - Already Famous. While it's not a dupe at all, it might satisfy your lemming of Quartz and save you $15. In the above picture, the label around the Chanel bottle distorts the color. If you enlarge the picture and compare the two bottles from above the label, you will see the colors look like a very close match.

As you can see from this above picture, Already Famous is much more gold and obviously more shimmery than Quartz. I have to say that the swatch on the pinky is not at all what the color looks like. On the pinky it looks out right gold, it is not. Swatch on middle finger is more true to its color.



Left - Chanel Quartz, Right - Sephora by OPI Already Famous

That is also true for Quartz, the swatch on the pointer finger is more true to color than the ring finger. So if you look at the pointer finger and the middle finger, you will have a better idea just how close they are.

And of course you have Racer Brown on the Thumb which sticks out, well, like a sore thumb. HA!

But I absolutely love Quartz. It's a lovely shade that seems to love my skin tone. And the formula was great. Completely opaque in two coats! But I will predict, come fall, we will see a lot more options for dupes on this one.

And for those of you wondering, no I haven't swatched Peridot yet. It's so pretty in the bottle that I'm afraid to use it all up. :-)

Deal of the Week: Tarte- Glow Your Way to Gorgeous

I came across this deal on YouTube and had to share it with you. It started last week and will continue this week until Saturday 7/2/11. After which the price will go up.

Right now on qvc.com you can get this 8 piece gift set for $49.92 (until July 2). This gift set includes, a blush color that has not been released yet and a concealer that has also not been released. Plus as a gift, QVC will add in a bronzer and pure maracuja oil. In your gift set comes:

Purple Bag
Maracuja Creaseless Concealer
- Available in: Fair, Light, Medium, Deep, and Tan
Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush- Peaceful
EmphasEYES Amazonian Clay Waterproof Eyeshadow
SmolderEYES Amazonian Clay Waterproof Eyeliner
Lights, Camera, Lashes! Mascara
Lip Surgence - Sweet
Eyeshadow Bamboo Brush
Blush Bamboo Brush
Bronzer- Park Avenue Princess
Pure Maracuja Oil

ALL FOR $49.92! And yes, they are full sizes. You will be saving a lot of money. Here is the video that I saw with this deal. The video will show you swatches and have a more in depth description. I'm planning on purchasing two of these. One for myself, and one as a gift.

Will you purchase one?

Review: JewelMint

I don't know how many of you have heard about JewelMint. I thought I would post the above video since it can more accurately describe the program. It's very similar to ShoeDazzle and JustFab.com. I personally like to be able to look at jewelry in person so I can feel it and see whether it is worth my hard earned money. And once I do purchase a piece of jewelry, I wear it every day until I get sick of it. But I found a promo code floating around and thought I would try it out.

Shipping is really good. I received my package in a little less than a week. I was really surprised to open my mailbox and find this staring back at me so soon after I placed my order:

The jewelry comes in a lovely box that is ideal for gift-giving. It even has a magnetic closer on the front to keep it secure. I still store my piece in this box:

Inside the box you'll find a small description of your piece of jewelry on the inside flap and your jewelry will be inside a velvet bag. It's so nice how much thought has gone into the packaging of this product.

I ordered the Black Keys Bracelet because it appealed to the art deco lover in me and I've never seen anything out there quite like it. I did take some pictures wearing it on my arm. But unfortunately I wasn't able to take one that didn't make my arm look like it belonged to a hairy beast. So these pictures will have to do:

I really do like this bracelet. I have already worn this with many different styles and to different types of events. Its elegant yet edgy at the same time, and very modern.

My only issues with this particular bracelet was it felt a little too light for my liking. And because of the design of the bracelet, the clasp was difficult to find and operate when trying to take it off.

So far, I'm liking JewelMint as a company and I would like to purchase a few more items before I can fully give an opinion on the quality of the jewelry itself. I really see myself buying more jewelry for gifts for birthdays and holidays. This is the next piece of jewelry I'm thinking of buying:


Odyssey Necklace

Love it, Love it, Love it. It reminds me of the necklace from House of Harlow that everyone has, but I won't be spending THAT on it. I can see myself wearing this summer throughout fall. Its so versatile.

As of this post, both pieces of jewelry are available for $30. BUT right now if you use code "HARLOW50", you can get these at 50% off. Knowing that I can get a beautiful piece of jewelry for 15$ bucks just makes my day.

Deal of the Week: Stila Buy One Get One FREE

Look at what I found in my inbox:

BUY ONE GET ONE FREE THIS WEEK (until June 17th at midnight) AT STILA.COM!!! And you get free shipping with any purchase over $50. If you aren't planning on spending that much on Stila, invite a friend to combine your purchases. I'm so excited, I don't know where to begin. I think I might snatch some of those Stila eyeshadows like the one I got from my Birchbox. I try to wear it everyday because I love it so much.

What will you get?

Random Mani and M.I.A update

Wet N Wild - Ocean Grotto

I'm back! I'm sorry to my prolonged absence. Unfortunately for me, my job actually gets very busy once summer starts. I've been averaging on a couple hrs of sleep a night. But I still manage to read all other blogs.

I have a couple of reviews all ready to go, so be on the look out for that. I'm also going to have a small give-away to accompany one of those reviews. I'm really excited about that being that it will be my first, and lets be honest, I need more subscribers (I only have one right now, who I adore! Thank you Olivia!).
I also have another Battle of the Brands coming up and a new segment inspired by one of my favorite bloggers.  And if any of you lovely readers have any ideas, let me know. I welcome any and all suggestions.

Wet N Wild - Ocean Grotto with one thin layer of Sally Hansen HD - Spectrum

 I hope everyone is having a great summer!