NOTW: Zoya Carey

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy."~ Anne Frank

HELLO LOVIES! I am finally back and ready to get started on my new blogging schedule. A couple of days after posting my new blog ideas and what not I ended up getting sick and I am barely getting over it. Not trying to make excuses but I am wanting to let you all know what was going on.

SO! For this Nail of the week look I decided to keep it simple and pastel! I have recently started loving pastel colors more than usual. I ordered 3 Zoya polishes from Birchbox since at that time they were offering free shipping and I had never tried Zoya polishes but had heard great things about them. This is one of the colors that I purchased. I believe it is from their Fall/Winter Collection.

I must say I absolutely LOVE this color! It is a perfect pastel purple color. I would say it is lavendar but it seems to have more of the grey to it. The picture is with 2 coats of product. I love the formula of it, it was just the perfect consistancy. Drying time was about 2 minutes, which is not too bad. I think this is the perfect color for this time of the year, its not winter but not spring quite yet, its in between.

I would recommend this to anyone that is into the pastel colors or wants a totally different hue of purple. LOVE!



Love,

Espy

Wet 'n' Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Collection Review~Comfort Zone

"Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in the mirror."~ Khalil Gibran 

So a couple of days ago I took a late night trip to my local Wal*Mart in search for something interesting and new. Like usual I made my way to the makeup section thinking maybe a new nail polish is what I needed. To my surprise I ended up leaving the store with a Wet 'n' Wild purchase. I picked up the Coloricon Eyeshadow collection in Petal Pusher. I have heard many great things about these palettes that I decided it was time for me to see what all the rave was about.

Comfort Zone is a palette with 8 Earth tone colors. This palette lives up to its name because all of these colors remind me of nice simple looks and staying within your comfort zone of either look or colors. It is perfect for a lunch date, work, or a just because moment. The eyeshadows are split into 2 categories with browbone, eyelid, crease, and definer stamped in them, which is clever. The two categories are split for daytime and nighttime looks. I may be wrong but that is how I interpret it. Now just because they are split into two different categories or have labels on them does not mean you cant mix and match colors and create your own unique look.

The shadows themselves are very pigmented and have amazing color payoff. A few of the colors in this palette are super soft, so if you are a beginner you may want to go very very lightly on this. A plus on some colors being soft is that it teaches you to build up the color versus putting way too much on at once. Like I mentioned before the color pay off of this palette is amazing and the fact that it will look good on any skin tone or with any eye color is a plus as well. My only minor complaint is that all the colors are shimmer and there are no matte tones. Which at the same time is okay because you can tone down all the shimmer with some matte blushes.

The picture above shows the first set of colors. The first color (left to right) is a nice beige color. It is very light so it works great as a browbone color or a color to place on the inner corner of the eye. Next you have a coppery peach tone. This is a very soft shade so you will want to build this one up a little at a time. The third color is a a light brown tone followed by a dark brown shade with red glitters in it. Gorgeous colors! 

Now onto the second set of colors. The first color is a nice shimmery taupe color. Following the shimmer taupe color is a very nice foresty green. I want to say that this green is one of my favorites from this palette. Next you have a black shadow with a lot of gold glitters. The last color is a very nice brown with red undertones. Its one of those colors that I find difficult to describe but none the less its gorgeous. 

For the swatches I only had to build up one color with is the beige tone from the first set. Other than that all the other colors were so pigmented only a swipe of my finger was needed to get the swatches. Now onto the packaging itself. The packaging is plastic, which is durable and not flimsy at all. Included with the eight shadows you get a double ended applicator. One end has a sponge tip and the other a brush. I feel this to be very worthless because I cant find any use for it to be honest. 

This specific palette to me is a great go to palette. I have nothing but good things to say about this palette and for the price its a steal!!!

RATING:

Packaging: 5/5

Product: 4/5

Quality: 5/5

Price: $4.69 (any drugstore :) )

Would I buy again?: Oh yes!!!

Overall: 4.9/5

Ulta Cosmetics Review

A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power. ~ George Meredith

So I recently did an online purchase on the Ulta website. I had gotten an email on a deal they had at the moment. If you have an Ulta membership card and get/read their emails you probably remember this deal. The deal was to purchase $17.50 in Ulta brand makeup and you received a free makeup bag of your choice with 17 pieces of Ulta cosmetics. I have never tried on the Ulta brand makeup since we recently got an Ulta in our town so this to me seemed like a great deal and opportunity. An opportunity to try more than one Ulta brand cosmetic. 

For this being my first online purchase from Ulta I was very impressed. Not only with the cosmetics but with the shipping time. Whenever I purchase anything from Sephora online it take over a week to get here since I live close to Montana. However with the Ulta purchase it was here in a little less than a week. I was really impressed with that. Now onto what I purchased and my free items.

Like I had mentioned before, in order to get the free makeup bag I had to purchase $17.50 in Ulta brand cosmetics so I decided that I really wanted to try out their blushes. Most of the blushes I own have some shimmer to them and I was really wanting to get some that were matte. I was also wanting to get a lipstick in a bright color. Below are the 3 blushes I purchased and the bigger one is one of the free products that came in my makeup bag. On the top left there is Girlie and right besides it is Sweet Cheeks. The bottom left is the free blush or Cheek Color in Afternoon Delight and right besides it Afterglow. 

Now just looking at the blushes in the picture you can tell that some have shimmer in them. Mind you I was in search of matte blushes. Well to my discovery when my order arrived only one blush was matte, Girlie. I decided to keep them anyways because the colors were really nice. I must say that the online pictures do not do them justice.

The picture above is a little swatch of the blushes. From left to right we have the free blush Afternoon Delight, Girlie, Afterglow, and Sweet Cheeks. Now onto my review and lets start with the free blush I got. Afternoon Delight is a very creamy and shimmery peach color. This I found perfect to use as a highlight for the cheeks or to put in the inner corner of your eye to give it a nice pop of color. It is a very pigmented color so I usually apply it with my finger. 

Girlie is a nice matte pink tone. This particular blush is not extremely pigmented but it still gives that nice summer glow. I do get a slight smell and it smells very powdery but it is not powdery at all. 

Afterglow is one of my favorite blushes from the four that I have been using this almost every single day. Once again it is a pink tone but it is darker and has shimmer. This is more pigmented than Girlie and the shimmer is subtle  This is a very good color that would look good on any skin tone. 

Sweet Cheeks is a shimmer dark pink blush. This one I like to use whenever I want to get a natural glow. It is summer time and I did get really really dark so this is the closest to a summer glow color that I could find. 

Overall the colors are amazing but do not let the online color fool you. Online it lacks the description so you are not sure if what you are purchasing is a matte or shimmery blush. I would recommend to go into the store and look at them first. I still like these colors regardless of the matte or shimmer finish.

Now onto the lipsticks. I purchased on and the other one was a free lipstick that came in the makeup bag. 

The lipstick on the left was the free one in Iced Cappuccino. The one on the right is the lipstick I purchased in Fuchsia Fever. I did swatches on the white paper but here are the swatches on my skin.

Starting with Fuchsia Fever. This color is a bight deep pinkish red color. It is so smooth and glides on so easily. It also has a subtle smell of fruit in my opinion. Although it glides on so easy it rubs off as easy too. I don't really mind that because it is so smooth when you apply it. Now the Iced Cappuccino is also a color that glides on easily and looks great on any skin tone just like the Fuchsia Fever. The Iced Cappuccino does have a subtle smell that is not pleasant. I cannot describe the smell but I don't like it at all. Other than that I cant complain much because it was a free lipstick and no one can argue with free, right? 

The free makeup bag came in three different colors that you could pick from. There was True Blue, Natural Wonder, and Wild Side. Once again if you got in on this deal you will probably recognize the lip stick to come from the True Blue collection.  

I think the makeup bag can double as a clutch too but its all up to you.

Now onto the eyeshadows. The free 17 piece bag comes with 2 quads. Depending on what bag you choose you get a certain color of eyeshadows. 

This is one of the quads that came with the bag. Starting once again with the top two from left to right its Polished & Black Ink. Right underneath them from left to right is Truffle and Smoke. Now one thing that I noticed from both quads is that the names on the back of them are switched around. I actually had to go online to find out which name went to which color. 

As you can tell from the swatch these colors are all shimmer colors and very very well pigmented. I did find one small problem with it they are just slightly hard to blend. It took me twice as long to blend the colors but they look great on. This quad is perfect for a smokey eye. It consists of manly browns with the one black shimmer color. 

The second quad I received is also a great quad for a blue smokey eye. 

From the top row left to right there is Moonbeam & Sapphire. Underneath them from left to right there is Silk & Peacock. Both quads come with the sponge tip applicators brush and a really small mirror. 

These set of colors are extremely pigmented and creamy. They are shimmery as well and combined make a perfect night time smokey eye. I have nothing bad to say about their eyeshadows and I am looking forward to trying more out and maybe matte eyeshadows from them. 

Also for free a dual ended eye liner with Black on one side and Indigo on the other. 

These are extremely smooth and glide on easily however I do not feel like they are quite as pigmented and don't have quite as much staying power as my other eyeliners but these do work okay.

Along with the dual ended eye liner it came with another dual ended lip & eye liner in the color Mink and Deep Brown.

Mink is a nice red brown color and dark brown is well dark brown. They also glide on easily and are pigmented.

In the picture above from left to right we have black, indigo, mink, and dark brown.

There was a dual ended lip gloss in Lovely and Princess.

Princess is the color on the left and it is a sheer pink color. The one on the right is Lovely which is a nice brown color. I found these lip glosses to work well and not be sticky at all. These can be worn alone or on top of lip stick to give it a nice shimmer and pop. Personally I love to wear both of the colors alone.

Also included in the makeup bag was a small fingernail polish. Its in the color Diva.

This color is very very sheer and has a subtle subtle hint of glitter. Looking at the bottle it is a pink color with tons of glitter, but like I said before, once you apply it you can see it is very very sheer. You do get a subtle hint of pink and glitter when the light hits it just right. I found this perfect if you want to do a french manicure and have the all over nail color be glittery. I used this on my goddaughter and she absolutely loved it! 

I also received a a free mascara and 3 free brushes. The mascara is in Jet Black and its their Lash Blow Out. I have not yet used the mascara so I can not give a full on review of it yet.

 The three piece brush set is an angled blush brush, a sponge tip applicator brush, and an eyeshadow brush.

These brushes are okay. The angled blush brush does shed a bit and its not the best out there but once again for free I can not complain. I do use it a lot for applying my blush. The sponge tip applicator I have not used at all. The only use I have for them is to pack on color. The eyeshadow brush is not bad. I have mostly used this to apply  loose pigments and glitter since I noticed it does not do so well with eyeshadows. 

Over all I am content with my purchase and would recommend almost everything to my friends and family.I am looking forward to purchasing more Ulta brand cosmetics and writing more reviews on them since I noticed that when I myself was looking for Ulta brand cosmetic reviews I only found a few. Hope this is helpful to all of you. More reviews to come soon :)

Price List:

*Ulta Cheek Color (Afterglow, Girlie, Sweet Cheeks) $7.00 (Ulta)

*Ulta Lipstick (Fuchsia Fever): $8.00 (Ulta)

*Ulta Eyeshadows-(These are not sold in quads but individual full size) $7.00 (Ulta)

*Ulta Lash Blow Out Mascara: $10.00 (Ulta)

*Lip liner & eye liner sold individually and full sized: $8.00 each (Ulta)

Kat Von D Truth Palette Review

"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart."-Kahlil Gibran

So I recently went into my local Sephora and purchased the newest palette that Kat Von D launched. I will  be honest, I have never purchased anything from Kat Von D's makeup collection. Love her tattoo artistry but didn't think I would really like her makeup. Boy was I wrong! I think this palette is just amazing! 

This palette is a limited edition palette. For those who are not familiar with her line, her permanent cosmetics are packaged in a black case and her limited edition are in white. Now onto the design of it. I love the design of the front of the palette. It has vintage keys that of course were designed by Kat Von D herself. I must say that this is what caught my eye and what was inside just convinced me in making this purchase. The Truth palette does come with eight eyeshadows that to me are perfect for Spring & Summer looks. 

Now getting more into the eyeshadows themselves, this palette comes with 8 eye shadows and two double ended brushes. I personally do not like the brushes. They don't really work well for apply and blending the eye shadows but do work well for lip brushes. The eight eye shadows come in different finishes. A few are matte, there is a cream eye shadow, and some shimmer finishes too. In the case the colors look absolutely amazing and look like they are creamy and well pigmented. Another reason I purchased this palette is because I noticed that this eyeshadow palette is perfect for people on the go, which I am always in a hurry so I find it perfect for me. Another observation I had on this palette is that the colors are designed to compliment each other. So this is also a perfect palette for people beginning to experiment with using more then one or two eyeshadows. 

This is a swatch of the first four sets of color. As you can tell they are very pigmented and would look flattering on different skin tones. From left to right the colors are Sugar Skull ( a shimmer beige color), Long Distance ( a shimmer yellow-green), Snake Eyes ( a shimmer lime green), and Finland ( a aqua cream eyeshadow). 

These are the last set of four eyeshadows. These I think will make those gorgeous baby brown eyes pop and give an amazing hint of color to blue & green eyes. Once again they are very pigmented and creamy. From left to right the colors are Prague ( a matte plum color), Galeano ( shimmer lavander), Rehab (shimmer goldent tan), and Sister ( matte peach color). 

Like I said before I am very happy with my first Kat Von D purchase. The colors are very well pigmented and just creamy. They are very easy to blend and do stay true to their color. Over all the colors will complement every skin tone and help you create various romantic and dramatic looks. I would definitely recommend this product and I am looking forward to doing more purchases from the Kat Von D collection. 

Product Info:

Kat Von D Truth Palette- $34 (Sephora)