Thursday, March 21, 2013

A's Birthday Giveaway!

One month from today, my oldest turns 4. FOUR! I can't believe it's been 4 years already! She's growing up so fast. Anyway, since we celebrated B turning 1, back in November, with a giveaway, it's only fair to do the same for A's birthday!

For this one, the lovely and talented Laura of Ruby White Tips has donated four of her polishes to give away to one lucky reader!





You are entering to win Ruby White Tips "The Polish With No Name, Only A Number" "Seven", Mermaid Dreams, Custom Made, and Fly to the Moon.

The Rules:
                 US and Canada only, so International ladies :(
                 You must be 18 to enter.
                 The first four entries MUST be completed, or ALL of your entries will be voided - I will be verifying, so be honest!
                 Ends on A's birthday, Sunday April 21 at midnight EST
                 Winner will be emailed and have 24 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen


Good luck!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Body by Mersado Body Butter

Hey everyone, welcome back! Today I have for you a review I meant to do a few weeks ago, but with everyone being so sick that I didn't get around to blogging at all, so here it is. Better late than never!

I don't know about you, but winter has been brutal on my skin! Coupled with the fact that I don't drink nearly enough water, so much so that I border on dehydration most of the time, my skin is dry. And itchy. I have not found a single commercial lotion that keeps my skin hydrated and itch-free, and I generally do not like body butters as I can't handle feeling greasy. Finally, one day, at the end of my rope, I asked a group of fabulous beauty bloggers for suggestions of good lotions to help my dry skin because I was tired of wasting money on stuff that just didn't work! That's when the lovely Mercedes, the blogger behind Beyond Beauty Lounge offered to whip me up a sample of her body butter from her Body By Mersado line.



Here is what I received. (Note: I'm not showing the packaging, because it is a sample container, not what you would be getting when you buy from her). Let me tell you, I am loving this body butter! I have been using it for a few weeks now, and it really does last all day! In fact, when I hop into the shower, the NEXT morning, once the water hits my body, there is a burst of fragrance from the moisturizer, so I know it's still on my skin.

Okay, details! First, this body butter has only six ingredients. Six! No need for all the chemicals and such that is put into commercial moisturizers. I love that I can recognize every ingredient in there, so I know it's healthy for my skin. This body butter contains shea butter, olive oil, sweet almond oil, castor oil, beeswax, and fragrance. That's it!

Second, miraculously, this body butter does not leave my skin feeling the slightest bit greasy. In fact, I just rubbed some into my hands about 10 minutes ago, and there is no trace of oiliness on my keyboard right now. When I touch my skin, all I feel is soft silky skin.

This body butter is a butter, not a whipped creamy lotion, it's fairly solid-ish, and, as you can see in the pictures, it's a little...not gritty, but it does have a texture to it, and I know from my soap-making days, that this is perfectly normal when using solid oils such as shea butter. It's from the oils heating and cooling, not just in the cooking process, but also if it gets warm in your mailbox, or in your steamy bathroom. Here's how I apply it:



First, I dig out a small amount of body butter. A little goes a long way with this, so start small. I use about this much.

Then, I rub my hands together vigorously until it's all melted (doesn't take long). My hands then look like this:


Then rub my hands wherever I want to put the moisturizer. I do this four times. Once for each leg (I'm 6 feet tall, it's a lot of leg), once for mid-section, once for my arms.

Viola! Done!

I do need to mention that my particular sample is very heavily scented, I can smell myself all day, though A says I smell really good, and my mom assures me she can barely smell me. Anyway, I have spoken with Mercedes about this, and she has assured me that future batches would be less heavily fragranced, she happened to be trying out a new fragrance oils from a new supplier.

If you would like to purchase some Body by Mersado for yourself, visit her shop here. She also carries cuticle butters, whipped hand cream, and a nail growth serum, so check it out. I highly recommend the body butter, I will be purchasing more in the future for sure!

Til next time!
-Kara

Product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Saturday Swatch Spam

Hey everyone, I'm sorry for the lack of blog posts lately, between midterms and one by one each of us getting sick, it's been a struggle to get anything done. So, as usual when I take a bit of a blog break, I'm back with some swatch spam for you! I hope you enjoy!



First up, we have Rock Me Amadeus by Nostalgic Nail Lacquer. This one is from their New Wave Winter Collection, so I don't believe it's available anymore. It's a beautiful white crelly packed with purple, maroon, aqua and black squares and hexes. Have I mentioned how much I love square glitter?  A lot. That's how much. This polish became an instant favorite. I believe this was 3 coats, no undies. The formula is fantastic, and, as you can see, so is the glitter payoff.



Next is a beautiful polish from one of my favorite Indie brands. Say hello to Baby Girl by Lacquerhead. You may have noticed, I don't do much pink. I love pink on other people, but it just never seems to look right on me with my skin tone. But this? This is a pink I can do! Baby Girl is a light pink crelly with pink and purple hexes of various sizes. This is 2 coats, no undies.


Next is Burrrberry from Jindie Nail's Winter Chic collection. Similar to Rock Me Amadeus (apparently, I have a type?), Burrrberry is a white crelly with several sizes of "berry colored" (ie raspberry, blueberry, blackberry - according to Jindie's listing). I can't remember if this is 2 or 3 coats, no undies. As you can see, the glitter payoff is good, I didn't do any fishing for the larger glitters. This is a gorgeous polish.


This beauty is NailNation3000 Vincenzo, hands down, my favorite of all of my holos! This picture is taken indoors in artificial light - no flash! 2 easy coats, no topcoat. Check out those rainbows!


And yet, more Laquerheads! I LOVE this polish, and I apologize for not getting it on the blog before Valentines Day, it would have been perfect, but alas, I didn't. So, yeah. Moving on. This is Lacquerhead's Bless Your Heart, a simple beauty, BYH is a white crelly with various sizes of red hexes and red hearts. Gorgeous! No, I love this polish as is, but I couldn't help but add my beloved Lacquerhead jellies to it...


...so this is Bless Your Heart topped with Orange You Jelly, Cherry Bomb, Plum Crazy, and Blueberry Yum-Yum. I love love love these jellies! After sharing this photo on Lacquerhead's facebook page, she was inspired to continue the rainbow and make a green jelly she named Green Apple. Amazingly, I was able to snag one of the very few bottles she made, but in a tragic turn of events, the same day it arrived, my cat knocked it off the shelf and Green Apple shattered all over the floor. A moment of silence for a fallen beauty...


And finally, this is one of my most recent acquisitions, Smitten Polish Pink Goes Good With Green. From the moment I saw this, I knew it had to be mine. Pink Goes Good With Green is a gorgeous milky green crelly with various sizes of light green, light pink, and a pinky-purple glitters. I love this polish, and I got tons of complements on it the day I wore it to school, it's definitely unique to my collection, which it gets extra bonus points for! Application was a breeze, and this was two coats, no undies.

I hope you enjoyed this Saturday Swatch Spam, and I hope the multitude of pretties makes up for my absence. We all seem to be well again, and I'm feeling confidant I will be able to dive right back into blogging regularly!

Til next time!
-Kara