Wednesday, April 29, 2015

April Favorites!

Hey everyone! I can't believe it's going to be May by the end of the week, kinda feels like April didn't even happen. At least it's finally warming up.

To start off my monthly favorites I've got my favorite food. Earlier in the month I told you guys about the build your own cake from Max Brenner and I'd have to say it was one of my favorite things I ate all month. So good! I mean, it's chocolate cake so how bad could it be? ;)

Yummy!

My fashion favorite is a super comfy pair of slip ons from Target. I actually bought these at the Target store at first for $25 and then saw them on Target.com for $8! So I returned the ones from the store and ordered the pair from online. I love a good deal.


I've got two favorite beauty products this month. The first is the Freeman mint & lemon clay mask, which is said to control oil and breakouts. First of all, this stuff smells amazing. Super fresh and not overly minty. I use it two to three times a week so I don't dry out my face. I like to put it on about 10 minutes before I hop in the shower and then rinse it off and follow it with my toner and moisturizer.


My second favorite is the Lorac Pro palette. I know, I know I'm totally behind on the Lorac Pro train but I've been so in love with my Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette for the past year that I didn't have room in my heart for another palette! I recently had some Amazon gift cards to use up so I decided to order the Lorac Pro and my heart found a second love. These shadows are so smooth and buttery and ughhhh I just love how they offer both matte and shimmer shades. The packaging is nice and slim which makes it perfect for travel. You'll have all the colors you need for day and night looks! It also comes with a deluxe sample of their eyeshadow primer.



My favorite polish this month is of course Marc Jacobs Wine Not. It is a stunning pomegranate metallic shimmer that will dazzle you when you see it in the sun. This beauty seriously glows! You can still get this at Sephora.com, but it is limited edition and for VIB Rouge members only so just keep that in mind.


My favorite mani would have to be my Essie Urban Jungle with the rose stud and the refreshed version too! The first is super simple and classy and the second has a bit of a fun twist.


That does it for April. I'm looking forward to doing a lot of bright and fun nail designs for May! See you on Friday with my weekend mani.

xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, April 27, 2015

Essie Urban Jungle & Rose Refreshed

Hey everyone! Did you have a good weekend? The BF and I went out to Carmine's for dinner with his parents on Saturday. If you aren't familiar, Carmine's is an Italian family style restaurant that serves all the food family style. We had caesar salad, broccoli, chicken parm, and rigatoni alla vodka. Everything was so good! Then I was in a food coma for the rest of the night.

I've been loving having Essie Urban Jungle on my nails so much that I decided to keep it on and give it a little refresh for mani Monday. I did take off the rose stud because with all the hand washing and stuff at school I didn't think it would survive. I did a hand painted rose instead and left the green rhinestones. I also added white polka dots and then some glitter on my index finger.




I love when I can recycle a mani and get a few more days out of it. Hope you all have a great start to the week!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Saturday, April 25, 2015

MidWest Lacquer: Party Like It's 1981

Hey everyone! You've seen me use nail vinyls and decals from Vinyl It Up in a bunch of my manicures. Well Lizzie, the wonderful lady who makes all these awesome creations, is now starting her own 5-Free nail polish line called MidWest Lacquer. When she reached out to me and asked if I'd like to swatch some of the collection I couldn't say yes fast enough.

Her very first collection is called Party Like It's 1981. I'm not an 80s gal myself (I was born in the 90s), but I'm a huge fan of these polishes! In this collection you'll find four super bright neon cremes and two glitter toppers. The formula was easy to work with, not streaky at all. Two coats for full opacity!

Bottle shot provided by Midwest Lacquer. From left to right What's Your Damage?, Like, For Sure, Tripendicular, Aloha, Mr. Hand, Hello McFly, Truly Outrageous

First up we have Truly Outrageous, a bright purple creme that leans orchid. I absolutely love this one! I'll definitely be rocking it this summer.




Next is What's Your Damage?, a bright blue creme. The formula makes it a dream to apply in two coats. I don't normally wear blue polish but this one is awesome.




Last up is a black and white glitter topper called Aloha, Mr. Hand. It is filled with black, white, and silver dots, hexes, and squares with ultra fine black and silver holo glitters with a bit of aqua and purple shimmer. This would look amazing over any of the polishes from the collection. The shimmer really makes it special!




This awesome collection will be making its debut tomorrow, April 26th, at http://vinylitup.storenvy.com/. Full size polishes will be available for $8.50 a bottle and mini bottles for $4.50. You can also pick up some vinyls, decals, stencils, and even cuticle oil pens! Hope you go check it out and let me know what you end up getting!

xoxo,
   Brooke

Friday, April 24, 2015

Essie Urban Jungle & Rose Stud

Happy Friday! Today's post is coming a little later than usual because of my hectic week. I had my last teaching observation today (I think it went well!) so my focus all week has been on that, leaving my nails feeling a bit unloved.

I decided to use an all time favorite, Essie Urban Jungle. I would describe it as an almost nude that looks off white in some lights and very light pink in others. Two coats will get you to full opacity and the formula is easy to work with. That pretty little three dimensional silver rose and the green rhinestones are from Born Pretty Store.





I am absolutely in love with this mani! So simple and classy. I am a liiiiittle bit worried about the flowers staying on so I'm sticking a small bottle of top coat in my purse for the weekend just in case. Hope you all have a great weekend!

xoxo,
   Brooke



Disclaimer: The product in this post was provided for my honest review by the Born Pretty Store. All opinions are my own.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Covergirl XL Nail Gel Ample Apple

Hey everyone! I hope you had a chance to get outside this weekend because Saturday was absolutely gorgeous. The BF and I had a yummy brunch at The Smith near Lincoln Center and then spent a few hours at Central Park. Oh, and there was froyo involved. Unfortunately the weather this week isn't going to be so wonderful, which is why I chose a bright polish to cheer me up!

I picked up CoverGirl XL Nail Gel in the shade Ample Apple at Ulta a while back. I found it in the clearance bin for like $2.00 and I had been eyeing it for a while so it was a great score for me! Ample Apple is a luscious bright red jelly. I used three coats here and still have some VNL, but since it's a jelly I can't really complain. This color just makes me feel sassy as hell, especially with the nail studs from Born Pretty Store. You can find them at this link. They come in a convenient wheel with a bunch of other sizes in both gold and silver.




I have a few other fun goodies from Born Pretty Store, which you'll be seeing in some upcoming manicures. When you place an order with BPS make sure you use my discount code ASYW10 for 10% off!

xoxo,
   Brooke



Disclaimer: The product in this post was provided for my honest review by the Born Pretty Store. All opinions are my own.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Marc Jacobs Wine Not

Hey everyone! Holy cow the week went by fast. I heard that after spring break the days feel longer but the weeks feel shorter. Kind of crazy that there are only ten weeks of school left or something like that. I can smell summer!

Onto the nails because today's mani is far more exciting than anything else. I recently was able to get my hands on the limited edition Marc Jacobs Wine Not. This polish made its debut at the Marc Jacobs Collection Spring 2015 runway show. You can only get it at Sephora.com and it's only for VIB Rouge members (rude!) but a member of a nail polish FB group I'm in was nice enough to order it for me. I have literally been drooling over this polish for weeks and there are basically no swatches of it ANYWHERE, not even on Instagram! I know it's not a "spring" color, but I had to put it on.

Wine Not is described as a pomegranate metallic shimmer. UGH. It is so beautiful! These photos are taken in artificial lighting and even in that setting my nails are glowing. I can't imagine how gorgeous this polish will look in the sun. I'll definitely add a couple more photos once I get outside. The dots were made with Marc Jacobs Gatsby.






PS, that logo in the corner is my newly updated design! I did a play on the nail polish emoji. I hope you all like it! Have a great weekend and enjoy the warm weather.

*Edit* I came back to share a couple photos of Wine Not in the sunlight, but I'm telling you that photos do not do this polish justice. It's just stunning.



xoxo,
   Brooke

Monday, April 13, 2015

Zoya Kendal

Happy Manicure Monday! Did you all have a good weekend? The BF and I had an epic date night on Saturday. We did tapas for dinner and went to see Furious 7, which was a little silly for my taste but he loved all the action and whatnot. After that we went to Max Brenner for dessert and, as I'm sure you already know, my love for this place is undying. We ordered a "build your own cake," which was on the specials menu. It came with three stacks of devil's food cake, chocolate frosting, rainbow sprinkles, choco-pops, milk chocolate ganache, and chocolate chips. I had so much fun decorating and the BF had so much fun eating haha. It was seriously delicious and I recommend you go try it before they change up the specials menu!

The spatula though. And the toppings. Could you just die?! This was SO much fun to put together!

You can just hear the thoughts in my head. "Don't lick the spatula, Brooke. You are in public."

For today's mani I chose Zoya Kendal, a beautiful light lavender cream. The formula was great and it applied nicely in two coats. I kept this one simple and just added a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust to my ring finger with a bluebird decal on top. I got my decals from Vinyl It Up. How cute?!




Hope you all have a great start to the week! The weather is starting to warm up, which will make my week back from spring break slightly less painful.

xoxo,
   Brooke

Friday, April 10, 2015

Majestic Bombay Precision Eyelash Curler Review

Happy Friday! I did not get around to painting my nails today. I had so many errands to run and then an eye doctor appointment where I received the eye drops of doom. My pupils are still dilated and my eyes hurt. Curse those dang eye drops!

Anyway, confession time: I've never used an eyelash curler. Are there other people out there who haven't used one either?! I always see them in the store and think about giving them a try but I fear the unknown, so when I was asked to review the Majestic Bombay Precision Eyelash Curler I knew this was my chance to finally conquer my fear. I LOVE the packaging for these and it even comes with two refill pads! Apparently you're supposed to change them about every three months, but what do I know this is my first eyelash curler.


I double checked the instructions (yep, even comes with an instruction manual) so I wouldn't accidentally chop off my lashes and got to curling. I don't know what I was so afraid of, curling your lashes is a breeze! It honestly made a huge difference in my mascara application. I've been missing out for way too long.



If you're interested in purchasing this eyelash curler it's available on Amazon at this link. The price is pretty good at $12.99 plus you get the two refill pads. If you've never used an eyelash curler before give it a try! Happy curling :)

xoxo,
   Brooke

Disclaimer: I received this product for free from Tomoson in exchange for my honest review. 

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Formula X Remarkable & Julep Tania

Hey everyone! So yesterday I took off my previous mani and decided I would just throw on something simple to hold me over until Friday. I started off my day with Formula X Remarkable, a sheer blush shade, from the Translucents collection. My local Marshalls had several of the colors from this collection at $3.99 a piece. Not bad compared to the $10.50 retail price.

These polishes are meant to be sheer and provide just a wash of color kind of like a French manicure. I had read a few reviews about streaky/patchy formula but I honestly had no trouble with it. I used one coat and worked carefully to make sure my application was even. I seriously love this polish. It looks so elegant and sophisticated!



Then late last night I was like okay I'm sorta over this minimal look. So I took out the glitter, of course. I ended up going with Julep Tania on just the tips of my nails. Tania is described as a multidimensional mermaid teal glitter and it is beautiful!




Love love love this look, though I'm not really looking forward to the glitter removal. Totally worth it. I was planning a mani for Friday, but we'll see how lazy I am. I am on spring break after all!

xoxo,
   Brooke