Polish dupe!

I'm in the process of a very time consuming project. Swatching all my nail polishes! I consider it the internet rolodex. To be honest I've bought a lot that I haven't used so I'm hoping to fall in love with some new ones.  One of my favorite fall back polishes has always been Rimmel Lava Red. I think this is discontinued? I think as a whole Rimmel is moving away from polishes. The limited ones they do have are all... red.  Anyhoo. I'm working through my drug store guys.  Here is Rimmel Lava Red:

It's this beautiful deep red, coffee like color. I don't know! It's lava for my fingers.  Today I go to Walgreens and I see Wet N Wild on sale for $.99. And I see this feller hanging out:

My we look.. similar!  Wet N Wild Under Your Spell could EASILY dupe out Rimmel Lava Red (and you can actually find it).  I think splitting hairs the only real difference may be a slight more shimmer to WnW but this is definitely a color to own. Both required 2 coats for an even application. I do have to say WnW has that new "pro brush" which works BUT is a mess. It picks up way too much polish, but that's my only real complaint.

Definitely check out this and other WnW colors on sale at Walgreens!

MOST EXCITING MUST READ THING OF THE YEAR (so far)

I found out yesterday one of the photos I did makeup on for Project Pinup was selected for the cover!!! Not only will I have published credits but I'll have a cover to reference. SUCH A BIG DEAL! I'm excited for the "bragging rights" to say, but also it will pave the way for me to lock down pro discounts. So stoked!

Xtreme Lash eyelash extensions

I also should add I redeemed a groupon today I got last year for a full set of individual eyelash extensions. I got the "diva lash" which is the fullest set at up to 120 lashes per eye. It retails for $325.  I do believe my groupon was only $100 and included this initial set and one free fill (retailing at $65-$75). I've had these lashes done before and LOVED them but they are costly to up keep. They are worth it especially for me. My eyelashes are white like my eyebrows, so if I run out of the house at the least I have to fill my brows in and put mascara on.  Here are my results that I could pee over a little.

This picture is without mascara to blend my naturally white lashes in with the black extensions so when I do fix them all up it'll just make me thrilled.  The gal was really nice about it. My next fill is part of my groupon but I mentioned to her I'd be out of town until the 18th. She's booked until April 2nd and said she'd fill them in however much I needed due to scheduling. The process took about 2-3 hours and I slept through almost all of it. I'm pretty sure I snored, though at one point it started storming and I believe some thunder made me jump.

I can't say enough about how great this is if you can budget it as a little self treat. The initial fill is a hefty price but if you keep up with it, it manages out to be the same over time as doing a pedi or nail fill considering most folks go twice a month.  I remember the first time I had them done they try to sell you this up keep stuff like gentle eye cleanser spray or a special mascara so it doesn't loosen the adhesive. Luckily I still have some cleaner and the gal didn't try to sell me on anything additional. I'm pretty sure there's a cheaper alternative. As far as mascara I don't recall any impacting time they lasted.  My prior ones hung on for almost two months before they started becoming terribly sparse.

Son of a beach..

I am leaving for the beautiful beaches of Florida WEDNESDAY! It has been abnormally warm in Tennessee so I know Florida is totally ready for me to dip my toes in the ocean.  I'm in a bit of a last minute scrounge to order a few warm weather items. I'm most excited for my swim suit.

Courtesy of Pinup Girl Clothing

After GREAT debates I broke down and put the money out on a nice, well made, supportive swimmy suit. Years ago I had a vintage inspired red suit and to this day my mom still talks about how pretty it is (except it was lost somehow).  I am just really stoked about it. A few other things I got

Check out http://www.curvestokill.com/ Love her bloggins'

Available Torrid.com

Available Torrid.com

New wedges Jessica Simpson

Those have been my splurges for this trip.  I just can't wait. My mom lives in Melbourne, FL just 5 minutes from the coast. I fly out of Atlanta about 9 for a flight that's under an hour and a half. Quickest trip ever! I'll be down there for a little under a month.  In super fantastic news I have makeup for a photoshoot this Sunday, and the Sunday after I return. It's fantastic to be able to work with a photographer that's great at what they do, but also loyal.

Birchbox!

So amidst all this down time, I decided to bite the bullet and join Birchbox. I like beauty products. I like being able to lend advice on how fantastic or lack there of things are. I do not have the bank account to constantly go get things to try just to try unless my friends investment on the Iraqi dinar finally came through. I'm about 4 months in and generally speaking, it's well.  I have had the foresight to take pictures of my Birchbox as they came in, so let's take a gander. The things I receive monthly are items selected based off a profiling questionnaire I took when I joined.

 This is the exciting box packaging that I see and go "OH YEAH!"

 

 The welcome/here's your shit letter

 Novembers Birchbox included a sample of Kate Spade Twirl, Joeur lip enhancer, Zoya Noel mini, JR Watkins peppermint foot salve, Alex & Isabelle Classic Hair Ties, & 2 Paperdolls Coasters

 Nubar Reclaim on nails!

So a good variety of little goodies. I love Birchbox and I get excited for it each month but I do have to say it always seems there's some after thought item thrown in like the paper coasters, or this month there's a free music download of some potentially bad band I'm not taking the time to look up. I suppose I feel the questionnaire may need a little tuning for basics? I have short hair so I gave the pony tail tie away, didn't use the coasters, and am kind of indifferent to the perfume (I'm sensitive to some sniffs and this potentially gives me a headache). I've updated my profile so I'm curious to see if I get things more on point? I absolutely do think it's worth it because I've found products overall I potentially would have never found. With this November box I was incredibly happy about the Zoya polish, JR Watkins peppermint salve, and the Joeur lip treatment (buying this fullsize it's FANTASTIC).  If you want to try it for a month or multiple click here to sign up!  Check out after the jump for things that came in my December & January box and my thoughts on them.

Also..

Since you haven't met Gus Gus yet, this is Gus Gus. He is my hilariously fat hamster I took in from my friend over the summer. He's become sort of a novelty and after having so many people ask about him, he now has his own facebook where he does cute things like washes his face and eats seeds while going on adventures.

Guess who has two thumbs and updated her blog layout (or blog in general)!?

This heifer!  I'm excited to say some photos are starting to stroll through from my fantastic photo shoot a month ago. More on that in a minute. I'm way too happy about my fingernail polish choice right now. My friend Missy and I potentially have compulsive polishing issues over the last few months. She blames me, I blame her.. All I know is we end up talking about polishes and releases and junk for a few hours at work then the day ends in an hour or two at best of unsupervised shopping. 20 polishes later we part ways only to start Facebooking about it. Tonight's polish made me happy. One part holographic, one part glitter party. I'm just really glad it didn't suck.

 Two coats Ludurana Aurora Boreal Holographic Nail Polish in Esplendido. So much sexy shiny goodness.. Then I thought what could a little punch up hurt?

 

 One coat Lynnderella The Glittering Crowd. It's like a birthday party with a disco ball. I can't wait to see it in the sunlight.

For the love of all polishes holy look at that (clickclickclick big!). It's all beautiful, shiny. I did a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite (added a second one hours later to smooth some edge glitters).  Forgive my rather short rough looking nail region. I've been taking hair & nail vitamins for the last few months to repair ridges left from having stupid false nails on. They have helped and my ridges are almost completely grown out, but I do continue to trim my nails to get the thinner damaged nail off as they grow out.

Moving on to non nail related items, I'm probably going to start filming makeup tutorials soon so suggestions are now welcome. Hopefully you can tell from the above fingers that my camera is more up to par. I got to a point when I was blogging prior that I felt ridiculous trying to take pictures of things or doing tutorials when it looked like I lived in a haze filled dungeon.  It's stupid to try to convey colors when inaccurate. Anyway, that will resume so suggest away. 

Probably my biggest news to update on this was being approached to do something called Project Pinup. There are around 20 states participating and the idea is using models that either come from a military family or are military spouses and doing a pinup style photoshoot. For the preselected states, an image of each model will be selected to go to print in a magazine released around May. The profits of the magazine go to the Wounded Warriors fund. I didn't make a penny off of my makeup work, nor did hair, the photographers, or any models. It's a bunch of folks that wanted to be part of a really cool project and hope to help folks that have helped this country. Besides, pinup shoots are just fun.  One of the photographers I was lucky enough to work with has just moved to the area from Florida. She actually moved early (and pregnant!) to do this. I think I should receive more images on disc by the end of the month but here are a few I've snatched off facebook so far, most are images I took on my cellphone the day of the shoot. I'm not inserting a page break because I want you to look with your special eyes. I'm just real proud. Big ups to Charis Photography LLC & Gretchen Hove Photography for some of these photos (other big ups to FX camera android ap!). Also a HUGE amount of unicorn kisses and puppy dog squeals goes to Zombi Candi. It's my fantastic friends boutique and she was EVER so patient and super willing to help when it came to supplying wardrobe. Karin Newlon, the hairstylist there did hair for this shoot! Add Zombi Candi on facebook. We have cool stuff and we can ship it right to your front door.

I suppose my next gig will be working on prom packages as the time is nearing. But not before some much anticipated beach time in March/April (my mom moved to Florida last July/August and it just works out incredible for me). I'll post more soon, I promise!