Sally Hansen Loves Me Not

Have you ever seen a polish (or a blush or eyeshadow etc...) and thought OMG I have to have that and it turns out nothing like you though? Yeah that's Sally Hansen Loves Me Not. Look at that incredible shimmer in the bottle! I found this at Walmart (in a special display, so I'm not sure if it's limited edition or what) back in like May but there was polish dripped all over the bottle so I decided to wait for when Sam was here to get it somewhere else. And in all that time it was built up in my head about how awesome it was and I had to have it. I found it at Ulta the very first day she was here so, of course, I bought it and all was right with the world. It's been sitting with all of my other untrieds since. Clearly, this did not turn out the way I wanted. The pic is showing slightly more shimmer on the nail than what translates in real life. It's a really deep plum, slightly glowy but not nearly as shimmery and cool as the bottle shot. Loves Me Not is unique to my stash and I love the Complete Salon Manicure formula and brush but it's still disappointing. Two easy coats plus Revlon Colorstay top coat and it's already showing some tip wear. At least I'm back to painting my nails again!

Project Pan November Update

It's hard for me to believe I'm even writing a November update for my project pan! Three months and I've had progress to share every time! I wore makeup a lot at the beginning of the month but only a few times in the past three weeks, while I was getting over a sinus infection.

I finally hit pan on my ELF studio blush in Tickled Pink! I think this happened like 2 days after I posted my last update so the pan grew a lot. I still just love this blush but I'm excited to get to wear some of my other favorites more frequently.

I also finished up my Neutrogena Healthy Skin Enhancer. This was a great tinted moisturizer and I definitely recommend trying it out if you are interested. I probably won't repurchase because I'm more interested in trying out other things. My method for applying was using a damp brush (which is my go to method with most foundations). I liked MAC Fix+ on my Sigma F80 but I've also used just plain water and ELF Mist and Set and both worked really well.

As for the products going into the basket, I chose three to get me back up to five products in the basket. Coincidentally, all three are ELF products. First up, ELF Essential Clarifying Pressed Powder. For $1 this is a nice powder. Not the most finely milled, but it gets the job done and provides a little bit of coverage as well. I'm just looking to hit pan on this because I would like to keep it in my collection. I also have the ELF Essentials Hypershine Gloss in Bubblegum. I got this in a set of 5 a while ago and I'm just not impressed. They all smell very plastic-y and don't have a ton of color. All 5 will probably go through the project pan because while I'm ready to be rid of them, I'd actually like to get some use out of them. Lastly I have the ELF Essentials Brightening Eyeliner in Coffee. It's not a bad eyeliner, I'm just not wearing eyeliner very often so I'm looking to pare down my stash of them.

Overall, my progress this month has made me more excited to keep going. Last month wasn't working for me but I think this month will be good. My makeup purchasing has slowed significantly in the past three months. I'll probably have a few new things to show you at the end of December since it's both my my birthday month and Christmas but I'm pretty proud of how much I've been able to curb my spending. I even went to the CCO at the beginning of November and walked out with nothing!

I ♥ Drugstore!

I've been loving these videos on youtube lately so I'd give it a shot!

1. What is your favorite drugstore makeup brand?
I guess it's ELF because I own more ELF than any other brand. I've tried a pretty wide range of their products and there are so many things I love from them. Favorites are the studio blushes, essential lipsticks, studio high definition powder and makeup mist and set.

2. What are your favorite face, cheek and lip products?

Face- L'Oreal Lumi Foundation and ELF HD Powder
Cheek- ELF Studio Blushes
Lip- NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss

3. Least favorite product?
Rimmel pro primer. It just felt heavy on my face and broke me out (probably because my face was sweating from how heavy it feels). To add insult to injury, it didn't really do anything to improve how my makeup went on or it's staying power.

4. What is the best makeup bargain?
Probably the Wet N Wild Color Icon Eyeshadows. So inexpensive but the quality and pigmentation is on par with MAC and Urban Decay!

5. What is your favorite underdog product? (Something you love that often gets overlooked?)
The ELF essentials lipsticks. They're only $1, really creamy and pretty basic colors. For a beginner, it would be great to pick these up, even if all you want is some lippies to play with and experiment with what colors look best on you. Just a heads up, the packaging is definitely $1 and they are so soft they can be prone to breaking. This doesn't bother me as I don't carry lipsticks with me and I don't mind repairing a lippie.

 

6. A drugstore product that is overpriced?
Physician's Formula. I only own one Physician's Formula product, I won it from their FB page and I'm meh on it. My roommate at college only used PF products and she looked like a hot mess at the end of the day. I'm sure they have some quality products but at that price, I'm going to upgrade to higher end brands with prettier packaging and fewer added fragrances.

7. Show your best drugstore dupe(s)!!
I'm not sure if these are exact dupes because I've never bothered to check. I've heard WnW Walking on Eggshells is similar to MAC Shroom, Mulch, and All That Glitters. I'm not big on makeup dupes, I really only care about nail polish dupes.

8. Drugstore product that isn't worth the hype?
EOS lipbalms. I've spoken about these before. They are so waxy. Everyone loves the cute packaging but it is pretty impractical, at least for me.

It was very fun to try to come up with these answers! I tag Sam to try it! I'm definitely going to look for other tags that might be fun to try blogging!

TV Time

Before we had MonkeyToes, we had a TV schedule. Every week we watched our shows when they aired. We had a lot of shows. After he was born, we lost all sense of time and just couldn't keep up with the TV. We spent a lot of time watching shows that were on DVD. We've just gotten back into watching a few things as they air (like normal people) but we always appreciate having something new to rent and watch. So here are some of my favorite shows if you are looking for something that's still on the air or you can just rent.

Seriously, this is definitely in the top 5 of my favorite currently running shows. It's so freaking hilarious. If you've never watched before, Modern Family follows three connected families, mockumentary style. All three families are actually related and the show highlights how family doesn't mean our picture of traditional family any more. Hands down, my favorite character is Phil Dunphy. This is the first show we've started watching again at it's regular time.

Eureka is actually off the air now but it's really really fantastic. The show is about a secret town filled with geniuses that get to build futuristic stuff for the government. There is always something going wrong in Eureka and it's up to Sheriff Carter to fix it. You don't have to watch all the seasons in order. There is a plot to the story but not all of the episodes majorly depend on it and it's easy to get the gist of the plot if you need to. My favorite character is Deputy Andy who appears later in the series.

 I just had to include this one. I have the whole series on DVD and I can watch it over and over. The Tudors was a drama on Showtime about King Henry VIII. This show captures everything we imagine the king and his court to be. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is PERFECT. My favorite of the queens is Anne. Every scene is lush and full of beautiful details. As I said, this was a Showtime drama which should tell you a few things. 1. The episodes are LONG. 2. Probably something you should watch when kids/prudish people are in bed.

BBC's Sherlock isn't a series in the traditional sense. While most have 20+ episodes per season, Sherlock has three 90 minute episodes per season. And it's just incredible! They have succeeded in bringing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to 21st century London. The episodes are clever and witty. The second season is a take on some of the more popular stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. We devoured these over a weekend and actually rewatched the last episode just to make sense of it. Even if you aren't sure you will like this, I recommend trying a couple of episodes. My boyfriend thought he would hate it but he was totally hooked.

Can you tell I love historical fiction? This is another British drama. Downton Abbey is about the Crawley family and their servants. Robert Crawley has three daughters and the show puts a big focus on the drama of who will inherit Lord Crawley's titles and estate when the time comes. Maggie Smith is awesome as the Dowager Countess and provides comic relief at the best times. Honestly, I was worried this would be slow and boring but it's so much fun to watch! This show is technically in it's third season but those episodes won't air until January for the US.

If you try these shows and enjoy them, let me know! We haven't watched anything I would recommend in a while so if you know of something I might like, let me know!

I Can't Make Decisions (aka Finding A Christmas Card)

Now that Halloween is over we can really get into getting ready for my favorite holiday, Christmas! Actually, I love the entire season, November and December. So many fun days packed into 2 months, Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas and New Year's. But Christmas is definitely the crown jewel.
This will be our first Christmas in our new house and MonkeyToe's second Christmas. In an effort to feel like real grown ups, we've been looking a Christmas card! I thought it might be fun to show you some of our frontrunners.

I started my search on Vistaprint, because there was a great groupon. Plus with Vistaprint, I could customize it to list our first names instead of just putting a family name. This was the one for a long time but ultimately, rumors that Vistaprint jacks up shipping costs for those using a groupon made us shy away from the company.

 

 Next, I turned to tinyprints. I regularly swoon over stationery from tinyprints and their sister brands so I knew I would not be disappointed. Both of these (here and here) caught my eye but really, even the studio basics line is out of my price range so I sadly gave up my dreams of a tinyprints card.

I knew Etsy wouldn't let me down. I found these beautiful cards from DeanWorks Studios and Pink Coconut Designs. The idea is that you purchase the design, send your info and picture to the seller and they send you the file so you can get it printed wherever you want. I am so close to pulling the trigger on one of these but I have just one more idea I can't shake.

I love the idea of making a footprint card with MonkeyToes and just putting wallets of our pictures in. I think it would be so much nicer to give to family but boyfriend wants to feature our professional pictures. I think the penguin would be easier than the tree.

Any opinions or suggestions? I have to be the most indecisive person ever.

OPI The Man With The Golden Gun

Excuse the crappy cuticles but OMG!!!!!!! Gold flakie goodness! I have a fantastic boyfriend who knows the way to my heart is not jewelry but actually nail polish. I went into Ulta looking for the OPI James Bond nail polishes but only picked up this one. (I do actually want the others but had to restrain myself as this baby is $30.) I layered one coat over OPI Black Onyx and used my Revlon top coat. It's just so stunning and feels incredibly luxurious. I thought I might do a gradient with it but my first try at it was just so frustrating. I'm going to try to get the technique down with a glitter first so I don't waste the gold goodness. I'm so happy with this polish! OPI James Bond has made me excited about polish again!