☼ Autumn 2013 ☁

* all photos belong to me and were taken by me

Trying out some new Green Mountain coffee

Green Mountain coffee is some of my favorite, and recently I got the opportunity to try a new flavor of their k-cup coffee called Three Continents blend.
I own a Keurig and love it to death, but I normally don't buy k-cups because they tend to be overpriced for what you get. However, if I come across a delicious flavor, I'm willing to wait for a sale to snag them (or somehow find a loose version of the coffee). I'm hoping Green Mountain offers both, because I've tried out this specific blend twice and I love the dark, rich, deep flavor.


Normally I go for a lighter, somewhat sweeter coffee, but this coffee has convinced me that I can try out deeper flavors that I also love. I find it to be perfect for cold autumn mornings. It's comforting and delicious.

Thanks Bzzagent for sending this free product to me!






Whitney

7.15.13

Multi-colored beaded belt and bat-wing bleached top ✌

~

Shoes: Kelsi Dagger (got at Ross)

Pants: Forever 21

Belt: unknown

Top: Roxy

New Maybelline Color Tattoos for Summer 2013 ~

Hi! I stopped by Walgreens today, and was vulnerably swept in by the Maybelline Summer 2013 mirage/wall of products. Of course, I immediately noticed that there were new Color Tattoos on display, and I had to take a peek. There were about 8 or 9 there, and boy were they gorgeous. They are all duo-chromatic (or iridescent), and I was practically drooling over them all. And guess what, they were b1g1 50% off, plus you earn 2,000 points for your purchase! I hopped right on board and bought two.

The one on the left is Waves of White, the right is Seashore Frosts.

Right: Unswatched Color Tattoos
It was incredibly hard to capture the full potential that these cream shadows have when seen by the naked eye, but I did my best. Waves of White, on the left, is a yellow-white which blue-silver iridescence. Upon first glace, I absolutely knew that it would be perfect for brightening up the eyelid.
As for Seashore Frosts, it looked sort of "cracked" prior to swatching. It is a blue-gray metallic sort of color that shines a vibrant "old gold" sheen. It almost looks green depending on where you shine the swatch. It looks very "antiquey" and it's very interesting.

Upon swatching, I was actually quite surprised how the texture of both shadows were. These have a mousse, almost bouncy type of texture that is very lightweight. The original Color Tattoos (especially more matte ones like Fierce & Tangy and Tough as Taupe) are more of a creamy and slightly rougher texture. I was so surprised by these new ones, because they almost slip onto your finger like melting butter.

Unfortunately, because of the texture, these take a bit of work to become totally opaque and even.

Above you can see the swatches. It took a bit of time to build up the color shown, however I later realized that you can build up the color much easier by letting the product dry, and then re-applying. After I waited about five or so minutes, I was able to build up the color to a much higher opacity.
Some notes on Seashore frosts - do you see how it looks like a vibrant purple on the swatch? This color is so crazy, because in a different light it totally looks green/gold. So cool!!!

Okay, time to show the swatches on my eyes! (Note: no base or other products were used. Waves of White was used on my inner eyelid/inner corner and Seashore Frosts on the outer corner and lower lashline.

Overall, these seem great. You need to spend a bit of time to get the texture/evenness right, but besides that I am bedazzled with the beauty of these! Like the other Color Tattoo's these dry down and are very hard to budge! I am very excited to experiment with these!

Whit

Revlon Cloud

I recently came into a sum of marked-down nail polishes from Target the other day, including Revlon Top Speed in Cloud. I've actually had my eye on this shade for a little while, but I like to wait a little while until certain products (especially more expensive brands like Revlon) are on sale.

Cloud is a really interesting shade. It is a very, very, very pale blue lavender. It is what I would describe as an especially light pastel. I took these photos in the sun, so they are a tinge lighter than the actual color is indoors, but hopefully this blog post will be helpful none the less.

This is the first Top Speed line polish I've used, and I have to say that I do think that it dries down pretty fast, compared to other brands and other Revlon polishes. Another thing that I really liked is that I only needed one coat to get about 80% opacity. Plus, unlike a lot of other pastel shades, it wasn't thick or goopy - it was thin, but not too watery, and one coat seemed to dry down a little bit quicker than a standard polish. I am grateful for this because I have the worst time sitting around waiting for my nails to dry! It's like torture! :P

Now on to the swatches...

I think this shade is absolutely perfect for spring, especially Easter. I am adoring how my nails look right now! :) I've been wearing it for about 12 hours with a top coat, and so far so good. No chipping so far, so hopefully it'll stay that way!

My look today with my nails ~

Hope wherever you live you're experiencing some warm weather! Happy Springtime!
Whit

Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition Miracle Dry Oil

Garnier's New Miracle Dry Oil is a multi-purpose product meant to be useful for moisturizing hair, face, and body. It has three oils in it: Avocado, Shea, and Olive and they're supposed to provide lots of nutrition to your skin and hair. I have just started using it and have a couple of notes to share with you all!




Although the Garnier Fructis Miracle Dry Oil is "dry", that doesn't mean that it doesn't pack a punch like a standard oil would. I would recommend that you start out with a small amount, and if you feel like you still need more, lather it on! I have used this on my face and a bit on my hands. I have developed two pimples on my face after using it, so I'm afraid that it broke me out! But it definitely feels great.
I also used it on my hair just last night after I had washed it and it was still damp. The day after, it's feeling great and looking nice and shiny. However, I will warn you again, use sparingly. I used too much on my roots and I'm afraid that it made my roots a bit too oily (even though I applied it when my hair was still damp). I would probably stay away from using this on dry hair, because it won't absorb particularly well and since there's no water or moisture to suck it up, it will just end up sitting on top of your hair.

However, apart from that, I will keep on using it and testing it out! :) No frizziness in sight so far!

Thank you for reading,
Whitney

Disclaimer: I was sent this product free of charge from BzzAgent.com for consideration and review

~MAC Nicki 2

Ladies and gentleman, how long it has been... I shouldn't even be considered a blogger considering how rarely I actually blog! In my defense, most of my time is spent either in class, working, studying, or sleeping. How exhausting it is to be a full-time student, whooo...

Hope all is well and everyone is ready for spring! I really really am, I cannot bear this cold weather any more. I have been opting for pastel nails and other things because I am loving spring-y colors right now, they are exciting me!

First on the agenda is a pastel beyond all pastels. It is so pastel that it almost looks white when photographed, and is awfully hard to wear with such pale skin such as mine (at the moment!). MAC's new Nicki 2 has released and I have been trying it out for the past couple of weeks, wearing it when I feel daring and slightly crazed.

 It's an amplied finish, just as the previous Nicki and it is definitely another crazy color. The first Nicki is definitely my preference, but every once in a while you need something in your life that screams - "I want to have fun and I want to wear a fun color!" Yes. When swatched on my hand, it looks much deeper because for some reason my hand is a bit deeper than my face. Its wear time is decent, a couple of hours, but just as other amplified finishes it is drying and best used when lips are hydrated.

The color pay-off is wild - it's creamy, thick, and doesn't take many swatches to build up insane opacity. This does not leave something to be desired. It was very hard to photograph because it's so extremely pale and pastel - like, but hopefully you get the point.

*Ahem*, excuse me, I was feeling quite "model-y" in this lipstick. Above you can sort of see how it looks in a darker environment, although it's still quite striking. In the dark it's more of a muted lavender with a matte finish, and so naturally more can be applied if you want a richer pastel affect. It also brings more of a blue-tone (or cool tone) in the dark.

As you can see above, the color drastically changes when you're in direct sunlight. It sort of morphs into this extremely pale, almost bright lavender shade that is definitely leaning on the pink side. I think it's actually quite beautiful, and I am definitely going to try this lipstick with some different lip liners to get varied effects.

Thank you all very much for reading!
Whitney