Christmas Haul

Hercules hopes you had a good Christmas.

I meant to get this up days ago, but I've been sick. Every one in my house got sick. I was the last one. I'm just glad I wasn't sick on Christmas day.

For Christmas, my husband got me a $20 gift card to Sally's. And Sally's was having 50% off all clearance items. I LOVE when they do those sales. So, that $20 stretched pretty far.





First thing I grabbed was more hair dye. I have so much root showing, that when I pull my hair back, I look like a brunette again. lol
This is the dye I use to get my super bright red hair with out bleaching the crap out of it. Good stuff, I luff it!




Next I picked up some more polish thinner and a new dappen dish. For the dappen dish, the only colors were pink, green and white. The green looked like a puke color. The pink was bleh, so I just went for something neutral.

Next, off to the clearance racks!



I got the China Glaze, Let it Snow gift set. It has Blue Year's Eve and Snow Globe. Along with a mini snow globe. It was $7.99 but with the discount it was $4.



Next picked up some Orlys. I got the minis which were $3.99, $2 after discount. And I got Rock Solid also for $2.

That's it for what I got. I still have 54 cents left on my gift card.

ABC's of me...

Hello all, I saw this quick and easy tag and decided to go on and do it. I saw this on PB&Jstories.



A. Age – 25 and I turn 26 next month.
B. Bed size – Queen
C. Chore that you hate – Laundry...
D. Dogs – I have a 13 year old Chihuahua
E. Essential start to your day – The snooze button! ROFL, after that is coffee.
F. Favorite color – Purple!
G. Gold or silver – For jewelry, I prefer silver. But when it comes to decor or nail polish I don't mind either one.
H. Height –5’3
I. Instruments you play – None currently. But in Elementary, I learned to play the recorder and in Middle school I played the Baritone. I hated it too. Dropped Band in 8th grade.
J. Job title – I am a Nail Tech. I just finished school at the end of September and am now going through the testing a licensing stuff.
K. Kids – None
L. Live – Born and raised in Dallas
M. Mother’s name – Beverly
N. Nicknames – I don't have any real nicknames, but I have been called "V" before when people start to get to know me and don't know how to pronounce my name.
O. Overnight hospital stays – None.
P. Pet peeves – Soooo many. Um, I guess I'll stick to nail related ones. I really hate when girls post pictures of their nails with polish all over their skin. Seriously? You think that looks good? No matter how good the polish is or how pretty your design is, it now looks tacky.
Q. Quote from a movie – "For in dreams, we enter a world that is entirely our own. Let him swim in the deepest ocean or glide over the highest cloud." -Albus Dumbledore.
R. Right or left handed – Right
S. Siblings – brother, Jose Jr. (J.J.) and he is 24
T. Time it takes you to get ready – Depend on where I'm going. If I'm just going to be dropping my husband off at work and coming straight home I just throw some shoes on and leave in my jammies. lol
U. Underwear – Yes I wear them... You don't need to know anything more.
V. Vegetable you hate – BRUSSELS SPROUTS. literally got goosebumps even just thinking of them.
W. What makes you run late – Sleepiness and all around laziness. On top of that ... traffic and red lights.
X. X-rays you’ve had – Just one. I had Pneumonia when I was like 12 and needed an X-ray to see if I had any fluid in my lungs. Didn't BTW.
Y. Yummy food you make – I love to cook and try new recipes. My fav would have to be a Spicy Ragu I learned to make from youtube. Gotta love foodwishes! Husband's fav is something I call a Mexican Lasagna. Technically this is my own creation, since I didn't go off any recipes. But there are tons of recipes online.
Z. Zoo animal - Hmm, IDK, I like looking at all the animals.

Wintery Blues

This is a design my friend Andrea did. I really liked the way hers looked, so I copied it. I just did a few things different. I used a shimmery white as the base and used darker shades of blue. I also added the beads along the half moon.

Polishes used:
Base color- Klean Colors, Metallic White
Revlon, Blue Lagoon
Essie, One day with out the Blues
Wet n Wild, Saved by the Blue
Ulta, Moody Blues

Then I added Sinful Colors, Hottie over the gradient only. And then added the rhinestones and beads.

My Black Friday Haul and Experience

My Thanksgiving was pretty good. I did all the cooking. Everything from the turkey to all the side dishes. I did end up burning my finger on the top of my oven while trying to bast the turkey. Its okay though, its a small burn and doesn't hurt anymore. Everyone enjoyed the food. Turkey was delish. I ate soooooo much.

Usually when it comes to the whole Black Friday thing, I'm not interested in anything. Its always my husband that looks for the all the deals on movies, games and other electronics. This is the first time I really got into the sales.

That being said, I wanna give a big shout out to Nouveau Cheap With out her blog, no way would I have known what I know. I've been following her blog for... oh I'd say about a year now. She always posts scoops on beauty deals. She's like a "Beauty Product Extreme Coupon-er"

Through her, I saw the sales ad for CVS. And she mentioned what beauty products were on sale, along with what items gave Extra Care Bucks (ECB). I immediately made a list of goodies I wanted.

For those that don't know, Extra Bucks are not rebates but actual coupons which print out at the bottom of your receipt when certain items are bought. The ECB can then be used to purchase almost all merchandise sold at CVS with some exceptions like alcohol and cigarettes and such.

Almost everything I bought gave me ECB.
Revlon- $4 each
WnW set- $2
Pepto- $2.99
Starbucks Double Shot- $1.67
Carmex- $1
Twix- .75
Hershey's- .99

A lot of people I've seen go crazy with the extreme couponing. I only got things I wanted or needed. I didn't see the point in buying crap I didn't want.

Next, my husband had looked at the Wal-Mart sales ad. I had told him to check for goodies for me, but him being him, he forgot. He was too focused on his goodies, lol. So I took a look for myself. No beauty products in the ad. But I did see some kitchen goodies. I also looked at other ads, but nothing else interested me. Meh...

So... Onto the shopping.

I had planned on getting most of my stuff at CVS and a bit at Wal-Mart. Hubby wanted to go to Best Buy, Game Stop and Fry's.

We left the house around 8pm. There is a CVS like 2 mins away from my house.

Round 1:
-1 Revlon polish
-The Wet and Wild Festive pack
-Carmex
Total= $9 with $7 ECB

Next there was another CVS on the way to where Wal-Mart and Best Buy are

Round 2:
-1 Revlon polish
-1 Starbucks Double Shot Espresso
Total= $0 with $6.67 ECB

Next I dropped off hubby at Best Buy. It was 9:30 and there was already a long line. And I rushed over to Wal-Mart. Parking was insane! There was a Sam's Club next door and had to park there. I walked in and it was super packed. I didn't even know where the stuff I wanted was. I made my way over to where all the kitchen stuff was and waited. I still had about 10-15 mins till the sale started. And let me just say...
OMFG!!!! People are insane!

What I had planned on buying was The Rival mini chopper, Rival mini waffle maker and the Black n Decker blender. I got none of that! I wiggled my ass all over that area and could find what I wanted. I did see one lady with 5 blenders. Another had 3 vacuums. Like I said, people are insane!


^^ This lady had 3 carts full of stuff.

Whilst wondering around, I did find a mini chopper. It was the same brand, Rival, but bigger. And it was $10. I grabbed it! There were only 3 left too. So, after all that, I made it to the registers... with my one item. Ugh, fail.


^^ This is my line



Okay, okay, so after all that... I really had to pee. Wal-Mart's restroom had a line. So I just left. Figured I'd just find a gas station or something. Yeah... that was another fail. Since it was still Thanksgiving. Tons of places that would normally be open at 11pm, weren't. I kept driving and dun dun dun... found another CVS. Ran straight to the restroom! lol, and since I was there... decided to go for round 3.

Round 3:
-1 Revlon polish
-1 bottle of Pepto
Total= $2.41 with $7.99 ECB

By then it was 11:30 ish. Drove all the way back to Best Buy and tried to find a parking spot. lol, I got there at perfect timing. By the time I found where my husband was, it was time to start walking in. Here my husband wanted two things. a 3TB external hard drive and Gears of War 3. Once in we split. He went for the game, I went for the 3TB. All of the hard drives said USB 3.0 on them. And when your in a hurry, its easy to see 3.0 and think 3TB. So because of this, there were a ton of guys hovering around them. The 3TB was on the bottom shelf and there was one left. So, I totally wiggled between their legs and grabbed the last one. lol, no shame!

Also while we were here, we met up with a couple of friends. Totally unplanned. They said they first went to another Best Buy but the line was even longer than the one at this one. We hadn't seen each other in a while, so it was nice. We had tons of time to catch up cause damn the check out line was insane. Best Buy only had 6 cashiers! The store opened at midnight, we didn't get out till after 3 am!


^^ Random product I saw at Best Buy. I mean, really. A Justin Beiber SINGING tooth brush!

Gamestop was only 10 mins away from the Best Buy. The four of us went there. My husband had said that Gamestop was suppose to open at midnight too. But for some reason, this one didn't. Luckily the line was short. Only like 10-15 people in line. We asked and the guys in line said the store opened at 4 am. My friend wanted to go to Ulta. Me personally... I didn't want to go there. I didn't see anything in the ad that was interesting. There was like one thing I saw, but not worth the time to go there. But she wanted to go, so I figured... meh, I'm already here might as well.

We had no idea what time they started their sale, so while the guys were in line at gamestop we went to Ulta to check. When we got there, we were lucky enough to see an employee there on her way into work. She said the store opened at 5 am. So... back to the boys.

My husband wanted to buy a charging station for his wii. And our friends pretty much just looked around. They didn't see anything they wanted to get. We were at Gamestop for IDK, 30 minutes maybe.

Then back to Ulta. We just stayed in the car till it was about 3 mins. to open. It wasn't super cold outside, but chilly enough to were you really didn't want to stand out in it. So we weren't the only ones waiting to the last minute to line up. The line here was short too. I looked at some OPI minis and well... I'm sorry, but the OPI minis are a total rip off. I know they are minis, but these are just insanely small. Enough polish to do what? Two manis? You only get 4 bottles and they want $12.50 for it? Fuck that! I did see the one thing in the ad I was interested in. The mix and match 5 for $5. I grabbed four polishes and a facial mask. My friend got one of the makeup kits. Pretty good price too.

After all this, I asked my husband if he still wanted to go to Fry's. His exact words to me was "Fuck...that...shit!!!"

LOL! so that was the end of the night for us. By the time we got home it was 6:30 am. We both crashed.


^^ All my goodies for the night. Not the best pic I know, but hey it was 6:30 in the morning.

Once we woke up, I wanted to go back to CVS and do some more damage. Hubby stayed at home. lol, he didn't want to do any more shopping. I don't blame him. He did stand in line from 9:30 to midnight and then had to be in line till after 3. That is way too long to be in a store. Plus it meant I could take my time and not deal with hearing him complain.

So, here we go Round 4:
- 2 Revlon polishes
Total= $2.15 with $8 ECB

On to the next CVS, Round 5:
- 1 Revlon polish
- 1 EOS lip balm
- 1 Twix candy
Total= $1.33 with $4.75 ECB

And lastly, Round 6:
- 1 surge protector
- 1 Hershey's Drops
Total= $1.33 with $.99 ECB.

By then I had had enough. I got all I wanted and just wanted to be done with all my ECB's. My husband had said he needed another surge protector, so I decided to spend the last on that. Last minute I decided to get the candy. It was by the register and since I bought the Twix for me, I decided to get something for my husband too. And because of that I still have 99 cents left. Meh, its good for a month. I'm not in a hurry to spent it.




If anyone is wondering why I went to 3 CVS's twice instead of all at the same store... Well, to be honest, I'm new to all this stuff and I would feel embarrassed to make 6 transactions at once. And not only that, the first one I went to didn't have that good of a selection of Revlons. The second one was on the way to other stores. And the third one was kinda out of the way, but I needed to pee! LMAO!

Feeling a bit Kawaii

Super bright in the first photo. The second one is more accurate.
Notice the lumpy pinky? I thought my seche vite was dry enough... it wasn't.

Anyway, this is super girly. I love it. I've had the beads for a while now, but never got around to using any of them. The stars I got from a confetti pack. It had all the rainbow colors. Although I have discovered that the color bleeds when you add the top coat. So... yeah.... I don't use any of the colored stars. Just the silver and golds.

I have Essie, Fiji as the base and Klean Colors, Holo Pink for the stripes. I am not a fan of this Essie. I put on 3 coats of Fiji and it still could have used a 4th. I stopped at 3 cause I thought the streaks wouldn't be noticeable since I was adding stripes. Wrong! I can still see bare spots between the stripes.

Feeling Blue-y

I've got a lot going on in this mani.
Decided to do something different on each nail,
but keep it all in the same color group.

Right so on to what I used...

Thumb:
Base is Essie- One day without blues
Dots are Sinful Colors- Hot Spot.

Index:
Base is Sinful Colors- Hot Spot
Stripes is Revlon- Blue Lagoon

Middle:
Base is Essie- One day without blues
Stripes are Klean Colors- Holo Crome

Ring:
Base is Revlon- Blue Lagoon
Crackle is La Rosa- 08 Blue (creative name, huh?)

Pinky:
Base is Sinful Colors- Hot Spot
For the glitter, first I put a coat of Klean Color's Blue Satin, but it wasn't sparkly enough for my tastes, so I added a coat of Wet and Wild's Blue wants to be a millionaire

Holo'd Tiger Stripes

I was feeling a bit uninspired for what I should do to my nails. They were naked for a while. I finally decided on a basic tiger stripe. The base color is China Glaze, Spontaneous. I was looking for a nice darker purple to use for the stripes when Milani Hi-Res caught my eye. I love it!

Mood Polishes from Ross Review

So I came across this four pack of Mood polishes at Ross. I immediately had to have it! It only cost me $4.99, so yay! I've seen tons of swatches and reviews for the mood polishes from Claire's. I've wanted them for a while. I still do... But I saw these and hoped they would be just as good.


Here they are on the nail. This is how they look normally with out trying to "warm" or "cool" them. Notice the tips are different than the nail bed? That's cause the nail bed is warmer than the tips.


Here they are after dipping them into warm water


And here they are after dipping into cold water.

And now for some side by sides. All have the warm on the left and cold on the right.


Here is the teal. Its called Confident/Peaceful. The difference is so minor. When I was dipping the nails, I thought it didn't change at all. It wasn't until seeing the side by sides that I noticed a difference.


Here is the pink, also known as Funky/Fabulous. Again, not much of a change. It was noticeable, but not by much.


The purple, also known as Innocent/Daring. This one started out being my least favorite, but quickly turned into my favorite. When I was applying the polish, this one had a completely different consistency. It applied super, super sheer. It took 3 coats to get a decent swatch. And the way it looked... bleh. It looked like those crap polishes we used to get with our princess kits as kids. You know, that melted plastic look and feel? Well that was what it was like.
However... this was THE only one to show a true difference when I was dipping them in hot/cold water. The warm color is more of a pinky color and the cold color was a dark purple.


Here is the blue also known as Shy/Flirty. This one was pretty decent. You can see the difference in color, but still not as impressive as the purple shade.


I wanted to show you a real time feed of just how quickly the colors change. So I filmed this quickie.

Sorry for the noises in the background. Construction started on my street this week. They are completely redoing the street. The width from sidewalk to sidewalk is going from 30ft. to 27ft. Its suppose to take 8 weeks to complete...if there is no rain. Yeah, cause Texas weather is so cooperative. I'm guessing it wont be done till July 4th.


Over all verdict:

I'm kinda half and half on this one. For a mood polish, they suck! The purple is the only winner of the bunch. But as for the over all colors, I love them. Knowing what I know now, if I had the chance to do it all over again... I would still buy the set. It was only $5. That evens out to $1.25 a polish. You know I love a good deal, lol. They are cute, funky neons. And with summer coming up soon, ya gotta love playing with the bright colors. I don't regret buying them, but I'm still holding out for the Claire's mood polishes.

Ross and Dollar Tree Haul!

I am so loving the Dollar Tree. Check out what I saw yesterday.

So...many...nail polishes....
They had some new Sally Hanson duos, but none caught my eye. Saw mostly the star opals, which are in my book. The NYC duos looked more promising, but not by much. Saw loads of pretty colors, but they were ones I already have from NYC. But I did pick this one up.



Kisses. I love this color. Its a purply pinkie color with a pale blue shimmer. This swatch was taken with flash to show the shimmer. Its about 5 coats though. But well worth it in my book.


Broadway. This is kind of a burgundy brown with a slight shimmer to it. IDK how to describe the shimmer. Its pretty though.


OMFG! New color craze colors. There were so many to chose from, I didn't know what to get. Soooooo many glitters! And some new, cute neon shades. The glitter swatches all have a matching colored tip. IDK about you, but I don't particularly like seeing glitter swatches on a bare tip. It just doesn't look right.


Sparkling Diamonds. This was the first one to catch my eye. I love chunky glitters. One coat. China Glaze: Cheers to You on the tip.


Aqua Crystals. Just your basic blue glitter. Nothing fancy, but still pretty. IDK what made me think to add two coats of glitter to this and the next swatch, but i did it anyway. This is loaded with glitter! Klean Colors: Aqua Neon on the tip.


Treasure Island. This color totally caught my eye. Its a teal with a holo glitter effect.


Fiji Purple. Ugh, I just love this color!

My next stop was Ross. My Ross and Dollar Tree reeeally close together. I just need to cross a small, side street to get to the next shopping center. I was a bit disappointed when I got there though. Not a whole lot of "good" stuff to choose from. They had a Color Club set that I already had. Saw some interesting eyeshadow pallets, only to discover that most of the colors had been broken. But I did find one gold mine..... but before I talk about that one, I also picked this up.


It was only $1.99. They had this, a pale yellow and a mint green. And that was it. only those three polishes left in the display. Apparently everyone liked them.


One coat went on almost completely opaque. Added a second coat to help even it out. This is my first creative art polish. I'm quite happy with it.


Now, my creme de la creme. My top buy. These mood polishes from ... IDK who. Just says mood polishes. Anyway, I have been dying to get my hands on the mood polishes from Claire's. I really hope these are just as good. Only cost me $4.99, gotta love that.

No swatches! Sorry. I started to take swatches yesterday, but I stopped because I wanna do a full review of these babies. And maybe do some cool design with them. I'm thinking something Lisa Frank like.

My First Santee

W00T! I went to Traders Village with some friends this weekend. Traders Village is this huge Flea Market not too far away from where I live. You've got everything from tires and rims, to puppies and rabbits. They also sell the best fresh fruit around. lol, its also the spot to go if ya wanna buy fake MAC and CHI products. I wanted to get a picture of the fakes, but the sales people hover over ya and wouldn't let me snap any pics. This weekend I saw tons of nail polishes. Art Decos everywhere! Too bad they didn't have any polishes I didn't already own. I saw this huuuuuuuge bin of older polishes from CVS and Walgreens. All looked like crap though. I was not wanting any of them. Then I saw the Santees. Santee is a brand that I've heard good things about, but I can't seem to find it anywhere near me. They had a small display. A few good colors, but nothing caught my eye like this one did.


Peacock Green Glitter. I absolutely love it! It has small green glitters, medium sized gold and super, jumbo sized gold hexagon glitters. And to top it off, guess how much it cost me? $1, ya can't beat that!

I went a lil crazy with the hair accessories. I thought I'd go ahead show them off here. These were all $1 also.


Ugh, simply gorgeous. Love this one.


LOVE!!! The head band pinches a bit. But I don't care, I still love it.


lol, I had to get a red to match my hair. I think this one blends in with my hair a bit too much. You can barely see it.


The rest are just clips. I decided to get an orange one since I like to wear alot of orange in the summer. Cute, but I wish the clip was bigger.


You know I had to get something purple.LOVE THIS!!!


This one has to be my favorite. It is soooo huge! Its like half my head.