Estée Lauder: Tempestuous

Hey all! I hope your winter weather hasn't been too bitter and brisk! I've been a busy bee with new years celebrations and attending class everyday. It's been stressful and crazy, but I love being busy, it keeps me driven and happy! Here's a new color from one of my favorite brands, Tempestuous, by Estée Lauder. I've been working with a brand new camera, and I'm not quite sure I have it down 100%. The color quality on these photos is a little off, but I do think these show fantastic detail compared to my old photos!

This polish is a black base, with blue and purple shimmer. See the top right corner of the "E" logo in the photo above? That's what the color really looks like in sunlight. This polish is truly sparkly and shiny in person, it's quite pretty. The shimmer is quite obvious, even indoors, so the wonderful color shows through all day! This is two thin coats, and consistency was great. This polish is the perfect balance of fun and classy.

I have been consistently falling in love with Estée Lauder polishes, so expect to see some more in the future! What do you guys think of this color? I'm loving it!

Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas Manicure: Dior Apparat

Merry Christmas everybody! Did you all wake up early to open your presents?  My Christmas has been filled with cookie baking, decorating, and lots of  present wrapping. I love the holidays, getting together with family, making tons of fabulous food, and seeing friends. There's just something so heartwarming about being with the people who love you most.

Here's my Christmas mani, I've picked Dior Apparat this year to dress up my tips. Apparat was a holiday color from last year, and it's a beautiful, opulent red base with fine red and gold glitter.

I am in love with this color, it's perfect for the holidays, rich and luxurious. Fantastic for a Christmas party with friends or family.

This is two coats to make opaque coverage. I found this polish difficult to work with, as it was quite thick and became even more so as I continued painting my nails. I had a hard time keeing the manicure clean, and it definitely didn't apply evenly, but that was nothing a good coat of Seche Vite couldn't fix. 

 Overall, I'm happy with the result of the manicure, but the process could have been easier with a smoother formula. What have all of you been sporting on your nails this holiday season?

An Early Christmas Present & Ciaté: Cupcake Queen Review

Good evening everyone! For all of you college students, let's celebrate the end of a fantastic semester! If you've been following my site for a while, you know that I've been a little MIA lately, business school will do that to you! Now I'm back home with my family for the next couple of weeks to relax and prepare for another intense few months of school. I'm hoping to switch up some of the upcoming posts, I hope you guys will like them!

Yesterday I was surprised with an amazing early Christmas present from my boyfriend, who I won't be able to see until New Years Eve. We both exchanged gifts early so that we could celebrate some holiday cheer together. I was so excited to see something that I was sad I had missed out on as I unwrapped his present... the Ciaté Mini Mani Month Advent Calendar.

The advent calendar features 21 mini Ciaté nail colors as well as three bottles of micro beads for a total of 24 days of polish. I opened up all but the 24th color, and there's an impressive variety of colors and types. I just think this is such a cool idea, seriously, one nail polish a day? You can sign me up for that anytime. I'm a big sucker for packaging, and Ciaté has excelled in this department with a beautiful box and adorable bows on each bottle. I decided to wear the first nail polish Cupcake Queen, a hot pink with subtle blue shimmer, on my nails today. It looks like I have candy on my nails! 

Consistency was great, I was able to get full opacity with two thin coats. Very even and easy to work with. One thing I do think could be improved is the shape of these tiny bottles. They're quite skinny and easily knocked over. I'm not familiar with the full sized bottle, so this may just be a problem for these minis.

two coats accompanied by Seche Vite top coat

Overall, I think a nail polish advent calendar is a fantastic idea and a wonderful gift. This is my first experience with any of Ciaté's products and I'm impressed so far! I hope more of these show up next holiday season. I hope every one's holiday is going splendidly!

OPI: DS Extravagance

Good morning everyone!  I hope you all have been keeping relaxed and healthy in these chilly days.  I have been extremely busy with school work and I am working on an exciting project for the blog that I think you guys will really enjoy!  Today though, I'm going to review OPI DS (Designer Series) Extravagance, which is a color I think you guys will love.  Please let me know what you think of it! 

This has to be one of my all time favorites, the color is so rich and saturated, and the holographic glitter is sure to get you noticed.  When I wear this color I feel extra confident and beautiful, and when a product makes you feel like that, you know you've found a winner!  Some people have shoes or a dress, I have nail polish!  As you can see this is a deep fuchsia with a good amount of holographic glitter.  Consistency is very smooth, which allowed me to have concise control of where the paint flowed onto the nail.

These close up images really show the complexity and depth of this polish.  Are you falling in love with this polish just as much as I have?

Please let me know what you guys think of this polish and review!  I am so interested in hearing your feedback, my mission is to provide you with quality reviews and am always open to constructive criticism. 

Chanel: Paradoxal

Today I have a fantastic color to share with you!  I have finally made it home and I admittedly don't really know what to do with myself.  No homework, no projects, no exams, and everyone has gone to work and school for the day at my house.  My plan is to do laundry and hopefully meet up with a friend for coffee before family comes over and preparations for the big feast begins. 

Anyways, on to the polish!  Chanel Paradoxal is a dark grey/mauve based color with finely milled purple shimmer.  The shimmer is most evident in the bottle, and becomes subtle once painted on the nails.  I find Paradoxal to be a bit of a chameleon, in sunlight the purple is more evident and looks very warm, yet in shade or artificial lighting it looks like a cool grey.  It's one of those colors that's a little hard to describe, but I think it would look great on any skin tone!

What do you guys think of this polish?  I personally like it a lot.  It's not a color that's in your face or that people will stop you in the streets to comment on, but it's oh so sophisticated and grown up.

Is anyone planning to do something for black Friday?  This year our mall opens at midnight, which means I am not getting any sleep that night. Are you shopping for anything specific? Any great deals you can't pass up? Let me know! Happy holidays!

Butter London: Wallis

Happy Monday everyone!  I trust all of your weekends went well, and that your upcoming thanksgiving weeks will be great!  I cannot wait to go home soon, I'm definitely in need of a break! I think everyone needs to see their families sometimes, I wish I could see mine more often.  Here's a polish I think you guys will love, I know I fell in love with it when I first saw it.  This little number goes by the name Wallis, and I think you'll fall head over heels when you see her too.

Isn't she so pretty?  A gorgeous, vibrant army-olive green that's rich at the same time.  Wallis isn't a new color, but you can still find it at your local Ulta.  I find that a lot of olives tend to be dusty, but this one glows from within!  I find this polish so elegant and edgy.

What do you guys think of this color?  Do you already own it?  I think this is so stunning for fall.  This is two coats, with one layer of Seche Vite on top.  Great consistency, and easily removed as well.

I hope you enjoyed the review!  What are you guys doing this thanksgiving break?  Let me know!

Over-worked and Overwhelmed

My past week was probably one of the most stressful weeks I've had in a long time. I had three exams this week and a few papers due, which made this week intense! We all experience moments when it seems as though there isn't enough time in the day. I want to share with you some things that got me through my stress:

Some beautiful flowers from my fantastic boyfriend. I love fresh flowers, especially when the days turn chilly and dim.

I love the way trees look without their leaves. There's just something so macabre and beautiful about seeing these dormant "skeletons" everywhere.

Delicious candied violet petals from Ladurée. I picked these up in NYC and have been slowly munching away at them this week. I love the subtle floral-ness, and it's a perfect way to satisfy a sweet tooth!

These are the things the helped me survive my week, what do you enjoy when feeling overwhelmed?