NOTD: Essie Nail Polish Miss Fancy Pants

One of the items I recieved in my Loose Button American Luxe Box was the Essie Nail Polish in Miss Fancy Pants. The color is great with a one coat application. I have to say, nail polish doesn't last very long on my nails but it's holding up pretty well with normal tip wear.

 One coat of polish, no top coat.

A great fall color! I love the gray, purple, taupe color.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips

I received the Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips in my first American Loose Button Luxe Box.
I was able to use one set of strips for both hands due to my short nails. This leaves me another set. Application was a little difficult but basically it's like putting stickers on your nails.

Salon effects kit applied to my nails.

A great lace pattern.

Almost immediately I noticed some of the edges wanted to curl up. I applied a clear coat to try to prevent them from peeling off. However after about 2 days one did peel off, damaging my nail. I gave them one more day as another started to peel off and decided to remove them I am not sure how they are supposed to last 10 days.

My ruined nail from the polish peeling off.

I still have another chance to try them out, but I am not really looking forward to trying again. I knew there was a reason I just couldn't bring myself to purchasing this product on it's own. For the price, it really is not worth it. I'd rather save up and have my nails done professionally. Or just stick with standard polish.

Influenster's New Look!

Influenster is a website where you can influence people with your reviews, videos, blogs, pretty much any social media outlet out there. The cool thing is, you also get to try stuff. I have not been an Influenster for very long, but I should have some new dish soap on the way to me. (Yes, dish soap. People need to know how well even dish soap works. - or doesn't work.)

Visit Influenster and sign up. It's free!

The great new thing is that you can earn tons more badges than before. You can also get badges more specific to what items you like to use and review. This is great as you can show where you are most influential as well. The more badges you get, the more likely you are to get VBoxes. (Boxes of goodies for you to test out and review.)

The site is much more easy to navigate through and it's easier to see what your goals are. The more goals you accomplish the higher your Influenster score.

With my limited experience with Influenster, I can't saw a whole lot more, but I can keep you updated!

Let me know if you are an Influenster by commenting below!

Nail of the Day featuring BarryM Mushroom

BarryM Mushroom Nails and Nicole by OPI Love in your Life accent

 I received my first BarryM nail polish in a swap earlier this year. It's fall and time to start enjoying it! It's called Mushroom. It is quite opaque and you can get away with one coat.
I decided to use Nicole by OPI in Love in Your Life as an accent. I find it difficult to get the heart glitter out and there is too much clear polish to even get enough pink glitter. You really have to use multiple coats to get good glitter coverage.

My short nails with the lovely polish on them!

Have you tried BarryM polishes?

Makeup Challenge - Featuring Sleek and MUA

What is Sarah Jane's makeup challenge?

For my makeup challenge I like to pick a set of products and use them for a week or two, trying to see what looks I can create within the limits of what I have chosen.
I used to do them weekly, editing videos with pictures I took everyday. This became very time consuming so I have altered it to show a tutorial of my most used look with the products I chose. I did take some pictures this time, so I thought I would share:

A Gold look from the MUA Going for Gold palette. Yes, it's a rather silly pose!

A Silvery look from the MUA Going for Gold palette.

A pinky purple look from the Sleek Storm palette.

Overall look with the pinky purple eyes, mac cruella de vil blush, NYC bronzer

Check out my video to see all the products I used and how I used them!

Urban Decay Naked Vs. MUA Undressed Palettes

My Beautiful friend Kerry sent me the MUA Undressed Palette from England! (Visit her at KerryLovesGlam channel on YouTube!) The Undressed Palette is supposed to be a dupe for Urban Decay's Naked Palette. I have to say, It's pretty close!

When swatched side by side you can see some differences in color.
Virgin is more yellow and a bit more pigmented than the MUA version - which has a slightly pinky tone to it.
Sin also appears a bit more pigmented but MUA comes pretty darn close.

Naked, one of the two mattes in the palette is far more pigmented than the MUA version. It has much more depth and color to it. I can say that the MUA version still makes a great transition color from crease to highlight.
Sidecar is a bit deeper in color than the MUA dupe, but the MUA version lacks the huge chunks of glitter making it go on smoother without glitter fallout. In fact, none of the MUA shadows have glitter, they take on a more metallic feel instead.

Buck, the second matte is also far more pigmented than the MUA version. Urban Decay has some nice quality mattes which can be difficult for any company to make. The MUA version also seems to have a more yellow tone than a real brown.
Half Baked is one of those golds that are hard to dupe. It's such an almost true gold when swatched. MUA does a pretty good job with their gold, but it appears more rosy and a little less metallic than half baked.

Smog is a great bronze gold that MUA doesn't seem to match very well. Urban Decay has a way of giving dimension to their shadows that just wasn't duplicated here.
Darkhorse also comes off a bit more unique as a not quite bronze, not quite black, maybe a tinge of gold color. MUA makes a nice bronze/black metallic, but again, just not quite a dupe.

Toasted is a great (not that you can see here) Purple based, pinky neutral. I found it hard to get a good image of the true color since my camera won't take a picture without the flash. Toasted is one of my favorites and while MUA comes close, theirs still looks more rosy gold to me with just a slight hint of purple to it.
Hustle is another one of those complex colors and is hard to match. With it's deeper color, another purple based neutral, it goes well with toasted. MUA comes close but seems to lack the dimension and depth.

Creep I was surprised about. It is a matte black with sparkly shimmer - in proper light you can see the some of the glitter is purplish in color. Perhaps the MUA version is more pigmented due to the not quite metallic finish. It's hard to see the complexity of the glitter in Creep without seeing it in person, but on they eye, I am not sure it would make a huge difference. MUA definitely wins on pigment here.
Gunmetal is another one of those complex colors. You can see the steel grey darkness with blueish grey shine. MUA comes close to offering the blueish grey color but again, lacks the dimension Urban Decay can do so well.

For the price of the MUA Palette, you get a great dupe to to the costly Naked palette. People may not even notice a difference when it's on your eyes, but you can see that you do get more depth of colors with the hefty UD price tag. However, if you don't like glitter on your face, the MUA palette is the way to go as UD seems to really like glitter in some of their (beautiful) colors.

I like having both palettes. I'm not sure you need both, but you can see they aren't exact dupes.

New Buzz Campaign!

I received some coupons for new Glade Expressions items for my newest Buzz Campaign! I really wanted the Fuji apple &cardamom spice version, but pretty much all I could find was the Pineapple & Mangosteen scents! It reminds me of a pina colada! Very tropical!

The refillable fragrance mist is great for a quick burst of scent in the air. I am not really sure why you need a refillable mist as you still have to dispose of an aluminum can. I think it's more of a gimmick than anything. You might as well just buy any regular air freshener can, and you get more than 4 scents to choose from that way.

The Diffuser is nice. It has a great bamboo looking design, while the oil sits in the bottom of the container. You just pop in the wick, which is essentially a sheet that fits between the wooden decorative sides. The smell slowly evaporates into the air leaving a tropical fruity smell that spreads throughout the house!

If I had to choose between the two products, I would get the diffuser. I don't understand the need for a "refillable" air freshener if you can't use recyclable plastic containers for the refillable part. The diffuser makes more sense as it always puts out a good smell, there isn't anything to plug in or burn. You don't have to worry about it all!

Let me know if you've tried any new Glade products and which smells you like best!