Formula X for Sephora Review

Hello Loves!

I know it's been awhile, but I have an awesome review for you today about some nail polishes you don't want to miss out on. Sephora will have a new nail polish display, and new nail polishes, coming to stores October 3rd. You can get them online here before they hit stores.

What I am going to be talking about here, is something from the nail treatment, nail polish, and nail effects section.

I believe there is going to be a set called "The System" that is $32. The nail polishes individually are $10.50, the nail effects are $12.50, and nail treatments are $10.50 to $14.

Sorry for the random other products. The nail polishes are in the back!

The first thing we are going to talk about is "The System". In the system you receive 4 steps to an expert manicure. Step 1. is to cleanse. This is in the nail treatment section. It claims to prep the nail base by eliminating residue. I'm not sure if this does anything, but I could tell a difference in how my nail felt after putting this step on. It seems like an extra step, but I think it really does help the nail polish adhere better to the nail. Step 2. is to prime. The base coat is a bit stickier than most to ensure the nail lacquer will adhere. Step 3. Is the actual nail polish. Apply one to two coats of it. I got a dark red, and found that one coat was extremely opaque, but chose to do two to ensure that the color was even. The final step is shine. This top coat is pretty glossy, and dries rather quickly.

Overall, I enjoy "The System" the polish has withstood a day of serving, a long few days in a stock room for an RTW and a day of playing with my eventual step-daughter. Clearly it's gone through some rough playtime. It is going on 6 days without chipping, so it's safe to say I'm pretty dag-on impressed.

*All polishes by formula X are paraben free.

The coolest par about this line though is the nail effects. I only have one effect, but I will 100% be purchasing more because of how absolutely awesome this one is. I have one of the Xplosives in "Chaotic". I showed my nails to my boyfriend after I put this on. He told me that if he hadn't had known that this was one coat of polish, that he would have told me I had way too much time on my hands to put that much detail into my nails.
The Xplosives basically look like splattered paint. It seriously looks so neat. I cannot wait to purchase more and check out the other nail effects. I believe Avon, has a similar polish line but I am unsure on the prices and quality of that particular brand.

I would say that if you purchase anything from this line, you have to check out the nail effects and I would also check out the cleanse polish.

If you have used these polishes, let me know what you think about them in the comments below!

XO-Stacey

What age should you start using eye creams?

Hey beauties!

I have been running into this question for quite sometime. Since I have started my new job where I do a lot of skin type consultations and such, I keep wondering when the right time is to start using eye cream?

If you didn't know, I am 21 years old. Is your 20's the right time to start? Should you do it earlier or later? What I have come to the conclusion of, when looking at articles, and in my job, is that it depends on your skin type.

If you have dry skin, you want to start earlier. Dry skin wrinkles much easier and faster than those with oily skin. I have EXTREMELY dry skin, so I have a few eye cream samples that I've been dabbling in.

Why do we use eye creams you may ask? -- The skin around the eye is extremely thin compared to the rest of your face. This area is prone to wrinkles quicker than the rest of your face. Crows feet and dark under eye circles are problems that occur in many people at various ages. Eye creams generally combat under-eye circles, puffiness, and fill in line.  I think the thing that people don't fully understand, is that they are using them too late in life.

Using an eye cream is a great preventative method however, I realize that it is extremely annoying to have an extra step in your routine. I would say, start when you're in your twenties! It is good for your skin!! I have only been using an eye cream for about a week, but I can already tell that my concealer looks much smoother.

Let me know if you use one or not! Is it all just hype or is it really worth it?

XO-Stacey

Hair Fail.

Beauties,

It's been awhile since I have blogged. I got a new job along with my serving job so I am super busy but I'm pretty much loving life and having a fun time. But I come with you today with a hair fail...

Now, I wanted my hair to be back to its natural hair color. 1. This will never happen for a red head. It's practically impossible to get back to your exact shade. 2. This went horribly wrong.

I did it myself because I've done it before, and loved it. This time went awfully wrong. I think that a. I picked the wrong color by one shade. (I picked Light red blonde) b. I left it on too long. and c. my developer was possibly too high.

Now I want you to know, I've done this before and it worked out fine. Too bad I couldn't remember the color I used last time... because this time failed. I used 20 developer last time, and that's what I got this time. I left it on for 30 minutes which was 15 minutes less than the time stated.

So here are my pictures.. in case you like this color, then you'll know what you need. It's not a bad color, but I don't think it suits me. I've seen other people with this hair color and it looks awesome... but I look silly.

Everything was from sally's.

The color mixed

Looking Worried

Looking upset and bright

The final hair.

So this is the final fail... the top part in the last picture looks lighter than the bottom but it's not. I think it was just the lighting outside. I don't hate I guess, but I'm not in love with it either. I've had my hair this color before like 5 years ago and loved it when I was in my angsty teenage phase.. But I'm not in the phase anymore and I'm a grown up, so this is weird...

Do you like it? Can you pull this color off? Tell me how you pull it off while I wait for it to fade.

XO-Stacey

DIY Dollar Store Fall Wreath

Today I have a bit of a different post. I was really interested in making a fall wreath and kind of changing up the decor in my living room a bit to make it more fall appropriate since it's already September.

I'm not exactly ready for fall to be here, but it is so I needed to have a Crafty Monday. Now, I made two of these, a really small one which I'll just show you a picture of my mantle and a large one to hang on my door. Unfortunately, the house I am currently living in, I can't put the wreath up on the door because the actual door and the glass door in front of it are too close together... So i just put it in my living room.

Let me start off by saying I spent a total of $11 on the large wreath and $4 on the small one. HOWEVER... the large one can be less expensive and I'll talk about that in just a second.


So here is what you'll need:

18-inche wreath -- I had to get this at JoAnn's because my Dollar Store was all out. (Mine was $5 for the wreath, so if you can find yours at the Dollar Store then you'll be saving more money!)
Leaves -- I purchased 5 packs of leaves to ensure it was very full, however I did see that for $2 at Joann's you could purchase a pack of 30 when mine only came in a pack of 10. (if you didn't catch that, that means more savings) 
Flowers -- This step is optional. I added some fake flowers to add a little extra something to my wreath, but it looked just as good without out them.
Hot Glue Gun -- If you don't have one of these, you can get a really cheap one from Joann's for around $3.

1.  I separated my leaves out, and placed them in a very plain pattern all the way around wreath. A great thing about these leaves though, is that they have wire in them so I attached them by the wire instead of hot-gluing.

2.  Next I started to fill in the inner rim on the wreath so that I could hide most of the wood part. (It's okay if you don't want to do this, it's just personal preference.

3. Then, I added fullness around the outside rim. I filled in any holes that looked a bit sparse. My leaves were looking a bit straight and flat, so I scrunched them up to make them look more leaf-like.

4. Lastly, I cut the flowers off the stems and hot glued them in any sparse areas. This step is optional, but I really like how it looks. I also, sprinkled it with some gold glitter because nothing says fall like gold glitter! This is my Final Result.

This is my fire place after I made the smaller wreath on the far left behind the orange candle. On that one I bought 3 or so fake flower clusters, cut them off, and hot glued them in a circle around the small wreath. I think this was a 9-inch wreath. I really like how this one turned out too.

I hope you liked my Decor DIY. I'm thinking I might do some more of these, especially when my boyfriend and I move into our new house in about a month. We are going to do a bunch of renovating before we move in, so I'd love to show my DIY renovations too.

If you make a wreath like that, send me a picture! Any questions? Comment below. I'm sure I can help!

XO-Stacey

Another Hair Failure...

Beauty Lovers!!

I watched another heatless wave tutorial... and decided to try it out. I'll tell you how I did it in steps... however, it didn't work out the best for me which makes me so sad. My hair texture has changed again. It's slightly annoying. I've never head relatively straight hair since I was in kindergarten or so. But now my hair is straight... what do I do?

The first thing you need to do is wash your hair.

Then add a heat protectant into your hair. Hush your brain before you say it. "Stacey, a heat protectant? I thought this was supposed to be heatless."

Next I blow dried my hair with cool air with random shots of warm air to make it go a bit faster.

Then I split my hair into two different pony tails, and twisted my hair into two buns. Bobby pin the buns and spray some hairspray on them.

 Lastly go to sleep!

When you wake up you're supposed to have lovely, beach-like waves. Mine on the other hand, turned out like this...
'

It could have been fine... but my hair is so thick and course that I feel like it got all weird on me. I don't think it looks awful, but it definitely doesn't look nice either.

Try it out and see if it works out for you? Or tell me how I can make it work for me? Please?

Xo-Stacey

Tweezerman Eyelash Curler

For all my makeup life, I've always heard and been told that your eyelash curler doesn't matter, as long as you have one, you're good. I have always purchased the cheap Revlon ones and never thought anything of it. I just thought it was my eyelashes or my mascara that was making it so my eyelashes wouldn't stay curled. Boy was I wrong. The only other YouTube beauty guru that I have watched that has said your eyelash curler makes a difference was amarixe and I didn't believe her...until now.

I have straight as a board eyelashes. So straight in fact, that throughout high school I would blow dry my eyelash curler and then curl my eyelashes to hopefully make them stay. Some days they turned out crazy spidery looking, other days they looked fine. I was at work the other day, and I asked my coworker who has beautifully curled eyelashes what she used. She said she used a Revlon one... I was perplexed... how in the world were her eyelashes looking so perfect and mine fell straight?

I had a couple Target gift cards lying around, and went searching to see if I could find a different eyelash curler that would curl these bad boys. I mosied around for quite sometime and then I stumbled across these $12 Tweezerman eyelash curlers. There were also a couple other only $9. A girl I was with told me to just get it. I was a bit worried, $12 for an eyelash curler? The Revlon ones were like $2... what could possibly be the difference?

The next day, I used this new eyelash curler, and holy curly eyelashes... This eyelash curler is a dream boat. If you have stick straight eyelashes I will 100% vouch for this eyelash curler. It is so unbelievably great.

On the left is my old, Revlon eyelash curler and on the right is the Tweezerman eyelash curler. 

 

Here is my proof to you. First is a picture of my naked eyelashes. The left side was curled with the Revlon eyelash curler while the right side was curled with the Tweezerman eyelash curler.

Now here are my eyelashes with one coat of mascara on them.

Lastly, here are my eyelashes with two coats of mascara on them.They both look alright here. but the kicker is the next one.

Lastly, Here are my eyelashes exactly one hour later. The Tweezerman side is still pretty perfectly curled, while the Revlon side is rather straight... and the more time that passes, the straighter these eyelashes got. Thank goodness I found the Tweezerman eyelash curler!

If you have crazy, super straight eyelashes, let me know what your favorite eyelash curler is? Have any of you eyelash obsessives noticed a difference in how your eyelashes look when curled by different eyelash curlers? Is there a less expensive alternative? Tell me your thoughts!

XO - Stacey

Miley Cyrus/Punk Inspired Look

Hello Beauty Lovers!


If any of you love Miley Cyrus and her complete off-the-wall new attitude like I do. You might love this video that I have for you today. I realize Miley Cyrus is a pretty controversial subject since one day she was Hannah Montana and now shes party central, but hey, I love the new crazy Miley. Bring it on! I tried out the look shes been doing recently with dark eyes and red lips, but you could also swap it out for a super nude lip for she does that as well. I also tried out her hair. I gave myself a mohawk. No worries, I didn't shave off all my hair, just used my hair to my advantage. 

I hope you enjoy this wildly punk look! Comment below and tell me if you try out the makeup or the hair, or what you would do to make it more wearable for you?

XO - Stacey