China Glaze Trolls World Tour Collection Swatches & Review

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Can't fight the feeling (to do Troll hair nails, obviously)! Trolls World Tour, the sequel to the super fun hit that gave us that earworm from Justin Timberlake, is almost here! In just a few short weeks, we can see the latest in the Trolls family of movies featuring huge stars like Justin Timberlake, Ozzy Osbourne, and one of my personal favorites, James Corden! To celebrate the release of the new movie, China Glaze released their Trolls World Tour inspired collection, which is full of fun brights and just a touch of sparkle! These arrived yesterday evening, and I wanted to show them to you as soon as possible, so read on for swatches!!

Feeling Rebellious? China Glaze Rebel Swatches!

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Oh, the days of my youth...my teenage years awkwardly spent in the 90s with a strange and slightly unhealthy love of...vests. While the grunge movement only barely made it to the tiny town of 800 that I grew up in, I still appreciate the days of flannel shirts, combat boots, and Nirvana just as much as if I had participated in them myself. :) I'm loving the nostalgia that comes with Rebel, the latest collection from the color geniuses at China Glaze! The colors and finishes definitely evoke memories of the 90s, and are positively stunning even if you're too young to remember them!

Hit the jump to see the swatches!

Scrub-a-Dub-Dub! Simple Sugars Vanilla Grapefruit Review

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Last year at Cosmoprof I had the pleasure of meeting Lani Lazzari, the creator and founder of Simple Sugars homemade sugar scrub. Lani created Simple Sugars in 2005 when she was only 15 years old, when her mother insisted that the Christmas gifts she gave should be homemade. She grew up with sensitive, eczema-prone skin, and wanted to create a product that she could use without the worry of rashes or breakouts, so she created Simple Sugars! I first learned about her and her product on Shark Tank; I am a religious watcher of the show, and have admittedly purchased a few items that were featured on there.

I was really excited to learn about her stuff because I, too, have issues with skin sensitivity. The thing I love most about her scrub is that, even though it's great for sensitive skin, it's actually SCRUBBY! It has substance to it, without being too harsh, which can be hard to find. I recently got the chance to try out a new scent exclusive to BeautyBrands.com, Vanilla Grapefruit, and let me tell you...I'm in love. It smells absolutely AMAZING. AH-MAY-ZING. I loved it so much when I opened it that I immediately made Chris smell it, and the scent actually does linger on the skin. It's a perfect scent for summer, and it smells so good I could just eat it! (No, really! Lani likes to say, "If you wouldn't eat it, then you probably have no business putting it on your skin!")

I'm sure you're all pros at using scrubs, but to use this amazing scrub, you just need to use the little spoon that comes with your jar to prevent water getting into your container, and give the scrub a little stir to distribute the oils. You can use a washcloth, scrubby, or like me, just your hands to scrub all those nasty dead skin cells off! Once you feel the sugar dissolving, it's time to rinse! Be careful though, this step may make your tub a bit slippery, and no one likes greeting the EMTs naked with a head trauma. :D When you get out of the shower, just pat dry, and marvel over how smooth and soft your skin is!

There are TONS of scents available, but Vanilla Grapefruit is exclusive to BeautyBrands.com. You can get a 5 oz size for $15, or 8 oz size for $22. Lani has formulated scrubs for face, body, feet, and has even launched a mens scrub! I've had the pleasure of trying out the Green Tea facial scrub, and it's super amazing too, though I'm notttt a big fan of the scent on that one. Next on my list to try are the lilac body scrub (if it's not sold out yet) and the coffee facial scrub! There is also a new Sun Scrub with aloe and green tea extract to help soothe sunburn and minimize UV damage! (as a redhead who burns with 100 SPF, this GREATLY appeals to me!)

You can find all of Lani's other scents and formulations at www.SimpleSugarsScrub.com, they come in 2 sizes, 5 oz and 8 oz. Simple Sugars scrubs do not contain paragons, sulphates, phthalates, artificial preservatives, colors or additives.

Disclosure: Products in this post were provided for review. See the legal page disclosure for more information.

Zoya Summer 2015 - Island Fun Swatches & Review

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Dear Zoya, 

I love this collection. 

Sincerely, 
Melissa


This collection is probably one of my absolute favorites from Zoya in a while! I love love love the bright cremes! Jace, Cecelia, and Talia belong together...they make a perfect trio. I think they're my favorites of this collection, but Serenity runs a close second to them, and I also love Demetria and Nana! It's rare that I love a whole collection, but I feel like all of these are extremely wearable! :)

Hit the jump for my swatches and review!

Morgan Taylor Ooh La La! Collection Swatches & Review

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This new Ooh La La! collection from Morgan Taylor screams spring in Paris to me. I feel like they absolutely nailed it. (Pun intended) Though the closest I've ever been to Paris is Charles De Gaulle airport, I feel like it is a great color story to match photos I've seen of Paris. It feels like a romantic collection with a twist, and I like that. I had some unexpected love for a particular polish in this collection, hit the jump to find out which one, and see my swatches & review! :)

Zoya Delight Spring 2015 Swatches & Review

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When I was younger, my favorite part of Easter (aside from dyeing eggs) was eating the royal icing eyeball off my chocolate bunny, then following with the ears, naturally. As I've grown older, my taste buds yearn for the deliciousness off Cadbury Mini Eggs. They're SO. DAMN. GOOD! I'm not a jellybean girl, though. I mean, I love sugar, but there is something about the sickeningly sweet jelly consistency that I just can't get behind. Bleck! The latest collection from Zoya evokes memories of spring and Easters past. They make me think of dyed eggs in bright green cellophane grass and, for some reason... daffodils. Those are like the universal flower of spring, right? Hit the jump for the photos and review! :)

Morgan Taylor Glam Rock Swatches & Review

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My first introduction to Morgan Taylor was this past summer at Cosmoprof, and man, what a color selection! Today's post is a review of their Winter 2014 collection–Glam Rock. These are colors fit for a punk rock princess; silver, black, duochrome, it has a little everything for the chic girl on the go! Most of the colors are pretty pigmented, and the ones that aren't build very nicely!

Check out my photos and review after the jump!

ZOYA Magical Pixie Dust Swatches & Review

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If I had to guess what kind of nail polish Disney princesses and fairies wore, the Zoya Magical Pixie Dust collection would most definitely be it. I'm not sure the polish fairies at Zoya Headquarters could have packed any more glittery goodness in these three polishes! I really like the mixture of texture, holographic hexagonal glitter, and smaller holographic and regular glitter. It's kinda like a stripper exploded on my nails, but you know, in a good way.


See the swatches and review after the jump!

Zoya Naturel Swatches and Review

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Everyone loves a good neutral polish and I'll admit, I'm a total sucker for them! After the jump, Check out my swatches and review of the Naturel collection from Zoya!! It's a pretty collection that I feel will look great on a number of skin tones and with all different styles. Application on every one of these was a dream, not a streak in sight, and these were all creamy and pigmented!

Hit the jump for more!

ZOYA Summer 2013 Pixie Dust Review

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As promised, here are swatches of the Summer 2013 Zoya Pixie Dust collection! These were beasts to get photographed, I seriously swatched/photographed them 3 times, the pictures kept coming out with everything in focus but the polish! :D

Hit the jump for the swatches and reviews!

ZOYA Pixie Dust Review

WOO! Today I am sharing with you my review and swatches for the new ZOYA Pixie Dust Collection! I am totally in love with this collection, and the textured finish trend in general. I love the feel, the way it looks, and especially the wear. I got really great wear with these! (which is saying a lot, since my hands are wet a lot of my work day)

Hit the jump for the swatches and reviews!

Zoya Beach Swatches & Review

 This post is REALLY late. I know. I'm trying to get back up-to-date with blog posts after my unscheduled hiatus. This collection took a little longer to get to me, since it had to sit and wait for Chris to go to Vegas an come back. It flew over 12,000 miles (and man, are its arms tired!) to get to me, and then it sat. However, because Zoya was gracious enough to provide it to me for review, and because it, like most of Zoya stuff, is great, I'm reviewing it now. Better late than never, right? I actually swatched and photographed both Beach & Surf 3 times (on different days/weeks!) before I was satisfied with these pictures!

In all photos, the index finger is painted with only 1 coat to show the true opacity of the polish!

More after the jump!

Feelin' Blue-berry?

Growing up, there was an abundance of things to do during the summer break from school. One of of them was NOT saying 'I'm bored!' Those two words strung together were simply not allowed in my house. What did this mean? You went outside. Yes, I grew up before video game consoles were in every household (we DID have a Nintendo and B/W Gameboys as we grew older and a super awesome Texas Instruments game/keyboard thingy though), we didn't even *GASP* have cable TV. We had 4 channels: ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS, and if it wasn't on one of those channels, you didn't need to watch it. You relied on your brain and creativity to keep yourself busy. As long as the sun was out, my sister and I managed to find something outdoors to do...luckily, we grew up in the middle of a forest, so there was an abundance of things to do and discover. We shot BB guns, rode 4-wheelers (we weren't supposed to), rode bikes, built forts, hiked through the woods, played in the yard, played with the dogs, even went fishing in our neighbor's pond. Luckily, we weren't girls that were concerned with getting downright filthy. I rarely wore shoes, and could run barefoot on gravel. Anyway, one of my favvvvvorite things to do in the summers growing up was pick all the wild berries growing around the house, we had wild strawberries (which are teeny tiny), raspberries (my favorite), and wild blueberries. I loved walking through the woods, pulling berries off the bushes and popping them in my mouth, now THAT was summer. (That and begging our parents to take us for ice cream at the local ice cream parlor, Zanner's, which was in one of the oldest buildings in town.)

Because I'm feeling nostalgic and admittedly, missing home, I decided to do blueberry nail art! I used the new polish that I got as part of a Klout Perk from Essie - Bikini So Teeny, a periwinkle blue with a barely noticeable hint of silver sparkle. You may also notice that my nails are a very different shape than usual, too. :) I was bored I guess, I've had the same (or similar) nail shape for as long as I can remember - at least 10 years or more. It was time for a change, right?! I'm still undecided whether I like this new shape or not, hoping it grows on me or grows OUT fast! :)  What do you think of the new shape?

 

I used:

Light Blue: Essie Bikini So Teeny
Dark Blurple: American Apparel Mount Royal
Blurple Highlight: American Apparel Cameo Blue
Blurple Shading: American Apparel Passport Blue


Now, I usually use the padded files from CND, they're my absolute favorite. However, I recently became a part of the Tweezerman Ambassador program, and in the kit they sent were 3 different types of files (amongst some other pretty fantastic stuff, but that will come later), so I thought I'd give one of them a go. I selected the Sansational nail file, a Coarse/Medium grit file that made seriously quick work of my nail reshaping. Another great thing about this file is that is can be washed and disinfected, which is always a plus. This file is a bit too gritty for regular filing, but for reshaping, it was absolute perfection.

Disclosure: Some products in this post were provided as a Perk through Klout Perks, or were provided for consideration by the manufacturer. My opinion is my own.