Magic Maid's 1000 Follower China Glaze GIVEAWAY!

This is a BIGGIE folks and is sponsered by China Glaze!
Magic Maid has hit her 1000 (and MORE) follower mark and is having a ton of awesome contests - the most recent one is sponsered by China Glaze - get there NOW and enter! It's HUGE!

Enter contest HERE

MAC Venomous Villains Haul, Review, & Lipstick Swatches

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FINALLY... I'm here to bring you my MAC/Disney Venomous Villains Haulage. Right now I only have swatches of the 2 lippies I got, simply because it's GROSS outside and I couldn't get decent shots. I was literally running all over the house trying different lighting. Nothing was working out. I think the lippie swatches turned out ok, so I'm posting them, however I will still try again tomorrow... hopefully we'll get some sunshine!

From this collection I picked up:

Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmations)
~ Darkly My Dear blush (this was NOT on my original list, but in person it's GORGEOUS... so happy! PS - it's in a seperate pic because I ordered it online and it showed up today, luckily the same day as the actual launch, but later than when I initially took pics lol)
~ Innocence Beware! Lipstick (cremesheen, reminds me a bit of 2n, tho I don't have that anymore to compare it to)
~ Devilishly Stylish Lipglass (haven't checked out the lipglass yet, will review when I swatch!)

Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)
~ Revenge Is Sweet Lipglass
~ Bad Fairy Nail Lacquer (plan on swatching tomorrow, will review then. I didn't go for any of the other Lacquers because I have their Orly dupes)

Evil Queen (Snow White)
~ Bite of an Apple Blush (TBH this looked bright as heck in swatches and not really my style, but there was such hype I needed it lol will review on swatches)
~ Sinister Lipstick (also not on my original pre-order list. I swatched this at Nordies and was IN LOVE. It's the perfect fall shade. Don't let the color in the tube fool ya! It's a luster so it's super sheer on and you can build it up, in the swatch photo I REALLY had to work to get that color)
~ Strange Potion Lipglass

I didn't grab anything from Dr. Facilier - I've never seen the Princess and the Frog, but his part of the collection really didn't speak to me. Was not impressed online OR in person.

Without further ado, here are the pics:


L-R Innocence Beware ls, Devilishly Stylish lg, Revenge Is Sweet lg, Sinister ls, Strange Potion lg, Bite Of An Apple Blush, Bad Fairy np


Darkly My Dear Blush

Lipstick Swatches:


L-R Sinister, Innocence Beware

MOST of this collection is sold out online at maccosmetics.com - keep checking for restocks (sometimes it happens!), and don't forget to check out other sites like macys.com, nordstrom.com ... even bloomies and dillards! Good luck!

Dior Diva VIP 1000 Point Gift!!!

Ever wonder what the 1000 point gift is (currently, anyway) from the Christian Dior Diva VIP program?? I have ALWAYS wanted to obtain this gift. Normally I only hit about the 500 point gift, but some lovely girls I CP for wanted some Dior so I scored the extra points with those purchases.

For those who don't know about the Diva program, here is a breakdown:

For every $1 spent on Dior Cosmetics products you receive 1 Diva reward point. (usually around the holidays or in the mail you get an extra 25 points here and there as well) Save ALL of your receipts in one calender year and send them in for any of the following!

Adorable Diva - 100 points Receive deluxe travel sizes of Dior best sellers in an adorable mini Dior Couture shopping bag.

Diva Deluxe - 250 points Receive a full-size of Dior's award-winning Diorshow Mascara in a couture-designed pouch plus a deluxe Dior skincare sample.

Runway Diva - 500 points Receive 2 full-size products and a professional makeup artist brush in a Dior runway pouch.

Fab Diva - 750 points Receive 3 full-size Dior products and a mini Dior fragrance in a fabulous must-have travel pouch.

Divine Diva - 1000 points Receive an exclusive Backstage Pro Stylist case filled with divine Dior products and miniatures.

Now, in the past, I've heard that the 1000 point Diva reward always had a 5 Colour, but it seems to me they've replaced that with the 2 colour and the capture totale. Which, in all actuality, probably equals more $$ wise.

In my 1000 point Divine Diva gift I received the following:
~ An AWESOME chrome metallic case that has a huge mirror and has a ton of room to hold makeup goodies as well as BRUSHES!
~ Samples of J'Adore and Miss Dior Cherie Eau De Parfum
~ Deluxe sample of Dior Addict 2 fragrance (I LOVE this!)
~ Small size of Dior Capture Totale Cream (about half the size of the $125 jar they sell at Sephora and Department stores)
~ Diorshow Blackout Mascara (full size)
~ Dior Eyeliner in Noir (full size)
~ Dior Addict Ultra Gloss in 157 (twin set pink) (Full size)
~ 2 Colours Eye Shadow in Nude Look (perfect for every day and full size)










So this is a really awesome reward for shopping Dior! If you're not already into the Diva program I suggest you click the link at the start of the blog post and get on board. This is something no other cosmetic company offers!! (that I know of, anyway lol)

MAC Viva Glam Gaga & Cyndi Spin-Off!

I am completely enamoured with MAC Viva Glam Cyndi. I cannot even believe that I hated it before! It's totally that juicy color that I've been LEMMING forever.

As a spin-off to THIS post, where I swatched and reviewed Viva Glam Gaga & Cyndi, I decided to do some lip swatches of the two. I have a close up of Cyndi, because that is what I have on today, and the the pic with me wearing Gaga I'm with my kiddies, it was from earlier in the week.

For Gaga and Cyndi I am wearing both the lipstick AND the lipglass.

CYNDI



for reference, a pic of my lips with nothing on them


GAGA


The colors are seriously gorgeous, the best Viva Glams that MAC has ever had! Retail is $14.50 plus tax and proceeds benefit AIDS research so run on over to maccosmetics.com and get yours NOW!

Chanel Rouge Allure Laque Swatches & Review

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Ohhhh I'm a bag blogger. Seriously though.. nothing really struck my fancy lately to be worthy of blogging. I've had no new purchases (GASP)... I'm just not excited.

My last post was about construction... so anti-beauty. I decided to swatch and review one of my absolute favorite products.

Chanel Rouge Allure Laque Luminous Satin Lip Lacquer. Ain't that a mouthful. The Laque's come in a multitude of colors.. some perm, some LE.. all expensive. At $32 a pop I only have 2 of them. I bought one last year (for a summer shade) and one this year (for a fall/winter shade). Chanel has fabulous products but they're SO pricey. Even a bit more than Dior, which is just about as high as I'll go. TBH I probably buy more from Dior because of their Diva VIP Program.

They apply with a doe foot applicator and go on extremely smoothly and opaque. The wear isn't very long, however it does leave a nice stain on the lips so you're not totally without.



The berry color on top is Dynastie (74), the peach masterpiece on the bottom is Santal (77)


I hope to swatch more of these in the future. I have a few on my WANTS list.

The Chanel Rouge Allure Laque retail for $32 plus tax at fine retailers (Macy's, Nordstrom, Saks...) If you buy from a counter KNOW your numbers. The testers only have numbers on the bottom. So, for example, if you go in looking for Santal... know that you're also looking for #77.

Whatsa Goin' On?

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Hey there peoples! I see I have a couple of new followers! HOOTIE HOOOOO! LOL I love it love it love it!! You all ROCK!

Anyway, I've been pretty absent this week. This week Owen started SWIMMING lessons (I know right? He's going to be FOUR... can't even believe it) and he also started Sporties For Shorties... where the little kiddies go in and learn about sports and how to play all of them. He's a champ ;)

Our house has also been undergoing some drastic construction changes. Ladies and gentleman... we have a ROOF! Well... almost. The shell of a roof lol The roof will hit completion NEXT week. Anyway, I thought I'd use this post to bring everyone up to date on construction (beginning to now) - don't worry, I will NOT bombard you with pics! Just a few shots here and there to show what we've been up to out here in good ol' picksburg! haha

There were A LOT of little in between things that were done, but this will give a nice run down and give you the general idea of how much it takes to build an addition on a house. (A sturdy one, anyway. You know these guys told us that they had to go into a certain company's home that was built - they build A LOT of homes and quickly but I'm not naming names - and basically COMPLETELY redo it. So for those of you looking to move into a plan of homes that were seemingly built over night.... PLEASE do your research first! This home was not even 10 years old and it was FALLING APART!)

We are adding on to the kitchen (Thank, God), building a Master bedroom with a nice size closet and master bath. The master bath isn't getting finished, because I want something obnoxious. So it'll have to be done in stages lol

What we started with:


This is the back of my house. That tree was just HUGE and totally rotted inside... can you believe that guy is just standing up there cutting it down? Yikes. Anyway, he trimmed it up to make way for Jeff's Uncle John to rip it out.

Bye, Bye Tree:



Digging the footer:




That line in the last photo is the water line, which was eventually re-routed... DH is in the orange and his cousin Johnny is in the bright yellow. At this point it was still a family affair of work!

The contractor & his men arrive to start laying out the basement:


The footer is poured, smoothed and gravelled:




The super block layers bust hump and put up the basement walls in 2 days:


The contractor comes back to start laying out for the house:

between this point and the previous point of block laying was about 3 weeks. I was going CRAZY. I'm extremely Type A and couldn't figure out why nothing was happening. This is a common occurance, from what I understand, in construction!

Laying the Floor:


Ripping off old siding:

(This wall will eventually be completely knocked out to make way for a bigger kitchen! YES!)

Framing up:

(oh, look, it's DH! lol)





And that brings us to where we are today.

In between all this was the pouring of the patio and basement floors, filling in around the outside (aka the moat you see in a few of the pics), re-routing of the water line... the boring stuff ;) This past week they framed up the roof and next week we're due to get the new roof put on. I think I'm going to start updating on the house once a week, just so the posts won't be this long from now on ;) Thanks for bearing with me, if you got this far! lol

PS - for the hecks of it, here are samples of what our new kitchen cabinets, counters and hardware will look like, as well as what we picked out for roof and siding. Trim will be white.

Magic Maid

Ok, this is a BIG deal!

Nicole over at Magic Maid is SO CLOSE to hitting 1000 followers!! She's doing monster giveaways when that happens, so head over to her page and follow STAT!

GYMBOREE CONTEST ALERT!

Hurry, hurry! Emily over at Wife Check, Mom Check, Now What? is sponsering a pretty snazzy giveaway. $50 worth of Gymboree clothes and it's YOUR CHOICE what you get!

This is FABULOUS and I'm so excited!! I hope you'll all follow Emily and enter her awesome contest!

Quick link to the contest -----------> ENTER HERE

NARS Orgasm Illuminator Swatches & Review

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I truly don't understand products like this. Sure, it's gorgeous, smooth, and fun to play with... but what is its ACTUAL purpose on my face??

NARS Orgasm Illuminator is the new kid on the block of a long line of Orgasm's. The makeup that is. It joins the ranks of a blush, lipgloss, nail polish... and, of course, the SUPER Orgasm lol

When worn it adds a nice gold sheen, a glowy highlighter. Not overpowering and blends extremely well. I put a Dior blush over it and it helped the blush stay on well and didn't muss with the color. As you can see from the photo, the Illuminator is pretty sheer. So if it's a lot of color you're after, you may want to skip this. (I'm NW25 at MAC and it hardly shows up on me, just a tinge of color and shimmer).

I'm not a fan at all of the Orgasm blush (universal shades like that NEVER suit my skin tone), but the Illuminator is fun. I would imagine if you were dark, or had a nice golden tan, this would look gorgeous and beachy on you.

The top is gooped on, the bottom is blended. You can just catch the shimmer!



This is just sample size (most recently they are coming in orders from NARSCosmetics.com!!!), and that's enough for me. The regular size is HUGE and will last forever.

The NARS Orgasm Illuminator retails for $29 at Sephora.com and at NARScosmetics.com.

Essie Sew Psyched NOTD & Swatches

Happy Morning to you everyone! Ugh MONDAY! Actually, this one hasn't been too bad for me. It seems like it's going FAST. Been doing lots of dishes, laundry... PHONE calls to the internet peoples whom I can't understand. =\ I know you've been there.

Anyway, I got a bit more sleep last night than usual (5 hours as opposed to my usual 2 or 3) and I decided to paint the nails. I always feel so much prettier when my nails are painted. Like my class level sky rockets or something lol

I've had Essie Sew Psyched (Fall Into Fashion 2010) sitting on my desk for a week. I got it in the mail the same day as China Glaze Classic Camel. Yes, that's how lazy I've been.

These pictures were taken with 2 coats of the Essie, Zoya Anchor Base Coat, and Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat. I was a little worried when I did the first coat. It seemed like it was going to be thin and streaky... no bueno. I put on the second coat a little thicker and now it looks DIVINE! I'm not a huge green fan, but this polish has just the right amount of gray mixed in... like a dusty, dusky green. With a subtle shimmer... Mama likes! Two polished thumbies up!





This color is part of that whole Military look for Fall deal. I'm not so into that look, myself, but the color is super pretty. It's worth having and much cheaper than the Chanels ;)

Essie retails for $8 and can be found at Trade Secrets... however, if yours is like mine and never gets the new stuff when other places do, you'll have to do what I did and order from transdesign.com, where it is ALSO $8. Shipping is a little high there, but if you order a bit more it'll even out since they have China Glaze discounts.

Remember

I'm pretty sure we all remember where we were 9 years ago today. I was sitting in my bedroom, talking on the phone to my boyfriend at the time. We were having a heated "discussion" and suddenly he said "Holy shit, I have to get off the phone, a plane just went through the towers in NYC". I was like yeah right ya ass. Because, seriously.... in what kind of world does that happen in?

Our world. Which was turned upside down the morning of September 11, 2001. Our country suffered and survived this vicious attack. We're STRONGER because of it.

Thankfully, I didn't lose any loved ones on that day. For those of you that did, I am truly sorry for your loss, and your loved ones will always be remembered with a special place in our hearts.

We will never forget.

MAC Viva Glam GAGA & CYNDI Swatches

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FINALLY! My MAC Viva Glam Lipglasses have arrived from Nordies! I only had the Gaga lipstick in my possession (which is why it doesn't look as pretty as the others in the pic lol), so I ordered Cyndi lipstick and lipglass and Gaga lipglass.

Truthfully, GAGA lipstick doesn't look good on me. It has just the right amount of lilac to it that it looks extremely stupid and porn-starish on my tone. I have to doctor it up with MAC Subculture lip liner and any sort of pink lipglass lol But who could turn up their nose at anything GAGA?! Not I.

When Cyndi first came out I tried it and hated it. Now when I put it on I absolutely adore it. The lipglass just amplifies the color and makes it really HOT. My husband is all about this combo.

Swatches
Top to Bottom - Gaga Lippie, Gaga Lipglass, Cyndi Lippie, Cyndi Lipglas






I tried to get a lip swatch of Cyndi, since I have it on right now, but it's extremely cloudy right now so the lighting suckssss. All blurred =(

Both lippies have a Lustre finish (my fav) so they need a bit of layering. The lipglasses are opaque so you can wear them over top of the lippie or even alone. Gorgeous.

MAC Lipsticks and Lipglasses retail for $14.50 at maccosmetics.com as well as Nordstrom and Macys.