NYX Cosmetics Order from Cherry Culture

NYX Cosmetics Order from Cherry Culture

Yesterday James was nice enough to buy me a whole bunch of products from Cherry Culture. And I decided to share the items I bought with you! I probably have one NYX product in my entire makeup collection. I know it's prevalent in North America, but it's not easily accessible for me. NYX Cosmetics are pretty affordable, have great quality and packaging, and are pretty well known among the makeup community.

Cherry Culture is one of the websites that sells NYX products at (sometimes) discounted prices. James spent about $40 including priority shipping and I got many goodies!

Here's the rundown:

NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Milk $3.00
NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Cottage Cheese $3.00
NYX Diamond Sparkle Lipstick in Sparkling Nude $4.00
NYX Auto Lipliner in Natural $3.00
NYX Glitterati Glitter Cream Palette $12.00
NYX For Your Eyes Only 10 Color Eyeshadow Palette in Green Eyes $8.00

I wanted to include a photo of each item, because I think the Cherry Culture website has some decent swatches and photos. But, for the NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencils, the swatches are barely visible on the site. Milk, as you can imagine, is a very creamy prominent white shade, while cottage cheese (from my understanding after discovering it from YouTube Makeup Guru emilynoel83) is a more off-white shimmery shade.

As for the Diamond Sparkle Lipsticks, the swatches are pretty amazing. I only hope the lipsticks look that nice in person! The Sparkling Nude shade seemed the nicest shade to brighten up the face during winter. I'm looking forward to trying this color out. The lipliner is pretty self-explanatory, just a shade that looked like it might match my lips quite well, and decided to go for it!

Now, the Glitterati Glitter Cream Palette, the swatches look absolutely gorgeous and I really hope these are pigmented and easy to work with. I need a good palette of dramatic glittery shadows I can use for the upcoming Halloween festivities. I'm very excited to try this palette out.

Lastly, the 10 Eyeshadow Palette designed for each specific eye color. I purchased the palette for Green Eyes, as my eyes are a dark forest green. The palette contains purples and greens, the classic colors for making green eyes pop. I hope they are very pigmented and soft!

I suppose I can post an EDIT once I've tried everything out! :-)

Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub

Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub

I decided to try out some of the products from Target's Soap & Glory brand. I tried out a lip plumper that I didn't like at all, but the Sugar Crush Body Scrub was a different story. I am absolutely 100% impressed AND obsessed with this stuff!

I have to start out by discussing the smell of this scrub; it smells like a Mojito or a Margarita. The best part is it's not overpowering, and you don't smell like a walking cocktail after you've showered. The packaging describes the product as "...smashed brown sugar & sweet lime, almond oil & macadamia grains." Just the name alone is so tantalizing to my senses. I swear I've considered eating this several times, but I'm sure that won't turn out very well! It's a truly delicious scent. If you shy away from heavy fruit or sugar scents I absolutely do not recommend this product!

So, it smells great and does a fantastic job of really exfoliating my skin. There is a slightly sweet smell left on your skin that's very delicate and not overpowering at all. It's a pretty feminine scent, and it leaves my mouth watering.

A couple of problems I encountered with this product: it's best to use in the shower of course, since you need to rinse it off very well. So, water tends to get inside of the jar when you're reaching in and out for product. When this happens, a weird liquid forms in the jar. I try to dump that out after every use.

My second qualm was that the grains are sticky due to the sugar and can stick to your tub. It took me quite a while to get this rinsed down my drain, and I think it may have contributed to recent clogging of my shower drain as well. But, it smells and works so well, I'll deal with that obstacle most definitely. Definitely keep some draino near by for this one!

Overall, it leaves my skin feeling smooth, removes all of my dead and dry skin, moisturizes, leaves a fresh scent on your body, and your whole bathroom smelling like lime, mint and sugar!

I should mention where you can find this product, and of course...COST! To my knowledge, Soap & Glory is only found at Target stores (in the U.S.A.), but are available in other stores like Shopper's Drug Mart in Canada as well as various stores in the U.K.

Soap & Glory isn't very cheap. Its vintage packaging and bright pink display in the makeup section of Target make the skincare line extremely attractive and unique. The Target website is currently selling this product for $16.99. However, I'm tempted to say that I paid $18.99 at my local Target store.

I won't say that a "little goes a long way" for this product, because I sure haven't been abiding by that rule. I've been really loading this stuff onto my body because I am just so absolutely in love with the fabulous scent. But, I'm sure used sparingly it works just as well.

I highly recommend this product if you have access to it. Currently, shopping on the Soap & Glory website is unavailable, but will be available soon. So, keep an eye out!

Today is a GREAT day!

Today is a GREAT day!

I've come to the conclusion that today is a really wonderful day. I like these kinds of days! :-)

New Photos

New Photos

So, a close friend of mine and I decided to go have lunch at a place called Crepe Connection. She's actually in the middle of dying her hair, so it's been postponed until later tonight. I got all dressed up to go and now I'm stuck at home, very bored.

Here are some photos I just took moments ago. I did put one of these photos as my main profile picture now as well =P

Edit: I ended up not going to lunch at all! I picked up some soup from Panera Bread instead. So good!

New phone! Blackberry Javelin 8900

Blackberry 8900 - Javelin

I'm very excited to announce that I have officially purchased a new phone, which will be my first ever Blackberry - Javelin 8900.

I was lucky enough to find a wholesale website that sells these phones for very inexpensive. I won't publish the site just yet...Not until I receive the phone and it's in proper working order.

For a phone that goes for $300, maybe $150 if you're upgrading...I paid literally 1/3 of that.

Hope the phone is everything I imagine it to be! Will post my BBM PIN soon! Yayyy!!

/happydance

Spicy Sausage & Beef Ravioli with Homemade Sauce!

Spicy Sausage & Beef Ravioli with Homemade Sauce

Today, James and I were both home from work and our dinner apetites approached late afternoon, which is earlier than usual. I decided to try and put a spin on an easy pasta sauce I saw on Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis.

Tonight, I took a box of refrigerated ravioli found in Publix's chilled pasta section, which was the Spicy Sausage & Beef flavor, and boiled it as the package directed. But, I wanted to take the simple recipe from Everyday Italian and make it my own go-to pasta sauce.

I basically began by heating some olive oil in a large skillet and sauteeing about 3 cloves of garlic. It sounds like a lot, but it really gives the sauce a ton of flavor. You also want quite a bit of olive oil in the pan, about 5 or 6 tablespoons.

Once the garlic has sauteed for a couple of minutes, I turn down the heat and add one tablespoon of butter, a small yellow onion (diced), and about 1 cup to 1 1/2 cup of cherry or grape tomatoes (halved).

Once the onions are translucent and the tomatoes are softened, take the back of a fork and press down on the tomatoes. You want all of the juices and flesh of the tomato to be released into the pan, creating texture and flavor for the sauce. Then, I add salt and pepper to taste, about a teaspoon of Mrs. Dash Italian Medley spice, and about a 1/2 teaspoon of Nature's Seasoning.

I let this simmer while the ravioli boils away (following package directions; boiling in 4 quarts salted water with 1 tablespoon of olive oil to prevent sticking). Once these are al dente, I drain them and add them right into the skillet with the sauce and mix it very well. I usually salt and pepper a little more here, and then squirt about a half of a lemon into the pan as well. Lastly, I sprinkle with some parmesan cheese and serve with garlic bread or rolls. Here, I served it with regular store bought Crescent Rolls Butter Flake.

This meal took no more than 20 minutes. It was an easy way to add homemade flavor to a store bought dinner.