Monday, May 27, 2013

*Disney Inspired* Snow White Nails!

I have a confession to make: I am obsessed with Disney.
In fact, I have an annual pass to Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL.
I go as often as possible, and love to do my nails a new way each time I go. 

So today I bring you my Snow White nails. I was inspired by Pinterest (aren't we all?) I no longer have the inspiration picture but I think you can get what I was going for. 
These aren't perfect. I don't think I've posted manicure pictures yet but you will soon see that I am definitely in the learning curve right now. I have virtually no skill when it comes to nails. Actually, the majority of the problem is in waiting for them to dry. I literally always mess them up. I even use Seche Vite fast drying top coat -and those suckers dry fast-and they still get banged up. It's basically a lost cause. 




As you can see, my fingers are inspired by her dress, and my thumbs are apples! 

Here are all the products I used for this look! On the top is the Sinful Colors nail art polish I got from Dollar Tree in My Day. From left to right- Seche Vite fast drying top coat, Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby, Revlon Nail art expressionist in Night & Degas, Sinful colors in Unicorn, Sinful Colors in Irish Green, Sally Hanson Instadri in Blue By (also from Dollar Tree), and Rimmel Basecoat/topcoat pro (I use as a base coat because my Seche Vite basecoat broke)

I will say that I was unsatisfied with Sinful Colors Unicorn. It was super streaky and had visible nail line after 3 thin coats. Luckily it didn't matter for this manicure since I was painting the ends. 

Here are some pictures of me meeting Snow White and showing her my nails! She quite liked them.


Any other Disney lovers out there? Have you ever done any Disney inspired nails? Would love to hear from you :)

Follow your bliss (especially if it leads you to Disney World),
Ember Darling

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

I gave in...to IPSY

So I have seen a lot around the blogging world about different 'subscription services' and box subscriptions.

Honestly, none of it ever interested me. I figured it was more expensive than it was worth, and let's face it- I buy enough beauty products every month. I also have a subscription to Netflix and Hulu and in my opinion that is more than enough things to be addicted, I mean, subscribed to. 

But then I started looking a little more carefully at the glam bags people were recieving and in particular, May's bag caught my eye. In particular there was a FULL sized Zoya polish in it- I have yet to try Zoya because I am super cheap about my nail polish. I know. I suck. Not only that but some bags included some urban decay eye shadow.

So needless to say I was on board with this idea, so I looked into it a little more. What I found out was that basically you take a style quiz that (from what I understand) puts you into one of a few categories. Based on your style category you get one of a few glam bags, which include a mixture of full sized products and deluxe samples of products. All of this for only $10!! Ten dollars!!! I spend more than that on an accidental beauty splurge in Walgreens.
Not only does it come with the products but membership to the website grants you access to tutorials from plenty of youtube gurus (for instance Michelle Phan, who started the company!) and also from your average beauty. It especially emphasizes looks to try with the products you are given, which I think is lovely.

Basically, it's a lot of bang for your buck! And since I'm all ABOUT bang for your buck, I am over here like 

Needless to say, I was drawn in. When I went to sign up I was disappointed to find out I had been wait listed. I really liked some of the bags I saw for May and quickly realized it was too late for that, that ship has sailed.

To my delight, I was taken off the wait list less than 3 days later. But, I still have to wait until June for my subscription to start. One thing I enjoy is that it charges you on the first of every month, so you don't forget which day you actually ordered it, etc. 

So, all in all I can't say that it will be worth it yet but I have heard nothing but good things about this subscription service so I hope that I will be pleased as well! I'm sure I will be!

Stay on the lookout here for breakdowns of my bags and how I like/use the products I receive!

How about you, are you subscribed to any monthly beauty service? How do you like it? Let me know in the comments!

Follow your bliss, 
Ember Darling

Thursday, May 9, 2013

In official news: I have the best boyfriend ever

So I'm sure you remember this post, where I detail my journey to find the Wet n Wild Spring Forward Nude Awakening palette. 

Well, my wonderful, fabulous, thoughtful boyfriend went behind my back and ordered it online once we couldn't find it in person!! 

He just surprised me with it!! I am basically jumping for joy and of course I already swatched it!

I was definitely impressed with the texture of these- so silky! I was a bit put off at first by the pigmentation, it came off a little chalky at first. But once I blended it just a little bit, it evened itself out! 

I can't wait to bring you some looks featuring these great eyeshadows!!

The top row is the right side, and the bottom row is the right side. Because I like to do things backwards like that. (no, really, I was too excited to give a damn)




As you can see the white-ish one did NOT show up on my forearm whatsoever. Hopefully it shows up a little better on my eyelids! 

Excuse my nails, I was literally in the middle of redoing them when my boyfriend came in with this surprise!

As you can probably tell, I'm a LITTLE BIT stoked on this. Can't wait to try it out and see what kind of fun looks I can come up with!!

Follow your bliss,
Ember Darling


p.s. not to rain on this parade, but it's funny that I already decided to take the plunge and buy UD Naked. However with this I am going to take a second thought and maybe buy Naked 2 instead. We'll see! :) Now I have a dupe to last me for the time being -- which is good, because I am broke!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Family Birthday party look!

Hey lovelies I know it seems like I'm slackin' on the posting and I DEEPLY apologize! I have been trying to make my camera work with videos and it's been a stressful process.
VIDEO REVIEWS COMING SOON! :)

But for now let's get on to the makeup and outfit I wore!
It was my brother's birthday this past week so the family got together for some Publix subs and margaritas (as it was also Cinco de Mayo)



I had a rose gold and burgandy look goin' on. I know it's hard to tell the burgandy part but I'm about to post a picture of the makeup I used, and you can tell! 

Now I know I've talked about my Profusion Palette a lot, as I use it in almost all of my looks! (because I can't say it enough: a review video is coming!!) but here's a sneak peak at what the actual palette looks like.
ooh, pretty colors! 
As demonstrated by the arrows, these are the colors I used!

Here's the rest of the makeup used to get this look:
Face:
Covergirl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 foundation in nude beige
Physician's Formula multi-colored pressed palette in Buff
for contouring: Elf contouring blush & bronzing powder in St Lucia
unknown concealer (I hate containers that fade so you can't even tell what product it is!)

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer potion in original
the eyeshadows demonstrated above
Maybelline eyestudio gel eyeliner in blackest black
Covergirl lashblast volume waterproof in black
Nyx Eyeshadow trio in honeycomb for highlighting and eyebrows
eyelash curler from Forever 21 (how cute is that- purple + rhinestones = <3 )

As always when I'm looking forward to a long day, I topped it off with Urban Decay all nighter setting spray to make my makeup last! Not pictured is some lip color that I threw on and did not write down what it was 
:(

Last but not least, you can peep my OOTD here:
everything I'm wearing is from Target! In fact the skirt was on clearance for less than $10. Now that is a steal!

Follow your bliss, 
Ember Darling
EmberDarling