 Today's post is going to be a haul from both ULTA and Sephora. They arrived only days apart and I'm actually still waiting on 2 more items from Sephora. I just thought I'd go ahead and do a haul post since it's all new product I've not tried. It's mainly skincare. Cause I'll be honest, I'm not doing a ton of makeup looks right now since I'm home ya know? There is a sprinkle or two of some non-skincare items though. These orders were from sales that both stores were having at the time.
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 Greetings all! I thought I would break up the "shopping your stash" posts and bring you this one today about what I've been doing during quarantine. Maybe it will give you some ideas of what you could do, or something you've forgotten about that you used to love.
 The next gift guide is going to be all about nails. I don't really like getting my nails done, but I do like doing them at home and having them painted. I enjoy the fun designs and accents. I just would rather do it at home. Some people love to go and get their nails done, I have several friends who love it and I'm all for that too. Today I'm gonna give you some really cool gift ideas for someone who loves having their nails looking A+ all the time.
 This gift guide should really just be called my part 2 to the first one. It's stuff that is smaller that I've been loving and talking about a lot lately. This first one was a main overview and now we're getting into more details.
 So this post is what I like to call "The Best Press On Nails Known to Man". I love press on nails. I play guitar, type a lot (obviously), and play piano and it's awkward and almost impossible doing some or all of those things with long nails. So I love nails that I can just pop on and off at my convenience and the best part I CAN RE-USE THEM AGAIN. So I stumbled upon this shop on Etsy called Nail Muse. They have affordable nails and really cool styles from neutral to bold. I love that as well. I ordered a set of foiled nails and then she actually sent me two other sets along the way. So all together I have 4 sets of nails. I prefer Coffin nail shape. I'm a size small because I have super short nail beds. I also like the Oval shape, I've had those. I'm a fan of basically every nail shape actually. From Square to Stiletto and in between I like them all but Coffin is my favorite. These nails are salon quality. They're thicker than normal press on nails that are flimsy and thin. Definitely not cheap looking or cheap feeling. So the quality is A+ as well. I use a salon glue to attach them to my nails so that it's a stronger hold and doesn't pop off as easy as other drugstore nail glues. These actually look better on my nails than acrylic or gel nails. They don't even look like press on nails. They aren't as thick as acrylic or gel nails can be on the nail bed so to me that looks better. So here's how I like to wear them. I love these for events or date nights. Basically anytime I wanna step it up a notch and especially if I'm wearing a lot of rings and bracelets that's going to draw attention to my hands. My natural nail bed is wide and not cute. I don't want to walk around with chipped nail polish because I am so lazy when it comes to keeping up with a manicure. Plus they may my fingers look longer and more dainty. So I love the convenience for these. I'm gonna leave some pictures down below of how they look. If you like press on nails then I think you would LOVE these. Check it out on Instagram Nail Muse: @lydiaelize Me: @lovemascara      I recently got this awesome box from Formula X and Influenster for testing purposes. It included the Delete All nail polish remover and The System XCEL 4 step 10 day manicure. So I was super excited I didn't know it was coming with the Delete All as well as the 4 part system. The shade they sent was TGIF. I really love the shade, it's close to Essie Stones N' Roses only brighter and pretty much a dupe for Essie Tart. These peachy coral shades are actually my favorite spring/summer nail polishes. I just always love those shades so that was also a nice surprise. I had heard of the System XCEL, and to be honest I'd never gave it much thought. I thought it wouldn't do anything any different. This claims to be a 10 day "gel like" manicure. Step 1: Cleanse XCEL Step 2: Prime XCEL Step 3: Nail Color Step 4: Shine XCEL What I know about this is that it drys really fast. The Shine XCEL is super shiny and quite thick as well so you do feel like you kinda have a gel manicure. There's no wait time in between steps either, and that's a major plus I think.  This is the Delete All. It has 5 inserts for your finger tips and it literally works in no time flat. Even on glitter. It's by far the best, fastest, and coolest nail polish remover I've ever used. This is 5 stars in my opinion. You nails are in there just a bit and then they come out clean with no polish residue on them. I definitely say pick this up if you love nail products or just need a good remover. It also smells really nice so, bonus.  Sorry this image is a little blurry. This is the shade TGIF which again I really like. You get the choice of your color though when you order the set on Sephora. Formula X has a ton, I mean A TON, of colors to choose from. I have several of their shades and I really like their formula and brush. So when you go to the XCEL page you'll see you have the option to choose your color and then you choose "Add all to basket" and it makes the discount for you because a single nail polish is $12.50 alone. This set is 4 full sized products for $32 which is a good deal. There is also a "to go" set for $16 but I don't think you get to choose you're color with that one, it looks like it comes with a berry shade.
So the big question, which is: Did it last 10 days? No, unfortunately it didn't. BUT it lasted around 5 or 6 before it started chipping just slightly, and I stress slightly. On day 9 and 10 however it was chipping horribly. So, no I don't think this is a 10 day manicure. Especially, if you have your hands in water a lot by doing dishes or swimming or just whatever. I don't feel like I'm very hard on my nails and it still chipped after about 5 days, give or take. For me though, that is huge and worth it. I haven't found anything except a legit gel manicure that won't chip on me after a few hours or 1 day at best and I've tried tons of products.. So I think this is still a good set. Also, I'm using it right now with an Essie polish as the color. So we'll see how that works and I'll update you if it's any different. That way you aren't restricted to only using this with Formula X polishes hopefully. That update will be at the bottom of this post when I do it. So that's my final thoughts. Great products even if it didn't last 10 days like it said. I still think it's better than anything else I've ever tried, other than a salon gel manicure. I've never been the type to do "monthly favorites". I used to do a "fave product of the week" post but I got lazy with that. So I'm just gonna do a mash up of some products that I freaking love as of late.  **The image above is from the Sephora site.** So this is the Foreo Mini that I got when my Luna Play went down for the count after like 20 uses (fail). I've actually went ahead and got the even bigger one now as well because I love these so much. My skin texture is what is most noticeable. It's so smooth. This is a 3 area style cleanser. It will pulse when it's time to go to your next area. So how I use it is, I do one cheek, side of the nose and half the chin, then once it pulses I switch to the other cheek and do the same thing, then lastly I do my entire forehead and bridge of the nose. I love this thing. It's rechargeable and lasts for quite a while on a full charge. This is less expensive than the others but it's still pretty expensive.  **this picture above is from the Sephora site** I got this in a trio set of Amore Pacific products. This is the Moisture Bound spray. I have a video using the products here from my Instagram. I just like how nice this feels on the skin and how refreshing it is. Plus it smells really good. I also have their mositurizer and their cleanser which also smells amazing but this is the stand out product for me and I use it every night after I've used my Foreo Mini. I usually use it especially if my skin is feeling really sensitive and uncomfortable. It's not super dewy it's a very fine mist. It's a brand you don't hear much about but I think the whole line is at Sephora now.  **this picture is also from Sephora's site** I've already done a blog post all about the Benefit brow products that were recently released. I'll leave that link here, it's more in depth. This is the Goof Proof. I've not put it down since I got it though. It's simple to use and it makes it easy for me to both define, sculpt and fill in my brows. It allows so much pigmentation and it doesn't feel heavy on the brows.  I got these press on nails from Static Nails on a whim, they weren't very expensive and I just decided to buy them. I don't know why because I've always hated press on nails. These are no joke though. Not at all. I swear these are better than professionally done acrylics. They are even paintable. So if you get tired of the design you can paint them. The only down side is that my glue actually glued the lid shut to it when I used it the first time. So you're supposed to be able to take these off whenever you want and then pop them back on when you want them on again. In my opinion you might get two separate wears out of it. None the less they are awesome. My advice is when you apply them at first just plan on wearing them as long as you can. I did paint mine and the nail polish chipped easily on them. So I don't think painting them is always the best option but maybe on the solid colors it would work better. This is the "Shattered Glass" style. They have others with crystals on them and some with "red bottoms". They're very cool.  I've done a whole blog post talking about my devotion to the Jouer Lip Cremes. I'll leave the link here for that. I will eventually have every color because they smell like cupcakes and they're honestly the best liquid lip I've ever used. They are so comfortable and wear so well it's amazing honestly.  Lastly, it's not makeup related at all. This was sent to me from Ettika and Free People. I believe it's called the "velvet star choker" and has about 5 shades. I got the tan/camel shade cause well....obviously it's gorgeous. This is my first choker and I love this. It just looks so different. This can be found in Free People stores and on www.freepeople.com.
I don't post a lot of nail things on here mainly because mine are very basic, even though I have a nail polish collection that could rival most nail salons. However, I really get into easy nail art or festive nails. So in the spirit of Christmas decided on snowflake nails. I used Formula X "X❤️️️Rouge" polish. This was sent to me for being Sephora VIB ️️Rouge when it reset but that any red nail polish will do. I also have the color "Curosity" from that brand and it would work fine too. So to make a snowflake I take a tooth pick and dip it in white nail polish and make a plus sign then I make an X over the plus sign. Or if it's easier imagine cutting a pie, up and down, across, diagonal. I only did them on two nails on each hand. I wasn't particular which two either. I'll tell you right now I'm really not the best at nail art so for it to look half way decent on me it's usually pretty easy to do. |
ErinI'm from Tennessee. I'm a makeup and skincare lover. I have always enjoyed creating looks but I love to help people with product knowledge and application even more. I've been able to start blogging and do these things I love because God has seen fit to bless me with the opportunity. Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me! 
  
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