Clinique High Impact Mascara

Why hello there!

I said I would do a mascara review a while ago, but no worries, I haven't forgotten!

Last Christmas I recieved a Clinique makeup set from my lovely aunt, and it came with a full size High Impact Mascara in 01 Black. I fell in love with it, but after a few months the tube went bad and I had to toss it. Ever since then I've been making do with random mascaras and never went to get the Clinique again. 

Then one day I decided to purchase a drugstore mascara, absolutely hated the formula, and had to reason with myself to just go and get the Clinique again. It's worth it to spend the money to buy something you love and will use until its gone, right? Much better than spending your money on something you will only use once, and never again. 

It comes in a dark green tube with a metal chrome cap. The tube has a good weighty feel to it. It looks nice, and for a lack of a better word, expensive. 

The brush is also really full and large. It's not bulky, but it's long. I measured it and its just under an inch in length. It's a traditional fiber brush which feels relatively soft. Here's a close up of the bristles:

I tend to go for a more natural look in my mascara, and this isn't terribly volumizing but it does give me good length. It has a wet formula (that I like) which makes application smooth. My eyelashes don't clump or feel like little wires poking out of my face, and I've noticed that they're no longer falling out like they were with the other mascara I was using. (Victoria's Secret Beauty Rush in black)

It doesn't have a strong scent normally, but it will smell like petrol when it goes bad. 

What I also love about this is that it comes off fairly easy. I usually have huge problems with waterproof mascaras, but this comes off quickly in the shower, and then I can just wash off the extra residue left under my eyelids when I wash my face. 

EDITED TO ADD: This is not a waterproof mascara, and comes off with soap and water. I don't know why I implied it was waterproof. Woops!

The thing about this mascara is that its not a wonder product. It doesn't have a magic formula or special bristles or anything, but I think that's why I like it. It works the way I want it to, and it works well. I will most likely continue to use this day after day, and will definitely repurchase when it runs out.

What mascaras are in your favorites bag? Or any other eye product that you love? I tend to avoid eye-shadows but I'm a huge fan of eyeliner, I wear it practically every day.

butter LONDON Victoriana

Another butter LONDON to show you today!

I bought two over Christmas, Marrow and this one: Victoriana.

 (Warning, this post is very picture-heavy)

I really fell in love with this one. (Can you tell? I couldn't leave any photos out!) The formula was pretty fabulous, not like Marrow which was thick and globby. This was smooth, pigmented, and sparkly without getting gritty.  It photographed more blue than it is in real life. In actuality has a nice green tint in some lights which turn it a murky lagoon color. 

Removal however...was a pain. The glitter was really stubborn and did NOT want to come off. I could have been patient and just let my nails soak under an acetone-dipped cotton ball, but instead I just scrubbed...and scrubbed...and scrubbed. (Probably wasn't good for my nail bed, which is why I've been taking a small break and letting my nails just grow a bit without polish for a week or so :)

In other news I have my first midterms of the semester tomorrow! I get very nervous before and during tests, and I really don't know how to deal with test anxiety. Does anyone have any good tips for handling this? I try to study a lot before exams so that I really know the material, but I still panic during the exam and do poorly :(

butter LONDON Marrow

I was super excited to get my hands on butter LONDON's Marrow. I've wanted it ever since it came out in their Fall 2010 collection, partially because I'm a physiology major and appreciated the inspiration for the color, the dried center of bone. I just want to say however, this looks nothing like actual marrow. 

It is such a gorgeous color. It has a very fine shimmer hidden in the color, but I couldn't get it to photograph properly. I love this shade of purple, a very plummy color. The formula wasn't as great as I expected, it got globby very quick, and my coats were unintentionally thick. 

It isn't quite the proper color for my skin though, and a lot of the time it looks a lot darker than it normally is. I've been having such a hard time finding colors that don't make my hands lobster-y. I have a fair-olive skin tone with a lot of yellow undertones, and nothing seems to look right! Does anyone have this problem? Or any polish suggestions?

What do you guys think of Marrow?

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year, year of the Dragon! I wanted to make my nails special for today so I tried my hand at making a variation of a french manicure.

This is my first attempt at nail art so it's pretty basic. I did this free-hand and afterwards I realized I could have used tape to keep the lines straight. As it is though, I think I did a satisfactory job. I used Sinful Colors Gogo Girl for the red, which is just your basic, almost tomato based red. I was expecting to need more coats since Sinful Colors is notorious for being sheer, but I only needed two. 

sunlight

For the gold strip, I used CoverGirl Bronze Beauty. This is much more of an "old gold" shade, with tiny sprinkles of bronze micro-glitter. I don't own a true gold  so I made do with this. Formula-wise, this isn't fabulous. It's very runny and tends to pool along the top of the brush, so you need to pay attention or you may get some accidental drips. It also dries really quickly so you have to be careful to apply the right amount the first time. 

CoverGirl Bronze Beauty

For tonight's festivities I am making a big dinner for my roommates/friends which is going to include dumplings and rice, along with curry chicken. Yummy! Is anyone doing anything special to celebrate the New Year? Even though I'm not Chinese and didn't grow up with Chinese customs I still really enjoy keeping this holiday. I'm really bad at remembering to do special things for other holidays (like Christmas, Halloween, etc) so I feel a little weird putting emphasis on this one, but that doesn't lessen my excitement!

Check back later for other reviews, I have a Butter London polish to show you (which I am pretty excited about) and a mascara review coming up!

OPI Steady as She Rose

First post of the semester!

I realize that I was very scanty on posting over the holiday, and I want to work on that. So expect to see more frequent posting on my part!

I had bit of a struggle trying to decide which polish to try out for the first day of classes and after much deliberation I finally settled on OPI's Steady As She Rose, a light, dusty lavender/pink.  It doesn't look fabulous with my olive skin-tone, but this is such a gorgeous shade of purple/pink that I can overlook the color clash. 

sunlight

shade

sunlight

I apologize for my ravaged cuticles, they look much better in real life. Out comes the Burt's Bees Lemon Butter!


I was pretty miffed to find that the polish had chipped before I took photos (the chip is on my index finger), but its not terribly noticeable so I'm not going to fix it. The second photo makes the polish look a little lighter and bluer than it is in real life, and the sunlight photos are much more color accurate. I've heard this called a pink, but I see lavender MUCH more strongly than I do pink. You really have to be in the right light to see pink. Concerning the formula, it was smooth, pigmented and not terribly streaky (two coats to even out bald spots). Pretty typical for OPI. 


In other news, today is my last first day of my undergrad studies. I haven't decided yet if I want to grad school/med school yet, and I'm content to just figure my life out at this point than scramble and make a decision that I'm not one-hundred percent behind.  It's rather bittersweet; I'm more than ready to be done with school, but the real world seems pretty terrifying.


I remember last summer at a barbecue I said to my friends, "I'm so ready to be finished with school and in the real world!" Ho, ho, was that a lie. I don't know what got into past-me, because I most certainly do not feel that way now.