Hello everyone! I know I've been MIA lately. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at school-- I've never truly had multiple preps at school before, so adjusting to three has been hard! I am still loving the new job though. I'm working with so many brilliant and upbeat teachers that I even love my job when I stumble out of bed at 4:30 AM. That's quite a feat.
I bought some new nail polishes recently on a whim. I had never heard of the Zoya line before but their Smoke and Mirrors collection display at Ulta drew me in. The colors are really unique and interesting. I got three (on a buy 2, get 1 free deal.)
Zoya "Yara"
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I was originally kind of browsing for a knock-off of Chanel's Peridot shade, but I saw this green and was really intrigued. I've never worn green polish before but thought that is army green with gold flecks would be an easy green to pull off with my fall wardrobe.
Zoya "Jem"
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I really like dark, purpley colors and this one is really fun. The Zoya site describes it as "a dark red-toned purple base with metallic dark pink highlights and subtle gold duochrome flecks." It's gorgeous.
Zoya "Pandora"
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This one isn't from the Smoke and Mirrors collection but still caught my eye. I have been on the hunt for a perfect nude shade for a while now. I have been wearing one coat of Revlon's Gray Suede which is a a subtle nude color, but I wanted one with less of a gray undertone. This one is a bit more pink. This may be my go-to polish from now on.
Again, I'd never even heard of Zoya polishes before but I love them. All the reviews I've read say that they never chip and apply really nicely.
L'oreal "Valiant"
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I was a little disappointed in this color. Looking at the bottle, I was expecting the color to be a bit darker, and have more of a glittery finish than it really does-- it's more of your run-of-the-mill silver, just a bit darker. It's nicer than my current silver, which is something from Wet 'n' Wild that I bought on a whim. It's thick and gloppy so I'm happy to replace it with this darker, prettier color. I have never used L'oreal polish before so I'm interested to see how it holds up.
Garnier Sleek and Shine Blow Dry Perfector Straightening Balm
I used this for the first time today after shampooing with Paul Mitchell's Super Skinny Daily Shampoo and conditioning with Tresemme Color Revitalize conditioner. I applied a dime-sized amount of this to my damp hair and blew it dry in sections. My hair dried about twice as fast, and ended up a great deal straighter and less frizzy than when I used Paul Mitchell's complete Super Skinny line, including the Super Skinny Serum (which has been my go-to straightening product in the past.) It's not heavy but it's still very effective-- not to mention it's so much cheaper than the Paul Mitchell. Highly recommend it!
And now for my big splurge:
The InStyler Rotating Hot Iron
I used one of these recently and loved the results. So I bought one at Target yesterday and tried it out today for the first time. After blowing my hair as straight as I could using the Garnier straightening balm, I used the InStyler. My hair ended up looking great-- so smooth and no frizz at all.
I think there are three key tips to get good results: use small sections of hair at a time, move it very slowly from root to end, and push down firmly on the brush. One negative aspect of the product is that there's nothing on the end of the barrel that you can touch or hold onto, like a curling iron has. I'm kind of nervous that I'll be using this so early in the morning and forget that I can't use my other hand to hold it steady and burn myself. Love this so far. A lot of reviews claim this product "just stops working" for some reason so I'll be sure to update if I have any problems with it.
I'm pretty excited about this stuff. I don't really spend much on beauty products but I've kind of been on a bit of a beauty binge recently, so tell me about your favorite beauty products!
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