Stila Make Me Blush Set

This sold out really fast. I've only had it for about two weeks, and when I went back to Sephora.com looking for it, it was already completely gone from the site! So... guess I'm a little late posting this... Oops!

It's still pretty to look at, except for the hideous box it comes in:

Really, could they have picked an uglier box? I don't understand this! They need something pretty to store it in, not this generic cardboard abomination!


This is what the items look like when you free them from their brown paper prison. Make Me Blush blush, Higs lip glaze, Kisses lip glaze.


Here they are up close, Hugs on top, Kisses on bottom. Hugs is a sheer red with tiny gold shimmer, Kisses is a fleshy nude pink creme. These are both minis.

Oh man, it's so pretty. Look at that gold sparkle.

Looks shinier in natural light. The gold is sadly just overspray, but it's really really nice overspray. I touched it gently to see what it looked like and it's so bright and sparkly. The powder itself is so gorgeous, but the compact it comes in is ugly! Plain black plastic, generic looking, plain round shape and clear flip lid. I know it's just packaging, but compare it to the Happy Boosters- those have a pretty powder and a pretty compact, why can't this?

I haven't swatched this yet. To be honest, I can't. It's too pretty. I can't bear to mess it up by touching it! I bought the Physician's Formula Happy Boosters to wear, and I bought this just to look at... Maybe I'll wear it one day. But thinking about smearing all that pretty gold foil makes me sad!

I've only worn Kisses lip glaze and it's very nice. Standard lip glaze formula, nondescript sweet scent. The color is great on me, it's a slightly warm nude pink that doesn't make me have corpse lips, I'd love to buy it in a full size if they ever made one!

My official Valentine's Day manicure

I had this idea in my head for a while, so I decided to finally try it as it was perfectly suited for Valentine's Day:


But it didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped! This is a base of Essie French Affair with the new Art Club Nail Glam full nail decal design Hearts of Gold on the ring finger. I originally wanted to put the designs on every finger, but I'm really glad I started with my ring finger. Now I know what you guys were saying about these. They're... not so great. They're extremely stiff and don't conform to the natural curve of the nail, so you end up with weird lumps and wrinkles like you see on mine. And they say to seal them with topcoat, but the decal covers the whole nail so it's really not sealing it to the nail, it's just coating it with topcoat, which means... it peels. Gah, what a disappointment. I loved the design so much, too. I wish I could have made it work.

The Essie polish was exactly the color I was thinking of for the base of the mani, so that worked out well!

But yeah, too bad about the Art Club Glam decals. I had really high hopes for them. *sigh*

So, how was your Valentine's day? So what if it's a Hallmark holiday! That does not negate the awesomeness of heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting! And sprinkles! Any holiday that advocates the liberal use of sprinkles is a winner in my book.

"So, what's your sign?"

Some guys use pick up lines to try and get a date, but all this little guy has to do is flash his cute little pout face and the ladies just fawn all over him.

"Be mine or I'll cry."...works everytime!

Happy Valentine's Day from my family to yours.

xoxo

My Dad and Valentine's Day

For as long as I can remember, my Dad has gotten me a Valentine. Every year, on February 14th I knew that a card and little treat from him would be waiting for me on the kitchen counter before I went to school. And when I went away to college, each year without fail a special card would arrive in the mail for me. All of those awkward preteen years, when I wasn't always sure if any boys liked me, or later, in college, when I was between boyfriends or had a year when I felt more down than usual, I knew that I count on something from my wonderful father to cheer me up. Thank for making me feel loved Dad, yesterday and today. You have always been such a great father and on Valentine's Day I always-always think of you. It's the little things like this that really taught me how to be a parent, and I can't wait to do the same thing for Henry. I love you!

a little more Valentine's...

 {via}

Last February I did a fun series that showcased a handful of my "real life" friends and their beautiful love stories.  I've gained a lot of new readers in the past year, so if you haven't checked these out yet, you definitely should! Enjoy, and have a beautiful day. xoxo

Emily and Zack

Erin and Jeff 

Lauren and Abe

Rachel and Jeff

Emily and Jesse

Happy Valentine's Day...to me?

 {image via weheartit}

Before Hank, I spent many Valentine's Days being annoyed at all of the couples holding hands, being cute, and rubbing it in my face that I didn't have that special someone, to spend this special day with. Now, I like all things love and mushiness, but somewhere inside of me is still that girl who is irritated by the huge stuffed teddy bears and gigantic heart-shaped boxes of candy. My perfect Valentine's date? Getting takeout burritos and watching a funny movie. Luckily Hank is romantic in the same way I am, and there will never be any "When a Man Loves a Woman" playing in our home. But it makes me think back to my Valentine's Days before I found the great love of my life. Although I was like I mentioned, annoyed from time to time, I often tried to make Valentine's Day a day about love...but the love I have for MYSELF. So hey you, single or not...let's show ourselves some love today. Pamper yourself, treat yourself to a truffle...'cause guess what? YOU DESERVE IT!

With that said, here's a list of 7 ways to love yourself now, and to have the happiest Valentine's Day ever. If you still have the need to call someone your Valentine, I'm your girl too! ;)

1) Get your ipod and find your most favorite, happy song. Dance like no one's watching for the entire thing. Shake your booty, jump around, be silly.

2) Look in the mirror and repeat the following to yourself 5x, making every word count: "Dang girl, you fine." You'll either believe it, or you'll laugh. Both are good. :)

3) If it's not too cold, take yourself out on a bike ride. Work it going up hill, and then coast gloriously home on the down.

4) Call up the fanciest restaurant in town and order yourself a dinner in. Light some candles and really just enjoy that delicious food without anyone else there to take away from the experience. Savor it and really focus on all of the amazing tastes you are experiencing.

5) Get out that super pink or red nail polish and give yourself a totally gaudy Valentine's pedicure. Or better yet, go to the nail salon (it'll be empty) and treat yourself to a nice mani-pedi. Foot massage? Okay!

6) Go to the store and buy the cutest, sexiest lingerie, and wear it just for you. Prance around the house, feel beautiful, and enjoy it because "dang girl, you fine." (see above)

7) Write yourself a love letter. Sounds weird, but it's such a great exercise to list all of the reasons your love yourself. And if you find this tough to do, take it as a sign that you need to work more on this. You are so lovable, and if you don't see it, I'm sure many other people do!

I promise you, Valentine's Day can be fun if you kind of flip the focus. It doesn't have to be about the sappy stuff we see all over the place. And I know, easy coming from a happily married old sap, but I consider Madeline and Henry my Valentines too, as well as a bunch of my girlfriends all over the place. Love comes in different forms, and no one says that we can't be our own! 

So, happy Valentine's Day to you...and me too!

Happy Valentine's Day/Music Monday

Good morning everyone! I hope you had a wonderful, wonderful weekend and are ready for a great week! Today also happens to be good old Valentine's Day, so in the spirit of the day of love, I've put together a not-so-traditional playlist for all of you. Enjoy, and let me know which song is your favorite!

*I have a bunch of Valentine's posts coming up over the next 24 hours, so check back throughout the day! xo

Physician's Formula Happy Booster Collection for 2011

Look at this, my blog has been all girly-foofy-pink-hearts all the time lately! But I assure you, I am not an impostor, the real Scrangie has not been abducted by the body snatchers and I don't have a head injury. I'm just in full-on holiday mode. And don't worry, there are only a few more pink heart-shaped things left to post... But these might be my favorite of all the heart-shaped things.

The minute I saw the first pictures of these, I HAD to have them. They're in shiny hot pink packages, they're covered in 3-d multicolored hearts, they claim to make you happy and they're SCENTED. I know... I might have been able to resist them for a little while if it wasn't for that last fact. Scented adorable shiny Valentine's themed makeup? Sold. I'll take 576.

I got four of the five or six items in the line.


Rose and natural Happy Booster Blush on top, light bronzer and translucent face powder on the bottom. The blushes are a slightly smaller size than the bronzer and face powder, but the compacts and designs look the same.

The back of the box describes all the benefits of this product. They all contain Happy Boost Blend which has something called Happy Skin and Euphoryl in it. They're supposed to mimic the effect of endorphins to give you a happy feeling... Interesting!


Now, there is one flaw with these items. It's superficial and not necessarily significant, but it is still a flaw!

You have to destroy the box to open it! I know that the boxes get thrown out right away, but if you're someone who likes to store things in their boxes, you won't really be able to easily do that with these. It's not really a big deal, but the next photo will demonstrate my annoyance:


The compacts are glued into the box! It's that sticky type of removable rubber cement, but it's strong enough to rip the labels off the back of the compact. It happened on all four of mine. Wasn't there a better way to secure the compacts in their boxes? Did they have to put the glue directly onto the label? Also, some of the glue gets stuck in the square vents on the back of the compact and you get little sticky glue squares inside the brush chamber.

I was able to peel my labels off of the glue and stick them back onto the compacts, but still, it seems like a packaging design oversight.

Luckily, there's not a thing wrong with the products themselves.


The compact is a shiny hot pink chrome. Once you open the lid, you can lift up the powder tray to reveal a mirror and a brush. It's a nice little touch. The brush is a little on the floppy and scratchy side, but I do think it applies the powder nicely for a sheer application.

And, it is rather cute. It's red and pink with a metallic pink chrome handle to match the compact. I wish it was a little stiffer and softer feeling because then it would be absolutely perfect! But it is usable for a quick wash of color, just like a fan brush.

All of the powders have the same style compact and brush.



This is the light bronzer. It's a combination of light and medium brown/tan with one light pink heart. It has both matte and shimmer hearts mixed together.


This is the Natural blush. It has light pink, peach-nude, rose, mauve and one darker pink near-red heart, also a combination of matte and shimmer.


This is the Rose blush. It has medium and dark pink, peachy pink, cocoa pink and one deep hot pink heart in matte and shimmer.


And the Translucent face powder. It has pink, peach, beige, cream and nude colors, mostly matte but with a hint of shimmer.


I tried swatching them on my arm , but they didn't really show up on camera. These are all sheer formulas. Which, for me, is good! While I do like a very pigmented blush or bronzer, you have to be really good at applying blush to use them, and I'm just not that good at it. The only thing that I can apply blush perfectly with are those flat Benefit brushes that come in the boxed powders. The brush for these is somewhat similar, but a lot more... limp?

Anyway, the sheer formula allows you to do just a light wash of color OR you can build them up for more color. It has a little shimmer to it, but you can easily buff that down if you're not into shimmery cheeks (like me). The colors were all very subtle and flattering on my pale cool skintone, so in addition to being cute they're actually useful. I have not used the translucent face powder other than swatching it, but on my arm it was just a sheer powder.

I do like everything about these, but my favorite-favorite feature might be the scent. They describe it as violet, but I smell more than violet. I can't quite pin down what it is exactly, but it smells to me like a very light, sweet candy floral. Not a sharp, perfumey, heavy, headachey floral like in some scented makeup. The scent in these is pretty and enjoyable, but it's not too strong. I don't smell it once it's on my face, but you get little hints of it while you're applying and it just sorta makes you smile :)

As for the claim that they improve your mood and make you happy? Well, scientifically, I have no idea. I have no clue if the compounds in this actually have some sort of chemical effect on my mood. But I can honestly say that they do make me happy. They make me happy just to look at. They're so pretty and shiny and colorful I can't help but smile when I use them. The scent gives me a little mood boost as well, I suppose it's a form of aromatherapy. So, I guess they do live up to their claim of boosting my happy! But then again, makeup in general makes me happy, so who knows. Either way, they do totally cheer me up.

They're a little pricey for a drugstore product, they range from $10-$13 depending on where you get them, but luckily they all have $3 off coupons on them. Even if they weren't $3 off, I'd still buy them because I just love them so much.

These might be one of my most favorite cosmetic products of all time. I love looking at them, using them, wearing them... The combination of cute, colorful 3-d heart powder with that pink chrome compact and the sweet sugared violet scent is just absolutely perfect to me. They're the happiest looking makeup items in my collection, for sure!

More Valentine's Day Manicures

I did this super fast manicure a few weeks ago. I was putting Wet n Wild's Buffy The Violet Slayer on for the third consecutive time when I noticed my bottle of Nicole Step To The Beat of my ♥ sitting on the table. Perfect combination. Purple hearts with purple polish!


Of course, this isn't a color accurate representation of Buffy... But it still looks pretty, right? You can see little circles of topcoat around the hearts, haha! The polish is still wet in these pictures. I put extra topcoat on top of the hearts to make them a little more smooth, otherwise I keep playing with them and sometimes peel them off.


But even better than my mediocre manicure are these super cute designs submitted by my reader Nicole. She and her mom both did adorable designs for February, check it out:


This is Nicole's manicure, which is done with Zoya Jolene and Nicole by OPI Love Your Life. Fitting, right? Nicole wearing Nicole! She did a way better job with her hearts than I did with mine. This looks so pretty. I love the hot pink with the light pink hearts!


And her mom goes one step further and literally turns her nails into hearts! The color is Sinful Dream On, a neon purple. I love this so much. Heart shaped nails. I totally want to try this!


This time of year makes me all silly. I find myself wanting to be surrounded by red flowers and heart shaped lace doilies and pink sugar sprinkles... The actual Valentine's Day is rarely special for me, but I love the season and everything that goes along with it. All the pretty and almost sickeningly cute decorations and candies are a welcome break from the dreary, seemingly endless snow and cold during the last stretch of winter. You know what I'm talking about. That depressing period between the end of the Christmas season, after all the lights and decorations are gone and there's nothing but frigid cold, bare trees and absurd heating bills and that first warm day of spring when you can actually go outside without your hair freezing. As much as I do love winter, after a while, the oppressive cold and lack of color starts to get to me. I need that little bit of color and cuteness in February.

Valentine's Day Beauty Wishlist

You all know how much I love holidays... So whenever I see something holiday-themed, I immediately want it. I've been putting together my Valentine's Day beauty wishlist over the past couple weeks and I thought I'd share my favorites with you. Since I started putting together this list, I've actually bought some of the things, so you can expect full reviews soon!


Urban Decay's flavored body powders. I actually have all of these scents in the old-style packaging, but the new style packaging is even better! I am a total sucker for packaging, I know. I'd get them again just to have the gorgeous boxes. I really do like these, they're sweet scented (Cocoa is amazing, I wish it had a matching perfume) and they also taste sweet. The have a little bit of a tinted shimmer. I used to wear them on my chest/collarbone/décolletage when I was wearing lower-cut shirts. Oddly enough, whenever I wore these, this guy I worked with always told me how pretty I looked.




Physician's Formula Happy Booster blush, bronzer and powder. I don't think I've lusted after any beauty product quite like I did with these. The minute I saw them I just couldn't stop thinking about them. I did end up finding these last week and I love them so much. I'll do a review on them shortly, but let me mention that these currently have $3 off coupons attached to them, so if you're thinking about getting one, make sure to get one with a coupon on it!



Stila Make Me Blush. I feel the same way about this that I do about the Physician's Formula Happy Booster powders. I know that logically, it's just a blush. But when I see it I go crazy. It makes me giddy to look at. Of course, I caved and ordered the set that comes with the Hugs and Kisses lip glazes. It's actually a pretty inexpensive indulgence- the set is only $20.


Philosophy Sweet on You set. One of my readers told me about this! It's supposed to smell like those candy hearts that I love. I have the sweetest readers :) Anyway, I'm a huge Philosophy fan so this is extremely appealing to me. I really really want this!


Bath and Body Works Valentine's Day PocketBacs! They're 5 for $5 right now. These are so cute. I'm a bit of a germophobe so I always have hand sanitizer in my purse, but I wish I had these instead of my plain unscented Purell! Here's what the scents are:

• I Love You (aww ♥) in Sweet Pea
  
• I Love Shoes (lets get ‘em!) in Stylish Strawberry
  
• I Love Cake (maybe just a mini cupcake so that I can fit into my LBD tonight) in Buttercream
• I Love Boys (#bieberfever) in Berry Crush
• I Love Bling (who doesn’t) in Rock Candy

Buttercream and rock candy scented hand sanitizer! Must have these!


YBF Pucker Up lipstick set. They're in heart-shaped tubes! I remember that Models Prefer used to have a set just like this, and I remember always wanting it. I'd probably only be able to pull off that pink color in the middle, but like I said, I'm a complete sucker for packaging.


Kiss Catwalk Nail Decals. Actually, this isn't so much a wishlist item as a recommendation. I just got these and they're perfect for Valentine's Day. Just wanted to make sure I mentioned it!


Sephora Collection Flower Kabuki brush set. Gah. I can't handle how cute these are. I'm not sure how well they would even work for applying powder, but I need them. Anyone have these? Are they good? I love looking at them.


Viktor and Rolf Flowerbomb gift set from Nordstrom.com. It comes in a heart-shaped box, just like a Valentine's Day box of chocolates! I'd rather have perfume than chocolate. Well, maybe. Perfume lasts longer. Can I get perfume and chocolate? I've been meaning to get a full sized bottle of Flowerbomb...




Kat Von D Adora fragrance and Painted Love Lipstick in Adora. Adora doesn't even sound like a fragrance I'd like based on the list of notes (Lychee, Boysenberry, Thyme, Cassis, Hyacinth, Jasmine, Mango Flesh, Patchouli, Sheer Musk, Amber Wood.) but I love love love the bottle. It looks so heavy. And the lipstick? I don't think I really wear red well, but the color of it is so bright and sparkly and look at that romantic looking tube! The red flowers on the black satin background! The little clear base that shows the color!


I'm having cute makeup overload.

First Valentine's Day Mani

This weekend I did my first Valentine's Day-inspired manicure. It's not quite the typical Valentine's theme, but I had the urge to use these colors together, and this is what happened!

I think I'll try to do a couple more. Maybe I'll re-do that Illamasqua Heart mani that looks like saddle shoes, but this time do a better job. I think for my actual Valentine's Day manicure I'm going to use the Art Club Glam decals with the gold hearts, maybe over light pink or white.

I tried a different technique for applying Black Shatter this time, thanks so much everyone for the tips! You guys rock.



This was: Two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Night Lights over one coat of NYC Black (not a very good black polish, sadly) with OPI Black Shatter over two coats of Nicole OMB! on ring fingers and thumb. Night Lights is a nice chunky holo, sadly, this type of lighting is not good for capturing holo.

On this hand I tried a zig-zag diagonal pattern for applying the crackle polish and I think it turned out great!

I forgot to take a picture of the other hand until I'd already been wearing this for a couple days:

On this hand I did the random-blobs-of-crackle technique, but I don't think I did it right, it didn't crackle enough cause I made the blobs too thick. Very different look from the other two methods, though! I got bad shrinkage on my thumb because I did two coats of Seche Vite instead of regular topcoat and then Seche. Lesson learned!

Last night while I was out grocery shopping, I picked up some really cool Kiss decals that I think would make a good gothy Valentine's day design... Now I just have to think of a creative way to use them. I'll try to post a picture of them later.