CBV March Member Of The Month Candle

I was March's MOTM!

     Over on the Candles By Victoria forum boards: The Pouring Pot, I was recently named the Member Of The Month for the month of March. The lovely and kind Ali nominated me for the honor. Basically the MOTM goes to the member that the other members vote on and feel has been most active on the boards for that particular month. The MOTM then gets a free candle of Victoria's choice sent to them. I was truly touched by all of the love from my candle family. I was so excited to see what kind of goodie Victoria decided to ship me. I recieved the package about a week ago and here was what was waiting inside for me...

A beautiful Smore Galore candle.

A better look at the top.

     This is the Smore Galore candle which can be found on page 4 I believe on the website. It is a whopping 24oz and it has three layers of different scents. The bottom layer is chocolate scented, then the middle layer is their delicious Graham Cracker Crust fragrance which is spot on for the real things, and then the top fluffy layer is scented in Marshmallow Campfire which is a scent that I adore. The Marshmallow Campfire gives off a strong thow, without it being too overwhelming. Marshmallow Campfire doesn't really smell like marshmallows to me more like a soft woodsy (almost a soft cedar) scent with a sweet vanilla like base. I am not partial to earthy fragrances in general, but this one is really really nice. It comes double wicked and has decorative pieces of little chocolate bars all through out it. Then it is topped off with some chocolate and gold sprinkles. It is so very pretty. 

A closer look at the layers.

     This candle is just so lovely to look at. I don't think I will ever be able to bring myself to burn it...then again I may get impatient one day and think what the hell why not. Until that day comes I'm going to place this on my mantle piece above my fireplace in my living room. My living room is actually painted in shades of dark and light brown so it will match perfectly. I am so in love with this candle I just can't even describe it. I just want to sincerely thank all of my candle friends and family over on the Pouring Pot for choosing me for this honor. I deeply respect and love all of them! Thank you guys so much! I would also like to thank Victoria and the candle team. You guys have the BEST customer service and you guys really do have such big hearts.

Thank you CBV family!

   That's all for this little review. Please check back on the first of the month if you are interested in seeing my April/Round Robin haul and review. Also don't forget that on April first only CBV will be having a sale. All orders up to $25 will get 15% off. All orders up $25.01 up to $50 will get 20% off and all orders $50.01 and up will get 25% off. This is probably the last 25% off sale they will hold for quite some time. Also the CBV team will be on vacation in the begining of June so if you order anywhere from April first till then expect much longer turn around times. Well that's all I have for you guys today. I hope you all have a wonderful Good Friday and a happy Easter weekend. I will see ya'll next time.

Fortune Cookie Soap Spring 2013 Review!

Fuck Yeah! The FCS spring line is here!

       Fortune Cookie Soap launched their official spring 2013 line on March 15th. The collection introduced 8 brand new fragrances all inspired by the scents of springtime. These new additions also showcase FCS's signature humor when it comes to naming their products. The eight new fragrances are A Nod To The Hippies, Dirty Hoe, Down To Earth, Honey-Dew Me, I Wet My Plants, Kiss My Vine, Late Bloomer, and The Birds & The Bees. I only purchased 4 of these scents because the other 4 scents had certain fragrances that I know I am not a fan of. (A Nod To The Hippies has patchouli, Dirty Hoe & Down To Earth are obviously earthy fragrances, and I Wet My Plants has jasmine and baby powder in it. Two scents I'm not fond of.) As I always do I only purchased the 4 scent body butter sampler pack. I like to smell the small individual samples and then chose whether or not the fragrances are worth buying in a full sized product. And without further ado here is my review...

All of this little haul's goodies.

Honey-Dew Me:
Color: Fluorescent Yellow
Scent Description: After I got done giggling at the name I opened this little guy and saw that the body butter was this really bright and vivid fluorescent yellow. Most of FCS's body butters come in these pale pastel shades, but this one is in your face neon yellowish green. It looks like it could glow in the dark. (Sadly it does not though) After I spent the next few minutes just being impressed with the color I finally smelt this and whoa mama is it good! Depite the name it isn't just a honeydew scent, it is more of a sweet melon scent. A lot of melon scents in general tend to pack a very strong punch, but this one is nicely toned down. It is a really fresh fruity fragrance. I get a mixture of honeydew and cantaloupe melons, and in the undertones I can even smell watermelon. The site mentions this one also has apples and vanilla bean. I do not smell those scents individually, but I believe the apples probably blended with the overall wonderful fruitiness and the vanilla bean is probably what rounds out the fruits from smelling too thick or powerful. This is a wonderful fruity scent that is both sweet and refreshing. Perfect for the springtime. 

It smells so wonderful!

Kiss My Vine:

Color: Cotton Candy Pink
Scent Description: This one is supposed to smell like strawberries and champagne. I can kind of see how it smells like that, but to be honest when I first opened this I had forgotten what scents were in this. So when I smelt it my first impression was that it smelt like a light floral fragrance. It wasn't until after I looked up the description again that I started to notice that yeah it does kind of smell like strawberries and champagne when you think about it. The champagne scent isn't overly strong or sharply alcohol smelling like I feel a lot of "champagne" fragrances end up smelling like. The strawberries aren't really all that fruity either. They mix and blend in with the champagne to the point where they are almost indiscernable. If you were blindfolded and asked what fruit was in this, you probably wouldn't have guessed strawberries...at least I know I wouldn't have. This is a feminine scent that reminds me of an expensive bubble bath. It is certainly a different take on a springtime scent, but it is nicely done.

Not your typical springtime scent, but still lovely.

Late Bloomer:Color: Mint Green
Scent Description:  I was a little leary about this one when ordering because it has Polynesian Hibiscus, ripe berries, white amber, and vanilla. The reason I was hesitant is because I cannot do strong florals, overly dark berry scents, or too woodsy earthy scents. Luckily this fragrance isn't any of those. The main note in this one is a vanilla that is warmed up by the white amber. I smell the faintest trace of a soft smelling flower, but that's it. I don't get berries in this at all. There is nothing fruity about this scent in the least. The scent throw on this one is kind of weak. You can't really smell it until you rub it into the skin. It kind of smells like a fresh, clean, and natural lotion to me. Not my favorite of the bunch, but it is still nice. 

It was nice, but not my favorite.

The Birds & The Bees:
Color: Robin's Egg Blue
Scent Description: The official description for this one is incredibly vague. The site just says "Dont worry, we're not going to give you "the talk". But we will give you a sweet and fruity FCS."...that's it. Needless to say I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this one. I will tell you the first thing I smelt was artificial strawberries. Not the signature Laffy Taffy kind that is in FCS other strawberry fragrances though. It also has this vanilla cream like base to it. So it is kind of like strawberries and cream. It kind of reminds me of one of those Creme Savers Hard Candies. It is fruity and sweet and oh so creamy. I also happened to get half a robin's egg bath fizzy in this fragrance as my free sample. The egg shape makes it so very cute.  

To wrap things up...

       In closing I feel like this year's spring line was great. I like that they took a different angle on their scents instead of doing the generic run of the mill flowers and peeps/jellybean candy type fragrances that a lot of companies tend to recycle year after year. I ended up liking all four of the scents that I purchased which doesn't happen often. Usually there is at least one that my nose ends up hating, but happily that was not the case this time around. If I had to reccommend one above all the others I would say go for Honey-Dew Me. It is just a fresh melon explosion and it is fruity without being too in your face. I love it! The scents that I purchased are all for sale currently on their website, but you guys better hurry and try them now and stock up before the summer line comes around. That's all for this year's first Fortune Cookie Soap review. I will be back with another one as soon as the summer line lauches. Keep looking back for my review of a Candles By Victoria Smore's Galore speciality candle. Until then take care guys and keep it pretty!




Nail Polish Challenge Week 25: Fashion

It's fashion week darlings!

   Hello again all of my lovely internet friends. This week's nail polish challenge theme is fashion. I will be honest and say I facepalmed myself when I saw that. I live in a very small country town where fashion is pretty much useless. In fact if you showed up here wearing something labeled "Haute Couture" you would probably get a lot of funny looks. Because of this I have never taken much interest in fashion or brand names. I haven't the first clue what is considered fashionable at the moment. Anytime I think I have figured it out it ends up being "so last season". So I gave up and stopped caring. For this challenge I had to do a little research and ended up just typing in fashion nails at Beautylish. I managed to find one really simple Kate Spade design. Because I am too lazy to do anymore research then that, that is exactly what I did for this week's challenge. Here is the results...

Kate Spade inspired nails.

My take on them.

      For the base coat I just used two coats of my China Glaze Liquid Leather and then for the dots I just used my cheap white nail striper. The dots are a little messy because I sadly do not have a nail dotting tool. I admit I got a little lazy this week so this might indeed be "so last season" but eh, I don't really care. I will just leave it at this for now. I'm too busy with other stuff at the moment to re-do it. Mabye I will try this again for the final challenge, maybe not. Until then please just look forward to more Candles By Victoria hauls and reviews and also for my Spring Fortune Cookie Soap Review. See ya next time guys!

This will just have to do for now.

Nail Polish Challenge Week 24: Inspired By A Book!

The Disney equivalent to Valentine Morgenstern. LOL!

    I read a lot of books, at least three a month minimum. The most recent book that I have finished is City Of Glass, the third installment of the Mortal Instruments series by author Cassandra Clare. I have to say I have enjoyed this series so far. I feel young adult romance/fantasy novels are either usually really good or really terrible. It is hard for a series to capture my attention in that genre, but this one has managed to excite my brain. The story thusfar has had lots of twists and turns that I didn't see coming. A rare quality which I greatly appreciate. So this week's nail polish challenge theme is inspired by a book and I knew that I really wanted to do something based on this book.

The cover of the book.

    I will not spoil anything for those of you who have not read the series yet. However I will explain a little about the nail design I chose and what inspired it. In the books there is a fictional city called Idris which is where the majority of Shadowhunters (warrior humans with angel blood) live. It is kind of like their Vatican City. It is holy and ancient. It is famous for having tall clear glass looking pointed towers that glow faintly red and act as a barrier to keep demons out. The demons play a BIG part in the book. I knew instantly that I wanted to incorporate that factor into my polish choices. That is where my Essie Shine Of The Times comes in. The polish itself is a duochrome flakie top coat that adds different colors and dazzle to any manicure. It instantly reminded me of these demon lizard things, especially since when placed over darker colors the flakes are tinged with red, gold, and green with a luminous irradescence to it that reminded me of reptile scales. I decided to use my China Glaze Liquid Leather as a base coat because it is this deep ink black color and a lot of the demons themselves are mainly said to be black in color. So here is the finished look.

Note the green undertones in certain light.

    I think as far as a lizard demon inspired manicure goes this one does pretty well. Lol! I love my Shine Of The Times, but I don't use it as much as I like since I don't like how it looks over lighter polishes. Still it is a staple and one of the most unique polishes I have in my nail collection. Next week is fashion week so please look forward to that. Honestly I know nothing about fashion so it will be interesting to see what I can come up with. Until next week guys!

Love Victoria Candle in Gem Blue Glitter!

Because who doesn't want more glitter?

      Hello again internet friends! When I recieved my Superbowl CBV sale I was super excited because I ordered for the first time a Love Victoria candle. I chose to get the scent Bubble Gum in gem blue glitter. It was hard to narrow it down to one scent but I wanted to get a scent that I knew I wouldn't get sick of smelling no matter what season or time of day. I tend to have scent ADD. I will love one scent for like a week and then I will smell another and that one will become my favorite and I end up hopping around after scents like the Trix rabbit. In the end Bubble Gum was the scent left standing, since I don't think I will ever not like it. It's such a simple fragrance, but it brings back a lot of childhood memories for me so I'm always smiling when I smell it. Plus I've yet to meet a person who hates the smell of bubble gum. It may not be some people's favorite, but nobody hates it.  

Gem Blue in natural light.

     It was so hard for me to chose what color glitter I wanted. I watched countless videos on Youtube and scoured the Pouring Pot glitter thread. All of the colors though were so very sparkly and so very very pretty. I was torn between quite a few of the choices and I agonized over it for days! (okay more like just 2 days) In the end I decided to go with a color that would match my bedroom. My bedroom walls are painted a pale sky blue color while one wall of mine has a cherry blossom decal mural. (See picture below; although my walls are a slight darker shade of blue; the flash on the camera washed the color out a bit)

The wall just above my bed for reference...

    In the end I was torn between gem blue and jeweled bright pink. Obviously I opted for gem blue. I don't in any way regret my decision. It is such a beautiful color. The blue is actually closer colored to my walls then they look in the pictures I took. (What's wrong with you camera flash?!)  The pictures make it look almost aquamarine, but it really isn't. It's actually more like the Crayola color Blue Grey.  It has micro-flecks of aquamarine glitter in it though along with silver and gold. The end result kind of reminds me of Zoya's Crystal nail polish or OPI's Reflecting Pool. The glitter really pops when the light touches it although my sucky camera does it NO justice at all. (I wish I had an HD camera so I could show you all the true awesomeness of the glitter.)

In indoor light. (once again my camera makes it look darker)

Note the size

       After getting over the initial amazement of the stunning glitter I noticed that it wasn't as big as I initially thought. For some reason after seeing some pictures I was under the impression it would be taller and not as wide, but it isn't very tall. (I did not read on the website where it says it is 4 inches tall lol) I actually took out a dvd box that I had and held it up length wise and this candle stands at almost exactly half the height of a dvd box. So if you were wondering just how tall the candle is, but haven't purchased one yet yourself just take out a standard dvd case and hold it up length wise, cut that height in half and you will have your answer. (Yes, I know how unorthadox my measuring methods are) Though it isn't very tall length wise it has a great width. It's a nice almost "chubby" candle. It's very wide around the brim so you are getting a whole lot of wax. I am actually glad it isn't as tall as I was expecting because it makes storage a lot easier. The shape and size make it easy to fit in smaller shelf spaces or drawers. Mine however is taking up residence on my bedroom dresser. 

I had to trim the wicks, but they set up nicely after that.

       The candle is double wicked, however it did take a while for the wax to melt all the way to the edges. When I first lit my candle I hadn't trimmed the wicks since they looked pretty decent sized. That turned out to be a mistake though. As soon as I lit it I had two tall flames that trailed black smoke up to my ceiling like a train exhaust engine. I was worried I had gotten a candle that had the wrong wick size since sometimes that can happen so I immediately blew it out. After going back on the Pouring Pot and scouring the boards for threads based on similar topics I found that I was supposed to trim the wicks before lighting it. Once I trimmed the wicks even smaller to where it was just a tad bit above the wax, my candle lit beautifully without any black smoke whatsoever. So like they always say TRIM YOUR WICKS even if it is the first time you are burning it. I do have to say that the bubble gum fragrance was much stronger in scent shot form. I can still get a whiff of the bubble gum fragrance that I love, but it is very weak compared to scent shot form. I know that in general scent shots are stronger in fragrance because they are samples that are packed with oils, but I really was hoping my candle would be stronger than it is. I will probably light it more for looks than for smell. Perhaps I will light it and melt a forth of a bubble gum scent shot just to give it that punch that I was looking for. Despite the lackluster scent throw I am happy with my purchase. It looks so pretty sitting on my dresser and I've gotten a lot of compliments on it.

So in conclusion...

      For the amount of wax you get and for the pretty element alone these candles are a great deal for the price. I would say if you are looking to purchase one of these for the first time get something that you know has a really strong scent throw otherwise you might not think it so worth it in the end. So take your time when choosing a scent. And of course even if the wick looks small and fine already, trim them before lighting. It makes a world of difference! I will probably be ordering more glitter candles in the future although I will make sure I pick a better scent. Right now I'm thinking about getting a glitter tureen in either Twilight Woods or Cinnabon...maybe both who knows. Have any of you guys had either of those scents in candle forms? If so please let me know how good the scent throw was on them. Well that concludes this rather long winded post. I hope you all enjoyed the candle porn pictures. And for those of you who have yet to purchase a Love Victoria candle yet were curious I hope you found this informative. Until my next review guys, bye!

Nail Polish Challenge Week 23: Inspired By A Movie!

And I said what about Breakfast at Tiffany's...

      Hello again all my lovelies! This week's nail polish theme is Inspired By A Movie. So it got me thinking about all the movies I've seen. Let me tell you I thought all week about it; going over the movies I love and also trying to come up with a design that my polish collection and shoddy painting skills could do justice to. That knocked a lot of my ideas out of the running. In the end I decided to do a design based off of the classic Audrey Hepburn film Breakfast At Tiffany's. Meanwhile while I was painting my nails I listend to the song "Breakfast At Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something to further get me in the mood. I decided to keep the design very simple and chic. 

Audrey inspired nails.

       For the base coat I used China Glaze's For Audrey which is in a beautiful Tiffany's mint color. I decided to do a french tip design and I used China Glaze's Liquid Leather because I thought the black brought to mind Holly's iconic little black dress with her sophistacated gloves. I really like how the colors contrast yet still compliment each other. So that's it for this week. Next week is inspired by a book. I already know the exact book I am planning to draw inspiration from so please look forward to that!

Nail Polish Challenge Week 22: Inspired By A Song!

This week's theme is music inspired.

      Welcome back everyone for yet another week of me attempting to make my way through the 31 week nail polish challenge. We are on week 22 already and I feel like I'm so close to the end, but I'm underestimating the number of weeks left. Despite the Gagnam Style GIF I did not choose that song for the inspiration of my nails this week. Instead the song I chose was "Honeybee" by Blake Shelton. Yes, I chose a country song which was really surprising to me. Not that I don't like country music, just that I tend to listen to other genres a bit more than that one. However I have been listening to Honeybee over and over for a while now so I thought what better song to chose than this one? So that was the inspiration behind the nails below...

My hand looks kind of freaky here lol...

     For the base coat I used the same color as I used last week and that was Zoya's Breezi in two coats. Then for the bee trail and wings I just used my LA Colors Art Deco Striper in Black. For the body of the bee I used Avon's Sunshine. For the white on the wings I just used my cheap dollar store white nail striper that has no name. And that's all it took other than an hour of free time to create this. I'm happy with how it came out, but there were a lot of things I could have done to make this better. For one, instead of using my gloppy black striper I could have used the end of a bobby pin to make the dots smaller and cleaner looking. The other thing I could have done was use a more pastel blue to make it look more like the sky. I could have even added some fluffy clouds on the more empty looking nails. But alas I was in a time crunch and didn't want to put too much into it since I had to make dinner and do laundry which was sure to strip off all my hard work. The design was really simple I just followed the Bubzbeauty bumblebee nail art tutorial on Youtube. I found it really easy to follow along with in case you were interested. Well that's all for this week's post. Please look forward to more CBV posts and FCS Spring line haul and review soon. Bye guys!