Secret Santa 2013!

My Secret Santa box came today!

       On the 9th day of Christmas my Secret Santa sent to meeee.... WAY more than I deserved! So today I found out that the AH-MAZING and SUPER SWEET Jenn over on The Pouring Pot was my Secret Santa this year. I can't even begin to describe how thoughtful Jenn's gifts to me were. She put so much thought and effort into my box. All of the gifts were wrapped in pretty wrapping paper, even the super small ones, there were little notes on some of them, and even the box it came in had super cute cartoon kitty tape on it. She put in so much love in my box that I wanted to cry. I'm so touched by her wonderful presents to me and she spent WAY more than she should have. Jenn just has such a huge heart. I LOVE her to pieces and Jenn if you are reading this I don't even have the words to properly thank you enough. You were so generous to me and your box and little notes made me want to tear up and it sincerely touched my heart. THANK YOU SO MUCH Jenn and thank you so much for being such a truly great person and friend. So without further mushiness before I become a blob of Jell-O here is what she sent me...

Jenn certainly spoiled me ROTTEN!

   As you can see Jenn totally went the extra mile. I was super surprised when I saw all of these and even more touched when I saw just how much thought she gave it. Everything here was things that I have said I wanted on the boards in different posts for who knows how many weeks or months ago?  Jenn has such a great memory and attention to detail. The first thing I noticed was this adorable little paper bow that actually unfolds and becomes a little note. The note she wrote me was so sweet and made me smile from ear to ear. I'm keeping it on my computer desk because I can't bare to throw it away just yet.

See the super cute bow and journal.

    Then of course you can see this MASSIVE 1 pound chocolate bar. This may or may not be gone by Christmas... We will have to see how good I am and whether or not my mom gets into it too lol. Then there was this adorable little journal. It has different pages with this cute cartoon girl and her cat. I can see me plotting CBV orders in it already! Plus it is just my style everything from the colors to the girl.

Pretty much my same reaction.

And she threw in some Bath & Body goodies!

     I have been wanting to try Melissa's Bath & Body line for awhile now and Jenn was sweet enough to gift me these three babies. I was so excited when I saw these! I love body butter but get it from a different company so hadn't ordered Melissa's because I wanted to use up the ones I have so you can imagine my joy when I saw the body butter and the cherry on top was that Jenn got it in Whistlin Dixie! One of my all time favorite scents that I waited to be added to the bath and body line specifically. I was so touched she remembered and then the warm and fuzzies continued when I pulled out the Sophie Belle body spray. I love Sophie Belle it is one of my favorite of the fruity floral mixtures and it is perfect for a perfume! If that wasn't enough to make me weep with gratitude she also gifted me the sugar scrub in another favorite scent of mine Pizelle! It smells like such bakery wonderful goodness and I know will be so amazing to use in a hot shower in these cold months! I honestly cannot even express how much these mean to me. The fact that Jenn took into account my favorite scents and in the exact products I had offhandedly mentioned in previous posts on the board. UGH I just can't express all of the love I am feeling right now!

I wanted to roll around with glee when I saw these.

As if all of that wasn't sweet enough...

    Yep, to top it all off Jenn was so warm-hearted and charitable she even gave me a Glitter Candle in another one of my all time favorite scents Orange Vanilla Coffee. I'm not sure what glitter this is exactly. I think it may be Gem Blue or Aqua And Silver. It looks a lot like my gem blue glitter candle but it has more silver in it and is more sparkly so I'm thinking it may be aqua and silver. This picture does it absolutely no justice at all though it is super gorgeous and sparkly. Then you may be able to see it there at the bottom, my picture skills are less than stellar, but she also threw in a Blue Raspberry Slushie lip balm. Jenn must be a mind reader because I just placed an order the other day for a Green Apple lip balm, but I was so torn between getting the apple or the blue raspberry. It couldn't have come at a better time to because as most of you guys may know I accidentally washed 2 tubes of my Burts Bees in the washer and not having another tube of balm was driving me crazy!

    Jenn spoiled me way too much! She is so considerate and gracious. My heart was truly touched by everything in this package. It wasn't just the amazing gifts she gave or the great amount that she gave it, but her touch and care are so evident in every little thing. Honestly Jenn I don't know how to thank you enough. I feel so lucky to have you as my Secret Santa and also to have your friendship. I'm so grateful to you.

I wish I could hug you right now Jenn!

CBV Soap Shots Review

CBV released new soap shots!

     Hey everyone here is a short little review of Candles By Victoria's new bath & body product called Soap Shots. These are just like their usual scent shots only instead of being filled with scented wax they are filled with scented soap. I have to say I was really excited to see this new addition because I have often eyed Melissa's soaps, however I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy a whole bar if I didn't like the over all formula of the soap itself. Now I can try these little sample soaps that cost the same as a scent shot ($2.00) and see for myself whether I wish to buy the full sized bars. I decided to buy two in some scents that I have had before and really liked. So here are the two soaps that I purchased...

They are like brighter scent shots...

   I really like these two fragrances on their own and I like that they are both different, but feminine and girly smelling all the same. I'm not sure I wanted a soap that smelt like food so I went with these perfumey smelling fragrances. As for the formula on these soaps I have to say that they could be better. I have really dry skin and these just weren't moisturizing enough for me personally. It made my skin feel a little tight after using. The shape of the shots also makes it a little difficult to use. Nothing too bad, but still not the easiest thing to grip on to in the shower. They lather up really nicely though. I had no problems in that area. I could still smell the scent on my skin about an hour after I used it however the scent was kind of faint.

    Personally I will not be using these on my body, however I think they make great hand soaps. That is what I am going to use them for from now on. My skin just needs more moisturizer than these little guys can give. So if you have dry or sensitive skin like me you might want to pass on the soap shots, but if you have regular skin then give them a try and see for yourself if they work for you or not. I think I am going to stick with my staple Fortune Cookie Soaps. Overall these are not bad, but they aren't that great either. I give them a 2.5 stars out of 5. 

I wanted to like these so much more than I do...

Fortune Cookie Soap Scent Review: Summer 2013

FCS has finally launched their summer line!

      I finally received my Fortune Cookie Soap order. I placed an order the night they launched their summer line and I'm really lucky that I ordered then because a few of the products have already sold out. Don't fear though they will restock them as soon as they can so the rest of you can also enjoy them. In my typical fashion I ordered 2 of the body butter sample packs so that I could test out each scent before committing to the full products. FCS released 8 new scents for the summer so I have them all here to describe for you guys. So let's get started...

The first pack along with my free sample of bar soap.

One In A Melon:
Color: Bright Vivid Pink
Scent: This smells IDENTICAL to a watermelon Jolly Rancher! It is unbelievable how authentic it is. If any of you have tried Zombie Treats from last year's Halloween Soap Box, you will have probably heard how that was often described as smelling like a watermelon Jolly Rancher. Well FCS has upped their game because this is the genuine article of watermelon Jolly Rancher dupes. It smells like I could actual bite into it. Super sweet watermelon hard candy fragrance right here. I think this might be my favorite scent out of the bunch this season.

Aquaholic:
Color: Teal Blue Green
Scent: This is an interesting mixture of pina colada and sun tan lotion with a faint background of what the beach smells like to me. The strength of the sun tan lotion smell is balanced out with the tropical and creamy pina colada mix. I get also get this very faint like sea salt air that keeps the scent from being to strong or too sweet. This is the perfect beach scent. It has everything that makes me want to sit in the sand on the beach and sip a cold fruity drink. I have to say this scent surprised me on how much I like it. I usually am not huge on pina colada or sun tan lotion type fragrances, but there is something about this that just works for me. If this were an actual SPF lotion I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. This is perfect for you beach lovers!

What? It's Five O' Clock Somewhere!:
Color: Cotton Candy Blue
Scent: This is supposed to smell like a fruity cocktail and it does. I can pick out a slight pineapple and maybe a small splash of some creamy coconut. However they aren't the main notes of the fragrance. This mainly just smells like a really well blended blue summer time cocktail. It is nice and sweet and a little fruity. I will say though that since my free sample was in this fragrance only in the bar soap that the body butter has a tad weaker scent than the bar soap has. The bar soap just has much more of a clearer and stronger scent.

Body Shot:
Color: Pinkish Purple
Scent: This is supposed to smell like raspberry lemonade and that's pretty much what it smells like. I think it is a bit heavier on the lemonade than the raspberry. This smells like a tall glass of the actual drink. I get the crisp fresh squeezed lemons with water and I also get the sweet hint of raspberries mixed all in there. I like this one, it isn't my personal favorite just because there are others in this line that I like best, but I will certainly be using this baby up. If you are a sweet lemon fan or really just looking for a unique summer scent than give this one a shot. (pun intended)

The second pack...

Where The Sun Don't Shine:
Color: Pale Pastel Yellow
Scent: A yummy blend of tropical coconut and bananas. This one is really nice for the summer. The two scents are equally balanced so you get both the creamy coconut and the sweet banana. I like the banana in this because it doesn't smell like that Runts candy banana. Instead it smells like a real mashed up banana mixed with some creamy delicious coconut. This smells like something I would either like to eat, or slather all over my body like a sunscreen. I'm really loving this one right now! 

Do You Salsa Or Mango?:
Color: Pastel Neon Orange
Scent: You know it is funny when my mother and I first smelt this we both came to an agreement that it reminded us of those orange marshmallows you get on Halloween that are shaped like peanuts. I still stand by that description even though individually I can pick out the island mango with a hint of the lime, but honestly if I didnt know what was in this I would just think it smelt like a sweet orange peanut marshmallow. I know that sounds incredibly weird, believe me, but the mango in this isn't a sharp juicy mango it leans on the candy sweet side and I don't know what cilantro and chile smell like together on their own, but this scent is all light sweetness. I totally was not expecting this to smell like it does. Having said that however I actually like the scent even though I despise the peanut marshmallows to eat. Very nice and unique scent from FCS however I think people would like it more if it were re-named and added to the Halloween Soap Box.  

Ice Cream, You Scream:
Color: Off White
Scent: Waffle cones...that is the first thing that comes to mind. This smells EXACTLY like a waffle cone that you put ice cream in. In fact I think the name and description on the site fits this to a T. I get a very authentic ice cream cone scent with neapolitan ice cream fragrance. Like I can smell the smooth vanilla/light strawberry/creamy chocolate ganache mixture in this. I will warn you this is a super sugary sweet fragrance so if you can't handle really food like sugary scents then I would say you might want to pass on this one. For everyone else though this is truly a fun and different twist on summer time scents.

Mother Pucker:
Color: Lime Green
Scent: This has been described as a lemon PEZ candy type of fragrance and I can agree to that only I would say it is more lemon smelling than it is candy like. There is this fresh zest lemon, with a slight almost clean smell that I'm guessing comes from the garden mint, and then there is this tiny hint of sweetness that keeps the scent from being too sharp like a sour lemon. This is a cool light lemon scent that is creative and interesting for summer. This is for you lemon lovers or for those of you who don't like too sweet fragrances and instead prefer more natural crisp and fresh fragrances. I can appreciate this one for what it is however I'm not big on lemon scents personally and I'm more into sweeter things so this one was probably my least favorite of the entire line, but I still liked this one.

I love all the scents from this release!

      I have to say I liked this summer line a lot better than last summer's line, which is saying something because I really loved Pool Party, Summer Sweet Tea, and Pinky Swear. This launch however just seemed to have scents that were for everyone. There was sugary sweet Ice Cream, You Scream for food lovers, Mother Pucker for more fresh and natural scent lovers, of course there were the tropical fruity smells that are a must for this time of the year, and then there was even beachy and candy like scents. I have to say I just think the scents this time around were so creative and different while still staying in the seasonal bracket. Usually there is at least one scent that I don't like in all of the seasonal launches, however there wasn't a one scent in this line that I wouldn't use. They are all pretty great fragrances. I have to give FCS a round of applause for releasing a truly great batch of scents for the summer. I definitely recommend that you guys give a few of these a try because honestly these are just a great collection of fragrances. Anyways that's all for this season's scent reviews. If you liked this review then check back in fall when I will do another review of the fall launch. Until then take care everybody and don't forget the SPF!!

Nail Polish Challenge Week 31: The Final Challenge!

It's the very last challenge!

    I feel so accomplished! I actually completed 31 weeks of this! On one hand I am proud of myself for actually sticking to this and doing it every single week. I'm also happy that it is finally over so that from now on I can do whatever I want without having to stick to a theme, but on the other hand I'm a little sad to see it all end. I've devoted half a year to this little project so it has kind of become a routine for me and it has also challenged me and improved my nail art skills by a marginal bit. Oh, my conflicted feelings... But all things must come to an end. So for this final nail challenge the theme is to re-create your favorite challenge! Honestly, I don't have a favorite theme although I do have a favorite nail design. (*cough* My cityscape nails for artwork week *cough*) Instead I chose to do a mixture of re-doing both gradient week (that was a fail of epic proportions) and tutorial week (since I rushed through that one). Without further ado here is the final nail challenge...

Ombre Sunset Forest Nails

    I followed SimpleNailArtDesigns's tutorial on Youtube to create this. For the base coat for the gradient to stick to I just used one coat of Zoya's Bela. Then on a make-up sponge I used Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear Hard As Nails in Blue It, Avon's Orange Creamsicle, and Avon's Sunshine. I just dabbed my nail to create the ombre. Then with a toothpick dipped in China Glaze's Liquid Leather I patiently added the ground and trees. Finally I just sealed it all in with my trust NYC Long Wearing Extra Shiny Top Coat. Viola! Tutorial completed! That finishes the final nail polish challenge. I might put together a collective post of every single week just like a re-cap. It will depend on how much free time I have. Anyways it has been an interesting and fun ride and I thank you all for sticking with me. I suggest you guys try this out. Obviously I have no nail art skills at all, but doing this challenge has really shown me new and creative designs that even I can do. You would be surprised at how easy some things are. Thanks again for everything guys!

Nail Polish Challenge Week 30: A Tutorial

Only one week left of the nail polish challenge!

     Hey everyone. I know that I am two days late posting this, but I have had to work overtime all this week and so things got a little crazy there. Nevertheless I have finished this week's challenge. This week's challenge was a tutorial. I decided to do Bubzbeauty's spring time nails. I wish I would have slowed down and taken my time a bit more when doing this, but as I said I had worked overtime yesterday and I was hurrying to get it done before dinner. Still I'm happy with the results...

Spring time grass and daisies.

      For the sky which is also the base coat I used Zoya's Blu in two coats, then for the grass strands I used two different greens/ With a toothpick dipped in polish I used Zoya's Josie, and Apple. This picture does not justice whatsoever to the glitter in Apple. It actually has a three dimensional effect because I used one matte color for the stalks and then a glitter for the other stalks. So it sparkles in certain light. Then for the daisies I just used a bobby pin and dotted it in my cheap dollar store nail striper in white. For the center of the daisies I used Avon's Sunshine and just dipped my bobby pin in. This was super simple to create and it would have looked way better had I slowed down and taken my time with it. This is a really great look for springtime and trust me on the nails it looks way more forgiving then this harsh picture. Can you believe we only have one more challenge left? I feel like crying... not sure if I'm happy or sad that it is all about to end next Monday. I will still post some manicure looks, but they will be sporadically and in no particular theme really. Just the nails that I believe are worth taking a picture of. Anyways that's all for this week's challenge. Please look forward next week for the finale. Also later today when I get off work I will be posting this month's CBV review so stick around for that. Bye guys!

Nail Polish Challenge Week 29: The Supernatural

It's Supernatural Week!

    Woot ! The theme for this week is right up my alley! I love anything to do with the horror or fantasy sides of things so it took me forever to finally decide what I wanted to do for my nails this week. Originally I was going to make alien nails, but I sadly do not have a bright neon green that I would have liked to have for their skin color so I scrapped that idea. Then as I was looking at all of my green polishes I thought about doing a Frankenstein nail scheme, but I remembered I already did that on green week since it was near Halloween at that time. Eventually I decided to put away my polishes and go watch a movie instead. What movie did I end up watching? Cabin In The Woods, which for those who haven't seen it, has just about every movie monster under the sun in it at one point. Finally after much deliberation I decided on doing a zombie inspired nail design. Zombies have pretty much become the new vampires this year so it is only fitting that I pay homage to that this week. Here is how it turned out...

Graveyard nails with a zombie hand on the middle finger.

    For the base I used two coats of my China Glaze Harvest Moon from the Hunger Games collection. Then I just used China Glaze's Liquid leather and created little downward strokes to crate the bases of the gravestones. Then I used a toothpick dipped in the Liquid Leather to create the crosses, grass, and of course the entire zombie hand coming out of the ground. My zombie hand got a little wonky looking, but I didn't think it was too bad since I have never drawn a hand with just a toothpick and polish before. So I'm happy with it. I realize that somewhere along the way my ring finger got smudged and some of the polish came off. My guess is it happened when I was trying to draw the hand. But what can you do it is too late now. Only two more weeks left of the 31 week nail polish! I can't even believe it. We are in the home stretch now and the ending is in sight! Please look forward next Monday for the next installment. Until then guys take care and enjoy my CBV Slap Yo Momma Smoothie Candle review.

Nail Polish Challenge Week 28: A Flag

It's Monday...

      Welcome back guys. I hope you all enjoyed your weekends. Sadly, it is Monday again so back to the work week and also back to the nail polish challenge. We are on week 28 already! Only three more weeks left of the challenge. I can't believe I have managed to keep it up this long. This week's theme is a flag. I have always had a love of Denmark since I had a 7th grade assignment on it. It just seems like a pretty cool country to live in. I decided to pay tribute to one of my favorite countries other than my own. Here is the Danish flag on my nails...

I had to turn my hand so the flag would display right.

     This was super simple to do. First I painted my nails two coats of my Cruella De Vil Disney Villains Varnish. It is such a deep solid pretty red. You can't tell from the picture, but this one actually makes your nails shine even without a top coat. Then I just took my cheap dollar store white nail striper and painted sideways crosses that were closer to the nail bed and longer towards the nail to creater the flag of Denmark. I didn't even put on a top coat because the shine from the Cruella De Vil was quite enough. That's it! Told you it was super simple. That's all for this week's challenge. I will see you guys on the next one. Until then take care guys!

Nail Polish Challenge Week 27: Artwork

It's nail polish challenge Monday!

     Hello again all my beauties! Despite my usual hatred for Mondays in general, today has been a very good and productive day for me today. I woke up early and found out my CBV order that I placed during a busy sale last week should be here by Wednesday. That is a week and a half turn around time and let me tell you I ordered quite a few scent shots. So I was very happy with that. Another thing that has made today great is that spring has finally arrived here in my hometown. Yesterday it was up in the seventies and today it has been in the sixties with the sun shining. I have been waiting for spring since Christmas ended.  An another note I was really nervous about what to do for this week's nail polish challenge because if you haven't already noticed my nail art skills are still in the beginner's level. I scoured the net for pictures of nails that are artwork inspired just looking for something that would be possible for me to even attempt at doing. Luckily I found a cutepolish tutorial on Youtube and it didn't turn out too bad if I do say so myself. Without further ado here is how it turned out...

Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

     After searching awhile I saw this City Skyline tutorial and it reminded me of all the landscape paintings I have seen depicting the New York skyline. It was perfect for this week's theme. For a base coat I used only one sheer coat of Zoya's Bela just to give the gradient polishes something to stick to. Then I with a make-up sponge I used Sally Hansen's X-treme Hard As Nails polishes in Blue It and Deep Purple. I sponged the two over my base coat to create the gradient effect of the night sky. Then using my China Glaze Liquid Leather I created the buildings by using short downward strokes. I then used my LA Colors Art Deco nail striper in black to add little satelites and pyramid tops to a couple of the buildings. With a toothpick dipped in Avon's Sunshine I added little windows in the buildings to create the lights of the city. Next I just used my cheap dollar store white nail striper to create a tiny crescent moon on my middle finger and a tiny airplane on my thumb (which sadly you cannot really see). To top it all off I just used my NYC Long Wearing Extra Shiny Top Coat to seal it all in and add some shine. I would say this is probably my favorite look I have done so far in the nail polish challenge. It is so hard to believe we are already at week 27! Look forward next week for the next nail polish challenge. Until then see you next time!

Nail Polish Challenge Week 26: A Pattern

I know I'm a day late this week.

      Hello again friends, sorry I am a day late in getting this up. Yesterday after work I was so exhausted that I just couldn't muster up the energy to devote to doing my nails and then blogging it. Luckily though I didn't have that same problem today. This week's theme was a pattern. Honestly I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do and then I saw a new Bubzbeauty nail tutorial video for frilly polka dot nails and I loved the simple yet fun design she came up with. I know I have a slight obsession for polka dots here lately and this one was just up my alley. I was going to do more than one color, but I have used my mint polishes so much lately that I decided against it. Here are the results...

The pink polish is in waves half way up my nail.

      For the base coat I just used two coats of an old Love My Nails polish that my mom bought YEARS ago. Luckily it is still in really good condition and the color is in Lollypop Pink. It is a really fun color and surprisingly the polish works really well considering it was probably only 3 dollars when my mom bought it. For the dots I just used my cheap dollar store white nail polish striper and I just put a puddle of the polish on a paper plate and used a toothpick to create diagonal lines. Then I sealed it all in with my trusty NYC Long Wearing Extra Shiny Top Coat. Obviously Bubz has a lot more artistic talent then I do. I would reccomend you check out her Youtube video to see what hers looks like (it is much prettier!). That's all for this week. Please look forward to me posting my CBV Round Robin Haul and Review here in the next few days. See you guys 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!

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!

Nail Polish Challenge Week 21: Inspired By A Color!

Bowie and me have got a case of the blues...

      Welcome back to another installment of the 31 Week Nail Polish Challenge. Honestly, I didn't even think I'd make it this far. I figured I'd keep it up for about two months and then find it tedious and call it quits. I'm kind of proud of myself for sticking with it for so long. The theme for this week is inspired by a color. So the color I chose to be inspired by was blue.

Two toned accent nails on middle finger and thumb.

       For the lighter blue base coat I used two coats of Zoya's Breezi which is a really great blue for the summer months. Then I just painted half of my thumb and middle finger with one coat of Zoya's Ibiza. Then I just took my LA Colors Art Deco nail striper in Black and just made a line down the middle where the colors meet. To top it all off I used my handy dandy NYC Long Wearing Extra Shiny Top Coat. I decided to go really simple this week since the theme itself was pretty simple. That's all for this week's challenge, please look forward to next week's as well. Btw I've got my March CBV review coming up soon as well as a special review on my Candles By Victoria Love Victoria glitter candle, which I chose in gem blue. I know I just can't get away from all the blues lately lol. See you guys next time.

Nail Polish Challenge Week 20: Water Marbled!

Yay! Work is finally over!!

      Happy Monday everyone! I know it's kind of an oxymoron isn't it? But today didn't drag on for me like most Monday's do. I think it's because I only got about two and a half hours of sleep last night and I'm running on pure adrenaline and green tea right now. The theme for this week's nail polish challenge is water marble and I have to say I was not looking forward to this one too much because it seemed a little daunting and I knew it was going to be time consuming. Still its always good to try something out of our comfort zones right? So this is how it all turned out. 

Yet another addition to the #failnails collection...

      As you can see my instincts turned out to be dead on. This was a total disaster!! The Youtube videos make it looks so easy, but if you are like me and have no hand eye cordination, and are prone to spilling things, this is a total nail nightmare. Let me tell you how this all went wrong. First thing that failed was that the white base coat I put on turned super streaky and thus making my white nail polish completely useless. So I had to substitute a lighter base color. So I decided to go with my China Glaze For Audrey. The next thing to go wrong was the fact that the water you use has to be EXACTLY room temperature otherwise the polish will not spread; so I had to wait for it to round out. Then it turns out my Zoya nail polishes that I originally wanted to use, do not work for water marbling. So that took out half my nail polish color choices. In the end I ended up just using my cheapo Avon polishes in Sunshine and Viva Pink. So here is where my lack of grace turned out to be water marble kyrptonite.You have to work quickly with the polishes otherwise they will dry on the surface. And the polish dries within about 30 seconds. So in my haste to try and put the drops of polish in then make a design with a toothpick then dip my nail in the water I ended up spilling globs of polish all over my dresser. Ugh... I ended up getting so frustrated with the process that I called it quits with just one hand and left my other one blank. After posting this I'm going to remove these fail nails pronto! Still while this was a complete mess to do I'm glad I tried something new although I think it's safe to say I wont be doing much water marbling in the future lol!

Nail Polish Challenge Week 19: Galaxies!

It's Galaxy Nail Week!

           Hey everyone! I'm back for this weeks nails challenge and the theme as you could already tell is Galaxies! Galaxy nails are really pretty, but I have to say a little tedious. This was my first attempt at trying galaxy nails and I'm pretty happy with the results. I just wish my glitter would show up in the pictures. I need a new camera... Anyways here is how it all turned out.

        For the base coat instead of using a matte black like most people I decided to use my China Glaze Smoke And Ashes polish from the Hunger Games Collection. I like that it looks mostly black but when you see it up close and in person you see these tiny micro-flecks of green and teal glitter. With a small torn off piece of a make-up sponge I first used Avon's French Tip White and then layered on Avon's Sunshine followed by Avon's Viva Pink to create the galaxy gradient. After it had fully dried I added on Pure Ice's Don't You Wish which is just a clear coat that has lots of really fine raibow colored micro-glitter in it. I wish you could see the glitter in the pictures because it really adds that pop effect when the light hits it and makes it look like stars. 

\And another view...

       In the end I am really satsified with how it all turned out. I was honestly expecting a huge mess, but it wasn't that bad or that hard to create. I have a feeling when this nail polish challenge is over I will be wearing a lot of galaxy nails, playing with different colors and glitters. Anywho that's it for this week's nail polish challenge. I hope you enjoyed it and look forward next Monday for the next one. Bye guys!