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!

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 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 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!

Nail Polish Challenge Week 17: Glitter!

It's Glitter Week!

            Hello again everybody! It's a rainy gloomy Monday where I am, but I hope the weather is better where you are right now. So this week is all about glitter. The problem with that is half of my nail polish collection is all glitter. Needless to say I had a really hard time choosing just one. I came to my decision by picking a polish that matched the season, was one I didn't think I'd use again in the upcoming challenges, and lastly one that I thought not alot of people new about. Thus that's how I narrowed it down to Zoya's Crystal which, for those of you who don't know, is actually a nearly perfect dupe of OPI's rare Reflecting Pool, which I believe has been discontinued.

\I really wish my camera picked up glitter better.

A better close up on the glitter.

        Zoya's Crystal is such a unique and pretty glitter polish. Seriously this one is much prettier in real life and my camer does it NO justice whatsoever. As you can see at first glance it looks to be a cool cerulean blue, but when the lights hit it you see tiny microglitter flecks of silver, bronze, and gold. And believe me when I say that this one really pops when the lights hit it. I really like this one because it's great to wear in both winter and summer. In winter it matches the cold tones, but it matches the pretty watery blues of summer. This particular polish is said to be an exact dupe of OPI's ultra rare Reflecting Pool. I believe Reflecting Pool was only released in Europe so getting your hands on the shade is quite hard if you aren't from there. But luckily Zoya has us all covered with Crystal. Plus how perfect is the name for this polish. This one just has a really unique and amazing effect. So that's it for this week's nail polish challenge, please look back next Monday for another challenge post. Bye guys!