Wet N Wild ColorIcon Shadow Pallette

I said I would be back ;) Did you miss me?

Tonight, I want to talk eye shadow with you ladies. I LOVE it. Love love love. It's right behind nail polish as far as how much I have. I'm constantly buying it and now that I've found these Wet N Wild ColorIcon palettes, I won't be able to stop. I have a few of the 3-pan palettes, but this is my first 8-pan. 

This is Petal Pusher. 

On the back, they give you some ideas on how to work the look :)

I love how each shadow is kind of embossed with the best place to use them. It makes your eye makeup fool-proof! Especially if you've just swiped some on there in the past.

Usually, I use 4 shadows from one side or the other. The darker side is great for a smoky eye when you go out. and the more purple side is perfect for a low-key or going to work.

I LOVE THESE. The color payoff is great. The color builds very well and they go on velvety smooth. In fact, I can't believe that I only have one of these so far. I definitely have to get the other two I've seen-a teal/blue palette and a neutral/brown palette. They run about $3.99 at your local Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, etc.

I also swatched the colors, shown below:

the swatches are in the order of the palette. Purple side.

blurred to see all the shimmer, especially in the third swatch.

smoky side.

a little blurry for shimmer

I also did a look, using the smoky side, but only using the first three shadows.

In addition to the Wet n Wild shadows, I used Essence gel eyeliner in Black and Maybelline Falsies mascara in Blackest Black.

Have you tried these shadows yet? What did you think?

until next time!!

xo, ali

quick nots (nail of the saturday)

hello, ladies!!

I'm sorry that it's been a week since my last post...I had a wicked busy weekend as I mentioned I would in my last post and then the weather reverted two months to February and it was terrible out on Monday and Tuesday. I didn't feel like doing ANYTHING.

But, I do have a post in mind for you dolls that I plan to put up later tonight.

It's not about nail polish, though. It's about my other cosmetic love--makeup! Wet N Wild to be exact. I can't wait to share it with you :)

To make this nail relevant, I'll leave you with an Instagrammed picture of my zoo mani from Saturday.

see you guys later!!

xo,ali.

a first time for everything

wednesday! such a great day...it means the hardest part of the week is over and we're cruisin to the weekend. My weekend stands to be quite exciting...I'm going to Erie to visit my sister and we are taking a little trip down route 79 with her boyfriend to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium on Saturday. I can't wait :)

I have a quick post for you ladies before I paint my nails, again. Work was wicked stressful today and apparently hard on my nails b/c my fresh mani that I did last night chipped to smithereens. Ugh.

This was my first time stamping, and I think it turned out decent, but I definitely need to practice more. No problem there ;)

For those of you that were wondering, the Salon Express stamping kit is GREAT. The stamper is wonderful to work with, double-sided. The only complaint I have is that the scraper scratches the plates so I'm going to try the gift card method next, but it's definitely worth the $10 that it costs at your local drug stores.

For this mani, I used:

1 coat Sally Hansen CSM Base Coat

2 coats Avon Powerful Pink

Stamping done in Wet N Wild Black Creme

Enjoy!! Let me know what you thought about this mani :)

the sunlight was really good on the way to work this morning. It's seriously the only time that I have to use natural light for these shots. Blah.

my favorite nail haha... my left thumb. I love the way it turned out :)

until next time!

xo, ali.

Let's Go To The Tropics!

Hey ladies!! It's Thursday night. Isn't that a beautiful thing? I'm glued to American Idol, right now and relaxing because I have a busy weekend ahead of me. It will all be worth it because my sister, Ashley @ Fatto Con L'Amore, is coming home for the weekend!! You guys should definitely check her out...she makes amazing adorable awesome cards and has some great packages available. Tell her that her fabulous older sister sent you ;)

We have lots planned--Titanic in 3D on Friday night; pedis, lunch, and shopping with our mom on saturday; and Easter goodness with our parents (church, brunch, lil gifties, chocolate, and CADBURY CREME EGGS)!!

My midweek mani definitely has me longing for the beach and 80 degree weather. It's only been in the low 50s this week and I could use some heat. Right now,  I'm rocking Wet n Wild MegaLast Tropicalia and it is GORGEOUS. I'll definitely be sporting this A LOT this summer.

Tropicalia is a pinky coral that looks amazing in natural light as above.

indirect sunlight, with a little prop from my mom's Easter arrangement on our front porch.

one more shot...ugh, just gorgeous!!

I have no idea what I'm going to do for Easter nails. Plus, my mom said she got me something for my nail art for Easter. I'm super excited!! I'll definitely be posting about that AND my Easter nails :)

Idol is killing me tonight--Elise is in the bottom two :( Thankfully Philip was safe. They are my picks this season.

The Sabres, on the other hand, are doing great. We're down to the last two games of the regular season--the Flyers and Bruins, and we're tied with the Capitals for the final playoff spot. It's the 2nd intermission and we're beating the Flyers 1-0. Fingers crossed!!

Go Sabres!!

Until next time.

xo, ali

the luck of the irish!

Two days in a row?! Something must be wrong!!

No worries, lovelies. I'm juuuuust fine :) The weather here is beautiful and it definitely has an effect on my mood. Plus, I started a profile on Match.com and will be getting a month subscription on payday b/c some boys have emailed me already. Exciting. According to Bambi, everyone gets twitterpated in the spring ;)

Today for you, I have the manicure that I sported on St. Patrick's Day for volunteering and a party with my bestie. This was my first foray into freehand nail art using a bobby pin, so go easy on me haha

For the base, I used Sinful Colors Rise and Shine and for the accent finger, I used Wet n Wild Black Creme

this is two coats of each color, in natural light.

with flash

Rise and Shine is a beauty...bright grass green creme with silver shimmer running through it.

Black Creme is a super shiny black. If you were to use one thick coat, it could definitely be a one-coater. 

Both of these polishes are under $2 and are of great, easy to use formula.

Next, I blobbed Rise and Shine on some tin foil and dipped the rounded end of a bobby pin in it.

To make the shamrock, you make two dots and then, following the same idea as bow-tie tutorial from Sarah's tuxedo mani at Chalkboard Nails, you drag the dots to a point. Three sets of dots up top, on the left, and right and a little tail and you get something like this:

wheeee! a jaunty lil shamrock :)

I really liked the satiny finish of Rise and Shine, and I knew I'd only have it on for less than 24 hours, so I didn't use any topcoat.

And that's my celebratory St. Patrick's Day mani. I'm really happy with how it looked and I can't wait to do more manis like this and eventually get some dotting tools and expand!

until next time!

xo, ali

Mani...Wednesday.

hello, lovelies!!

happy mani...wednesday?

Uh, yeah. I'm a little late this week, which is an improvement over last week when I didnt post at all.

Plus, you'll be getting a double post today because there is SO much I want to share with you for spring fashion. I just got my March issue of Elle and there's nearly 500 pages of fashion inspiration. I'm expecting February's Birchbox this week, too, so there is LOTS going on.

OH!! And I won The Polish Diary's first giveaway!! I can't wait to get my prize in the mail because it will include Essie's Shine of the Times. I've picked it up and almost bought it so many times lol.

On to the mani, eh?

I found a new base coat that is a ridge filler and also has Biotin and Spirulina, which is supposed to help strengthen your nails. I'll try anything!

So, this week's mani, or for the first half of the week, is one coat of Sally Hansen Salon Perfect Base Coat, two coats of Wet n' Wild  Megalast in Disturbia (which I was able to cross off my list!), and one coat of Essie No Chips ahead.

I just love this color. However, I was disappointed in the way the shimmer translated from bottle to nail. You really had to look for it on the nail but in the bottle, it was amazing! Wear-wise, it has fared pretty well. I have a few chips because I type all day and just a little tipwear. I found this on a display at my local Rite Aid and it was only $1.99. I would definitely try it out.

with flashy flash

flashy flash...sorry about my messy cuticles :(

under a lamp and on top of Buffalo Memorial  Auditorium, affectionately known in its heyday to Buffalonians as the Aud. This is where I saw my first Buffalo Sabres game, my first Disney on Ice, and my first circus. It was a legend. The Aud was torn down last year and for past 10 years or so, our Sabres have played at the First Niagara Center (formerly HSBC Arena). And there's your Buffalo, NY history lesson :)

Have a great afternoon and we'll chat later about the candy colors popping up everywhere this spring :)