Influenster Active Series VoxBox Review

Hey, everyone! So, I received the Active Series VoxBox from Influenster, which contained the Dr. Scholls Active Series Gel Insoles. This couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

Dr. Scholl's Active Series Insoles

I've been going to the gym pretty regularly for a few months now, but have gotten almost no results. The biggest problem was, being overweight, I have a lot of pain in my feet. Running? Forget about it! Jumping? HA!

My husband has this thing he likes to do to tease me. He's 6'2" while I'm 5'1". So, when he wants a high five from me, he sticks his arm straight up and makes me jump. He thinks it's cute because I'm so short and accomplishing such a feat takes such a huge effort.

But that's just one jump. Jump roping? I wouldn't have even considered it. However, after using the inserts the first day and finding them extremely comfortable, I decided to push my workout to the next level. Today, I jumped rope with not a hint of pain. The first use was on the treadmill. I jogged for longer than I thought I would be able to, and with no foot or shin pain. I was seriously surprised. I honestly didn't think they would be that effective! Of course just using muscles I wasn't used too caused soreness, but that's to be expected.

So, if you're an insole skeptic, or if you're a runner/jogger and/or exercise regularly and have pain in your feet or shins,  definitely try these. I'm looking forward to the results of my new more intense workouts and will keep you all updated.

From what I've checked, the prices run from around $19-$25 depending on where you buy them and what your shoe size is. I hope this post has been helpful. Let me know if you try them and what you think. Talk to you all later!

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for my honest review. My opinion has in no way been influenced.

Mrs. P's Nail Potions Swatches and Review

OMG, you guys, I'm so sorry! I've just had so much going on lately. Besides family matters, well no...it's pretty much all family matters. Haha! From late Aug. to mid Oct. we've got 7 family birthdays, my hubby's and my anniversary, a baby shower along with everyday things, and the fact that my daughter and I were sick last week. I don't know which way is up anymore. But I finally got this review done!

Huge apology to Bree at Mrs. P's Nail Potions. Thank you for being so patient and understanding.

So, let's jump right in. This is a pic heavy post containing 4 polishes and a scented top coat from the Fall 2013 Collection from Mrs. P's Nail Potions. You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Etsy.

***Disclaimer: I received these polishes for my honest review. All opinions are my own and were in no way influenced.***

I didn't take a pic of the scented top coat, because there wasn't really anything to show. There is however plenty to say! The scent is Pumpkin Chai and it's a LIMITED scent that is only available until the end of October. If you love Autumn, pumpkin, and/or chai/spice scents, I highly recommend you get your hands on this. I cannot tell you how amazing this smells.

Opening the bottle you can't smell anything besides the polish, but once it's dry it smells so delicious that you'll want to eat your fingers. It lasts for days, but the scent does start to fade by day 3. Even though this is limited, she sells a bunch of other scented top coats in scents like Apple Cinnamon, Lemon, Chocolate Fudge and more. The best part is, since they're top coats, you can wear them over any color unlike scented polishes.

Okay, now for the pic spam. All pictures can be clicked to enlarge.

Fawning for You

From the site: "Fawning For You is a highly pigmented soft neutral beige lacquer with a slight creme finish and a subtle gold/metallic shimmer." I'll be honest and say, I didn't think I'd like this color. But it has a peachy undertone which is very pretty. While I'm not a huge fan of metallics, this came off as more pearlescent to me. I think it's a very classy color

Bordeaux Crossing

"Bordeaux Crossing is a highly pigmented shimmery almost brick red lacquer." You can see the "brick red" color in the undertones, but the metallic shimmer almost has a red-violet hue and is very pretty. I don't wear this kind of shade often, but it would be very pretty for a special occasion.

Fall Deeply

"Fall Deeply is a highly pigmented auburn brown lacquer with lots of multicolored shimmer (mainly blue, green and purple)." This polish is beautiful! I could only really see green shimmer, but that was perfect in my opinion. It made me think of the changing leaves of Fall. Very unique and perfect for the season. This was my favorite of the four colors I received.

Lean Mean & Aubergine

"Lean, Mean & Aubergine is a highly pigmented deep brownish purple with beautiful purple shimmer." This was my second favorite. Not only is the color lovely, but the quality is fabulous. I wore this for 3 days without a topcoat and had no chipping, only minimal tip wear.

All of the polishes have an excellent formula. They are highly pigmented and are almost one coaters, but you don't quite get the full richness of the color in one coat. There was some streaking with the lighter colors, but that's to be expected with shimmer and metallic polishes. The streaking is less prevalent in the darker the colors. Other than that, I had no problems with any of these polishes. Great coverage and quality.

There are four more colors in the collection and they are beautiful jewel-toned purple, green, blue, and dark pink. Definitely check them out!

So, I hope you all are having a wonderful week. I apologize again for the absence. If you have any questions about any of these polishes, feel free to ask. Talk to you soon!

Swatches/Review: Lac Attack - Cell Block Tango Collection

Hey, guys! Today, I've got a major swatchfest. This post will be pic heavy, because I have the entire Cell Block Tango Collection from Lac Attack to show you! It's inspired by the song of the same name in the musical, "Chicago." So, lets jump right in. You can click to enlarge these photos for a better look.

Lac Attack - Cell Block Tango Collection

Top to Bottom, L-R: Cicero, Uh-Uh, Lipschitz, Six, Pop, Squish

First up, Pop. From the site: "Pop contains hot pink and black matte glitter in circles and hexes in a clear base." This glitter topper is so fun. I love the matte circle glitters. It screams 80s pop art. I think this would be great over most cream colors. Something I noticed was these glitter toppers dry really fast! I had just finished my second coat of Pop when my daughter asked for help with something. I was worried I had dinged my mani, but it was already dry! Bonus! There was no fishing, but as with any glitter, some placement was necessary. This is 2 coats and topcoat.

Lac Attack - Pop

"Squish contains black, gunmetal silver, and red glitter in hexes and bars." This was my least favorite in the collection, but that is just my personal taste. This is 2 coats with topcoat. No problems, quick dry time. The bar glitters make me think of pom poms for some reason. Thus, Squish would be great for any fans of sports teams with red and black team colors. Also reminds me of 101 Dalmatians. ^_^

Lac Attack - Squish

"Six contains six different kinds of metallic glitter in a clear base, in green, purple, and blue!" If two's company then Six is a party! Three of my favorite colors in two different sizes. On my pinky is 3 coats on it's own. The rest of the nails have 2 coats over black, all with topcoat. This is very pretty and sparkly. No issues, great dry time.

Lac Attack - Six

Blurred to show the sparkle.

"Uh-Uh is a purplish/magenta color with a beautiful shimmer." I would describe it as raspberry, but either way, it's beautiful. The first coat was a little streaky, but not terrible. The second coat fixed everything. This is 2 coats with no topcoat. This is a great shimmer that can be worn anytime.

Lac Attack - Uh-Uh

Cicero is described as "...a deep purple shimmer with coppery flakies" but the flakies come off more pink in my opinion. It really lightens the polish up and it actually wears lighter than shown here. This is 2 coats with topcoat. The first coat was streaky and pulled a little, but the second coat smoothed everything out just fine. The color is gorgeous. I absolutely love purples and this is no exception.

Lac Attack - Cicero

"Lipschitz is a lovely medium green shimmer and tiny charcoal-colored flakies." Lovely indeed! The blue shimmer really lightens up this polish and almost gives it a jade tone. The charcoal flakies, I think, add to that jade/stone feel. It's a really unique color and if you like green, I highly recommend this one. Possible one coater, but two for best results. This is 2 coats with topcoat.

Lac Attack - Lipschitz

Wears Closer to The Color Above ^

Sorry for the pic overload. So, what do you think? Will you be getting any of these? I think there are some really unique, fun, and pretty polishes in this collection. If you like what you see, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Let me know what you think. I love to hear from you all. I hope you have a wonderful week!

**Disclaimer: These polishes were sent for my honest review. All opinions are my own and were in no way influenced.

Fancy Schmancy NotD

I'm still having fun with  my scrapbooking scissors. Today, I have another tape mani but with brighter, higher contrasting colors. I had seen swatches of Urban Outfitters Flip Flop and absolutely loved it. It's the perfect aqua color. Not too minty, not too blue or green. Even though I've had mixed results with their polish in the past, I knew I wanted this. I also picked up Bandeau and a couple others that you'll see when I use them. So first, Flip Flop.

Urban Outfitters Flip Flop

Just gorgeous! It went on perfectly in two coats, no issues. Then I got tape happy. Haha.

Direct Sunlight

Indirect Sunlight

Florescent Lighting

I have no idea why my skin looks so discolored. Anywho, if it weren't for the crooked design on my middle finger, I would have absolutely loved it. I think the silhouette has a very eastern feel. Like, maybe Moroccan or Indian? I should do it again with red and gold. Hehe.

That's all for now. Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!

September Maven Box

Hi-hi! Today's post is on the September Maven Box I got from Julep. Recently, I've been passing on them, but I really wanted to try the cleansing oil this month. I chose the Boho Glam box.

Julep September Boho Glam Maven Box

Julep Bare Face Cleansing Oil

 
I know that oil is a bit taboo in American skincare and cosmetics, but I think there's some misconceptions about it. I know that cleansing and facial oils have been popular in Japan for quite some time. And let's face it, they have fabulous skincare and well...skin! I also read an article that said "oil-free" cosmetics and skincare aren't oil-free at all. They're only free of natural oils, but often contain synthetic oils, which can be even worse for your skin.

So, with all that in mind, I thought I'd try it. Lord knows my skin has been on the fritz lately. Anyway, I've been using it for about a week and I really like it. It has a refreshing citrus scent. The instructions say to use a generous amount. I've been using it before bed and use 3 pumps. It rinses off easily with no residue and in the morning I have no excess oil on my face. I hope to see some nice improvements in my skin by the end of the bottle. If so, I'll definitely buy it again.

On to the polish. This box contained two polishes: Kristy, a deep midnight blue, and Tatiana, an orange shimmer.

Julep Tatiana (top) and Julep Kristy (bottom)

 

I picked this box for Kristy. I thought it looked very pretty on Julep's site. Well...(insert deep sigh here), you can imagine my disappointment when I find that it's a thick, gloppy, stringy mess. Now, not everyone's was. I asked someone else who got the same box and theirs was fine. Just my luck, I guess. So, I don't know if it was because I got one from a bad batch or not, but it was also darker than I expected. I know my pics may not be the greatest quality, but even in real life you could almost never tell that it was blue. You can see that it's blue around the cuticles and tips, but that's about it.

Julep Kristy

Against my black purse you can tell it's blue.

Again, near black, you can tell it's blue.

Next is Tatiana. A pretty orange shimmer in a peach base. So much more than just orange, it has multiple colors of shimmer going on. I love this for Autumn. The formula on this was perfect. Go figure. This is two coats.

You can see the peach undertones in this pic.

Julep Tatiana

See the different shades of orange you get out of this? Love it.

One more thing that came in the box was a sample of their nail polish remover wipes. It was a single wipe in a pack like a wet nap. The wipe itself was really thick, almost like a piece of felt. This held a lot of acetone. If the wipe had been a little bigger I could have done all 10 fingers with one single wipe, and I'm used it to remove Kristy! So, if you're the type who hates to walk around with chipped polish, these will be super convenient.

So, that's it! I really hope Julep improves their consistency. I really like the variety of polish they offer, but it's always hit or miss quality. Have any of you had problems with Julep polish before? What do you think of these colors? Do you think you'd try an oil facial cleanser? Do you think they'll catch on they way bb cream did? I hope so. I'd love to try different ones without blowing my budget.

Well, I hope you all are having a great week. Thanks for reading! ^_^

Just a Couple Manis

Hello, everyone! And welcome to all my new readers. I'm sorry I haven't had anything new up. I was sick last week. I don't have any nail art to show today, but I do have 2 very pretty polishes.

First is China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle topped with KleanColor Aurora.

China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle & KleanColor Aurora

I love KleanColors but I hate the dry time. I really want all the chunky holo polishes they have, but if I'm just going to be annoyed every time I use them, it's not really worth it to me. (-_-)

Next is the gorgeous JulieG Mermaids Tale. This is a teal foil finish in a blue base. This is one of those polishes that you just need in your collection. I was at the gym staring at my nails in between workouts. People probably thought I was a space case. Haha. Oh well!

JulieG Mermaids Tale

JulieG Mermaids Tale

Welp, that's all folks. ^_^ If you haven't already, don't forget to enter my giveaway. I will be adding more polishes from the Leather Luxe collection. So, it will be a little sweeter of a prize. kthanxbai!