NYX haul & swatches.

Hey everyone! So I ordered a bunch of stuff off of the NYX website while they were having their Thanksgiving/black Friday 50% off sale. I had not had any of the single eyeshadows from them and I REALLY wanted to try them so I thought what better opportunity right?! I ordered about $100 worth of stuff and paid roughly $56 for everything counting shipping. So here are the swatches and the pictures explain what I got. Enjoy! :]]

 NYX Blushes in Spiced & peach.
NYX Round lipstick in Frosted Beige 

NYX concealer in a jar. 

xoxo -- niki

A very merry Christmas.

Well, Merry Christmas everyone! Today was a very good Christmas for me. I hope that everyone had a safe and wonderful day blessed with wonderful family, gifts, food, and memories to last a lifetime! There are nothing like good Christmas memories to look back at and put a smile on your face at any given time and point of the day throughout the next year!

My day was spent mainly at my boyfriend's house. We woke up at around 7:30 to open presants and eat lovely livermush, egg, and cheese casserole. MMMM! It was delicious! We all opened our presants, smiled and laughed as the morning went on. I got some pretty sweet stuff & so did everyone else. We went to his grandmas house afterword and just spent some time up there then walked back across the road to his house & cleaned up the living room that was full of torn wrapping paper and gift bags and just watched Christmas movies while the smell of good home Christmas cooking was in the air. Yummy! Of course, I had to get ready to go into work before I could eat. I only had to work a few hours though. I went to work and came home to my house and ate Christmas dinner here. I also opened gifts from my parents.

The best part about today that I will remember for a long time is that it snowed today. This is the first white Christmas here that we have had as far back as I can remember and I am 21 years old. It is nice to have the feeling of being able to have your first white Christmas. To me, that is something that you will remember for the rest of your life and it happened today for me. It is supposed to snow even more tonight so I hope to wake up looking out of my bedroom window and seeing the hills and roads covered with twinkling snow. I live on a hill where I can see out over the creek near my house which is beautiful when covered in snow, the roads, above the trees, and other houses. It is really a really breath taking view when it snows. I will have to snap some pictures tomorrow and post them here for you guys to see! :)

Now, I am sitting here all cuddled up in my snuggie with the heat on blast, the smell of creamy nutmeg in the air, and writing this blog post. I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and if I don't post something before new years have a happy and safe new years! Enjoy the holidays with loved ones and cherish every moment. :) <3

xoxo -- niki

NYX haul & swatches.

Hello loverlies! :] I ordered a bunch of NYX products when they were having their thanksgiving 50% off sale & I recieved them by UPS yesterday evening! I was so excited to get this package, because I did not own any NYX eyeshadows except for their duo chrome loose pigments and I wanted to try some of their singles. Here is a photo of everything I got

I got:
NYX single eyeshadows:
Iced moach
Golden dune
Golden amber
Sensual
Green tea
Smokie mountain
Exotic green
Navy blue

NYX loose pearl eyeshadows:
Mink pearl
Yellow gold pearl
Oro pearl
Penny pearl
Mocha pearl
Walnut pearl

NYX Blushes:
Peach
Spice

NYX lipstick in Frosted Beige
NYX concealer in a jar
NYX runway collection 10 color palette in Casting Call

So far, I am happy with every item I bought. Everything is very pigmented and very pretty. I can't wait to create so many looks with these items. :]]

xoxo -- niki

elf brush review.

Hello beautiess! :]] First off I wanna say hello to all of my new followers and all of the sweet comments you guys have left me. :] When I first made this blog I figured no one would probably see it. I'm glad that I'm helping someone and that I am being helpful to everyone who reads this blog! :]

This review was actually requested by one of my followers and I thought it would be an awesome review to do sense so many people love and purchase makeup from this brand! Elf brushes are a good cheap alternative to any other more expensive brush companies. Granted I do not own any MAC or any other designer brand brushes, but I do know that these are awesome quality brushes.

These are the three brushes that I own. There are three different lines of brushes from Elf. There is the essential line, studio line, and the mineral line. I own the studio powder brush, and the essential blending brush and lip brush. These brushes have never shed, even when I washed them. The powder brush is really good for applying the powder deep into your skin so that it doesn't just slide off of your face at the end of the day. I also tried using this to buff in my foundation at one point. It worked okay, but it doesn't work as good as a synthetic brush would. The eye blending brush is a very good crease brush if your looking for an everyday crease brush. This would not be ideal for cutting your crease or if you are wanting a more defined crease. It does define your crease, but to get a more cut crease you would need a smaller crease brush. Wow I think that I used the word [crease] in that paragraph wayyyy to many times! lol! The lip brush, I don't use very much. It seems to be a good lip brush from what I can tell and from how many times I have used it. These brushes really are soft and are not harsh on your skin. They did not irritate my skin when I pressed them against it.

I forgot a brush! I also own the bronzing brush by the essentials line.

Sorry for the orange picture. I took this one in a hurry. This one is not ideal for bronzing to me. This would be a better highlighting brush for me. This is really good for highlighting my cheek bones. The bristles look a little sparse and to be honest it looks very peuny compared to most angled brushes, but like I said it is small enough to be a good cheek highlighting brush. The bristles are not scratchy at all, they are nice and soft. This could also pass for maybe a very small blush brush.

The elf brushes that have the white handle are all $1 which is amazing for the quality of these brushes. I think some of the names can be deceiving, like the bronzing brush for example. I know the eye brushes are of very good quality for the $1 line, but if I was going to buy face brushes from elf I would spend two extra dollars and go for the studio line brushes which are the $3 brushes with the black handles. I know the studio brushes are great. I have yet to try the mineral  brushes which are the ones with the wooden look to them and they cost $5. I plan on trying some soon! 

xoxo -- niki

Great beauty finds going on right now!

Hello lovelies! :]] I just wanted to make this blog post to let you guys in on some great beauty finds right now! :] I have been noticing that as it gets closer to Christmas there are more and more sales going on which [thankfully] includes beauty products!

The first one that I am VERYY excited for is the e.l.f sale. E.l.f is having 50% off of all their studio line products right now! I LOVEE elf products because most of their products are good and they are cheap cheap cheap! :] I am fixing to go make me a cart right now after I get done with this post. There are also some amazing gift sets with great products in them being sold at e.l.f right now. Go grab them up before they get gone!

 Rite aid is having buy one get one free on their tresseme products and sally hansen products. Their also having buy one get one 50% off on all mascaras, nail polishes, and wet n wild cosmetics. Walgreens is having buy one get one 50% off on L'oreal and neutrogena products. The falsies mascara by maybelline is 40% off!! At CVS all revlon cosmetics are buy one get one 50% off.

Sephora has two of their NARS duos on sale for only $10! That is a crazy deal! Bare Essentuals products are 20% off. Almost all of the Sephora brand body washes and lotions are down to crazy low prices. They have Kat Von D lipgloss on sale for $8! You can get the makeup forever beauty tricks and treats set for FREE! just add it to your cart! :] Kat Von D eyeliner on sale for $8. Sephora brans eyeshadow quads for $6 to $12! Sephora nail polish for $3. Sephora lipglosses are $4 to $7! I mean just go look for yourself. You can get some good deals there right now! :]

I mean these are just a few beauty deals going on right now! You guys need to go check out these sites! :]


xoxo -- niki

Revlon Super Lustrous Lip gloss in Lilac Pastelle.

This post is going to be about a lip gloss that I recently purchased after hearing everyone elses opinions on them and seeing all of the beautiful colors they had to offer. I decided to just try one first and see how I like it and if I wanted another one or the rest I would get them. Here are some pics of the gloss in the tube.

First of all lets talk about the packaging. The packaging is sleek and really nice looking. It doesn't look cheap at all. It looks like a high quality lipgloss. The lilac color is just beautiful. I decided on this color because I don't have any purple toned lip glosses. I figured that this one would be a nice one to start out with. :] I was right! Here is a swatch of the gloss.

It is absolutly gorgeous. Of course it is not this opaque when it is swiped across your lips, but it does give your lips a nice milky lilac glow. It makes them look flawless. This gloss is far from sticky and glides on smooth. I wish I would have taken a lip shot for you all so you could see what I'm talking about, but I'm sure you can google it and get a better one than what I can show you.

All in all this lip gloss is worth the $6 I spent on it. I will be purchasing more of these and will keep you guys up to date on which ones I get. :]

xoxo
-- Niki

Everyday Hair Routine.

This is going to be a small blog post on my everyday hair routine. So I do have color treated hair. I used to have highlights but I recently just died my hair a chesnut brown/redish color. My highlights still show through some which gives it a cool effect that I like. :] For shampoo I use the Garnier Fructis color shield shampoo and finish off with the sleek and shine conditioner also made by Garnier Fructis to give my hair some shine and body. Once a week I will use the Clay Pac by Alto Bella violet moisturizer with haircolor enhancers to give moisture to my hair and enhance my color some. :]

This is all the products I use. Now I don't put all of these products in my hair every single day. I do use some of them some of the time for an extra boost. First what I do is I will take my wet hair and run the wide toothed comb pictured above through it to get all of the tangles out. If you use a brush it can pull your hair out and cause it to break off more. After I do that I take a small dime size amount of my Paul Mitchell super skinny shine serum [$16-$20 at select salons] and run it through my hair evenly. After I do that, I take my Beyond the zone kill the kink straightening balm [$4-$6 at Sally's Beauty Supply stores] and run a nickle size amount through my hair evenly working from tip to root. The last step I do every single day no matter what is spray my tresseme heat protectant[$3-$5 at drugstores] all throughout my hair before I blow dry. If I need a little extra volume that day I will add my Advance Techniques volumizing mousse [$4-$6 from an Avon rep.] just at my roots. The mousse lifts up the root which adds volume to the hair. If I am having a frizzy day I will spray my John Frieda frizz ease in my hair to calm the frizz. If I am having some tangles or my hair feels very dry or brittle that day I will spray my aussie leave in conditioner [about $4 at drugstores] to soften it up.

After I do all of that I will blowdry my hair using my round brush pulling the hair gently from root to tip. After the hair is all dry I will spray another coat of heat protectant in it and straighten my hair using my Remmington flat iron. This flat iron is like my baby. It is better than the babyliss flat iron I bought which is sitting in my drawer and retails for almost $100. This only cost me $40 at walmart or target. It's great. :] The best part about it is that I have had this one for about 2 and a half years now and it has not lost any heat or broken on me.  After I straighten my hair I will spray a little tressme tres two hairspray [$4-$6 at drugstores] and style it how I want it using clips, bobby pins, etc .. and Vola! My hair is done. :]

Hope this was helpful to you in getting a hair routine going for you if your looking for one or if your just looking for some new products to try. All of the products mentioned are great and are fairly inexpensive.

Hope you enjoyed! :]
xoxo
-- Niki