Recently Zovesta, from Glamour Vortex, held a giveaway in celebration and thanks for reaching 100 followers. I couldn’t be more pleased that her blog continues to gain in popularity because everyone should really be subscribed to her. Without a doubt, Glamour Vortex is the most original beauty blog that I follow (and that is saying something because there are a LOT of beauty blogs out there). Just to provide a small sample of how cool her posts are, she’s written an entire post as a poem, a post questioning what a cartoon girl might have in her makeup bag, she has swatched her whole lipstick collection and she frequently peppers her posts with fantastic history tidbits. I’m always happy to see a new post from her and I’m beyond pleased to have her as a friend. Basically she’s the bomb diggity and you should get yourself over to her site stat!

Right, so, Zovesta held a giveaway and I won the runner up (runner’s up? English is hard.) prize! I never win things! Needless to say, I was a excited. There were two options to pick for the prize and I opted for the option wherein Zovesta picked a random smattering of goodies. I definitely made the right choice. Zovesta put a good deal of thought into what she picked and I couldn’t possibly have picked things that I would love more. So, now that I’ve rambled just a little, let’s look at what she sent!

I’m going to start with my favorite thing first:

I just can’t even with that made up gym bag! In that post I mentioned where Zovesta was pondering the contents of cartoon girls, she asked what her readers would be like as cartoons. Basically she totally nailed my cartoon gal preferences.

Obviously this card is living on my fridge for the rest of it’s life.

Now on to the two products that I didn’t get a chance to try out this morning when I was getting ready for work:

Essence The Gel Nail Polish in Amazed By You

I have an extensive nail polish collection but I have very few purples. I’m stoked to try this one out! I also don’t have access to Essence so I’m super pleased to have something I would never get to try otherwise.

Colour Pop Lippie Stix in Wet:

I have to admit that I’ve been completely skeptical about Colour Pop. I’m not exactly sure why but I’ve been really resistant to trying anything from the brand. HOWEVER, the first thing I saw that made me really consider placing an order with them was the Lippie Stix (Stick?!) in Wet. It’s just so cool! Somehow Zovesta knew this and sent it to me! She might be a wizard.

The lip swatch is at full opacity (and I don’t have a full face photo for comparison because I did the swatch right after getting home from the gym and nobody wants to see that. Just trust me.) but I think this will actually be really pretty and surprisingly wearable with a single coat application. I’m excited to try it out for sure!

Everything else I managed to get on my face this morning so there will be an “in action” photo at the end of the post.

Colour Pop Super Shock Eyeshadow in Nillionaire:

Nillionaire is described as “warm bronze with tons of gold and multi coloured glitter in a Metallic finish”. Basically that’s exactly correct. I notice mostly pink glitter but there are other colors there as well. I just dabbed this in the center of my lid today and it looked stunning.

DUDE! Do you see that swatch?! Is this not the best orange ever?! Zovesta has an orange lipstick fascination and I (as you might possibly have noticed) have an orange eyeshadow obsession fascination. We’re starting a club. Our motto will be “Together we can be overbearingly orange” (Zovesta came up with that. I considered taking credit but grudgingly decided against it) You can apply to join us in the comments.

Seriously though, I have heard some complaints about Colour Pop and the necessity for any and all application to be done with a finger if you want to achieve any level of opacity. But this morning I applied this in my crease with a fluffy brush and actually had to blend for a while to tone it down a little. And guess what else? It blended so freaking easily. It was delightful. I may very well be a Colour Pop convert.

Up until yesterday I was still mystified as to what exactly the Colour Pop eyeshadows are. Are they cream? A mousse (Is it just me or does any one else struggle with the mouse moose mousse business?)? A pressed pigment? I’ve heard them described as all three things! These are definitely a cream product. They have moisture to them, and they might be a little mousy mousse-like but they’re not powder. They do dry down to a powder finish though. MYSTERY SOLVED.

Colour Pop Highlighter in Monster:

I love highlighters. I particularly love cream highlighters. This one is lovely. It’s opalescent and divine and I love it!

Described on the website as: “(Monster) The cute – light pink with highly opalescent duo chrome finish – version”

Wet n’ Wild Silk Finish Lipstick in Dark Wine:

Zovesta has a great fondness for the Wet n’ Wild Silk Finish lipstick line but I myself haven’t really delved into it too deeply. Silly me though because this sucker is freaking beautiful! It doesn’t have a scent, has very good pigmentation and is completely comfortable on the lips. I can’t speak to wear time but the application was really nice.

benefit Roller Lash Mascara

I have a deep aversion to curling my lashes (seriously, you folks that do this on a regular basis deserve some sort of award because it’s terrifying and awful and you are very brave) so Zovesta thought I might like this particular mascara that claims to eliminate the need for an eyelash curler. I do like it! I mean I’ve only worn it once, but it’s a really nice mascara. I have no idea if it curls my lashes or not but it did make them look good.

This morning I was basically like a kid on Christmas who has too many new toys and can’t decide what to play with first. So I wore as many of the products in my mystery box as I possibly could and I actually really liked the overall look (I did end up changing lipstick when I arrived at the office because I felt like the “happening” eye and bold lip together was maybe a little bit much for work).

On my face:

Garnier Skin Renew Anti-Dark-Circle-Roller, Diorskin Nude Natural Glow Powder (discontinued I think), Camp Cosmetics Monogamy as a contour, Camp Cosmetics blush in Glampuss.

I applied Colour Pop Girl Power lightly in the outer corner and throughout the crease as a blending/transition/definition shade. I patted Nillionaire in the center of my lid with my finger.

I used Urban Decay Zero to tightline and Urban Decay Deep End in the waterline. Wet n’ Wild Brulee was used as a brow bone highlight/blending shade. Everything else is from the Sephora Pantone Universe Marsala palette:

Hot Chocolate: In the “deepest” part of my outer corner

Russet: outer 1/4 of my mobile lid

Carob Brown: the remainder of my mobile lid

Desert Mist: inner corner

Macaroon: to blend out the lower lash line

From the inner corner to the outer corner of the lower lash line: Kelp, Moonlight Blue, Castor Gray.

Red Mahoganny: liner on the upper lash line

Congratulation Zovesta on reaching 100 followers! I’m sure by this point you have many more than that 🙂 And thank you for your generosity. You have exquisite taste my friend 🙂

Tidbits:

• I normally drink a glass of wine or bottle of beer with dinner but I’ve decided to get serious about losing the weight I gained when I quit smoking so I’ve given up drinking during the week. (Holy run on sentences batman) I just had my first glass of wine in seven days and I’m feeling a little tipsy. I’m blaming all typos and weird grammar on the Pinot Grigio.
• Today was leg day and I was feeling like a complete badass so I really pushed myself during my workout. I’m now thinking of installing railing by my toilet.
• In addition to Zovesta’s giveaway goodies, I also received my Aromaleigh order (the Fatalis collection samples)(Early! I didn’t expect it to ship until after the first of October) AND my ILNP order yesterday! It was the best mail day in the history of ever.
• I’m officially on a no buy for the rest of the year because we’re planning a vacation and I want all extra dollars to go towards travel.