Sometimes Yaya

Broadway Nails Change Color

When you get a spare minute or two to wander the aisles of your drugstore (or you do it on purpose on a regular basis – I won’t judge!), you might notice there are some fancy things going on in the health and beauty aisles.

My favorite change has become the new advances of press on/glue on nails. For less than $10 you have an instant manicure, which, even at your clumsiest, will last you at the least two days. I’ve had $20 manis that didn’t make that cut!

The excitement comes from the variety of shapes and sizes in these nails (I never found it necessary to scratch my brain through my ear!), most importantly with much more short length options. The designs are getting funkier, brighter, and more original. The best one yet? Broadway Nails Fashion Diva Color changing! Fun in the sun and all business inside.

Apart from the color and the length, the other difference with these is that the glue that comes with the nails has been changed. The pink glue is formulated to hold the nails longer and with less chances of air bubbles, but that’s not all. The glue no longer comes with different tips where you have to flip the tip back and forth to open the glue. This glue is ready to go as soon as you open it up.

The only problem I have with the glue is that the packaging on it is funky. Once you peel it back, you either have to take it off completely, or deal with a sloppy looking outside. This is a small gripe, but I’m just reporting my findings.

I had a couple of air bubbles, but nothing to complain about. The few that I had were hardly noticeable, unless undergoing rigorous inspection.

I really like that there is a sliver of silver below the french tip, and that the shape is manageable and not obnoxious.

As you start entering sunlight, it progresses to a cute party!

These nails lasted a little over five days on my nails. On the fifth day a couple of nails fell off, but I just put some more glue on and the overall look stayed on for a week.

As far as removal is concerned, I usually just take a long shower with fake nails. When I decide to have press on/glue on nails, I also semi agree to take speedy showers. Too much water ends up soaking the nails and causes them to flip off. These aren’t permanent after all. When I’m ready to take them off I just take that long shower and by the end most of them fly off on their own. DO NOT pull the nails off if you get tired of them. Not a fan of lengthy showers? Cool. Soak ’em. Ripping them off ruins your nails (ever notice how it could peel the whole stinking top layer of the nail off?).

Interested? Take a peek at the website. They are on the up and up with the live swatching of all the designs, including changing your skin tone. The most impressive part? You can enter the measurements of your middle finger (in mm) and they will tell you which products work with your nail size.

Are you up for color experimentation with nails?

Disclaimer: This product was sent to the author for review by the manufacturer/PR. All reviews on MOJ remain unbiased and unpaid. For more info, feel free to contact the author.

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Zoya in a Flash

Summer is nothing without an appropriate amount of bright colors on your toes and fingers. Anyone too afraid to have a neon orange or a bold bright blue should be ashamed! The only times you may hide is on interviews. (Once you’re hired, rock those neons ;)!!)

I was holding out on my Zoya swatches. The flash collection is nothing short of my dream come true.

My favorite part of the packaging

I’m rocking Jancyn on my toes as I type this, and the NOTD shots will be arriving shortly. You should grab up these colors ASAP with the Zoya Nail Polish Exchange campaign. It’s like Back2MAC with nail polishes (*and a $3.50 shipping cost per bottle). Check out the details here. Hurry – it ends on June 30!

Disclaimer: This product was sent to the author for review by the manufacturer/PR. All reviews on MOJ remain unbiased and unpaid. For more info, feel free to contact the author.

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Are you too old for temporary tats?

Recently I volunteered to babysit a tot of a friend. Just as I was asking this young gentleman to do homework, he was busy using water to adhere a temporary tattoo. It took some negotiating, but don’t doubt my parental guardian skills y’all, I still got him to do the work! Soon as he settled down though, I sat by the computer chuckling at the coincidences in life.

Not too long ago, at The Makeup Show New York, I came across a childhood past-time crossing over into the laps of beauty gals. Glitter body art tattoos from Glimmer Body Art.

I admit I was skeptical at first. Really? Temporary tattoos? and glitter? Disaster in the works. Wrong! I was stuck waiting in line watching how these fab tattoos applied.

Check it out:

Caught a glimpse of the temp tattoo on the artist who was doing the demos for people. This is the one that made me go hmmm – this is kinda cute!

How to, a photo journal (I was a fly on the wall as the artist applied a tattoo on a person at the show):

First you stick the stencil on the desired area on your body (ankles, wrists, necks, and forearms were popular choices). I asked if these stencils could be reused and got a doubtful answer. The stencils aren’t that expensive so I’d say you could part with it after one time use.

Apply special glue over stencil. Fill space of tattoo properly so that glitter will stick.

I was surprised I got this shot so well. Here, you remove the stencil – almost like turning a page, just peel. I wanted to highlight the part where the glue is, but my camera did me proud and capture it pretty well. Can you see it?

The artist used a makeup brush to apply glitter and a piece of paper to catch the debris under the area of application. This is also a genius idea to waste less glitter, as you can just reuse the fallout.

Just brush color on with reckless abandon.

Cover all parts of glue that you want with each color. In this instance, the person getting the tattoo requested two colors.

Apply second color where you want.

Blend glitter around so that the two colors blend in between well and maybe even mix.

Brush all excess glitter off. Voila!

The stencils range from $.50 to $2 each. Not at all cheesy and not expensive either.

The artist told me that these can last several days and up to a week, depending on where it is and how it’s used. For example, I can imagine that if you wax your legs and do a body scrub, your ankle glitter tattoo won’t last too long. Otherwise they’re a great hint of unexpected sass.

I was won over with these bad boys. How about you?

If you do parties or large events, you may want to consider getting the pro kit. Just for yourself? They got small sets, and themed sets. Check out the website here.

Would you try a Glitter Tattoo?

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Stila Smudge Pots

I’ve confessed sins of being away from the blogging and internet world for a bit, but you will finally understand that the beauty side suffered too.

I had a holiday four pack of Stila smudge pots just waiting eagerly to be swatched and used for months, and it took the summer for me to crack open the packaging.

As you may have read previously, both the company and the smudge pots themselves are in the top ranks of my makeup standings. If this was the World Cup of Cosmetics, they wouldn’t need a qualifying round. Click here to check out my tutorial with another smudge pot.

See the snow designs on the packaging? Yeah, I def got this in the winter!

Colors left to right, kitten, starry night, violet, black.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=myowju-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B002Q50V42&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrI don’t really know why the swatch picture came out so funky. I will be trying a look with these pots soon. I’m liking the colors. They’re highly pigmented and super creamy. I like that they had three dark shades and one that could be used as a daytime shade or a highlighter. That, or you can use it as a base to mix and blend the other colors. Anyone feeling like a Stila scientist?

You can buy this collection for $32 on Amazon or the Stila site, or you can buy the full size ones individually by color on the Sephora site.

Have you tried these bad boys? Let me know!

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Dashing Diva NOTD

I’m back on the NOTD grind! What better way to get the ball rolling than with trying new brands for MOJ?

I added some Dashing Diva polishes to my collection recently, and have been itching to show you guys.

The inaugural Dashing Diva mani comes fresh on the tails of trend reports that a light gray is the new cool color of the hot summer upon us.

Taking stock of the inventory in my closet I realized that I tend to purchase light grays at all times, so I suppose the reports are correct. Is your summer wardrobe gray friendly?

The color Milk Mauve is pretty true to color from the bottle. It’s a subtle gray/blue/white mix. The left image is with flash and the right is without. The left is what the color looks like in sunlight and the right is how it looks when it gets darker.

It’s really creamy and wears well. I liked that it didn’t go on super thick and didn’t chip for the first week (I try to change up my polish every week anyway, so it got the job done!).

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Underarm Common Scents

Recently, I woke up to a small lump under my arm. I knew it was an inflamed lymph node, because that’s usually what happens when I get a bad cold. But I wasn’t sick! I was horrified. I was already thinking a million things that could possibly be wrong. Set up a doctor’s appointment pronto and started researching my deodorants. My mother scolded my bad habit of not washing off my deodorants before sleep and my thoughts were racing.

Fast forward to the doctor looking at me like a loon and telling me it was nothing, and just another way of my body getting ready for the monthly gift. Whew! (Sorry for all the extra information y’all!). But I was still stuck on researching my deodorants.

I’ve read often about the antiperspirants that have aluminum contents and whether or not they lead to illnesses and cancer. The information out there has no final answer on the topic, so it’s not necessarily black and white. (Check out cancer.gov FAQ page on the topic here). Considering the information and my nasty habit of not washing off the deodorant at night, I figured I’d be better off finding something that tackles odor and lets my sweat be. If you must know, I sweat a lot under any inkling of heat as is, so having dry pits wouldn’t help the rest of me much.

During my search in drugstores, I couldn’t find too many deodorants that weren’t doubling down with antiperspirant duties. The few that I found were for men and weren’t available in an unscented version. So I hit the net and found a surprisingly large selection with decent prices. Here are a few:

http://widget.shopstyle.com/widget?pid=uid4724-679582-0&look=1880493&width=4&height=2&layouttype=0&border=0&footer=0

More Aquolina…

What do you use to beat the funk and stay fresh?

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Victoria’s Secret Lipsticks: Good for the Soul

Don’t give me that side eye. I’m back. Life kicked my butt, and I have finally gotten ahead of the rat race to kick it right back into gear. Thanks for being so patient with me all!

I have so many products waiting for me to give them a chance to brighten my day and I wanted to get the ball rolling with Victoria’s Secret lipsticks. You can’t sleep on these babies!

Following an event too many days ago, I remember asking a pretty gal what was on her lips. I thought she had Schiap from NARS but she sure as heck did not. She said the name of the brand and I could swear that was the secret Victoria had been hiding. The shades and the cream consistency of these lipsticks is a bit awe inspiring.

I got the lipsticks in Showstopper (left) and Vino (right) (check out the selection here). They go on like butter. REALLY.

I can’t wait to get more colors. The colors look the same on the lips as on my hand. I will have more pics soon of how it looks on me.

Have you tried any of these lipsticks? Love it? Hate it? Let me know!

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Nail Biting Taxes

I was checking my e-mail inbox and found a pretty interesting one. The nail biting habit seems to be on the rise in conjunction with the wonderful deadline ahead. Taxes!

Image Credit: Deviant Art User StealthScope

April 15 is biting at our heels. I usually leave my taxes undone until the beginning of April starts the clock in my head. It’s almost like an action film where I have to hurry and detonate the bomb before it hits zero.

I got mine done. Remember if you still need to do your taxes, if an extension is needed, you’d be better off with an extension rather than a penalty! That’s a lot of lipglosses and shoes you wouldn’t be able to buy.

The question is though, do deadlines make your teeth chatter? Do you bite your nails in accordance with countdowns and D-Days? Fess up!

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Spring Flings

Ello! Miss me much?

I am happy to say that I am feeling way better than I was the last time I was posting something on MOJ. I spent the last week downing bottle after bottle of Gatorade and was only too excited to get to eat flavorless crackers yesterday and honey wheat crackers today. I also ate a sandwich and kept it down today. Amazing right?! I’ll spare you the gory details, but know that I am on the track to great health again. No idea what threw me off, but the upheavals surely put enough fear in my heart to look at all food with a side eye.

As I try to get back on schedule with everything, I thought the looming presence of spring was a great return topic. The weather in NY right now is pretty chilly, but nothing like when I was complaining about the snow harassing my hair and garments. The chill is around 60 degrees, which honestly, to me is almost perfect. Seventy degree weather with a breeze is my ideal weather channel (imagine if you had a remote and switched it up?!) so the fact that we aren’t too far has me itching to try out some of the clothes I haven’t paid much mind to, and get some new additions.

The weather specific trends have gone out the window, so anything goes. Cardigans and camisoles are ruling the closets without a duel in sight.The only thing I have to admit to passing judgement on is people going to double extremes. Boots with mini skirts or shorts are not cute. Are you warm up top and cold below?

Some items I am keeping an eye on (in several online shopping carts…) are totes with bows, flats with cute details, such as fun embellishments, cutouts, and embroidery/pattern (I’m a sucker for lace and bows in moderation). After witnessing some cute pearl accessories during fashion week, I am on the hunt for the perfect metal/gentle combination of pearl and metal chain for earrings. And of course, the bow tote. I have a thing for bows that I cannot explain. Perhaps it’s because they’re cute, or maybe because they’re “girly,” either way, look around my house and a quarter will show up with a bow at one end or other.

http://widget.shopstyle.com/widget?pid=uid4724-679582-60&look=1718485&width=4&height=2&layouttype=0&border=0&footer=0

More Ciao Bella…

How have you been? Have any spring flings?

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Cleanup on Aisle 4

Image Credit: DeviantArt user djmastawes

Cleanup on aisle four! You hear that in tv shows about accidents that happen in stores and such, but I have never been privy to such an experience. I have however, spent the last day walking around with a bucket by my side as my best friend and drinking only liquid in hopes of being able to keep it down.

I don’t know if it was food, germs, or everything under some magical stomach flu umbrella, but something’s got me, and it’s got me good. So until I’m less dizzy and can eat a cracker or two, there will be limited yaya presence on the net. Sorry for the invonvenience!

Check out the older posts and drop me notes about which are your faves!
(p.s. People who rightfully deserve packages that they have yet to receive will be getting them before the end of the month.)

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