I Love NYC's Park Avenue!

I have a confession to make...    my favorite city in the whole wide world, hands down, is New York City. This is where eclectic diversity and passion for life and art and history can be found. The buildings you will see there are full of the past and have amazing stories to tell. They are massive and ornate, the kind of architechure and detail that we do not see being created in our modern day. Because I love NYC so very much (I have been there twice, but it's still not enough!) I am a sucker for buying anything that proclaims a love for this famous city, it brings back memories and is so very nostalgic...


Well, everybody knows the brand from the drugstore called NYC...Well, it is not my favorite brand out there, I will confess. I think their blushes and lipsticks are decent but that is about it.When it comes to nail polish, I can be very picky about the brand because I want affordable polish that will last and not chip the same day I apply it. So, when Rite Aid had a 40% off NYC sale, I thought that I would try out one of their polishes to see if it was any good. 

I believe this polish is less that $2.00 at your local drugstore.
But prices do vary and look for a good deal!

This is from their In A New York Minute Quick Dry formula in the shade, "Park Avenue". This is a gorgeous taupe-grey color and the shade in the bottle is what you get on your nails. As for the drying time, it does dry quickly and is opaque with two coats. Now, this polish does chip easily, which is a huge bummer. The day after I had polished my nails is when I noticed it was not holding up well. But, I applied a top coat on the nail polish for protection the second time I used this polish, and I found that it did extend the life of the wear by a few days.


Overall, for a drugstore nail polish, it is not as bad as I thought. I have seen worse nail polishes from certain drugstore brands that chip fiercely (Wet 'n' Wild) and others that nicely last for days (Sally Hansen). Will I repurchase this brand of nail polish? Now that I know how to work with it, I will definitely be trying out another bottle to truly see if this could be a new favorite drugstore brand!

Your Perfect Red Lips!

I have a confession to make...    a confession of the retro glamorous kind. Really, is there any confession more seductive? Who doesn't get tingles of nostalgia when they think of the 1930's and 1940's when red lips became fashionable, everyone who was hip enough wore this on their lips, preferably in matte.


Well, I am here to let you all know that I am embracing my red lip for here on out! There is no reason to be shy wearing this bright color on your lip because there are various shades of red out there to flatter every skin tone you can imagine. And, they not only come in matte, but many different finishes. Let me take a moment to share a few reds from my collection that I personally enjoy wearing.


Lets start off with Revlon, my all time favorite drugstore lipsticks. This past weekend I bought this gorgeous shade from their Super Lustrous line called, "Certainly Red". As this is a creme finish, it saturates the lips so well as it applies smoothly and creamy.

Revlon's "Certainly Red"

This red is more of a deep berry red, not bright. It looks like a true blood red in the tube, but once applied to the lips and swatched on the skin, it shows it's true berry red color, almost a deep magenta. This color would look pretty on every skin tone, in my opinion and is definitely for the glamorous night out.


The next red that I am loving is by Avon and it is from their Glazewear line called, "Rosebud". Avon says that this is a liquid lip color and I can stand up for that and agree, because while this is a lipgloss, it almost is like a liquid lipstick. The color is very well pigmented and feels lightweight on the lip, not sticky at all.

Avon Glazewear in "Rosebud"

This red leans more brown than berry so it can be worn during the day since it is not overwhelmingly bright and 'in-your-face'. There is a classy vibe to this lippie, in my humble opinion. Even though it leans on the red-brown side of the spectrum, almost copper, I find even people with light skin tones could get away with wearing this one. 


Then there is the oh-so- famous Revon Lip Butters that are flying high at this moment in history. I was not overly thrilled with these lip butters since they slide all over, but I will say that Revlon did come up with an amazing red called, "Candy Apple". This is not a lipstick, nor a gloss, but somewhere in the middle of the two. These are not at all long lasting, but more for a quick shine of color to the lips. And, yes, they are pigmented!

Revlon Lip Butter in, "Candy Apple"

This is an orange-red lip color that would definitely flatter light skin ones, but in my opinion, this orange-red color looks a little too brassy for me as I have yellow undertones to my skin. I do wear this occasionally, but I blot the color after application to mute it out somewhat. Still, it is an easy wearable color for most.


The last lip color I have to share with you is from everyone's favorite brand, on some level, Wet 'n' Wild! Wow, have they stepped it up lately, right? And, I happen to adore their lipsticks and even have a full blog review on the ones I do have, so check it out! But, "Just Garnet" (number 552A) is a deep berry wine color. The texture of this lipstick is creamy and smooth, on par with the feel of the Revlon Super Lustrous Lipsticks. Yes, the packaging is tacky and cheap, but the product makes up for it completely!

Wet 'n' Wild "Just Garnet"

This pretty lip color would be amazing on everybody's skin tone, even the fair skinned girl's out there. It is bright, but if you wear this out at night for a special occasion, no one would look twice; well, yes they would, it is so gorgeous! And, even if you do wear it out during the day, I applaud you, because I would do the same!

Left to Right: Revlon, "Certainly Red"; Avon, "Rosebud";
Revlon Lip Butter, "Candy Apple" and Wet 'n' Wild, "Just Garnet"

Glamour and Glitz, this is one sure way to add retro-glam to your look. So, think of the beautiful stars of the 1940's and how they made the red lip what it is today: Glamourous!

Scented Nail Polish? What Will They Come Up With Next?

I have a confession to make...    I was lured into buying Revlon's scented nail polish in Ocean Breeze, a beautiful dark blue-green color. The deep blue-green color is complimented by a grey, almost but not quite, black, giving it that subtle duo-chrome. When I laid my eyes on this color, I knew that this was right up my alley!

It took two coats to reach the opacity that I wanted, giving me the exact color shade that was in the bottle, which I loved! 
Now, it says that when the polish is dry is when you will be able to smell the perfume in the nail polish. First off, let me tell you just how unnecessary it is for nails to have their own scent. I thought that this concept was a little gimmicky, but I really wanted the color and thought that it would be neat to test this product out and see if it really does give off a pleasant odor. 
Now, I wish that somewhere on the bottle it would tell us what the scent is supposed to smell like, but since it does not, I was more or less expecting the smell to coincide with the name of the polish, "Ocean Breeze". 
But, I what I was smelling was nothing that reminded me off the ocean. When I think of the ocean I think of how the air is salty and there is always that subtle fishy smell in the air; at least where I live, because it is cold on the coast since I don't live near the sunny beaches of California! So, my interpretation of the Ocean is not what I want to smell on my finger tips all day.
The smell was unidentifiable, but it did come off almost like a cool scent, mixed in with a faint smell of paint. Nothing like an Ocean Breeze. I personally was not fond of the scent, but it did fade as the day wore on leaving just a trace of the smell.
One other thing that I was not too keen on, and I have had trouble with Revlon nail polish doing this to me occasionally, is that it bubbled on my nails after drying. I promise that I do not shake the bottle to mix the polish before applying it; instead I turn in upside down and roll it between my hands to avoid the bubbles. 
What am I doing wrong!?!?
Another word of caution: This polish did not last long on my nails before chipping and I even used a top coat. By the end of the day I noticed chipping and I could stand to wear this polish for two days before the chipping was overwhelming and painful to look at.
Would I re-purchase a scented nail polish again? I would give it another try, but not for the scent. If I found a color I loved and it happened to be scented, yes I would buy it. Truthfully, I just think that this is just another way to get people to buy their products, in a way, revamping them selves and trying to make them stand out as a little bit different than other polishes. 
But, scented nail polish, really?