June Favorites!

June has come and gone (hello [and holy crap!] July!!) so of course it's time for my monthly roundup of best and worsts! If you haven't seen it already, I've got it embedded and linked above for your (hopefully) viewing pleasure.

As always, I hope you enjoy ^__^

xoxo - Cassie

NOTD: essie "sunday funday"

This is big news people.

REALLY big news. 

Do you think you can handle it? 

Are you sure?

You're really sure?

Pinky promise (you hate me, don't you)?

Well, here it is: I like an essie polish.

Heck, I LOVE this essie nail polish. "Sunday Funday" is coral perfection in a bottle; everyone needs this in their lives.

My usual hangup with essie has nothing to do with the colors; I think many can agree with me that essie has one of the best color selections around in terms of nail polish. "Sunday Funday" absolutely stuns in the color department, that was no surprise. It's a straight up coral, plain and simple; doesn't lean on the orange side nor the pink side and shifts from warm to cool toned depending on the light.

The short and sweet version: this color will look gorgeous on anyone's nails.

Color drooling aside (let me wipe that up real quick for you), my real hangup with essie polishes is the formula. From my experience they tend to be sheer (needing 3+ coats [which is ridiculous]), bubble easily because of the required layering, and are extremely watery (making your cuticles look a flooded mess). 

"Sunday Funday" is a beautiful exception in essie's line of polishes; it is opaque in one coat (I did two coats because I'm anal and absurd), thick (almost a gel-like consistency), and supremely smooth. I have absolutely no complaints here and hope that essie takes note!! THIS is how an eight dollar nail polish should look and feel.

Isn't that a gorgeous polish? 

The shimmer laced throughout is extremely fine and catches the light beautifully. Plus, like said, the color itself is just gorgeous. You can see in the photos that in direct sunlight it takes on a bit of a peachy-tangerine color while in the shade it looks nearly identical to the Revlon lipstick "Strawberry Suede" (sadly discontinued; may it rest in peace). I can't recommend this polish enough and think I need to go out and buy about 1,000 bottles so I'll never run out (so get your hands on it before I do!! You've been warned...).

Oh, and by the way, the polish and top coat on my index finger is Revlon's Moon Candy in the shade "Satellite". Umm... let me just say it's nothing special and I can't really recommend those things.

Stick to "Sunday Funday".

Have you tried any polishes from essie's Summer 2013 Naughty Nautical collection?

Love 'em? Hate 'em?

What's your favorite nail polish at the moment?

Do share!!

xoxo - Cassie

P.S.: We'll see for certain but rumor has it that Google Reader (and thus GFC) will be closing in just a few days! If you want to keep up to date with my posts you can follow me on Bloglovin' by clicking HERE OR by importing all of the blogs you currently follow HERE! :)

Large (Would You Like To Super-Size That?; Indeed) Haul!!!

Quick little hi-dee-ho to you all; just popping in to say I just uploaded a suuuuuuper big haul to my YouTube channel!!

Check it out if you'd like ^__^

xoxo - Cassie

theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer: Swatches + Review!

I know why bears hibernate during the winter (#biology). 

I understand why bears hibernate during the winter (#biology).

What I don't get is how life doesn't go into a world-wide communal hibernation during the Summer (#Cassie-ology); I am melting in this hot, steamy, unbearable (see what I did there?) heat that has recently consumed much of the United States.

So why am I reviewing a highlighter, you may ask? 

Shouldn't my sweat be providing enough of a 'glow' in the sauna that is the great outdoors?

Well... technically yes, but theBalm's Mary-Lou Manizer does so much more than make you glow. Take the jump below if you want to see why this little highlighter has been branded as infamous for being too darn beautiful!

"Best In Beauty" Competition; I'd Love Your Support!!

Remember that post I did not too long ago mentioning that I was going to be in a YouTube competition? Well, the time has come... this week is my week (well, my week of being entered into the competition)!!

Above I've got my video (which is a normal video of mine, don't you worry; sit back and enjoy if you'd like!) for the "Best In Beauty" competition. All I need from you is your support!! If you liked my video (not by physically pushing the 'like' button [though I'd be flattered if you did] but by having emotionally enjoyed what you saw) then I would be ever so grateful and humbled if you headed on over to Jen's (the headmistress of the competition: jenluvsreviews) channel and voted for me on her video below:

You can also vote for two of the other girls so you don't need to feel pressured solely by me :) 

Just comment on Jen's video above with any three of the contestant's names (I'd be honored if mine was one of them) and that's it! No commitments, no ball and chain, just a little bit of fun that some of 'underdog' beauty channels are doing on YouTube right now and something you can have fun with by joining in and getting involved with everyone's channels!

As always I hope you enjoy my video and you can expect a blog post (hint hint: theBalm is involved so you know I'm kind of sort of smitten) within the next day or two!

xoxo - Cassie

Making Revlon Colorstay Work: Neutrogena Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer

If you've been following my blog or YouTube channel for even the smallest amount of time, you're probably well aware that I've been trudging through my Revlon Colorstay foundation since January and hating every minute of it. It's comparable to sitting in a waiting room with no one but the creep farting in the corner; you know they're there, you can smell the farts, and you know it's not going to get better until they leave (but even then the painful smells/memories will linger).

So I've gotten creative the last few weeks — my friend Torey suggested (besides throwing the d*** thing away, but I'm too stubborn) cutting my Colorstay with a tinted moisturizer to make it a bit more tolerable. 

HALLELUJAH, this is like spraying the metaphorical air freshener in the waiting room; the spray may only cover the problem but at least it makes it tolerable.

BIG NEWS!!! + New Video!!!

First off, here's my latest video for everyone to check out if they haven't seen it yet!! Just like with blogger I had gone on a bit of a video hiatus so hopefully watching me blab for 20 minutes will make up for that :)

SECONDLY I have a big and exciting announcement (at least I think it is)! I was selected by the lovely Jen (of JenLuvsReviews) to participate in a competition she created over on YouTube called "Best In Beauty"... eek! Essentially it's like a beauty-themed American Idol (sans singing [be grateful]) for some lesser-known (fewer than 2,000 subscribers) girls with beauty channels. 

Here's the trailer video she put together:

And here's the first video explaining the competition more in-depth by Jen herself as well as the videos from the first round of six contestants (Jess from TheModMermaid is in that group of girls so GO VOTE FOR HER; she's all sorts of fantastic and a blogger friend of mine ^__^):

I'm going to be in the second group of girls that will go live this Sunday (June 23rd) so I would be delighted if you took part in this competition by watching and voting for the first group of girls as well as voting for me (pretty please?) when the second group premiers. I've already got my video filmed and put together so I can't wait to show it to you all :)

Thank you for your continuous support in general and I hope you're as excited over this competition as I am; it's going to be a lot of fun for all involved!

xoxo - Cassie

NOTD: love & beauty by Forever21 "Rose/Red"

I have no idea why I'm up right now.

I have no reason to be up right now. 

But I am so I'm dealing with it by watching RuPaul's Drag Race in bed (hair in curlers because I'm cute as f***) and writing up a quick NOTD post for you all. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm probably still up because my stomach is making noises akin to a bear fighting a buffalo (is that a thing?) and I'm scared that if I go to bed I'm going to crap my pants while I'm sleeping (again, I'm cute as f*** I know).

I picked up "Rose/Red" (can I just put it out there that Forever21 has THE WORST names for nail polishes? I would have named it "Cute As F***" but... [I'm beating a dead horse I know; can we pretend like it's still funny though?]) from Forever21 last week while shopping on my birthday with Torey. It was in the bins positioned around the checkout line (damn them...) and I was doing well resisting until I saw "Rose/Red" was on sale for $0.99! Into my needy hands it went and onto my naked nails the next day.

"Rose/Red" is such a gorgeous semi-sheer (hence I layered it over one layer of NYC's "Greenwich Village" to make it an opaque fuchsia) rose cream polish with TONS of silver glitter, pearlescent shavings, red hearts, pink hearts, and red confetti packed in. A lot of glitter packed polishes like this one end up needing to be 'fished' in to get glitter on the brush but not with this beauty; in one coat (I put on two coats because I'm greedy and insecure) you'll have a love party on your nails that Cupid would be proud of. 

I got so many compliments on this manicure while I had it on and I can see why! "Rose/Red" is an all-around stunner in the most adorable of ways. I've been loving cream glitter polishes lately but since they're hard to come by this was an absolute steal at Forever21 for only $0.69 (it was marked at $0.99 but rang up at the register for cheaper; happy birthday to me, huh??) and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes stupidly girly nails. The formula was surprisingly wonderful in regards to not being gloopy and is generously packed with plenty of glitter. So, if you've got some extra quarters lying around then I would absolutely head to your nearest Forever21 and nab this polish while it lasts!

Have you tried Forever21 nail polishes before?

Love 'em? Hate 'em?

What's your favorite glitter polish at the moment?

Do share!

xoxo - Cassie

June '13 Birchbox!

I spent today cleaning up the chaos Galileo left in his wake (he was having a 'man moment' as I like to call them... basically likes to tear apart everything I own and be an utter spaz) and then sobbing in the parking lot at the DMV (it's the DMV, do I need to say more?) so I was more than ecstatic to see my Birchbox wedged into my P.O. box when I got home. 

Seriously, you could have put a chapstick and a Ring Pop in there and I would have been delighted but there are actually a few goodies here I'm excited to try!

Take the jump if you want to see what I got :)

hourglass Veil Mineral Primer SPF 15: Swatches + Review!!

At a whopping $52/oz., it's no surprise that you can see scrape marks on the inside of this bottle; I'm milking this puppy for all it's worth before it woefully goes in the trash (if I can bring myself to do that... I know, I know, I'm pathetic #futurefeatureonhoarders).

I just wanted to put together a pimp worthy review for you all before the mournful day comes because I have loved this primer for all it's worth which, as I said, is a whole heck of a lot.

Take the jump if you want to drool spasm read all about it!

NOTD: china glaze "Unpredictable"

Oh hey blogger, it's been awhile huh?

Nine days, huh?

I'M A TERRIBLE BLOGGER, HUH???

I'm sorry for my absence... it was kind of sort of my birthday and my mom and brother kind of sort of flew to Boston from Minnesota and I was kind of sort of being busy in real life.

I hope you can find it in your beauty junkie hearts to forgive me!! 

To kick off my back-to-blogging-bonanza I figured I'd share a nail polish I wore a couple of weeks ago (yikes, it really has been awhile...) since, well, you know; my blog wouldn't be much if it weren't for NOTD posts considering it's my kryptonite (aside from chocolate).

I picked up "Unpredictable" while on an outing to Ulta a few weeks ago because it was in the sale bin for $3. Three dollars!! What an unpredictable little surprise ho ho ho (the name of this one is just screaming for puns galore... I'll spare you at one). And considering I've had a thing in my mind lately for holographic nails I just couldn't pass this up. The blue/green/gold holo looked like all sorts of gorgeous especially when I peered into the bottle; look at that green lava in the photo above!

However, please note that I said looked... past tense... 

yup, this didn't exactly translate into the beautiful holo that I thought it was when applied to my nails.

It's not that "Unpredictable" isn't pretty, it's just that it was... well... unpredictable (I know I said I'd stop at one but I just can't help myself when it comes to puns)!!

"Unpredictable" is pretty much void of any holographic tendencies but is rather a straight up metallic green/teal. Seriously the metallic finish on this polish is insane, mimicking that of brushed chrome. So if that's the kind of finish you like then this polish is going to be right up your alley. I personally am just not a fan of metallic polishes so this was a bit of a let down for me, especially when the bottle makes "Unpredictable" look so beautifully holographic (or at least duochrome).

Oh well, you win some you lose some right?

As much as I love sale bins, sometimes there's a reason those items were on sale in the first place.

Galileo's glad to have me blogging again so I hope you're happy I'm back too!

Have you tried china glaze's "Unpredictable"?

Love it? Hate it?

Do you have any polishes that are actually holographic?

Do share!!

xoxo - Cassie

PS: I'm not sure if the whole "Google Friend Connect is going to disappear on July 1st along with Google Reader NOOOOO THE WORLD IS ENDING PANICK NOW!!!!!111!!1!" is just a rumor/misconstrued information but to be safe I want to remind my lovely readers that you can still follow me via Bloglovin' (the button is in my side bar on the right!) or even through email notification (also in my sidebar!) in case you're worried about GFC being gone for good ;)

NYX butter gloss "Apple Strudel" & "Strawberry Parfait": Swatches + Review!!

For some reason I just haven't been up to blogging lately; it has nothing to do with a lack of products (I'm set for the next, oh I don't know, five years at least) but more so because I haven't felt up to writing. Not sure why but I'm blaming the sluggish heat putting a (literal) damper on my wit and charm (I'm really not as egotistical as that makes me sound... or based off of the fact that I post pictures of my face for the internet to oggle... I'm not building myself a very strong case here am I?).

Either way, considering I mentioned these NYX butter glosses (specifically "Apple Strudel") in my Best & Worst of Beauty: May '13 video (around the 11:10 mark if you don't want to listen to all of my rambling and general flailing) I figured it was about darn time I did a proper post on these beauties since I've been wearing them constantly for about a month now!

Take the jump if you want to read all about 'em :)