Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas NOTD!

Merry Christmas everyone! I can't believe it is finally here. This morning I will be home with my family, then we are heading to my parents house this afternoon.

For my nails today I decided to use a classic red with a gold accent. The red is Malaga Wine by OPI. I've had this polish for a while now, it's one of my older ones. But it's a perfect Christmas red. Then on my ring finger I used one coat of The Gold & the Beautiful by Wet N Wild. It just adds a little sparkle without being in-your-face glitter! 



I hope you all have a wonderful holiday & get all you asked for ;)

Thanks for reading!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

NOTD - Naughty

Today I'm wearing Naughty by Revlon. This color is actually one that was released before under the name Perplex. I've heard of this before & was so excited when I found out this was the same color! This was one of the colors I picked up at Bed Bath & Beyond last week. It is a grayish purple with a purple shimmer in it. It changes color a little bit in different light. I absolutely LOVE this color!! I knew I wanted to try it, but I didn't think I would like it as much as I do. I keep staring at my nails because the color is gorgeous! I recommend checking it out!





The next NOTD you see will probably be my Christmas manicure. I'm trying to figure out the perfect color to wear for Christmas!

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

My First Glam Bag!

Hi everyone! Today I wanted to share a beauty website with you all. I heard about this on YouTube & was so excited to try it! MyGlam.com is a monthly subscription service. You pay $10 a month & each month you get a new bag filled with 4 or 5 beauty products to try. If you go to their website you can learn all the details. When I first checked it out they had a preview of the bag & I signed up immediately! I know that they sold out of December bags & recently opened subscriptions back up for the January bag. If you are interested I would go check it out soon because they may sell out again. But if they are, just keep checking back! Also you can cancel anytime. But enough talk, lets get to the bag!

The bags are shipped or arrive around the 10th of each month. Mine was shipped on the 8th, I believe & I got it on the 10th. It came in this cute pink envelope!

And this in the bag that contained all my products.

This month I got 5 products & this was the only company I had not heard of. These are blush papers by Mai Couture. These look like oil blotting papers, but they have color on them. You just rub the paper on your cheeks to apply the blush. This is a full size product with 50 sheets. They sell this for $17.50 on their website. This product is OK, I've used it a few times. I will rub it on my cheek, then go back & blend it out with a brush. I do like the color & will definitely use them.


Next is a sample size of the Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara by Tarte. I've heard good things about this on YouTube & was interested in trying it. It claims to increase lash volume by 424%. I don't know about that! I like this mascara, but I don't think it does anything spectacular to my lashes. A full size of this product is $19. I love my Covergirl Lash Blast Volume for $8!

Next up is an Urban Decay eye shadow in the color Sin. I really love this & have been wearing it a lot since I got it. It is a light pink/peach/champagne shimmery color. It's a great neutral to have. On days when I'm in a hurry or don't want a lot on my eyes, I just wear this. And I love this color because it's something you can wear everyday. I believe this is a full size eye shadow, which retails for $17.


Also, I got the Urban Decay Primer Potion. When I first started watching videos, this product was in almost all of them! But a full size is $19. I certainly don't want to spend that kind of money on something that no one can even see! But I was super excited to see I was getting this. I've been using the ELF eyelid primer from Target that costs $1. I wanted to compare them & see if the UD was any better. I used UD on one eyelid & ELF on the other & by the end of the day I think they both looked the same. I really couldn't tell much difference. So I think I'll stick with the ELF!

Lastly I got a soft matte lip cream from NYX in the color Milan. This is an interesting product. It comes in a tube with a wand like a lipgloss, but it is completely matte when you put it on. It's like a lipstick in a tube. I like this color, but I will probably wear it more in the spring/summer. I would like to try some other colors as well. They sell NYX at Ulta & these are $6.

Overall I love everything in my bag! I may not buy any of it, but I have enjoyed trying it. Especially because I don't buy high end makeup brands. This is a great way to try products that I might not ever buy myself. And you get a lot for your $10. I got at least $40 worth of product in my bag. I love these bags & I'm so excited for the next one! I will be sure to post my monthly Glam Bag! Let me know if you sign up for this. And if you have, I'd love to hear what;s in your bag!

Thanks for reading!

Monday, December 19, 2011

My New Favorite Store + NOTD

We all know that Bed Bath & Beyond is a great home store. They have pretty much anything you need for your house, and a lot you didn't even know you needed! But did you know that some of them sell makeup? I've been hearing a lot about BB&B in beauty blogs & videos. My store that I normally shop at doesn't carry makeup. But I checked online & another store in my area does! Well you know that I planned a trip the next day to check it out!

When I was walked in it was like the clouds parted & angels were singing! I was so excited! How did I not know about this before? Straight away I found what I had gone looking for, new Revlon nail polishes. I found the colors I wanted & then some. The drugstore makeup brands seem to be stepping up their game & there are many new products hitting the shelves. And for some reason BB&B is the place to find them first! They had several products not yet out in the drugstores.

Their prices are really great as well. They seem to be cheaper than drugstores. Revlon Lip Butters have been really popular & everyone has been trying to find them. At CVS they are close to $8 & Target has them for about $6.50. But they were $5.79 at BB&B! And BB&B is always mailing out coupons. 

On my trip I picked up 4 nail polishes & used my coupon for $5 off $15 purchase. So the Revlon polish retails for $3.79 (at drugstores they are $4.99) and with the coupon they were each $2.80. I also got an Essie polish (yes they sell Essie too!) that retails for $7.79 for $5.76.

Overall it was a success! I can't wait to go back, especially one day when I can leave the kids at home! You can click here to see if there is a store near you that carries makeup. If you are close to one, it is worth checking out!

Now on to my NOTD. I am wearing Concrete Evidence by Ulta with Revlon Stunning on my ring finger. This is one of the colors I picked up at BB&B. I had not heard about this color, but when I saw it I had to have it! It is so pretty & sparkly! This will look great over lots of colors. 




Thanks for reading!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Candy Cane Nails!

Hi everyone! Today I have candy cane inspired nails! It's not perfect, but you get the idea!

For this manicure I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Cherry Red on all my fingers & Sinful Colors Snow Me White on my ring finger. And I believe the Cherry Red is one of the colors on clearance at CVS right now. So you could pick this up for less than $1! For the candy cane stripes I used Art Deco nail art polish in Red Glitter. I actually found this at the dollar store! They had quite a few colors, including a green that would be perfect for Christmas as well. These nail art polishes are usually a few dollars elsewhere, so see if your local dollar store has any.

I just painted 3 stripes in a diagonal direction over the white. They are not perfect, but close enough! This was my first time using a nail art polish. I think it turned out cute!




You could change this up a bit to suit your style. You could do white stripes over a red base, you could have your thumb be another candy cane or you could make all your nails candy canes. It is up to you! I am actually thinking that I might add a sparkly glitter over all my red nails, just to give it some extra holiday feel! If you do any Christmas nails let me know!

Thanks for reading!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

NOTD - Grin & Berry It

Hi everyone! Today's NOTD is Ulta Grin & Berry It with Essie Shine of the Times as an accent. I love Grin & Berry It! It is the perfect winter/holiday color. I'm actually wearing it on my toes as well! On my ring finger I did one coat of Shine of the Times, which is a top coat by Essie. I will do a post all about this polish & show you what it looks like over some different colors. But it is a really cool polish filled with flakies (yes that is what they are called). They really add a lot of shine & color!





Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

Friday, December 9, 2011

CVS Haul

Hi everyone! I filmed a quick haul video to show you some of the great makeup items I got on clearance at CVS. The quality of the video is not great (sorry!) but I wanted to share this so you guys would have a chance to check out CVS for yourself! Thanks for watching!


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

NOTD - Gray's Anatomy

Hey everyone! I hope you all are having a good week so far. It's half way over so that is always good right? Today I am wearing Wet n Wild Fast Dry nail polish in Gray's Anatomy. I bought this a few months ago & was a little disappointed when I tried it. It is so sheer on it's own. I thought about returning it but decided just to keep it. I figured I could make it work somehow. So yesterday I was deciding what nail polish to wear next & figured I would try it with Concrete Evidence by Ulta. It is a light creme gray which I really love. I thought it would be the perfect base for Gray's Anatomy. I really like this manicure & can't believe I haven't tried it until now! So if you have a sheer polish that you don't like on it's own, put it over a solid color like white, black, gray, blue or whatever will match the polish. And now on to the pictures!





Thanks for reading!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Welcome!

Welcome to Mama Loves Mani's! I am so excited to have a new blog to share with you all! I'm still in the process of fine tuning the look of things here, but I couldn't keep it in any longer!

I had the idea to start a nail polish blog a couple months ago. But I wanted to make sure I would have enough things to post about. I also wanted the perfect name. I came up with many, but so did a lot of other people, because they were all taken! I wanted the name of this blog to show my love for nail polish. And I wanted to incorporate the fact that I am a mom. So one day it hit me, Mama Loves Mani's! I couldn't believe it never came to me before! I did a quick Google search & nothing came up. So I quickly logged on to Blogger & set up my new blog! And here we are!

Obviously, this blog will be about nail polish. But why stop there? I love anything makeup & beauty related. I plan to post about new products that I find, favorites of the month & anything else that my little heart desires!

I have moved all my Mani Monday posts from my other blog over here. I'm not sure if I will keep doing Mani Monday. I may start doing Nail of the Day posts instead. It will be the same type of post on a more frequent basis. Who doesn't love more nail polish, right?

I will still be posting on my personal blog, Loving This Life. I just thought it would be nice to separate the content.

So thank you for reading! I'm really excited about this blog & I have so many ideas already :) I will be back soon with a Nail of the Day (NOTD) & November Favorites.