OOTD: More Radiant Orchid

Wrap: Walmart 

Dress: thrifted 

Leggings: flea market 

Bag: thrifted

Hat: F21

Flats: Merona, flea market 

Scarf: Kmart 

OOTD: It Matches The Nails

Dress: Merona, flea market

Cardigan: JCP

Bag: thrifted

Flats: flea market 

Tights: Target 

Necklace: purpleperidot.com

NOTD: More Polka Dots & Radiant Orchid

2 coats Top Shelf Lacquer Wild Orchid Cocktail with SH Big Matte TC. Accent nail is 1 coat NYC Black Lace Cream with dots in Kiss French Tip and Revlon Gel Envy TC. Matching my dress and cardigan today. :)

OOTD: Bridal Shower Look

Dress: JCP

Coat: flea market 

Bag: thrifted 

Tights: TJ Maxx

Flats: Aldo, thrifted 

Bracelet: eulaferns.com

Earrings: Target, thrifted 

NOTD: Bridal Shower Nails

Have you ever been so lazy you painted your old mani on right over your new mani? I was today, lol. I had to do a new mani for my friend's bridal shower tomorrow, but my Thanksgiving mani was still perfect with no chips and I really didn't feel like removing it. It went pretty well except that you can still kinda see the previous polka dots under 4 coats of Essie Russian Roulette. Thought it was more opaque; I should have painted a coat of white over it first, haha. I'll add another coat or two tomorrow.

I want to take a second to rave about Revlon Color Stay Gel Envy Diamond Strength Top Coat. I got it for free several weeks ago with a BOGO coupon at Walmart, but I hadn't tried it yet. Lately I'd been noticing that my Ulta X Dry t/c had been having sheet marks even doing my nails 6-8 hours before going to bed. I tried the Revlon on my Thanksgiving mani and it was super thick but easy to work with, so glossy, and wore like iron. I'm going to be using this t/c a lot more!

Review: SGA Blueberry Basil & Mainstays Costal Woods

On cold sniff the Sassy Girl Aroma tart smelled to me like fresh basil and herbs with blueberries and a bit of not too sweet baked goods. Very unusual and pleasant.

When melting I cannot pick out the basil note very well; it now smells like a rich blueberry zucchini bread to me. Very nice scent, but not quite as unique as I thought it would be.

It has fairly strong throw and has been scenting my home all day.

Overall grade: A- Would have liked the basil to come through a bit more when melting, but a nice fragrance.

I'm also melting Mainstays Costal woods candle. It is a unique blend of creamy coconut and woodsy mahogany. Very fresh, light to moderate throw. It burns extremely well with strong flames on the wick and a good wax pool. Overall grade: B+. Gorgeous scent, wish it were stronger.

Review: Knickknaxwax Thanksgiving Cookie Tart

I love, love, love this scent! It is described as a warm, chewey caramel cookie on their site, and I do get gooey caramel strongly, as well as bakery, but to me it smells more of like caramel popcorn than a cookie. I don't care though, because the scent is absolutely fabulous! This is one of the best performing tarts I've tried in a long time! It smells like I've been baking up a storm, when in reality I'm not cooking this Thanksgiving. :) Plus it pairs perfectly with my favorite Pumpkin Coconut candle. Overall grade: A+. Would repurchase; excellent scent, strong throw, long lasting.

OOTD: Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating!

Cardigan: Mossimo, thrifted 

Dress: Target

Tights: JCP

Flats: Aldo, thrifted 

Bag: thrifted 

Necklaces: purpleperidot.com

NOTD: Thanksgiving Nail Art

Super happy with how this turned out! 
Gold glitter: 1 coat Bonita Golden Girl
White: 1coat Kiss French Tip & 1 coat Lolita Lacquer Horchata.
Brown: Cult Nails Swanbourne
Tan: OPI San-Tantonio
Red: Essie Russian Roulette 
Yellow: Avon Suddenly Sunny 

Review: Knickknaxwax Avobath & Mainstays Woodland Sage

I'm very happy with this first melting of a tart from my Knickknaxwax order! This Avobath Lush dupe scented tart has strong and long lasting throw. To me it smells like lemon lime and fruit loops, on both cold sniff and when melting. It's a very fun and energizing scent combo; I really like it! I'm looking forward to melting more scents from my order; tomorrow will be Thanksgiving Cookie. :) Overall grade: A. Would repurchase.

To me Mainstays Woodland Sage 3-wick smells lightly of crisp pine, mellow sagebrush, and fresh mountain air. I don't always like these type of scents, but this one is very pleasant. The throw is light to moderate; I catch whiffs within a few feet of it, but it doesn't fill the room. It is burning extremely well with an even wax pool and no tunneling wicks. Overall grade: B. Lovely scent, but not strong throw.

Review: Haley's Heavenly Scents Lemon Chiffon Coconut Pie Tart

This is a strong, sharp lemon scent. It had a creamy element, but I can't say I can pick out coconut specifically. The lemon is wonderful, but I do wish it had more noticeable coconut and bakery notes. The throw was very strong for about 5 hours and then became more mild. If I had had seen this scent myself I definitely would have ordered it based on the name, but it was not quite what I hoped it would be. Overall grade: B+. A lovely fresh and slightly creamy lemon scent, but not perfect. 

Review: Etat Libre D'Orange Cologne

This fragrance to is interesting and complex. The top notes are strong orange citrus, quickly followed by green floral. I'd describe this fragrance as unisex but slightly sweet, a bit musky, fresh, green and bright. It's nice but not my type of scent.

OOTD: Fall Jewel Tones

Dress: Xhilirations, thrifted 

Cardigan: Mossimo, thrifted 

Tights: Walmart 

Scarf: Thredup 

Bag: F21

Moccasin boots: thrifted 

Earrings: girlprops.com

A Waxy Surprise

An always lovely and gracious friend send me an amazing surprise box full of goodies! I'm so grateful and blessed; thank you SO much! And how did you know what candies I like?! :D I have so much wax to sniff my way through today; my wax boxes runneth over. :)

Cold sniff thoughts:

Super excited for these Haley's Heavenly Scents; I've never tried her tarts before!

Lemon Chiffon Coconut Pie: ooh, all my favorite scents together in one tart! Smells very strongly of lemon bars on cold sniff; hopefully some of the coconut will come through when melting.

Lemon Curd Birthday Cake: again very strongly of lemon curd; hope to smell a bit of vanilla cake when melting. The lemon's yummy though.

Orange Noel: strong orange cream soda and pastries; mmmm...

Sassy Girl Aroma: So glad to try several more SGA scents; loved the previous ones I tried!

Sweet Lavender Caramel Latte Birthday Cake: Super interesting and unique... in the best way! I can smell each of the notes individually, clear and strong, and I wouldn't think they'd go together at all but somehow they do! Strong topnote of lavender followed by caramel, coffee and bakery.

Brown Sugar Zucchini Old Towne Bake Shoppe: strong, warm, rich zucchini bread, not overly sweet.

Yummy and strong banana/vanilla blend; like banana pudding and Nilla Wafers!

Zombie Crunch: strong mixed berry scent, like Capt'n Crunch Berries.

Buttermint Candy Sugar cookie: strong mint/vanilla blend.

Strawberry Bread Noel: strong strawberry pastry with rich fresh baked bread.

Blueberry Basil: Strong basil/herbal blend with a hint of sweet blueberry. Surprisingly good and refreshing!

Knickknaxwax Order Cold Sniff Thoughts

Lush Sampler: 6 1.5 oz wax cups for $7.

Disclaimer: I haven't smelled a lot of the original Lush scents, so I can't compare them. I'm just describing what they smell like to me.

Rose Jam: Strong, fresh rose. So beautiful, just like sticking your nose in a rose! 

Avobath: Strong citrus; lemon lime with perhaps a hint of fruit loops. Yummy! I had wondered if it would smell like avocado at all, lol.

Moderately strong patchouli and lavender. Like a creamy, serene headshop; very groovy!

Sweet Candy: Moderate strawberry hard candy. Making me hungry.

Snow White: moderately strong creamy mixed berries with spices. Smells so familiar but I can't place it. Very intriguing and pleasant.

So White: Moderately strong evergreen and laundry detergent with a hint of sweetness. I like it, surprisingly.

Thanksgiving Sampler 4 1.5 oz cups for $5:

Apple Orchard: moderate fresh green  apples; just ok.

Autumn Night: strong cedar, mahogany and woodsmoke, like a bonfire in the forest. Very realistic! Hope it's not overwhelming when melting.

Thanksgiving Cookie: smells like strong, delicious caramel popcorn. Will be melting it for Thanksgiving. :)

Pumpkin Pie: I get a lot of cinnamon/spice, but not too much pumpkin. Hope it's more pumpkin-y when melting.

Overall very happy with this order; can't wait to start melting these scents!

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NOTD: Pink, Gray, & Cats

2 coats Essie French Affair, 1 coat Zoya Yuna, cat nail decals from wish.com.

OOTD: Pretty & Comfy

Cardigan: JCP

Tee: mindymaesmarket.com

Pants: Walmart

Hat: made by me 

Bag: wish.com

Bracelet: eulaferns.com

Moccasins: Minnetonka

NOTD Frock N Roll & Feathers

1 coat of Essie Frock 'N Roll; I love that it's a one coater with super smooth formula! I love these feathers decals from wish.com.

Review: PFOP Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting/Vanilla Wafers Tart

On cold sniff this tart does smell moderately of strawberry cream cheese frosting; very sweet and yummy. When melting it has rather light throw, which is unusual for this brand as most of the others scents I've tried have had strong throw. Overall grade: B-. Nice scent but would not repurchase due to throw.

Review: Miss Dior Perfume

I had never researched this fragrance before; I just asked for a sample from Sephora on a whim so I didn't know what to expect. The opening of Miss Dior is warm, spicy, and peppery. It smells strong at first, but not overpowering or unpleasant. I would say it smells rich and "perfumey." After a few minutes it dries down and transforms into a powdery green fragrance with a nutty note. There is nothing sweet about this fragrance at all to my nose and it is different than most all the fragrances I wear. The only thing I can compare it to that I own is the dry down smells similar to Avon Secrets To Keep Kiss, with it's powdery, green, nutty notes. While I don't mind this fragrance and may wear the sample occasionally, I'm not in love with it and wouldn't purchase the full size. I have to give it credit for its complexity though.

NOTD: China Glaze Devotion With Stamping

1 coat of China Glaze Devotion with 2 coats Dainty Digits Black Hole Sparkle on 3 nails. Accent nail stamped with OPI Vant To Bite My Neck?

Review: The Bathing Garden Mr. Cratchit's Cider Tart

Like most TBG products, this tart is super cute in it's presentation and on cold sniff the fragrance is a nice realistic apple cider scent with a hint of mixed berries. Very sweet and pleasant. Also like most of the TBG tarts I've tried, this scent has light to moderate throw. I can catch some delicious whiffs while standing within a few feet of the warmers, but it doesn't fill my small rooms by any means. It's a shame because this is one of the most pleasant and authentic cider scents I've smelled. It's fading by the hour. :( Overall Grade: B. TBG products are always so beautiful and often smell lovely, but the most important part is lacking; the strength and performance of the scent. Would not purchase.

First Attempt At Nail Stamping + Product Reviews

I won this new Formula X product by entering a photo of one of my manis in their Instagram contest! It's called Formula X Clix System To Go and it comes with 4 3ml bottles attached at the cap. It has a nail cleanser, base coat, nail color, and top coat. It's kinda similar to Zoya's Naked Manicure system, except smaller and more portable. 

I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone and use both my new Formula X Clix To Go system and my MoYou London XL Marshmallow Stamper and Pro Plate 04 stamping plate. 

The Formula X products were easy to work with. The actual polish was a bit streaky and floody on the first coat, so I did two coats and it looked beautiful and smooth. All of the products dried really quickly. I'm not sure the peachy pink polish is the best color on my skintone, but I'd be interested to try more of these sets with different polish colors. Overall these polishes are good quality and would be very convenient for traveling.

Now the stamping; I have to admit it was more difficult than I thought it would be. I used to think it looked like a lot of work, but I think I got a false sense of confidence from watching a bunch of stamping tutorial videos, haha.

After setting up all my supplies and removing the protective covering from the plate, I painted polish (Ulta LBD) onto one of the designs and immediately scraped off the excess polish holding the scraper at a 45° angle as I had seen demonstrated. This is where I encountered my first problem as I tried to press the design onto the stamper, I couldn't get it to transfer whatsoever. I tried a few more times but couldn't get anything on the stamper. I thought maybe it was the polish formula so I tried switching to a different polish but still didn't have much luck. I decided to try to clean off the plate and stamper with a cotton ball and thinner and that seemed to help. I still wasn't getting perfect images, but I was at least getting something. I'm surprised that I had to clean the tools between every nail in order to get a decent transfer; can anyone explain why that is? The videos did not explain how or how often to clean the tools. My nails don't look great, but by the time I was done I was sort of getting into a rhythm and somewhat getting the hang of the rolling motion for transferring the design to the nail. It was a bit frustrating, but was good practice. I'm probably going to take this design off tomorrow and try again; I think this is going to take a ton of practice for me to get good at it. Any tips would be much appreciated!

Review: Holiday Time Sugared Pecans

I'm glad I picked these up; Sugared Pecans is a super strong and truly realistic scent! On both cold sniff and when melting it smells like sweet, nutty candied pecans with a touch of cinnamon. This one is very strong, probably not great for sensitive noses. With the candle it took a couple hours for the wax to fully pool and the wicks are a little low, but it hasn't gone out and is scenting the room like a champ. Both the candle and clamshell are great values at $2.97 for a 10 oz 3-wick and only. 97¢ for a 1.5 oz clamshell! Even though these wax cubes ar about half the size of regular wax cubes, I still only had to use one in each warmer because they're so fragrant. Look for these in the holiday section of your local Walmart! Overall Grade: A. Would repurchase.

Trying Some New Teas

Oregon Chai came out with this new salted caramel flavor and I actually won this carton of concentrate by commenting on their Facebook post and being randomly selected. Can't wait to try it; I love salted caramel and Oregon Chai!

I picked up this Tazo Green Tea and Ginger from Walmart. Coupons.com had a $1.50 off any Tazo tea coupon, so this was around $1.49! I've never tried this flavor before but it sounded nice.

On a sad note, I finished my beloved box of Trader Joe's Vanilla Cinnamon Black Tea and I don't have a good excuse to go get more as it's an hour away. :( That's probably the best tea I've ever had.

I love teas for winter; what teas are you all loving right now?

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OOTD: Feeling Festive

I know I look rather Christmasy, but it's super cold and windy here and this outfit is so cozy!

Sweater: Lane Bryant, flea market 

Jeans: F21

Blanket scarf: Ebay

Hat: flea market 

Moccasin boots: thrifted 

Necklace: groopdealz.com

Earrings: Walmart/DIY

Bag: Dooney & Bourke, thrifted 

NOTD: Fall Pumpkins

1 coat WnW Sidewalkers with pumpkins out of Barry M Coral, Dainty Digits Sunburst, and SG Peace. The pumpkins are holo; they look much shinier and prettier irl.

Rave For Cocoa Pink

The I must be ridiculously lucky because all my scents are 100% perfect and don't seem to need to cure at all! I've had the Marshmallow Cake on Mondays CMBB and Cinderella's Carriage before and the new ones smell exactly the same as the old ones, yay! The Boo Boo Lemon Noel smells just like a delicious lemon bar; fresh tart lemon + bakery, just as I was hoping! Keeping it on my nightstand to use as linen spray and body mist. But my favorite thing by far is my Tihota dupe perfume! The CP version lived up to all my expectations; it smells EXACTLY like the original to my nose! I have CP on the left wrist and Indult on the right and literally cannot tell the difference scent wise. I will report back on longevity, but I'm sooo glad to have scored my ideal vanilla fragrance for under $15 as opposed to $200 for the original! Hooray for dupes! Everything is perfect and I love it; best $34 I ever spent on B&B. Plus she included 2 generous samples; ShamPink in Black Noel and Soft bubbling scrub in Strawberry Noel. I'm going to smell great today! :)

Review: BHG Gourmet Cookie Shop Tart

I like that this scent is different from Vanilla Cookie Crunch, which is one of my all time favorites. This Gourmet Cookie Shop is a pretty accurate description; it is a warm vanilla cookie scent with standout spice notes. If I had to guess at the spices I'd say cardamom, ginger, clove, and cinnamon. Wonderfully fragrant without being overpowering. I really love this new scent and it has strong and long lasting throw! To compare it with some familiar scents, I'd say is smells like Vanilla Cookie Crunch mixed with Pumpkin Ginger Cookie; yum!  Overall grade: A+ would repurchase.

NOTD: Essie Bell Bottom Blues with Embellishments

1 coat of Essie Bell Bottom Blues, good formula with even coverage. Topped with on coat of SH Hidden Treasure and 1 coat SH Big Matte Top Coat. Accent nail with 1 coat WnW Gray's Anatomy, Ulta X Dry Top Coat and a star charm. So much shiny, iridescent goodness! 

On a side note, Essie BBB + WnW Gray's Anatomy = ChG Pondering dupe.

NOTD: Pure Ice Precious Jewel & Faraway Land

These colors are stunning! Precious Jewel is a gorgeous seafoam greenish blue with a pearlescent shimmer. Faraway Land is a stunning holo teal flakie with a slight blueish tint. Both glided on effortlessly and are 1 coaters. Sooo glad I got these; may go back for the rest of the collection, lol!

Review: Queen by Queen Latifah Perfume

This fragrance is a glorious boozy vanilla! Strong, warm, and sugary, but not overly sweet. It smells very complex and expensive for a celebrity fragrance; I'm very impressed! To me it is similar to Annick Goutal Vanille Exquise with a touch more bourbon and a perhaps a hint of pink sugar. If anyone is looking for a less expensive fragrance with a similar vibe to Exquise, this would be a great alternative. It lasted about 3 hours on me and the silage is moderate. I'm seriously addicted to vanilla fragrances, especially ones that are more complex than your average vanilla. This one's definitely a winner! Thanks to a sweet friend who gave me a sample. :) Overall grade: A. Would like to purchase a full size

Review: BHG A Wonderful Winter Tart and Snowed In Candle

These are both lovely winter scents. The Walmart Snowed in candle is a soft and fresh vanilla mint blend. It doesn't have strong throw, but was light on cold sniff, so I wasn't expecting it to. Overall Grade: B. Lovely scent but little throw.

The A Wonderful Winter tarts fortunately have strong and longlasting throw. On cold sniff I thought it was a crisp mint and pine blend with a hint of vanilla. When melting it becomes much more complex and smells strongly of roasting chestnuts to me, with pine and woodsmoke, as well as the mint. Crisp and refreshing yet warm and comforting at the same time; a divine winter blend! Overall grade: A. Would probably repurchase.

Deal Alert: New Pure Ice Polishes At Walmart

Pure Ice now has a large LE collection display called Fairytale Forest and also some holiday colors, and the colors are gorgeous! They're really unique for d/s polishes. Left to right I got: Looks Like Rain, Faraway Land, Precious Jewel, Don't You Wish, and True Love's Kiss. I went a little crazy when I saw these, but at $1.97 each they're a great value!

I couldn't find any swatch pics online, but I found some bottle shots.