May 2012 Beauty Boxes - MyGlam & Beauty Army

MyGlam

Graduation Day Nails

I graduated last Friday! Yay! I painted my nails with my school logo on it to show my pride :) I'm the first in my family to go to college and finish, so it was an especially proud day for my parents who are 1st generation Americans.

Watermelon Nails

Julep - Drew & Leah

I had an event I was a part of that was centered around fruits and veggies. I thought it would be festive for me to have some appropriate nails. The seeds a little messy but I thought the colors were perfect!

Battle of the Salmons

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, aunties, grandmas out there! Without you we couldn't procreate!

A color trend for 2012 that I'm absolutely obsessed with is SALMON. Ever since I got Julep's Alicia in my April Boho Glam box, I've been in love. My favorite dress for the last couple of years is this $20 cotton dress in salmon that I got on sale at Target. I think it complements my olive skin well!

For my Mother's Day gift to myself, I chose a couple of Essie polishes and one of them is Tart Deco.

I just had to! SO, I gathered my two other similar shades to do a comparison... (I'm sorry for the weird cropping, I excitedly painted over my red nails and I didn't want you to see it lol)

In natural light

With flash

I think the winner in my court is Essie. It's a little darker than Alicia, has more of an orange tinge than Trout Pout, and this shade could easily be an Alicia dupe. YES! Thank goodness, because Essie is cheaper!

NOTD - Julep's Anne in Matte

Honestly, Lacquer Lovers, have you ever stood in front of your lacquer collection and just stared at all your bottles for what seems like hours, trying to figure out what shade you want to wear next? If you haven't, well then, that obviously doesn't apply to you, but I have and this is when I convince myself that I need more colors. Yeah, right... that is just an excuse to buy more when you really don't need it. If you are obsessed like me than you do need it. You need it all!

I settled on Julep's Anne, a bright purple creme, and I used butter LONDON's matte finish top coat. This color reminds me of one of my favorite ice cream flavors. Ube (phonetically spelled, oo-beh). I gobble that stuff up like it's the first time I've ever had it. Ube is a Filipino purple yam, not to be confused with taro, but it tastes very similar.

The matte finish seemed to make this color pop a lot more. I never realized how bright this hue was until it was matte.

There will be another blog about this but I personally love butter LONDON's matte top coat compared to all the other ones that I've used. I've used Kleancolor, and Orly and neither of them hold a candle to this stuff. $18 well spent, I say!

Birchbox - May 2012

This is my first ever Birchbox and I am more happy about it than my Beauty Army experience in respect to getting recognizable cosmetics instead of a whole load of foreign skincare products.

You can't go wrong with polish.

This scent is a little too baby powdery for my taste.

They weren't kidding about sample size, I don't even know why they put it in a tube. They should have just put it on a postcard with a sheet of foil to seal it because the amount in here is for a one time use. Wasteful...

What I didn't take a picture of was the stupid twistband. You know what? Let me take of picture of it to show you how stupid this is...

A 12 pack of those is worth $18. Seriously? Go to a fabric store and buy a spindle of satin pink garter. No sewing necessary. Just some scissors. Ladies, if you're smart, you won't buy this.

I'm happy for the most part but I don't know how much longer I can pay $10 a month with the risk of getting a stupid rubber band. I know, I have a real issue with the twistband, but I don't watch Gossip Girl, so the significance of the products aren't really striking a chord in my book.

Julep's Cinco de Mayo Mystery Box is HERE TODAY!!!

   Okay, so a couple of my friends and I decided to open our boxes together so there will be three different boxes. No more talking here are the boxes....

Glycolic hand scrub, Natalie, Demi, Maya, Leah, & a crystal nail file. Worth about $64

Glycolic hand scrub, Drew, Alyson, Emma, Jessica, & a crystal nail file. Worth about $64

A BIG box!

Nail appliques, Christina, Hayden, Alyson, Parker, Vanessa, cuticle oil, & a fast dry top coat. Worth about $116

Christina, Hayden, Alyson, Parker, & Vanessa. This is a little annoying but I already have Hayden and it's a shade darker. You can slightly tell in the picture that this is an air pocket that suggests there is less polish in this bottle. It's shrink wrapped, too. I'm not sure where or not to complain

Close up of Christina. I wanted to show the gold shimmer in this one.

Please share what you got!!! I've been looking up other people's blogs and I've seen some boxes that are worth more than $200! LUCKY! Not that I'm complaining...