Glossybox US December 2012

If you guys remember, I was lucky enough to have gotten the inaugural US Glossybox back in May. While I loved that box, I knew there would not be as many full-sized items in the regular boxes and at $21 a month, I ultimately did not end up subscribing.

Fast forward to earlier this month and the Glossybox subscription's first box was on sale for only $12.60! I could not resist and as fast as my little fingers could click, I signed up. :-) I finally got my box, and I wanted to show you guys all that I got.

Everything came in the signature pink box with the Glossybox logo. I'm a huge fan of the box itself. It's so sturdy and well-made, and is perfect for storing random trinkets, pictures, and loose odds and ends. This month's theme is "Glamour, Glitz, and Gloss". Here are the items in my box:

• Heartland Fragrance Epsom bath salts in White Ginger - 5.5 oz. (retails for $10 for 30 oz.)
• This is for bath or shower, but since I rarely take baths, I will probably use this to exfoliate in the shower as the instructions recommend—if I can get over the smell. It's so strong that the whole Glossybox reeks with it. I don't like the smell as is, but maybe it will mellow out once mixed with water.
• Forest Essentials Madurai Jasmine & Mogra Bath & Shower Oil  - 3.38 fl oz. (retails for $22 for 6.8 fl oz.)
• This is another bath/shower item in the box. For me, I will be using it as a moisturizer after showering. This is scented, and I'm liking the smell quite a bit. It's flowery and feminine while still being light and clean so that it's not overpowering. 
• mark. Lipclick Luxe Lipstick in m.powerment petal - full size of 0.106 oz. (retails for $12) 
• This is probably my favorite item in the box. The lipstick packaging is so cute, with the shiny pink casing that clicks when you close it. The shade is a neutral pink with some mauve undertones. I'm so happy that Glossybox decided to include a wearable shade instead of something like orange or brown that may not work for everyone. I'm just super happy with this item. :-)

• Pleats Please by Issey Miyake - 0.03 fl oz. vial (retails for $92 for 3.3 oz.)
• Eh, I don't like this scent. It's really strong and makes my nose twitch. It went into the trash immediately. Then I had to go fish it out because I realized I hadn't written about it yet lol. But scents are always so personal, so my experience may not match yours.
• Wella Velvet Amplifier - 0.05 oz foil packet (retails for $16 for 1.9 oz.)
• This is a styling primer, but since I don't style my hair at all, I don't have anything useful to say.
• Zoya Nail Lacquer in Ziv - full size of 0.5 fl oz (retails for $8)
• I love nail polish (as you guys know lol) and I love Zoya, so I'm quite happy with this. Ziv is a gorgeous gold, in fact one of my favorite golds. Since I already have this color, I will probably give this bottle away as a gift. Here's a swatch from my post on Ziv.

• Jewelmint jewelry - Madison Avenue Ring (retails for $29.99)
• This was my most anticipated item of the box and the most disappointing. I had seen other's boxes with cute earrings and necklaces, so I was eagerly awaiting mine. As soon as I saw that my item was a ring, I knew it would not work for me. My fingers are tiny, so the ring is too comically large for me. Although I know not every jewelry item can satisfy everyone, I'm not sure why rings would be sent out at all. Ring sizing is so specific that the majority of people who got rings probably could not wear them.

Overall, I'm satisfied with this box considering I only paid $12.60 for it. My favorites are the mark lipstick and the Zoya nail polish, and I'm looking forward to trying out the Jasmine shower oil. However, this isn't worth the full price of $21 per month to me, so I have already cancelled my subscription. I will be keeping my eyes open though. If Glossybox should go on sale again, I will definitely jump in and get another box. :-)

What do you guys think of this month's box? Do you subscribe to Glossybox yourself? Let me know what you got in your box.

China Glaze Tranzitions Collection Preview

I received the China Glaze Tranzitions Collection official press release recently, and I wanted to pass it along. It looks super interesting, with each polish being two potential colors depending on whether you add top coat. Please enjoy this info. :-)

I'll link to swatches and reviews once I have those up. (All info and images are courtesy of China Glaze.)

COLOR + TOP COAT = ENDLESS CREATIVITY

China Glaze® Introduces Tranzitions Color Changing Collection

Los Angeles, CA – (December 2012): There’s nail art and then there’s China Glaze® nail couture.  Reverse French manicure, half moons, ombre, basket weave, dots or racing stripes: nail designs are intricate and multi-colored.  China Glaze® introduces a new way to get multi-color, unique nail art with fewer bottles of polish with the new color-changing Tranzitions collection!

China Glaze® Tranzitions’ revolutionary new nail lacquer reacts when a clear top coat is applied, changing the color from one shade to another for a stunning effect.  Wear any of the six beautiful, color-shifting shades alone, or allow your creativity to run wild and create intricate nail designs by applying a top coat in specific places.  Try different looks using nail art brushes, free-hand designs or nail guides.  Because each shade changes color, you get two lacquers in one, creating an entirely new look with just one swipe.

The China Glaze® Tranzitions collection features six shades, though with the color transition, you get 12 unique shades including:

·         Split Perso-NAIL-ity – Dusty pink shifts to fuchsia

·         Duplicityy – Mint green shifts to vibrant teal

·         Modify Me – Periwinkle blue shifts to indigo blue

·         Altered Reality – Teal blue shifts to turquoise

·         Metallic Metamorphosis – Silvery grey shifts to bluish-charcoal grey

·         Shape Shifter – Smokey violet shifts to dark purple

How It Works:

Step 1: Apply a base coat.

Step 2: Apply two coats of China Glaze® Tranzitions shade of choice.  Allow to completely dry.

Step 3: Lastly, apply one coat of clear top coat such as China Glaze® Fast Forward and watch the color change right before your eyes.

For more nail design ideas, click here to view the China Glaze® Tranzitions video.

The China Glaze® Tranzitions collection will be available in January 2013 at fine salons and beauty supply stores nationwide.

China Glaze Running In Circles

Hi lovely readers! Hope you are having a fantastic Christmas! :-)

Today, I wanted to show you my favorite from the recent China Glaze Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away Collection. Running In Circles is a fantastically glowy green with tons of golden shimmers in a glass fleck finish.

I have been coveting this color ever since I saw the press release and its swatches. When I was at my local Sally Beauty store the other day, it totally stood out on the display. It is a stunning green, even more so in person. I was surprised they still had this color for sale, and I snatched up the only bottle on the display. Score! :-)

This sparkly and festive green is perfect for this time of the year. The base green color is a little on the cooler side, but the warm golden shimmers help balance it out. The formula is a little sheerer than typical for China Glaze. You can get 90% of the way to opacity with two coats, but you'll want a third coat if you want the last 10%. For the swatches, I stuck with three coats because the camera can be unforgiving at picking up the tiniest bit of sheerness.

You can find Running In Circles for a limited time at your local nail salons, at beauty stores such as Ulta and Sally Beauty, and online at select beauty retailers.

Julep Ivy

Happy Friday, you guys! I have Julep Ivy, one of the polishes from my December Maven It Girl Box to share with you today. This is my favorite from the maven box, and I couldn't wait to try this after I got it. Ivy is a sapphire blue with tons of duochrome shimmers that change from blue to pink/purple depending on the angle and light.

Looking at it from straight on, the color of the shimmers in the center of the nails is predominantly blue, while the edges show just a bit of the pink/purple. The more you tilt your hand, the more you will see of the pink/purple. The duochrome shimmers are hard to capture on camera, but they are less shy in real life. This color is absolutely beautiful, but I did run into some issues with the formula. This turned out to be quite sheer, and I needed 3 to 4 coats to get the coverage that you see. Dry time is also a little slower, typical for this number of coats.

Julep Maven December 2012

Hi you guys! Hope your holiday season has been festive and fun so far. I'm currently off from work and that mood of relaxation has seeped into all I do, making me extremely lazy. As a result, I'm falling a little behind on my blog posts. Let's see if I can catch up a bit. :-)

Today, I'm excited to show you my December Julep Maven box. This month's theme is glitter and glow, perfect for this time of the year. For this month, I went with the It Girl box instead of my default Boho Glam because I wanted the extra polish instead of the warming foot scrub.

Everything arrived nicely wrapped in the usual black Julep box. The nail polishes for It Girl this month are Harper (full coverage mermaid blue glitter), Ivy (sapphire micro-glitter metallic), and Vivien (full coverage champagne gold glitter). As a bonus, this month's boxes also comes with a create-your-own cabochon ring and a peppermint candy. I'll have some swatches and reviews of my favorite of the three colors up shortly.

If you are wondering about Julep Maven, it is a subscription program that normally retails for $19.99 monthly with free shipping. Over at Julep.com, you can take a style quiz to determine your personal style. Every month, you will receive a Maven box that best fits your style filled with over $40 worth of Julep goodness. The program is flexible, allowing you to skip any month free of charge, send a box to someone else, or switch your box to a different style. And you can cancel anytime.

To join and get your introductory Julep Maven box for only ONE CENT, just click HERE, select the Become a Maven tab, and use code PENNY at checkout. The code is available for a limited time.

** This post contains my referral link. If you click on the link and sign up, I will earn credit towards free Maven boxes.

Zoya Lovely Spring 2013 Collection Preview

Hi lovelies! I'm so excited to have information for you on Zoya's new spring collection, comprised of six sweet and soft colors. We have seen some of the colors before as part of the limited edition Peter Som and Zang Toi Fashion Week trios, and it's wonderful to see them back now as part of the permanent collection.

I'll link to my swatches and reviews once those are up. (All info and images are courtesy of Zoya.)

Zoya Lovely
Beauty is a lovely state of mind

Lovely, just LOVELY!

Spring is awash in six soft and lovely new Zoya shades including three dewy metallics and three fresh blooms of cream. Poetic in nature, this collection is sure to capture the beauty of the season like no other....

Zoya Lovely – spRING 2013

Piaf (ZP652) - Fresh Forsythia Yellow Metallic - Full Coverage (Originally designed for Fashion Designer Zang Toi)

GeiGei (ZP651) - Blushing Cherry Blossom Pink Metallic - Full Coverage (Originally designed for Zang Toi/SS13).

Julie (ZP650) - Soft Wisteria Purple Metallic - Full Coverage (Originally designed for Zang Toi/SS13).

Blu (ZP653) - Lucky Hyacinth Blue Cream - Full Coverage

Neely (ZP655) - Earliest Spring Green Cream - Full Coverage (Originally designed for Peter Som/SS13).

Jacqueline (ZP654) - Perfect Magnolia Nude Cream - Full Coverage (Originally designed for Peter Som/SS13)

Shipping January 01, 2013

Ultra long-wearing, nail lacquers by Zoya are BIG5FREE - all formulas are completely free of harmful industrialchemicals such as toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin and dibutyl phthalate (DBP)that are known to cause cancer and birth defects.

Zoya Lovely$8 (US)

NCLA Call Me For the After Party

I can't believe it's already less than a week until Christmas! I love this time of the year. Everything's so festive, I'm off from work, and it's just the most happy and relaxing time of the year. :-)

Today, I have the other of my picks from NCLA's Fall/Winter 2012 Collection to share with you. Call Me For the After Party is an icy denim blue with lots of blue and silver shimmers in a metallic finish.

This is a beautiful blue that really stands out on the nails. It has a great formula, applying in smooth and even coats with no clumping or dragging. For a metallic, brush strokes are at a minimum. And I need just the standard two coats for opaque coverage. I'm also a big fan of the NCLA brushes. I feel they have great width and flexibility. The bristles fan out nicely when you press down, so it's easy to get clean polish lines along the cuticles.

You can find Call Me For the After Party on shopncla.com and select retailers such as Kitson, Fred Segal and Harvey Nichols for $16 for 0.5 fl oz.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

NCLA Without Me, There Is No VIP!

Hi, you guys! Hope you had a relaxing weekend while enjoying the holiday season. :-)

Today, I have one of my picks from NCLA's Fall/Winter 2012 Collection to share with you. Without Me, There Is No VIP! is a rich burgundy with lots of shimmers and a smattering of small multi-colored glitters, all in a metallic finish.

This polish is super pretty and definitely wow-ed me on the nails. The rich wine color is on trend for this season and the dusting of glitters brings an unexpected sparkle to the polish. The formula is not too thick, not too thin, and covers the nails in two smooth and even coats. Once it dries on the nails. the little glitter pieces do add some unevenness to the finish, but it is not as noticeable in person. If you prefer an even and shiny finish, some top coat should do the trick.

You can find Without Me, There Is No VIP! on shopncla.com and select retailers such as Kitson, Fred Segal and Harvey Nichols for $16 for 0.5 fl oz.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Butter London Jack the Lad & Scuppered Giveaway!

Hi, lovely readers!

It's the holidays and I wanted to do something special for you guys. As you know, I'm totally loving Butter London's holiday offerings, in particular Jack the Lad and Scuppered. I think these two colors are festive and fun for this time of the year, and they are two of my favorite holiday polishes. So I have brand new bottles of Jack the Lad and Scuppered up for grabs for you guys.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
This giveaway is open to US and international residents, so everyone can participate! :D The only requirement is that you are a follower of this blog. There will be one lucky winner who will receive both polishes. I am super excited to be able to bring you this giveaway, and I hope you enjoy the prizes! <3

Please allow the widget to load in full; it may take a moment. You can view the Official Rules of this giveaway HERE. Feel free to email me if you have any questions: thepolishhideout@gmail.com.

Butter London Scuppered

Hi you guys! Thank you so much for all the well wishes. I'm relieved to be feeling much, much better today. :-)

I've got the last of my picks and my personal favorite from Butter London's Holiday 2012 Collection to share with you. Scuppered is a brownish bronze/copper hybrid infused with gold and pink shimmers and scattered with larger green glitters.

To me, the most fascinating parts of this polish are the unexpected pink shimmers and green glitters, both of which show through clearly on the nails. The formula is typical Butter London, smooth and even, making application a breeze. It is a little thinner on the first coat, but the second coat adds the necessary opacity. 

I have been so taken with Scuppered, I ended up wearing it for my birthday mani earlier this month. I'm always a little nervous when I swatch a favorite polish, for fear that my pictures won't do it justice, and I think it is the case with this one. Perhaps Scuppered is best seen in person in order to fully understand the magic of this polish. :-)

You can find Scuppered on butterlondon.com for $14 for 0.4 fl oz.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Butter London Fiddlesticks

Hi you guys! Sorry I'm a little late with this post. I was not feeling well yesterday, and after a trip to the hospital, I'm now back at home resting and catching up on my posts. :-)

Today, I've got another of my picks from Butter London's Holiday 2012 Collection to share with you. Fiddlesticks is a magenta polish with bright pink and black glitters that dries to a semi-matte finish.

This polish is a little disappointing to me. It looks so sparkly and beautiful in the bottle, but not at all on the nails. In the bottle, you see predominantly bright pink glitters, but on the nails, the gritty black glitters take over. Also, I think I used too many strokes on some of the fingers, which caused the black glitters to clump together and resemble dirt specks. It looks so beautiful in the bottle, I feel like I can't dismiss it altogether just yet. Maybe I will give this another chance in the future and I will use top coat with it.

You can find Fiddlesticks on butterlondon.com for $14 for 0.4 fl oz.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Butter London Jack the Lad

Happy start of the week, lovely readers! I'm super excited to bring you my picks from Butter London's Holiday 2012 Collection. Today, I'm staring off with Jack the Lad, a dark forest green jam packed with tons of blue, green, and gold micro-glitters.

I'm loving this polish, with its beautiful dark green base and prominent shimmers. The micro-glitters in here are the flat, slight-larger kind, so they stand out well against the base. The formula is smooth and even, flowing nicely onto the nails. It is a little thin and I needed three coats for the swatches, but each coat does dry fast, so wait time is tolerably short between the coats.

You can find Jack the Lad on butterlondon.com for $14 for 0.4 fl oz.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.

Nicole by OPI All Is Glam, All Is Bright

Happy weekend, you guys! :-)

Today, I'm wrapping up my picks from Nicole by OPI's Kardashian Holiday Collection with my favorite from the set. All Is Glam, All Is Bright is a densely packed glitter with fine silver, red, and blue glitter particles in a sheer base.

I'm totally loving this polish. I think the color combination for the glitters in this polish are fun and festive, and it looks super sparkly under lights. Formula-wise, this goes onto the nails densely and evenly, and I need just two coats to achieve opaque coverage. It doesn't dry too gritty, although I would use a top coat if you prefer a high-shine finish.

You can find All Is Glam, All Is Bright at select retailers such as Target, Kmart, and Ulta for a retail price of $7.99 for 0.5 fl oz.

** This post contains a product that was provided to me by the company for honest consideration. How I obtain the products does not influence my opinion. For more info, please view my Disclosure Policy.