My Favorite Products from the month of August

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Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (OCC) Lip TARS, SWATCHES, Review and WHERE to buy SAMPLES

OVERALL


Even though these lip tars are packaged and look like lip glosses, do not let that deceive you. These are VERY pigmented and a very little amount of them goes a LONG way.

Another bonus to these is that they are really created to be mixed, so that you create your own colors. That is why OCC sells white, black,yellow, purple, blue and green lip tars. So you could potentially have A LOT of more colors and a lot of fun with these lip tars creating your own unique colors.


My faves so far are NSFW, Memento, and of course HOOCHIE!! LOL


So what do you think of these lip tars? WHAT are your favorite colors if you have already tried them?

TWO BLOG AWARDS!!! THANK U SOO MUCH :)

I received blog awards from two different bloggers.

The first blog award is an "i luv ur blog" award from KOKO. She is a super talented, gorgeous Romain woman. I am huge fan of hers because she use to post her looks on MUG but now she has her own blog. Check out her blog, Special K, it is in Romanian, but she has a translate link in her side bar, so us English reading gals can view it too!! Thanks so much for the award KOKO!!!



I also received an "i luv ur blog", "Sunshine", and "Luv her Style" award from Asian Beautifier. Please check her blog out, Asian Beautifier. She is a beautiful woman, who has great reviews and gorgeous looks on her blog!






THANKS SO MUCH LADIES!! I REALLY APPRECIATE THIS!!!

Since it is Saturday and I have to work at the nursing home today. I will not be able to notify the lovely gals I will nominate for these award. If you see your name CONGRATS! You deserve it!! I will notify everyone on Sunday via a comment through :)

Please pass the award on to some more gorgeous beauty bloggers :)

I nominate:
Turtle Beauty
Read my Life as Carrie
Hey Beautiful
Faces of the Honey B
My Fit Beauty
Mythology20
Make upby Froggistyle73
Jackee's Makeup Bag
Beautification
What Mimi Writes
Pretty Wonderful
The T Collection- She now makes brush rolls too! Review coming soon
For the Love of all Things Girly
Divinely Urban
A Sick Obsession

Continue the beauty cycle and check these ladies out when you have a moment!!

EDIT: NEED A UK CP PLEASE and Blueberry and Lime Pie LOTD!!

Hehe..I am trying to come up with names for all my looks..and for some reason Blueberry and Lime Pie was all I could think of!!  LOL
So this is a colorful look I did with the sleek circus palette. I did it for a BBQ I went to. I am trying to get practise with colors and blending them
I hope you like it!!

EDIT: hehe..I was wondering if any UK beauty bloggers would be willing to do a CP for me? I looking for Illamasqua Faust Lipstick, they don't sell it a sephoria and shipping was insane from illamasqua.com. I will pay u via paypal for all cost or I will do a CP for u in exchange. I have feedback on MUG, MUA and ebay
PLMK in the comments if you can do it..thank u!!










Face:
UD Pore Perfection Primer
Estee Lauder Maximum Cover Camouflage Makeup
MUFE HD 127
Nars Powder in Beach
Mac Select cover-up in NC 20 as an undereye concealer
UD All Nighter Spray
Cheeks:
Gingerly
Benefit Hoola Bronzer
Eyes:
UDPP in Eden
Sleek Circus Palette
Vanilla as a highlight
UD 24/liner in Electric
Lips:
Brave New Bronze
Frankly Fresh l/g

Sugar Pill Burning Heart Quad-Review and Swatches

I just received the Sugar Pill Burning Heart Quad. Mainly because I REALLY wanted poison plum, it is one of the most gorgeous shades of purple I have ever seen and with my disappointment in MAC's shock-a-holic (you can read about it here), I needed something to redeem it.

I also wanted buttercup,after seeing xsparkage do a look with it ( you can see it here, it the first pic in the post) and I really want to start doing more colorful looks, so I said "what the heck, let me get the quad!"

You can buy the quad at Sugarpill.com and it is $34 with $6 shipping. You can also buy the shadows separately for $12. They also sell amazing loose eyeshadow for $12, as well.

In the Burning Heart Quad, there are four brightly colored, extremely pigmented colors.
It includes four colors (descriptions are from Surgarpill.com)

Buttercup-The brightest bright matte yellow with awesome opaque coverage
Love+-Bright red with a semi-pearly sheen! Not for the faint-hearted
Poison Plum-Dramatic purple with a semi-pearly sheen
Flampoint-Vibrant matte orange


FIRST IMPRESSION


This is how is was shipped to me! I thought the box was adorable, with the sticker and the stamp of the sugarpill logo. I also like that the receipt was personalized and signed by Amy, the owner. I love a personal touch like that!

WHATS INSIDE

This is how it was packaged. I love the pink tissue paper and the extra sugarpill stickers and cards. I stick them on my mirror :)

THE BOX

The box it was in is beautiful! I love the art work on it

THE PALETTE

I also love the art work on the palette case. It is a very sturdy, thick case with a magnetic closure and mirror

SWATCHES

BUTTERCUP

LOVE+

POISON PLUM  luv luv luv

FLAMPOINT


ALL TOGETHER



OVERALL

I think this palette is defiantly worth the money. I have not seen any shadow with this amazing pigmentation. The shadows are NOT soft or chalky. They go on very smoothly and are SUPER vibrant. These swatches were a breeze to do. I would even go as far as to say that some of these shade are more pigmented then some MAC shadows and defiantly better than any color in the 120 or 88 palette. Even though they are bright and pigmented you can still swipe the brush over you eye to get the full effect, you do not have to to pat or do any special ttechniques to get the color to show up. If you love color or need some good quality colors added to your collection, then this is sooo your palette

I can not wait to do looks with this palette! I hope I have some time soon to play with it soon!

What do you think of the palette?

Another LOTD with the 88 Warm Palette and UD has a sale!

I am loving this palatte..LOL
You may have seen this pic in few other places..lol...I wore this when I went to go vist my family in MA.
I hope you like it!!

 BTW..URABAN DEACAY is on Hautelook.com..the sale starts at 8am western time, 11am eastern time
I have pick up some really nice UD liquad liners for $5 and they always have eyeshadows at a discounted price. The sale is up to 75% off!!
SIGN UP AND CHECK IT OUT HERE

The link will give me some credit too!! thanks so much ladies!!









Face:
UD Pore Perfection Primer
Estee Lauder Maximum Cover Camouflage Makeup
MUFE HD 127
Nars Powder in Beach
Mac Select cover-up in NC 20 as an undereye concealer
UD All Nighter Spray
Cheeks:
Instant chic
Stereo Rose
Eyes:
UDPP in Eden
88 Warm Palette
Teddy Kohl liner
Dior Show Mascera
Lips:
Jazzed l/s
Fashion Whim l/g

MAC to NYX Dupe list

ARE THEY REALLY THE SAME?

Hey Everyone! I found this NYX to MAC dupe this from Specktra. Above are pitcures of NYX Atlantic and MAC Freshwater, which are clamied to be dupes of each other, but will soon see if this is true!

I thought it would be neat to do a NYX to MAC dupe series, so the ones highlighted on the list in yellow are MAC shades that I own (highlighted in green I am getting soon) and I will buy the NYX shades, to see how close of a dupe they really are, take pictures, swatches, and write a quick review, so you can judge for yourself before buying either one of the shadows.As I buy more MAC shadows (my collection is always growing) more will be added! So what do you think of this idea?

I will also put a link in the sidebar of my blog so can quickly referance the the list and the dupes, as I post them.

Hope you enjoy the list!!

PS Some may be on the list twice..sorry...

NYX White = MAC Gesso
NYX Frosted Flakes = MAC Shroom
NYX Nude= MAC Bisque
NYX Burgandy Pearl= MAC Star Violet
NYX Pacific= MAC Moon's Reflection
NYX Morocco= MAC Deep Truth + Contrast
NYX Deep Purple = MAC Satelitte Dream
NYX Seafoam Green = Moodring{heatherette trio}
NYX Frosted Lilac = MAC Beautiful Iris
NYX Irises = MAC ELectric EEl
NYX Violet = MAC Hepcat
NYX Mermaid Green = MAC Humid
NYX Beauty Queen= MAC Nocturnelle
NYX Purple = MAC Parfait Amour
NYX CHERRY = Passionate
NYX Luxor = MAC Star n' Rockets
MAC Viz A Violet (pigment): NYX Ultra Pearl Mania Purple
NYX White = MAC Gesso
MAC Coppering = NYX Copper
MAC Cranberry = NYX Rust
MAC Amber Lights = NYX Golden
MAC Carbon = NYX Black
MAC Juxt or Golden Olive = NYX Springleaf
MAC Girl Meets Boy = NYX Antique Gold
MAC Swish = NYX Spring Flower
MAC Parrot = NYX Ocean
MAC All That Glitters = NYX Champagne (ES 10)
MAC Naked lunch = NYX Sahara (ES 18)
MAC Vellum = NYX Opal (ES 45)
MAC Rose Blanc = NYX High light (ES07)
MAC heatherette trio 1 (Moodring...green shade): NYX Seafoam green
MAC Electric Eel: NYX Irises
MAC Hepcat: NYX Violet
MAC Nocturnelle: NYX Beauty Queen
MAC Parfait Amour: NYX Purple
MAC Passionate: NYX Cherry or Red Head
MAC Star n' Rockets: NYX Luxor
MAC Viz A Violet (pigment): NYX Ultra Pearl Mania Purple
MAC Deep Truth or Blue Storm: NYX Atlantic
MAC Mythology: NYX Jazzy Bronze
MAC Expensive Pink: NYX Wildflower
MAC Swimming: NYX Kiwi
MAC Kelly Green pigment: NYX Kiwi
MAC Cocoa: NYX Beanie
MAC Rose: NYX Hot Pink
MAC Rose Pigment: NYX Flamingo
MAC Beauty Marked: NYX Lake Moss Trio -Purple shade
MAC Contrast: NYX Lake Moss Trio -Blue shade
MAC Lucky Green: NYX Lime Green
MAC Bright Fushia pigment: NYX Cherry
MAC Easter: NYX Yellow
MAC Beige-ing shadestick: Yogurt NYX Jumbo eye pencil
MAC Steamy: NYX Jungle Fever
MAC Twinks: NYX Walnut Bronze (a little lighter than Twinks)
MAC Mothbrown: NYX Root Beer
MAC Golden Olive pigment: NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in Lime
MAC Satin Taupe: NYX Iced Mocha
MAC electra: NYX silver
MAC Aquadisiac: NYX Jade (better than the MAC one)
MAC Satellite Dreams: NYX purple
MAC freshwater: NYX Atlantic
MAC Down Brown: NYX Dark Brown
MAC Nile = NYX Navy
MAC Solar White = NYX Barely There
MAC Eyeypopping = NYX Lime Juice
MAC Orange = NYX Golden Orange (shimmer)
MAC Clear Blue Sky = NYX Azur
MAC ricepaper = NYX frosted flake

MAC woodwinked= NYX Deep bronze
MAC shroom: = NYX frosted flakes
MAC satin taupe = NYX iced mocha/toffee/root beer

Went to a Wedding this weekend! PICS, LOTD, OOTD- PIC HEAVY

It was my best friend's little sister's wedding (who I also work with at the nursing home). Me and my boyfriend went together. It was soo much fun!! Me and my best friend have been friends since kindergarden and I love and miss her dearly. When she got married, she had a baby and she moved to NY and with school and work (between the two of us, she is in nursing school too) it is so hard for us to see each other. I got to see a lot of people I do not get to see all the time, whom I miss dearly. I hope you enjoy the pics!! Let me know if you have any questions

GETTING READY

This is everything I used, minus the falsies..I just can not seem to get them on!!



Ring from Forever 21



NAILS: China Glaze Lubu Heels..I think it just might be my new fav..I LOVE it!!


EYES: NARS Rajasthan Eyeshadow Duo 



I finally got my hair cut!! It feels soo much better..it is not any shorter, but she thinned it out a bit and trimmed it



CHEEKS: Mac Instant Chic and Stereo Rose
LIPS: Chanel Dragon and Forever 21 Lipliner in Berry




DRESS: Forever 21-$20
SHOES: EBAY ( you can see them better in the pic below)

PICS FROM THE WEDDING



My friend Barb ..she just found out she is preganat and I am soo happy for her..I luv her!


MY best friend who lives in NY now..I miss her SOOO much..



The bride and groom's first dance


My best friend's son. Isn't he a cutie?


Me with the bride and groom


I luv this pic, it was just a random pic of them on the dance floor



Me and Barb again!! luv this girl..we work together and we are both in nursing school.




The cake


My best friend's and bride's older sister, my best friend and me


My friend Sandra from high school and of course, ME!

GAGA-LIOUS

HONESTLY, who does not love GAGA! I think she is super creative, talented and gorgeous. Her Vanity Fair pictures came out recently, along with a pretty interesting article on her. She has an odd take on the world, as you will read some of her quotes from her article, in between the pics, but that's why  LOVE her so much. She is who is and has no apologies for it!!

BTW I am lovin that tattoo on her!



“I have this weird thing that if I sleep with someone they’re going to take my creativity from me through my vagina.” -GAGA





“I’m perpetually lonely. I’m lonely when I’m in relationships. It’s my condition as an artist.” Regarding men, she says, “I’m drawn to bad romances. -GAGA





Gaga talks candidly about her drug use and recalls her ultimate low point: “I was completely mental and had just been through so much.”




I really just wanted to share the pics with you, but I thought throwing in some quotes would be interesting too!! Aren't the pictures beautiful?? I really LOVE her sense of style and individuality!

You can read more about it on Vanity Fair- HERE or you can pick out the magazine with the full article, which is out already.

Nursing School Questions Answered-LONG, but INTERESTING post

Happy Friday Ladies!! I am sorry this is not a makeup or beauty related post, but I promise that I have a TON of those coming!

As some of you may have read in my previous Back to School post, I am going into my second and final year of nursing school. It has been quite a journey for me, and I know that some of you are also going back to school soon or may be thinking about, so I asked you if anyone had any questions about nursing school or just school in general. I thought this might be a helpful post and one that gives you a little in sight into who I am as well. So here are the questions that some of you have asked me and I threw in some questions that others have asked me on MUA and MUG.

I also added in some nursing school  humor and pics to help break up the reading too



Why nursing? Why not stay in Finance?
This is a long answer, but I feel like you need hear the whole story as to why I wated to change careers.
When I was in high school I joined the Allied Health program, where you can become a C.N.A (certified nursing assistance) in high school, for free. I really liked the program and being an C.N.A but I didn't know if nursing was for me. After high school I went to my local community college with every intent of becoming a nurse (they have a great nursing program there), but I had only been a C.N.A a few months and still was not sure if this was for me, plus the pre-requisites were killing me (I am not a science fan at all!), so I started to think that maybe nursing was not for me. I was always really good at math and a thought with a major in Finance, I would get a really nice, stress free cushiony job (I was kinda right)

So I took as many classes as I could with the community college and then transferred to a four college to get my BS in Finance. While in college, I was still working as a C.N.A and just got a job at an Alzheimer nursing home. I fell in LOVE with the job. I loved my patients, co-workers and even the family members there. YES, the Alzheimer's disease is very difficult to deal with, but you learn how to be a form of support for the family members and the patients and while everyone was not always nice to me (we had some very picky family member, you can not blame them, but they did not always express their concerns nicely), people appreciated us at the end of the day and that was one of the BEST feeling in the world. A simple, "thank you for taking such good care of my mom" so made my week, because these residents meant A LOT to me.

My last year in college, I was lucky enough to receive a Finance Co-Op at Pratt and Whitney (a UTC company). I was excited to experience what the finance world had to offer me and I HATED it! I sat all day in front of the computer, doing (IMO) meaningless work, but if I wasn't taking care of a person, or tending to their needs, it seemed meaningless to me. Plus I encountered a lot of rude nasty people, who thought that because I was female, I was not going to get very far in this business. Now I knew not every place would be like this, but I knew most fiance jobs would be eight long hours in front of computer screen and missed my residents soo much.

That is when I knew nursing was for me, I graduated college Dec 2008 with a BS in Finance and started Nursing school, Jan 2009..yeah..I was not playing around. I was blessed to find a banking job that month as well, that was flexible with my schedule.


How long has it taken you to complete Nursing School?
Since I was already pre-nursing, and the hoped to to Finance, I had a lot of my pre-recs already completed and transferred over, like Bio, Chem, Sociology, Psychology, Math, English, and all my electives. All I had left was Anatomy and Physiology 1 and 2, Ethics, Religion and Microbiology. So in total, with summer and winter classes, nursing is going to take me three years, but it will vary by person and it is a sacrifice!


I'm in the Accounting field and I do like it. I've thought about going to Nursing school but feel too old to do it. I'm not sure if I still have the brain cells necessary for this. How hard is it?

I think you are never to old to start anything. There is an LPN at my job, who graduated at 62 with her LPN license from being a C.N.A for over 30 years. We also have men and women of all ages in my class. I think the oldest woman in there is 65. My instructor even became a nurse at 50 and now has here PHD in nursing.
Nursing school is hard, but college is hard. It takes up a lot of your time and you have to be available for two eight hour days of clinical and two lecture days. It a sacrifice, but it is only 2-3 years. Which is a short time if you look at in the grand scheme of things. I know a woman who worked doubles (7am-11:30pm!) every weekend  for 2 years so that she could have the week off for school, but you do what you have to do.

Remember, you are being trained to be in charge of your patients health. You see them all the time and you are their advocate at all times. You adminster their medication and are 100%  responsible for that, so yes, nursing school is hard, BUT BEYOND worth it in the end. If you are in nursing school, you HAVE to be in it for the right reasons.



This comment came from hairandmakeupoverload:  i hated studying and i did accounting and there were so many books to buy especially those you can't buy second hand cos a new edition comes out every year :(  but congrats to you for doing so much studying :p and love your blog so keep up the great stuff :D

Not really a question, but I did want address the book thing. All my books are USED, using the Campusbook website. This site compares prices of the all the books on web and finds you the cheapest price. I did this for both nursing and fiance. For nursing, almost all our books are used for the whole two years, you only have to buy one or two new books. For those books (I even did it for finance and my sis does this for biology, she is a bio major) I buy the edition under. It is soooo much cheaper, with the EXACT same info...seriously, the same info, word for word, only chapter numbers or page numbers my be different, but the info is the SAME! New editions may have new pictures or questions but the material is the same. How much biology has really changed between the two edition, I mean really, the heart is the heart, no matter what edition you read it from. For example, my maternity book brand new cost $110, I bought the edition under, used for $6..that is a pretty big difference in price and it still had the same info as  the new edition because I compared it to my friend's book.




What is the difference between a Nurse and Physician's Assistant program? Why does one go for one profession over another- they both sound very similar to me.
As a nurse you can get you a certificate in nursing, associates degree, bachelor’s degree, and master ’s degree or become a nurse practitioner.

In CT, there is no difference in pay or responsibility (so I am told) between the certificate in nursing, associates degree, or bachelors degree, EXPECT that with a bachelors degree you can become a nurse manger and move up in corporate world of nursing. I also heard that some hospitals in NY are requiring all their nurses to get bachelor degrees now, but I am not sure how that is going.

If you get your masters or doctorates degree you can teach nursing

If you become a nurse practitioner you work under a doctor and you can see patients, diagnosis them and prescribe meds.

There is really no difference between a nurse practitioner and physician’s assistant. My sister wants to be either one of them and she has done some research on it. All it really comes down to is what school and program works out best for you.

There is a HUGE difference between an actual nurse and physician assistant and/or nurse practitioner because nurses can not prescribe meds, or see and diagnose a patient. Nurses are there to teach, handle meds, document on the patient and take care of the patient. When you are a nurse, you know and see the patient way more than any DR. You are truly the patient’s advocate because you see them everyday


I noticed that you are working at a Bank and studying to be a Nurse. I can't seem to find any program that allows one to attend Nursing school at night. All 3 schools I looked at have this Accelerated Program where you finish all requirements in 12 months or 15 months, but you have to attend during the day. They don't even mention anything about part-time classes. How did you find your school?

My school has a night program, but it is not accelerated. The night program takes 3 years vs. the 2 years with the day program. I am lucky enough to have a job at the moment that is flexible with me going to school. So I am going to school during the day and go to work right after school. If you want to go to nursing school, you really have to bend everything to make it fit nursing school. They really don’t offer part time. I found this school by checking out and reading up on all types of school in CT. I visited and applied to several schools before I picked this one. Since I work in the same city as my the school, it just seemed like a better fit for me. I was also lucky to already have a BS in Finance, so some of my electives transferred over, so that was  helpful too. If you already went to college, defiantly make sure that whatever college you are looking into will take transferred credits.

BTW..AEB means As Evidence By and R/t means related to  :)
After taking the Exam and becoming certified as a RN, do you have to "specialize" ?

No, you do not have to “specialize” in anything. When you are in nursing school, you do a bunch of rotations, so you can get a feel for what each area is like. I have already done a maternity rotation, a OR one, GI, and an adult med surgical rotation (which is where you spend a lot of you time) This fall, we do psychology, and go to the psych ward, we also go to an oncology floor, have an ER experience and a burn unit.

Typically, once you pass with your RN, most place want you to have experience as a nurse on a adult med surg floor before they let you on any “specialized” floor (like maternity, nursery, peds), but that will vary by hospital and degree


What are the salaries for RN's?

In CT it is between $60,000-$80,000 depending on where you work and the type of work you want. You can also get bonuses, but this salary varies by states.


Does the reputation of the school make a difference? Does it matter, really, where I go?

No it doesn’t matter to much where you go. One of the better known nursing schools here is a community college. Nursing schools have to all teach the same thing, so matter where you go, you have to learn the same stuff. Just make sure you check out the passing grades. In order to pass my nursing classes, you need an 80 and that is super stressful on me, but at the community college it is a 72..man I wish that was the case for me…lol A good reputation from a collage is good, but at the end of the day, you all have to know the same thing.

Price of tuition and acceptance into the nursing program is also something you should look into. The community college's tuition is much cheaper than the private school I go to, but the community college waiting list is a lot longer and they are much picky with who they pick to be accepted into their program because the tuition is cheaper. At my college, they are not as picky, but the waiting list was not nearly as long, and being a C.N.A really helped me get accepted into  the program



If you have any other question or comments, please feel free to ask me.
Also if you are a nurse, in nursing school, or just in college and you have some more info to add, please feel free. I know some things vary by state and I am certainly no expert, so if you know info on something else, please share.
I hope this was helpful to some people :)