Evil Queen Beauty's First Giveaway!

In celebration of reaching 50 followers on Bloglovin, I am doing my first ever giveaway! I'm really excited and so thankful to all my followers. The giveaway is currently open until the end of the month, which gives you about a week and a half to enter and encourage all your friends to enter too! It's an awesome prize pack filled with lots of pinky, spring-themed beauty goodies!

The prize includes:

• One full size Pop Aqua Lacquer lip gloss in Flowering Fuchsia
• One full size Julep nail Polish in Love
• One Fill size Dex lipstick in Rockaway Rambling Rose
• One mini Too Faced Better Than Sex black mascara
• One set of Salon Perfect lashes with lash glue
• One mini Narciso Rodriguez For Her perfume
• One mini Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb perfume

This is open to US RESIDENTS ONLY. So lets get started! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Thanks for entering, and good luck!

Beauty Boxes: The Good, the Bad, and the Glossy

One of the first things I did when I decided to start experimenting more with makeup and skincare was sign up for some monthly subscription boxes. I wanted a way to try a lot of different types of products from brands that might be new to me without having to commit to buying a full size. Plus, I really like getting packages in the mail. I always say it's like Christmas. 

The first one I found was actually Glossybox, through ICovetThee.com, which is one of the first beauty blogs I started reading and still one of my favourites. Glossybox is by far still my favourite. The quality of the products is higher for the price point, and the amount/size of products is totally worth what I pay each month. I always get about 5 products, some full size and some more of a travel size. I have found some really great brands through Glossybox (Anatomicals and Fresh, to name a few), and I always am really pleased with the type of products given. When you sign up, you let them know your skin and hair type and what kinds of products you like (makeup, skincare, etc) so that the products are tailored for you. Like most beauty boxes, you can also order products you like through the website and leave reviews. By far, I've been most impressed by the products I've gotten through Glossybox. It's super high quality, and totally worth it. It's the first box I recommend to people looking to try new products.

This month's box features Puffy the Eyebag Slayer by Anatomicals (their product names are the BEST - my other favourite by them is a rose-scented body wash called You Need A Blooming Shower); City of Angels nail polish by Lauren B (an emerging brand); Truffle Therapy Serum by Skin&Co Roma (great moisturizer); Colour Fanatic Hair Beautifyer for Coloured Hair; and Kala black eyeliner pencil by Sumita Beauty (which is dooooooooope and exactly the kind of dark black badass eyeliner pencil I've been searching for). Other boxes has gifted me with Fresh and Vichy brand moisturizers, great hair products, exfoliants, and even an eyelash curler and the BEAUTYBLENDER! Winner.

Julep was the second box I signed up for after seeing ads for it. One of the best things about Julep is that you can get your first box free with the code FREEBOX when you sign up (use my link here ). You create a profile based on your colour preferences and style, and each month you get two new nail polish colours and a beauty product (three nail colours if you're an It Girl). As a Maven, you'll also have access to special deals and Secret Shops during the month. One of the best things about Julep Maven is that you can preview what will be in your box and change your profile choice if you aren't happy with that month's colours, and often if they're sending out beauty products, you'll also get to pick what colour you want in that too. 

Julep offers high quality nail varnishes (seriously, they last all week) and products. I've gotten lip glosses, eyeshadow palettes, and their new liquid eyeshadow (and this month, a special candy treat! They sent candy corns for Halloween too). I've always been really happy with the colours, and their customer service is great. I received a broken product only once, and they were quick to replace it with a new one. 

Sign Up to be a Julep Maven here

Wantable came to my attention fairly recently, and I wanted to give it a try. It's more expensive than the other boxes at $32 a month, but boasts high quality luxury products and a more selective tailoring system. When you sign up for Wantable, you choose not only what types of products you like but also colours, textures, and styles - as specific as whether you like metallics or mattes, lipsticks or lip glosses, etc on a like-neutral-dislike scale. I was excited about this system because I'm really picky about the colours I use. 

However, my first box (top photo) was a huge disappointment. I don't wear blue or brown as a rule and two of my products were blue tinted, and the lipstick was more brown than I really liked. After contacting customer service with my disappointment, I learned that you can actually return your box - either completely or partially  - and get a refund. I ended up keeping only one product from my first box and then ordering another one (bottom photo) which was much more satisfactory. I'm still not 100% impressed, but the second attempt was better. But if the whole shtick is that you can be selective about colours, at least let me put in what I absolutely do not want! I ended up emailing them after ordering the second box to make sure I didn't get any ugly blue things again. I'm going to give it one more month to see how the next month is. Wantable also has intimates and accessories options for monthly boxes if that's more up your alley. 

Sign up for a Wantable box here

I also tried Birchbox in the beginning but ended up cancelling - the product sizes were small (only "tester" sizes/packets and barely worth it. The only thing I like about Birchbox is that they have a wide range of brands they work with and an online shop where you can buy fullsizes. 

Overall, I cannot sing the praises of Glossybox and Julep Maven enough. Wantable is still a wait and see, but I loved the concept of subscription boxes. 

Does anyone have any other subscription boxes they'd recommend, or great/negative experiences! Share in the comments! 

From the Queen of Bones: Testing Too Faced Bronzers, Scrubs, and Julep Polish

A while back, my good friend the Evil Queen passed some product my way. I’ve yet to repay her for her kindness but this is a start! Her castaways ended up being some of my favorite products. Now, I’ve never been one for a daily makeup routine, but when I do wear makeup, I go all out. 

A bit of background:

My mother has blessed me with three things; decent skin, big boobs, and a fast metabolism. Only one of those is relevant to this blog post. My skin is neither dry nor oily, I only use face wash 3-4 times per week, and I only break out around that time of the month. I’ve been using Kimberly Sayer’s Almond & Lavender Face Scrub for the last year or so with awesome results. It’s an organic product (you can actually see the chunks of almond in the scrub) and is gentle but effective for all skin types. It’s a great exfoliator and smells fantastic. The Sayer scrub just randomly appeared in my house and no one was using it so I obviously claimed it as mine like any good Queen would. Unfortunately I’ve run low and since I’m an adult still living on a college student budget, I’ve reverted back to St. Ive’s Pink Lemon & Mandarin Orange Scrub, available at your local drug store. It’s not bad. Less exfoliating but still satisfactory for my skin, plus I prefer the smell of citrus in the morning.

 That being said, I don’t do a lot to my face in terms of foundation. I have awesome freckles and I don’t like covering them up. Regularly, I only use my Eucerin moisturizer +SPF and maybe a little bit of concealer under my eyes and on problem areas. I started using BB cream when I do put on a full face of makeup because it gives me light coverage and a nice healthy glow. This is where Christina’s presents come into play. She gifted me a Sue Devitt pressed powder, Too Faced bronzer, Julep polish, Too Faced Beauty Balm, and Marchesa perfume. I began using the Sue Devitt Triple C-Weed Pressed Powder in replacement of my crummy NYC translucent powder with miraculous results. It was still sheer and shine absorbing but gave a much smoother finish on top of my BB cream. 

 I tended not to use bronzer outside of the summer months because I’m so pale it just makes my face look dirty. I also haven’t used bronzer since I figured out how to use it correctly. Now that I’m educated its been working out much better for me. I look less dead in the winter now. I really like the matte finish of the Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer and it smells like cocoa powder. No joke. Its amazing. 

The item I was most excited about that Christina sent me was a Julep nail polish. It was supposed to be the only item I was getting but she tossed in the others for funsies. When I was working much less back in May/June than I am now so I spent a lot of my free time experimenting with nail art and new polishes. A majority of my polishes right now are Revlon or Wet-n-Wild so I was thrilled to have a polish in my collection with strong pigment that I didn’t need to apply 5 coats to achieve the color it was supposed to look like. I was gifted Julep’s  “Brielle,” a really nice, rich pumpkin color. The picture here is literally one coat of polish and then topcoat. My final decision on it is that I’m in love and when I have spare money to sign up to be a Maven (Sign up for monthly Julep Maven boxes here!) , I’m taking that opportunity to chuck all my junky polish and start anew with some more sophisticated colors.

I’ve yet to try the beauty balm (saving it for a special occasion since its such a tiny tube) and I’m not a big perfume person so I can’t speak to the actual notes in Marchesa but I can say it smells really nice. I’ve also tried Not Your Mother’s Kinky Moves Curl Defining Cream as per the Evil Queen’s review and I’m in LOVE. I don’t get the sticky residue I got from other products after touching my hair and I get nice soft curls instead of that gross crunchy look. An added bonus is that it’s affordable and readily available at drug stores.

Stay beautiful,

Bang for your buck: ELF cosmetics

I decided to check out ELF's site because twitter was all abuzz with how great their sales are. And they really are great. I probably spent about $25-30 on both of these hauls, and the second one came with a free complete brush set. ELF has a lot of different palette options for eyeshadows, as well as some great beauty products.

The nail polish cube was maybe one of the best buys out of all this. It was $10, and came with 14 nail polishes. They're mini-sized but great colours and have lasted well on my nails. The one I have is the "party" set, which comes with great pinks, greys/silvers, and greens, but the other sets are really beautiful too and I have a feeling I might go back and collect them all.

My other favourite is the Studio Prisim Eyeshadow Palette, which I have in "smoke", but also  comes in a great set of pinks, and everyday neutrals. The eyeshadows are really beautiful glimmers, and blend pretty easily. They're not so highly pigmented so you'll have to build up the colour if you want it really dark, but I really love the shades and the palette is a great deal, also at $10.

I was a bit hesitant to buy concealer over the internet without trying swatches first, but I took a bit of a gamble and went with their Studio Under Eye Concealer & Highlighter. The coverage is surprisingly good, the colour worked out well, and the highlighter is great for the corners of my eyes. The 2-in-1 thing makes my morning routine so much easier.

The Studio Lip Primer & Plumper is also a great 2-in-1 deal. The plumper doesn't work as well as I'd hoped but has a nice cinnamon-y tingle, and did fill in the lines of my lips. The primer is great, and my lipstick stayed in place all day, also with the help of the Lip Lock Pencil. I really like the Lip Lock Pencil because it goes on clear, which means you don't have to worry about finding matching or coordinating lipliners.

The Eye Refresh worked just okay - I didn't see a huge difference in my dark circles but it does leave a nice refreshing cooling feeling in the morning, which helps me feel more awake. The concealer does a better job at covering up my under eye area.

Stay tuned for part 2!
-Christina

Goth birthday + pink hairspiration

It has always been my dream to have pink hair. I really do want a full head of cotton candy, but a) since my hair is so dark we'd have to bleach the crap out of it and that's expensive and b) I was always at a place of work where that wasn't allowed. So needless to say, I was really stoked to find Bumble & bumble's Spraychalk in Blush, which is the perfect light pink. It's a temporary spray-in colour that shampoos out, and after reading reviews about how good it was on dark hair, I gave it a try. Needless to say, I was stoked about the results. There isn't a ton of colour in one can but I think doing the tips looked really cool, and it was absolute perfect birthday hair. The only problem was that I was too drunk to shower after we got home so the colour got all over my boyfriend's pillows, but since it washes out, its no matter! I wore a beautiful Elizabeth & James dress, and I even matched my nails to it:

(Nails Inc in Onyx Rush, Essie in Sugar Daddy, and Julep in Chelsea. Become a Julep Maven here! I love their monthly boxes, it's so much fun to get new nail colours!)

Unfortunately it's only temporary hair colour, so I'm still dreaming of a full head of pink. One day it'll happen!  Here are my favourite pink hair looks:

Abbey Lee's dipdye

Audrey Kitching is totally to blame for my wanting pink hair

The wonderful Angelina aka ALB

Bad bitches, the lot of them.