Thursday Three - Noella's Picks

Hi WPs (stands for Wicked Pretties), Happy Labor Day Weekend! 

This week I’m going to get a little biased and go all AVON on your asses. Yes, I know it was just a matter of time since I signed up to sell, but I am now for real crazy about AVON’s offerings. I treated myself to some “research related” purchases with my first order and wanted to say a little bit about my favorites from the bunch.

Nailwear Pro Polish in Vintage Boutique

Not only is the muted grayish brown color quite chic right now, but the formula also happens to rock. It applied evenly and smoothly, dried quick and hasn’t chipped (yet). A nice, opaque finish after three coats. An added bonus which has recently become trendy in upscale nail companies is “Three Free” meaning that this polish is non-toxic, (made without three known harmful ingredients, Formaldehyde, Toulene and DBP). Also paraben free, this polish is on par with designer ones that cost literally five times as much!

Super Extend Mascara

I’ve never been one for the new-fangled, nubby, uniform, rubbery mascara wands, but I wanted to give this a chance. Whaddya know-- It’s great! I’m left clump-free, rocking demure, featherlike lashes. And no smudges even though I sweat like a sow in heat, (*pause* for mental image of Noella wallowing, panting in the sun-baked mud, very much as a sow would). I’m very stubborn about new mascaras and I don’t like to waver from my two Clinique favorites. I like this one though, and I will delight in using it as an every day staple.

Super Shock Liquid Lip Shine in Melon

So, besides this lip gloss’s supreme shine and lovely scent, I could basically kill a man with the packaging. So that’s an added safety feature. I’m not kidding around here, it’s literally the size of an Oscar Mayer Wiener (My baloney has a first name…). So part billy club, part cosmetic, hmmm are we onto something here, Avon? Maybe next it will be a switchblade eyeliner? Kidding aside (It's HUGE), this is a highly pigmented, shiny, un-sticky gloss. The wand is honestly so massive I could easily paint the house (2 coats) and that makes it a little clumsy to apply. I'll live though-- I still really recommend it.




Avon's products so far seem to be the poster children of affordable quality. Though the packaging isn't as sleek or sexy as some of my favorite brands and I am still an Avon beginner, I look forward to trying more bits and letting you all know what's what! 
Want some Avon delights of your own? http://www.youravon.com/noelladelaney has all the products I've mentioned and waaay more!


-Noella

If You a Fly Girl, Get Your Nails Done

Even if you have no interest in beauty trends, it is very unlikely you haven’t noticed that flashy nails are totally in. You can’t flip through any magazine without coming across an ad for those colorful, patterned nail polish sheets. And if you have been into a Sephora lately, you’ve seen their giant display of O.P.I, glitter and nail stickers.

I’m not the trendiest girl in the world, but I have hitched a ride on this bandwagon with the giddy glee I felt at age twelve when my mother finally allowed me to buy that iridescent, teal nail polish I’d been eying for months.

When I was younger, wearing a nail polish that was anywhere outside the pink/red range was pretty much unheard of. Not to mention near impossible to find. I used to paint my nails with White-Out and decorate them with Sharpies. I remember drooling over the green, silver and blue Urban Decay selections every time my mother would drag me to Wal-Mart. (Obviously before UD transitioned into a prestige line.) She thought they were hideous and disgusting, and she refused to buy them for me. Eventually, as mothers often do, she caved in. Oh, the pure bliss! (We would have this fight again a few years later when I wanted to dye my hair those same colors.) 

A lot of the time I would paint my nails just to hide the acrylics or the jeweler’s rouge lodged under them from one of my many art projects. But I just loathed pink and I didn’t want to be seen wearing something so girly. (Now I cannot get enough pink in my life.)

But today, instead of hiding the remnants of my art projects, I can turn my nails into an art project of their own. Polishes are available in any color you can dream up, bottled, in pens and in prints on sheets. 

Personally, I'm really feeling mixed metals right now. My toes are bronze with gold and mirrored embellishments, and my fingers are clean, shiny copper with silver tips. As it is also trendy to paint one or two nails in a different color than the others, I have painted my ring fingers silver with a copper tip. I have dubbed this look, "the Sixth Cents," because the colors remind me of pennies and nickels. Get it? Well, at least I amuse myself.

xoxo Melissa