Smile! for [Haul] November 2011 Black Friday Edition

Black Friday and Cyber Monday just finished! (: Did you guys buy anything? Hopefully you weren't a part of that pepper spraying for Xbox 360's that I heard about at that Walmart in LA. Jeebeeies, that's pretty scary!

On a much brighter note, this year was the first year that I participated in the Black Friday sales. I went to Ontario Mills and then near the afternoon, went on over to South Coast Plaza to do some looking around after a very restful nap in the early afternoon. I arrived with company at around 10PM or so at Ontario Mills. We waited in the cold until 11:30PM and then everyone swarmed in. May I first say that I have never experienced crowded up to the point where we're like sardines. I honestly didn't have a preference because all the things that I wanted to buy, have already been bought and I just needed to ask for a price adjustment from the cashier. This year was to solely experience the whole Black Friday.....I'm trying not to say fiasco, but it seems like the word fits quite nicely. There was a point where when Abercromie and Fitch opened up and people rushed in, I was quite literally lifted and squished into someone so tightly that I was in the air about a good minute and then finally put down. As my high school friend would say, "Awkward flying turtles!" Oh well, besides that, all and all it was a good experience. The only thing I bought were some H&M purple tights for about 5 or 6 dollars, while waiting in line for about half an hour, which doesn't seem very worth the wait, but I was going to wait for someone anyway, so I figured it'd be fine. Well, that's enough for story time. Let's get into the haul. (:

This month, I've finally been purchasing pieces that I've been wanting to get for awhile.

- trench coat [ check! ]
- chunky brown belt [ check! ]
- statement jewelry [ check! ]
- red cardigan [ check! ]
- leopard print scarf [ check! ]
- ankle boots [ check! ]
- grey tights [ check! ]
- eye shadow primer [ check! ]

Yay! (: So that's all the things that Santa doesn't have to get me for Christmas this year. What are some things that you want for Christmas?

First up is my wonderful discovery of the wallet-friendly store Wet Seal, at least it's quite wallet friendly when their clothes are on sale. (: In their clearance section, they were actually having a buy one and get another for a penny sale. I clearly took advantage of that. Haha.

[Right] $15

[Left] $0.01 (:

[Left] $16
[Right] $0.01 (:








I also bought some things from Forever 21 as well. Of course..right? Haha. Although, in my opinion, Forever 21 doesn't really have Black Friday deals. They mainly just have the buy one get one half off in the sale section. But on another brighter note, I finally got a trench coat that I liked + my size + a price that I could afford, so at that point I just grabbed it and then instant LOVE! Haha. :3





[Left] $6.80
[Right] Belt - $8
Jewelry - $5.80/each








I got these ankle boots from Styles for Less. (: I did a COD entry with them here. They were less than $30 too! (: Thank you Styles for Less VIP card. (Scroll all the way down for full details of how the VIP card works.)
















From Sephora, I got this brush wand that was $10.
[Left] Close up of how the brushes in the wand look

From HauteLook, I made my first purchase of Urban Decay's Eyeshadow Primer that was also $10, but with shipping it came out to be about $16.













For those that can afford to shop at more higher end places, but still need to watch their spending, Banana Republic is a very good place to buy wardrobe pieces from during Black Friday. My few of my friends bought trench coats from there where normally the retail price would be around $200, but besides of the Black Friday sale, they were about $110 instead. I, myself also bought a T-shirt from Banana Republic that was $10 from the clearance section, but after the Black Friday deals was about $5. Yay! (:

Smile today!

Smile! for [Haul] October 2011

So since I don't really buy many pieces every time I go shopping, I figured that sharing my hauls every week or every month would be better, so let's try this out! ...Usually I spend it on food. (Cue the corny cartoonish, innocent smile, complete with the sound effect ding!) Although, I'll figure out a better schedule once I try this out a few times.

In October, I've actually bought more things because it was when all the sales and Halloween sales came up. It's usually like that for me in October, so usually I won't really buy as many things. Also because my nail art obsession started around the beginning of fall, so it's very obvious that I went nail polish hunting throughout the entire month of October. I've had friends borrow a lot of my nail polish too because I'm growing quite a mini army of them. Heh heh. :9

[Top Left] Express - $30
Found it in the Clearance section, normally it would've been much more expensive. It's very soft and versatile for Fall and Winter layering to keep you nice and warm. (:

[Top Right] PopKiller - $32
I was on the fence with this dress, but when I tried it on, it totally fit like a glove. I'm a tiny person and the fact that I found a dress that had a waist that fit perfectly and shoulders that was stretchy made me super smiley faced. The dress had a very European feel too. Currently, I'm on the look for a nice, thick brown belt, for this dress. (:

[Bottom Left] Styles for Less - $14.99
I'm very happy to have found such a bright, plaid shirt. With a simple white top on the inside and some darker pants, it's a nice outfit to go out with your friends. It's very Western as well, don't you think?

[Bottom Right] Forever 21 - $25
Doesn't it look very office like? I bought it when my friends and I were buying items together for the shipping deal that was over $21 purchase get shipping free, not that any one of use needed help with that, but it seemed like a fun thing to do together. (: It's very business-formal with a blazer and some tights, and matches well with black heels. Now if only I can find the ideal blazer to go with it.........

[Left] Styles for Less - $20

[Right] Styles for Less - $20

I've been wanting Capri's for the longest time, but it seemed difficult to find them around this season at a price that I accepted. Since I found these two in the sale racks of Styles for Less, I absolutely felt like I needed to get them. :3

[Left] Generation V - $18

I was shopping around with my friends when I found these heels. The size for this brand runs a lot smaller than I thought, but the price was definitely something that I appreciated, since they had fitted so well and were the kind of heels that could pull off a casual look and a formal look as well.

[Right] Styles for Less - $30

Boots are very in style right now, and the fact that normally boots go for at least $50 made me think about these boots even more. I liked the distressed feeling of the boots and how the buckles on the side weren't over the top, but nice and simple.

[Top Left] Styles for Less - $2/each (Blending Eye Brush - Foundation Brush - Eyelash Curler)
I'm not a make-up person, but I do go all out for costumes on Halloween and whatever Expo that I happen to decide to go to. These brushes were cheap and are a very helpful addition to that endeavor.

[Top Right] 99 Cents Store - $0.99
My friends and I were wandering the 99 Cents store when I found this great find! I absolutely love skinny ties, even though I have yet to find a use for them, but for 99 Cents and the last one left, I didn't see the harm in purchasing it. (:O

[Bottom Left] Styles for Less - $6
My previous wallet was a My Neighbor Totoro wallet and I absolutely didn't find a need to part with it, but I couldn't deny how fat and unpractical it was getting to carry it around, so I've been looking around for a replacement that was longer. Perhaps my wallet was glaring at me then for a different reason. I found this next to the counter at Styles for Less and I've been using it ever since I bought it, with my Totoro one safe in my bedroom. (:

[Bottom Right] same as Bottom Left



And then the additions to my nail polish army! Maybe I'll do all of the swatches of the colors I have in a future bloggy entry.















I actually haven't used all of them yet, but Confetti's Silver Slippers is a really nice shiny silver without having sparkles in the polish. I used it for a Catwoman costume for Comikaze Con for her claws, which reflected nicely in the pictures. It's also good for details with nail art.

I love love LOVE the Sinful Colors' Hazard. It's a very coral, muted orange and currently my favorite nail polish color. (:

Salon Perfect's Glow in the Dark polish is extremely sheer and needs at least 4 coats to make the glow in the dark effect visible. Fortunately, since I'm only going to use this polish for Halloween purposes, it's slightly forgiven.

Most of these polishes, I found at either drugstores, Target, Walmart, or local nail salons that had a cabinet in the back where they made the polishes $3 a bottle, which isn't bad at all.

And since October is the month of costume buying. Here are the costumes I got this year. I ordered another one that was super cheap on Yandy after Halloween because let's face it, it's the best time to get a costume afterwards because of all the cheap deals you can get. I will be getting that costume some time this week and I'll share it in an upcoming costume collection bloggy entry. (:

[Left] Facebook Store -$55
I've mentioned this before in a previous entry that this was my Halloween costume this year and it's from a Facebook boutique called Jessie Shops.


[Right] Leg Avenue - $20
I actually got this costume cheap through connections, but I would really suggest to get Leg Avenue costumes when they're on sale AFTER Halloween when they're having blowout sale in the costume boutiques that pop up all over town or definitely online.

That's it for October's haul. (: Hope you enjoyed it and had a very fun Halloween!


Smile today!



[Colorful Links]

Express
Official Site
Twitter
YouTube
Facebook

PopKiller
Official Site
Twitter
Facebook
Flickr
Blog

Forever 21
Official Site
Twitter
YouTube
Blog
Facebook

Styles for Less
Official Site
Facebook
Twitter

Confetti
Official Site
Facebook

Sinful Colors

Salon Perfect
Official Site
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube

Comikaze Con

Jessie Shops

Yandy
Official Site
Facebook
Blog

Leg Avenue
Official Site
YouTube
Twitter
Facebook

Smile! for [Nail Polish] Walmart Haul and Review

Happy Friday! How are you all? I went to Walmart yesterday and picked up a few things as well as doing researching for the pricing of nail polish. This is what I picked up!


[Haul]

The total for these two things was $5.71, which I thought wasn't bad.

I've been very eager and looking around for glow in the dark nail polish and when I saw that this one was $2.98, I have to say I was quite excited. On the back of the Salon Perfect bottle they even suggest to "Shake Gently" and "Apply "2-3 coats." Even though the nail polish container looks like bad packaging, there's still an average amount of nail polish within the bottle, so no worries there, although I do wish that the packaging design wasn't so wasteful.

[Colorful Tip] As it turns out, there's a shelf at Walmart of NYC polish that's 93 cents. It was quite clear to me that there were many people to took advantage of this cheap pricing considering there were only 4 bottles left on that part of the shelf.

[Review]

For the cotton pads. They were very soft, but they also come apart quite easily when they're dry. On the other hand, since they were $2.27 for 160 pads, I'd be willing to go back and buy more when I run out, but ideally, I'd like to try some more brands to see which one is more worth while.

For the glow-in-the-dark nail polish, I discovered ups and downs with it because the friendly suggestion on the back of the bottle "Apply 2-3 coats" is a definite understatement. Even with 3 coats, I couldn't see the nail polish very well. Normally when I apply nail polish I wipe the application brush on the inside on both sides, but with this nail polish I had to apply about 8 coats while wiping the brush on one side to give my nails a very heavy coat. And even through all that effort, couldn't get my camera to pick up the glow-in-the-dark effect. Sad. ;^;

[Sidenote] I apologize for the my nails' appearance, they're horrendous because when I cut my nails the other day, I cut them rather shorter than I wanted to. Not going to multi-task when I do that next time. So much for cutting nails and watching How I Met Your Mother at the same time.........

On the bright side, the polish during the day time doesn't give your nails a very strange color, it's a very light, nail-toned color with the small tint of pastel green in some angles. In other angles, it just looks like you just applied clear polish on.





Ideally, this is the polish I'd like to find. (: Isn't it cool?











That's it for this haul and review post! Hope it was informative in some way!

Smile today!

Smile! for [Nail Polish] Target Haul and Review

That's quite a wordy title..isn't it? I apologize! I'll try to make them more interesting!

Recently, I went to Target and acquired nail polish! (: Here they are! -insert jazz hands-

[Haul and Review]
The total for all three of these was a little under $10.50, which I don't mind since normally the nail polish prices that I see are around $6 or $8 each. All right! So, the line up is....

NYC's Mulberry Street is a light beige that has a little bit of a shimmer to it (left)

Revlon's Sunshine Sparkle is a very creamy transparent pastel yellow. (middle)

Revlon's Gold Coin is a very sparkly gold. I bought it thinking that it'd be a very nice detail color to give the nail art that I want to try out a nice sparkle of color. (left)

At every Target store in the make up section, there's a random shelf somewhere that has nail polish that is less than a dollar! I'm assuming every Target store because all the Targets (total of 7) that I've been to, have it. The quality of the polish isn't any worse compared to the ones I've come across with. (mine and friends' nail polish) So no worries! NYC Mulberry Street (left) was actually 94 cents, which is the polish that I like best from this haul because the brush makes application very user friendly, especially since I'm a nooby at this. ^^''

[Colorful Tip] Revlon polishes are very translucent, so they'd need average about three coats. It's come to my attention of some complaints for Revlon polishes that they chip very easily, but so far I haven't really had any problems with it, but just in case, have a clear coat on top of it to seal it all in. (:

[Plans]
The Revlon Sunshine Sparkle (middle) is for the Despicable Me Minion nail design that I mentioned in the previous post.

Despicable Me Minion Nails by 05saramd

The NYC Mulberry Street (left) and Revlon Gold Coin (right) is for a leopard nail design. Lately, I've been interested in leopard print designs. I wondering if it's a phase, but for now, I have a few pieces in my wardrobe that's leopard print and they make me happy. (:

leopard nails by cutepolish

leopard nails by IHaveACupcake at 1:25

There's a number of leopard nail designs on YouTube, but these are the two that I liked the best. If you're interested in looking at their other stuff, I'll link it in the Colorful Links section on the bottom of this post, as well as 05saramd's info.

I haven't decided yet, but I might post an entry of my entire nail polish stash in the future. Yes? No? Maybe? Well, that's it for this post!

Smile today!



[Colorful Links]

cutepolish
YouTube Channel
Blog
Facebook

Elizabeth Celis from IHaveACupcake
YouTube Channel
Facebook
Etsy store

05saramd
YouTube Channel