[Ipsy Bag] Ipsy September 2015 Glam Bag

I got some really great products in my Ipsy September Glam Bag! Check out below for my review on each product! I was super lucky this month to get five items that I really liked!

The Bag:

This months bag is a gold zip up bag (well they all are zip up bags) It has a zig zag texture on the from and it made from faux gold leather. For a gold bag it is not bad (I am not a fan of gold stuff outside of eye shadows normally.)


Ipsy <3 NYX Eye Shadows Trio

The NYX eye shadow Trio in this months bag contains a light shimmer brown, a dark shimmer brown and a matte black eye shadow. Each is .035 oz and the packaging is really cute with a bow on the front of the latch that you open. It has a eye shadow applicator inside the trio (which I never use.) Each color goes on smooth and has a lot of color (See the swatch below.)
I have tried other NYX products and I think these eye shadows have been my favorite out of everything else I have tried. The color was nice, it stayed on my eyes after hours of wear and the colors were not too in your face (like some of the NYX lip colors I have gotten from Ipsy.) Since this is an Ipsy special item there is no retail value on it.

Not Soap Radio Revitalizing Hand/Body Lotion

I had never heard of Not Soap Radio before. I was excited to try it once I read that the frangrance was Persimmon + Plum, since that sounds like an amazing combination for a lotion! I was very happy when I smelled it, and it did indeed smell great! (it also has Bergamot, and we all know how much I love Bergamot!!) The bottle is a sampe size and is 1.2 fl oz. A fill size bottle sells for 18$ and is 12.6 fl oz.
The lotion is creamy and absorbs very well into the skin, leaving a light smell. I am definitely going to check out the other fragrances that they offer!

Crown Brush Oval Concealer Brush (C224)

This is the second Crown Brush I have received in a Glam Bag (the other being the double sided shadow/crease brush a few months ago.) I was really excited to be getting another brush. The hairs on this brush are soft and feel good when apply concealer. So far I dont have any hairs coming out when using the brush (even with a light tug to make sure there were no loose hairs in it.) Application is easy and the brush is a good size to get a good grip on to use.

Formula X Nail Color in Ignite

I can never have enough nail polish, so I am always excited when I get them from Ipsy. So far I have gotten pinks, mint greens and now a really nice burgundy color. Formula X polishes are also wonderful quality from what I have tried at Sephora (in the small sample sizes they have given away in the past.) The bottle I got in my Glam Bag is the perfect nail polish bottle size for me, small at .13 fl oz. One coat, coats your nail well, however two looks best in my opinion.The polish looks nice and goes on smooth.

tre'StiQue  Mini Matte Lip Crayon

I received an eye pencil from tre'StiQue a few months ago in the color Kona. I really liked it, I had never heard of this brand before, but liked how the color went on my eyes and blended. At first I thought this was just another eye color, since the packaging is exactly the same. It is a lip color! (however it looks good on the eyes as well.) This lip color is called Nantucket Nude. I really like nude lips, so I really liked this color on me. The color went on smooth, and stayed on pretty well when I was wearing it. I also like the packaging since it is small and fits easily in a purse or pocket. The size in the Glam bag is .02 oz. and is a sample size. The full sized product retails for $28.

This was a great Glam Bag this month! All the products were wonderful and I got a good variety of products that I will use! If you are interested in trying Ipsy, I would definitely recommend it. It is $10 a month and I have loved it. Check it out here

Influenster Nanoblur Face Lotion

I was lucky enough to be part of Influenster's XOVoxBox! This time I got to try out a lot of really nice products including Covergirl lipstick and foundation, Skinny Girl protein bars and NDeed's Nanoblur High Definition Skin lotion. I am very picky about what I put on my skin, however this lotion went on great and had a really smooth feel to it! the lotion at first felt very thick and I was not sure how I would like it once on my skin, but it went on cool and it was not thick feeling or oily, so that is a huge plus, since that is normally my problem with thick feeling lotions. I am excited to try it out some more and see if it continues to be a good product! But for now I am really liking it! I would give it a try here; Nanoblur

My Trip To Hummingbird Macarons and Deserts

So two weeks ago I was in Chesapeake, Va. for Anime Mid Atlantic. My friend Kara and I had been planning a trip to a bakery close by that makes French Macarons, one of my favorite snacks! I had discovered them on Facebook, and all the photos of their beautifully made Macarons looked amazing, also they made ice cream sandwich ones, which other than the one I had at Disney World last Sept. I had never had, so I needed some of these in my life! 

Kara and I drove over to their location at;

501 Botetourt St

Norfolk, Virginia

 

We got there and were like "are they open? There is police tape everywhere....."

 

 

 

So we hopped online and found out that their building and the buildings around them had roof issues and had to close shop. We also found out they had opened up temporary shop a few blocks away, Kara and I came for French Macarons, we were getting them! So we headed to the other address.  A small building that had been cleared out in a pretty artsy part of town (lots of restaurants and shops, somewhat typical downtown area.)

 

Once Hummingbird Bakery got there and got open we were marveled with so many amazing colors of Macaroons. I looked on the board and ordered what I had chosen and asked what the blue Macarons were. The girl replied with Earl Grey. I think my scream of joy scared her, since as we all know I am a HUGE fan of anything earl grey. So i got two of those, because yum! So the flavors I got were

 

 

Cookies and Cream, Nutella, Rose Water, and two Earl Grey (also a chocolate Birthday cake but that was for a friend and not in the photo)

 

All I have to say was these tasted AMAZING! the cookies were great, a little but of air inside them, not super doughy, and the cream insides were also amazing, yum, yum, yum!

I also got a Rose Berry French Macaron Ice cream Sandwich. Now it was maybe in the 90's where we were at, super crazy hot (also lots of humidity, because the south.) So already ice cream was a good idea, but the taste of these were so good. First off it was a lovely shade of pink. Second it had a great berry taste! 

 

All I can say is I cannot wait to actually go back to Norfolk and visit their actual Bakery which opened back up on June 30th! I only make it down that way about 3 times a year so I am super excited for my next trip there because it is well worth it for the French Macaroon!

So seriously if you are in the Norfolk area, go visit this place! It is amazing and the people who work there are so nice! (even in their bad situation they still had bubbly personalities!)

 

Hummingbird French Macarons and Deserts on FB 

 

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Shut Up and Eat! The Unofficial Doctor Who Series Ate Cookbook

Hey everyone! I have some really exciting news! My newest book, Shut Up and Eat: The Unofficial Doctor Who Series Ate Cookbook is now available on amazon! (kindle edition to come, still working on that!)
This cookbook has been a labor of love since Sept. 2014! I am so excited to have it all done and out there for everyone to see! You can order it here on Amazon! 
 There are a lot of great recipes in this book, inspired by the episode of the newest Doctor Who Series with Peter Capaldi as the Doctor!This book has great illustrations by Ginger Hoesly. Kara Dennison also lent her artistic awesomeness  to the book, and Anita Bruckert did some fantastic food photos s well!

A Bard Days Knight is Out!

So I posted earlier this month that I had a new short story coming out in a fantasy anthology! Well it is out! Here is the link to purchase "A Bard Days Knight" that has my short story "The Twisted Forest" in it. You can also check out other anthologies I am in by following this link to my Amazon Authors Page.

Reaper Miniatures Bones II: The Return Of Mr Bones! Kickstarter

So back in October of 2013 I backed the second Bones kickstarter. I back the first one with friends, you can see that post here. This time I only got add on options and nothing big. I really wanted the plastic mouslings, some dragons and some heroes. The box this time was much smaller. Basically Ill just post some photos of the miniatures I got in this kickstarter and let you know what they are so you can see the quality and how they are made.





These Mouslings are so cute! I have a bunch of metal ones from Bones, but these are so much easier to manage and the detail is great! These mouslinsgs are all fantasy themed. Princess, Wizard, robin hood type, and so on. I cannot wait to paint these!







  Next up I have the new design of Mr. Bones! This guy is awesome. He has great detail, and is one solid piece of plastic!

I also got some Faeries and Centaurs.
















                                                                
And Dragon welplings                                                                                                          

 Got an awesome Shark and some sea nymphs

New Sophie

Also got a heroes pack, these were two of the heroes that didn't have to be put together.


So overall I am super happy with the minis I got. I was REALLY sad that their police box miniature only came in a add on set for 50$. It was not worth the money to me since all the other minis in the set were not ones I would have used and I desperately wanted that police box.

Overall I have been happy with the quality of the Bones minis in their new plastic line. I have so many of the metal figures, and I really like these way better.

Influenster Tide Pods w/ Febreze XoVoxBox

So I received my third VoxBox, my XoVoxBox. I got lots of great stuff to try this time. One of those items being Tide Pods with Febreze. I use the Tide sensitive pods normally, but I was definitely willing to give these a try.
The size sent to me is their refill bag with 10 pods in it. Upon opening the bag I could tell these would make my clothing smell good because the scent that was trapped in the bag filled the air! Always good when stuff that is meant to clean your clothing smells good.
The pods made my clothing smell great and you only need one per load, so it lasts a good ten washes, which is great not having to measure out any washing detergent.
I would definitely get these again!
I received these free for testing purposes!
If you have not heard of influenster, you should check out their webpage!