Hair Care - Video / Review

   Hello Princesses!  I was sent two complimentary Goody hair products in my Violet VoxBox to test & review.  This is how they are both fitting into my hair care routine, and I've made a video that gives a closer look at the QuikStyle hair brush.

  I have an every-other-day hair washing schedule.  On the days I don't wash my hair, I get to use the headband.

Video

   Woohoo!  Another box from Influester, and another video showing what was inside it!  The contents of the Violet VoxBox were customized depending on who they were sent to.  For me, this is the best box yet - it includes nail polish, and a hairbrush!!  =D

   I was sent these complimentary products in exchange for my opinions; you can learn more about Influenster here!

   After so little buying of STUFF this summer, this month's haul feels HUGE!  I've been quite happy with "shopping my untrieds", but I did pick up some really awesome new goodies as well!

   If the above picture seems a little bare in the upper right corner, that's it is.  I missed a polish!  Fortunately I managed to include it in the "close-up" photo...

Pure Ice Fairy Godmother and Salon Perfect Kaboom.

   These were both found at Walmart.  I've already swatched Fairy Godmother, which I love.  It's a perfect shade of purple and only $2 for a bottle!  Kaboom is a Floam-type glitter dupe, and the only one I found from Salon Perfect's summer neon glitter collection.  I'm really surprised that China Glaze didn't decide to put out these colors under their name, and make them more widely available.  Oh well.  I figure it should be handy for nail art!  Between one polish being a tricky purple and the other a neon these are very hard to photograph, but this quick picture is actually pretty accurate on my screen.

Color Club Beyond, Over The Moon, Kismet, Cosmic Fate, Miss Bliss and Eternal Beauty.

   The entire 2013 Halo Hues collection!  These were a gift from my husband, which makes them even more special!  I had the collection on my wishlist and he snagged them right away (without my knowing) when I found them at a decent price on Amazon.  The colors are awesome and very holographic.  I hope that Color Club keeps releasing more Halo Hues because they are so good for the price!

I♥NP Once Upon A Starry Night, Angel Burp, A Nice Chianti, All Gold Everything, Purple Stuff, 11:59, and (still boxed) Silver Spoons

   I snatched up polishes on my wishlist that were being discontinued when I Love Nail Polish announced them going on sale.  So far I've tried Once Upon A Starry Night and Angel Burp and shared them here.  I really love these polishes, from the super-cute but practical packaging they come in to the pretty bottles with their thin grippy handles.  The shipping was fast, too!  So glad to finally have these pretties in my collection~  These came right from http://www.ilnp.com/.

Cirque Dark Horse, Galinda, XX, Lullaby, Iris, and Kaleidoscope

   Finally, I splurged and bought all the Cirque Colors polishes on my wishlist.  They were actually all in stock at the same time (they never are during a sale... =( sigh!) so I gave in.  Didn't want to miss them if they get phased out or something!  I can honestly say that these babies are STUNNING.  They've been swatched on a lot of great blogs already, but I'll be sharing my own creations with them, too!  I have a sneaking suspicion that photos aren't going to do them justice, though...  These came from http://www.cirquecolors.com/home/.

   So, that's the damage for this month.  So many very nice polishes, it's hard to know what to try next!  If you have any requests for what you would like to see layered, compared, or reviewed in particular leave a comment below!

   Hello everyone!  I'm hosting a fantastic giveaway sponsored by Mont Bleu!  Let's give them a big thank-you for the opportunity because these prizes are awesome, and they are available to everyone following Princessly Polished!  =D  What are you waiting for?  Read on and get to earning those entries!

   First prize - a 20€ Gift Voucher to be used on www.Design-Glassware.com

   Second Prize - a set of Glass Nail Files

   I chose this pretty set as an example to use for second prize, but if pink and purple isn't your thing, that's okay.  Mont Bleu is offering to let you choose your own mini and full size file from their store to create your own set!  If you win second prize you'll be able to choose from...

• Full-size Crystal category (1 item)
• Mini nail files (1 item)

   Check out my review of the glass nail files from Mont Bleu - they are fantastic!

   Third Prize -  a pair of Eyebrow Tweezers

The Rules:

   You should either be 18 years of age or older, or have the consent of your parents/guardians to enter.

   All entries are recorded using the Rafflecopter widget below, and falsified entries will be removed.

   The selected winners will be notified by E-mail and each have 24 hours to respond before another winner will be chosen.  I will put the responding winner in contact with Mont Bleu so they can receive their prize!

   Any questions or clarification needed, let me know!

Beauty Tool Review

   Today I'm talking about the tweezers I was sent for review from Design Glassware by Mont Bleu.  If you didn't see my previous post about their products, click here!  I'm loving those glass nail files!  I really wondered to myself "would the tweezers be as good"?  They look pretty, but what matters most with any beauty tool is functionality.

Eyebrow Tweezers - product page (about $20 USD)

   Design Glassware has many different types of tweezers embellished with crystals, the type I have being listed as "Black Simple II Pink".  They are stainless steel tweezers with a black silicon coating that gives them a very nice, slightly rubberized grip.  They also have two pink "buttons" for an even more comfortable grip, and are accented with matching pink Swarovski crystals.  They come in a slipcase so they won't get damaged while floating around in your purse or make-up bag, and a little rubber ring to keep them in a closed position.

   It isn't easy to photograph rhinestones, but I tried!  The items from Design Glassware look great, I know I keep saying it, but it's true!  Along with their looking good, I was happy to find that the tweezers work perfectly.  Anyone who has ever tried to pluck an eyebrow hair with cheap tweezers, and missed that hair again and again knows that low-grade tweezers are a complete waste of time.  I was able to pluck each hair on the first try with these, as well as invisible baby hairs that I didn't know were there.

   To me, these tweezers from Design Glassware are on-par with my Tweezerman brand tweezers, which have outstanding quality.  They are priced similarly, too.  I never had my "good tweezers" with me in my purse, though, because they are an ugly shade of glittery pink.  These ones are so much nicer to use in public!  Also, I haven't ever seen tweezers with the unique comfort buttons in their handle - it does make them easy to hold.

   So, if you're looking for a new pair of good tweezers, or are familiar with Tweezerman quality and want something similar, but sparkly! I recommend picking up a pair of these.  And here is something just for you: a coupon code for their website!  What will you buy?

Use the code: BLOG for 20% off your order!

   Disclaimer:  This product was sent to me free in exchange for an honest review.  This in no way affected my opinion of it!  All thoughts in this post are my own.  See my full disclosure here.

Review

   When my Influenster Cosmo VoxBox arrived I was happy to see that they included a razor.  My last razor had been serving me faithfully only to have its refill cartridges discontinued.  I knew I was going to have to either hunt down refills for it Online or... be brave and try something else.  So thank-you, Gillette! for giving me a new razor to try!  In fact, I have two razors to test.  A new Venus & Olay blade cartridge was included with the Venus Embrace blade and handle.  So, what did I think of these products?

   First off, the handle.  As you can see in the first image it works very simply - a nice grippy stick with a glittery plastic button that you push forward to pop an old blade off.  Then you can put any new Venus blade on because they are all interchangeable!  As for the overall comfort and ease of use, it's good.  The button stays well out of the way of my hand while using it and the entire handle has a jelly grip.  I've seen a couple other colors this razor comes in, where the jelly grips are purple, blue or pink.  Being the girly-girl that I am I would have chosen one of those colorways instead of green and blue, but that's a small thing.  Razor looks are probably the least important part of shaving, but I love the idea that if you're going to shave with Gillette you can track down whatever handle you like best, and then put your desired blade on that handle.

Venus Embrace

   The Venus Embrace cartridges are 5-bladed and surrounded by moisturizing strips that produce their own sort of shave gel in the shower.  It's actually dubbed "Ribbon of Moisture" by the company.  As soon as the blue ribbon gets wet it starts leaving a slickness on anything it touches and has a stringy consistency.  If you don't rinse your razor off after use this will hold onto any bits of hair or fuzz that land in it.

   I found that this razor gives a very nice shave.  The 5 blades make for a close shave while protecting your skin from nicks.  But I'm not loving the Ribbon of Moisture feature.  It adds a lot of bulk around the blades, and apparently I'm the type of person that would rather have to deal with lathering up before shaving.  Because the moisturizing gel doesn't show up on skin I also had to be extra thorough about rinsing.  When I went to touch up a few spots out of the shower the wet moisture strips left stringies of goo on my skin.  I dry shave with a wet razor, so this doesn't work for me.

Venus & Olay

   On to the head from Olay.  If I thought the Embrace cartridge was bulky this one seems absolutely massive compared to anything else I've used previously!  This is another 5-bladed option, and rather than just a ribbon it has what I would dub "Pads of Moisture", haha.  These are on flexible plastic wings that angle down towards your skin, and you press the razor's head down to get the blades against your skin.  This isn't noticeable while shaving, and it's nice that they designed it in such a way that those moisturizing pads should stay against your skin as they are being used up!

   I like the above photo because it shows how open the blades are from the top side.  The Embrace cartridge is the same way.  This makes it super easy to rinse the razor blades clean!  The Venus & Olay cartridge produces a light lather as you use it which has a faint scent.  Once again this falls into the "not good for dry shaving" boat, but the 5 blades do give a very nice shave in the shower.  Another thing to note about both of these blades is that they need to find a home in your shower where the blades won't rest against anything else.  I've ended up with little chunks of dried gel on whatever happened to be within reach of my Venus razor!

   I will use both of these razor cartridges until they are dulled and actually need replacing, because while I'm not a fan of the "no shave gel needed" feature it isn't horrible.  It does make for a smooth shave and I do believe they left my legs a little softer, so they are fine for use in the shower.  They just aren't cutting it for dry shaving touch-ups.  Gillette included a $2 off refill coupon with this Influenster trial kit so I've used that to pick up some of their basic blades.  Once I get around to trying them I'll post my findings on the blog!  I expect that they will be more to my liking.

   These razors should be perfect for someone who likes their shave gel to come with the razor.  I also think that they would be good for beginners because the 5 blades are gentle to your skin.  I'm loving the fact that everything can be swapped between handles and cartridges.  I'd say that this is an eco-friendly move, and as someone who hates waste and would never go to disposables it's nice to know that I shouldn't ever be left with a handle that I can't get any blades on!  Even though this hasn't become the perfect shaving product for me yet, I have high hopes that it will be.  I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to try something different and hope that you found my review helpful.  Thanks for reading!

   Here's a fun post!  It could also be titled "When ShopRunner Shipping Goes Crazy", or "How I Ended Up With Enough Hair Stuff For Five Women", but those are too long and I'm trying something new.  Instead of posting little hauls here and there (which can end up being often and make it look like I manage a "lookie what I bought todaayyy!!" blog - ugh), I'm going to group them together at the end of each month.  I'm hoping that this will also make me realize just how much stuff I'm buying per month, and notice where my money is going.  Instead of it being a nail polish here, a new hair clip there... I want to fully realize how much stuff I'm acquiring so I know when to reign it in.

   This month it's a lot of stuff!  =D

   Oh, but there are other good reasons, too.  I plan on linking from my haul posts to any reviews or swatch posts I may have done for the items.  (Sadly that didn't happen this month... I was very sick with a cold.)  Or, if the item hasn't been featured on the blog already, readers can tell me what they want to see most and I can try to accommodate by posting about those things first.  =)

   So let's get started!  Follow the cut for more pictures and tales of wild Online shopping adventure!

   I'm still testing out my ShopRunner membership and here are the last few small orders I placed with either Drugstore or Beauty.com (or both).  First I had to buy some more of my favorite dry shampoo:

   Then I snagged a couple of nail polishes:


   Once again nail polish is full of danger and peril and must be shipped ground, so only my freebie sample of gloss was eligible to be shipped in 2 days by ShopRunner.  (Uh, how is that going to work?)  Layla Magneffect Silver Galaxy has been swatched and blogged about and I highly suggest checking out the post if you haven't already.  Orly Space Cadet is my first Orly polish and wow, huge bottle!

   Then I treated myself during the 20% off Friends & Family-type sale, which made me happy that I skipped the one done by Urban Decay themselves:


   Finally, something that ShopRunner was willing to send to me!  I placed my order around 10-11am, and was surprised when my glosses came the very next day.  I suppose it's because I ordered in the morning but I really was expecting to see them in 2 days, not 1!  These are Urban Decay Lip Junkie Glosses in Red Light and Perversion.


   So in all I liked the fact that when ShopRunner can ship my items it works very quickly, but it's frustrating that so many of the products that I personally want to buy Online are no-goes with them.  Has anyone else signed up for or checked out ShopRunner?  What do you think of it?

   After noticing that my salon is using microfiber towels to dry hair, I decided to try it myself.  I found the AQUIS Essentials Microfiber Hair Towel.  Read my thoughts below!