Mini Review: NYC New York Color Applelicious Glossy Lip Balm

Hello, dear readers,

Remember this post about the Influenster VoxBox program, in which I promised reviews of some of the products within that handy dandy box? No? Ah, it's just as well. It's only been half a year since then. I never intended to back down on my promise, so here is the first of the reviews. This time I'll be briefly discussing the NYC New York Color Applelicious Glossy Lip Balm in the shade Big Apple Red. I'm going to do what I did in the last post and place the nifty Influenster "sticker" below, so you know that I received this product as part of the VoxBox program. Head to the website to check out what that's all about. [DISCLAIMER: To those of you who have never read my mini reviews, they are never actually mini]

Here is a look at the product itself, as it appears in the packaging:

As I was rereading my previous post, I was pleased to discover that I did not, in fact, put down too much detail about what is essentially an exceptional tinted lip balm. Like I said, I received the shade Big Apple Red and was thrilled with my luck. It's easy to get off colors or colors you're not too fond of when you're signing up to receive free products picked out by companies themselves. Just last year I won a Milani Color Statement Lipstick in the shade Nude Creme, a pinkish, beige-y nude that painted away my lips until I resembled a corpse. Absolutely nothing to complain about, because I can layer it with other colors; I got to try the new formula; and I won the lipstick for free. That's why it's especially exciting to open a box of freebies and grin at a shade you look forward to wearing, rather than grimacing and subsequently shrugging off a hue that would look great on you if only you had completely different coloring.

How long can she possibly go on about the shade of a lipstick or a balm, you ask? A very long time, it appears. Let's move along, though, shall we? The pictures here are identical to those that appeared in the last post to which I keep referring. This means that months later, I have made a significant dent in said glossy lip balm that is not reflected here. That being said, here is a better view of the product:

Big Apple Red can be described as a sheer, candy apple sort of red. The center of the balm, cutely and appropriately apple-shaped is meant to serve as the moisturizing "core" [no pun intended], but I don't know exactly how that works. Isn't the whole thing moisturizing? Why do you need to have the center be a different color just so it can be a balm? It doesn't make sense, but it is an adorable marketing ploy -- let's be honest; that's what it is. This is surprisingly pigmented for a tinted balm, especially when the center isn't red. Initially, I think the moisturizing core was to blame for a slightly streaky application, but after regular use I can say that it goes on evenly now. 

You do have to exfoliate your lips first, because, as with many colorful lip products, this will draw attention to flakes. Once that's done, however, this is such a snap to use. It really is very moisturizing; it's pigmented enough to show a pretty flush, but sheer enough to be an easy way for the color-shy to wear red lips on a daily basis; and it has a nice, glossy finish that doesn't scream, "Hey look, patent leather!". I don't ever record wear time of tinted balms, because I don't mind reapplying; it's so easy to do, that it's not important to me.

Those who care about the presentation of their products might be turned off by the cheap looking packaging and cheesy, somewhat juvenile marketing of the balm, but I don't mind it at all. This Applelicious Glossy Lip Balm twists down all the way, so there is no danger of ruining the product with the cap when closing it. I can honestly say this is one of the products I reach for on a regular basis, whether I'm casually hanging out with friends on a lazy weekend or going to the grocery store. It is, as I said before, incredibly easy to wear. It feels great and leaves my lips smooth even after it wears off. I feel like my face is brightened up by the color, even when I'm not wearing other makeup. I wore this quite a bit over my winter break [which started December 19 and ends this weekend]. It adorned my lips during a casual high school reunion at a friend's house; a trip to the mall with my mom; and several visits with friends. I wore it yesterday, and I'm wearing it today.

I would post a picture of the product in all its dented glory now, but that requires finding my camera, uploading and editing, most of which I am unable to do at the present moment without the camera cord. The photo I took with PhotoBooth simply won't do. I think you can guess that I rather enjoy this product. If I ever finish it up and can justify a replacement among my copious amounts of lip products, I will more than likely repurchase.

You can look for it here on the NYC website, where it lists the retail price as $2.99.

I hope your new year is starting off wonderfully well.

xEsther

Happy New Year 2013!

Happy New Year!! Welcome, 2013!

L-R: Beth and I on New Year's Eve

Hello, dear readers,

Happy New Year to you all! It has been exactly two years and one day since I started this blog, and I don't intend to stop it now. Being the intelligent person that I am, I forgot to bring my camera home and didn't think to use my brother's camera. I'll have to do that, but in the meantime I thought I'd give you at least one photo to look at. 

After having my New Year's Eve nearly ruined by a poorly-timed delivery of bad news, I went to a party with my friend, Beth, and another friend whose name I'm not sure she wants posted all over the internet. It was pretty much the first time we'd actually gone anywhere besides someone's house for New Year's Eve, and it served to take my mind off anything negative. 

The actual transition from 11:59 p.m. in 2012 to 12 a.m. of January 1, 2013, was rather anticlimactic; it's still hard for me to process that the year went by so incredibly fast. Overall, 2012 was a good year for me, world's apart from 2011. Without going into detail, I can safely say that 2011 has been my worst year so far, and 2012 saw me enter a much better place in my life.

I don't set resolutions for the new year, but I did find a quote earlier in this year, when I sincerely needed inspiration and motivation to keep going, that I'd like to keep in mind: "Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it." - Bill Cosby

I'll end this post with a little bit of beauty-related information: On my nails, I wore OPI Skyfall Collection nail polish in Goldeneye on my ring finger and The Spy Who Loved Me on the rest. On my lips, I wore Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in In Vogue, a bright, matte, pink.

I hope you all had a fun, exciting, and/or relaxing New Year's Eve, and I look forward to starting off 2013 with you.

xEsther

New Year, New Post!

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Hello, dear readers,

I know I've said "Happy New Year!" in a couple of the last posts, so there it is. Seeing as it is the beginning of January, I suppose I should write something this week. I'm not particularly interested in sharing resolutions or reminiscing about the past year, but I will say I'm glad that 2011 is over.

The reason I haven't done my first 2012 post until now is because I'm up for round two of the College Search, this time as a transfer. I'm throwing myself full force into the process with the knowledge of what I want and can't handle in a school. With my arsenal of personal experiences from the year at my previous university stored in the back of my mind, I hope that I am better equipped to find a college suited to my needs.

In other news, I notice that I've gained a subscriber or two since the end of December, so thank you for that. As for upcoming posts, I know I always fail to keep my promises when it comes to actually getting things up on time. I will say, however, that I have a few reviews on the way. I like to try products out for a week before I can review them, so they won't be up tomorrow.

I remember last year, around this time, I was writing about how New Year's resolutions seemed silly to me. I think that after the past year, I'm changing my mind a bit. This isn't to say that I'll make resolutions every year, but I definitely need them this time. I'm writing them down so I can go back and look at them, because that tends to be helpful for most people. I hope to benefit from these first-time resolutions! We'll see how it goes.

But back to you, readers: How has the first week of the year been for you? Do you like to make resolutions?

Wishing you the best this new year.

xEsther

New Year's Nails

Hello, dear readers,

I think this is post number 3 for the day! Perhaps on catching up on the lack of posts during several months this year. I just thought I would share with you my attempt at fun, plaid nails for the New Year! Not that these are particularly New Year's Eve-related, but they took me long enough. I think they came out pretty well for a first try, without any special nail art polishes. Instead, I used a nail art brush that has seen better days and regular polish. More specifically, I used NYC Uptown, Milani Bijou Bronze, China Glaze For Audrey, and Wet 'n Wild Black Creme. Some nails came out better than others, as was to be expected. 

That's it for this post.

Are you doing any fun nail or makeup looks for New Year's Eve?

xEsther

Best 11 of 2011

Hello, dear readers,

As I was browsing the blogs I follow, I came across the "Top 11 for 2011" tag on Liparazzi and thought it looked quite fun. Don't worry, it's different from my Pop Culture Favorites. I'm actually morphing this one with the Top 11 of 2011 beauty tag from YouTube. The YouTube tag asks for your top 2 lip, eye, nail, hair, and face products, as well as one palette. I have to cut the eye and palette categories, because I don't use them, so I'll take that opportunity to add more to areas in which I own more beloved products. I also got rid of two categories from the blog tag, because I didn't want to go through and decide on my favorite blogs or YouTube videos. I'm also aware that the products are all different sizes in the pictures; I'm no photography expert.

Here are my answers to the best of each category in 2011 [in no particular order whatsoever]:

Top 11 Products:

Face

This is tricky, because I have more than two favorites, but I'm limiting it to essentials only!

• Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder I have this powder in the shade 001 Transparent [which still gives me a tiny bit of color, noticeable to no one but me because I'm so pale!], and I have to say that it keeps my makeup lasting for hours. I already have a review of it here, and I continue to be impressed by the staying power and mattifying effect of this product. Granted, I've only ever tried two other powders, but this surpasses them both in quality. 

• Hard Candy Glamoflauge Concealer I have a review on this, but I love this concealer because it's extremely full-coverage, which I primarily need for dark under-eye circles, and it works well to cover any discoloration and blemishes.

Lips

If you read my blog regularly, or you look at the title, you may have guessed that the category I'm expanding is that of the lip products! In order to prevent listing half of my collection, I'm limiting this mostly to new lip products from 2011.

• Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Demure Besides scoring this lipstick at a deep discount during the CVS beauty clearance sales, this happens to be the closest color I've ever found to my natural lips. I don't think I would have ever looked twice at it if not for this sale, but it happens to perfectly warm up and brighten my lips. I'm a bit concerned that it's being discontinued, simply because it is part of the sale, but I can't be sure.

• Revlon Colorburst Lipstick in Carnation At the same sale, I scored this lipstick, which is a lovely soft, cool-toned pink that's perfect for day or night.

• Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in Pink and Proper See a pattern here? Think I like pink lipsticks? You're absolutely right. This one is a nice bright, cool-toned pink, but still completely wearable for daytime. I'm always the one in my group of friends with a bright lip, anyway. I love the name of this lipstick, too.

These came out a bit browner than they are.

• Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in Pink Peony I have to include this lipstick, because I wore it nearly every day during the time I was at college this year. It's the greatest pink for daily wear, because it's not too cool-toned or conspicuous. It's a nice, more subtle, way to wear pink lipstick to class.

• Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in Rose Blush This is the only lipstick that I bought last year, but it needs to be included because I wore this quite a lot towards the end of the year. It's a nice, neutral, almost brownish, pink, and could pass as a natural lip color. The funny thing is, it's not actually that similar to my lip color, but for some reason looks like it could be my lips. Maybe it's just much more pigmented than my own lips, so it replaces their color? Who knows?

Nails

With a collection of over 50, down from over 80, I'm keeping this strictly down to two new [to me] nail polishes from 2011. [Note: I'm actually wearing both of these colors again right now, in an attempt at fun plaid nails for New Year's Eve!]

• China Glaze For Audrey Ever since hearing about this on YouTube, I felt I needed this color. I love the elegance associated with Audrey Hepburn, and what girl doesn't love Tiffany's? I gave it a mention here and a more thorough review in this post. Though the formula isn't my favorite, I love this color, and I've worn it at least three times this year. With a collection as large as mine, and growing, three wears means it must be a pretty fantastic color.

• Milani Bijou Bronze This is probably the most unique polish I own, and it's all thanks to Harry Potter. You see, I needed bronze to complete my Harry Potter nail look for the midnight show of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 because it's one half of the Ravenclaw house colors. I ended up enjoying this color more than I expected, and wore it twice more this year.

Hair

• Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum/GVP version I've mentioned the Paul Mitchell product a few times, and have done a more thorough review of it here, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to discover a generic version of the exact same product, reviewed here. Overall, this is a great serum for smoothing down flyaways and getting rid of frizz. It's neither too lightweight nor too heavy, so it does it's job effectively withought weighing down hair.

• Paul Mitchell Flexible Style Reworks Texture Cream This is my current favorite product to use when I want to keep my curls intact throughout the day. I have looser curls that tend to fall into waves, especially as my hair gets longer. I use this when my hair is on the slightly wetter side of damp, combining it with my serum and scrunching my hair. It really is flexible, and my hair doesn't look crunchy or wet, two looks I loathe. If I play with my hair too much, the curls will fall into neat waves, but that's why this is called "flexible," right? 

Top 11 Things That Happened in 2011

• My friends threw me a surprise 20th birthday party
• I got my first "real" job over the summer, boring as it was
• I won Funky Makeup Junkie's first [I think!] giveaway 
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 came out in theaters
• My friends and I sang late at night onstage at a closed beach, and the security guard thought we were actually rehearsing for a performance
• My sister came home for Thanksgiving week with her fiancé, and she brought her dog!
• New Girl and Hart of Dixie came into being
• I finished the 5th Harry Potter book in Spanish
• My cousin [second? I think?] got engaged
• I finally tried Pilates, and I love it!
• I got this blog up and running!

Top 11 Songs in 2011

• "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele
• "Someone Like You" by Adele
• "Summer is Over" by Jon Mclaughlin
• "Without You Now" by Jon Mclaughlin
• "A Little Too Hard (& A Little Too Fast)" by Jon Mclaughlin [and at the risk of including his entire album, I'll cut off the Jon Mclaughlin songs here]
• "Best Thing I Never Had" by Beyoncé
• "Tonight, Tonight" by Hot Chelle Rae
• "Skyscraper" by Demi Lovato
• "Stereo Hearts" by Gym Class Heroes feat. Adam Levine
• "Gonna Get Over You" by Sara Bareilles
• "In Your Arms" by Kina Grannis

 [I promptly listened to most of these songs after making this particular list]

This is officially the last tag of 2011, so I do hope you all enjoyed. It was fun recalling all the best moments of this year.

Here's to making more in 2012!

Again: Happy New Year!

xEsther

One Year Blog Birthday!

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Hello, dear readers,

I'm thrilled to say that today happens to not only be the last day of the year, but the one-year anniversary of the first day I started this blog!

When I started out, I had no idea where this blog would go; I seem to have planned on talking more about self-esteem/wellness, but decided that in order to keep personal matters personal, that topic wouldn't be doable for me. I've had so much fun coming up with categories of posts to write, responding to comments, and creating post titles.

Some of the categories that came out of this year's blogging are:

• Let's Do...A Book Review
• Mini Review
• Late Night Lit
• Lately I've Been Loving...

I also absolutely love writing posts on fashion at the plethora of awards shows, as looking at the newspaper for the best-dressed actresses at the Oscars has been a favorite tradition since I was a wee child. I'm so glad I've been able to transition from avid blog reader to blog writer. Clearly, tags have also been favorite posts of mine to write.

I'm so grateful for all of my followers, and, quite honestly, anyone who has accidentally stumbled upon my blog and read a post. My blog is a baby within the world of blogging, and I'm perfectly content with that. Considering I started out as my only follower [until I realized I could unfollow myself], I'm pretty impressed. I'm glad people deign to read my rambles, because it makes a hobby of mine into something even more special and fun.

My next post will probably be a combination of "Best of 2011" tags. My goal is to take more of my own pictures in the coming year, and to post more often. There are also several promised posts mentioned in one of my many updates, so I have to go back and make good on those. I also need to get into the habit of previewing my posts before publishing, instead of publishing and then going back to edit a million more times!

This year has been extremely rough for me, but I'm glad I had this blog to keep me entertained and occupied! I'm hoping 2012 gets much better.

Thanks for sticking with me, or thanks for reading this if you're a random reader today!

I hope you all have tons of fun on New Year's Eve and a fabulous New Year!

xEsther

Happy New Year!

Hello dears,

As all of you know, today is the last day of 2010. And I'm not making any New Year's Resolutions. Let me explain: Every year, on December 31st, people nationwide scramble to write out or mentally record resolutions for the new year. Most people want to lose weight, or try something new, or be better people in general. I think these are great resolutions to have, but why make them once a year?

I think we should set life goals that we strive to live up to instead of just a new set of goals each year that just peter out after a few months. I think resolutions are great guidelines, but they often seem imposing, like a giant boulder that we must climb each day for the rest of the year. Why not think about how you can change every single day? Think about what you're putting into your body, how you're treating yourself, how kind you're being to others. That's my goal.

No one wants to be intimidated by her own goals, so why not take it a step at a time? Make a promise to yourself to be a better person, but understand that everyone has flaws. Work as hard as you can to stay in shape, but don't torture yourself about it. Those are things I want to carry with me throughout life, not just in 2011.

So let 2011 be a fresh start, but don't forget that each year is a continuation of the last. There's always room to improve, and hopefully we can enjoy each step of the way together.

As for me, I'm going to try to post here as regularly as possible. This blog is a journey for me, and I hope you'll share it with me. My next few posts will probably be about the best beauty finds of 2010, my favorite skincare staples, and the start of a self-esteem series.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve, a Happy New Year, and a fabulous continuation of what's already a blessed life!

xEsther