FEBRUARY FAB 5 FOR UNDER $5!

One of my favorite bloggers, Annie, had a great post yesterday, February's Fab 5 for under $5! She challenged her readers to come up with their own list, so here's mine!

$2.99

CVS Cleansing And Make-Up Remover Towelettes Refill Pack  I love these! They take everything away* (even water proof) and don't dry out my already dry skin! No scent--I like that! These particular ones don't have a exfoliating side, but I like that about these. They are really soft and feel nice.

$2.00

I only buy these from Big Lots, where they are always $2!! I haven't ever gone in looking for them and not found them, but you may not be that lucky. If you can't find them there, you can find that at CVS for $5.99. I use these after wearing waterproof eye makeup, false lashes, or just early in the morning when my eyes are a little puffy! These really sooth the delicate eye skin.

$2.39

You guys know I love my Cover Girl single shadows! Most of these are really pigmented and blend so nice! My favorite colors are champagne, brown smolder, and mink!!

$1.00

Gotta love these eye lash curlers! For one buck? Come on!! They really do work awesome and always gives me the perfectly curled lash. Everyone should try these!

$5.00

NYX lipglosses are great! Not sticky, nice and shiny, and the one in Natural, smells just like Bonnie Bell Cherry Chapstick!! Love it! I always have it in my purse! Also has an angled applicator for easy application!

NYX JUMBO PENCILS

So I've had a few of these for a while and just haven't really incoporated them into any looks yet. Why? Not sure what I'm doing!! I have the black, white, and dark brown ones. I'd really like to start using these but would love some tips from you all!

I was playing with these earlier to see what a few colors look like on each one---to see what difference it makes. And here's what I got:

From left to right, the color on my bare skin--no primer. Then on the black, white, and brown. Top color is a shimmery cranberry color and bottom is gold. I don't really see much of a difference, do you? Am I doing this wrong? See why I need your help?

Don't forgot to enter my NARS Give-a-way!!

REVLON PHOTOREADY

After reading so many rave reviews and liking Revlon's Colorstay, I thought this was going to be gold for me! I love the bottle, LOVE the pump, and they seem to have a lot of shades for lighter skin. I am usuallly the lightest shade of drugstore foundations, but my Ulta was out of that one. So I bought the next one(Vanilla), which turned out to be too light! Other than the color being off, I have to say...I hated this foundation. I don't know if it's because my skin is so dry, but this didn't work for me in the least. It was very streaky no matter how I applied it; fingertips, sponge, makeup brushes...Nothing worked for me with this. Glad Ulta does returns because this is going back!!

Did this foundation work for you?

Don't forget to enter my NARS give-a-way! if you haven't already! Remember to read the directions first, or your entry doesn't count! =) Happy Hump Day!

FTC Discloser:Products mentioned in this post were purchased by me and I am in no way affiliated with any brands or companies mentioned.

WHAT'S IN MY PURSE?

I think these are fun, so here's what's in my purse today!

I love brand name bags as much as the next girl, but with me spending so much on makeup and skin care, I can't! But I love to change purses often, so these kinds of bags work well for me! This is one of my favorite purses! I've had it for about three years. It's from New York & Company. It was about $40 I think and a great buy! I love that's it's woven and it's so soft! Unfortunately, the bottom is starting to come undone! Boowhoo! Anyone know a fix for this?

A closer look at the texture:

The leather (I'm assuming it's real, but I can't say for sure) is so soft! And this bag is big enough to fit anything you need in it. Sometimes it is stuffed and sometimes it's not too bad. Right now, it's not got too much in it.

I love that it has two large pockets on either side that button closed and a large center part with zipper! Let's go inside one of the pockets:

This is what was inside one pocket: Program from a wedding I went too, along with some bubbles from the reception. Some little earrings, hair ties, cell phone, Nivea lip gloss and a dollar! There wasn't anything in the other pocket except some reciepts which aren't at all interesting! Here's the main part:

Here's way too many lip glosses--two are even the same color! Cover Girl Freedom of Peach is my fav!! Also really loving NYX's natural lipgloss as well! Smells just like Cherry Chapstick! Gotta have tissues, hand lotion, lipstick, my wallet, Phillips Go Gear ( I call it my faux-pod), camera case, a little gold pendant my husband gave me that used to be his when he was younger (yeah--that's going to one of those 'we buy gold' places!!), and my Bare Escentuals travel powder compact and Esscence of Beauty travel eye brushes.

These are the Esscence of Beauty travel eye brushes and I actually like them a lot. They are super small but do the job on the run! I still really want the Sigma travel brush kit and it will be mine!! I picked this up at CVS for $9.99.

I really like this little wallet. It's purple faux leather with a reptile print on it. Inside my wallet-which I think it cute but a friend told me it looks like a granny wallet trying to be cute. What do you think? It fits everything very neatly--I never carry my checkbook anymore, but I miss having a little photo album inside my wallet. I got this at 5 and Below for $5!

This is the Bare Escentuals travel powder case. I don't actually use this too often--I've got dry skin and don't need powder too often. But I use the mirror a lot for lip gloss! That's all folks! I usually have two diapers in one of the side pockets when I'm out with my girls!! Hopefully my little one will be done with those soon!! Crossing my fingers!!

One a side note, just wanted to show you my Kiss nails that I have been wearing for 6 days now! Still looking great and NOT ONE has come off!!! Woop woop!!

If you haven't already, please enter my NARS Give-a-way!! It's open to all follwers, no matter where you live! Please read the directions before entering!!

2 SET'S OF FALSIES AND A WEDDING

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I went to a wedding this weekend with my family and had a really good time! I tried some new products and wanted to share my thought with you guys. First, I bought another set of false nails by Kiss. I reviewed Kiss Custom Fit Nails before, but I wanted something a bit more dramatic for this weekend. So I went with the Kiss EverLasting French Nails. I got them again in the "real short" lengh because I can't stand very long nails. The white tips on these are much thicker than the other nails I used before. What I love most about Kiss nails is that they do not make my fingertips feel sore, like many other falsies do! They always fit perfect and I have small  nails!! They do have many larger nails in the kit too, so I think everyone can find a good fit. You can see the nails on me in the pictuer with my hubby!!

I also tried for the first time Revlon's Fantasy lengths false eyelashes. They are the self-adhesive kind, so I thought it would be easier to apply. Yeah, not for me! I had to go with my ELF natural lashes because I was running out of time! I didn't even get to take a picture of my makeup for you guys! I suppose I just need to play with the Revlon ones a little more. I'll get another set and let you know when I get the hang of it!

Don't forget to enter my NARS give-a-way! Be sure to read all the directions before entering! Thank you!

MAYBELLINE INSTANT AGE REWIND: THE ERASER

This is the second time in the last few months I've had to ask myself this question! At least when it comes to makeup. Maybelline has come out with their "Instant Age Rewind: The Eraser" which looks like this:

Ugh! Maybe this might be ok the first time you use it, but what about the next time? Or the time after that? I have not tried this, but I can just imagine how dirty this is going to get. I'm having flashbacks of the Loreal Foudation Roller flashbacks!!! This seems just as gross and gimmicky. What are your thoughts? Have you tried this?

Don't forget to enter my give-a-way!

Have a good weekend ladies! I am going to a wedding this weekend, so look for pictures sometime on Sunday!

NARS I WANT YOU LIP GLOSS SET GIVE-A-WAY-CLOSED

5 Mini Lip Glosses in Striptease, Greek Holiday, Turkish Delight, Orgasm, and Dolce Vita

This has a $76 value but can be found for a limited time at Sephora for $45. I think this is a pretty awesome give-a-way prize, so if you don't mind, I'm going to make you work a little for this! So here's what I would like for you to do:

1. Be a follower, of course!

2. Repost this in your side bar or do a post about my contest.

3. This is a biggie---go to my archives and pick two of my product reviews. I want you to pick two products that you have actually tried--loved or hated--and share your experience! You must post the links (meaning post YOUR review as a comment to that product, not in your comment to enter) in your entry post!! Please, no one line responses! I really want you to get involved!!

I apologize for not being clear on what I wanted here. Please go to two of my reviews and comment. In your comment, I'd like you to tell me your experience on that product. That way, when readers go to my reviews, they can see your opinion too! More helpful for everyone that way!

 Please don't post your review under the comments for the give-a-way!! Post them under the comment section of the product you are talking about!!

4. Followers who have commented on my blog, prior to this posting, at least three times have three extra entries!

Also, to be more clear, I'd like two new comments, prior comments don't count! =D

I will count previous sumbissions because I was unclear, but from now on, all entries must be done this way! Thanks! =)

***IF YOU DON'T MEET ALL REQUIREMENTS, YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED***

Open to international followers as well! Good luck to all! I will announce an closing date later!

THE THREE'S OF ME!

As I mentioned in a post before, I'm going to make my blog a little more personal! I want you guys to get to know me and I'd like to get to know you too! I'm going to tag a few people, but if you'd like to do this as well, please let me know and I'd love to read the three's of you as well!! Hope you enjoy this post!

Tag! You're it!

AnnieDollFace

BeautyGirl24

Lucie.Lovely.Cupcake

Makeup by Kim Porter

SparkelMidori

Taste of Originally

Kate Gene
ellebrigitte

Three names I go by:

1. Nicole

2. Mrs. Valadares

3. Mommy

Three Jobs I have had in my life:

1. Pre-school teacher

2. Waitress

3. Kitchen & Bath Designer

Three Places I have lived:

1. Hendersonville, TN

2. Escondido, CA

3. Fredericksburg, VA

Three Favorite drinks:

1. Water

2. Coke

3. Margarita

Three TV Shows that I watch:

1. Heroes

2. Big Brother

3. LOST

Three places I have been:

1. New Orleans

2. San Deigo

3. Mexico

Three places I would like to visit:

1. Ireland

2. Greece

3. Germany

Three People that text me regularly:

1. My husband, Cris 

2. My friend Jackie 

3. My friend Courtney

Three Favorite Old TV Shows:

1. Punky Brewster

2. The Many Loves of Doby Gillis

3. Golden Girls

Three of my favorite restaurants:

1. O'Charley's

2. Olive Garden

3. Puerto's in Bowling Green, KY

Three things I'm looking forward to:

1. Making my family bigger

2. Moving to Brazil

3. My hair growing out!

Thanks for taking time to read this! I hope you do this too so I can learn more about you!

MAKEUP ORGANIZATION

I absolutely love to see how people are storing their beauty goods, so I thought I'd so one of my own. Noting too original here, but maybe it might help someone! So here goes! I've made my own litle crafty room, where I can do makeup, scrapbooking, reading, etc... Here's my makeup corner:

I like sitting in front of the window so I can get all that natural light to do my makeup with! Also, it's got a great view to my backyard with lots of pretty trees! Well, right now it's full of snow...yuck! I can't live without my lighted mirror!! Next to that is where I keep my palettes, most of which I think I've shown you. In the middle, I use a cute little shelf to stack my makeup brushes, a cute little container with q-tips & such, lotion, brush cleaner, and my liquid foundations. Next to that is a little tower of drawers and next to that more drawers, all l of which I will show you in detail!

I love storing my brushes this way! I got the idea from Tiffany D! I used plastic glasses I found at Walmart for $2 each. The filling is acually bean bag filling, which keeps the brushes standing up and also won't scratch the handles. I just tied some black ribbon on and super glued it in the back! I have them seperated by types. From left to right: Sigma face brushes, random brand brushes, and my Sigma Eye brushes. If you haven't tried Sigma brushes, I urge you to do so! You will love them! To read my Sigma brush review, click here!

Here's where I keep all my lippies and as you can see, sample lippies! Most of it is AVON. You can see my little MAC one in the front, but unfortunately, that's the one my daughter ate. There's very little left that I can only use with the lip brush. *tear* I have a few Cover Girl ones in here that are great as well.

Next drawer is lipgloss! My absolute favorite!!! Right now, my two favorites are CG's Amazemint gloss in Freedom of Peach and NYX's lipgloss in Natural. I have CG, AVON, ELF, Hard Candy, and Benefit.

Next drawer is blushes and bronzers! This drawer is getting pretty full! Will probably have to seperate these if I get anything else! I have Physicans Formula, Maybelline, AVON, Hard Candy, Almay, and Bare Escentuals. I haven't really been going into this drawer too much lately. You'll find out why if you keep reading!

Next drawer is extra brushes, faux beauty blender, extra pots, and powder puffs. Favorite thing in this drawer is definately my faux beauty blender. I don't actually remember what brand it is, I got it at Target for about $5.

This next drawer is also getting crowded! It's fill of jumbo eye pencils, eye liners & mascaras! Again, I don't go into this too much. I am still teaching myself to use most of these pencils! Also, I tend to forget about this drawer! I've got stuff from NYX, AVON, Elf, and Mark. This is it for the little drawers on my desk. Next, let's go to the drawers sitting on top of the larger drawers.

I keep my Sigma brush roll in here and extra sponges. I can't reach this drawer too well when I'm siting in the chair, so I wanted to put things in here I wouldn't need to reach for often.

The next drawer is all my little AVON samples, cards, and baggies. =)

This drawer holds lots of little tools that I don't reach for too much, but want to keep handy. Can you believe that little pink mirror is what I used to put makeup on with?! False eye lashes, lash curler, little sissors, nail clippers, tweezers and such. Go into this drawer maybe once a week of so.

This next set of three drawers are the most accessable, so I wanted to put things in here that I use alot. This first one is sort of my "go to" drawer. I don't wear everything in here everyday, but these are my favorite things that I use about every other day or so. I love my NARS blush, Almay loose powder, Physicians Formula consealer, AVON's primer, Urban Decay Priming Potion, AVON SpectraLash mascara, ELF eye lash curlers, etc...

I keep all my small palettes and single eye shadows in here. I have loads of those Cover Girl single shadows, love those! Several AVON quads (More to come soon!), some loose mineral shadows by AVON, ELF and Mark cream shadows, and Physicians Formula shimmer stripe, which can also be bronzer! Since getting my 88 warm palette, I haven't gone in here too much, but there's some gems in here!

In the last drawer I keep non liquid foundations; AVON Smooth minerals, Bare Escentuals foundations and Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse. I also have some smaller palettes in here. I have one from ELF (that I still need to review!), Too Faced, and Mark Flip it (which I also still need to review)! I don't go into this as often as I used to but it's got some goodies for sure! Now let's go to the big drawers! Not makeup, but other beauty treasures!

Hair stuff! Brushes, Sprays, curling irons, flat irons, bobby pins and such. I go into this everyday!

This is where I keep all my facial skin care items. Mostly AVON and a few drug store items. I'll be doing a review on my skin care regimen soon! So check back for more on that! Notice, I keep all my facial clothes and pads upside down. Do this so all the excess moisture will be on the first one you pull out!! Just one more drawer to go!

This is all my nail stuff! Polishes, tools, removers, cotton pads and such. I'll have to do a whole post on the stuff in here! I've some some awesome stuff in here!!! I don't paint my finger nails too much, but my toesies are always painted!! Polish stays on my toes very well, but not so much on my fingers. Also, I'm not great at painting my own hands!! And I always smear it! Guess I need more practice!!

So that's pretty much it! I've also got a tall bookshelf, not pictured, with beauty books, jewerly, fragrance, lotions and the like. Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing that as well. Have a great day and keep coming back for more! As always, please leave me lovely comments!

FTC Discloser:Products mentioned in this post were purchased by me and I am in no way affiliated with any brands or companies mentioned; other than being an AVON independant sales representative.

Valentine's Day Give-a-way WINNER

I'm happy to announce a winner of my first contest!!! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who follows me and entered this contest! This is just the first of many give-a-ways I'd like to host! I wish I could send something to everyone!! Be on the lookout for more give-a-ways and there will be something special for those who comment regularly! ;) That's all I'm going to say about that for right now!

And the winner is......

Kittenish!!

Check your email for a note from me! Congratulations on winning and I hope you like all the goodies!

Thanks again everyone! Have a wonderful Monday!! =)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last chance to enter my Valentine's Day Give-a-way!! Enter by midnight EST tonight for your chance to win Be Kissable Eau de Toilette Spray, Be Kissable Sassy Soufflé Body Crème and Speed Dry nail enamel in Adoring Rose. I'm also putting in some bonus goodies! So be sure to enter on time!

FOTD-AQUADELIC

I usually wear neutral looks, but I really wanted to do something pretty with my new AVON Aquadelic eye shadow quad! Here's what I came up with. It's not perfect! But I'm trying to get better at blending! So bare with me and give constructive criticism! **Terrible job with eyeliner, I know!**

Face:

Revlon ColorStay Foundation in Ivory 110

Physicians Formula Perfecting concealer duo

Bare Minerals Warmth

Almay Nearly Naked loose powder in light 100

NARS Orgasm blush

Eyes:

Urban Decay Eye Priming Potion

AVON Aquadelic e/s quad

AVON SpectraLash Mascara

AVON Glimmerstick in blackest black

Lips:

NYX Mega Shine l/g in Natural

A MOMENT OF SILENCE, PLEASE

Today is a sad, sad day at the NV Beauty household. At approximately 3:30pm EST I walked into my "makeup room", which also houses a pack-n-play for weekdays when we need extra sleeping space, to discover my two year old had eaten my brand-new MAC Creme d'Nude lippie. =( While there were no witnesses to this heinous crime, the evidence was smeared across her belly and face. It is out of respect that a crime scene photo is not shared. It is far too sad for anyone to see.

Creme d'Nude had such a short life, it was only swatched twice. Let this tragic story be a lesson to mommys everywhere, check all cribs, car seats, rocking chairs, anywhere your makeup could be hidden! Pass this story on, so no one else will suffer this same pain.

When asked if it tasted good, she merely stuck out her tongue then smiled.

RIP dear friend.

Creme d'Nude

02/05/2010-02/12/2010

AVON MEGA IMPACT LIPSTICK

INTRODUCING

ULTRA COLOR RICH

Mega Impact Lipstick SPF 15

Reece is wearing Charged Cherry.

"Lips look fuller and come alive in 3D…depth, definition and drama! Mega-sexy lips…day or night. New prism shape! .106 oz. net wt. "

What's different about these lippies?

CHROMAPIXEL TECHNOLOGY boosts color by reflecting light and enhancing shine to amplify each shade's true hue! Reds go redder! Pinks go pinker!

These are the  NEW lippies from AVON! I am in LOVE! These are so creamy and smooth! I'm not normally a lipstick gal, but these are great! And I'm going to go ahead and say I like them just as much, if not more, than MAC lipstick!! Oh yes I did just say that!! Each color is so pretty and pigmented! You only need a little. And the shape of the actual lippie is too cute! But don't expect this to last more than a few hours! It will come off on your cup and husband!! No need for a gloss on top of these and I don't wear lip balm under them either!

Check out the swatches:

Top row, left to right, Powerful Plum, Brilliant Berry, Divine Wine, Charged Cherry, Pink Pop

Bottom row, lef to right, Magnified Mauve, Fuchsia Fun, Kicked Up Coral, Mocha Madness, Never So Nude

Right to left, Never So Nude, Magnified Mauve

I currently have sample lippies of all of these, obviously, but I just have Never So Nude and Magnified Mauve. But of course I just ordered more shades! So look for them in up coming FOTD! I'm also going to add some of these little lippies to my Valentine's Day Give-a-way as well as some others! So don't forget to enter!!!

I tried taking pic's of my lips with these, but I always feel like those look weird when I try them! Anyone have some tips on getting a good lip picture? Thanks!

FTC Discloser: I am an AVON Representative. I purchased these products at a discount rate. I am not paid by AVON, or anyone else, to write this review. All opinions are mine.