Blogmas Day 24 | Bath & Body Works Pink Sugarplum!

Blogmas Day 24! Happy Christmas Eve to you all! As well as, Blogmas Eve. This is the second to last post in Blogmas! This'll be a quick one as I have to run and get ready to go to Rico Suave's house to celebrate Christmas festivities with his family! I thought I'd share my favorite Christmas scent with you all that working at Bath & Body Works has got me hooked on! It's the Pink Sugarplum scent! I love it so much that I got it for Mihai's little sister, too! I've got a collection going as you can see because I just need to smell like all things Sugarplum! It's a fruity sweet scent that's not overpowering because it's got a tad bit of vanilla in it that gives it a nice musk! Delicious! You might be wondering why I am sharing a Christmas scent when everything Christmas is going to go out the door Wednesday morning! Well it's because since it's a Christmas scent it's going to go on sale for the Bath & Body Works Semi Annual Sale! So if this intrigues you in any way, I would get it! It's smells so good! And, and, and it's got a cute wittle penguin on it! They also photograph quite well, haha!

Enjoy your Christmas everyone!

Blogmas Day 23 | Winter GIVEAWAY with a Spring [CLOSED] Twist!

Blogmas Day 23! I was going to save this till the end of Blogmas but I can't wait and wanted to get this out today! Today, in honor of the spirit of giving I thought I'd giveaway a great product; a Naked Cosmetics Pigment Stack! Each stack comes with 6 pots of pigments that can be stacked or taken on their own (as they come with individual lids!) These pigments are brilliantly awesome for those who love brights and colors! This'll be awesome for the spring/summer time so that's why I'm calling this giveaway a Winter one with a Spring twist! These colors really reminded me of mermaids for some reason so I thought it was rather appropriate! It's a huge thank you to my readers for the continuous support on this blog either just by reading and commenting as well! It keeps me motivated to continue writing and keep improving! Check the rafflecopter widget below to see how you can earn entries and don't forget to record them so that they count! 

NOTE: Please do not follow this blog for the sake of only entering this giveaway. New readers who are genuinely interested in this blog are completely welcome to enter, otherwise, it's not fair!

Other than that, enter away! The giveaway will start as soon as this post goes live and end on January 11th, 2013 at midnight! Plenty of time for you to enter! :D

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blogmas Day 22 | Festive Reds

CoverGirl Lip Perfection Tempt, TopShop Rio Rio, MAC Lady Bug, Revlon Candy Apple Lip Butter, Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Romantic, MAC Redd Lip Liner

Blogmas Day 22! Ask me what my favorite lip color is and I'll say reds! I can never, and will never, have enough red lippies, glosses, stains, and pencils! Since it's the season of festivties and anything glittery, gold and red, I thought I'd share with you my small collection of reds that I have been wearing non stop all season long! I'm not one for attention, but I find myself being drawn to such statement/classic lip! I usually pair any of these with a semi-thick winged out black liner and natural cheeks. I've been dubbed "Taylor Swift" at work because of this, haha! So here are the swatches of some of my favorites! Yes, they all look quite similar but each are a different formula that fits a different mood! The Lip Butter and Just Bitten Kissable stain are perfect for when I want a splash of red on my lips, but not the maintenance of one! I also included my holy grail red liner that keeps all these beauties in place and on for hours!

CoverGirl Lip Perfection Tempt, TopShop Rio Rio, MAC Lady Bug, Revlon Candy Apple Lip Butter, Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Romantic, MAC Redd Lip Liner

I'm still lusting after CoverGirl Lip Perfection in Hot, MAC Love Alert Dazzleglass, and MAC Driven by Love Prolongwear Lipglass. The obsession will never end!

Let me know some of your favorite reds to wear anytime or during the holiday season! I'd love to check out some more reds from different brands!

Blogmas Day 21 | Get Ready With Me!

Blogmas Day 21! I can finally say I am completely and absolutely done shopping for gifts. Everything is wrapped and ready to be unwrapped by their recipients! Today I have another video to share with you all! I had a little go at a Get Ready With Me video which I thought would be fun and simple! It's me getting ready to go out into the city with Mihai this past Wednesday! It's make up, hair, and my outfit! Still getting used to the camera as you'll see I keep making funny faces and Doctor Who makes another appearance! :) It was so hard to find some music to play in the background. The ones provided in iMovie aren't very fun to listen to after the first few intervals of 30 seconds. Hope you guys enjoy it! Hope it doesn't get taken down and I do everything correctly! I'm going to list all the products I used below the video, so scroll down if you want to see what a specific product is!

Products Shown: (items marked with a (*) are products I've reviewed so click it to be sent there!)

• Lush Eua Roma Water Toner 
• Lush Imperialis Moisturizer
• Dr. Jart ++ Waterfuse BB Cream *
• Benefit's Erase Paste in No. 1 Fair *
• MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium 
• INGLOT AMC Shine 24 (Mint/Green)
• INGLOT AMC Shine (Brown)
• Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes in 2L *
• Make Up For Ever Holodiam Powder in 303 *
• Maybelline Falsies Volum Express Mascara *
• NARS Laguna Bronzer *
• MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in Blonde
• MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in Soft & Gentle 
• MAC Venus Lipstick *

I also want to thank everyone who took the time to watch my first video and for commenting and subscribing! It put a smile on my face everytime I left work and I saw the counts in increase and read the lovely comments! Thanks for all the support and hope I don't disappoint with this video! I'll see if I can't film a Christmas tutorial before Monday!

Thanks everyone!

Blogmas Day 20 | Current Beauty Wants

UGH. Blogmas Day 20, guys! Excuse me whilst I cut into Blogmas Day 21 as I had a shift until 11 at Bath & Body Works when my availability only extends until 10 pm to avoid the whole "my bus doesn't run after 11" debacle! No matter, I had a good day and watched two love birds french between the gifts and Cashmere glow. Couldn't stop laughing with a co worker! So on the way home I was thinking of what I could post that wouldn't require sun light for pictures/recording. I haven't done a wish list in a very long time and now that I'm attempting to save some money, I've collected a little bundle of drug store and high end products I am just lusting over and it kills me not to buy!!!

• CoverGirl Lip Perfection in Hot | This lipstick has been hyped up like crazy recently in the beauty world and I can see why! It's such a gorgeous shade of bright red and I love me my red lipsticks! Also, the Lip Perfection line by CoverGirl is the absolute best drug store lip stick formula out there!
• Rimmel London Stay Matte Pressed Powder | Again, if it's talked about A TON in the blog-o-sphere I become super intrigued and began to have all the wants. I want to try something new as my MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural is dwindling down and I want to see what all the fuss is about!
• MAC Cosmetics Sketch Eyeshadow | I have 3 more spots to fill before my first MAC Palette is complete! Kayleigh fron CoutureGirl created a look with Cranberry and Sketch and it's absolutely gorgeous! I want it so I can recreate the look for the winter months! Here's a link to her post! -> clickityclack
• MAC Prolongwear Lip Glass in Driven By Love | ALL THE WANTS. ALL THE RED. IT'S PERFECT. IT'S LONG WEARING. AND UGH. This and Love Alert Dazzleglass would just be the bees knees!
• Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette | How many times has this appeared in a wish list of mine? Urban Decay eyeshadows are absolutely brilliant and their Naked palettes are amazingly priced for the amount and quality! I need some more neutrals and the colors in this palette look fantastic for the winter months!

It's 1:25 am. It's going to kill me that there's no December 20, 2012 dated post. I haven't gone to sleep yet so my day isn't over but still. UGH. I'm very upset. Also, the world hasn't ended yet ... still waiting! In the mean time, I'd love to hear some products you've been wanting recently! As always, my shopping list is ever growing! ;D

See you in a few hours for Blogmas Day 21!

Blogmas Day 19 | My Day In The City w. Pictures

Blogmas Day 19! We're in the home stretch! Woohoo, feeling slightly proud that I've managed to blog every single day without missing a day! Although I know there are six more days and anything could happen! Today I spent the day in the city with Mihai. We started on 5th Ave to get my sister her New Year's gift and then to see the tree! I was so excited, I love Christmas trees and all their lights! There were so few people there. I've never gone to the Rockefeller tree and not had to push and shove my way to the front. Then we wandered around the city before we left for Brooklyn to go to Fette Sau, an authentic BBQ place where you order meat like you're at a deli! They just plop it on the plate and oh my goodness the pork and sausages were delicious! I took some pictures for you all to see so I hope you enjoy them! 

 New York City during Christmas time is the absolute best!

Blogmas Day 18 | Guys, guys! I'm on YouTube!

Blogmas Day 18! And what an exciting and slightly nerve wracking post I have to share with you all! It's my first (of many more to come) YouTube video! I started off easy with an Introduction Tag of 30 questions! I'm so nervous for the reaction or if it gets any reaction at all!  I'd really appreciate if you guys could check it out! I had so much fun filming this and the whole experience was a little strange because I was literally sitting at my desk talking to a camcorder that was stack on top of the entire Twilight series, Hunger Games series, my college directory, and a Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows book. Shhh, don't laugh, I haven't got a tri-pod! Haha. Editing took forever as I wanted it to be perfect and I also needed my sister for a quick pop in role but it took her ages to pick a day where there was some sun light and/or she thought she looked apropriate to be filmed, haha! 

It's all finally out there, so please take a look! Comment on what else you'd like to see from me or if you thought it was complete rubbish! It would mean the world to me! Also, subscribe if you'd like to see more videos from me, because I apparently cannot ...

See? I tried. Hahaha!

My YouTube Channel :: TheModMermaid (<- clickity click)

Let me know what you guys think! I'll talk to you all real soon :)

Blogmas Day 17 | Work FOTD

Blogmas Day 17! I'm getting it up relative early today as I've learned that if I'm working late there's no way I'm going to churn out a quality post! I was going to film a Get Ready With Me video as I got ready for work but it's absolutely awful outside and the lighting is awful. I think crickets are still chirping outside because they think it's night time. So instead I thought I'd do my make up, snap some photos and share them with you here in a FOTD! I don't usually wear a lot of pink eyeshadows, most of the time it's an orange, champagne, or brown, so I thought I'd spice things up a bit and use a pink! Below you'll find all the products I used for my eyes and my face. 

What I Used:

• Dr. Jart ++ Waterfused BB Cream as foundation
• Benefit's Erase Paste in Fair as concealer and for my under eye circles
• NARS Smudgeproof Base Primer as eye primer
• MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium to set the foundation/concealer
• MAC Pink Venus inner 2/3 of the eyelid
• INGLOT AMC Shine 31 outer 1/3 of the eye lid, then blended into the crease
• Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes Liner in 2L line upper and lower lash line
• Maybelline Falsies Volum Express Mascara
• MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Blonde as blush on the apples of the cheeks
• NARS Laguna Bronzer contour my cheeks
• NARS Miss Liberty Highlighting Blush on the tops of my cheek bones
• MAC Freckletone Lipstick (although you can't really see that bit, haha!)

Hope you guys enjoy it! :) 

Blogmas Day 16 | I really want a kitty!

Cute kitty pictures taken from Pinterest

Blogmas Day 16! Today, I have been seriously wanting a kitty cat! Back in the begining of November, you may remember that my home was out of power for 2 1/2 weeks because of Hurricane Sandy. The power outage meant that there was no heat and it was seriously cold in my house! Which also meant that my little fishies froze to death ): So today I went to Petland with my dad and sister to find replacement fishies and I started thinking about how I really wanted a cat. Ask me how the two are related, I have no idea. But I've always wanted a little fluffy kitty cat that I could name a super amazing name. I have one in mind but it's super silly! I just want a little kitty to keep with me in my room and keep me company. Like a little fluffy companion.  So when I got home I went on pinterest and just looked up 'cute kitties' and all those lovely pictures up above came up! I repinned them all in a flash. Look at all those cute kitty cats and the doughnut kitties! Agh, I really want!  Cats are just the cutest things ever. My dad has three cats and they are so silly. They rub up against your legs waiting for you to pet them and their meow's! Haha. I'm just in a very 'pet' mood. 

Do any of you have kitty cats? How much do you love them? I can't stop looking at the pictures, they are too adorable! I'm off to watch Rugrats in Paris as it's my favorite Rugrats movie and I am feeling a tad kiddish today.

ALSO! Which sort of video would you guys prefer; get ready with me or a tutorial? I'd love to know as I want to film one tomorrow to have up on my channel :D 

Goodnight, lovelies!

Blogmas Day 15 | YSL Golden Gloss - Shimmering Lip Gloss

Bonjour and welcome to Blogmas Day 15! Only 10 more days 'til Christmas which means absolutely nothing to me other than I get to eat my boyfriend's awesome cooking real soon! Today I have a seriously luxurious gloss to share with you all! It's Yves Saint Laurent's Golden Gloss - Shimmering Lip Gloss in 047 White Gold Topaz. I got it as a gift for Hanukkah from family friend's and wowza, this is one shmancy gloss! 

First off, the packaging. It's sleek and so very "YSL". The gloss is rectangular with a rectangular gold top that has a YSL logo on the front. The applicator is a brush tip which I love, because I prefer those to the doe foot applicators!

The color of the gloss is outstanding. I was in awe when I saw it! It's so perfect and almost the exact color I have been searching for, to wear in the winter months! It's a semi-sheer berry-plum color with purple-y/pink shimmers. It turns a lovely berry pink on my lips and I can't get enough of it! It looks good with almost every make up I've done and I think it'll transition into a spring/summer gloss seamlessly! The gloss itself is not at all sticky, or goopy. It's amazingly formulated which you should expect when paying for a $30 lip gloss! The gloss even tastes really good, I can't put my finger on it, but it's lovely! Almost adds to the luxury of the gloss! I love this gloss so much which is saying a lot considering my lip gloss collection is almost non-existent. I prefer my lipsticks, but this one will make me rethink! I've worn it so many times already and it's only been 7 days since I've gotten it!

YSL has always been one of those brands that I love and adore but am not so quick to jump/impulse buy. It's always been a brand I thought I would treat myself with. It's such a glorious lip gloss and so perfect that if you're a fan of lip glosses have a look, or add it to your Christmas list before it's too late!

Blogmas Day 14 | Make Up For Ever Holodiam Powders

Blogmas Day 14! Two weeks straight of non-stop blog posts! Anyone sick of me yet? Haha. Today I bring a very special post to me as it's something I've been obsessing over this past month. Anyone who has been following my twitter or Instagram knows I went a little bonkers wanting these and was really hoping someone would gift me one for Hanukkah! Turns out two people did! What exactly am I talking about? Make Up For Ever's limited edition Holodiam Powders! These are a gorgeous blend between a glitter and a pigment. Each Holodiam Powder is $25 for 1 gram of product which is super expensive for that much, which is why I was so hesitant to buy them for myself. I think they're completely worth it though because of their unique glitter/pigment nature you only need the tiniest amount to work with!

My mother gifted me 303 for Hanukkah. 303 is white with tinges of gold, green, and blue. It looks gorgeous and like a sophisticated sparkle on it's own. You can really see the green and gold when this is applied on top of a black base. I just used this today on top of my sister's blue and silver make up and I swear, it looked like shimmering water!

My boss gifted me 302 as an early Christmas gift. I was laughing and so excited when I got it because I was honestly debating getting this one but held off because I knew I had to be good and save money. 302 is a red with tinges of teal and plum. This one is just so gorgeous and I can't wait to layer it over a gold/red Christmas-y look! Over a black base, the teal and a slight plum really show through.

The amazing things about the powders is that you don't even need a sticky base for them to stick! If you want them to last all day, I would advise it, but for a night out, you'll be set! They stay put and are just so brilliantly sparkley. I honestly have no words for how amazing I think they are. When I unwrapped the first one on Hanukkah my first reaction was "GAH, AGH, MAAAAAAA!" and I raced towards the kitchen to give her a huge hug. She thought I was off my rocker. These are so gorgeous and if you can get your hands on either at your local Sephora, I would highly recommend it! They're not even on the website anymore, so hurry, hurry!

Who's racing to get one, or a dozen?!

Blogmas Day 12 | YouTube?!

Welcome to Blogmas Day 12! We're almost half way through the month which is both exciting and frightening! Anyone else counting the days till December 21, 2012? I wonder how that works. Time zone, perhaps? Not sure how I feel about it really. What do you guys think about this "end of the world" day? 

Today's post is going to be a chatty one. I was originally going to post an exciting beauty review, that I know I should get up right away because stores are selling out, but by the time I got home from class and napped, the sun had gone down and I couldn't take any pictures! (<-A run on sentence if you I ever saw one, haha!) I'll put it up tomorrow and instead talk to you guys about something I'm thinking about starting; YouTube! It's around this time last year that I started to watch and subscribe to more and more beauty channels on YouTube. I've always secretly wanted to create my own channel as it seems like a ton of fun! I'm a little rubbish and shy in front of the camera because I like to ramble a lot and go off on tangents that don't pertain to anything, haha! Then there's the whole aspect of my sister and mom hearing me talking to my camera, and thinking I've gone mental.

I've been super inspired by a lot of beauty bloggers who have started up YouTube channels that go hand in hand with their blogs. I really like the idea of incorporating videos into this blog so that I could do more tutorials and they could be better explained and shown. I could tag videos (if tagged, haha!) and I think they're a lot more fun to watch, as well as hauls! I don't plan on abandoning my blog if I do decide to start creating videos. I want them to go hand in hand! I want it to sort of better the whole experience of visiting my blog! I'll still put up pictures of everything because pictures will always so more than I ever could! I don't know, still in the works and I'm giving it some serious thought. I'm thinking of starting off with a sort of fun introduction video and then taking it from there. That way YouTube can get to know me and you lovelies can get to know me just a little bit better as well!

The channel: TheModMermaid (<- click it!) 

There's nothing there as of right now, but soon there will be! Subscribe for now if you want to ;) Give me some sort of moral boost to jump right in, haha!

What are your thoughts on beauty bloggers starting up channels that go hand in hand with their blog? I'd love to hear your opinions! 

P.S. - My finals are done, which means college is out till the end of January, hazzah!!! Okay, goo'bye :)

Blogmas Day 11 | NARS Miss Liberty Highlighter

It's Blogmas Day 11! Early, early Blogmas Day 11 as I'm typing this up at 1:46am. I feel as though if I don't type this up now I won't do it till super late today or goodness forbid, over into Blogmas Day 12 and that will not fly with me. I will not let finals get in the way of my successful attempts at Blogmas!!

Today I bring to you a product I mentioned in my Holiday Wishlist, as well as my Mermaid Gift Guide! It's NARS Miss Liberty highlighting blush! I've actually been debating getting this since April of this year. I've always loved it, admired it, and lusted after it but couldn't bring myself to buy it. After playing around with my MAC Soft & Gentle and seeing how much I loved highlighters I decided to jump on the opportunity and bought this guy for $28. Yeah, I know ... $28, but it's NARS and I love me some NARS. If I love the product and it delivers, I'll pay it! (*which is awful as I like many things!) 

Miss Liberty is a very peach toned highlighting blush. As you can see from the swatch, it's jam packed with shimmery glitters. This is not for the heavy handed and the sparkle-shy. I mean, you can be heavy handed if you want to, but just be prepared for sparkle city! I, personally, love it and use a very light hand when picking up product and applying it. It's super pigmented and looks like a really nice highlight. It's great for special occasions, although I wear it almost every day now. It makes your cheeks sort of look like shimmering water. Can you picture it? When the sun is setting, tide is low, and the water is completely clear and sparkling? Sort of like that. It does look natural and not like you sneezed into a pot of glitter but it is noticeable so take caution! I think this is absolutely perfect and I am so glad I got it!

What do you guys think? What's your favorite highlighter? I'm sort of obsessed with them right now!

Blogmas Day 10 | Hanukkah Manicure

Blogmas Day 10! Woo, we're in the double digits! Today is going to be a quick post as I've been off from classes for a week but I have finals on Tuesday and Wednesday ... and I haven't studied for a single one. I also have work in about an hour so that left no room for a review or a thoughtfully witty post! Woops! I'm gonna share with you all my Hanukkah NOTD. They matched the style of the Hanukkah Make Up Tutorial I did with the silver and the blue! Nothing too revolutionary or overly creative but it did get me in the Hanukkah spirit! :)

Polishes I Used:

• Pro-FX Complete 3 (for base and top coats)
• OPI Dating A Royal
• China Glaze Hook and Line
• Art Deco Blue Glitter Liner Polish
• Art Deco Silver Glitter Liner Polish

Are any of you getting in the holiday spirit with your nails? I'd love to see pictures if you have them up on your blogs! :)