Rachel Knows... Wet 'n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trio in Cool as a Cucumber!

This was a good palette. The only color that was just a disaster was the Browbone color, but I suppose it did its job in adding a subtle highlight color and blending everything together well. I would never use it on its own. It was so crumbly and so unpigmented that there just wasn't much to it. The other two colors were really pigmented and behaved very well. There was hardly any fallout. When I looked at this palette I was thinking that it was going to be the ultimate Christmas palette, but the crease color on the skin just didn't really look quite like I thought it would. In real life it looked very purple. I was thinking it was going to be a pretty deep cranberry color, but it wasn't at all. This is kind of like a hazel eyes palette on steroids. The green and purple in this palette are just really deep and strong, not like normal hazel eye palettes. I like it though! There isn't much more I'd add to this review that I didn't say in my 5 previous reviews that you can see here, here, here, here and here. :-D 

Rachel Knows... Checking In and Fingers Crossed!

Soooooo... I have a Rafflecopter giveaway going on my last blog post, but it won't load for me. I'm afraid it isn't loading for anyone because it isn't just not loading on my computer. It won't load on all three of my computers. Doesn't make sense. Anyway, there's lots of stuff going on at Rachel Knows...! There should be a very big and exciting announcement coming on Valentine's Day! Everyone keep your fingers crossed that the announcement happens! I've been pretty preoccupied with that and with trying to fix the issue with Rafflecopter which involved me changing lots of things on my website several different times and it still didn't fix it. That's why I haven't been posting much. I'm going to try my best to do the last three Wet 'n Wild palettes this afternoon. I might not do eye looks with them. I want to, but I don't know if I will feel up to it. So hopefully I will finish those up and get them posted in the next few days. Remember you have until December 7th to enter the giveaway. Each giveaway will be progressively better so keep an eye out for the next one to start! :-D

Rachel Knows... Prize Pack 1 is Up For Grabs on Rachel Knows Facebook Page!!!

Like my Facebook page to sign up to win the first of four prize packs. There will be a new giveaway every two weeks for a month! The fourth prize pack will be what I'm calling the Grand Prize because it will be the last and largest prize pack that you will have the chance to win over the course of the month. So all you have to do is like my Facebook page and still be a member of the page at the time of the drawing. You can enter once daily. Remember to tell everyone you know to sign up as well! Good luck everyone! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway These are the prize packs:

Rachel Knows... Nutra Nail Gel Perfect Nail Activator is Just Super Glue!!!! What?!

     

     I was browsing different blogs after I'd seen something on Pinterest about using the Gel Activator from the Nutra Nail Gel Perfect kit with regular nail polish and top coat. I was looking at this because the "nail polish" that came with the kit was just no count. The person blogging mentioned casually how the Gel Activator smelled like Super Glue. I was VERY overwhelmed with the smell when I was using the activator on my mother's nails. Something made me wonder what the Gel Activator was actually made of when I read about someone else mentioning the strong smell. I went to the Nutra Nail website and found the ingredients for the Gel Activator. 

Here are the ingredients for the Gel Activator: 

Ethyl Cyanoacrylate, 

Polymethyl Methacrylate

Here are the ingredients for Super Glue:

Ethyl-2-Cyanoacrylate 

Poly (Methyl Methacrylate)

Hydroquinone*

     Oh that's strange... It's the exact same freaking ingredients!!!!! I was honestly shocked. It is literally made out of the exact same ingredients as Super Glue, just with some extra scary sounding ingredients (I didn't list the extra ingredients up there) thrown in as well. I'm assuming those extra ingredients are to thin it out some, but what do I know. I mean how can a company get away with something like that? I feel horrible thinking that I was slathering Super Glue all over my mother's nails and accidentally getting it on her skin. She wore it for about a week too. She shouldn't have even worn it for that week, because they were chipped and horrible looking the very next day. How many women, if they were asked if they'd like to rub Super Glue all over their nails for their nail polish to last a little bit longer, would really say, "Oh yeah! That sounds like a really, healthy, good idea!”? I don't think there would be very many. I really think this should be a much more widely known fact. There would be no way in heck that I would have wasted a dime on a product that had me polishing my nails or a loved one's nails with freaking Super Glue!!!! I'm a tad bit incensed! Can you only be a tad bit incensed? Ha-ha! 

     I don't know much about how products are approved or deemed healthy, but it really seems like someone either dropped the ball or that there needs to be some sort of government health agency created to actually control some of the crap these beauty companies come out with. I mean even if we aren't exactly ingesting the products like we do with lip products; our skin is a living organ that soaks up whatever we put on it. Okay. I probably am sounding really stupid right now because I don't know anything about all that goes into making and approving a beauty product and I'm probably even wrong about how our bodies work, but it just doesn't seem right that any company can put out something like Nutra Nails has. So if you aren't catching my drift, don't buy this crap! Don't put this stuff on any part of your body! Don't inhale the Gel Activator because it is very strong smelling and it literally made my nose burn. I thought I was just being my normal, old, hypersensitive self, but I wasn't. This stuff should be taken off the market because A) It just can't be healthy in any way, shape or form and B) It is a crappy product that doesn't even last half the time of normal nail polish. Okay. I think I'm done with my rant. 

Here is the link to the Nutra Nails ingredient information:
http://shop.ccaindustries.com/nutra-nail-gel-per-6.aspx

Here is the link to the Material Safety Data Sheet of Super Glue: https://supergluemsds.com/Docs/Super%20Glue%20-%20Rev%2011%20-%202010.pdf

Rachel Knows... Century 21 Department Store!

To read this post click the link below to go to my sponsored posts blog! :-D

Century 21 Department Store!

Rachel Knows... Wet 'n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trio in Sweet as Candy!

This palette is wonderful! The name of this palette is a good one.  It really does create a sweet look. Not sweet like, "Yo bro. That was sweet." more like, "Awwww. That is adorably sweet." If you've been reading my blog for a while then you'll know that this was my go to combination of colors for years. Not this palette of colors, but just the pink, brown and off-white combination. I love this palette! Not just because of the colors, but because it behaved very well. This palette had basically no fallout in each one of the pans. The brown had absolutely zero! There was an extremely minimal amount of fall out on my eyes. Really the only time I noticed it was when I was applying the brown to my lower lash line. I always seems to get little bits of eyeshadow in my eyes even though I'm not exactly near my eye when I'm applying my lower lash line eyeliner with eyeshadow. I've yet to understand how it happens. As always the pigmentation was great and they applied like a dream. This palette has made me the happiest all around. From the colors to the actual product itself, this has been the best Wet 'n Wild palette that I've used so far. I'd definitely recommend that everyone get this palette. It is such a classic, feminine combination of colors that I think would be flattering for any eye color, skin tone or hair color. It's just fantastic! If you want to see my other reviews in this series of Wet 'n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trios then you can see them here, here, here and here. The pictures are after the jump! 

Rachel Knows... www.RachelKnows.com and Giveaways!!! Too exciting!

Yay! Now it is even easier to find and get to my site. http://rachelknowsstuff.blogspot.com is now officially www.RachelKnows.com. Ummmmmmmm... Does it get any easier than that?! To celebrate I'm having giveaways! Yes. Plural. Speak up and let me know if you'd like fewer chances to win more things or more chances to win fewer things. Also let me know which combination of things you'd like the most to win. I'd had all of the things broken down into 8 different giveaways, but I'm rethinking the groupings that I had, so like I said, just let me know what you'd like to get the most! I'll let you know the rules when I hear what y'all want and figure out the groupings. Comment below and tell me how y'all would like me to arrange everything. Here is everything that is up for grabs!

Rachel Knows... Wet 'n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trio in Spoiled Brat!

Oh man! That pink! Such an awesome color. I felt like such a bad ass while I was wearing this trio. I don't know why. It is just such a kick ass female combination in my opinion. Each of these palettes from Wet 'n Wild that I've reviewed so far has brought up different feelings and emotions in me when I wear them. It is weird. Whoever picked the combos definitely knew how to think outside the box and put together some great looks. This palette still wasn't fallout free when I swatched the colors, but I didn't notice much, if any on my eyes when I applied it. I didn't have any pigmentation issues and everything applied very easily. I again followed their recommendations when I applied the colors to my eyelid, crease and brow bone. There isn't much that I'd add to my other reviews of these palettes. You can see the reviews here, here and here. Click through for pictures of the swatches and the put together look on my eye. :-D

Rachel Knows... Wet 'n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trio in Silent Treatment!

     Ohhhhh! This trio is a good one! There was minimal fall out, the colors were once again quite pigmented, they were soft, easy to apply and the color combo was just fab! This trio is slightly reminiscent of my eye makeup for my wedding. I told my makeup artist that I wanted a smoky eye, but I didn't want blacks and silvers. I wanted browns and taupe, more natural colors. This palette has a pretty shimmery taupe for your eyelid, a deep, dark brown with golden glitter for your crease and a beautiful shimmery light peach color for your brow bone that on my skin doesn't really show up as much of a color it just gives off an amazing sheen that just brightens up the whole look and makes wherever I put that color look like it is glowing. You can totally vamp this look up or make it a very subtle, natural look. I vamped it up slightly because like I said it reminded me of the color palette I used on my eyes at my wedding and it was dramatic. My wedding was exactly a month ago, so I found it ironic that this palette was on the roster tonight, so I just used it as a sign to recreate my wedding eye makeup. Just because I'm more of a neutral color lover I definitely would recommend that everyone pick one up for yourself and an extra one as a backup, because I can see this palette being used every single day. I love it!

     I don't know if I will get a blog post up tomorrow. Max, my dog, is sick and I am taking him to the vet. I just don't know how long all of that will take or if I will be up to blogging tomorrow evening. Then again, things might be much easier than I anticipate and I will get a post up. Who knows?

     This palette was one of the ones that was beaten up pretty badly when it got to my house from Drugstore.com. The third time they shipped it, it arrived like it looks below. I figured it wasn't pretty, but it was still usable, unlike the previous two times they sent it, so I didn't chuck it. I'm glad I didn't!

 

Rachel Knows... Wet 'n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trio in I've Got Good Jeans!

The colors in the palette are so pigmented and pretty. Using them altogether in the combination that Wet 'n Wild suggests isn't my most favorite look on myself. I think I would use the beautiful, shimmery light blue color on my lid, with the dark blue in the crease and have the gold in the corner of my eye and as a very subtle highlight. I'm trying to do the looks as Wet 'n Wild has them though. The fallout was much less in this palette compared to the I'm Feeling Retro palette I reviewed yesterday. There was still some fallout with the darker blue when applied very heavily for the swatches, but just used normally on my eye there was practically nothing. That's better than tons with two of the three colors in the I'm Feeling Retro palette. I don't think there is too much else to say. I mean they were pigmented, beautiful colors and the combination of the colors was pretty even though I would have used them differently on myself. I'm being a tad bit redundant now. Nothing beats navy blue and gold when it comes to fashion. It has always been in fashion and I think it will be in fashion forever. If you're a blue eyed gal, then this palette will be awesome for you. It will make your peepers pop! Ha-ha! I don't know if I'm going to go back after I finish this series and update each post with an eye look using the colors on my eye in the way I'd do them or not. I'll have to think about it. I'd say that you should definitely pick up this palette. It's too pretty not to! :-D

Rachel Knows... Wet 'n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trio in I'm Feeling Retro!

That's a heck of a title! I almost had another debacle tonight, but I figured things out and got all of the pictures taken. Whenever I hear the word "Retro" I immediately think of the 1950's. I'm not sure why. People's mind obviously go to different eras when they hear that word and that's the one my mind travels to. As I stared at this palette though, I can't imagine a 50's housewife or movie star wearing these colors. Then I tried to think of other eras that might wear these colors and the only era that came to mind was the 80's and seeing as that was 30 years ago I imagine it could be considered retro. So I imagined I was a teenage girl getting ready, putting her leg warmers on, putting her rad eyeshadow on and then running out to the roller rink. I went a little heavy on the eyeshadow because of course the roller rink is dark and she'd totally want her eyeshadow to show up in the darkness. What era do you think of when think of retro? This was my first time trying Wet 'n Wild eyeshadow. They are decently pigmented and the colors are fun, but there was a ton of fallout from the blue and white colors. I kept getting so much eyeshadow in my eyes from it falling off of the brush into my eye that it was quite irritated by the time I completed the look. I also went a little heavy though because I've finally realized that I have to look like a clown hooker for the shadows to show up properly on my eye in pictures. So maybe it wouldn't be that much fallout if I was using a normal amount. I'm always giving products the benefit of the doubt. Right now I'd say hold off on purchasing this palette unless you're just completely enamored with the colors, which are very pretty. If you're in love with the colors I'd recommend using a mixing medium to make the eyeshadow adhere better to the brush and lessen the fallout. That is what I'm going to use next time I use this palette. I may have to use that on all of the palettes, but like I said this is my first time using Wet 'n Wild. Here is the packaging and swatches, then my totally rad (I don't know too many 80's saying as you can tell. Heck that might even be a 90's saying.) eyeshadow look with the I'm Feeling Retro palette. 

Rachel Knows... Wet 'n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trio Series!

Starting tomorrow I will be swatching, reviewing and showing you how to create an eye look with each of the Wet 'n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trios. I am missing a few because after 3 tries Drugstore.com still couldn't manage to ship me all of the trios intact. I noticed that my Walgreen's had a lot of the trio's, but while I was there I couldn't remember which ones were broken and which weren't so I didn't pick them up. I took pictures of and did a while eye look tonight with "I'm Feeling Retro," but the blog post was doomed almost from the start. I forgot to turn one of my lights on and didn't realize it until I'd started editing, I forgot to take a picture of the brushes that came with the palette, I rubbed my eye right before I starting putting on my eyeshadow and after I got the eyelid color on my eye started stinging, burning and itching. There is something around here that I'm mildly allergic to and when I get it in my eyes it burns so badly and affects my vision. The only way to make it stop is to go and rinse my eye out with water. I had already started putting the eyeshadow on so I decided I would try and wait until I was done with all of my pictures and editing before I rinsed it. So in all of the pictures my eye is bloodshot, watering and just looking awful. Then I realized I was out of mascara, so I used some I hadn't used before and it was a little clumpier than usual, so I didn't like it too much. Then as I was editing the pictures I realized I had completely forgotten to take swatch pictures. So yeah, everything that could have gone wrong did. I am going to re-do it tomorrow. So instead of pretty pictures of "I'm Feeling Retro" you just have me blabbering on probably boring you to tears.

Rachel Knows... Nutra Nail Gel Perfect 5 Minute Gel-Color Manicure! *Updated*

As you read in the last post, my mother and I removed our gel polish manicures. She'd left her's on for such a long time because her nails are very prone to splitting and while she had her gel polish manicure on, her nails didn't split at all. Before either of us took the leap and bought an at home gel polish kit, we thought we made a minor investment and try out Nutra Nail's Gel Perfect 5 Minute Gel-Color Manicure. That's a mouth full. So last night I gave her a Gel Perfect manicure in the color Passion. The instructions make it seem like it is a life-or-death situation and if you mess up you'll make your fingers explode or something. I was pretty nervous to paint her nails because I didn't want to mess up. Once you decipher the instructions it's really easy. I forgot to take a picture of the box before I opened it up and well, boxes don't stand a chance around me. There are three bottles that are included in your Gel Perfect manicure:

1. The Activator
2. The Gel Color
3. The Brush Cleaner

Rachel Knows... CND Shellac vs O.P.I. Gel Polish, plus a tutorial of the proper way to remove these polishes!

I had a post a while ago talking about my first gel polish experience and how much I loved it. I got a gel polish manicure for my wedding, as did my mother. When I got to the nail salon, I just could NOT decide what color would be the best for my wedding, so I just folded and got an old fashioned french manicure, even though I halfway detest them. The nail techs were literally getting pissed at me for not being able to make up my mind. I had looked at tons of colors over the course of the months leading up to me getting my manicure, so I wasn't ill prepared I just could NOT decide!!! My mom went with her old standby a wine red color. This is how they turned out:

Rachel Knows... e.l.f. Liquid Eyeliner, plus a tip for a 2 minute eye look!

     I'm not sure how much there is to say about liquid eyeliner. It applies smoothly. The brush is nice and slender for precise application. The eyeliner itself was easily rubbed and flaked off. I don't know if it is because I put too much on without letting it dry completely in between layers or if it is just generally the way that the product behaves. I've never used liquid eyeliner, so I'm not really the best judge of the product in terms of lasting power. I can only tell you what I think about it in terms of a new user. The colors were nice. There aren't many to choose from and all of the dark colors were difficult to differentiate from to be honest. The only time I might reach for these again would be if I was in a super, duper hurry and wanted to do this little eye trick that I think I made up, because I wracked my brain to think if I'd seen this somewhere before and I couldn't think of anywhere that I had. As I was swatching the eyeliners, I felt kind of artistic with the little brush and the precise little marks it made. It made me feel like "painting" everything. I thought, "What if I could sort of "paint" my eyelashes and tint them with the liquid eyeliner?" 

     I very quickly curled them and used the eyeliner to sort of act like hairspray and a tint all in one to hold the curl. I then thought, "What if I just line my eyes so that in addition with the tinted eyelashes it might look like a complete eye look?" So I lined my eyes and I kind of like how it turned out. I think in the future if I'm ever in a super hurry that I might use a jumbo pencil or something to put down just a little bit of color on my lid because they look a tad stark with just the liquid liner. I just made a thin line of liquid eyeliner in the inner corner of my eye and made the line thicker and wider as I got to the outside corner of my eye. I very, very slightly winged it out. You probably can't even tell in this picture that it is winged, but it is so slight and I just did it to add a little more interest to my eye since that was all that was on it. I literally just dipped the brush in the liquid eyeliner pot (Not sure what it would be called) and then started at the base of my eyelashes and brushed the liquid eyeliner onto my lashes. My mistake was that I kept putting the eyeliner on to build it up without letting it dry which caused the eyelashes to clump together. I would recommend doing a section at a time from the base to the tip and then moving over to the next section of lashes until they are all covered. Do that on the next eye, then repeat both eyes. It sounds like a lot of work but it really isn't. If you feel like you're handier with mascara then that's the route you should go with. I just did this unbelievably fast and I thought I would share the results with you. Bear in mind this is the first time I've ever used liquid eyeliner, so I need tons of practice and to work on lining my eyes in this fashion.

Rachel Knows... Wet n' Wild Megalast Lipsticks Part 2!

If you would like to see the first 11 swatches and read a more in depth review you can click here. 

This is the 2nd half of the Wet n' Wild Megalast Lipsticks. The lipstick colors in this half were bright and fun. The first half was more neutral. Also the 2nd half seemed to behave much better in terms of application. They applied much easier and when I was looking at all of the swatches on my arm you could see them glistening with much more moisture when the light would hit them. I'm beginning to think that maybe the first half I received was older. I'm not going to yammer on much more about these because other than being slightly easier to work with, seeming like they weren't as old as the first half and being a tiny bit more moisturizing (which I think has to do with the age) these guys are exactly the same as the first bunch, so I'd recommend them, definitely. These colors are so pretty. I love almost all of them!

Rachel Knows... Wet n' Wild Megalast Lipsticks Part 1!

     This is Part 1 with 11 swatches of Wet n' Wild Megalast Lipsticks. There will be 11 more in Part 2. That being said, this particular post has been a giant pain in my ass! Ha-ha! I finally realized why my pictures on the last two posts weren't up to par. I KNEW I didn't get that much sun, but in the pictures it looked like my skin tone was about 3 shades darker/more orange than usual. Somehow, I'm supposing on my Honeymoon, the settings on my camera got switched and I didn't realize it. That's why it looked so dark and orangey. I did get a smidge of sun, but I didn't intentionally lie out to get sun. I just got it out and about or when my SPF 50 got washed off or something. Anyway, so I took all of these swatches and lip pictures with the messed up settings. I was going to just leave it like that, but when I came back the next day to edit them and label them I realized that I'd put up all of my lipsticks and didn't write down the order that I'd swatched them in. I tried matching them up, but there are several similar colors in this batch, so I just gave up and took all new pictures. These pictures are still dark and my swatches are all cockamamie, but they're color accurate so that's all that matters to me. I'll get back into the swing of things hopefully. 

     Ok, so onto the review. I really like these, but at the same time, I feel like I don't. They are scent free and taste free so that is an A+ in my book, but as someone who has dry lips several of these just weren't great for my lips. There were a few that when I put on they actually felt nice, but there were some that were so dry that they were troublesome to apply. The one that applied the best was Mauve Outta Here. The one that gave me the most trouble during application was Cinnamon Spice. I don't know if maybe some lipsticks were older than others or if the color of them somehow affects the moisture level in them, but it is weird that lipsticks that are made the exact same way could behave so differently. Oh and what's up with Pink Suga? Who got high and named that color? Have I turned color blind or can anyone out there find any shred of pink in that lipstick? So would I recommend these? Yes. I think for their price, color range and if you put some chapstick or gloss over the ones that feel particularly drying then these will work well. I haven't had the opportunity to see if they last the 4 hours that they claim they will, but seeing as how easily they wiped off in between swatches I'd say they wouldn't last that long if you're going to be eating or drinking in the 4 hours that you'd be wearing it, but if you weren't doing any of those things I'd say that they'd definitely last 4 hours because they do feel a little "heartier" on the lips than a lot of other lipsticks I've worn.

Rachel Knows... Milani Lip Flash Full Coverage Lip Pencils!

I've been looking at these for a very long time. Their $7.00 price tag kept me away for a long time though. Yes, I'm a cheapskate. e.l.f. has ruined me. I wanted to try these because they look like dupes for the Urban Decay Super Saturated High-Gloss Lip Colors and I DEFINITELY am not going to spend $19.00 when $7.00 made me want to poo my britches. Anyways, these lip gloss pencils, as Milani refers to them, are really a cool product. Oh and surprise, surprise, I purchased yet another makeup product in jumbo pencil form. These applied very smoothly, felt quite moisturizing and were really pigmented. The most creamy and pigmented were Hot Flash and Photo Flash. They were my favorites of the bunch color wise and texture wise. These are fun, glittery Lip Glicks. That's my new word for Lipstick and Lip Gloss combo. I'm calling the Trademarking office in the morning... If you're really adventurous with your lip colors and finishes then you'll love all of these. They're a party on your lips. These wouldn't be something that you'd want to wear to work or somewhere conservative, but on a night out these would totally steal the show. I really love these and I think you ladies will too! :-D Oh and on another note are the pictures as eye searing bright on your computer as they are on mine? They aren't that bright in real life, but looking at them on the computer really makes my eyes hurt a little. I'm also part vampire, so it could just be that my light deprived eyes don't work like everyone else's.