National Fibromyalgia Day

Today, May 12, is National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. Over 5 million people suffer from this chronic widespread pain and fatigue condition (myself included), with no cure in sight, limited medications that don't actually help much (despite the ads on TV), and limited understanding and acceptance, even by doctors and loved ones, it can truly devastate your life. Take the time to learn a little bit about fibromyalgia today and if you know anyone who has it, give them a gentle hug. I'm lucky that I've figured out things that help me and I'm more functional than most (I'm very thankful that I have the energy to not only work full time and go to school part-time but also run this blog which while fun, requires quite the time and energy commitment). Many others are not so fortunate and live each day with pain, fatigue and many other miserable symptoms.

Here's a link with more info: National Fibromyalgia Association

Beauty Express Haul

Today was my day off so aside from searching endlessly for Hidden Treasures, which I still haven't found, I drove about an hour to hit up the outlet mall nearby. I stopped at the CCO as well as the Lancome Outlet but nothing really caught my eye. However, I popped into a store called Beauty Express and hit the jackpot!

Each of these Essie polishes were only $2 - actually a few of them range up for $3.20 which is still an awesome deal over the retail price. They all look seem to look exactly the same but I didn't buy any duplicates.

They also had these OPI Suedes for 50% off. I got Ink, You Don't Know Jacques and Russian Navy.

And last but not least, two Essie polishes from one of the new collections: Lapis of Luxury and Turquoise & Caicos each for $7.20 (10% off retail). Apparently, this store discounts all of its full price merchandise, which is awesome, especially since you can't really find Essie at a discount anymore.

And here I was claiming the worst of my polish addiction was over...

Happy Mother's Day!

I wanted to wish all the Moms that read Jeweled Thumb a Happy Mother's Day. DH and I are headed to my parent's house for crabs (and yes, my Mom is receiving beauty related items). Yum! Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

Sephora Deal: Korres Smoky Eyes Eyeliner Trio

Every so often, Sephora puts out these super cheap sets that turn out to be an amazing deal on high end products. This particular one includes items from the Korres line. It's called the Smoky Eyes Eyeliner Trio and consists of 3 Korres eyeliners for $10. Considering each one of these pencils usually retails for $16, I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

During my last Sephora.com purchase, I picked these up to try.

Even though it is a special set, the products are in their full regular sized boxes and packaging which I appreciate.

Packaging is your fairly standard pencil packaging. These have a very slight pencil scent, but it's not nearly as bad as the Cargo ones I had previously purchased and returned since the smell was so strong.

The set comes with 3 different colors:

Soft Eyeliner 3S Light Blue - A matte pale baby blue
Soft Eyeliner 5S Silver - A metallic silver
Eyeliner 10 Blue Black - A matte deep navy

As named, these pencils are soft and creamy, gliding onto the skin effortlessly and very pigmented.

Pretty, no?

Unfortunately, these smeared even after I gave them about a minute to 'set' which they don't do. Still very pretty and probably great for the waterline and/or tightlining, but they seem like they lack in the staying power department.

That's rubbing my finger twice across the swatches. I think the silver is perhaps the best contender when it comes to the possibly of sustaining color on the upper lid and the navy is probably the worst. Still pretty colors and for the $3.33 per pencil, I'm not sure if it's worth returning. I'll play with them a bit on the eyes and report my findings.

Have you tried this set or other Korres pencils? What did you think?

Beauty Blog Link Love - 5/8/10 - #9

New to perfume? Don't fret; theNotice has an easy three-part guide on how to get started!

Glitter Geek goes bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S!) over a stunning eyeliner that even stays put on your waterline.

So many primers, so little time! Vanity's Edge is going to battle it out and she needs your help!

Looking for a great summer foundation? Clarins' latest offering is put to the test by Lipglossiping.

Phyrra from Fresco Phyrra shares some of her favorite Blacklight Reactive products.

Is make up really that complicated? Help Hell Candy's boyfriend unravel the mysteries of make up and read his guest post!

Jellyminx creates another pictorial creating a pretty pinky-purple look with drugstore products.

Christelle from Beauty Crazed shares the secrets of her shiny hair!

Sophie shows you her Five Skin Essentials!

GlossQueen tries her first mineral lipstick. Mosey on over to see if she liked it.

MAC Senior Artis Nicole Thompson tells us her must haves for Rosemount Australia Fashion Week at Madame B Fatale.

Hypothesis? Glass flecks make everything better. Jeweled Thumb experiments with different topcoats and proves just that!

Cawfee Tawk on Prime Beauty welcomes you with this week's topic -- Blast from the Past Beauty Products. Discuss!

Joeybunny swoons over her Holy Grail fragrance on the PinkSith.

Art Class is in session as Krasey Beauty takes you on a tour of MAC's newest Greasepaint Sticks.

Louise takes a look at the new Armani Nudes Contrast Palette and re-discovers her hatred of pastels!


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Tsahi over at The Makeup Artist is ecstatic about having 50+ followers; check out her giveaway and enter here!

Beautywoome has extended the competition for a full set of Ellis Faas makeup until May 14th!

Audrey has 2 giveaways going at once! Check out her Facebook Fan Appreciation and May's Reader of the Month giveaways.

NOTD: ELF Sugar Kiss Heart Violet(s)

A few months ago, ELF was doing a deal on their now defunct Sugar Kiss line. The line was 75% off, which considering the existing pricing made it pretty darn cheap. I took advantage of the sale cause well, why not? And of course this was in the height of my nail polish obsession which may be the reason why I bought all the cute little Sugar Kiss sets.

When I looked at the cute little (lightweight!) bottles, I figured they would be perfect for the Zoya exchange but then I tried them. Oh my gosh guys, at the very least, the glitter top coat is awesome.

I layered the purples that came in the set. They are both called Heart Violet, the first coat is a decent metallic purple shade but then the glitter top coat, it's gold glitter and then multi-colored hexagonal glitter in a light jelly purple base!

And since one of my hands still has Zoya Miley on it, here is one swipe of it over that hand.

Isn't it purdy? I'm definitely keeping the top coat...

(See, this is what happens when I try to sort out polishes to get sent to Zoya - I love them all!)

Another Zoya Hot Lips Promo!

"It's Spring so Zoya wants to get Lippy! Hot Lippy!

From now through May 12, 2010 get any 3 Zoya Hot Lips Glossy Lip Balm + Therapy FREE, you just pay shipping.

Simply add any 3 Zoya Hot Lips Shades (over 30 shades to choose from) to your shopping bag at http://www.zoya.com/content/38/category/Zoya_Hot_Lips_Lip_Gloss.html then enter the following promo code "LIPPY" in the "promo code" field in your shopping cart. Press the "Apply Code" button and you will see a credit appear for $18 (The value of 3 Zoya Hot Lips Tubes).

This offer is exclusively available at www.zoya.com to consumer clients inside the Continental USA. Offer not valid in conjunction with any other coupons, offers or codes. Offer expires May 12, 2010."

If you're curious about my thoughts on the Hot Lips, you can read the post I wrote in November here. The three I reviewed were Babydoll (a very light pink -no shimmer), Disguise (deep cherry red - no shimmer), and Luck (a mauvey pink - subtle shimmer).

Are you going to be participating in this promo? I definitely am. Now to remember which other Hot Lips I wanted...

Pop Beauty @ Hautelook Today!

Pop Beauty will be on Hautelook today! I have no idea what they are going to featuring or the discount amount but I hope it's good (I would totally haul if they were featuring the nail polishes in the line but something tells me it's the palettes that have been on http://beautycrunch.com/ for months)! Will you be "tuning" in at 11am EST?

Disclosure: This post includes a referral link.

The Case Of The (Missing) Polish Collector

If you're anything like me, you hate the idea of parting with your nail polishes, even if they may have icky chemicals in them but the thought of missing out on the Zoya nail polish promotion is equally as upsetting. So, therefore I bring you... *cue dramatic music* The Case Of The (Missing) Polish Collector!

Sorry, I'm dealing with an awful sinus infection and thus I probably make no sense. Either way, you all love me so you put up with my silliness.

Anyway, yesterday I went to The Dollar Tree and Big Lots. I don't usually go to Big Lots because it's not in the best area of town and I try not to go there after dark. Thanks to summer, I get a few more hours of sunlight in which to go bargain shopping. Anyway, while I'm not a fan of being wasteful (money and otherwise), I don't see how I could possibly part with many barely used polishes that I likely paid a pretty penny for (my initial plan was to use up - hahahaha so not happening - 6 polishes - the minimum - for the trade in). Nor do I generally like the idea of buying polishes solely to swap them out, but desperate times call for desperate measures people.

Enter my solution:

On the left we have a lovely set from Big Lots containing 4 polishes and an emery board from Markwins for $2 and on the right we have a 4 East Cosmetics french manicure set from Dollar Tree for $1. The first set comes out to $.50 per polish sans emery board and the Dollar Tree set comes out to $.33 per polish.

Here's the deal I gave myself. Before sending these off to be disposed of, I said I would give them a fair shot. If they were crap, fine. If not, I would keep them.

The set from Big Lots contained a rather unremarkable pale pink with shimmer, a red that nearly painted itself (opaque in nearly 1 coat - I used 2 for all these swatches), a silver that left bald spots while trying to add coats and a nice shimmer charcoal color. I'm tempted to keep both the red and charcoal. What do you think?

Note: I didn't swatch the clear
Wow, well these are definitely going to Zoya. Streaky messes, the lot of them. This was 3 coats for each. The white looks like I tried to paint glue on my nails, am I right?

If you're interested in these sets, the Big Lots had a bunch of these near their Mother's Day display (lots of bath stuff too).

Current Faves

I know I don't do these "Current Fave" posts with any regularity, but I wanted to share what I've been loving lately. These are mostly items that I took with me and wore on vacation.

Barielle Natural Nail Camouflage - If you remember, I picked this up during a recent trip to Tjmaxx and I'm loving it! In fact, I wore only this during the trip to Georgia (I didn't want to scare off DH's 93 year old grandmother) and my MIL even commented how pretty my nails looked. I used around 3 layers and it held up surprisingly well for the trip. And I also do really like it as a base. I feel like polishes go on more smoothly because of it. Is it worth $16 and will I rebuy at retail? Maybe? I hope that I run into this at Tjmaxx again so I can stock up because it's great.

ELF Studio Concealer in Ivory - I did a review of a few ELF face products recently and this was one of the newer items I picked up. I was slightly wrong as this isn't a perfect match for my skin. It is slightly more yellow than my skin (yes I realize it doesn't really look yellow at all I'm just very cool) but because it is ever slightly more yellow, it is great at covering red marks on my face. I especially love this right around my nose. Unfortunately, I can't cover large areas of my face with this as the color is off but for small spots it's perfect.

Clinique Touch Tints for Eyes (Sunlight Palm & Nude Sparkle) - These were the only eyeshadows that I brought with me on vacation and it was more than enough. The Touch Tints can be sheered out or built up so I was able to create several different looks with these two shades. And a plus, no chance of getting broken or smashed in my bag. Nude Sparkle also doubles as an inner corner and/or brow highlight and they stay all day.

Milani Liquif-Eye metallic eye liner pencil in brown - I never did a proper review of these pencils but I'll explain why I love this so much. First of all, price. For a little over $5 the quality and price of these is awesome. Second, a couple weeks ago I went to the eye doctor and got my eyes checked and during the checkup, she flushed my eyes with a solution. Guess what was still there after said flushing? Yup, this pencil. My waterproof mascara didn't survive nearly as well but this stuck. Great for Georgia humidity too.

Fyrinnae Lip Lustre in Bloodstains - I've mentioned this a few other times, but I love this... on my cheeks! It is perfect and it stays all day. Love! I couldn't get a great swatch of it spread out but it's a lovely red flush.