Stocking Stuffer Guide: Manly

Photo courtesy of cafepress.com

Good Afternoon! So today's post is a follow-up or extension of yesterday's girly stocking stuffer post.  This one is for that amazing man in your life, be it your dad, boyfriend, husband, uncle, you name it he'll be thrilled with these great stocking stuffers I've put together.

Photos courtesy of Kiehls.com

First up we have a few body care gift sets.  I love these b/c they're generally a great value and you generally get several stocking items in one purchase.  The sets I picked are the Kiehl's Men's Starter Kit (retails for $39.50 and is perfect for a Kiehl's/body care beginner; all items in this set are travel size), the Kiehl's Ultimate Man Refueling Set (retails for $58), and the Kiehl's Helping Hands Essentials (retails for $25 and is great for someone who is outside a lot).  These kits are amazing and I think any guy, whether they're into body care or not, will fall in love with these fabulous products.  I have these items linked, but at the can also be found at your local Kiehl's store or Kiehl's counter found at numerous Nieman Marcus and Nordstrom locations.

Photos courtesy of Bookstone.com and ThinkGeek.com

Next up I have a few alcohol related products for the wine-o in your life.  If you really want to cheat out on the stocking stuffers. I would suggest just buying a nice bottle of that person's favorite alcohol and just stuffing the stocking with that.  Stockings are pretty much the PERFECT size for alcohol bottles.  So funny how that worked out... Anyway one of my other alcohol related items is whiskey stones (retails for $19.99 from thinkgeek.com; Brookstone sells a stainless steel version for $$24.99) and these are great b/c you put them in your freezer and then use them to chill your drinks without watering them down.  I also found a collapsible shot glass (retails for $7.99 from thinkgeek.com) for the party-er on the go.  Brookstone sells a ton of alcohol-related items, including a variety of wine openers and bottle openers (range in price, but my favorite is the iPhone case one, which retails for $39.99) and pocket breathalyzers (retails for $26.99) to determine if you've had just a little too much fun.

Photos courtesy of Dickssportinggoods.com

For the golf-lover in your life they're are a few small golf-related items that are perfect for stocking stuffing.  Golf balls generally come in large boxes of a dozen, but a good amount of brands make little sleeves that contain 3-4 balls; some boxes also package their balls in individual sleeves within the large box, so be sure to ask an associate for more information.  Golf tees are also great b/c you can buy a large quantity for a small amount of money (usually at least 100 tees for $10 or less).  Be sure to find out the gift recipient's tee preferences (material, height, and brand) before purchasing.  A club brush (Frogger makes a great one that retails for $17.99), golf towels, and head covers are other great options.  These items can be found at your local golf or sporting goods store.

Last up I have something that i mentioned in my girly stocking post as well: gift cards!  For the man in your life I'd recommend cards to his favorite restaurant, favorite sports bar, golf course, and iTunes.  These are a little more personal (with the exception of iTunes) b/c it shows you took the time to think about his favorite places.

Well that's about it for now.  I hope this guide helps make your stocking stuffer buying a little easier and enjoyable.  have a safe and happy holidays! Oh and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Stocking Stuffer Guide: Girly

Photo courtesy of Juicy Couture

Good morning lovelies!  I hope everyone is having a fantastic "hump" day.  Well I think the holiday crunch has officially begun with only six days of shopping left.  AHHHH PANIC!!! Well not a panic for me considering I completed purchasing and wrapped the bulk of my presents before December 1st, yes I know I'm CRAZY!  Unfortunately, I left the stockings for last, something I feel like a lot of people do b/c it can be difficult to think of small inexpensive items that a person will actually like and use.

Today's stocking stuffer guide will center around the ladies, ages 15 and up for the most part.  I've seen different versions of how people use the stockings; some go for only putting a few things in there, using them for a small, and often expensive, piece of jewelry, or, like we do in our family, stuff them to the brim.  However you decide to stuff your stockings, I hope this guide will make the whole process a little less stressful.

First up we have the obvious choice for girls: makeup!  The thing with makeup is if it isn't something that the person specifically asked for it can be tricky.  Stick to brands and products you know they like.  Still unsure?  Take a peek through her makeup collection and see if she's running low on something (mascara and the like) and buy her a backup.  When doing this please not the color of the product that she uses.  If you want what I consider to be foolproof makeup buying go for a value set, much like the ones you'll see popping up at Sephora.  These are great b/c you can un-box them and then you'll have multiple items to fill up that stocking.

Photos courtesy of Sephora.com

My personal favorites are the Benefit Sexy Little Stowaways (retails for $34) and the Sephora Tinsel Town Collector's Nail Polish Set (on sale for $33).  I have these products linked to their corresponding webpages, but at this point in the game you're probably better off not chancing the shipping getting it here on time, and should go to the store instead.  These items are both sold in-store at your local Sephora.

Photos courtesy of Sephora.com and Kiehls.com

Next I have something that is PERFECT for just about any girl, whether she's in to makeup or not.  Bath and body products are always a hit and, just like their makeup counterpart, they come in a variety of awesome value sets around the holidays.  My favorites are the Soap & Glory Shower Trip Set (retails for $36 at Sephora; also comes with a great travel bag that can be wrapped separately as an additional gift!) and the Kiehl's Creme de Corps Collection (retails for $64) and the Greatest Hits Collection (retails for $44).  These sets can be broken down into individual items and then placed in the stockings.

Next up we have travel accessories and travel size products.  I'm in consulting so I travel a ton and receiving travel related items is great b/c lets face it these are all things that we need, but we don't necessarily want to spend our hard earned cash to acquire them.  A travel item that people often forget about is luggage tags.  I recently acquired a set of hot pinks ones and they are to die!  The ones I purchased (two for $9.66) can be found at local Bag n' Baggage stores or on Amazon.  Another great travel item is refillable travel-size containers.  I have jelly ones that have control tops to prevent spills.  They've flown many miles and have yet to have an accident.  The ones I have are the Humangear GoToobs (three for $19.99) and can be purchased at your local Bag n' Baggage or Amazon.

Photos courtesy of Amazon.com

Travel size products are so great b/c it takes the guess work out of making sure your liquids are small enough to be carried-on.  Depending on the route you wish to take, many luxury brands carry travel size versions of their products, such as Kiehl's and Sephora.  Both stores have areas dedicated to smaller items; Sephora's is by the check out line or as you walk through the checkout line, and Kiehl's generally has large bins containing travel size items in the center of the store.  Also, if there's a luxury item that you know your gift recipient loves, but it doesn't come in full size, buy the large size and inquire with a sales associate if they can make you a deluxe sample.  You could also buy reusable travel bottles (featured above) and fill them with the recipient's favorite products.  Another great route to go is to visit your local drugstore and hit up the travel size section.  Stock up on toothpaste, mouthwash, q-tips, etc.  These are all items that we need, will use, and would be THRILLED to receive in our stockings.

Photos courtesy of Amazon.com

Last we have what I consider to be the Holy Grail of stocking stuffer items: gift cards!  Now I know some people are against gift cards b/c they can be seen as impersonal, BUT they are great little items to through in someone's stocking.  Ones I really love to get are iTunes, ones to my favorite restaurants, Starbucks, Wawa (for us east-coasters), and one for the local movie theaters (if you're not sure which movie theater the recipient likes, Fandango and Movietickets.com are safe bets).  Movie and restaurant ones are great b/c they are ones that you can do with your significant other, so don't look at them as boring old gift cards, but as an opportunity to have a fun date!

I know this post is pretty long, but i wanted to help everyone out as much as possible with the holidays so close!  If you have any additional stocking suggestions please leave them in the comments below.

Limited Edition Hare Polish Sale!

OK Santa came early this year and I woke up this morning to find that Hare polish is offering their two limited edition polishes, Holiday Hoopla & Swanky Soiree, in what they have dubbed their "Paint the Town Red" collection. I have to say I wish this had come out a little sooner so that I'd have it to wear in time for the holidays, BUT these two colors are so amaze-balls that I have no problem wearing them all year round. These polishes will be available TODAY at 1PM PST (4PM for us east-coasters), so I'd jump on this ASAP b/c these babies are not going to last long. I'm thinking about picking up two sets so that I can have one in a giveaway once I get to 100 followers. Now on to the polishes!
First up we have Holiday Hoopla, which is a mix of red squares, red hexes (ranging in size), what they describe as satin (or iridescent) pale pink hexes, gold circles, gold hexes glitter, and a soft gold shimmer, all suspended in a clear base.  This is Hare's first glitter top coat, and I'm BEYOND excited to see them venturing into the glitter top coat realm.

In the picture below we see Holiday Hoopla over Revlon Devil's Lure and OPI Don't Touch My Tutu.  Personally I'd love to see this over Essie Marshmallow, OPI My Boyfriend Scale Walls or Alpine Snow, China Glaze catwalk, and A-England Camelot.  This polish is so versatile, which is what makes a glitter top coat truly great.

Next up we have Swanky Soiree, which is what I would describe as a "concrete grey" jelly with multiple sizes of metallic red and gunmetal squares and hexes with a subtle silver shimmer.

In the photo below we see two coats of Swanky Soiree with top coat, no undies.  I know that some people might want to layer this over a similar grey, but I really don't like to layer things unless it's necessary.  That being said, layering is also a great way to make your polishes last longer and it allows for some fun color combination.

Well I hope you enjoyed this small taste of Hare polish, and I'll be sure to do additional features on this fabulous line in the future.  Please enjoy!

All photos are courtesy of Hare Polish's Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/harepolish?ref=ts&fref=ts)

Brand Highlight: Lynnderella

Good morning lovelies!  Well I only got about 3 hours sleep last night b/c of the crazy decongestants I took, but for some reason I'm incredibly awake right now.  Let's hope it lasts until 5...  So this is a new segment I'm trying out titled "Brand Highlight," and its name implies exactly what it is: a highlight of a brand of cosmetics with a little background on the creator, some pictures of product, and where you can buy them.

For this week I wanted to showcase a brand that I only recently discovered a few months ago and I am IN LOVE!  It's an "indie" nail polish brand by the name of Lynnderella.  Apparently I'm a few years late to the game on this brand, but I'm so happy I discovered it!  These polishes are unlike anything I've ever seen.  They are so beautiful and unique; I've never seen anything like them.  They can be a tad tricky to apply and a real BEAR to get off your nails, BUT they're so beautiful you won't even mind.  My recommendation when applying these is to top them off with a coat of Gelous followed by a coat or two of Seche Vite (products are hyper-linked to where you can purchase them).

Lynnderella recently released her "Seasons Glitterings" collection, and they are truly amazing!!!  Just when I think she can't top herself, she goes and makes and even more amazing collection.  I haven't had a chance to purchase these lovelies yet, but I think Angel Food and A Party of a Dress are going to be my favorites.  I do have Lynnderella's previous two collections, Early Halloween Resurrected and Sweet Somethings for a Summer Solstice, and out of those two collections my favorites are A Neutral Party, I Don't Mean Rhinestones, Evermore, and Ghost of a Chance.  To see some truly GORGEOUS swatches of these polishes I suggest you head on over to More Nail Polish's Lynnderella Guide.  Her swatches are AMAZING, and she showcases a multitude of other brands, nail art, etc.  You can also check out Lynnderella's blog to see latest collections.

Lynnderella polishes can only be purchased via her eBay store.  They generally sell for $23/bottle, but she has limited edition and retired bottles that she puts in auction mode.  The auctioned bottles tend to go for $100+, so be prepared when bidding on those.  Well I hope you enjoyed this showcase, and if there are any brands you'd like to see in the future please let me know!  Enjoy!

All photos courtesy of http://lynnderella-lynnderella.blogspot.com/

Makeup of the Moment: Too Faced Natural Eye

Good afternoon lovelies! Sorry for not posting yesterday, but with work things got a little crazy.  Plus I've come down with a cold, so that doesn't really help things.  ANYWAY here's a segment I'm trying out titled "Makeup of the Moment," (MOM) where I highlight my favorite product of the day, week, month, whatever.  So for today's MOM I've decided to showcase the Too Faced Palette "The Natural Eye."  This palette is absolutely amazing and has gotten rave reviews from hordes or bloggers, YouTube-ers, and everyone in between. 

This palette is so versatile, allowing for work, day, and nighttime looks.  Personally I don't use the matte "Day" looks (top row) mostly b/c I just don't personally care for matte shadows, BUT everything else in the palette is truly top notch. I find myself using the middle row, the "Classic" colors the most.  I generally use the darker colors from both the middle and bottom rows in my crease, the middle shades of both rows on my lids, and the highlight shades on the left for my corners and brow bone.  I find myself using the highlight shades (Silk Teddy & Nude Beach) with a lot of my other shadows as well, so those two are definitely my favorites in the set.  

The set also comes with a little brush, yeah I didn't realize that until I'd had the product for almost a year.  It's not my favorite brush, so I don't use mine, but it's nice to have if you decide to take this product on the go.  The set also comes with three "look" cards, showing various ways to wear each row of shadows.

All in all I love this palette and it's a great value at $36 for NINE SHADOWS!  This set can be found on Sephora and on the Too Faced website (links to the product on these sites can be reached by selecting the site name).  I'll hopefully be posting some videos of my favorite ways to use this palette, so please stay tuned  Enjoy!

Welcome!

Hello Lovelies!

I am SO EXCITED to FINALLY (yes I know LOTS of ANNOYING caps) be starting my beauty blog!  I know what you're thinking, not ANOTHER beauty blog, but the main difference with my blog is that my aim is to bring you the unusual, the daring, the "indie" of all that is beauty.  I am constantly searching for the next thing in beauty, be it a popular new drugstore brand, or an indie nail polish maker known by only a select few.  I will feature brands from all over the world, and will hopefully include at least a few that are new and exciting for you!  I'm looking to start a YouTube channel as well with some tutorials and the like.  Please keep in mind that I am in NO WAY a professional and my tutorials are just what work for me and might not necessarily be best for everyone.  I am always on the hunt for suggestions, tips, tricks, products you'd like to see reviewed, etc. so please do not hesitate to comment or shoot me an email at acuteaccents@gmail.com.  I'm also creating a Pinterest account under the name "Acute Accents," but feel free to check out my personal Pinterest at "Samantha Leigh" as well.  Please enjoy!