My Top 5 Beauty Sins

Saw this Tag on the lovely Christiana's blog so I decided to put together a list. I tag anyone to do the same....Ok here goes! :)

Sin #5. I use to add hair gel to my nearly empty mascara tube.

I don't do this anymore but I use to back in my high school days when I didn't have enough money to go out and buy another. I have no idea what prompted me to add in the hair gel, I thought that it would somehow mimic the mascara formula!

Sin #4. I scratch off my white heads and squeeze out my blackheads.

Only on my nose but nevertheless this is some strange habit of mine that I'm not proud of. If I see them on my nose I am so quick to squeeze them out. I think it all started when I would use those blackhead nose strips which for me is a love/hate relationship, sometimes it gets them all out and sometimes it doesn't!

Sin #3. I don't take off my makeup every night.

I know, I know, 'Never be too busy to be beautiful'....It is a motto that I stand beside and have said many times but seriously I have 2 kids and a toddler at home and I work full-time, Most days I am so exhausted I go into dream mode putting my 1 yr old to sleep with a plan of getting up about 30 mins later to wash my face, paint my nails, etc BUT when I DO wake up it's time for me to get up and start the day all over again! lol

Sin #2. I use to wear face powder that was too light for me.

Those ghastly white casts in the old photos, and the favorite compact puff tucked neatly inside by the mirror. Yep I was one that fell victim to this classic! This was back in the day before we cherished makeup brushes and drugstore makeup companies were ho-hum about selling makeup and powder that matched REAL skintones!

AND my #1 Beauty Sin......I use to share my makeup with my friends all the time.

Ewwww....now that I think about it, what the hell was I thinking? lol :)

Lush & Stuff: Things to get for my new home!

Since moving into my new home I've been dreaming of the day I can have a relaxing bubble bath.....I could not achieve one at my old home, the tub was too small....So our new luxurious bath tub needs to meet with me for an appt, ha!...I need to slip me one of those sweet smelling Bath Bombs from Lush....yes! Finally I get to shop at Lush and enjoy the products! So I've compiled a list of things I must get for my new home.....

MMM Melting Marshmellow moment

Rockstar Soap

Alkmaar Soap

Honey I washed the Kids Soap

Sex Bomb Bath Bomb

Creamy Candy Bubble Bar

Honey Bun Bath Bomb

Also, if there is anything you recommend, let me know!

Oh and apothecary jar to store these in, great idea I stole from Tiffany of MakeupbyTiffanyD :) I love her!

What would I do without Aubrey of youtube's Fafinettex3 and her great ideas? Ever since I saw her Jewelry collection and storage video I can't get over the cute mirror/Armoire she had....

...this would be perfect for my jewelry madness....

and it got alot worse : /
So I'm getting the black one from QVC.com. I do have my jewelry organized but seriously it is in 3 different places! I would love to just have it in 1 place!

More organization I need:

Nail polish collection is getting way out of hand, so I found this seller on ebay and for $25 I'm getting a 90 ct. NP rack that you mount on the wall, this will be a great space saver....You should see my nail polishes at the moment, some are here some are there.....yeah a mess : D

Hey girls, I'm looking for a nice and cute vanity since I got rid of my old one. I'm currently using my dining table to do my makeup :(

Where have you seen some pretty ones?

I got a few ideas from efurniturehouse.com....yeeeeeah, my makeup is all over the place too, lol!

On a different note, I'm getting rid of my Juicy Couture perfume, does anyone want it? I'll gladly sell it for $20, I've only sprayed it about 4 times and honestly I don't like the smell....maybe it's my pregnancy?

Let me know!

Anywho, if you want it please let me know in the comment section, remember to give me your paypal email....US buyers only since I can't ship liquids overseas....

Have a great week everyone :)

Project 10 pan

Happy New Year everyone, so glad to be back! I have a few upcoming posts on my blog that I'm super excited about :)

-Holidays Haul

-Collective Haul

-Revlon Photo Finish Foundation Review

-Wedding Anniversary FOTD

-December '09 Faves

-Favorite Nail Polishes + NP Hauls

I'm half-way done with them, I still have to do alot of photographs so hold on and I'll post them as soon as I can!

(me rockin' Russian Red by MAC, love it!)

                                                  On to other news....

I'm starting a whatchamacallit...Project 10 pan!

Update: You can expect me to update this post every other day or so due to the fact that I may change one of the products in the list! :)


I figured I'd start one since I have a few items that are near finished, is also a great way to save up and make a list along the way of things I want to buy when I'm done :)

The whole idea is to finish 10 (or 5) products completely before buying any more makeup/skincare products. I wanted to start one a few months ago but never got around to it...I got the idea from the youtube's makeup guru LisasZ09!


here are the things I'm almost done with!

Updated: Jan 21, 2010


1. MAC l/s Syrup
2. MAC Miss Dynamite dazzleglass (by far my most favorite dazzleglass!)
3. MAC l/s Pink Plaid (my favorite, I better get a backup, or two!!!) I've decided not to try and finish this lipstick, it is way too pretty and I'm just going to use it when needed! lol
3. MAC l/s Jist
4. MAC Blot powder med.
5. MAC Moisturelush for the face 
6. Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner Zero I'm going to quit this eyeliner, for some reason mine is smudging all over the place and it doesn't last :(
6. Physicians Formula mineral wear powder.....I love it!
7. MAC Consume Me lipgloss (tri-color)

I've deleted the mascaras I had listed because those were mostly trial sample sizes, Here I added something else in it's place!
8. MAC Vanilla Eyeshadow
9. LA Colors base coat top coat clear nail polish
10. Lancome Pro cils (the free mascara I got during the Free makeup settlement of 2009!)

Is anyone else currently doing a Project 10 pan? If you have done one, what are your thoughts?

Journal Entry

Just learned this afternoon that my niece's baby passed away. I don't mean to be a bad news burden to all of you but like I said you all are like family and I just wanted to share this news about what is going on with my life. I can't imagine what she is going through right now, as a mother I can certainly feel her pain but she has an incredible amount of pain unexplainable.

I'm not sure what she named her baby but for now we'll call him Baby Martinez. May he rest in peace with all the angels in heaven.

*Update: They named the baby Branden, Mass to be held 7/15/09, Thank you for your prayers

Journal Entry/Randomness

• Goodness, it's been so long since I posted a randomness for the week, I clearly stopped doing it because I've been thinking long and hard about my hiatus staus and can't seem to make up my mind but in the future I think it will turn out best. During my time of thinking I make sure to post nessesary entires on my blog anyway. I will continue to do so until I reach a decision. Thank you all for your support!
• I've pretty much been hauling here and there. I recently started getting into dark lipsticks, don't know why :) but I went in my lipstick drawer and pulled out as many dark lipsticks as I could find and just started playing with them to try to see which ones looked awesome, so far I like MAC Hang-up and Media. I'm also getting into dark (almost black) purples and burgundy's and red's so if you know of a really great blackened red lipstick please let me know! Speaking of dark lipsticks I recently stopped by the 99 cents store and picked up a Santee lipstick in Black. Yep, I now own a black lipstick! Which doesn't look bad at all when you apply it well and use lipliner. I also wanted it to mix in with other colors to create unique lip colors. You can pretty much mix in any color you want with the black and it looks amazing. I'll put pics up very soon of what I came up with.
• I've also been fond of brown liquid eyeliners for the top lashline, just this past weekend I was searching all up in my makeup drawers for any sort of brown liquid eyeliner. So I couldn't find one and ended up using my rose water and MAC e/s Folie as a top lashline liner. OMG, it looked Ah-mazing! Later on that day I was browsing in JC Penney with my kids and came across the Kat Von D liquid eyeliner in the Sephora they have in the store and to my surprise looks exactly like the Folie+rose water I used earlier. The color is called Immortal Love and I'm in love with this eyeliner. The color is perfect for brown and taupe + khaki smoky eyes (which I wore on Saturday) and is quite close to the color Folie (which is a great reddish brown e/s). I'm eye-ing the other Kat Von D colors as those looked very tasty :P
• On a very sad note, my niece recently gave birth to her son and it is this big mess of poor judgment of the staff at a nearby hospital (my sister-in-law and niece are contemplating a lawsuit...read on to see why). She went in for a fever a few days ago and they released her to go home. Well 4 days later she complained to them again for contractions and was upset to learn she broke her water 4 days earlier. Basically the fever was a sign of water being broke, so both baby and mommy caught an infection and were under hospital ICU for 4 days. They released my niece but had to keep the baby in ICU. So far in the past 3 days the baby has had problems breathing and has herpes (not sure which type) and is turning normal color to blue and everything in between. They baptized the baby on Saturday and predict baby will pass away within the next day or two. I can't imagine what my niece is going thru right now, and as a mother I can understand her pain. I just wanted to let you all know simply because you are like family. Any prayers to her and her family are welcome, thank you for listening :)
• I hope everyone had a great weekend! I'll post pics of the dark lipsticks in a few days :)

Journal Entry

• I'm sick again, unfortunately....but to me that's good news because no work! Anyways. I woke up Sat. with a huge sore throat and my voice nearly gone, (right now I sound like a girl with strep throat that chained smoked for years, haha) No offense to those that smoke, my hubby smokes so I know all about it :) Anyways, I decided that I would take the day off on Monday to see if it would subdue but I woke up today a little bit worse. I called in, went to the doctor's office, and came out with 2 prescriptions and a 'bed rest for 2 days' note!
• My look for today! I'm really loving this blush I got from Biglots called Revlon Lovestruck, Limited edition.... and if you are familiar with it, it's the one in the black and clear compact and the actual blush has heart shapes on it, soooo cute. It was only $2 and I'm in love....Maybe I'll go and get more :) Eyes- MAC Artifact Paintpot, NYX slim liner Seafoam green, Revlon Lovestruck blush, Lips- MAC She loves Candy lipglass
• Now onto the nails, I was feeling a bit silly last night, I wanted a fun nail to wear thru-out the day so i ended up making them like this...
  haha, to me they remind me of easter eggs :) Basically I applied a pastel pink cream on the entire nail bed, I applied polka dots from various other colors I had like China Glaze Spontaneous, MAC Phosphor, and China Glaze For Audrey. I thought it came out cute. I'm thinking about doing them again tonight, maybe Skittles inspired this time?
• I have a few pics, FOTD's and EOTD's to show ya but I'm having huge trouble with my computer and pics folder. For some reason it is running really slow and I'm also having trouble transporting pics from my camera to the computer, soooo As soon as I get a scan going to try and see if I have infections I will post them quickly. I can't live without my computer :(
• Everyone have a great week and I'll talk to you later!
  
  

Journal Entry

• I had a great Mother's day! I hope all you mommies and mommies-to-be had a great one as well! My day started off with sleeping in, which I'm sure was most requested by mommy's, then me and the familia went to eat brunch, which was really good! I had my favorite- Cheese enchilada's, even though I shouldn't have, but who cares! it was mother's day! Then we went to Target so I could browse in the makeup section :D I ended up getting more Milani mineral powder since I was running out, love that stuff! Then we visited with my grandmother, whom in fact is my 'mother' by choice, long story. She is the greatest of all, so we went by there and spent some time and then I got dropped off at my house and my husband took the kiddos to my in-laws house for a few hours so I could rest, relax or do whatever I wanted alone at my house! Very relaxing! After they came back I took a trip down to Wal-mart to spend some of my mother's day money, I spent alot of time in the makeup isle and handbags too! I went home afterwards and enjoyed an easy dinner of chili dogs with my family. Yes, mother's day was in fact very nice for me! I'll include pics in the next post to show you what I got.
• I just wanted to let you all know that you must be careful with ebay and paypal. Over the weekend some dirtbag from HongKong hacked into my paypal account and charged me a few hundred dollars. I found out today by email. I was furious (I still am). It didn't take me long to race over to my bank to get them started an a fraud alert. After all this is over with I'm going to close my account with ebay and paypal because this is ridiculous. Paypal is suppose to prevent stuff like this from happening. I already submitted a dispute with paypal *keeping fingers crossed*. I'm really upset about it so I just wanted to warn everyone to keep an eye out with your ebay & paypal accounts. I'll keep you posted.
• I'm so excited to be a tia again! My sister-in-law is pregnant with her 3rd child and I couldn't be more happier for her! Congrats Joann!
• Everyone please have a great week! Talk to you soon! :)

Tag: About Lali.Amora

Hi! I was not tagged to do this but wanted to anyways :D

TAG: Getting to Know Me, Getting to Know You

Q: What made you choose your blog?

A: I basically wanted to make new friends and just enjoy writing. I love writing! but most of all I chose to have a blog because I wanted to go more in depth with reviews & swatches of beauty products since I was having a hard time finding in-depth reviews about different products online, so I just decided to start my own reviews to help others in the same situation.

Q: What's your actual name?

A: Erica

Q: Do you have any nicknames?

A: haha! no, there really isn't a short way of saying Erica, unless you call me Eric, but then my son will turn around and say 'what?' because his name is Eric, lol. But sometimes my husband calls me Shortstuff. haha maybe because I am a shorty, 4'11 to be exact :D There's also

Mizz Erica as my friends call me, Oh! and the best nickname ever is Erickita which was developed by my beautiful Grandmother that raised me.

Q: Apart from the obvious make up / beauty hobby, what other hobbies do you have?

A: OMGosh, I have tons of hobbies... reading books (Richard Paul Evans my favorite writer), Jewelry making, Art-like painting, computer graphic drawing, blue-prints of homes (i guess like architecture), Music collecting, Movies collecting, Swimming, Camping, Fishing, Hiking, Baking, Arts and crafts, research projects, gardening...I'd list more but I have a day job :D

Q: What do you do?

A: I'm staff at the Health and Science Center (for all my San Antonian ladies, you know where!), which is great because I'm in healthcare & education in one.

Q: What would you like to do?

A: Hmmmm, not sure what this question means, but at the moment I'd like to go home and change and go to the mall! I have lots of Back2MAC to do! hahaha

Q: Tell us something embarrassing, but that you love doing?

A: Hmmm, wow I have alot of embarrassing things I do!

Q: Tell us a little something that we don't already know about you.

A: I was in the Marine Corps, 8 yrs, honorably discharged 2005, did the bootcamp, trained with weapons, traveled the world, etc-etc. I was active for 7 yrs but my last year was carried out while back in San Antonio. And sometimes I miss it!

Q: What achievement are you most proud of?

A: I have 2, becoming the best mother to my 2 sons & my experiences in the Marines.

Q: What do you most like about yourself?

A: I'm patient

Q: What would you change about yourself if you could?

A: Nothing really :)

I tag:
Rochelle
Sofia
Brittany

Journal Entry

My diet is not going so well! ha ha, I generally have no will-power but lately all the good eats that are suppose to be bad for you have been showing up in front of my face and that's not a good thing. This whole weekend has been somewhat of a calorie fest. This is definitely a test of my will-power and I'm ready to fight it this week and the next upcoming weeks because this is just ridiculous, lol. I know I have gained a few lbs when my lower back starts hurting while sleeping because whenever I go on a diet and lose weight my back doesn't hurt, but as soon as I gain some my back starts hurting. Oh well, I'll just have to keep trying! It's not so much the sweets but it's food that get's me, I love pasta and potatoes, rice and bread, so I really have no will-power when it comes to this food...I know how to grub!

What is the deal with foundations by Chanel, Dior, Origins, Makeup forever, Clinique, and Prescriptives?! I went over the weekend to browse & pick a different foundation just to try something different so I'm not using the same MAC foundie. So I try all these foundie's and none have the correct color of my skintone. I have a very weird skintone, it beige with golden-yello undertones with hints of glowy red.....weird right! I would have thought that even Prescriptives would at least have a match because they are the supposed 'perfect match' people, but no. Makeup forever has more of a pink undertone, which I am not! And Clinique makes you just look too pastie, white-like and grey. So I guess I'm stuck with MAC for now, at least I still have minerals and my Dream Matte mousse that I love. I'm starting to wear bronzer. As a matter of fact I don't really need it because I am tan enough as it is, but this past Saturday I saw a beauty hour on QVC with Bobbi Brown that changed my outlook on bronzer. She had this bronzer that I would have loved to buy but was way out of my price-range, so I decided to do a little research for good quality, high-rated bronzers and found a few to try. I ended up buying the Rimmel Natural face bronzer, which happens to be highly-rated, and a best-seller and is the best for value, Physicians Formula bronzer called bronze boost (fyi: all bronzers by Physicians formula are great), and the MAC natural MSF in deep dark, which is soooo pretty. I will post a blog entry and pics soon. I made a video on bronzing, so check it out if you can. I never really put much thought into bronzing my face since I was tan anyway, but I really like the look of the bronzer when applied correctly and I love to look glowy and tanned and just overall healthy on my face! Loving it! I might even go on a bronzer haul next month :P Everyone have a beautiful day! It's going to thunderstorm over where I'm at!

Journal Entry

• I don't remember which post it was but I recently said that lately I've been loving cheap drugstore products like foundations, lippies and eyeshadows. Right now I'm loving my Revlon Colorstay foundie which happens to be amazing because it controls the oil in my t-zone, which I love. I've been wearing it since 7 this morning and I've only had to powder my nose once. That's good for my average of blotting in a day is anywhere from 4 times to 6 times. My MAC studio fix fluid doesn't even do that for me, just goes to show that some drugstore brands are better than high-end makeup! What I also love about Maybelline is that they came out with a new formula some time ago for some of their eyeshadows, which is nice because if you've ever tried some of the drugstore shadows most of them don't really have much pigmentation. So these shadows have plenty of pigmentation, and i'm thinking about collecting all of them because they are so pretty! I just wish Milani would bring back the regular single shadows because lately I've been shopping around for those and they seemed to have disappeared....? discontinued perhaps? I'm not sure but those had good potential, and pretty colors.

• Does anyone have any good suggestions for drugstore mascara? For some reason all the mascaras that I've bought from Covergirl tend to dry out pretty fast and that makes me upset. I mean, I bought the lashblast back in November and by January it was dry and flaky, ew, not good. I've been using the Pro mascara and that dried up as well. I'm walking around my work with tiny little black flakes on my face because it is drying up so bad : ( Anyways, I'm outta options and looking for a good mascara. Maybelline's mascara, to me, tends to be more on the soft side, the Define-a-Lash that I had once was black but looked more of a grey... pigment in the mascara needs improvement. Forget about the new Lash stiletto, when I first bought it I was excited, after opening it I was so taken aback by the smell, it is almost sickening: it's strong. So if you have a sensitive nose and hate for your makeup to smell plasticky & toxic, then don't get Lash Stiletto. I once invested in the MAC Zoomlash because I had used it once before and liked it but for some reason this time, the mascara was way too hard. and it never really volumized them. They felt and looked like sharp needles poking out , totally weird, so off I went to return it. So yeah, mascara shopping is difficult to me sometimes because you never know what it'll do until the end of the day, whether it runs, smears, flakes, dries out, etc. And it doesn't help that my lashes are short and scantilly.
• What is up with my new lipgloss from MAC from the Hello Kitty Collection, She loves Candy? Lately I've been wearing it and once again smelling that plastic and toxic smell. I know it has to be that because if I wear a lipstick that has a distinct smell like I can always smell the vanilla that MAC is notorious for having in the lipsticks, but for some odd reason this lipglass doesn't smell not even near vanilla :/ I opened it just a few min. ago to smell it and yup, it has that plastickie and toxic smell. weird. I'm thinking about just taking it back to the storeand exchanging for a new dazzleglass or something : )

Everyone have a good day and i'll talk to you all later!

Journal Entry

• I'm in trouble, what am I going to do? I have so many lippies that I'm thinking about returning some to the store, if that is possible. I might have to go in my desk and pull out receipts and match up and go running around all over the city to return them! yikes, why did I have to be such a lipstick-oholic
• Did anyone happen to grab any of the new MAC Dazzleglasses? For some odd reason youtube guru's and other fellow beauty bloggers were raving about their own purchases from last week when I thought they weren't suppose to debut until the 30th? Hey, where was my memo? I hate being left out...come to find out it was an early release but was quickly taken away just for it to debut again on the 30th...MAC, you are so weird.
• Me and my husband have decided to try for baby #3. I'm super excited :) But instead of tips on preventing pregnancy I'm trying to GET tips on getting preggers. haha I just think it is funny. I'm hoping for a boy, but in my heart somewhere I want a baby girl :)
• I'm taking another break from school....*gasp!* I've been going strong since '07. I know it seems weird but lately I've been getting out of work extremely dizzy with headaches that all I want to do is get home and lie down. This happened to me last year and I ended up taking a 2 month break from school. well it happened again, I ended up missing 2 weeks of school, not good, especially since we always have assignments due each week. So for the past 2 months I've been coming home sick and not being physically able to do homework, tests, seminars, etc. But this break should be good, I'm returning in August, hopefully by that time I've figured out what is wrong with me : )
• That is it guys, stay tuned for more randomness next week, I'm off to work and possibly check out cosmetics stuff online.

Journal Entry, How to spot Fake perfume

I decided to do more damage to my wallet, but it wasn't intentional. lol. I think I'm addicted to lipstick, lol. But, there is nothing better shopping for makeup which roughly cost anywhere from $1 to $15 dollars (if you know where to shop). It's what I like and I'm content shopping for it rather than spending $20 - $60 on clothes or shoes. I'm just like this, I think because I didn't have alot of money back in high school to spend on luxury's like MAC makeup or even Clinique (which alot of girls had in high school). So I use to wear the cheapie kinds, which I think are still good. I don't know? There is just something about shopping for makeup or beauty items that seems to make me happy, I can't explain. I love to once in a while splurge on a YSL or Chanel item : ) BUT, when it comes to quality items like MAC, Dior, Lancome, etc, you can't put a price tag on that!

So back to the wallet damaging, a couple of weeks ago I bought 10 different colors of the Victoria's secret beauty rush lipglosses. They are a big-time favorite of mine mostly because the ones with the glitter remind so much of MAC dazzleglasses (another favorite of mine.) So every weekend or so I usually drop by my local VS and check out the colors. I did go and find some I didn't already have so I got them and all of them = Love!!

Dropping by Sephora for a sweet treat!

Finally bought my Vanilla cupcake shower gel I've been wanting. Yummmmmmmy, smells like a creamy sweet vanilla cupcake. I also decided to stop in at a hair products store (totally forgot the name of it : P) and bought OPI nail polishes while my husband patiently waited, haha I love him...

If you can see it in the picture, the one closest to the MAC box is called bronze and the pinkish one is called Didgeridoo your nails? Cute! The style card is a so-called points card, and after so many points you get stuff, not sure what though. MAC box is actually Studio Tech. I used to wear this a few yrs ago all the time and I mean all the time. I think I went through like 10 of them within a few years since wearing MAC. It is so good by the way, covers well, blends great, leaves a matte finish. Then I got the shadestick in Sharkskin, beautiful color. I also got an eyeliner brush which seems to work very nicely : )

Oh yah, and the neat rubberbands that I seem to lose all the time, so I had to get more. The VS card is a neat little gift card containing amount of $10, $50, $100, or $500. i'm excited to find out what is in it.

Lipsticks Organization
A few days ago I updated my lipstick container because it was getting downright ridiculous. I'm really happy with this little stationary box which i found at TJ maxx. It has a lid which is good because you're suppose to keep lipstick away from direct heat or light. Here is the pic...
The glass container is where I keep my lip balms and chapsticks...

A sea of lipsticks...

MAC Sugarsweet Buys

My little haul consisted of nothing else than the lipstick Saint Germain and the lipgloss Consume me, not much but all I needed. I really wasn't going to get a whole lot from this collection since mostly everything was indeed dupable, Some of the eyeshadows I already had and the lipsticks were dupable, lipglosses were ok and the blush or msf's were just o.k. I knew for sure I had to get the tri-gloss lipgloss Consume Me since it consisted of that irridescent greenish glittery gloss on the bottom, which is gorgeous. The Saint germain is actually a perm. color in Europe only i believe, but such a pretty and sexy pastel pink color. Reminds me of cotton candy : P

What a wonderful pair <3

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.

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Moving on...

Oh, yah. What kind of sick, demented, idiotic, childish, immature people would spend their time and money to produce fake perfumes? >:(

Evidently the supernatural folks at fragrancenet.com.

With further investigation I conclude that other products within their site are fake as well, like the makeup, MAC in particular. LOL, if you are a MAC fan...ha ha...well, you just have to see for yourself.

So, in this blog I have an entry about Aquolina perfume I'd been eyeing for a few months now. I finally decided to buy it because I had been waiting for it to go on sale so I could save a few dollars. I chose fragrancenet.com (now regret it), but yes since they seemed to have the best deal on the 3.4 oz. Well, whatta you know, the perfume is a knock-off... And a very impressive one might I add. The box is the same size as the original, the texture of the box is the same, the lettering is the same and the bottle with stylish pink metallic ribbons is the same as well. I think it was the aftersmell of Cheap when I sprayed it on for the first time. You could probably see it now ....Bleh!........actually it took me 3.5 seconds to conclude that it didn't smell correct and that is was a fake. After my discovery it took me about 10.5 seconds to wrap it back up again and prepare to send it back for a full refund.

So you wanna know the second clue that it was phony. The red pepper.

:D

Oh yeah, so I decided to post pointers on how to spot a fake perfume:

-First, smell the perfume. See if it smells significantly different than the one that you tested, had previously or sampled.

-Look on the bottom for words like 'imposter' or 'inspired by'

-Check name and spellings of everything on the bottle or box it came in

-Check for the color of the perfume. If you know for sure it has a pink tint, then it should have a pink tint.

-Check for detail, it's the littliest things that count! If the box or bottle has pictures, creative art or pristine markings or anything, compare that to the real one to see any differences.

-Last but not least, take the perfume in question to a store you trust like Sephora or department stores like Macy's and ask a perfumer to compare.

Imposter!

.......Did they think they could fool me? PSSH, they can't fool me!