Don't Let Me in Five Below

Have you ever been in a Five Below? Some people would call it a "junk store," but if you're like me and you love cheap, kitschy thrills? It's a gold mine. An "everything is under $5" gold mine. And it's a great place to find fun things to do on a Sunday afternoon when you're recovering from a drag show.

The thing I love most about Five Below is the assortment of "10 for $1" candies, which I ALWAYS hit up. (Hey, sister likes variety!) I also enjoy perusing the beauty section for travel-sized temptations and cheap containers; I actually keep a mixture of MAC Face & Body in N1 and White in a $1 Five Below tube for every day use.

Now, I've noticed that these shiny "flash tattoos" have become quite the trend; Beyonce was wearing them in just about every magazine this past summer, and they're available for 4 sheets for $22 (or $5.50 per sheet) on Sephora. I've always loved temporary tattoos, and I openly admit to hoarding sheets of them throughout my teenage years. But $5.50 a sheet? Too rich for my blood, even if Queen B looks faboosh in them.

Five Below to the rescue! These sheets of flash tattoos were $2 each, all with different designs. There was a fourth sheet with designs inspired by ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, but to be honest, they looked a bit smudgy and meh, so I passed.

I expected these to give me some difficulty, but they were actually super easy to apply. I cut out the designs I wanted, peeled back the cellophane, and placed them design-side down on clean, dry skin. Then I held a damp hand towel over the tattoos for a full minute, holding on tightly so I wouldn't "smear." (The instructions say to wait 20-30 seconds, but I like to play it safe.) The paper peels back easily, and voila! Shiny, super-fun tattoos! The feathers are especially cool, yeah?

They're not perfect, of course. You can see that they kind of crease on the skin and look very obviously "not real." They also flake quite easily if you touch them or flex your skin before they've dried.

But you know what? I like these. I'd buy more. I think they're fun for a night out on the town, or for a day at the beach. And they'll survive that day at the beach, too: I took a 15 minute shower that included some thorough body exfoliation courtesy of St. Ives Apricot Scrub, and they didn't budge. I can see myself getting a lot of use out of these on long summer weekends!

The best part? No commitment: these guys are easy to remove with baby oil.

Super gorgeous application photo courtesy of my brother.