November 2013 Ipsy Bag

*Blows dust off blog, coughs a little*

Hey everyone! Remember me?! I sure hope so, because I missed everyone! It's been almost 2 weeks since I've last posted and I'm so sorry! I don't even really know what to say anymore for my being absent. I will say that I've had a few personal issues going on in life and I've been stressed to the max from it, but that's all I'll say. Also, I have this horrible stye on my eyelid (if you don't know what that it, just Google it, it's not fun to talk about) and I haven't been able to wear any makeup for the past few days because of it. I'm hoping in another couple days it all clears up!

Anyways, sorry for that long intro, but today's post is going to be what I received in my Ipsy bag this month! The theme for this month was Glam It Up, and I was very excited to see what products were going to be in this bag.

I'm not the biggest fan of the actual bag the products came in to be honest. I don't really like the print and I have to be in the mood to like the color gold, if that makes sense. Also, I'm not entirely happy with the products either :(

The first product I received is the Nailtini Straight Up Color Nail Lacquer in the color Caviar Cocktail. I have to admit, I'm a little bored with getting nail polish in these bags. It's not a bad color at all, but I'm definitely bored with this!

We also got a chance to try out Michelle Phan's new line of makeup called Em Cosmetics and I got the Pillow Plush Cushiony Lip Balm in the color Bubblegum, which is a pretty bubblegum pink color. I have tried this and I like how it feels on the lips and it also leaves a sheer wash of color, which I do like.

I then received the Pixi Beauty Bronzer in the color Subtly Suntouched. I'm not a bronzer person at all! I have a mini version of Too Faced Chocolate Soleil bronzer, and while I like it, I've only used it maybe 5 times, if that. I feel like I'm just too pale for bronzer.

I received another lip product by Be a Bombshell, and it's a Lip Crayon in the color Shameless. To me it looks like a mauve-y berry color. It's actually a very pretty color and I'll probably use it, but it's annoying getting two lip products in one bag. 

I don't really care for the Cailyn Built-In Sponge Tip Mineral Eyeshadow in the color Champagne. I have a ton of other eyeshadows like this color, so this doesn't really excite me. I haven't used it yet, but the application of it does intrigue me a little bit.

The last product I received is the Starlooks Gem Eye Pencil in the color Topaz, which is this pretty shimmery silver color. I honestly don't know how I'm gonna use this pencil since I hardly ever wear eyeliner and I'm not too creative with it either. I may try to use this as a base or something and see what I can work with. 

Well that's everything I got! While I'm not totally happy with the products I received, the value of the bag is incredible! For only $10 a month, plus shipping for some, it's really not a bad deal at all. Sign up here if you're interested!

If you're already signed up, what did you receive this month?

Large Beauty HAUL! Drugstore.com, Paula's Choice, Hautelook, The Body Shop & Ulta

Hey everyone! Yes, I know it's been ages again since my last post. I really hope you can forgive me! Work's starting to get crazy with the holiday's coming up, I've been feeling a little under the weather and I've been having issues with my back. It's weird too, I can't sit, stand or lay down for too long or my back hurts more. Anyways, today I bring you a haul post! Now, I didn't go and buy everything in one shot. I purchased all this within the last 3 to 4 months, and I do have a Sephora VIB haul coming up as well once I get my package in the mail! So, lets get into what I bought!

 First up we have products I purchased from Drugstore.com. As you can tell above, I went a little Batiste crazy! This is definitely my all-time favorite dry shampoo and I have yet to find anything better. I purchased the Clean & Classic Original, two of the Coconut & Exotic Tropical, Floral & Flirty Blush and Cool & Crisp Fresh scents. Back in April, I was given the opportunity to try out Batiste for the first time and I picked the Tropical scent. I reviewed it here if you want to check it out. 

These products also came from Drugstore.com. The St. Ives Timeless Skin Collagen Elastin Moisturizer was literally only about $3. I wanted to pick this up because since it's gotten so cold here, my skin is drying out pretty bad. I'm hoping my skin doesn't get too much drier because I have other products I want to use up before I open this up. 

I also purchased the Boots Expert Sensitive Gentle Refreshing Toner. As you all may know already, I'm in love with the aloe toner from The Body Shop. That toner is a bit pricey for me at $12.50 and the Boots toner was I believe just under $5. I'm hoping this is just as good or better than the aloe toner because I don't feel like spending alot of money on a toner is necessary. 

Then I purchased the Norwegian Formula Hand Cream in the fragrance free version. I've never tried this hand cream before, but my hands are also drying up with this cold weather, and I've heard alot of great things about this product. I do have other hand creams to use up, but I have a feeling I may go through those pretty quickly. 

I've been wanting to try the Garnier Skin Renew Anti Dark Circle Roller for a long time now. I've heard decent things about this product, and I do have pretty bad dark circles, so I have hope for this. I'm excited to try it out!

I then bought a few products from the Paula's Choice website. I actually purchased the Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Gel from Skinstore.com but I'm lumping it in with the other two. I'm in love with this product and I've talked about it before. Holy Grail product right here!

I've been wanting to get another toner from Paula's Choice since I had tried one quite a few years ago. I decided to get the Hydralight Healthy Skin Refreshing Toner for normal, oily to combination skin. I can't remember if this is the one I tried years ago, but I do remember liking the one I did try. 

I also wanted to buy another one of my favorite masks, and that's the Skin Balancing Oil Absorbing Mask. This used to be called the Skin Balancing Carbon Mask, and boy is it amazing! I did a review on this a long time ago, close to when I first started my blog. The review is here if you want to read it. I'll have to warn you, it's not the best review ever but hey, everyone starts somewhere, right?

Next up we have products from theBalm that I purchased from Hautelook! Now I know I did a post here about how disappointed I was with Hautelook, but I reached out to them and everything turned out amazing, which I had also talked about here. Anyways, I ended up buying the TimeBalm Skincare White Tea Juniper Oil-Free Face Moisturizer. I've never tried any skincare from theBalm before and figured I'd give this a go. Plus, it was pretty inexpensive on Hautelook.

I also purchased the Put A Lid On It Eyelid Primer. I've heard many, many good things about this eyeshadow primer so I'm excited to try this out and see what all the hype is about.

The final product I got from Hautelook is the Down Boy Blush. I totally forgot to take a picture of the color and do a swatch, but there are many reviews and swatches on the internet of this blush. I picked this color because it's a pretty baby pink color that I think would look nice on my fair skin.

I also did some damage on The Body Shop website! They were having an awesome 40% off sale, plus I'm a Love Your Body member so I got an extra 10% off, plus I had some points saved up and got an extra $15 off that. I made out pretty well! I wanted to try out a bunch of the new Honeymania line that's out, so I picked up the Body Butter, Body Scrub, two of the Lip Butters and a Shower Gel. When I opened up the Body Butter, I was pretty shocked at the smell. To me, it smells like organic, raw honey. I was expecting something sweeter smelling honestly, but it's not terrible. I'm very excited for the scrub because it's in a creamy base, just how I like scrubs to be.

I also picked up two Aloe Protective Serums. These serums are amazing, I love putting a bit mixed in with my daytime moisturizer for some extra hydration, or using it as a regular moisturizer in the Summer. The last product I got is the Aloe Eye Defense. This is an awesome gel-type eye cream that feels so amazing when you put it on, and it gives me just enough hydration.

Finally, we have a purchase from the Ulta website! They were having an awesome sale where certain brands were 40% off, they were offering free shipping on a $25 purchase and then there was a code for $3.50 off a purchase of $10 or more. Again, I feel like I made out well. I decided to try the Almay Oil-Free Gentle Eye Makeup Remover. I actually forgot about buying this until I looked through all the stuff I bought. I was worried about running out of eye makeup remover when I start my spending ban, but now I feel like I'll be ok. I've never tried this before but I think it'll be alright. 

I also decided to try out the NYX Matte Finish Long Lasting Setting Spray. I've heard plenty of good things about this setting spray and I'm excited to try it!

I haven't really heard much about the Neutrogena Healthy Skin 3-in-1 Concealer For Eyes. I can always use a good concealer for my dark circles, so I have high hopes for this product. 

And finally, we have NYX Butter Glosses! These babies came to just over $2 each after all the discounts. I ended up getting the colors Vanilla Cream Pie, Apple Strudel, Strawberry Parfait, Maple Blondie, and Merengue. Those are the colors from left to right in the picture. Again, I forgot to take pictures of swatches, but I'm sure there are plenty online. I'll be honest, I don't really get the hype with these. Yes, the color selection is great and they feel nice on the lips, but they're not as amazing as everyone makes them out to be, and I get that dreaded white line around the center of my lips when they dry. I'd purchase more of these when they're on a good sale, but they're not anything to be hyped up about. 

Phew! That took a while! I hope I didn't bore you and that you liked this post! I'll have one last haul post hopefully put up by the end of the week, and that's it for a while. It'll be spending ban time. What do you think of these products?

The Sunshine Award

The wonderful Amy, over at Small Budget Beauty has nominated me for The Sunshine Award! I'm so excited and thankful for it, so thank you very much Amy! You're awesome :)

 
So what is the Sunshine Award? It's an award given to those who inspire us and bring sunshine into our lives. That's pretty cool!

There are a few rules as well:
- Include the award logo in your blog post
- Link to the person who nominated you
- Answer 10 questions about yourself
- Nominate other bloggers

Here are the 10 questions from Amy!

1. What is your favorite time of the year? 
This is a tough question because I pretty much love all seasons and whatnot, but I love the month of December because it's Christmas time, and my birthday! 

2. What do you like most about blogging?
I like that I get to have the creative freedom of writing about what I love. Even when life gets busy, I still love sitting down and writing up a post!

3. Do you match your toe nail color to your finger nail color?
Gotta be honest, I haven't painted my toenails in years! Sad, I know but I can't be bothered with it. I barely paint my fingernails

4. What is your favorite quote?
I'm going with Amy's and that is "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." We need to have more people in this world follow this quote

5. Do you save old greeting cards and letters, or throw them away?
I used to save old birthday cards and some Christmas cards, but I don't know what happened to them. I don't remember taking them with me when I moved out of my parent's house, so they could've gotten thrown out

6. What is something about yourself that you hope will change, but probably never will?
This question is kinda deep man! Wow. Honestly, probably me wanting to better my life. I think in my head so much that eventually I'll have a better job that I love, I'll live in a nice house and drive a nice car and live comfortably. I just don't have the drive most times to make all that I want to happen, actually happen. Most of what I want is pretty unattainable anyways, but hey, I guess I can still dream

7. What is one of the scariest things you've ever done?
Get married? Lol, just kidding! Sorta. Probably actually going on my first date with my husband. I don't know if I've mentioned on here before, but my husband is my first boyfriend, first kiss, first everything really. It was pretty scary! I never ever in my life thought that when people told me, when you meet the right person you'll know, that they were right! I know this might not seem scary to most people, but for me it was!

8. If you could try out any job for a day, what would you like to try?
Hmmmm, I think being an actress seems like it would be challenging and fun. Little fact about me, when I was younger I wanted to be an actress! My parents have this picture of me standing on steps at our old, old house and I have this dress on with star shaped sunglasses and a little purse pretending to be a movie star. It's such a funny picture

9. Have you ever met any celebrities?
Technically, no. When I was at Cruefest one year, I was sitting right next to the sound area, and when Sixx:AM started playing, Kat Von D showed up there along with Bam Margera and his then wife. After Sixx:AM was finished and Motley Crue went on, James Michael and DJ Ashba from Sixx:AM were literally standing about 5 feet away from me! I was too stunned to do anything, so I didn't say hi or take any pictures :(

10. If you had an unlimited shopping spree at one store, which store would it be? 
Oh man, this is tough! If you gave me categories like makeup, clothing or shoes it would be different. If it was makeup, definitely Sephora. For clothing, it's tougher because I haven't really bought myself new clothes in a really long time. Maybe for one-stop shopping, I'll say Target, because I can get makeup there (even though Sephora is way better!), clothes, shoes, there's even a grocery section in mine (not sure if every Target has a grocery section)

This was so fun to do! Thanks again to Amy for nominating me! Now onto who I nominate:

1. Natalie Loves Beauty
2. BeautyqueenUK
3. Blushing Antics
4. Kate Spitz

I really like the questions I was asked, so I'm asking the same questions to my nominees above! :)

October 2013 Empties!

Hey guys! So today's post is going to be the products I've used up this past month. I have to say, I'm very happy with what I did use up and I'm pretty sure November will be a good month as well! Lets see what my empties are!

The first product I used up is the Clean & Clear Morning Burst Shine Control Facial Cleanser. I liked using this in the morning because I actually think it helped wake me up a bit. The scent of it was sometimes a bit too fragrant, but that's okay. I don't know if I'll repurchase. I have about a million cleansers to use up.

Next, I finished up the Korres Pomegranate Toner. I loved this for my oily skin. It was great to use in the Summer when I was a greasy mess. It smelled amazing too! I love pomegranate, so I'd probably repurchase this in the future.

I finished up the wonderful Philosophy Eyes Wide Open Instant Refreshing and Depuffing Eye Gel. I know I've talked about this product a few times, and I just love it. It makes my eyes look more awake and took away any puffiness I may have had. It's a wonderful eye gel!

I then finished up a Shea Lip Butter from The Body Shop. I love these lip butters but only use them at night because they leave a white cast on my lips. Obviously, since I only used this at night, I didn't care at all. This particular one was fairly hydrating, but I feel like I need more hydration since it's getting alot colder now.

Sadly, I used up a Lancome Bi-Facil Double Action Eye Makeup Remover. This is definitely my all-time favorite eye makeup remover! It's pretty expensive, but I work in a place where I can buy this, so when I can get an extra discount, I tend to buy one or two. I do have a backup of this, plus a smaller travel-sized one, but I'm putting myself on a spending ban soon, and I'm afraid I might run out :(

I'm just throwing away the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser for Dark Circles Treatment Concealer in the color Fair. I'm not sure what happened, but I think the twister thing broke and no product will come out anymore. This is my favorite concealer, and luckily my mom gave me one because she got the wrong shade, so I have another one to use! 

I also used up another concealer-type product and it's The Body Shop Lightening Touch in the shade 01. I like this for when I feel like my dark circles are extra dark. Adding a bit of this on top of the Maybelline concealer works really well with extra coverage, plus it helps to brighten a bit. 

As you can tell, my Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion has died! Not really though, I had to have my husband cut it in half for me so I could de-pot it. I couldn't believe how much product was still in there! Seriously, a while ago, I took out the clear, plastic stopper from the top and that helped alot. When I felt like I was running out of product, I just thought there was more in there. I'm a weakling so I asked my husband if he could cut it in half for me. Of course he looked at me like I had ten heads, but obliged like a good boy. Once he got it cut open, even he was shocked at how much was stuck to the sides where the wand couldn't reach normally. I had a little sample sized pot to put the rest of the product in and I probably have enough to last me through the end of the year. 

The Crest Pro-Health Complete mouthwash took me forever to go through. I had this bottle since before my husband and I got our own place in July of 2012. Granted, I didn't use it every single day morning and night, but I used it pretty frequently. I like this stuff though. It didn't burn my mouth like alot of mouthwashes do and it tasted good too.

I used up Natural Factors Hi Potency B Complex vitamins. I think my mom got these for me to help with energy, but honestly, I never notice a difference. I'm not even sure why I continue taking vitamins when I don't notice any changes, but I'm used to my routine in the morning, so I stick with it.

The last two products I got from the hotel my husband and I stayed at during our honeymoon. They're Simply Be Well Ginseng and Wild Mint Shampoo and Conditioner. I didn't use them all up in September, but of course I brought them home and used them up this past month. They're nothing special honestly. Typical hotel toiletries that came in handy when I forgot my other shampoo and conditioner. 

That's everything I used up! Like I said above, I'm very happy to have used these all up, especially the mouthwash! That bottle is massive, so it's good to clear out some space in my closet!

What did you use up in October?

October 2013 Favorites!

Hey everyone! So this past month hasn't been too interesting favorites-wise but I do have a few products to share with you guys. 

First up is the awesome Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette. I swear, this is probably the best eyeshadow palette ever for Fall. You have some amazing jewel toned colors, and you also have your neutrals. I won't go on too much about this because I did a full review with swatches and a look here if you want to check it out!

My go-to eye look when I was feeling lazy or in a rush was first using the Sephora Outrageous Prisma Chrome Eyeshadow in the color Outrageous Metallic beige all over my lids, and then taking Naked 2 from the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette through my crease. Naked 2 is the perfect crease color for me because it gives the right amount of definition to my eyes without looking like I have too much makeup on. I'm also obsessed with those Chrome eyeshadows! I sometimes can still find them on the Sephora site and there are a few left in my Sephora in JC Penny. They're on clearance for $6 so if you see them, snag them up! They're awesome!

I've been loving the cleanser I've been using every morning and that's the Soap & Glory Face Soap and Clarity 3-in-1 Daily-Detox Vitamin C Facial Wash. Phew that's a long name! Anyways, I love how this cleanser makes my skin feel. There are little beads in it that help to smooth out any bumps or rough spots and it takes away any dirt and grease build-up from the night before. 

My last favorite is the Maybelline Color Whisper in the Color Berry Ready. I've been loving this color for Fall. I usually don't go along with trends during seasons, and dark lips tend to look funny on me because I'm so pale. This color is perfect for me though. I can wear it a bit bold like in the swatch above, or I just usually take my finger and dab it on my lips for a sheer wash of color.

Those are my favorites! I'm hoping November brings some different favorites, but with my insane holiday retail schedule I'm honestly not sure what's gonna happen!

What were some of your favorites from October?