Hi everyone! It's such a beautiful day outside today and it makes me so happy that the weather is finally getting nicer and warmer. Since it's so nice out, it got me thinking about what my must-haves for Spring are. I do have a few skincare and makeup items that I love and want to share, so here they are!
Starting off with skincare, I need a good cleanser that's going to help clean my skin and not make it oily. I can already tell that my skin is getting oilier and oilier as the days go on. A cleanser that I'll be using this Spring once it stays warm outside is this Clean & Clear Morning Burst Shine Control Facial Cleanser. This cleanser will help clean my skin and leave it shine free. It's also supposed to help you with waking up, which I definitely need in the morning!
Next, it's important for me to stop using my heavier Winter moisturizer, and start using one that's oil-free and light. I can't wait to start using the Philosophy Hope in a Jar Oil-Free Moisturizer for normal to oily skin. I've heard some good things about this moisturizer, and it came in a Philosophy skincare kit, so this will be the perfect moisturizer to transition into Spring with!
Lastly, it's super important to be using more sunblock! It's always important to wear sunblock everyday, but if you don't use it everyday, get in the habit of doing so. It's one of the main things that'll help slow down aging, and I know everyone wants to have young looking, beautiful skin no matter what your age. I know I've talked about this Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunblock with SPF 55 before, and yes, this is still my all time favorite sunblock ever!
Now onto makeup! I've already mentioned that I don't wear the typical liquid foundation. I only use tinted moisturizers and BB creams. This Sonia Kashuk Radiant Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 15 will be perfect for the days I want some coverage on my skin, but don't want it to look heavy and caky. I also like this tinted moisturizer because I get the lightest shade, fair, and it's absolutely perfect for my skin! I'm so pale no matter what season it is. I never tan and I'm always slathered in sunblock if I'm going to the beach or I'm going to be out in the sun for long periods of time. I know this will continue to be my shade through Summer.
My next must-have is a makeup setting spray. I'm currently using the Urban Decay De-Slick, which is the oil control one, but if you have dry skin, there are other setting sprays meant for your skin. I just like this because it does help to control my oil longer than normal. I know I'll still get greasy throughout my day, but this helps to keep shine away for a bit longer than usual. I'll use this before I put on tinted moisturizer or BB cream, then after, before I put on powder products. I found that helps my skin out a little more.
Next up is a lip balm with SPF. I'm currently using the On10 Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper lip balm that has SPF 15 in it. Can I just take a minute and tell you how amazing this stuff smells?! Seriously, it's like heaven. Anyways, any lip balm with SPF will do. No one wants sunburn on their lips!
Finally, I think it's fun to change up eyeshadows a bit, so having bright and fun colors to play with is always nice! I love this palette from Tarte that my mom got for me I wanna say around 3 years ago. It's the Flower Child palette, and I don't believe it's available anymore, but I love this palette! There's one matte shadow and the rest are and shimmer, you have your neutrals, which everyone needs, but then you have your pop of color that can be light and fun, or a bit more smokey for nighttime. There are a bunch of different looks you can create with this, but hey, fun and bright shadows will do! You don't need this specific palette :)
Last but not least, I figured I'd show some fun nail polishes that are nice for Spring! The first one is by Nails Inc, and the color is called Notting Hill Gate. This mini polish came in a set of Neutrals and Neons, and I absolutely love this bright neon pink color! It probably doesn't show up that well on camera, but in person it's literally bright neon pink. It's amazing. Next up is a minty color from Color Club called Blue-Ming. I received this in a Birchbox a while back and I think it's a beautiful color for Spring. My last nail polish is from Butter London and it's Primrose Hill Picnic. I think this color is gorgeous! It looks really pretty on the nails, and is still a bright pink color, but to me it has a hint of purple undertones to it, which I think softens it a bit, but still makes it stand out. I'm getting in the habit more of painting my nails and these three colors stood out the most to me for this time of year.
Those are my Spring beauty must-haves! I seriously can't wait until the weather stays this nice all the time! I love the Spring months, and this means I'm a few months closer to getting married! Eeek! So exciting!
What are your must-haves for Spring?
Hey everyone! If you read my 2013 resolution post, shown here, then you might have seen that I'm putting myself on a 3 month beauty spending ban that started January 1st. Once I decided I was going to do this, I wanted to kinda splurge a little beforehand because I know this will be hard for me. I will also say that if I run out of eye makeup remover or cotton pads and stuff I absolutely need before the 3 months is up, I will be repurchasing what need. Just wanted to mention that! Anyways, onto this rather large haul!
First, my things from Walmart!
I only got these three things from Walmart and I honestly can't remember if I got these in the beginning or middle of December, but I definitely know it was sometime in December. Anyways, the first thing I picked up is the Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara in extreme black. Apparently this is supposed to make your lashes appear 117% longer in 30 days. That's a pretty bold claim for a mascara of any price and this was only under $6, so we'll see if this works.
Next I got the L'Oreal Colour Riche Balm in the color Rose Elixir. For some reason, I don't remember ever trying any makeup by L'Oreal so I'm pretty excited to try this. Plus, it's a really pretty pink color that looks like it'll be flattering for my skin tone.
Then I got the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Concealer in the brightener shade. I kept hearing that this one is better at covering dark circles than the concealers with the colors. I have the one in Fair and it actually works pretty well for my dark circles, so I'm interested to see if this one works better than my other one.
Onto what I purchased from Bath & Body Works!
So Bath & Body Works was having a buy 3, get 3 free sale on their body care plus I had a coupon for $10 off of a $30 purchase so these 6 bottles cost me a little over $20 including tax. I got two Coconut Shower Gels and a Coconut Body Lotion to go with it. Then I got an Orange Sapphire Shower Gel, which smells flipping amazing. I'm currently using an Orange Sapphire mini hand sanitizer, which I and everyone I work with loves. I also got a Pink Sugarplum Shower Gel and a Vanilla Tini Shower Gel. Both of these smell amazing too!
Now for The Body Shop!
These were also good purchases. They were having their sale where end of season and discontinued products were like 75% off and I had my 8 point gift to use, which was $25 worth of products plus a free Love Your Body membership renewal so altogether I only had to spend a little over $20, which for all this is pretty darn good! I first got a Vanilla Duo Body Butter which was on sale for $8, when I think normally they're $18. Obviously, I love the smell of vanilla so I had to get this. Then I got the Rainforest Radiance Hair Butter for Coloured Hair. This is just a deep conditioner I thought would be good because my hair is starting to get drier with this nasty cold weather now. Plus it smells awesome! I also got an Eyeshadow Blender brush, because lets face it, a girl can never have enough blender brushes. ;)
The next three products were literally so inexpensive, I don't know how anyone would pass them up. The first product is the Spa Wisdom Africa Ximenia & Marula Oil Shower Cream. This cost me $2. Yep, just $2! I couldn't believe it! I don't think this is going to be a foamy shower gel type thing, but for two bucks, I'll make it work. The next product I got is the Spa Wisdom Polynesia Lime & Coconut Shower Gel. This stuff smells so good and it was only $5. I think this was the last one my store had too because I did look around for more. Then I got the Brazil Nut Shower Cream. I think The Body Shop is getting rid of the Brazil Nut line, or they already did and this was the last they had of it. It only cost me $4.
Now for Sephora!
Now these purchases were exciting! I placed an order online and of course like 2 days later I got an email saying their clearance section was an extra 20% off with a special code, so I placed another one. The first picture is my first order and the second picture is the clearance items that were 20% off. So first I bought a Super Hand & Cuticle Cream with Yogurt Probiotics. It seems like I'm using alot of hand cream lately because my hands are just so dry and chapped. I really hate winter because of that so I wanted to check out another hand cream and see how it works. Then I got the Nails Inc. Neon & Nude nail polish Collection. I love the colors here, except for maybe the yellow, (not a big fan of yellows) but I might try it and see how I like it. This next product I was super excited for, and it's the Jack Black It's the Balm Limited Edition Lip Quad. I've heard nothing but amazing things about these lip balms and although the brand is geared toward men, I can't wait to try them.
So like I said, the second picture is my second purchase. I was so excited for the Sephora by OPI Tinsel Town nail polish Collector's Set because it was only a little over $25 with the 20% discount. I don't remember what this originally cost, and it's now sold out on Sephora's website, but I thought that was a pretty good deal. I'm getting more into nail polish and these colors looked amazing! I have to leave them in the box to remember the names because they're not on the bottle :(. Then I got the ClickR Skin Care Diamond Dust Skin Polisher. At first I thought it was an exfoliator, but when I read it, I found out it's actually a serum that "polishes your skin, refines pores, and controls moisture to eliminate dullness and restore radiance." That's what it says on the box and I'm pretty excited to try this out. I love finding good skincare but of course, this was on clearance which usually means Sephora isn't going to carry this anymore so if I end up loving it, I gotta find it elsewhere or be sad because the whole line will disappear. I also got my Fresh birthday gift, a free Origins White Tea Moisturizer with a code, and the Hourglass face primer everyone talks about for my 100 point perk.
Finally, my favorite of the haul... stuff from my momma! :)
Yes, these are from my momma's stash and yes, she let me keep them! Love you mommy! So on Christmas when my fiance and I were at my parents' house for dinner my mom wanted me to look through her makeup and pick out some eyeshadows that I thought would look good on her. Then she basically said, "take what you want." I was like "O.O, YAY!!!" If you know me, you know I love my bareMinerals eyeshadows. Yes, they can be messy, but they're still awesome. Anyways, she let me have a bareVitamins Eye Rev-er Upper, which is an amazing eye cream (and she had three of!), and the colors she let me keep were Bikini, Mermaid and Fog from the first picture and Angel, Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, Amethyst and Summer in the second picture.
I realize this post is incredibly long, and I apologize but I wanted to show you everything I got before I did my 3 month beauty no-buy. I purchased everything before January 1st, and I can't wait to use up what I have in my stash! It honestly will be pretty hard not being able to buy anything beauty related for that long, but hopefully I'll be able to use up things and write reviews for you guys on what I like and don't like. I have some posts planned for this month but if you want to see anything specific, please comment below what you want me to write about!
Love you guys!
Katy
I really can't believe that it's already October! I know everyone on the planet says that but really, this year is flying and it's time for another favorites blog! Lets get started!
Now my first favorite is probably no surprise to most people who know me and that is the Philosophy Melting Marshmallow Cream Flavored Lip Shine. I truly can't say anything bad about the Philosophy lip shines. They smell good, they taste good and they leave my lips feeling super soft. I'm still not sure why I was drawn to this one most in September because this is more of a Christmas flavor but I just loved it. With all the lip glosses I have, I constantly reached for this one and kept it in my bag at work too. Seriously, I haven't met a flavor I didn't like yet!
My next favorite is the Nails Inc. nail polish in the color Fenchurch Street. This came in a set of four and I bought the set around this time last year (I think) and this color just screams fall. It shows up a lot darker in the picture but in person it's this dark mustard-y color with an orange tint to it. I love the whole set of colors though. They're all very fall but this one was on my nails for most of September.
I don't think you can get my next favorite anymore because I got it in a value set from Sephora a while ago and that's an eye shadow quad from the Smashbox Ultimate Eyes- Hazel value set. I honestly don't even remember all the things that came in the set but this eye quad is fantastic! You get a very light, cream color shade that's a really good base and highlight, a shimmery taupe color, a wonderful shimmery, dark silver color and the most beautiful dark plum color ever with just the tiniest bit of shimmer. All these colors together create the most beautiful subtle smokey eye or you can go very neutral with just the cream shade all over the lid up to the brow bone as a base, the taupe color all over the lid and the dark plum as a liner. I have so many eye shadows but this palette was just so amazing I couldn't really use anything else.
Next, I have Origins Well Off eye makeup remover. I'll admit, I'm not terribly picky with eye makeup removers only because I always wash my face right after. The only thing I really look for in a makeup remover is that it doesn't sting my eyes. This one is so gentle and doesn't sting at all, which is wonderful. It also doesn't leave that greasy film all over your eyes that not many people like. I personally don't mind because like I said, I always wash my face right after and I always go over my eyes with my cleanser to make sure I got all the makeup off.
This next favorite is actually a surprise favorite of mine because I honestly didn't think it would work and that's Urban Decay De-Slick Oil-Control Makeup Setting Spray. This really does make your makeup stay put all day and I'm not a big greasy mess by the end of the day. I still get a little oily throughout the day, but not as bad as before I started using this stuff. It's also very cooling on your skin when you first spray it on. I'm not 100% sure if I'll re-buy this, only because it's pretty darn expensive and it doesn't totally control my oil all day. With my makeup on the other hand, that really does last all day and that's surprising.
My last favorite is a Blending brush from BH Cosmetics. Holy cow, this is the best blending brush in my opinion. I love how fluffy it is and it does a really good job at blending eye shadows well. It's also one of the softest brushes I own. I've used brushes that have actually hurt my eyes because they were so scratchy but this one is soooooo soft and amazing!
So there you have it! Those were my favorites for September! What were some of your favorites this past month?
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