September 2015 Yays! & Boos!

Happy Monday!

No Manicure Monday post today. I decided to go ahead and get this up instead of combining it with October. I also changed the title of the post. We shall see if it sticks. More boos (mehs) than yays (surprises) for this month. Here we go!

Yays!

Nature's Bounty Optimal Solutions Complete Protein & Vitamin Shake Mix

Phew that's a mouthful! I stumbled upon this at Walgreens. I finally got hip to checking out the end caps at the back of the store. This is were the clearance items are located at the main store that I go to. I saw this and was like hmmmm. It was on sale for $4.74! I didn't know what the original price was but I did check the expiration date. There were three  so I got two and said why not. When I got up to the register and saw my total, it was less than what it should have been, I was kind of confused. I looked at my receipt and it was buy one, get one FREE with my Walgreens card! Score! So I wasn't going to be too bummed if I ended up not liking it. I picked up some unsweetened vanilla almond milk to go with it. It tastes so good! It tastes like a vanilla milkshake. It didn't make me feel bloated or gassy like some protein shakes. I poked around online and the price I got this for a was a steal! I've seen it for as lows as $10.19 and as high as $19. So if you're looking for a protein shake then check this one out and definitely check Walgreens. The last time I looked. the buy one, get one free promo was still going on. I went back to see if the last one was still there and it was, so I grabbed it. I have two at work and one at home. Now I want to try chocolate.

Papermate Ink Joy Pens

Pens? Yes pens! I'm a pen/notebook/planner nerd and always looking at them if I end up in the office/school supply section of a store lol. This is another item I stumbled upon at Walgreens. It was on an end cap with other clearance items but there wasn't a price. So I grabbed them totally for giggles to check the price at the register. They were $4.74!!!!! For 25 pens! The cashier asked me if I wanted them and I was like YES! The lady behind me in line said that's a good deal! LOL! When I came home I searched the Walgreens hash tag on Instragram and found out that a lot of  back to school items were on clearance. I mean some GOOD clearance prices. I'm going to look for a pencil pouch to keep a set of all the colors in my work tote.

Ambi Fade Cream

I had tried this product last year in a promo set that Ambi put together for the Ubiquitous Hair & Health Show. I had the normal skin version. I hardly used it and honestly was kinda scared of it. Silly I know. I ended up giving it to my friend. Ambi had the same promo set this year but you could customize it. It had the oily skin version of the Fade Cream and their moisturizer that's better for oily/combo skin. So I picked it up again this year and I'm glad I did. I had some bad breakouts that left some serious dark marks around my mouth. Foundation and concealer only helped so much in covering them up. So I gave the Fade Cream a whirl. Based on reviews I read, people saw results in about a week. I can attest to the same results. It did help lighten the dark marks significantly in a week but it did not change my overall skin tone. If that makes sense. So I'm glad I gave this another try and added it to my ever growing skin care arsenal. My obsession with skin care is on another level More on that later.

Boos!

Ambi CC+ Cream

This is another product I picked up at the Ubiquitous Health & Hair Show. It was on sale for $6. I wanted to love it. Actually I do like it but the shade is no bueno for me. There are only two shade options in Light/Medium and Medium/Dark. Two medium shades? Really? I feel like that should separate them and have four distinct shades. Medium/Deep is too warm for me. It's more medium that deep and I ain't no where near medium. I used it on its own and under foundation and it's just not my shade.

Green Mountain Pumpkin Spice Coffee

I am a pumpkin head when Fall rolls around. This smells amazing as it's brewing and I do like it but the coffee itself is more of a light roast and does not have enough kick for me. I like a medium roast coffee. So I mainly drank this on the weekends when I didn't really need the caffeine punch. I don't plan of repurchasing it.

Jeffree Star Cosmetics Liquid Lipstick in Posh Spice

I was SO exited to get my hands on the Posh Spice when it launched. I've tried to make it work but it looks a hot mess on me. It's described as greige taupe. I guess it's too grey for me. If it had a bit more brown in it then maybe I could pull it off. Well hell that's a lie since I tried to make it work with a brown lip liner! Or maybe if  I babied it some more which is not happening. I haven't seen it on someone with a deeper skin tone which I find interesting. I had also picked Blow Pony (pastel neon lavender shade) but hadn't worn it yet. I threw it on quickly with Colour Pop's Leather lip liner and it's fine. I'm good with various shades of purple on my lips. Oh well. You can't love everything from a brand. I still have my eye on some of the deeper shades and he just release two more that I'll probably pick up. I'm going to pick up MAC's Stone (Muted greyish taupe brown) matte lipstick. It looks more like my speed in the greige family.

Makeup Geek Duochrome Pigment  in Kaleidoscope

My annoyance with this is not with the pigment itself but more so my buying experience with product. When I got the pigment it was hard to open. I didn't pay it any mind at the time. Then Marlena posted on Snapchat that people were having issues with the jars cracking. I looked at my jar again and I saw were it would become an issue. So I tried opening it again and sure enough it cracked. So I contacted customer service based on Marlena's instructions and let's just say I'm not happy with my experience. From her Snaphat post, she made it seem like they would send a replacement product. Makes sense right?. That's been my experience with other brands/retailers. You get a replacement OR you get a refund. I went ahead and got my own replacement jar. They had said it would be maybe 1-2 weeks for a replacement and I didn't want to wait that long. I asked if I don't want a replacement what were my options. Customer service came back and said they can send me an empty jar. *blink blink*. Then on some posts/forums I saw that they were only crediting people a $1! Again *blink blink*. I didn't even get that option. I told the rep that I had been corresponding with to forget about and I took to Twitter to vent my frustrations and told them I will never buy another pigment from them again. I don't care if they have "fixed" the jar issue at this point I don't trust you. I have ordered other pigments/loose shadows from other brands and NEVER had this issue. Also I think their handling of the situation was no adequate. I had some other items saved on my wish list through their site. I have deleted those and currently have 4 of their regular pan shadows in my cart that I might purchase and then I'm done with the company. I still like Marlena and enjoy her YouTube videos but I can spend my makeup dollars elsewhere and get quality products. I know everyone love and hypes her brand. Good for them if they enjoy and have had a good experience. I've read and seen other reviews where people have not had a good experience but all you mainly see is the hype reviews. Tina from thefancyfaced made a good point in a recent video. She said that since Makeup Geek is still a growing company, we are kind of their guinea pigs for the brands products. The more I thought about it I was like she has a point and I don't know how I feel about that. There should be some testing and quality control on THEIR end! I hear Marlena says all the time that SHE is testing stuff but I have not heard her mention anyone else on her team testing products. They send a crapton of stuff to beauty vloggers and bloggers. Have them test the shit before selling it to the masses. Sorry for cursing but I'm pissed. Then I knocked some of the product in the sink while I'm waiting on the jar I ordered. There still some product left but it didn't help my attitude about this whole situation. So basically I wasted $12 on this product.

Apartment Living

Totally random I know but I HATE living in an apartment! Ok hate is a strong word and I've lived in other apartments without many issues. I don't like living where I'm at now. The last two sets of folks who have lived above us have been a real PAIN. These newer folks are so damn rude! They are constantly stomping back and forth ALL DAY AND NIGHT!  They also slam stuff and I can hear them talking from time to time which is a first. I've near heard someone's conversation before. At first they said they were trying to get used to things. Yea ok I call BS on that! The rental office has been spoken to but they don't do crap around here but the bare minimum. I emailed the company that owns/oversees the property. I did get a response that my email was being forwarded to the district manager. I didn't think I would hear from him but I did. It was an interesting call but I knew nothing would come of it. At this point it's basically he said, she said.  It is what is it at this point since the lease was turned in I think end of August. So basically we're stuck here until September. Come Spring the plan is to start looking for somewhere else to move to. Along with continuing the process of organizing and purging stuff so when and if we do move the process won't be as terrible. But moving and packing is terrible no matter how you spin it lol! So we shall see. It's a great location but no one wants to be on edge in their own house!

And fin! This was a blah month huh? A lot of ranting going on. Jeez! Hopefully October will be a bit better,