June 2013 Top 3

Happy June everyone! I cannot believe June is pretty much over! Oye vey. I feel like it should still be March! Ok so let's get to it!

I picked up Aveeno's Ultra-Calming Makeup Removing Wipes thanks to my beauty pusher crystalis007. If you have not checked her out please do. She has a blog and is on YouTube. When it comes to removing my makeup, I pretty much use my Clarisonic and face cleanser of choice. I didn't really do the whole makeup remover thing be it wipes, cleansing oil, etc. I want to say a couple of months ago I randomly picked up Say Yes to Cucumbers makeup remover wipes from seeing a review on Instagram and I did like them. I was going to include them as a favorite that month but the more I used them I just thought they were ok. They weren't really all that moist for my liking and the wipes were kind of small. Fast forward to Aveeno's wipes. Crystal did a review of these on her blog and she did mention them in a recent video. She loved them and has reviewed other Aveeno products. Her reviews are pretty much spot on so I said why not. I went over to CVS and picked up a pack. These are fantastic. They are a nice size and not dry but not overly moist. Also they do not irritate my skin. I used to use some Aveeno skin care products a few years ago and I never had any issues with them. They help get the majority of my makeup off. So I use this first then followup with my Clarisonic to get any residual makeup off. I also take some of my face cleanser to get off the rest of my mascara. I would definitely repurchase these and continue using them as part of my evening skincare routine.

I felt like I had been neglecting my Buxom lipglosses. So I pulled out a few to play around with and one that I loooooved was Trixie. Trixie is described as shimmering golden rose. I feel like it's more of a peachy shade and not really rose. I guess it's the golden part *shrugs*. When the warmer weather hits we all want to pull out our brighter makeup shades. I love this gloss during the spring and summer.  It's a nice way to brighten up your lips without looking crazy or being too bright. These are some of my favorite glosses. They feel good on the lips and even though they're glosses they stay on your lips. If that makes sense :D

Keeping with the bright color theme, I was loving on Maybelline's Coral Rush blush this month. The name says coral but the joker is a nice golden orange color. It is pigmented as all get out. So you need a light hand when applying this. It's limited edition and I got it awhile ago. I'm glad I scooped it up. My brown girls, you need this in your life. If you don't want to splurge on a higher end orange blush then check this out.

And there you go! On to July which is my birthday month! \O/ Bring on my free Starbucks drink and birthday coupons to my favorite stores *two step*.

2013: Organize, Purge & Save - Check In

At the end of December I posted about my organizing, purging and saving efforts for 2013. I guess you can say these were kind of my "resolutions"/goals for the year. Since 2013 is half done (insert shocked face), I decided to post an update. On the saving part I haven't done much. There was this money challenge that was going around on Facebook that I said I was going to take a stab. Lasted about 3 weeks. So clearly I'm still working on the saving part *head palm* I've included some before and after pics and it is what is it. I don't mind comments but keep the smart azz ones to yourself :D Here we go!

The pic above is a before pic of my closet that I had on my phone. I've made progress in the organizing and purging areas. I have gone through my clothes and I got rid of a lot. Either the items needed to be pitched, they were too big (yay weight loss! \O/) or didn't like the items any more. For the items that were too big and did not like, were donated to a local organization that my family and I have donated to for years. I plan to go through my closet again before the end of the summer. Next up I went through my shoes and did the same with pitching and donating. With the clothes and shoes it's "hard" mainly due where I currently work which is casual and that's putting it mildly. I still "put myself together" but I don't have to dress up everyday. I have sold some of my handbags and have some I'm going to give away/gift. I went through them again and I have more lined up to see if I can sell them. A lot of people told me to try eBay. I don't have the patience to deal with eBay. Plus everyone has their bags on there, so there is no way for me to "stand out" as new seller.

In my beauty world.....*head palm* lol!.... I did do some reorganizing and I purchased a 10 drawer cart from Amazon to reorganize my stash. I got everything off my one dresser with the exception of one item but still that's awesome in itself. I also shifted some stuff around that was on my other dresser. No alllll the drawers are not full but I can now "see" everything which in nice and a big help. Can't use what you have if you don't know what you got! In the smaller drawers stuff was crammed in them and it was hard to get to stuff. I decided to see if I could do the "no buy" thing again and ummmm yea that's not going too well *sigh*. But I have been in use up mode and I have used up quite a bit of skin care and bath and body items. I did go through a pull some items to give to family members who are always circling my stash when the come to the house LOL!

(Courtesy of Microsoft)

In my book world I started going through my books and asked myself "are you REALLY going to read this?" So I have a stash of books that I am going to donate to the library. I was going to list them and see if friends wanted any of them. I did that with some of my makeup items but the money I spent on shipping stuff to people...hmph! So they are going to library! I need to list them for donation purposes which I'll get around to before the month is out. Then I'm going to go back through what I have in my room again and the books in the storage unit. Hopefully I'll go through everything and get the books I want to keep out of that doggone storage unit before the summer is out.

I came across this New York Times opinion article about living with less on the QVC Beauty Banter forum. Very well written piece and I can sooooo relate! I know I've had my "retail therapy" moments or saw something in a magazine or a beauty vlogger talk about a product and just haaad to have it!  It's "fun" for the moment but then when you get home and have to put the item/items away it's like ummm what the hayle!?!? I'm trying to do better. I have my good moments and bad moments. We all get caught up in "things" and then those "things" take over. I'm not saying you should deprive yourself but there should be a happy medium and not struggling and stressing on what to do with our '"things". Then you're not enjoying so then what's the point in having them? Make sense?

And there you have it folks. I'll check back in during December.