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.

May 2013 Top 3

Here are my three favorites for May. Didn't have too much trouble this month picking three items.

L'Oreal released the Miss Candy Colour Riche nail polish collection for summer. These polishes are gel/jelly texture. I originally picked up two of these polishes (Lilac Coolers and Miss Pixie). Then I searched for nail swatches of the entire collection. That was a mistake lol. I went back and picked up three more (Berry Nice, Jolly Lolly and Bubble Trouble). At first I thought I wouldn't like them. They're are not opaque. You can build up the color somewhat but you can still see your nail. But they aren't bad. I think they are perfect for spring/summer. I did a jelly sandwich with a glitter polish and I loved it. These will probably be my go to polishes for spring/summer.

I picked up my first MAC Paint Pot in Eclair. I can't remember which collection it was released in since it seems like MAC has a new collection every other week (a rant for another day). But it was a fairly recent collection and it's limited edition. It's described as light chocolate with gold pearl. I'm really loving this shade. I've worn it on it's own and with a powder eyeshadow over top of it. It has really good staying power. I have Indianwood and Constructivist on my wish list.

I randomly grabbed Tarte's emphasEYES aqua-gel eyeliner in black that came with the True Blood palette. I used off and on throughout the month and realized that it's an awesome eyeliner. It's a true black. Some black eyeliners have a grey/off black look to them which I don't care for. It goes on smoothly and lasted on me all day without fading. I also love that it is a retractable liner and you don't have to sharpen it. I looked on Tarte's website and found it in the sale section. So I guess they are phasing it out which is a bummer. I may pick up another one since the price is really good.

And there you have it. Short and to the point. On to June! I already have some items in mind that I started using at the end of this month *shifty eyes*

Reconsidered 2012 Favorites

Looking back over my favorites posts I noticed that some items that I listed are really not favorites anymore or I still like BUT I'm not as hype over them as I was when I did the post. For January, February and March I wasn't using my own pics and got freaked out from using ones from the Internet. I took them down and was going to post my own if I still had the product. Hadn't gotten around to it yet. I actually started this post in January but then kind of forgot about it. Whoops! So here they are.

From January
Only one item stuck out from January and it's the Revlon Photo Ready Volume 3D Mascara. At first I loved it and thought it was really good. The more I used it I was like oh no. It flaked something terrible on me. I would look in the mirror and go ekkkkk! So I pitched it and would not repurchase.

A possible try again item is the Ruby Kisses Eyeshadow Primer. I remembered really liking it. Thing is it's hard to find. I know most people find Ruby Kisses items in no name beauty supply stores. I had ordered it online from a beauty supply store. If I see it while I'm out and about I would scoop it up. But I'm not going to order it online just because.

From February
Another mascara that I loved at first was Benefit's They're Real Mascara. The thing that turned me off was that I noticed my lashes coming off when I would remove it. Just a lash or two but it was like that each time I would remove it in the evening. So that kind of freaked me out. I read some reviews on Sephora and others had experienced the same. So I pitched it. Also I'm over mascaras that make my lashes feel hard and this one did. A bunch of people love this mascara but it just isn't for me.

From March
Still loving everything from March :D

From April
All good for April! :D

From May
I'm kind of over Lancome's Hypnose Drama mascara. The brush is different. Not in a bad way but you have to work with it a little more. I think it's good for night time but not really as an everyday mascara. I prefer Lancome's Definicils Precious Cells over Hypnose Drama.

From June
Two more mascaras to mention! The Rimmel Sexy Curve Mascara was just ok. Like I said it the post it only gave me length. Wasn't a big fan. L'Oreal's Voluminous Mascara in Carbon Black *sigh* I wanted to like this. It's a cult favorite. For me it seemed too much. To me it was kind of goopy and didn't separate my lashes well. If I were going to try the Voluminous Mascaras again I'd stick with the original.

From July
Nothing from July :D

From August
In August I mentioned that I had been loving Cetaphil's moisturizer  I did like it at the time. The more I used it I realized it wasn't a good fit for my skin but I continued to use just so I could use it up. Then I kind of got feed up and was like nope. So I used it as a hand and body lotion.  Bare Minerals moisturizer for combination skin is a better fit for my skin.

From September
Oh boy another doggone mascara! I picked up the L'Oreal Voluminous Full Definition. It was ok at first. I like it for a short period of time and them I hated it. It's funny L'Oreal used to be my favorite brand for mascaras from the drugstore. Now I'm kind of over them.

From October
Phone case from eBay. The day after I did my favorites post, the design on that joker started peeling! So I took it off. No more hard cases for me! Hmph!

From November
Still loving everything from November :D

From December
Everything from December is still good :D

And there you have my 2012 favorites re-review. It's funny how you love something one minute and over it the next.

April 2013 Top 3

Ok so I had this post pretty much done in April and had meant to post it before my work trip. Which didn't happen. In looking at what I thought were favorites had me going hmmm. So I thought back over what I had been reaching for and really loving and re-did the post and got it back down to 3. Originally there were 6 things. So here we go!

Every now and then I reach for my Urban Decay Naked palette and fall in love with it over again each time. I love colored eye looks but I'm a neutral girl at heart. You can create a bunch of looks from simple to dramatic with this palette. This time around I used more of the lighter shades in the palette. When I first got it I only used about 5 of the shades and was kind of  "afraid" of the lighter shades. But now that I'm more comfortable with applying eyeshadows and know how to make things work for me skin tone, I don't have a problem with the lighter shades in the palette. I took it with me on my work trip as well. My favorite shadows in the palette are Buck and Darkhorse. I could wear these two shades together everyday and never get tired of them. It's one of my go to eye looks when I don't know what to do or don't feel like doing much. I love Urban Decay eyeshadows. I'm still debating if I want to pick up the Naked 2 palette. The Smoked palette is on my list to get.

I've had the Urban Decay All Nighter spray for a while now and have used it off and on. Wasn't sure if I needed to pitch it since I've had it for a while but it hasn't broken me out or irritated my skin, so I guess it's still good. When I first used it, I liked it but was never really wowed by it. I started using some new skin care products and they dried my out a little bit and my skin got flaky. So this made my Bare Minerals foundation look not so great. Once I applied it there were still some flakes. So I grabbed the UD spray, did a few spritz on my face and it really helped. It also helped keep my makeup in place all day.

Justin Timberlake's new album came out in March and I have been playing in non-stop in my car. I also have it on my phone. The album just flows from beginning to end. I love the beats and the outros he did on almost all the songs. It's like 2 songs in 1. It's hard for me to say what my favorite songs are. At first I kept listening to 2 or 3 and now I keep listening to another 2 or 3 on repeat. I will say that Mirrors is probably my main favorite. I first heard it when he performed on Saturday Night Live and kept listening to it on Spotify until I got the CD. Love the video for it too. JT is really on his grown man flow and I love it! He's coming to my area in August but I won't be able to go due to a work meeting. I know it's early but I'm calling this as album of the year.

On to May!

March 2013 Top 3

Happy March! Spring has sprung! Well somewhat but the warm weather is coming and I cannot wait! Played around with a bunch of stuff this month but it was kind of hard to pick three things that wowed me. Here's what I picked.

A go to eye combo that I reached for towards the end of February into March, was Maybelline's Color Tattoo in Rich Mahogany and MAC's Extra Dimension eyeshadow in Havana. For me this is the perfect smoky brown eye look that will go with just about any lip/check combo and can be worn day or night. I've been trying to use the Color Tattoos I have more since I have most of them and I do like them. The MAC Extra Dimension shadows came out last year and they are really nice shadows. They are very smooth and easy to blend. Both products were limited edition. MAC is coming out with a collection that has new extra dimension shadows next month I believe.

Maybelline Color Sensational High Shine Lip Glosses are new glosses to the Maybelline line. I started out wth Rasperberry Reflections. I picked up Mocha-mazing and Luminous Latte about a week ago. THEN I got two more.  I picked up two more that are limited edition ones in Mirrored Plum and Fiercely Fuchsia.  Can I just say that I'm lightweight over limited edition stuff, especially at the drugstore. (rant for another post).  These are some great glosses with great pigmentation, shine, are comfortable to wear and you can't beat the price. I have my eye on a few more shades and perhaps a backup of Mirrored Plum since it's limited edition and a gorgeous shade that I know I'll get a lot of wear out of.

I picked up Essie's Pillow Talk during an Ulta visit. It was on sale so I was like why not.  This is the perfect polish when you don't want a whole lot going on your nails, but you want something on them other than clear polish. Very sublte and pretty. I didn't think it would look good on me. Some lighter shades don't pair well against my skin tone but this one is great and would work on any skin tone.

Well there you have. Straight to the point this month. On to April and the beginning of work travel *two thumbs down*

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