{ " October 2013 - Julep Maven Box " }

Manicure Monday #2

I received my Julep Maven box today in the mail (how fitting seeing as it's "Manicure Monday"), and was thrilled, like the other two times I got the boxes. I love opening up the box, and seeing how pretty the packaging is, and trying the brand new polishes. The only thing I don't like is the price tag. 

These colors are gorgeous, and will be absolutely awesome for the fall and winter. I am so excited about these, because I don't have any colors like them. Unlike my previous box when I received a color that was almost exactly the same as another one I had, and one polish that was so out of place with the set. So, I was very pleased with these, and I think I will get a lot of use out of them. The silver polish literally looks like someone melted down silver and poured it into a nail polish bottle. It's absolutely incredible! Oh, and this box came with candy corn, which Abigail and Truman were more than happy to gobble down. 

Sadly, after this box I will be done with my Julep Maven boxes for quite a while. I would have been done with them sooner, except for the fact that I did not get the email that allowed me to refuse the box for this month. I will be calling Julep in the next week to cancel my subscription completely, that way I'm not paying the crazy amount for this nail polish each month. While it is so much fun to be surprised each month by the polishes in the box... it is far too much money to spend on three polishes in my opinion. 

Oh, and don't you love the new setting for my photos? I decided since the weather was so nice I would change it up a bit and take some photos outside! 

Enjoy the beautiful fall weather everyone!

{ " change. " }

Change is good right? 

Abigail was dying for a haircut, so I brought her over to Smartstyle Salon in Walmart to get her hair cut. She went for a cute slightly angled bob with a bit of layering. That is what she wanted, so that is what she got. She looks absolutely adorable,  that's for sure. So, while I was sitting there watching her get her hair cut I realized I was due for a cut. I hadn't gotten my hair cut in about 12 weeks, which is twice as long as some people would wait to get their hair trimmed. 

I went in this morning knowing exactly what I wanted it. There was no hesitation, no fear, and absolutely no regret. I am extremely pleased with the outcome.

I love this cut. I personally think it suits me so well, and I love the playfulness and slight edgy look, but at the same time it's still feminine. I can't wait to play around with this cut, and figure out what I can do! Plus, it will take like a month to two months to grow out so, then I can figure out what I want next! 

So, so glad I got this cut. I absolutely love it. It wasn't a huge change, but at the same time it was. 

Also, some other exciting news! I was picked to review products from a VoxBox on my blog! So, within the next two weeks my VoxBox will arrive, and I'll post pictures of the box and products before I do the reviews. Super excited about that!! 

Sorry for the "lame" and "annoying" mirror pictures. Lol. My tripod is currently disabled, and I didn't want to bother anyone to take the pictures for me. 

Hope you all have a great weekend, and everyone is enjoying the awesome weather. 

Enjoying the little things, 

{ " Limp Hair? " }

Well, most people don't like to wash their hair every single day. If you do, there's no problem with that! I personally don't wash my hair every single day, because I normally blow dry it after showering. So, I don't want to have to blow dry my hair every single day. It doesn't too long, but it takes a good ten minutes, then possible straightening. It takes time, and then it also damages my hair to blow dry it and straighten it so often. I have been trying to stay away from straightening, or curling unless I'm going out, or for church on Sunday. On normal days that I shower I just blow dry my hair on medium heat with our ancient (literally) blow dryer. Now that my hair is easy enough to put into a dutch braid, or a little tiny bun that is sometimes my choice for second or third day hair. I wash my hair every other day normally, but sometimes I can go a bit longer.

Normally on even the second day, my hair has already fallen flat and limp against my head. No one likes that. Well... some people probably do, but I don't. My hair is already flat, and thin, so when it is weighed down it looks even worse. For a while I was using dry shampoo to put a little bit of volume back, but I ran out... Which meant I had to find another way to fix my limp and lifeless hair! I thought of how when I blow dry my hair, I dry it about 95% of the way, before flipping my head upside down and blasting it with heat. It gives the right amount of volume without being absolutely insane looking. If I blow dry my hair upside down completely it looks crazy. Like a straight afro. No lie.

Then... an idea sparked in my little blonde head. What if I flip my head upside down, and blast it with heat from the blow dryer when it's dry? Well, I tried it out, and guess what... Awesome results! I then spray it with some fine hold hairspray, and I'm normally good to go. Even after I straighten my hair sometimes I blast it with the blow dryer. Awesome thing is that it takes like 2 minutes, and it seems to revive the volume.

That is my tip this Tuesday! I hope it was helpful to someone!

Enjoy the little things,

{ " Revlon Colorstay Liquid Lipstick " }

Revlon Colorstay Liquid Lipstick
Premier Plum

Well, I have not written a bad review yet... because I normally research products before I buy them. I'm not typically one to try random products out just for the thrill of it. But, I was at CVS this morning, and Revlon was having a deal, where if you bought one of their Colorstay products you got $4.00 in Extrabucks. So, I decided to try out this "liquid lipstick". I got it in the color pictured, called Premier Plum. I was super excited about the color, as it is a gorgeous fall color. It is a true plum, but it is not too bold. It has just the right amount of shimmer, and it just looked gorgeous in the tube. It looked just as beautiful when I swatched it on my hand. And, even on my lips it was stunning as long as I could get it on evenly.  So, I put it on my lips in the Walmart parking lot. Bad idea. First of all, it is extremely hard to get even on the lips, and you can't just rub your lips together to even out the color. It just makes it worse. (It smelled so weird too...) I ended up somehow having a purple ring around my lips. So, I had to clean that off with a baby wipe, before trying it again. Once again, bad idea. I finally got it evened out on my lips, and I headed into the store. By the time I came out my lips were sticking together, and they felt super stiff and dry. Most annoying thing ever! Every time I rubbed my lips together it was horrible. I figured, because of the formula that was likely to happen. So, I brushed that away. I was going out again when I got home, so I reapplied it. But, this time I put a lip balm under it, and a lip gloss over it. I drove out to Kohl's, and checked the color before I went into the store. It looked pretty amazing, and didn't feel too yucky on my lips. Halfway through our shopping trip I rubbed my lips together and realized they didn't feel right. So, in the dressing room I checked. Yep. I had little beads of the lip color all over my lips, and an outline of it too. I was so embarrassed, and wondered how long I had been walking around with little purple fuzzy looking beads on my lips. Just awesome. So, I wiped that off as well as I could, and I am not using it again.

Thankfully I bought it from CVS, so I will have no problem returning it and getting my cash back. I haven't ever bought a lip product that was this bad. I don't know if I was doing something wrong... but, it is just horrible. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. Besides the color being absolutely beautiful, I have nothing good to say about this product. Do not be tempted to buy one of these just, because it says something about lasting 24 hours. Sure it does, if you want to have stiff lips for the rest of the day and worry about checking every five minutes to make sure you haven't caused it to rub off and get all beady looking.

I love Revlon lip products. But this...

Just no.

Enjoying every little thing, except this liquid lipstick,

{ " L'Oreal Paris Total Repair 5 Damage-Erasing Balm " }

Friday Favorite #1

Let's start off by saying this is a "YouTube Made Me Do It" product. I never would have thought of trying this without having seen so many people rave about it on YouTube. So I spent the killer $4.97 on it at Walmart. *wink* This product has a lot of claims with it. Like right on the front where it says, "Repairs up to 1 year of damage in 1 use". Not quite sure if that's true, seeing as my hair wasn't too damaged when I bought it. It is specifically for chemically treated, dry, rough, and dull hair as it states on the back of the container. My hair wasn't exactly rough, or dry, but it was getting a bit dull. I have never chemically treated my hair either, so that wasn't really something I had to look forward to "erasing" with this. I guess, now that I'm thinking about it... I had no reason to buy it. Well, I'm glad I did!

The first time I used this product was bad. I used it as directed, after shampooing... I then let my hair air dry. After about an hour it was barely drying, and felt slightly sticky. I went to bed and got up the next morning to very dull, still slightly sticky hair. I was quite concerned, and pretty upset actually. So, I showered again, but didn't use this product again. I was bummed that I couldn't return it seeing as I bought it at Walmart, and they won't take back products like this.

Well, I decided to try it out again a couple of days later. This time I rinsed it out as well as I could (so even more than I would rinse out conditioner), and then I blow dried my hair afterwards (as I normally do). Let me just say... WHOA. My hair felt so soft, was incredibly shiny, and very light and airy looking. I actually had volume to my hair for once. I mean, my hair even looked soft. Which is not normal for me. I use it almost each time I shower (or twice a week) now, because I use high heat on my hair, about every other day. I am in love with this product, and don't really have any thing negative to say about it's performance.

The scent of this is really nice. It's was a little "grannyish" smelling at first, but the scent wore on me, and now I love it. Also, mixed with the scent of my strawberry shampoo my hair smells downright yummy.

The consistency is a very thick conditioner. It's called a balm, and it's really a creamy balm. I love the texture of it, and how it seems to melt right into my hair. It has no sulfates, and the list of ingredients isn't too long... I'm pretty sure there aren't any parabens either, but this is in no way a "natural" product. But, L'Oreal isn't normally too packed with nasty ingredients. The one downside to it for me is that it contains hydrolyzed wheat protein, which normally causes my scalp and forehead to break out. Though, I have been washing my face with a cleanser after I rinse the hair mask out of my hair, to hopefully clean any wheat products right off of my face before they can do anything. It has not bothered my scalp at all so far, which is awesome, because normally products with wheat in them affect my skin immediately. I'm really hoping it continues on this way, because I will be super sad if I have to stop using this amazing product.

I would totally recommend this to anyone! No matter what your hair length is, texture is, or color is! Especially if you dye your hair, or chemically treat it in any way, this could be a life saver. It's like a luxury hair mask for under $5.00! Who can beat that? No one.

So, go get you some!

Enjoy the little things!
♥

{ " NYC Liquid Lipshine " }

Another review is here!

I thought about making a theme for each (or every other) day of the week, then posting something to do with that theme. Like... Favorites Friday, Tip Tuesday, Manicure Monday... and, I couldn't think of anything for the other two days. I would probably only be posting the five days of the week, or maybe three days in the week and Saturday or Sunday. Not quite sure yet, but I'll be figuring it out! 

Anyways! Today is just a review for the NYC Liquid Lipshine glosses. I just pick these up at Walmart for under $2.00. I'm sure they're probably a bit more if you were to buy them at CVS, or Walgreens, but I don't worry about having to return a lipgloss that's under $2.00 if I don't like the color... The first one of these I purchased was sometime last year, and I used it until it was completely gone. I ended up using it just like a lip moisturizer, because I loved using it so much. The first color I purchased was a light, very shimmery, pink. It was a gorgeous, and very low-maintenance color. I wore it just about every day, and I thought about repurchasing it when I finally ran out. Then I bought another, and I used that one up too. The label even wore off of it, so I can't even tell you guys what color it was... 

So, I decided to purchase a couple more, since I loved the previous glosses I had. I purchased some fall colors, as it seemed fitting for the season. They still do not cease to amaze me. I absolutely love these glosses! 

They are definitely more of a gel gloss, rather than being creamy at all. They are not sticky in the least. I can't stand sticky glosses, and these are slightly thick, but comfortable on the lips. The wear time is like a normal gloss. They don't wear for very long, but the darker color (Wine n Dine) does leave a slight stain. I don't mind glosses that leave a bit of a stain, as long as they don't feather and leave stains on the skin around my lips. 

The lighter color (left) is Midtown Mulberry (581), and the darker is Wine n Dine (587). Both have awesome pigment for a gloss. They are lighter when on my skin than they are in the tube, or on the lips. 

Midtown Mulberry (581) is a light berry color. It's not exactly red, or pink... It kind of reminds me of a raspberry with a tiny bit of purpley undertone. It is not as strawberry looking on the lips as it is in the photo above. It has a bit of micro-shimmer, but not so much that it's like, SPARKLES EVERYWHERE. So, it's a very wearable, sophisticated gloss. It's an everyday color, and probably could be taken into the evening over a red lip. I like to layer it over my Revlon Lip Butter in the color Berry Smoothie. 

Wine n Dine (587) is much darker on the lips than pictured above. I do love it though. It is definitely a very bold color for me, and it is taking some getting used to. I'm trying to try out some plum, and mauve lips for the fall and winter time. This is a good little push in that direction. It is a deep reddish purple on the lips, with a tiny bit of shimmer. I really love the look of this gloss on the lips, it is very dark, but wearable. It does not look "vampy" in the least. I think it looks quite good with my skin tone, and I've worn it a few times at home to get myself used to the dark color. Overall, it's a great fall color. 

I would recommend these glosses to anyone who's looking for a steal-of-a-deal at the drugstore! 

Enjoy the little things! 

♥

I totally splurged on this nail polish. I have never bought an Essie polish full price, and I am not planning on buying another one anytime soon. Anyways, I bought this polish, because I had purchased a different color from Essie and, it ended up looking black. In the bottle it like a beautiful deep purple, on the nails it looked black with like... a purple undertone. All in all, I am not one to wear black on my nails, so I returned it. I swapped it out for this color, because I love grey polish, but I finished up the bottle I had from NYC. I actually had finished two bottles of the grey I previously had. I decided it was time for a new one! This grey is definitely a warm grey, at least... I think it is. It goes on smoothly, and is completely opaque in two coats. I don't know how the lasting power is... seeing as I wore it with a top coat, and base coat, and then removed it all after three days. So, I'm not sure how well it will stay on on it's own, or if it stains. I know from other Essie polishes I have had, that they don't stay on very long. I have also heard other people don't have good luck with them not chipping either. So, I suppose they're not quite worth the price, but their color choices are almost endless. It's like you can get the exact color you want. I can't wait until their fall collection comes out! Except for the fact that I will then have to resist the temptation to buy a new color... Nail polish is waaaay too addicting. I'll admit it, I have far too many nail polishes. I will upload some "on the nail" shots the next time I have this polish on my nails.

Right now I am sporting a peacock green which I will have a post about next week, because I am totally in love with the color combination on my nails.

Have a great week everyone!
Enjoy the crisp fall air, and the little things,

{ " Maybelline Color Whispers " }

There was a lot of hype over the Color Whispers by Maybelline when they first hit the shelves. They were marketed as a lipstick that was not really as opaque, but easy to build up, moisturizing, and very creamy. Like a whisper of color over your lips. So, I of course, decided to take a chance and buy some. I bought mine on a BOGO sale, so I didn't pay full price for all of them. Which is good, because they retail around 6.99. The price is a bit steep, and I would buy anymore unless there is another sale. I purchased a couple, and I really enjoyed the formula, and the colors. The color pigmentation of these is very light (but of course if you want a heavier pigmentation there are regular lipsticks for that). They build very easily though, and can be more than just a wash of color, if you want to layer it up.

Let's talk about the packaging. This immediately drew me in. I love almost anything pretty, and girly. These happen to be both of those. The fonts used are so appealing, and the colors of the packaging are just so beautiful. I love the contrast of the light covers with the silver font, and tube. I kind of just want to display them somewhere in my room, because they're so charming.

(I apologize for my poor swatching abilities... I'm working on that.)

The only color that I own that has any "shimmer" to it is Pin Up Peach (30). The others are just creamy colors. 

My favorite color is Lust for Blush (25), and Coral Ambition (35) comes in close second. I have not worn the red color very much, because I am slowly trying to get myself into wearing more bold lip colors for the fall. IT has a bit of a berry undertone, and is more like a raspberry, than a classic red. 

All-in-all I would recommend these for anyone who wants an easy, light wash of color on the lips. 

Remember to enjoy the little things! 

{ " NYX Butter Gloss " }

I finally got my hands on some NYX Butter Glosses! I was so excited when I was out, and there was an Ulta in the plaza I was shopping in. The only reason I even wanted to go to an Ulta was, because of these glosses. I had heard amazing things about them, so I was dying to try them out. They were a little bit pricey, but I think they were worth it. I'm willing to spend a bit on a good lip gloss (and I had a coupon too!), seeing as I don't spend money on any other makeup products. So I ran into Ulta and picked up a few of these glosses. One thing I didn't know about them, was that the color of the tube is the color of the gloss! They are actually more like a liquid lipstick. I wouldn't even call them a gloss, because they are so pigmented. They actually cover up my natural lip color, which I have never had a gloss do. The ones I purchased don't really have any "sparkle", but they are very shiny on the lip.They don't really have any flavor (yes, I tasted them...), but the scent is amazing. It's like... vanilla cupcakes, and cream. It's just incredible. I smell them almost every time I out one on. They are super moisturizing, and feel very luxurious on the lips. They are not sticky in the least, and the lasting power is average. They have a large selection ranging from a nude pink, to a bright cherry red. I have to say my favorite right now is Creme Brulee, the more nude pink. The bright pink/peachy one is definitely a summer color. Though, I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing it in the winter. 

All in all, I love these glosses already, and I will probably purchase more in the future!

Enjoy the little things!