November Favorites!

Okay guys, so this is probably my favorite favorites post of the year. SO many goodies to share with y'all! Let's go ahead and jump into it :)

Shew.. look at all of these goodies! 

 Body/Hair

I bought some 100% natural Shea Butter and holy moly.. this stuff is the bomb.com for the colder months! My skin has gotten so dry lately that lotion just wasn't enough for me. I put this on right before I go to bed and when I wake up, my skin is hydrated and feels amazing. A winter must have!

I recently bought the Alterna Bamboo Smooth Anti-Breakage Thermal Protectant Spray (what a mouth full) but loveeeeeeeeeeee. I wash my hair 1-2 times a week and when it's damp I will spray this on my ends and it detangles my hair and when my hair dries, it is just so much more easy to style the way I want to. 

I got the Algenist Retinol Firming and Lifting Serum from Sephora as a sample. I got this because I've heard a lot of beauty gurus talk about how this brand is amazing and they always snag samples when Sephora offers them. I found out why they snag the samples after I checked the prices of everything.. lord have mercy. But anyways, I see the hype for this brand! I have been wanting to try retinol for a while now. I had a bad experience with a Neutrogena one a while back so I ditched it but I wanted to try different ones. This one is so good for sensitive skin which is what I have and it hasn't broken me out or anything like that. It will make your skin a little dry (which is normal) so make sure to put a moisturizer on after putting any retinol cream on.

Makeup

First off, just look at those swatches.. have mercy. SO gorgeous.

Bite Beauty High Pigment Pencil in Pomegranate: New favorite lipstick of LIFE. I want to wear this everyday, everywhere, 24/7.. I love it.

Flower Beauty Velvet Lipstick in Set Me Freesia: New favorite nude lip. I recently got rid of all my makeup products that tested on animals (which I'm still researching because I want no part of that.) So needless to say, all of my favorite nudes were from brands who did test on animals, so I bought this on a whim and I actually really, really like it. Go Drew Barrymore!

Josie Maran Coconut Watercolor Eyeshadow in Rio De Rose Gold: The most amazing pigmented eyeshadow I have ever tried in my life. I officially never want to be without this amazing product. I wore this the other day and it literally lasted all day long with no eye primer or setting spray. Obsessed.

100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Concealer: I wear this on days where I don't wear a lot of makeup but somehow it manages to make me look so fresh faced. I put it in my t-zone and underneath my eyes and it's just so natural looking. I really like this concealer for everyday wear.

Tarte Skinny SmolderEYES Amazonian Clay Waterproof  Liner in Sunstone Bronze: First of all, when they say waterproof.. they MEAN waterproof. Secondly, this color alone I think would suit every eye color out there. Brown eyes, blue eyes, hazel eyes, green eyes.. I think it would just be absolutely gorgeous on anyone. I wore this on my waterline with the Josie Maran eyeshadow and I seriously had to refrain from taking too many selfies because the eye look was just so on point.

Bonus favorites:

Surprise!

Surprise!

Surprise!

Surprise!

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, had an amazing Thanksgiving, and get excited because it's almost Christmas! xo

Date Night Makeup & OOTD

Good morning loves!

Last night Drew and I had a date night, we went out for sushi and a little shopping. I decided I wanted to do a makeup look I could post on here. I don't normally switch up my look too often, but last night I opted my nude lip for a much darker one. I posted this picture on instagram:

I will list makeup and outfit details down below!

Face: Arbonne primer, Arbonne foundation in Honey Beige, Tarte Maracuja concealer in the lightest shade underneath my eyes and in my T-zone, Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in Diffused Light to set my T-zone, Make Up For Ever Mat Bronze in shade 20 to contour cheeks and forehead, Arbonne blush in Sunset

Eyes: Anastasia Brow Wiz in Caramel, L'oreal Telescopic Mascara

Lips: Mac lipliner in Nightmoth, Maybelline Matte lipstick in Divine Wine

and in the background you can see my lovely IKEA shelf! Don't worry though, this is NOT how I'm leaving it (with the Sephora bags and Tory Burch shoe box on top.) This room is kind of a mess right now and I wanted to get them out of the way for a moment. Cannot wait for this room to be done!

Shirt: Express (from last year, couldn't find online)

Jeans: HERE

Purse: HERE

Shoes: HERE

I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I can't believe I was able to find the majority of my outfit online.. that almost never happens! Oh by the way, if you watch Sons of Anarchy.. how crazy was last night?! It's getting real and next week will probably be insane. Leave a comment with your thoughts!

xo

MOTD + Some Updates!

Okay so I wasn't planning on using an instagram picture for my post but I felt like my makeup was so on point today that I had to share with you guys what I used. I used three new products that I am loving, and I actually wore eyeliner today which NEVER happens.. like ever. No mascara, just a little tight lining with liner. Oh, and please excuse the top knot.. some days I just don't bother fixing my hair. Embrace the mess, I like to say.

Also, I haven't blogged in a minute so I just wanna cover some things.. I was in Ohio all last week and I am starting on my beauty room! I hit up Ikea for the first time ever, and fell in LOVE with that store. If you've been following my blog for a while, you know I posted about this a while ago but it's now starting to come to life! I'm super excited and everything already looks so good. Thank god for a strong handsome boyfriend to put all the furniture together ;)

One last thing before we get into the look, if you follow me on Facebook and saw my salad post I said I would post on here, I will be posting that tomorrow. It's super delicious and completely raw vegan, woo hoo!

Now onto this look..

I bought a beauty blender, and if you're reading this.. you need it. It's life changing, for real. It makes everything completely air brushed. I didn't think I could love a sponge so much..

What I used:

Arbonne foundation in Honey Beige

Tarte Maracuja concealer in the lightest shade underneath my eyes

Physicians Formula Organic Wear bronzer (new product, obsessed)

Arbonne blush in Sunset

Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in Diffused light to set my T-zone

Anastasia Brow Wiz in Caramel

Loreal Extra Intense Liquid Pencil eyeliner to tight line

Sonia Kashuk lipliner in Nude (new product, love)

NYX lipstick in Thalia (new product, new favorite lipstick!)

and you can kinda see my little set up in the back. I don't have my mirror yet so Drew put my tall mirror behind my desk temporarily so I can do my makeup in this room rather than the bathroom and I'll just go ahead and tell y'all.. it makes a HUGE difference and I can't believe it took me so long to finally put this all together but I can't wait for it to be done. As soon as it's done, I will show it. I haven't decided yet if I want to make it into a video, or if I'll just take pictures.. but either way, I will post it!

Happy Tuesday! xo

Jessie James Decker OOTD + Makeup

Favorite person I've never met.. is Jessie James Decker. I seriously love everything about her and I wish they would come out with more seasons of Eric and Jessie, because well.. I love that show. But today I decided to do a Jessie inspired look with my outfit and makeup. There's an apple farm close to where I live and Drew and I took a little trip there this morning for some goodies and everything was so delicious. I probably ate enough calories this morning for my whole entire day, just saying.

Here's the look:

This makeup is actually my everyday makeup (minus the eyeshadow)

Face: Arbonne foundation in Honey Beige (<-- y'all already know) / L'oreal Visible Lift concealer in the lightest shade (underneath eyes) / Hourglass Ambient lighting powder in Diffused Light (to set my concealer under my eyes and in T-zone) / MAKE UP FOR EVER Mat bronzer in shade 20 (to contour cheekbones and forehead) / Arbonne blush in Sunet

Eyes/Brows: Anastasia Brow Wiz in caramel (to fill in sparse hairs on brows) / Bare Minerals eyeshadow duo in The Top Shelf (which Jessie actually uses) / L'oreal Telescopic mascara

Lips: Bite Beauty Lush Fruit lip gloss in Rambutan (gorgeous opaque nude gloss which is a perfect signature nude lip that she tends to use all the time!)

Bandanna: Wal-Mart (only $1! make sure to wash it to give it a softer feel)

Aviators: Old Navy

Flannel: TJ Maxx

Shorts: Forever 21

Boots: Belk

Purse: Ann Taylor (and this is still available online, I am obsessed with this bag! HERE)

Now obviously I can't find any of these outfit pieces online because I've owned all of them for quite some time, or it was purchased in store. However you can find cute flannels just about anywhere. Flannels and bandannas are the main signature look here. 

 and then there's this.. cause ya can't be serious all the time ;)

xo

Kim Kardashian Makeup Look

Love her or hate her.. there is no denying Kim Kardashian's absolute perfection 100% of the time. Every time you see you her at any event, she is flawless from head to toe. I recently saw a picture of her at a Givenchy show and fell in love with her makeup and outfit. So I bought a few things and rummaged through my makeup I already owned to try and re-create the look.

So incredibly gorgeous.. I can't even deal with it. But anyways.. I'll share my creation of this look with you guys!

Taken with phone:

Taken with Nikon camera:

Now clearly this look doesn't look the same on me because i'm not near as bronzey goddess as she is, but I tried to bronze it up for this look! A few things I want to note here: 

1.) I absolutely hate this hair style on me because I do have a 5 head, so this doesn't work for me. 

2.) I liked this look a lot more before I added eyeliner and fake lashes, but Kim always has super long lashes so I figured I would add them for this look. 

3.) There's a blemish right there on my forehead.. shew, I just picked a bad day to do this I feel like. 

4.) Last thing.. I have super oily skin, but Kim always has super dewy skin so when I try to do the dewy look with my naturally oily skin, it kinda just looks like a hot mess. However when it gets super cold out, I can rock the dewy look because my skin dries up a little in the winter.

What I used for this look:

Face: Arbonne foundation in Honey Beige / Loreal Visible Lift concealer in the lightest shade / Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in Diffused Light / Tarte Amazonian Clay bronzer in a discontinued shade (they still have the other shade available) / Arbonne blush in Sunset / The Balm Mary-Loumanizer highlighting powder

Brows: Anastasia Brow Wiz in Caramel

Eyes: Loreal Infallible eyeshadow in Amber Rush (on lid) / NYC liquid eyeliner / Loreal Telescopic mascara (don't have a single clue why I ever stopped using this, it's amazing!) / Ardell lashes in Fashion Lashes

Lips: Buxom Full Bodied lip gloss in Dolly (new favorite gloss, and it's plumping!) / MAC lipstick in Fresh Brew (I read online though that in the photo of Kim, she was actually wearing MidiMauve by MAC.)

Nails: Essie Topless and Barefoot with Essie Matte On You as a topcoat (I'm obsessed with matte nails.)

I was pretty harsh on myself for this look but I hope you guys still enjoy this look! I think it's just the hair that's throwing me off. I have another celebrity-inspired look I plan to do very soon, so watch out for that as well! Also, any tough criticism is accepted, I promise :)

xo

Bronze Makeup Look

So I've been putting this look off for far too long now. Sometimes it's hard to capture the true color and effect of makeup on camera so I honestly get stressed out about doing makeup looks, and then I remember I have a blog to upkeep ;)

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE trying out new looks but I also have standards for the looks I post on here so sometimes I just get a tad stressed about it. I  am also looking into trying to post a 90's makeup look sort of like what Kylie Jenner has been rocking lately with the mauve lips and subtle winged/smudged eyeliner. I'll try to do a practice run with it sometime this week and hopefully I can have it up by next week for you guys. But anyways, I will post everything I'm wearing so if you guys like this look, you can check everything out!

Not sure why I look so angry in some photos (sorry!)

Primer: HERE

Foundation: HERE

Concealer: HERE

Face Powder: HERE

Bronzer: I have a different shade but it's discontinued, the other shade: HERE

Blush: HERE

Eyebrows: HERE

Eyeshadow: HERE in Top Shelf

Mascara: HERE

Eye Lashes: HERE

Lips: HERE in Nude York HERE in Whisper Beige

This is definitely more makeup then what I wear on the norm, and it's weird but I just cannot get used to fake lashes.. they drive me absolutely crazy! Also, I am fully aware I need to practice with my eyeshadow technique, I'm far from professional. But I hope you guys enjoyed this post and watch out for the Kylie Jenner inspired look sometime next week hopefully! xo

DIY Storage Container

I don't know about you guys, but I've always wanted to re-purpose my Bath and Body Works candles into cute little containers, am I the only one? Hope not because I am going to show you the EASIEST possible way to do this. I've watched so many tutorials and most of them contained some sort of chemical peel to get stickers off, a pot of boiling water, and a bunch of other dangerous technical stuff I never wanted to actually put my time and effort into. I finally ran into a tutorial that looked so incredibly easy so I tried it out myself, and voila! It worked :)

You will need:

Any candle container of your choice (make sure the candle is almost gone so it's easier to de-pot)

A freezer

A butter knife

and that's it!

What you're going to do is put your candle in the freezer and let it sit over night. The next morning take it out and cut into the center of the candle with a butter knife and it should crack since it's frozen. After this, it will pretty much come right out but you may have to work with it a little bit. As far as those pesky stickers go, just run the candle under warm water and scrub it with soap. I can't speak for all candle stickers but if you're going to do it with a B&BW candle, the stickers come right off using that method. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with mine yet but for the time being I have put my favorite nail polishes in it and I'll show you what it looks like:

and there you have it! I hope this was helpful, I absolutely love DIY's and I have been wanting to try this forever and I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

xo

Makeup Brushes 101

Hello! 

It's been a minute since I've posted! I have been meaning to do this for so long now so I'm finally getting around to it. I want to share with you guys the brushes I use to get a flawless face when applying makeup. Some of my favorite (and more inexpensive) brush brands are Sigma, Eco Tools, and Real Techniques. You can purchase Sigma brushes HERE, Real Techniques brushes are now sold at Rite Aid, and you can also get them at Ulta HERE, Real Techniques brushes are also sold at Rite Aid, Walgreens, and HERE. They are all very comparable to one another as far as quality goes. They don't shed often, they feel luxurious, and you're not paying $40 like you would for a brush from Mac. I'm going to share my favorites and what I use them for, hope you enjoy!

 Foundation

For medium-full coverage I always use my Real Techniques Expert Face Brush and first I use patting motions to set the foundation and then I will swipe it around to make sure everything is blended. For more light coverage on days where I want to look more natural I use my Sigma Duo Fibre F50 Brush with the same technique for blending.

Bronzer

To contour my cheeks I always use a matte bronzer and I use this Eco Tools bronzing brush. When I contour I swipe the bronzer underneath my cheekbones, on my temples, the top of my forehead, and on my neck to make sure my face and neck are the same color. When I want to have that sunkissed look I use a bronzer with shimmer and I use this Real Techniques Powder Brush and I will swipe the bronzer across my cheeks, forehead, and neck.

 Concealer

To conceal any imperfections under my eyes I use this sigma Tapered Blending F86 Brush using a patting motion, you never want to drag it because that will remove the product. To set the concealer with my setting powder I use the Sigma Tapered Highlighting F35 Brush also using a patting motion and I will use the setting powder in my T-zone area as well since I have combination skin. My T-zone is excessively oily while the rest of my face is normal.

 Blush

When I use a powder blush I use the BH Cosmetics Blush Brush which I wouldn't necessarily recommend if you're looking to buy a new one. I don't love it, and I don't hate it. For my face shape, rather than putting blush on the apples of my cheeks I find it looks better if I swipe the blush on my cheekbones running it up towards my hair line. When I use a cream blush I use my Elf Small Stipple Brush which I love and for $3, you can't beat it! I do patting motions with cream blushes, and I prefer cream over powder blushes.

Eyeshadow

Now I don't normally do a full on eyeshadow look but I normally swipe a light brown color through my crease to add more definition, and I use this Sigma Tapered Blending E35 Brush. I definitely need to invest in more eyeshadow brushes from Sigma, and if you can't tell by this post, Sigma is definitely my favorite brush brand.

I hope this post was helpful if you're looking to purchase new brushes! xo

MOTD!

So I'm just going to guess that I am the only human on earth that is home right now.. I should really be out right now, watching fireworks, being social... Nope. In bed and writing this right now :)

This is the makeup look with my Sephora goodies from one of my previous posts, and I am loving everything. I will list everything for you guys and I can't even lie, most of the time I will edit my pictures just to enhance certain colors, etc. I did absolutely no editing in these photos and even I was amazed at how the pictures turned out. This makeup look is truly flawless and simple. Enjoy!

From insta ;)

Face: 

Arbonne Foundation in Honey Beige (Ahh-mazing!) {HERE} 

Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer {HERE} 

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light (used on T-zone and underneath eyes, so gorg!) {HERE}

MAKE UP FOR EVER Mat Bronze in shade 20 (Love!) {HERE}

Arbonne Blush in Sunset (Gorgeous with a bronzed look!) {HERE}

Brows:

Anastasia Brow Wiz in Caramel (Favorite pencil!) {HERE}

Eyes:

Tarte Lights, Camera, Splashes Waterproof Mascara (Not my favorite mascara, but waterproof is the way to go in the summer!) {HERE}

Lips:

Dior Addict Fluid Stick in 219 Whisper Beige (Already planning to get another color, I LOVE this stuff. Worth the money!) {HERE}

Outfit:

Crop Top: TJ Maxx 

Shorts: Forever 21, and they're on sale! {HERE}

I hope you guys enjoyed and happy 4th! xo

Sephora, Arbonne, & Sigma Haul!

Alright guys, I know I said in my last post I would be doing a look soon with these products and I am, but first I'm gonna just show you what I got! I have tried out everything and so far so good, I am loving everything :) As always, I'll leave a link for everything down below!

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light {HERE} Make Up For Ever Mat Bronze in 20 {HERE} and Dior Addict Fluid Stick in 219 Whisper Beige {HERE}. The Superbalm Scalp Treatment is a sample from Lush.. I talked to the lady and told her the problems I was having with my scalp (bleeding, dry skin, constant pain from scratching, etc..) She told me she thinks I may have psoriasis so I think I may need to go to the dermatologist because I don't think any product I can buy will just cure that, but hopefully this helps a little. If anyone has experienced this and has had it treated, please let me know what you have done.

I swatched them for you guys to show the color payoff. I have only used everything once so I can't wait to do a look with everything. I wore the lip gloss today and the formulation is amazing, of course. It goes on wet like gloss and then drys to almost a lip balm texture so it isn't sticky at all. I love the bronzer because it is a lighter bronzer and you don't have to worry about blending it so much. The formulation of both the bronzer and lighting powder is again, so amazing. They're both so finely milled, I can't even describe the texture to you but it feels really good. The lady at Sephora used the lighting powder under my eyes and in my T zone to set the foundation and concealer, and to overall make my face appear more bright in the center. I'm going to try to have the makeup look up by the end of the week for you guys :)

Lastly, I just restocked my favorite foundation of all time. This is my go to foundation, I haven't even considered trying a different one because I love this one so much. You can get it {HERE} and I wear the color Honey Beige. I also purchased two new brushes from Sigma, I got the F86 Tapered Kabuki for concealing underneath my eyes and I also got the F35 for my Hourglass powder. The lady at Sephora said I would need a brush similar to the one she used on me to make sure a lot of product was not picked up for a more natural look. You can get them {HERE} and {HERE}.

I hope you guys enjoyed this and I promise to do this look as soon as possible using all of the above items! xx