May Favorites

OMG you guys! May is over. When did this happen? But you know what that means...it's my birthday month now! Woop Woop! Okay, let's get serious here now. May really did go by pretty quickly, but I did try a lot of new products and actually discovered oldies that I once liked but kinda forgot about but now I love again. It's one of those kinds of relationships.

Let's get started!

Makeup

As you guys know from my previous posts, I bought the new Too Faced Boudoir Eyes Palette. This is a really nice palette for spring/summer. The colors are very natural and you can either play them up or down. You can create a lot of different looks with this palette and the colors are just amazing.

Another product that I have also mentioned in previous posts is the Tarte Amazonian Clay Foundation. This foundation has moved into my all time favorite category. It blends in so nicely with your skin and is a pretty good coverage foundation. I also found that this foundation can easily stand on it's own. When I am in a hurry and just need to slap on some foundation and go out the door this is it, because it does not feel oily (like most foundations do) without a powder to set it. It dries matte and still so far no breakouts!

I love this mascara simply because it does what I want it to do without making my eyes itch. I have tried many mascaras and I have a lot that I love, but the L'Oreal Extra Volume Collagen Mascara is the only mascara with the formula that is sensitive enough for my eyes. This mascara also does a great job in making your eyelashes look super long and very full. 

Nails

 I am not a big Essie nail polish fan, but this came to me as an impulse buy. To me it's very expensive and I find it chips very quickly, but I got this one to try to give Essie another chance, and no I'm not impressed by the formula. But this color is to die for! It is currently what I have on my nails now and it is in the shade Bikini So Teeny. How appropriate for spring and summer!? The down side is I find myself using a lot of coats when I put this on and I have to reapply every few days, but I love the color and that's why it is in my favorites for May.

Fragrance

This first one is another impulse buy that I got ages ago. It's from Victoria's Secret and it's the Noir Tease Body Mist. I really love this scent. I have used it almost everyday for the month of May. It's the perfect girl scent. I can't really describe the scent of it, but it just smells sexy! That's the best way I can put it. It is also light enough to wear anywhere, and the bottle is small enough to put in your purse to carry around everyday.

So when I am not using the Noir Tease by Victoria's Secret, I use my Daisy by Marc Jacobs perfume. I bought this around Christmas time as a present for myself because I feel like every girl should have at least one pretty expensive perfume that is her signature smell. And yes this is mine. But in winter I didn't use it as often because it does smell very florally. However, it is perfect to wear now and I am loving it. It is very subtle but still noticeable. I love it when I catch a wiff of myself when I am wearing this because it's like oh my god that is a smell-gasm! Also the bottle is so cute and that alone makes it one of my favorites.

Randoms

I got the Jergens BB Body Cream in a Birchbox a few months ago and I love using this as a BB cream on my face. This cream smells so nice and it makes your skin feeling very smooth. It does have a tint to it, so it is very nice when you are in a hurry and don't have time to put on makeup, or even when you don't feel like putting it on.

So yes summer is here and I can not stress how important deodorant is! I got this Secret Clinical Strength deodorant as a sample, and I am buying the full size when I am done with this. So far this is the only deodorant I know that can handle my armpits being out in 90 degree weather all day. It has a very floral smell to it but it is not overpowering. So far nothing has been able to beat this one. 

Even though it is not winter anymore, it is still important to moisturize those lips! I love the Vaseline Lip Therapy line. It makes my lips feel super smooth and not flaky. It's great for keeping your lips hydrated and protected by the sun. 

This soda is the bomb dot com! This flavor of Mountain Dew is only available at Taco Bell, but for a limited time you can get Baja Blast in stores. When I heard about this I had to drive myself right away to pick up as many as I can. I LOVE this soda and I LOVE that this soda is available in stores now, even if it is for a little bit.

Lastly, on my favorites list is this Bed Head Small Talk. This is a hair thickener and I have had this product since I cut my hair short. The lady who cut my hair used this on me and I fell in love right away. It smells like candy. It is literally candy for your hair. All you need to do is put a small pump in your hand and rub it in to your damp hair and it leaves your hair smelling nice and it gives it amazing volume. 

Thank you so much for reading! Let me know what your favorites for May where and leave me your site! I'm always looking for people to follow and blogs to read. Have a great month of June lovies!  

May Birchbox

It's that time of the month again. And I don't mean THAT time of the month. No it's the one where I check the mail 5 times a day to see if my Birchbox has arrived, and it finally has.

However, I am pretty disappointed with the stuff I have received in this box and last month's box. I didn't write a post about what I got in my April Birchbox, because I forgot to take pictures of what was inside, but it did contain an eyeliner, a nail polish, a hair softner, BB cream, and some granola. It wasn't horrible, there was quite a few things I have used in last month's box that I really did end up liking. This box however contained nothing I was interested in.

First thing I got was the CoTZ facial sunscreen in natural tone and SPF 40. I do understand why they would have included this in this month's box, because of the fact that it is getting warmer out, and you need to protect your skin, especially your face, from the harmful sun rays. But, I was not impressed. I have many face mostuirzers and even some foundations that have an SPF to it, and normally if I plan on being outside all day I don't put any makeup on and use only sunscreen in the highest SPF I can find. So this wasn't all that great.

Next, I got the Number 4 High Performance Hair Care Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner. It is a sulfate-free, botanical-rich cleanser that is supposed to give you voluminous hair. Now I love volumizing shampoos as much as the next person, I am always looking for something to give me more height to my hair. But really? The shampoo comes in a travel size bottle, which I'm okay with, but the conditioner comes in a foil packet! Why?! Is it really that hard to give us another travel sized bottle? I don't know about you but I like using the same conditioner that correlates with my shampoo. I don't know why, but I do, and this foil packet is a one time thing, and I can get at least 5 uses out of the travel sized bottle.

Next, I got the Whish Shave Crave Shaving Cream in Acai Grapefruit. This is a very small bottle for a sample, in my opinion. But the packaging is cute and it does smell really nice. I haven't tried it yet, but it's one of the better things I got this month.

Then I got SmartyPants All-in-One Gummy Vitamins for Adults. I was fine with granola last month, I actually really liked it but vitamins, really? C'mon! Not only that but there were only two in the package! I don't understand why I got this. I was so utterly disappointed by this the most. I'm sorry but I don't want to sample vitamins. I already take my multi-vitamins every morning, and to me a vitamin is a vitamin, I'm not picky! This was also the only thing I sampled so far, and they didn't even taste good. Yeah, not happy at all.

Lastly, and probably the only thing I am excited to try is the LAQA & Co. Sheer Lip Lube Pencil in Purple. This is a stick lip color and it's supposed to be very smooth and very glossy. I do like my purple colors too, I this was the only saving grace for this month's box. The packaging of this was also really nice. I haven't swatched this color on yet, so hopefully it is as nice as it seems.

As you can probably tell I am very upset with this box. It's just not what I was hoping for. I do not feel like I got my $10 worth in my Birchbox. They need to step up their game and send a little more. Honestly if I got more makeup and less hair care products I'd be happy. I signed up for this subscription to try out products I normally wouldn't have. And yeah I wouldn't have tried this products because its not worth it. Hopefully next month will be better, but if not it seems like I'll be hoping on the Ipsy bandwagon soon enough.

Thanks for reading,

Say Goodbye to Cabin Fever!

I hope everyone had a good weekend and a fantastic Easter! I sure did! The weather here was beyond perfect! It was so nice to finally be able to go outside without a jacket on and not be freezing. I have spent this whole weekend outside enjoying the sun and family.

Now since Easter has come and gone, I feel like spring has officially started. And with the weather that we have been having I couldn't be more excited for summer to come. But now that spring is here, I have realized how unhealthy my diet and my body has gotten because of this winter.

If you don't know, I live in Illinois near Chicago, and we have had one of the WORST winters in forever. We had what they called a "Polar Vortex" which brought in insanely cold temperatures. Cold as in Antarctica had warmer days then we did. So honestly I have thrown out any work outs or healthy eating habits that I was so used to. I can speak for many people in saying that this winter made us extremely lazy. It was torture going grocery shopping, so you would buy the bare minimal (which mostly consisted of chips and junk in my case), just so that you didn't have to stay out too long loading and unloading your car. Plus, our cars didn't work some days to go out and get descent food, so yes Ramen Noodles was a usual this winter.

Also, I have had a very rough time this winter with family issues. I was in and out of the hospital, visiting, practically everyday every second I could. There were times that I stayed at the hospital from the time visiting hours started to well after they were over. This made my diet horrible. I had a lot of fast food. And when I say a lot I mean McDonalds everyday sometimes even twice a day (can you say yuck!?). Plus, if you don't know, hospital food is EXPENSIVE! So cheap and gross were my only option.

I have also realized that getting back into my good habits is actually really hard! Now, I have never liked going to the gym. But I forced myself to. However, I just can't go for the life of me anymore. I am far too busy to drive 20 minutes to my gym. Also, cutting back my soda intake is the worst. I think I formed an addiction. I tried to quit a few weeks back, but I was getting the most insane migraines from caffeine withdrawals! So I gave myself quite a challenge now by trying to get back into my old ways.

But I do think I came up with a good plan that will eventually lead me on the right track. I just got to stick to it!

Now, I'm not a person who needs to go on a diet. I have an extremely fast metabolism. But I do like to be healthy. Which everyone should. You have only one body and this body is stuck with you for the rest of your life. Also, what you eat will effect what your kids eat too (even if you don't have kids now). It is extremely important to have a good healthy diet, and some sort of physical activity.

Now, I have already decided the gym isn't for me anymore. Also, I was diagnosed with a horribly pinched nerve in my neck a few weeks ago, which means no heavy lifting. So the gym is not an option. What I am doing though is yoga! I also jog outside. There's tons of apps that will monitor how fair you run and will record it for you. Plus I love being able to see the scenary instead of just running on a treadmill in one spot. (Make it an adventure!)

I was doing yoga a couple months back and alternating between that and going to the gym. And I loved it. So I decided to get back on that. There are many different types of yoga you can do. And guess what? You don't have to go anywhere. Which makes it very good for me. I have a yoga mat and I use the Yoga Studio app on my IPhone to download classes that they go through with you step by step. Also, YouTube is a great place to find videos if you are just starting out to help you nail down the basics. The best thing about yoga is you can suck! You do not have to be a health nut to do yoga. If you feel your muscles stretching you're doing it right. You don't have to bend and flex as much as they do, you go at the pace and stances you are comfortable with.

I also am coaching a U-12 soccer team. So that means I am coaching a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds, and I want to give them the tools to live a healthy lifestyle too. So yes, I run and stretch and play with them. I think it is very important to do what you are telling your kids to do.

Now on to my diet. This is the hardest. Cutting out junk food and sweets will be hard. But it is possible. I plan on going to Trader Joes and buying some healthier alternatives to satisfy my cravings. And I will make sure to pack a water bottle with me everyday for work/school so I am not as tempted to reach for the soda. 

Trying to be healthy is hard, but don't make it stressful. Remember, if you slip it's okay. Life does get in the way and being healthy sometimes isn't possible everyday. But don't make that an excuse. Try your hardest and don't give up. You have one life to live, why not make it a good one? Focus on the good and not the bad and you will reach you're goal.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed.
Stay tuned. Hugs and kisses!
<3