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!  

Out 'n About Summer Look

                              

Now that summer is here and school is out many people are spending their time having fun outside. Now the only downside about being outside in the hot air is that it will melt off your makeup! It's currently 84 F here in Chicago and it is still climbing and I will be out all day for a soccer game, so I want to put on makeup but I also don't want so much that my face is going to sweat it all off and look disgusting by the end of the day.

Foundation

Now I'm not going to start out with putting my whole foundation routine on. Instead, I will be using my Tarte Amazonian Clay Foundation and that's about it. If your under eye circles are purple or you want to get rid of unwanted color you can use a bit of your favorite concealer to hide them, but today I do not feel the need to. The great thing about this foundation is that it has SPF built in, and that is crucial for summer. You want to make sure you at least have some sort of SPF on your face, ears, and shoulders (that's at least, but you always want SPF everywhere that your skin is exposed) to prevent yourself from burning or even worse.

After I applied my foundation I took my Rimmel Stay Matte Powder and with my Real Techniques Powder brush I pressed that into my skin. You want to make sure that you are pressing the powder into your skin because this way it will prevent the foundation from moving and making you more oily. 

Eyebrows

Next I am going to go in with my Anastasia Brow Wiz pencil and just fill in my eyebrows. This is totally optional, I have very sparse eyebrows and I just want to fill them in so they aren't so plain looking, but if you don't want to that's totally up to you! You should keep in mind though that the sweat built up on your forehead will tend to move around the color and it could turn ugly. Then after I do that I'm just going to go in and set it Maybelline Great Lash Mascara in clear so it will be less likely to move on me.

If you don't want to fill in your brows but you do want to add some color to enhance them I recommend Benefit's Gimme Brow, it will make your eyebrows seem fuller without much.

Eyes

 After doing my eyebrows and setting them, I put on my ELF eyeshadow primer. Normally I wouldn't wear eyeshadow to go out in the hot air, but today I was feeling it. So I stayed as neutral and minimal as possible. All my shades came from the Urban Decay Naked palette.

I took the color Sin and pressed that all over my eyelid. 

Then taking a blending brush I took Smog and lightly brushed it into my crease using windshield wiper motions. You want to make sure that it is completely blended in so it doesn't look smokey or too harsh.

Then with a small tapered brush I took Darkhorse and put that on my lower lash line to create some dimension because I am not using any eyeliner for this look. 

Now going back to Sin I took another smaller blending brush and put that color in my inner corner and toward the Darkhorse color I put in. I want to blend Sin into that to create a lighter to darker look so it looks more natural. 

To finish off the look I curled my lashes and used the new Maybelline Falsies Big Eyes. This is great because it has a brush for the upper lashes and another one for the lower lashes. It's great for giving you the appearance of longer lashes and it is very good at separating them too. 

Face

I didn't contour or use blush on my face. But what I did do was take my bronzer and put that on the ends of my cheeks closer to the ears to give me a little bit of color and dimension. 

To make everything stay in place in this heat I used the Urban Decay De Slick setting spray all over my face. 

Lips

I didn't want to use any lip gloss or stick so I just used my EOS lip balm to protect my lips from the sun and it smells amazing. 

I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know if there is any other tutorials or posts you want to see. 

Thanks for reading!

Golden Summer Look

                     

Products I Used

Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend! Today I am going out to a birthday party, so before I leave I deiced to show you all what I used and how to achieve this look. It is perfect for summer, and very easy to achieve. This look is also very versatile and can be used as a day or night look. I chose to use more of golden colors and glitter to give my eyes some pop today. Normally, I tend to stick to neutral based eye shadows, and even though these aren't crazy out there colors it still gives me a little bit of fun to work with. I think this look would be great on any eye color and skin tone, because it still has a natural base but will enhance any person's wonderful features, without stepping out of your comfort zone. 

Foundation and Concealer 

Today I started off using my Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Full Coverage Foundation with SPF 15 in the color Light Sand, because it is bright and sunny outside. I put small dabs all over my face using my fingers and then blended it all together using my Flat Top Foundation Brush by Crown Brush. I normally don't use a foundation brush when I am in a hurry, but today I had plenty of time to do my makeup so I wanted that clean airbrushed finish that this brush gives you. 

Then I took this 15 Color Camouflage Concealer Palette that I got off of TopHatter, but you can find on eBay for a relatively cheap prices. I used the yellow shade (second row from left, very top) to conceal my under eyes and make them appear lighter. Then I used the shade on the right of that color to go over any redness or blemishes. I used my Stippling Brush from Real Techniques to blend the concealer into my foundation. 

Powder and Bronzer

After I put on my foundation and concealer I went in with my NYX Stay Matte But Not Flat Powder Foundation in the color 02 Nude and my Powder Brush from Real Techniques to set my foundation to make sure that it doesn't move throughout the day. I really like this powder because it doesn't leave you feeling cakey and it is a great price for a powder. 

After I set my foundation I always go in with bronzer and contour my face. I start out using my Angled Brush from Crown Brush and take my Wet 'n Wild Bronzer in the shade 739 Ticket to Brazil and go in and contour the hollows of my cheeks, my nose, my forehead down to my temples, and my jaw line. Using just the Angled Brush doesn't blend in the bronzer very well so I go in again with my Real Techniques Powder Brush and blend everything out so there is absolutely no harsh lines. I have not seen this bronzer in stores for a long time, so I am pretty sure it is discontinued, I have had this bronzer forever and I just recently hit pan on it. 

Brows

After I get done putting on my foundation and powders I go ahead and do my eyebrows. I use the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in the color Medium Brown and I just go over the natural shape of my eyebrows and bring out the end so that my eyebrows are a little longer. I start in the middle of my eyebrows and then go in using lighter and gentler strokes toward the front of them. You want your eyebrows to transition lighter to darker. Lighter being in the front. I do this to fill in the sparse hairs in my brows and to make them longer because my eyebrows are pretty short. I love this brow pencil, it glides on very nicely and it is thin enough to not make any mistakes. I then use the spooly brush at the end of my pencil to go in and blend any harsh lines there could have been. I then go in with Maybelline Great Lash in the color Clear to just set my eyebrows in place. 

Eyes

Today, since I wanted the colors to really stand out, I used Rimmel  London's Scandal Eyes Eyeshadow Stick in the color 002 BulletProof Beige, instead of a primer. This gave my eyeshadow a nice base to stick to and since it was gold it made the color even brighter. I just rubbed this crayon all over the top of my eyelid and lined my bottom eyelid with it as well. 

I first went in with Smog from the Urban Decay Naked Palette with my Thin Eyeshadow Brush from Crown Brush and put that only on the outer quarter of my eye.

Then taking Half Baked from the Urban Decay Naked Palette and my Sonia Kashuk Eyeshadow Brush I dabbed this color careful on top of my lid and going slightly over the Smog I put on earlier so it transitioned from lighter to darker. You want to use dabbing motions when using glitter to prevent fall out. 

Then taking my Soft Blending Brush that I got from Target I took a little of that Smog color and when in my crease with it using windshield wiper motions. 

Having Smog on my crease made it really smokey, and since this was a daytime party I wanted my look to be more toned down. So I took my Angled Blending Brush from Crown Brush and took  Bootycall from Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette and went over the edges of smog that was in my crease to soften the color.

Now to make the eye look more brighter I took my Small Tapered Eyeshadow Brush from Crown Brush and I took Virgin from the Urban Decay Naked Palette and placed that on my brow bone and the inner tear duct of my eye.

Then going in with that same Tapered Brush I took more of Half Baked and lined my lower eyelid with it where I put the eyeshadow crayon earlier. 

I used my E.L.F Liquid Liner in Black to line my upper eyelid and winged it out. 

To finish off the eyes I curled my eyelashes and then went in with my L'Oreal Extra Volume Collagen Mascara. 

Blush 

To complete the look I used Maybelline Fit Me Blush in Medium Coral to just give a little bit of color to my cheeks. I didn't want to use anything pink or red because I really wanted my eyes to have the most attention when it came to color. So I just lightly put this on the apples of my cheeks. 

Reader's Review | Divergent

Okay so I know I'm late on the bandwagon, but who cares! I just finished reading Divergent by Veronica Roth last night and let me tell you it was intense. This review may have some spoilers so you are warned. Skip the part where I start out talking about the characters if you don't want to get spoiled ; ).

If you don't already know Divergent is one of the most popular books amongst the teens now a days and they already have a movie out. I haven't seen the movie yet because I really wanted to have the story line behind me when I go in it. 

This book closely resembled to Hunger Games, which I loved, but also has very different points. Both books take place in the future and has an uprising against the government story line. However, I felt Divergent was more intense and easier to relate to which made it scary. 

I loved the book! There's no other way of saying it. It was written perfectly and it just kept sucking you in. It was so hard to put it down. I also loved that there was a romantic plot in it as well. Who doesn't love romance when you know one of them can easily be killed off any second? I know I do. 

There is suspense in every page you read. You never know what is going to end up happening. Towards the end of the book I was completely shocked with what happened and now I'm dying to find out what continues. 

As for the characters, they are amazing. I feel like they all are my friends. Tris, the main character, is probably almost as cool as Katniss (I'm sorry but Katniss will always be the best and most fierce). But Tris is tough. She went through a lot during her initiation and still ended up overpowering everyone. Well it also helps that she is Divergent, so she can't be easily taken down by people's attempts. Then there's Four. He is also Divergent and the love interest of Tris., and to anyone who reads the book. He is the definition of the perfect guy! Strong, tough, smart, and very caring and protective. I also love that he has an interesting back story. It makes him way more human and relatable. 

Now I don't want to give away too much, but if you've read Hunger Games and enjoyed it this is definitely a must read. Also if you like plots that are dark but still romantic, seriously give this a go. It absorbs you and holds on to you til the end. I'm starting the second book in the series Insurgent tonight, so check back soon for another review. 

Thanks for reading! 

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,