November 2014 favorites & announcement!

I simply cannot believe today is the last day of November. I say this every year but I truly feel like this year sped by. Anyways with tomorrow being December and all I'd like to announce something pretty exciting! I will be doing Blogmas again this year! Last year I did Blogmas and posted every day of December (I missed Christmas day, oops!). I had so much fun with it that I knew I wanted to do it again! I believe Blogmas is more of just a blog post a day till Christmas but I like to go all the way to the end of the month. I don't see many people doing it, but I find it great motivation to post more. I'm going to try my hardest to get a post up every day for you and I've got some super exciting posts in mind! Feel free to check out my Blogmas posts from last year! A lot has changed since then!

Anyways, on with my favorites!

Garnier Fructis Texture Tease
This was a new hair product I tried this month. It works really well for teasing my hair on days I don't want to use dry shampoo.

Lush Tea Tree Water
I've mentioned this several times this month since I ran out. I realized how much I loved it!

L'Oreal Collection PRIVEE Doutzen's Nude polish
 The polish is the perfect mauve nude shade and it lasted and insane amount of time considering my nails usually chip in 1 day!

Maybelline Brow Drama
I fell in love with this product! It makes my mornings so much easier.

Elf cream eyeliner (coffee)
This eyeliner looks great with my brown eyes and it's not too harsh which I love!

NYX gloss (LA LA)
This shade of pink is gorgeous and goes great with neutral eyes! NYX glosses smell great too!

Lancome Hypnose Drama Mascara
ugh! So sad to say I'm nearly out of this. It's a bit to pricey to repurchased but I may have to splurge.

Prestige Soft Blend Khol Eyeliner (Lagoon)
I've mentioned this a lot too! it's a beautiful teal shade and lasts a long time too.

Castor Oil
OOOH this product is nice! It made my lashes noticeably longer within a week! I've got a post on it coming up soon ;)

I realize I had already talked about most of these products already but why not mention them again!

I went back to my favorite book series ever to refresh my memory a bit! I must say I fell in love again and am unhealthily excited for the Insurgent movie. I may have watched Divergent once. or twice. who's really counting...

Those are all of my favorites for the month! See you tomorrow for Blogmas!

November empties 2014

It's that time of the month again... Empties time! I don't have too many products to show you from November. Surprisingly I didn't finish makeup wipes this month for once! Anyways, the months of these year have been flying by and I must say, while I'm very excited for December, I'm sad to see them go! I hope you enjoy and have a great last few days of November!

Secret Deodorant: Paris

I really love the scent of this deodorant and I've already repurchased it. It's the longest lasting deodorant I've ever tried.

Dove Dry Shampoo

Nothing much to say about this that I haven't already said. I love this stuff!

Nivea Mattifying Day Cream 

I did enjoy this while it lasted and I can see myself going back to it. 

TRESemme Heat Tamer Spray

I finished this a while ago and went to use it recently to find it was empty. I have a hard time reviewing thermal protectors since I can't really tell when they work. 

Lush Tea Tree Water

 I love this toner! It works so well and keeps my acne at bay. I'm lost without it.

Vaseline

I already repurchase another one of these. It's the perfect size and much easier to dispense.

I hope you have an amazing day, enjoy the weekend!

Makeup tips for brown eyes

I find it's harder to find colors that look with brown eyes than with blue eyes. Maybe I'm just biased, but I feel like blue eyes look good with anything! I'm sure there's struggles with any eye colors so I thought I'd share what shades I find look best with brown eyes since I have brown eyes. I most likely won't do one of these for blue eyes since I don't have any experience with that but I hope your enjoy this one!

Neutral & metallic shadows

I know I mention this all the time, but I truly love the Naked 2 palette! it goes so well with my brown  eyes and can create natural and dramatic looks.

Deep plum shades

Deep plum shadows and liners look great with brown eyes! It's a great way to add a pop of color without clashing.

Gold shadows

Gold shades also look great with brown eyes. Half Baked from Urban Decay is a great, intense gold.

Copper shadows

Copper shadows look great especially when mixed with gold shadows. They compliment brown eyes perfectly!

Navy or cobalt liner

I love wearing navy liner from my upper lash line down to my lower lash line. It's another way to incorporate color. 

White liner

White liner not only makes your eyes look bigger but it also goes great with any eye color.

Those are my favorite tips for making my eye pop! Thanks for taking the time to read! :)

DIY Santa's beard advent calendar

I feel like the excitement leading up to Christmas is the best part above it. Advent calendars are a fun way to countdown the days till Christmas. I saw many neat ideas while searching Pinterest and this one is one of my favorites! I obviously cannot take any credit for the idea as I found it on Pinterest. However the link I followed led to nothing so I decided to create my own tutorial. Afterwords I ended up finding the site this idea I believe originated from. Here's the original pin that I had found. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

The main things you'll need for this are some white card stock, black and red markers, scissors, a pencil, a ruler and some glue as well!

I decided on creating to very top of his beard, 2 inches wide.

Down from that, draw the beard shape joining at the bottom with a 1 inch wide horizontal line. It's almost like the shape of a vase.

Cut out the shape, don't worry about the pencil lines since you can erase them or work of the other side.

 Since the countdown is 24 days until Christmas, starting December 1st, measure 24 cm from top to bottom and make each line 1 cm tall.

Draw each horizontal line using a ruler.

Go over the lines with a thin sharpie so they stand out a bit more. Don't forget to add the numbers starting with 1 at the top and 24 at the bottom!

Trace the top to create his face, and round the top a bit as well. 

Cut out a triangle, a small circle, and a long oval to create the Santa hat.

 

Paint or draw a small, horizontal oval on the center of the face.

 Add some eyes to the face, color the triangle red, cut out a mustache as well as a red nose and your good!

Glue it all together and you've got you're Santa Claus advent calender. Cut of a strip each day to countdown to Christmas!

I really like the way this turned out! It's so cute and a great idea!

Lip balm hoarder: Lip balm collection

I would definitely say lip balm is my favorite beauty product. I apply it at least 10 times a day and buy it way too often! As you can tell, Nivea is probably my favorite brand but I love trying a ton of new brands. I keep it in my purse, by my bed, at my vanity, everywhere! Anyways this is a collection of all of the lip balms I could find in my house!

I've got 6 Nivea stick lip balms. I don't like the sun balm, it makes my lips look a little too white and pale. My favorite lip balm of all time is the essential one! I also really like their Lip Smoothie, it's slightly tinted.

I have a coupled of eos balms, I used to have way more but naturally,  finished them. I prefer the coconut milk visibly smooth one to the sweet mint but overall eos isn't my favorite.

More Nivea balms, I have all four lip butter and I love them all! The original one is my favorite!

I don't really like either of these since they're both extremely thick and sticky. And the carmex one has an odd scent that doesn't appeal to me. 

The lemon lip cream is from Bath and Body Works however I don't use it since it separated or something and now is very thin like a liquid. I also haven't really used the vitamin e lip therapy I purchased at Daiso. 

Lastly I've got a vanilla lip smacker and a clear Baby Lips. I have WAY more Baby Lips but I thought I'd only share the colorless one.

Those are all of my lip balms! I definitely used to have more but I've cut down a bit. Lip balm will always have a special place in my heart! haha, bye now!

Beauty tip: for softer feet

My feet tend to become very dry during the colder months and this tip always works to restore them! I thought I'd start doing beauty tips a bit more often on my blog since I'm always searching for quick, new tips to try out. This tip is perfect to kick it off since it's starting to get colder. These will just be super quick, little posts sharing a new tip!

If you find your feet are very dry or if you'd just like to do a little spa night this tip is perfect! You can exfoliate your feet if you'd like then apply a thick lotion or body butter all over your feet, throw on some socks and sleep on it! In the morning when you remove your socks, your feet should be super smooth!

Thanks for reading, as always! =)

Prestige Liquid Eyeliner ~ Review

I recently reviewed the Prestige pencil liner, and when I purchased that, I also picked up the liquid liner in FAME. It's a very tiny bottle containing 0.1 oz or 3ml. I found this on clearance for around $2 when the regular price is $8.99. 

It's very easy to apply and has a very typical sponge tip. The color is very opaque and glides on easily. It's very metallic and has a beautiful color. It really makes your eyes pop. It's a bit less dramatic than black eyeliner, however it is still noticeable. It lasted all day yet was easy to remove. The line was still precise and it had not smudged by the end of the day. 

I really like this liner and would love to try more colors!

Overall...

Color payoff: 10/10

Lasting power: 10/10
Price: 8/10 Not bad, especially with a sale! A little pricey when full price.

Would I repurchase?: Yea!
Would I recommend?: Yes!

Overall: 9/10

I hope you enjoyed & that this was helpful in some way!

Mid-month fashion & beauty haul!

Hauls are one of my favorite types of posts! I love previewing all of the new products I've got ready to review! I will be reviewing or featuring in a post most, if not all, of the products in this haul! I'd been doing a bit of shopping a bit, and accumulating stuff, as you do, so I figured I'd share!

I picked up a few hair products since I've been quite into hair lately! The Dove dry shampoo will be no surprise considering this is my favorite dry shampoo! I came across a Garnier Fructis sale and figured I'd grab a couple of things. These were each $3. I picked up the new Texture Tease and I love it for teasing my hair! I also bought their leave-in-conditoner. I love leave in cream for wet hair, they help detangle.

I was also in need of some skincare products. I finally found the Lush Tea Tree Water in stock. I began to break out after I ran out of it. I heard castor oil helps with lash growth so I thought I'd give it a try. I also tried a new night cream that I reviewed in my last post!

Moving on to some more exciting stuff, I picked up this set of limited edition Baby Lips from Walmart for $7! There are two shades of red and they're gorgeous. I also got a new brow gel from elf which I can't remember if I showed in my last haul. I needed a new beauty sponge so I picked one up from Winners for more affordable.

I got this unique, mustard-colored sweater from H&M for only $12.95! It's fairly soft and oversized.

I have trouble wearing leggings since they never fit right so I tried out some new pairs from Winners. The purple pair is by 90 degree by reflex and the grey pair by RBX. They were each $25!

Lastly I got the new Taylor Swift CD (love it!) And a knit scarf from H&M.

That's about it! Have a great day :)

Nivea Nourishing Night Care ~ Review

I recently mentioned in my prepare for Winter post that I had switched my face cream for a night cream. I was wanting something a bit thicker to help with my dry skin in the Winter. I usually gravitate to Nivea for my skincare since I've never been disappointed. You can find this at the drugstore for less than $10.

 It is definitely a lot thicker than my usual face cream. It similar to lotion vs body butter. it's easily applied however I feel like it lays on top of the skin feeling a bit sticky for quite a while before it sinks in.

 The packaging is really nice and sleek. I love the navy although appearance is irrelevant to the quality!

I do like this cream and feel like my skin is more hydrated with less dry patches. However I don't like how long it takes to absorb. 

Overall

Price: 8/10

Packaging: 9/10

Moisture: 8.5/10

Would I repurchase?: Possibly

Would I recommend?: If you're looking for an affordable thicker, night cream, yes!

Overall: 8/10

I hope this was helpful!

Prestige Soft Blend Khol Eyeliner ~ Review

I shared this in a haul a while back and I thought it was about time I reviewed it! Whenever I wear this eyeliner I get compliments on it! I really wish my eyes were blue, but since they're brown, I like to wear blue eyeliner on occasion. I found this at the drugstore on sale for $2! I believe the full price is around $8 so that was a steal!

Since it's a soft blend khol eyeliner, I expected that it would be similar to the Rimmel Scandal eyes liners. However it was actually in a typical pencil form!

It's in the shade LAGOON which is a beautiful, medium metallic blue. It is extremely creamy and blend easily just as the name says. 

On the other end is a smudger which I don't find myself using too often. I enjoy putting this on as winged eyeliner or even on the waterline. It adds the perfect pop of color to a neutral eye!

It wears fairly well and the color was still quite vibrant by the end of the day.

OVERALL:

Price: sale: 10/10 regular: 6/10 A bit pricey

Lasting power: 9/10

Color payoff: 9/10

Blend ability: 8/10

Would I repurchase?: I have a lot of liners so probably not
Would I recommend?: Yeah!

Overall: 9/10

I haven't fallen in love with this liner but I can definitely see myself reaching for it often.

That's all, enjoy the weekend!

Prepare for Winter

I may be the only one, but where I am it looks like the middle of Winter! I can't say I like it, in fact I really wish it was still fall! I'm not quite ready to hop into Winter/Christmas posts so I thought I'd share some ideas to prepare for Winter. 

1. Hydrate! Drink lots of water to hydrate yourself & your skin. You don't want to be dehydrated in the Winter!

2. Hydrate your skin! Stock up on moisturizers! I've already switched to a heavier night cream for my face and I've been applying my favorite Vaseline cocoa butter lotion! my skin gets super dry in the winter and this helps a ton.

3. Get your fix of sweaters & scarves! Sweaters & scarves will be your best friend in the Winter. Layering is perfect in case you get too hot.

4. Get rid of those sandals & tanks! Your winter boots are gonna need a lot of space so clear some by moving your sandals somewhere else. Same goes for your clothes!

5. Darken your look! Play around with darker makeup looks & darker fashion. Add a bit of deep brown to your crease & throw on a navy sweater! This really gets me in the mood for the colder months.

Those are my 5 tips for getting ready for Winter! What are yours?

Perfect party essentials ~ Night out clutch

You always need a clutch or bag on your night out to carry all of your essentials. Whenever I pack my purse, I never know what to put in it. Here are some essentials for going out!

1. FACE POWDER to reduce shine

2. LOTION for dry hands

3. HAIR BRUSH & MIRROR for tangles & touch-ups

3. HAIR TIES for getting it out of your face

4. NAIL FILE for that pesky hang nail

5. PERFUME to smell great all night

6. BOBBY PINS for the fly aways

7. LIP COLOR to touch up

8. STAIN REMOVER for that 1 mishap

If you can fit it, I highly suggest bringing along a minimergency kit! It has everything from a sewing kit to polish remover. Since the little case is too boxy, I usually  just take everything out and slip it into my clutch.

These would work from Prom, parties and even just dinner!

Freeman Facial Enzyme Mask Pineapple ~ Review

I was looking through all of my products looking for something to review, I realized I had never reviewed this Freeman face mask before! I've had this mask for a while now and can't believe I've never touched on it. I found mine at Walmart for most likely less than $5. I'd love to try other kinds so leave your suggestions, I'd love to hear it!

This face mask smells so good! I love absolutely anything pineapple, it's one of my favorite scents! This mask is an exfoliating mask and has tiny little exfoliating beads throughout the gel textured mask. It's almost like jelly! It blends into the skin very nicely and is almost clear. You leave it on for 5-10 minutes then rinse. It doesn't really harden.

  

It leaves my skin feeling very soft, however I haven't noticed any drastic changes in my skin. It is nice for the odd pamper night as it smells so good! I love applying it prior to my shower and rinsing it off just before I hop out. I would repurchase this mask, possibly in a different scent just to try. I would also recommend to anyone who has fairly normal skin.

By the way! It just snowed here so I took advantage of the fresh snow and ventured out in to the freezing weather to take a few pics! Man, I wish I was in California! :)

That's about it! Hope you're enjoying November!