July Favorites

Hey everyone! I thought I'd share some of the things that I've been loving in the month of July!

1.) Philosophy Shampoo, Shower Gel, and Bubble Bath in -- Sugary Cinnamon Icing

This is actually pretty random, seeing as how I got this 3-1 guy two years ago during Christmas time in one of those cute sets that Philosophy always has. But during the summer my skin goes crazy. I don't know what it is. It's like I'm allergic to the sun. I get these red little bumps after any heat, sun exposure, or sweating that hurt, burn, itch, and even bleed. I've tried everything it seems, ointment, sunscreen, super thick, non-scented body washes and thick lotions. But nothing honestly works besides time. It eventually goes away on its own, usually only to show up on a different part of my body (shins, thighs, back of my legs, neck, under my bust, forearms, lower back, and armpits are all the usual places). A few weeks ago I was taking a shower and noticed the little Philosphy bottle. Probably because I've been craving cinnamon rolls like CRAZY lately, I decided use this. After my shower, I noticed my skin softer than ever. And guess what? My red little rashes went away! And have been gone ever since I started using this.

To be honest, I love Philosophy's shower gels, but usually, they are just too sweet for me (I'm a floral, Bath and Body Works sorta girl). But this has converted me. The other day I tried using a Victoria's Secret shower gel, and it just didn't even come close to comparing. So since I'm about to run out, I definitely have my eye on the Caramel Apple scent or the I Love Candy Corn kind. Fall scents are definitely my favorite!

2.) MAC 168 Large Angled Contour Brush

So earlier this month I decided to take the plunge and buy my first MAC face brush. It cost $34, but because I had heard nothing but rave reviews of it on Youtube, I figured I had to try it (especially since I could definitely already notice the quality of my MAC 239 and 217). I bought it with the intent to use it for my blush, and so far it's been working great! Especially compared to my ELF brush that I had been using previously (although I must say that brush is a keeper too, especially if you are on a budget). I love the natural fibers, the effortless application, as well as the overall versatility of this brush. As far as quality, it's probably a 4 stars out of 5 stars. I've had it shed about maybe 6 or 7 hairs (not too bad) and it washes pretty well. The hair is soft. I think it makes my blush look really good as well.

3.) Target's Mossimo Boyfriend V-Neck Shirts with Pocket

I cannot say how much I love these shirts. First, only $8!! I have five of them (in black, gray, coral, light blue, and green) and have hopes of getting more. They are the perfect summer t-shirt, especially when it's hot and miserable, but you still want to look cute. Plus, I think they will be perfect for the fall and winter for layer under cute little cardis. Seriously, if you haven't checked these out yet, you need to. They are my go-to fashion staples this summer.

4.) Nike Running Shorts (aka Norts)

So at first on Pinterest and TSM I didn't understand what the heck Norts were. And then when I finally found out that they are Nike shorts, I couldn't figure out the obsession sorority girls have with them. See, at my school here in Colorado, they aren't exactly a "thing." But with temperatures staying above 90 degrees for 13 days straight (not sure if that was record or not), there was nothing I wanted to were BUT my Norts. First, they have dots. And I LOVE dots. Second, they are cute. Third, they are so light and comfy and cool. Sometimes, I forget I'm wearing them and not my PJs (which ironically are shorts with polar bears on them, and I'm wearing them in July). If you are hesitant, just get them. If you aren't a fan (how could you not be, though?!), then you at least have cute work out attire. (Btw: mine came from Finish Line)

5.) OPI's Cajun Shrimp

Thanks to Kate from The Small Things Blog, I was introduced to my favorite summer nail polish (so far at least), earlier this month. I don't know why, but I think red looks super odd on my finger nails. I love red as a color, in fact it's tied for that honor (with yellow), but I think it just makes my fingers look like vampire fingers or something. But this red-orange-coral is perfect. It is so flattering on my baby hands and feet. I love it.

{Obviously it's the one on the right. But the other is Essie E Nuf is E Nuf...pretty much it's twin}

6.) Redken's Real Control Slim Supreme

Yet another favorite I found thanks to Kate! I'm pretty sure that I didn't even buy this in July, probably May, but I just have to talk about this hair product! I have poofy, kinda frizzy, thick, crazy hair. Seriously, my hair is just ridiculous. I feel like I have tried every product under the sun to make my hair manageable. And all have barely helped me. I liked my Morroccan Oil, but for some reason I just stopped using it. But this is one product I have used EVERY time I blow dry my hair. That's saying a lot for me. It makes it smooth, soft, shiny, frizz-free, and straight. I love it. I cannot say how much it has helped my hair during these summer months.

7.) MAC Gently Off Eye & Lip Remover

Okay, so like mascara, I'm constantly on the search for the perfect makeup remover. I feel like I've tried everything at the drugstore. And nothing works. You'd like I'd just stop using waterproof mascara, but I'm not giving up. So when I saw that MAC had this remover, and that it had pretty good reviews, I had to try it, despite the $19 price tag. And so far, I'm in love. See, it gets off at least 70% of my mascara, while other waterproof makeup removers only take off like 40%. It doesn't burn at all. It's oily, but not bad in the least (trust me, one from Covergirl reminds me of whale blubber, or at least that's what I think whale blubber would be like). It's a little steep, in my opinion. So I'm not sure if I'll repurchase when I run out, but the good thing is that it's part of the Back to MAC recycling program.

8.) Revlon Brow Fantasy

A little while back, I talked about picking my Revlon Brow Fantasy at Walgreens. And just as I hoped, I love this. It's so handy because one side is a pencil and the other side is tinted gel. Definitely a must for my crazy brows (that need waxing but I'm too cheap and I don't know of any good places in my hometown).
So there you have it! Those were my favorites for July! What things did you enjoy during July?

Thanks for reading!

Daily Makeup Products

Wanna look inside my makeup bag? And at the products that I use daily that don't fit in it? Well then hopefully you like today's post!

First, this is my makeup bag. It's from Vera Bradley in the print Island Blooms, and I think it's so adorable. When I bought a lot of my MAC makeup I decided that I needed a really adorable makeup bag to hold it, one that doesn't ugly up whatever surface it sits on or drawer it lives in. Plus it kind of keeps me from blowing all my money on makeup, because I plan to make everything fit in there. It makes travel much easier, storage simpler, and finding an everyday look a lot faster.

So here is sorta of an overview of my makeup. I didn't put all my individual MAC eyeshadows because that will come here in a little bit. Here you see:

-My Naked Palette

-My Smashbox BB Cream (review to come soon)

-Garnier BB Cream (review also coming soon!)

-NARS blush in Orgasm

-MAC Skinfinish Natural

-Maybelline Falsies mascara

-L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes mascara

-MAC Technakohl Liner

-Wet N' Wild eyeshadow

-MAC paint pot in Painterly

-Urban Decay Primer Potion

-Revlon tweezers

-Sonia Kashuk "Perfectly Neutral" eyeshadow palette

First we'll start with my face products. I don't like heavy foundations or a huge long drawn-out routine. So I recently I've started using a BB cream (I've used the Garnier for a week or two and I've only used the Smashbox one day once so far), then I set it with my MAC Mineralize Skinfinish (I was matched to medium plus and it's perfect). I love this powder and can definitely reccommend it to everyone. It's fantastic. Then I just use my NARS Orgasm blush (which I have found to look really natural and pretty on me. A lot of people complain that it's too bright or shimmery, but I honestly don't think it's that way on me).

Soon I'll post a review of these two BB creams (I don't want to jinx it just yet, but I'm a fan so far of the Smashbox one).

For my eyeshadow primer I go back and forth between MAC's paint pot (I use Painterly) and Urban Decay's Primer Potion. I guess for some odd reason when I use MAC eyeshadow I use MAC and when I use my Naked palette I use my Primer Potion. But I actually have my eye on the NARS one so hopefully soon I can try that out soon.

These are other products that I use out on my eyes. The lash curler is from MAC and I love it so far! Then there is my MAC Technakohl liner in Graphblack. Seriously, I have no desire ever to try another liner. It glides on smoothly, doesn't budge at all, and creates such a pretty look. Plus, no sharpeners are involved! I've read and heard great things about Urban Decay's 24/7 liner, but I believe it's $5 more and I'm perfectly happy with this MAC liner.

Then I'm sure you see my two different kinds of mascara. I love to try out new mascara and these two are the newsest ones! I've been loving the L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes. I think it's my new number one. But I was super curious about the Maybelline Falsies so I'm enjoying that a lot right now. A girl can never have too many favorite mascaras, since they always seem to discontinue them. Both are in very black and waterproof.

I love eyeshadow and I have a pretty large selection (I'm sure it's actually tiny compared to a lot of people haha).

-Naked Palette: I thought I wouldn't like it as much as I do, honestly. My favorite colors are Sin, Buck, and Naked. However, there is still tons of exploring and playing around I need to do.

-My Wet N' Wild palette (or whatever you call the trio of colors haha) in "Walking on Eggshells." I love it. After using my MAC and UD shadows I thought that I could never stand the thought of using a drugstore (super cheap) brand, but this is amazing. Worth way more than $2.99. Check it out.

-Sonia Kashuk's "Perfectly Neutral": I love love love it. Absolutely beautiful and a great value. (pictured up close below). I learned about it from Kate from The Small Things Blog. Check out her tutorial because that's the look I use :)

-MAC eyeshadows: I'm personally not a fan of their palettes, I like the individual little pots instead.

Colors that I have include : Knight Divine (it's like a dark blue/black, I honestly haven't used it yet), Vex, Copperplate, Blanc Type, Satin Toupe, Ploof, and Expresso. I absolutely love using Vex, Copperplate, and Satin Toupe. They are so pretty! And they can be mix and matched together too!

These two prodcts don't fit in my makeup bag, but they are both things that I use every day (usually).

Left: MAC's Gently Off Eye and Lip Makeup Remover. A must in my book. I love it. Even gets waterproof makeup off.

Right: MAC's Brush Cleanser

My little brush collection. From left to right:

-Good Karma eyeshadow (came with my Naked Palette and I honestly have used it once)

-Sonia Kashuk small eye shader

-Bare Escentuals angled eyeshadow brush

-MAC 217

-Sonia Kashuk crease brush

-MAC 239

-ELF large eye shader

-ELF blush brush

-ELF complexion brush

Everyday, I always use my MAC 217 and 239, and all three ELF brushes. So the very low end of my brushes and the higher end. I have yet to find a better brush than my ELF large shader to do my brow highlight.

So that's my collection. Hopefully I'll have some reviews coming soon, some new products to talk about, and if anyone has any questions, just ask!

Much Needed Shopping Trip

So I've had my eye on a few things recently and today I decided to finally go get them. You know, sometimes nothing beats a good shopping trip. The sun shinning, walking around, and a nice Starbucks to go with it.

So I went to Target (my favorite store in the entire world) and picked up a few cheap essentials. I know after all that debate about Sigma vs. MAC vs. Sephora brushes I bought two ELF. By no means are they my final selection, but sometimes you just need to buy something to tide you over until you afford better. Plus, if they are good, they were only $3 each. And if they aren't, eh. It's only $6 total. But reviews online were pretty postive about the blush brush and the complexion brush, so we'll see.

While I'm discussing my love for Target (it is seriously up there in my top 10 loves because they constantly amaze me), I also decided to try out the Cos Bar cleansing towelettes. They're currently highlighting businesses from around the US and one of them is Cos Bar from Aspen. It was probably the packaging (loving leopard right now) and promise of a blueberry scent, but they were calling me. And for $5, you really can't argue. I'm loving my Garnier ones right now because they aren't overly oddly smelly and get off my mascara (best thing ever), but I'm halfway through them and wanted to try this. So excited to take off my makeup tonight!

The other half of my shopping trip was to the open air Promenade shoppes, which happen to have many of my favorite stores (Pottery Barn, Victoria Secret, Bath and Body Works, Express, Ulta, and Sephora).

Sephora is seriously another favorite of mine. Everything just calls me. Kinda like the Apple Store, everything is so shinny and sleek and beckoning me to sample new products. In the end, I walked out with what I wanted. NARS blush in the ever famous Orgasm and Sephora's ultra-smoothing primer.

I think I easily spent over an hour in Sephora playing with everything. I swatched the Naked Palettes on my arms, drooling over them (I know, I'm the last person to not own them), tried on every primer in the store (on my arm for some weird reason haha), and comparing all the different foundations and such.

But overall, I'm happy with the blush and the primer. I was seriously stuck for a little bit between Orgasm and Tarte's Amazonian Clay Blush. Ugh, that was such a hard decision!

How is a girl to choose?! After swatching them, trying to them on, trying to find something to sway me either way, I finally had to go with NARS, it is supposedly the best. Plus, it was what I went to Sephora for originally. But I will definitely have Tarte in mind for the future, because the texture of the blush was so cool. Soft, heavily pigmented, almost cream-like. But definitely solid.

I also found a way to manage to stop my the mall to go to Dillards to visit the MAC counter. I've been trying to figure out a good summer face look and finally the wonderful reviews of MAC's Mineralize Skinfinish Natural called me. It was cheaper than the Makeup Forever, Benefit, Bare Escentuals, and Laura Mercier ones I was looking at. And the reviews were promising me something that I wanted: a light, natural, finished look. I was color matched to medium plus and I can't wait to try it.

Overall, I think today was a successful shopping day. My account took a beating, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet I guess in the sake of investing in good products (hopefully). I can't wai to try them all and see how they work for me. This will be my first high quality face routine (before I just dabbled with Covergirl and other drugstore brands). Hopefully they live up to the hype!