December.29.2012: New Years Eye Makeup

Left: Eye primed with Urban Decay Primer Potion.
* bought on eBay for $10.85

Right: Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette used half-baked and blackout.
* bought on Urban Decay for $50





Added Prestige Eyeshadow in "Golden Retriever" over the half backed covered eyeshadow to make it a little more of a warmer gold.
*bought at Ulta for $3.99







Added Almay Liquid Eyeliner in "Black Noir" to my top lid
* Target for $6.44

Maybelline Volum'Express Falsies mascara to my lashes
* Target for $5.94



Added Gold Cosmetic Grade Glitter over the gold eyeshadow. patted a little vaseline on my lid and then used my finger to pat on the gold glitter. 
*bought gold glitter on ebay for super cheap

Probably took me about 15 mintues or less to apply. Hope this helps or inspires you with your own makeup look :) and have a great new years!

December.29.2012: New Years Gear

Hey Everyone! So with New Years only a couple days away I thought I would make a post that might inspire your own new years ensemble. 
If anyone has any funny or cute new years stories I would love to read them so please comment below!

Multi Colored Gold Sequin Free People Dress

LargoDrive.com for ($25.00)

Black Garter Belt
I know from garter belts might be a little trashy but new years is the perfect opportunity for scandalous wear ;) By combining a garter belts with a short dress it leaves room for just a little bit of the garter belt to show. I bought my garter belts at:

American Apparel ($25)
....and bought my stockings at H&M for no more than $10.

Black Oxford Shoes

By wearing a pair of oxfords the look  changes from girlie to a more indie and laid back style.

Last New Years Story: I'm hoping that this new years turns out a bit better than last time. Besides, going to a party that night I also got puked on by one of my friends. So needless to say the bar is set pretty low for new years this year.

I'll also be posting a cool makeup look soon so stay tuned!

December.27.2012: Best Eyebrow Tweezers!

Trim Slat/Point Tip Tweezer:
I have only good things to say about this product. I would say its definitely one of my HG (holy grail) products.I have had this tweezer for a couple years now and it's still just as effective as the day I bought it! 
What makes this tweezer so exceptional is that it pulls the hair out by the root 95% of the time.I plucked my eyebrows a second ago and every hair came out at the bulb (hair root). 

You can tell that you've pulled a hair out by the root when you see a little black sticky dot at the end of the hair follicle you pulled out.It's called the bulb. It's the bulb that allows the hair to grow. By pulling hair out at the bulb ensures that the hair wont grow back for a while, as a new bulb needs to form. 

*I pluck my eyebrows maybe once a month, twice if I want to always have a polished look.

Purchase:
Target-->http://www.target.com/p/trim-slant-point-tip-tweezers/-/A-11061175#prodSlot=medium_1_4&term=tweezers
CVS-->http://www.cvs.com/shop/product-detail/Trim-SlantPoint-Tip-Tweezers?skuId=727211

Before and After

***I know it's a little hard to tell but all of the hairs that I wanted gone are nowhere to be seen literally nothing is left behind cause I got them by the root every everytime

December.26.2012: Sonia Kashuk Hidden Agenda Concealer Palette Review

Why I like it:

The main reason I like this palette is because it contains a green-toned neutralizer. The neutralizer helps cover up any redness or red-marks from blemishes on your face.It does this by being the opposing color to red on the color wheel. So green cancels out red basically. This really came in handy last week when I had red cystic acne on my face. I found that the product also works well with covering dry skin because its cream based. 
Cons:  
What I didn't like about this palette was the two other cream concealers that came with it. With it being winter time my skin has become quite fair so both concealers did a terrible job blending with my skin. The lighter concealer appears very yellow while the darker cream concealer shows up very orange; both matching my skin horribly. 

*Notice how red and green are
across from each other. 

Application:
I use my finger to gently pat on the neutralizer on my problem areas and blend it into my skin. Because it still looks pretty green I then cover my face with my liquid foundation (Almay Clear Complexion liquid foundation in Bluff 200). I usually don't prefer to use liquid foundation but I'm having a bad face week so I needed something with medium to full coverage. 
Under-Eye Coverage:
Because green and blue are next to each other on the color wheel using the neutralizer as an under-eye concealer would only add to your dark circles more apparent. So you want something with an a more yellow or peachy tone. I tried using the lighter cream concealer, that came with this palette, on my dark circles it ended up looking very chalky.
Final Verdict:
For the most part I am pretty disappointed in this product. I bought this product from Target for $10.49 and since I only use 1/4 of the product I slightly regret the purchase. I believe this palette is also considerably overpriced for the small amount of product that is included.
Before and After:

**Sorry for the semi-awkward photos :/

1. My face without any makeup

2. After I patted the neutralizer onto my problem areas

3. After I applied my liquid foundation to my face (also added more neutralizer around my nose)

December.25.2012: Oatmeal Pecan Banana Cookies

With the cold weather and holiday season still in full swing I felt the need to post my favorite cookies recipe this year.I have made this recipe probably 4 times in the past month because it was so easy! To say the least baking cookies is something I'm beginning to be known for especially in my household. 

The whole process takes a little more than an hour and yields about 2 dozen super soft cookies

Don't forget to eat some of the batter too. I always think it tastes a little better than the baked cookies J

December.24.2012: YAZ/Loryna Birth Control Part 1

I've always had trouble with my skin in that I have moderate acne most of the time and some severe acne around "that time of the month". So when I was 16 I talked to my mom and made the decision to go on birth control. My Doctor started me off on YAZ.

YAZ: (3mg Drospirenone and Ethinyl Estradiol) 

The most effective birth control pills for treating acne are made up of a combination of estrogen and progesterine.Yaz uses estrogen as well as Drospirenone (a man made form of progesterone). From there I was switched onto the generic cheaper version (Loryna) once the patent on Yaz had ended. Although Yaz is all over the news with people having adverse affects I didn't experience any bad side effects. My acne did clear up considerably. After being on it for so long I assumed my acne had lessoned with my age so I decided to stop the pill in the beginning of July 2012. 

To my surprise my acne came back pretty badly. I would get big cyst acne on the face and I would even break out on my back and chest which I never had before. I switched my cleansing routine and tried various products to lesson my acne but none of it had the results I had hoped for. My boobs, which had gotten bigger from the birth control, became smaller again as well. To be more helpful I would say I went from a full B-cup while on the birth control to a small B. 

So, tomorrow I'm starting birth control again I had given it a lot of thought but my skin has been the source of my daily stress and I am just so fed up with constantly feeling self conscious and well lets be honestly less attractive. I'll keep you posted on my experience!

 *** I always use to get my period on the third white pill day
 so I am starting the pack on a tuesday so that I wont get my period until Sunday

December.23.2012 : New Blog!

Hey readers to any of you who happened to stumble upon my blog I will be updating a lot soon so please be patient with me :) This is my first time starting a blog so I'd love to hear what you think.

Gifting the Smart Way

With Christmas and Hanukah on the way I know everybody is stressing about finding the right gifts for friends and family. The method I have always used to find the perfect gift is that I would make notes during my shopping trips with my parents. If my mom or dad found something they liked and wanted to buy I would persuade them not to buy it and go back a day or so later to buy it. With this method you don't have to stress about weather or not they will like your gift because you already know its something they would buy for themselves.

Marked-Up Prices

I'm currently working retail in my home town during break and I am still so shocked at how the much the clothing is marked up. 

This cardigan for example is sold for $49.95 at my store and I found it online for $28.95. What an outrageous price difference!
you can find it at: http://www.gojane.com/78940-tops-aztec-printed-flyaway-cardigan.html
I have bought from GoJane.com for a couple years at this point and tend to buy from them pretty often so be ready so see a lot of posts on great deals and my opinion on if what I bought is worth the cheap price. It always seems to be my go-to website because I haven't found a website with better prices.


Emergen-C

Since the winter times are upon us I thought I would share my new obsession/trick to stay health during this cold time. I know what your thinking everybody already knows Emergen-C is good to prevent colds but what I recently discovered is that you can also make it with hot water. I don't know about you I never really liked the taste of Emergen-C mixed with cop/tap water (I would have to force myself to drink it) so now that I discovered this trick I'm drinking it a lot more frequently especially if your cold this is a great drink to make!