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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

August Favorites 2011

Wow! It's already September! I'm actually really happy to be entering into fall. It's my favorite season. It's been so hot this month that wearing makeup has been difficult. These are all products I've relied on a ton this month.

1. Redken 07 Iron Silk Ultra Straightening Spray
This is HG for me! I've used this for a few years now and always love the results. After I finish drying my hair, I lightly spray this over my hair and then straighten. My hair feels soft, and looks incredibly smooth and shiny. It also makes my hair last longer between washes.

2. Naked Palette
I've loved this since I got it! It's got such a nice range of shades and you could get a wide variety of daytime or nighttime looks from it. My favorite combination lately has been Toasted on the lid, Darkhorse in the crease and Sin for highlight.
L to R: Toasted, Darkhorse, Sin

3. ELF Studio Cream Eyeshadow in Dawn
This is such a great cream shadow. It's smooth and pigmented. I like to use it as a wash of color all over my lid on days when putting on eyeshadow seems like way too much work. Just use your fingers, it picks up better and the heat helps it spread out and go on smoothly.
Dawn

4. Maybelline Mineral Power Concealer
This concealer is so nice and moisturizing. I like the applicator because I can dot it right where I want it before blending. It blends in well but covers everything. I like to use this on red areas around my chin and nose as well as on undereye circles.

5. NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Crystal Soda
I love NYX glosses. They're shiny and the glitter isn't chunky. The color of Crystal Soda is light and neutral and goes with any look. I have been keeping this in my purse because it didn't matter if I left whatever lipgloss or lipstick I had started out with at home, this went nicely with everything.

Pregnancy Update: 32 weeks, 3 days. We have started our birthing classes. I enjoy them, he doesn't. It's nice to have an idea of what to expect when baby finally arrives. And I seriously need to keep up with the iron pills, I've been way more fatigued lately. Everyone who doesn't know me tells I can't possibly be due in October. Here's the thing. I'm short. He doesn't have much room to go up, so he goes out. Yes, he's normal size. One woman had the nerve to joke that I'll be giving birth to a toddler. Yeah, that was nice.

I'd love to see other people's August favorites, so if you have them in a video or a blog, feel free to post them. Or even just leave me a comment with a list of your favorites. I'm still on a no buy but it's fun to live vicariously!

Love, Jessica

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

ELF Haul-August 2011

I ordered this stuff last week (August 16) when they were having a FB friends sale. I'm honestly a little surprised that sale was so small. They made such a big deal about how great it would be but honestly, I could have saved as much any other day. Anyways, I scaled back my order and got some things I've been itching to try for some time!

I ordered the Studio 11pc Brush Set, Studio Eyebrow Kit, a Studio Cream Blush, a Studio Powder Blush, some Essentials brushes and a couple more Studio brushes that weren't included in the kit.

L to R: Complexion Brush, Fan Brush, Concealer Brush, Small Smudge Brush, Angled Foundation Brush, Powder Brush, Small Precision Brush, Small Angled Brush, Blush Brush, Eyeshadow "C" Brush, Contour Brush
The Studio 11 pc Brush Kit: I do own a Sigma kit which I love dearly. But I wanted to test some new eye brushes before I splurged on more Sigmas. So I thought a good way to do that would be with the studio kit. The case is GREAT! I love my Sigma brush roll but this is waaaaay more convenient.

Angled Contour Brush and Stipple Brush: More brushes to compare to Sigma. The Angled Contour brush is surprisingly flat on top. The Stipple is not nearly as dense as my Sigma duo fiber brush. I will have to try both before I make any judgements on them

L to R: Defining Eye Brush, Eyelash and Brow Wand, Blending Eye Brush, Brow Comb and Brush, Eyeliner Brush, Eye Crease Brush, Smudge Brush
Essentials Eye Brushes: I do enjoy the eye brushes I have from the Essentials line so I figured I would try them all. They were only $1 each after all. The smudge brush would not stop rolling around for the picture so yeah, that the side view. It looks like a shorter version of the basic eyeshadow brush. Really excited to try these!

Eyebrow Kit in Medium: I've been trying to be better about good brow grooming. But my brows are kind of sparse so I do feel the need to fill them in. My brows are dark and my hair is light so I've been struggling to find a good color to fill them in that looks natural. Hopefully this will do the trick.


Studio Blush in Tickled Pink: I'm sorry to say it but the swatch of this was exactly what I was hoping Candid Coral would be, only slightly more pink. In general I love any of the blushes from ELF so I'm hopeful for this.


Studio Cream Blush in Tease: This is definitely more of a mousse texture than a cream but that's ok! It's a little bit darker than the picture but it goes on pretty sheer. Definitely something you could build up the color on if you wanted too! I'm excited to try the stipple brush with this!

So that was my last order for a while. I'm still working on a project pan and really should try to stay on that. But no promises. This isn't a makeup project pan after all.

Pregnancy Update: 31 weeks, 2 days. Well after a few days of feeling REALLY bad, I'm starting to feel relatively normal again. And I'm not going to complain about normal pregnancy issues again. I'd rather have a lot of kicking than none at all. And I'd certainly prefer no more major heartburn. Hopefully I'll feel this comfortable for a while. Because I know it could be a lot worse!

If you want to see any indepth reviews or some swatch pictures, just leave me a comment!
Love, Jessica

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Four Perfumes I Want To Try

I actually don't wear perfume that often. I have a few bottles that I enjoy but I just tend to wear body spray more often. It's nice to have something I can throw in my purse and refresh myself throughout the day. But I would like to get another perfume or two because I do love how the bottles look and wearing perfume always makes the day feel more special. I think I feel a little more grown up wearing perfume. I'm not going to buy any soon because I am on the no buy but here are 4 perfumes I want to buy.

  1. Kate Spade Twirl

$65 for 1.7 oz Sephora

I got a sample size of this in my Birchbox and I'm in love. It's got a kind of fruity floral scent but it also has just enough musk to make it feel very grown up. And the staying power is amazing! I could still smell where I sprayed it hours later, even after I had taken a shower.

  1. CLEAN Warm Cotton


$69 for 2.14 oz Sephora

I have a thing about fresh laundry. It's my all time favorite scent. If they could bottle the scent of Tide original with Bounce fresh linen, I would have my perfect scent. This got pretty close to how I would want my clean laundry perfume. It's fresh and definitely has that scent without being overpowering.

  1. Bath and Body Works Sea Island Cotton

$29.50 for 2.5 oz Bath and Body Works

I've never tried the Bath and Body Works EDTs before so I don't know how great they are. But I do love the body spray of this. Again, fresh laundry scented although this one is less laundry-ish than CLEAN is. You can definitely smell more of the sea island.

  1. Britney Spears Radiance

$49.50 for 1.7 oz Ulta

I'm not really a fan of a lot of celebrity fragrances. A lot of them smell cheap. Yet somehow I always end up with at least one of those little gift bottles every year at Christmas time. Baffles me. This is one I smell every time we go into a store that carries it. It's very light and feminine smelling without being cheap or teenager-ish.

So there you have it. Maybe I'll convince someone to get me a new bottle of perfume for my birthday or Christmas. Or even treat myself when I get some things off my project pan list. Speaking of which, project pan is still going strong. I'm working my way through a few things and I hope to have something more to share in about a week or so. I'm probably going to break my no buy for an ELF sale if there is one and no, I don't feel like that counts because I've been waiting for a good one for at least a month now.
Pregnancy update: I'm 30 weeks. The results of my blood test came back with good and bad news. Good: No gestational diabetes. Bad: Anemic. I had suspected I was anemic for a while now. I knew my iron was pretty low but I was having a hard time forcing myself to eat more red meat. I was getting more and more fatigued during the day and just generally felt weaker. And when they drew my blood, I bled for a lot longer than usual. I'm on the iron supplements now so hopefully this won't be a major problem.

I'd love to hear what your favorite perfumes are! Leave me a comment!

Love, Jessica

Monday, August 8, 2011

I'm a Project Pan failure

So on July 24, I officially started a project pan. I laid out all my rules about what would be included and how long the no buy would last. I was feeling pretty good. But it crashed to the ground. I ended up breaking down and buying the WnW Walking on Eggshells trio, Redken Guts, Redken Iron Silk and Redken Sheer Straight. I think I failed because I had put a lot of rules and restrictions on myself that just plain made me unhappy. And I didn't post the details of my project on here because I was afraid I would fail and I didn't want that to be public. But my stash box is very full and this needs to happen whether I want to or not.

So I'm going to start over. I'll post all the rules here and also have a page just for tracking my progress. I'll also write some reviews along the way.
So here are the rules.
  • Products covered under my no buy/project pan (but not limited to): shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, body sprays, facial cleansers, shave cream.
  • The no buy will end when I can no longer shop my stash for a particular item (Like when I run out of shampoo, I can buy shampoo but not anything from the other categories.)
  • For an item to count, it must be all used up and thrown away without any intention of repurchasing.
  • Sample/travel sizes do not count towards the total number but must be used up as well.
  • I will still get Birchbox.
  • Makeup is not included and will not count.
  • Once I reach milestone numbers (10, 20, 30), I will be rewarding myself with something special.

I will post updates as blog posts periodically and keep the project pan page fully updated.  Look for my first review coming up sometime this week as well as my Birchbox haul.

Pregnancy Update: 29 weeks! I'm feeling a lot better and a little less crabby about this. My shower was on Saturday and I can't say it was the most fun party I've ever been to but a few people made me feel so special and that was nice. Overall, I'm having a better time with this.

Love, Jessica