Relaunch

Let's try this again, shall we?
I've been away from blogging for so long. I have actually missed it quite a bit. I'm trying to not be too ambitious but I've started working on the whole design of my blog and new content will be up soon. The new name feels so much more fresh to me. I'm excited to hop back into this!

Update and NOTD: OPI's Gone Gonzo!

So my beautiful baby boy arrived on Monday, October 17! Since then life has been busy busy busy. I haven't worn any makeup since then and I just got around to painting my nails yesterday. I'm hoping I can get back into a regular beauty routine soon. In the meantime, here's OPI's Gone Gonzo! from the Muppets collection.

5 coats, natural light

I just love this color. GG is blue micro glitter and large circular silver glitter in a clear base. I know it would be really fun to layer over a blue creme but I probably won't get around to trying for a while. I still have 11 other muppets polishes to try! And it took me forever to actually get a chance to do this so I don't know when I'll get to change it. Which color should I try next time lil peanut gives me a chance?

Love, Jessica

OPI Muppets Collection and Update

So it's been a while since my last post and I'm really sorry about that. I thought I still had time to at least show all of my favorite fall nail polish colors but it turns out I didn't. I started having contractions on Monday and I've been struggling through early labor since then. We don't know when he will arrive but I can't wear nail polish until then. It would interfere with one of the monitors they will have to use when I actually get to go to the hospital. Trust me, I'm very very frustrated with how my life has been so completely wrapped around every little feeling in my belly for 6 days now. They keep telling me he will be here before Tuesday so I've been holding onto that.

ANYWAYS, I picked up the OPI muppets collection yesterday and I'm so freaking excited!

Hopefully it won't take too long for me to be able to test all of these out! I'm such a big muppets fan, I just had to have all of them!

I've missed blogging so please expect lots of regular posts from me once things get back on track. I will swatch all of these at least. I haven't decided yet if I'll finish fall nail favorites or move on to winter favorites or just forget it entirely. If there's something you want to see, please just let me know!

Love, Jessica

Fall 2011 Nail Picks: OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel

Has it really been almost a month since the last time I blogged? I've been so freaking busy lately. Lots of last minute preparations before the baby arrives! I'm only 3 weeks away from my due date.
So I thought I could do a pretty simple series on my favorite fall nail polishes. I have 5 picks that I'll try to get all posted before the baby gets here!

OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel

So this is Suzi Takes the Wheel from OPI's recent Touring America collection. My partner picked it out for me and honestly, I did not have high hopes for it. In the bottle it looks so very gray but on the nail it looks like a great army green. I've been wearing it a lot lately! It's definitely in my top 5 of my collection. And UGH, my cuticles are so nasty. I've been trying to take better care of them but it's just been more difficult with the colder weather coming in.

Fall is my favorite season by far. The trees are beautiful and I love wearing dark colors and jewel tones.

I'd love to hear what your favorite fall colors are too!

Love, Jessica

Review: Aussie Moist Shampoo and Conditioner

Aussie Moist Shampoo and Conditioner, $3 at drugstores

Some background on my hair: I have fine hair that will fall flat if you look at it funny. In addition, I have 2 cowlicks along my forehead and the hair in that area tries to wave a little and gets frizzy if I don't coax it into behaving on a daily basis. I try to put at least 1 day between washes but my scalp will get greasy if I wait any longer. I use a hair dryer and flat iron almost every time I shampoo.

My hope for this was that it would moisturize my hair and help protect my ends from the damage of heat styling without weighing down my fine hair.

This shampoo is so so moisturizing. It's very thick and has definitely improved the texture of my hair. The scent is awesome too! It's kind of tropical. I'm a wash once kind of girl so I usually leave this in for a couple minutes to let it do it's thing with my hair. My hair looks so shiny when I use this. One major downside is that I feel this can leave a lot of build up over time, which can weigh down my hair and make it look greasier between washings.

The conditioner is the most moisturizing condtioner I've ever used. But it weighs down my hair so much I almost never use it as a daily conditioner. I use this as a deep conditioner when my hair really needs the extra moisture.

I probably won't repurchase this after my no buy simply because I feel like I have used better shampoos and conditioners before. It's just a little too heavy for my hair. It's a great shampoo and the conditioner makes a nice weekly treament but it's nothing that amazing.

Pregnancy Update: 33 weeks and 3 days. It's just been getting harder and harder to motivate myself to want to leave the house any more. I'm getting more and more uncomfortable. I think I may end up spending most of October in bed, because simply moving any more brings me pain. I'm hopeful that if I keep trying to take care of myself I'll just feel better.

Favorite shampoos? I'll definitely be wanting to try some different ones after my no buy is over!

Love, Jessica

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

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