.recipe for relaxation.

So, I just have to say, I am the queen of relaxation when it comes to being frazzled. I am currently taking a full course load and working about 20-25 hours a week. Might not sound like much, but if I add up all the time I am on campus a week, it would add up to about 60 hours or more a week. Craziness. I feel like I live here! 

Needless to say, when I get home, I feel like doing nothing. So, this past Saturday, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision... I got my MacBook, brought up episodes from this season's edition of Project Runway, got out a body mask and a bubble bar from LUSH and just laid in the tub. It was amazing! Never under-estimate the power of a bubble bath or a hot shower... sometimes I put on Pandora and switch it on to the jazz channel or whatever mood I'm in too... or the shower can just be a good time to pray. I highly encourage taking the time to relax and treat yourself! I'll list the bubble bar and body mask I used below. Enjoy!

This product is called Glorious Mud. It's $5.95 for a block of it and it's totally worth it! I didn't use mine all at one. I crumble it into a tupperware and use as needed. I mostly use on my face, neck and upper body. It's made of Rhassoul Mud from the Atlas Mountains and it's a deep cleansing wonder! It also contains Aloe Vera to soothe and Vanilla and Sesame to moisturize. I'm always nervous about masks because I have sensitive skin sometimes and they cause me to break out, but this has been so good for my skin. I love it!

 

This is the bubble bar I used and you can pick it up for $9.95. It's called The Comforter and is very relaxing and soft containing sweet blackcurrents and cypress oil. The thing I love about LUSH's bubble bars is that they infuse your bath with all kinds of goodies for your skin, but also produce a luxurious bubble bath, which is really fun :)

I feel like I constantly talk about the magic of LUSH, but you just need to see for yourself! Please look for a store near you or check them out here!

Also, for the Runway fanatics... what is up with Michael C??? I'm a few episodes behind, but he is a lucky duck. I can't decide if I like him or not... plus from the episode I watched last night, I have no idea how his garment won.. if you aren't watching, check this out:

I guess I have no clue about what fashion is... ick.

.clinique.

Hello beautiful friends! So, I just wanted to share some little cosmetic products that I am LOVING right now. I haven't blogged much about how uneven my skin is, but let me tell you, it drives me crazy! For the longest time I just wanted to be able to wear really sheer foundations like tinted moisturizers... I mean, who wants to wear cakey, heavy, oily foundation when they are in their twenties? Not me! So, after years of searching I have found a foundation that works so well for my skin. The coverage feels pretty sheer, but it covers all the redness on my skin. The foundation is from Clinique's Acne Solutions line. It covers well and also has acne treatment built right in!

You can get this foundation at major department stores and Sephora for $24.50. It sounds kind of pricey, but it lasts for a long time because a little goes a long way, my friends! 

Also on the Clinique train, I just picked up some of their liquid or cream eyeliner, which I am in LOVE with! Unlike other liquid eyeliners I've found at most stores, this one comes with its own little application brush which is super precise. These babies go for $14.50 a piece and also go a long way! I got mine in deep brown :) 

Last but not least, I also love some of Clinique's lip glosses! I always look for a make-up that can multi-purpose, so this one is great. These lip glosses are called Long Last Glosswear with SPF 15. I got mine in a color called Tender Heart and it has a little bit of color, lots of gloss, and no shimmery glitters or anything which was a must for me! 

This image is a bad example, it's not the color I bought.. I need to get better about taking my own photos for the blog, my apologies!

I also wanted to add in a couple of things. I know that not everyone likes Clinique, so I did want to list a couple alternatives to these products... first off, the SPF lip gloss: I actually recently bought a brand new tube of SPF lip gloss from Neutrogena which is my favorite! It got thrown into a trash can when I took it on a beach trip, so the Clinique gloss I bought was the replacement. The thing I like about the Neutrogena brand is the lip gloss is cooling and it's not too gooey. I love taking lipgloss to the beach, so the cooling affect in this one was great! They are called Moistureshine Lip Glosses. Here's a pic:

The nice thing about these is you can snag one from Target for like $6 and change... they are amazing!

Another alternative, would be with the foundation I have. The only downside to the Clinique foundation that I am currently loving is that it does not have SPF in it. Prior to changing over to Clinique's I was using a tinted moisturizer by Sephora. It was so great! I bought it for a friend's wedding because the coverage is buildable! You can either wear one coat for every day wear or you can apply two to three coats for more coverage. It was great!

The other upside is the cost. You can get this from Sephora stores for $21. So it's a couple dollars cheaper with different benefits! This one would be great for someone who is not really struggling with acne problems, but still needs something oil-free. I highly recommend it!

Well, my friends, that's all for today! Have a happy Sunday!

.LUSH.

Ok, so how can I not blog about one of the most fabulous, fragrant, delicious soap stores I've ever been to? So, maybe like a couple years ago, my mall got a fabulous new soap store called LUSH. Ok, I will admit, I was hesitant at first... it's one of those stores that you can smell from the other end of the mall.. it seemed terribly obnoxious! However, I was pleasantly surprised when one of my good friends started working there... let me tell you, it's addicting!

So, here is my own little review of their lovely products...

My all-time favorite, can't live without bar soap:

Sexy Peel Bar Soap

This bar soap is super citrusy and deep cleaning! I feel in love with it since I have had a couple semesters of Printmaking in college and let me tell you, ink is NOT fun to get out from under fingernails... but this soap helped keep me feeling squeaky clean :)

Best smelling shower gel:

The Olive Branch Body Wash

This body wash is so lovely smelling :) Yum! It makes you SUPER soft and the scent lingers most of the day! I loved using it around Christmas time... it was just nice during the winter.

Best pick-me-up:

Sunny Side bubble bar! Oh my gosh! It's like a party in the bathtub! You just throw one of these suckers in the bath tub and it bubbles up so nice! It's like taking a bath in liquid gold! It makes the water all swirly and beautiful... I highly recommend this after a long, hard week.. it's just so fun!

Well, I could go on and on about these wonderful products... but I won't! Go try it out! All of their products are eco-friendly and super fun... oh, and did I mention highly addicting?

.smokey eyes and magic bobby pins.

Hello my friends! Ok, so I've been reading my friends blogs, and immediately felt like a slacker.. I haven't blogged since January.. I'm terrible. But here is my second attempt!

Subject #1: The Smokey Eye...

Ok, apart from being in Twilight, she still has killer eye make-up!

The always lovely Scarlett :)

The "smokey eye" has been a staple in beauty for years. Smokey eyes to me stand for this sultry, sexy, and mysterious woman that we all want to feel like. I for one, have never perfected this art... I always end up looking like a raccoon are a little girl playing in her mom's make-up drawer. However, the other day I was walking around Wal Mart and walked past a new product by Cover Girl! I had read recently in a magazine about this new product they had just launched - they are called "Smokey Shadow Blasts". They come in an array of colors and cost about $8 at Wal Mart. Well, Cover Girl must know that I have no clue, because they even have a whole set that comes with the eye shadow stick, a liquid eye liner pen and a mascara! The kit also comes with a fold-out set of instructions and was about $16.

This is the set I bought in Natural.

How could you go wrong with that? (I will warn you, I think I picked the only kit that looked good with my complexion. Most of the colors were a little strange, so I bought a natural set.) So, I tried out the kit. It's super easy to put on and is very easy to blend. My only recommendation is to purchase an non-creasing eye shadow base of some sort, because the shadow was definitely creasing by the end of the day!

I use this lovely shadow in Bunny. You can get it at Sephora :)

When I wore it at night, or for special occasions, I were it darker, but like I said before, it's super easy to blend if you feel it's too dark.

So, secondly on my list....

Have you seen the new Goody Spin-Pins? They claim to do the work of 20 bobby pins... Now, I have a lot of hair. I am the girl known to where about 30 bobby-pins in my hair just to get a bun going. So, I tried these! They come in two colors and you can also pick them up at Wal Mart for like, $5 or something? They are great! They literally spin right into your bun! Whether you want a tight bun, a loose romantic style, or I even pin my hair half up and half down if it's getting in the way. They work really well, however, if you have thin, super-straight hair, they can be a little more tricky! They work best for me when I let my hair go curly... Let's just say this is one item in my make-up bag that is always missing because it's in my sister's hair!

.dry shampoo.

So, as my first blog post, I would like to write my experience with dry shampoo. For years I have been reading constantly about the wonders of dry shampoo. As I hear from most beauty people, we generally wash our hair far too often which leads to breakage and drying of the hair. The claim is that dry shampoo is like a revival for hair that seems to slump on the day after cleansing.

Now, if you are like me, I have a lot of hair, but my actual hair is fine so my hair tends to get oily after just one day of not shampooing it. This has lead to many a bad hair day as I can wash my hair before bed and then wake up to find it is not fresh the next day. I have never gathered the courage to actually step out and try dry shampoo because of the cost and just out of uncertainty. So this past weekend I went to Sephora to check some out. The lovely sales lady lead me over to the dry shampoo selection and suggested trying OSCAR BLANDI's dry shampoo. She said it was quite easy to use and smelled great, but I was still hesitant and ended up walking out of the store. The next day I went back and to my surprise, it was on sale! I decided to go with the powder formula and ran home gushing over my new product to test. The instructions seemed simple enough, I just divided different sections of my hair, parting it in different sections until I had done my whole head. All you have to do is give the bottle a little squeeze and go along your roots and then part your hair in a different section until you've disperesed the powder where you want it on your scalp. Then I just massaged the powder gently into my scalp until it was distributed. I then flipped my head over and brushed my hair out. My hair looked refreshed and ready for a new day! I was so pleased!

I don't recommend using dry shampoo as an alternative to your regular cleansing regimen. It was nice to use during the day between shampooing and actually got me two days out of shampooing, but I like the feeling of shampooing my hair in the shower too much! While my girlfriends and I were chatting, we decided this would be nice to revive bangs with as well. I just naturally tend to have a more oily scalp and find that bangs have never worked for me, but a little bit of this dry shampoo would definitely do the trick!

Total cost of experiment: $8 for OSCAR BLANDI pronto Dry Shampoo (sold in Sephora stores)

new blog!

So, i've never really had a blog before. Well, i did once, but it was only because it was for a school requirement. I've decided to start this blog because I have always had a growing passion for not only beauty, but the products that get you there. I've always been into reading up on products and finding the latest shampoo or mascara to try out. The only thing I have wished to view were real women giving their input on these new products used in the high fashion world or on runways. Lately I experienced this while reading Elle's latest issue which had a few writers from the magazine doing something called a "make-better" instead of the usual make-over sections. The issue was filled with tips of how you can use make-up and hair styles from the runway on women off the runway. The sad thing was, the two women who did this experiment had the help of professionals to guide them. They tried these great hair styles including adding extensions for long, fierce braids or using the latest contouring make-up from MAC to acheive the perfect cheek bones, but both women had the assistance of professionals.

That's where my blog comes in. I have recently been trying out these products and have been sharing all my findings with my girl friends. Recently I told one of my closest friends that I should write a blog with all my findings and she said I should go for it, so here I am. I am not a writer, nor do I have a lot of money. I am just a middle class college student who loves informing women of great quality products that can add a little kick to everyday life. I hope I can keep up with this as most of my adventures end after I become bogged down with life or school. I will try to post as often as possible! Enjoy :)