Itching for a new hair routine

Well here I am. It's Sunday night and as I wrote in "Lazy day makeup" I write blogs on Sunday nights always because it's a stressful night. Corey loves Dexter and Boardwalk Empire and they stress me out! They're good, but it's just a lot to absorb and I have to be doing something while I watch these shows because I get really hot and antsy, I can't sit still and I can't focus on the show because I get so stressed!!


Well to add to this night freakin Walking Dead just started up! So now the lineup is Walking Dead, Dexter and Boardwalk Empire...yeesh!! I had a dream last Sunday that I turned into a Zombie and Steve Buscemi was there in his amazing Boardwalk Empire garb...I don't know, it's just all too much. One time I had a dream dexter stored a bunch of dead bodies in our basement too! I'm like a sponge I tell you!
Well I have already seen bloody veins and some missing limbs so here I am ready to blog!!

I wanted to write about hair today. A couple different things...
First, I've been trying this new Shampoo and Conditioner from the line Clear.




I was really intrigued by the commercial. I love Heidi Klum, yes I admit it, if a celebrity I love endorses something I'm usually the first to try it! So Heidi is on the Clear commercial so I'm already hooked and yes, the commercial made sense. It's talking about how you need to focus on the scalp and this is affordable "salon quality" hair care, so hearing those key words, I was interested for sure!




I ran out that day and bought some! I usually stick to Moroccan Oil or Kevin Murphy Hydrate Me Shampoo and Conditioner. But after 4 professional sized-bottles of each, I was ready for a change!! I went right ahead and washed my hair, I was so excited!! I hate washing my hair and it's so dry that I only wash it 2 times a week anyways so I was pumped about checking this stuff out.




It smelt really yummy so that was fun from the get-go. Loved the lather, felt great and i dried my hair and it looked really good, seemed to have tamed my crazy frizzy hair and all seemed well after the first wash. I let my husband use it because we both have very similar hair, dry, unruly, curly-ish hair, he liked it too!
Well lets fast forward to a couple more washes-our heads kept itching!! I think it's too much! A few years back I went on this rampage of using Mane 'n Tail shampoo and conditioner for a while because I heard some other celebrity used it to get amazing long, luscious locks (don't judge) and it was so cleansing that it dried out my scalp and made my head itch like crazy!! So once I felt this same way with this Clean line, I realized that's the situation. If it is too drying for my scalp, can you imagine what it is like for someone who washes their hair more than twice a week!? Yikes!




So, not so great. Love that Mane 'n Tail add above? haha.If I have super dirty hair i will use the Clear line because I still haven't found a great replacement for my good 'ol standby shampoo and conditioners but I'm getting there. I tried the Total Care type and the Damaged and Color Repair or something like that and they both didn't blow me away, just made my head itch. I'm itching my head right now!! I just need some relief like a big moisturizing mask on my head. I can tell it just needs a little love.




So I get on the Clear website and there's a quiz to see what kind of products you need. I think, "ooohhh fun! Maybe I'm picking the wrong products" let's be honest, I'm not picking the wrong products, it's just not good. But whatever, I just played the hair game and some of the questions were "how would you describe your hair?" "What are some main issues with your hair?" You know, good normal stuff. Then the majority of the questions were, "if you're going out with your girls, where would you go?" Whaaaat? "If your hair looked fabulous what drink would you choose to celebrate?" Are we serious??? That was that, this stuff is not that great my scalp is dry and itchy and it isn't that fabulous. I will say the frizz is kind of calmed down, but ehh I don't know. I'm pretty neutral to this...and I just saw a bloody stump of a leg and a man kill someone with a hammer on Walking Dead SPOILER ALERT-there's blood and this episode is disgusting, and Carl is annoying, what's new?




Ok, that shampoo and conditioner was not a huge loss in the budget department because it was about $6 all together, no big deal. Well after I wasn't too sold on this Clear line, I bought the Organix line shampoo and conditioner at Target. I got the Awapuhi Ginger shampoo and conditioner and I also got the dry styling oil. It's not that great either. Since it is organic the lather isn't much which is fine because usually lather means sulfate free, which means color safe but it also means my hair doesn't feel clean. So this one is ehhh ok. My hair never smells yummy after it and it doesn't feel that clean either. So don't waste your money and it's a little pricey. I mean these are about $10 for each item so it's not too bad, but definitely pricey for just being at Target. The dry oil is pretty nice though. It really calms the frizz and kind of shrinks my big hair down. They have a ton of other "flavors" as I call them like Vanilla silk, Coconut Milk, Teatree mint, and cucumber yogurt so those might be better, I don't know but this one sounded pretty promising and it wasn't so who knows. Maybe I'll try another one out just because I do like the natural route of hair care but I don't know...keep reading future blogs and I will keep you posted on my next hair adventure!
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goop

I received my Birchbox today! One of the many reasons I love Birchbox is that they will do these awesome specialty Birchboxes that you can chose to get instead of the regular Birchbox.



One time I received an option to either pick my regular Birchbox or a Seventeen Magazine one. The email kind of gives you an idea and description of what might come in it. I decided to opt out of that one but I still wonder what was in it...I think about certain things too much.


I always told myself I'm going to pick a specialty Birchbox when then offer came up. Well this month it did and let me tell you something-I would have picked this no matter what! This month they let you either pick your regular one or a goo Birchbox. If you don't know what goop is, well you need to check it out. goop is Gwyneth Paltrow's blog and I love it. I also just love her. I love everything about her! Her style, she loves yoga, she is so beautiful, her family is gorgeous, I love her cookbook, I love everything about her!! I loved her even more when she married Chris Martin from Coldplay as well...it just makes me like her more! I just think my husband kinda looks like him too :)



So when this was the Birchbox this month I could not wait to get it!!



Well today is the day! I received it and I'm happy with it! Like I've posted before when I write about Birchbox, I love the letter that comes with it. It kind of gives you a little description about the theme of the blog and what's in it.
**the Pictures of the birchbox here are on top of a cutting board that my talented husband made!






This month the goop box came with a BEAUTIFUL Essie nail polish in Carry On. It's this beautiful shade of this seasons hot color, one that I've blogged about already-ox blood red!! It's not as true to the name as the other color in Essie I blogged about before in "Testing out fall trends" but it's a nice, softer shade of red, a little on the purple side and I like it!! I'm painting my nails with this tomorrow!! $8



Joanna Vargas daily serum is a brightening facial serum that has vitamins A,E, and C with hyaluronic acid (super hydrating). Haven't tried this yet but I'm ready!!! $85



Marie Veronique Organics body oil. I tried this already and I am loving it!! The smell is fresh and light and I feel soft & smooth!! This body oil contains watermelon seed, vegetable squalene, and apricot kernel oils. This oil replenishes your skin and it feels amazing. $36



Sprout lip balm is made in Brooklyn, which I love!! These balms are made with organic coconut butter and feel amazing!! I was looking for a new lip balm to replace my beloved Fresh lip treatment and I think I've found it!! 4 balms for $18 (that's a deal!!)



A little bonus goodie is lemon zest Luna bar!! I love these babies and so does Gwyneth! Pack of 15 for $18.75



I'm a crazy person who loves celebs and all that garbage...I can't help it, it's my guilty pleasure! So if I can try things that they like it just makes me feel like a cool kid. So this box makes me feel like I'm a tad but closer to being as awesome as Gwyneth. Not to mention, I love beauty products and to know what celebrities' favorites are is so cool to me! They can pick anything, any brand, any product in the world, so I really love hearing what they like!!



I know that everyone gets different stuff in their Birchbox but now that I went for the goop birchbox I am real curious to hear what everyone else got! Y'all let me know what you got too!!!
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Scrub a dub. Time to winterize your skin

If you haven't read my blog about Jo Malone London, you need to because I'm about to write about this line once again today. Reading my blog "Everyone, meet Jo. Jo, meet everyone," will give you an overview of the entire Jo Malone London line. It is definitely worth reading and it will give you a lot of great Christmas ideas! That blog will also give you some great new custom scent ideas too. Plus, I didn't know about this line 2 months ago and now it's one of my favorites so I want to share it with you.



This blog I wanted to focus on the Vitamin E line in Jo Malone London. They have a scrub in this line, it's simply named the Vitamin E Treatment Body Scrub. It is AMAZING!!!!!!! I took a sample and I have exfoliated 3 days in a row because I'm loving this scrub so much. I really need to stop because I'm going to have no skin left but I am addicted to it!



This scrub has honey, vitamin E and salt to help give your skin this amazing glow and it feels so fantastic afterwards! When you use it in the shower it doesn't get all over the tub and make it slippery either. The scrub softens after you scrub for a little bit and turns into this really nice, moisturizing honey texture on the skin. By the time you get out of the shower and dry off your skin will feel amazing!



The next thing I use after the Vitamin E scrub is their Vitamin E Body Balm. OH MY GOSH!! It is so rich and feels so good. And, you smell soooo yummy too! It is so hydrating and it nourishes the skin. You will feel silky smooth and rejuvenated all day long!! This is the perfect addition to your beauty routine for the winter.



Go try these two out! Your skin will thank you!! Also, these would be awesome gifts too...hint, hint :)

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Eye lash massacre

Here is a quick blog on some mascaras I have tried. I love trying mascaras. I also love super voluminous, long lashes so when I saw this mascara from CoverGirl called LashBlast Length I thought, "Awesome!!!! I want my lashes to look so long people are going to think they're fake! This is going to be a great mascara!"


Boy was I wrong!!! I hate the brush and I hates the outcome. I was so quick to buy it because I have loved all the CoverGirl mascaras lately in the LashBlast line but man this one was disappointing. didn't like the lack of volume, which I know, it's all about length here but I wasn't even impressed with the length! It clumped my lashes together and really didn't do a good job separating. Usually if I find a good mascara that lengthens and doesn't add volume, I'll just throw the lengthening one on first because it will add length and separate and then I will add a mascara that will add volume. But I couldn't even do that with this one!! I just threw it away.

Since this mascara was a bust and I HAVE to have mascara I ran out and got my old trusty LashBlast. I usually buy any of them and I like them but man I am striking out over here!!!!




I got this one. It's LashBlast Volume and it did NOT Come off!!!! I'm not kidding I've got tons and tons of eye makeup removers and cleansers and it didn't budge. I'm pretty sure I lost some lashes on this mascara and that really sucks!! It was a lash massacre! I just thought of that because my computer tried to change mascara to massacre and I thought that was fitting.

So now I'm back on the hunt!! I'll keep y'all updated!!!

Lots of love!!

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Everyone, meet Jo. Jo, meet everyone.

I would like to introduce you to someone I just met recently. Her name is Jo Malone. She is from London and she smells fantastic!




This is Jo Malone. She is from London and has a fabulous line of fragrance. Everything about this line is the quintessential definition of London. I just feel like in this picture she's like, "Ello! My name is Jo Malone and I'm British!" I have never been to London before but I really feel like Jo Malone really captures England in her line.




I had never heard of Jo Malone London before but when I started my new job I worked right across from the Jo Malone counter and SO many people asked for certain scents and wanted to know the history of the line. So I realized I needed to learn all about this Joe Malone lady and I needed to learn fast!




I first just started smelling everything in the line and Jo Malone has over 20 scents to chose from! Every single one of them smells so good and they really range from fresh citrus to warm woodsy scents.




The latest scent is Blackberry & Bay and it is AMAZING!!!! This scent comes in a candle, a perfume and a body cream. It is so light and fresh but it still has this amazing citrus scent too.




Here is a list of scents starting from fresh going to woodsy.




The citrus scents:
Lime Basil & Mandarin
Verbenas of Provence
Grapefruit

Fruity Scents:
Pomegranate Noir
English Pear & Freesia
Nectarine Blossom & Honey

Light Floral Scents:
Wild Bluebell
French Lime Blossom
White Jasmine & Mint
Red Roses

Floral Scents:
Orange Blossom
Vintage Gardenia
Blue Agava & Cacao

Spicy:
Vanilla & Anise
Nutmeg & Ginger
Amber & Lavender
Black Vetyver Cafe

Woodsy Scents:
Wild Fig & Cassis
154
Vetyver



Jo Malone is all about layering. So that makes it easier because I don't have just one favorite, I have 15. So I can mix and match and find my favorite scent...for that day and Then the next day I pick another amazing combination.



Not only can you make your own perfume scents but Jo Malone also comes in body creams and bath oils. So you can really layer them up and customize exactly to your liking. The bath oils smell amazing and you can pop some in your tub and it turns the bath water milky and makes your bathroom smell like Heaven or, what I like to do, you can rub this bath oil on damp skin after a bath or shower and use it as a body oil. It hydrates you and it smells amazing ALL day long!!! Throughout the day the bath oil just radiates off my skin and it really makes a statement. I hate buying stuff and spraying it and then you never smell yourself!! This stuff stays on all day!!




Another option you can do is you can use the body cream. It is an amazing, luxurious cream that smells great and hydrates. Then you can layer whatever scent you want on top.

Some of my favorite combos are-

Grapefruit Bath Oil & Blackberry & Bay Cologne

Lime Basil Mandarin Bath Oil & Wild Bluebell Cologne

Amber & Lavender Bath Oil & Orange Blossom Cologne
Pomegranate Noir Bath Oil & Verbenas of Provence Cologne
Now I'm not scent expert, and to each their own on the perfume combinations. Here are some suggestions from the Jo Malone website.
Grapefruit & Red Roses
Pomegranate Noir & Nectarine Blossom & Honey
Orange Blossom & English Pear & Freesia
154 & Wild Bluebell
Those are just a very few. I mean seriously, the possibilities are endless!!! Like I said, you can mix creams and colognes, bath oils and creams, oils and colognes, whatever you want!!
These are so light too that they never make my head hurt or make me sick of the smells. Sometimes I will spray something and I can't stand the way I smell by the end of the night, not these!! I LOVE them!!!




Not only do these fantastic scents come in bath oils, colognes and body creams, they also come in hand & body lotions, hand washes and some scents come in candles, diffusers, room sprays and linen sprays!!




These are amazing gifts too because the wrapping is phenomenal!!
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Lazy-Day makeup

Well today is Sunday and I was off, yay!!! So I slept in (yeah right!) until 6:30 and then I let out all the dogs and me and my husband ran to Lowe's. He is really into Halloween so we were grabbing some pieces for our decorations. So-I pretty much brushed my hair and threw a very little bit of makeup on and ran. I was loving the really natural look that I had on with this bold punch of red lips so I thought I'd document this look and share it.

Since it is Sunday, my husband and I always watch Dexter and Boardwalk Empire and they both stress me out so much that I have to do something else while I watch it. So, here I am writing this blog. Here's what I did for my easy, quick makeup application.



Here's a pic of me, on another day, wearing my easy makeup. This is me in one of my proudest moments, eating my fav, a sno cone from the food truck Retro Sno. It's awesome.



This is the look I did today. Same steps just added a lip color to the final look.

First I used my Dr.Dennis Gross Tinted Moisturizer.


It's usually $45, but I've seen it online for $30 or so, but I just like buying my products from the source so I'll just pay the $45. It's really nice, this is my usually summer go-to and I always use it on vacation! I wrote about this product in my makeup in 5 minutes blog. It's awesome! I like using this on my light, easy makeup days because it hydrates and covers just enough. It has a nice amount of coverage but it still shows the freckles. This is a pic of me, close up wearing this tinted moisturizer so you can see the coverage and the end result.



Yes, this is a really fantastic picture of the aftermath of the sno cone. My husband took this picture and it really does a great job showing the light coverage of this tinted moisturizer, and it really captures how serious I take things...like this blog.

Ok, after the tinted moisturizer I use just a little concealer around the eyes, around the nose and on the chin. Right now I'm using Maybeline Fit concealer.



I use the light on my face. When I'm usually doing my full blown makeup I do the light around the nose and chin and then mix the light and fair on the eyes. But if its lazy day, I only use the light. This is around $6.

Next, I throw on a lose powder just to finish off the look and to keep the concealer on. These easy days I use CoverGirl TruBlend Lose Mineral Powder. I have the translucent light. It's just an easy, light coverage powder I use on days like these.



This powder is only $6 or so I'm pretty sure. I also have no clue why this writing is so much lower than the picture...oh well, I'm not too computer savvy. Dexter is getting reeeeaaaalll intense right now too...yeesh.

Ok back to makeup, next step! I throw a little bronzer on. Bronzer is a huge part of my makeup routine. It's one of those items that I would pick if I were on a deserted island...along with a ton of other makeup items but this is a definite! An absolute must in my daily routine! I mean, I wore bronzer, brow powder and mascara when I did the half marathon! So, let's get serious here, I have a makeup problem. So back to bronzer, I just throw some of that on and I use N.Y.C. Bronzer Sun 2 Sun. It's bronzer and a golden glow, it's a great one and it's only $5.



Ok, after bronzer I use a little Nars Multiple in Maldives. It's a great highlighter and it's just beautiful.



It's $39 and I just put this on top of my cheek bones and a little bit on the top of my nose. I blend a little and I'm all highlighted and glowing.

Next I throw a little blush on. I used MAC Mineralize blush in Dainty. It's $24 and it's a great universal color for all skin types.



This blush you can use ALL the time!! I use this on my easy days and my glam days.

Next I curled my lashes with my handy dandy Shu Uemura eyelash curler and then just used my finger and swiped this gold/pearly eyeshadow on my lids from the lash line to the crease. Then I used this white, shimmer eye shadow under my brow just to highlight it. I did a little black powder liner just on the end 1/2 of my eyes to intensity the edge of my lashes. I also threw some brow powder on. All these colors I used were from this Jemma Kidd backstage Pallette from Target. I'll write about that soon!




This kits pretty cool, I use it all the time!! It's about $30 or so and I've definitely gotten my money's worth!



Last but not least I apply my mascara. Right now I'm using L'Oreal Double Extend Mascara. It's nice, it has a primer and a mascara and its nice. It doesn't blow my mind obviously, I just keep saying it's nice if you haven't noticed. That's all I can say about it but If you have an issue with your mascara smudging try this! It stays on really well, I just like borderline Showgirl lashes so I like more volume and length. But, it does the trick and I have used it for a while now so it obviously isn't that bad. Get your magnified glass out to check out that picture of the mascara too...(why is it so small??)


Now the picture at the top of the page, I wasn't wanting a statement lip but today I was feeling the fall and I am ready to embrace the trends! So, I threw on Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain and Balm in gothic. It really spruced up the entire look.


This is the same makeup with a splash of color on the lips. This is a safer red than the one I wore for my blog, Testing Out Some Fall Trends, is beatiful, but bold! This color is a great one that I think most people will love and it won't be as big of a transition to a bold lip if you're just trying it out. This Revlon Just Bitten Line is a good transition product if you want to go bold but you aren't used to it quite yet.
I do think that this season is going to be big on nice and easy makeup on the eyes and a fresh cheek and bold lip, just my opinion, but I think it will be huge! The Revlon just bitten stains are nice too because one end is like a marker so it's super-easy application and the other end is a conditioning stick so it hydrates the lips where most stains really dry your kisser out! I first apply the color, apply the conditioner, then re-apply the color and the conditioner again.

Here's a closer look at the coverage and cheek color.



Thanks for reading! Now go throw on a bold lip!

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