Beauty Favorites

Hey y'all! After quite the busy summer, I have a few beauty favorites that I would like to share. As I've mentioned before, I am a huge YouTube junkie when it comes to all things make up and beauty and have accumulated a few goodies over the past few months thanks to my YouTube findings. (As a delightful side note, I am pretty sure The Mister knows how to do a mean highlight and contour due to how many YouTube vids he's listened in on...many a summer night in the C household was spent with me watching YT and TM playing PlayStation.)

Let's start with skin care....

Angels on Bare Skin - Lush - 

I was in search of a new cleanser and have very sensitive yet combination - oily skin..I scar easily (and go through spurts of breakouts) that require a daily exfoliation light enough for my sensitive skin but mechanical enough to slough off and eventually erase the dark scarring. (#HighMaintenance, I know.) All of that being said, Angels on Bare Skin, delivers that to me daily. It's a calming (and pretty exfoliating) cleanser for all skin types. The smell is amazing (like every thing from Lush) and your skin feels amazing after every use. If your skin is high maintenance like mine or you are looking for a nice gentle daily exfoliation, I would totally recommend this.

Breath of Fresh Air - Lush - 

On my trip into Lush, I also picked up a toner. I was in Florida and the Breath of Fresh Air toner just seemed like the right purchase. It can go over make up and perfect for the end of the summer heat or midday pick me up!

Sephora Masks - Rose and Green Tea - 

Also for my FL trip, I picked up a few Sephora Natural Therapy sheet masks as my skin always freaks out when traveling and I had heard the rose mask was super calming. I got the rose mask and rose eye masks and the green tea mask as well. The rose masks were my absolute favorite out of the two (though both were great). The smell is divine and it calmed by face right down after a nasty plane breakout or two.

Now, let's move on to make up...

L'Oreal Infallible Pro-Matte foundation- 

Y'all, I have a new favorite foundation and I am not afraid to shout it from the roof tops..This is a full coverage, matte finish foundation and it does not move, get shiny, or melt off your face for HOURS.. I put this bad boy on with a beauty blender due to how heavy it can feel on the skin if you don't apply it right. This is definitely for more combination/oily skin types! One thing to keep in mind - this foundation has a yellow under tone (except for the darkest two shades which are more pink-ish).

Urban Decay Naked Weightless Concealer - 

There is nothing I love more than a brightening under eye concealer (#DragQueen) that is also super light-weight and non-cakey. This is perfect for achieving the perfect highlight and contour look. A good dupe for this is the NYX high definition concealer wand.

NYX Contour Kit - 

Although this is not in my own personal kit, I have a good friend that got this recently and I have been doing her make up with it and LOVING it. It's a great price and the color payoff/pigment is very good. It blends like a dream and always makes sure her #ContourIsOnFleek. The banana shade is my absolute favorite for setting under eye concealer.

Lights, Camera, Lashes - Tarte - 

Believe me when I tell you - this mascara is the.holy.grail. I am an avid falsies user and nothing could ever get me away from my L'Oreal Telescopic....until I got a sample of this stuff during a recent Sephora purchase and OMG...I will never buy another mascara again.

Products in the Queue -

Just today, I picked up a mini GlamGlow mask...YouTubers fah-reak out about this stuff so I had to see what all the fuss is about...I will keep you all posted! I also got a Dr. Jart Brightening Infusion Hydrogel Sheet mask (can you tell I have a thing for masks!?) as it said on the package it is good for dark circles (check), dullness (check), dark spots (double check) and uneven tone...We shall see if it delivers!

Products I am in search of - 

A good body butter! It's so hard to find a reasonably priced body butter with decent ingredients in it. Any suggestions?

Life Update - 

Over the past few months I have been contemplating where I want my next step to be as far as social media goes and I am thinking of re-lauching my YouTube channel around the new year. I am hoping to get a new vlogging camera and start doing things like, tutorials, "get ready with me" vids, favorites videos, unboxing vids, Disney magic (duh) and maybe even some fitness related things as well. So stay tuned for all of that and let me know if y'all know of any 14 year olds that can teach me the basics of video editing!

Also, with the holidays looming and me finally finishing decorating our new apartment in the next few weeks, you guys can expect some fun little blog posts coming your way!

Happy Shopping!
xoxo

Summer Favorites

Happy September everyone! With fall (and Halloween related posts) looming upon us I think it's high time to wrap up the summer.

Beauty - 

I discovered the magic of cream based makeup applied by a Beauty Blender this summer. I found a new (to me) beauty guru on YouTube, Nicole Guerriero, who has a highlighting & contouring video in which she uses drugstore products on one side of her face and high end products on the other side of her face. IMO by the time she was done I could not see the difference. With that, I went right to my local CVS and picked up all my supplies (minus the Beauty Blender, you can find that at Sephora). You can find her video here.

Fashion - 

Rompers, jumpsuits, short shorts, menswear...these were a few of my favorite summer things. Also, this was my first summer with a very active child (last summer he was just learning to walk). So I developed a new appreciation for flats. I rocked a pair of black Forever 21 sandals literally all.summer. Note to self for next summer - stock up on cute sandals and flats! I will always look back fondly on the summer of 2014 as the summer of the onesie.

Fitness - 

I am happy to report that after my beginning of the summer injury I have finally lost the last of my baby weight. Although my body will never be the same as before (that's what tummy tucks are for) I have a new found appreciation for the human body and am in the best shape of my life. Coming off such a great summer of fitness I decided to parlay that into getting my Spin instructor certification! I am so excited for a new chapter in my life (and fitness) and I am looking forward to kick ass via Spin bike!

Mom Stuff - 

We went through two types of flotation devices for Cy this summer. One of them was a life vest with an Orca fin on it (so cute) which Cy hated and a Puddle Jumper (which we discovered by the end of the summer) that he (and we) loved. The Puddle Jumper is well priced and Coast Guard certified. It's also not super bulky which I think is what Cy's problem was with his Orca vest. 

My favorite blog post of the summer was a #TBT post where I wrapped up our Disney trip. I love going back and reading this post every so often. It quells the "Disney vacation itch" for a little while. 

My least favorite blog post of the summer was my Science of Twitter post. Although I liked the idea of this blog post, I feel like it came off all wrong. One day I will do a rewrite.