Fall Favorites Day 2

I'm back folks!

I'm going to cover my fall favorites in the beauty department today. :) 

My current favorite product actually came by way of my first Birchbox.  I'm constantly moisturizing my lips, and when I saw that there was ChapStick in my box, I was so excited!  And I must say that I am really enjoying the double ended stick, with the different formulas for daytime and nighttime.  I do prefer the nighttime formula, and I have included it into my daily and nightly routine! :)

Amazeballs.

Speaking of my nightly routine, I make sure to clean my face every night, and the product I've recently been using is Clean & Clear Deep Action Cream Cleanser.  I LOVE how clean my face feels after I've used it, and my face has really cleared up.  I know that it's difficult to really suggest a cleanser because everyone has different skin, but for me, it really seems to be working.  I also like to use Pond's Wet Cleansing Towellettes Evening Soothe.  They have an amazing scent!  The first day I used them, when I laid down my husband immediately commented on "how good my face smelled". Ha!  They really are incredible, especially if I wore makeup during that day.  I got both of these products at Target, but I'm pretty sure you can find these products at any drugstore!

While I know that these weren't really "fall" items, keeping your face clean is pretty important! ;)

Now that I've talked about how I clean the makeup off my face, let's talk about fall makeup! I cannot stress enough that, as much as I love high end beauty products, I just can't afford them.  So the products I will be talking about will typically be drugstore.  I do occasionally talk myself into the higher end products....I really have no will power.

I'm only going to discuss a couple different makeup products for this particular post.  Lipsticks are my absolute favorite beauty product, so hopefully I don't spend too much time with them, but I make NO promises y'all! 

There are SO many options for eye shadows out there!  I am such a big fan of Morphe Brushes eye shadows, however, the fall colors I wanted to order are out of stock. :(  Now, the amazing thing about their shadows is that they are each $2.  Pretty awesome!  As I mentioned, I do typically buy my beauty products at the the drugstore, and Revlon is one of my favorite brands!  Their PhotoReady Primer, Shadow & Sparkle palettes are some of the best!  My favorites in these are Impressionist and Avant Garde.  I also like the ColorStay 16 Hour Eye Shadow in the shade Decadent.  

Avant Garde

Impressionist

Decadent

Now for blushes!  I love NYX blushes.  For the fall, I like using a cool pink shade, however I like any pink shade when it comes to blush!  When referring to NYX blushes, I like the shades Peach, Dusty Rose, Pinky, and Angel.

Angel

Dusty Rose

Pinky

Peach

Onto my final, and most favorite part of makeup, LIPSTICK! :)  First, I'll talk about my favorite Revlon product.  The Revlon Lip Butter's are so moisturizing and go on so smooth.  The one that I tend to be gravitating to is the shade Sugar Plum.  It has a plum tint to it and I love the deeper hues during the fall.  NYX Matte Lipsticks are another of my favorites! The shades Alabama, Perfect Red, and Siren are, in my opinion, the best! I like using matte lipsticks because I can add a gloss to give a glisten, or leave the matte alone and it is still a beautiful result! 

Sugar Plum

Alabama

Perfect Red 

Siren

Lastly, I'm going to discuss a product that I recently ordered online.  I'd never heard of Gerard Cosmetics until I started watching Jaclyn Hill videos.  If you haven't heard of her, here's a link to her YouTube channel. She created a lipstick similar to what we've seen on Kylie Jenner recently, and also 2 glosses.  I am a HUGE fan of these products, but my favorite is definitely the lipstick, 1995.  I was a little worried about ordering lip products online, and from a company that I didn't know much about, but it was worth it!  The glosses, Rose Hill & Butter Cream, are also great, I do not usually wear glosses but I find myself grabbing them when I want to add a little something more to my lips.

LOVE

Check My Friend's Blog!
I've talked about my favorite makeup products, but I'm going to do a plug for my best friend's makeup blog because there are many things that I just won't cover here!  While I may be able to tell you my favorite products, she can help you out with how to wear it! :) Her name is Lauren Stratton.  Check her page out here!  I can tell you from experience, she is pretty dang good at what she does!!

I'm going to end my fall favorites with nail polishes!  OPI polishes may cost a little extra, but I love them!  The colors I'm loving for this fall are You Don't Know Jacques (which I discussed in a previous post), Black Cherry Chutney, and Unfor-Greta-bly Blue.  Black Cherry Chutney was originally from a Spring 2008 line and I actually found it in the clearance section of Ulta along with the Unfor-Greta-bly Blue which is from the Germany collection - Fall 2012.  While I may have only spent $3 a piece on them, they work great for this season! I have got to say, I think I'm getting my money's worth with those!  

I'm also loving my OPI Matte Top Coat.  It's nice to be able to use a top coat to make a matte finish to my nails, because sometimes I don't necessarily want the shine!

Also, I cannot always afford to get my nails done.  I tend to do my own nails now, however I do have trouble keeping polish on.  So I started looking into a way to get a "gel manicure" without the costs and found Gelous Advanced Nail Gel Coat (which I found at Sally's Beauty Supply).  I just do a couple layers before the polish then finish with a top coat, and it stays on until I want to make a change!

You Don't Know Jacques 

Black Cherry Chutney 

Unfor-Greta-bly Blue

Gel Coat

I believe I've FINALLY finished my fall favorites.  If you made it through all of that, I'm so sorry I just kept going and going. 

If anyone has any any topics they'd like me to discuss, I'd love y'all's input! Just leave a comment below and I'll do my best to make sure I cover whatever topics y'all are interested in! 

See you soon!

XOXO.

Fall Favorites!

I changed up the title of the blog, hope y'all like!

So since yesterday was the first day of fall, I feel like I should talk about my favorite fashion/beauty items for the season! 

First up, scarves!  I love the cool, crisp weather because it is the perfect opportunity to add a scarf into the mix, and I'm an absolute sucker for scarves. Many boutiques are selling Zara inspired scarves this fall and they are a must! 

I found these amazing scarves on Belles and Whistles Boutique.  These were found on their Facebook page, I have not found them on their website, I believe they may be doing a preorder via Facebook, and the link is available HERE.

I also found similar scarves at a local boutique here, Bella Ragazza Boutique.  They are definitely worth every penny, plaid scarves are so versatile. 

I went a little light on the scarf front, only showing plaid.  Honestly any and all scarves work, but these were my favorite I've seen recently. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but I also LOVE my black and white chevron infinity scarf with red monogram.  It's perfect, with not too much print and makes it easy to pair with almost anything!  I can dress it up or down!

Second, my all time favorite part of Fall and Winter.....BOOTS! :)  Whether they are cowboy boots, rain boots, riding boots, they are all my favorites.  I always find myself drawn to designer boots, Tory Burch, Minnetonka, etc., but my wallet doesn't allow for me to do anything other than put them in the online shopping cart and then quietly exit the screen.  It's always heartbreaking. Ha!  Now, I do enjoy shopping at Zappos and 6pm, I often find myself drawn to shopping the boutiques, not just for clothing and accessories, but for shoes.  They often have designer style shoes for a DRAMATIC price difference.  My current favorite site, in the shoe area, would be Modern Vintage Boutique.  This is actually my most favorite online boutique currently.  The boots in the picture below are some of my favorite, and they are $46! They remind me of Minnetonka boots, and are much, much cheaper!

LOVE these from Modern Vintage Boutique

Since I'm talking about boots, let's talk accessories.  I have never loved  boot socks, but they are starting to grow on me....slowly.  Once Modern Vintage posted their clothes for fall, I found an appreciation for boot socks, and they have some ADORABLE ones! The ones below can be found HERE.  The cost is $32.

I could go on for days and days about all of my favorite things.  Boots, shift dresses, sweaters, etc., but since neither of us have all day, I'll end my fall favorite fashion on my favorite pieces of clothing, cardigans! UGHHH I just loooove them!! They are so great because you can wear a lightweight cardigan if the weather permits, or you can wear a big, chunky one over a lightweight top.  Basically, they are the best!  My absolute favorite item is the Emily Maynard sweater.  I found it last year, and it looks like it'll be equally popular this year.  I know that I've seen it on Belles and Whistles site this year, but I imagine many boutiques will have it in stock. The price of it on Belles and Whistles is $42!  It's definitely worth it, I got it last winter and I've already worn it this year.  It's absolutely one of my favorite pieces.

 There is ONE more cardigan I want to talk about.  I didn't find it on a boutique site, but on Amazon.  I've fought against buying it (though a friend did, so I'll be borrowing from her!!) however the price is ideal so I don't know how much longer I'll be able to hold out! It's soooo amazing!  If you aren't into skulls, it can be a perfect sweater to wear to work on Halloween (if you are allowed to wear something like that!) and it's only $13! Amazing! You can find it HERE.

I didn't get a chance to do the Beauty side of my Fall Favorites, but I think that I've made this long enough.  I will wrap up tomorrow with beauty products and whatever else I think I may need to talk about! ;) Hope you enjoyed!

See you soon!

XOXO.

Weekend Catch-Up

Here I am again!  3 days in a row....I could get used to this! :)  

So because I don't have any new clothing or makeup reviews (if you'd like to comment on things you'd like reviewed I would GLADLY test things out for ya!), I decided to do a little flashback to this weekend's wedding festivities and the shower I helped set up for the bride last month.

Not using this site for the last 6 months means that a lot of the things I did were not talked about!  I'm going to try to catch up as best I can, so just deal with it! Ha ha! ;)  I hope it won't be too boring!!

Bridal Shower

When my husband and I were married almost 3 years ago (Woah!), his godmother gave us a wedding shower.  So when his cousin got engaged, his mother informed me she would be giving his bride-to-be a shower and of course, I volunteered to help! :)

The happy couple are so sweet!  They are outdoorsy so we wanted it to have a rustic feel!  I definitely think we succeeded.  It was beautiful!  We didn't play many games, "Who has the groom?".  We just passed out envelopes with pictures in them, and whoever had the picture of the groom won a little gift.  The other was a mason jar full of Hershey's Kisses and we had the guests guess how many were in the jar.  A couple easy games that didn't take a lot of time before we got to the presents! :)

Homemade Sugar Scrub Party Favors!

Hubby's Aunt made the silhouettes! Beautiful!

The wine bottle I painted a couple years ago 

Cupcake dress :)

Myself & the bride-to-be!

I am thankful that my mother-in-law asked for my help, I love decorating for parties, and cooking and all that jazz.  Such a good time!  It was a successful little get together and I believe the bride loved her gifts!

The Wedding!

The happy couple exchanged vows & their first kiss this past weekend.  It was a beautiful ceremony in a GORGEOUS church! 

The First Kiss! 

It was such a fun night with family and friends!  I love weddings because you get to spend such a happy event with the people that you love the most!  I hope the night was so memorable for these two and that their lives together are filled with nothing but happiness! :)

Also, my dress for the wedding was from ShopSosie.com.  I am loving that site! It's a shift dress, which I love!  It is a perfect dress for fall.  It's the Middleway Shift Dress in the color Olive.  The original cost of the dress was $45, but because I purchased it during a sale, I got $5 off.  

I was a little worried about it being too short, but being 5'2 does have some advantages, and though it may look a little short in the picture, it actually was a great length!  I did have a little issue with getting the wrinkles out of the dress, but after I hand washed it and hung it outside to dry, they came right out!!  I'd definitely check the site out, they have some amazing deals and their clothes are adorable! 

See you soon!

XOXO.

My First Birchbox! :)

Hey Y'all!

Exciting news today!  My first Birchbox has finally arrived!!!  I wasn't expecting it until Thursday so I was pretty pumped when I saw that I had a package!

A little peek at the inside of the box

First of all, let's talk about how ADORABLE the box is!  The little note inside the box said that there were 3 different patterns for this box and I've got to tell you I LOVE mine!

It isn't a terribly big box, but does it really need to be?  The membership is $10 a month, and I was worried it wasn't worth it, but I was completely wrong!  While some of the samples weren't huge, they will serve their purpose, so that I can try a new product and decide just how much I love it and if it's worth it to purchase a full size.

Inside the box I got ChapStick, Whish Shave Crave in Acai Grapefruit, Juara Candlenut Body Creme, dr. brandt pores no more vacuum cleaner, Caudalie Vinoperfect Radiance Serum, and Noir Cosmetics Long-Wear Eyeliner.  Sounds like quite a bit, right?  Especially for $10!  I also had a free gift with my subscription, which was a sample of Harvey Prince Hello perfume, and Cynthia Rowley Eyeliner.

I wanted to review each product, but I was too excited and just had to talk about the box now! Ha!  My impatience got the better of me today.  I can tell you a little about the products that I immediately tried out!  The ChapStick has a day formula and night formula, with the day formula having an SPF 12 built in.  I will say I liked how the daytime formula felt on my lips, I am always putting moisterizer on my lips, whatever it may be.  I haven't used the nighttime formula but I imagine I'm going to like it as well.

Let's take a second to discuss this Harvey Prince Hello perfume.  I'm always worried about samples of perfume, as I am very picky with what I choose to spray on myself.  My current favorite is Coach Poppy Flower.  When I opened the packaging, before I even sprayed the little sample, I could smell this wonderful, floral, citrus-y scent.  It was so good!! I want a scent that it going to make me feel happy and calm, and let me tell you, this one does just that!

These are the only two products I have tried, but the other items I have heard great things about and will definitely review once I have finally tried it out!

See you soon!

XOXO.


Update:  The Noir Cosmetics eyeliner is great!  Pencil eyeliners are generally not my favorite, but this one is making me a believer!  The product just glides across the lid....perfection!

Soooo.....

I missed an entire season....FAIL. 

Fall is officially here, and honestly I couldn't be happier.  Fall is by far my favorite season!  I love getting out my boots, oversized sweaters, and of course I love the cooler weather!

With a new season comes new clothes, new purses, and a change in makeup!

Boots never go out of style folks! Leggings, boots, and oversized tops are staple for fall & winter!  While I have previously stated that leggings are not pants, which I stand by, paired with the right tops your outfit could look perfect!
I have not had a chance to get crazy and shop a lot for fall clothing!  However, a new outlet has opened near my in-laws and I HAVE managed to make a few trips to check it out! ;)  I think it could be trouble y'all!

My purchases there have been completely necessary and NOT AT ALL frivolous....though my husband disagreed!

The first purchase I will talk about will probably not be worn this year which is pretty heartbreaking for me, but it's honestly a spring coat and though I believe I could pull it off in the fall, I will not be trying!
While I had no interest in walking into Wilson's Leather, I cannot tell you how excited I was to find this trench!  It's a Jessica Simpson Ruffle-Trim Belted Trench Coat! And while I found it listed online at Macy's originally for $180, I got it for $60! Such a steal!!!

Soooo Cute! :)

Next was definitely my favorite purchase from my first adventure to the new outlets!  The Coach store is always my weakness, especially when I'm given a 50% off coupon to use throughout the store!! (This included clearance items!) I made it to the shoes before I started feeling like I would not make it out without holding a receipt.  Alas, the shoes were not in my size, and I moved onto the clearance items.  Lo and behold, there was this bag sitting on a middle shelf, backlit and staring me right in the face.  It was the only one sitting there and I asked an employee if it was in the correct place, and she told me that a worker had it on hold and decided against it so they had to put it back on the floor, but that it was the ONLY one left.  THE ONLY ONE!!! Plus it was a clearance item AND I got 50% off.  Basically it was feeling more and more like I had to have it....SOOOOO I bought it! Ha ha!  It was a Coach Peyton Leather Nancy Satchel.  The color is Sand, which I basically ADORE! The original price was $378 but as I said it was on clearance then I got 50% off.  I believe I ended up paying about $110 which was such a great price for such an amazing bag!

UGH So Gorgeous!

That's all I could manage on this particular trip (my husband was so glad to see that was all I purchased! Ha!).  But of course, it being only a 25 minute drive from my in-law's house, it's going to be difficult to stay away! My next adventure ended with bags once again!
New York & Company is one of my favorites!  They were not having a particularly amazing sale, so I won't be putting the costs, though I believe my whole purchase was around $45-50.  I tried out a classic button up, I'd outgrown my only one in the last few years and when I saw these I knew I needed one! The weather was about to start changing as well, so when I saw this brown/taupe sweater and realized I didn't own anything that particular color, I knew I needed it as well!

Excuse my messy dressing room!

Didn't get the deep blue top underneath! :(

Next for my FAVORITE purchase from that day!! We walked into Rack Room Shoes (in which I had no reason to purchase shoes so I wasn't planning to buy anything), but of course there was a pair of Steve Madden sandals that were staring at me!  There was a sale, Buy 1 Get 1 Half off, so a friend and I decided we'd get together and save a little money! The bows on the sandals reminded me of Kate Spade! I believe with both shoes and the sale it was $50 or $60!

LOVE those bows!

I also haven't had a chance to really get a lot of new makeup, obviously that will be changing once the "glow" of summer has worn off! I have made a new nail polish purchase at Target! It's OPI 'You Don't Know Jacques!' LOVE!!!

Y'all, I've made this way too long!! I'll end soon, I just wanted to close on something new that I'm trying out!  We recently took a trip to Washington D.C., my husband has a cousin who lives right outside the city, and she suggested BirchBox.  So, obviously, I signed up and am patiently waiting for my first box!  I'll upload a review as soon as I get it! :)

See you soon!

XOXO.

Spring Has Sprung

Well folks, it's springtime!  And while in Kentucky we are still getting snow (REALLY!) I am officially in spring mode! That being said, I think it's time to get into the Spring Trends for 2014.
Of course, since the weather will be warming up, the colors are getting warmer as well!

Yellow and Pastels are ALWAYS a spring staple.  Pale pinks, blues, and greens are associated with springtime and in the fashion world it is no different!

2014 shows a preference for blues!  I can definitely get with that, blue is a great color on so many people!

What about the clothes?  We can see the colors that designers are using this spring, but what kind of clothes are they making!?

This year, tribal prints are going to be big!  We saw that tribal prints were a big hit last year, and this year will be no different.  Whether it be shorts, dresses, shirts, I believe tribal will be a big part of the spring and summer collections from many designers!  Prints are always popular, and this spring, look for patterned and printed items being a big hit!

Lace was very popular last year, and it will remain this year.  You can never go wrong with a dress with a little lace :)

That was just a brief overview of what we have to look forward to this spring!  I cannot wait until I can break out my colors!

XOXO

Fashion Faux Pas #1

It's been quite a while since my last post, but I'm back! :)

I wanted today's post to be about the one thing that I have been guilty of doing, but not particularly proud of.  Girls today, especially college girls, don't seem to grasp the idea that leggings are not pants.  While they may be stylish, and I will be the first to admit they are very comfy, wearing a t-shirt and pairing it with those comfy leggings to go out in public is breaking fashion rule #1.

Problem #1... When not wearing a tunic or dress with leggings, a simple t-shirt is not covering up your butt.  While you may not see your underwear when you look in the mirror on your way out, I can assure you, we see them.  Loud and clear.  And worst of all, when you think that because you chose not to wear underwear on that particular day, it makes it okay.  Lack of underwear just means we see your butt.  No thank you.

Problem #2... Camel toe.  Girl problems.  It happens to the best of us.  However, wearing a small chambray top with leggings won't cover up the camel toe that those leggings are creating.  

Basically, the moral to this story, cover it up.  Like I said, I am guilty of walking around my house wearing a t-shirt and leggings, but I do not walk out of the house if my butt isn't covered and I know there won't be any terrible camel toe appearances.  I will not say I think you should stop being comfortable, by all means, be comfy.  Just be smart.  Look in the mirror.  If you are with a friend, do the bend over test....if you bend and any part of your booty is visible, consider a change. 

I do what I can to be helpful and not rude, but this is becoming a real issue in today's society. 

XOXO.