October Favorites

I could say "Where has the time gone?" or "Sheesh! I can't believe it is already November!"  ....but I won't jibber-jabber. Let's cut the small talk and just jump right in with the favorites!  

I have three favorites that should have been in this skincare-esque section but only two have been photographed.  The first are these facial cleansing pads.  They are soft on one side and textured on the other for exfoliation.  I have been using these to apply my toner after cleansing my face and also in the morning with my astringent as a morning refresher to remove my evening skincare products. They work well, do the job, but I will say they aren't actually lint free.  No big deal, though.

The second item is the Burt's Bees sensitive eye cream.  It only takes a tiny bit.  It is gentle, but applies a perfect amount of moisture under my eyes.  It has a slightly minty scent that I quite enjoy. I don't feel any kind of tingle, though, from that.  

The third item, which isn't photographed, is my pure virgin coconut oil.  The brand doesn't matter so much, as long as it is as pure as I can get it.  I have been slathering myself in it.  I've loved using coconut oil as a body moisturizer for some time now, but have really appreciated it since being pregnant.  I feel good about using it, it smells fantastic, and is a godsend for a pregnant belly.  I think of the hot sauce commercial... "I put that sh*t on everything!"  I use it to remove my makeup, I use it in the ends of my hair (lightly) after showering, I use it all over my body as a moisturizer, I will eat a tablespoon of it for health benefits, I cook with it......  it is amazing stuff!  Get some!

In the fragrance field there are two perfumes I have reached for the most often.  The first is Coach Poppy.  My husband tells me this is one of his favorites from all of my perfumes.  That is my queue to wear it more often! HA!  Who doesn't want to smell delicious for their husband?  I have a full review on Coach Poppy HERE!  

The second perfume is L de Lolita Lempicka.  This is one of my favorites from my stash.  I've come to enjoy it year round.  I also have a full review on this perfume that you can find HERE!

This last grouping of products is mostly eye shadow but I also have a blush and eyeliner tossed in.  I have gone simple with my shadow this past month.  I've let my lips be the stand out, but because I have rotated with numerous different colors I couldn't include any for an actual favorite.

In the top, left is Ulta Mystique eyeshadow.  On the bottom, center is Ulta Truffle eyeshadow.  In the top, right is Milani baked blush in Rose D'Oro.

To the left is Michael Marcus Amazing eyeshadow. In the middle is Ulta Toast eyeshadow. To the right is Ulta Silk eyeshadow.

The eyeshadow here is from the Wet n Wild 8 pan palette Comfort Zone. The very bottom pan on the right side is the one I have been using a lot.  The eyeliner is Rimmel Scandaleyes in nude.

All of the shadows I have shown (with the exception of one) have been worn completely (or nearly completely) on their own.  As I said, I have been going for a very simple eye this past month.  The colors I have been wearing hold their own, though.  I may go in and define the crease with a deeper color, but beyond that, these are pretty much it.  

The exception that I mentioned above is the Michael Marcus shadow.  I haven't been wearing that on my eyes.  I have actually been using an angled liner brush and brushing it through my brows.  It defines nicely and isn't overpowering or too bold.  

As for the blush, it is an amazing fall color.  It gives that chilled look to the cheeks, but if you tap off your brush to remove the glitter specks, it is quite natural looking.  I highly recommend that color for everyone, light or dark complected. 

I think I may have included this liner in my favorites for last month.  It lasts nicely and also gives a bright eyed, awake look.  I can sometimes have reddish on the waterline and this perfectly cancels that out.

That is pretty much it for this month.  Let me know the items you have been wearing/using through the month of October.

April 2013 Monthly Favorites

I'm trying to do better at remembering to post about my monthly favorites.  I think I've done okay so far, remembering the past couple of months.  HA! :-)

I'm really trying to keep my selections down to a minimum because, really, even on a product heavy month...  there are only a small handful of items I keep coming back to and really enjoying using. 

In the blush realm this month, I've busted out pretty much all brights.  There were one or two days where the weather was gloomy and I went for a more toned down blush, but for the most part, I was lusting after cheery colors.   The colors here are:

• elf: Pink Passion (square pan to the left)
• Sonia Kashuk: Sunset (round pan at the top right)
• Revlon: Flushed (round pan at the bottom)

Pink Passion and Sunset are both powder blushes and Flushed is a cream.  They all are quite pigmented so I slowly build up the color.

I tend to use my makeup brushes just out of habit and not thinking too much about them.  However, I've been using these two elf brushes like crazy since I bought them, and each day I think about how amazingly well they apply my makeup.  They cost me $3.00 and work wonders!  On the left is their flat top powder brush which I have been using to buff in my liquid foundation.  On the right is the small stipple brush which I have been using to apply my under eye brightener and concealer.  

I have been wearing a lot of brighter lipsticks this month, but one I have had in my purse and tend to top up with, or have used on its own from the get go, multiple times...  is Revlon's Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti.  It is a bright, orangey-coral without being obnoxious.

The shadows, I am showing because I have been wearing the brighter colors as liners.  While I adore fun colored liquid liners (like Urban Decay, for example), I've found that using a powder gives me a softer look, which I've been enjoying.   These are in the I ❤ Matte palette from Wet n Wild.

My skin took a turn for the worse this past month because I stopped taking one of my oral medications my dermatologist had me on.  I wanted to try and tackle my skin issues without ingesting a pill.   Everything flared up and was horrible for a couple of weeks.   I repurchased some Jason's Tea Tree oil and a gritty exfoliant to use.  The tea tree oil I have been using after washing my face.  I wet a cotton ball with cold water and then drip 2-3 drops of the oil on.  That is wiped all over my face as an astringent. Also, on individual pimples, I drop a bit onto a q-tip and use that to apply directly to the spot. The exfoliant I chose is just a cheap, Kroger brand scrub that is medicated with salicylic acid.  While this scrub is one of the more coarse kinds, I don't have problems with it as long as I'm being gentle and not trying to scrub away the flesh of my face.  HAHAHA!  The two of these things seem to have really helped.  At the very  moment, I have a single blemish that I'm treating but everything else has dried up and gone away.

I was all over the place with my perfume this past month.   The three I've worn the most are Coach Poppy, Dior Miss Dior, and L De Lolita Lempicka.  Coach is the sweetest and the one my husband commented one night and said he liked out of all of my perfumes.  This is also the one he bought for me this last Christmas.  Miss Dior is a delicate scent that makes me feel very feminine.  I wanted to save this one as more of a special perfume, but I love it so much that I've been wearing the heck out of it.   The final one (L de Lolita Lempicka) was a bit strange of a choice because it is a perfume I love in the fall and winter.  It is such a cozy perfume because it has notes of cinnamon.  However, I found that in the heat, it is just as beautiful of a fragrance.  It is different in the warmth, though!  Instead of this cozy, comforting perfume... it is a relaxing, sandy beach kind of perfume.  It is amazing how different it seems in different seasons!  I'm thrilled it works so well in heat, too, though, because this is one of my all time favorite perfumes!  This just means I get to wear it year round!

Coach Poppy Perfume

My husband gifted this perfume to me this past Christmas.  I first came across it in a magazine as a paper sample.  I swiped as much of it as I could onto my skin to test out.  I absolutely adored it and decided right then and there that I was going to own it at some point.  :-)

Poppy opens very crisp, fresh, and clean.  Initially, it can be strong, but give it a bit to settle in and it is beautiful.  A lot of people say they pick up on cucumber when first sprayed on.  I don't know that I can 100% say I smell that, but it does have a similar fresh kind of feel to it.  It quickly moves into a more sweet fragrance, but not sugar-sweet, in my opinion.  I pick up a good mix of floral in there, too.

About 15-20 minutes in, I know this will sound crazy, but there is something reminiscent of Curve.  Not full blown, by any means, but when I'm sniffing my wrists I get this odd deja-vu.  The two must have some similar notes in them.

At the 45 minute mark, the fragrance has settled into the skin and melded better.  Instead of seeming like a perfume that is just hovering over the skin, it has mixed in.  Now, is when I start smelling more sweet notes.  Only when breathed deeply, however, I pick up a sugar scent and the vanilla. Also, it seems that it is on the second inhale that I really notice it...almost as though the exhale from the first breath has to warm up the skin in order for those sugared layers to come to life.   It is a warm, sweet note...tons of candies and vanilla combined.  Maybe the marshmallow is what I am smelling. That is what it reminds me of at this point.  It is an extremely delicious scent.  Now, if these were the notes, constantly, from top to bottom... I would probably get bored of it and crave something to mellow it out.

I find that it has quite good projection.  My husband tells me he is able to smell it on me when I'm near him.  I prefer a perfume that can be smelled when semi close.  I don't want it to be so weak that you can only smell it if you hug me, however, I don't want it so strong that you can smell me from across the room.  Being able to pick up hints of my perfume's scent while sitting/standing near me is fine.

While the looks of the packaging and the bottle shouldn't matter, I can't help but appreciate a lovely presentation. I think the bottle is very pretty!  It isn't overly fancy, in that it is just an oval(ish) bottle, but it has a pink juice inside that lends a girlish feel to the whole perfume. I really adore the lid.  It is a golden ball with Coach texts embossed.  It says things like "coach", "love", "poppy", "1941", etc. Below that is a delicate little red orange (It has taken me FOUR MONTHS to realize this isn't red, but orange. Wow, brilliance at its finest right here!) ribbon, which is attached by an elastic.   Even the box that it comes in is eye catching.  It is a red orange with white and spatterings of yellow text.  The top, where the logo is show, is golden.  I think the bottle is pretty enough to be out on display on a mirrored tray.  Mine, however, is kept in its box in a corner shelving unit to preserve the perfume.  It is best to store fragrance in dark, cooler areas, so I have tried to do this as much as possible.

Over all, I really enjoy this perfume.  I have been wearing it quite often, even though most believe it is best suited to spring and summer. I just can't get enough of it.  As with any fragrance, it is very personal, too.  While I really love that it goes from crisp and fresh to sweet and youthful, others will think that somehow makes it boring.

The official notes are as follows...
Top: sweet, cucumber, marshmallow
Mid: mandarin orange, vanille, freesia, water lily
Base: gardenia, rose, sandalwood, jasmine, Virginia cedar