Favorite Eyeshadow Palette: Smashbox Cosmetics Palette in Classifeyed

What is my new go to palette? Smashbox Cosmetics Eyeshadow Palette in Classifeyed. This palette comes with six eye shadows in: vanilla, light bronze, brown, ivory, light mauve, and deep eggplant. In other words this palette is perfect for one neutral/brown look and one purple look. This is great for everyday look because each color combination is mild enough for the day but definitely not boring at all! This palette can also be used for night by adding more of the darkest color. This palette also has great packaging; it comes in a shiny black hard plastic case and has a very large mirror on the inside.  The best part? This Smashbox palette is only $15! can't beat that! :)

product gone wrong: ooh la lift

so usually when i'm going to buy something i research it first.. or in other words i read a ton of reviews on sephora's website or i watch video reviews on youtube.. and i had done that..but for a different product.. so when i got to sephora i happened to discover Benefit's Ooh La Lift "instant under-eye brightening boost" and i bought it. i knew nothing about the product.. but i figured benefit was a good brand so why not just try it out right? well unfortunately, it has been a disappointment.. first of all, it didn't really do anything to "brighten" up my under eyes.. but worse than that.. it eventually did the opposite! after i started using this product i started to notice that i kept getting dark smudges under my eyes..which was strange for me..because i was using the same eyeliner combination as i had been for a while (and hadn't had a problem with) so why was it all of a sudden smudging under my eyes? so i stopped wearing eyeliner (gel liner with powder over it) on my waterline for a few days but the smudging kept happening! so then i considered all of the possible changes i had made previous to this smudging and realized that the only change made had been this new "eye brightener" so i stopped using it one day but still without eyeliner on the waterline and no problem! then i added the eyeliner back on the waterline and still no problem! so i guess the problem = this product. boo :(

nail adventures: christmas nails

for this look i used Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Emerald City with a Bon Bons polish with green, red, and silver glitter on top of that. Merry Christmas!

happy hair: Macadamia Natural Oil Deep Repair Masque

Macadamia Oil Repair Masque
after seeing several rave review videos on youtube about this product i kinda figured i had to try it out.. i have been using it for a couple of months now..




what: deep conditioning hair treatment for damaged hair
how: in shower, once a week (can be used twice a week), 7 minute treatment

pros:
-i love the smell.. both while using it and the way it makes my hair smell afterwards as well
-the tub lasts a long time
-has really improved my hair


cons:
-it's a tad pricey.. but considering that you only use it once a week and don't have to use much.. it lasts for a long time..so the price (i believe $28 ish) isn't too bad
-the wow effect only really lasts about a day after use (this only means that the super soft hair feeling only lasts about a day.. the improving quality continues to last)


overall:
i think it's totally worth it and i will continue to use it and probably buy more in the future and i look forward to trying out other products from this brand..however, i'm not quite sure if it was the AMAZING product that other reviews let me believe. 

pass the butter please

so i have a confession to make... up until a few weeks ago i had never used body butter... why? simply because of the name. the idea of using something that sounded like food on my body kinda creeped me out! well let me tell you, never pass something up simply because of its name! because the stuff is truly amaaazzingg. a couple of weeks ago i was in sephora and they had their line of bath products on sale.. so i picked up a bottle of their exfoliating body scrub and was going to buy it to try out.. but then i discovered a kit of not only that but also body wash and body butter.. it was a super good deal and i loved the scent so i thought..why not!? let's try it out. and while the two washes were good..the body butter far out did them.. i mean i will always be a user of lotion..but this stuff is just great.. the texture is awesome.. no runny mess! i definitely look forward to adding body butter to my list of products to pick up :)

nail adventures: missglamorazzi's visions of sugar plums

this week's nail adventure was inspired by youtube's beauty guru MISSGLAMORAZZI... anyways this look is called Visions of Sugar Plums... and it is a purple gradient look covered in a sugary covering.. for this i used about six polishes.. a mix of about sinful colors professional, revlon, and sally hansen...although any polish would work as long as you have several polishes in a range of purple colors and a frosty/shimmery clear color for the top coat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4JoCBrtIuI&feature=fvhl

First Day of Break= Holiday Tag

1. Have you ever gone caroling?
yes! i was in the choir throughout my whole life and during high school we always went caroling to all of the younger school systems in the district. also, last year i went caroling with a group to collect donations for community care. i love christmas music!
2. Do you live where it snows?
i do! but i'm actually not a huge fan of snow.. although i do think it grows on me a little bit every year.. and of course i love winter clothing..boots, jackets, scarfs, sweaters... so i can't hate on the cold weather too much!
3. What holiday do you celebrate?
Christmas! :)
4. What are you doing for the holidays this year?
well all of my life christmas eve was for my dad's side of the family and christmas day was for my mom's.. except i no longer have contact with my dad or his side of the family.. so last year my mom and i (my brothers were with my dad) drove around trying to find somewhere to eat..well it turns out NO WHERE is open on christmas eve.. but we found that ihop was and that's where we ate our holiday meal.. so this year i'm not really sure what i'm going to be doing for christmas eve..probably eating a home cooked meal at home with my mom (we learned our lesson!) and baking cookies all night! yum. and then christmas day i'll wake up and celebrate christmas with my mom and brothers and then head over to my gramma's and celebrate with the rest of my mom's family.
5. What's your favorite holiday drink?
hot chocolate! no explanation needed!
6. Candy cane or ginger bread men?
candy canes! i love them! and i'm not a huge fan of ginger bread anyways.. so candy canes all the way! i've had two so far this season!
7. What's your favorite holiday christmas song?
i love christmas music..so this is an extremely hard question for me..how do i pick just one? although, one song that i always find myself singing or humming is Carol of the Bells. <3
8. What is the weirdest gift you have ever received?
probably the weirdest gift i've ever gotten on christmas was a Guinea pig.. but don't worry..it wasn't wrapped! :) i named her piglet and she was the cutest thing ever..unfortunately she is no longer with us. rip iggy.
9. What is at the top of your gift list?
well i guess the thing i am most excited to receive would be a set of brushes from sigma..and i'm pretty sure that was literally the first thing and therefore the top of my list :P 
10. What is most important about the holidays to you? 
i'm not a religious person..and i know that the "true" meaning of christmas is about the birth of jesus and all of that.. and that's great for people who do celebrate that.. but for me personally, christmas and the holiday season are more about family and friends and giving to those that you love. 


this tag has been taken from a combination of holiday tags on youtube

youtube beauty guru inspirations

the reason i started my beauty blog has a lot to do with the beauty world on youtube.. i unfortunately do not at this time have the video or editing equipment necessary to make good videos (maybe in the future!?!) but i still wanted to contribute to the beauty world and the result of course was this blog.. so i decided that i wanted to do a shout out to my top ten favorite beauty gurus of the moment.. and hopefully one day my blog and possibly future videos can be as good as theirs :)

1. meganheartsmakeup
2. missglamorazzi
3. macbarbie07
4. xsparkage
5. makeupmedic
6. makeupgeekTV
7. makeupbytiffanyd
8. allthatglitters21 and juicystar07
9.swalkermakeup
10.queenbeauty


these are not necessarily in any particular reason..and there are many other gurus i watch and love..but these are ten (technically eleven lol) of my favorites..check them out :)

nail adventures: the dark night...

or plum night..which ever you prefer.. but before getting into that i have something to admit... i had naked nails for two days.. tragedy i know!.. lol i'm just kidding..it really isn't that big of a deal but i do hate not having painted nails..but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.. and i guess it's good to give your nails a little break every once and a while.. so right now i am wearing Revlon Nail Enamel in Plum Night.. i chose this color because i have several holiday parties/events this weekend and wanted a color that looked classy and would go with everything.. this color is a very dark purple but may be mistaken for black (wearing two coats) so just in case you fear black nails..stay away from this color.. but it really is purple! i promise i didn't change colors on you :)

a seventh grader's dilemma

a seventh grader's dilemma.. or my seventh grade dilemma to be exact... so there was this boy... he was so cute...HOLDUP.. this is a beauty blog..so my dilemma was much different.. when i was in middle school i had typical middle school skin.. and that meant pimples mixed with extremely dry skin in the winter.. and i know you are thinking that combination skin isn't just the problem of a middle schooler...but the real problem was not knowing how to deal with it. in seventh grade i didn't wear makeup..so i knew nothing about those fancy concealers.. and i didn't understand the importance of a good skincare routine.. so the only thing i could do was get rid of the dry skin! unfortunately that was another thing i wasn't very well informed on.. i probably sound like a total dork..i mean it's lotion right? how do you mess that up!? well i picked a lotion, Suave's moisturizing body lotion in sun-ripened raspberry.. a scent that i loved.. but there was a problem.. a specific word in general...BODY... so this lotion...which was not meant for my face.. just made my skin worse.. it took a while for me to realize (and a few helpful hints from my mother) that what i needed was a moisturizer meant specifically for my face.. i've gone through several of those..and am now currently using Clean and Clear's Morning Glow (OIL FREE) moisturizer. i use this every morning after washing my face.. it definitely makes my face feel more awake and brightens up sleepy skin..it even has spf 15.. so now thankfully, i am able to deal with dry skin without breaking out like crazy! 

the importance of protection

heat protection that is...
so for the longest time (all of my life up until this past summer) i did not use any heat protection on my hair.. thought process being that if i didn't straighten my hair that i didn't need it.. but i was not considering the amount of heat that comes with a blow dryer..which is well hot air.. and then for a while there i was curling my hair on a very regular basis... well i started to notice how dry my hair was getting..which was just not okay!! so i purchased some heat protection spray..and it really does make a difference.. i promise! my hair (especially the ends) does not feel as dry after blow drying it and well maybe it's all in my head but i feel like my hair has been stronger too :) i've been using John Frieda Frizz-Ease Heat Defeat Protective Styling Spray  and am now on my second bottle.