Pretty Little Beauty Swap Link Up!

It's time again for our Pretty Little Beauty Swap Link Up!!!

I hope that you are all continuing to enjoy this swap.....I know I am!

This month I was paired up with Kat from Kat Katastrophe.  I was fun getting to know her and I am surprised we had any time to chat because she is a busy busy little bee!  She just got an awesome job at Vera Bradley so I've been totally instagram stalking all of her new purchases!

I received my box from her today and I am totally in love!

First of all, she sent this AMAZING makeup bag.  I have never been in love with a bag more than I have with this one. It is perfect and SO me.  Seriously, if this was all she sent I would have been a happy camper.  But that's not all!

Inside the bag I found all of these goodies:

Trim Nail File in awesome bright colors
Freeman Mint & Lemon Clay Mask (since I told her I love masks)
Village Naturals Mineral Bath Soak (since I mentioned my addiction to baths)
Covergirl Flamed Up Mascara (I'm really excited to try this!)
Baby Lips Lip Balm in "Pink Shock" (Love!)
Sally Hansen Nail Polish in "Reef-Raf" (What a cute name!)
L'Oreal Paris Shadow Quad in "Brazen Bolds" (Such pretty colors!)

I love that the whole package had such a fun, bright, summery feel to it!! Oranges and pinks just make me feel happy!

Thanks again Kat!!

Last month there was a bit of a snafu with my package from our newest co-host Ange at Hairspray and High Heels so she ended up sending me a Sephora gift card because she basically rocks.  I ended up with a pretty sweet haul (ok I spent WAY more than the gift card....oops) so I will be sharing that soon too!

Now its time to show off what you got!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Boxy Charm Review - April

Boxy Charm time!

This box is $21.00 a month with free shipping and is a “beauty box subscription that surprises you each month with the best beauty products from popular and chic brands. Each box contains full size and luxury size beauty samples from preferred well-known brands.” They aim to cover a whole look from makeup to nails, which I really like. 

I have to say, month they didn’t the adorable packaging that they usually do and that makes me sad. They have been tapering off of how cute the packaging is and this month they didn’t even try! The adorable packaging almost makes the box better to me in a way.  Yes, I guess pretty colored paper matters to me!

This month’s theme was “Strike a Pose” which I don’t quite get, but oh well. 

So here it is….the April Boxy Charm!  

            1)     Coolway Glow Finishing Oil – 3.3 oz. (FULL SIZE)

            I have not tried this stuff yet, but my first thought is it is WAY over priced!  $30 for three 

            ounces?!?  My guess is it is just like any other finishing oil I have tried and will make my 

            hair sleek…..but also greasy looking.

Full Size: $29.95 My Value: $29.95

            2)      Ofra Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick in “Hollywood”– .28 oz.  (FULL SIZE)

This is the second one of these I have gotten and I really disliked the first.  The color looked great in the tube, but terrible on my lips.  So….I didn’t have high hopes for this one either.  I was pleasantly surprised with the color, it wasn’t as bright as it seemed in the tube. That being said, it is still pretty drying.  My lips seem to get extra dry all the time, so this just doesn’t work for me.  Kinda bummed.

Full Size: $19.90 My Value: $19.90

3)   bellapierre Nail Polish in “Lavender” - .5 oz. (FULL SIZE)

I wish I wore nail polish.  But even if I did, I wouldn’t wear this color. Way too bright for me! Also, that’s a bit expensive for a nail polish right?

Full Size: $15.00 My Value: $15.00

4)  ModelCo BLUSH Cheek Powder “Cosmopolitan” – .28 oz. (FULL SIZE)

I love this! It’s seriously the perfect rosy pink color.  I just ran out of my blush that is very similar, so this will be a welcome addition to my makeup bag!

Full Size: $18.00 My Value: $18.00

5)  ModelCo Lip Liner in “Pomegranate” – .05 oz. (FULL SIZE)

Not sure I will be using this either. I rarely use lip liner and I can’t even tell what color this might be, but judging from the bottom of the pencil it is orangey brown and not appealing!

Full Size: $20.00 My Value: $20.00

Final Cost: $21.00

Final Value: $102.85

A first glance this has a fantastic value, but honestly, these products are WAY overpriced in my opinion! I wouldn’t pay full price for a single one of them!

This box honestly missed the mark for me, which bums me out.  I will only get use out of one of these products. I hope next month is better!

If you’d like to get Boxy Charm, you can sign up here!

(Also, I swear I’m not a review blog….I just like sharing these fun things! I have not been compensated for this review.)

 

Starbox Review - March

Starbox time!  

I almost completely forgot to post this review!  I'm thinking maybe it was because I was a little underwhelmed….

Last month I said I was on the verge on stopping this box…..but that was before I found out what the “quarterly gift” was for being a subscriber.  You guys?  They sent me a $35 credit to use in their store!  That’s like the price of two whole boxes.  I will be keeping this box just for that reason alone. That brings the retail price of each box down to $5.91 and I got to pick out some extra goodies that I really wanted!

If you don’t remember, Starbox is a monthly beauty box that is $15 a month (plus a few dollars S&H) and comes with 3-4 FULL SIZED products each time.  No tiny lotion samples!

The website says the makeup line is comparable to MAC, Chanel, Sephora and other department store lines.  It also says that the value of each monthly box ranges from $35.00 to $99.00.

This month’s box was a signature edition in the name of Ashley Hackman. Too bad I have no clue who that is.  The card says she is an Entrepreneur, Makeup Artist, and YouTube Sensation. Right. 

So here we go….the March Starbox!  

      1)     Starlooks Lipstick in “Boss”– .13 oz  (FULL SIZE)

Oh hey look. A red lipstick. Again. Ugh. Do I need to say anything more?

Full Size: $12.00 My Value: $12.00

     2)    Starlooks Lipliner in “Cherry Cedar”– 2.4 g. (FULL SIZE)

            And a red lipliner. How fitting. Also useless to me.

           Full Size: $12.00 My Value: $12.00

     3)    Starlooks Infinity Eyeliner in “Black Hole” – .12 oz. (FULL SIZE)

          Now here’s something that makes me happy! As most of you know I use a gel liner 

          every single day, so this will really come in handy. In fact, I have been using it for the 

          last few weeks since I got this. It is definitely comparable to my MAC gel liner.  My  

          only complaint it is takes a bit of extra work to get this to come off at night!

         Full Size: $13.00 My Value: $13.00

Final Cost: $17.58

Final Value: $37.00

Even though I hated two of the products, the gel liner more than made up for it.  I will get full usage of that and it is something I will be using every day! I will be keeping this box a few more months to see if the loyalty gift next quarter is still as great!

If you are curious, these are the items I picked out with my gift:

Starlooks Satin Lipstick in “Streep”

Starlooks Tendergloss in “Sugar Lips”

Starlooks Tendergloss in “Cherub”

Starlooks All Natural Lip Scrub

I actually like all of the colors I picked out!

What do you think?

If you’d like to try Starbox you can sign up here!

(Also, I swear I’m not a review blog….I just like sharing these fun things! I have not been compensated for this review.)

Busy Busy Busy

You guys.....tax season is kicking my butt this year!  As some of you know, I basically work at a bank.  With really, really rich clients. Well, those clients unfortunately have to pay a lot of taxes. I mean, just yesterday I cut a check for $950,000 to the IRS for someone. Ew.

Anywho, I am the one who has to actually cut the checks and get the payments made.  So yeah, I've been very very busy.  Which means no time to write.   I promise I will get back into the swing of things soon!

I will leave you with this.....an awesome pinterest recipe I tried and failed at. 

Nailed it!!

Man oh man was it terrible!  I let C pick out the sprinkles (I was making him treats for his first road trip....he is gone all weekend) so that's why they are brown instead of Easter colors like the original.  Still though.....this did not work out!  The top had a nice little crust, but the rest was mush!  I mean seriously, it was soup!  Needless to say.....they were quickly put in the trash.

Happy Friday!

Adventures in Arizona - Part One

Two weeks ago C had a “bye week” which meant his team didn’t have a game that particular weekend. It also meant that the team didn’t have practice all week either!   Usually, we take a trip to California over this week, but C suggested that this time we stay home so he could save money…..for a ring!  Eek!  Of course I agreed :) 

 

I still wanted to make the week fun and exciting (I had already planned to take it off as well) so we spent some time researching different things in Arizona that we could do. 

On Monday, we did a little couples photo shoot with one of the fans that loves taking pictures.  I think she wants to get more into photography so we volunteered to be her guinea pigs.  I am really excited to see the shots, I hope we have some good ones!  I did learn that C wasn’t really comfortable with someone he knows taking his photos, so any real shoots we ever do will have to be with a stranger.  How funny is that?  We spent the rest of the day barbequing and playing games by the pool.

On Tuesday I went and had a chemical peel done.  Gasp!  I normally wouldn’t do something like that, but I “won” it in a silent auction gift basket along with other exciting things.  I was really hoping it would help with my acne scars from high school, but in the end I was really disappointed with the results.  I would in no way suggest to anyone doing this since the dang thing originally costs $125 and I really got minimal results.  If you would like more detail (photos, results, time involved, pain etc.) let me know and maybe I will do a full post on it.  We laid low for most of the day after that (I had to leave the goop on my face for 4-6 hours) and went to see Divergent that night after I could wash my face.  Great movie, but definitely not as good as the book.  

On Wednesday we decided to discover a bit of Arizona.  We went to a place called Canyon Lake, way out in the mountains.  As we were driving there, we drove past a cute little place and decided to stop in.  Turns out, it was an old mining city called Goldfield Ghost Town.  They had cute little shops and you could go down and tour the mines if you wanted to pay them $8 each. We opted for a little shopping and some ice cream cones :)

After that we continued on towards the lake.  It was really beautiful.  I wish we had a boat, but alas, we only got to view the water from afar.  I had heard that there was another cool lake quite a distance back from the main roads, so we decided to check that one out too.  We drove my little 2 door Nissan Altima 15 miles down a bumpy one way dirt road that was sometimes on the edge of a cliff, which took us about an hour. Talk about an adventure! 

Once we got to the destination though, it was beautiful!  We pulled out our little picnic basket of snacks and games and sat down to enjoy ourselves. The wind had other plans!  It was freezing!  All the sudden there would be huge gusts of wind and we would have to bunker down and cover up everything we had so it would blow away.  It was even blowing our game tiles (Rumikube) which aren’t exactly light.  After about 20 minutes of that, I had to call it quits because I had not thought to bring my sweats and a blanket to this gorgeous lake setting on an Arizona spring day! We packed off and headed back down the dirt road towards home. 

Oh and on the way back, we stopped to get all the ingredients for my favorite meal…..fondue! I love making it at home....but there it is definitely an experience going some place like the Melting Pot!

After seeing how long this post is getting, I decided to split the recap of our week into two…for your sake of course!  I will tell you about the rest of the week soon!

Happiness Is....

*Walking along the beach with my toes in the water*

*Singing*

*Chocolate Pie -covered in Redi-whip*

*Big Bear Hugs*

*Not waking up to an alarm*

*Football*

*DVR*

*Skeeball*

*Pedicures*

*Big Cozy Boy Hoodies*

*Cookie Dough*

*New Clothes*

*Rubbing my eyes after I take out my contacts*

*Relaxing Baths*

*Stargazer Lilies*

*MAC Makeup*

*A clean car*

*Starbucks*

*Driving around w/the heater on and the windows down*

*Being Lazy*

*Going to the Zoo*

*Bellagio water fountains*

*A fire in the fireplace and a good book*

*Clean Sheets*

*"Butterfly" and "Eskimo" kisses*

*Passion Iced Tea*

*Fondue*

*Cuddling*

*Getting off of work early*

*Getting snail mail*

*Standing on top of the Empire State Building at night*

*Pay day*

*Fall leaves*

*Being home alone, blasting the music & singing at the top of my lungs*

*Chick-fil-a*

*New clothes*

*Swingsets*

*Ice Cream*

*Surprises*

*Disneyland*

*Teddy bears*

*When somebody tells me I am beautiful...

and I can actually believe they mean it*

I actually posted this list many years ago (ok fine, two and a half) but all of these things still hold true for me. It makes me smile just reading it. 

I re-posted my list because I saw the 32 Things That Make Me Happy linkup yesterday with Two Thirds Hazel and just had to play along.  I know I listed more than 32 things.....but I think that is a good thing!

Also, I noticed I mentioned a certain thing twice.....can you find what it is? 

Lip Factory Review - March

Time for another Lip Factory beauty box review! 

To me, this box is like Ispy, but with more full sized products. 5-7 full sized products to be exact! If you have the money ($22), this is a good one to spring for! They aim for a “full face” of makeup, but their main focus is…lips of course!   This box comes a little later in the month too which I like because it really spaces out the awesome mail that I get!

Last month I didn’t really love this box so much, because the colors were just all wrong for me.  I did some research and they did have a beauty profile I could fill out.  I made sure to mention I don’t like bright pink or red lip products.  Let’s see if they did any better!

This month’s theme was “It’s All About the Lips.” Last time they had this theme I was really bummed because I got a ton of reds and bright colors that I would never wear.  I was seriously crossing my fingers when I opened this package!

Here it is….the March Lip Factory box!  

           1)     Jesse’s Girl Lip Liner in “Bubble Gum” – 0.4 oz.  (FULL SIZE)

A bright pink lip liner. Yay. Not. I never use lip liners and this one looks especially….well….painful.  I feel like if I used it, it would cut me.  Thankfully it is cheap so I don’t feel like it’s a huge waste.

Full Size: $1.99 My Value: $1.99

            2)    Jesse’s Girl Vitamin E Lip Treatment – 3.8 g (FULL SIZE)

Lip Factory got really lucky on this one.  At first glance, I was not happy.  Another clear lip product?  Then I remembered that I was actually looking for a good lip treatment I could apply after using my lip scrub (which I have been trying to do more often).  I’m actually glad for this!

Full Size: $3.00 My Value: $3.00

            3)    Ellovi Lip Butter– (FULL SIZE)

Again, lucky guess for Lip Factory on this one! I would have normally been pretty bummed I got a clear product (let alone two) but I was actually looking for something like this! I admit, I wish this one had color too it, but I am sure it will be great for hydrating my lips under lipstick. *I have since tried this and it is very drying to my lips. I gave it away.*

Full Size: $5.00 My Value: $5.00

4)   Mirenesse Lip Bomb in “#13” – .11 oz. (FULL SIZE)

Well this seems interesting. It came in such big packaging that I wasn’t sure what would be inside!  I was pleasantly surprised with the color. This is supposed to be a long lasting, super moist color, so I hope it does its job! I have to admit though, the price is ludacris.  I would never spend that much money on a lip gloss!

Full Size: $34.90 My Value: $34.90

5)   Cargo Lip Gloss Quad in “South Beach” - .16 oz. (FULL SIZE)

I was kind of scared to open this too….I was really hoping I would like the colors.  And I did!  They are all pretty much perfect for me. I don’t love that I have to dig my fingers in there though, because I always get it under my nails. It’s also a bit large, but I guess if I am just carrying this around (and not 30 other lip products like I normally am) it’s not too bad.

Full Size: $24.00 My Value: $24.00

Final Cost: $22.00

Final Value: $68.89

Haha the final value of this box is 29 cents more than last month.  That sounds almost too good, like this thing is rigged!

Well dang.  I said I really liked it above, but this box seriously bummed me out.  There is maybe one product I will actually use so it was definitely not worth the price to me. Others may love these items, but they just aren’t my style. I will give this one last chance next month and if I don’t love it, I’m not keeping it.  I think I may email them too, maybe see if there is something in my beauty profile that makes them think I want these red and pink lip products?

What do you think?

If you’d like to sign up…..use my referral number? Pretty please?  It’s 385223.

(Also, I swear I’m not a review blog….I just like sharing these fun things! I have not been compensated for this review.)