Friday Favorites - Beauty Favorites

How is it August already?  Yikes.  The start of the Fall semester is right around the corner.  At this point, all I can do is hold my breath and hope that all of the plans, strategies, and safety measures we have in place will work out.  I work for an institution that has been very deliberate in its planning and we all want this to go well.  Fingers crossed!

If there's one thing that COVID has shown me, it's that I have some beauty favorites that I reach for time and again.  In a time where I've really just scaled back on my make up and skin care, it is apparent to me exactly which products are my favorites and are basically all I use most days.

Ulta 21 Days of Beauty Favorites

Y'all know I love beauty products.  The Ulta 21 Days of Beauty Sale is one of my favorite beauty sales of the year.  I got the flyer yesterday and want to show you my favorites before the sale starts on Sunday, March 17.  

If you have not shopped the Ulta sale, here is the deal - they offer two or three new/popular items for 50% off each day.  That's all there is to it.  Easy peasy.  Bookmark this page because the sales are good only on the day posted!

On to my faves!

Five for Friday - Favorite Beauty Products

Y'all, I am ready for Christmas break, are you?  This has been a WEEK.  I know that I am looking forward to ten days of relaxing and unwinding and spending time with family and friends.

As I was doing my makeup for work this week, I thought that I would share with you all my five favorite makeup products.  These are products that I have used for awhile and constantly work through the rotation.  I have a LOT of makeup #trustme #askmyhusband and these five items make the cut consistently.

Morning Routine, aka How I get out of the house in 30 minutes

It's Wednesday y'all!  So close to the weekend, I can taste it.  Short weeks are tough, aren't they?  I always enjoy the day off, but I pay for it later. 

Today I'm going to talk about how I go from this:

to this:

shirt (similar) | jeans | shoes | watch | earrings | necklace

In 30 minutes or less.  It can be done people, including make-up and breakfast!  So what's my secret?  I only do what's necessary.  Here's my breakdown:

4:40am - Alarm goes off and I grab my gear and get dressed.  I've already set it aside the night before.  Teeth brushed, hair off my face.  I feed the cats, refill my tumbler with fresh water and I am out the door at 5am.

6:30am - I walk in the door after barre class.  I've been drinking water throughout class and on the car ride home. I'm pretty well cooled down by the time I get back to the house.  I already have an idea in my head of what I'm going to wear, so I hop right in the shower.

6:38am - I am out of the shower and getting ready - lotion, perfume, etc.  Hair is pretty low maintenance.  I either pull it back while it's wet and that's it or I put some curl creme in it and let it air dry.  Moisturizer and eye cream and it's on to the next thing.

6:43am - I get dressed including shoes and jewelry

6:45am - Makeup.  This routine takes me less than ten minutes, I look put together and professional and I vary the products now and again, but the routine is always the same.

This is my makeup drawer.  Have I mentioned before that I love makeup?  A brief tour of all the goodies - bottom right is eyeliners, mascaras, and concealers/primers; middle right is lipstick; upper right is more lipstick; middle section is bronzers, blushes, eyeshadow, face powder, and foundation; left section is RCMA no color setting powder, liquid foundations, blush palette, eye shadow palettes; very back has travel hand creams and hand sanitizers.

I start with concealer and eye shadow primer. If I have a little more time I'll use a separate eye shadow primer and my Urban Decay concealers.  When I'm trying to get out the door, I reach for the Dream Lumi concealer.  I think it's Maybelline.  It goes under my eyes, a little dab on my lids, on my chin, a little in the middle of my forehead, and a little down the front of my nose.  Then I take the concealer brush and blend it all in.

 Next it's on to eyeshadow.  I love a pre-built palette.  I don't have to guess at which colors go together.  I love the Urban Decay palettes as well as this Too Faced one.  I start with the upper left shadow and use that all over my eye from upper lash line to my brows.  Then I take the upper middle brown color and use that on my lid.  Finally, I take the upper deep brown color and blend that into my crease.

After I put on the eyeshadow, I use this Lancome Dual Finish powder all over my face.  I have worn this powder for years.  It gives enough coverage that I can go without foundation, which I love, and I always find the quality of Lancome products to be excellent.

After the face powder I finish my eyes.  I love love love liquid eyeliner, especially the ones that come in felt tip format.  So easy to control and it looks great.  I am currently using the Kat Von D ink liner.  It stays all day but comes off easily with makeup remover.   This particular day, I went with the Lancome Definicils mascara.  I have a bunch of different ones.  Everyone has their favorites, you have to go with what works best for you.  I have very thin, short, lashes so I go for something that will lengthen them and provide a little more volume.  Then I finish my eyes by doing my eyebrows.  I have thin eyebrows, so I try to fill them out a little.  My current favorite is benefit's Goof Proof Brow Pencil.

Almost done, this is the point where I start wrapping up the makeup routine.  I love this benefit Cheekathon blush palette.  It gives me everything I need in one place.  This particular day, I opted for Rockateur as a blush, it's the upper right color.  It's a beautiful rose/bronze color.  Then I took Hoola and used it as a bronzer, blending it into my hairline/forehead, temples, cheek hollows, and jaw line.  I find it gives me a healthy glow.

I finish the whole look with some kind of lipstick, lipgloss, lipstain.  Today I opted for Lancome's Gloss in Love in the color Gem n Glam.

6:55am - I make a smoothie for breakfast: chocolate protein powder (I use Quest Chocolate Milkshake flavor), 1 cup of unsweetened cashew milk, 1 frozen banana, and 2 tbsp of PB2.  It goes in a to-go cup with a sealable top (I learned my lesson the hard way there).  I grab my bag, keys, and phone, and I am out the door at 7am.

7:00am - I am in the car heading out to work, usually listening to Mike & Mike on ESPN Radio or a podcast.

That's my morning routine!  In the door and out the door in 30 minutes.  If you have any questions about any of the makeup products, please let me know, I love to talk makeup and makeup tips.

Friday Favorites this week is all about tv...hope to see you then!

xoxoxoxo,

 

Life Lately

Happy Monday Y'all!  Hopefully most of you have a long weekend like I do.  It's nice to have the extra day off and enjoy an extended weekend.  I pay for it later though when I'm trying to fit 5 days of work and meetings into 4 days.  It's less than 2 weeks until vacation though, so I am hoping these next two work weeks sail by in a flash #fingerscrossed.

It's actually a really nice day for Texas this time of year.  The cats are enjoying a little time sunbathing on the porch, I've got ID TV on in the background (also known as murder tv in our house) and I am enjoying spending some time catching up with you all.  What has been going on lately you ask?

Barre class has been what's up.  My alarm goes off at 4:40am on MWF and I am out of bed and out the door 20 minutes later.  I love my classes.  I've got 5 scheduled for this week #onlyalittleobsessed.  Honestly, I feel such a huge difference in my core already.  I feel great the rest of the day when I go.  I've been trying to get in 4-5 classes a week and I love it every time.  It's interesting too, because I sweat when I do this.  I sweat a lot.  But I cool down much quicker than when I do cardio.  When I get home from barre, I am showered and dressed and out the door and on the way to work in 30 minutes and I feel great.  30 minutes after a run and I hop in the shower, I get out and I am still hot and sweaty #justbeinghonest.  

It's also a crazy busy time at work.  I just finished a very intense week and next week looks to be worse in terms of meetings.  It's always like this the beginning of the semester.  There is just a lot of clean up and registering that happens and a lot of it is on deadlines, especially when it comes to international students.  Trying to power through it with coffee and lots of water.  I tend to stress eat so I am working hard at not doing that.  Some days are better than others though.

It didn't help that on Friday when I arrived at another campus where I was scheduled to work that afternoon, I opened my laptop and saw this.  Grrrr.  It took me two hours to get it resolved which left me not much time to get much of anything done before the end of the day.  #sigh 

It has  been a pretty mild August by Texas standards.  We've only had a handful of days where the temps got over 100 degrees.  When we get home from work at night we'll open the porch door and let the cats enjoy the fresh air.  For real, the love it out there.  They curl up in the chairs and watch the traffic or the people walking their dogs to the little dog park we have on property.  It is their favorite place at the moment.  And I for one am not complaining about the "cooler" temps.

Phillip was having a craving for Chicken Lasagna from this restaurant around the corner from us on the other side of the lake.  It reminds me a little bit of Uncle Tony's or Twins (but not, no one can top those two).  The food is good and I decided to try something new so I ordered the sausage, ricotta, and mozzarella calzone.  Holy cow, it was bigger than my head!  I feel like the picture doesn't do it justice.  It was delicious, but I hardly made a dent.  We took the rest home for lunch the next day.

And then this happened, so sad.  He always came across as such a sweet man in interviews and his Willy Wonka will always bring me right back to my childhood.  I was never a Mel Brooks fan, so Blazing Saddles doesn't do anything for me, but Willy Wonka will always hold a place in my heart.

O-H-I-O!  College football is back, baby!  And it was a great kick-off weekend culminating in that amazing overtime win by Texas over Notre Dame.  I love love love college football so this is a very exciting time of year for me.  Unless OSU is playing, I tend to root for the underdog and love a great upset.

 

shirt (similar) | jeans | earrings | necklace | watch | shoes

 

 And it's a long weekend and I have no where to be, so a t-shirt and jeans fit the bill nicely today.  A couple of errands to run, some work to do around the house, and a little bit of relaxing for the work week picks up again tomorrow.

 

Come back Wednesday, I'm going to highlight my morning make-up routine and show you how I get out the door in 30 minutes after I get home from morning barre class.

 

Have a great week y'all!

 

xoxoxoxo

 

 

Friday Favorites and a Giveaway Winner!

It's that time again - happy Friday y'all!  And it's the Friday of July 4th weekend! #canigetanamen

Here's what I'm in love with this week and make sure you read to the end to see the Giveaway Winner!

1. Lancome Juicy Shakers 

By now you all know that I love makeup.  I discovered these Lancome Juicy Shakers recently and it was love at first try.  I may love it a little bit more than my beloved Chubby Sticks.  The color goes on sheer, so don't worry about how deep or bright the color is in the bottle.  You get a kiss of color and they smell incredible!  This shade is Piece of Cake and it smells like vanilla.

And...right now Nordstrom has a Lancome gift with purchase which means this is the perfect time to try these out.

2.  Deva Curl

Now you wouldn't know from my pictures because I feel like I photograph better with my hair straight, but my hair is naturally curly.  Super curly.  But I have #weddinggoals and that means growing my hair out which means I need to be super nice to it so it stays healthy and grows as long as I can get it to.  To do this I've been shying away from heat styling tools.  I invested in some new hair care products specifically for curly hair and I am loving this Deva Curl line.  I use the No-Poo Cleanser, the One Condition Conditioner, and the Styling Cream.  I also recommend the micro-fiber towel.  It has helped keep the frizz at bay.  Regular towels pull at my strands and the mirco-fiber has been a game changer.

Wow what a difference.  My curls have never looked better.  Maybe someday I'll be brave and post a pic.

3.   Dreft Laundry Boosters

Y'all.  I can't even with these Dreft Blissfuls.  I use them on my towels and sheets.  I have sensitive skin so I use dreft detergent.  I discovered it's addicting scent when my sister had Rayla and started using it then.  I can't even tell you how relaxing it is to crawl into a freshly made bed that smells of dreft or to use your towels after the shower.  You can use them on clothes too, but I just use them on my linens.

4.  My Withings Scale 

 Now I'm not a huge techie, but I love when technology works for me and makes my life easier.  This little beauty has an app, but I don't really use the app because the scale syncs to my Weight Watcher account, which means when I weigh myself my Weight Watchers info is automatically updated.  That and it tracks your BMI, your hydration, and your progress day to day.  You can have multiple users on it and it will recognize you when you step on it.  Love.

5.  My mini-steamer 

I love this.  I use it all. the. time.  Instead of busting out the iron, with the exception of jeans, almost all of my clothes get steamed instead of pressed.  No ironing board to mess with, the steam is easy on my clothes, and its super quick to heat up.  It also packs easily and I take it on the road with me whenever I travel.  

6.  YouTube Makeup Tutorials

I discovered KathleenLights first.  The makeup I wore for New Year's Eve was from one of her tutorials.  I've learned how to use makeup brushes and new ways to apply all the different types of makeup I have.  She's chatty and adorable and I could watch these for hours.

Watching Kathleen lead me to Jaime Paige.  She also has some great tutorials.  My recent favorite has been this one:

And now for the FitBit Giveaway Winner!  Congrats to

Billie-Jo D.!

Congrats and I will be in touch about claiming your prize.  Thank you all for participating and there will be another giveaway next month so stay tuned...

Have a great July 4th weekend everyone!

xoxoxo