March Favorites

March has been a pretty good month for me, for the most part! Here are the 6 products that I’ve relied on the most for the past 31 days, everything from skincare to makeup to a gorgeous nail polish.

January 2015 Birchbox Review

Let’s start off on a positive note… the color palette of this month’s box is beautiful. Don’t my products look pretty sitting there? Unfortunately, pretty colors aren’t enough, and this is the most disappointing Birchbox I’ve received.

The January theme was “Fresh Start,” which seems perfect for the first month of a new year. However, none of these products are new or exciting for me, or geared towards helping me achieve my beauty goals (not that I have beauty goals…but if I did, this box wouldn’t help).

Five Little Wonderful Things…

…that have been making my life better this week.

• Smoky Poppy Body Butter! I apologize for my excitement, but this product has been improving my life this past week. Since winning this adorable pot in an Intagram giveaway from @budgetbeautyblog, I’ve been using it as a hand cream every time I wash my hands. It’s worked wonders — no more dry skin on my hands!

 

• I wore NYC Nolita’s Lavender on my fingernails for much of this week, but I feel like it’s a little too dark for me. Now, I’m lusting after a pale lavender polish, like Revlon Charming or Mint Lavender Macaron.

April Birchbox Sample Choice Comparison

For those of you not familiar with sample choice, it’s a program that began last August where Birchbox subscribers have the option to select a sample to be included in next month’s box. Each month 3-4 samples are revealed and the sample you pick will replace one of your traditional 5 samples. This month, Birchbox subscribers have the chance to choose from 3 samples, or select a box curated by a guest editor. This is a comparison of those options based on research I’ve done using other blogs and my own calculations. This month I’ve taken all of my images as screenshots from the official Birchbox video.

August 2014 Birchbox Review

It’s been a while since I posted a Birchbox review! Which means that I have a lot of catching up to do. So, despite the chilly fall spring weather…welcome to August!

The theme for August was “Lighten Up”. According to Birchbox, this meant being less serious, keeping cool, and kicking back and relaxing.  I think part of my box sort of embodied the theme — the grapefruit scent of the lotion was a little playful and out of the ordinary, the eyeshadow was named “Cool Lids,” and the face mask was relaxing. I would have loved to see the theme expanded into sea salt hairspray, cooling foot lotions, and aromatherapy.

And without further ado, onto my box!

Nail Update #3 & Questions for You!

Hi guys!

Today, I have questions for you about nail care and solutions.

Since starting to grow out my nails 2 months ago, I have been so happy with their progress. However, I can now detect a host of various problems with my nails that I can’t seem to find much help for online. I’m really hoping you’ll be able to help me solve some of them!

The Rubbing Alcohol Method

The other day, I experienced my very first broken eyeshadow pan. I had carelessly left an e.l.f. quad palette on the edge of the sink, and my boyfriend accidentally knocked it off. Luckily only one of the four shadows broke — I’m still not sure how that happened! I was a little disappointed, though, because the pan that broke was my favorite out of the quad.

Broken eyeshadow.

However, this gave me an opportunity to try a method I’ve heard a lot about for repairing broken eyeshadows.

First Nail Art!

Inspired by #NAFW2015, which is the first Nail Art Fashion Week (started by the So Nailicious blog), I decided to play around with nail art today! A lot of what I’ve been seeing on Instagram has me feeling like I could try my hand at it, so today I finally did.

Because I wanted to experiment, I painted each of my nails a different style.

My Nail Odyssey: Update #2

It’s been quite a while since I posted an update to what I’ve been dubbing my “Nail Odyssey,” and I’ve made so much progress. The last one I did was 16 days in, and it is now Day 65. I actually had to count out the days, because it’s gotten to the point where I’m not going day by day anymore. Here are my thoughts from the last 6 weeks! Ending with a comparison photo of where I was then… to where I am now.

My Nail Odyssey: Manicure with Zoya Harley

This is the very first manicure I’ve done that I’ve been proud of. I’m proud of it mostly because it’s the neatest manicure I’ve ever done. This is due in part to my longer nails — it’s incredibly hard to keep the paint on your nails when they’re barely there. But also I think my painting skills have improved a bit, especially since I managed to keep my right hand as neat as my left! (I’m right-handed).

I used Zoya Harley, which is a lovely light grey with slight shimmer. When it arrived in the mail and I first swatched it, I thought I didn’t like it. But when I saw it on all of my nails it just looks so sophisticated that I couldn’t help but fall in love with it!