December Glam Bag

Today I received my IPSY December Glam Bag. I get so excited when I see the hot pink padded envelope in my mailbox!  This is a beauty product monthly subscription that I have signed up for.  It costs $10 a month and that includes shipping. Each month I receive a cute little makeup bag filled with surprises. This month the bag was a pretty metallic charcoal color with a hot pink lining. It is the perfect size for storing your makeup brushes in. Drum roll...and the contents are!


1. Mirabella Prime for face and eyes (retail price $29)
This is a full size product! It can be used as a primer for your entire face under foundation or can just be put on your eyes. It went on very smoothly and my skin felt just like velvet. My foundation looked really smooth too.

2.Be a bombshell lip gloss in hot mess (retail price $14)

This lip gloss is a trendy red color. I personally don't like the color on me. I have seen this color on models and it looks great. I guess I just can't pull off the color. The lip gloss quality itself is really good. I liked the way it went on and it stayed for awhile. I may go to their website and pick a different color. This was also a full size product.

 
3. NYX Eyeshadow in pearl (retail price $3)
This eyeshadow was a very pretty pink shimmery color. It was a loose powder eye shadow-which isn't always my favorite, but it went on well. It looked pretty as eyeshadow but I really liked it as a highlighter. This is a full size product and they offer 30 colors to choose from on their website, so at $3 a piece you can get a few.

4. Mai Couture Highlighter Papier in St. Barts (retail price $28)
This highlighter papier is sold at Neiman Marcus and is imported. So I guess its pretty fancy! I was excited to use it! I read online that Mai Couture's philosophy "is based on the simple premise makeup should enhance one's natural beauty without complicated steps".  Maybe I'm an idiot but I thought trying to tear this little sheet of paper out of this book without rubbing off the highlighter was kinda complicated.  I will most likely keep trying to use it, but I would definitely not spend $28 on it. But kudos to IPSY for sending me fancy stuff!

5.Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil in zero (retail price $19)
This eye pencil did exactly what it said. It glided-on... I was really impressed how smoothly it went on. It wasn't incredibly precise, but I just went back with an angled brush and cleaned it up. I liked the color a lot. It looked very rocker-ish!

Here is a look using all of the products. Yikes! That lip color is bad!
Its kind of Flo-ish (Progressive Insurance Lady)

My overall opinion this month is very satisfied! This is the 3rd month that I have been receiving this subscription and I would recommend it to everyone. It has great products and I think it is a pretty good value. I am impressed how many full size products that you get!

http://www.ipsy.com/ 

 

DIY: The Glittered Candles

I love glitter. I love things that sparkle. So you can imagine how excited I was when...

Last week, I was out and about and saw the cutest silver glitter candles at the store. The store shall remain nameless... I wanted them so badly.  I knew just the place to put them. I would replace the boring yellow candles on my beautiful white candle sticks. As I grabbed one to put in my basket, I saw the price. HOLY COW! 15 bucks a piece and I needed two. There was no way I was going to pay $30 on two stupid candles, even though they weren't stupid at all.  They were perfect and girly and splarkley and completely fabulous ! And that's when it hit me... I have glitter at home! I can make them myself! Yippee!!!

So I put the candle down and did everything I could to keep myself from running out the door. I was so excited to go home and glitter my candles. Why hadn't I thought of it before?

So here's what I did, to make the most fabulous candles ever!


1. Get all of your supplies. I was lucky enough to have everything already.

• Silver spray paint
•  Candles
•  Elmer's Glue
•  Glitter
•  Paint Brush
•  Clear Acrylic Sealer -glossy formula-don't get the matte formula. It's what I had, but it dulls the   sparkle, and no one needs their sparkle dulled! (OPTIONAL)

2. Spray paint your candles. You may need to do a couple of coats. They don't have to be sprayed perfectly because they will be covered in glitter. But you do want the candles completely painted.

 
3. After your candles have dried. Set up your workspace. You will want to put paper down. When I use glitter I put a plate under the item I am glittering. It catches the excess glitter and it can be reused.

 4. Paint the Elmer's glue on to a section of the candle. Then sprinkle the glitter over the wet glue until the glue is completely covered in glitter. Let it sit for a few seconds and then shake the candle and the excess glitter will fall off.

5. Repeat step 4 until the entire candle is covered with glitter. I also glittered the top of my candle. Let the candle dry for 15 minutes.

6. This step is optional. You can spray the acrylic sealer over the glitter. It may dull the sparkle a little. I did not spray the sealer on my candles because I only had a matte finish sealer. I am putting my candles in a place where they will not be touched or moved very often. So glitter should stay on fairly well. If you use the sealer, spay the candles and then let them dry for 15-20 minutes. Then you will have fabulous glittered candles!

I don't recommend burning your candles. I'm not sure what they would do, but it probably wouldn't be good. Here is a before and after of my candles.

Before

After

 I loved my candles so much, that I went crazy glittering things in my house. My Husband was thrilled! Here are a few things that I also glittered...

I hope that you have so much fun making your glittered candles! Comment below and let me know how your candles turned out.

Have you jumped on the Greek Yogurt Bandwagon yet?

 

There is so much hype over Greek yogurt!  For months, I had been reading that Greek yogurt was so much better for you than regular yogurt. I read article after article suggesting you replace the eggs and oil in recipes with Greek yogurt. So I decided to make the switch. I tried a few different brands at first. They had a different taste than regular yogurt, but they certainly weren't bad. And now I prefer the taste to regular yogurt. 

The first brand that I tried had 8g of protein, the second brand that I tried had 10g of protein. Then I found Chobani, it has 14g of protein and is an all natural yogurt. NO ASPARTAME!
 

 Chobani was also the best tasting brand that I had tried. I started having the Chobani for breakfast with 5-6 almonds tossed in. It kept me full until lunch time. I'm normally someone that has to have a snack every few hours. I know that its healthier to eat that often but its not always convenient.

 It was incredible, I started loosing weight and having a lot more energy too! Really you ask, all that from one container of yogurt? YES! It really is that amazing. I buy the Chobani at Target for $1.22. I know that's double the cost of regular yogurt. But with all of the health benefits, it's totally worth the cost. And you can replace it as a meal. I recommend Chobani to everyone!

Silver Leopard Nails...2 Looks!

 These nail looks turned out so cute! And it's actually really easy to do...Seriously! Here are the products that I used and step by step directions on how I did it...

1. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in 220 Celeb City (Target retail $2.49)

 I love Sally Hansen Nail Polish. It is the best brand that you can buy at the grocery store. This color is very metallic and looks really cute. It has the perfect amount of sparkle.

 2. Pure Ice in Jaguar (Walmart retail $1.78)

This is a great brand for a cheap nail polish. The quality isn't as great as Sally Hansen, but they do make a ton of fun colors.

 3. Sally Hansen Advanced Hard as Nails in Clear (Target retail $2.99)

This is a great top coat or it can be used alone as a nail strengthener. Again I love anything Sally Hansen. Great Value!

4. Migi Nail Art Pen in Black (miginailart.com retail $24.99-8 pack)

 These nail art pens are really awesome. You can make any design with them. You can also unscrew the lid and it has a nail polish brush as well. You can get so many different colors online. They are really fun and totally worth buying. You can also register them online and they will refill the color for free when it runs out.

Supplies

 

Step by Step Directions

1. Start with clean unpolished nails. I glued on fake unpolished nails.

2. Paint silver on all nails. May need 2-3 coats. Then make sure they are dried before moving onto the next step.

3. Paint little gold blobs on your ring finger or on all of your nails depending on which look your are going for. Paint them like polka dots, but it looks more realistic if they aren't perfect circles. Then wait for them to dry before moving onto the next step.

4. Use your black migi nail art pen or black nail polish and a toothpick to paint little "C" shapes around the blobs.  This also looks better when it is not done perfectly. For some of the blobs I use 2 "C's" and some I use 3 "Cs". Repeat this step to all of the gold blobs. 

5. After all of the blobs are finished, I add a few squiggly lines that look like commas and some dots. Do this to all of your nails or just the ring finger depending on the look that you chose. Then wait for them to dry before moving onto the next step.

 6. Paint clear top coat on all of your nails.

  7. If there is any nail polish on your skin, just clean it up with a little bit of nail polish remover and Qtip or orangewood stick.

Now you have really cute nails! Why not paint your toes to match? I hope you have tons of fun experimenting with different nail looks!

Minnie's Super Cute Soap

I saw this hand soap at Target and had to buy it. I think Minnie Mouse is so cute! Almost as cute as Hello Kitty. Yes... I am one of those girls! They also had a Mickey Mouse soap (lemonade scent). But with a house full of girls, I had to get Minnie. And not only is it so stinking cute, it makes your hands feel really clean without drying them out. It also smells just like strawberry shortcake! I've tried a few other Method brand products and have been satisfied. They are naturally derived products at a good price and great quality. This foaming hand soap costs $3.49 and is refillable. I give it a thumbs up!

Birthday Balloon Bandit

It's 2:00 am and I just got done balloon bombing our living room for my Husband's Birthday! I love surprising my family with a bunch of balloons! A few months ago I balloon bombed my Daughter's room, and last week I balloon bombed the inside of my Dad's car while he was at work.  For the living room, I blew up (by mouth) around 250 balloons. It takes awhile, but if you start a few days in advance you can put them in garbage bags and hide them around the house. Unfortunately, I was only able to blow up half in advance. I just got done blowing up the other half. It really is a ton of fun and I think it makes the birthday boy/girl really happy!

There are layers of balloons!

The Elf on the Shelf even joined in the fun!

It reminds me of the ball pits at McDonald's

Even the couches have to be covered in balloons!

DIY: Ombre Bleach Cutoffs

Cutoffs? you ask...Winter is just starting! you say... Well I'm going to Hawaii for Christmas... poor me, I know! I wouldn't be going if it wasn't for having such great parents!

I need a super cute pair of shorts to bum around at the beach. I've really wanted to try ombre denim with bleach, so this is the perfect project. I have this pair of Guess shorts that came from the store as cutoffs, but they are below the knee cutoffs. I thought they would "comfortable". Turns out they aren't super flattering so I rarely wear them. They will make a perfect DIY victim...

There is even a glue spot on them from some other DIY project

There is more leftover glue spots on the back of them

 This is a really easy project. You only need 4 things to get started. I recommend doing this outside. I didn't want to stand out in the cold, so I worked on mine in the bathroom. I kept the door closed and the fan on so I wouldn't stink up the house too much.  The fumes probably killed a few brain cells...oh well :)

 Supplies

• Denim (shirt, shorts, pants, jacket)
• Bucket
• Rubber Gloves
• Bleach

Put a 3:2 ratio of water and bleach in your bucket. I used 12 cups of water and 8 cups of bleach. I was trying to bleach a few other things in the process, so you probably wouldn't need quite that much. If you are going to try the ombre effect, you will need to decide which end of your denim you want lighter and which you want darker. I chose to have the leg end be lighter. It makes no difference other than your style preference.  You will also have to decide how much of the denim you want bleached, I ended up bleaching more of the shorts than I had planned, but they still turned out cute! Submerge a small part of the clothing into the bucket. With your gloves on, push down a little on the denim to make sure the part that was submerged is soaking up the bleach evenly. Then lay the rest of the denim over the side of the bucket. Make sure you are very careful when touching the dry denim, if there is any bleach on your gloves, it will leave bleach dots.

 

This is a shirt I was bleaching, but its that same technique

Set the timer for 10 minutes. Make sure to watch it. There are many different kinds of denim and each will absorb the bleach differently. Every ten minutes move the denim down into the bucket a little more. This isn't an exact science and if your denim is absorbing more or less of the bleach then you will need to adjust the time accordingly. I learned that you should error on the side of less time. Too much bleach can make the fabric very brittle. After your denim has the effect you want, pull it out of the bucket and rinse it really well in cold water. Then wash it in the washing machine on a gentle cycle by itself. You can either put it in the dryer or hang dry your denim. BUT remember, this article of clothing is now fairly delicate. So be nice to it!

Here's how they turned out...

I tried them on, and they still looked dowdy. So I decided they needed to be cutoff! While they were on I eyeballed the length and made a little mark with a pencil. I took them off and cut one side, then folded them in half to line them up. Leave them folded and use the other pant leg as a guide while cutting them to ensure they are symmetrical. Don't make a blunt cut. Make an angled cut with the inner leg being slightly longer. We don't want anything hanging out! Try them on again to make sure they are the length that you like. Again, error on the side of longer. You can always cut more off. To get a frayed look, just pull at the ends. It takes awhile so be patient. Once you are all done you will have these!

TA DA!

I like to fold my cutoffs, just a little

I love the uneven effect!