To Spend or Not to Spend? That is the question.

Last week I was chatting with one of my boss ladies and she recommended I do a post on beauty products that are worth the $$ and the ones that aren't.

Sounds simple enough right? I thought so too. At first. She asked me on the spot what I think is worth the splurge and I said mascara, lipstick and blush. And after it came out of my mouth, the wheels started turning and I was lost in a land of beauty product-induced ADD. Lipstick is worth splurging on right? Oh wait, Revlon! NARS bronzer is the only bronzer of life. Crap! Sonia Kashuk cream bronzer is the bomb dot com. And then I had to pull myself back to reality and the rest of my work day.

After noodling this around for a couple of days I have the following blog post for you. Thanks for the challenge Wendy!

Okay I will try for the love of Sephora, to keep this short and orderly. I could have gone through every step in my routine to compare products but for your sanity (and mine) I will not do that to us.

First and foremost, you can really find some seriously awesome gems at Target/Walmart. Seriously, I could buy a complete face of makeup and be 100% satisfied. But when I really thought it through and went into my collection and swatched and played, I realized there were some things I think are worth the splurge if you're going to do it.

One thing I think every woman should have is a classic go-to "I am more awesome than She-Ra, Wonder Woman and Storm combined." lipstick. It could be red, nude, pink or black. Whatever your go-to shade is, splurge on it. Go ahead and buy that tiny little tube of awesome at Chanel, YSL, Dior, NARS, or Bobbi Brown. Why should you have this? If you have to whip out that lipstick and reapply at dinner with clients, the boardroom, whatever, it should be classy. And if its something you wear everyday, it's worth the money. My go-to? NARS Audacious lipstick in Audrey. This is obvious if you know me.

Lip gloss is not worth the money. You can find some amazing options from NYX, Revlon and Bonne Bell (yep. I said it.). Same with lip balm or lip salve. My absolute all-time fave is the Smith's Rosebud Salve. $6 of sassy in a tin.

Mascara is another product worth the splurge. There are some AWESOME mascaras from L'oreal, Maybelline and Almay. BUT there are some AWESOMER, all that and a bag of chips mascaras at Sephora. A few of my faves are Benefit's They're Real!, Sephora's Outrageous Volume and my new love YSL Baby Doll mascara (holy-balls Batman!). They last longer, don't smell, don't flake and are just worth it.

Eyeshadow. This is a toughie. You can get some really awesome palettes from high-end companies (LORAC, Urban Decay, Too Faced are some of my faves!) but you can save a bomb and get an E.L.F. palette or the new Maybelline the Nudes palette and have just as great of an end look. It really depends on your budget. If you are going to splurge, get a palette. You get to try so much more and often palettes come with a brush and/or liner or even eye primer so it's a way to try more with less.

Eye liner and eye primer. Meh. Covergirl, Maybelline and Milani all have great options at Target and CVS. Save the cash and hit up your local drugstore for great options in tons of colors.

Face products. This is the area I have the least experience with. I have two foundations from Target that I love (Revlon Color Stay and Maybelline Dream Wonder Liquid Touch). And I just don't feel motivated to seek out $40+ liquid foundation at the department store. I used to be a die-hard Bare Minerals user about 10ish years ago and I still like it, but I have found that it doesn't work the best with my dry skin.

Blush on the other hand is something I think is worth the splurge. I have several great blushes from E.L.F. and Wet N' Wild that I use often, but when it comes down to it NARS, Tarte and Benefit are just better at it. Sorry. I have a NARS palette from last year's holiday collection that I use everyday. The pigment is amazing, the lasting power is perfection and I love all the color options from the higher end brands. Again, it's something I wear everyday so for me it's worth it.

Setting powder, primer and concealer can all be money savers. Check out Maybelline's Fit Me concealer, or the Instant Age Rewind line. My fave is from E.L.F. (it's $3 online). Check out Rimmel for primer and setting powder. The Stay Matte powder is like $3 and comes in translucent as well as some actual colors. The Fix and Perfect Primer is $7 and it lasts forever and does everything the Smashbox primer does.

So if you are going to splurge on products I recommend you do it on blush, mascara and lipstick. Save your money on everything else.

Some other money saving advice:

• Ask for samples at Sephora and Ulta or whatever department store. Or do the free makeovers and request they use products you are considering purchasing. Once you see how it looks on your face, you can decide if it's splurge-worthy.
• If you are looking to try a trend (i.e., the Kendall Jenner lip, Lorde's dark purple lipstick, electric eyeshadow, blue mascara, etc.) try cheaper brands like Wet N' Wild, N.Y.C. or E.L.F. 
• Sephora does a VIB sale in November (roughly) each year where you get 20% off your total purchase. Save larger purchases for that sale.
• Look online for coupons.
• Download Target's Cartwheel app (I have saved $315 so far!) and the Retail-Me-Not app to look for online or in-store coupons.
• Do not splurge on something unless you have the cash in that moment to do it. DO NOT put makeup on a credit card. Don't.
• Splurge on skin care items like serums and moisturizers. Cleansers are only on your face for seconds, the other stuff goes with you through the day or night. Spend money there. Also masks and treatments are worth the money. 
• There are a lot of great in-between brands of makeup to try too! It doesn't have to be Wet N' Wild vs. Dior. Check out MakeUp Geek cosmetics for some of the best eyeshadows and blushes hands down! Eyeshadows are $5.99 each and blushes start at $9.99 each. 

The Three Amigos and Other Updates

Hello lovely readers! It has been roughly three months since my last post. If you've stuck around, I owe you; if not, i don't blame you. But hopefully you'll come back.

It's not uncommon for me to go M.I.A. on this blog for a few months at a time. I wish I could do this full time (and get a full time pay check) but I don't as of now so sometimes life gets in the way and this is one of the first "fun things" to get scrapped. Every time I try to get myself on a schedule or set goals of XX number of posts per week, my inner rebel sits up and says "Whatever." and then I don't post. Plus I want to provide my fabulous readers with worth-while content. I don't want to post just because its Monday (or Mani-Monday, or Woman Crush Wednesday, or whatever day). I just want to post fun and interesting stuff that I would read and hopefully a few other peeps find interesting/helpful too.

So now that my long rambling intro is out of the way, let's talk about what's been going on in my life since August (I'm not engaged and I'm not pregnant, just throwing it out there.)

In addition to Tony's hair, a lot has changed since August 21st. That afternoon three stray kittens wandered out from under some equipment in our front yard, and right into our garage. We fed them, and then we went out to Mendards to buy a litter box, toys and collars. In that moment our subconscious minds were made up: these cats are here to stay.

Over the course of the next month and a half, I personally struggled with keeping them, giving them away to friends or taking them to a shelter. Our basement was closed off while we kept them down there debating what we wanted to do with them. Now I realize this sounds like they are property and something we could just "donate" if we didn't want. Let me stress to you, that couldn't be further from the truth. We cared for them, played with them and made sure that they had food, water and treats. It isn't like they were down there being neglected. My main concern was that the dogs would be okay with the cats. My number two concern was having the money to give these little babes the life they deserve (vaccine's, check-up, de-claw, etc.). So after about a month or so of that we/I finally accepted that they were our cats and that we were going to go big or go home, so-to-speak.

Fun fact: I have wanted a black cat and wanted to name it Isis (after the Egyptian Goddess) for at least 10 years. Why? I don't know, but one night in my apartment in Madison I was like, "You know what? I would like to have a cat. A black one. And I will call her Isis." and that's just what I named one of them. The other black cat is a boy and his name is Onyx and the white cat is a female that Tony named Dahlia (as in Dahlia from Suburgatory. Yep.).

Anyway, they are so sweet and cuddly. And rowdy. And the dogs and cats all get along great, so long as the cats keep away from the dog dishes at meal times ;-)

So that being said, that is the bulk of what has been keeping me busy in the last few months. Plus it's the holidays now so bring on the craziness! But I love the holidays so it's all good!

In other news:

- We have also adopted a stray rooster. No really, you read that right, a stray rooster. Yep. We thought it was a stray hen (not that it's any less weird we would have any manner of stray poultry running around our yard). But yeah, a couple weeks after having the "hen" the "hen" cock-a-doodle-dooed from the coop, and I realized that explained why the "hen" hadn't laid any eggs yet. This was about two weeks or so after the cats showed up.

- We had a fourth cat show up. A tortoise colored one (at least I think that's what they said), and she was brought into our garage to keep her out of a snow storm and less than a few days later our awesome friends, Jake & Jenny, adopted her.

- That's it for stray animals. Just wanted to clear that up.

- I've gotten back into a regular workout routine now that I have my basement back.

- Maleficent is a fabulous movie and so is The Bling Ring. Also, I am peeing in my pants about Pitch Perfect 2.

- I haven't seen the new Star Wars trailer yet. But I might go do that now.

- I have been sick for two weeks and have discovered a new love for Halls Lemon & Honey cough drops. I have also lost my voice.

- I am making stir fry for dinner tonight and I'm pretty excited about it.

I have lots of new and exciting beauty stuff to talk about but I think I will make that a separate post since this one is pretty long.

Back to School/Office Appropriate Make-Up

Hi Lovelies! It's back-to-school time and I know a lot of you are going to be looking to freshen up your look for school or just looking for a fresh, basic look for the office. This look will work for both. If you are someone who has never worn makeup and are looking to dip your toes in, while still looking like you, this look is sort of a foundation upon which you can build to the smokiest of looks or just leave as is, for a polished, versatile make-up look.

First, start off with a foundation (or tinted moisturizer) and apply to your whole face. Apply in a thin layer using your hands or a make-up brush or sponge. I prefer to use a brush or a beauty blender and this particular foundation in the picture is a great, natural finish that will work on a variety of skin types.

When applying foundation, start in the center of your face and blend out. Typically most "imperfections" are on the cheeks, close to or on the nose, under the eyes, etc. By applying this way you will apply the most product to your "problem" areas and less to those spots that don't really need it.

Another tip here is that if you do not have concealer, take a Q-tip and dip it into the cap of the foundation. Product that is sitting in the lid is usually a little thicker as it sits there when you aren't using it, and is a great alternative to concealer. Go over each spot you want to conceal with a light layer. You can easily build up, but it's a lot harder to remove product without having to start all over.

If you are normal or slightly oily, you may choose to set your foundation with a powder. I don't have one pictured because typically I don't use/need  it. CoverGirl makes amazing pressed powder and E.L.F. has an awesome translucent loose powder for $6.

Now moving on to blush. I love this one from Milani. The color is called Luminoso and it's stunning! A great option for a variety of skin tones. Stick to something more natural looking (pinch your cheeks to see what color they naturally flush and go from there) and apply with a light hand. I prefer using a blush brush and not the tiny ones that come in these compacts but if you don't have a separate brush use what you have! Apply this lightly to the apples of your cheeks and blend into the hairline (there are a lot of great videos and posts about applying blush based on your face shape, just Google it!)

Next is mascara. There are a million and five mascaras out there. You need to decide what it is you want the mascara to do. Do you want length? Volume? No clumping/flaking? Do you need a water-proof formula? The mascara in the picture is a great volumizing and lengthening option. It comes is brown and black and I believe there is a water-proof version of this. If you have never ever worn mascara OR you have fair skin, eyelashes and eyebrows, you MAY want to try brown mascara first as black can be intense, especially if you are new to it. A great natural finish option is the Maybelline Great Lash in the pink and green tube. Or you can even buy clear mascara just to give your lashes a polished, glossy finish.

Finally it's time for lips. In this picture I chose a Revlon Lip Butter. I love these for their variety of colors, the smell and the price. Plus they look a little more professional than Chapstick or Maybelline Baby Lips if you need to re-apply at the office. I love Pink Truffle, Creme Brulee and Red Velvet from this line. It just depends on how dramatic you want the look to be.

And now you're set.

If you want to build on this for an after-work happy hour or special occasion, it's easy. You can go back and touch up your face, add in a little more blush, eyeliner, eyeshadow and freshen up your mascara.

For one more add-on to a more natural look, I would fill in my brows. There are tons of powders, gels, pencils and liquid liner style brow products. And there are a lot of great options from the drugstore. I really like the Milani, Maybelline and CoverGirl pencils and powders. I also love the brow mousse from Blinc Cosmetics (a little pricier option).

Travel Beauty - Skincare!

A couple of weeks ago I did a blog on travel beauty, and I had a request for travel skin care, so today I am going to talk a little about what I take when I travel.

As you can see above, basically my secret to skin care when you travel is samples. No I don't take all of these and no I didn't raid the samples at my local Sephora. BUT when I place online orders (which is not nearly as often as you might think) OR when I do go to a beauty counter, I ALWAYS get samples. Not always of skin care but that's one of the first ones I ask for.

I like to get samples of cleansers and moisturizers as well as eye creams and serums. So when I travel typically I will take make-up wipes. Two of my faves are the Equate wipes (pictured) or the Neutrogena wipes in the blue packaging. Both of these wipes are great for removing everything including waterproof items. And they don't irritate my face. Then I add in samples for other items I need.

I would encourage you to ask at your fave beauty counters if they have samples or travel size versions of your fave items. You'd be surprised at what they do have.

Drug store skin care items are a little trickier as they usually are in packaging too large to carry on and don't often come in travel sizes. SO I buy little containers and empty product from larger containers into the smaller ones and label them accordingly.

Keep in mind this is what I bring when I am flying and taking only carry on luggage. If I were checking a bag I would most likely just bring everything I would normally use and not worry about samples.

I have found this to be a great way to save space and try out some new things.

FYI - this also works for hair products. Samples of argan oil are super easy to come across so one packet of that and I'm set for the week. Travel size hair spray (John Freida is my FAVE) and shampoo/conditioner are also easy to find. One tip there though is to look up the hotel you are staying at, often times they list toiletries and even more often than that, THEY ARE GOOD BRANDS. I've stayed places that offer Peter Thomas Roth, Bumble & Bumble and other higher end shampoos that are (in some cases) better than what I would have brought. So do your research before you pack.

Travel Beauty

Hello lovelies! I have been doing quite a bit of travel for my job this year and I thought it would be fun to do a little "What's in my travel beauty bag?" post for you. This post will be solely about make-up, if you would like a hair or skincare travel post, please let me know in the comments below.

Regardless of whether I am traveling for work or play (the exception being the cabin, I bring nothing in terms of makeup there), I always like to bring some options when it comes to my make-up routine. I take in to consideration what I will be doing while I am away (is it a conference? will there be a formal dinner or other dress-up type event while I am there? will I be outside in the heat or cold a lot?) in order to plan out what I bring.

For the items pictured above I was attending a one day expo that had a red-carpet, movie theme to the event. SO I upped the glam factor a bit. But in this photo you can also see some of my essentials. We'll break those down first and then go into the glam add-ons.

Essentials:

Lorac Pro to Go Palette - Regardless of whether you are traveling or not, this is a great palette! It comes with 6 shadows, 1 bronzer and 2 blushes. All the colors are neutral but can be used to create a wide variety of looks. You can also use some of the lighter shadows to highlight your face and for some the shadows may even work to fill in your brows. This palette folds up into a sleek compact that can fit into the smallest of bags.

Foundation/Concealer - Above is my new foundation love from Maybelline and a concealer for under my eyes. Jet lag is not fun and neither are bags under your eyes. Conceal that mess. I also brought this great Sonia Kashuk concealer palette just in case I have anything else on my face to conceal (zits, redness, etc). This is a great product because there are three different shades in there along with a setting powder.

Eye Primer - Always a must whether I travel or not, and this one from Lime Crime is awesome!

Eye Liner/Mascara - Again I always use these everyday and right now I am still loving my Voluminous mascara from L'Oreal and my Maybelline Line Stilleto liquid eyeliner.

Eye brow mousse - This is a quick and mostly mess-free way to define my brows. They really do shape your face, I recommend doing this on the daily. Even if you just do brows, mascara, tinted lip balm and a tinted moisturizer. Try it.

Lips - Most days I'm a sheer gloss or Baby Lips kind of girl so I bring those in my purse. But for travel I will bring a couple of options for various looks.

Glam Add-Ons:

False Eye Lashes - For this particular trip, I was going for full on old meets new Hollywood glam so I lashes were a must.

Single shadows - Since the palette I brought only has neutrals, I thought these might be a fun add-on in case I decided to go with a more dramatic eye look. These single shadows from Milani are affordable (from CVS) and such amaze-balls quality. The emerald shade with the gold is STUNNING.

Multiple Red Lip Options - Nothing says Hollywood Glam like a red lip. I used to be terrified of red lips and then they grew on me. Anytime I want an easy glam look or I want to feel a little more badass and powerful, I do a red lip. I brought several options on this trip (lip crayon, lip balm, lipstick and gloss) to create a red lip that would last through the expo and still look good after 4 hours of networking.

I also bring a full array of brushes, which I could do a separate post if you are interested??

What do you bring in your travel bag?

The Weekly Random - Coconut Oil, Shave Cream, Chickens and more!

Hello lovelies! It's time for another weekly random post! It's been a busy couple of weeks, I can't believe I am staring fall in the face again already. Where did the summer go?!

We went to the cabin for the day with some great friends and got some sun and relaxation in. The pups were very excited for a pontoon ride, and Diesel even went for a tube ride with me.

I have several random bullet points below, but before we get super random I wanted to spotlight a couple of standout products.

Coconut Oil - It seems everyone and their mama has hopped on the coconut oil train lately. Of course I have been curious about this too as it seems you can basically replace half the crap in your house with this stuff and it will work miracles not seem since biblical times. I have used it now several times on my hair and am impressed with how soft it makes my hair feel. But unimpressed that it doesn't make my hair smell like coconuts after. Oh well. It also works great to remove eye make-up.

Barbasol Shave Cream - Now this is the shit. My auntie found something on Pinterest that said you can use this shave cream to remove spots in your carpet. All you need to do is dampen the area with warm water, then coat in shave cream (a thin layer, but I do press it in to the spot) and leave it sit for roughly 5 minutes. Then scrub out the spot, and BAM, magically clean carpet. I wish I had some before and after pics of this but I was so impressed that I went on a carpet cleaning bender and only thought about before and after photos as I was lying on the couch in a clean carpet euphoria. I picked up this can above from Target for $1.67 and will be purchasing more. The stains I removed were urine stains and it also helped to get out some of that lingering smell.

Random side notes:

• We are finally getting 14 eggs a day, but...
• An asshole came speeding down our street today and hit one of our chickens head on and killed it. Blood and feathers everywhere. There is no way this piece of shit didn't see/hear/feel that impact. Not to mention there were about 3-4 other chickens in the road at the time. And in true piece-of-shit fashion this asshole kept driving. I am really bummed. 
• I am still managing 4 workouts a week, I am pretty impressed with this continued commitment.
• I really hate seafood. The smell of it. The look of it. Everything about it makes me gag
• I'm off to Atlanta for work this week and I am nervous about fitting everything I need into a carry-on. Someone this into beauty products cannot be confined to one small baggie for all her liquid beauty needs. It's unfair.
• I forgot how much I love the movie Clerks 2. And all of those movies; Mallrats, Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, such great movies.

That's it for this week. 

Spray Lotion...is it worth the hype?

Today's review is being brought to you by request from my friend/co-worker Erin. Close to two months ago I asked on Facebook what you guys wanted to see reviews on and Erin recommended one of the new and really hyped up spray lotions. St. Ives and Vaseline make them now and there might be others I'm just not aware of. Honestly I was pretty curious about these as well so I was more than happy to try one.

Overall this is a good product. I have used this quite a bit now and the nozzle hasn't plugged and I have gotten a continuous even spray each time I've used it. It took me two weeks to get used to putting lotion on via spray bottle and the most amusing this about this is that when you spray it, there is a high pitched whistle that drives my dogs C-R-A-Z-Y. The whine in front of the bathroom door every. time.

Pros: it really moisturizes! and it lasts! It doesn't smell, and a few quick sprays provide plenty of moisturization.

Cons: it's expensive. For roughly $6.50 you only get 6.5 ounces, where as my fave Suave lotion is $4 for 32 ounces. If you don't spray it directly on your body/are trying to reach a smaller part of your body, like your arm or ankle, it gets all over the cabinets, walls, towels, dog, etc.

Bottom Line: While I feel this could be a good thing to bring to the beach or camping or on a road trip (you'd have to check it on a plane) I'm not sure I will be re-purchasing. It's expensive for a little bit of product.

Final thoughts: If you are someone who suffers from dry skin or tend to get dry/ashy throughout the day, this might be a good thing toss in your bag to re-hydrate your skin.

Thanks Erin for the suggestion! If you guys have any other products you want me to try out, leave them in the comments below!