Loreal Youth Code Texture Perfector - Review

This could be my new holy grail skin care product. Seriously I really am that obsessed. This is the new L'oreal Youth Code Texture Perfector. It is about $20 at most local Target/Walmart type stores and I know you can get coupons online and in the paper. This is a serum you put on after cleansing in the AM & PM, and it supposed to perfect the overall appearance of your face (smaller pores, gets rid of wrinkles, and gives you softer skin), this also contains 2% LR2412, which is supposed to be a powerful skin care ingredient that will whip your skin into shape. [Side note: Lancome's new serum - made by the same peeps - contains 4% LR2412 and is twice the price]. 

Why do I like it? It doesn't stink - there is a smell but it's not strong enough to last forever, it has improved the appearance of my skin in terms of brightness and pores AND it doesn't irritate my skin (which most L'oreal products do). I feel like I am doing something good for my skin and I am pleased with the results. The price isn't terrible either.

FYI - there is also a day/night cream version of this and I have not tried that.

Do you use a serum? Have you tried this one? Tell me in the comments below.

Fall and Winter Skin Saver! E.L.F. Daily Moisture Stick

 I recently purchased this Daily Moisture Stick from E.L.F. I didn't have super high hopes but I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised.

I used to use a similar product from mark., but that was discontinued a few years abck and I have been looking for something similar to replace that. And I found it!

 This is just a great little item to have on hand at your desk, in your purse, in the bathroom or wherever. I have been using this on dry patches by my mouth and nose this last week and it has really made a difference. Winter is coming in Minnesota and that means dry skin is coming too.
But this bad boy is going to knock dry winter skin on its a$$. This is only $6 at Target and is totally worth it. Like I said I just apply with my finger tips to dry spots on my face and let it soak in. The texture is balm like, it feels cooling to the skin but not tingly and it does not have a smell. It does say on the packaging that it is "Enriched with antioxidants and anti-aging ingredients Grape, Cocoa, Shea, Avocado, Macadamia, Aloe and Chamonile." How much of each of those things, I don't know. But I that it was interesting. And it makes me feel better about using it.

Sorry for the crappy pics, my camera just didn't want to focus. Not sure what the deal is there.

Tell me in the comments if you have used this product and if you like it!

Fall Fashion from JustFab - BOOTS!

There are so many things I love about fall. The leaves changing, bonfires, the smells of apple and cinnamon, football and pumpkin spiced lattes at Starbucks. But one of my all time favorite things about fall is boots. I love boots. Tall boots, heeled boots, flat boots and everything in between.

In the last year or two I have discovered the amazing deals you can find at JustFab. JustFab is a monthly subscription service that allows you to skip or cancel at any time, but you have the opportunity to purchase amazing (and incredibly affordable for the quality) stylish shoes, denim, handbags and accessories. I will admit there are a few things I have purchased that I returned because I didn't like the quality or fit, and I really wish they had a wider selection of heels in a more wearable length, but I digress.  

The one thing I love about JustFab is that all of their boots (with the exception of the new Luxe line) are $39.95. These are high quality, stylish boots for $40! You can't even find that at Target these days. I paid twice as much for a pair of Steve Madden boots and those have fallen apart on me a couple of times. 

I have several pairs of heels and sandals from JustFab that I love, but I have a couple of new faves for fall that I wanted to share with you today. If you feel so inclined, you can sign up for JustFab here.

Mattie (black)

These are soooooo comfy! And I love that I can wear them for work and look supes professional OR with skinnies and a sweater on the weekend. Low-mid heel and no zipper, just slide on and off. Love.

Trinity (black)

Okay, if you are looking for some high fashion, super trendy fall boots, get these. No seriously, get these. The mix of faux suede and faux leather is sooooo hot right now and the pointy toe too, OMG. I love these with dresses and tights. I also love to wear these with my leather mini skirt, oh so chic! These are mostly comfy too, but I strongly suggest some sort of insert for the balls of your feet as the heel on this is fairly steep. But for work or a night out these are fab-u-lous. 

Margaux (black)

Another stylish bootie option that is great for work. Also would recommend the insert for these too. Again I love these with dresses/skirts and tights. I think they would be adorbs with skinnies but haven't tried that yet. This style also mixes materials with faux leather and suede.

Where have I been?!?! AND Fall Beauty Faves

Hello lovely blog readers!

Some of you may have been wondering where I've been and some of you maybe don't care. Either way, a very long story short is that I moved. It was quick and dirty, but it's all done and we are all settling in nicely to our new country home :-)

Now let's hope that a new home means a new routine with more regularly scheduled blog posts! One can always hope right?!?

So today's post is going to be all about Fall Beauty. I love Fall. Fall and Spring are my two most favorite seasons. I am not a hot weather person and being in Minnesota I really don't want to think about winter right now.

Traditionally, this is the time of year that deeper, darker and richer tones start to show up and I love that. But let me pause and tell you that if you are a lover of neons and pastels and you want to rock that all the way into next summer, you go right on ahead and do that. I am a firm believer that fashion and beauty should be a reflection of you, not what other people say you should do.

For me though, I love the darker, and more vampy colors that come out for Fall. Especially in the beauty department. So below are some of the things that I am totally obsessed with. I apologize in advance for the craptastical lighting, but the new house has a lot of "natural" lighting so it's just weird.

A few of my faves! Most are from the drug store too :) 

I am absolutely obsessed with the deeper colors in this palette! Especially the garnet and deep purple shades. This is the Lorac Pro Palette.

I am also totally into orange. Like fall leaves or a fall sunset or a bonfire after a football game. I LOVE this palette from the Wet n Wild Fergie Collection in Desert Festival. I picked this up at Walgreens for $2 on sale.

A beautiful purple-y cranberry shade from E.L.F. in burnt plum. Use this wet or dry!

Deep berry blushes like Heather Silk from Wet n Wild - also found at Walgreens for $1 on sale.

Maybelline limited edition mascara in So Very Berry. About $5 at Walmart. I put this just on the tips of my lashes after my regular mascara is on. Stunning on blue and green eyes! I tried to find a link for this but I couldn't find one for exactly this color. BUT  I have seen it all over at Target, Walmart and Walgreens. 

I LOVE dark nail polish all year long but these are some of my FAVES. Essie in Wicked, Zoya in Casey and Wet n Wild in Under Your Spell. Love all of these. Love them.

A new love. Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar. OMG. This is from their new metallic collection and is in the shade Black Metal Dahlia. This is stunning - the lighting here does not do it justice. Can be worn more sheer or fully loaded. And while it is a deeeeeeeep berry color it doesn't appear too deep or goth on your lips. Just in case you were worried. 

And finally, I am loving (or still loving) Lime Crime's lipstick in Galmour 101. I found that using a lip liner is essential with these darker colors and I love this one by Jordana in Rock n Roses. Found the lipliner at Walgreens for $1 or maybe $2. Also couldn't find a link for that but you can find it at Walgreens by the beauty counter near the Sinful Colors nail polish.

So tell me in the comments below what your fave Fall Beauty trends are! Anything you love about fall? Or maybe you don't like fall colors and that's okay too!

Sunday Scoop: My Fave E.L.F. Products

Today's post is all about one of my fave brands of make-up. E.L.F. (Eyes Lips Face Cosmetics) can be purchased at Target or on their website. I have also heard of people finding this line at grocery stores or other random places, but I always just go to Target to get mine.

This line of cosmetics is super affordable - generally most items are around the $1-$6 range. I have not tried everything in this line, and I have definitely tried some things that were crap, but a lot of it is really good stuff! Here are a few of my faves:

The small stippling brush ($3 part of the studio brush collection) is amazing! I love using it for cream blushes. I really like all of the brushes I have tried both in the studio and regular collections. I would also recommend their crease brush and the general eye shadow brush. So affordable and they really do hold up well.

The Studio Collection Warm Bronzer, $3, is an awesome bronzer! You can use it all over your face, you can use it as eye shadow AND you can use the lightest shade as a highlighter. Seriously awesome product for $3. It comes in other shades but I really like this one.

This is probably one of their most popular/most talked about/most reviewed products of all time. This is the Studio Collection Contouring Blush and Bronzer in St. Lucia, $3. This is a dupe for NARS's blush/bronzer duo in Orgasm and Laguna which is around $40 or so (not sure if they still sell it in that color combo or not, but each blush from NARS is around $28 so you are still getting a steal at only $3). This combo from E.L.F. comes in other colors and in a cream formula but this is my fave. The bronzer isn't totally matte, so I don't think I would do a hard core contour with this, but for everyday it's perfect!

I am absolutely in love with this product! It's the lip exfoliator and it also retails for $3. This is so great to exfoliate your lips before doing a bold lip color or to do weekly as a treat! It smells sweet, but not sickly sweet and it doesn't over power you either. Once you wipe it off the smell is gone. I use this after I wash my face and I take the product and rub all over my lips (like you would a lip stick) and rub in little circular motions, then when I am done I take a corner of the wash cloth I used to wash my face and wipe off my lips. Done and done. Then I always follow it up with lip balm.

Okay this might be one of the best products in the collection. It is the E.L.F. essential eyelid primer, $1. And this is awesome. I mean seriously awesome. Its $1 and it really helps keep your shadow on all day. While I wouldn't say it's an exact dupe for Urban Decay's primer potion, its darn close and its $1. Let me say that again, its $1, one measly little dollar. Compare that to $20 or more for the high end brands, and you can get this primer (plus everything else in this blog post) and have a lot of spare change left over.

An honorable mention here is the eye lash curler. Also $1, and it is as good, if not better than the Sephora and Shu Umera ones combined. Try it, you will not be disappointed.

What are your faves from the line?

Sunday Scoop: Hero of the Game - My Dad.

Last night my dad was recognized as Hero of the night for his service to the military at a Saint Paul Saints game. He stood out on the field for the National Anthem and then was interviewed during the third inning about his time in the military.

My dad served in the U.S. Army for 26 years. And while he was never deployed to a war zone per say, he still gave 26 years of his life to his country.

And I am very proud of that.

One thing that really stuck out to me about this recognition was how cool my dad thought it was. He was really honored that people cared what he did and that he was chosen to be recognized for something he saw as his job.

And after the game was over and we were sitting around Chilis relaxing he said that he was really happy he wore his uniform because several people at the game (both before and after he was officially recognized) people came up to him to say thanks. Thanks for serving.

A lot of people serve our military, and a lot of people make the ultimate sacrifice in doing so. So if and when you have the chance to say thanks to a soldier, do it.

To all of those who have served, continue to serve, and to those who lost their lives in the process and to all of the families, I say thank you.

And thanks Dad.

Trying Something New - The Sunday Scoop

Hello my lovelies!!! First and foremost - this is not a post about ice cream. I know the scoop part makes me think of that so I wanted to clear that up for anyone else who is now craving an ice cream cone.

So, I always say "Oh so sorry it's been so long since my last post!" or "This time I'm getting on a schedule with my blogs." But this time, I really do mean it. Mostly. Well at least I'm trying anyway. I want to challenge myself to do a once a week post called The Sunday Scoop. This will mostly be beauty and skin care related, but I am going to sprinkle in a little fashion, food, and random life events posts. I know, I'm skeptical too, but hey maybe I can prove both of us wrong and really stick with it this time.

So my post today is going to be all about bronzers and highlighters. It's summer and although I am paler than death, I do try to bronze it up a bit, and I have gotten myself into a fun routine that I really like. So below are the products I am using, including the (affordable and awesome) brushes I use - you'll see they're dirty so you know I'm using them, ha! And of course links and info on where to find them all.

The first product I want to talk about is TheBalm's Bahama Mama bronzer. I have several products from TheBalm and I freakin love them. Such amazing quality and all of them are highly pigmented and reasonably priced. You can order it on TheBalm's website for $20 or you can order it from Amazon for about $15 (which is where I got it from).

I know it looks scary, but if I can make this work for me, trust me you can use it too. The key is in the application. Use a smaller brush, it doesn't have to be specifically for contouring, but something smaller is better. And use a light handed, less is more approach. This is a great bronzer for contouring because it's matte. You could use it all over your face on a more medium to tan skin tone, but for me it's a great contour shade.

I use the contour brush from Real Techniques. It is the perfect tapered shape to fit the hollows of your cheeks, the sides of your nose and hairline. I usually tap the brush in the bronzer and then tap off any excess product from the brush.

The next bronzer I use is the Sonia Kashuk's Undetectable Creme Bronzer in Warm Tan. Apparently this is a dupe for a Chanel cream bronzer that costs around $50. I don't have the Chanel one so I can't compare. BUT this is only $10.99 at Target and it's AMAZING. I use it as an all over bronzer and it really is un-detectable. I use a duo fiber brush from Sigma to apply it. And it makes me look like I just went on vacation - I love it!

My fave highlighting powder is Mary Loumanizer from TheBalm. Can we just pause for a moment and acknowledge how awesome the people of TheBalm must be. Their products are awesome, the names and packaging are fantastic. I just seriously love this brand. And you haven't tried a highlighter until you've tried this one. I use it above my brow bone, on my cheek bones, and down my nose. You only need a small amount and a little advice: if it is humid and 100 degrees out, less is more. You don't want to look sweaty.

To apply my highlighter I use this setting brush from Real Techniques. It is the right shape and size to slap that highlighter in place. Again less is more, this is an extremely pigmented product. I recommend tapping off excess before applying to your face. You can always come back and add in more, but you don't want to look like a show girl. Unless that's the look you're going for, in which case, go ahead girl!

Swatched left to right: Sonia Kashuk Undetectable Creme Bronzer, Bahama Mama, Mary Loumanizer.

Have you tried any of these products? What are your faves?