May Hauls

Soooooo, I have been doing a lot of shopping lately, especially since school ended. Nothing like a little (or A LOT) shopping therapy! I finally found the Cosmetics Company Store at my outlet mall (hidden in the Saks Off Fifth store) so that was exciting :). I also stopped by Sephora & Ulta!

~CCO~

Mac Beauty Powder in Summer Rose $15.50 – beautifully packaged blue-toned light pink blush

Bobbi Brown Creamy concealer in Warm Beige $15.50; believe it or not I never used concealer before this. It's extremely easy to blend and did match my skin pretty well before I got tanner after a trip to the beach...

Bobbi Brown Long-wear Gel eyeliner in Thunder Storm (24) $14.75: This is a glittery charcoal liner, which is subtle yet gives enough definition to the eyes. Addicted!

~SEPHORA~

Dr. Feel Good (by Benefit): “a velvety complexion balm” that can be worn alone, under or over makeup used to mattify your complexion and smooth our lines or pores. Contains vitamins C & E. Nice clean scent, still trying it out to see how much I like it.

~ULTA~

NYX Nude on Nude Palette: 20 eyeshadows & 10 lip colors, comes with a 2 double-ended applicators, one for eyes and the other for lips. I am loving these eyeshadows! I never really took the time to wear it before but since getting this, I have loved trying new combinations of different shades and since these are neutral shades they are very safe to play around with. I find that the shadows last pretty well even without a primer underneath. I have yet to try out the lip colors but the Orange one is calling my name :).

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips: 320 Kitty, Kitty (leopard print) and 350 Misbehaved (black fishnet over a shimmery rose gold color). As a nail polish lover, these have always intrigued me so I had to get some.

I also purchased Lolly by Zoya, which is a beautiful matte pink (photo of it in last post!).

Essie Fifth Avenue nail polish-bright red orange (I'm wearing this right now with fingers & toes matching!): I actually found this at my local TJ Maxx store, they were selling these polishes for $3.99, who could pass that up, especially such a beautiful color!??

-J

Happy Summer!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a bit obsessed with nail polish and have been acquiring quite the collection over the past year. My count is up to 76 bottles right now, which I am kind of embarassed about because 1) is this really necessary and 2) I don't even get to wear most of them. Plus I have very small nails so I have never finished a bottle of nail polish yet, even though I probably repaint my nails (fingers & toes!) 1-2 times a week. That is why all these bottles still look brand new, haha. Anyways, I wanted to share my top nail polish picks for this summer. The weather is so humid and hot here in Florida -- definitely prime time to be showing off your lovely fingers and toes.

First up we have Rage by Orly and 3 Essie polishes: Sand Tropez, Lilacism and Turquoise & Caicos.

Zoya!! Probably one of my favorite brands of nail polish: Lolly (AWESOME matte barbie pink.. seriously if you haven't tried matte polish try this one - it dries SO FAST, pretty amazing!), Caitlin, Maura and Heidi.

Here we have I'm Wired from Sephora by O.P.I. (lovely hot coral), At Berries in the Canaries & Dulce de Leche by O.P.I, and Peachy Keen & Sun Worshipper by China Glaze.

-J

some creations

These are some of my more recent creations. I love key lime pie so much that made another batch of them and stored them in the freezer so that I could have one whenever my heart desired. This time I hand crushed the graham crackers for the crust so it came out more coarse but still held together beautifully. HOW CUTE IS THIS TINY BUNDLE OF JOY???

Here is a semi-failed baking product, and I haven't baked since... I saw a recipe for baked avocado donuts. I LOVE AVOCADOS. They are probably in my Top 5 favorite things to eat. Of course I was gonna give this recipe a shot, plus I had about 5 ripe avocados sitting in the fridge. Since I don't own a donut pan, I decided to convert into muffins and did not make any frosting. While these muffins tasted quite nice and I loved the way they looked - what a vibrant green color! - the butter + oil that the recipe called for made these muffins quite oily. Avocados, by nature, contain a lot of fat. In these muffins, I feel like next time I will opt to leave out the butter -- 1 cup is really too much.

I know that school is over for most people by now, but here are the last 2 lunches that I made to bring to school this spring semester.

At the time that I made this, the weather was really starting to warm up so I was in the mood for a cold noodle salad. Soba noodles it was! I had a bunch of cilantro stems left over from a previous guacamole feast, so I decided to make a vinaigrette with them. So into the VitaMix went the cilantro stems, olive oil, soy sauce, sugar and balsamic vinegar. Everything was eyeballed until I achieved the tasted that I liked. Other than soba noodles, you can basically add whatever veggies you have on hand. I had carrots, cucumbers and green onions. This would be awesome with some pieces of chicken or tofu as well. This noodle salad was great after refrigeration, so it was perfect to bring to school.

This pasta was created because I had a lot of arugula that I got tired of eating in a salad with. Therefore - pasta! I took a can of tuna and pan fried it in some olive oil and a lot of red chili pepper flakes. This created kind of a paste that was full of flavor. Then I added a 14.5 oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes (+ juices) and let that simmer down to a sauce. After the pasta was boiled, I added it to the pan with a bit of pasta water and added the arugula. That's when I turned off the heat. The arugula wilted and added a nice spiciness to the pasta. This was very filling lunch for sure.

-J

Yay Summer!

Finally found an Ulta near me finally! woo!

Here is what I got. 2 OPI nail polishes: Dulce de Leche (pink based nude) and Ate Berries in the Canaries (magenta). I'm really loving these for summer. I also got some NYX products: 2 lipliners (Nude Pink & Hot Red) and the Eyebrow Cake Powder kit in Black/Gray, "for those Movie Star Brows". It has a wax, a dark and light gray powder and 2 brushes. I've only used this twice so far, but these colors match me much better than the dark brown pencil I used to use.

I also acquired 3 things from the 15% sale for VIB at Sephora. I got the clinique gel liner in True Black, the cute little bottom lash mascara also from Clinique and the Philosophy 3-in-1 Margarita Shower gel bubble bath.

-J

April means spring is here!!!

I know it's May now.. been really busy with school. But all these products pertain to April. Not that it really makes a big difference for me, living in Florida where it is already like 90+ degrees, humid and sunny every day since mid-March. Anyways, spring means new fashions in the stores and new makeup. Here are a few things I picked up this past month.. some bad, but mostly good. Here are my thoughts on these products!

Yes to tomatoes Total treatment Facial Mask for Oil-to-Combination skin: very creamy mask, would be good for times when your skin is feeling dried out. I probably would not repurchase this.

Origins Clear Improvement active charcoal mask: LIFE CHANGING product. This seriously has minimized my pores and my breakouts. The key is to make sure you open your pores before putting it on, either with a warm cloth or steaming your face above a bowl of hot water. Leave it on for 20-30 minutes, and wipe it off with a damp washcloth.

New Burts Bees Tinted Lip Balm: Got this in color Tiger Lily, which is like an orange-y peach color. It smells amazing, kind of melon-y and a bit floral.

Essie Nail polish in Sand Tropez! Awesome nude for the summertime. It comes out as a grey-ish light tan. I love it.

E.L.F. contouring blush & bronzing powder: my Target finally carries E.L.F. products now so i picked this up to try out, haven't used it much though it swatches lovely.

Physicians Formula 2-in-1 lash boosting eyeliner + serum: heard this liquid liner was a dupe for the Dollywink liners, but I'm pretty sure it is not. This liner does not stay on very long at all, at least on me. I tried using it to tightline my upper waterline and it ended up seeping into my eyes making my eyeballs black. I do like the extremely fine-tipped brush thats on here.

Physicians Formula Glow & Mood Boosting Blush in Rose: very faint pink with shimmer, works better as a highlight than a blush. very cute packaging.

That's it for now. Just finished spring semester of school so I will be updating this more often. I have a couple of posts saved up so, expect to see some in the days to come!

-J