Products I Would Like to Try This Year

Usually people think of things they want to stop doing over the rest of the year, but I think it would be fun to have the goal of trying certain beauty products (within reason, as in, using up products before trying these ;) ), and here is my list:

1. Michael O'Rourke hair care products. I spotted this line for the first time in TJ Maxx in New Hampshire (I shop TJ Maxx all the time everywhere and this was the first time I ever saw this line!) and it really has me intrigued. I am going to be none specific about which product because I kind of want all of them because the packaging is amazingly cute O:). I guess whenever I run out of an essential item I will replace it with something from this line instead of something from Target or the drug store and see how it goes.

2. Laura Geller Balance and Brighten. I know that I have mentioned that I wanted to try this before and maybe if I keep saying it I will use up all my powders so that I finally can! Haha.

3. Origins Vitazing. So many people seem to enjoy this and it seems like my kind of product!

4. Eye creams generally. This year is the first year where I started to notice my eyes needing moisture but my regular face lotion seems to always sting them. I don't know when I developed sensitive eyes because things never used to bother them (even the make up remover that I have always used makes them sting now too!), but because if their special needs I am desperate to find a product that does its job without stinging so I don't have to think about it anymore haha. The problem is, I feel like every eye cream out there is designed for anti-dark circles, and anti-aging, when all I want is moisture! This makes it had to figure out what to try!

5. New Brands. This is also a general thing because I don't want to have to commit to a specific brand. I feel like I avoid certain brands for no particular reason other than the fact that "everyone loves them" but I want to be "different," one manly being MAC, haha.

What about you? What brands or products do you want to try this year? I'd love to read your lists or get any suggestions for things you think I should try! And if you ask nicely, I'll be sure to review them too ;)

Madewell Scarf Dupe from Target!

Check out my new baby! This lovely two panel polka dot scarf is from Target! And I got it on clearance! I'd post a link to it on the target website but I have been unable to track it down there.

Isn't it just SO Madewell? Like it could be buddies with this, and this. :)

The weather here has been super spring like and out of character for New England, but I just love it for fashion reasons because I feel like I can dress cuter and that this scarf fits right in because it is so light and soft that it is perfect for spring!

I really hope that Target keeps getting more awesome because I swear with every coming release recently it has been really hitting my style right on the nose! Hello bright blue and red jeans who call my name every time I go it! Good Afternoon neon pink and khaki backpack who tries to lure my money it's way. Dupe me a gray and white stripe shirt with hot pink accents on the hems (a shirt I saw at Marshals) and it will be a true love to never look back from!

What do you think of target fashion? Any great finds?

Welcome to the Big Top!

Readers.... this is love.... never have I had a passion for sequins as I do for this blazer... the sleeves are the perfect length... it doesn't itch... it fuels my secret passion for Ringmaster/Circus style fashion... it's gold... it has a waterfall/draping cut to the front... the lines are just beautiful in the way that the sequin lines are diagonal... I honestly think it could make everything look good... have I found The One?
.
.
.
.
Haha, I exaggerate (a little) about my love of this TJ Maxx find! Only $25, and it's Calvin Klein! IIIIIII KNOW! :) I am dying for an excuse to wear it! How would you style it? I think it could look amazing with hot pink under neither and like a black bondage skirt?

What do you love with a burning passion that was love at first sight? Comment below, I would LOVE to know and live vicariously through your fashion relationships :)

My New Love: Garnier BB Cream

This is love. I have been so jealous of the British beauty bloggers/vloggers who have been using this product so when I finally tracked it down I nearly jumped for joy! I have been dealing with some dry skin issues and trying to figure out what product would work best for me for a day time moisturizer as I had previously only been using a heavy night time moisturizer because I hate waiting for moisturizer to sink in in the morning. Enter Garnier Skin Renew BB Cream! I don't care if it isn't a BB Cream in the asian beauty sense, and it more of a tinted moisturizer. If it was called a tinted moisturizer I would still be in love. The color is perfect, the coverage is light (something I have been looking for since everything else I own is medium coverage), it has my favorite Garnier scent, AND it does the moisturizing job I was seeking. It doesn't roll after application like I found with the Garnier dark spot corrector in the Skin Renew line, and it gives a good amount of moisture without being greasy. Granted, I have been using this with a powder every time (because I am trying to get rid of the powder, haha), but I have never had break through oil problems with it. The only downside is that because it is light coverage I tend to wear it off by the end of the day because I touch my face in class via leaning on my hands, etc. But, because it is light coverage, the wear off isn't really noticeable unless one is specifically looking for it.
A+ Garnier for a good product, with a great price to product ratio! I am pretty sure this will last me all of 2012 even if I use it every day! Plus it has SPF 15 so it will be super for summer! Yippie!

So how about you guys? Have you tried it? What did you think? Too light coverage? Doesn't match your skin? Are you in love with it like I am? Comment below :)

Most Worn Belts

I'm not someone who owns a great deal of accessories so when I purchase and wear accessories they are usually quite my style and well loved: never a wear once and forget about it style purchase usually. So, for today's post I am going to share my top 4 worn belts

This ombre belt is from H&M and I purchased it in Aix-En-Provence, France in 2008. This was when I first learned about H&M so I have no idea if it was a belt available in the United States or not, but this belt was the first ombre purchase I have made and I was ecstatic about it. As you can see it is so well loved over these year that the belt loop hole that I use actually got ripped/stretched because of all the adventures this belt went on with me (I vaguely recall that maybe it got caught on a door or a piece of furniture at a party or something, haha). I haven't purchased any H&M belts since this belt but if they are still this same quality then they are fantastic and I should probably consider buying more, and you should too! After 4 years this belt is still amazing and in good condition minus the belt hole.

My next 2 favorite belts are brown belts and are more recent purchases as I got them both this fall. The top brown one is a belt that I got in a 3 pack at Pac-Sun for a really good price. I loved this belt, until I bought the brown leather belt on black friday from Garage. Currently this is a semi-shared wear time relationship but I think eventually I may favor the Garage brown belt over the Pac-Sun one. The Garage belt is real leather so it is more flexible, comfortable, and higher quality than the Pac-Sun belt.

This is a close up of the adorable buckle of the Garage belt. Isn't the bow just the most subtle and adorable thing you have ever seen? I also wear the red version of this belt often as well.

My last most worn belt is this strawberry belt from J Crew. I could be wrong but I think I may have received this belt for Christmas as far back as 2006! But I would believe it if it was 2007 or something. Either way, it has been with me for a long time! This one is even better than the H&M belt when it comes to the longevity of it's live. Because this is a ribbon belt I expect this to be with me for a really long time because there are no belt holes to rip or anything. When I first got this belt I liked it but thought it was "too preppy" for me, but after staring at it in my wardrobe for a few years I came around and now I just LOVE it. The ribbon style of it makes it comfortable because it is always the correct size and could be borrowed by any of my friends! I also love that the reverse side has the strawberries part way down so that when it gets threaded through you don't have to cover up the strawberries, yay!


Also, FUN FACT: I wear all of my belts with the buckle on the right side, skater style. This is the result of the phase I went through in high school for skater things: skater shoes, studded belts, band shirts, the works, just everything but the skate board. I still have a small passion for skater shoes and high tops but I only own like 2 pairs and don't wear them that often. The only remaining style point of this phase is the belt style and the undeniable opinion that I think centered buckles are kinda lame and country farmer on everyone and only "cool" people wear their buckles on the side. Haha. No offence to those of you that center your belts but I just can't ever bring myself to do it! haha :P

What are your favorite belts? And weird fun facts about your fashion style like my belting style? Comment below!

Updated Opinion: L'Oreal 24 Hour Infallible Eye Shadow

You have probably seen my previous post about the L'Oreal 24 Hour Infallible Eye Shadow because it is currently my most viewed post here! (thanks guys :) )

That being said, my opinions about this product has changed so I think it deserves another post. Generally, I still believe what I said in the previous post, along with everything else I noted in my Maybelline Tough as Taupe post where I also discuss my new opinion on the L'Oreal Shadow. So here is what I didn't mention in that post: I actually went and returned the L'Oreal shadows (I purchased them at CVS and CVS pretty much is as nice about returns as Sephora, at least they have been whenever I have returned things), and here are my reasons why:

1. I felt guilty for breaking my Kill It Quest vow for TWO products.
2. The L'Oreal matte shade, no matter how I played with it, just didn't work for me because of its yellow tones to it. Even though Wet 'N' Wild Brule isn't a cream shadow, it does way more for me than the L'Oreal Endless Pearl did. I wanted Endless Pearl to be basically a creamy fast version of Brule that I could put on and run out the door, but it just wouldn't let me do that, haha.
3. The L'Oreal shimmer shade, Iced Latte, was a duplicative color in my collection, and after a week or so I decided that I couldn't really justify that given my resolutions, plus the fact that I have neglected my Stila Kitten for quite some time that I didn't think it was smart. If I haven't been using Kitten, why would I expect that I would use Iced Latte enough to justify its purchase?
4. After feeling what a cream shadow could feel like with the Maybelline Tough as Taupe and having my eyes opened to what I preferred, I realized that the powdery nature of the L'Oreal wasn't really something I was looking for.
5. The little presser thing annoyed me.
6. The L'Oreal shades are more suited to be used as a main eyeshadow color, something I don't need more of yet, rather than a base color, something that I have been looking for.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Yep your receipts girls, and check your return policies. No reason to send a product through a Kill It Quest or Project Pan in the future when you can return it and get your money back. Who cares about getting your monies worth out of a product you are kind eh about, when you can just get that money back and get something you like more! :)

Are YOU as Tough as Taupe?

You guys have probably seen my previous post about the L'Oreal 24 Hour Infallible Eye Shadow where I rave about how much I like it. Well, my opinion has kind of changed about it, something I will go into in another post, but part of the reason my opinion changed about the L'Oreal Shadow is because I discovered this little baby right here, the Maybelline Color Tattoo 24 Hour Eyeshadow in Tough as Taupe. Similar name right? Well it's because Maybelline is a company owned by L'Oreal. That being said, I like this Maybelline product better.

WHY: I got this product because a bunch of the bloggers and vloggers that I follow were talking about this product being an amazing dupe for the formula of MAC paintpots (some reviewers even saying these are better than MAC's!), and MAC paintpots was always something I wanted to try but have never gotten around to it because of how I feel about MAC. A lot of the colors in this Color Tattoo line are ridiculous and not things I would ever wear, this color being one of the few exceptions. First, I loved that it was a matte shadow, I love me some mattes. Because it is matte I feel like it is better suited for its job as a base rather than a color to use by itself (which it is also good at, but just something I don't do really). I love to use this under a taupe color because Tough as Taupe is kind of greyish, while my powder taupe shadows lean more brown, and when combined I really think they balance each other out nicely. I have found that this works better with a primer underneath, but when used without one it lasts a good amount of time, but won't stay crease-less all day. When it does crease when used alone, it is actually very minimal and probably wouldn't bother the average person, just someone that is into make-up. I think the texture of this is nice because it is not too tough and not too creamy, making it easy to get the right amount of product and not feel like you are wasting it. I like that this can easily be applied a little sheerer than it appears in the pot, which I think looks amazingly flattering rather than at the intensity it is in the pot. I do like, however, that it is a product that can perform up to the color in the pot if I some how one day feel so inspired to use it that way.

VS L'OREAL: Ok, so here is why I like this Maybelline shadow better than the L'Oreal... the L'Oreal is more of a powdery slight cream shadow, while this one is a true cream shadow. I think the L'Oreal definately still has a legitimate place in the makeup world, but I don't think it is something that really fits into my collection right now. This is also because, as you can see in my previous post about the product, I already had multiple shimmery champagne/kitten colored shadows, so it was kind of duplicative. I do think that I could be persuaded to find the L'Oreal shadows more fitting in my collection ones I used up some of the shadows I already have, as I am not adverse to trying new champagne shadows once I work through the ones I have. Now, because of that, you can understand why this Maybelline taupe shade fits better in my collection: I only really have 1 taupe shadow, and it is shimmery, not matte. I have 2 matte beige shadows, Brulee, as well as a deeper taupe leaning beige from Inglot, but no matte taupe powder shadows. Because of the lacking of this neutral color in my collection, and the fact that I will actually use this, this Maybelline shadow is a much better choice for me.

WISHES: I love this color to death, I am already thrilled with it. If the Color Tattoo line had only come out with this color I would still remained thrilled. The only way to make this real world fantasy even better is if there was a sister shimmery version of this taupe color! I know they have a bronze one already, but I am not that into bronze. Give me a shimmery taupe or fawn, and I think I may just die and go to heaven! haha.

SIDE NOTE: I know, I know, my followers might be thinking... Girl... what about your Kill It Quest... I know... I'm bad. I broke my own rules. But I feel like it fits in the spirit of the quest: to not have duplicate products in my collection. And since I don't have any matte taupes, and only one simmer taupe anyway, I think that for a Kill It Quest sin... its one of the better ones to make? Am I forgiven? :)

What about you guys? Which do you like better, the Color Tattoo shadow, or the L'Oreal one? Or do you think they shouldn't be compared because they serve different purposes in your collection? Comment bellow and let me know :)

Purge 11: Look at it all!

I am so proud if this purge post! Look at all the amazing things I have used :) This is very encouraging in my quest to be smarter about my purchases as the end of a product buying ban due to multiples is starting to feel closer! I though my hair products would never end, and here is another one down! Yay!

1. Crest Pro-Health: Sensitive + Enamel Shield

I bought this instead of the one I had been using before (the 3d vivid white one) because I was having slightly tooth sensitivity issues so I thought this might help. I think it helped a little bit but nothing miraculous that I am particularly compelled to buy it again

2. VMV Hypoallergenics - Re-Everything Face-Hand-Body Lotion

For a review of this product see this post.

3. Sephora Advanced Lash Booster Mascara

This mascara was fine, though got a little clumpy and flaky towards the end which made me stop using it. I don't know if I would ever buy it because there are just so many mascaras out there that I want to try. I did like that it gave a little volume along with length and definition though. I can't say it did must "lash boosting" though as it didn't give any "extension" like the tube claimed.

4. Sephora Lip Gloss in Precious Pink

I finally finished the last of my lip gloss trio from WAY back in the day! While this one seemed to be the sparkliest I found that I got used to it and grew to like it, especially when I started using this as a kind of lip balm. I think it can be sticky on its own, but when used inside of the house just for lip balm purposes I found that it was decently hydrating and protecting! Who knew!? Having killed all three of these lip glosses gives me great motivation that I will be able to make great strides in my lip product collection in 2012. I wanna knock out some lip sticks next!

5. Vaseline Intensive Rescue Moisture Locking Lotion

It is finallllly out of my life! I have literally had this for years because I stupidly bought this giant size and then realized I didn't really like it that much! Haha. Luckily living in new england for this semester made it easier to use up because I actually wanted to moisturize, unlike when I live down in the MD/DC area normally and only moisturize post-tanning in the summer really. I wouldn't repurchase this mainly because I didn't like the weird smell it had because it was fragrance free, go figure, haha. I also don't think this was magical at being a lotion just ok/fine but I am not adverse to trying more Vaseline lotions as I think they may have a better formula now? Maybe? We shall see what lotion calls to me after I use up the 2 littler ones I have left to use up.

6. Bath and Body Works Carried Away Shower Gel

I enjoyed this. Bath and Body Works shower gels have a nice lather and I found myself enjoying this scent even though I would never wear it out in the world. It was fun to smell while in the shower because it was sweet but somehow also refreshing. For $10.50 I think it can be an expensive product so I am going to try cheaper body washes and shower gels before considering going back to B&BW, but I know that I do like the product and would love getting it as a gift.

7. Herbal Essences Long Term Relationship Leave in Split End Protector

I didn't really like this at all and found myself using it as a regular conditioner near the end just so I could have this out of my life. It was too heavy as a leave in conditioner, though I did enjoy the smell. I wouldn't repurchase this because of it's heavy/stickiness, but I'm not turned off by the who line in the brand. I think I wouldn't mind trying a hair mask version of this if it existed in the US.

8. Skintimate Shave Gel in Strawberry Tangerine Twist

I loved the smell of this and I loved how it left my legs moisturized after use! I used thing because Elle Fowler on Youtube talked about it because she is a sponsor of this product. I love the smell because it reminds me of orange jello with fresh strawberries in it (how I like to make my own jello!), and I never knew that a shave gel could make such a difference in shaving! Out of cheapness, I haven't bought a shave gel in years, which probably sounds crazy now that I type it out, but it made sense at the time, haha. Now that I can see how moisturizing they can be (the hyper dry legs that I would get after shaving without shave gel would always bother me because I don't always have time or the patience to moisturize after showering). I'm not sure what shave gel I am going to use next, maybe another one from this brand but in a different scent, or  maybe a different brand, we shall see. But I am super glad that Elle Fowler was sponsored by this brand because I just love it! Haha