SOCIAL MEDIA

Monday, October 29, 2012

Holiday Giveaway!!!

Here's a new giveaway to get everyone into the holiday season! Enjoy! Remember that you MUST be a PUBLIC follower to be eligible to win. A picture of all the prizes is shown below. This giveaway is valued at $25.


Enjoy! XOXO,
Haylee :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway








 

My Beauty Must Haves Part II

So first off I want to congratulate Jessica S. for winning my Halloween Giveaway!!!! She was super sweet and she said she plans on using the polish to do her homecoming nails so I hope they turn out great and I would love it if you shared how they turned out with us! For everyone else, stick around because there will be a November/Christmas giveaway that I will be posting soon. :) In other news I have subscribed to some beauty boxes in addition to Julep so you guys will get to see those boxes when I open them as they arrive in November. Also for my foodies, I have some exciting products you guys should try coming up. But now on to this post...

So I ended my last beauty must haves post in the middle of the post since I was in a rush but I will continue it here:

8. Mary Kay eyeshadow in Goldenrod
I love is shadow. I got it as a kid when first exploring makeup and I still wear it all the time. Unfortunately, the last shadow I have of it is running it and I don't think they make the shade anymore which is a shame.  The color is a very nice bronze-gold. I find it very compare able to a few shades that MAC has put out and regularly use it has a substitution for some of their colors. By the way, sorry if there a typos I this post; I am trying to correct them as best as I can but the iPad I am using is kind of hard to type on :(. Anyway back to the shadow. I find it to be a great staple especially being South Asian; it gives me a great shadow to work with for very natural looks. Also it is pretty pigmented which I like since I like to have a lot of color to work with. Some brands like Stila just don't have enough pigmentation to work with the more olive/caramel skin tone.

9. Neutrogena's Oil-Free Acne Wash in pink grapefruit.
I don't have problems with acne now that I'm in my twenties, but I use this product to just maintain my clear skin and because I love anything scented pink grapefruit. My boyfriend actually was the one that got me into this product after I tried it out at his place. The invigorating smell is so refreshing  in the morning and it definitely combats breakouts. I use it twice a week to just refresh my skin. I would use it more often but since I don't have acne I try not to use it often since the main ingredient is salicylic acid. I like to save the acid for when/if I really need to fix my face.

10. Maybelline 24 hour lip color
So I've reviewed this product when I bought it but I wanted to list it here as well even if it is a fairly recent product since I like it so much. My sister and her beauty guru friend picked it out for some of the girls in their college color guard to wear. I was running through her makeup when I picked this product up and immediately fell in love with it (meaning I ran to the store that night and picked up a few colors I liked). The color lasts the entire day and goes on really smooth. The included lip balm also helps keep lips smooth and crack free which i love since my chapped lips always get worse when I wear gloss/lipstick.

11. Clinique's All About Eyes cream
Again this is another product I've reviewed on this blog, but I want to mention it here as well since I do use it everyday. I keep mine in the fridge and it does a great job at removing my under eye circles, which are genetic, and depuffing my eyes. The other day I had horrible allergies so my eyes were super swollen. I put some of this cream on under my makeup before work and it dramatically reduced the puffiness. I swear I was starting to look like I had marshmallows for eyes.

12. Lip balm
As I mentioned earlier, I always get really chapped lips so I am a fan of any good lip balm. My favorite brands are Chapstick and Blistex but really anything will do. I tend to put it on before I apply lipstick or lipgloss as well just to keep my lips hydrated and help the product go on smoother. My school had an organic food fair/ farmer's market this past week and I picked up a watermelon lip balm there which I am excited to try. :) I love anything watermelon.

13. Victoria's Secret VS Pro Lasting FX Eyeshadow Primer
I got this product for practically free after using a Secret Rewards card. The price is around $10. I had never used primer before but now I can't stop! I got it to use under some of my Stila eye colors to bring out the pigment. It does a better job of bringing out the pigment, but it does a really good job at making my shadow last all day.
 
14. Simple Face Wipes
I love this Bristish? company for their sensitive skin products. I believe they are more natural than other companies out there but I could be misinformed so don't quote me on that. I am the type of girl that will go out late on the weekends and come home to tired to take off my makeup. These wipes come in very handy at those moments when I can just reach in and grab a wipe to remove my makeup. Also they never irritate my skin which is a great plus since I have sensitive skin.


15. Eco Brush Set
I bought this set at Walmart for fairly cheap but I have seen it at Target and Ulta and I'm sure it can be found in other stores as well. This is my go-to brush set. It works well and comes with all the basic brushes: blush brush, shadow brush, concealer brush, eyebrow brush/eyelash comber, and one other brush I cannot for the life of me remember right now. I highly recommend it as a starter set. I use it every morning to do my makeup. The brushes are also very easy to clean. Just wash the brush with a bit of soap and leave it tilted downwards to drip dry.

16. Goody Hair Clips
I have a lot of hair (thick and long) so I like having good tools to pull it back with. These two sizes are perfect for pulling my bangs back and just putting my hair halfway up. It also comes with very neutral shades to match anything in my wardrobe.

17. MAC Blush
I will do a more in-depth review of my individual colors, but I just have to share how AMAZING these blushes are. They are one of the best blush buys around as far as ratio of product to price: $20 for one compact or 0.0105 oz/USD. I love all MAC products for how pigmented they are and this fact extends to their blushes. In addition, they have a great range of colors for any skin tone or occasion. I do not think I have stopped wearing mine since they day I brought them.
Monday, October 22, 2012

Mismatched Manicure

So I finally painted my nails after a very long break. I went to the salon a month ago to get some french tips done since I was getting bored of doing my own nails (shock! :o) This happens to me sometimes since I always do my own nails about once a week. Sometimes it is nice to go to a salon and just be pampered and have someone else do my nails for once. I had a hard time getting the gel mainicure off so I had to clip my nails a bit shorter than I normally would. The edges were also a bit jagged so I decided on a manicure that would hide the uneven edges a bit: polka dots.

The nails have a very nautical theme and match one of my Jason Wu blouses. I decided to make my left hand blue with polka dots and leave my right hand solid blue...so I now have a mismatched manicure. The real reason behind me just having one polka dotted hand is because I got sick of fighting my shaky right hand when it would mess up the dots on my left hand. That being said, I will proudly rock my mismatched manicure. At first I felt like people would think I'm crazy, but I've decided I'm ok with that. After all Bibhu Mohapatra recently had his models walk down the runway with one nude hand and one painted hand in honor of his mother who, being a traditional Indian, would only paint one hand so she could eat her food with the other hand and not have to worry about messing up her manicure.

I used China Glaze First Mate with NYC Color's white for the polka dots.

PS My Halloween Giveaway ends Friday!!! Check out my giveaways tab to enter! Also how do you guys feel about mismatched manis? Share your thoughts in the comments! :)

XOXO,
Haylee :)
Thursday, October 18, 2012

My Beauty Must Haves

So today I will let you guys have a peek into my beauty regime and share with you my beauty must haves. A lot of my girlfriends ask my what beauty products I use all the time so I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you guys! :)

1. Burberry Brit Sheer
This perfume is my all time favorite go to scent. When I was first shopping for a fragerance several years ago, this scent captured my heart from the very beginning. I love fruity and floral scents so this perfume was a winner from the start.  It has notes of pineapple, litchi, mandarin, grapes, pink peony, and peach blossoms to name a few. Since then it has been my signature scent so much so that my sister (who is also in love with this scent) is dying to get a bottle herself. The only thing holding her back--it reminds her of me so much that she feels she can never make it her own.

2. Mary Kay eyeliner in Sable or Deep Brown
When I first started using makeup, my mother took me to see a Mary Kay consultant. I have always loved their eyeliners especially their Sable shade. Unfortunately, they no longer make Sable so recently I have been opting for Deep Brown. It's the perfect shade of dark without being black so my eyes look bold and alluring without looking overly done. Most people say my eyes are my best facial feature so I like to accentuate them when I'm doing my makeup.

3.Victoria Secret's Strawberries and Champagne Lotion
I have been in love with this scent ever since I was a little girl and picked out a gift set in this scent as a Christmas gift for my mom. I feel very sweet yet very sexy when I wear it and it gives me a nice clean feeling when I step out of the shower.

4. Tresemme Shampoo and Conditioner
I am blessed with thick, long dark hair but I'm South Asian so maybe it's in the genes. If it's not, Tresemme does great things for my hair. I've been using it since I've been in middle school and I love that they have a natural line with lower sulfates.

5. Victoria's Secret Body Scrub
I will take their body scrubs in any scent, but Mango Temptation is my favorite. I love how gritty the scrub feels. I don't like scrubs that are not super gritty (a scrub should SCRUB) and this one meets all my exfoliating needs. My adorable boyfriend also loves this scrub after recently using it to scrub his feet after having his feet inside a pair of smelly sneakers one day. :)

6. OPI's Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ
I am a nail polish addict. I don't think my nails have ever been polish free since high school. This red is the perfect shade and it works well for all skin tones and all occasions. I find it even funnier since I actually know a Mrs. O'Leary (I have never had her BBQ).

7. Revlon 1? inch straightener
I have had this straightener since I began college (I've been out for several years now so that's saying something). I love how inexpensive it is($20!) and how fabulously it works. When I broke mine a few years ago, I ran out immediately to purchase the same one all over again. I will put a disclaimer on this straightener for my super curly haired/African American gals out there since I have it on good advice from one of my African American friends that it does not straighten super curly/coarse hair as straight as some of ya'll would like yours to be. However, mine comes out pin straight.

8.  Mary Kay eyeshadow in....

TO BE CONTINUED...

P.S. My Halloween Giveaway is still on! :) You can check it out under the Giveaways tab!

XOXO,
Haylee :)
Saturday, October 6, 2012

Julep Maggie

So back in June or July I got a Julep mystery box for myself that came with Maggie. Here is a swatch of the polish on me. It has a very Halloween feel to it, but I'm not loving the color. I think I would have liked this polish more without the glitter.


PACKAGING: I love the rectangular bottles. They pack a lot easier than most other polish brands which carry a rounded bottle. Also I just feel like the rectangular bottles give a polish collection more maturity.

PRICE: $14.99/.27 fl. oz. or $11.99 with the Maven discount. This polish is a bit pricier than most brands but when you take into account that they are free of major carcinogens (four free) and that most of the polishes are highly discounted through the Maven program, the price does not seem as bad.

APPLICATION: Easy two apply. Two coats gives the optimum opaqueness desired.

LONGEVITY: A week

Check out my Halloween Giveaway guys! :)

XOXO
Haylee :)
Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Maybe She's Born With It...

Today I'm going to share with you one of my favorite Maybelline products that I just found out about from my sister and her wonderful, makeup obsessed friend, G. I was over at my sister's place a few weeks ago getting ready for a football game, and like all sisters, I was going through her makeup bag and sampling her products to see if there was anything I did not already have when I came upon Maybelline's Super Stay 24  Color Lip Gloss and Balm Duo. I have to say I LOVE this product. I wanted it so bad after I tried it that I made my boyfriend drive me to the store after the game so I could pick up a few of these for myself.

I am a fan of lip color, but I cannot find colors I like (I tend to prefer nudes) that last as long as I want them to last. This all changed with the 24 Color Duo. My sister had the "Unlimited Raisin" duo which was my favorite color. Apparently every female on the planet agrees with me here because I have been to two separate stores in two separate months looking for "Unlimited Raisin" only to find it SOLD OUT TWICE. Clearly, it is a phenominal color. I did buy the product in two alternative colors: So Sienna and Perpetual Plum (my natural lip color, just prettier).

Here is my breakdown of the product:

PACKAGING: Nothing super exciting here. The product has a lip gloss on one end and a lip balm on the other end. The gloss end is clear so that you can see the shade of the color you are picking out if you toss it into a makeup bag or box.

APPLICATION: Put on the gloss, wait a few minutes for the gloss to dry, and then put on the lip balm for long lasting wear.

PRICE: Fairly reasonable. I can't remember the exact price. I think it was about $7, but I know that Target periodically has a sale where the price of the product goes down to $6.

COLOR SELECTION: A decent selection of colors; there are maybe fifteen to twenty different colors. There are not as many colors as there are shades of Maybelline lipstick.

LONGEVITY: At least twelve hours. However, I feel like this is hit or miss. The first few days I got the product, the gloss lasted a long time, but yesterday when I went out to a dinner date, the gloss was off in a few hours. The nice part about the Maybelline product is that it does not come off on glassware so if you go out to eat on a date, the gloss won't end up on your glass or even your date. :P

I will try to get a picture of the product up here as soon as I can. In the meantime, check out my Halloween Giveaway for some cool stuff!

XOXO, Haylee :)