Monday, April 25, 2016

The Dreamers: April's ipsy glam bag


April's ipsy glam bag

Hey, all!

It's time for April's glam bag! Yay! If you're into beauty box/bag reviews, well I have some news for you. I got my first BeautyCon box last week. I'm still trying stuff out. I also got off the Play! by Sephora wait list. I'm still freaking out over that, although I'm pretty sure everyone made it off the list. Still, I like to feel like I'm a special snowflake.

Spoiler alert! I liked everything I got this month, so in no particular order...

1. Buxom Cosmetics Wildly Whipped Lightweight Liquid Lipstick in Centerfold - That's a name and a half, isn't it?!? I'm officially obsessed with this lipstick. The color is something I'd definitely pick for myself. I'm loving the '90s nudie lips lately.

Buxom's Liquid Lipstick

It has a comfortable mousse-like texture and dries to a soft matte finish. It reminds me so much of the formula of Hard Candy's Velvet Mousse Matte Lip Color and I love, love, love that stuff!

It's not transfer-proof but it does last a long time on me. It fades away gracefully without making my lips look scary-crazy by the end of the day. It has a faint bakery-sweet scent.
(Full size $21.00. Sample size $7.87)

I really do <3 it.="" td="">

2. NUDESTIX Lip + Cheek Pencil in Mystic - I have really been enjoying the NUDESTIX products I've been getting. This is no exception. The color is so beautiful. I love product that do double duty and do them well.

Kind of hard to tell, but this is NUDESTIX's Lip & Cheek Pencil.

This is a very comfortable, wear everyday kind of lip pencil that has a bit of a shine to it. There's no scent at all.

I <3 td="" this="" too.="">

It also sheers out beautifully on the cheeks for a healthy flush. I didn't find it sticky at all. I wore it with setting powder and without and was happy with the results both ways.
(Full size $24.00. Sample size $18.00*)
*I really have no idea how to figure this one out. The pencil I received from ipsy is 0.088 oz. Sephora's website says theirs are 0.05 oz. but you also get a case with a mirror and a sharpener. So...? I'm just going to make my best guess at this point.

Sheered out.

3. REN Skincare Evercalm Global Protection Day Cream - This seems like a pretty nice cream. It's a day cream, but there's no SPF included. I don't believe it has broken out my skin. I'm blaming other things on that. It's a bit thick, so I have to give it time to sink in before I apply my makeup. That being said, makeup applies well over it. This cream has a light fresh scent.
(Full size $45.00. Sample size $27.00)


4. L.A.B.² - Live and Breathe Beauty Just Blending In Brush - Honestly I was telling myself right before I got this glam bag that I needed another blending brush. I like having a couple of the same sort of brushes on hand just in case one is dirty or is still wet from being washed. I can't be the only one, right?!?

This brush is soft; it's not the softest, but it's still soft. It's smaller than the one I use constantly, so it's better at small areas. I haven't had any issues with shedding. All in all, I'm so glad I got this. It was excellent timing.
(Value $6.99)


5. pur~lisse Beauty Blue Lotus + White Tea Sheet Mask & Blue Lotus + Seaweed Sheet Mask - These super long names are wrecking my head! I'd never tried a sheet mask before. They're so much fun!

 pur~lisse sheet masks

I love that two were included, because that just added to the hilarity.

The couple that masks together stays together.

And, of course, we had to prank the little one. I sat next to her wearing my mask for ages before she noticed I was there. I feel loved.

UnsuspectingThe Horror!

This was a lovely mask. Not literally. I'm not going out in it. It just felt wonderful. It was very hydrating. I tried the one with white tea and my husband got the seaweed one. The white tea mask really smelled of white tea, which I love. The seaweed mask had a very fresh scent.
(Value $16.00)


The bag - It's cute. It has an abstract watercolor thing going on that I like. It's sort of tie-dyed. Maybe. I dunno. I like the colors.


The bonus - em cosmetics by michelle phan the life palette trial size sampler in night life - city glitz - I had some ipsy points to burn, so I thought I'd try this. I guess I was expecting something much, much cheaper since it was only 250 points. I was surprised that there were actual pans of shadow and a pan of lip gloss. I think I was expecting swatches on paper kind of like what you'd find in a magazine. I dunno. Anyway I was very happy with this.


em by michelle phan's palette sampler
The packaging is cardboard and I'm not too sure how sturdy it's going to be. I'll probably de-pot these and put them in a magnetic palette.

Four to try out.

Everything was good, but I was soooooooo impressed with the silver. It was so bright and metallic (duh!) and stayed that way on my eyes all day long. I was sad to wash it off that night. The lip color is a sheer gloss. There are six different samplers to try out. A few of the other ones are calling my name.
Taaaaabithaaaaaa....Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabithaaaaaaaaaaaaa...buy us! 
Shut up, palettes! I don't need to hear that.
(Value $10.00)

Dat silver doe!

The grand total for April's ipsy glam bag is $75.86*(contents) + $10.00 (bonus palette) + bag = $85.86. That's all for $10. If you're interested in signing up, ipsy is a $10/month customizable beauty subscription service. Click here for my referral link (I get points) or just go to ipsy.com to check it out.

Love,

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Another crochet round-up.

"Hmmm...addicted to crochet you are." Stop being so judgey, Crochet Yoda.
Hi, all!

So, here we are again with yet another bunch of things I crocheted. Yup. No shame here. There will be another one coming as soon as I get a chance to take some photos.



First up is this koala bear I made for my daughter for Valentine's Day. She's a bit koala obsessed. This pattern from Stitch-Em was easy to follow. The only change I made was to use large button eyes instead of embroidering them. The puffy tail is too cute!


I also made this little heart shaped basket for my daughter. Petals & Picots has an adorable pattern. Instead of doing the X shapes on the sides, I kept mine pretty plain with a double crochet and added a ribbon woven through the spaces. Since I made mine taller I needed more definition in the shape, so I sewed the points at the top and the bottom.


Just purely by happy accident the box of candy hearts I bought for her fits perfectly inside the basket. I couldn't have done that on purpose if I tried!


The next one is near and dear to my little nerdy heart. Lucy Collin has a fabulous Star Wars crochet kit out that's jam-packed with so many fun amigurumi versions of all the best characters from the older films. She's currently working on another Star Wars book and I sooooo cannot wait to get my hands on it.


Of course my first one was Yoda, but he needed a buddy. Lucy has her Salacious Crumb pattern up for free on her blog. I think if I had it to do over again, I would have used safety eyes rather than embroidering them. I'm really terrible at embroidery. Obviously.


This next one is the first big project I've tackled. My daughter wanted me to make her a sweater, so I let her pick out the colors she wanted. I had some issues with this pattern. I ended up making so many changes. The original pattern is Lion Brand Yarns Next Generation Crewneck Pullover. I'm sure the problems happened because I'm new at this. I'm still trying to figure a lot of stuff out.


One thing I did differently was to stop sewing before I reached the end of the sleeves. Even though I measured everything carefully, the sleeve's end was too tight for my daughter to put her hand through it.


She is able to roll it up and it stays cuffed.


The neck hole ended up being way too big, so I went around it a few times with a double crochet stitch and just for fun I chain stitched a ribbon that I wove through and made a bow. I definitely wouldn't put a drawstring on a small child's sweater though. That seems like it could be dangerous. Right?!?


Sewing the sleeves into the body was a bit tricky for me. I had to make adjustments to that, as well. I also had to add on to the bottom of the sweater. I guess she grew a lot from the time I originally measured her to the time I finished it. Random growth spurts are fun!


Have you given crochet a try? If so, I'd love to see what you've done.

Love,

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