Garden Party Spring Flings

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I don’t get into a lot of the springtime clothing trends (other than wearing less clothing in general), but I do love using products that put me in a warm weather mood. I threw together some of my favorite floral/fruit/fresh feeling beauty thingies as of late.

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Strawberry Sponge Hair Curlers

I’m hoping to do a full review on these as soon as next week, but for now I can talk about them and just revel in how adorable they are. I love rag rolls but they are a pain for me to tie up properly, so when I saw these sponge rollers starting to pop up (the original ones I saw were plain and yellow like yo-yos), I hopped on Amazon and looked around for some cheap ones. Of course I stumble upon these strawberry shaped ones and I was smitten. You just roll you hair from the ends up in a bunch of these little beauties, fall asleep and then wake up to bouncy curls! My hair has gotten very long, so I need quite a few. I actually have nine of these total but I have enough hair that I should probably order another set of three. They’ve been nice to take some heat out of my styling routine.

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Blossom Scented Lip Gloss in Raspberry

If you couldn’t tell, I was mostly drawn to the look and packaging of this gloss. I also didn’t have a plain clear gloss before this one, so it’s nice to have something I can slap over a lip color that’s going a little dry or just a naked lip. It’s more of an oil that a gloss, so it absorbs into the lips fairly quickly, but when you first put it on it has a little bit of a slip. The raspberry scent is light but nice, and there’s no taste to it. The flowers in there are just a beautiful added bit.

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Caudalie Beauty Elixir

This is amazing. I’ve always had a hard time explaining what this does and why I’m willing to shell out $18 for 1 oz. I didn’t even use it very much the first time I bought it because I’d gone in asking for a small fragrance/mist to use when I wanted to freshen up after working outside in the summer, and this is more of a toner. It’s so much more though! In the hot weather especially, I keep this in my purse to spritz on my face when I’m getting sweaty and gross. It’s like a floral water with extra oils to refresh and soothe your complexion. I totally understand that it’s a lot of dollars for such a small amount, but it’s such a wonderful product. I should probably look into cheaper rose water or something though because it’s going fast.

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend! We don’t have anything special planned but I’m really excited because Mark and I both have Monday off and that’s always fun to hang out and cook and play with Elvira. We’re very exciting obviously.

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Half & Half

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peridothalf3As much as I love a good set of nail art with crisp lines and symmetrical designs, I don’t usually have the patience to pull out tape, let nails dry forever, etc. I wanted something fun, and this might just look lazy, but I thought it was kind of fun. I just painted the bottom half of my nails with Chanel’s Peridot and put a clear coat on it. The top part is just my naked nail with clear coat. It just looks like they’ve been dipped in green-gold.

I used a cheap topcoat and it showed. Two nails were almost completely gone by the end of the first day. I love the color of Peridot, but the formula flakes easily, so don’t skimp on topcoat. Use something heavy duty and dependable like Seche Vite. Peridot costs a pretty penny, but I’ve seen some decent dupes, like from O.P.I. (Just Spotted the Lizard) and Revlon (Chrome Chameleon Gold).

I’ve been pulled toward one color manicures for a long time now, but recently I’ve been playing with nail art recently (and by nail art I mean different colored tips), so maybe I’ll give it a go again.

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NARS Minis: Teeny Tinies

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NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in New Lover & NARS Blush in Super Orgasm (both minis!)

Both of these were deluxe samples from buying something else, and they’re both amazing! It’s hard to see in the photos, but the blush gives the same natural pink flush that I love from my full size Orgasm blush but with big almost terrifying gold glitter. Glitter like this isn’t for everyone, but it’s fun for throwing on for an errand-day date or to brighten up an otherwise neutral make-up look. And look how small and cute it is!!!

My favorite of the two is definitely New Lover. I put this bad boy over NARS Tolede lipstick and it ads a whole new dimension. It adds shine but it doesn’t make my lips look wet and goopy, and I love love love gold, so the fact that this has a gold sheen to it makes it even more glorious in my eyes. I’m just wearing it alone here, but I’m serious, if you have a nude/pink lipstick you want to punch up, put this bad boy/girl over it and UNF.

Small sidenote: I’m in Austin right now for my sweet middle baby sister’s college graduation! I know a lot of people are graduation this weekend, so whether it’s for undergrad, grad, doctorate, what have you, congratulations!

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Butter London Nail Polish in Queen Vic

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I got this last fall on a whim after seeing it a few times. I was going to a wedding and wanted something festive to go with my simple dress. The color is amazing and vibrant, a nice deep raspberry shade, but the formula makes me wish I hadn’t dropped so much monies on it.

It’s pretty thin for one. Now, I like thinner polishes sometimes because it’s easier to get a smooth layer without any lumps on the nail tip, but there is such a thing as too thin. It’s hard to tell in this photo, but I have three layers on polish on, and in the light you can still see streaks. I don’t mind doing three layers instead of two if I love a color, but it better be opaque by that third coat.

It also chips fairly early. I used a cheaper NYC topcoat instead of Seche Vite, so I didn’t expect it to last a full week or anything, but I put this on Sunday night and by Monday afternoon I could see the tip wearing down, and by Tuesday there were some full on chips and cracks in the polish. Disappointment city.

Despite all that, I already own it and the color is beautiful, so I might as well use up this bottle. I’ve had great luck with some other Butter London polishes (I’m looking at you, Rosie Lee), but I’d look for a dupe of this one if I were you.

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GlamGlow Super-Mud Clearing Treatment

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I took a hint from my good friend Becca and picked up the GlamGlow Super-Mud Clearing Treatment mask that I sampled a month or so back. You can get it for almost half off on Amazon, and that’s what I did. Here is a play by play recount of what happens when I wear it for your viewing pleasure. This mask sucks the junk right out of your pores, so if you’ve got a lot of pore congestion like I did when I used it, you can see it all right out in the open. It’s kind of gross, so be warned, but if you like to see a product with immediate results, this is extra fun (and effective!). If you have trypophobia or a fear of pods/clusters, some people don’t like the exaggerated look of the pores, so be careful going forward if you’re sensitive to that!

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Here’s me straight out of the shower, wet hair and all. I’m hiding as best I can while still showing a little bit of my nekkid face.

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Here’s the mast right when you put it on. It goes on a dark gray but starts to dry down to a light gray-green almost immediately. Even though I got this at a good price, I still only spot treat on my worst areas (nose and chin).

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This is the 5-minute mark. It works fast, especially if you’ve got gross stuff hiding in your disgusting pores like me.

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Ten minutes in and it’s getting good. The sides of my nose are always the worst along with a few spots on the bridge and bulb.

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I waited it out until the 20-25 minute mark for the last set of photos. You can see how much oil and greasy gunk came out of the crease above my nostrils. It’s not even the little circles above the pores. They all join together. Nice.

I hope everyone can still look at me the same after seeing all my dirty grossness. When I was looking for product reviews on this I really wanted pictures like this so I hope I can do someone out there a favor. This mask is kind of pricey for the amount you get, especially at full value, but if you use it as a spot treatment and not a full face treatment every time, you can make it last quite awhile. It has other benefits besides clearing out congested pores, like helping with texture and discoloration, but I love it for the pore clearing properties.

When I first wash it off my skin is a little red and my pores are still a little stretched out, but once my skin has few minutes to recover, my pores are noticeably cleaner and smaller-looking.  They stay that way for days and with repeated uses, it takes longer for them to fill up. I use this about once a week to keep them under control.

If you’re interested, definitely soften the blow to your pocketbook and looking on Amazon.com for places that offer it cheaper than Sephora or department stores!

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