Thursday Thoughts

This is the last Thursday of January, how quickly the month flew by. February is shaping up to be a pretty busy month as well, so I really need to get all my ducks in a line. As per my usual, I'm linking up with Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for her weekly Thursday Thoughts link up.

First, a schedule update. I am going back to a Monday through Friday schedule for a while. I'm having a hard time keeping up with seven posts a week in addition to my actual paying job and my personal stuff. Weekends tend to be low traffic days so I'm hoping the blog won't suffer from my decision. I love doing this and I am not quitting, just cutting back a bit until I can figure out how to make 7 posts a week work out. I will still be doing the YouTube videos, there may be one up fairly soon assuming my plan B actually works. This is just a temporary change till things slow down a bit for me in the non-Internet work.

My progress so far on my Project Pan Spring 2015. So far I've finished the primer only, but it has only been a week. I've made some good progress on the shadow in the Ulta palette and the tinted lip balm. Pretty sure by next week I'll need to depot the shadow into a jar and I may actually finish the tinted lip balm. I somehow managed to lose the eye gel for most of the week (it was, and I kid you not, in my sweatshirt pocket) so there is almost no progress on that. Looking forward to seeing my progress come next week. I'll be using the hashtags #ProjectPan and #ProjectPanSpring2015 to document my progress on Instagram. If you want to participate with me use the tags so I can watch your progress and cheer you on.

I've been experimenting with different hairdos that I find on Pinterest and this was the simplest thing to do but I got so many compliments, including one that made me so happy I woke my husband up to tell him. Would hair tutorials be something people would like to see? Or makeup tutorials? I'd like to shake the Tutorial Tuesdays up a bit, there's only so many body scrubs I can do before it gets boring.

I'm testing out two new primers, one for my face and one for my eyeshadow. So far I am not liking them at all, which is frustrating. I have a shadow primer I love but I really need to find a face primer I like that won't break the bank AND does everything I need it too. What do you guys use and why do you love it?

Not beauty related but I almost just burned my face off while writing this post. I like to burn a candle on my desk while I type and for some reason the candle I decided to burn and have been using for a few days now exploded as I lite it. I've never had a wick do that, is that normal? Luckily I'm fine, my desk is fine, nothing caught fire but it was pretty scary. 

That's it for this week, I hope everybody is having a good week so far and if not then at least the weekend is around the corner. If you are on the East Coast please stay warm and safe.

Day By Day Beauty Luxury Blotting Paper Review

*I received this product free for testing and reviewing purposes. All opinions expressed are my own*

If you are like me, you put a lot of time, energy, and effort into your makeup each day and nothing is worst than having an oily, greasy face ruin it come midday. You can put another coat of powder on to fix it but then you run the risk of being a powdery, cakey mess and ain't nobody got time for that. So I and pretty much every Makeup Artist I know uses and recommends blotting papers. These thin sheets are like magical sponges that suck up all the oil while leaving your makeup perfectly in place. The people at Day By Day Beauty have a set of blotting sheets that I was recently given the opportunity to test out and review and it was love at first pat.

For those who have never used blotting sheets, they are super simple. You take one and you press it to the areas that need degreasing. I can typically do my whole face with one sheet, but my cheeks don't typically get oily during the day. And since you are just patting them to your skin your makeup won't be disturbed, making it a huge win win in my book.

There are 100 sheets in each little package, which is just the right side to slip into my purse pocket, my makeup bag, or even my pocket if I wanted too. And they come in a double pack, so you can keep one in your makeup bag AND one in another purse which is what I do. They are cruelty free and recyclable since they are essentially just paper.

Left is a used sheet (eww), right is a new sheet. I had washed my face a few hours ago, no makeup.

And they work super well. So well in fact I was a little horrified at just how much oil was on my face the first time I used them. If you've ever used a napkin to degrease a slice of pizza that's what the sheet looked like. It had been a long day in a warm place is my defense. But even on "normal" days I am super impressed at how much the paper absorbs, and I've never had it mess up my makeup. The price is fantastic on these too, they are currently $9.95 in their Amazon Listing, with free prime shipping. That is a seriously good deal you guys, that works out to less than five cents a sheet. There is a certain company out there that charges $12 for 30 sheets, so I think Day By Day Beauty wins the budget battle hands down. I love these and have incorporated them into my normal midday beauty routine.

How To Make Your Own Tinted Moisturizer

We've all been there, you reach for your tube of foundation and nothing comes out. No matter how much you squeeze there isn't a drop to be found and today is a day you can not skip the foundation. Well with two simple ingredients and a little bit of patience you can have some tinted moisturizer to save the day. Now the pigmentation level on this can be adjusted for either light coverage, a true tinted moisturizer, all the way up to full coverage. It will all just depend on the ratio you use.

For this tutorial you will need:

• Loose mineral foundation powder. In all my research I found that mineral powder works best for this, though technically you can use any powder I guess. I'm using my Mary Kay mineral foundation powder that I'm trying to use up anyways.
• Face lotion of some kind, just make sure it's one you'd be comfortable wearing during the day, not a heavy one that takes a while to absorb. I'm using a Vitamin C lotion by InstaNatural, it absorbs really well and never leaves me greasy feeling.
• A small glass bowl for mixing in and something to stir with. I just used a straw to stir, didn't feel like doing extra dishes.

This is not something you can make up in bulk, it will go bad after a few days so only make what you need to do your face. And as I learned the hard way, be careful not to breathe in the loose powder as you shake it from the jar. Just about coughed up my lung I swear.

Step one is to place about a teaspoon or so of lotion into your glass dish. 

Step two, add in an equal amount of loose powder. This is for a tinted lotion, for a medium coverage add in about twice as much powder.

Now start stirring it up. It will look like the powder is not mixing in, just give it a minute and it will. Keep stirring and scrapping the edge of the bowl to make sure it is all incorporated. And you can done.

As you can see, this blends out to a nice and light coverage, perfect for those good skin days. If the pigmentation is not enough for you, keep adding in powder until you get to the right level. If you added in too much powder you can lighten it back up by adding in more lotion. Remember, this will only stay good for a day or two so be careful not to make to much of it. Theoretically you can also do the same thing with blush but since I haven't personally tested it (maybe for next week's Tutorial Tuesday) I can't vouch for it.

"Thinking About Valentine's Day" Mani Monday

Hello and welcome to another edition of Mani Monday! Today's manicure is inspired by the conversation I had earlier with my Husband about our Valentine's Day plans. It got me in the mood for something fun but a little romantic too, and this is what I came up with. I chose colors within the same family but you can choose whatever colors you want obviously.

To do this manicure you will need:

• Base color. I used an ELF polish called Wedding Bells, which was a SUPER pale pink
• Color #1. I wanted my colors to be similar so I chose an ELF polish called Prissy Chrissy, which is sort of a dusty coral shade.
• Color #2. My second color is pretty close to my first color, which is what I wanted. I chose ELF polish again, this time in the shade Nude, which is a nude mauve color.
• Glitter polish. I went with a gold glitter polish by the name of Gold Star, also by ELF. It has both micro glitter and chunk glitter in it.
• Nail polish remover and q-tips to clean up the edges.
• A dotting tool

First, paint your base coat. I recommend three coats typically, depending on the polish. I actually did four coats because of how pale my base color was. Wait for it to dry completely before you move onto the next step.

Now, using Color #1, place dots randomly across your nails. Leave big enough gaps to do the next step, so I only ended up with an average of five dots on each nail. I also did big and small dots to keep it looking fresh and funky. Wait for it to dry before you move onto the next step.

Repeat the last step but with your Color #2. Depending on the colors you chose this could either blend in nicely for be a vivid contrast, either of which is totally fine. Do the manicure to suit your tastes, not mine. Let this dry completely before you move onto the next step.

Now apply 3 coats of the glitter polish you chose. If it looks fine after one or two coats you can stop there, but most glitter polishes need at least two coats to look good. Let this dry completely, then clean up your edges with the polish remover and you are all done. I did not put clear top coat on it, I'm using the glitter as my protection layer in addition to adding some nice sparkle.

On a side note, I'm always open to suggestions for manicures so if there is a specific style or nail art you really want to see done let me know in the comments below.

Project Pan Spring 2015

One of the hardest things about owning makeup is actually using it up before it expires and gets nasty.That's why I'm a huge fan of Project Pan, which is this commitment basically to sue certain items more than usual until you have either hit pan (you can see the metal or plastic in the bottom of the container) or used it up. There's this really great supportive community of Project Pan people on Instagram that applaud your progress and really help keep you motivated. I've done smaller Project Pans before, especially when I had a ton of half empty and sample sized stuff, but I want to do a full sized Project Pan to help clear out my makeup organizers a bit before my planned big haul for my birthday in April. So here is my Spring 2015 Project Pan.

So this is what I want to finish up, though the large palette and that quad eyeshadow I only have one eyeshadow each that I'm wanting to finish so it isn't quite that huge of a project. So three eyeshadows, two eye liners, three lip products, a blush, a primer, and an eye gel. I probably won't finish them all by the end of spring but I'm motivated to try and if I do actually complete this challenge by the first day of summer I'll treat myself to the Revealed palette I've been wanting for months now.

First item in my pile is a Mary Kay eye gel I actually really like but I so need to finish it. I won't tell you how long I've had it for, but it's been to long and it needs to be finished or thrown away.

I don't actually have that much left, it should be done by the end of February for sure. I've been mainly using it at night before bed but I'll switch over to in the morning and night to try and use it up faster.

This ELF Studio Blush is actually one of my favorite blushes, but I've used up about half of it so I want to try and finish it up so I can get a new one.

As I said, I've used up about half of it already so I might actually finish it before summer. This is the first time I've ever hit pan on a blush, and I think its because this isn't super pigmented so I use more than I would normally. But I still really like it and use it several times a week currently.

This was my introduction to face primers and I hate it. Does nothing to help my makeup last longer or to smooth out my face. It does help me apply my foundation smoother, I'll concede that point. I'm pretty close to done with it, maybe another month tops.

I received this in a Ulta makeup bag stuffed full of stuff during one of their promotions and I actually really love the colors. The shadow on the top left has been used enough you can see quite a bit of the metal pan, so I want to finish that one up. I should have it done by March based off my current usage, end of February if I use it more than I already am.

I swear I have been down to the last half inch on this tinted lip balm for months now and it is driving me bananas. I need to use this everyday until it's gone I think. I should easily finish this by summer (knock on wood) if I use it at least twice a week.

This is actually no where near finished but I really need to finish up some of my open lip balms and this seemed as good as any. I doubt I'll finish this one by summer but you never know, I could get lucky. I do really like it though, one of the few things from Ipsy I ended up really liking.

Another Mary Kay product I won't tell you how old it is, only that it needs to either be used up or thrown away. I have just under two inches left, so with regular use I should finish it up by summer. And if I don't I'll be chucking it into the trash before it gives me an eye infection.

An Ipsy item, I actually like it more than I did originally but its getting shorter and that's bugging me so I need to use it up and be done with it.

I am so close to finishing this, I'm so excited. I've never finished a full sized lipstick before, they seem to last forever and a half. This is another old product I need to use up or throw away, but there's like less than an inch yet so I should finish this no problem. I am committed to wearing it at least twice a week.

I depotted a Wet and Wild eyeshadow quad into jars at the beginning of the month to make it easier to use and I've already finished one jar so this is the next lowest one. A basic dark brown, so I should be able to use it in most of my eyeshadow looks. Not a ton left, should be done by end of March with regular use.

And lastly, this giant eyeshadow palette from ELF. There's 100 different shades in this bad boy and I recently hit pan on one so I'd like to finish that shade up by the first day of summer. I actually like this palette a lot though the size of it makes it difficult to use sometimes.

There's the shade I hit pan on (just hit it on Thursday so that's fresh pan), a pretty shimmery pale rose pink color. I find it weird that I hit pan on a pink before the brown I like from this palette, I guess I use it more than I realize.

So that's my Project Pan. So my challenge to you my readers is to pick out a few items and participate in Project Pan Spring 2015 with me. Having a support group is awesome you guys, so let me know if you want to do it and have an Instagram account so I can follow your progress and cheer you on. Good Luck!!

Thursday Thoughts

Hello and welcome to another edition of Thursday Thoughts, my weekly link up with Ramblings of a Suburban Mom, who if you aren't reading you totally should!

My husband has today and tomorrow off so we'll be doing some fun family stuff this week. I'm lucky enough to live by the Bob's Red Mill actual mill so we're going to go do the tour of it this Friday and hit up the store since I have some really good coupons. I'm so lucky that I live within driving distance of so many great places, within a few hours driving is the beach, mountains, desert, and amazing lakes. Oregon really is the best state.

If you follow me on Instagram you already saw this but I finished an eyeshadow! I have never, ever finished an eyeshadow in my life, so this is a huge deal. I had depotted it from the pan to this jar when it started getting hard to use it, which really helped me use all of it up. It will probably be a while before I finish anything else, maybe in the Spring I'll have another one done. How often do you finish makeup products up?

Why is it whenever I really fall in love with a face product they are always expensive? Like $30+ always. I fell in love with a Jouer tinted moisturizer and now this Tarte BB Cream and both are over $30. The thought of spending that much gives me horrible anxiety, I'm much more comfortable with $15 or under for a foundation product. But this BB Cream made me love BB Creams, I hadn't liked any of the other ones I'd tried before. If you are on team BB, which one are you using? And which ones are truly awful?

Have you guys been paying attention to all the sneak peeks of what makeup is being released this Spring? NYX is doing a new set of butter glosses that are super pigmented, Ulta is releasing a rose gold eyeshadow palette that I will probably snag up. It looks like this spring is going to be a great beauty season, I may need to set aside some money and treat myself to a big haul for my birthday (which is in April).

Speaking of birthdays, Ulta is doing something different for their birthday freebie. It looks like every quarter will have a different goodie. January through March birthday's get a eyeshadow quad with a powder eyeliner that looks pretty neat. No word yet on what the second quarter goodie will be, I will let you know as soon as I do. And the Sephora birthday gift this year is a Nars lip crayon duo with an added eyeliner if you are a rouge member. So a great year for birthday freebies.

What's in my Makeup Bag Version 3

Every once in a while I like to swap out the stuff in my makeup bag just to shake things up a bit. Left to my own devices I'm prone to using my favorite three items over and over and over so this forces me to try different things and different combinations. Almost everything in my bag is new to my bag this time, minus three items and the actual bag itself. So let's dive in and see what I'm lugging around this time.

First, don't panic that there are no brushes. I have this awesome travel set of brushes that I will eventually get around to reviewing on here but they have their own case so I don't keep them in the bag. And yes I know there are no face products (as in foundation or powder), I never keep them in my go bag for some reason though I will add them if I know I'll be needing them. I'm trying to keep my bag fairly simple, mainly just touch ups and "oh crap, I forgot about this thing and I look terrible" moments.

The bag itself is the bag that came with last September's Ipsy. Its cute, funky, soft, and roomy enough for my stuff. My previous bag was small and actually destroyed my old brushes (hence the nice new travel set), so size is important to me. I'll probably use this one till it gets all ragged and gross or I get a new one I like better.

This is something I won in a giveaway actually, and I believe it is a Korean brand.

I like cream blushes a lot for travel since they're pretty hard to break and I can apply them with my fingers. There's no color listed, or at least no color listed in English, but it's a lovely pink color that's just a touch on the bright side.

I haven't actually used it enough to decide how I feel about it, which is why I stuck it in my travel bag. I'm hoping to force myself to use it enough times to actually for an opinion on it. I will say the formula is nice and gives my cheeks a dewy look.

I actually have no idea how this got into my bag, its actually my son's chapstick and I don't use it at all. It was a freebie he won at the fair and is all squashed up because he's three. I'm going to assume he put it in my bag or I accidentally grabbed this instead of the chapstick I was intending to use. I'll be swapping this back out.

I love highlighters and have so many that I never seem to give any of them the love they deserve. This came in my very first Ipsy bag and is a mousse, so very different from most highlighters out there.

Technically this is an eyeshadow/highlighter, but I've only ever used it as a highlighter so I can't tell you how it works as a shadow. The texture is so nice though, the whipped product is really easy to spread and blend out. Plus City Colors is not an expensive brand, I believe this product is like $4.

I have tanner skin so the white gold color of it works awesomely for me, especially during the summer. And as you can see, it blends like a charm.

This stupid thing has been a source of headaches since it arrived in an Ipsy bag. This is one of those Bareminerals 5 in 1 cream eyeshadows and I swear I debate smashing it with a hammer half the time. The color they sent me is almost identical to my skin tone, making it a useless eyeshadow. I've actually been using it as a primer for my actual eyeshadow.

See? Almost identical. And the container sucks, its almost completely full and yet I cannot get any out. The stuff is so thick it won't ooze down to the bottom so the wand can grab it. I've got maybe two more uses out of it then into the empties bag it will go.

Another Ipsy item, I like deluxe sample size mascaras for my bag because of the size. Not a bad mascara, though price for a full sized. Elizabeth Mott seems to have nice enough stuff though I doubt I would buy any on purpose, they just aren't quite what I want.

This was a lip gloss from ELF that I never ordered or paid for, it just showed up in my order. Not a gloss I would buy on my own, to sticky for my preferences. And the lid is cracking, I don't know if you can see in the picture but I may be tossing this pretty soon.

It is a glossy gloss as the label says, and the color isn't bad. But I could put up wallpaper with this stuff, super sticky. The shade is Salmon for those interested.

The ELF Matte Lip Colors are actually really nice, I own a few of them and am pretty happy with them minus how hard the lid is to get off.

The shade is Tea Rose and every time I use it I ask myself why I don't wear it more often. It really is a nice color, similar to that Kylie Jenner shade that people are freaking out over in my opinion. Not close enough to satisfy people looking for a dupe, but similar.

The world's crappiest eyeliner, brought to you by Ulta. Half brown, half black. I use this one because I have a habit of breaking my travel pencils so if this breaks I won't cry a drop.

Eyebrow pencils win for speed and simplicity, but they aren't my favorite so this has been booted to the bag. The Ofra pencils are a little waxy for my taste, so if I break it or lose it I won't be sad.

This treasure came from a Birchbox and I loved the colors so much I bought the full sized Revealed 2 palette that month as well.

The colors are so pretty, I could wear the palette every single day and be happy. But since I have the full sized palette at home this can hang out in my travel bag.

That's it for my makeup bag for the next few months, I'll probably switch things up again come summer. What items are a must for your travel bag? Are you gasping in horror at what I have or left out?