Thursday Thoughts

I'm a couple hours late on this week's Thursday Thoughts thanks to a rough night turning into a rough morning. But better late than never I guess. So as per my usual I'm linking up with Jen of Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for her weekly Thursday Thoughts Link Up.

So someone broke into my car last night, smashed the driver's side window to steal my $10 phone charger. Seriously, that's the only thing missing from the car. My theory is my husband (who leaves for work at 3 AM) scared them off before they could steal the whole car. But $165 later we have a non-broken window and no Birthday vacation for my husband. Not a great start to the day for sure.

My big Project Pan has been going really well so far. All but 3 things from the skin and hair care basket is done and I've finished a few items out of the makeup box. I may actually get everything done, which is pretty exciting! I'll do a post at the end of each month detailing my progress and how I'm feeling about stuff, but I know some of you were curious as to how it was going so far. Who else is doing a Project Pan right now? Feel free to put a link in my comments about it so we can check it out and cheer you on.

As you can see I've experienced some significant hair loss so far from the Lupron, to the point where I can't really hide it anymore. I take my next dose next week, so I'll probably shave my head sometime that weekend. No point in keeping half a head of hair. I have pretty mixed feeling about the great shave, on one hand I'll be glad to be done with the hair loss for a bit, but on the other hand my hair means a lot to me and I've been growing it out for 4 years now. The tips go down to my butt, so there's a lot of length going on right now.

On a blog related note, I'm doing some changes to how the actual site looks and functions in an attempt to make everything run smoother and boost my readership. One change you may have noticed already was a pop up box asking for your email. I'd like to start doing a monthly newsletter and I haven't been happy with the post subscription service I was using before. So I'm trying new things and hopefully it will all work out the way I have planned. If you stumble across something that doesn't work or you REALLY hate it, please let me know.

Sunsella Bento Box Review

*I received this free for testing/reviewing purposes. All opinions are 100% my own*

Between work, family obligations, raising my own family, and trying to maintain a social life I spend a lot of time outside of my house. Eating out can be unhealthy and downright expensive, and with a 4 year old who is particular about the shape of his food (shredded cheese not cubes this month), preparing my own meals to take with us to work and events is just way less of a headache. I own a ridiculous amount of tupperware but between side dishes, my food and the kiddo's food, sauces, and snacks, I end up hauling a tote bag full of plastic or glass containers. It gets overwhelming at times and I end up making poor food choices. A bento box is the perfect solution for people like me who are on the go, want to pack their own food, and have several different compartments at once. Sunsella, which is a brand I've reviewed and liked before, sent me their set of 4 bento style buddy boxes to try out, so let's unpack this baby and see how it works.

A bento style box is basically a flat, rectangular box with compartments in it. The usual configuration is one large "main course" compartment and two "side dish" compartments, which is what the Sunsella set has. One side spot is smaller than the other (as you'll see in a picture down in a bit), so you could do a side and a small dessert or even a snack style food in the smaller of the two. Each box had a different color lid, mine came with green, blue, orange, and red. This makes it easy to pack a lunch specific to one person. Between food allergies, spice preferences, and not eating specific shapes having a quick color coded system works best in my household. And getting to pick his own color meant my son was more excited to eat what was inside of it, which is a bonus.

These are dishwasher, microwave, and freezer safe, but lot leak proof. So far I haven't had any spills but I don't put saucy foods in tupperware anyways (mason jars for life). They hold a decent amount of food as well, making them perfect to put my dinner in for work nights. You can get these on Amazon for $15.99 with free Prime shipping, which is a touch more than I typically like to pay for tupperware but not so expensive that I absolutely won't buy another set. I'm really happy with these and they've solved a lot of the travel food problems I've been facing. If you cart your lunch or dinner to work everyday what do you use to hold it?

Mani Monday: Tattoos For Your Nails

Sometimes we want really elaborate nail art but really don't have the time to sit down and spend an hour or longer doing our nails. And we all know that nail wraps just shred the crap out of our nails, so those are not a great weekly solution. I mean unless you like split, cracked nails. In that case more power to you. For those who don't like cracked up nails, nail tattoos may be the perfect option. And no, these don't require a needle and permanent ink. Let's get started.

First step is to apply whatever color you want for your background color. Since the tattoos I picked a city skyline set I thought a blue shade would be pretty for the background.

Make sure your base coat is flawless because once the tattoo goes on there is no going back.

I actually found these Maybelline Nail Tattoos at the Dollar Store of all places like a year ago, so if you see them snag them up. These are amazing and I would pay full price for sure. The set I got is New York City, so there is the Brooklyn Bridge, Lady Liberty, and the Empire State Building. These are seriously cool.

What you do is select the ones that fit the nails you want to do them on, just like you would with a nail wrap.

Peel the clear plastic off and stick them design down onto your nails, making sure they are on straight.

Take a wet cotton ball and press it on for about 10 seconds, then peel the paper away to reveal your design. These are literally temporary tattoos for your nails, they apply the exact same way.

Repeat on all your nails then top with a layer or two of clear top coating to protect your design and that's it. It will take longer for the polish to dry then to do the design, which is what makes these so great. I'm hoping I can find some Halloween themed ones, or even some more city ones. Have you seen these in a store before and given them a try?

Project Pan 2015

I like to do little monthly Project Pans throughout the year, but as I get to the last few months of the year doing a big push to finish a lot of products is what I'm all about. For those who may not know what Project Pan is, it's a community of beauty lovers (and bloggers) working to "hit pan" or finish up products. We post them on Instagram or whatever our social media of choice is, and we encourage each other to finish that foundation to the last drop. So doing a Project Pan is just picking specific items and really focusing on finishing them up. If you find yourself knee deep in half finished items then doing something like this can be so helpful for you.

So this year I'm actually dividing my Project up between makeup and skincare/hair care items. I tend to go through skin and hair stuff faster than makeup so I'll be refilling that box whenever I finish everything in it. I won't be putting new makeup items into the makeup box, I've found that if I have new things I neglect the old things and never really finish stuff. I like to keep my Project Pan items in a box and basket so everything is already there for me and I don't have to dig through my massive hoard trying to find stuff. Plus if it's right there in my face I'm more likely to use it up faster I've learned.

So for skincare and hair care I have the Cetaphil wipes I hate, the Oribe Beach Waves spray from my last Birchbox, a Hyalauronic face gel, some argan oil for my hair, the Jouer clearing face oil from another Birchbox, the Glamglow foil pack, some lip scrub, and a weird toner thing from Paula's choice. I picked these items either because they were over halfway done and I just needed to finish them or because I hate them and need them out of my house finally. Some things like the face gel and argan oil I have a ton of in my stash so I'm just trying to destash my stash a bit. I'm pretty sure everything but the face gel will be done by the end of September.

These are my powders and eye stuff. Top row is the ELF eyebrow kit and an ELF bronzer. Love the eyebrow kit but it's almost done and I love the NYX brow gel better. The bronzer I HATE and will toss at the end of September. I'm basically just trying to get some extra use out of it to make me feel less guilty about tossing it. Next row is all eyeshadow minus the very last item which is an ELF cream eyeliner. The shadows are almost finished so I'm just trying to use them up, and the eyeliner needs to be used up this month or tossed, I've had it way longer than I'm comfortable with.
Bottom row is the Coastal Scents trial quad for the Revealed 2 palette. Since I own the palette I need to finish up this quad so there's no doubles in my palette box. The Ulta quad is halfway done already, with really only the dark brown left. The other shade in it only have a week's worth of shadow left in it. The next pot is the Smashbox eyeshadow primer I had to depot after the tube broke open. I need to finish this up, sticking my finger in it is gross to me and I'm worried about an eye infection. The last item is a cream mousse golden eyeshadow/highlighter. It's weird and I just need to use it up. I imagine I'll have 3 eyeshadows done by the end of the month and pan hit on another.

Lastly the tubes of stuff. Let's go left from right. First is the Ofra eye brow pencil I hate and tossed a day or two ago. But I used up quite a bit of it. Next is an ELF lip crayon that I really like but it's getting low so I might as well finish it up. The concealer is a yellow based one by ELF that I like but needs to be finished or tossed by January 1st. Same goes with that purple tube, that's a cream eyeshadow that I need to either use up or toss before it gives me an eye infection. The Miranesse lip crayon is almost brand new but I broke the cap so I need to try and finish it up before stuff gets in it. The Mary Kay lip gloss is really season specific so I hardly wear it, but again I need to use it up or toss it by January 1st. There's nothing wrong with the Maybelline mascara and it's only been open a month or so, but it isn't waterproof and the rainy season is upon us so it'll get tossed at the end of September as well. But I don't keep mascara longer than 3 months anyways so I'm not stressing a month early on the tossing. The ModelCo lipstick was in my last monthly Project Pan and I just want to continue working on it. I've got maybe half an inch left so I'll finish this for sure before January. The lollibalm is another Birchbox item AND was also in last month's Project Pan. There's maybe 1/4 of an inch left so it will probably be done by time this post goes live. And lastly is a deluxe sample of an It Cosmetics CC Cream I just got from Ulta (love free Ulta goodies) and I want to test it out so into the box it goes. These are normally about a week or so worth of product so it may be done by time this post goes live.

I think I'll get about 80% of the items done by January 1st, but I'd really like to get every single item done. I think if I do hit 100% completion I'll treat myself to a really nice new product or maybe some higher end skin care stuff. If you want to see how I'm doing on this make sure you follow me on Instagram and check back every Thursday here for a brief update. Wish me luck and good luck to anybody working on a Product Pan of their own.

Thursday Thoughts

September! Fall is almost upon us, is anybody else super excited? As much as I like the warm weather I'm 400% done with the 100 degree weather we've been having and I'm ready for sweater weather. But it's Thursday so that means I'm linking up with Jen of Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for her Thursday Thoughts. Let's get started!

Oh my god, is anybody else so glad August is over? August was a friggin nightmare month for me minus a few good days. I'm just 10000% done with August and I'm hoping September goes smoothly and I don't get any more wrenches thrown at me. Or at least all my medical stuff starts going smoothly. Like I can handle stress in the other aspects of my life but I really can't take anymore in regards to my health. I meet my new Doctor this month and that's really stressing me out and I'm dealing with the full force of the second injection's side effects right now so I feel really burned out if that makes sense. Being chronically ill is exhausting and takes up so much of my time, I'm ready to get better

Oh man, this is another two Birchbox month and I already got the special box this month! The post on it will be up this weekend, but I seriously an so happy I got it and am digging it. Plus I took a sneak peek at my actual box this month and it is OMG amazing! I hope it actually contains what my sneak peek showed, otherwise I will sit down and cry like a baby my box is that good.

I did this last fall but I'm starting my end of the year Project Pan again. trying to finish stuff off and make room for all the new goodies I'll be getting in 2016. This year I divided up between makeup and skincare/hair care items, so there's a lot of items this time compared to last year. I'll do a full post on it either this weekend or beginning of next week but I've already made great progress on the basket on the right.

All of my posts from tomorrow through Monday will be queued up because I am going on VACATION! After having to cancel my summer vacation not once but twice I am finally going away! I won't be doing any social media, answering emails, doing bloggy stuff, anything until Tuesday because I'm on vacation! Can you tell I'm excited to take an actual vacation? Because I super am.

August 2015 Empties

New month means new pile of trash to sort through and see what was garbage and what was gold. Plus, these posts make me feel better about buying new stuff. These are proof that I'm actually using stuff up. See honey, I'm not a hoarder! Hoarders don't use up stuff. So there! Anyways, let's dig in!

Now not all of these are actually empty, a couple of items were just awful and needed to be tosses. I'll divide this post into things I always repurchase, things I loved, things I'm meh about, and things that should be purged off the face of the planet. 22 items this month, so not actually a bad month overall as far as empties are concerned.

You should all know by now that I love my Kirkland wipes, Beauty Protector spray, and the Clean Freak shampoo/conditioner is my new holy grail. Seriously, these are all amazing. Go check them out.

Ah, my items that I was sad to see go. The Maybelline Dream BB Cream is awesome and so affordable. I bought a new tube when I had a week left, so you know this one is a keeper. And for under $10 it is two cheap thumbs up! The Vasanti BrightenUp! is my favorite but expensive face scrub. If I ever become an unpoor beauty blogger this is #1 on my list of things to buy a full size of. And #2 on my list of things to buy when I'm not so poor is the Supergoop! CC Cream. It gave me such a nice matte finish and my face just looked so nice. But alas it is more than I'm willing to pay right now for a foundation. Lastly is my beloved Eyeko liquid eyeliner pen, which lasted soooo long I'm seriously amazed. And I may actually buy another one if my cheap dupe testing doesn't pan out. But at like $14 it is a bit more than I want to spend right now on an eyeliner.

Queen Helene has been around forever and it's just kind of meh to me now. Teenager me loved this company but I'm just super bored by it. This actually dried up, I think I only used it a handful of times to be truthful. But I paid like 20 cents for it so I don't feel bad about tossing it. I bought a ton of these Ulta body washes on massive sale and I'm sooo bored of them. They're great products, but I really need some more variety, I'm tired of these scents and bottles. The little bottle of conditioner was a free item with a birchbox order and honestly I only opened it because I ran out of my regular conditioner and had no time to go to the store. The Ulta mascara was so meh I have nothing else to say. And lastly the Temptu liquid highlighter. I liked the liquid aspect of it but the color was very tanned skin specific so really only usable in July and August.

Ah, the items that should be burned off the face of the earth. Top left is that awful cigarette smoke cleanser I've already talked about in a previous post, so I'll skip more complaining about that. The amika "undone" spray was just weird and didn't make sense. Like is it a hair spray? A dry shampoo? Beach spray? Nobody knows but it fails at all three. The Cetaphil wipes have been talked about already so I'll skip them this time. But they sucked. The ELF Lock and Seal pissed me off so bad. Like the tip of the bottle split so it leaked horribly if I laid it down and just was way more work than it was worth. Oh and it really friggin hurts to get this in your eyes. The Benefit push up piece of crap liner has also been talked about, but to reiterate is a total piece of crap and I'm pissed at Benefit about it still. The two Ulta products are just cheap crap and are getting tossed so I have the space they were occupying back. And lastly the one that is controversial, the GlamGlow whatever mud cleanser. This still is soooo over priced and really, can someone explain to me why people are nuts for this brand? $70 for a teenie little jar of "mud", it's ridiculous. This stuff actually made my skin super sensitive and I didn't see any improvements at all. Ridiculous.

So that's my trash, was it wonderful? Have I angered you by hating on a fave? Should I give something a second chance? Let me know down in the comments.

Oz Naturals Age Defying Solar Shield

*I received this product free for testing and reviewing purposes. All opinions are 100% my own*

One of the things I have been really careful of this last Spring and Summer is to always have some sort of sunscreen product on my face, and now that I'm taking Lupron (which makes you more susceptible to burning) I'm even more careful. I try to always wear sunscreen under my foundation that has SPF in it as well, and my lipstick is always layered over some SPF lip balm as well. But sometimes I really don't have the time to do multiple layers. so a tinted sunscreen sounded like the perfect solution.

Oz Naturals is a brand I've reviewed (and hated) in the past, but when they offered to let me test out another product I thought I'd give them a second chance to redeem themselves. Their Age Defying Solar Shield Tinted Sunscreen is a broad spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 and Zinc Oxide, which is pretty decent. The shade is "medium" but they claim it can work on a wide range of skin tones, so a one color fits all kind of deal. Now Oz Naturals is a US based company and is cruelty free, so those are definitely good points for it, but how did the product actually perform?

I've used it twice now and it is just a greasy, off colored mess. The universally flattering shade won't be usable on people with fair to almost medium shades, it's really quite dark. I'm not a pale person, but I could really tell that I had it on. I looked like I went a wee bit overboard with the bronzer if you know what I mean. Not quite Oompa Loompa orange but maybe their paler cousins. And it was greasy as hell, which is the #1 deal breaker for me with any face product I use, but especially sunscreen. I kept expecting this to set like foundation, or at least soak into my skin a little bit, but it stayed a nasty, greasy mess on my face all day. Even using a setting powder did nothing to curb the shine. By the end of the day it was disgusting, I wish I had tested it on non-work days. I would never recommend this to anybody and at this point Oz Naturals is 0 for 2 so I won't be recommending this company to anyone either. I may give them another chance in the future if a product interests me, but for right now they are getting two giant thumbs down.