Bath Time Play-Doh

Today's Tutorial Tuesday is great for those with children or are still a kid at heart.Soap play-doh is one of those things that are so cheap to make, it amazing me that people will pay big bucks to have other people make it for them. The great thing about this, besides the cheap cost, is how easy it is to customize.

To make this you'll need:

• 2 cups of corn starch. I recommend buying this in bulk, it'll be cheaper that way.
• Soap. You can use dish soap, body wash, castille soap, shampoo, pretty much any liquid soap. For this I'm using lemon scented dish soap so the color and scent are already added.
• Scents and food dye if you are using unscented and uncolored soap.

Step #1: Measure out 2 cups of the corn starch into a medium sized mixing bowl.

Step #2: Measure out a cup of your soap. I ran just a little under so I topped my cup off with some dollar store kid's shampoo.

Step #3: Mix it with a fork until it has come together, then use your hands to finish kneading it together. This is a lot like making bread or pasta dough, though it only takes a few minutes total.

Step #4: Check to see if your mixture is to dry, it should hold together like play-doh. If it doesn't mix in some more soap. If it's to liquidy mix in more corn starch. 

Once it's all done store it in a plastic container till you (or your child) are ready to play with it. My son and I had a blast making shapes and "food" with it in the bath last time I made some, I know he'll be excited to see a new batch. 

A Paw-some Mani Monday and the Giveaway Winner!

First, I'd like to apologize for the really terrible pun, they're kind of my weakness. Second, it's time to announce the winner of my first ever Giveaway! Congratulations to Laney E. on winning the giveaway, please check your email.

Now onto today's Mani Monday, a cute little paw print nail art. The key to pulling this one off is all about the placement and the size. Do it too big or too straight and you'll look like you're in elementary school all over again. I suggest 2 small paw print per nail, going at an angle across your nails. To keep it really subtle and grown up, do just your ring finger as an accent nail.

The supplies you need are: a base color (a neutral color will keep it grown up), black nail polish, and our dotting tool. You could use a very fine brush instead of a dotting tool if you wanted as well.

Step #1: Paint your nails the base color and let them dry completely before you move onto the next step. As always, patience is your friend when doing nail art.

Step #2: Do 4 little dots of your black polish in a gentle arc, these are your toes. Try to keep them on the smaller end, if they are to big them you foot pad will be huge.

Step #3: Using the bigger end of your dotting tool if you have a bigger end, make an upside down jelly bean shape under your toe dots. Try and make it proportionate to the size of your toe dots, but if it end up bigger you can always make the toe dots bigger. This step can take a little bit of time to get just right so hang in there!

Step #4: Step back and admire how adorable your nails look! Use some clear top coat if you want to prolong the life of your manicure. Now go out there and show those nails off.

Weekend Tips and Tricks

We had a really horrible week here, sorry if I've been delayed in getting back to you or if the last few posts have been pretty short. After this week I will be doing some massive TLC and self care for sure. Today's Tips and Tricks will be my guide to getting back together after an emotionally or physically tough week.

Step 1: Get some sleep. There is no mask, serum, or special cream that will do as much for your skin and how you feel as getting enough sleep. Even a half an hour long power nap can make a huge difference.

Step 2: Take a shower. Use that fancy body wash you love, that really good hair mask, and a good exfoliate to scrub away that dull skin.

Step 3: Use that luxe body butter you've been saving, think of today as an at home spa day so use the good stuff.

Step 4: Pick a mask depending on your skin needs. Freeman's makes a ton of really great masks for like $4 each, and you can find them at just about any place that carries body stuff. I like the charcoal black sugar scrub one since my skin gets oily and broken out when I get stressed.

Step 5: Make yourself a cup of tea, get your comfy jammies on, and curl up with a good book or movie and just relax for an hour or two, you've earned it.

One Direction Signed Makeup Giveaway!

*This is a sponsored post, brought to you by BrandBacker*

You guys know free is my favorite price, so I'm very excited to be teaming up with BrandBacker to bring you a giveaway for some free makeup! Makeup by One Direction is launching it's new makeup line, sold exclusively through Macy's, and to celebrate I'm hosting a giveaway for an autographed collectible tin full of makeup from the new line. Just enter below in the widget and check out One Direction Makeup on Facebook for more details about the new line, which is super cute and I think you guys will love it. It's fun, bold, and a tad bit mischievous just like the band members that inspired the line. Good luck!

ELF Mineral Face Primer

I will admit, I'm not 100% sold on face primer. Eyeshadow primer, yes 100000% love, but face primer I'm just not sure about. Since I'm still iffy on if I really needed it or not there was no way I was spending $30+ on one. While buying some ELF (EyesLipsFace Cosmetics) products during the spring I saw they had a mineral face primer for $6, and since there was a half off sale I picked one up for $3. I figured at $3 if I hated it I was out less than a coffee.

I'm almost through the bottle now, so I think I can make an informed opinion now. Does it make my face makeup last longer? No, I haven't noticed a difference at all. What I have noticed is it makes my face a smoother canvas for my foundation. It helps conceal my pores a bit and maybe fill in fine lines but I never saw a difference in my frowny face wrinkles or in some of my larger pores. It also gives me a bit of a matte finish, so that was a plus. It is also clear, which I like better than the tinted ones I've seen. They do make a green and purple color correcting one if that's what you need.

Nice and clear

Filled in some of the finer lines

So while I'm not disappointed with my purchase of this mineral face primer, I'm still not sold on whether or not I actually need it. I'll try a few other ones before I make my final decision. If you use a face primer what brand do you swear by?

Thursday Thoughts

Its Thursday, and you know what that means, my weekly link up with Ramblings of a Suburban Mom. This week's Thursday Thoughts will be shorter than normal, I'm actually writing this on my phone at 3 AM on the way back from an emergency hospital trip with my son, who's miserable but OK.

• The giveaway should be ending soon if it's not already done. I'll announce the winner on Monday though, so check back then.
• Speaking of giveaway, I have another one that will be going up in the next day or two, basically when I figure out how to import the stuff to blogger. But its a great giveaway and I'm very excited to be hosting it.
• My Birchbox should be here soon, so excited with what I received and just getting a Birchbox in general.
• I received some great product review suggestions from you guys, I'll try to do them all but it'll take a bit. 
• My pile of stuff to get done has grown so large I'm pretty sure I'll be playing catch up for the next month, but that's what happens when your kid gets sick.

And that's it for today because I'm beat and need to sleep.

ELF HD Blush Review

There are certain things a makeup product can do to make me fall in love with it. It has to work well, be a good price for what it is, and be easy to get in case I need more. The ELF HD Blushes are one of those items that hit all 3 points and blow it out of the water. Plus I've heard these are a dupe for a MAC cream blush, so there's an extra point there.

Diva (L) and Superstar (R)

I have two different shades, Superstar and Diva. Superstar is a coral peachy color and Diva is a bright pink. Both are intimidating in the jar, especially Diva, but I promise they are totally workable and easy to wear. These are super pigmented so you only need a little bit. I'm talking quarter of a grain of rice. You are going to take that tiny little drop and rub it into the back of your hand so it's smoothed out. Now you're going to take a stipple brush (I've never had any success trying to apply it with my fingers) and stipple over the dot then LIGHTLY stipple over your cheeks in the desired areas. Go lightly, better to put more on that scrub to take it off.

Because if you make a mistake you'll have to scrub to get this stuff off, the staying power is that good. This stuff stains and stays and stays. Which is why I love it. I like applying my makeup once and not having to worry about fixing it later in the day.

Diva is super bright out of the tube, as you can see in the middle swatch. Once you spread it out, like the swatch on the right, you are ready to stipple it. The swatch on the left is what it looks like stippled, a nice flush of color.

Superstar is again super pigmented out of the tube, as you can see in the middle blob. Spread out you can see it's got a bit of a shimmer, which should be visible in the right swatch. Stippled out, as in the left, it become this gorgeous coral color that looks amazing on tanned or olive toned skin. This is my favorite out of the two, I wear it quite a bit.

There are lots of other colors available, including some deep purple ones that will be nice and vampy for the fall. If you own one, what color do you have?