everything you never wanted to know....

about my makeup & skincare routine.... 

First things first. Let's address the elephant in the room, shall we?

I’m not gonna lie… this whole Bloglovin’ transition is really throwing me for a loop, and I was in enough of a funkydunk before this all happened. I don’t even really know WHAT happened, but I know I’m caught up in the propaganda of it all and you know what? I’m not such a fan of change. I mean, I like to change where I live. That’s fun. Run away to where nobody knows my name or my face and I can be whoever I want to be, start from scratch? That’s my bag. But taking away my google reader and moving me to Bloglovin’ is messing with my comfort zone and I’m kind of all screwed up about it. and I have PMS. And it’s still effing snowing. So you can imagine the mood I am in, yes?

So instead of anything meaningful, this morning, I was staring down in a zombie-like trace at my basket of makeup thinking ‘you know what would be interesting? If I wrote a blog post about my makeup.” Cuz in a zombie trance, That really did seem like it might be interesting. If it’s not, forgive me. I’m a little off kilter these days….

I wash my face every morning & every night. It doesn’t matter if I am exhausted, drunk, sick, didn’t wear makeup all day…doesn’t matter. Face gets washed twice a day. It is my religion. At night I use Origins Checks & Balances because it takes off my mascara well & I am way too lazy to add the extra step of eye makeup remover. Also, it lathers awesome and smells like clean trees and eucalyptus or something. In the morning, I use either something gentle like Neutrogena or a couple times a week, I use this amazing exfoliating cleanser I got in my Birchbox one month called Vasanti Brighten Up, and it’s the best exfoliator ever.

To moisturize, for daytime I use Clinique All About Eyes & Estee Lauder Daywear + SPF. It smells like cucumbers & does a fine job. Plus, Scott gets a discount cuz he works for EL, so everybody wins.

At night, I use Rapid Lash like it’s my job, moisturize with Pond’s dry skin cream (cuz that’s what my momma always did and it smells amazing) and then I use Ceramide Herbal Eye Cream by Mario Badescu. I have a deep love for Mario.

That’s my skincare routine…it’s subject to change, but that’s what’s working for me lately….

Here are more links to the stuff I use on the daily….and please share your faves with me too! I love hearing about what everybody else does to get pretty!!!

1. Garnier BB Cream (I used to love this like whoa, but I am starting to stray. I recently fell in love with a CC Cream from my Birchbox and I think that's going to be my new love....see #4)

2. Chanel Glossimer glosses. I had a real habit there for awhile. They are on the sticky side, but soooo sparkly......

3. Elf blush in Pink Passion I was a little afraid of this when I first bought it, but it is the greatest, perky shade of happy pink & it stays on all day when my Chanel blush is rubbed off my 10am.

4. Juice Beauty CC Cream - I am obsessed. This stuff is amazing.

5. Too Faced Sun Bunny Bronzer - this stuff ain't cheap, but it will last forever. I've gone a little heavy handed once or twice and it's easy to get your Snooki on with this, but if you exercise caution, it's the perfect brozer.

6. That's my Rapid Lash right there...I live for this stuff. My lashes were sad and piddly. Now I get compliments. #Boom. The End.

7. More Glossimer. I have a problem.

8. MAC shadows in Vapour, Cork & Naked Lunch. I also use both Urban Decay Naked Palattes all the time.

9. My mascara routine consists of four steps. First, I curl the lashes, then I put on Origins Underwear for Lashes (#11), then a coat of Diorshow in black, then Estee Lauder Zero-Smudge Double Wear. Yes, I'm exhausted.

10. Revlon Eyelash Curler. I used to have a fancy one but it broke.

11. Origins Underwear for Lashes

12. MAC Concealer in NC20. I don't love this, and I ran out of my YSL Touche Eclat and cannot afford a replacement. Srsly, that shiz is expensive. So I use this. It's just ok for me, dawg.

13. All of my brushes & pencils....mostly, I use MAC liners in Teddy & Smolder and lip pencil in Stone & Subculture.

14. Vasanti Brighten Up Exfoliator

a tale of 3 hair dryers...

Actually, sort of 4. FOUR hairdryers, ok?

Let me just start this little diatribe off by explaining that my hair? Is not manageable. We’ve touched on this before, but I just need to reiterate that…it’s curly…and frizzy…and two totally different textures on top and underneath so, I am not being a snob when I say I can’t use a Conair dryer from Target, I am speaking out of necessity….I mean, if you want me to be presentable, of course. And I ain’t about going to the stop n’ shop looking like Witch Hazel from the Bugs Bunny cartoons….even though we live in Ronkonkoma so does it matter? Really? I mean, really.

So here we go. Back in December, I decided that my old, trusty Hot Tools whatever dryer, which honestly, had served me well enough, was starting to die a slow, painful death. I cleaned out its lint trap, gave it a kiss….to no avail. It was still blowing lukewarm air, so, clutching my “20% off any item!!!” Ulta coupon (LOVE those things!), I marched right in and picked myself up the sparkly new t3 Veloce I had been stalking for Christmuhkwanzikkuh.

This dryer? Changed my life. and ruined me for other dryers forever. But I didn’t know that…..until it died …five months after I bought it. True story. A $100 hair dryer should have a life expectancy of more than 5 months, am I wrong? But the things it did to my hair…..oh man. It got super, scorching hot. Hot enough to straighten out any krink, tame any cowlick…even on only slightly damp hair! There are magic in those coils…but I was pissed.

Add to this, the fact that at around the 3 month mark, out of nowhere, the director nozzle just started popping off the dryer mid-blow out…so there I was trying to stick this thing back on the nose of my dryer to finish my hair, but it was the temperature of the earth’s core, so I was screaming and burning my fingers and trying to position it on the bathroom rug and just jam the dryer into it without touching it…..like, 8 times every morning, ok?

Sigh.

Whatever. So I threw it in the garbage in a fit of rage and marched right back to Ulta where I purchased this PIECE. OF. JUNK.

It looked like it had potential, right? And it came with a bottle of argan oil, which my hair drinks like a thirsty camel….I was optimistic…..until I got home and tried it out…..

Seriously, I have never in all of my life, used a blow dryer that poofed my hair out the way this one did. The high heat setting was warm, at best and whatever ionic nonsense it was supposedly blowing fluffed up my cuticle so bad my hair was curling in every direction.

I could not return it fast enough. I spent 3 days with my hair air dried (sorry world) waiting for the next hopeful to arrive from Folica.com. I spend lots of hours researching this bad girl….certain that she was the dryer for me…..

The Solia 1875 Thermal Ionic Dryer....

In a word? Nope.

The result was definitely better than that Argan Heat mess, but for a “professional” dryer that retails for over $140? My hair was still course, and poofy. And it did NOT a cowlick tame….

It sounds dramatic, which I have been known to be from time to time, I’ll just be honest….but truly, I felt like crying. It was then that I knew I was ruined for all other dryers and had no choice to march BACK to Ulta, AGAIN, with my tail between my legs, and purchase another t3 Veloce…..

Boy oh boy did it just grind every gear I have. This is SO against my principles. I hold grudges. I stay mad and I am MAD at this company….still mad….

But damn, my hair? Looks fantastic.