Current Favorites

So it's a couple of weeks later than I planned, but here is part one of my Current Favorites! It's a bit long since I have a lot of favorites, but I've divided everything into categories. I'm just gonna go ahead and jump into it now!

The first category is...Hair.

1. "12 Benefits" Instant Healthy Hair Treatment

This stuff is amazing! All of the benefits are listed on the bottle, but they are: seals color; smoothes frizz; repairs damage; prevents split ends; moisturizes dry hair; strengthens fragile hair; prevents flat iron damage; protects from chlorine, wind, and sun damage; adds shine, softness, and silky finish; protects from blow-drying; improves texture and manageability; and keeps hair youthful with anti-age formula.

Does it do all of this? Well, I think so! I've been using it since the last time I got my hair done, which was about 2 months ago. My hair was in pretty healthy condition before, but this has just been keeping it that way! I spray it in my hair before blow-drying it. It's kind of a thick spray, but not as thick as a leave-in conditioner is. Plus a thirteenth benefit is that it smells really good!

2. Macadamia Oil Deep Repair Masque

I just bought this a couple of weeks ago, but I LOVE it! Even though I've only used it twice, it's the best deep conditioner I've ever used. Plus it smells amazing. I bought this small sample size, but I will definitely be purchasing the full size when I'm able to.

3. Ribbon hair ties

I'm not exactly sure what these are called lol. But they're so cute! I like how my hair looks with them in...it's like I've tied my hair with a ribbon, but they're elastic like a regular ponytail holder. Here's a picture of my braid tied with one. :)

Now on to the next category...skin care!

1. Bioderma Crealine H20

If you've never heard of Bioderma, well...I'm probably not the right person to ask, lol. All I know is that this is the best toner-type product I've ever used! I've kind of been on a French skin care kick lately, and I guess I have Bioderma to blame for that since it was the first one I bought. My skin hasn't been the best recently, probably because of the crazy weather, but since I've started using some different skin care products (like this one) it's getting better. I use this on a cotton pad after cleansing my face and before applying moisturizer.

2. Burt's Bees Citrus Facial Scrub

I think this is one I've mentioned before. I've used this product for a while, but kind of forgot about it. A few weeks ago I picked up a new one and started using it again. I love it just as much as I did before, and I don't know why I even stopped using it in the first place lol.

3. Philosophy Purity Made Simple

(For some reason, all of my pictures aren't including my blog name. But I promise these are all mine.)

This is a cleanser that I've used for a while. I have yet to meet a Philosophy product I didn't like. This one gets my face clean without drying it out.

4. La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo

I honestly can't say enough good things about this! I ordered it online after hearing/reading excellent reviews on it. The reviews I saw said that it was good for acne, and they couldn't be more correct. It says on the tube that it's "corrective and unclogging anti-imperfection care." Apparently it exfoliates dead skin cells and unclogs pores to keep you from breaking out. I haven't been using it long, but I can definitely tell a difference in my skin. I apply this all over the face (as instructed) as my moisturizer once a day.

5. Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentré

Yet another French skincare product that I'm obsessed with! I first received a sample size of this in one of my Birchboxes (I think January?) and immediately fell in love. It's one moisturizer that I've been wanting to try for a while, so when I liked the sample I knew I had to have the full size. I use this as a moisturizer before applying my make-up, and it is awesome.

That's it for skin care! Next category is things that make you smell good. :)

1. Bath and Body Works fragrance mist in Be Enchanted

I've been using this for quite a while, like over a year. I can't describe the scent other than to say it smells like every good, girly thing in the world lol. It's a very sweet scent but not sickeningly so. I like to use this before I go to work because it's light but still makes me smell good.

2. Korres Body Butter

This is amazing! It smells really good and is very thick and moisturizing. I use this on my hands and feet almost every night before I go to sleep.

3. Victoria's Secret ultra-moisturizing hand and body cream in Berry Escape

I have to admit, what drew me to this product was the packaging. Isn't it adorable? I think this must be part of a new spring/summer line, because there were 2 other scents. It comes in a lotion, a body splash, and a shower gel. I can't remember what the other scents were, sorry! But I love this one. On the tube it says it's guava berry and solar florals. To me that just sounds like summer, and in these dreary late-winter months it's been the perfect pick-me-up.

Ok, that's going to be it for this post since I feel like it's already getting long lol. Part 2 will most likely be up next week sometime, or possibly over the weekend. It will include my current favorite make-up, food and drink, and miscellaneous items. If you're reading this, I hope you enjoyed! And if you DO read my posts, do me a favor and join my blog, leave a comment, tweet me, etc.

xoxo, Brittany

Update Time...again!

So I know it's been FOREVER since I've written on here! There has been lots that's happened over the last few months: it was Thanksgiving, I moved into my very own condo, then there was Christmas and New Year's, then I had my wisdom teeth out. And that's just a brief overview of everything, ha ha! One of my resolutions this year was to better keep up with my online things, blog/Tumblrs included. I know I'm a little over a month behind, but better late than never, right?! Lol.

Pretty soon (not sure when exactly) I'll be working day shift again! I'm very excited about that. I'm going to try to post on here at least once every 2 weeks for now, and when I'm on days I should be able to post once or twice a week. I STILL don't have anyone who's subscribed/follows me/whatever, but I know that people might still read this. Plus, my blog is a form of a creative outlet for me. It lets me share my beauty love with the world, regardless of if there's one person who reads it or 100! So mainly I've done this for me, and I will continue to. :)

Next week sometime, I will do a current favorites post. There have been several new products I've bought recently, as well as old ones I've rediscovered. I just have to get my Photobucket password reset so I will be able to post my pictures!

I think that's about it for now. I'm going to eat lunch, get ready, and go run some errands in town. Tonight I'm taking my mom to see Safe Haven, so that'll be fun. :)

xoxo, Brittany

July Favorites!

As expected, my vacation to Florida a couple of weeks ago was fantastic! I ate good food, laid on the beach, got a tan, spent quality time with my sisters, and just generally had a good time...also, my younger sister and I got our belly buttons pierced while we were there. :) Pictures will be posted later...it's a bit red right now since it's still healing.

I had planned to have a "How I Packed" post on packing for longer trips, but with all the chaos of packing and last-minute things that needed to be done before we left, I didn't get all of the pictures taken. Hopefully we can go back next year, though, and then I will for sure do that post.

Speaking of the beach, here's a little picture...hopefully it'll brighten someone's day as much as it brightens my own. :)

I just love it on the beach...so much that I could seriously live there. Maybe someday. ;)

Now on to the point of this post: beauty products I've been loving in the month of July! I'm going to try to do a favorites post once a month, and if I can stick with it then I will add a post for non-beauty faves.

First up is a nail polish, "Knackered" by Butter London.

One of the things I love about this shade is how versatile it is. As you can see from the picture, I showed what it looks like with varying coats on my nails, if that makes sense lol. In the top left is just one coat. Pretty and shimmery/glittery with just a hint of the blue and purple shades. The top right corner is two coats...still very sheer, but a little more color. The bottom right corner is three coats, which is my favorite. It's completely opaque like this, and absolutely gorgeous! My camera, of course, did not do the color justice. In reality it's a silvery blue color, but it has a purple opalescence running through it. The colors actually remind me of the ocean, which is why I bought this at Ulta while on vacation. I've only used it twice but it instantly became a favorite, and I've gotten a lot of compliments on it. :)

Next up is something that I think is absolutely essential for my makeup routine, particularly in the summer months: Urban Decay De-Slick.

I use this setting spray before and after applying my whole face of make-up, and it keeps it lasting all day. It's also great to use in the middle of the day to kind of refresh  your make-up.

My next favorite beauty product for July is Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream in Light/Medium.

I was so excited when this came out! I am a huge fan of BB creams, particularly Skin79 and Lioele. But Maybelline is one of my favorite drugstore brands, and the fact that this actually lives up to most (if not all) of the claims it makes is just awesome. I dislike going out on the beach with a bare face, so while on vacation I used this every day. Now that we're into August, I still find myself reaching for it, and it will most definitely be a repurchase.

My next July favorite is another product that was acquired while I was on vacation, and it is Mario Badescu Drying Lotion.

I had heard before that this was supposed to be the best spot treatment ever, but I didn't know if it would really be worth the money. Plus, I didn't really have anywhere I could buy it around me. Luckily, it was in Ulta! I knew that I had enough spending money to splurge on a skincare product like this, especially since it was one that I'd been wanting to try for a while. Whenever I have a pimple (or 2 or 3) I dot this onto the spots with a Q-tip at night before I go to bed. When I get up in the morning, it comes off when I wash my face. I am very glad I bought it, because it IS the best spot treatment ever, in my opinion anyway. When used on small blemishes, I've found that by the next morning they are almost completely gone. On larger blemishes (that unfortunately I get more of) it greatly reduces the redness and swelling. Not to mention the fact that it instantly soothes the skin and has a nice scent.

The next product is something that was in my June Glam Bag. It is the Living Proof anti-frizz nourishing styling cream.

To be completely honest, I have been looking for a hair product like this for a LONG time. It has a really nice smell and a smooth texture. I like to use this before I dry my hair, and then if I'm wearing my hair curly/wavy, I use it after I've styled. It definitely cuts out the frizz in my hair and makes it smooth and shiny. When this little bottle runs out, I will most likely purchase the full size.

The next product I have is Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Honey.

It's just barely darker than my natural lip color, which happens to be one of my favorite kind of lip looks. It's glossy and really beautiful, plus long-lasting. There's a lot of shades to choose from, too.  Definitely recommend this.

Next is another hair product: Organix Macadamia Oil Intensive Moisture Mask.

I use this as a deep conditioner 1-2 times a week. As you can see, it's pretty thick but not heavy or waxy at all. I love the smell of it, and it's done wonders for my hair.

The next product is one I've talked about in a post before, and it is Neutrogena Deep Moisture Body Cream.

To me, this is just the perfect body lotion year-round. It sinks into the skin quickly but is very thick and  moisturizing. It smells really good, plus I've found that it helps with peeling skin (like from a sunburn). For the full review of this, see this post.

The next product is something else that came from Ulta, purchased towards the end of the month but instantly became a favorite: Real Techniques angled foundation brush.

Ever since discovering Pixiwoo on YouTube, I've wanted to try these brushes. So naturally, I was beyond excited to see they were in Ulta. I'm pretty sure the bristles are synthetic (on this one, anyway) but they're very good quality. So far I haven't found a brush I like better for applying BB cream with. I've not actually tried it for regular foundation, but will be sure to do that soon. I hope that in the future I can purchase more of these brushes.

This next product I think I purchased on the last or next to last day of July, lol. But it's something that I've been wanting to try for a while, and when I did I loved it. It's CoverGirl eyeshadow trio in Shimmering Sands.

These are such beautiful, shimmery neutral colors that I think are perfect for the summer. I've been using it nearly every day since purchasing it, and I'm in love. :)

Next up is a Lush product: Mint Julips lip scrub.

I am definitely a Lush fanatic, and this is by far one of my favorite products from there. It's an all-natural scrub and it smells/tastes amazing, like mint chocolate. The thing I like most about this, other than how soft it makes my lips, is that after you're done scrubbing, you can lick it off. :P

The next product is Loreal Magic Lumi concealer/corrector.

I use this as my undereye concealer, as well as to highlight areas on my cheekbones and around my nose and mouth, and it's brilliant. There's no shimmer to it, but it makes my skin look radiant, as if it's glowing from within, and makes me look as if I've had 10 hours of sleep the night before (even though that's definitely not the case on most days, ha ha). I haven't used the YSL Touche Eclat, but supposedly this is a dupe for it...I'll just say that I'm not going to pay $30+ dollars for that product when I can get this one for less than $10 at the drugstore.

My next favorite product for July is a mascara: Benefit They're Real!

This is the BEST mascara I've ever used for long, voluminous lashes. It definitely makes me look as though I'm wearing falsies. Love. It.

The next product is my first-ever NYX product: Jumbo Eye Pencil in Iced Mocha.

I don't know why I didn't try NYX before now, because with just this one product I can see what I've been missing, lol. This works great as an eyeliner, and I also like to use it on my waterline for a more natural look. I will definitely be purchasing more NYX products in the future.

My last favorite beauty product for the month of July is another hair product: Jonathan Finish Shine Polishing Gloss.

I use this after I've dried and straightened or curled my hair, and it's just the most lovely finishing touch to any hairstyle, in my opinion. It makes my hair look polished and shiny, but never greasy.

That concludes the main point of this post. However, a few weeks ago I added a new member to my family...meet Megan. :)

She's adorable, right?! And getting SO big! She's grown quite a bit since this picture was taken...at least it seems that way to me, ha ha! Currently she is running around somewhere, but just minutes ago she was fascinated at the cursor moving across the screen as I typed, and tried to attack it. xD Such a mess, but very entertaining and sweet.

That's all for today! Hope you are having a wonderful summer, and I'll post again soon. :)

xoxo, Brittany

How I packed: Weekend Trip Edition!

Once again, it's been too long since I last posted! This summer is flying by way too fast for my liking, and I've been busy much of it already. I had planned to write this post within the week after returning from my weekend trip to Wisconsin, but got busy and just kept having to delay posting it. I decided now (yes, at 3 in the morning my time, lol) would be a good time to get this up, since in less than 48 hours I'll be leaving to go to the beach! YAY for the beach, I love going there sooo much. But more on that later.

I went to Wisconsin back at the beginning of June with my grandparents and sisters. We have family that lives there, and a cousin that graduated that weekend. We left early Friday morning and had planned to be back Sunday night. As you know from my last post, that didn't happen. My grandfather is much better now, though. He only stayed in the hospital for just under a week, and has been home ever since. He's doing well in physical therapy and getting stronger all the time. :)

Anyway, back to the point of my post. When I go on a short trip (think 4 days or less) I don't like packing my huge suitcase. There's not really a point to it, know what I mean? I got a new luggage set for Christmas from my parents, and was really glad that it included a small weekend-type bag. So, that's what I packed my clothes and shoes in.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but this bag is actually pretty small. I packed 3 pairs of pants, a few shirts, that pair of TOMS, flip-flops, underwear, and pajamas, and everything fit and the bag zipped with no trouble. My toiletries and make-up did have to be packed separately, but that wasn't a big deal.

This toiletry bag is Ralph Lauren but it's from TJ Maxx. It came as a set with 2 other smaller bags, and I got it for Christmas a few years ago. It's held up nicely, and I'm able to fit all of my full-size toiletry items in it, should I want to.

This make-up bag was a recent purchase for me. I've needed a new travel make-up bag for quite a while, and found this one at Wal-Mart and really liked it. As you can see, even my Urban Decay Naked palette fits inside, along with all of my other make-up products. It was a good purchase, only cost around $10, and I will get a lot of use out of it.

Since this trip involved a drive that was 10+ hours, of course I needed some entertainment.

This is the Victoria's Secret Angels tote that I received as a free gift for spending $75 there. I really love reading, and as you can see I took 4 books with me, plus my Nook. In case anyone's wondering, I took The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, Wither by Lauren DeStefano, The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, and Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge. I also had Paper Towns by John Green on my Nook. I didn't get to read The Son of Neptune or Fly By Night, but the others I did read and I highly recommend all of them. Besides books, I also took my Nintendo DS and my iPod. Everything fit perfectly into this bag with plenty of room to spare. It's a HUGE tote bag, and is actually going to be my beach bag next week. :)

Speaking of next week, I'd better get off of here now and go to bed...LONG day of cleaning, laundry, and packing ahead of me tomorrow. :\ But I know it'll be worth it in the end. :) I hope this post has helped someone, or you at least had fun reading it, or someone is at least reading it, ha ha. As always, if you do read my posts, tweet me! I would love to hear from you and what you think of my blog. I'm going to try to get a couple of posts up next week while on vacation, and when I return I'll try to post another "how I packed" but for longer trips. Stay tuned for that! ;)

xoxo, Brittany

Just an update...

I've been out of town the past few days, and it feels really good to be back home. The trip was to Wisconsin to see my cousin graduate from high school. I went with my sisters and our grandparents, and we left early Friday morning. Originally it was planned that we would leave early Sunday morning to come home, but that didn't happen. My grandpa fell in the garage early Saturday morning and ended up with a broken hip, which he had surgery for on Saturday afternoon. Needless to say, he wasn't able to make it to the graduation, and neither was my grandma. They are both still in Wisconsin, and he's doing better. I know he's still got a long road of recovery ahead of him, though.

Despite that incident, we still had a fun trip! There's a great mall there, so we were able to shop a couple of times. One of the best parts of that mall is that there is a Macy's, which means a LUSH counter. I was really excited about that, haha. Also, my family there lives near Milwaukee, so one day we went shopping in downtown Milwaukee. It was awesome. :) My sisters and I were also able to attend our cousin's grad party on Sunday afternoon, which we wouldn't have been going to if the accident hadn't happened and we'd left as scheduled.

Anyway, that's about it. As always, I have several posts planned, and hope to get those up over the next couple of weeks. Hope everyone is having a good day! xoxo, Brittany

Collective Haul!

As promised, this is another "haul post," and it will include items from the past couple of times I've been shopping. :) These are in no particular order, by the way.

First up is a few things from Forever 21. In the top left corner is an adorable grey sweater with a black bow on the front. It was on sale, and even though it's too warm to wear it now, I know I'll get a lot of use out of it when fall comes back around. Next to that in the top right corner is a blue floral umbrella. I've been wanting a small one to keep in my car, because all too often I get stuck in a random middle-of-the-day rainstorm and don't have one. This one was too cute, and I'm thinking around $10, so I had to get it. Speaking of umbrellas, right under that is a gold chain necklace with a purple umbrella pendant on it...absolutely love. :) Bottom left corner is probably my favorite item purchased on this trip. It's a short sleeved purple shirt that has light purple, gold, and turquoise detailing on the top. It's a "high-low" style, and really loose on me, which I like a lot. In the bottom middle picture are just 2 basic tanks, one in lavender and the other in mint green. These are SO soft and go with a lot of things. Finally, in the bottom right is my other favorite, and it's a light brown loose-knit cardigan. All spring I've been looking for one, and was so glad to find this.

Next is a few things I picked up from Sephora. These were necessities, so nothing too exciting. On the left is Urban Decay De-Slick, Fresh Sugar Lip treatment kit (the Beauty Insider birthday present for this year), and Origins Checks and Balances face wash. The Urban Decay De-Slick is something I've been wanting to try for a while, and I'm so glad I finally got it! It's a make-up setting spray that you use on your face before and after applying your make-up. I've noticed such a difference in how long my make-up lasts when I use this. It actually makes it all the way through my 12-hour work shifts without budging at all. :) The Fresh Sugar Lip treatment is awesome. I've got one of the lip balms in another color (plum something, I think), so now I have a colorless one and a rosy one. The Origins Checks and Balances is a face wash that I've been using for close to a year. I use this as my nighttime face wash and absolutely love it. It has a nice smell, is gentle on the skin, and is basically just a really good face wash, lol. In the picture on the right is a sample of Dr. Brandt's Pores No More. I've almost used all of it up, and it's pretty good, but does nothing that my regular foundation primer can't do. The other item in that picture is my card (that I lost...sad!) that says "you are officially a VIB." VIB, for those that don't know, stands for "Very Important Beauty Insider." Basically you get extra perks that you don't get just being a Beauty Insider. To achieve VIB status, you have to keep 300 points in your beauty bank for a certain number of months, and you get to keep that status for the next year.

Last but not least: Victoria's Secret! I bought a new bra and underwear, but I'm not posting a picture of those on here, sorry! xD I was at VS on the day they were having their special "spend so much money get a free tote" deal. I was about $4 away from getting the free tote, so I grabbed the Beauty Rush soothing lip balm, pictured at the top. It's minty and actually does soothe your lips. I'm thinking it'll be great to have in my beach bag this summer, and will feel nice on my lips after I've been in the sun all day. Speaking of the beach, pictured bottom right is the free tote I got. You can't tell from the picture, but it's a pretty big bag and will make a perfect beach tote.

Well, unfortunately, that is all. I'm pretty sure these were from just 2 different shopping trips, lol, but oh well! I do have more hauls to post, including items from J. Crew, DSW, Anthropologie, and others. I'm also going to do a haul showing my MyGlam and Birchbox items from the past 2 months, as well as the (free!) Target Beauty Days bag I got a couple of weeks ago.

Also, I've been back on both of my Tumblrs recently! Want to follow me? I'd love it if you did! :) One is just a general/silly/fun/life blog, and it can be found here. The other one is a weight loss/healthy living/inspiration blog, found here.

Seeing as it is now nearly 4 am (!), I'm going to bed now...thank goodness I don't have to get up early in the morning for anything! Tomorrow is going to consist of cleaning my apartment, getting my room organized, exercising, Vampire Diaries (with which I've become obsessed recently), and a possible (probable) well-deserved mani/pedi. Goodnight! xoxo, Brittany

Update time :)

So...once again, it's been quite a while since I've been able to post on here. And like always, I don't know if anyone reads this, but just in case, I'm providing an explanation for my absence.

Last year (I'm thinking around October/November?) my laptop got several viruses on it and crashed. My sister's boyfriend offered to fix it, and tried, but said he would pretty much have to wipe everything off of it and start over. That was in January. Since then, it's been sitting on my desk all by its lonesome, looking a little pitiful lol. Because I work nights, it's sometimes difficult for me to find the time to do things on a computer that I actually want to do. So obviously going through numerous files/photos and putting the ones I want to keep on a jump drive wasn't exactly at the top of my list. However, I do still have things I have to do at times on a computer. My sister was kind enough (after a bit of pushing, mind you xD) to let me borrow her old laptop. It's pretty much a dinosaur, but I was able to do what I needed to on it.

That worked out most of the time, unless she decided she wanted it to play The Sims on or something, which would always frustrate me. -.- And then it got to where she didn't want me borrowing it without asking her, and then she changed her password and blah blah blah...I'm not going into all of that. But anyway, there was a time for a few weeks that I was just completely without a computer, plus my work schedule was crazy and I wasn't able to do what I needed to do to mine. So then March comes around, and we are redoing our bedrooms, which was an early birthday present from the parents and grandparents. Awesomeness, by the way, because I have an amazing bed. But back to the point. Somehow in all that mess of moving furniture and whatnot. her old laptop ended up in my bedroom. By this time she'd told me what the password was, so I was able to use it. Until a few weeks ago, anyway. That was when the power cord decided to get a short in it and not keep the battery charging, so I could only use it for a few minutes at a time before I'd have to stop working to hold the power cord into the outlet. So frustrating.

But then I got to thinking...I could get a new laptop, just a basic one that wouldn't cost me much, and then I wouldn't have to deal with all of this. And even if my old one was not infected with viruses, it would be about time for a new one anyway, because that one was nearly 4 years old. So I decided to just get a new one, and I'm very glad that I did. :) The one I got is a Compaq (like my old one) Presario CQ57. It's smaller than my old one, which I like, and it has Windows 7, and it's pretty much just awesome. Eventually I will get around to getting those files off of my old one and let my sister's boyfriend fix it, and then I'll just have that one to play The Sims on or whatever. But it's nice that until that time, I have a nice, new laptop to use the Internet, iTunes, YouTube, blog, etc. I'm happy with it. :)

I have several posts planned for the not-too-distant future, including but not limited to: a couple of tags, a few hauls rolled into one post, vacation/beach things, skincare and makeup routines, more pics of my cute dog, and much more! Hope you all are doing wonderfully!

xoxo, Brittany