Birchbox: Gossip Girl Edition

Happy Monday Loves!

I received my May Birchbox in the mail on Thursday and was so excited when I realized it was another special edition!  This time it was Gossip Girl and all I could think was over the top luxurious and I was right!


Birchbox



I love when they put the cute wrappers around the box!

 This is Miracle Skin Transformer in SPF 20, it's a tinted moisturizer that I haven't tried yet but looks good!

Miss Dior perfume, I love this scent!! It's very romantic and feminine!

I've never tried any Dior makeup so I was really excited to try this Diorshow Extase Mascara.  I've used it a couple of times and absolutely love it!   

My favorite item in this box has to be the Shu Uemura shampoo.  When I saw Shu Uemura I thought eyelash curler, I didn't realize they did hair care products as well.  I tried this shampoo yesterday and WOW, this stuff smells beyond amazing and it made my hair so incredibly soft and light!  This might be the first birchbox product that I have to get the full size bottle because it's just such a great product!

And the extra was this cute stationary! 

 

If you haven't gotten on the Birchbox wagon yet then go HERE to join!  For $10 a month it's a great way to try out new products!

So tell me, what did you get in your box!!?

xoxo

April Birchbox

Hello lovelies!

I'll just jump right in and say I wasn't too impressed with this months birchbox.  I'm sure it's partly due to the fact that my teen vogue box was awesome and I had the same kind of expectations for this months box. 

I do know from looking at what other bloggers have gotten in their birchbox's that some months are definitely better than others and I guess this is just one of those months where the box is kind of, eh...... 

Here's what I got:

~  Yes To™ Blueberries Brightening Facial Towelettes - These are okay....they do the job but they're nothing spectacular.

~ Alima Pure™ Organic Nourishing Lip Balm - This lip balm was just okay as well, I got the Rhubarb color.  I went to twist it up and ended up not being able to get it back down again : (

~ J.R. Watkins Peppermint Foot Salve - This is probably my favorite product out of this box.  It's got a nice peppermint flavor and I've been putting it on at night and so far it's been working really well.  Better than handing over the money for a pedicure!

~ LIV GRN C2C Fragrance Collection in Natural - I did not like this perfume at all.  It was way too sweet for me.  I'm more of a floral girl and this smelt like candy.

~ Weleda Pomegranate Firming Night Cream - I tried this product for the first time last night and I couldn't get past the smell....it smelt like a public restroom, kind of lemon sterile....maybe that was pomegranate, but I don't think so.

There you go! 

So even though I really didn't like anything in this months box that's actually the great thing about Birchbox......you can get these samples and see what you like and what you don't like (instead of paying the big bucks for a full size product that you'll never use). 

So tell me what did ya'll get and what did you think?

Teen Vogue Birchbox

Hello Lovelies!

I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine went by super fast, as usual.

But lets get to the important stuff now......here's what was waiting for me when I got home from work on Friday! 

 SOO EXCITED!

It came wrapped in special Teen Vogue paper.....and here's what was inside.....

This box is by far my favorite box I've received so far...however I've only been doing Birchbox since January.

So here's what I got ---

~Twirl fagrance by Kate Spade  - this scent is fruity and flowery.  I really like it and it's the perfect scent for Spring!

~ A full size bottle of essie luxeffects  - the color I got was a cut above and I have to say that I was really excited about this becuase it's a full size bottle not a sample size like I thought I'd get!  I'm going to be painting my nails tonight (probably only going to do the glitter on the ring fingers though)

~Twistband hair tie  - I've been wanting to try these for a while.  I like how it doesn't pull your hair and it came in a fun orange color.

~Kérastase Elixer Ultime - This elixer smells yummy and makes my hair silky and smooth.  Really like it.

~ tarte LipSurgence lip tint - I think this was another full size product which I was really impressed with.  This goes on so smooth and has a nice mint smell.  I've been wearing it with lipgloss because it has a matte finish.  This color is called Lucky and while I don't normally wear color quite this pink, I'm more of a beige girl, I'll definitlely put this in rotation.

So there you go. Loved this box and I can't wait to see what other people received in their boxes!  Do share!

Friday Five - My Beauty Essentials

Happy Friday Ya'll!!!

I have officially found the joy of Instagram and I think I'm in love! 

So I thought today for my Friday Five I'd show ya'll some of the products that

 I use on a daily basis an have used for quite a while.  I love them, period.

 

  ~  First up, there's my Curel lotion.  I have really dry and sensitive skin and am prone to eczema, but this lotion keeps my skin soft and eczema free without any harsh perfumes or chemicals, love it!

~ Next, is my TRESemme Hairspray.  Ya'll I have tried so many different harisprays over the years and this is the absolute best for the money!  It holds your style in place without making it feel like you've got dried glue in your hair.  If I didn't put this in my hair then my style would go flat in about 60 seconds.

~ On to my Bronzer.  These are actually from Europe, I have my in-laws bring me a couple of bottles whenever they come for a visit.  The europeans know what they're doing when it comes to fake tans.  The Fake Don't Bake is the first sunless tanner that I've ever been able to wear that doesn't give that burnt skin smell after a while (I can't stand that) and trust me I've tried almost all sunless tanners out there as I am of the pale variety. ; )  I think you can order these online, but I'm not 100% sure. And I use this every other day so I can stretch out my tan. 

~ Ladies if you haven't tried Rimmel nail polish then you're missing out!  This is by far my absolute favorite nail polish for the money!  At $3 some dollars it's a steal.  The brush is a fanning brush so you get the color on evenly and I usually paint my nails on Sunday night and my nails are perfect until the next weekend!  Awesome!

~ This last product my SIL introduced me to a few years back.  It's Soap & Glory hand cream.  It smells like the perfume Chanel Mademoiselle, it's heavenly!  And you can get this at Sephora for like $5.  My purse is never without this hand cream. 

So now I have to ask, what are you're beauty essentials? 

I'm always on the lookout for great products!

Product Review and a little TMI....

Happy Monday Lovelies! I wanted to share a little product review with you. And just to give you a little disclaimer, I have really sensitive skin, always have and always will.

So I finally jumped on the Proactive band wagon because I've been having really bad breakouts lately. Here's the TMI part, I think it might be due to switching birth control pills. Long story but it wasn't my choice it was a stupid mistake that my nurse practitioner made and I decided to go with it because I'm not quite ready for a little downtown southern baby yet. ; >

Little background info on me, as I said before I have really sensitive skin and I've tried using other face washes before but nothing has ever worked. So my beauty cleaning routine is usually washing my face in the moring with a rag and warm water. I know, gasp, that's so bad for my skin!!! But seriously anything else seems to irritate it even more.

So this brings me to the Proactive review, I decided to give it a go since nothing else has really worked for me. I've been using it for about 2 weeks and honestley, I think I've broken out even more than before. I'm going to keep using it and see if maybe it will start to clear up but so far no good. : (

Has anyone else had a good or bad experience with Proactive?

Hello???

Do I have any readers out there or have you all given up on me since I keep disapearing? I'm so sorry! I'm in my first week of my new job and the new cube that I'm in is not as nice as the last one I was in, a.k.a. it's not as private so I can't do the blogging thing like I normaly do! I guess I'm going to have to start posting when I'm at home at night! Job is going well, it's been seriously crazy though, I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I'm in the financial industry, yikes!

So on the wedding front I'm going a little crazy, I'm having bridezilla moments and feeling terrible about it! I'm such a control freak and I think that's part of my problem because I'm taking on way too much and it's making me go a little insane! We've had a few hiccups, like the frame that we got for the bridal portrait didn't work, because the picture wouldn't fit in it so now we are going on Sunday to try to find a new one. Then we got two frames to give to my grandparents with my picture in it and neither one of those worked either.

This is how I'm feeling right now......this was me when I was I think 5 or 6, it's one of Fiances favorite pictures of me because I'm pouting!

I'm still at a loss for what to get my bridesmaids as their last gift....I don't want to spend a lot but I want to get them something monogrammed. My brain won't function to think about it anymore.

Teeth whitening + no coffee = one headache ridden bride to be!!!! I think that this is some kind of torture device created for the soon to be brides to help increase the madness!

Kiehl's Superbly Efficient Anti-Perspirant & Deodorant is anything but superbly efficient! Aside from the fact that it has no scent? It doesn't work! I got all sweaty and it was not good ya'll, so don't waste your money!

Really sorry to be all negative like this!

On the brighter side my second and last shower is tomorrow! YAY!! I promise to take lots of pictures and share with you on Monday!!!! I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!

I have so much to do!

I have a lot going on right now! I think I've all but nailed down a new job! I'm just waiting for my third week of vacation to be approved so that I can take time to you know get married, have a honeymoon, that kind of thing.....so once that's settled I'll officially have a new job that starts in a little over two weeks! I'll actually be staying with the company that I'm at right now and be doing something similar to what I do today but it'll be a little different which I'm actually excited about. I'll just be happy to have something decided and not have this extra stress to worry about!

Which leads me to my next topic.......product review!!!! With all of the wedding planning and job interviewing and everything else, I've been under some serious stress and I thought it would be a good time to try out this.........Kiehl's Superbly Efficient Anti-Perspirant & Deodorant

I didn't used to sweat so much but lately the sweating has been kicked up a notch or 3. I don't know if it's my hormones or what but I've pretty much tried everything and nothing really seems to get the job done so I read a review of the Kiehl's on the WeddingBee and decided I'd give it a go. I'm only on the first day but I'll get back to you on how I think it's working!

And I had to share with you that Fiance and I decided on our First Dance Song! We'll be dancing to Michelle Featherstone's 'We are Man and Wife' I went onto YouTube and listened to it and thought it was just perfect, I got a little teared up just listening to it and I let Fiance listen to it and he thought it was perfect too!!! Feels good to have that done!

I also got all of the frames that we'll be using for our Family Wedding Photos table.....we've got pictures of our parents and grandparents on their wedding days and we are going to have a special place at the reception for them. Got some nice silver frames at Marshall's for $3.99 each!

Next, I'm going to order my portriat and then order the handkerchiefs! I'm really trying to get a few things done a day so I don't feel so completely overwhelmed! Fiance and I are also meeting with the resturant owner tonight to go over our rehearsal dinner so that'll be another thing we can check off the list! : )