Birchbox: June 2013

Sooo.... Been a while since my last Birchbox post. I've gotten a few good things, but haven't been all too excited about the things I've received lately. I thought I would share my June box because even if the products don't have me jumping for joy, I'll definitely get use out of all of them - unlike the endless samples of perfume I have that never see the light of day...

Okay, so starting with my favorite product - Color Club Wanderlust Collection polish. I'm not sure of the specific name of this polish, but it's a beautiful pastel green color, and I'm always on the lookout for colors like this! Love getting nail polish in my box! Next is the Suki Exfoliate Foaming Cleanser. I haven't tried this yet, but I definitely will give it a go - I exfoliate pretty often, so it's nice to have something new to test out. My only problem with receiving skincare product samples is that there really isn't enough there to see any long term effects, and that's kind of the goal of skincare, right? Oh well. It smells nice. Next is a lip balm that I'm loving just after the first swipe! It's the SW Basics Lip Balm. I'm not crazy about the smell, but I looove the texture - it's creamy, not waxy... and it feels really nice on my lips so far! Another useful, even if a little boring product is the Klorane Gentle Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk. I will definitely use this, as I've been trying to wash my hair less lately. Finally, the "lifestyle extra" is a pack of Tweezerman Nail Files. I love dogs, so I like the paw prints, and it's a pretty nice little set of files, and I'm sure they'll get used. 

Are you subscribed to a monthly beauty box? What are your thoughts? Are you still on the Birchbox bandwagon or have you moved onto another monthly box? Thanks for reading! 

Amy

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And can anyone tell me what the heck is going on with Google Reader? Everyone has been talking about how it will be taken down for a really long time, but I have no idea if this is legit or not.... And what about Friend Connect? Should we all just move to Bloglovin' and call it good? Jeeze. 

Flip Flop Fantasy

NOTD day! This is China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy. And, I'm not sure what the weather is like in your neck of the woods, but wearing flip flops where I live is most definitely a fantasy right now. Rainy and cold forever, apparently - I wore jeans and a sweatshirt out yesterday.... Where is summer? Dreary weather aside, I'm rocking some bright nail polish today! I had some points at Ulta that were about to expire, and I used some of them on this polish. It's a neon (and therefore very hard to capture on camera) sort of bright pink with a little bit of a peachy side. The bottle color was absolutely screaming my name in the store yesterday.

Color: gorgeous. Formulation: not so much. It's a bit tricky to work with, this one. Streaky and uneven. And I have to say, it doesn't wow on the nails like it did in the bottle - at least on my skin tone. However, I feel like this will make an amazing pedi color! If I ever get the chance to break out the flip flops. Sigh. 

Favorite neon polish? I'm always looking for recommendations! Can't get enough of the brights!

Love, Amy

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Through the Decades: The 20's

If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I'm not sure of anything right now. College has definitely turned my life upside down and it's been two years of really not knowing what's coming next. Which I kind of hate. I don't hate college, but I hate having to play things by ear, and I'm in sort of a state where I'm just floating around, not really touching down anywhere... and it's difficult for the control freak in me to deal. 

But, sometimes you have to take advantage of your uncertainty and try new things. This summer I've got a list of things that are a bit out of my comfort zone, but I want to try them out. I thought I would start a new series on my blog where I recreate some makeup looks from different decades and post the results. Not exactly out of my comfort zone, but still fun! Of course, I had to start with the Twenties - with all the press around Gatsby right now, it had to be done! I was extremely inspired by a few pictures I've seen from the film and I did a bit of research for the look. 

If you haven't seen this video by Lisa Eldridge, I really recommend it! It was a great place to start as I was looking up some information about makeup in the past... I found it verrry interesting! I was inspired by other pictures to go for a smokey eye, and instead of keeping the darkest colors solely on the outer corner, I blended them under the start of my brows, close to my nose... I noticed this in a lot of reference pictures. I used a black liner in my waterline to make it look even more smokey. I also did my best with the brows I have - I didn't really want to pluck them as thin as the trend for a few pictures - hope you can forgive me ;).

For the skin, I just used a light foundation, and I have really pale skin, so it wasn't hard to check that trend off. For lips, I didn't have any lip pencils or a dark burgundy lipstick like I would have preferred, but I just used kind of berry colors and tried to get that Twenties' shape. 

(Products used: Naked Palette (Buck, Naked for brows); Naked 2/1 for eyes; Sumita black eye pencil; Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation; Clinique Lipstick; Mirenesse Lipstick Pencil)

What do you think of this makeup look? Would it be something you would rock out, or do you think looks from other decades should stay in them? I had a lot of fun with this post - hope you enjoyed! 

Thanks for reading! 

Amy 

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