Review: Deconstructed Rose Lipgloss

I am a huge fan of Bite Beauty products. I love that their lip products are completely natural. Most people don't think about the fact that we eat our lip products, it's pretty unavoidable. Bite Beauty makes it so everything comes from a natural source and there are no Parabens, Sulfates or Phthalates.

So lets start with the packaging. Oh. My. Gosh. It is right up my alley. Anyone who knows me knows I love everything feminine and girly. This is by far my favorite packaging of any makeup product I own. They clearly put a lot of effort into the packaging. Even the little tubes are well thought out. They are small and glass with a matte black handle. It has a smooth almost rubbery feeling to it. The Bite logo is indented and slightly shiny.

There are 12 glosses in total. ranging from a soft pink to a super trendy shade of berry/violet. The lippies have numbers instead of names. The first 7 shades are fairly translucent and only deposit a small amount of color. They are really nice for more natural looks. Even the darker colors aren't that opaque.

I love the colors. They have a lot of different color options. I love that there is something for every outfit. One is the lightest and it is this beautiful pinkish nude.

One

Six

Twelve

My favorite color shade is nine. It's a really pretty red.

This product is absolutely wonderful. I do have a couple of critiques. I'm not a big fan of the doe foot applicator. It hardly gets any product so you have to apply several times in order to get enough to cover your lips. The only other issue that I have with this product is that it smells very, very strongly of rose. I get that it is the theme of the product, but I find the scent to be a little overwhelming. I don't really like the smell of rose though, so that is more of a matter of personal preference.

Birthday Weekend

So it was my birthday on Friday. I had such a wonderful weekend. On Friday I went over to my dear friend Tammy's house. Tammy is my best friend Kirsta's mom who kind of adopted me into the family. I absolutely adore her. We went over there for dinner and she made two of my favorite foods; lamb chops and mac n cheese. It was delicious!

Madeline is going through quite a phase right now. She isn't really thrilled about anyone holding her but me or Anthony. It makes eating pretty difficult. She was being an absolute delight all week until Friday. I think she's going through a growth spurt.


Saturday was super awesome. I am a big fan of hanging out and relaxing. The day started with amazing family cuddles. Madeline loves to cuddle. Anthony bought me two bouquets of roses, one pink and one white. We spent the day relaxing at home and he watched the baby while I played video games, updated my blog and went shopping at Walgreens and Target. I was also able to get my nails done. The woman who did my nails suggested that I do ombre glitter. I asked her to show me how to do it and she did! I'm really excited to try it for myself. Practice makes perfect!

On Sunday my older sister and my niece/bff came to see me for my birthday. I absolutely adore my niece and I love getting to spend time with her. We went to lunch and we hung out at Target. Alice was so excited about Madeline. I love how cute she is with her.

I seriously cannot get enough of this girl. We have been close since she was born.

Alice and I about 2 years ago

I was supposed to go to a nice dinner with my dad to Capital Grille but there was a huge rain storm out of nowhere. The roads were flooding and there was debris all over the road.

This little guy decided to take cover from the rain. He was super friendly. He flew away when Anthony went outside to close the grill door. I love the rain, so this was a perfect end to my perfect birthday weekend. The only thing that would have made it better is if the new Milani eye shadows were at CVS. I was pretty bummed they weren't there. 

Review: Covergirl Ready Set Gorgeous!!

Hello everyone! This weekend was so much fun! Friday was my birthday, so I decided to treat myself to some new products at the drugstore. I cannot describe how much I love going to the drugstore and perusing the isles for new products. Getting it for a great price is the icing on my birthday cake. I bought these a week ago and I've been using it every day so I can get a feel for the longevity and overall quality of the products.

I will be honest, I wasn't super excited about trying these. The reviews have been mixed and overall Covergirl isn't the brand I run to for foundation typically. The Ready Set Gorgeous line has a concealer, a foundation and a powder. 

For all makeup I tend to run in the lightest shades they have and this is no exception. My concealer shade is fair. This is a light concealer and it doesn't have a lot of coverage. I tried to use this to cover up my blemishes but ended up using it more as a highlight. I have definitely used better products that work a lot harder for me. 

The Fresh Complexion claims "One simple step for a flawless, natural look that lasts all day. The formula blends easily to even skin tone and reduce shine all day". This formula is definitely more light to medium coverage. Between this and the concealer it gets the job done, but I don't think it gave me the flawless complexion I was promised.

The final product is the powder foundation. This gave the most coverage out of all of the products. It does tend to run darker than both the concealer and the liquid foundation. The powder was super mattifying which I loved. 

I really didn't anticipate that I would like these products and when I tried them separately I wasn't super impressed. I did really enjoy the product once I put all of them together. The end product was very high coverage and I loved how matte it was. I wore it all day and it moved a little bit in my t-zone but otherwise stayed put. I put on my highlight and my blush over it and the results were nice. I enjoyed these products when I used all three, but I don't usually have time to put in that much effort. Also, I wasn't super impressed with the packaging. I would probably rate this product a B- just because I didn't find any of the products were full coverage on their own with the exception of the powder. 

Covergirl Makeup

10 Minute Makeup

This week has been quite hectic. I think Mads is going through some sort of growth spurt. One minute she is happy and laughing, and the next she is a screaming banshee. Over the last few weeks I've tried to get her more comfortable with being put down in her swing. So far she is taking to that pretty well. Now we are working on putting her down for a nap without waking her up. She can't seem to sleep anywhere but in our arms during the day. If anyone has any tips, please share!

This being said, I very rarely have time to spend 30 minutes on my makeup. Normally I can get about 10 before I have to pick her up, clean up spit up or put her binky back in her mouth. I love a good challenge, but shortening my makeup routine was so difficult. I love to contour, sculpt and highlight to make my face look less round. This isn't really possible in 10 minutes. I have managed to pick the products that do the most work, with the least amount of effort.

So the first thing I use is a good moisturizer. I use the Mario Badescu Oil Free Moisturizer with SPF 30. 

Next I apply a primer. I tried to cut this step out because I use the Pur Minerals Correcting Primer and you have to wait for it to really dry. Skipping that step was a terrible idea. Primer is essential for keeping your makeup in place and long lasting. There are a lot of good primers out there but this seems to be the only one that doesn't break me out.

After primer I put on the IT cosmetics CC cream with spf 50. That high of an SPF is usually overkill, but I'm super fair so I will take anything I can get.  This works as a full coverage foundation for me.

Once I've put on the foundation I use the Makeup Forever HD powder to set it and make it matte.

The final step for my face is to add a tiny bit of color, so I will usually go with bronzer to make it look like I go out in the sun every once in a while. I use the Milani Baked Bronzer very sparingly. I love this stuff. It doesn't look muddy at all.

So right around now is when the baby starts to fuss. I don't like to wear eye shadow if I'm in a hurry because it can move around if you don't use a primer. Ain't nobody got time for that (sorry, I had to). So. My goal is to make my eyes look big and awake. Insert black liquid eyeliner. I usually give it a little bit of a wing because I'm fancy. My favorite eyeliner is the NYC liquid eyeliner.

My final step is mascara. I used to curl my lashes to make them look longer, and then I discovered the new L'oreal Miss Manga mascara. It is a great dupe for the better than sex mascara for less than half the price.

If you are lucky enough to have time, throw on some lip gloss or lipstick. I always carry some gloss or lip balm in my purse. My favorite so far has been the Nivea A Kiss of Care and Color in Sheer Crimson.

This used to take me 10 minutes, but after a couple of months I can now get it down to about 5-7. If I happen to have extra time I will throw on some eye shadow. Since having my baby I am learning to embrace myself more and more, and I tend to go with more natural makeup day to day. I find that this look makes me feel pretty without requiring a ton of maintenance.

So. Here is a question for all of you busy ladies, what are your favorite products that you use on those busy days?

July 4th!

Happy July 4th everyone!!! I had such a great weekend! Anthony had a 3 day weekend so we have a ton of time together as a family. It was really wonderful.


So on the 4th of July Anthony's parents and his older sister came over to see us before leaving for vacation. This picture was taken right after I handed the baby over to her Aunt.

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time. You can see how excited they are to see her and you can see that it is completely reciprocated by Mads.

This was her 4th of July outfit. I have become totally obsessed with accessories lately, specifically bows. I have had a few people ask me where I got these from and I will post that info at the end.

That's the only picture that I took of just me in my hello kitty shirt. Me and Mads both had red, white and blue bows in our outfits. Yep.. I'm that mom who coordinates with her daughter.

I somehow managed to get pictures with Anthony and the baby, but none of all of us.

So, on top of celebrating our independence we also celebrated my birthday! I had absolutely no idea that they were planning on throwing me an early surprise birthday party. It was incredibly thoughtful. 

So here is a close up of my makeup that I did. It took me a little over 10 minutes to do it. I will be writing a post about my shortened makeup routine. The only difference between this and what I normally do are the fake lashes. It was a holiday, I went for it. 

So, as promised, here is the information about where I found the bows as well as pictures of a few other ones that I bought. 

I found her through my friend on Instagram. I had been looking on Etsy for hair bows because I eventually want to get professional pictures taken. Bows are ridiculously expensive on Etsy. I am super stoked I found these. On Instagram she is under bows_for_daysss. You can find her on my friends list. I recently changed my username to mrs_stevie_. I would recommend looking at her pictures so you can see all of the options she has.


Alright. Final note. Anthony has never seen Independence Day. WTH. We are going to be rectifying that ASAP. Will Smith at his finest (hunkiest) self. And the speech at the end.... wooo. Still gives me goose bumps.

Drugstore and Ulta Haul!

So today was a pretty exciting day for me. I decided that for my birthday I wanted some makeup. I know, very out of character. I will keep this short and just go down the list of products that I purchased. I want to post this as quickly as possible so that way anyone who wants to take advantage of these sales has Friday and Saturday to do so.

"On a Shopping Mission" Face

At Walgreens I purchased 4 Wet n Wild eye shadow sets. Wet n Wild was 25% off and I had coupons for $1 off of each. This brought the total down to $1.24 after my coupons.

I also purchased two eye liners from Rimmel. I bought brown and purple from the Scandaleyes line. I'm working on a drugstore favorites post and these will definitely be in there! They were buy one get one 50%. That isn't the best sale, but I had coupons for $1.00 off of each one. That brought the price down from $4.49 to $2.40 each.

I bought another Revlon Colorstay Moisture Stain. I am totally obsessed with these. They had a coupon in the Walgreens coupon booklet for $1.00 and I had a coupon for $2.00. The regular price was 8.99 and I paid 5.99.

Let's talk Nail Polish. I absolutely love the Revlon Nail Art polishes. I already have about 12 so I was really excited to add these to the collection. Normally I wait until I can find these on clearance at Ulta every once in a while. They very rarely go on sale. The regular price is $8.99 for each one. Walgreens had them on sale for $4.99 each and I combined that with a $2.00 off coupon making each one $2.99. All things considered I think that is a steal.

My final purchase were these four Sally Hanson colors that were on sale for 2 for $4. Not a great sale, but the colors are so cute! I have a nail polish addiction

Alright.. Let's talk Ulta! For the most part I try to avoid Ulta unless they are having a great sale. I prefer to buy drugstore brands from a drugstore because they typically have better sales. This week is not the case! All L'oreal, Physicians Formula and NYX products are 40% off! That is huge!

Some of my favorite pigments are the L'oreal Infallible pigments. They are wonderful. They are also $8.99 a pop. With the 40% off they came to $5.39. I had coupons for $1.00 off of each one which brings them down to $4.39. I love these and they are typically exempt from sale prices so this was a nice change of pace.

This NYX set was on clearance. It's the set created for the show Revenge. I hate the packaging. It's so tacky. I do, however, love the colors that are provided. The original price for this was $24.00 and I got the last one on clearance for $6.29.

The final thing I bought were these lashes from the Katy Perry Party Lashes line. These were also on clearance. That isn't all that shocking considering how over the top they are. I bought them for Halloween. It's never to early to get ready! Original price was $7.99 and I paid $1.27. Always check clearance items at the checkout to see if they are cheaper than labeled.

I keep telling everyone to use coupons when purchasing makeup, but other than the Sunday paper I haven't really gone into detail about how to get them. Here are a few resources for where to find coupons for everything, not just makeup.


Coupon Mom - This is my favorite coiuponing website. You do have to sign up and download their coupon printer, but it's totally worth it. This site also provides a lot of information on how to coupon and where to find sales.


Red Plum - I only use this site for the coupons. They don't have as large of a selection as Coupon Mom, but they tend to have higher value coupons.

P & G Everyday -  Similar to Red Plum. Mostly coupons, a lot of high value ones.