Lesson of the Week: Foundation!

I have been usingBareMinerals by Bare Escentuals foundation for over 5 years. I have been to the boutiques many times to have my foundation matched. I always come home with the wrong color. I recently had my makeup done by a MAC Cosmetics employee. UGH! I looked yellow and had people asking me if I'd done a faux tan. 

I FINALLY learned how to CORRECTLY choose my f

oundation while in school, and I swear, it makes all of the difference! First thing to do- determine if you are Cool or Warm toned. Look at your skin (clean, no makeup). Do you see mostly pink (ME!) or mostly yellow? The majority of people see yellow, and are considered Warm. Im one of the few who is cool. Once you know that, you are on your way. 

Start with three foundation colors, (warm or cool) that you think are close to your skin color. Important advice- do not choose three colors that look like your shade UNLESS they match your undertones!!!! Swatch them. On your FACE. Not your arm, or wrist, but your face. Because that is where you will be wearing your foundation! Do it in a place near your cheek/jawline. If you do it close to your hairline, how will you be able to see to compare? find the shade that DISAPPEARS when you apply it. Thats your shade!!! Dont forget to take into consideration your neck. Those foundation lines, where the color changes- NOT HOT!!! 

It make take you a few tries, a few brands, a few colors. If youre having someone do it for you, go in knowing if youre cool or warm and make sure that the foundation colors they are choosing match your undertones. Trust me, looking yellow, having people ask you what you did to your face- not sexy! 

And.. if you want to be extra sure its your right color, take a few pictures with the flash on and off. Make sure its what you want. Its taken me 6 years to get the right color. And only because I went in educated. ♥

Eye Primer Reviews

For years I always used MARY KAY's eye primer because BareMinerals by Bare Escentuals did not come out with theirs until recently. When B.E. came out with a primer, I swtiched, because I was obsessively BE. I have never had c

omplaints about either, except that MK is clear and BE is a very light skin color. I have been on the lookout for a primer/base that will brighten my eye colors and provide a little more coverage. 

I have heard great things about NYX Cosmetics and came across their eye base a while ago while shopping in L.A. I am in love! I bought the white ($8) and it is exactly what I have been looking for. It provides a thicker coverage, so my colors are brighter (especially since they're going on top of white instead of skin color), and I think it would be great for anyone who has discoloration on their lids. It is really creamy, provides a long lasting hold and my eye colors blend so much better. I often have issues with BE colors spreading, but not with the NYX eye base. I have not come cross any stores nearby that sell NYX (Ulta) but the next time I come across a place that does carry them, I will definitely be trying their other eye bases and products. Love love love!!!!

Too Faced Cosmetics Eye Insurance eye primer...I received four samples of the skin colored eye primer at IMATS and decided to try it while I was in vegas. I liked that it was really creamy, easy to glide on my lids and it was a good shade if youre looking for skin colored eye primer. BUT i had the same reaction as I did with the e.l.f. Cosmetics eye primer- it dried out my skin. It was awfully harsh and my lids and the skin between from my crease to my brow still dont look hydrated and happy. If you have any sensitivity I dont recommend using it. If you want a skin colored primer, stick with BareMinerals by Bare Escentuals!

My Favorite Product- MK Lash and Brow Builder

I have been waiting to post my review about this product, but I can wait no longer. It is my "I cant live without" product, MARY KAY's Lash and Brow Building Serum. 

Quotes from the Mary Kay website: The nutrient-packed Lash Response™ Complex powers these results: Builds thicker-, fuller-looking lashes. Improves the look of thin, sparse lashes and brows. Lash volume is improved.

You should be able to see the results in 30 days, but I saw them much much faster! I have been using it every night on my brows. I have a scar on my right brow from a piercing and have had issues growing hair there. I also have sparse areas on my left brow. I decided to give it a try, and WOW! What a difference! Not only have I noticed hair growth in my sparse places (so much so that I can almost go without filling in my brows) but my brow powder goes on easier and sticks so much better. Every morning when I do my brows I am shocked at how much fuller they look. 

I swear by this product!!! It's extremely simple to use. Each night after cleansing (I learned that you must wait until your lashes are completely dry or it will sting a bit) you brush the serum along your brow with the applicator brush, and along your lash line as if you are applying liquid eyeliner. It is SOOOO easy to use and it works really really well. Thick brows are in, and thick lashes are ALWAYS in.. Get it!!! 

This product gets four Cherrys on my Cupcake!

My Favorite Products- MK Lash Primer

MARY KAY Lash Primer. I love the Lash Primer. I worship it. If I could buy a gallon of this stuff, I would. It is amazing. A-MA-ZING. I can not begin to talk about how this product has changed my (lash) life. Seriously. 

Here's 

what the MK website has to say about the primer: Instantly intensifies lash volume and creates longer-looking lashes. Strengthens and helps condition lashes. Lifts lashes and helps them stay curled longer. Clear formula works like an invisible mascara. Dual-action brush is specifically designed to maximize benefits and deliver a natural look.... 

First off, I love the brush. Its super soft, I like the design because it gets every lash, and the primer just glides on. Its smooth and silky, clear, and dries quickly. Ive tried a few different techniques, and I think that waiting a minute or so before applying my mascara is better than waiting a longer time. I cannot believe how it has transformed my lashes and mascara. My favorite mascara is BareMinerals by Bare Escentuals, but it has a huge tendency to clump, which I hate. Not with the lash primer! It is like I have a whole new mascara. Each lash separates, there is absolutely no clumping or gunkiness, and OMG it just intensifies my lashes! I had started wearing falsies but now that I have discovered the MK Lash Primer, I dont need them. The primer seems to curl my lashes, lengthen them, and my mascara doesnt smudge or flake. 

If you are a lash girl, Iam telling you, run, do not walk, to your favorite Mary Kay lady, and buy this product. It will change your lash life! Four cherries on my cupcake for this amazing product!

Trend of the Day: Color Blocking

Color-blocking is applying two or more bold colors and combining them geometrically. The easiest approach is to focus on two colors.


Traditional color blocking: Use shades on opposite sides of the color spectrum. Start by applying a matte white shadow from lash line to brow bone, blending out the white at the crease and above.


Next, using a pencil-tipped brush apply a matte black

 eye shadow, in windshield wiper motion, starting at the outside of your crease, and work your way in. Make sure the black stays in your crease, and that it doesn't blend into the white on your lid.

Modern color blocking:Use the technique described above, but with pink instead of white, and dark purple instead of black. Keep your colors matte so that they aren't overpowering.

My Reasons for the Season

It's that time of the year. I look around and constantly hear and see "Jesus is the Reason for the Season." .. I have a different take on Christmas and the holiday season.


I consider myself spiritual but not religious. I got to a church that believes that we are all on a journey, we all take different paths, but we're taking it together. I love that idea. In my world, Jesus isnt exactly the reason for the season.


Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. The lights, decorations, getting a tree, gifts, the smells, everything. I tend to make it something it's never been for me. Christmas has not always been good to me. One year, when I was in junior high, after we'd opened our gifts, and had a great morning, I was in my room putting up my new posters, trying on my new clothes. My father came in, and told me he was leaving my mom. Parents, no matter how bad it is, dont tell your kids youre splitting up on Christmas. 


One Christmas Eve my great grandmother died. Ok, actually, it was the night before my fathers announcement. Doesnt get much worse than that.


Another year, my father promised me the most awesome cowboy boots. They were done in cow skin, black and white. Thats all I wanted. He would take me to the store, for months to find the right size, make sure I still wanted them. Christmas Eve came. He gave me my gift. I opened it. A boot box! ...Inside though was another box. And another and another. Until it was a small jewelry box. Inside was a gold necklace with Jesus on a cross. Never in his life had my dad been to church or believed in God. And I was the same way...


Two years ago my baby sisters father went on a trip at this time. He never came home. 
Christmas, hasnt always been good to me. But I still continue to try. Because what Christmas is to me, isnt Jesus or religion or church.


Its family. Its the one time of year I know ill be with my mom and sisters and niece, and my Bumble Bea. Its opening our stockings every year. Its knowing that there will be a box of sees candy that well pass around as we open gifts. That once were done my mom will make everyone waffles. Its going to my moms every year and decorating her tree. Hearing the stories of where each ornament came from. She has ornaments from before I was born. Its knowing that there are specific gifts Ill get from my mom each year. Christmas to me is about finding that perfect gift for the people in my life. Its about flavors of food that you can only get this time of year. Christmas is about staying in bed during the cold weather. Every year Bea and I take a night and we watch Rudolph and Frosty and the Grinch while eating pizza and wrapping gifts. Its about loading up my car with those gifts and making the 6 hour drive to my moms. Spending a week or two watching my niece while shes out of school. 


These past few months have been especially hard on our family. But I know that come Christmas morning, all of that will be set aside. Because Family and Love are the true reasons for this season. ..at least in my world!

Destination Unknown- Next Stop Heartbreak City

"Do you ever feel/ Like a plastic bag/ Drifting through the wind/ Wanting to start again/ Do you ever feel/ Feel so paper thin/ Like a house of cards/ One blow from caving in/ Do you ever feel/ Already buried deep/ Six feet under/ Screams but no one seems to hear a thing" - Firework


I know that everyone is patiently awaiting the date for our first insemination. We were supposed to find out today. Instead- I'm sitting here, trying to figure out what's wrong with me and when this is going to stop hurting so much.


We went to the doctor's today and he did an ultrasound. My follicles, which carry the eggs, have not grown to where they should be. They are less than half the size. The chlomid didn't work. No insemination this month.


We start again next month. Up the dosage of the chlomid. Try that for a third time if it's not successful next month. And then on to a different drug.


I spent most of the day in tears, or trying to hold them back. I feel more and more damaged and defective as this goes on. Yes, rationally, I know that I can not control this. That I have to Let Go and Let God. That it will happen, just not on my time. But in my heart, it doesn't feel that way. 


And really- what if it doesn't happen? What if I'm not meant to have a child? What if I am defective?


It took Bumble Bea and I so long to get to this point. I never wanted kids until I met her. She will be the most amazing mom. And I feel like I'm disappointing her. Like there's this wonderful gift right in front of me that I want to give her, and I can't reach it. 


I feel like I'm nothing. How can I be a woman if I can't have a child? And why am I this way? Why does my body fail me so much?


I never imagined my journey having a child would be like this. So much heartache, such self-doubting. 


I know, as Bumble Bea always tells me- Feelings are NOT Facts. But how do you keep yourself from feeling them?


We go back next Tuesday and hopefully the follicles will have grown. I keep waiting for some good news. Something that will keep me wanting to stay on this road. Sometimes I wonder how much of this I'm going to be able to take. Every month hearing that there's still something wrong with me. 


Old tapes are screaming at me, louder and louder. Not built for use. NOT BUILT FOR USE!


"if you only knew/ What the future holds/ After a hurricane/ Comes a rainbow/ Maybe a reason why/ All the doors are closed/ So you could open one/ That leads you to the perfect road" -Firework