Skincare has especially been a big and important part of my daily routine over these past few months. I've been travelling and also prom is just a few days away! I need the best skin and the softest skin and Clinique has allowed my skin to recover and has immensely repaired my dry and cracked skin. Over the past couple of weeks, my skin has suffered from major dry patches. I don't have normally dry skin, but I wonder if it's from the season changing or what not. One of my best friends gave me these two products to try out and I have never tried Clinique's products before.
I just wanted to say that my skin type is normally acne prone and oily. It has only started to become dry. I wonder if it's because I haven't been moisturizing that much and these two products have made the biggest impacts. I have the Clinique Turnaround Revitalizing Serum and the Clinique All About Eyes cream.
This serum has claimed to be for all skin types; oily, combo, dry, acne prone, sensitive and normal (for all of you lucky ducks out there). It helps to renew your skin and to also aid dryness and "dullness", which I don't really understand what that means, but I'm going with it. It's oil and scent free which I love in serums. It actually isn't very thin and liquidy like many other serums are. It comes in a very convenient pump and almost feels like a very light moisturizer. I only need one and a half pumps and it covers my entire face and neck. I love using this after I shower at night and in the morning after cleansing. I have noticed that my dry patches have cleared and my skin has visibly looked healthier and clear of oil.
I have always enjoyed eye creams and gels because nothing feels better than putting a cooling eye gel on after a long day of school and activities. It's so refreshing to wake up and apply a nice cream under my eyes. This cream is so lightweight and has really minimized my puffiness under my eyes and helps with my laugh lines.
I'll dab a pea sized amount with my ring finger under both of my eyes and instantly feel like I have brightened and revitalized my face. It's just a great product and I think everyone should have a great eye cream that works for them and sometimes, for skincare, I think it's good to invest in a more expensive and high quality product that'll actually treat your skin type.
I have gone through many different brands before Clinique and I have to say, Clinique knows what they're doing. I have rather sensitive and hormonal skin; Clinique has been really good to me! I know these products aren't cheap and I am thankful for my best friend who was so incredibly generous to give me these to use. What's your favorite skincare product?
So, this weekend, my family and I are headed off to Virginia to go visit my sister and my close family friends. The last time I was on a place I think was when I went to San Francisco last spring. If you don't know me, then I will tell you that packing is probably one of my favorite things to do when travelling. I love picking out things to wear and trying to consolidate things I may or may not need. Now that more makeup brands are carrying travel friendly makeup and beauty products, travelling with these amenities (or necessities) has become so much easier and convenient.
I thought that I would share what I am bringing on my trip. It's also Easter weekend, so I thought it was a little important to bring at least some blush and lip gloss along. I also love to see what types of things people bring and leave behind when they go on trips.
The first thing that I think is necessary to have on a trip is a tinted moisturizer of some kind. I love the Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer because it is light and is great for sunny trips because of its spf 20. They have a ton of shades and I love how matte it actually is. I love to pair it with this mini Nars Concealer which is very full coverage and creamy. It's blendable and great to bring along for touch ups. Under my eyes I love using the Smashbox Undereye Primer to make sure that my concealer stays all day!
To top off my face makeup, I have been using this great Bare Minerals Powder that mattifies my look and keeps everything in place. I have also been trying out this mini Tarte Cheek Stain in Sheer Berry and it surprisingly is easy to blend and gives great pigment. I love the mini size, too.
I have been exploring color correctors and I knew that peach was great for minimizing redness under the eyes and my friend happened to give me this Bobbi Brown Color Corrector which I have really been loving. It kind of acts like a concealer, but evens out my skin.
I also have this mini Makeup Forever Lipgloss in Sweet Pink that's great to soften up a look and add some shine to your lips.
My good friend Ellaby also gave me this Clinique Compact that is also very great to take travelling. It has a taupey-cream shade and a coffee brown eye shadow shades and a great travel sized blush that I can use if I don't feel like using the Tarte one. I haven't ever tried out Clinique makeup before, but I love the pigmentation of it so far. I like to bring along my very tiny Benefit Stay Don't Stray Eye Shadow Primer that I love and got in a Christmas makeup set that Benefit had a while ago.
To finish off the simple eye look, I use the mini Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara which I have fallen in love with recently. It was an impulse buy in the travel section of Sephora, but man is it a great mascara. I would compare this to the Maybelline Lash Sensational, but I love how much length and volume it gives in comparison.
I leave for my trip very early this morning and I am so excited to just get away for this weekend! I don't normally go on trips like these right during school, but it's nice to just take a break every now and then. What's your must-have beauty travel essential?
I have been getting into highlighters recently and thought that I would share the few (yes, few) that I have. I'm always a sucker for glow, especially when it's a J-Lo glow. My highlighter collection is clearly small and needs some more additions, but I don't often use them as much as blush or bronzer and I have been very impressed and content with these three.
Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector full size $38- I had to include this mini rose gold highlighter because it's such a great product. I haven't ever used Becca before, but I get the hype of all of her products. I wouldn't normally use this on my cheeks as much, but it is a beautiful eye shadow and adds a pop of shimmer and color to any summer or spring look. I don't know if you can buy this mini separately because I got it in a Sephora Favorites set.
Soap & Glory Glow All Out $15- I really love this highlighting powder in the winter because it is more of a frosty and "moonlit" type of highlighter. It's subtle, but can be flattering on many people. I think this would be a great powder to use to brighten up the face by lightly dusting it on after foundation. It gives off a very natural shine.
Essence Pure Nude Highlighter $4.49- I have to say, this highlighter takes the cake and really impressed me. This golden highlight really gives off the J-Lo glow vibe. It's very opaque and a little amount goes a very long way. I love the way this looks in the summer and I am obsessed with it's versatility because you can also use it as an eyeshadow like the Becca one. For the price and the quality, it's well worth it. I haven't tried many of Essence's products, but this by far, is one of the best drugstore highlighters.
Whether you are looking for the J-Lo glow or not, these highlighters do a bomb job at achieving it either way. I have slowly been acclimating to all of the highlighting nonsense and really adore the way highlighting can transform any look. There are some great expensive and inexpensive quality products that are amazing and no one should feel like they have to spend their paycheck on it. My worth it buy was probably the Essence highlighter because of how pigmented and creamy the formula is and how great the price is.
What highlighters have you been loving?
It's usually not normal for me to purchase spring shoes early on in the season, but there have been a couple pairs that have really caught my eye over the past few months. I love shoes, and my obsession keeps on growing and growing. I've read the articles, seen the posts, watched the lookbooks, I've made my decision on only two pairs of shoes that I really wanted for this season. I purchased these Chanel-like, American Eagle Espadrille Flats and these Arizona Soft Footbed Birkenstocks as my splurges for this season.
I knew that I wanted a flat type shoe to wear during the spring and summer; one that would be cute enough to wear with a dress and casual enough to wear with shorts or capris. I love the look of espadrilles right now on all of the fashion bloggers and what not, so I was like "what the heck", and bought a nicer and less expensive pair to put to the test. After a couple wears and trotting around my house with them, they broke in nicely to my rather wide sized feet. I think they would fit perfectly on more narrower sized feet, but wearing socks with them every now and then inside can get the job done. They have another pair in black, but I loved the look of this nudey-taupe color.
The quality and thickness of the sole and base of the shoe is really nice and sturdy. It's not cheaply made and you can tell by just feeling it. I love how you can tie and zipper the shoe up so you don't have to constantly tie it all the time. I have never felt "squished" in these. I have never worn close toed, cut out flats before.
Then I finally gave in and had to buy a pair of Birks. I have been trying to convince myself that they are the ugliest shoes ever, but they're so comfortable and practical shoes to wear during this time of year. I caught onto the bandwagon and saved up my money for these. I love how I can adjust them and the arch helps with my wide feet.
I like the copper hardware on these and they are incredibly soft. At first, they gave me a little rug burn because they were brand new, but now I have also broken them in and love them so much. It's unfortunate that Chicago is still 40 degrees out! I am so ready to pair these with sundresses and rompers.
What spring shoes do you plan on wearing this season?
Hello all! I know it has been a rough couple of weeks, but over this past weekend, I got the amazing opportunity to travel all the way from Chicago to "the happiest place on earth"--Walt Disney World. It was a very well deserved trip that my entire highschool marching band had earned. If you're new here, I am was on color guard for three years and I have been truly blessed to have been with a great family of amazing friends. It has been one heck of a year and a high school career for that matter, and I couldn't have asked for anything better.
My marching band was invited to march in Epcot's day parade and we were to travel a 20+ hour bus ride (ugh) all the way to Florida. While I have to say, it really wasn't that bad being on a bus with all of my friends, it did start to weaken as we came back home (it smelled like pee lemme just tell yuh). Besides the little things I remembered, like our insane bus driver that we loved (shoutout to ma boi Terry), our dope bus ("Bus #1, yaw yaw yaw!), or just giggling at the most randomest whale jokes, the journey was not as amazing as the destination. We were there from Saturday until Monday (March 24-26) at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and then Universal Studios.
Day 1: Magic Kingdom
I was there with all of my band and color guard friends and on the first day, we went straight from a 20 hour bus ride to a 20 hour marathon of walking and riding. I was the most excited for Magic Kingdom because it has been about 6 years since my last visit and I was feeling the nostalgia a lot once we got there. So many things I remembered and so many new things I had never seen before like Belle's castle or the new Dwarves ride that I ended up loving.
We got fastpasses to three things; space mountain, splash mountain, and to meet Rapunzel and Tiana. I had never done any of those things because when I was little I was in the "weenie club", my mom would taunt at me...then I'd just get ice cream and everything would be fine. Ah those were the good ol' days.
Day 2: Epcot and the Parade
Epcot was one of my favorite parks when I visited a very long time ago because I loved all of the world showcases and different countries to go and explore. Plus, it was mostly shopping and I never really liked rides. In the morning, the band and I had time to kill and do some stuff before the 3 pm parade, so my group and I did Test Track twice with out fast pass which was one of the smartest ideas. I love that ride so much because it takes you through a test drive and you go almost 600 miles an hour. Whenever my dad would drive really fast or recklessly (I do not condone), he would say that we're in Test Track.
After that ride, we headed to all of the showcases and explored the countries. We also had a fastpass to go meet Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy! It was really funny because Mickey left me to go grab Minni from Goofy and it I was Mickey's new Minnie.
Probably the most epic part of the trip was marching. It was one of the most fulfilling moments I had ever felt throughout my entire marching season. When they announced our band twice in the park, I nearly teared up because it was such a great feeling to be there in Disney doing what I love with the people I love.
We performed Thnks Fr Th Mmrs by Fall Out Boy and, while I didn't really approve of the song as a marching song, it was still a really fun song to perform to in Disney. I just can't believe that it's finally over. The last hoorah that many former band members never got.
After being in our hot and sweaty uniforms in the beautiful, 80 degrees and sunny weather (as opposed to Chicago's 40 and rainy) we changed and received a golden Mickey award for marching! We also got Disney performing arts hats that I ended up embroidering and getting signed by Mickey himself.
Day 3: Universal Studios
I had never been to Universal before, but at this point in the trip, we were all pretty exhausted and ready to head back home if you could believe it. However, I was most excited for Harry Potter World and had to keep my energy up to enjoy it--because I really did.
Of course, here's me with the $7.50 butterbeer that everyone needs to get when they're there. It was just like a coffee or butterscotch frappuccino with a marshmallowy foam on top. So sweet, but super delicious. I wasn't feeling too great that morning, but I did go on the Hippogriff ride which was really fast and awesome. We also went around to Dr. Seuss Land and Jurassic Park Land to explore the other rides. We ended up getting completely soaked on a Popeye raft ride and I was so ready to get on the bus and change into my warm sweats.
I know this post might not be as detailed as you might have hoped, but I want to just remember the things I want to remember and save the memories. I am probably running on only 6 hours of good sleep, but this morning I slept in until 11 and could have slept until 3 or 4. It was all so worth it and I wanted to thank my parents for helping me go on this trip and supporting me with flags for the past three years, my coach, Mrs. Riley for sticking with me and helping me become a better flagger and performer, my band directors, Mr. Riddle and Mr. Pavlik, for dealing with everyone and making this the first Disney trip our band has gone on, and to just all of my friends and supporters who have also helped me along this one hell of a journey through my high school career. I hope to remember this for the rest of my life and I am sincerely grateful and glad I got to be a part of this experience and marching band.
We brought Terry home! #bus1 #yawyawyaw #whalejokes #JuilaMccoy
<3
posted in
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons