January 2014 Birchbox Opening!

So, I have been really bad at posting things since school started up again, but I got my first Birchbox in the mail and had to share what I got! I have been on the fence for quite some time about joining. I thought they sent out a lot of foils, and I wasn't really into that. After creeping on the MUT thread for awhile I realized I was wrong, but still never pulled the subscribe trigger. what finally intrigued me was the points system. There was a conversation about it on the ipsy thread and I found a promo that gave me 100 points just for signing up. I could not resist that and I finally took the bullet. I am so glad I did! I love my first box!

Now I took some pictures of what I got, and I have been unable to try anything else so this is such an unboxing/ first impression post. I did not take a picture of the pretty packaging. I was too excited to wait so I just ripped right through it. Patience was never a virtue of mine. I was very impressed in the care of packaging though. The tissue paper was a cute touch and everything was packaged so nice and not a mess. I like that they put the smaller things into the little envelope. 

MY BOX!

I am very pleased with everything in this box! I was worried at first, because there is an insane amount of variations. I was worried, but I lucked out!

I was so hoping I would get to try out the Nail Rock. Luckily, I received it! I was very thankful not to get a pinky color. I love darker nail polishes and blue is so pretty! I have a feeling I am going to make a huge mess with this, but I make a huge mess out of everything, You all should see my life! HA!

ITS SO PRETTY!!! I tend to stay away from glitter polish because its so hard to take off, so I am wondering how difficult it will be to take off actual glitter, but I am very excited to try this! I LOVE GLITTER!!!!!!! One of my tattoos actually stands for "Looking for treasures in the things that you threw, like a magpie I live for glitter, not you" So for me to receive a glitter topcoat is perfection.

I was super excited about the INIKA Mineral eyeshadow. I was looking at all the colors online and thought Eternal Marine was the prettiest color, and guess what color I got? ETERNAL MARINE!! Lucked out again! It is so pretty! 

I thought this color would be more blue, but to me it looks like a storm cloud over the ocean. It is so pretty! It is right up my alley of colors. I can see myself using this very often. I love the size of the sample too! There is no way I could use a full size, but this will give me plenty of use without feeling overwhelmed with product. 

See, doesn't it look like a strom cloud?? So pretty! This was just one swipe with my finger with no primer! It's so pigmented!

My next two products were Fekkai Brillant Glossing Shampoo & Conditioner.

Normally, I wouldn't be so excited over shampoo and conditioner, but this time I am. I have been on the lookout for a new shampoo and this smells SO GOOD! I have been feeling so blehh over my hair lately, I hope this makes it look better. I am currently growing out a pixie and it's almost to a bob length, but not quite. I'm struggling with styling it until it grows out though. Maybe some shine will make me feel better about it.

My lifestyle extra is a Reviver Dry Deodorant Wipe.

I am rather intrigued by this. It is suppose to eliminate odors on clothing and hair. I am one of those people who are always self conscious about smelling. No one has ever told me I smelled, but I take insane precautions not to. I am a perfume hoarder! haha so this will come in handy! It is going in my purse right now!

I am so very glad I signed up for Birchbox! I am looking forward to the Us Weekly collab box coming up in February! If you would like to sign up, I would really appreciate it if you used my code: https://www.birchbox.com/invite/qp6v4

I hope you all have a great Friday and weekend! Much Love, Randi

Sunday Club!

Bye bye neutrals! Welcome back darks!!! Oh, how I have missed them! I start school back this week (Unless it's cancelled due to snowpocolypse!) so I wanted to go back to looks that I am used to and can do fairly quickly, and surprisingly dark colors is what I work best with. It took me forever to do a natural look last week. My picks this week are...

• Eyeshadow: Urban Decay Ammo Palette, Mally Toasty and Goldshine Trio, Urban Decay Ecstasy, & MAC Togetherness

Can we just fangirl over Mildew in the ammo palette. I LOVE THIS COLOR! I will try and incorporate it into ever look I do this week. I use the mirrror in the Mally palette everyday but I have yet to actually use the colors! They are so insanely pigmented that I figured I need to at least give them a try.

• Mascara: Benefit BadGal Lash

I am back to this mascara. It is definitely my HG now. I never had a HG until now. The Urban Decay mascara held a curl wonderfully for me, but I just prefer this one

• Blush: Be a Bombshell Sweet Cheeks

My first ever blush and one of my all time favorites!

• Primer: Urban Decay Mattifying Gel, Revlon Eye Primer, and Pixi Poreless and Flawless

This is my final week with the Revlon primer, used up or not it's going to get tossed. I want to use my NYX milk pencil and I have already had it for awhile

• Eyeliner: Urban Decay Zero and Corrupt, Starlooks Amethyst, and Wet N Wild Silver Blue

My Urban Decay ones are down to the nubs and it makes me so sad!!! But I use an eyeliner brush to make them last. The Wet N Wild pencil might also get tossed.

• Lips: Revlon Peach Parfait, Hard Candy Lip Stain, Sonia Kashuk Matte Lip Crayon in Pinky Nude with Buxom Dolly

Peach Parfait is also getting tossed at the end of the week. I have had this for over a year and it is almost finished. It is time to part ways.

• Perfume: Princess by Vera Wang

This used to be my favorite perfume and it is almost finished.

• Same as last week: CG Lip Smoochies, Brow Envy, Pixi Bronzer, CG Powder, Sonia Kashuk Concealer

I hope you all have a great Sunday and a great week! Much love, Randi

Review! Montagne Jeunesse Strawberry Souffle Masque

As promised I said I would have a review for the Montagne Jeunesse Strawberry Souffle Masque today, and I do!

I received this product for free from PINCHme, a website where you get to try sample products for free, I am not paid for my opinion and all opinions are my own! 

This masque came in a brochure like envelope with some information about the company and some testimonials. The first thing I noticed when I looked at this was the statement on the back:

"We're vegetarian and animals are our friends- that's why we don't bash bunnies or add bits of animals!"

I have been a vegetarian for 3 years and cruelty free products are a major plus in my book. I must admit that I am not sure if all my cosmetics or beauty products are cruelty free. I have not been buying much makeup, but if I do I have been keeping an eye out if it is cruelty free or not.

 

This products says it is

"Loaded with strawberry goodness which leaves skin hydrated &refreshed . Allow your skin to breath with soothing Aloe Vera & Calming Vanilla for purified, toned, smoother skin. Cleanse with this treat weekly"

Let me tell you what, this product definitely smells like a Strawberry Smoothie. I was a little nervous at first to use this because Strawberry is not a favorite scent of mine but I want to lick my face! It smells delicious! There was a warning though that says "looks and smells delicious but please DON'T EAT" So unfortunately I cannot eat it, but I am going to go out and get some strawberry yogurt later! It even looks like yogurt...

This product is very easy to use. All you have to do is cleanse your face and apply the masque all over and then you have 15-20 minutes to relax and try not to eat your face hehe. 

For science I am going to share this pic....FOR SCIENCE!!

  I tried not to get it in my eyebrows, but I failed. LOL 

I love the feeling of this masque, it is very relaxing. I'm not typically a stressed out person, but this is a nice little pick me up for when I'm feeling a little down. I feel like I am at a spa! It has a little bit of a tightening feel to it, which I weirdly like. Now time to wash off!

This left my skin feeling very soft and refreshed. It was fairly easy to wash off. It was starting to get a little cake-y so that made it a little bit harder to wash off, but a few swipes with the wash cloth got it all off. The only problem was that some of the little exfoliator seeds did not want to come off. Also, if you have a nose ring like myself I would suggest not putting the product any where near it. It was difficult to get it off the ring. My skin type is normal and I do not have acne or oily skin so I could not tell you how well it would work with those skin types, but it worked really well for me. I prefer their paper masques more though. It is less messier, but this product provides a different spa like feeling.

Would I repurchase this product: Oh, Definitely! I definitely will!

I hope you all have a great Saturday! Much Love, Randi

 

 

Birchbox!

Just wanted to write a quick little post saying that I just signed up for Birchbox! I am so excited to add another subscription box to my life! I'm not going to get anymore. 2 is plenty for me. I only signed up for the point system though. The samples will just be an awesome bonus! I cannot wait to get my first box and start reviewing it!

Friday Favorite/ Review

It looks like that time of the week again! I didn't really try out any new products this week so I don't have a new new favorite but I still have 2 favorites that I really loved this week. One is a beauty product the other is not. So without further delay I will get right into and say my first favorite of the week was something I received in the mail this week and already fangirled over and it is...

MIKA Songbook Vol. 1!

This CD is really the bee's knees. The cat's moew, or whatever saying that has a positive connotation. I could listen to that man's voice for an eternity and be just as happy the 100 millionth time hearing it than I was the 1st time. The duet he sings with Chiara is amazing. Stardust was perfect when only he sang it, but I love that he turned it into a duet! It's so pretty! It is definitely worth a check out on YouTube *wink wink* 

MOVING ON!

My next favorite of the week was...

Dior Rose Collection Palette!

Before I talk about this I would just like to state that this was a birthday present to me from my parents. This was not provided by Dior and all opinions are my own!

This was a part of the Sunday Club for me, because I just do not show it love. I have regretted waiting this long to use it though. It just screamed boring to me because the colors are very light compared to the black and some more black that I am used to. However, I was feeling like doing a more natural look this week (I cheated though! But shh) and this palette helped me create that! Can we just talk about the packaging for a second though

 

How cute is this palette!?!!?! It even has a Dior charm on the top. I am a packaging girl. If it has boring packaging I won't want it This is probably by far the cutest palette I have in my collection.

Ok, now to the inside! 

So as you can see the contents are 4 eyeshadows, 2 Double ended brushes, and  4 lip products with a fairly large mirror. Bonus: You get to a sneak peek of me!

Also, can you notice the pattern in the eyeshadow! It has the same quilted pattern as the case! When I first got this palette I didn't want to use it because I didn't want to ruin the pattern! The taupe color is the only one I have used enough to ruin it though.

SWATCHES!

 

 

Ok, I will be the first to admit that these swatches don't look the best. However, I am very light handed with my swatches. This was a one light sweep with my finger over the product and then on my hand. I did not use any primer. These colors would definitely pop more if you used a good white base such as a NYX Milk pencil. These colors are very pigmented on their own though. The colors from left are a shimmer white, a light nude pink, a taupe, and a dark brown. The palette has no names listed.

These are the lip swatches. From the left it is a Dior Addict High Color in a light pink, the middle two are Dior Addict High Gloss in a shimmery pink and red/pink and the end is a lip balm in a mauve color. Again, there were no color names. I really like the lip products. The shimmer pink is a gorgeous color on it's own, but I like adding it on top of a lipstick to make it shimmery. I went and bought a separate Dior Lip Gloss after I received this. 

I have not used the  brushes that came with it. I prefer to use my MAC brushes. However, I think they would be quite handy to use when I travel. They are very sturdy brushes. 

My favorite look with this palette is very simple. I use the white has a brow highlighter, I put the pink from my crease up to my brow. The light taupe is applied all over my lids, and I use a blending brush to lightly dust the dark brown into my crease. The balm is my favorite thing to use. It adds a very nice natural color to my lips. I did this look for 4 days of the week. One day I didn't wear any makeup and the day I cheated I wore loads of black. I missed my black! Hehe

Would I repurchase this product? Yes, but unfortunately I can't. It was a Limited Edition palette. I could get it off eBay but I am a little weary about buying cosmetics from there. I am not too worried about hitting pan anytime soon though. The colors are very pigmented and I know will last me for quite some time and it's not like I don't have any other palettes to use. 

I hope you all have a great Friday! Much love, Randi

 

FIRST EMPTY OF THE YEAR!

I am so excited to announce that I finally used up my first product of 2014. This may not be exciting to some, but for me it is. I have an obscene amount of makeup and skincare that it seems almost impossible for me to get through. It's a small start but I have finally finished a full size bottle of Bath & Body Works Winter Candy Apple lotion! 

It takes me FOREVER to get through lotions. I have this bad habit of forgetting to use body lotion. I never forget my face lotion though so I'm not a complete giddy goat. I have been forcing myself to remember and it has been working! I finally got through it. Now I only have 4 other Winter Candy Apples (Clearly, my favorite scent) plus a bunch more different lotions to get through. but it is a start! I have already replaced another Winter Candy Apple lotion into my night time basket and I hope to have this one finished in at least 2 months. I'm going to give myself a long time to get through that one. Plus I keep another full size in my purse to use up.

Now I stated yesterday I would have a review on the Strawberry Souffle Masque I got from PINCHme, but I was a complete giddy goat and forgot about it! I was running so far behind yesterday. I finally have a weekend off so Saturday for sure I will have that review! 

Another side note: I am going to have my dad help me design this blog better. I am excited to make this blog the best it can be. I want to add on a fashion and fitness section and he is going to help me make everything organized. He is computer literate while I on the other hand am not. So hopefully that happens soon.

I hope you all have a great Thursday! Much love, Randi

MAIL CALL!

I normally do not post on Wednesday but I had a pretty good mail day today so I figured I would share with you all that I got. My first piece of mail is not makeup or beauty related, but it made me so excited. I have been waiting for this to arrive for quite some time. What is it? I shall tell you. It is...

MIKA Songbook Vol. 1!

  

Now, I know I may be too old to be a fangirl, but I really do not care haha I love this man. I am utterly obsessed. I won't get to far into detail how much I love this man because I could literally go on and on about my experiences with him. I will just say that the first time I met him he autographed my arm and I went at midnight to get it tattooed. The second time I met him he wrote lyrics on my arm and again I was at a tattoo place at midnight getting it tattooed. I really love Chicago for that reason. You can always find a tattoo place open. I have 5 tattoos that are either written by him, his album art, or pictorial representations of his lyrics. I am that obsessed. Anyways, this was a very late Christmas present from my father. It was literally the only thing I wanted. I asked for nothing else. It is his greatest hits CD with a few new songs added that haven't been on any CD before. If you have never heard of him I highly suggest that you do and this CD would be a great start. It is quite an array of some of his bests songs mixed with some newer ones. Now I understand that $33 is a pretty hefty price tag for a CD with 15 songs on it but it is worth every penny and more!

http://www.amazon.com/Song-Book-1-Mika/dp/B00FW9HWPK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390417733&sr=8-1&keywords=MIKA+Songbook

Seriously, You will not regret this purchase!

  Ok, moving on before I babble on and on, my next mail was my ipsy replacement. I mentioned before how my Faith Aromatherapy Sugar Scrub leaked all over my bag and they were sending me a replacement. However, due to the cold weather this scrub also leaked. So that is a bummer. I'm not going to make a fuss over it though. ipsy's customer service is very nice, but I do not think it is worth an email about it a second time. Please do not take that as a negative against ipsy. It is in no way their fault. 

  The next package I recieved was my PINCHme box! It finally came in the mail!! For those of you who do not know what PINCHme is. It is a website that provides you with free samples to review. You can get up to three free samples every other Tuesday at noon. The only downside is they GO FAST! You basically need to be on at noon because they "sell" out insanely fast! I completely forgot about it this week so unfortunately I won't have another box to review for a few weeks. BUMMER! But I can at least provide a review today and hopefully tomorrow! So I received a...

A travel size Suave Advanced Therapy lotion and a Montagne Jeunesse Strawberry Souffle masque. 

   I was very happy that I got these samples in time. I am a lotion fiend. As you can tell from my earlier post that I have tattoos. I have 9 in total, 8 covering my left arm and 1 lonely one on my right so keeping my skin moisturized is very important in taking good care of them. I have A LOT of money into them and would like to keep them looking as nice as possible for as long as possible and lotion is the first step.Also,  I have tried a few masques before, but I have only tried paper masques so I am quite excited to try this one out. I am always a little weary about putting stuff on my face, but I have tried this brand before so I am not too worried. I will try it on tonight, so I won't be able to review it until tomorrow for you all. I will do a first impression review on the lotion though.

FIRST IMPRESSION REVIEW!

 

This insanely cold weather has not been a great friend to my skin. Especially my tattoos. They do not like cold weather at all. I keep in mind different aspects when reviewing a product, but when it comes to lotions one of the most important aspects for me is how well they react with my tattoos. As I stated before my arm is heavily tattooed and it is important to keep them looking and feeling nice. If they do well on my tattoos then I have no doubt how well it will work on my skin that isn't. I did a patch test on my newest tattoo, A Sherlock portrait, and I have to say for a first impression I am really impressed. It is not greasy at all, which is a major plus. I really dislike greasy lotions. If that is what you are looking for then this product isn't for you. It left my skin feeling very soft and it brightened up my tattoo as well. So I am pleased with that. It smells REALLY good too. It has the typical lotion smell, but I quite enjoy it. It smells good on my arm as well, but it is mixing in with my Winter Candy Apple body wash so I can't give a serious review on the smell quite yet. 

This product is supposed to help with severely dry skin, so tonight I will do a patch test on really dry skin and update you all with a better review, but for a first impression this is a product I would repurchase. It is really cheap too so that is a major plus!

I hope you all have a great day! with much love, Randi