A Beauty & Travel Blog
A blog for beauty, travel destinations, travel tips and personal adventures, lifestyle and all roads in between.
Week 3 was trying to get in some walking at least 4-5 days a week and two Stronglifts sessions. Walking around the park after work is usually somewhere between 40-60 minutes, so I feel like that's fairly good for being basically couch-to-desk three weeks ago.
Read MoreThere's a popular NY-based beauty blogger who, while I don't always agree with her opinions, generally doesn't miss the mark much on reviewing products. So when she raved about the newer member of the Infallible eyeliner family, L'Oreal Infallible Matte-Matic Mechanical Eyeliner as being creamy and fitting in well with the new generation of drugstore eyeliners that aren't waxiness awfulness on a stick, I decided to give it a try.
$8, 5 minutes per eye, and sore lids later, I got to ask....what the actual hell do people see in this liner???
Read MoreWeek of this whole Revising Me project is coming to a close and this week was trying to establish patterns, stick to eating goals, and several attempts to not get frustrated.
I tried to be good and have a salad for lunch Mon-Fri, but I got to about Tues before I needed to mix it up. For the most part breakfast was same: a low-carb protein bar that's high fiber from Costco and some hard boiled eggs. Aside from Friday, I mostly made or brought in all my lunches from home, which is actually quite a feat for me when it comes to the work week.
But, I have quite a few mental hurdles to overcome, it seems.
Read MoreWhen I was younger, I loved colorful eyeshadow. A bright, satiny red from Urban Decay was my jam, borderline neon pinks, greens, it would be fair to say I was all about painting with the colors of the wind. But lately, I find I've grown drawn more to neutrals that technicolor.
So when I saw on Instagram that Makeup Geek had not one but two fall-themed eyeshadow bundles coming out, it was basically like dangling beauty catnip in my face. How fast could I toss my wallet at my computer to make these mine?
Real fast, my friends, real damn fast.
Read MoreI haven't talked about it much here but I've decided to be candid: I need a change, specifically my weight. This isn't a new revelation, but early on in our Disney World trip in a group photo it was there staring me in the face. I've gotten big, bigger than I've ever been, and for someone who is only 5'1" it's utterly not ideal.
To be clear- if you're happy with your size, thin, thick or anywhere in between, that's awesome! You are happy with you and that's what matters. In my case, I'm not happy with me in this regard.
Read MoreSeptember is coming to close, and boy is this year going fast! While doing some tidying up and throwing out a decent amount of makeup, I gathered up my empties for the month for my first Empties post.
Who doesn't love digging through someone else's trash? :D
Read MoreYou know how everyone loves and raves about It Cosmetics CC Cream? I tried it, didn't like it, don't understand the hype. The Bourjois 123 Perfect CC Cream, however, did exactly what I wanted a CC Cream to do and did so beautifully.
Read MoreWhile shopping in Boots on my London trip earlier this month, I came cross this Sleek blush trio palette and fell instantly in love with the colors. And for only £9.99? Yes, please!
Read MoreThere are a few basic things I see as "must-haves" for me flights: in-flight entertainment, comfortable seats, and reasonably available food options. It also doesn't hurt if the flight crew are sympathetic humans and not just phoning it in (hey there, United!)
So here are, to me, the airlines that haven't totally sucked for me and that I would recommend flying.
Read MoreI make it no secret how much I love Bourjois. How much it saddens me they have not yet made their way into the US drugstores. I saw through a couple of blogs that they had introduced a sheer matte lip color version of the Rouge Velvets, Souffle de Velvet, and I was intrigued.
Read MoreWith round two of London accomplished, I thought I'd share my Top London Travel Tips for those who might be first or second-time goers to this amazing town. It might be some familiar bits for the veteran world wanderers, but hopefully there's a few nuggets of wisdom you might not have heard yet or will inspire your future travels to what is, basically, my current favorite city in the world.
Before you think about dropping a lot of quid on a black cab, or think you absolutely must fly into London Heathrow, take a pause and read on, because you might not necessarily require either things for a great trip, but you should probably still bring an umbrella.
Read MoreI went in for an umbrella. That's all I truly need; a pocket umbrella for our upcoming trip back to London in three weeks. But it's Target, and one cannot simply walk into Target and buy only one thing. If you're me, anyways.
Read MoreIt suckers you in, that attractive and vibrantly pink Benefit airport kiosk full of promise and face powder. It has actually saved me on some occasions when I've forgotten something and know Hello Flawless works well for me, or that Fake Up concealer is one of the few concealers that works for me.
Did I honestly need this travel set? No, I didn't, but at 10:55pm at night after the great Delta Computer Crisis my will power was weak. Also I wanted to try the Dandelion Glow because I hadn't seen it before and wasn't quite sure what it was.
Read MoreAfter lamenting the sadly discontinued Nuance by Salma Hayek Cleansing Oil, I've been hoping the drugstore could fill the hole it's left in my heart, and oh, it has!
Palmer's Cocoa Butter has thrown its hat into the cleansing oil game with their Skin Therapy Cleansing Oil, devoid of mineral oil and instead full of nicer ones like soybean, grapeseed, rosehip, etc. It is so so good.
Read MoreAs summer starts fading into autumn, so comes that brief transition period where you might start pairing shorts with a jacket, trading sandals for boots, and taking a lighter hand with your bronzer. How can you incorporate this shift in your makeup?
With Milani's Earthly Elements palette, it's so simple to have the best of both seasons until it's time to vamp it up more.
Read MoreConfession time: I am somewhat lazy when it comes to my hair and haven't always been keen to blowdry it even though I tend to have better hair on second and third days than if I just let it air dry. I have a lot of hair that doesn't like to dry quickly, so it tends to be such a chore.
But now, no longer.
Read MoreIn one of those "I heard it on Tumblr" sort of situations, I came across Meow Meow Tweet, a newer indie skincare brand, and originally was interested in the deodorants but decided to just go on a sample ordering spree.
I got a small size of the facial care kit, face mask, and deodorants.
How does this brand size up?
Read MoreOnce, it was the most powerful and important city in the world; before New York, before London, and and anywhere else, Rome was a bonafide powerhouse. From its fabled beginnings as a town formed by two brothers nursed by a she-wolf, this settlement along the Tiber river soon grew into the epicenter of one of the most sprawling empires the world would ever know. Kings gave way to Emperors, a Senate was born, and much of current practices, law, business, and governments to name a few can be tied back to to this place and its people.
As they say, when in Rome.
With the weather hot and this ancient city before us, it was time for Roaming Holiday to finally have a Roman holiday.
Read MoreWhen you think of Florence, it's impossible not to think of the beautiful, massive Duomo and Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore. Of Ponte Vecchio and Piazza della Repubblica. Of Uffizi Gallery and all the lingering presence of Renaissance Tuscany. These are the familiar touchstones for tourists flocking to see pieces of beautiful history and perhaps imagining just for a moment that at any moment they might pass Michelangelo in the streets.
It is a city easy to see in a single day, but worth spending more in.
Read MoreJohn Steinbeck said it best in a 1953 Harper's Bazaar article:
“Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone’. And later in the article, ‘In a few days we became aware of Positano’s greatest commodity – characters.”
As you descend upon this Amalfi Coast town, through winding mountain roads high above the deep blue sea, it feels like stepping out of reality and into a tranquil oasis forged atop hills and spilling out to the volcanic rock beach below. This is not a town for a busy pace, instead you move to its slower ebb and tide and you will find yourself happy to be at the whims of its pace.
Read MoreA beauty, travel and lifestyle blog featuring beauty reviews, travel tips & featured places, destination guides, lifestyle posts and more. Let's explore together!
