Happy New Year's Eve! | 2014

It's been a pretty crazy year in many ways. I am, however, not sorry to see 2014 go! I am very excited for what 2015 will bring for me, and I can't wait to try and document it all here. 

I was able to strengthen many close friendships this year, to the point where I pretty much have a second family that loves and supports me so much, and I do my best to return the favor. I don't think I could have made it through the year without them. I saw my one year anniversary with my boyfriend pass just a few weeks ago, and although we didn't get to see each other, it was an important time for the both of us. I can't wait to see him.

I also sucked up my pride and decided to go to therapy for depression and anxiety. It was very nerve-wracking, I cried a lot, but my therapist was so wonderful and supportive and I feel that my short time with her was beneficial. It has helped me more than I realize sometimes. I'm hoping to continue therapy in NY. I don't talk much about it yet, but one day I'd like to make a full, detailed post dedicated to this issue.

I rekindled my love for fashion and makeup, I made the important decision to move from my hometown and into the big city, I have another nephew due in May, I "adopted" a cat with my friends/roommates and I feel as though I've really grown as a person this year. 2014 was my budding year, I suppose. I still have so much left to learn and experience and I can't wait for it.

Argan Oil?

Hello there! I guess this entry isn't so much a review as an observation. I'm pretty sure every person interested in beauty has heard about argan oil at some point, and it seems a lot of people have begun including it in their routines, myself included. I'd heard all about its beneficial and restorative properties, and let me tell you my hair needs some loving. It's rather thin and dry, and I often felt like it just didn't...look right.

I was never one for a lot of hair products, because the few that I tried when I was in high school made my hair feel awfully greasy. I even tried coconut oil about a year ago, and maybe I did something wrong, but my hair was sooo heavy and flat and just greasy and awful. It took me about five washes to get it back to normal and I felt stripped bare afterward.

After that little fiasco I was a little wary of trying anything with the word 'oil' in it for my hair, but I finally decided to give argan oil a try. It took me a few tries to get it right, as I used it on my dry hair at first (don't judge me). Then I just used it on my ends, but that didn't seem to give me the results I wanted. Finally, I tried spraying it all over my hair right after a shower and then bundling it up in a towel, and viola.

My hair seems thicker, bouncer, it flows together beautifully, and it's noticeably softer after I do that. I'm in love with it. I'll likely be trying several brands of argan oil to see which one I like best, as time goes on, but for now I am using this: 

This is the Organix Argan Oil. It comes in a spray bottle, and has a very light and inoffensive scent. It was about $8 or so, I believe, and I bought it at Walgreens. I bought it on a whim to be honest, and I'm very happy with the results. I'd definitely say it does something good for me. I'd like to try a range of prices and brands, from expensive, to mid-range, to cheaper bottles like this one, and see which works best for my hair.

I'm very happy I jumped on the argan oil bandwagon, my hair desperately needed something to boost it up a little. It's gotten very long and heavy lately. If anyone else is thinking about trying it out, I say go for it. 

Review: Too Faced

I will go ahead and start with saying that Too Faced is one of my favorite brands. I love their packaging and their quality, so it's a win-win for me. Their lipstick is one of the first mid-range beauty products I ever bought (before that, I only owned a few Mac lippies as far as more expensive products went). I decided to do a review on this particular product, which I've had for a few months and used several times.

This is the color 'Naked Dolly,' an it's a pinky nude shade that is absolutely beautiful. I didn't own any nude lipsticks at the time, and I decided to make my first nude a more pricey one. I was also intrigued by Too Faced's lipsticks, and let me say I was rather pleased with this. The shade isn't too white, if that makes sense - where it looks chalky and out of place on your lips. It's very creamy and smooth, and a little shiny. It can wear off a little easy because it is rather sheer, but I don't terribly mind. It's easy to re-apply and it doesn't show any cracks if my lips get dry. I really love it as an every day lipstick where I don't have to constantly worry about my lips.

The tube itself is also gorgeous - it's a solid gold color all the way down, very simple yet heavy at the same time. I adore it. 

I've actually ordered two more shades from Too Faced, and I'll likely do a little swatch of those two as well when they arrive. I'm super excited!

Mini Gift-Haul

I got a couple of really nice gifts for the holidays that I wished to share here, as well as a couple of lip products that I treated myself to. I haven't gotten the chance to try these items yet, but I'm so excited to. I'm so happy with these gift sets!

First is this amazing little box of sample mascaras from Sephora. It also includes one full-size at the bottom, which is difficult to see here, but it's Smashbox's Full Exposure mascara. It also includes numerous smaller sizes of other popular mascaras, as you can see. I'm super excited to try all of these because I've never tried any of them! I've been sticking with Tarte's mascara, so these will be a welcome change to try. 

I also got Benefit's little blush gift box. Both of these were from my mom, she really knows how to gift! This includes several small squares of Benefit's most popular blushes, all of which I've never tried, as well as their popular Watt's Up highlighter and a little brush. I'm sooo excited to try all of these, they're so gorgeous! Oh, and Hoola I guess is more of a bronzer than a blush. It looks rather dark in the picture, but I promise it isn't. I've heard many great things about every blush in here. I'm beyond excited.

I'm afraid the quality of this one went out the window (the sun was setting), but that's okay. I got two of Nyx's soft matte lip creams today, because I am in LOVE with this product. I meant it when I said I wanted to collect every color. Here I got Prague, which is a smooth purple-ish/mauve color, and San Paulo, which is a bright red. 

So that's it for my tiny gift haul! It was more than enough I think. Despite the gift sets being smaller sizes, it'll still take me forever to get through them all. I'm just...so...happy!! :)

Cold Knees

Cold Knees by sanguinine featuring a ruched dress

Another Polyvore set based around golds. I really love this look!

Sephora & Ulta Haul

I went a little crazy in Sephora and Ulta recently and picked up quite a few things. So, I decided to share what I bought with you!

First I'll go over my Ulta purchases, since I only bought a couple of things from there.

I picked up one of the Melted lipsticks from Too Faced. I've been dying to try these out, especially as they're coming out with eight new shades in a couple of days. I picked up the color Melted Fig, which is a beautiful dusky purple color. I'm absolutely in love with it. It also smells like candy, which is an added bonus. I really want to get a few more shades (I've got my eye on Berry), and I also can't wait to see the new shades. 

Finally I got two Nyx blushes, as they were having a buy-one-get-one sale on some Nyx products. I got Apricot, which is the light pinky color. It's very pretty, and has tiny little shimmers. I also got Terra Cotta, which is a beautiful gold/light bronze color, and also shimmery. I plan to try it out as a bronzer and see how that goes.

I also got the Vice 3 palette from Urban Decay. I'm so happy about this palette! I know that it's been out a couple of months so it's nothing brand new, but I'm in love with it. The colors are gorgeous. I also love the giant mirror it comes with. I'll try and maybe photograph some looks that I use this palette with.

I picked up Nars' Dolce Vita blush, which I'd heard some good things about. I also didn't have such a dark, wintry looking shade so I was dying to get it. The first Sephora I went to was completely sold out of it, I had to get it from another one. I'm so happy they had it, it's truly gorgeous.

I also got the full size Urban Decay primer potion. I really like this product, I got to try a sample of it and fell in love. My eyelids get pretty oily and this makes my eyeshadow stick like nothing else. It's a pretty standard, popular product and nothing new.

I also got the Anastasia Brow Wiz pencil. I've heard great things about it, and decided to try it out. 

Lastly, I got the YSL glossy stain lipstick in Rouge Laque. I put it on almost immediately after leaving the store, and let me just say this is an absolutely gorgeous lip product. I'm so in love with it. It's sleek, opaque, easy to use, and looks absolutely beautiful. Once it dries it stays on super well, as the "stain" in the name implies. It barely budges until I eat, and then some comes off. I'm so enamored with this! It's soooo so so pretty.

Wow, that's quite a lot...but so worth it. I'm happy with everything I got. I'm afraid that's all I've got for today! Much love xx

Iconic

Iconic by sanguinine featuring black sunglasses

I made an all-black/metallic set just to play around with looks. I really like this! I'm making more sets than I can keep up with because they're so fun to make, so may as well make two posts in a day. Enjoy xx