FOREO Luna Mini

There's a whole world beyond scrubs and face washes…as I'm sure we all know: skin DEVICES (sounds weird and evil to me but….anything that helps). The Clarisonic is one of the most popular skincare devices on the market but there is a lesser known star rising in the sky: FOREO's Luna (mini). Read on for more info!

Essie Nails: Holidays My Way: Mint Candy Apple, No Place Like Chrome, & Stroke of Brilliance

It's no secret that I love doing my own nails and using multiple color combos. This particular combo is my 2013 holiday mood. I know the usual is red, green, and gold with the odd blue and silver tossed in but I was feeling minty. Tossed in some of that silver and blue glitter for good measure. I can never keep myself away from the glitter. Read on for the end result :)

Flower Cosmetics Lip Service Lip Butter & Petite Fleurs Pocket Triplets (by Drew Barrymore)

Petal to the Metal, Rose-y Future, Princess & the Peony, Haute Honeysuckle, Sheer Snapdragon, PF5-Warm, PF7 Neutral, and PF1Cool

I'm a self-confessed beauty junkie and one of the staple addictions is lip product. I love love love lip products! Lipsticks, balms, crayons, lacquers,  sheer, uber-pigmented, neon, neutral, look at me, don't look at me….everything under the sun, I'm just crazy about it! FLOWER is a beauty line by Drew Barrymore. I can't remember where I heard about this line….but when I first moved back home and made a trip to wal-mart I came across this brand and just went hmmm….to try or not to try? 

Skincare Skincare Skincare...

I have had problems with acne for over a decade now. I went from a kid with painful cystic acne to a young adult with minimal acne troubles and scarring from old traumas. A person who truly suffers from acne will try everything under the sun. If a voodoo man told you to lay out in the sun naked with a dead chicken on your face you'd do it which (to me) doesn't sound as bad or is at least on par with taking round after round of antibiotics for years. I took antibiotics for roughly 5 or 6 years on and off and I wish I never touched them. They did more damage than good. For years I'd hear from doctors, "Oh it's because you're going through puberty, it's normal and will clear up, take this to help it" or "when you're  17 it'll be gone, or 20…or any day now….it'll be gone" Then one doctor told me "it's never going to go away at this age or that, it's not the foods you eat, it's not this or that, it's most likely just bad genetics or hormones." With that I was both disappointed and relieved. I was sad I just had shitty genes or hormone problems but relieved that I could just breathe and not feel like I had to keep taking all these prescription drugs and topical creams that could cause birth defects and all that fun stuff…I decided right there and then that it wasn't worth it and that I was going to figure it out on my own. And from then on I've taken advice with caution. Please read on for my latest experiences with skincare and discover what brands and routines have worked for me. :)

I Have Finally Returned!

View from Window (San Lucas Cabo, Mexico)

I have been a terrible terrible blogger. I can't believe that it has been a few days shy of two months since my last blog post! Shocking to say the least. After the thesis, all my energy and focus was on figuring out what I was going to do with myself! Which I ended up leaving Dublin and moving back home to Texas. It was a difficult move and I'm still adjusting. To catch you up to speed for the last while I've been working for my dad at his auction house, which has been great. It's what I'll be doing until I further settle in, learn to drive (another shocker, I'm nearly 26 and still can't drive), and then find a job that'd I'd flourish in. In between all this madness as a welcome home/you're finally done with school present, my aunt and uncle took me on a 6 day trip to San Lucas Cabo! I figured sharing my experience there would be the perfect comeback post! Read on for more!

Rimmel London Salon Pro Ultra Violet and L'Oreal Confetti Top Coat

Who doesn't love treating their nails to some fun colors and care? That was one of the first things I did after I finished my thesis. I went out and picked up 2 new fun polishes and went right to taking care of my nails (they were sooooo neglected). 

This or That TAG

A little bit of this or a little bit of that: Charlotte from Makeup by Candlelight (HERE) tagged me ages ago to participate in this tag. It took me awhile to recover from that hand crushing thesis but now I'm back in full swing and finally getting around to participating in this fantastic tag. Thank you Charlotte for tagging me! Read on :)

Liebster Award # 4

This is the 4th time I've been nominated for a Liebster, for which I'm very grateful :) This time around Zoe Dawes from Zoesque (Her blog is HERE, please check it out as it is great!) Thank you Zoe! Since I've been nominated several times already, this time I'm simply going to answer the questions given to me and then at a later date when I find some great new blogs to nominate I'll do a separate post. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Liebster Award you can find out more information HERE. 

Etude House Dear My Color Pop (OR14) & Vivid Pop Stick (#7)

These two products were part of my most recent Korean beauty haul. I was pretty excited about receiving these, it took me ages to pick out which colors I wanted. But my dreams of successfully adding any POP to my look were thrown away, far away, a place I hope to never find or even more so I hope never finds me. Which of these products let me down? Read on to find out :)

Catrice Matte Lipstick (Sweet Coraline) & (Matt-erial Girl)

Told ya! I wasn't lying when I said I'd be featuring several products from Catrice Cosmetics on the blog. I just can't help myself. They are such lovely and affordable products! Vibrant colors, a wide range of colors, and a great formula! You have your nudes/naturals and more out there colors. Something for everyone. I chose 2 of their newer shades: Sweet Coraline & Matt-erial Girl. Out of these two Matt-erial Girl is my favorite. A fuchsia-esque shade, just the right amounts of pink and purple for me. Loud but not too out there. It has more of a matte finish than Sweet Coraline. Both are very moisturizing and do well by not settling into the lines of your lips (but that doesn't mean you should exfoliate your lips first)! Read on for swatches :)

Catrice Pure Shine Colour Lip Balm (Cherry-ty, I Don't Red It, Rusty In Peace)

As I've said in a previous post, I truly do love Catrice Cosmetics. Very affordable and good quality the majority of the time. Since everyone and their grandmother has been coming out with these "crayon" type lip-tints/balms/sticks, I knew it was only a matter of time before Catrice did too. I chose 3 colors that'd suit me the best (I say this, although I really just wanted to buy them all)  but they have 8 to choose from. Overall, I like them way better than Bourjois but they don't quite overtake my love for the Revlon Just Bitten Balms (you can find my post on these two products HERE). These are by far the cheapest of all the lip crayons I have and I think have a good balance of moisturization, color, and shine. Check out the swatches :)

Catrice Nail Polish (Bricky Mouse) & (Kitch Me If You Can)

Because I really did need more...?

It is no understatement to say that I own loads of nail polishes. In a previous post I said I had enough lipsticks to build a child's playhouse well...I probably have enough nail polishes to build an actual house. One day my boyfriend saw the vast amount of polishes I had and asked, "Why do you have so many of the same color?" I quickly tried to defend myself saying they were all different "shades" of a base color. Or that some nail polishes have different jobs, like being matte, glossy, or just hardcore in general. But at the end of the day...yeah I probably have too many of the same color but... I don't care. Here's two more!

Bourjois Rouge Edition Lipstick (10 Rouge buzz) (05 Brun boheme)

I recently picked these up. I've just now started digging my paws into Bourjois Products. Unfortunately, my camera was having trouble picking up the true colors of these two. Rouge Buzz is a spicy red-orange color and Brun Boheme is a lovely nude brown-pink. Read on for more details :)

Bobbi Brown Mascara & Diorshow Blackout Samples

These are two sample mascaras that I got for Christmas. They were hidden away for ages and then something possessed me to give them a go and now they've become staples in my mascara rotation! Once I have the budget to do so and I've run dry on these samples I'll get my hands on some full size versions! Read on for details :)

Latest W2Beauty Haul

I was so excited to finally receive my order from W2Beauty today! Best part was the postman actually came to my door and handed it to me meaning I didn't have to trek all the way to the post office to pick it up. 99% of the time I have to and frankly it's just lame. But woo! I couldn't wait to get my hands on all of the things I carefully picked out for myself. Choosing took ages given the fact that there is so much to choose from on W2beauty's site. If you follow my blog on a regular basis you must know by now that I'm a huge fan of the online shop. Some of the best deals, products, and customer service around and I will always recommend W2beauty for anyone looking to try out new products or looking for a place to purchase Korean beauty products. Anyway, the first photo is of things I actually purchased: 

Rimmel London Wake Me Up Foundation

I recently bought this to replace my Rimmel London Match Perfection Foundation. I wanted to try something new and I read a few good reviews of this foundation. Rimmel often surprises me. I think back home in the States we get the "less" exciting products. But I gave Rimmel another shot once I moved to Ireland (I didn't have much of a choice) and I'm glad I did. They have a wonderful range of products and consistently coming out with new products. Most of great quality. Read on for more on this foundation :)

Pretty Hands

Hands Ever Feeling A little Rough? Try this out...

My hands are constantly getting the proverbial shit kicked outta them. All the cooking and cleaning I do, means I'm constantly washing my hands and they end up dry and the cuticles are rough and just raggedy. I remember a time when I had the hands as soft and perfect as a baby but now I have to work hard to keep them looking up to par. Pretty Hands helps me do this! Read on!

Bobbi Brown Bellini Lip & Eye Palette

I got this gorgeous palette for Christmas (my aunt sure knows what I like and what I can't afford). I remember being over the moon when I got this. You would've thought I won a million bucks with all the excitement. I remember I had been looking at this online thinking to myself "Boy, what a brilliant product." And then BAM it's mine. It's like my aunt read my mind. It's very well used. And will be used up til it hits pan. Read on for a closer look :)

My Go To Makeup Routine/What's in My Bag?

I don't know why I haven't done one of these posts sooner. I guess it just never occurred to me until now. Looking at all this stuff in my bag makes me feel silly. I feel like I should have less. Truth be told...this isn't all of it. Just the highlights of my everyday makeup. And even then I can't keep to a minimum of 10. I like to have choices. Lots of choices. I've parred it down to 22 items. Lord... Read on :)

Liebster Award(s)

I've been nominated for this award once before and I think it's a fantastic award to network with other bloggers. I've now been nominated again by Amelia Blake from: Mint Sunday and Laura Atkin from: Laura's Blogs. (Both have very lovely blogs. Check them out!) And I'm very excited to answer their questions and nominate some fellow bloggers. Read on for details :)