2014 Sephora VIB Sale Haul

It is the most wonderful time of the year!

The Sephora VIB 20% off sale is going on now through Monday the 10th.  The sale is for VIB and VIB Rouge members only.  If you happen to be one, I would definitely run to your nearest Sephora or hop online and take advantage of the 20% off!  You either get a coupon in the mail or in your e-mail (I got both). 

I definitely had a few things in mind when I went into the store yesterday and even though I had to rein myself in a bit, I got things that I have had my eye on for a quite a while.  I may go back and pick up one or two more things, but we shall see. 

October Boxycharm!

I signed up for a new subscription service called Boxycharm a couple of months ago and I have been loving it! It is strictly a beauty subscription box for $21 a month.  What I love so much about this service is the size of the products is almost always full size and the overall value is always way over $21.

I received this months box about 2 weeks ago.  The theme is Bewitched, which I am assuming is supposed to be a somewhat Halloween theme.  

October POPSUGER Must Have Box!

I finally got my POPSUGAR Must Have Box for October in the mail today!! If you aren't familar with POPSUGAR, it is a montly subscription box for $40 a month.  You get a variety of items in each box, from makup to food to books and fashion items.  I get so excited to see what each month will bring, it is like Christmas every month!

Lets dig in!!

Fall Beauty Haul

Today, I bring to you a beauty haul! I like to call it a fall beauty haul, because, well, it's fall.  That makes sense right?  I have done quite a bit of shopping over the past few weeks and I decided that I should share it with all of you!

Up first...

September Favorites!

It is monthly favorites time!!! I am a little late on this, but I thought I would throw it up anyway.  There are a couple of things that I have just been loving this month that I wanted to share with you guys.

Without further adieu....

Where have I been for the past couple of months?!

Hello there!

I know, I know....you're thinking "Where in the world have you been?".  Well, I wanted to throw up a quick post to explain where I have been and what is to come with the blog in the future.

I really haven't been anywhere specifically for the past few months.  I just got really tired out from doing this blog and it was becoming like a second job for me, one that wasn't very fun anymore.  I love makeup and I will always love makeup, but I just didn't have the time anymore to post as often as I wanted and to do really great posts.  So, for the past couple of months, I have just taken a break from blogging. 

I have realized though, in the past few weeks, that the itch to get back on here was there.  I want to get on a schedule for posting, and maybe for a little while, it is only once every two weeks until I can be sure that I have the time and energy to be able to commit.  I do have two posts that will be going up today and then possibly next week.  

I hope you all will continue your support of my blog, even though I have been gone for a while.  I really do enjoy writing about makeup and beauty and letting all of you in on that.  I don't have a lot of friends that enjoy makeup the way I do, so this is a great outlet for that. 

Thank you all for reading my blogs!  

Please comment below if you have any requests for blogs that you would like to see in the future.

XOXO
Kristen

June Favorites!!

It's monthly favorites time!!

June has been an awesome month! I cannot believe how fast summer is going by.  I just need it to slow down a bit!  The weather has been fantastic here and there has been so much going on.  I love being busy in the summer and July is going to be just as busy.  I am going to California for a week, my Birthday is on the 11th (go get that free slurpee!), I have my family reunion two days after we get back from Cali and then my brothers birthday at the end of the month.  Oh boy! Crazy times!

Any who, I have cut down my makeup and hair routine quite a bit because it has been so warm here and so I don't have to spend a lot of time in the morning getting ready.  

My first favorite is...

June POPSUGAR Must Have Box

It's June! I cannot believe how fast the months are going by.  I am excited that it is pretty much summer now, my birthday is coming up and I am going on vacation soon!

Today, we have the POPSUGAR Must Have June box!  I get so so so excited to get this in the mail every month.  If you are not familiar with what POPSUGAR is, it is a monthly subscription service for $39.95 a month.  It is a lifestyle box, so you get items from various categories like fashion, home, food, fitness, beauty and more.  Your box is guaranteed to be worth at least $100 every month. 

They have changed things up a little bit this month with new wrapping and a new card that tells you what is inside.  The inspirations for this months box are:

• Beachy Hair
• Citrus
• Sand, sun surf
• Backyard BBQs
• Relax, unwind, read
• Stripes

May Favorites!

There are absolutely no excuses for why I have not been posting much lately.  But the weather here has been amazing, when means that I am outside as much as possible soaking it up.  It is also birthday/holiday season around here so there have been many birthday outings and celebrations that have been going on.  

All excuses aside, I am finally putting up my May favorites!! Whooooo! May was an awesome month! The weather has finally been really good around here and that means that I have been wearing less makeup and lots of shorts and tank tops.

First up....

Too Faced Natural Eyes

I don't know about you, but I love eye shadow palettes and I always find that I use them much more often than single shadows or even duos.  I think you get a lot of product for a great value and it is also a great way to try out a brand and get a range of shades and finishes.  

Today, I am going to be reviewing the recently updated/improved Too Faced Natural Eyes palette. This retails for $36, so a little less expensive than say the Naked palettes, but a little bit smaller as well. 

Sephora Favorites: Sun Safety Kit

Hey everyone,

I wanted to get this post up real quick because it is a bit time sensitive.  Sephora has launched their yearly Sun Safety Kit" and because it is limited edition, it sells out quickly.  It is already sole out online, but definitely check your local store to see if they still have them in stock.

This kit comes with 16 deluxe sample sizes of sunscreen, self-tanners and more.  It comes in this really cute bag also! The kit retails for $32 and has $177 worth of products inside.  Sephora is donating $20 from each sale of this kit to the Skin Cancer Foundation.  That is another great reason to buy the kit.  This is the first year that I have purchased this kit and I am so glad I did.  There are a lot of amazing products that I cannot wait to try out!

Haul: Walgreens, CVS, Bath & Body Works, ect...

And my shopping addiction continues....

I have another haul for you guys today.  Over the past week or so I have gone to a few places here and there and I decided that I would share all the items with you guys! There were some new products out that I had been wanting to try and some things that I needed. 

First up is CVS...

Review: Too Faced Chocolate Bar

Do you like chocolate as much as I do?  It is definitely one of my guilty pleasures that I probably indulge in a bit too often.  Well, if you like chocolate and you like makeup, this product combines them both into one heavenly palette!

If you have not seen this product around, or didn't notice the title of this post, Too Faced came out with a new palette recently called the Chocolate Bar.  I recently hauled this and have been playing with it quite a bit and thought I should give this a proper review for all of you out there. The palette retails for $49 and is available at Sephora, Ulta and TooFaced.com. 

Lets dig in...

April Favorites!!!

Is it really May already? Where does the time go?! Well, as we all know, as another month goes by, another favorites post must be made.  

April was a fairly good month.  I did some traveling, there was Easter and a couple days of warm weather.  My hopes are definitely up for May in terms of weather.  I am so beyond ready for warmth and sunshine and shorts and sandals. 

Here's what I've been lovin'...

April Birchbox

Another month, another Birchbox.  I have been going back and forth on whether or not I want to keep posting about my birchboxes or not.  This may be the last one, at least for a while.  

Any who, this months theme is "Rainy Days" and we all know the phrase "April showers bring May flowers". It actually has been raining quite a bit lately, and I don't hate the rain, but I don't love the rain.  This box is about finding new things to do and try out on those rainy days.  They even included a little card with a rainy day idea on it.  

First up...

Everyday Makeup Drawer: Spring Edition

I have for all of you today, a peek into my everyday makeup drawer.  I did one of these a few months ago and I mentioned then that I wanted to make it somewhat of a series.  I think quarterly or seasonally would be the best way to do it.  You will see quite a few of the products shown in my last haul in this drawer.  

I think everyone changes up their makeup quite a bit seasonally.  Most of us like to use different products based on what the weather is like. Here is what my everyday makeup drawer has been looking like lately...

April POPSUGAR Must Have Box

It's my favorite time of the month!!  I get so excited when I get that e-mail saying my POPSUGAR box has been shipped! I was out of town last weekend, of course when it was supposed to be delivered, so I may have sneaked a little peak to see what was going to be in the box.  I was pleasantly surprised!

If you aren't aware of what the POPSUGAR Must Have Box is, it is a monthly subscription for $39.95 a month.  The box includes items from various categories such as beauty, home, fitness and food.  Every box is guaranteed to be worth at least $100. Click here to check out their website.

"Spring is finally here, which means it's time to think about getting outside, cleaning house, and going green.  Embracing eco-friendly habits can be chic and fun, and we're here to show you how.  Plus, make not only your home but also your makeup routine a little more awesome with some help from a gorgeous palette.  You'll find the essentials to keep you healthy and beautiful for April and beyond.  Now you're ready to run the world."  Lisa Sugar, POPSUGAR Founder & Editor in Chief.

Makeup Haul: Sephora, Ulta & Birchbox

Hello there!

Have I been doing a lot of hauls lately? It feels like I have been doing quite a lot of them lately.  But what girl doesn't love to go shopping and there were some good sales and deals last week.  I wanted to get this up last week, but it was so hectic because I was going out of town for the weekend and that was taking up all of my time.  So, unfortunately I didn't get this up in time for the Sephora sale to still be going on.  I hope a lot of you were able to get that code and take part in the sale.

In the last week or so I have picked up a couple things from various places and I wanted to share them with you all.

Spring Favorites: Blushes

Well hello there,

I bring with me to the table today, a post about my favorite blushes to use in the spring time.  It is finally starting to feel like spring around here and that just gets me all sorts of excited.  I love blush, I think it is one of those products where you can never have too many because there are a million different shades and finishes and it just adds a bit of brightness and color to your face.

Up first....

Favorite Spring Lip Products

Hello everyone,

I have been wanting to do some more spring posts and so I have a new one for you today.  Today it is all about my favorite lip products for spring time.  I love this time of year because I can get more colorful on my lips and that just makes me happy.  I am definitely someone who likes to have a lot of color in her life, whether its on my nails, my walls, my clothes or my lips.

Most of these are favorites from last year, but there are a couple newbies in there as well.  

March Beauty Favorites

Hello there,

I am a little early on this post, but I wanted to get up since I had a lot of these things on my mind and I knew exactly what I wanted to talk about.  I love watching favorites videos on YouTube and reading other blog posts about favorites and they are one of my favorite to post about. I love discovering new products that I end up loving, some even on accident, and I love sharing them with all of you!

March was, eh, an okay month.  I had really high hopes, in terms of weather, but it was pretty much a disappointing month in that category.  I was excited for spring, and while we had a day or two of fairly decent weather (like low 50's), it had just been cold and snowy all month long.  But, with my excitement (and letdown) for spring, my beauty products definitely reflect the changing seasons.  Some of these products are oldies but goodies, some are brand new.  

I have quite a lot of favorites, so lets get to it.

Decorating for Spring

Hello everyone,

I am here today with a little bit different post than what I normally do.  I recently did a little bit of home decor shopping and just sprucing up my home to make it feel more like spring (even though it is still frigidly cold out).  I love decorating my home, but like a lot of people, I don't have a ton of money to do so. My favorite places to find home decor are HomeGoods, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Target and good old garage sales.  You can find some amazing things at all of these places for relatively inexpensive to give your space that extra something.

March Ipsy Bag

Hello ladies,

I am back today with another subscription box/bag post.  Today's is all about the March Ipsy bag.  The theme this month is Destination Beauty.  I definitely plan on doing some traveling this spring and summer, so maybe some of these products will be going with me.

March POPSUGAR Must Have Box

Hello all!

Guess what showed up on my doorstep today? You guessed it, my March POPSUGAR Must Have Box!! If you are not aware of what the POPSUGAR Must Have Box is, it is a monthly subscription that is $40 a month and every month they send you a box filled with their must haves of the month for beauty, fashion, home, food, technology, ect.  Your box is guaranteed to be valued at over $100 every month.  I love this box because of the variety you get and the value of the boxes.  

This month is all about shedding your winter coat and getting ready for spring and new beginnings.  I don't know about you, but I have been ready for spring since Christmas.  It was looking pretty promising here for the last week, but we are supposed to get a huge snow storm tonight, ARGH!  

Let's open up this box.

Huge Haul: Fashion, skin care, makeup, candles, ect...

Hello everyone!

I hope you are ready for this, but I have done some serious shopping in the last couple weeks.  Usually when I start longing for spring, my shopping addiction kicks in just a teensy bit more and I just keep seeing things that would be so perfect for spring time.  Well, it finally hit above 40 degrees here yesterday and it just fueled the fire. 

This is going to be a pretty all over the place haul.  I have a couple clothing items, some jewelry, a lot of makeup, skin care, hair care and candles.  You name it, its in here.  I hope you are ready for a long haul, in both senses. 

February Favorites

Hello there!

I have been pretty darn lazy all week.  I should have had this post up a few days ago, but my computer decided to restart itself in the middle of working on it and all was lost.  I got so frustrated, that I put it off for a few days, but since it is now March 2nd, it was time for me to just get it done. 

So here, in all its glory, is my post for my favorites from February.  I hope you all had a wonderful month, I for one am excited that spring is only a few short weeks away.  I have been trying to "spring up" my home with flowers and candles, but the 3 inches of snow we just got doesn't help much.  Any who, enough jibber jabbering, lets get to it.

February POPSUGAR Must Have Box

Hello again!

Today's post, as you can probably see by the title, is all about the February POPSUGAR Must Have box! And, like I say every time, this is my most favorite box to get because you get such a wide variety of items, not just makeup.  I love getting fashion, home, food and technology items as well.  If you have not heard of POPSUGAR, it is a monthly subscription service for $40 a month and you get all of their must have of the month.  Every box is guaranteed to be worth at least $100, so you know you are getting your money's worth.  

Let's dive into this box, I cannot contain my excitement any longer!

February Ipsy Bag

February Ipsy Bag by theboothofus

Hello there,

Following up from the last post, we have the February Ipsy Bag post today!  This month was a pretty darn good month for this bag.  And being February, the bag theme is all about love.  Speaking of love, I hope you all and a wonderful and love filled valentines day whether you spent it with a significant other, friends or family.  

February 2014 Birchbox

Hello there!

Remember when I said I couldn't promise another post before my brother when home? Well look who's puttin' up a post!  I received my Birchbox in the mail today and decided to try something new that I discovered and see how it goes.  Do you guys know about Polyvore? You probably do if you are on Pinterest.  Well, I have been searching for this, or something like it, for a few months now.  I wanted to be able to group photos together and add some text and some arrows and voile!  I have been tinkering with the site for the last couple days and have just fallen in love! I think I will be able to get a lot more posts up by using the site because I don't have to take the time to photograph my own stuff and edit it and then import each picture, which seems to take ages, especially if the lighting is not good.  

I hope you like this format, I think it looks fantastic.  There will still be times where I photograph my own stuff, but this makes my life and blogging that much easier and more enjoyable.  There will be a list of all of the products at the end of the blog with the links of where to buy and I will also be posting a photo at the end so you can see what the sample sizes look like. 

February 2014 Birchbox by theboothofus 

Makeup Haul

Hello there!

I know its been a hot minute since I last put up a post.  Truth is...my brother and nephew are in town from Korea and I only see him about once a year, so they are taking up the majority of my time at the moment and will be until the 17th.  I will try to get up another post before then, but I can make no promises. 

But don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you all.  I have bought a few new makeup items over the last couple weeks and thought I would compile them and share them as well as my thoughts with you.

January Favorites

Hello everyone,

First and foremost, is winter over yet?! Here in Michigan, we have had the worst weather in January and I am definitely ready for spring.  Any time now... Temperatures have been as low as -25 and we have broken the record for the snowiest January since the 70's! And it is snowing right now as I type.  Hooray...can you detect the sarcasm in the type?

Well, even though January was pretty awful, I still had a few beauty favorites I wanted to share with you all.  

Peek Inside My Everyday Makeup Drawer

 I recently moved my everyday makeup drawer from my Ikea Alex 9 Drawer to my Ikea Alex 5 Drawer that I recently bought to go under my makeup table. I love love love these drawer systems.  Although they seem a little pricey, they are very sturdy and are a great storage option.  Since I moved it to a different drawer, I also bought a clear 6 compartment storage tray from Target to help organize my products even more.  

January Ipsy/MyGlam Bag

Hello there,

It is that time of the month when I get all of my subscription boxes in! I actually got all of them on the same day this month.  Weird, but also very fun! 

This months Ipsy theme is "19 Reasons 2014 Will Be Amazing".  January is all about resolutions and ways to improve life for the upcoming year and that also seems to be the theme of all of my subscriptions boxes. 

Lets open this bag up!

January Birchbox

Hello again!

I am back today with my Birchbox unboxing post.  I always get excited to get my subscription boxes every month.  It is like Christmas every month!  If you aren't aware of what Birchbox is, it is a $10 a month, monthly subscription service.  You get 4-5 deluxe samples every month selected based on your beauty profile.  It is a really fun way to get to try out higher end products and/or products you have never heard of or tried out. 

This months theme is Go Time, meaning get your but in gear and actually get those New Years resolutions done! I have a couple resolutions for this year.  1. To eat better and healthier.  2. To try out new recipes at home and just be more adventurous with cooking.  What are your New Years resolutions?

Empties: Products I've Recently Used Up.

Hello there!

I have been having trouble lately, coming up with ideas for posts for my blog. An empties post is all that I came up with this week since this bag was pretty full.  If you have any suggestions on what I could do posts on, please leave a comment!

These are all of the products that I have used up since my last empties post back in the fall.  I think that you'll find that a lot of my empties this time are repeats from the last one, because I clearly really enjoy that product.  

Lets dig in!

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette Review & Swatches

Hello there!

This post is all about the new Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette. There has been so much hype about this product for a while and I have already seen a bunch of reviews on this, but I thought I would give my own opinion on it anyway. 

Lets get naked...

December Favorites

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!!

I cannot even believe that it is 2014! Where has the time gone?  I am starting out the new year with a favorites post.  I thought about doing a yearly, and I still may do one, but it is going to take a little bit of time.  This past month has been a crazy busy one for me with the holidays, work and my parents moving, but it was definitely a great month.

This month I have been loving...