That New Years Glow

 Lets be honest, every girl loves a little sparkle for the New Year. Whether that be a full on sequin dress or a little sparkle along the cheeks we all love a little something extra during this festive time of year. I got this Laura Geller highlight trio over the holiday and it's perfect for that party glow.

The first highlight in the trio is French Vanilla. It's a true highlight in the sense that it's a sheer sheen, no noticeable color, just a pretty sparkle for the cheek.

The second highlight is in Golden Rose. You may be thinking it looks oddly similar to French Vanilla. It is. While these highlights are gorgeous, glowy, super soft and smooth, they are all, sadly, similar in pigmentation. This has a slight pink sheen to it but it's just a very slight variation.

The last in the trio is Portofino, no doubt the most popular of the bunch. This one is similar to the first two, but it does have a more golden tone to it. Definitely my personal favorite of the bunch.

I think these are all gorgeous highlights and while I do wish the pigmentation was slightly more varied, they are really great quality. You can purchase the set for $15 (a real bargain, in my opinion) here.

What are you guys going to sparkle in on New Years?

The Winter Tag

 

Winter officially started on the 22nd of December and since we've been in the single digit weather in my parts, I figured this would be an appropriate tag. Even though Christmas is over and the New Year is right around the corner, we still have a few months yet of this cold weather.

1. What's your favorite hot chocolate? Stephen's mint chocolate. I'm a sucker for anything with mint and chocolate in the mix! Also, Stephen's is a local Utah company so that's pretty nifty!

2. What are your favorite pajamas? For this time of year a pair of super fluffy cozy Hello Kitty pajama bottoms.

3. Favorite thing about Winter? How pretty it is right after a fresh snowfall and how much better twinkle lights look in the winter time!

4. Favorite Winter lip product? Definitely my e.l.f. lip scrub and my vaseline in Rosy Lips. My lips definitely get really dry this time of year.

5. Favorite Winter candle? I just featured this a little while ago in this post, but Vanilla Bean Noel by B&BW is my new favorite. 

6. Favorite cozy sweater? A fuzzy white cardigan that is huge on me but I love to wear around the house.

7. Favorite scarf? My faux fur one, naturally.

8. Favorite bath bomb? A vanilla chai scented one I recently bought that I featured here. 

9. Favorite Winter scent? Lancome's La Vie Est Belle.

10. What do you like about Winter? Honestly, that I don't feel bad staying in bed all day sometimes. I literally consider that an exclusively Winter activity.

11. Favorite movie? Is this asking me my favorite Winter movie? Because that would involve pretty much every holiday movie in existence. Or Frozen. That seems like it should be considered a Winter movie.

12. Do you like the snow? I like to look at the snow. However I get cold extremely easily so I don't like to be out in it even for a few minutes...I'm a big wuss when it comes to being out in the snow! Or driving in the snow...I hate driving in the snow as well.

Well there you have it, questions that are all related to that magically cold season. I hope you guys enjoyed and remember to leave me a link below if you do that tag yourself! XO

A Day Out in Park City

If you live on the West Coast, (and maybe even if you don't) then you've probably heard of Park City. After all, it's home to the world renowned Sundance Film Festival, the brainchild of one Robert Redford. It's also home to likes of Katherine Heigl, Bill Engvall and, my personal favorite, Cheech Marin. Will Smith owns a condo there and Danny Masterson owns a night club. Aside from all that, it's one of the most picturesque places in the world. Lucky for me, it's only about an hour and a half away from where I live. In the winter it's a magical wonderland and in the summer you can bike and go to a wine tasting all in one day. While it's always bustling with tourists, the famous and locals alike, there's a sense of privacy there. They take pride in local haunts and have somehow remained a "small town" while not being all that small. Essentially for me, it's as if I'm on vacation in my own state.

I hope everyone had a truly wonderful holiday filled with happiness and love! XO

Weekly Roundups : Friday Faves #23

Every week I plan on doing an outfit roundup post, but I just can't seem to get my act together.  Next week I've got some time off so maybe I can finally do one...no promises. Anyhoo, here's more products I'm loving at the moment!

This stuff is seriously like magic. This time of year I wear a lot of dark lip colors that won't budge, even after several swipes of makeup remover. Enter in this e.l.f. lipstick remover and it comes off with one swipe. I put a little on my finger (it's kind of like vaseline), rub it onto my lips and wipe it off with a makeup wipe or muslin cloth and it's all gone.

Lately, I've been using this Lashaderm at night before bed. It's meant to grow your eyelashes out and I'm not going to claim I have these dramatically longer lashes. But I will say it's made my lashes seem thicker and more voluminous so that's always a good thing.

I received this Bath and Body candle in Vanilla Bean Noel as a gift from a co-worker and I can honestly say this is my new favorite scent. Not to mention the fact that the tiny candles are so stinkin' cute. But seriously, it's minty and vanilla-y, which is basically my dream scent for the holidays.

These e.l.f. mineral pearls in the shade natural have been sitting on my shelf forever. Originally I didn't really like them as I thought they didn't really deposit any color onto my face. Lately, I've been using them with a kabuki blending brush and I'm loving the natural sweep of bronze it gives my face. For days when I just want some general all-over color, I swipe this on and I'm good to go.

I've been all about these bronzy eye shadow sticks lately as they're super easy (I have a 4 am wake up time most days, my whole mission in life is to make my morning as easy as possible!) and perfect for this time of year when I want all the holiday glam on my face with minimal work. The first color is by Julep in Orchid Shimmer and it's a pretty purple-bronze color. The second two are both e.l.f. in (from left) Check Me Out and Turkish Coffee, both gorgeous shimmery brown shades.

Let me know what you guys are loving in general and Happy Weekend Everybody! XO

Current Lip Loves

It's been a while since I've shared what I've been wearing on my lips. Since lip products are my ONE of my favorite beauty items I have way more than any one person needs. I try to rotate them as much as I can so I make sure I use what's buried back in my drawers. These are what I've been reaching for lately!

My first one is a Raspberry pink shade by e.l.f. It's called Posh and it's from their $1 range. Despite only being a buck, this lipstick is gorgeous, and fairly long wearing. It's one of my favorites any time of the year and I've been reaching for it whenever I'm in a pink mood.

My favorite nude at the moment is this Lip Lava one in the shade Forgiven. It's a peachy nude that dries fairly matte and it lasts on the lips quite a long time. The formula is really nice and it contains Vitamin E which I'm discovering I like a lot in liquid lipsticks.

Of course, there has to be reds on this list and the two I'm loving are both from Wet n' Wild. The first is a dark vampy shade in Black Orchid which is absolutely perfect this time of year. The second is a classic beautiful red in the shade Cinnamon. Wet n' Wild do some of my very favorite lipsticks (in both shade and formula) so odds are there will always be at least one in my rotation.

Last I've been loving this NYX lip liner in Currant. Not only does it pair well with vampy colors (see above) but I also love wearing it all over the lips for a nice berry matte look.

Let me know what your favorite lipsticks are right now in the comments below! XO

The Holiday Tag

Since it's snowed about 3 feet up here now, it's feeling a lot more like Christmas so I thought this tag would be fun to do for today's post! Are you guys finally getting snow where you live?

1. Favorite Christmas movie? Song? If you know me at all you know I struggle choosing a favorite anything but for the sake of the tag I'll do it. Favorite Christmas movie has to be Home Alone, I watch it every year no matter what. Favorite song is Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt, such a classic!

2. Do you like to stay in your pj's or dress up for Christmas? It really depends on what we're doing but preferably I'd like to stay in my pj's all day.

3. Where do you usually spend your holiday? The past couple of years my husband and I have stayed at home for the holidays and it is so nice to have a quiet relaxing day with a big breakfast, tons of movies and chocolate and a nice big dinner. Pretty much the perfect holiday in my book.

4. Can you name all of Santa's Reindeer? I feel like everyone says yes to this question. I can if I really think about it but let's be honest, we'd all just Google it even if we couldn't.

5. What holiday tradition are you looking forward to most this year? Christmas Eve dinner and lights and opening our presents at midnight. It means we sleep in super late Christmas morning since we've stayed up all night playing with our new toys!

6. Is your Christmas tree real or fake? Growing up we always had a real tree but since being married we do a fake one. I'm pretty pleased with ours since it can switch between clear and colored lights as my husband and I couldn't agree. It's perfect for us!

7. Favorite Holiday food? The whole deal...I love the ham, the potatoes, the breads, the dessert. I mean my whole day basically revolves around food so I couldn't really choose just one thing!

8. Does your family have a special holiday recipe you like to help make? When I'm home I always love to help make the desserts; Rice Krispie treats, cookies, brownies...cause, you know, the baker gets to sample everything to make sure it's turned out good.

9. Are you a pro present wrapper or do you fail miserably? I'd have to say I'm a pro. When I worked retail I did a lot of gift wrapping and I really enjoy spending extra time on all the ribbons and tags so it's something I enjoy.

10. Have you ever built a gingerbread house? Seriously, no, I haven't. We bought one last year, forgot about it, bought another one this year, found the one from last year and still haven't built either. That pretty much sums up my life.

11. Giving presents or receiving them? 100% giving. When I was younger I probably would have said receiving but the older I get I just love to give people things they want and would never spoil themselves with. Everyone deserves to be spoilt during the holidays!

12. Do you open your presents Christmas morning or evening? I already pretty much answered this but morning. Like the second it turns midnight so pretty much the earliest part of the morning that's possible!

I hope you guys enjoyed this tag and if you want to do it leave me the link in the comments below so I can check it out. Love you all! XO

Perfectly Posh

I am a huge fan of supporting small (and local for me!) business so when my friend asked me if she could give me some samples from her cousins company I was more than happy to try them out. After trying and loving a couple of the samples I headed over to the website and purchased a few products. The company claims to offer products that are paraben and paraffin-free, contains no soy or gluten fillers, has no petroleum-derived sulfates, are cruelty-free and never tested on animals and contain natural and phthalate-free fragrances. Basically this stuff is all natural and super good for your skin.

The first thing I purchased was this bag of Bath Bombs in Chai Latte Whipped Creme. This was the first thing I used when I received my purchase and it seriously left my bath smelling delicious! 

One of the sample's I'd tried was this chunk soap bar in Hoku Kukui. It smells like coconut so you know I was in love with it and it was so nourishing on my skin. The hubs also loved the scent so it was a big hit in our house. I loved it so much I had to buy the full size.

Since I went through my friend who was doing a Mary Kay style party for the site, she had to place my order for me. I didn't pick this out but it some how ended up being purchased by me in my order. I don't mind because it smells delicious and feels lovely (it's a Ra-Ra Raspberry buttery lip balm) but I would advise to maybe watch that while placing your order.

I received these bars free with my purchase as there was a special on at the time, although there always appears to be a "perk" running where you can receive free items if you purchase so much product. I haven't tried these yet but they sound amazing.

One of the samples I tried was the Yummy Hand Creme and I was happy to see I received another one in my order. The creme is really thick and soothing for my hands and will most likely be my next full size purchase!

A few things to know:
If you chose to go and purchase straight from Perfectly Posh here, they will set you up with a consultant as that is how the site runs. If you want to just purchase and not be set up with a consultant I've left you a link here, where your consultant will be "Caty" and you can order what you want straight away (this is my friends cousin, so she will receive credit for your purchase but you won't be placed on a contact list). You do receive points from the site which you can use towards product once you've gotten enough "perk points."

Overall I really like the products I purchased and if you are a fan of natural skincare then you will want to check the site out!

*I was not compensated by the company in any way to write this post and the samples I received are free to anyone interested, you would just need to contact your consultant to receive your samples.

Weekly Roundup : Friday Faves #22

This Friday could not come soon enough. After spending most of the week feeling less than stellar, I'm ready for a much needed weekend off. Hope your guys' week has flown by!

If you know me by now then you know I really love my blushes. My mom gifted me this little Lancome blush in the shade Blushing Nude and I have been absolutely loving it. This blush with a little bit of bronzer and you have a gorgeous natural glow.

I don't know about you but I get crazy dry this time of year and I love me a good body cream in a tub. Maybe it's a mental thing, but I feel like if a lotion comes in a tub, it's just that much more hydrating. Just me? Anyway, this Queen Helene Cocoa Butter smells like chocolate and is super duper thick. The only thing I have to say is it does leave skin oily, so if that's not your thing then I'd say pass. It's totally my thing, though...I'll take oily over dry any day!

You also know by now how much I love my body scrubs and this bodycology one in the scent Sweet Love smells so dang good I almost want to go and get like 20 backups. Hoarder problems, remember?

I received this In a New York Minute facial sample and couldn't wait to use it. It's from a company called Perfectly Posh and I'll post a full review on the site next week so stay tuned. This all natural glycolic literally only takes a minute and you're left with smooth, silky looking skin, so I highly recommend it.

Last, but definitely not least, are these White Peppermint M&M's. Um, white chocolate and peppermint, do I really need to say more? I warn you now they are super addicting. You may or may not eat the whole bag in one sitting. I might have...

That does it for my favorites of the moment. Let me know what you're loving down below. Happy Weekend friends! XO

Also, I can't believe I didn't mention this sooner (I'm a mental case lately!) but if you're interested, head on over to Izzy's blog and read the Q&A she featured me in here! Love you Izzy! XX