Maybelline Creamy Matte lipsticks

I just needed to make a quick post to share my love of the Maybelline creamy Matte lipsticks, I know I'm a bit late to the party with these but we almost always get new products later then most places which sucks. I finally bought one a few days ago (lust for blush) and had to go back for a couple more. I got all the ones I really wanted, but I might end up with a couple more yet just because I love the formulation so much.

I'm not a huge lipstick person, I use a lot of chubby stick type products because they're quick and easy and don't require a whole lot of effort. These go on so easy and smoothly it doesn't even feel like Im applying a lipstick especially not a matte one. They're super comfortable on the lips and have pretty good staying power, I can go about 4 hours before I need to touch up.

Daringly Nude, Touch of Spice, Lust for Blush and Mesmerizing Magenta 

De-cluttering!

Every year around this time I seem to go on a cleaning kick, last year it was major because I had some serious nesting going on. As you can imagine since becoming a new mom I may have slacked a bit with keeping the place tidy. I will admit I'm a bit of a hoarder with certain things I always think well I might need it sometime. I usually never do need it, and I throw it out eventually anyways. I like to do it this time of year because I really like having a nice clean house for the holidays and I usually do it gradually over a few weeks. This week I've started with some de-clutter and throwing away old products or just rid of things we just don't need or use. I thought it might be kind of fun to share some of that, mainly as I go through my makeup/beauty related products, I'm sure you don't care about all my other junk.

Today I started with my "vanity" which is just and old desk that needs a makeover in the worst way. This post is y top drawer, which holds my blushes ,highlighters, powders and eye bases. I also want to add yes I have a lot of makeup, much more then probably the average person. I've been "collecting" for about 4ish years so it has added up. I also don't buy or wear it nearly as much anymore, mainly because I'm still home on maternity leave so there's definitely stuff in here that can go.

Before picture (sorry about the quality of photos I only had my phone handy)

As you can see it has gotten a little messy and unorganized but it isn't too bad. I actually love and use quite a lot of these products.

After picture:

Not much difference right? Turns out I have a lot of these products that I just couldn't part with, I did get rid of a few (pictured below). Blushes and highlighters are my weakness I will admit, but it is more organized and clean now so I'm happy with that.

Here is a picture of the products I parted with:

Elf blush- I hardly ever wore this shade and it pretty old so I didn't need to keep this.
 Revlon nearly naked powder- Not my shade for this time of year
2 Maybelline color tattoo's- Both are nearly completely dried out
Nyx creme blush- dried out
MAC creme blush- this is at least 4 years old so very much so dried out
Urban Decay cream highlighter- to creamy/liquidy and not much color pay off and slightly too dark for my skin
Sephora creme blush- Never liked this, its way too shimmery and almost glitter like and following the trend it is also pretty dry.

There you have it, first part of my make-up de-clutttering, I will have another post up soon!

Free Samples!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to make a quick post about this sample box I received the other day. It is from sample source,(www.samplesource.com)  I don't know all the exact details of the site I know they only send out one box per household per offer period but I'm unsure how many offer periods they hold per year, if anyone knows please let me know!


These are all the products I received :

I had tried about 80% of these products before I received this, but come on who doesn't love some free stuff.

I randomly broke the items into groups to take closer up pictures, there's no real order to them. Out of this group the Biore strips is the only thing I had previously tried and really like. I have tried other John Frieda products before but never shampoo or conditioner so I'm interested to see how I like them.

These are pretty simple standard products that everyone uses. I must say my husband was pretty excited that he got a new razor.

Lastly, the food group. I have had everything before except the Dark chocolate Acai blueberry things, which I must say were actually pretty tasty. 

I don't think everyone gets all the same stuff before you do answer questions before hand so its kind of to your taste, but I'm impressed and happy with what I got. It only took about 3 weeks to arrive from when I ordered it even though they tell you it will be 4-6 weeks so it was nice getting it early. It takes about 5 minutes to take the survey and fill out your info, so really thats nothing to get yourself some free stuff. 

 

Hello again!

Hey everyone! As I'm sure you've noticed I have been absent for quite some time now, and I admit it wasn't intentional. As you know I was due to have my baby in January and I did, Jaxon Ryan was born on January 11th 2014. Labour and delivery were extremely difficult and due to that I had a longer then expected recovery. It took quite sometime to really get into a routine and have a grasp on what I was doing so I knew I wouldn't be blogger for a little while but I had planned on returning by summer, and it is now nearing November, oops.

I have A LOT of ideas for upcoming blog posts and I now have some extra free time to actually get them done. I plan on spending more time re vamping the blog and I'm going to try and aim for 2 new posts per week. I've got some new skincare and make up products to talk about, obviously some baby related topics and just a few random ones. I'm hoping to get an additional post up later today/tomorrow morning at the latest!

New year, fresh start!

Now that it's that time of year again, which is so hard to believe, I figured it would be a good time to make  a post about my goals/resolutions for the new year. I have a good feeling that 2014 is going to be pretty awesome. 

1.  I think everyone says this every January 1st but getting back into shape is a big priority for me this year. I was having such a good year last year from January to May, I had lost about 13 pounds and close to 30 inches and was feeling really good.I was developing good eating habits and getting a lot stronger. I've gained a large amount of weight with this pregnancy, which looking back even though I was unable to exercise I made a lot of poor decisions with food. There's nothing I can do about it now, and my due date is in 2 weeks so after that I'll be able to get back into it full force.

I want to be back to my pre pregnancy weight by the summer, and then hopefully be down an additional 10-15 before the year is done. Weight isn't the number one factor for me, I like to go by inches lost and how I look/feel so those are really just some loose guidelines.

2.  I want to really put more effort into my photography this year. About 1.5 years ago I decided I wanted photography to be more then an occasional hobby for me, I invested in a fairly decent camera and a couple lens and started doing some shoots here and there. Unfortunately my actual job and life got in the way and I wasn't able to put the time or effort into improving into like I wanted to. This year since I'll be on maternity leave and will have an adorable new subject to shoot at home I want to really work on the more technical parts to it and get back into what I love.

3.  This isn't really a resolution more so a pact with myself but I want to make sure I'm a good parent. When I was growing up my parents weren't the most hands on, do activities together sort of people. I want to have a good close relationship with my children. I want to spend time outside and together as a family doing fun activities and just making sure I am there for him.

What are your resolutions/goals for the new year? Id love to hear about them

Maybelline Master Hi-light blush

Hey everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I had wanted to get this post up before the holidays but we were just too busy so here it is now instead.

I picked the Maybelline Master Hi-light blush in nude up about 10 days ago, and I've been using it pretty well everyday since just to get a good feel for what I thought about it. I wanted to get more shades of these to try but they were pretty expensive for a drugstore product I though, I paid $12.99. I'm sure more will make its way into my collection at some point though.

The packaging is pretty standard, the product is on top and underneath there is a mirror and a little brush which could come in handy for travel. I'm personally not a fan of the brush it comes with but it could do if you were in a pinch.

I was actually pretty impressed with this product.I went with the shade nude because I figured it would be the most versatile and easiest to work with especially if I ended up not liking it. It does as it says it is a highlighting blush, it leaves a very obvious sheen to your cheeks. You definitely would not want to use a separate highlighter with this product. I do however find it a little sheer when it comes to the blush application, you needs couple well blended layers for it to be really noticeable. a good way to use it is put a little but of a matte colored blush on your cheeks first then top up with this and it gives a beautiful look to your cheeks.

Overall I'd recommend trying this product, and I look forward to trying another color.

Look at the Nursery!

Hey everyone, I thought for today I would post a few pictures of the baby's nursery. Its still a bit of a work in progress as I always seem to change little things around but it's basically set up the way it will stay. I took these pictures after our second baby shower and a few days before our third and final one. We we very fortunate and got a lot of great stuff from our family and friends, almost to the point where we got too much, the room is quite cluttered for the most part. Thankfully I got these pictures taken before it got extra cluttered. The room is on the smaller side unfortunately but these pictures make it look even smaller just because of how its layed out its really had to get decent pictures.


Here's a little before picture just to give you an idea what it looked like before we found out we were having a baby.

Here are a couple after shots:

We have his name put above his crib and also a train set of block letters spelling out his name on top of his dresser but I blocked them out of these pictures because we aren't announcing his name until after he is born, well with the exception of a few family members. Also were still looking for curtains that we like so these old not so pretty ones are just temporary. I didn't take a picture of the closet because thats where I'm keeping some extra clutter right now.