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. 

Pregnancy update

Here's a quick little update on my pregnancy, I'm currently 35w4d along which is so crazy, my due date is exactly 1 month from today. I kind of hope to go a week or two early though because quite frankly I'm tired of being pregnant, which I know is bad to say, I know how lucky I am to have been pregnant and have things have gone fairly smooth so far. I basically live off naps now, longest stretch I can sleep is about 90 minutes. When I'm awake if I make it 45 minutes between pees then I'm doing good. my back pain has also gotten extremely bad, to the point I can't even sweep my living room without being in severe pain. Also the past two weeks I've been having severe groin aches/soreness, which basically makes walking/bending/moving nearly impossible. All in all I am in pretty rough shape haha, I also look like a small whale so as I said I'm pretty excited to meet my little guy and no longer be pregnant.

Heres the newest picture of the belly that I have, being so large doesn't make me want to take pictures much anymore, this was takes about 2 weeks ago.

Avon Mega effects mascara

Hello everyone, long time no speak! I apologize for the long unexpected hiatus, we had some computer and internet issues so all I had was my phone and thats not the best way to write blog posts. I have a couple pre written posts so over the next few days I'll get those put up and caught up with everything thats been going on.

Today's post is about a beauty product, I received this in my Topbox  couple months ago but never touched it until today. I have heard and seen this around for quite some time and while it always intrigued me because of how different it was I really was in no hurry to actually try it myself because I was quite skeptical about it.

Today was a very simple makeup day basically foundation and mascara so I figured it would be as good a day as any to give this product a try, and I'm glad I waited for a day like today.

 I found the formulation to be very wet which therefore meant I ended up with a decent amount of product on my eyelids, it was easy to clean up but definitely would have been a pain if I had done full eye makeup. the bush its self does a good job of coating your lashes in basically one sweep over them, I basically just held it up close to my eyelash base and blinked and it pretty well had them covered.

It does a decent job of holding my curl, I've only been wearing it a few hours but it seems to hold up better then some other non waterproof mascaras that I have tried. All in all I don't mind this product, it could get better after a few more uses when it starts to dry up a bit because the messy ness to it was really the main downfall.

Baby bump & Puppy birthday!

Yesterday, October 21st, was our wonderful dogs second birthday. I kind of make a big deal out of it for him, I know he has no idea why its any different from any other day, but he's my baby and I like to spoil him any chance I can. I had the day off yesterday so I picked him up a few new treats and made sure he got to play outside lots and just generally have a good day. I also made sure to snap a few pictures so I'll add them in here.

Isn't he just precious <3

Yesterday also marked my 28th week, which is crazy! I know I say that all the time but it really is amazing and scary how quickly the weeks are flying by now. As each week progresses I get more and more uncomfortable, which I know is to be expected. I officially have a little less then 3 weeks left of work which excites me. Getting little or no sleep when I don;t need to be at work by 7:30 in the morning will be slightly more manageable.

I predict that we will have a soccer player because boy does he ever like to kick now! Its such a cool an amazing thing to be able to feel him moving around in there all the time. There's really hasn't been too many more things going on this past week, just lots of the same. People are also predicting a fairly large sized baby, which I can't help but agree with!

27 week update!

Being pregnant really makes you realize how quickly time really goes by, we only have 13 more weeks until we get to meet our little man! Were into the double digits in out countdown, 94 to be exact, and getting to that point where were getting anxious for him to get here.

Nothing too much has changed or happened since my last update, just a lot of the same. I think some swelling is starting to set in, I took off my rings as a precaution because they were starting to get snug. I also wore a pair of flats today that I haven't wore in a few months and they felt a bit more snug as well.  I also find lots of little everyday chores becoming more difficult as each day passes, as well as I get more tired and sore it seems as each day goes by.

I also had originally planned on working until the first week into December but that plan has now changed,I think November 1st is going to be my last day. I'm on my feet all day and have some physical tasks I need to do so its just getting to be too tough especially when I hardly get any sleep at night, so I don't have much time left until I'll be home a lot more.

As usual to finish this little post off a new belly picture, I'm still expending quite a bit!

October Topbox!

Hey everyone, sorry I'm a couple days lagte with this one but here is what I recieved for my October topbox:

Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micelle Solution- Gently cleanses face and eyes and removes water resistant makeup in one simple step.

Caudalie Hand and nail cream- Moisturization, softness and youth all combined in this anti-oxidant cream made from orange pulp for silky-smooth and protected hands. Leaves no greasy film.

L'Occitane Immortal precious eye balm- A light daily balm with proven firming benefits for the eye contour. Dark circles and puffiness are less visible.

Skyn Iceland Pure cloud cream with Arctic berries and Peptides- Light as air daily moisturizing cream to hydrate,soothe and protect severely dry, sensitive skin.


I'll admit the only product here I knew about before hand was the Bioderma, and it is amazing. It's a bit pricey so it's not something I have around all the time but it truely does work wonders and worth the price tag!  The other products here all seem like they could be really good. I have heard of Caudalie products before and a lot of people seem to love them so excited to try the hand cream. What did you all get?

September favorites!

Alright it's that time again, September favorites! I had my camera around this time so the pictures are better!

Rimmel Wake me up & Revlon Nearly naked foundation: These are my 2 go to foundations for everyday use, I can use them separately or sometimes will mix them together depending on what sort of finish I am going for. This is my second bottle of the Nearly Naked in less then a year ans for me that says a lot as I hardly ever actually finish a foundation.

Maybelline Dream Lumi touch concealer: I go through phases with this mainly because its not something I use all the time but it works wonders for brightening up the under eye area. I don't get much sleep these days so I reach for this product more often and love it, blends great too.

Hard Candy bronzer in Tiki: This is a bronzer but I personally use it as an all over the cheek highlighter for days where I want to skip the blush and just give my face more of a glow. In the summer when I have more of a tan I will just use it as a regular highlighter. It just you a nice warm golden look to your face and really helps brighten your whole face up.

Dior Shimmer powder in Rose Diamond: The picture doesn't do this product justice the is more of a color range from a highlight shade to a deeper pink/rose color. I find myself reaching for this product a lot lately, its a perfect one step product, it works are your blush and highlighter. I take my brush and swirl all the colors together usually to get a lovely pink/rose colors glow on the cheeks.

Wet N Wild eye shadow palette in Comfort Zone: This is a perfect no fuss palette for everyday use, has a lot of great variety and the colors are super pigmented and its really cheap, you can't go wrong!

Smiths Rosebud salve: This is my favorite go to lip balm, I always make sure to use it at night before bed and it keeps your lips super moisturized!

Lastly a random favorite, Slatkin & Co candle in Leaves: This is my absolute favorite fall candle, it smells amazing! Its described as "rich blend of golden nectar, red apple and spiced berries". I love a lot of Slatkin & Co candles but I love when the weather starts to cool down and I can whip this one out, makes the house feel so cozy!

Thanks for reading, what were some of your favorites?

25 week update!

Hey everyone, its that time again! New baby bump picture:

I'm now at 25 weeks and only 15 more to go! It's crazy how quickly the weeks are going by now! As the weeks go on the sleep disappears more and more, on average most nights I'm up 4-6 times to use the washroom, and I also find it insanely hot basically every night even when I shouldn't be so that also makes sleep more difficult. The back pain is also getting  a lot more frequent which definitely sucks too. On the brighter side of things he's getting quite active in there, he was a late bloomer as far as movement and kicking went but he does it a lot more now which is pretty awesome to experience.

Definitely starting to notice the weight gain more and more though, I would say within the next day or so I'll have to take off my wedding rings as they are starting to get pretty snug, that saddens me, in almost 2 years I've never had them off longer then to clean them. I can also notice it in my face as well, it's starting to get a bit chubby

And a final little note, I went to do some shopping with the hubby and my mom today and came home with some goodies for the little fella, can't wait to get the room all put together!

*Maternity* shopping

Ever since I started showing the one thing I wasn't looking forward to doing was going maternity clothes shopping. We have very little selection here, basically to get anything that looks half decently nice it's going to cost you an arm and a leg. To this day I only own 2 items that are actually maternity, one shirt and one pair of jeans. My every day attire is usually some yoga pants and a shirt, its comfy and most importantly affordable. All my pants from before, that aren't jeans, still fit so I've just had to get some new shirt. I usually wear a medium or sometimes large in shirt just depending on the material so now I'm just buying larges or extra larges and its been working just fine.

I'm currently on the hunt for a nice sweater and jacket for fall and winter and am having no luck finding anything I like that is at least some what affordable. Today I stopped in at Old Navy to have another peek around and while I didn't find what I was looking for I did grab a couple more shirts that I liked and I think they were all on sale which was a nice bonus too!

I got all 4 of these for a little under $40 Canadian, so I think I did pretty well today! I\m excited to have a bit more variety now with my everyday shirts.  If you guys have any favorite places for maternity shopping please let me know! 

24 week update!

I can't believe how fast the time is going by, I thought for sure when we first found out that it would take forever  for January to get here but I'm already 24 weeks! I can't believe in just under 4 months I get to meet my little man.

I've been feeling pretty good since my last update, been doing less physical stuff at work which has been helping with my back pain. It's definitely still there almost all the time but it's much more manageable. I still hardly sleep at night, I get 1-2 nights a week where I sleep semi-decent but thats about it. It makes for a lot of napping now, its about the only way I can continue to function. I also am curious as to how I'll ever be able to go anywhere in a few weeks time because all I do is pee! I'm hoping it doesn't get a whole lot worse it i'll have to move into my bathroom haha. Oh and the most exciting this is he's finally getting active! Compared to what I've heard from other and read he definitely is still on the calm and quiet side I only get a few random kicks a few times a day, and today was the first time he kicked hard enough for Ryan to feel, that was pretty exciting!

To finish up the belly shot, as you can see I'm growing quite a bit, I'm scared to see how big i'll be at the end!

"Chatelaine" Topbox!

Hey guys! Today's post is going to be an "unboxing" of sorts, I received this months Topbox last night and figured I would write a post about that today. This month was a special edition "Chatelaine" box. The actual tube its self was so pretty, I loved it.

These are the contents of the tube:

As you can see I received a Chatelaine magazine, Zyderma HS skin cleanser, Redken diamond oil shampoo and conditioner, Katy Perry's perfume "Killer Queen", Cover FX matte setting powder in light and Benefit the porefessional primer. 

Zyderma HS antimicrobial skin Cleanser: A skin stabilizing formula for blemished and sensitive skin that helps to promote the skin’s own natural healing process, regulate skin flora, reduce harmful bacteria and relieve dry skin

Redken Diamond oil Shampoo and Conditioner: Redken's Diamond Oil Shampoo/Conditioner is oil enriched care for dull/damaged hair. Rich, nourishing foam gently cleanses, helps strengthen strands to help prevent breakage, and provides durable shine that lasts until the next wash.

Katy Perry's perfume "Killer Queen" : Top notes include wild berries, dark plum and bergamot accords. The main note of the heart is velvety red flower (Celosia), but there are also Sambac jasmine and rainbow plumeria. The base contains cashmere, patchouli and liquid praline.

Cover FX matte setting powder: This loose setting powder is rich in healthy ingredients that soothe, minimize shine, and extend foundation wear to last all day

Benefit Porefessional primer: Quickly minimize the appearance of pores and fine lines and help makeup stay put with this priming phenomenon. The silky and lightweight formula can be worn under makeup to create a smoother-than-smooth canvas or used throughout the day to mattify shine and touch up problem areas. It’s so translucent, no one will know you’re wearing anything


The only product in this tube I had previously tried was Benefits porefessional, I have had a sample size tube of this before and I do really like the results, I usually only put a bit around my nose area and chin because thats where I have the most visible pores and it definitely helps to hide them. Since receiving this I have also worn the perfume twice and I must say I do really like this scent, something I would definitely consider purchasing. 

Bump update

Today marks 22 weeks! It's hard to believe I only have 18 weeks left, theres some days it feels like Ive already been pregnant forever but when I actually stop to think about it, there not much time left. I'm definitely getting to this almost everything is uncomfortable and hard to do stage. Sleeping is mostly non existent already, I wake up about 3-5 times to pee and I was always a stomach sleeper so sleeping on my sides is not very comfortable and I wake up sore and stuff.  I pretty much spend about 85% of the day sore and in pain, and even worse when I've worked all day. Oh well, I really shouldn't be complaining too much, this really the worst it's been so far so thats not bad at all.

Other side note, I definitely need to invest in some new clothes, I only bought about 4 new shirts that were 1 size larger since I started getting the bump and needless to day that just isn't cutting it even more haha. Even my yoga pants are starting to get tight. I'm going to have my work cut out for me when it comes to loosing the baby weight!

Throw back Thursday

Today I wanted to squeeze in a little blog post so I figured I would do a quick little throw back Thursday. These are posts you mainly see on instagram and I love posting them and looking at other peoples.

This picture was taken in November 2009, it was only a month after Ryan and I became an official couple, we were going out to a dinner with some friends to celebrate my 20th birthday. I love looking back to this picture and remember what it was like to be newly in love, yes we had said I love you to each other by this point, it was just such a happy and wonderful feeling. It;s funny to look back to almost 4 years ago and see how much we've changed and how much our relationship has grown. 

A side note to this picture as well is this is basically my goal weight for after I have the baby. I was nearly back to it before I found out I was pregnant and am now obviously far away from it haha. This is pretty close to my lowest weight I ever was and would love to be back in that range by this time next year. 

August favorites!

Just wanted to make a quick beauty related post! This is a quick and simple favorites type post, a lot of beauty guru's on youtube make monthly videos and talk about their favorite products of the month, so I'm just going to post a picture of my favorites and talk a little about each one.
 
-Benefit 15 hour primer. This is a stick form primer and has because quite popular these past few months. I bought mine at the beginning of August and use it any day that I'm going to be wearing make up for an extensive period of time. It really does work well, even during some of the hottest days when I've sweated more then I like to admit it held up really good. 
 
-Revlon nearly naked foundation. This isn't a new product, I've been using it and loving it for months now and am just getting ready to start my second bottle of it. It is the perfect light weight foundation that still provides a good medium coverage without feeling cakey. 

-Rimmel apocalips in celestial & Rimmel Kate Moss lipstick in #17. These two lip products paired together give me the perfect my lips but better look! The lipstick is nice and smooth and isn't drying and the lip gloss is so pigmented and not sticky, I love them together. 

-Sigma F82. The round kabuki brush is definitely my go to foundation brush, has been for months since I got it.

- Milani shadow eyez in champagne toast, love this as my eye shadow base. Its the perfect champagne color and so pigmented, my go to base if I want something with shimmer for a neutral look.

-Wet n wild eye shadow trio in walking on egg shells, love this trio for a quick look, the colors look and blend together flawlessly. For how cheap these are it never ceases to amaze me how amazing these eye shadows are. 

-Kat Von D blush in por vida. This is a warm bright pink blush. It has amazing pigment and pay off, you only need a little bit to go a long way. It is a very long wearing blush and I find myself reaching for it quite frequently. 

I apologize for the poor picture quality, don't have my camera with me today and had to make do with my phone in poor lighting.