Sorry for the post hiatus. Unfortunately when I get home from work it’s already dark and I haven’t liked any of the photos I’ve taken. Dang daylight savings time. So for the sake of posting, here is a doodle of me in the outfit I wore for work Saturday. I was excited because I had Sunday off. Sleepin’ in y’all.

I need to invest in some colored pencils because I suck at coloring in Photoshop.

She’s a crafty cool lady and if you go to her blog, you will be rewarded with pictures of her cute pup.

I am also toying with glitter fonts in Photoshop. I feel a new header brewing.

Like many things though, I got what I paid for. Onto the awkward close up photos of my mouth.

It's weird how much your mouth stops looking like a mouth when you're photographing it over and over.

The top left-hand photo is my naked lips. Nothing on em.

Top right-hand shows what they look like with the primer on them. When I applied it with the sponge tip applicator, it felt and looked like concealer. I don’t know why I thought it would be clear, but I was WRONG.  I waited awhile for it to set, but it never completely dried. I was worried that when I applied lipstick, it would affect the color of the lipstick, and…

I was right! Despite all of the reviews I read about lipstick color remaining true, mine was several shades lighter. In the bottom two photos, I’m wearing Chanel’s Rouge Allure Velvet in La Sensuelle. The bottom left-hand is with the primer, while the left-hand is the lipstick alone.

I tried the primer with a rosy nude color earlier at work because I was so excited, but the result was the same, plus I didn’t find it helped the color last longer.

Sorry to say, you are going back to Origins little buddy. I’ll probably pick up the Too Faced lip primer sometime this week instead. I use there Primed and Poreless foundation primer and love it, so hopefully their lip primer will be a winner too.

Here are all the goodies I received this month:

1.       C.O. Bigelow Lavender & Peppermint Shampoo and Conditioner

I just told you in my last post how much I loved the C.O. Bigelow lip balm that my friend Becca gave me, so I had high hopes for this set. It smelled really good in the bottles, but when I used it, the shampoo didn’t lather very well and it was all lavender and no mint. Don’t get me wrong. Lavender is a pleasant smell but it really overpowered the mint and me. The conditioner was decent. Same smell and it left my hair feeling pretty nice, but it wasn’t anything special. I read that this was originally a hotel shampoo & conditioner line that became so popular that they produced full size versions. I think hotel shampoo & conditioner is a very accurate way to describe the quality.

2.       Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy Fragrance

This has great top and middle notes—tops are wild berries & mandarin and middles are honeysuckle, gardenia & jasmine. It’s the bottom that throws me off a little. I’m not crazy about sandalwood and vanilla, but that’s the bottom notes. BUT I always need an extra mini for my make-up bag, so even though I probably won’t buy a full size, I’ll be wearing it from time to time.

 3.       A Birchbox magnet

Kind of self explanatory. It’s a nifty little magnet and I’m going to put it on my fridge to display the cute notes Mark has been leaving me as of late.

 4.       stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Purple Tang

I love this! It’s a full size and it really does stay put. I tried to smudge it a little bit and it wouldn’t budge even then. It’s a twist up so there’s no product loss with sharpening. The color is a dark purple, so it’s a gentle move into colored eye liner. I’ve almost always used black, brown or gray, so the idea of foraying into more dramatic colors was pretty daunting. Baby steps.

5.       Tay Safflower Seed Night Cream

I promise that I don’t just like it because it says Tay on it, but I can’t say that I didn’t wonder if they sent it personalize or something like that. Of course that’s just the brand name, but it smells nice and it’s really thick. I have very sensitive skin (dry/mild rosacea) that I keep under control with my Clairisonic Mia and very fancy moisturizers like Cetaphil (sarcasm). This has jojoba and safflower oil, and my skin did feel very soft and refreshed the next morning. If I could afford it, I’d love to pick up the full size, but at $112 a pop, this might be a temporary indulgence.

This month the top pieces were the Tay Safflower Seed Night Cream and the stila Smudge Stick waterproof Eye Liner.

I fully recommend trying out Birchbox if you have an extra $10 a month to spare. You can unsubscribe any time, they have a cool point system where you rate items and save up to get discounts, and you can personalize your profile so you get samples relevant to you. It’s a great way to try out samples of new products if you don’t have the budget to buy new beauty products all the time. (Oops, I went to link this image and it says they are currently on a wait list because they are so popular!)

I hear they are also working on a Birchbox for men, so that’ll be exciting. I got Mark the big Birchbox Men gift set for Christmas, and once he’s tried everything I’ll probably do a post on those as well.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

So I’ve picked out the ones I use the most and review them. I think I’ve hit a wall as far as collecting goes, and thinking this post out has actually helped me resolve to wait until I’ve finished most of these off before I pick up anymore.

Korres Lip Butter in Quince

This was a holy-moly product for me. I picked it up a few weeks ago after debating between them and the Revlon Lip Butters I’d been hearing so much about. So happy I spent a few more dollars and got the Korres. The sheer color is really lovely and it makes even my lips feel really soft. Not sticky or slippery. Just soft.  The only drawback for me is that it’s in a pot so I have to get my finger a little balmy and pink.

Fresh Lip Treatments & Lip Scrub

My love of Fresh started when I got that worn out little tube of Rosé. It feels silky and gives great sheer color. Any chance I had to pick up another one, I did. The Sugar Plum tinted treatment has a very sultry color that I love. It’s a nice brown/burgundy, and the color is buildable so if I don’t want to look ghostly, I can just swipe it over my lips, or if I’m feeling adventurous I can create a nice dark shade. I took it home over Christmas holiday and was constantly having to steal it back from my mom. It was a big hit with her too.

The brown tube has no color, but it still feels amazing  to me. I’ve heard from other people that it’s a little much for them, but my lips absorb moisture so fast that it’s perfect for what I need.  This one came in a little duo along with the lip scrub, and as much as I hate to say it, I was disappointed with the scrub. Before I bought this, I just used to mix a little bit of honey and brown sugar to exfoliate the dead skin bits off my lips, but I thought the Fresh one would get more of that off. It worked the same, but I always have honey and brown sugar in my pantry, and they don’t cost $22.50 for a full size. Sorry Fresh. This is your only missed shot with me.

Baby Lips by Maybelline

I have a thing for purple tinted lip balms apparently because my Baby Lips is also a subtle plum color. I’d love to pick up some more, but every time I’m at the store they are sold out. I guess that speaks to either the popularity of their product or the irresistibleness of their packaging. The tint isn’t as dark as my Fresh Sugar Plum, so it’s really nice when I want something a little less dramatic but still moisturizing. I’m not gonna lie though. I’ve always been creeped out by the name a little bit.

Burt’s Bees EVERYTHING for Lips

I only have the Hibiscus Tinted Lip Balm and the regular balm pictured here, but I love just about everything I’ve ever tried from them for lips. Whether it’s the original, their pomegranate or mango butter, I love them all. I have a spattering of their other body care products (some body lotion and cuticle cream) but when I think of Burt’s Bees, I think lips.

For the Hibiscus Tinted Lip Balm, I’ll admit they tricked me with their packaging. It’s the one in the big beautiful cardboard tube, so I thought it was going to be a chubby lip balm like the Fresh ones. Nope. It’s a regular tube of chapstick inside. My disappointment with the packaging didn’t last long though. It’s hydrating and has great color! I once tried their skinny little lip color/balm thing and it was drying and felt really odd, almost grainy. This is leagues beyond that. No annoying shimmer like some teeny bopper gloss. It’s just right. I haven’t bought any of the other colors, but this one is a good dupe for Fresh’s Rosé.

Chapstick

There’s a reason why people use the word chapstick to describe any lip balms that aren’t actually Chapstick brand. It’s like asking for a Kleenex instead of facial tissue or a Band-aid instead of an adhesive bandage. Chapstick, while it might not come in a glamorous tube or fancy colors, is a wonderful staple. I have three tubes floating around our apartment. I even planted one in Mark’s office so if I’m loitering in there I don’t have to walk all the way to our room (5 feet away ugh I’m so lazy) to get the one on my nightstand. My favorite flavors are Spearmint and Strawberry.

And that’s that! Sort of in a particular order, my favorite lip treatments. Of course there are several others that I also love that I didn’t mention, including this bombshell that my best friend Becca gave me the other day after I’d already started this post.

CO Bigelow Lemon & Blackberry Tinted Lip Balm: This tastes delicious and has a gorgeous berry tint that she thought was too dark for her but she knew I’d like because I’m a Goth kid on the inside. In my opinion it’s on par with Fresh’s Sugar Plum. It has rocked my lip balm centric world.

At the risk of abandoning all impulse control at the mere suggestion of a good lip balm, what are your favorite lip treatments?

Don't mind the mud. First day out and I stepped in about ten mud pits.

I’ve been after these since November, and with Christmas moolah came the resolve to finally get these suckers. I have a pair of black heels for work that are your run of the mill 3” black pump, but I’m wearing these today to see if I can get through a day without crying in pain or breaking my neck. I’m constantly going to the third floor and tramping across property for this that and the other, so these 5” monsters may or may not become a work staple, but so far they’re actually not killing me and they are adorable. So adorable that I got cat called walking in from my lunch break, but I made a mean face at them and they drove away. Creeps.

The bow back is my favorite thing and I’ve been looking for something that’s embellished but not tacky. Today I’m wearing them with black ASOS tights, black Express skirt and white Express blouse for the office, but I can’t wait to wear them out with some skinny jeans and the black flowy top I got from Langford Market for my birthday.

You can barely see my outfit underneath my jacket and scarf. It's finally getting cold again in North Texas.

Also, I finally put up my personalized banner! I embroidered that dumb thing until my hands ached (not because it was especially complicated but because I’m a bad embroider). Still, it feels nice to have something besides the standard text at the top. I’ll probably get tired of it and change it in a month knowing me, but for now I’m happy to look at it.

First big beauty review post to follow (very soon)!

Still working on some original content, but I just wanted to share this for anyone who isn’t subscribed to Refinery29. I originally subscribed to them through some third party sweepstakes and didn’t know what it even was, but now I look forward to the slideshows they send almost daily, as well as their fun deals and goodies (I got 2 Zoya nail polishes for the price of shipping through them).

I’ll definitely be trying the studded collar and the faux leather metallic one.

ALSO I’m going to try and make a proper banner and get this thing looking a little less cookie-cutter, so wish me luck!

This is my favorite picture from New Year’s of my boyfriend Mark and our friend Mark trying to get a three year old sparkler going. My Mark (on the right) only mildly burned his palm in the process.

I don’t normally make resolutions because I’ve never been able to keep one, but this year I’ve got three little ones that I think I can keep up with. If I can’t, then I’ll have to accept that I’m a loser.

New Year’s Resolutions:

• Drink more water. I love to hang out in water but I do a crap job of drinking the stuff, so I’ve always got dry chapped lips. I have an inkling that drinking more water will feel good overall, but right now chapped lips are my number one enemy.
• Exercise for 1 hour every week. I actually kept up with this for awhile last winter, but only because our apartment complex has a nice gym and we’d just moved in. After this past Texas summer, you couldn’t pay me to leave my apartment once I got home from work (where they pay me to show apartments in said 100+ degree temperatures).
• Read 25 books this year. I thought about doing a book a week but I’m just coming to terms with the fact that I’m an average to slow reader, so I halved it and shaved off one so I got a nice odd number. There are already three unread books on my nightstand holding up a photo, and I’m going to pick up Kafka on the Shore,  To the Lighthouse, and Tender is the Night sometime this week.

AND of course one of my unofficial resolutions is to really get to work on this blog. I finally got the new camera I’d been wanting for a few months, so I should be able to do proper beauty/personal/fashion posts. In the past year and a half or so I’ve become much more enthusiastic about beauty products and have acquired all sorts of neat products that I’d love to review.

So here’s to a new year and new found resolve to do things. Hopefully I’ll be back soon!

I’m going to link to mine and try to make an effort to update here more.

Poor thing.

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No matter what I do, the preview looks grainy. If you click on it, it looks clear and nice.

It feels really nice to have pencil smudges all over my hands and eraser bits all over my desk and carpet.