After Work Touch-Up

Last Friday I went to happy hour straight from work and didn’t have time to run home to freshen up first. All I had to spruce up my face were the things I usually keep in my purse. So I took my Sonia Kashuk oil blotting sheets to cut down on shine, then used my Laura Mercier concealer pencil to touch up a few blemishes I had and finished it all off with a bit of my Maybelline Dream Matte powder. But what really made the difference was my Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment in Rose. I took a little of it on my finger and put it on the apples of my cheeks to brighten up my face. And of course I put a little on my lips which really brought the whole look together.

Sometimes it’s not the big things that make the most difference. I felt pretty crappy about my makeup by the end of the day and with just a few quick fixes I was able to turn it all around. I ended up feeling incredibly confident about my makeup when I walked in to happy hour.

What’s your quick tip to touch up your look?

Meagan

Hair Quick Tip

So it’s pretty much a no brainer that the less heat you put on your hair the less damaged it is going to be. That’s where showering at night comes into play. If you take your shower at night you can let your strands air dry without worrying about it taking too long. I know that this can cause some concern for people though. My hair will be so flat! It will be way too unruly and out of control!

These are common concerns and can definitely be problems to contend with when sleeping on wet hair. What I like to do to counteract this is to dry just the roots of my hair and leave the rest wet. This way I have added a bit of volume and dried it enough so that it won’t be a complete mess in the morning. I only spend about three to four minutes max drying my hair. I like to start by blasting the bangs and then flip my head over to get air into all of the roots more easily. Then I flip the hair on each side of my head over and dry with the hair dryer facing upward (this will be towards the ends of your hair since you have flipped it over your head). Then one more quick blast downwards to make sure it all falls in place and I’m done. Then I go to bed and style it in the morning.

I hope this helps someone out there who is never happy with their hair when air-drying. Sure it’s not quite as healthy, but it sure does beat drying your entire head. Have any of you done this before? Did you find it helped?

Meagan

What's In My Bag?

Oh Wow!!! How can one person possibly have so much stuff in one purse? I recently got this Marc by Marc Jacobs purse for my birthday. Before owning this I had been using a small cross-body purse for at least a year, so upgrading to a large bag again was a bit of a change. As you will see, I have fully embraced this purse now and stuff it full of everything. This bag is the Classic Q Lil Ukita bag and I absolutely love it. It really is perfect because you can carry it in the crook of your arm, wear it on your shoulder with the short strap or the long strap and use it as a cross-body. You can’t get much more versatile than that.

Okay, now on to everything I have inside my purse. Starting from the left: My camera case (which normally would have my camera inside, but obviously I needed to use it to take the picture), Jergens Hand Cream, hand sanitizer, Maybelline Dream Matte Powder, Sonia Kashuk blotting sheets, a Revlon mirror, my keycard for work, a Luna protein bar in Cookie Dough, Fresh Sugar Lip treatments in Rose and Clear, Revlon Lip Butter in Crème Brulee, a Laura Mercier concealer pencil and a few hair ties. And we’re not even done yet. I also have my planner, some pens, my phone, headphones, my keys, some business cards and that silver thing on the side is what I use to hold my credit cards and other store cards, drivers license, etc. I purchased it at White House Black Market.

Whew, that was a lot of stuff. I hope you liked seeing what all I have in my purse on a regular basis. I always like these posts from other bloggers. What do you keep in your purse? Do you have as much stuff as me?

Meagan

Bath & Body Works Candles

As I said in the last post, I have recently moved into a new apartment. So I of course had to buy some new candles. I know posting about candles is kind of ridiculous because it's not like you can smell them through the computer and I certainly can't describe the scents well. But let's continue on anyways.

I got two of the large 3 wick candles and two of the smaller 4 oz candles. I also got two tiny candles for $5. They were a bit of an impulse buy right by the checkout. These two are from the Paris collection they have out now. The French Baguette smells like fresh baked bread and the Sweet Macaron has a sweet almost floral scent to it. The rest are form the fall collection. It's time for Leaves again!!! Just like everyone else I am obsessed with this scent. It's got a spicy almost cider like smell to it and it's fabulous. I also got Pumpkin Caramel Latte which has a sweet pumpkin and caramel scent. The Salted Caramel smells just like caramel candy (I actually think this might be a year-round candle, but I could be wrong). And lastly, Creamy Pumpkin smells similar to the Pumpkin Caramel Latte, but less sweet. The ones that I purchased for the first time this year are the Pumpkin Caramel Latte, Sweet Macaron and French Baguette. I would say that the three I repurchased are still my favorites, though the others are quite nice too. If you haven't yet, you need to get over to Bath & Body Works ASAP. Their scents for fall are seriously the best.

What's your favorite fall scent?

Meagan

Life Update

Just wanted to check in today. I found a new apartment last weekend and will be moving in next weekend, so as you can imagine I've been crazy busy getting everything set up. All of this has left me with very little time to focus on my blog. Once I get settled in I should be back though (it will probably be a few weeks though). I will be so close to work and can't wait. At the moment I'm about 45 minutes away, though I won't actually have more time because I am going to start working longer hours as I have been given a salary position now instead of just doing contract work. I just made a small purchase at Sephora last night of a few skincare goodies, so keep your eyes peeled for a post. Again, it will be a while as I need to take care of other things right now and I would like some time to try them out, so I can tell you how I feel about them instead of just informing you of my purchases.

Hope you're having great things happening in your lives too! I'll talk to you all soon.
Meagan

Eye of the Day

Another eye of the day. At work yesterday I wore a really basic eye look. I had just a small amount of eye shadow on from my Sigma Bare Palette with a little cat eye. I wore Elope all over the lid up to the brow bone and then put a wash of Command on the lid up to the crease. I used a small amount of Act just in the crease and Approach on the inner corner. To do the cat eye I used Covergirl Liquiline Blast eyeliner in Black Fire, which I topped with Control. I used a really small Sonia Kashuk brush to do this. To make the flick of the cat eye I just made a soft line with the eyeliner out at an angle from the corner of the eye. It’s easiest to imagine the line extending up from the bottom lash line. It takes some practice, but once you get it down it's not that difficult. I'm wearing L'Oreal Power Collagen Mascara. 

Meagan

Eye of the Day

I wore some purple eye shadows the other day. I wanted to go with a soft look as usual because it feels more appropriate for work. I used two MAC eye shadows and one Bobbi Brown eye shadow. I put MAC Hypnotizing all over my lid and then used a small amount of the Bobbi Brown eye shadow in Black Plum on the outer corner of my lid. MAC Dalliance went on the inner corner (I believe this was limited edition). This look is pretty shimmery, but still a softer look that can be worn during the day. I think I used Urban Decay eyeliner in Rockstar that day to keep the purple theme going. I can’t remember what mascara I used. Sorry. 

Meagan

Oops! Self Tanner Fixes

I recently had a bit of self tanner build up issues that I needed to take care of. It gave me the idea to write this post. Whether you’re a regular user that hasn’t been keeping up with exfoliation like you should or you are new to applying self tanner and had a bit of an ‘oops’ moment during the application process, the process to fix the mistakes is the same. I have a few tips for you all depending on what exactly you’re looking for and they are all really cost effective.

1)    Scrub: Of course you knew this would be on here. I find this best if you have some small mistakes to fix, but nothing too intense. I personally like to use plain white sugar as a scrub when I’m in the shower. I like to use it as a make shift dry body scrub while my conditioner is in my hair. Obviously if you want to buy a scrub that’s fine (one I have used in the past was by KP Duty and it was a physical and chemical scrub), but making your own is far more cost effective. You can use plain white sugar like me, or something coarser like sea salt or raw sugar. The more coarse the more color it will take off. You can also put in things like lemon (the acid will help exfoliate) or some kind of oil. Oil can help get more color off in my experience, but I don’t like to use ones with oil if I’m going to be using tanner after my shower.

2)    Body Brush: I have talked about dry body brushing before and if you have some small problem areas to fix this would work well and would be a nice quick fix.

3)    Washcloth: This is my favorite way to get rid of streaking. I just take a washcloth into the shower with me and after I’ve been in for a bit, so my skin is nice and soft, I will take it and rub it all over my body focusing on the areas that I have buildup. This takes off a lot of color quickly and completely evens you out. I’ve found that the best kind of washcloth to use is one that’s really crap quite honestly. One that’s rough. This helps it to exfoliate better. I use ones that I purchased when I first went to college at Target. I got a 12 pack for $4 or $5 or something like that (I obviously can’t remember as that was about 5 years ago). But the really cheap ones actually work best.

4)    Bath: Sitting in a bath is a really great way to get off self-tanner. It helps soften your skin and you can really take advantage of being in the water for a bit of time by putting something in the water. You could put lemon or milk, as the acids would help the dead skin loosen up, or you could use Epsom salts. Obviously you would need to use a scrub or washcloth or something at the end to remove the loosened dead skin. I don’t really do this ever because I hate baths, but I have done it once in the past in a desperate moment and it worked quite well.

5)    Hot Tub: The last resort, obviously, as most of us don’t have regular access to hot tubs (or a pool). A hot tub is best because of the heat, but a regular pool can do a lot to remove tanner. The chlorine just really attacks the tanner. If you’ve ever worn self tanner and gone to the pool you will already know this, but be prepared for it to just remove everything. It won’t just even you out like the others do and you may still need to do some physical exfoliation afterwards to make sure it’s all gone. I had to mention this method though because it really does wonders.

I hope these tips can help you out the next time you’re in a bind. It can be really upsetting when your self-tanner messes up because it looks truly horrendous, so you have to remove the color, which if you’re applying self-tanner clearly being tan is what you were hoping to achieve, not being pale again. But sometimes you just have to suck it up and start over again.

Have a great day!

Meagan