First Post - Love, Cosmetics, Boredom.

Hi everyone!

My boyfriend is out of town to MI for the next 2 weeks (he's already been out for one week) on a father/son hunting trip. I miss him A LOT - which explains my need to develop a blog for myself so that I do not go insane trying to talk to a two year old all day! So, this is just like a way to kind of talk out my concerns and excitement for life, maybe? Who knows. But here goes.

A little about me: I'm in the dental field, 22 years old, with a 2 year old son named Max. He's my whole world. When I'm not working or doing the mama thing, I'm usually with the love of my life, Chris! I have a thing for trying new makeup from the oh so wonderful YouTube makeup gurus (my fav is icallitambrosia...At first when I watched a video from her, she spent the entire time cursing and I was so surprised I almost flagged her video...just because I wasn't used to it and I spend all day every day trying to screen away from cursing for the oh so innocent mind of the two year old always around haha. But after watching a couple more videos, she is truly hilarious so if you haven't yet, CHECK OUT HER VIDEOS :). I also have a thing for dying my hair with henna (still kinda new for me), and finding ways to still manage a manicure while chasing a two year old.

A little about Chris: You're gonna hear about him a lot if you happen to read my blog more than once, guarantee it, no way around it. He is my best friend, my future husband, and the best father I could ever ask for for my son Max. I could probably write a novel on how much I love that man - but I'm pretty sure you'd fall in love too and then we'd have a problem! Moving on...

It's been a week exactly since my boyfriend of a year and a half, Chris!, left on his journey to MI. We spent that whole Saturday of him driving up and me sitting at home, trying to talk on the phone when he wasn't pumping gas and I wasn't in the shower. I ended up feeling very blah because I felt like I was sitting around all day waiting for a call, and waiting for the next call, and the next. I actually felt very annoyed at that fact - and much like a loser. So after about 13 hours of him driving, and us trying to fit in conversations, I finally told him he could just call me when he reached his parents house in MI. He only had about 2 hours left until he reached home anyways, and maybe I could find some use in folding laundry or whatever. Turns out, he never even called. His MOM called me to thank me for making her one of those poly deco mesh wreaths I picked up making from Pinterest, haha. Which, I mean, I thought was awesome, but I was expecting to hear from Chris.

The actual wreath I gave his mom! 

Fast-forward a week, I have spent the past week with no one to really talk to, and been a complete and utter insecure mess I hate to say. I kept thinking to myself all these bad thoughts of him cheating, and running into old flames in his hometown, having bad dreams about him cheating - ugh.

Talk about mentally exhausting. We actually had it out last night on the phone - me being a girl, I needed to hear him say how much he missed me instead of just saying "Oh yeah, I miss you too. But I've got to go" or something along those lines. And him being a guy, he figured he needed to be strong since I was already falling apart from missing him, and disguise how much he really missed me. Guys! If your girl misses you, and you kind blow her off and don't explain you really do wish you were in the same bed again kissing her....she, in her delicate frame of mind from long-distance-ness, might go a little nutty and decided you're with someone else at the moment or feel stupid for being the sensitive one who actually misses the other person. Either way, all girls like that emotion shown every once in a while. You don't have to start crying, you don't have to write gay poems, just return the emotion PLEASE. Thank you :).

Okay, so while Chris has been gone.......UGH. I have been catering to my NEED TO SHOP, NEED TO SHOP, NEED TO SHOP, side, and spoiling myself with hair depositing shampoo, makeup, etc. I also went crazy with my eyebrows :( and learned how to make them look good again even if they look a little shaved down haha. I can honestly say I've never been more excited to try this stuff, also! The products I HAVE tried and definitely recommend are in underlined font, underlined for convenience.

Shampoo - Okay, so I dye my hair with henna. I use Harvest Moon by Hennahut.com and they are fantastic, okay? I love their customer service, their fast delivery, the colors, etc. I actually can't chemically dye my hair anymore because my hair is so damaged, it won't even hold any permanent color anymore. But, I've also done that since I was 16, along with straightening my hair and all that - very damaging to thin, fine hair. Anyways, recently dyed my hair with both the burgundy henna and the red henna (red was a couple weeks after the burgundy to give it a more red feel). I was originally using the Riveting Reds by Quantum (sp?) for the color depositing my hair so desperately needs (according to my fav Youtube gurus). But I soon found that this shampoo was stripping out as much color and it put in...which surprised me at first because this shampoo actually has "henna" in the ingredients. And then I saw it...SULFATE. Horrible word to find in the ingredients list of a color depositing shampoo. SUPER long story short, I found this new shampoo, TRESSA WATERCOLORS.
 I've got both the Fluid Fire and Crimson Splash shampoos. I research all my reviews on Amazon before I buy - mainly because I'm kind of new to the beauty world in re: to cosmetics and what not. Anyways, Fluid Fire got a lot of rap for it's tendency to turn hair pink - but the product description was just what I wanted. So, more research gave me a Youtube video actually BY Tressa for the Watercolors shampoo - one of the examples in their video was red hair, and they used a combination of both the fluid fire and crimson splash - color result: AMAZING. Just what I have been looking for. So, I purchased both. Now, I'm a little skeptical about the Fluid Fire turning anyone's hair pink given the description of the shampoo is for mainly medium shades of red. So I first tried the Fluid Fire, and bam - perfect result. I do not condition my hair because of the alcohol in conditioner, which can strip more color from my precious henna head now. Instead, I'll do weekly coconut oil hair treatments -- just take a glob of coconut oil, rub it between your hand to liquefy, spread on hair from scalp to ends, cover with a hair cap, and leave on for 20 minutes or overnight, and shampoo in the morning. Amazing results :)

Okay, so I can do separate blogs for my hair care routine later, because a lot of work goes into red hair. If you've got red, you know what I'm talking about.

Eyebrows -- I purchased the ELF Studio Treat & Tame for eyebrows, and the Wet and Wild Ultimate Eyebrow Kit in Ash Brown after watching a Youtube guru (okay, so I'm not all that original in my cosmetic choices, deal with it) on how to obtain perfect eyebrows. Here's the link in case you're wondering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M-0Jcq-gbU . Now, the Elf studio Treat and Tame - we won't even go into, because I bought this from Amazon and when it came in the mail the "Tame" brown part actually looked with it had been used because the sides of the tube looked scraped clean of product. So, I advise you to find this in your local beauty store, maybe Target - I know they carry a lot of ELF products. I have really used it considering the quality of the product I received and only God knows who used it before me....disgusting! As for the Wet and Wild Ultimate Eyebrow Kit in Dark - amazing! This youtube guru in her video explains that this isn't really "dark" per se. I normally have VERY light brown, almost blonde is most areas. I really had not noticed how light my eyebrows were until just recently! Talk about embarrassing in photos :( . So, when I read about how to properly trim my eyebrows. So, away I went to trim my eyebrows...when I realized all my eyebrow hairs were long and thin. So I had been plucking, plucking, plucking away hairs for YEARS instead of trimming. No WONDER my eyebrows never looked "right". So, I watched this video, purchased a normal "medium brown" eyebrow pencil to pencil in the invisible hairs and create a natural looking eyebrow, and filled in the rest with this eyebrow kit from Wet and Wild. My eyebrows have taken some serious getting used to because of how dark they look to me, but I'm beginning to grow very fond of them. They look natural! She has some great tips in there too, about putting the darker eyebrow shadow towards the ends of your brow so they don't wash out in pictures!

At night, I take off all my makeup, wash my face completely, and put some olive oil on a makeup sponge and apply to my brows liberally. I haven't noticed any breakouts, and my eyebrows seem to already have started to grow back. I'm so excited to actually grow them back correctly.

On to COSMETICS!!

THE BALM Blush -- I've purchased both "Down Boy" and "Hot Mama" blush from The Balm. I have never worn blush, due to the fact I have always hated the little bit of ruddy complexion I have, plus freckles. But, as this boring week has gone on, I'm realizing that trying out some blush might not be so bad! :) I will definitely do a review on these products after having received them of course! I (as mentioned about ten time already!) do a lot of research and read reviews before I decide on what to purchase when it comes to cosmetics. Down Boy is a very blossomy pink color, whereas Hot Mama is a more rosy color. I wasn't sure which one I'd like better on my skin, with this being my first blush purchase. I've actually heard a lot of Youtube gurus comparing these blushes to Nars.


The Balm Bronzer -- Bahama Mama. I am really interested in bronzer because of a girl I work with, Bridget. She wear bronzer and blush and looks very radiant almost every day! So, she's my inspiration. I haven't gotten the chance to ask her what kind of bronzer she uses but it definitely gave me something to do. I almost purchased the "Nars" Laguna bronzer but was very turned off by the thought of having to pay $32.00 on amazon for it! No thank you. So, when I found this company's blush, I happened upon their bronzer too! I watched a million youtube reviews on the products. The most helpful in deciding was this video by a woman named Autumn : (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-xSqvQL1jo ). She goes into detail about all the products she purchased and what works well, what doesn't, etc. It's kind of long, about 23 minutes I think, but I kinda breezed through the eye shadows and all since I haven't even broadened my horizons that far!

The Balm Tinted Moisturizer -- Balm Shelter in Light with SPF18. I currently use the Loreal BB Cream "Magic Skin Beautifier" in Light. I purchased this with recommendation from Bridget, again, and before I actually started any real review research. Most of the reviews on this BB cream state, the Light shade especially, gave them a orange GLOW. I spread this cream on very thin and haven't noticed really any problem besides if there's a spot I haven't really rubbed in then there's that orange. But really, if used PROPERLY, no problems. But, I read the reviews and everyone seems to be in love with this. Also, I wanted a tinted moisturizer with SPF...super important. So while this is almost 3x as much as the drugstore BB cream Loreal Magic Skin Beautifier at around $8.00 (link in this blog is to amazon, where I think it's listed a little more than that but whatever)....I hope those reviews are right and I'll find that SPF handy! :) Also, The Balm tinted moisturizer is 1.5x more product as the Loreal BB cream - talk about worth a try. I went ahead and got the tinted moisturizer in the Light shade as well - that IS the lightest shade they have which makes me a little nervous but if not, I can just get the next one up - Light/Medium.


Anyways, I'm super excited to try The Balm products!!! Thanks for reading :)

-CW

Editor's Note: I am in no way compensated or sponsored to promote or inaccurately review any products included in this blog, these reviews, recommendations, etc, are all genuine reviews and my honest (personal) opinion.