As most of you know, there has been a unicorn trend on the rise in the past year. I've seen it everywhere from recipes on unicorn hot chocolate and cakes that look oh so yummy, to clothing such as LuLaRoe where if you have a special pattern you love, it's called your "unicorn".
This colorful trends has really been messing with my little girl, fairytale days and I can't help but feel nostalgic as well as giddy over it. My sister and fellow blogger Swiss Missus, got me my first unicorn item for my birthday coming up and I cannot wait. These are the UnicHorn brushes by Sugar & Cotton. Look at how pretty these colorful bristles are!!! I can't wait to try them.
Just as I couldn't get anymore excited, Tarte came out with a spring release of their own unicorn makeup brushes and palatte and my jaw hit the floor. I have to have it all. Check out their version of brushes with gold handles! This is a 5 brush set with a powder brush, contour brush, liquid foundation brush, crease brush and eyeshadow brush. Perfect for the latest trends in applying a full face of makeup.
They also came out with a stunning eyeshadow palette, highlighter, 2 matte glosses and a rose gold liquid liner. (All pictured below) Each product was so thought out and is so gorgeous and fun for Spring! So shop on Tarte's website now or get out to Sephora as soon as possible because these are limited edition items and I'm sure they'll sell out soon because they are too beautiful!
I'm so inspired by such a fun and colorful trend and I hope you are too. You can now follow me on Twitter to see more fun things from me.
On February 2nd, 2016 my husband and I welcomed our firstborn son, Adrian Alexander, into the world. I'm still getting used to calling myself a mother, let alone getting used to figuring out a whole new routine and new chapter of my life. The older I've gotten, I'll admit, the less effort I've put into making myself up but I do still LOVE makeup, trying new products, and reviewing the things I do try. I love putting makeup on friends and family, and REALLY enjoy when I have a good half hour to spend alone being creative on my own self. Now that I'm a new mom I've caught myself in the mirror several times looking almost frumpy and I've tried to think of things I could do for myself while I'm home with my son to still make me feel good about myself and not completely unkempt. It's more for my own self than anyone else. With a newborn, most days are spent at home being completely consumed by taking care of the baby. For all you moms out there, you know how quickly your life can go from being all about doing whatever you want to, to running around taking care of your family with little time for yourself. For those of you who are looking for ways to still take care of yourself, while taking care of baby this is for you. It's all about balance. I put these in order of what I find most crucial for myself to feel better during the day. Hopefully some of these make you feel good too! 1.) Scrub a Dub- Ask you partner, a friend or family member to come and help you out for 20 minutes so you can get a shower or a nice bath in. I have found that this alone makes me feel 1,000 times better. My son is only 5 weeks old but I have been spit up on, peed on and pooed on many times already so just a simple shower feels like a relief. People always forewarned me that it'd be so hard to shower when a baby came and I used to think they were crazy. They aren't. 2.) Skincare- when I'm able to squeeze in a quick shower, I like to quickly wash my face with Noxema and as soon as I get out of the shower I quickly put on one pump of my Shiseido Ibuki Protective Moisterizer SPF 15 and my Shiseido Eye Contour Cream. 3.) H2O- I recommend filling a large water bottle to keep with you all day or just to keep filling up water, the more hydrated you are, the more awake you are and if you're chugging lots of coffee, like I've been, coffee only dehydrates you so you'll need to replenish. 4.) Chapstick- I love my Pomegranite Burt's Bee's lip balm because I have found my lips to be much more chapped since I've had my baby. I keep one right by my bed so when I wake up in the middle of the night to feed the baby, I can swipe some on before we both go back to sleep so my lips can restore over night. I also love vaseline as well for my lips. 5.) Lotion- keep a big bottle of lotion around so that when you have a minute and are sitting on the couch you can give yourself a quick rub down from head to toe. I really like Cetaphil lotion. 6.) Perfume- Every day that I left for work prior to the baby, I always spritzed some perfume on. For some reason spraying perfume on myself seems like a great way to finalize my whole look for the day and makes me feel pretty even without makeup on. I really like Daisy Eau So Fresh and Arlésienne Eau de Toilette by L'OCCITANE because they're both fresh, light and clean smelling. 7.) Get outside or go the gym- This one is a little harder since it's hard to get away from the baby but if the weather's nice out, take your baby for a walk in their stroller or their carrier. If you have a gym membership and are able to get away for a bit, go to the gym and exercise. Exercise helps everything and is a great way to burn off some stress and help you to sleep better (when you get a chance to that is.) 8.) Sleep when the baby sleeps- the first few weeks of having my baby home, I attempted to be the perfect house wife. I was cleaning, doing laundry and trying to cook meals and take care of the baby all at once and quickly got burned out. Now, depending on how much sleep I got I'll do more or less chores during the day and nap when the baby naps. That has made a huge difference in my energy levels and crabbiness. This also helps your skin to restore itself when you get as much rest as possible. Having people in your life to help you and support you helps make these a little easier but most of these are quick things you can do or keep in mind when running around with your children. Hope you enjoyed reading these 7 tips to a refined beauty routine for those moms out there who need to keep themselves in mind too.
Hi everyone! I haven't posted on here all year because my life has been insanely busy. The good news is in January I got ENGAGED to my sweetheart so the business is due to some exciting things in my life. We're so thrilled to start our lives together.
I've bought a couple new makeup products recently and thought I'd share my reviews of them with you. I really love when I get the chance to try new products because I find it really fun to figure out what works best for me and find things that not only I'd love but products my friends and family would love. Hence the reason I blog at all! :)
I was really disappointed in this product. I really love Benefit's "They're Real!" Mascara so I was hopeful about this eyeliner. It's a gel liner that comes out in a pen like form and this product was super hyped up on their Facebook page and online to the point where you could win a chance to get it before it was in stores. Well, I was one of those people who couldn't wait. Their marketing team did a fabulous job getting everyone excited about it but this product just doesn't deliver. It's supposed to be waterproof yet it smudges SUPER easy, forms a black line in your crease even after it dries and makes a mess when you take it off. A lot of product comes out if you twist it even slightly too much which makes it a waste and I'm just disappointed. The pen is really hard to get an even line on your eyelid without pulling at it and that bugs me. You should be able to use your liner without having to touch your eyelids much or at all. I've been using Lorac "Front of the Line Pro" for a few years which is an awesome liquid liner in an easy to use pen but I was hopeful this new liner would replace that. The Lorac liner is pretty sheen and this liner was more matte which is what I was going for. Unfortunately, this one didn't meet up to it's expectations.
My Aunt had a Mary Kay party this summer and I was introduced to some new products. I thought I'd buy a few things since they weren't really overpriced compared to some of the makeup lines I used to spend way too much money on. Mary Kay's CC Cream was one of the products I got to try and ended up purchasing. I loved it! I've needed a little bit more coverage here and there in the summer but have wanted to avoid wearing foundation so my skin gets a little color. This had just enough coverage though to keep my skin looking like I didn't have anything on it while covering up discoloration or breakout spots and I love that it has SPF in it. It wears through a full days work and I feel as though my skin can really breath with it on. I also really liked that while we were at the party, there were 6 of us there and all of us used the "Light-Medium" color and it all matched our skin tones even though we all have a slightly different color to our tones.
I'm currently trying to find products to replace some of my other beauty staples to save a little bit more money and this product is one of them! I purchased this concealer in "Yellow". I don't really get bags under my eyes but I do get purple under-eye circles that only get worse if I'm stressed or sleepy. If you have any art background you'll get it when I say that yellow cancels out purple. This concealer does just that. What I like about this product is it's $10 (a great deal for a good concealer) and a really tiny bit does go a long way. You seriously can use less than half a pea size amount on your ring finger to tap it into your skin and the pigment seems to blend it really nice. It starts out looking like a pale yellow but begins to blend in as it sets. I definitely recommend this product to anyone who needs a good concealer on a budget.
About once a month my skin tends to break-out a little or just get congested looking. I typically use Noxema because it's always worked well on my skin to get rid of oil but I feel like this cleanser takes it one step further when I get a little extra oily in the summer. A little bit goes a long way on this one; you really only need a dime size amount and the soap comes out red and silky. I like that it lathers up really well on the face. It's great to use this with a Clarisonic Mia to really get it into the pores. This cleanser helps unclog pores and gets rid of oil. It's made out of red clay and rosemary leaf oil and smells awesome to the point of being almost therapeutic. This cleanser also helps dissolve makeup which is a nice plus. I love that another benefit of using this product is that it's more natural as far as it's ingrediants go because there are no parabens, chemicals or color additives. I got this as a sample in my IPSY bag that I get monthly and from the looks of their website it looks like they have some pretty cool skincare products. Check them out http://www.firstaidbeauty.com/
For those of you who don't know me on a personal level I have an older sister named Corie. We are 2 1/2 years apart in age and growing up we were always pretty close. I remember just always wanting to be just like her as kids. I always wanted to dress like her, act like her, do what she was doing. However, I did notice the older we were both getting the more we had different interests, different style and different goals.
When I was a freshman in high school she was a senior. She always had this thick, gorgeous hair that I never had. Whether she knows it or not she had really developed confidence within herself by the age of 17 and I remember being envious of that. The early years in high school for me were totally uncomfortable and awkward. I had a hard time figuring myself out and who I wanted to be at that age but I remember thinking, "Man, Corie has it together!" And I admired that in her. She was a tough chick and already braver than she knew.
The years went fast but now that Corie and I are adults we have both developed our very own individual styles. I really enjoy when we get together because I'll share beauty tips with her while she is always a huge help in putting the perfect outfit together. Being sisters we're always VERY honest with each other so it helps to have someone like her to turn to!!
Corie has always been huge into fashion, shoes and trends. She has a knack for it and always looks awesome! Last summer her and I finally had the idea that we should start our own website called "Darling Chic" We started to add both her fashion blogs to it and tie in my beauty blogs. We have both have had talks of starting our own business together or something so we could incorporate this passion of ours. Check out our website and "Like" us on Facebook at Darling Chic.
However, Darling Chic has been put on hold for just a little bit. My sister was offered an amazing position this year to work in Switzerland for 2 years. When the news struck, the feeling of it was the exact definition of bittersweet. My sister has always had the dream to live in Europe and she is now living that dream with her wonderfully supportive husband by her side.While it stinks to not have her home, knowing she is happy and making it happen for herself is more than enough to make me so so so happy for her.
They say you should surround yourself with people who inspire you and she is one of them. So here's a shout out to my beautiful sister. Thanks for the constant inspiration. Love, love, love you!
I noticed a lot of people were posting this week on their Facebook pages about these "Dove Real Beauty Sketches" videos on YouTube. It seemed to me that it was mostly women were posting about these videos and everyone seemed really touched by it. I finally checked it out yesterday and it moved me to tears.
The story behind these videos is there is a Forensic Artist who had these random regular women come in and sit behind a sheet so he couldn't see them. One at a time, he began to talk to the individual woman he would be drawing and asked that they describe themselves to him. He asked them to explain to him the shape of their face, their hair, their features and how they looked to themselves. Each woman seemed to do the same thing and focused on their imperfections. A lot of them pointed out the features they didn't like about themselves and didn't speak highly about their features at all. It was really kind of sad.
Once the artist completed his drawings of the individual woman who described themselves to him, he called in the other women who interacted with them before the drawing and he would ask these other women to describe the individual he just drew and each and every time the other person speaking about them would say kind things about how they looked. The ladies being drawn who described themselves having "big chins" or "dark circles" were re-described to the artist by these other women as having "soft features", "a kind smile", "nice hair" and other really kind things.
At the end of that the artist would put his two drawings next to each other and hang them in this huge empty room where the drawings had taken place. The first picture was always the way the woman had described herself and the second picture was of how that woman was described to him from other women's point of views.
It was amazing to see the difference between the two pictures. Watching the women who were drawn see themselves in these two different drawings of themselves was really something. The artist had them describe what they saw was the difference between the two portraits he created of them and one of them women was even crying.
Check out the video below to see this amazing experiment:
I couldn't help but get sad after seeing this. Why are we so hard on ourselves as women? We are our worst critics. We are obsessed with being perfect, looking perfect and staying flawless that we forget to look in the mirror and admire the beautiful things about ourselves. I have to say that I think a lot of it is our cultures fault. The media can't stress enough how we should stay young, thin and wrinkle free forever by comparing us to celebrities with abnormal lifestyles. It just doesn't seem fair we have this kind of pressure on our shoulders when there are so many other things so much more important than how we look.
It's time to get our confidence back and to stop being so hard on ourselves. We're all beautiful in our own ways and it's time to start recognizing that within ourselves and teaching our daughters the same.
I challenge all of you to do this for yourselves. When you say out loud that your ugly, fat, and unattractive, those bad thoughts and words really settle harshly inside of yourselves and you continue to believe it and continue to say it and it's just a vicious, destructive cycle. Practice saying kind things about yourself and you'll start to feel so much better about yourself.
I'm curious to see what it'd be like if they did this same experiment with men. Would it be similar or would it be completely opposite??? Either way it really had me thinking. I think it'd be interesting to see the similarities and differences.
I'd really love to hear your thoughts on this and perspectives. While I could go on about this subject forever, I think it'd be more interesting to hear your thoughts.
(For those of you who have never heard the term "Vlog" it stands for "Video Blog".)
I love checking out beauty vlogs online for some of my beauty inspiration. There are so many beauty vloggers out there now a days and they're all over YouTube and are growing in masses. I've seen woman of all ages, races, shapes and sizes putting themselves out there and I gotta say, I give them a lot of credit. It's not easy to put your bare face out there for the world to see and apply make-up the way you like. Especially when some of the time people write the nastiest, rudest responses to these videos.
I wanted to share with you some of my favorite beauty vloggers as well as some of my favorite videos of theirs to check out. These woman are all fantastic and fun to watch.
1.) My first vlogger is Bubz Beauty. "Bubz" as she calls herself is this adorable woman from London. She's has the cutest accent and is super talented. Not only does she have inspirational videos and answers fans questions, DIY projects, videos on her adorable dogs, but she has some really great beauty tips I wouldn't have discovered without her. While it may sound cheesy she is the type of person I feel like I could be super good friends with. She's goofy, funny, and honest and I like that she doesn't take herself too seriously.
One of my favorite blogs of hers was "How to get a Slimmer Face" on facial massage and some helpful tips how to massage the face to get the stress and puffiness out of it. Check it out!
2.) Another vlogger I'd like to share with you is MMandLShow. Michelle Money was on the Bachelor a few seasons back and while she was targeted as the "mean girl" on the show, I remember her always having the greatest hair and make-up out of all of the girls on it. Haha! Turns out she is a hair stylist and her and her best friend Laura began this blog in 2011. I came across this vlog randomly and figured I'd check it out. These ladies are another group of girls who don't take themselves too seriously but once again have some really great tips on drugstore make-up and brand names. I always enjoy seeing super close friends together. They play of each other's goofiness and always give me a good laugh.
I love their video"The Laura Curl-Sexy Curl Hair Tutorial".
(I really want to buy this wand their using cause it looks amazing but I did buy this dry shampoo and it is pretty awesome.)
3.) I've been a loyal fan of Michelle Phan for a few years now. She was one of the first beauty vloggers I've seen to really pave the way for beauty in social media. She also started her own company called IPSY which is a monthly beauty bag you can sign up for to get monthly for $10. I'm a subscriber and it's like Christmas every month when I get my glam bag of samples. Basically, I want her life. She's a really sweet girl with great beauty looks for Halloween, weddings, inspired beauty looks from movies and music videos, as well as some great DIY ideas and she makes it look SO EASY but she is really easy to follow.
This look she shows here is gorgeous. "Summer Sunset Eyes"
Hope these women help inspire you as much as they inspire me!!! Thanks for reading!
This blog was inspired by this volunteer opportunity I took advantage of yesterday. I am a founder of a volunteer group within the company I work for and I try to participate as much as possible. I love giving back. Nothing feels better than helping those in need and in your own community. To be able to feel like your contributing to something means so much.
For those of you who follow this blog. It is true this is ALL about beauty! I have news for you. I'm more than OK going sans makeup to work, or getting my nails chipped, or letting my eyebrows grow in from time to time. I'm ok if my hair is in a bun and I haven't brushed it for 2 days. Basically, what I'm saying is sometimes I don't give a crap what the hell I look like. Can you believe it?
Baby Dee doesn't always have good fashion sense! :)
Lets rewind to my childhood. I used to play outside all the time. I'd roll in dirt and rough it with our next door neighbors and almost LOVED getting dirty. I also remember my Dad specifically yelling at me to brush my hair before we left the house. I sleep funny and somehow always managed to have a rats nest in the back of my hair full of knots and tangles.
When we knocked down our garage in our house years and years ago, my sister and I helped my Dad paint the walls, hammer in nails, stucko the ceiling. I had so much fun. I didn't care about getting dirty once again. My dad is my favorite person in the world so helping him was always fun cause he taught me so so much.
Fast forward to present day Dee and yesterday I spent 3 hours with 3 other men painting the opening of this women and children's center in Chicago.Needless to say things got messy. By the end of it I had droplets of paint on my face and in my hair. My blue nails and hands were coated in thick globs of paint and I continuously got made fun of the whole time I was painting.
"Dee, your pants are covered in paint."
"Dee, there is paint in your hair!!!"
"DEE! Why is there so much paint on your hands?!?!"
"Dee! You know your going to have to repaint your nails?!"
And I finally chimed in and said...
"LISTEN GUYS! I chose to volunteer today because I can care less about getting messy! Now let's finish this job!!
Trying to clean off the mess!
Paint stuck to nails.
When it comes down to it, dirt and paint wash off as well as makeup. None of this "stuff" really matters. ESPECIALLY when you're giving back to people who need help!
Hope you got a laugh out of this! Thanks for reading!
The older I get the busier things seem to be. To be able to balance everything such as work, friends, family, hobbies, health and exercise can be a juggling act. To think women actually do all this AND have husbands and children is more than I can even imagine handling. I'm tired just thinking about it all. YAWWWN!!
This all brings me to the point of this blog. Getting enough SLEEP is super huge. It's beneficial to every part of our lives. Not only is it important to sleep but it's important to get enoughsleep. Our body is repairing itself while we rest. Every day our skin is damaged due to stress, pollution and UV rays. While we sleep, our body creates more protein to help us to regenerate cells, in turn repairing our skin.
When your not getting the sleep your body needs to repair- it begins to show up on your face. This includes dark circles under your eyes, dull skin, wrinkles, crows feet, saggy skin, and redness in your eyes. Not only is your body harmed externally but the effects of inadequate sleep begin to effect you internally as well. Hypertension, high blood pressure, obesity, and depression are to name a few.
Maybe there really is something to be said for all those times you heard your mother or grandmother say:
"Time for bed. You need to get your beauty rest."
Because not only does it help make you more beautiful on the outside but on the inside as well.
Here are a few tips I've concocted for you to get a good nights rest:
Drink some warm milk before bed because it relaxes the body.
Take a warm shower or a bath prior to sleep.
Do not turn your bedroom into a TV room. Do not use any electronic products at least an hour or 2 before sleeping.
Proper pillows and mattresses are KEY.
Do not eat dinner or drink lots of water at least 2-3 hours before bed. You want to avoid waking up frequently during the night.
Stick to a schedule. If you usually go to bed every night at 10 p.m. make sure your in bed by then almost every night. Keeping a schedule keeps your body clock on track.
Exercising regularly is known to help you sleep better.
Avoid caffeine later in the evening.
Sleep in a cooler room.
All these tips should aid in you having a great nights rest. Adults 18+ need to be getting at least 7.5-9 hours of sleep every night! Make sure to make this an important part of your daily health routines to wake up to happier, healthier, more restful YOU!
