REVIEW: Elizabeth Mott Tints & Sass Cheek and Lip Stain

Elizabeth Mott Tints & Sass Lip & Cheek Stain

Packaging - 2 (not very good)
Scent - 3 (average)
Vibrancy - 4 (very good)
Variety - 0 (horrible)
Wear - 2 (not very good)
Overall:


So first I am going to address the packaging. I hate it. It is a combination of something you'd find at the dollar store or could get as a prize at Chuck-E-Cheese and something you'd find at a sex shop. It's an awkward combination of kinky and juvenile and cheap. It smells like a super artificial cherry. It is pretty vibrant when you put it on though, unfortunately it wears off within 2 hours. And worst of all it only comes in 1 color, which is labeled as "cherry" which you would expect to be red but is more of a bright red-pink like the you'd expect from a shade called raspberry. This product was definitely a disappointment.

REVIEW: Lipstcik Queen Saint and Sinners Lipstick

Packaging - 5 (excellent)
Wear - 5 (excellent)
Longevity - 4 (very good)
Hydration - 4 (very good)
Variety - 5 (excellent)
Overall:


Lipstick queen is easily one of my favorite brands. This company only make lip stick, glosses, liners, ect. They only do lips, but they do the hell out of them! This review is on the Saints and Sinners Line. The Saints and Sinners lipstick from Lipstick Queen is awesome in general. They each come in over 20 shades. You only have to reapply after eating (or after an intense makeup) but the saints line is pretty hydrating and they are all very pigmented.

The difference between a Saint Lipstick (gold packaging pictured above), and a Sinner (black packaging) is that the Saints are hydrating and slightly sheer, while the sinners are heavily pigmented matte shades. The packaging is luxurious looking and feeling, and the lipsticks ring in at $24 which is super reasonable for the quality. At 5 stars I clearly recommend them.

RECIPE: Balsamic Shrimp Salad

I am super excited to give you one of my new favorite recipes! I have been playing around with a lot of salad options, and here is one of my faves! This IS a single serving recipe, so if you want to feed more than one person adjust accordingly. And yes, I DO have the nutritional facts and values below too.

Total Time Cooking and Prepping - 15 minutes
Serves - 1

Ingredients: 
6 Leaves Romain Lettuce
6 Raw Tail Off Shrimp
1 Green Onion
8 Grape Tomatoes
2 Tbsp Bolthouse Farms Creamy Balsamic Yogurt Dressing
1/4 Avacado
1 oz Low Moisture Part Skim
        Mozzarella Block
2 Tbsp Salted Butter
3 tsp Lemon Juice


Instructions:
1- Melt Butter in a Microwave Safe Bowl and add Lemon Juice to it.
2- Place thawed shrimp in it to marinade. This makes a big difference in how juicy the shrimp is. I let it sit for at least 10 minutes. While it sits I prep my vegetables.
3- Chop or tear the romain lettuce leaves into the desired size. Toss the lettuce in your serving bowl with 2 Tbsp of the Bolthouse Balsamic Dressing. You may WANT to use more, but you do not need it! This will evenly coat all of the lettuce perfectly. Place the dish with the tossed lettuce in the freezer (this will crisp it all up super nicely as you finish the other elements).

4- Cut 1 ounce oz Mozzarella Cheese from the block (I do feel it adds flavor to the salad to do this instead of using pre-shredded mozzarella). Then chop it up into small strips or cubes.
5- Cut cherry tomatoes in half.
6- Cut half an avocado into cubes.
7- Chop just one green onion.

8- add the shrimp to a small pan on the stove on meduim high. Let the butter melt and the shrimp cook. Be sure to turn the shrimp over regularly. Once the shrimp is cooked you can dispose of the excess butter.
9- Assemble your Salad by removing the lettuce form the freezer and placing all the ingredients on top. Place the shrimp last ( I like to cut mine in half but that is not required).
10- Enjoy!

Nutritional Information: 
 

REVIEW: Style Sexy Hair Spray Clay

Packaging - 5 (excellent)
Scent - 2 (not very good)
Longevity - 5 (excellent)
Hold - 4 (very good)
Texture - 5 (excellent)
Overall:


Style Sexy Hair Spray Clay is great! It comes in a simple, clean and professional looking packaging. You simply spray it on like you would hair spray before or after styling. It holds well without a sticky or crunchy texture and it really works! It gives your hair texture and grip which is great for updos or braided styles on fine hair. I like using this on people who have resistant hair that doesn't hold curls well. It lasts a long time too because it is a pressurized can so it distributes evenly and gently. The only downside is it doesn't smell great. The smell doesn't stay in your hair, but it is a powdery perfume smell when you spray it that I am not a fan of, but so worth it! 

REVIEW: Seraphine Botanicals Blush

Packaging - 4 (very good)
Texture - 5 (excellent)
Longevity - 1 (bad)
Pigment - 2 (not very good)
Wear - 1 (bad)
Overall:


Let's just get right to it! Seraphine Botanicals as a brand are supposed to be high end and natural. Their website boasts that their products are 99% natural, gluten free, free of  phthalates and parabens, they contain no mineral oils and are vegan. I was super pumped to try this out. This is the shade Ginger and Gold, I also tried the shade Mangosteen and Gold.

I love the packaging. I almost gave it 4 starts because it is a little basic (like there is just no wow factor) but I realized there was no category that lends itself to the fact that this product is all natural, so I bumped it up a star for that. The packaging is simple and sturdy, but the white looks high end and clean. It does have classic screw off lid, so some might not love that because you may loose the lid. I also like the texture, it isn't grainy at all (which is common in other botanical cosmetics). It is very smooth and it has that light weight feeling on your skin.

So here is the bad. It is low pigmentation which means you have to put on a lot of layers for it to show up (which is bad for the longevity of the product) and you have to reapply regularly (so poor wear, and that does factor into the longevity score too). I understand that this blush is supposed to be very light and add depth or warmth as opposed to being a pigmented and bold blush.  But whether it was alone or on top of another shade I couldn't see any result without at least 4 applications. For this reason I would not recommend it.

Fall Crushes

Here is an update about my kinda big beauty obsessions right now. None of these items are things that I have been paid to post or that I receive any kind of kick backs on. I seriously just love them and I know you will too. 

I ADORE when I can find a dynamite product that is a bargain too! Makeup Revolution's Vivid Baked Bronzer is just that! I can't live without mine in the shade Golden Days. It creates a soft warm glow that has a hint of shimmer without being glittery. I wearing it alone as well as over my other blushes and well, I am in love! You can pick it up at online here!

It's no secret I am a fan of the Kylie Cosmetic's Lip Kits. However I am generally not a fan of gloss because it is usually super sticky and just not my thing. Then they did the Koko Kollection, and I am a SUCKER for gold and rose gold and stunning packaging. I had to buy it! Plus I really do love Khloe Kardashian (she is my favorite one)! I loved the Damn Gina gloss so much I bought the Literally gloss later. They are silky smooth and plush, not sticky at all. they are a little thick, but I can live with that because they are also highly pigmented. The Damn Gina shade is a light peach with a subtle shimmer, and Literally is a warm nude. You can see more here. 

Okay guys, I am not a fan of gimmicky products, like at all. I have heard and seen success stories about this supplement for a while, and I have vouched for it on my blog before. But I decided to grow my hair out again, and I really wanted to do so before my little sister gets married in October. So last month I began taking these daily and OH MY GOSH, my hair is growing so fast! I will preach about these until the day I die most likely. I know they are safe, I understand the ingredients, and well, the proof is in the pudding! My hair is growing! You can learn more about these bad boys and purchase them here. 

I love a good root lifter, but normally those foams and mousses you use leave your hair feeling stiff and sticky, like you have hairspray in them. Not this one. Wella EIMI Root Shoot has a heat protectant in it so it protects where you need it most. It is super soft and when I am done using it I can run my fingers through my hair and it looks like nothing is in it. You can also use this on WET OR DRY hair! That's right! I put it near my part (work it in and comb it) and then blow dry my roots in the opposite direction of where my hair lays. You only have to dry the product into your roots and it takes seconds! I love it. Learn more and purchase it here. 

Last but not least, my newest love! The Urban Decay Afterglow Powder Highliter is amazing. It is highly pigmented, gives you the most beautiful glow without looking streaky or patchy, and lasts. I am seriously obsessed and rarely go a day without it. Get it here.

 Have you tried any of these? What do you think of them? I also want to know what are your current beauty obsessions?! Drop them in the comments I want to try them!

REVIEW - Mary Kay Mineral Eye Shadow

Packaging - 5 (very good)
Variety - 4 (very good)
Longevtiy - 2 (not very good)
Wear - 2 (not very good)
Fall Out - 2 (not very good)
Overall:

Mary Kay eye shadows. It's one of the things Mary Kay sells that I am not a fan of. It is really high end as far as price point but the makeup doesn't hold a candle to other high end brands. If it was $2-4 per color I could see it. But at $8 for .05 ounces, this puts it at a price point competing with Buxom and Anastasia Beverly Hill  (when purchased in a bundle), Makeup Geek and Ofra. But the quality isn't even close to these brands. The packaging is great though. Basically all of the shadows come in a single metal container (as seen in the picture).These containers can be magnetically popped in and out of any Mary Kay compact set. This allows you to customize and interchange your compact day to day. It's great, but not revolutionary since a lot of makeup brands do this. However I do actually like Mary Kay's compact better than other brand specific ones because it is easier to take things in and out of and the compact is super sturdy. The shadows also work with Z Palettes and other common metal palettes. There are a decent amount of colors to choose from. However the quality is on par with Loreal and other drugstore makeup. You have to layer on a lot before you get bright colors, it doesn't stay on all day, there is a ton of fallout during application, it smudges and smears, and the individual cases are fragile. I overall do not recommend this product. 

REVIEW - Zuma Juice

 Packaging - 4 (very good)
Benefits - 5 (excellent)
Look - 1 (bad)
Smell - 1 (bad)
Taste - 2 (not good)
Overall:

If you are confused as to why this is on my beauty blog click here!

I was super excited to try Zuma Juice. I saw their viral video about their product, which I am including below, and I watched it a few times and I showed it to friends and I laughed a ton. I was excited to get my hands on their product.

I gave Zuma Juice a 4 on packaging, mostly because I like that it comes in individual packages that are EASY to open! I hate wrestling with my packets and mix ins and stuff. Otherwise I think the color choices and logo are average, however packaging is more about ease of use to me with supplements and not as much about aesthetics like it is with cosmetics and skin care.

I also gave it a 5 on benefits! I love that this product has NO synthetic vitamins or supplements. It includes 6 organic greens and grasses, 3 organic sprout concentrates, 7 organic vegetables, 13 fruits, superfoods, and herbs. The website says that they grow these things in "exacting conditions and [they] are harvested at their nutritional peak". They do not cook or boil the veggies and instead dehydrate them slowly which allows them to retain nutritional value. 

So here comes me actually using this stuff, and that's where the scores dipped low. I love smoothies in the morning. I usually add a drink supplement of some sort to them, and I like all kinds of combinations. I have over 6 frozen fruits in my freezer at all times with 3 different base drinks (like pomegranate juice). I started out by trying this Zuma Juice exactly as they recommend, in a blender bottle (I got their trial kit which included a small blender bottle) with cold water. I got purified water from the fridge so it was nice and cold. I added the mix and I shook it for a solid minute.

I do not feel the ingredients dissolve at all, so you could taste the texture of the vegetables. It wasn't pleasant to me. I think the texture threw me more than anything else. Also when I looked at it, it looked like green sludge, which was disappointing. It maybe why their blender bottle is not see through at all. The drink settle quickly, so without a blender bottle it is hard to drink it. It smelled awful, I mean it was bad and it was pungent. Also the taste was not good to me. It tasted like toothpaste. Initially I thought it was bearable, but the aftertaste as awful and I couldn't get passed a few sips.

So I thought of a plan b, here I mix it into a smoothie. I went for lemonade as the base, which I don't normally do because lemonade has so much sugar in it. But I thought the vanilla and mint would work well with the lemonade. I also added pineapple and strawberries which have a tropical flavor I thought would compliment each other and the drink. Once again adding the Zuma Juice to the blender and my drink instantly looked like sludge. The smell was worse than the first time. The taste was better though. I was able to drink more than a few sips, but ultimately that toothpaste taste and the texture of the supplement itself was to much and I threw out most of my drink.

I the end I am ditching the remaining packets and am not going to return to this supplement again.

Big Changes to the Blog! - my health journey

So I know I am going to get mixed feedback on this but I have decided to start including some health and nutrition items on this blog. I think beauty is about being healthy as much as having your brows on fleek. I want to start by saying I am not healthy, I am trying to be healthy, and I want to share my experiences with different products and recipes here with you guys. This blog will remain mostly makeup and skin care and hair care, but some health stuff will creep in.

I want to kind of introduce you all to my health journey. This is personal so I hope you will be kind if you choose to comment. I have a slow metabolism, so I gain weight easily. I was always kind of a fat kid, but when I got into high school I became more active, and lost some weight. It was the first thing my old friends noticed about me and I liked that, so I began to stop eating at all. I got a lot of attention from boys and from the "popular" crowd as I shed pounds, and I liked that attention.

I decided to change when I fainted at a small summer job I held selling snow cones at college football games. I couldn't see, I couldn't hear, and then I fell. I was only down for a moment or two but I lost my job. I began eating 2 small meals a day (at this point I had moved out of my parents' home and lived on my own while attending school). I worked as a manager at Arby's, which actually provides a lot of fairly healthy choices. Other than this usually a tv dinner a day and then my vice - ice cream. But I didn't have a car and I walked everywhere, so I stayed in shape.

Then I met my amazing husband and so many of my walls came down. My need to control everything diminished, my fear that if I gained weight I would lose my friends went away, and I became more comfortable. Something that made my husband and I work, is that I wasn't initially into him. I always said yes to a first date (everyone deserves at least ONE chance!) but I didn't think I'd be into him. You guys, I was literally wearing mascara from the night before on our first date... it was awful. Because of this I had my guard down and I was very open and candid with him. A lot of the times I try to make a good first impression, and I keep certain information private for a few months, but I laid it all out for him right there, in the park, on our first date (which began at noon as a casual lunch date and turned into a dinner date as well that stretched until 9 pm). He still called me back. I didn't have to be "sophisticated" or "sexy" or "chill", I didn't have to be anything for him, because I was myself, weird seal laugh and all. I wasn't trying to impress him so I wasn't trying, and all that was left was the real me.

My husband is definitely a lover of food. He always says the only thing he loves more than food is me (and I am honored!). For Christmas and Birthdays he is more likely to get food from his friends and family than anything else. So this affected me as my portions became larger and more frequent. And with my fairly inactive lifestyle I gained weight quickly. Since I got married in 2013 I have gained over 50 pounds.

Now I am at a point in my life where a short walk to the town pond has me out of breath. I hate it. I am not enjoying clothing like I used to. I hate the lack of energy I have and I want to be healthier. I want energy, I want to be more attentive, I want to feel comfortable, I want that. So I am doing a few things to change. I used to love going to the gym, but I haven't been in over a year since I moved and added about 20 hours of commuting to my schedule. I have used my 60+ hour work week as an excuse for a long time, and I am ready to make changes now!

Some of the things you can expect to see added on this blog:
-supplement reviews
-drink mix supplement reviews
-healthy recipes
-reviews on equipment and athletic clothing
-advice on how to get back in shape
-updates about what is and isn't working for me

Some of the things I promise will not be added onto this blog:
-advertisements or paid promotions for various fitness equipment
-fad diets
-gimmick products (lose weight overnight pills or skinny wraps)
-devotion to one method or product line (so I won't decide CrossFit is key, or that you have to use the full ItWorks line to stay fit)

I also will continue my promise that if I am compensated with free products to test out or paid advertising that I will always let you (my amazing readers) know that I am partnering with the brand for that post. I also will continue to guarantee that IN MY AGREEMENT to any company that want to supply me with free products or pay me for a review that I do not lie in my reviews and if I am not a fan of any of the products I will not post false reviews saying otherwise. I understand everyone has different tastes and I may love products others hate, but I want to be honest.

With that my first health drink supplement review will be up soon!