Birchbox April 2013

 

Inside this month’s lovely box:

Caudalie Divine Oil

StriVectin-SD Eye Concentrate for Wrinkles

Nexxus Youth Renewal Rejuvenating Elixir (They sent me two. Happy accident?)

Youngblood Anti-Shine Mattifier

Weleda Body Lotion

🙂

Spring Has Sprung

The weather has been crazy lately. It warmed up, and then it was cold again overnight and stayed that way for another week or two. Which is why I’m happy that it’s warm again, and it seems like it’s going to stay that way this time! It’s almost 70 degrees outside today, which calls for no sleeves. Obviously. 😉

One of these days I’ll learn how to take a proper outfit photo! lol

Why my shirt bunched up on that side, I’ll never know. Well, actually, it’s probably because the tank top is super long (bought it in a “tall” instead of a “regular” – lesson learned), and I had to pull it up some in order for it to not look like I was wearing a dress over these pants!

Top: Old Navy Jersey-Stretch Tamis (love these)

Pants: Target Capris in Fit 4 (mid-waist and curvy hip)

Shoes: Steve Madden Karro Pumps

Jewelry: the usual

DIY Cream Eyeshadow Update

Yesterday’s DIY cream eyeshadow experiment. Yes. I went ahead and tried it out today just to see how well it would show up with an extra light hand. The results?

Not too shabby! And that’s with me barely using any of it. Next time? Heavy handed! Hahaha! 😉

DIY Cream Eyeshadow

I…am a fan of black eyeshadow. I cannot get enough of it. Literally. I can’t get enough of it, because I have yet to find one that is dark enough to show up on my eyelids in photos as a true black. They show up really well in person, but no matter how much I pack it on, it will not show up well in photos. So I keep picking up eyeshadows, and eyeshadows…and eyeshadows. I was browsing around on YouTube and of course saw people using MAC Carbon, which is definitely dark, and came across Urban Decay’s Blackout, which is also super dark. But before running out to the store and throwing money around, I came across a few tutorials on how to make your own cream eyeshadow, and I thought that was pretty interesting. Which of course led to today’s experiment. 😉

What you will need:

Eyeshadow, moisturizer (lotion or facial moisturizer), a clean jar/container to store the concoction in, something that you can use to scrape eyeshadow out of its pan, and a mixing utensil.

I’m not sure if there’s an exact science to this DIY, but here’s how I did it:

1) Start with a small amount of moisturizer in the jar/container. You don’t want to start out with too much, because you may end up with more moisturizer than eyeshadow, depending on how much eyeshadow you want to use. You can always add more later.

2) Take your eyeshadow pan and scrape out as much of the eyeshadow as you think you will need for this project. As with the moisturizer, you can always add more later. I used the entire pan (plus another dash of moisturizer) just to see what would happen. Add it to the jar with the moisturizer.

3) Carefully mix the two together until it has a creamy consistency.

Honestly, this looks better in person.

And there you have it! You have now made your own cream eyeshadow! I decided to swatch what was left of the original eyeshadow and the creamy one to see how much of a difference it made:

Um, yes. Huge difference. The eyeshadow on the left is supposed to be a dark, matte black. Emphasis on “supposed to be.” Which is why it’s been sitting around after only being used once or twice. The eyeshadow on the right? Clearly it has no problems being seen.

If you decide to try this, please let me know how it turned out, or if you have any suggestions! And now that I have been enlightened, I will be busy emptying out all of the rest of the eyeshadow pans that I have not been using due to them not showing up very well in photos. 😀

Hair Update and Desire for Short Hair…Again

Pic heavy post ahead…

Here’s the April 16th hair update:

Waist length for me is where my hand is at…

Ignore the rolls. Part bra issue, part me needing to get back into pilates. Carry on. lol

Getting closer to waist length, and yet it doesn’t feel like it’s moved at all. Again, waist length for me is fairly easy to attain, because hi, I’m 5’3.5″ on a good day, and I have a really short torso. Plus, my hair grows super fast, so it doesn’t take years for it to grow long. But the problem is that my hair is really fine, so retention issues exist, and the longer it gets, the more it tangles, and now I’m seeing a lot of hair on the floor after styling it. Thankfully my hair is dense, so you can’t really tell how much hair is coming out (outside of regular shedding). Plus, it takes so long to wash, condition, blowdry, flat iron…I get tired. My arms get tired. It’s hot. I’m sweating by the time it’s all over. And it would be worth it, except that I wash my hair every other day, so it’s almost not even worth it! Most days I just wash or co-wash, detangle, air dry, and put it in a bun. Because I’m not going through that heat routine every other day. I refuse!

So I am feeling kind of conflicted at the moment. Part of me wants to keep my hair long (I’m trying to be honest with myself about why I want to keep it long, but that’s another post altogether), but then there’s the part that is craving a short haircut. Because as much as I like my hair long, I really love it when it’s shorter – and other people do too. And it’s so much easier to deal with! I chopped it pretty short back in May 2010 and kept it short for a year or so, then decided to let it grow out (awkward stage is awkward!), but kept on cutting at my hair. So I would have been at the goal length a long time ago if I’d just put the scissors down and left my hair aloooooone! Hahaha!

Here are some of the haircuts that I am pondering. Some are kind of edgy, which I feel that I need in my life right now. Something different. Something that I can’t hide behind. 😉 All of these photos came from Pinterest:

 

And then, there’s one of my favorites:

This is Karla Deras from Karla’s Closet. She has had a lot of short haircuts, but this one was and still is my favorite. So, this may be the one that I go with. We shall see. There’s still time to think about it. 😉