August Favorites

I've never done one of these just general favorites posts before, but in the last few weeks I've found some new things that I love and I just wanted to let you know how amazing they are.

1) ME! Bath Madagascar Vanilla & Lavender  - For my birthday, my grandma took me to the Spa at Nordy's. The woman doing my nails put this lotion on my hands and I fell in love. I needed it in my life. I wanted to smell that smell every day. I'm usually not a huge fan of lavender, and I think vanilla reserves a special place in the kitchen, so the idea of combining them and wearing it around didn't really tickle my fancy... but actually smelling it. My mind was blown. The lavender is more subtle, cleaner and warmed by the vanilla which just tickles the senses and makes me want to smell my skin all day long.

2) Clif MOJO Sweet & Salty Peanut Butter Pretzel - Pregnancy does this funny thing to people (me). It makes your blood sugar kersplat on the floor and sometimes gives you fun headaches and sleepiness midday. To combat this, I bought a mondo variety pack of granola bars and a case of iced teas at Costco to keep at my desk at work. This particular bar surprised me. I'm not usually a fan of the peanut butter pretzel combination. It may be my ever changing pregnant taste buds, but these are my absolute favorite granola bars right now. The peanut butter chips are a sweet contrast to the chunks of pretzel. I thought these were going to be the bars I saved for last and had to force myself to eat, but they were gone so much faster than the other bars in the box.

3) OPI Bubble Bath - It's on my nails right now. Natural looking, but still perfectly opaque and sheer at the same time.

4) eos Summer Fruit Lip Balm - I'm only a little late to the party on this one. I've been using these bubs for a while, but this one is my favorite. It's the red one and it smells like fruit roll up. I'm a sucker for anything that smells or tastes like fruit roll ups.

5) búcha Grapefruit Sage - I didn't know what to think of drinking sage flavored kombucha, but its amazing. You need it in your life.

6) MAKE UP FOREVER Smoky Extravagant Mascara - I got this in a mini version as part of my birthday gift from Sephora. At first I just started to use it on top of my older mascara. Using old and then new gives the new something to grab onto and lashes get fuller and longer. I wasn't planning on loving it or buying it when I run out, but now I definitely am. This mascara blew my mind. I love my lashes when I use it.

7) BABYBEARSHOP Organic Cheeky Baby Butter - Another take away from my spa day with my Glamma. It's meant to be used on baby bottoms for diaper rash or anything like that, but I've been using it on my cuticles. My hands dry out so fast. I'm trying to heal them up. It's perfect for anything like that and you only need a tiny bit. I've barely made a tiny dent in this tub.

Do you have any new favorites? Care to share?

My Beauty Arsenal

1. Boscia B.B. Cream Broad Spectrum SPF 27 - I just started using BB cream - after hearing about it for ages, I finally started selecting the BB cream samples with my semi-regular Sephora orders. This was the first one I really liked. It goes on smooth and really makes me feel like my skin is damn near flawless.

2. Sephora Classic Brow Brush - I pair this with #6 to fill in my uber-light brows. It's the perfect size and shape.

3. Diorshow Iconic Mascara - I am a stickler for mascaras that are high quality and come in brown as well as the usual black. This was I can go brown for the every day and black when I go out in the evenings. I haven't been using this mascara very long, but I am already loving the brush. It goes on even and doesn't clump. I just wish it weren't quite SO waterproof. It's great for sweaty yoga classes, but kind of a pain to take off every night.

4. Sephora Microsmooth Baked Foundation - I like to just do a light dusting all over my face after I put on my BB cream and it stays all day.

5. First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream - Possibly my favorite thing on the planet. It doesn't have sunscreen, so it's part of my evening regime - but I can't even begin to tell you how amazingly refreshing it is to put this stuff on every night. It's like my face can breathe. It's only just now occurred to me that I can use it during the day as long as I pair it with my BB cream, which has SPF 27. Win.

6. Benefit Cosmetics Brow Zings - I decided to try this when my former go-to brow color was out of stock. It's worked out fantastic. No regrets whatsoever.

7. bareMinerals All-Over Face Color - I use this in place of a full on bronzer - just applying lightly under my cheekbones and under my chin to slim out my naturally soft looking face a bit. I like that it comes in a variety of shades so you can determine how dark you want to go.

8. Stila Smudge Pot Gel Eyeliner - I only wear this when I'm dressing up, but it's awesome. I originally bought it for my wedding makeup, and I still use it pretty regularly. Though I don't dress up all that often. I pair it with an offset eyeliner brush, like this one and get a perfect black line as thin or thick as I want, all the way across my upper lid.

9. mark Eyeshadow Brush - I like the way this eyeshadow brush tapers to a subtle point. It allows me to get more color in the crease without getting color everywhere. It's also a really soft brush and it holds color really well, so you don't need to keep going back for more shadow.

10. bareMinerals Broad Spectrum Multitasking Face - I really only use this on days when I feel like my skin does not look awesome - if I broke out or am feeling splotchy or puffy. It's a fantastic concealer and it will stay in place all day as long as you're not messing with it.

11. mark All Over Eyeshadow Brush - This is the best eyeshadow brush I have ever owned. I probably should get a new one, but I am attached to this one and it still works fine, so I keep putting it off. It just looks a little worse for wear. I just swipe it across the shade I want to use all over my lids, the swoosh swoosh and done. It's magic. I also like to go back over lightly with this brush for a little subtle blending.

12. Clinique All About Shadow Duo - My current go-to eyeshadows. I use the light all over the lid, and then I do like a half moon shape catching at the my upper liner and curving around into the crease. I love these nuetral colors for every day. The dark is just the right amount of dark that it can be taken to either extreme for a super nuetral look, or a night out look.

That pretty much covers it for my current makeup regime. Do you have any favorites you're obsessed with? I'd love to hear about them.
My favorites are changing all the time. There are so many great products out there!

Just for Fun; A Picnic in January

This past Saturday afternoon, we had a plan. We were going on an afternoon adventure to Venice, where we would explore and have dinner - had a reservation and everything. 

Then my honey proposed an idea. What if we... didn't? We could stay on our side of the hill and have a picnic. There would be wine and cheese and yummy snacks, and we could watch the sunset. 

What can I say, I'm a sucker for a picnic.

Just for Fun; Family Photos

Hubs and I were apart on Thanksgiving this year. I would normally enlist a family member to snap a few quick shots of us with the pup outside before dinner, but this year since we were in two different places, that was not an option.

Recap Summer 2013

I don't know if you caught it, but I totally didn't do a Spring recap. Spring kind of melted into winter and summer and wasn't really it's own thing. I've decided to include some March and April in here for that reason. Just a little bit.

Above: I ran my second 10K. It was harder than the first.

I also did some fun arm balance stuff while I was at work.

A friend and I took the dogs out to Malibu and hike/walked. Then we went to the Country Mart and got them whipped cream.

3 Grown Women at a Backstreet Boys Concert

For my birthday, my amazing friend bought us tickets to see the Backstreet Boys on September 4th.
I was a little apprehensive for about 5 seconds. I didn't know if they would still be any good. I thought maybe it would be a tad pathetic to watch these guys 15 years past their prime, but we decided to take the plunge. We were completely obsessed with them 15 years ago, after all.

So, my big sis joined us and the three of us had an absolutely amazing time reliving some of our fondest moments as 14 year olds.

The boys still got it. They were amazing to watch and such a blast.