Confessional Friday

Happy Friday, everyone! I am thankful to put this week behind me and relax this weekend after I finish up some homework. Today I am linking up with Leslie at A Blonde Ambition for Confessional Friday so let's get started!

1. I confess that I have been in bed 90% of the time since Tuesday afternoon. Whatever virus this is, it has absolutely kicked my butt. Luckily I'm finally on the mend and actually eating breakfast! Normally breakfast isn't exciting but when you haven't eaten for the better part of the last 3 days due to nausea it can be pretty exciting.

2. I confess that I am excited to be able to wear makeup again! Usually I am religious about my skin care routine but I fell asleep Tuesday with makeup on for the first time in months and have probably only washed my face once per day since being sick and my skin is so not happy about that. I am certainly in need of a little cover up.

3. I confess that on Monday I may or may not have had my absolute favorite cupcake from Bliss. This was the Gluten Free Raspmatazz, and let me tell you, it never disappoints. If you're around the Northwest Arkansas area or Conway you need to check them out!

4. I confess that my house is an absolute mess. I'm not quite up for a deep house cleaning just yet but this laundry piling up, the messy counters, and full sink is stressing me out. Usually I'm on top of all of these things on the days I'm not in class and I try to keep up during the weekends while juggling Carson but it just hasn't happened this week. The in-laws are coming in town today for the weekend and my MIL insisted I not touch a thing. I'm going to listen and be grateful for the help!

That is it for today, I hope you all have an absolutely wonderful weekend and don't forget to set your clocks forward on Sunday! 

Update

So if you stopped by Tuesday expecting an exciting post, I apologize. I was hoping to upload my first video but it didn't work out well and the audio was lagging. I know I get annoyed when a video has an audio lag and don't usually even finish watching it so I'm going to try again soon and hopefully have better quality next time. 

Here's the makeup I was wearing in the video! Oh and also a grumpy cutie pie that was ready for his nap. 

Normally I would do another fun post today, one that I even had planned, but I'm writing this from the doctor's office so I'm not exactly in the best state to be writing a brilliantly interesting post. I just have a whole bunch of things going on with me and I'm hoping to feel better soon and get back to posting. 

I hope you're week is going better than mine! Talk to you soon!

5 Things

Hello, everyone! If you hadn't noticed, I took a break from blogging last week. I had quite the hectic week of school with 3 tests, 50 pages of very dry reading that took much longer than it should have, and various other time consuming assignments so I had to put something on the back burner and unfortunately it was this. However, with that time off I was able to come up with about a million other blog post ideas for the coming weeks so I'm excited! Here's a look at what I've been up to these past couple weekends.

For Valentine's Day TJ and I met his parents in Fort Smith and they took Carson to Oklahoma for the weekend and we were able to go out on a date to one of our favorite restaurants, Abuelo's and here's the delicious dessert that lasted about 2 minutes! It's not the fanciest, most romantic restaurant but it never disappoints and we love it!

TJ went on his way to Oklahoma Saturday morning and I stayed here so I could celebrate my best friend's birthday with her! We went to 21C in Bentonville and went out afterward. As much as I missed Carson, it was nice to relax and not worry about a baby throwing a fit or throwing food!

But of course because I missed my little boy so much I was on a mission to get him a surprise for when he got home Sunday! I saw this play house at Toys R Us and knew he would love it and I was about to get an awesome deal on it so I went to buy it just to find out it wouldn't fit in the car haha. We went back a couple days later with the Jeep though and it fit just fine, TJ put it together, and this messy boy loves it!

OPI came out with the Brazil collection for Spring and I picked up Kiss Me I'm Brazillian. I might own a ten other pinks similar to this but I still love the color and it makes me so excited for warmer weather!

Carson turns 16 months today and the boy is growing like a weed! He was 27 lbs 10 oz at a check up a few weeks ago, 82% for weight, 90% for height, and 97% for growth overall. I'm convinced that all his weight is in his belly, I love squeezing all his squishiness haha! I really wanted some white Converse and since this little one is already about to grow out of his size 6 shoes I went ahead and picked us up some matching shoes! We tried to take pictures of it yesterday and this is how it turned out. This boy is on the move and not to be bothered with silly pictures apparently!

That's it for today! If all goes according to plan, I have a very exciting post for tomorrow so stay tuned for that! Have a great day, y'all! 

Urban Decay's Naked 3 Palette Valentine's Day Look

Guess what tomorrow is? Valentine's Day! Whether you're single or taken, going out or have no plans, this look is for anyone that wants to incorporate the holiday into their makeup.

Here is the palette that comes with 12 colors with almost all have them being rosy hued so it's perfect if you're going for a romantic look. It also comes with a double ended brush to better use these shadows. 

Today I used my own brushes though to achieve the look I was going for. From left to right and in order of use: Sigma E35, E55, MAC 224, 219, 242, and the Sigma E15.

The shades I used are Strange, Nooner, Liar, Factory, and Darkside.

First I took Nooner and used my E35 to place it in my crease, I then packed on Liar using the E55 in the center of my eyelid. After this I blended everything out using the 224, which I used multiple times in creating this look. I then took my 219 pencil brush and put Darkside on my outer corner for a slight smoky effect and once again used the MAC 224 to blend out. I then used my MAC 242 brush with strange for a highlight on my inner eyelid and below my brow bone. To finish off this look I took the Sigma E15 and used Factory to line the bottom rim of my eye. After I topped this look with some maybelline eyeliner and mascara I was finished!

I'm using NYX butter gloss in Merengue (mentioned in Ulta Haul).

I hope this helps anyone wanting to use the palette and I hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day, have a great day!

Makeup Hits & Misses

As I'm delving deeper and deeper into the ridiculously large world of makeup I'm finding out what I do and don't like. Along with these experiences I'm coming across new products that I don't know how I ever lived without and then some products that I regret ever purchasing. This post is to help give you that information the easy way instead of having to buy something to find out more about it. Lets get started!

Here we have a MAC 150 face brush, lipstick in Girl About Town, Select Sheer pressed powder, Benefit's Porefessional primer, and Urban Decay's De-Slick setting spray.

Let's get the bad products out of the way: the MAC 150 face brush and the Select Sheer pressed powder. 

When I bought the Select Sheer pressed powder I was looking for something to set my makeup with. I told the person at the MAC counter that I was using a Bare Minerals loose powder foundation to set my liquid foundation and I wanted something that still gave coverage but didn't make me look cakey. He recommended this and I just trusted him and purchased it. As you can see (or not) on my hand, I wiped it above the lipstick swatch. There is almost no coverage whatsoever with this powder. It's virtually invisible. Now I should have known better since it does say sheer but based on what I told the person helping me I assumed they would magically find the perfect product. This unfortunately did not happen. I don't think I would even recommend this to anyone, it's a waste of money to buy a product that doesn't give any benefits and a product that you cannot see.

Next is the MAC 150 brush. I bought this with the pressed powder to use as an all over face brush. The associate recommended that I wash the brush before use (I use MAC's brush cleaner) so I did just that. Before washing it, the brush was soft and seemed promising. After washing it though, the brush was no longer soft and as you can see from the picture the hairs have gone awry and are almost tangly. I left the product on the brush instead of washing it so you could see the hairs better. 

What I should have bought is the Sigma F30 brush, which is almost half the price.

But now on to the good products! Here is MAC's Girl About Town which is an amplified creme finish lipstick so it's not drying as compared to a matte finish lipstick. It glides on smoothly and I was able to wear it without any liner and did not have to deal with any bleeding. The wear on this is LONG, after I had finished taking off my makeup for the day in the shower that night there was still some residue so if you're going to wear this you need to make a commitment haha. MAC described it as a fuchsia color with blue undertones and I think it will be a great color for spring if you want to go for a bold look.

Here is the lovely Porefessional primer by Benefit. I had been using MAC's Prep & Prime Natural Radiance primer and I had liked that but I wanted to try something new. I have heard everyone and their mother rave about this so I was interested. Now that I have bought it and use it everyday underneath my makeup I cannot sing enough praises about it. It literally does blur the appearance of pores and the finish is SO silky. It's just amazing and you need it. If anything at all you need to sample it at Ulta or Sephora, but I have a feeling if you sample it you will be leaving the store with it. I mean it, it's amazing!

Last but not least is Urban Decay's De-Slick Makeup Setting Spray. I used to use Fix+ by MAC to set my makeup and that worked okay but once I switched to this it was life changing. This stuff WORKS. I have oily skin and any other time besides winter I have to use MAC's Oil Control Lotion in my t-zone. Now that I have switched to this I have so much less oil at the end of the day. When I forget to set my makeup with this I can tell a huge difference at the end of the day, my makeup will feel slimy and I just want to take it off but when I do remember, it keeps it's fresh matte finish all day long. This setting spray is a necessity for anyone with oily skin that causes their makeup to not last long enough!

Well that is it for today, I hope you were able to learn something from this and that it hopefully keeps you from buying any products you don't need and that it helps you out with any products you were thinking of purchasing. I hope you all have a good day and I'll be back soon!

Ulta Haul

Hello, everybody! I hope your Monday treated you better than it did my family. That stomach bug Carson had over the weekend hit TJ around noon and finally took me as its last victim later last night. So it's a stay in bed and feel sorry for yourself kind of day over here at the Bray house. Thankfully it's only a 24 hour virus so the end is near! Let's get started with a more fun topic, shall we?

 I did a little shopping this past week to pick up a few things that had been on my wish list since I had some coupons that were expiring at Ulta. I splurged on some Stila eyeshadow in Kitten and the Hoola bronzer by Benefit but thankfully for my wallet's sake that is where it ended. The rest are drugstore products and Ulta is great about having almost all of their drugstore brands be buy 1 get 1 50% off. The drugstore items I picked up are Revlon Colorstay 24 hour liquid foundation, two NYX butter glosses in Peaches and Cream and Merengue, and three Maybelline products: Falsies mascara, Eye Studio gel liner, and Line Stiletto liquid liner.

In this photo (last seen in my previous post) I am wearing all three of the Maybelline products. The gel liner is fairly easy to work with thanks to its texture. It came with a brush to apply it with but I used my trusty Sigma E65 that I got for Christmas and am finally able to use now. It certainly takes a while to get the hang of applying a cat eye since you have to be so precise but I feel like these products are great for working with. I tried out some false lashes just for fun for the first time EVER on Saturday and after putting them on I topped it with the Maybelline Line Stiletto liquid liner and I loved it!

As you can see from this picture the shorter tip makes it so easy to work with and it glides on so smoothly. I finished my look off by using the Falsies mascara which I have been using for a while. I have gone back and forth on how I feel about it but I've decided really do love it if I use it everyday and  keep buying it every time I run out!

This is the only product I haven't tried yet. I picked it up on Friday and since then I have only worn makeup once and used my MAC Studio Fix foundation. But I have heard so many YouTube beauty gurus rave about it and say its their favorite drugstore foundation so I figured I would give it a try! However I did just notice today that I bought the kind for normal/dry skin and they offer a kind for combination/oily skin and I think that may work better for me so I'll probably be exchanging it this week.

This is the Hoola bronzer that comes with its own little brush. I wasn't sure if I would actually use the brush but I've found that it's great for contouring. After trying this I can say that this is, hands down, my favorite bronzer I have ever tried! My NARS Laguna bronzer has barely any color pay off and my MAC bronzer in Harmony has too many red tones in it I've decided. This has more brown tones and has fabulous color pay off so it's perfect for me!

Here's a swatch of (from top to bottom) NYX butter gloss in Peaches and Cream, NYX butter gloss in Merengue, the Hoola bronzer, and Stila eyeshadow in Kitten. In my photo above I'm wearing Peaches and Cream on top of my MAC Girl About Town lipstick and I love the consistency of it. It's smooth, not sticky, has great color pay off, and on top of that it's only 4.99 and usually has a BOGO deal on it! I've yet to wear Merengue but I think it will be a great color for spring. I tried out using the Stila shadow on Saturday as a highlighter and I would recommend only using it as a highlighter on your cheekbones and nowhere else. Also, use it sparingly because a little goes a long way! I'll probably be using this solely as an eyeshadow, it's got a beautiful champagne-y color with gold undertones that make it pop. The consistency is so smooth and creamy and gives it a great color payoff! 

I hope you all enjoyed reading my opinions on these awesome products! After I try out the Revlon foundation I'll more than likely be doing a review so make sure to look out for that soon. Have a great day!

Weekend Recap

Hello, everyone! I hope you all had a nice weekend and were able to stay warm. This weather here in NWA is certainly not allowing us to enjoy any warm sunshine unfortunately. But we're trying to make the best of it because I know come summer time I will be complaining about the heat!
Friday I had a dentist appointment I had forgotten about, but luckily those day before text reminders kept me from missing it! So no lunch date with the husband sadly. I got done with the dentist pretty early in the afternoon so before I picked up Carson I made a pit stop at our nearby Ulta because I have zero self-control of course. I'll be doing a mini haul on those goodies tomorrow. Later that evening we got a surprise visit from my BFF, we've been friends for 14 years, I'm allowed to say BFF without it being annoying. We all went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner AND drove through Braums for ice cream. Yes, our Friday night was wild. We ended the night with a dance party, Carson's moves put us all to shame.
Saturday mornings are kind of my favorite. I'm a morning person so I get up early and am usually out of the house by 8 AM. TJ however is the opposite so I let him sleep in while Carson and I do our Saturday morning errands which almost always involve getting donuts and going grocery shopping while the stores aren't too crowded. I wasn't sure how this storm was going to play out so I made sure to stock up! TJ put Carson down for his nap and I got to play with my hair and makeup for once! During the week I am trying to get myself and Carson ready by myself so usually my hair is just thrown up and I don't get to spend much time on my makeup so it's nice on the weekends to actually be able to pay attention to what I'm doing without worrying that Carson is going to try to eat soap or something weird like that.

Now since this blog is beauty related I am allowed a selfie now and then to document my hair and makeup!
Once Carson woke up we were finally able to go out as a family for once! It seems like we haven't been able to in forever with being so busy during the week and with all the winter weather that we've had. We didn't do anything crazy, just hit up good old Carter's for some new jammies since this boy is growing like a weed and his 12-18 jammies barely fit over his belly! We also went to TJ Maxx, I got a gift card for Christmas that I finally used up, I of course managed to use just about all of it on Carson but I am helpless when it comes to their amazingly priced Ralph Lauren clothes! He is all set on his Polo shirts for summer now, not that he needed them but still!
Unfortunately later that evening Carson got sick. He caught a stomach bug somehow and threw up 9 times that evening and through the night. I swear every week it's something new with that poor child.

He was still his goober self and was in a great mood thankfully. Also, when did he become a little boy?? I miss my baby!
Thankfully he felt much better by Sunday afternoon. We just hung around the house and had a lazy day before starting another crazy week!
I'll be back tomorrow with an Ulta/drugstore haul so stay tuned for that and have a great day!

Confessional Friday - Getting to Know You More

1. What's your middle name?
Paige
2. If you could live anywhere else in the world where would you live?
I know I should probably pick somewhere outside the U.S. but really I would love to live somewhere in New England, I haven't quite got the state narrowed down but I think it's absolutely beautiful with all of the historical little towns and their gorgeous seasons. I think it would be nice to be near Boston but still close enough to Maine to go to their beaches and then still be able to take a train ride to NYC. It all just sounds so perfect to me.

3. Tell us about your guilty pleasures.
Pretty Little Liars. Gosh the show is so stupid but I am hooked! What will Aria do when she finds out that Ezra is A?? Dun dun dun!
4. What do you like best about your job? If you weren't doing that, what career would you have pursued?
Right now I'm a student but my dream job is to open my own clothing boutique. I've wanted to do this ever since I was in junior high probably. It just sounds perfect to me. The idea of going to market in Dallas, Las Vegas, New York, and LA to pick out all of the clothes for the next season, designing the layout and decorating the store and just having it be my own and being my own boss sounds wonderful.
5. Five items you'd grab during a fire. (People and pets don't count. Those are a given.)
My wallet, laptop, wedding rings, Carson's outfit he came home in, and any important papers I can grab!
6. Marathon running...something you'd like to pursue or just plain crazy?
I have a lot of respect for anyone who can run a marathon, but what is wrong with those crazy people??
7. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Mexican. The more queso the better, too!
8. Last person you spoke to...annnnnd....go!
Carson! We had a lovely conversation, as most parents do with their 15 month olds.
9. Favorite childhood toy
Not necessarily a toy, but a blanket I've kept over the years. My aunt knit it for me when I was born and apparently I wore it out so bad she had to knit me a new one a few years later! It's name is Lovey, it's pink with knitted hearts on it, and yes, I still own it.
10. Breakfast cereal of choice
Special K with berries. But if we're being honest, Frosted Flakes!

Weekend Update

Hello, everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend and were able to stay warm! Now if you live in the NWA area then you were given an extra day added to your weekend! That's right, yet another snow day. Since there's not much going on outside of the home today, I'll let you have a peek into our weekend. 

Fridays are my favorite, they are the one day a week TJ and I get to have any alone time. So we like to go out to eat for lunch before picking up Carson in the afternoon. We just went to Olive Garden (for some real, authentic Italian food) and it was nice catching up without a baby throwing a sippy cup at us haha!

This is grocery shopping on Saturday with my 27 lb 10 oz, 15 month old who is in the 82% for height, 90% for weight, and 97% for growth overall! He got checked out on Friday and I was a little surprised to hear those big numbers!

I knew we were supposed to get quite a bit of snow so I tried to beat the crowds on Saturday and went grocery shopping with Carson at 8 AM while his daddy slept in. He was doing so good until he saw that the little boy ahead of us was getting a snack so he decided he needed one too. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised about his growth! 

While Carson went down for his last nap of the day I went to the mall by myself, it's quite therapeutic if you ask me. I justified it by saying Carson needed new shoes. Which is true, the boy grew two shoe sizes in two weeks! Besides, I was scared I was going to get snowed in for the unforeseeable future and wanted to delay cabin fever as long as I could. It was necessary. 

Then Sunday we did a whole lot of nothing. The Super Bowl was on in our living room but the game really wasn't worth watching. (Sorry Peyton & Eric) 

 We decided now is a good time to be trying new things with Carson. First up, using silverware on his own! It's been quite the messy process but he's getting better! We're also trying to transition over to only using sippy cups and only drinking milk. It's been a long road with those two and formula is NOT cheap so I'm ready to be done with it!  We're thinking about trying to get him to sleep in the crib this week too if we get snowed in for a while. Wish us luck!

I hope everyone enjoys their snow day and stays safe and warm!