Elf Obsession Part Two

So if you read my previous blog post you will know that I have a serious Elf obsession and placed two orders in May. This is the second order I placed... Brace yourselves, there's a lot!

                         

FACE:

                        

Mineral Revitalizing Mist - This is a facial spray with Witch Hazel, Rosemary, Chamomile, Honey suckle, Aloe and Vitamin B. It is supposed to hydrate your skin and make you look energized and renewed. So far I like this stuff. I am a big fan of facial sprays and this one definitely isn't the best one I have ever used but it does the trick. It does make me feel moisturized and it is great on hot days and doesn't really have a smell at all.  $6.00


Studio Hydrating Under Eye Primer  - As the name suggests, this is an under eye primer with Vitamins C and E, Green Tea, Aloe, Shea and Ginko Biloba. It claims to hydrate the under eye area and prevent your concealer from setting into fine lines. It has a pink tint to it and feels nice and creamy and hydrating but I don't think it stops my concealer from creasing any more than normal. I do get really dry patches under my eyes though so I am going to continue to use this so that my makeup won't stick to the gross dry patches. $3.00.

Studio HD Lifting Concealer in Green - This is a basic green concealer that is used to neutralize and correct any redness. I have KP and rosacea so my face gets very red so I am always looking for a good green corrector. This one seems to correct my redness just fine and I have no complaints. $3.00.

Studio Eye Refresh - This is a roller ball for your under eye area that is supposed to help with dark circles and puffiness. It contains pomegranate, rosemary, green tea, cucumber and grape. I do really like this roller ball. it feels so cold when you apply it and that alone makes me feel more awake. I don't know if it actually reduces dark circles or puffiness but it feels great so that's a perk! $3.00.

Studio Hydrating Face Primer - This is a great face primer that is supposed to hydrate as well as smooth your face. I really like this! It does make my face feel smooth and it adds a bit of moisture to my dry patches. The only thing I don't like about this is that it looks like you are getting way more product than you actually are. $6.00.

Essential Shimmering Facial Whip in Lilac Petal - This is a cream highlighter in a pink, coral shade. It is a small tube but you do get quite a bit of product because you need the smallest amount. It blends out nicely and it is only $1.00.

Shimmering Facial Whip in Lilac Petal. I know it is kind of hard to see.

Studio Shimmer Palette - this is a palette with 4 different shimmers that can be used on the face, eyes or lips.These shimmers are super creamy. It has a white shimmer, a peach one, a gold one and a pink one. They blend out super nice and aren't sticky feeling at all. This palette is super versatile and can work for everyone! $3.00.

White, Peach, Gold, Pink

                                             

Studio Blush Palette in Light - This was the reason I really wanted to place a second order because it was sold out the first time I ordered. It is a sturdy palette with a huge mirror and 4 amazing shades of blush. It has a bright bubble gum pink, a dark coral orange shade, a deep pink and a coral pink. These blushes are all so soft and buttery and blend out nicely. This is a great palette for travelling because it is sturdy and it has a great selection of blushes that will go with anything. $6.00

                                        

                                        

LIPS:

                          

Essential Lipsticks in Seductive, Posh, Nostalgic,Captivating and Sociable. These ones complete my collection of the Essential lipsticks. As I have said several times before, I can't believe that these lipsticks are only $1.00. They are super creamy and smooth and pigmented. The packaging sucks on these because they jam in the tube but I am so glad I have all of these now. Seductive is a muted rosy color, Posh is a deep wine color, Nostalgic is a great coral nude shade that is super light, Captivating is a orangey brown shade and Sociable is a bright reddish pink. $1.00.

Seductive, Posh, Nostalgic, Captivating and Sociable

Studio Conditioning Lip Balm in Blissful Berry and Romantic Rouge - These are tinted lip balms that are super smooth and hydrating and ultra pigmented. They smell good and they are perfect for days when you just want to get out the door. I love the packaging on these too. They are one of my favorite products from Elf. I also have the shades Peaceful Pink and Mellow Melon and I wear them all the time. They are also super moisturizing! Blissful Berry is a deep wine colored red and Romantic Rouge is a bright red. $3.00.

Blissful Berry and Romantic Rouge

Studio Matte Lip Color in Natural, Coral, Tea Rose, and Rich Red. - These are twist up lip crayons that have a matte finish. On the end they have a sharpener that pops out so that you can keep a point as time goes on. I love these. They feel super smooth and they look matte when they dry but don't dry out my lips. Natural is a perfect nude shade, Coral is a coral nude shade, Tea Rose is a purple nude and Rich Red is a super bright red. The red one is the least matte of them all. I am a big fan of these. $3.00.

Natural, Coral, Tea Rose and Rich Red

Studio Glossy Gloss in Wild Watermelon - This is the second Glossy Gloss that I have. I did not like the first one I have basically because it has a brush applicator and mine came all frayed and nasty but this one is not frayed at all. It is creamy and pigmented but a little more sticky than I like. It is a bright pink color. $3.00.

Studio Lip Stain in First Date, Fashionista and Lucky Lady - These have a lip stain on one end and a clear gloss on the other.They go on super creamy and pigmented and I do really like these but the stain is pretty drying without a gloss or lipstick over top. First Date is a bright bubble gum pink, Fashionista is a deeper bright pink and Lucky lady is a brownish nude color that I honestly don't like that much. $3.00.

Mineral Lip Liner in Peachy - This is an amazing lip liner in a coral peach color. It is super pigmented and creamy and long wearing. I will definitely be purchasing more. $3.00.

Wild Watermelon, First Date, Fashionista, Lucky Lady, Peachy Lip Liner

Moisturizing Lipstick in Coral Cutie, Rosy Go Round, Wink Pink, Ravishing Rose - I have mentioned these several times too and I these ones did not disappoint. These are super pigmented and creamy and moisturizing. They also smell so amazing. Coral Cutie is the most amazing coral color, Rosy Go Round is a rosy red color, Wink Pink is a muted purple pink, and Ravishing Rose is a gorgeous wine color. $3.00.

Coral Cutie, Rosy Go Round, Wink Pink and Ravishing Rose

So there you have it. I'm pretty sure now I own 95% of their collection. They are definitely one of my favorite brands and it is awesome that they are very inexpensive. I would absolutely recommend checking out their website if you are in need of some new products or want to try something out but don't want to pay for a more expensive brand in case it doesn't work for you. 

xoxo

Fabulous Friday

So this week has kind of been a messy one. Ever since Owen's birthday he has been sick. I thought that his tummy was just sick from the cake and starting on whole milk but he has had diarrhea every day this week. I think I have narrowed it down to teething because nothing has made it better and he is getting his 7th tooth. Luckily it is starting to get a bit better but it has been messy. You know you are a mom when you can openly talk about poop to everyone and anyone. The "highlight" of my week was when I picked up Owen to go change him and I squished the poop out of his diaper and all onto my favorite shirt. Neat. So we have spent the week watching a lot of Mickey Mouse, having a lot of cuddles and changing a ton of diapers. But no matter what goes wrong in a week there are always reasons to smile. Here's what made me smile this week:

1. I got a ton of cuddles this week which never happens!

2. My ELF order and my new Mary Lou-Manizer highlighter came in the mail.

3. Brendon has been home relatively early this week. 

4. I purchased a book on Chakras and I am really excited to start reading it.

5. I've been getting more sleep than normal and that is amazing.

6. Even with Owen feeling sick, he is getting soooo chatty. He talks and sings and laughs all day long.

                                         

What made you smile this week?

xoxo

Elf obsession Part One!

So if you don't know already, I have a bit of an Elf obsession. I just love their makeup line. If you haven't tried any of their products before you definitely should. I have never seen it in stores around me so I'm not sure if any Canadian stores carry it but I always order it online. Every week they have a new deal it seems like. Sometimes it is a buy one get one half or free, sometimes if you spend a certain amount you get free stuff and sometimes it is just a percentage off or free shipping. I placed an order May 1 and another one May 27th. The only reason I placed a second order was because there were a couple things that were sold out when I placed the first order that I really wanted.  So needless to say, I went a little bit overboard...here is the first order I placed.

EYES:

                                   

Prism Eyeshadow Palette in Naked - This is a little palette with 6 different neutral shades. I love how this palette looks in the case. The shadows are all gorgeous warm neutrals with an amazing sheen and shimmer to them. They feel very smooth and creamy and not very chalky like some of Elf's shadows are known to feel. The fourth and fifth shadows look almost identical so I do wish that they would have replaced one of them with a different shade. They don't seem to have a lot of fall out which is great They have great pigmentation and they blend out amazingly. This palette is also available in two other shades, one is a smokey palette and the other one has pink and purple shadows. This palette is one of the more expensive items that elf has and it retails at $10.00.

                                      

Studio Endless Eyes Pro Mini in Brights - This is a palette with 32 shadows. There is a combination of neutral and bright shadows but they are all shimmery. These shadows feel creamy but they are a little chalky. With a primer they seem to be long wearing. Not all of the shadows are as pigmented as I would have liked. I seem to only reach for this palette when I am wanting a bright shadow. I do wish that I would have bought the neutral palette instead because I have heard great things about that one and I just don't get a lot of wear out of this one. $6.00.

                                              

Top 16 Shades

Bottom 16 Shades

   

Essential Wet Gloss and Clear Brow Mascara - Excuse the picture of this one. I have been using it a lot lately on my brows after I fill them in and then it carries product into the tube and ends up just looking gross. Why do they even make a clear tube for it? Nobody wants to see that! I have yet to use the wet gloss but I do enjoy using the clear brow mascara. It is the first clear brow mascara that I have used and I like it but I don't feel like it is the most amazing brow mascara that is out there. I am definitely interested in trying others. I feel like this one puts on a lot of product so sometimes it makes my brows look wet and it uses up extra product so it won't last long. $1.00

Liquid Eyeliner in Black - this is the famous elf liquid liner and I had to pick it up. When I wear liquid eyeliner I prefer a felt tip pen style instead of a brush. This is super black and I love it but I am still getting used to using a brush instead. $1.00.

Pixie wet dry on top and wet on bottom, Moonlit Serenade and
Champagne

Baked Eye shadows in Pixie and Moonlit Serenade- I was very excited for these because I have heard some great things about them. These are super shimmery and sparkly. You can use they wet or dry and personally I think that they are not pigmented at all dry and just look like sparkles but when they are wet they are sooo beautiful and so pigmented.  Pixie is this gorgeous rose gold color and Moonlit Serenade is a champagne, gold sparkly color. $3.00

Waterproof Eyeliner Crayon in Champagne - this is a twist up eye crayon that can be used as a shadow or a liner. I think that it is more of a bronze/copper shade instead of a champagne and it does have chunks of glitter in it which I don't love. It is very pigmented and long lasting and is seriously waterproof. $3.00

FACE:

                                      

Maximum Coverage Concealer in Porcelain - this is an oil free concealer and it is supposed to be full coverage. I don't feel like it is full coverage and it is definitely not porcelain. It is too dark for me so I very rarely use this so unfortunately I don't have too much to say about it. $3.00

Studio Blush in Peachy Keen - I love these blushes. I had one already in Candid Coral and I used it constantly This is a gorgeous peach color with a little bit of shimmer to it. It works perfectly for my pale skin. They feel so smooth and so buttery on the skin and I am obsessed! $3.00.

Baked Highlighter in Moonlit Pearls - This looks almost identical to the Baked eye shadows. It is in the exact same packaging and seems like the exact same formula. Moonlit pearls is a pinky white highlighter and it is a very nice light highlight. $3.00 

Flawless Concealer brush - This is an amazing brush that I don't really use for concealer but I use it as a blending brush for my eye shadow. I just love the studio line brushes so much. They are really good quality and wash so great. I really recommend these brushes! $3.00

LIPS:

                              

Essentials Lipsticks in Classy, Flirtatious, and Charming - These are the best lipsticks! They are so creamy and buttery and super pigmented. And the best part? They are only $1.00!! Classy is an amazing cool tones purple pink color, Flirtatious is this bright reddish pink color and Charming is a deeper rosy pink color. The smell of these are great! They smell fruity! The only thing I do not like about these is the packaging. They look alright but they are very cheap feeling and some times they are hard to turn up, it feels like they are jamming. 

Moisturizing Lipsticks in Party in the buff and Flirty and Fabulous - These are the studio line lipsticks so they are the higher quality. The packaging is a lot better than the essential lipsticks. These are super moisturizing and smooth and the color pay off is amazing. These smell so freaking good too. They smell like vanilla and brown sugar. Party in the Buff is a coral nude shade and Flirty and Fabulous is a cool tone hot pink. They are amazing! $3.00.

Studio Lip Stain in Heartbreaker - These have a lip stain on one end and a clear gloss on the other. This shade is very similar to Party in the Buff. It is a coral nude color that goes on like a gloss and and dry matte. I do love this shade and I like the formula but I can't just leave it without a gloss or lipstick on top because I feel like it is very drying. I do like the clear gloss over the top because it feels like a very thin gloss that isn't sticky. The stain has decent wear time but I do have to reapply throughout the day. $3.00

Studio Glossy Gloss in Ballet Slippers - This gloss has a brush wand instead of a doe foot applicator like most. I do like the brush but when I got mine, the bristles of the brush were already all fanned out so it doesn't go back into the tube nicely and they stick out all over the place when you try to apply it to your lips. Other than that the shade is again, very similar to Party in the Buff and Heartbreaker. They are pretty pigmented and are not too sticky for my taste. $3.00

Classy, Flirtatious, Charming, Party in the Buff, Flirty and Fabulous, Heartbreaker, Ballet Slippers.

                              

Owen's 1st Birthday

I still cannot believe it but my little man turned 1 on May 28. I can't believe that a year has passed since he was born. I can still vividly remember every detail about that day. I can remember all the faces of my doctors and nurses. I can remember which room I was in, what I was wearing and the horrible smell of disinfectant used at the NICU. But most of all I can remember how I felt as soon as my baby was born. In that very instant he became the most important thing in the world and I could not believe the amount of love I felt for him instantly. I only got to hold him for a few seconds before the took him away to the NICU because he was 5 weeks early.

I didn't see him again for hours and when I finally did get to see him I was so weak and dizzy that I could barely even sit up. I do remember going to bed for an hour or two and waking up in a panic because my baby was all "alone" in the NICU so I rushed down there and I finally got to really hold him. He was in the NICU for 3 days and was perfectly healthy but he was having trouble eating. Little did I know at the time, his stubbornness at 2 days old would continue for the next year.

Had to have a feeding tube because he was not eating on his own.

When we brought him home he instantly became my best friend.

First smile

First time in his bassinet.

He has always been a smart boy. He is very observant and I can already tell that he tries to figure out how things work just like his dad. He is the funniest person I know and he already knows that he is cute and uses to his advantage. Especially with his Grandmas. He is definitely a boy! He likes head butting, and banging his head on the wall. Loves cars and trucks and dirt. He loves naps and books like his mom and I will often find him reading books to himself for half an hour or better at a time. He is freakishly strong and extremely stubborn. He is not walking yet but I know that it will be any day now. He has a flattened stuffed elephant that he is obsessed with and will not sleep without and he is really loving Mickey Mouse these days. I will do a post in the near future with a picture for each month of his life so you can see how much he has grown.

We had his birthday party on Saturday and it was so much fun. We just kept it to family because we did not want him to get overwhelmed by too many people. We had a BBQ in our backyard and gave him his own cake to smash. He did so well that day with skipping his nap and got some amazing gifts.

The best present of them all!

How amazing is this cake that my Mother in Law made?!

The Smash cake

I made the sign in the background using black poster board and chalk.

My parents with Owen

Owen and his Great Grandma (GG)

My sister and brother in law and my soon to be niece!

My brother and Owen

Brendon's sister and her boyfriend

Brendon and Owen and I

This perfectly describes our family!

All in all it was a great day and the perfect way to wrap up the first year of his life. It makes me a little bit emotional to think about my baby growing up but it also makes me so excited for the future!

xoxo

Mother's Day

Yesterday was my first ever Mothers Day. This time last year I was hugely pregnant and we took some maternity pictures at my sisters house and we were planning on taking some more the next time we were down but since Owen was in a rush to get here we didn't have a chance to get other pictures done. So I was really excited for Mothers Day since it was my first. 

We had a pretty busy day. Owen has been getting up around 6:30am instead of 8:00 everyday so Brendon got up with him while I slept in until 7:30 or so which was a dream for me! My boys gave me cards and a super cute wall sign . 

They also bought me polarized Raybans a few weeks ago because Brendon was sick of hearing me complain about how I have to still squint when I wear any of my cheap Target sunglasses. It was a perfect morning but we had to rush and get ready because we had to go to Brendon's parents house for brunch. We had a delicious brunch of pancakes, bacon, cinnamon buns and fruit and stayed there until about 1:30.

At this point Owen desperately needed a nap so we left, stopped at home to grab gifts and dessert and headed to Estevan to my sister's house while Owen napped.   We had a great roasted chicken supper that my sister prepared and I made a brownie refrigerator cake for dessert. ( I will post the recipe at the end of this post). My brother, sister, mom and I went down to the cemetery to put flowers on my Nana's grave like we do every year. We were there until 9:30 or so and then headed home. 

All in all it was a great day. It feels great to have a day to celebrate me being a mother and now that I am a mom it makes me appreciate my own mom a lot more. Becoming a mom is the hardest thing I have ever done. It is the most exhausting, frustrating, exciting, amazing, most rewarding job I could ever have. I hope all you moms had a great Mothers Day and I hope the rest of you spoiled your moms! 

Brownie Refrigerator Cake 

Ingredients:

   • 2 brownie mixes ( I used the Quaker Brownie chocolate fudge in the bag not the box and used the whole bag)

   • 1 extra large egg

   • 1 package softened cream cheese

   • 1 cup icing sugar

   • 2 containers cool whip 

   • 1 package instant vanilla pudding 

   • 1 package instant chocolate pudding 

   • 3 1/2 cup milk

   • Any chocolate bar of your choice

1. Mix brownie mix according to directions. Add egg. Pour into 9x13 greased pan and bake according to directions. Remove and let cool.

2. Mix cream cheese, icing sugar and Cool Whip and spread on top of cooled brownies.

3. Mix puddings and milk together and spread on top of cream cheese mix. 

4. Spread the second container of cool whip all over the top and crumble or grate a chocolate bar over the top. Store in the fridge until ready to serve. 

* if I were to make it again I would maybe only use half the cream cheese layer to make it a bit thinner. I also want to try adding peanut butter in there some how. 

Happy Mother's Day!

xoxo