It's A Haul Y'all!

Hey there!

The kiddo and I decided that we needed to explore our new neighborhood. We had a good breakfast at a local restaurant Another Broken Egg. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw the coffee cup from the restaurant. We were with friends so I didn't want to take too many pictures of my food. And, if you stay tuned, in a few days I'll explain what the whole neighborhood restaurant quest is.

But, after getting some fuel in my belly, the kiddo and I went shopping! We found a Wally World (that is not close to me at all. I probably won't go back to that location) and stocked up on bubble bath and picked up curtains. We also traipsed to Target and Home Depot (you know how it is). We needed to get the basics (cleaning supplies, towels, etc.). Then... THEN we went to the clothing stores!!!!!

I didn't really need anything but I wanted to show the kiddo what stores were in our area. She, of course, found some great stuff at Old Navy and Claires. Mama went to a few other stores.

I have mentioned Charming Charlie before. It's a cute little jewelry, clothing, accessory store. I like it because they have lots of sales that makes their jewelry a very good price AND when we went the clearance jewelry was BOGO. The kiddo scored big time! I was looking for rose gold pieces to match my new necklace from Bauble Bar. Charming Charlie has soooo many rose gold pieces that I could choose from. I went right to the back of the store to see if I could find some discounted rose gold pieces. They did not disappoint! I got these great earrings and beaded wrap bracelet. The bracelet was $4.99 (originally $10) and the earrings were $3.99 (originally $8), so my total price was $4.99 plus tax! I saved $13. Waaaaay to go!

The kiddo and I also swung into Bath & Bodyworks to pick up some Wallflowers fragrance plugs for the new place. I have the plain white ones but I wanted a cute one for my bedroom and I wanted the kiddo to pick a cute one for her bedroom. I didn't end up necessarily picking a "cute" one. I just picked a grey flower top one. My bedroom is silver, green and white so the grey blends in very well. The kiddo got the blue butterfly fragrance plug. She picked up hers because she liked it, not necessarily because it fit the room decor.

I don't normally walk into certain stores. I see the name and I just figure everything inside is super expensive. I should know better than that! Even more pricey stores have a discount area. And, White House Black Market is one of those stores. I hustled my booty to the back of the store and found three really cute tops!

The first top has already been on a test drive. It's a larger, flowing black and white striped three quarter length sleeves (originally $58, purchased for $29.99). It's light weight so it's perfect for summer visits to place like the movies or restaurants -- you know, places where the AC is going to blowing like crazy. I wore a basic, white, spaghetti strap tank top. I think next time I'll wear a tank (either black or white works) with wider straps. The top sleeves go where they want to and I kept being very conscious of whether or not my bra strap was showing. Bigger straps would have meant that I wouldn't have cared if the tank strap showed because they would have covered my bra straps.

The mint green tank top is really fun (originally $84, purchased for $19.99). It's a satiny tank that will look great under a jacket or wrap (and I am soooo into wraps right now). The straps are embellished with little rhinestone cuffs to just give it a bit of dazzle. I need some dazzle in my wardrobe. I'm glad this top has joined my closet!

I also added a simple pale grey tank to my wardrobe. It's basic and it was a good price (originally $40, purchased for $9.99). I don't have a tank this color or this design. I thought the design classed it up a bit so I think it will be nice for a work tank. Again, this would be a great with a plain jacket.

For a girl not looking for anything, I got pretty lucky this time! I just hope I get great deals like this every time I got shopping with the kiddo.

Quickie Review - e.l.f. Brush Shampoo

Hey There!

One of the most dreaded jobs in the makeup world is cleaning your makeup brushes. I have purchased more of the same types of brushes so that I don't have to wash them as often. But, as the world goes round, dirty brushes must get washed (or you will just have to trashed them all and start over).

And because I haven't trashed them all and started over, I have to find the quickest, most efficient way possible to clean them. Everyone is purchasing special mitts and drying racks and solutions that will make cleaning your makeup brushes, easier, faster, with less effort and more delicately (so you don't ruin your brushes).

I haven't found anything easier, faster, with less effort and more delicately (is that grammatically correct? I'm feeling that it isn't) but I have found something that I like and, at a price point that I can deal with.

I picked up the e.l.f. Brush Shampoo ($2.69) a few weeks ago (haul link here) and have been trying it out. I didn't save a ton of money because it was only $3 to begin with. That is a really nice price point. The reason that I had to grab it at Marshalls was because my Target and Walmart are normally out of it. I really wanted to try it because lately I've been using my Purity Made Simple by Philosophy to clean my makeup brushes and that's just not fiscally sound.

So I tried out this little bottle of goodness and I really like it! It reminds me of baby shampoo in consistency but the smell reminds me of baby laundry detergent. You know, if you've ever used Dreft to clean baby's clothes...that's the smell. If you haven't, take a whiff next time you're in the store.

The brush shampoo works well. You don't have to use a lot and I noticed with my kabuki brush, I only had to wash and rinse twice. Normally I have to wash and rinse three or four times. That in itself is a time saver!

It seems to be really gentle on my brushes and they feel soft afterwards. While I haven't given it a long term test run, I feel pretty confident that I'll like using this and it will be worth buying it again.

Want a review after I've put it on the road and pushed the gas pedal to the floor? Stay tuned for my empties posts. I'm sure you'll see it and hear about it there!

Walmart Beauty Box - Spring 2015 - Review

Hey There!

I talked about my Wal-Mart Beauty box for Spring (Preview that I titled incorrectly). I always love the Walmart beauty box. It's $5 a quarter.  Of all my beauty box subscriptions, this is the only one I'm still getting. The rest didn't stand up.

My Walmart Beauty box had a Burt's Bees Renewal Intensive Firming Serum ($19.99 for 1 oz) in it. I have been using my L'Oreal Age Perfect Glow Renewal for two months now and I really like it. Because of that, I was super excited about this Burt's Bees Serum. I was all ready to try it when I read the ingredients -- apple and  hibiscus rejuvenating complex - I put it down. I'm allergic to apples. The last time I put something on my face that had a fruit based ingredient that I was allergic to, my face when red, hot and began to burn within 2 minutes. No WAY was I putting this on my face. C'est la vie!

I got Lady Gaga Fame Black Fluid perfume ($18.77 for .5 fl oz) in this box. Honestly, I haven't tried it yet. It's allergy season and the slightest hint of perfume brings on snot-fest and stuffy nose-fest, all at the same time. My nose and it's problems are modern miracles I tell you. So, I won't be trying this until probably the end of May or June.

Every month there is a lotion included in the box. This month's lotion was the Dial 7 Day Moisturizing Lotion ($4.88 for 21 oz). I liked it. It smelled good and moisturized my hands very well. No, I wouldn't purchase it, except for the fact that it was small and fit in my purse. It wasn't anything life changing but it was good.

I enjoyed my Caress Fine Fragrance body wash. It was nice, bubbly and cleaned my body so well. Would I purchase the full size? No. Even though it smelled nice, it wasn't anything special either.

I also got the L'Oreal Total Repair 5 Restoring Shampoo and Conditioner ($3.97 for 12.6 oz). It's tiny and you really can't get a great feel of the product. I was able to use it one and a half times.

I also got some samples. I got a sample of L'Oreal Age Perfect Glow Renewal Serum (that I loved), Olay Regenerist Luminous Tone Perfecting Cream (that burned my face as almost all Olay products do) Nivea In-Shower Body Lotion (like it but not sure that I'd spend the extra money on wash off lotion) and Garnier Ultra-Lift Miracle Sleeping Cream (nice but not sure what it's doing).

So once again, I am in love with my Walmart box. It never fails (so far), my Walmart box does not disappoint. I know it sounded like I didn't like it or was nonchalant about it but I really did enjoy trying everything inside.

Have you signed up? It's $5 per quarter. You can go wrong!