July Favorites!

This month's is going to be pretty short, but have no fear, August's monthly favorites will be very long. I'm leaving for Mexico the 9th, so I've done a little splurging for it.

Anyways, on to July's favorites!

This month nothing is new, I've been going through all of my products trying to use up everything (apparently I have a habit of using a product a little more than half way then forgetting about it). Some of these products are just essentials for me that I wanted to share, for example the eye cream I'll be starting this post with.


1. Origins - GinZing Refreshing Eye Cream 

"A clinically proven eye cream that instantly de-puffs and reduces dark circles." 

I remember using this almost everyday for a month or two and being blown away by the results. I got this about 2-3 years ago (yeah I know I need a new one) after walking into Sephora and asking a sales associate what would help my dark under eye circles. She brought me to this eye cream and said that it was a miracle worker, and I decided to try it out since it was much cheaper than the other eye creams I was looking at.

That next day I went to use it and was immediately disappointed. I saw the salmon pink tint and thought 'oh no, she thought I meant a makeup/cover up...' which is not what I meant at all. I wanted an eye cream that over time would improve my dark circles not a makeup that would just cover them. But I decided to just use it under my concealer since salmon is supposed to be a good correcting color for dark circles. I won't lie, after a couple of days I was pretty satisfied with it as a makeup base, it hid my bags much better than concealer alone. After about two weeks I went to apply some when I looked in mirror and realized my dark circles looked a million times better and they were only visible in certain lighting/angles. After a few more weeks I felt confident on skipping concealer and just wearing the eye cream alone. 

Flash forward to today and I couldn't tell you what made me stop using this. It must have been that I noticed that there wasn't an SPF so I switched to a different eye cream, or maybe I just got lazy. Either way I just rediscovered this eye cream recently and I've been using it since. What I do now though, is apply this eye cream, then a separate eye cream with an SPF over it. 

Overall: Only complaint is that there isn't an SPF but I'd still give it   4.5/5 stars

2. Bath & Body Works - Plum Moscato & Almond Harvest Triple Moisture Body Cream

"Join us as we toast to an abundant fall harvest with a glass of sumptuous plum moscato, accented with creamy notes of toasted almond."

I'm going to start this post by saying that this lotion smells absolutely amazing. On the back it says the key notes are: Plum Moscato, Toasted Almond, Blackcurrant, Lily Blossom, and Vanilla Woods. I actually wasn't the one picked this up last Fall since I usually go for cinnamon, honey apple, or slight pumpkiny smells in the Fall. So I would have never noticed a fruity scent during a Fall collection, but my mom picked it up and I guess used it a couple times. 3 seasons later, my mom walked into my room and asked if I wanted it. Never saying no to a body cream, I decided to test it out. It moisturizes just the same as any other Bath & Body Works body cream (which is amazing) but I just can't get over this smell. I really hope they bring this back this Fall, or at least something similar.

Overall: Love it 4/5 stars

3. Mac - Fanfare Lipstick

Once again this isn't new, and I've actually had this lipstick since senior year (wow, two years ago ...) and when I bought it I truly thought this was going to be my new every day lipstick. At the time I had been using either Hue or Pure Zen, but I wanted something a little deeper and colorful. I guess I had my hair up when I bought this, but when I went to put this on before school I absolutely hated the way it clashed with my hair color at the time, which was a deep red. So I put it with the rest of my Mac lipsticks and started reaching for Shanghai Spice more. 

So when the Giambaitisa Valli Mac Collection came out this year, I rushed to my closest Mac to grab the red & corally orange. I came home and decided to go through my lipsticks, when I refound this. I decided to try out since I'm back to my natural dark brown/black hair, and I fell in love. I've been using this non stop since, and I've received a bunch of compliments. I highly recommend this shade to everyone. I feel that it's slightly warm, but I don't think it will be harsh or anything to those with cool skin tones. 

Overall: I'm obsessed with this shade 4.5/5 stars 

That's it for this month's favorites! Be sure to come back & check out next month's!!

Super Quick Berry Protein Smoothie (30 grams of protein!)

Hello everyone! Today I have a recipe for you - a berry smoothie with 30 grams of protein! And if that wasn't enough, this protein shake actually tastes good! I find myself craving this, and since it's so quick, I make it for breakfast before I have to run out!

This smoothie is inspired by one I got at the gym the other day! It was so good I couldn't believe that it had 23 grams of protein! So I went to the store and bought some vanilla whey protein powder to try this out for myself. I gotta say, I think mine turned out a little better ;) it has more protein, and to me it doesn't taste as chalky.

All you need is:

* Mixed berries (I bought a frozen bag to save money)
* 1 banana
* Orange juice
* Vanilla whey protein

Steps:

1. Slice up the banana. It's your choice if you'd like to use the full banana for 1 smoothie, or use half and save the rest for later (or to use for a friend's smoothie!). When I make this for breakfast I use a whole banana and add extra of the other ingredients, but if this is just a protein shake or a snack I'd recommend you use half of one.

2. If you're using the full banana throw the chopped slices into the blender, then a handful of frozen berries. If you are using half a banana, grab the cup you will be using to drink this and grab enough frozen berries to fill the cup 3/4s.

3. Next pour in a splash of orange juice. Personally I like to use a good amount of juice since it helps for flavor.

4. Pour everything into a blender and blend until you can't see any chunks. Now you can put in the protein powder. If you used half a banana pour in a 3/4 scoop, if you used a full banana you can either use 1 or 1 & 1/2 scoops. Blend again until you can't see the powder.


It tastes amazing and is a great, easy breakfast! This has been such a great alternative to the milk and chocolate whey protein I usually have.

Discontinued Lush 2015 Products

I just found out one of my favorite bath bombs, Space Girl, has been discontinued. Apparently this was announced July 19th, but for some reason I just found out last night. I quickly logged on to Lush with the intention to purchase 10 or more of them before they were gone for forever, but it was already too late.

Space Girl from lushusa.com

I'm absolutely heart broken, especially since the week before the announcement I had actually purchased one. I'm disappointed with myself because I was going to get 2 or 3 of them, but decided to only get one and get more around the Christmas haul I'm planning. I figured since I usually take baths in the fall and winter, there was no point to stocking up now. Well, I learned my lesson.

I jumped to Ebay to see if anyone was selling any, and luckily I found a reasonable auction for a total of $10. (I know that's twice the amount Lush charged but compared to the other sellers charging $20 + shipping, so I didn't mind much.) Hopefully that works out & I'll have 2 of these left.

What I'm secretly hoping for is that Lush will keep the scent but redo the design, or maybe even come up with a completely different product (ex. bubble bar version, shower gel, etc.). Because even though I love this scent, I don't particularly care for the glitter or the faint color the water turns. But as long as I get some product with this scent it won't be a total loss. 

If someone from Lush ever reads this, please keep this scent.

Love,

An overreacting, sad customer

Lush Cocktail: Blackberry & the Comforter

I've had a rough past couple of days and I've been dying to just lay around and relax. So since today I didn't have work or any plans (besides getting breakfast at Chick-fil-a - treat yourself) I decided it would be a perfect day to try out a Lush cocktail!
Now, this definitely isn't "new" or crazy but it's my first cocktail, and I got to say it's incredible.

Blackberry bath bomb & the Comforter bubble bar

The Comforter is one of my top 5 favorite products from Lush. It's one of the more expensive bubble bars, but it's huge and you can get 4-5 baths from it. The one above I ordered from online is a little smaller, so it's more of a 4 bath bar. If you go in store you can pick out which bar you want, so it would be easy to pick out a 5 bath one. It's scent is described as blackcurrant with bergamot oil, so it's very fruity and a little sweet.

Here's the 1/4th chunk I used for this cocktail

One of the best things about bubble bars is that you don't need much of them to get a great amount of bubbles. I only used a 4th of my Comforter and the tub was filled, even 40 minutes later the tub was still bubbly enough to cover most of the water.

Blackberry smells exactly how you would imagine it would; it's fruity with bergamot oil & frankincense. It was actually one of the first bath bombs I've ever tried (it was either Blackberry or So White) and it is credited as Lush's first bath bomb.

The smell was absolutely amazing, it was like these two products were made to use together. I don't think I'll ever be able to use one of these without the other. I'm not usually impressed with pink water (my first Lush "haul" ended up being all pinky bath bombs) but this color was a very pretty pinky purple. Parts were more magenta pink from the Comforter and parts were a deep purple from Blackberry. 

Side note: A lot of reviews on Lush's site say that Blackberry stains their tubs, but I've never had this problem with the bath bomb and I've used it twice.

It's been about an hour since the bath and I still smell Blackberry on my skin (especially when I make a sudden movement). 

(Sorry the lighting was terrible - but here's the deep purple I was talking about)

Overall I'd say this cocktail would be a 5/5 stars, and I'm going to be stocking up on this bath bomb so I can use this cocktail more often.

M.I.A.

Well I'm back, and I'm going to try this again! I plan on posting lots of reviews on hair care, make up, skin care, etc. with some ootd, and clothing hauls sprinkled in. I'll warn you now, I'm obsessed with Lush and will be talking about it far too much for my own good. For now my goal is at least one post a week. I hope you'll stick with me! A July favorites post will be up shortly!

1st recipe: Brownie, Oreo, Chocolate Chip Combination

1st Recipe on this blog, and of course it's dessert.


What you'll need for these are;
1) Brownie batter; either your normal brownie recipe, or a box of brownies will do
2) Whole Oreos
3) Chocolate chip cookie dough (again, this can be either homemade, or store bought, but it needs to be chilled)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Next you can prepare the brownie mix and even add some chocolate chips if you don't normally!

Now add cupcake liners to a muffin pan and set it to the side. Grab your chilled cookie dough, and begin to roll it into small balls as you would if you were just baking cookies. Flatten them in the bottom of the cupcake liner, and make sure to cover the whole bottom liner. This is going to be the base of the Oreo brownie, and it will be what holds up the treat!

Next, place an Oreo on top of each flattened chocolate chip cookie, and press down, but not too hard!

 Finally, you can pour the batter on top of the oreo, and make sure to cover the sides too! Bake for 20 minutes and they should be done!! Remove liners from tray, and let them cool.

Share with friends (or not) and enjoy!!