Jealousy Wakes: Thoughts and a few looks

So after the wait, anticipation, and stalking the UPS guy, I got it Friday afternoon :-D

My first impressions of this shadow was "OMG is there some teal in this?" From the light I was looking at, it definitely looked like it was more teal than green. I then put it with some shadows just to see what I could do with it. Now as for the application, it wasn't as smooth as I had hoped (perhaps I had too much color on by brush) and perhaps because I was a bit sloppy with my application, there was quite a bit of fallout.

Overall, I like this color, but maybe I should have gotten this along with Hocus Pocus. I'm hoping they restock so that I can buy that one. I also wouldn't be surprised to see this getting swapped on Make Up Alley quite a bit because it is pulling teal/blue for a lot of people across the skin tones.

Below the jump are shots of the shadow and me just playing around with colors.

Cantu Shea Butter: A partner in the fight against dryness

oooooh...turns out that I may not have a reason to fear this after all! :-D

So Cantu Shea Butter Leave-In Conditioner...who knew that a product that "shouldn't be applied on virgin hair" would turn into one of my greatest allies in the fight against dry ends?! Thanks to this stuff, I don't have to moisturize my hair everyday anymore! :-D

Have you ever been happily surprised by a product?

Jealousy Wakes: The jealousy is definitely awake in this one and this is why I usually don't do LE hauls!

The other post wasn't to my liking, so I redid it. Sorry about that!

As a lot of you may know, MAC is doing a collection called Blogger's Obsession. As I've said in a previous post, I really wanted the eye shadow Jealousy Wakes because I have never seen an emerald shadow and emerald is one of my favorite colors in the world (Others include plum purple and sapphire. I love deep, dark cool colors). I also never ever EVER go into a frenzy about their limited edition collections because that is too much stalking, watching, staying at the computer and frankly, I'm not one who likes to sit still and just watch what happens. My rule was if it's not available permanently, I didn't need it. As you may have cleverly guessed by my creative horrible pun of a title, I made an exception for Jealousy Wakes.

I expect to wait until midnight for it to launch. It doesn't launch at midnight, instead the collection drops onto the MAC website a little bit after 10 AM EST. Thankfully, I was near a computer so I just ordered and kept going with my life. I thought it would end there, but thanks to my impatience, it was not the end.

So I do what I sometimes do when a new collection drops-I go onto Specktra to see other's experience with online shopping. Stuff like "OMG the product shows up and seconds later, they're not there anymore", "It just says coming soon on the site" makes me worry a bit because I was just hoping that my order didn't get cancelled. Or backordered. Actually an order being cancelled is worse than backorder. Is this frenzy common from new collections? I mean, I remember Marine Life, Stereo Rose and...OH NO I'M DIGRESSING!

Later on that evening, I see lots of people posting in delight that their confirmation order has shipped. After this development, I scurry to check my e-mail. Then to twitter where more people are being gleeful that they got the oh-so-precious email. Back to my e-mail once again and of course, nothing.

So now I'm sit here. Waiting and refreshing. 

WHYYYYYY DO THEY DO THIS TO ME!!

Awww man...I just remembered that I didn't use a free shipping code... >_< welp!

EDIT: It will be here by Friday and  hope to do a look with it for a special post on Saturday! :-D

A tale of a reforming make-up snob

Hi, my name is Jessica and I am a reforming make-up snob.

My make-up snobbery started when I was very young. My mother used to work at a pharmacy and as I looked around in the beauty aisles, I was often told that the products in the drugstore aisles were often of poor quality. I had no idea whether or not this was true, but since this was the opinion of many beauty purchasers in mid-to-late 90's, it would impact my purchases for years to come.

So when I got back into make-up at 14, my first department store exposure to make-up was MAC. I fell in love with their shadows initially-the broad range of colors, the fact that you could blend colors together to make a statement all drew me in to the world of beauty. Then the lipglasses, lipsticks and lipgelees- different colors, and different finishes like sheer, matte, opaque, translucent-I had so many options and it was so amazing to me! At the end of that day, I walked out of the store with Coppering and a tube of Moistly lipgelee, two pieces that started my beauty love affair. Shortly thereafter, I discovered Sephora and it was just OVER from there!

A small representation of my make-up purchases. Missing: several large black boxes...and black bags...and Macy's bags 

 As I become more involved in beauty, I started hearing that drugstore brands are finally making better quality products. A part of me is really excited about this because I can finally get beauty for less. On the other hand, the apprehension of past stigmas still hold me back plus, the fact that you can't swatch products like you can at Sephora. My first drugstore beauty purchase was a Revlon lipgloss. I liked it, but I was still drawn to my lipglasses and lipgelees. Small steps right?

So are you a reforming or a reformed make-up snob? What's your story?

Things to remember while shopping

So yesterday, I tried another Closet Overhaul, and let me tell ya'll-it was a fail mission!

First, the stuff I tried on (a pair of jeans and some tees) didn't fit or flatter. This lead to me losing my patience which then lead to frustration and in the end, I just left the score because I felt so down about my whole shopping experience. I know that millions...billions...oh what the heck-TRILLIONS of women have felt what I felt.

So always remember when you go out shopping:

1. Pack your patience.
2. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try and just for the heck of it, try again!
3. Before getting frustrated, take a deep breath. There's no point in being angry.

An ode to Apple Cider vinegar

This can do more than make your food taste good! :-D

Apple Cider Vinegar has always been a fixture in my house as an ingredient for salad dressing , but what we discovered recently is that it can be SOOOO helpful for beauty and plumbing . Below are 2 ways it can be added in your beauty regimen and one way that it can unclog a sink.

While I was away...

I'm sorry for not updating these past few days, it's just that life got a bit hectic. This week, I had to take care of family and that took up a lot of my time and attention. Plus, I had to do job training twice this week which meant I came home at around 1 AM on some nights.

All is well though. Okay, now time for the posts. In the coming days, expect more posts about hair, my luck in getting some pieces from the MAC Blogger's Obsession collection and *hopefully* another Closet Overhaul post!

The worst part about shopping: Trying on jeans

If you've been looking at my closet overhaul posts (and if you haven't, come take a look, why don't you? :-D), you would see that I've bought a lot of dresses (and a shirt!) but no shorts or jeans. Yes, this was done on purpose because I absolutely dread looking for pants. Hate, dread and despise doesn't even cover how I feel about jean shopping!

As someone who is pretty short (5'2'') has a really small waist (about 24'') and prominent hips (about 39''), shopping for pants does nothing positive for my patience. Pants are too long, they gape too much, they don't fit around the thighs...you name it, I've been there (and probably you have too!)

I've gotten around this problem by 1) being lucky enough to find curvy cut jeans and 2) Tailoring. Recently, I've been learning how to tailor my pants through YouTube. If you would like to learn how to tailor your jeans, here is a video that I found to help visualize the process.

 Yes, this requires a sewing machine. I don't have one myself, but I'm considering this to be an investment compared to how much I would pay a tailor. It's the small things....

The search for a sealant: UPDATE

vs.

So remember this post when I talked about which sealant I should use? Well, I performed the experiment and I feel like each have their benefits and drawbacks and I think I will definitely use both. What do I mean? That's all below the cut.

Also, I would like suggestions and opinions about sealants. Has a sealant changed the overall appearance of your hair or is it unnecessary? Let me know!

JUST GET SOME CLOTHES AND TRY THEM ON ALREADY!: Closet Overhaul '11 Vol. 2

New Floppy hat! 

Okay, I know what you're probably thinking, why did you caps lock your title? Those words are the exact quotes my friend said that started closet overhaul vol. 2

This time, I went to the mall with two friends of mine and they threw clothes my way. The rule was that anything they had passed to me must be tried on. I tried on a lot of pieces but this is what I walked away with in the end. Once again, all of these cost under $30. It's a good thing that nice, cute clothes don't have to cost an arm and a leg!

Natural Hair Confessions

This is the piece that I wrote for Curly Nikki's "On the Red Couch" series. It's about how my self-esteem was connected to my natural hair during my adolescent years. It's quite long, so I put this behind the cut.

To the drawing board

As Erin from Scandalous Beauty would say, women of color should try bold colors. So I took it upon myself to try it this weekend. Here's a few shots that I took of said colors

I quite liked the look of brown and green together because I like how earth tones look together. This look was all practice as you can see because I didn't finish the whole eye off with liner, mascara and all that.

So after this, I washed off the brushes and tried my everyday look along with my foundation. I was quite proud of how I did and it looked flawless. Half picture underneath the cut

Hair care trends

A popular product for skin, coat paws...and the scalp

My one gripe with hair comms and forums are how quickly they can bounce between "hair trends". I define hair trends as a new treatment that we try in order to find the solution to a majority of our hair care needs.

It seems like everyday, there's a new hair care trend that people like to try. When I first started taking better care of my hair, it was Mane-and-Tail. A few years later, it was Megatek (a.k.a a line of products that are meant for equine grooming). Now, it seems like everyone is rinsing their hair with tea (something that would be frowned upon in my house because my mom LOVES her tea and would rather not see it go on my head). My question is is it really worth trying out every new hair trend that comes out?

Now if it sounds like I'm demeaning anyone for using these products, that is not my intention, I just want to explore the topic because it's very intriguing.

I wonder if people that have tried these have actually sticked to them or if they're flash in the pan fads...do let me know!

What to do with all these free t-shirts?

What to do with these free t-shirts?

As a college student, there's lots of free stuff up for grabs if you look in the right place. Food, t-shirts, pencils and other odds and ends are available if you're in the right place in the right time. This picture shows only some of the t-shirts I have in varying sizes (my largest is the "all nighter shirt"/first green shirt on the bottom which is a 2XL). With these free t-shirts, people tend to use them as pajamas or shirts to wear when someone doesn't feel like getting dressed properly for class. Other than those purposes, what do you like to use giveaway t-shirts for?

I'll start: I use the oversized t-shirts for drying my hair. Regular towels put knots in my hair and creates tangles that I worked so hard to untangle and prevent.

3 ways to stay active during a heat wave

Here in DC and across the Eastern seaboard, there is no denying that we are in the middle of a heat wave. As someone who has breathing problems, this makes exercising outside more difficult. Heat waves happen very often during the summer around here so we have to find a way to exercise safely indoors as well as outdoors. These are some of the ways that I keep interest in exercising indoors and ways I stay healthy if (and I really do mean IF) I'm exercising outside.

Food post: Breakfast parfait

In the mornings when I'm at home or if I have enough time to make this during the week, I like to make a breakfast parfait so that I can get a bit of calcium and fiber in the morning. Here's how I do it:

Products on the wish list: June 2011

WAKE UP WAKE UP, IT'S THE FIRST OF THE MONTH!

There's always a product on the wish list that you either want to try or buy. Whether its because its out of your price range, limited availability or you can't be bothered to go out of your way to get it-the wish list never goes away. Every month, I'm going to post a wishlist-the wishlist doesn't mean I'm going to buy the product, its just stuff that I want to check out when the month ends and if I like it enough, I'll buy it. So under the jump is a wish list for June 2011.