December Julep Maven, Be A Bombshell, and Birchbox purchases

The other day I had three packages waiting for me at the post office.

 I had ordered Be A Bombshell eyeliner in onyx and the One Stick in Southern Belle for black friday. They also sent me a free lipgloss in coco since I am an ipsy member. Southern Belle is a coral color and coco has a copper shimmer. I liked the colors on me. The shipping is pretty quick. I decided to try another One Stick in Buckwild. I think it will work even better as a three in one product. I don't see myself using Southern Belle on my eyes. As a cream blush it is lovely, and on the lips it is okay. It looks better with a little gloss over it.

 I had used some of my points to order some items from birchbox. I decided to try Its A 10 since I likes the 21Benefits so well. I don't think I like it as well, but I also had the sea salt spray in my hair the day it came. I decided to order Stainiac in Prom Queen since I already had a nice sized sample in Beauty Queen. Prom Queen is more of a pink, while Beauty Queen is red. They both work nice. 

 I chose the Boho Glam box for December, with an add on of an extra brush and eye shadow palette. The extra this month was the hair tie set. 

 The eye shadow palette came in neutrals. I have dark pigmented eyelids that look like I have brown eye shadow on. These tend to blend too much, so I need to try again after full make up with concealer. The brush they sell is actually a blending brush and does not apply the eye shadow well. It tends to dump loose powder. I have plenty of the eye shadow brushes so it was nice getting a blending brush for a change. I did like the lightest color as a highlight and the other colors are nice as well if I can get them to show up. I did use eye primer.

The nail colors that came in the Boho selection were Misti- a smoky blue that has a hint of teal and Joelle- a silver holographic glitter. I also used the diamond glitter from Crystal for this look.

Thanksgiving, Max, and Birchbox Man

We had an early thanksgiving at the house. I had a few days off so I cooked a turkey dinner on tuesday. While the turkey was in the oven I played with Max. He was trying to get my toes here.

 here he just looks cute

 I took wine and salsa to marinate the turkey, made green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, and bourbon cranberry sauce. The cranberry sauce was yummy, especially with the turkey.

 We also received December's Birchbox Man. It had the perfect comfy socks for winter. I let Danny have those. The small patch on my phone is a screen cleaner. It was an extra to promote their app. We got the Crew hair spray which I will probably steal for when my other travel spray is gone. The GO247 body wash for the boys. I added the Proraso shave cream and after shave to Danny's shaving supplies. Today would have been a good day to try it out, but he has decided to disappear on my only days off.

Celebrate November's Loot Crate

This month was great, everything was appreciated. 

 It had two Dr Who items: a wall decal and a balloon. Charles and I fought over the sticker and I won. I think Danny took the balloon.

 Danny snatched up the BFast as soon as this picture was taken. He said it tasted like strawberry milk, which he is a fan of. The shot glass stuck around a little longer. I thought it was interesting and as the only drinker in the house I generally don't do shots. I had placed it by the computer with my other shot glass, that happens to be holding hair pins. It has since disappeared. I assume they gave it to one of their friends.

 Danny claimed the tyvek wallet. He pulled his out and transferred the items immediately.

 The front matches Danny's hat. Yeah, Batman. Saddly he needs a new hat as he got a little too close to the candle he claimed from the Birchbox Man box. Now he looks even more like the stoner that he is NOT. Maybe I should have him cut his hair, but it is so pretty.

 The speaker figurine was cool, even f you don't watch South Park. I tested it out and it works well too. It is amplified and you can plug it into your computer's USB port to use it as a computer speaker or charge it and use it for a phone speaker. I kind of wanted this, but Charles suggested we give it to Alex. She doesn't have speakers for her computer.

 The last item in the box was a deck of cards. Charles snapped these up. He wanted cards to play with his friends. As long as he is still going to class...

Missing You Already (somehow this was saved as a draft only)

My sweet girl has left for a short trip to Florida today. I painted her nails yesterday before she left, I usually paint her nails when she gets around to make time for me. I left mine in a base coat as I didn't have time to work on them too. I liked the shiny nude finish and decided to do a french manicure to match her nails. I actually came home early today with a headache and you would think nail polish fumes would be the last thing I would want to be around, but it doesn't bother me. I actually feel better with the peace and quiet here.

Here is a repost of Alex's nails. The picture was taken during lunch yesterday.

These are mine from today. The lighting is not as good today so the colors in her picture are more accurate. Can you believe it is dark here already at 5:20 pm?

Thinking of you Sassafras. She is back now but I have not seen her yet.

Camera Phone Dump

"thanks for the new beds"

lemon tree in bloom for first time

 "do I like grapes?"

Wantable Holiday box

favorite Fall mani

finally finished the Bat Cape

'Bat" cat

 items Charles' class made in the summer 

 "how does this work?"

Birchbox, Ipsy, and Estee Lauder Samples

Last week my Birchbox came right before Charles and I left to buy his first car. It was rather exciting. Now we just need to get mine fixed. After the paperwork, I spent the day with my sister and niece.

My birchbox included a Chella highlighter pencil(18), Orange-a-go-go Chocopod(1.50), Vasanti Brighten Up!(5.67), Tocca hand cream(5), and Color Club polish in TopShelf(4). I was most excited to try the Chella pencil. I had seen it used to highlight your brow, which mine needs. It alone costs $18, the box costs $10, valuing at  $34.17. Since I got six items in my box to leave reviews on I basically earned $6 dollars in credit. So basically, I am ahead by $30. I can also earn more points by purchasing items and referrals. This is my referral ink http://birch.ly/1fd6rcA

 While shopping with my niece and sister we stopped at a make up counter where my niece's friend's mom works and got makeovers and free samples. The small sample is a bb cream that matches nicely. The eyeliners come in black, brown, and plum. These samples will be nice to keep in my purse. She tried an orange lip stain on me and it actually looked good. I would consider purchasing it.

 My ipsy bag came the next day. It included a Pixi bronzer (9?), a nailtini polish in Champagne (13), a Starlooks eyeliner in Topaz (14), anEM lipstic in Hug Me (16.50), a Bombshell lip crayon in Hot Damn (14) and a sample of Aphrodite from the Galaxy Chic Baked eyeshadow palette (1.20). Actually the full palette at $14.95 was a steal. This give my $10 Ipsy bag purchase a value of $67.70 (not including the bag) and while you do receive points for reviews they are not redeemable unless you get sign ups. It is still a great value. My referral link  http://www.ipsy.com/r/2tce

Starlooks pencil Topaz is more silver than blue.

 EM Hug Me on left and Bombshell Hot Damn on right. Both are somewhat sheer. Hot Damn is drier, buildable, longlasting and vibrant. Hug Me is creamy and subtle. My first thought was concealer. I wore it around the hose yesterday and it was okay. I'm still tempted to try it as concealer.

The Pixi bronzer was also on the light side. I could not see it on the far right of my hand just bits of shimmer. I've been trying it as a highlighter.

Julep Maven for November

I got my Julep package and was excited to try the fall colors. It had Alexandra- blond cream, and Aisha- burgundy plum creme with Brielle- burnt orange, Autumn- red orange glitter, and another Alexandra for my Alex. They also had lip gloss this month. My boho glam box came with Charming- a mauve color.

 I tried Autumn over my favorite fall nail polish before taking it off to try my new colors.

 I used Brielle for the main color then accented with Aisha and Alexandra with a top coat of Autumn. Not bad for swatching them all.

I couldn't get an Aleandra color and not do Alex's nails. Today I used Brielle with gold swoshes and brown leaves and accented the thumbs and ring fingers with branches and Autumn glitter for fall leaves.

I decided to use my Wet and Wild eye pallette to do a matching fall make up look. I waxed and plucked her brows, something she hates but loves the look. She has amazing features that are fun to play up.

I may as well do a Halloween picture dump here too. 

 I helped Ramon with his make up.

 This was my first time to try false eyelashes. I liked them and may try them again. Something more subtle though.

November "Badass" Booty Bin and Harry's shaving supplies

The boys booty bin came today while Alex was visiting. The theme was Badass. It included a t-shirt this month. The design is the tattoo that Snake eyes has from GI Joe. This box did not have any candy. It did have Star Wars cards that Alex took, a potato gun, and two stickers. The first was a Clint Eastwood sticker that Danny chose and the other was a Zangief sticker. I would not have known who that was but I recognized him as the same character as a cosplayer from a Seth Hendrix video. You really should watch him on youtube. He also does Loot Crate unboxings so that is fun. Oh right, the sticker, apparently it is from a fighting game. Alex knew who he was too.

I had ordered a shaving kit from Harry's for Danny's first shave. It came while Their father was visiting so I sent it with him to help Danny. I'm not sure Danny is convinced that shaving is fun, but at least he did not cut himself like he was afraid of. I wanted a nice set for his first shave. It is one thing to not shave because that is how you want to look or because you are lazy, but I did not want him to be afraid of shaving.