$100 Bargain Haul

I went to Ross the other day and that place was stacked! Ross is always hit or miss, some days you go and the store is completely barren, and other days they have tons of stuff. I am NOT a fan of bright color tops. I like wearing red and purple, but that's pretty much all the color in my life lol. I love my neutral, white, dark tops and will continue to buy them. Buy what you love and what you feel confident in. Everytime I buy something bright yellow or pink or green etc, I never wear it. So I quit trying to force myself into color and just started buying what I know I will wear. I can only wear bright accessories (earrings, bags, or shoes).

My haul is filled with stripes, but I promise that happened on accident and in person they don't look the same at all lol. Hopefully I'll have some outfit of the days soon, clothes often look better on.

$9.99; My favorite top. I love this. Elbow-length Flowy top with cinched ends. It looks amazing on.

$7.99; Sheer Casual short sleeved top, scoop neck, semi-fitted.

$7.99; This gray striped v-neck fits like a shawl but has sleeves. Very comfortable, flowy, and looks cute when worn with skinnies.

$6.99; Sheer navy deep vneck. Slightly fitted. You ladies know I love the vnecks :)

$9.99; This top is my favorite. Navy/gray striped, flowy at the top and fitted at the bottom. The material is sooo soft!

$19.99 jeans; I LOVE these jeans. I wore them out last night and I adore them! I love that they're actually real denim material, not stretchy jeans. They're holey skinnies.

$21.99; These I bought because ever since this EW photoshoot, I've been looking for something similar. They're a mixture between pants and leggings. Thick enough to be worn as pants but stretchy like leggings. Snakeskin print with two back pockets.

$9.99; Black minidress. Probably a shirt, but I'm short so it fits like a mini. The belt isn't cinched enough, so it's a tad big at the waist but still fits okay. Gold studs with shoulder pads.

That's my haul! I have four exams this week! :( So there may not be a blog post on Wednesday, but hopefully I'll have an outfit of the day or something similar. :)

Review: Revlon Beyond Natural Skin Matching Makeup

Product: Revlon Beyond Natural Skin Matching Makeup

Price: $10-12

Pros:

- Matches skintone perfectly

- Has SPF 15

- Leaves a Matte to Natural Finish

- Packaging

- Doesn't require a finishing powder on top

- Blends fast

Cons:

- Price

- Blends well, but doesn't spread as easily as I would like. (Requires more product)

I would recommend this to anyone who:

- Doesn't like thick/full coverage (or liquid) foundation

- Has normal/oily/combo skin

- Likes quick application

- Can't find that perfect shade of foundation

- Generally has pretty good skin (because the coverage is light to medium)

Active ingredients in this product:

- 3.9% Titanium Dioxide

- 2% Zinc Oxide

Overall Rating: 4.5/5, A

Repurchase? Yes! Especially if it's on sale.

Wearing the foundation, nothing on top. Very natural coverage.

I bought this at Ulta 2 weeks ago on clearance for $5. I wanted to try this for a while, but did not want to pay $11 for something I wasn't sure about. For skin tone references, I bought this in 250 Deep and I'm an NC50 for Mac, C6 for Loreal True Match, Caramel in Revlon Colorstay. After using it for 2 weeks I can give a review. I really like this product. Most importantly: It does not break me out. My skin type is combination/oily. Like most drugstore foundations, I think it's overpriced so I will try and only purchase it on a sale or BOGO. But I like this as much as my Loreal True Match, and I've been using that since 10th grade. It does not make my face shiny within hours. I checked throughout the day, and only had a bit of a shine at the end of the day. Definite plus! I also love how lightweight it feels, I feel like I'm not even wearing makeup. It has a light to medium coverage, which is what I always look for. More coverage than a tinted moisturizer, but less than liquid foundation. You definitely need to apply moisturizer before using this product though, because it doesn't spread as easily as I would like. I use this with my true match concealer and I'm good to go.

Love it.

Haircut!

Happy weekend, ladies!

Well, I reached my hair goal and cut it off lol. My hair was just getting on my nerves, plus the ends still had color from when I highlighted my hair and it was really aggravating. I've been dying to get my natural hair color back completely. I got around 3 inches cut and added a bunch of layers yesterday. I kind of prefer my hair this length, so I think I'll just stick with maintaining this length and get routine trims. I got my hair cut in a spur of the moment thing, so I don't have a before pic to show you guys. :( Before, my hair was basically all one length aside from my bangs, and I had a lot of split ends. I went to a stylist I've never gone to before, which made me nervous and excited all at once. I'll definitely be going back. The last time I had an actual haircut instead of just a trim and asked for layers, the lady barely gave me any. This stylist gave me exactly what I asked for. The pictures below just show my haircut, I didn't style it or anything. I woke up and my hair just fell into place, which is great because I hate doing my hair for school in the mornings and before my haircut my hair would not just fall into place like this. The only part I actually styled were my bangs because they needed a flat iron lol. Best part? Haircut cost $30 for wash and style. Cheapest I've ever paid.

Current Obsession: Circle Scarves

Circle, Eternity, Tubular...there are all kinds of different name for my current obsession.

Lately I have been in love with those eternity scarves! I only own one real one :( but I'm so eager to get more. It's gotten so bad, I even made all my old scarves into circle scarves with my sewing machine lol. I can't even tell you why I like them so much, they just really pull a basic outfit together. The weather has been all over the map here...hot enough for shorts one day, cold enough for boots the next...but I've seen people wear circle scarves with tanktops on those hot days and it looks so cute! My favorite look is with skinnies, a solid fitted tshirt, blazer and scarf.

[Photos from American Apparel]

[Unisex Acrylic Circle Snake Scarf, $30] [Unisex Super Sheer Circle Scarf, $37]

I'm not a huge fan of the patterned ones because I like basic stuff in general, but the solid color scarves are a new addition to my 'must haves' when it comes to clothes. A website I frequent actually made a post about how to make your own tubular scarf out of big, old tshirts. It's a great alternative to buying one, as they usually cost between $15 and $30. The one I bought I found at Ross and only paid $8 for it. I always buy accessories at discount stores first, you'd be amazed how many name brands you find in stores like that!

If you want to find out how to make your own circle scarf out of old clothes, just click here or click the pic below!

[Picture from College Fashion]

I've recommended this site a lot on my blog, if you haven't bookmarked it yet I definitely suggest you do! :) See you all Saturday! What thing are you currently obsessed with?

Update/Thank You/Blogging Schedule

You know you've been away from Blogger too long when you have to sign in.

Okay. First and foremost, THANK YOU!

Thank you guys so much for sticking with me, and new followers you guys are amazing for even subscribing to me while I've been on hiatus. This post might be long because as my public speaking teacher told me, I tend to ramble lol, so I'll split this into sections and you can pick and choose what you want to read.

Why I haven't blogged since New Year's Eve

For those who like to know why I haven't been posting, I think I have some pretty legitimate excuses lol. 1. My dad was in town. He works overseas and came home for a visit for about a month, so I spent pretty much the whole holiday break with him. (I'm a Daddy's girl) 2. School, as always, is really busy. I registered for 19 hours (6 classes) and have school 5 days a week. It's the first time I go to school more than twice a week since my first semester in college. And it's pretty common sense, but you know what I realized? School gets harder the longer you're in it lol.

Update on Life: School.

So those are my reasons. Now, an update on my life...because you guys know every time I'm away for a while I also have something to update you guys on. School has really been wearing me down. I actually dropped my elective class today because I don't have the time to take my art elective this semester, so I'm down to 16 hours. Surprisingly, I love all my classes! It's annoying that I'm two semesters away from graduating and I am FINALLY learning stuff that's actually relevant to my future career plans.

Update on Life: Best Friend. ...yep, THAT best friend that I keep telling you guys about.

So, my "best friend" has moved to my city. Yep. The city is huge, and she lives probably about 20-30 minutes away, but she has moved here. It has honestly helped our relationship out a lot, and all christmas break I didn't text her about hanging out or anything and now SHE is the one always asking ME to hang out. When I came back in town after the break, I was literally here for about 10 minutes before she called saying she wanted to come over. My guess? She doesn't know many people here. The city is huge and I didn't know many people when I first moved so naturally I hang out with her. Our friendship is good, but I can tell you on my end she is no longer considered my best friend. It just feels different. I only consider her as a friend and I'm okay with that. Pretty sure she still considers me her best friend, but whatever.

Update on Life: Boys.

Oh my GOD you guys! So remember the ex I brought up in my getting to know me post? We were together for a little over 4 years and he was really eager to get married and have kids (umm not me, hello we were 18!) haha. Yea, well he got married like two weeks ago. Does anyone remember that episode of The Hills when Lauren's at Jason's housewarming party and he announces that he's engaged to that chick and Lauren's face is like completely shocked and not expecting that? And then the day after she tells Whitney that it's just weird because she's sitting there thinking, "That could be me getting married to him, that could be my life...and I'm so glad it's not." Well, that is EXACTLY how I feel. I found out he was getting married the day before it happened and was just like, "Omg that could've been me. That's crazy, thank god it's not me!" It's even crazier because I see he STILL is really into that whole settling down and having kids thing when he's 20! We're just all so young to be getting married in my opinion. Also, I've been dating! Whooo haha. This is a big deal because I'm not at all the casual dater type of person. But I've been going out on dates with a couple guys, and I like have a mental comparison of each of them haha. I saw Avatar with one of the guys, and that movie was amazing! But yea, love life is doing good. Not in the relationship type of mood, so this whole casual dating thing is a lot of fun.

New Blogging Schedule

Okay guys, this bizarre long post is almost over. Because school is so demanding, I'll be posting a blog every Wednesday and every Saturday. I'd love to be able to post 3 or 4 times a week, but realistically I won't be able to. But putting myself on a Wed/Sat schedule should work out fine. :) I've missed you guys!

New blog post on Wednesday!

2009 Favorites

Hello ladies! I decided to post my all-time 10 beauty favorites from 2009. I used these products nearly all year round (or since the day purchased), so they've earned HG status. I chose 5 makeup products, and 5 hair products:

1. Loreal True Match Pressed Powder

2. Loreal Telescopic Carbon Black

3. Chapstick Extreme Moisture

4. MAC MSF in Cheeky Bronze

5. MAC lipstick in Hug Me

1. Motions Heat Protectant

2. Jilbere Titanium Tools 1" Flat Iron

3. Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition Shampoo/Conditioner

4. Redken All Soft Heavy Cream

5. Palmer's Olive Oil

2010 Resolutions

Hello ladies! Long time no blog, I know. I'm back home for another week so blogs have been kinda hard to do. :) Hello new followers! Did everyone have a great Christmas?! I did, nothing like being away from home to make you fully appreciate the time you spend with family. I got that sewing machine I mentioned on my last post! I've been slaving away trying to make my mom some pajamas lol. My Christmas was even better knowing I passed all my classes and made 3 A's! No more accounting for the rest of my college life! Since tomorrow is New Year's Eve, I thought today would be a good time to make my resolutions.

1. Eat more vegetables. - I'm so picky with veggies, but I know I need them.

2. Get hair trims regularly. - Silly, I know. But I'm really bad at leaving my split ends in my hair.

3. Learn money management! - They really should have a class on this lol.

4. Graduate December 2010. - It's a semester early but I found out it's possible, and I'm dying to leave school!

And those are all my resolutions. Nothing too extreme I don't think. The first and third will probably be the hardest. What are your resolutions? Do you ever stick with them? I usually manage to follow through with at least one lol.