Overhyped Products

I am admittedly a youtube junkie. It is my favorite thing to do on my downtime, settle in with some of my favorite youtubes and let them try the products for me. I don't have an expendable income to buy every new gimmicky product as much as I'd love to (and maybe one day) so I rely on beauty blogs (If you aren't reading Temptalia.com you need to start immediately!) and youtube videos to know whats out there and if it is worth my hard-earned dollars. This isn't to say they are always right and I've learned over the 2 or so years I've been watching them that you must not always feed into the current fad beauty item. But it's more do as I say and not as I do, because here I will let you know the products that did NOT tickle my fancy as much as some of the girls on youtube made me believe they would.

I'm going to start with the most controversial:
The Urban Decay Naked Palette. You're probably gasping right now. This was the most coveted, hardest to find, biggest waste of my time I've ever had. I stalked it online for a good month and a half before calling my local ULTA and finding that not only did they have 1 in stock, they had about 4 or 5. So off to ULTA I went to get my hands on this. My first ever "high-end" palette was the Urban Decay Ammo palette which I would recommend to anyone any day of the week, I used it probably 5 months in a row straight after getting it and there are some definite pan marks on it. But the Naked palette? BORING. When you put the colors on your lid and try to blend them together they become one murky, muddy mess. The only color i use somewhat frequently is 'Naked" because I like to use it to blend OTHER shadows out with. I did recently do a cute look (with my fingers because as I said most blending is no bueno with this palette) with Darkhorse all over and sidecar in the inner third and it looked nice, but the majority of the time I pull this palette out (I actually leave it out trying to get myself to use it) I end up hating the results and eye makeup remover them right off. What a waste of $44 dollars. At least at the time it came with an eyeliner pencil, which is actually pretty nice.

Phew, I had a lot of built up feelings about that it seems!

MAKE UP FOREVER Smoky Lash Mascara - $22. I've always stuck to drugstore mascara. Drugstore mascara has always been enough for me. I don't have crazy short lashes or really straight droopy lashes, my lashes have always been pretty decent and didn't warrant me spending $22 on a mascara. I probably could just make this category all high end mascaras I've tried, because I also hated YSL Faux Cils for pretty much the same reason I hated smoky lash. If you are going for tarantula leg eyelashes, this mascara is perfect. It is so thick and clumpy, you must wipe it off about 10 times before you can get a decent swipe. Its been about a year since I used it so thats about all I can remember of hating it...but I saw this raved about a few times on youtube and I was a sucker and bought it.


Mac Dazzleglass/Lipglosses: I am not a fan of MAC. I'll say it. I own probably 6-10 things total from MAC (a couple eyeshadows I never use, a blush that is hiding from me, two Viva Glam Gaga lipsticks, and a couple lipglosses, OH and about 4 Hello Kitty items). Their lipglosses and dazzleglasses taste DISGUSTING. From the get-go. First time you open it up and slather it on your lips? Tastes like straight up spoiled milk or something. I'd chalk it up to a bad one but all the ones I've tried smell awful. And the colors are not worth it to me.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Urban Decay Book of Shadows (the one from 2 years ago I think?): I never use it.

Smashbox O-Glow Blush: This did nothing for me. It'd be pink for about two seconds before blending into my actual skin color. Took it back because it was around 25 bucks to do nothing.

Benefit Powderflage: I use this, but it is an 'eh' product to me. I'm usually too lazy to do a seperate powder under my eyes.

KORRES Lip butter - Jasmine: I'm all about paraben-free, phthalate-free stuff, but this makes my lips greasy like crazy bad. I absolutely HATE the feeling of it. Gross. I'm glad I got it in a back with a Korres lipgloss thing because it is an expensive little lip balm on its own.

Stila Kitten eyeshadow: I don't see why this is as big as it is. It's a perfectly OK shade, but I hardly ever find myself using it.

Inspiration

As summer wanes out in a "where did time go" flash of nostalgia, we look forward to a new season. A new chance. A new start. Kids go back to school, the season changes, the air is crisp and inviting. New clothes. New shoes. New feelings. Autumn might be my favorite month (despite my birthday landing in summer). As I'm not going back to school I will miss the smell and feel of new school supplies (is there anything better than letting loose in an office supply store and buying pens, paper, notebooks, and paper clips?) but can welcome a new wardrobe and at the same time hopefully a new aesthetic. I constantly crave to be reinvented. I pull out last years clothes and find no urge to wear them again. I change too constantly, want to find my unique interpretation of trends and find suitable. To focus on quality instead of quantity. No more cheap thrill of walking out of the store with a bag and hand and an item to place in my wardrobe, but instead let the idea of a garment permeate my thoughts until the mere idea of living without it causes me distress and I must purchase it.

Autumn 2011 by conversegirl1 featuring crystal earrings

Slouchy sweaters, form fitting bottoms and interesting wedge lace up boots or perhaps combat boots. Plus a little bit of edgy ethnic inspired jewelry. Nothing too outside the box yet pulled together, comfortable, and chic.

Fake Personality

I work in retail. I have worked where I currently work for close to 4 years now. In that time, I have had to have a bubbly fake persona that I don't typically have. It's getting tiresome. I am a smiling, friendly person in general, but sometimes it gets to be too much. People make weird jokes and I can't force myself to laugh at them (and honestly, the majority of the time I don't even understand they are jokes).

The worst people are the ones who resort to yelling about things I've already explained I can't do anything to help them with. Things other stores have caused to happen, things that have always been that way, or just things the want to vent about. I don't have to deal with irrate people all that often -- but it is the worst. Most of the time I just don't even respond to them. They can yell and huff all they want and I'll go "I'm sorry" and that's it. I don't know if those people are used to using their anger to get their way or not. One of the things at our store is we can process payments, but we charge a fee for the service. It was not my idea of course, but people come in and say "I have to pay a FEE with my cash payment?" and get angry and curse us out when I very plainly and upfront tell them about the fee. I tell them within seconds of them coming in so there are no surprises. I tell them their other options for paying, but some people still will bitch and moan about us charging a fee. As if we are the only company with the audacity to ask for such a thing.

It just blows my mind how rude people can be to a nameless face working in a retail store. I am a human. You are a human. We both want to be treated in a fair and decent manner. I would not yell at you, why do you yell at me? And I'm supposed to smile and be fake through it? It is just so hard sometimes. I am always nice and polite at stores where I go to. If someone asked me to pay a fee, I would appreciate their offers of different ways I could make my payment and then make it somewhere else or a different way. What does it accomplish being pissy automatically?

Clothing BAN

I am on a shopping ban. I cleaned out my closet a few weeks ago and put all of my clothes away, which was kind of startling how many of the same things I have - close to 20 V-Necks, close to 20 tank tops, and the most shocking of all: I own over SIXTY dresses. Six Zero. And at least 5-10 of those dresses have never seen the light of day. Or been worn once. Am I a consumer just to consume? I decided it was time for me to step back from the shopping bags and filter out the extreme amount of stuff I've accumulated. So, no (clothes!) shopping in July. Maybe August too. I am only going to allow myself one new item (If I find one outside of my closeT) and that is a new birthday dress. And maybe one pair of workout shorts. But that is IT.

I'm planning on moving in August into a place with my boyfriend and I'm not planning on taking this crazy amount of crap with me. I'm not sure how I justified to myself I needed all of this stuff, but I was crazy.

FOTD

Face:
Rimmel Fix & Perfect primer
Clinique superbalanced foundation in Breeze
Elf undereye concealer & highlighter (concealer end) in Light
Elf Complexion perfection powder
Nars douceur blush

Eyes:
Too faced shadow insurance
Kat von d ludwig palette
Milani Liquideyes eyeliner
Revlon colorstay liquid eyeliner
Loreal telescopic mascara

Lips:
Revlon colorburst lipstick in carnation
Nars chihuahua lipgloss

Nails:
Essie lapis of luxury

I like playing with my makeup a little more on my days off. I even did a little bit of cute cat eyeliner :) My next post is a haul, hoping in the next few days It will be posted!

Steals: NARS at TJ Maxx

NARS Dolce Vita Set
Originally: $40-50
Paid: $29.99

So, one of the first "high-end" makeup items I ever bought was a NARS little set, the NARS Orgasm/Laguna with a Orgasm nail polish. it was then fated that I would forever be...a NARS junkie, no way around it. The packaging, the feel, the colors...I was just hooked. I've been slowly accumulating more into my "collection" (I have 3 eyeshadow duos, 2 blushes, 1 lipgloss, and the aforementioned blush duo and nailpolish) so when I was perusing youtube and saw someone had scored NARS at TJ Maxx...well my first thought was....WHY IS IT MIDNIGHT AND TJ MAXX IS CLOSED?! After that, I composed myself, went to work the next day, and afterwards got my ass to TJ Maxx and looked through their makeup section. I found the above kit and squeeled with joy. After checking that the blushes weren't cracked (on the contrary, they had never even been TOUCHED), I had to get it. There was another NARS item there,

but honestly it was more (34.99 I believe) and I have enough black eyeliners and mascaras to last me a lifetime so I passed..

And tomorrow I am going to stop by the other TJ Maxx in town to look for the item in the youtube video (an eyeshadow palette, so wish me luck!)

<3Andrea

Beginning of something big?

I needed a blog. Why? Well, I don't know. Does anyone really need anything? I can justify needing a fourth pair of black heels, so I can justify a space on the web to spew my thoughts. Sounds tasty.

What will I be posting about? Depends on the day. I plan to hopefully dwiddle this blog down to a focused topic -- but I don't know right now what it will hold. Fashion, makeup, writing blurbs, books, movies, video games, etc. These are all my interests and more. So we'll start there and see where it goes.