[Beauty] Tumbleweed

Ladies, can we talk about something important for a minute?

This.

Frizz.

I can't take it any more. I have spent years and years trying to find the right product or combination of products so that my hair will not look like this. I have lovely curls that will not air-dry (or diffuser dry) defined and sleek. I either end up with a curly version of this, or crusty curls, which is an equally ugly yet totally different issue.

Now, for straight hair, I can go from the above to this, simply by using a flat iron:

But the problem arises when I want to wear my hair curly. Air drying = frizz. Diffuser = frizz. I've tried products, but 9 times out of 10 product = crunchy curls or wet looking curls, both nasty.

Curly haired girls....frizzy haired girls....HELP! What product/combination of products work for you??

[Beauty] Products: Skincare

I'm always so curious to know what beauty products other ladies swear by, so over the next month or two I'm going to do a few product related posts, focusing on something specific, and invite you all to leave comments with your faves so we can all potentially discover some new great products!

I'm kind of a flip-flopper when it comes to products. By that I mean I have zero loyalty until a product completely blows its competition away. I am on a constant search for the perfect _______ (fill in whatever there...curl product, skin cleanser, blush, whatever!). In order to find the perfect "one" that may or may not even exist, I am always switching up what I use. If I get something and it doesn't impress me, I won't buy it again.

Today I'm going to start with skincare. This is an interesting topic to me because so many women are crazy sticklers to their skincare routine and I just haven't gotten there yet. I have what most would call "combination skin" - oily T zone, normal everywhere else. However, I find that "combination skin" products don't work well enough to curb the oil, but that "oily" skin products do a great job with minimal impact to the rest of my skin. So what do I use?

Cleanser: I have not yet found a cleanser that I adore. I have found a ton that I hate, but none that I've loved. I tend to stay away from rough cleansers with strong exfoliants in them because they make my skin angry red. Currently, I'm using St. Ives Naturally Clear Green Tea Cleanser. So far, I don't love it but I don't hate it. What is your favorite cleanser?

Toner: Since I have oily skin, I enjoy using a toner. I've read all over the place that toner isn't necessary, blah blah blah, but I've used one for 10+ years now and I just like them. I don't like the alcohol-y ones, though, so currently I'm using Neutrogena Acne Stress Control Triple-Action Toner. Do you use a toner?

Moisturizer: I always thought it was a contradiction to use moisturizer on oily skin but since I use a toner I find that my skin feels dry and taut afterwards so I always make sure to moisturize. In the morning, I use a moisturizer that isn't specifically for oily skin and while I like it, I think my next one will be specifically for oily skin. I find this one can leave me oily mid-day. I'm currently using Aveeno Ultra Calming Moisturizer.

Sunscreen: I also top it off with some sunscreen. Wile the moisturizer has SPF 15, I like something a little stronger than that and go with Neutrogena Dry Touch Suncreen over it.

Nighttime moisturizer: I use something specific to nighttime and really like it - I find it keeps my skin soft and feeling good! The Body Shop Nutriganics Smoothing Night Cream is one of those products I actually keep buying.

Anti-Aging: There is one last piece to my skincare puzzle. I use a retinol cream for its anti-aging benefits. I love Roc's Retinol Correxion Deep Wrinkle Night Cream.

What products are must-haves in your skincare routine?

[Beauty] Giveaway Winner and Manicures

My giveaway ended at midnight last night and the winner is.....

MOLLY! 

of Still Being Molly

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Congratulations to you!! I will be emailing you today so I can get your prizes to you asap. Thanks to everyone who participated in my first giveaway!!

Now, onto today's post.

I had a bunch of manicure pics stashed on my phone, and there's a manicure linkup going around, so....here are my latest manis!

Mani #1: Essie? I have no idea the name of this polish. I bought it at Ulta on clearance, and the sticker with the name on it had fallen off. All I know is that it's an Essie polish. Anyone have any ideas?

It looked brighter and shinier in the light....

And more muted away from the bright light.

Mani #2: Wet N Wild Eggplant Frost. I love this color. It has this awesome shimmer, especially in the sun. The last picture was taken in direct sunlight so you can see how it shines! I love this polish, especially since it was 99 cents!!!

Mani #3: Sinful Colors Mint Apple. I love mint, period. I've had this polish forever and completely forgot about it! This nail polish is quickly becoming a fave once again.

Mani #4: Wet N Wild Wet Cement with Ulta Bam-blue-zled as an accent. I have been loving the grays that were out and about in nail color this summer, and Wet Cement was one of my 3-4 gray shades that I picked up. The Ulta polish is old enough that it's in a different bottle than their current polishes. I actually really liked these two together!

Mani #5: Pure Ice Purple Reign with Sinful Colors Mint Apple on tips. I wanted to do a twist on the French manicure and I really liked the contrast of these two colors. I was going to do a less contrasting tip but I had the Sinful Colors out from the previous manicure and decided to give it a shot. This crappy picture doesn't really do it justice!

What polish are you currently sporting?

[Beauty] Polish Swap!!

{Don't forget to enter my giveaway at the end of this post!! Only 2 days left!!!}

I've been super excited for this post ever since I got my polishes, so I'm pretty psyched the day has arrived. :)

Carly of Lipgloss and Crayons and Rachel of Lala Lists put together this fun little polish swap a few weeks back and I immediately joined in. As with many swaps, each of us was matched with a swap partner whom we would buy for - this time it was nail polish!

I am a nail polish fiend. I probably have near to 100 bottles. Yes. It's true. I get on these kicks where I'll buy about 10 new polishes in a 2 week time span and then forget about buying any for a month or two. It was super fun to this time go out and get polishes for someone else and to be surprised with their picks for me!!

I was partnered with Angela from Please Mommy No More Daddies. The swap was simple: each person would buy their partner two polishes - as part of the entry we had to give a little blurb about what we like to help guide our swap partner. The polishes could be any brand, any price - as long as there were two.

I had one simple guideline for Angela: nothing sparkly!! Don't get me wrong, I like sparkles as much as the next girl, and occasionally I'll wear a fun sparkly polish - but man, those things are hard to get off your nails!

So with my simple guide, Angela picked out two awesome polishes for me. (Unfortunately, I didn't get to try them since I was traveling for work when they arrived).

Polish 1:

Maybelline ColorShow Tenacious Teal

and polish 2:

Sinful Colors Hazard

I love both of these! I'm super into the bold nail, and the teal is definitely a nice, bold color. And the peach? So stylish right now!! It's almost a muted coral - gorgeous and will look great with so many things! Angela did a great job choosing polishes, and I can't wait to wear them!

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[Beauty] Product Conundrum

There is a question that I've been pondering for a little while now, and I'd like to get your opinions!

What do you do when you've bought or been gifted a beauty product, you try it, and it doesn't work for you?

I am currently have number of products that fall into that category and I just don't know what to do with them. I can't seem to just throw them out - at least, not the full size ones - so I keep them around hoping I'll figure out what to do with them. Seriously, all they're really doing is taking up space.

Sometimes I can't help having them, if they're a gift or something, but often I just make the bad purchase. Honestly, my skin is super tolerant, as is my hair, so I like to try out new things, looking for the ones that work best for me. However, sometimes I get some bad apples.

I've tried asking friends if they might want to try them. Most of them say no, others who say yes never seem to connect with me frequently enough for me to remember to give it to them. I've tried putting them in the guest bathroom for others to use when they show up to visit - but no one does. They just take up space in that bathroom over there instead of the bathroom over here.

So, what do I do with these things? Just buck up and ignore the feeling of being wasteful - and toss them in the garbage?

Here's some of the things I'm talking about:

Benefit The POREFessional

Seriously? This stuff makes my face SO GREASY. Like, you'd think I'd been playing in a vat of vegetable oil if you touched my face at any point after using this stuff. Thankfully, I only have a small sized tube of this as it was part of a Birchbox I believe. I honestly wouldn't have trouble throwing it away. I just hang on to it thinking it will be different the next time I try it. And it never is.

Bath and Body Works Midnight Pomegranate Hand Cream

This one is also a question of grease. I don't know what it is with my skin, but I must be pretty well moisturized because so many of them just don't absorb. This one doesn't absorb hardly at all - everything I touch for at least 15 minutes after putting it on slips right out of my hands because they're so greasy. (Can I mention here I hate that feeling? Of grease?? It makes me shudder thinking about it). Oddly enough, Bath and Body Works' Anti-Bacterial Moisturizing hand lotion doesn't cause me this problem and is my go to. This sucker is a full sized tube in my house, gifted from a friend who knows I love this scent. I used all the other stuff she gave me but this one. 

Biore Blemish Fighting Ice Cleanser

This one burns the heck out of my face - and I don't have sensitive skin. My skin turns red after using this, though. Another nearly full, full-size product taking up space. This was a bad purchase by me.

Aveeno Clear Complexion Daily Cleansing Pads

These give me similar issues as the Biore cleanser. The texture of the pads is really abrasive feeling on my skin, and again, it turns bright red. I bought this one, too.

Dove Ultimate Clear Energizing

You guys, I love Dove deodorant. Seriously. It's all I'll use. I have all of the Ultimate Clears and Ultimate Visibly Smooths. I love them. I like switching up scents. So I kind of collect them all. But this one - this scent - made me nauseous. This one I did actually toss, though, cause who wants to use someone else's deodorant, unless ya'll are super close? In which case - go at the 5 other scents I own, haha. :)

So....What to do!???

[Beauty] Crackle

There is something I was curious about for the longest time - crackle topcoats/polishes. I bought one at Ulta a few months back and have tried it once or twice. I think I like it, but I also think it's not something I want to wear every week. Also, I think it might be prettier in another color? Mine is in black. I paired the black with a mint base and really liked the 2 colors together.

Base is Revlon Minted, topcoat is OPI.

What do you think? Do you wear crackle polish? Would you?

[Beauty] Ombre

We all know ombre has been popular this spring into summer...ombre hair, clothes, nails, it's everywhere! I am a bit too traditional to want to dabble in the ombre hair, but ombre nails is right up my alley!!!

I decided to go with purples on a whim. Yes, I basically closed my eyes, reached into my nail polish box, and pulled out a color.

I didn't have 5 shades of purple, so I did 2 nails in lavender and added sparkles to the ring finger.

What do you think? Have you tried the ombre trend in any way?

[Beauty] American Honey

Let's talk nails, shall we?

A little while ago, I posted this and left out one of the sparkly topcoats because I couldn't find a good stock picture. Well, that was the first topcoat that I tried. I started off painting my nails a light pink from one of those French manicure sets because I thought the blue flecks would look summery and cute against a light, light pink background.

Wow, was I sorely mistaken.

The glitter topcoat that I had bought was not clear with blue flecks - the topcoat itself was tinted blue. I'm assuming that unless you painted a really dark color or another shade of blue as your nail base, the blue in the topcoat will overwhelm whatever you put under it. What a bummer! Looking at this, would you have thought the topcoat itself was blue?! Here's what it looked like:

I have no idea which color the Sally Hansen is, but the topcoat is Wet N Wild Use Protection

I mean, really - you can't see through the blue!!! Even after one coat it looked like this, so I just went ahead and painted on two coats of the topcoat. If you're gonna use blue topcoat, may as well make sure it's a nice blue.

This is what I have on my nails right now:

Revlon Silver Screen and Essie Dive Bar

I love doing a twist on a French manicure - I frequently do this type of thing. What do you think? What are some of your favorite ways of doing a non-traditional polish?

*There's a wild, wild whisper blowing in the wind

Calling out my name like a long lost friend

Oh I miss those days as the years go by

Oh nothing's sweeter than summer time*

[Beauty] Way Out Here

I just recently picked up some beauty items. I am really, really crazy strict about what constitutes my beauty routine (I have to wash my makeup off every night, I use an SPF75+ daily, I always use a leave-in on my hair), but I like to switch up products often. I blame this on my Type A side because I am basically trying to find the BEST, most PERFECT product and the only way I can do that is to try as many as I can.

Last weekend I picked up a few new beauty products. I picked up a new shampoo and conditioner - I tend to alternate between drug store and high end products because I don't believe that the cheap stuff can't be good. I also know that some of the expensive stuff is totally worth the money, so I tend to dip my toes into both ends. :) And I always keep 2 sets of shampoo/conditioner at all times. Don't ask me why, I just do.

Since I ran out of my last drug store choice (John Frieda), I picked up another one - Garnier Fructis Length and Strength (both shampoo and conditioner).

Here

I realized after I bought it that I haven't had the greatest experience with Garnier in the past - the last shampoo I tried snarled the crap out of my hair (and it doesn't tangle easily!) and was ridiculously difficult to open because of the style of the bottle (I have no idea how many nails I broke before I finally got rid of the stuff). But, it was too late, I had already brought this one home.

It's been about 5 days, and so far so good! When I used heat on my hair, I find it comes out really soft. Still not sure if this is a "buy again", but I'm definitely not hating it!

The other stuff I picked up was all for my nails. I got 3 new polishes:

Revlon Posh
Ulta, $6

Wearing Revlon Posh

Essie Little Brown Dress
Ulta, $8

Wet N Wild Caribbean Frost
Ulta, $1

I also got a bunch of cheapie sparkle topcoats - I just couldn't pick one or two! And they were such a steal....

Wet N Wild Shuffle the Deck (the flecks are silver, black,
and red - I just LOVE that color combo!)
CVS, $2

Wet N Wild Hallucinate
CVS, $1

Wet N Wild Trust Fund Baby
CVS, $2

I also got one called Use Protection (CVS, $2), which is small flecks in various shades of blue, but I couldn't find a picture of it. I'll try and snap one tomorrow and post it.

The one thing that worries me about these glitter polishes is the removal. Glitter polish, much like rainbow colored nail polish and neon, was popular in the 90s when I was in school, and I remember it being a GIANT pain in the rear to get rid of. I would have to work really hard. So - to those of you who have tried the glitter nail trend - what's your best kept secret for getting it off your nails when it's time for a new color??

*We won't take a dime if we ain't earned it

When it comes to weight, brother we pull our own*