Lifestyle

Blogmas Days 14-20 Subscription Box Madness

So I’ve failed my goal to blog daily – but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been on my mind! Lately my doorbell has been ringing with all my Black Friday purchases.

Thanks to Black Friday I scored so many deals, and wound up resubscribing to many of the boxes I once loved. Who doesn’t love a deal?!

In the madness I am now receiving the Gluten Free Love with Food box, PopSugar Must Have, Beautycon BFF, and the Rachel Zoe Box of Style.

Is it bad that I loved them all this month?

The Beautycon BFF box was curated by DulceCandy and had the following products:

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-Ali & Jay $50 Gift Card

-Artist Couture Illuminati Diamond Glow Powder

-Biobelle Botanic Fiber Facial Mask

-ColourPop Beautycon Exclusive Lipstick

-Garnier SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water

-Kate Somerville ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment

-L’Oreal Paris Voluminous Lash Primer and Feline Mascara

-Luxie Beauty Rose Gold Tapered Highlighting Brush

-Rimmel London The Only 1 Surprise Lipcolor

-Skinvolve Body Karate Cream

-Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer

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This was a mixed bag, but overall pretty good. I have several of these products already, but the new ones I’m exited to try!

The PopSugar Must Have box contained:

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Odeme Catchall + Ring Dish

Baublebar Snowfall Pendant

Mane Message Date Night Bobby Pins

Winky Lux Lip Pill in Bunny

Sisters Gourmet Baker’s Dozen Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

Dessange Professional Hair Luxury Color Restore Color Protecting Top Coat Serum

Several of the items in the box will be great for gifting this season!

The Rachel Zoe and Love with Food boxes don’t come with cards, but I’ve included photos of them below. The Gluten Free Love with Food is literally the box I look forward to the most, as it brings forward new brands I’ve never tried. The Rachel Zoe box is new to me, but the necklace they included this season, is LOVE!

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Blogmas Day 6 – Influenster & Q-tips

Several months back – like back in March – I received the Influenster Glam Voxbox and I never wrote a post about it. Strangely enough though I use two of those products in my daily life and love them. Thinking about that today, I really wanted to go back and revisit my box and chat about the products I received.

I received a pack of Venus razors and shave lotion which was great because I can always use those. There was a can of Not Your Mother’s dry shampoo, which is ok, but def not my favorite product in the box. Cutex Advanced Revival Nail Polish Remover and Pads were also in there, and I plan to use those for future at home pedicures. There was a sample pack of SheaMoisture which is in my arsenal to try shortly. But the BEST discovery of all time in this box was the Q-tips beauty rounds. Never did I think the simplest little thing would rock my work. They are sewn shut at the ends so you don’t get little fuzzies everywhere and they are thick and durable, and last with any product. I have repurchased numerous times and am thrilled I received this box for that one discovery alone.

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Blogmas Day 5- Swamp Queen Palette

Several months ago I was so sad to find out that the Swamp Queen Palette was sold out EVERYWHERE. I wound up buying it on ebay (I know this is bad) but couldn’t have been happier when it arrived. Back in November I heard the great news that it was back in stock! It was heavily promoted during Black Friday, and while I’m sad I missed the sale, I really need this in my life!

The different hues of purple were really what drew me in and made me fall in love. I can do a full face with this – contour, blush, eyes and not have to look at anything else. I’d love to hear how everyone uses this palette, especially for eyes! Any tips and tricks are welcome!

Blogmas Day 4 – Tartist Pro Glow

Sometimes in the winter makeup is my favorite accessory. With chunky sweaters and boots, and being bundled up, makeup can warm up these oversized comfy outfits and top off your style bringing together your outfit. On days like today when I barely wanted to get out of my pajamas, I was able to just sit and play with some of my new products.

One of the things I picked up in the Tarte Black Friday sale was the Tartist Pro Glow palette. Did I need another palette? No, not really. This one is absolutely beautiful though and it is incredibly pigmented. I dipped the brush in the color “sculpted” one too many times and wowza, I sure had to soften that look. I like the formula a lot – it is almost creamy and blends pretty well. Its too early to tell if it will be a daily staple, but first impressions are all positive! I do know though that I can’t use all of the colors because they are too dark, but I’m hoping to make as many as possible work for me!

Have any of you used this product?

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Blogmas Day 3 – Le Volume de Chanel Mascara

This past week has been a little hectic for us – we’ve been to 2 different weddings, both had crazy weeks at work and a million social engagements. It’s been so fun though and I’ve especially loved changing up my beauty routine for the weddings and playing around a bit. While in Macy’s the other day I decided I wanted to try out one of the Chanel mascaras. The sales associate and I agreed on one of them that would be best for me, I purchased it and happily headed home. Unfortunately she put the wrong version in my bag! After some research though I decided I might actually like it and decided to give it a chance. I don’t just like it, I LOVE it. I have very long lashes to begin with, and I needed something that wouldn’t clump and would make them super feathery. This does all that and more – much to my surprise. I own nothing from Chanel and decided to buy this on a whim, and I’m so glad I did. The picture below is us at the wedding tonight. I wish I have a better one of my eye makeup!

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Blogmas Day 2- GIFT GUIDES

Is anyone else out there as stressed as I am about Christmas shopping? For some reason I feel as though this year things are tougher than ever. So every time I come across I blogger/vlogger I follow that has put together gift guides, I screen shot them! While I have my own ideas too for some things, I thought it might be fun to put my screen shots together for a comprehensive look at what people are gifting. Let me know what other bloggers have great gift guides!! (P.S. Jillian Harris’ blog is AMAZING!)

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BLOGMAS DAY 1

Every year I fall in love with YouTuber’s that do “Vlogmas” or “Vlogidays” because it gives me something to look forward to each day after work. For those who don’t know this is, it is daily vlogging every day until the holidays. I decided I wanted to do my own version on my blog, and hopefully offer some great holiday gift ideas or tips and tricks along the way.

I’m also super excited today is December 1st because I finally got to break open my Beauty Advent Calendar that I purchased from LookFantastic. I have absolutely NO IDEA what is in the calendar, and I love that they don’t release the product list ahead of time. This is a company from the UK and the calendar was a bit expensive – around $100. But the reviews were pretty great and I figured I’d take a chance. What did Day 1 bring me? A mini Pixi by Petra Glow Tonic. I’m fairly new to the Pixi brand, so I figured this is a great first day. Below is a picture of the advent calendar box on our dining room table – it is so big I had no where else to keep it! While the box is sold out, you can read more about it here.

Happy Blogmas!

Moving…

So much has gone on this year, it is certainly one of change. A few months back my boyfriend and I made a really big purchase… we bought a condo. We looked only looked at two places, and fell in love with the first one. We hadn’t even been planning to buy anything for at least 6 more months, but we couldn’t pass this up.

Moving has been the slowest process for us. We had a long wait before closing and then decided to move in slowly because I wound up working almost every weekend in September. I’m still bringing things over from my parents house almost two and a half months later. But we did it! And we’re proud of our little space. I plan to do some posts on how I was able to find everything we needed at a very low cost and in great packages.

Does anyone have any tips for where to find great prints for the walls? We desperately need to decorate the walls, but I don’t want to pick just anything. I welcome all suggestions!

It’s been a while…

I’ve probably started and stopped this post more times than I can count. It’s been about 7 months and I grossly neglected my blog. Truth is, I just wasn’t inspired to create new, genuine, content. That happens sometimes, right?

Over the past few months I’ve thought a lot about GGG. Especially why I started blogging in the first place. In my free time I do nothing but watch YouTube videos of beauty bloggers and read beauty blogs, so why not throw my voice into the mix?

A few things have changed though… I have cancelled nearly all of my subscription boxes. Many of them I absolutely loved, but due to perhaps my biggest news – my boyfriend and I bought a condo (!) – I felt the need to dial it down a bit on the monthly expenses. Plus now I’m obsessed with all things home decor. I’ve also been promoted at my job, so now I’m even more heavily involved where I work, and the long hours initially precluded me from getting back into my hobbies. Twice this year I was diagnosed with pneumonia – you read it correctly, TWICE. So my ambitions of doing Insanity? They went out the window with that diagnosis. Upside though is that I recently joined a new Kickboxing gym, so I’m getting back to doing what I love. So needless to say, things have been chaotic.

I’m excited to re-jumpstart GGG, and to get conversations going about some of my favorite topics. Let’s begin a new journey!

Valentine’s Day Recap

I hope you all had a fantastic Valentine’s Day! This year we wanted to keep things pretty low key. Being together for the weekend together was all I really wanted. I wanted to share some pics from the weekend:

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GabGoesGlam

Beauty. Lifestyle. Fashion.