beauty blog

Love With Food Gluten Free Review – February 2016

I may have said this before – but I LOVE love with food. I wait patiently each month for my gluten free box to arrive at my door. They have such great brands that I can always find something to enjoy in each box. This month was no different. I literally tore open one of the items the second I saw it. Note the chip clip on the popcorn…

FullSizeRender 51.jpg

So what did I get this month?

-Stellar Strawberry non-dairy fruit and veggie blend by Ruby Rocket’s

-Strawberry Shortcake Flavored Instant Oatmeal by Bakery On Main

-Cookies by Labrems Bakery

-Organic Rice Vermicelli Noodles by Explore Asian

-Dark Chocolate + Bing Cherries Popcorn by 470 (AMAZING!)

-Google Grape Organic Lollipops by Yumearth

-Maple Sugar and Sea Salt Pumpkin Seeds by Super Seedz

-Plaintain Stips with Sea Salt by Artisan Tropic

-Gluten-Free Mini Honey Grahams by Pamela’s Products

-Saladpower by Allinone Vegetables

-Savory Bar by Mediterra

Advertisement

Valentine’s Day Gift Guide

Untitled design (2).jpg

One of my favorite ways to shop nowadays is through the curated emails I get that are thematically targeted for whatever holiday is approaching. Of all of the emails I received regarding Valentine’s Day gifts, Paper Source was definitely my favorite. I’ve always loved them, and adore their products. I wanted to post this completely because I think this store is adorable – not because I was asked to do so. These are some adorable and sweet gifts for that special person in your life! Below are some screen shots from their website:

Screen Shot 2016-02-10 at 10.11.35 PM.pngScreen Shot 2016-02-10 at 10.11.23 PM.png

Screen Shot 2016-02-10 at 10.10.23 PM.pngScreen Shot 2016-02-10 at 10.11.51 PM.pngScreen Shot 2016-02-10 at 10.29.58 PM.png                Screen Shot 2016-02-10 at 10.30.21 PM.png

 

Merle Norman

FullSizeRender 47.jpg

Back in December when I was on vacation in South Carolina, I noticed that there was a Merle Norman store just down the road from us. This is not a makeup company I’m used to seeing up north, so I wanted to check it out. The only thing I knew going in was that it was a company that had been around for a long time.

I’ve since come to find out that this company was launched in the 1920’s, thus making sense why I picked up on a vibe that they were skewing their products towards a more mature audience. However, my saleswoman was fantastic, and helped me find great introductory pieces to their lines. And you know what? I really LOVE their products. My favorite is the creamy concealer – I got a sample for making a purchase over a certain price – and my color is medium light warm. I use it for under my eyes, and it blends really well.

The lash primer and retinol night complex also came with the sample set, but admittedly I haven’t tried those out. Their Found Primer Plus SPF 15 however – is def a fav of mine. It has a silicone feel, and definitely gets into my pores to hold my foundation on well. Great consistency. I also fell hard for their Lip Pencil Plus (lip liner and lipstick pencils that are two in one pencils). Mine are in Wild Berry and Hussy. Hussy is sparkly and red – perfect for Valentines Day! Wild Berry is a darker wine color that I love to wear pretty often.

I just stumbled across a Merle Norman store, but I highly recommend checking out their products!

 

January 2016 Favorites

Between having pneumonia and then things being crazy at work, my time has been pulled in a million directions. But I didn’t want to miss mentioning some of my favorite products from January! My goal is to do a favorites post every month – hoping I can stick to it!

FullSizeRender 48.jpg

January brought me a super random group of favorites. I made the decision not to head to IMATS again this year, largely because once you factor in the ticket price and the train tickets, the discounted makeup doesn’t seem worth it to me anymore. Once that decision was made, I decided to use an Amazon gift card from Christmas to pick up some of the items I would have picked up at the show. I’m looking to try out and explore new makeup brands, and also brands that have been pretty hyped, so this seemed like the best way to do that. One of the pieces I picked up was the Morphe blush palette (Morphe 9B The Blushed Blush Palette) that Jaclyn Hill talked about a few months back. Note: my camera massively darkened the blush colors above, see below for true colors.

IMG_6597.JPG

I haven’t stopped using it since I bought it – the colors are gorgeous. I’ve become a blush-a-holic, and this has just fed the addiction. Conveniently I also received a Target gift card [to feed my massive Target addiction] and this allowed me to purchase the Sonia Kashuk 10 piece Facet-nating Brush set. This was put out around Christmas, and I tried forever to justify buying it. The brushes are mixed between goat hair and synthetic – I love many of the goat hair ones. It really completes a brush collection, plus the gold handles are gorgeous.

And then there was the L’Oreal True Match Lumi Liquid Glow Illuminator in the shade Ice. I tend to like liquid highlighters, so I was excited for this one, and it didn’t disappoint. Plus, lets be real, their packaging is enough to make you buy one.

Every so often I get brave and decide to try a new dry shampoo. Strangely enough, although I’m blonde and it shouldn’t be so bad, I find they make my hair look gross.  The Bumble and Bumble Pret-a-powder smells amazing, and truly does the job of refreshing your hair. Because I have natrually dry hair, a product like this is perfect for me. I know some people have problems with the idea that this is a powder and not a spray, but I actually like that. This way it doesn’t make my hair clumpy or sticky like some do.

I found the CoverGirl Eye Shadow Quad in Blooming Blushes on one of my many trips to the drug store recently. The quality of the shadows isn’t amazing, but blendable enough to really work. Plus anything with a pink smoky eye is right up my alley.

Whenever I can I like to support fellow bloggers or Youtubers that I like to watch. When I saw Dani from Coffee Break with Dani released the 5 slot clear organizer in a collab with Zahra, I was happy to pick one up. I use it to store brushes, but I’ve seen posts from other bloggers where they bought upwards of 5+. These really are great. In a recent video Dani said they are almost sold out!

FullSizeRender 49.jpg

And last, but certainly not least, I wanted to include two of the jewelry items I’ve been wearing on the reg lately. For our anniversary (which is at the end of December) my boyfriend got me this amazingly sparkly Michael Kors watch that I had been eyeing. It fits my wrist perfectly, and I’m obsessed with the sparkles! I was so surprised – and I know I’m quite blessed to have such a generous boyfriend. In addition he gave me the gorgeous necklace above as a Christmas gift. I’ll be sparkling year round!

What products were you loving last month??

Blogiversary

I can’t believe I have been blogging for a year. 2015 was interesting – a lot of change, but a lot of really exciting things happened. I’m excited to open a new chapter on my blog, and try out some new ideas I’ve had. I want this to be a fun place where I can share and document what is going on in my life. For a little reflection, I thought it might be fun to look back on 2015 in pictures…

2015-02-15 14.36.13-1

2015-03-08 14.42.39

IMG_5150

IMG_5511

IMG_5544

IMG_5363

IMG_6082.JPG

FullSizeRender-1

 

Empties Part II

I meant to post this back in December, but the month seemed to get away from me before I could! This is the second part in my empties posts. These are the products I used up last year. Some just went unused/bad and some I completely used up. Sorry for the bad quality of the photos – I’ll be using a new camera going forward!

FullSizeRender 32.jpg

I’ll just pick out a few of the above to talk about. The Stila lip glaze in Watermelon is one that I just adore. I have so many back ups! But beware – it is uber sticky, so stay aware if that isn’t your thing. Jesse’s Girl [lip gloss fourth from left] is a brand that I’m becoming more familiar with, and one that I often have trouble finding. I found mine at Rite Aid, and I am simply in love with the frosted pink color. I really want to try their eye liner because I heard it is awesome. The Maybelline Instant Age Rewind is a fantastic concealer, but the tip of mine was a sponge applicator, and it really didn’t work for me. I worked with it because I loved the formula, but the sponge deteriorated beyond recognition by the end. I do recommend this product – I hope they have changed the applicator by now! The Tarte lip gloss was ok – nothing super special – although I’m a big Tarte fan. The Make Up Forever HD Foundation is my favorite. The bottle above is before they changed the formulation, but it is still my daily go to.

FullSizeRender 30.jpg

The only mascaras that I would highlight above are the Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara [third from left] and the Too Faced Queen Sized. Both are super old in my collection, so I had to throw them out. But I adore them. And of course, I love the Anastasia Brow Wiz. I’m working through two other brow products now, but will eventually return to this one.

FullSizeRender 31.jpg

I LOVE Bumble and Bumble products. My salon carries the line, so I often pick up products there. The creme de coco shampoo is fantastic, and smells incredible. I plan to pick up another bottle in the near future. The mending shampoo is alright, made my hair too fluffy though. I HATED the Caviar Anti-Aging Replenishing Moisture Shampoo. Doesn’t do a thing and made my hair dry. I use the Organix Moroccan Argan Creme shampoo on the reg, and I think it makes my hair pretty soft. Dry Bar’s Sake Bomb Shampoo is good – not great – but works well for travel. The Tresemme Keratin Smooth Shampoo is pretty good as well. As someone with crazy, curly hair, it definitely smooths out the texture of my hair.

Have you guys tried any of these products?

Birchbox January 2016

IMG_2999.jpg

Finally – my last subscription box arrived! I will always love Birchbox, even when I don’t always love my box each month. I’ve come to realize that having small sample sized items are GREAT for travel, and since I’ve been doing a lot of that lately, these have definitely come in handy.

I have to say – I adore the theme (and the color of the box) this month. I selected “ambition” to be my word for 2016. I want this to be the year I achieve some serious goals!

This month the items in my box are just OK. I laughed when I opened it because there were two products (shampoo and conditioner) from Beautiful Nutrition. In my Glossybox I just received a bottle of toner from the same brand – so this brand must be blowing up the beauty market. I’m curious to give it a shot! See what else I got in my box below:

DSCN3001.jpg

Beautiful Nutrition Grapefruit Detox Shine Repair Shampoo

Beautiful Nutrition Grapefruit Detox Shine Repair Conditioner

Cargo Swimmables Shadow Stick – Coral Reef

derma e* Hydrating Serum with Hyaluronic Acid

Peripera Peri’s Tint Water – Strawberry Juice

What did you guys get in your box this month?

What’s on my iPad

I recently got an iPad mini because my regular iPad was a first gen and wasn’t working well. I didn’t realize how much more efficient the smaller size would be for every day use. There used to be days where I wouldn’t pick up my iPad, but now I always have it on hand. I wanted to share the apps I’m loving!

IMG_1071.png

Of course I have the obligatory Facebook, Twitter [Follow me: GVGP1989] and Pinterest right at the top. And I know I’ve already discussed my obsession with Audible. So we can start with Podcasts. Season two of Serial is pretty great. I’m about one episode behind, but I find the story intriguing. It seems to be heavy on jargon that I don’t understand, but given the nature of the case [Beau Bergdahl] I think it needs to be that way. My boyfriend and I also listen to Lore, which delves into the history behind certain folklore and superstitions. Skipping to the bottom – Colorfy is a new app I found that is like a digital coloring book. I’m still trying it out, but I think it would be fun if you had a stylus.

IMG_6828.png

I do have some iBooks and some digital books from the Nook app, but I honestly haven’t read them recently, so I can do a post once I’ve gotten through some of them. While I don’t read many books anymore, I do LOVE magazines. Cosmo, Glamour and Women’s Health happen to be my favorite – especially when country music stars are on the cover. I’ve been home sick and having these on hand has been great.

IMG_7109.png

I love to binge watch things. YouTube videos, tv shows, movies, etc – it doesn’t matter, I love it all. So naturally I have every possible app (Hulu should be there, but I must have forgot to add it). On Netflix I’m patiently waiting on Fuller House to drop, while I binge watch seasons 3 and 4 of The Mindy Project on Hulu. I know it sounds weird I subscribe to both, but I love them for different reasons! Amazon Video works with my Amazon Prime account, so on occasion I’ll check out what is new on there.

IMG_9396.png

These two apps are more informational than anything. MSA is the app for MySubscriptionAddiction.com, a website dedicated to trying out and reviewing subscription boxes. I like to check out spoilers for my boxes, so I keep this on my iPad and iPhone too. I keep the Ebates app on both as well because I like to keep tabs on how much money I’ll be getting back from my purchases. Many people think this is a scam, but it is honestly great and has proven to be very much legit. You get a percentage of your purchase back through them if you shop using their add on in your Google Chrome browser. [I discovered Ebates on my own, and signed up on my own – I have no affiliation with them]

I do have two games on my phone as well – one is an app where you put together puzzles, and one is the Simpon’s Tapped Out game I’ve had forever.

What apps are you loving?  Please share – I’d love to discover some new ones!

 

Glossybox January 2016

FullSizeRender 43.jpg

I’ve seem to hit that point in the month where I finally have received nearly all of my subscription boxes. There is nothing I love more than coming home to a fun box and checking out all the new products in these curated boxes.

Over the past year I’ve had a love – hate relationship with Glossybox. I love that the products are full sized or deluxe sized. Sometimes though the products are all misses for me. But I missed getting it, and took advantage of a deal on Gilt recently, so I’m locked in for the next 6 months.

This month was interesting. I don’t love everything. But I’m willing to try it all out!

Products in this months box:

Beautiful Nutrition Lemon Rinse Gentle Clarifying Treatment

MeMeMe Lip Glide in Playful Peach

-417 Foot Nourishing Cream

Royal Apothic Cream Creme to Go

Emite Make Up Diamond Heart

What did you guys think of this months box?