TastyKake Voxbox Review

First of all, I have to say that I have been totally lousy at even attempting to blog! I've just been so down lately, like I want to crawl into bed and not come back out for a year or so. I'm still no where near closer to my goal of going to school to be a nail tech (despite having more polishes than my local salons).  But enough about my boring life, I came here to talk about the latest Voxbox I received!

 Infuenster sent me a box of TastyKake's newest offering, these cute little mini cakes.  They are perfectly sized for a quick snack for kiddo (or my mom!).  They are nice and moist, not dry like some packaged baked sweets can be.  Kiddo loves them.  They will likely make their way into the rounds of lunchbox treats!

I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

Frosty VoxBox review!

I'm back.

Still terrible at this blogging thing, though.

I was one of the lucky ones to get the Frosty VoxBox from Influenster.

I am in LOVE with all but 2 of these items!  

First up is the EcoTools Quick Volume Styler Hair Brush.  I am loving this brush for drying my bangs quickly.  It has large vents for faster dry time, and the dual bristles make quick work of de-tangling my hair.  The round barrel makes it really easy to style my bangs so that they aren't flat against my forehead.  I even use it on my son's hair to shorten the dry time of his insane amount of baby-fine hair.

Next is the Rimmel London eyeliner and remover.  The Eye Makeup Remover is awesome, I am so happy with it!  It's oil-free, which is great since I have oily enough skin as it is.  It has little to no smell to it, and quickly removes my eye makeup with just a few swipes.  The cap is shaped just so that I can get the product on a cotton swab without making a giant mess, making cleaning up eyeshadow fall-out and smoothing out eyeliner a breeze! 

The Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal eyeliner in Black is a great addition to my eyeliner collection!  I love Rimmel's eyeliners, especially for lining my waterline, since they don't irritate my eyes, and have such a huge color payout.  It goes on smoothly, and blends just as well.

The N.Y.C. Sugar Plum Lip Color is a beautiful share of shimmering purple-ish mauvey pink that works well for a subtle wintery lip look.  It has a slight fruity scent that was not unpleasant or overpowering, and it didn't make my lips feel dried out.  Lasted a good few hours, but I did need to reapply after meals.  

The Red Vines Fruit Vines Bites were more of a hit with my son than with me, I don't care for gummy candies unless they are covered in sour stuff.  He said he likes that they are little pieces, instead of the long ropes, less sticky hands.  

I am so super excited that I got a regular sized container of Thyme from McCormick, since I was about to run out of my pervious one!  I use it in soups, pasta, and especially in pot roast!  I love McCormick brand spices and dried herbs, as I have had the best luck with flavor and amount for price!  The store brand is ok for some things that I'll finish up quickly, but McCormick ones have better flavor for longer, to me anyway. Plus I tend to be a bit "brand-loyal", and have used McCormick since I was a kid.

Now the two that I just wasn't impressed with: the Candy Cane tea and the No.7 Serum.

I am not a fan of most hot teas, but I gave this one a try while at work.  Even adding sugar did not make me like it. 

The No. 7 Serum was nice enough, but I felt that it made my face a bit oily, which I have enough problems with, lol.  The scent was kind meh, not bad but not really anything to write about.  

Overall, this was an awesome box, and I'm so thankful to Influenster for sending me these products to try!  

~*I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes*~

I'm alive..

I'm just very very very bad at blogging. 

I'm going to try to keep up with this new challenge in September though.

I'll try to post some before then.

Influenster Mark Kay VoxBox!

I know I've been away from the blog for a while, I'm sorry!  I'm going through some stuff in my personal life, and I just haven't been able to put together a post.  Things are looking better though, and one of the highlights is getting make up in the mail!  This time it's thanks to Influenster and Mary Kay!

Semi-cute mailman dropped this off at my door (label torn off by me)

(using my purple fluffy chair as a backdrop is my new favorite thing at the moment)

So much pink tissue paper!  Cute box, and a card listing the items in the box.

I feel so spoiled!  So many items, I just couldn't wait to try them out!

(I kind of suck at taking pictures of myself)

I used my usual primers, BB cream, and pencil eyeliner (for my waterline) for a base.  I used my new eyebrow pencil for the 1st time as well.  Then it was time for the Mary Kay goodies!

First thing, I used the Gel Eyeliner With Expandable Brush Applicator.  I love the little brush that this came with, it's perfect for my purse makeup bag, and isn't so small as to make applying the liner difficult.  The liner is great too, went on smoothly and I didn't have any issues with it being to sheer in spots.

I then used the Cream Eye Color/Concealer Brush to apply the Cream Eye Color in Apricot Twist.  This is the first time I've used a cream eyeshadow since I was like 8yrs old, so I was unsure how well it would work.  I applied it over my regular eyelid primer.  It's a much lighter color than I normally wear, but it applied very easily, and wasn't streaky or patchy.  I didn't have any issues with it smearing or creasing.  I also lined my waterline with a black liner pencil.

After using my face primer and BB cream, I attempted to contour using the Bronzing Powder in Light-Medium. (I say attempt cause I just started playing around with bronzers this weekend, and haven't really gotten the hang of it.)  I think it worked well, was easily blended.  I used the Mineral Cheek Color in Shy Blush on my cheek bones and the apples.  I really like this color, it's a more natural color (to me anyway). Just a touch of shimmer, nothing crazy.

I used the Translucent Loose Powder with the Powder Brush to even everything out.  Not to big a fan of the brush, I prefer synthetic bristles to natural ones.  It was easy to hold though, and the bristles were really dense.  The powder was good, helped to blend everything and smoothed it all out.  Didn't see much help with eliminating shine since I did not reapply it, but I expect it would work for that as well.  

I finished up the look with the Lash Love® Mascara in I <3 Black and NouriShine Plus® Lip Gloss in Mango Tango.  I am in love with this mascara!  Went on cleanly (no clumps), and doesn't irritate my eyes.  Comes off easily enough with the makeup remover wipes I have.  The lip gloss I thought would be to orange-ish, but it is sheer enough that it didn't look to bad.  Very shiny, has some shimmer to it.  Smells good, not plastic-y or anything, but kinda fruity.

All in all, I really enjoyed this VoxBox, and have already incorporated many of the products into my everyday makeup.  Thank you so much to Influenster and Mary Kay for sending me these wonderful products to review.

*I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes*

Blogging fail

I feel like a total fail blogger, didn't finish the year long challenge, and haven't posted in forever.  Between work, Kiddo's school stuff, and family stuff, I've just completely lost track of things.

Things have been ok at work, moving to a new office space, so that's been fun trying to get things like licenses changed over to the new address.  And by fun I mean hell, cause no city/county does it the same.

Kiddo is LOVING school, even the daycare after school on the days I work.  He loves that his best friend across the street is in the same class, and that they get to ride their bikes together to and from school.

Our family just keeps getting bigger! My cousins found out at the beginning of summer that they were expecting their second child, a little boy!  Now I'm wondering when my son will start asking why he doesn't have a sister, since everyone else has a boy and a girl lol.

I've been looking online and trying to find out where I can go to school to be able to do nails professionally.  As well as collecting more and more polishes, of course!  Actually am in the middle of organizing all of them.  Picked up some blank nail spoons on Amazon the other day and have been labeling them and swatching the polishes.  I also did a set of fake nails for my friend's Halloween costume this year, and I will say this.  Painting nails that aren't attached to a finger is kind of hard!  But I figured out a way with some tape and wooden cuticle sticks, and I must say that they turned out pretty well for my first time!

I've also gotten 2 new toys, a Nexus 7 that I brought from a friend, and a Google Chromecast that the lovely people at Google Chrome sent me so that I can be of more help on the Chromebook Central forums, which I've been happy to help out on since this whole Chromebook adventure began.

Neon Rainbow Crackle with bonus stamping mani!

I feel like such a blogger failure.  Things have just gotten so busy, with kiddo starting school, work, and card night with my cousins (anyone else ever play Peanuts!, it's so much fun).

I did a neon gradient rainbow mani for the challenge, but I am still really bad at gradients so I topped it with O.P.I. Black Shatter to try and hide how bad it was.

Color Club Mambo, Wham! Pow!, and Almost Famous on top of SinfulColors Snow Me White, with O.P.I. Black Shatter

Color Club Twiggie, Pucci-Licious, and Chelsea on SinfulColors Snow Me White, topped with O.P.I. Black Shatter

This is the mani I did instead of a Water Marble, cause I just can't muster up the courage to try that yet...

SinfulColors Midnight Blue and Secret Admirer stamped with Rain Song

I <3 this mani so much, the color change that Rain Song does on Secret Admirer is so awesome, I couldn't stop staring at my hands while at work!  Unfortunately I had a crack on my right ring finger, and have been patching it while waiting for it to grow out.  It finally grew out far enough, but then I broke another nail right before I went to grab my file.  So I am now sporting nubs, again. :(  

I'm working on getting a new post up of my polish set up now that Kiddo's stuff is back in his own room and I have more storage space for the ever growing stash!  So much love for bargain stores and clearance sales!

My First Ever Influenster VoxBox...

...and it was a flop.  I received a Strawberries & Cream SlimFast shake, a martini glass, and 4 recipes to make cocktails/mocktails featuring the 4 flavors of these particular line of shakes.  

Because I live in Southern Florida, and it is super hot here right now, the shake curdled/soured in my mailbox :(

Polka dot nails for this week's challenge.

O.P.I. Black Satin as a base color, with Not Like The Movies on middle and pinkie fingers, and SinfulColors Rain Song on pointer and ring fingers.  Dots are SinfulColors Snow Me White.