Wednesday, November 7, 2012

I've Got a Serious Learning Curve

2 years ago, right about this time, we were on our first little family (read: me, husband, and Guy) vacation at my father's cabin:


I wish we were there right now!  

So, today has been a bit of a learning day for me.  I spent about a trillion hours getting my new iPhone set up because we had to remove its temporary number and port in my old number.  Verizon's customer service was pretty out of this world (fingers crossed that it is always so).  

Let's face it (oh, I totally went there), my skin is still in need of help:


The photo on the left is on a regular day, face routine (no retinols) with new iPhone and awesome iPhone case.  I think my skin tone is really starting to even out, but it's slow going.  If you enlarge this, the photo on the right is kind of frightening.  I took it right as I finished showering today with a full face routine including retinols in place.  You can see that I have some bumps and uneveness that need to be worked out, but I really have faith in the retinols.  My skin is a little red after application.  I had to buy a 5 pack sample that was a total rip off from Sephora because they were being all stingy about free samples.  I mean, I get it.  It's not a cheap product, but I AM going to buy Dr. Dennis Gross's Alpha Beta Daily Facial Peel next payday.  I was a little tight on money because I had just purchased this to protect my skin when using the retinols:

And my love affair with La Mer only makes Sephora seem more stingy.  Whenever I go in and buy something, they give me TONS of samples of other products (I always ask for the Crème de la Mer because it's the most expensive and I'm scared to run out).  The girls at Nordstrom load me up because they know that I save up for these purchases.  Then they give me samples of tons of other La Mer products.  Go see them at City Creek Center, y'all.  They are the cat's pajamas!  

I tried out my new Sephora palette today as well:

source (discontinued product)

I REALLY love the shimmer of these products, but I have always been a fan of sparkle over matte.  It was my first go at bronzer and highlighter.  I really had to buff out the first side of bronzer with my powder brush.  It gets on there!  And I am ghostly pale.  I'm not sure the highlighter was even either.  I still need practice, but I think I'll be adding bronzer and highlighter to my routine.  I also used the highlighter softly down my nose and in the divot above my upper lip.  Then I tried the shadows.  I'm not totally sold on them yet, but they deserve some serious testing.  I used them dry.  I couldn't get a very good photo, so this will have to do:


This is truly a terrible shot and you can barely see what I did, but it's the best I could get from three different devices.  I nee to figure out my photography to make this blog better.

To finish off my experiment with looks today I decided to try out the "sock bun" in my hair.  These tutorials are all over Pinterest:

I used two panty hose socks that were black to roll up.  I wanted a smaller sock so it looks more believable that I just made a regular big bun.  I also chose black because I want something close to my (dyed) hair colour so it won't show through and look crappy.  It turned out so cute!  It was so easy!  Mine turned out messy, which is totally fine by me.  I just tucked all the loose ends into the bun at the very end:



Seriously, how cute is that?  And that was my first try.  Having long hair really helps.  I can fudge it a lot more.  I think I'm going to get a sock for Xtend Barre to catch sweat and help me look a little more put together when I run errands afterwards.  Seriously, how gross is that?  I have no shame.

Finally, I am waiting for this to come in the mail:

source (product discontinued)

It went on sale for $17!!!!!

This is what Miloberry was able to do with it (she bought at full cost):

I need her to come teach me make-up application.  You must check out her blog!

I can't wait to keep learning how to have fun looking pretty!!!  Any tips for me?  Spill 'em.  I need all the help I can get.

xoxox

1 comment:

  1. the sock bun is my favorite new hairstyle. So easy, so cute.

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