31 Days {Day 28} Minimal Makeup

I've always just had all my makeup out in the open or in my drawer so I could see all my selections.  Lately though, I just want to do the same thing every day.  I want to only have the things in front of me that work which means no experimenting and more saving time.  So I took a small selection of my makeup and I put the rest away.

I didn't do this for my Project 10 Pan, in fact it is sort of my rebellion from it.  After so long of trying to use up items whether I liked them or not, I thought, life is too short to be using colors I don't like right now.  So I selected exactly the combination that I loved the most, whether they are almost gone or not.  There will still be time later to use up or give away the other items, but today I carpe diem.

These are all my favorite products of the moment and produce a very simplified routine for me.

1.  Concealer:  Since I ran out, I am using my long forgotten Pan-Stik foundation for under my eyes and around my nose.  I forgot how much I love this!  They have stopped selling it in drugstores, but I can still buy it here.

2.  Powder:  Nars loose powder in Snow.  I use a brush and dust this all over my face.  When I use the PanStik, I don't need an all over foundation.

3.  Blush:  Laura Mercier tint in Filtered Brown.  It is the ugliest color name ever for the most perfect rose brown.  It's my favorite blush for my fair skin.  It was also another long forgotten one that I'm happy I found again.

4.  Eyeshadow compacts:  I'm using a combination of two.  One is an old Mac quad called Tempt Me Tease Me.  I use all the colors except the green.  The other is a basic Bobbi Brown compact with Bone, Blonde and Smoke and I use all three colors.  The BB is such great quality, very silky.

5.  Mascara:  I'm using Opulash by Mac right now.  I didn't feel like ordering from 100% pure so I got this in a pinch.  It's a tubes mascara and I like it.

6.  Lip Liner:  Laura Mercier in Chesnut.  It's a little dark but it's almost gone so I'll carry on using it for now.

7.  Lipstick:  Mac Twig and Mac Spice is Nice.  One is almost gone and one is new.

8.  Lip Gloss:  Revlon Super Lustrous in Pink Whisper.  I really love these lip glosses.  There isn't any better at any price that I have tried.  I also have the same formula in Foiled in my purse.

9.  Eye Primer:  Laura Mercier eye basics in Peach.  This is really nice.  I had also neglected this in favor of my Mac Painterly Paint Pot, but I prefer this.

Update:  10.  Eye Liner:  Mac fluid liner in Dipdown.  I can't believe I forgot this one as I look so tired without it!

That is my everyday makeup routine.  I am still trying to use up products but I like not having too many options in my drawer.  I started to feel overwhelmed with all those colors-ha ha-first world problems!!  I have so much Mac, but as I figured out what would be my perfect routine for right now very little was Mac.  I feel like I got seduced into buying all these different colors to collect them, or I heard someone just loved them so much that I had to have it.  Once you take away the "sell" from a product, you are left with what actually looks good on you.  I'm happy to have this figured out for now.

How about you?  What is your makeup routine?  Do you have yours in a bag, in a drawer or maybe a storage chest?  What are your long forgotten but now favorite products?  I love writing about girly stuff!

Aspiring to Quirky Cottage Style Decorating

Life has been all about home improvement lately! I wanted to show off our little projects we've been doing around the house. Other news is that we bought another car. We've been saving for 1 1/2 years and we reached our goal to be able to pay cash for a car. It's a sporty two door Honda Accord that G has claimed as "his". He looks so good in it that I can't deny him that! So let's get on to Show and Tell!

Here is the headboard that I built all myself! G was in the field that week. It's super easy, even for me, who pondered how to nail two boards together. I also spray painted those lamps white. They were wooden lamps with a brass accent and have been in my Mom's house since as long as I can remember. They are still a little spindly looking but they'll do until the perfect ones come along. Looking at this picture, I definitely need a new bed skirt too. In the mail are new 2 inch blinds for this room. The whole house has these hideous mini blinds that we are going to replace one room at a time.

This is the view from the other side of the room. I'm still working on this room, and all of the house really. Here are my famous pink chairs. If you are looking for the perfect grey paint, this is Forde Abbey by Ralph Lauren. That is my stack of magazines that I'm working through. Of course some (Domino) I can't ever throw away!

These are our new faucets in the master bathroom. Gustavo labored intensely for several hours prying the bottom pipe loose. Our old ones were so grungy and gross! Now I don't ever want these to get dirty. Those are our new soap dispensers too. They came from Target and I love them! Mine has Dr. Bronner's Almond in it and G's has some Vanilla Bean Bath and Body Works. We have so much of that overpriced obnoxious smelling soap to use up it will probably last us another year.

The view from the other side. I got those topiaries at Target for $9.99 each. The glass canisters were $4.87 at Wal-Mart.

Speaking of soaps and potion bottles, I do have a little goal that I have been "working" on which is using up all those little samples and bits of products I have left. Gustavo is so understanding of my idiosyncrasies that he doesn't bat an eye when I rejoice that a bottle is actually empty. I march it over to recycling and kick it for good measure just so happy for it to be out of my life. Why don't I just throw it out, you ask? Using it is my lesson to be careful of what I buy in the future. Just aimlessly picking up something nifty at the drugstore or the beauty salon doesn't happen because I don't want that bottle hanging around my house forever. I've even proposed that G and I use the same shampoo and conditioner but honestly I don't know if that is going to happen. I'm a bit of a shampoo snob, I admit. It definitely won't happen right now because there are two big imposing bottles of *cough* Pert Plus *cough* in the shower.

I'm even on a no-buy with makeup. After I got my few things from the Mac sale (which I love), I decided to be diligent about using what I have. As it is, I could go until I'm 70 with what I have. I don't like to think of it as excessive, but as having options. (Denial you say? Maybe.) I wonder how long I can last on this no-buy. I do give away makeup though because it's too fun not to share with my Aunts Delores, Karen and my Mom. I even have a picture of my organized makeup collection. It's all here in my little drawer. Ok, it's all here except for what's in my purse. In my defense, I don't collect anything else, not even beanie babies. Actually, I do have a few beanie babies. Nevermind.

I also painted our guest bathroom. I was looking for the perfect green blue grey color just like I did in our master bathroom but it kind of just turned out blue, just like in our master bathroom. It's Glidden Gentle Tide and a beautiful color but not green enough for me. It took me an hour to paint two coats so a super easy project for an afternoon. I love to paint though!

A future project in the works in this dining room table that I bought while I was in NC. My uncle Gerald took it apart for me so I could fit it into the back of the rental car. It was my little miracle! Thanks Gerald for all your sweat and ciphering that went into that ordeal! This will be painted soon and I still have to find dining room chairs to go with it.

This is our living room. Note the beautiful red roses from Gustavo. I was having decorating ADD and decided to take out most of the color in the room. I needed light and white things so I could think in that room. It's a work in progress but we like it.

Facing the kitchen and front door.

Facing the back door and the hunka hunka TV that we got for free from G's college friend.

Living room, much more subdued and calm than before.

Beautiful roses again and Keegan who wanted to get in the picture.

This is Miyagi, G's bonsai, that somehow I always have to take in and out of the house to water.

Besides these little projects, we went on a vacation to Costa Rica. It was our "we're not having a baby" vacation. I hope that isn't too morbid but we wanted to take advantage of our time before kids. We stayed at Mango Moon in Manuel Antonio region and it was divine. Don't let the rainy season scare you away. The prices are reasonable and the weather was fine. It was forecasted to rain every day but it only rained one evening. We had adventures every day which is what we wanted. I'll post pictures later.

In the meantime, I'm happy to be back posting. Tomorrow I'm doing something really exciting that I've wanted to do for a long time. I have an appointment with a personal shopper at Nordstrom. Even though I can look at someone else and really see them, I have a hard time seeing myself. I will try to remember to take pictures and let you know what I come home with tomorrow. My appointment didn't by accident coincide with the first day of the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. It's the best sale of the year because they mark down fall stuff for 2 weeks and then it goes back to full price.

That's all for now! I love reading your comments. I'll even take some decorating advice for my work in progress home. I can't wait to report back on the personal shopping too.

Revlon vs. Nars and A Mac Must-Have

OK, I've never been a big drugstore makeup buyer even though I would love to find what works for me there.  One of the big reasons is that you can't test out the colors and it's too much of a bother to have to return it if it doesn't work out.  And I'm willing to admit that the other reason is that I get suckered into the marketing schemes from department store makeup.  It's just so much more fun to buy it from a line that makes you feel luxurious and pampered.  In saying all that, I'm still willing to forgo the side benefits for a really good product and I reason that buying one particular product always from the drugstore frees up money to buy something else I want.  For example I never buy expensive mascara anymore because drugstore is just as good. 

Right before Christmas I became obsessed with Nars and now I have loads of it to play with every day.  I love it and I think I even dissed Mac eyeshadow in one of my last posts, but I am here to recant and give my devotion back to Mac!  I'm a fickle sort anyway.  You should know that.  I just bought a couple of new colors of eyeshadow that are so beautiful which I will show you in a minute.  Anyway, one of my Nars purchases was a set of lipglosses that I couldn't resist because I am a lipstickaholic and this was a set of 6!  I tried them all and I was not impressed. They weren't long lasting and the colors weren't pigmented enough to cover my very rosy lips. I shamefully took them back to Nordstrom and apologized to Conrad, the sweet makeup artist from Nars Nordstrom.  Sorry again Conrad!  I know it must come off of his commission but $50 is still a lot for subpar lipgloss.

All that being said, I am here to report to you a lovely drugstore lipgloss that is supreme in quality.  If you have pigmented lips, I find the colors to cover them well, even the lighter colors. They are not sheer or watery.  I suggest you buy them when CVS or Walgreens has them buy one get one free because, well because you can.  Why pay more when you don't have to do so?

It's Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss shown here.  My favorite colors are Foiled and Glossy Rose and I think the packaging is so chic.  It reminds me of Chanel glossimers, but shorter.  One thing that could be annoying is that they are always bringing new colors for collections and then they are discontinued.  I don't want to fall in love with a color and then never be able to find it again.  But like I said, I am so fickle that I hardly ever buy the same thing twice, even if I loved it.  There is always something new to try!  So ladies, let me know if you try this out and like it.  

Yesterday, I had some Nordstrom Notes to burn and I decided to visit Mac.  I've been looking for a plummy eyeshadow that didn't give me an allergic reaction. There is something in purple eyeshadows that makes my eyes ooze and seals them shut at night.  Not pretty!  Mac's Cranberry and Sketch have already proven to me that I just can't use those type of colors so I stay away from those.  But if I stay towards the more brownish red I seem to be ok.  I've been waiting to try this color for awhile.  You could say that I stalk them awhile before I buy them as I'm not a spontaneous buyer, much to the dismay of my very patient husband.  I always leave the store with swatches all over my hands.  The color I got is called Embark and is a matte formula.  It's just what I was looking for and perfect with my hazel eyes.  I also got Satin Taupe which I've wanted forever.  Now that I have it at home, I see that it's very similar to Nars Kalahari, but that's ok because I love that one too.

Another discovery I have and wanted to share has transformed my eye-makeup look.  Usually I carefully put on my eyeshadow only to have it disappear later in the day.  I've used several primers which worked ok, but I think this one is my favorite.  They are called Paint Pots by Mac.  Not only does the eyeshadow stick to them and make them stay, but they can intensify the colors you are using. I think the most popular for being neutral is called Painterly, but I also have Rubenesque which is a gold color, and Girl Friendly which is a rosy color.  If you don't have much time to devote to makeup, they are great because you can use them on their own as a cream eyeshadow.  I haven't noticed any creasing and they are super creamy to put on with your finger.  These are a must-have if you are having trouble with your eyeshadows staying on. I bet they will even make drugstore eyeshadows look better.

What's your favorite drugstore product?  I'm always willing to try a recommended product and I bet a lot of others will be too with this economy.  Leave me a comment and let me know if the drugstore item replaced a high-end product.