Confession:

Confession: I like food. A lot. And I know, if you know me in person, that was a "Thanks, Captain Obvious!" sort of moment, but hear me out!

I like food, and I like to eat. But I sometimes am left feeling like my brain doesn't really know how to shut it down. You know? I'll catch myself eating because there's food there. A time or two, I've caught myself eating food I didn't even think was all that good! And if I haven't had something sweet to eat? Forget it!

So that's why I was pretty curious to try "MealEnders", a small mint that promises to stop you from overeating. Really? Alright, I'll hear you out, MealEnders - what do you got?

MealEnders promise a "Duo-Sensory" taste system, using a dose of sweet, followed by a refreshing palate cleanse, to reward and then reset your taste buds, which will get you through that "overeating zone", where you're compelled to eat more food.

And the holiday season is an excellent time to use MealEnders! MealEnders are promised to be excellent to use when you want a second helping but know you should stop, at the end of a meal to replace desserts, or to curb snack cravings.

Perfect!

So let's get to my own personal experiences!

I was a little bit leery of a product like this, just because I didn't want it to feel super obvious that I was using something like this, right? But this is clear, distinct packaging, that would look at home next to any other bag of mints or hard candies in your cabinet. Need a little help? Your secret is safe with MealEnders. They come in four flavors - Citrus, Mocha, Chocolate Mint and Cinnamon, so that your palette can be cleansed in whatever flavor suits your preferences the most!

My breakfast of choice. Sometimes with smoothies, I find that I actually forgot that I ate - or that it counted as having eaten, at least. Calorically, that's a meal, even if my brain didn't think so, right?

Again - that'd be perfectly at home anywhere. You could pull this right out of your bag, and have no fear that you'd be looked at any differently. Unless you want to be. My husband was pretty curious about these when he noticed them, I was happy to answer all of his questions.

The unwrapped mint. That's a chocolate coating, with a "refreshing palette cleanser" to help reset my brain.

So, I dutifully drank my coffee shake, and sucked on my MealEnders candy. Do not crunch it - you actually have to suck on it, all the way through.

I...I didn't like this flavor as much as I wanted to. The chocolate was OK enough, but honestly, that "palette cleanser" part? Really just made my tongue itch. I was OK at first - a little minty. Kind of tingly. Then I was pondering the merits of reaching in to my mouth and scratching my tongue. Boy, that escalated quickly. 

But you know what? It WORKED. Darn it, it worked. The tingle eased up quickly after the mint was gone. The taste of coffee had been sufficiently cut through in my mouth, and I was completely satisfied and made it until lunch without want for anything else.

I was a real skeptic, but consider it confirmed. I wasn't on board with the mouth feel, but they work!

If I've piqued your curiosity, and you'd like to try some for yourself, I have two ways you can do it!

You can go to MealEnders.com, and use the code "FitHoliday20" (no quotes, of course) to save 20% off of your own order.

OR, and I'm pretty excited about this one, you can win a four pack right here!

Here's how you do it!

Like my Facebook page! There will be a thread for you to comment on, leave your name, and tomorrow, I'll pick a winner, and you will receive your very own four pack of MealEnders! You have 24 hours! GO!

I Can't Decide on A Title...

Mainly because the title I want to be using, "And sometimes people are stupid..." seems like a bad way of going about things. So, let's stick with "I can't decide on a title..."

At any rate, the kid in this picture is my ridiculously awesome nine year old son (yes, SON), James. This kid is my whole world, you guys. I'd do anything for him. He's tremendous - he's got a razor sharp sense of humor - which fortunately also came with a good sense of the appropriate times and places to deploy it. He's a good reader although he doesn't enjoy doing it, and rarely misses on his spelling tests at school, even though he enjoys that even less. He's got a beyond his years sense for music - he likes to play it and dance to it - and has been known to help me choreograph dances on occasion, even at his age. He's a passionate Detroit Red Wings fan, and day dreams about what his grown up life will be like, when he's an astronaut. He's got guys that he looks up to, that he aspires to be like in the world - he loves his hip-hop teacher Ross, thinks his gym teacher "Mr. J" is the coolest, and looks forward to getting to draw with his art teacher, "Mr. H", every single week. My point? James is as well rounded a nine year old as I know how to produce. He's interesting. Talk to him some time - you might learn more about Minecraft than you'd ever hoped for, but you won't be sorry.

The most awesome part about James? He beats to his own drummer, he's really got a great drive to find his own way in the world. He tried starting a business at recess once. He sold his drawings for 1 cent a piece, because he explained to me "I wanted it to feel like a real store where people had to give me money, but I didn't want to take all their money.", he holds "drawing challenges" at recess where all of his friends have to draw pictures, and then a friend who didn't participate finds the best ones...and he has long hair.

When I was a kid, we got to pick out our own hairstyles. I'm the second of five kids, and that's a lot of heads to monitor at the hair salon all at once. Plus, I'd wager, my mom was just doing the math that if we picked out awful haircuts, we were the ones that looked like dummies, so what did it really matter to her? I've always liked the sort of low stakes adventure that hair represents. There's not a single thing that can be done to hair that's permanent. If I color it, I can change it. If I cut it, it can grow back. If I curl it, I can wash it or straighten it. You can constantly change up your hair, and nothing sticks. It always changes!

Once he was old enough to have an opinion, James got to start picking out his own hairstyles. Summer between first and second grade, he asked for a mohawk. Thinking better of that one, I talked him in to a fauxhawk. It was cool - he was the talk of the school - and I learned how to get a pretty mean hawk going on. If you're interested, Herbal Essences hair gel and a flat iron will get that bugger right up there!

Second grade was also a awful winter, one of the worst on record. So James discovered the wonder that is a winter hat, and realized that he couldn't have a mohawk and a winter hat at the same time, so the mohawk lost out. We tried shaved on the back and sides and long on the top, but the kids at school shut that down (as their known to do), so once the shaved sides grew back in, we were on the hunt for a new hairstyle again.

Lo and behold, James' third grade best friend, a boy named Michael, started growing his hair long, and James got stars in his eyes. "Mom, can I please grow my hair long?" After cautioning him that his long hair wasn't going to look like Michael's (Michael's hair is a gorgeous chestnut brown, and he has that type of hair that you put it in to a ponytail, and the tail is the size of your wrist. James' hair is sandy blonde, fine, and a little wavy), I went "Sure, why not?"

And the grow out was on.

And fight for it, he has. Many, many one sided arguments from his dad. Many, many debates about just how brushed out snarls really needed to be before I'd get off his case about them (My argument is very, his contention is "Oh come on, mom!"). Many, many household debates about how to keep his bangs out of his eyes once they started getting long enough that they were in his eyes.

But the weirdest thing? Taking him out in public. He gets mistaken for a girl, at minimum once a day.

Of late, there was the woman at the town thrift shop that asked what "us ladies" were out shopping for, choosing to ignore the black winter jacket, blue jeans, and beat up black Chuck Taylor's that stuck out from the bottom. Or the woman today at Marshall's, who very politely said "Excuse me m'am," before hanging a handful of dresses on the rack right behind his head.

But the biggest one? Maybe the worst ever?

"James, James, James! Tell my brother if you're a boy or a girl!"

Thunk. My heart probably dropped to my knees.

Let me back up a second. James is taking a course through our local Community Education program, learning to play Floor Hockey. I like for him to tie his hair back off his face when he's doing activities like that, and he wears it up in a pony.

So he very excitedly runs up the stairs on a water break, ready to exclaim over how awesome he felt the scrimmage was going, and another little boy I don't know runs, hot on his heels, and sits next to him. "James, James, James! Tell my brother if you're a boy or a girl!"

I immediately squinted. I had several options. I could have let James defend himself. I could have just let him play along. I could have waited for the mom to tell the kid that he was an ingrate, and that no other kid there had been asked to justify his gender, so why should mine have to.

Two of those options were reasonable. One of those options was all but required by the situation at hand. None of them happened. So I finally come out of my squint - "I don't like that game. Why would you ask him a question like that?"

James looks down, like "My mom's got this one, I don't have to say a word." (And may he always know that I have his back like that. I'll advocate for that kid until my last breath, and I should hope any decent mom would do the same.), the mom of the other kid offers up a meek "Exactly...", and Coach blows the whistle to call the kids back out on to the field. Situation over.

Except...was it? My kid - who doesn't dress feminine, sound feminine, or carry himself in a feminine way - has once again been asked to justify the choices that he's made. He gets to select his own hairstyle. It's important that kids get to learn to control things, and hair is a pretty low stakes thing to give him to be in charge of. He thought hard on it, and decided long hair was the image that he wanted to present to the world. Fine. Go forth, and grow the best head of hair you know how, my man. Mom's got your back.

So why is it weird? I've made choices some parents didn't make. That doesn't make me a bad mom. My child has made choices your child either hasn't, or wasn't allowed to. That doesn't make him a bad kid. I was a kid who marched to my own drummer, and within reason, I was encouraged to do so. For heavens sake, I was a competitive clog dancer!

It's got to be exhausting to be James. I mean it, it really does. He's asked to explain his gender, or justify his gender, sometimes daily. And tonight at hockey, he was asked to do it in a big crowd of people. And what for? Because the image that he wants to present to the world isn't the same image you want your child to present? What do you care? What does your kid care? What do any of us care? Someone who's being encouraged to think for himself and not follow blindly with the crowd is something to be celebrated, not mocked. We hear all the talk about peer pressure, and how bad it is. I've got a kid that refuses to succumb to it, and he's being mocked for that too.

So, to James - and anyone else who finds his or her self in this position on the regular - get out there, and be the most amazing, awesome you that you know how. Even if that doesn't take the shape society thinks that it should. I've got your back.

I'd love it if you'd give me a like on Facebook!

Is Maybelline Brow Drama Eyebrow Gel As Easy To Use As The Commercials Make It Look? Let's Find Out!

I've been working hard, trying to learn about using YouTube lately. Please to enjoy another of my videos!







Check out more videos!

K'Nex Battle Bow is Awesome - Let Us SHOW You!

So, I always find ways to keep in touch with you, but sometimes I like to change my game up!

James (my nine year old) and I were recently asked by K'Nex to take a toy, build it, and tell you guys all about it. So, since I've been feeling the YouTube vibe lately, we did this in a series of videos. Check our action!

We've got lift off on Battle Bow! The packaging is super bright and fun, and easy to understand. Admittedly, I was nervous to put this together. I'm not at ALL mechanically minded, so I'm not usually the parent that gets nominated for this sort of thing. My husband is an engineer, he usually does this stuff!

Then, because unboxing videos are stupidly popular, I let James shoot his first ever unboxing video!

He's got a little to learn, but he's pretty good, right? 

You guys, this toy went together so smoothly and easily, it was amazing. I'm not mechanically minded at all, and even I could hang with it, absolutely no problem. We were missing a connector, unfortunately, but we went ahead without it, and seemed to go on just fine.

Clicking those last few pieces in to place;

Clicking those last few pieces in to place! He says that this was harder to put together than his last Lego set, but I'll point out - his last Lego set took a college engineer to put together. This could be done by a nine year old. In other words...I don't agree with his assessment, haha!

Now, because this promises to shoot 75 feet - seventy five FEET! - I wasn't about to go letting him fire this off in the living room! We were headed out into the world!

Comically, and this is 100% true - we went to the tennis courts in our neighborhood to shoot the gun. We get there, and realize that we don't actually have the first guess how to shoot the gun at all. So we have to go back across the street, get on the suuuuuper slow computer in the clubhouse in our neighborhood, google K'Nex to try to find the instructions, give up on finding the instructions at all, and pull it up on my rapidly dying phone. All the while, the absolutely lovely woman that runs the clubhouse is trying to support us through this bizarre effort we've undertaken. Oh yes, the chaos that is my life is 100% real.

We figured it out! And there is absolutely zero trickery here, it really, legit shoots that far. If I was going to edit these videos, I would have taken out the part about him coming to your house, wouldn't I?

Our final wrap up video with the Battle Bow! He's had an absolute blast playing with it, and if you have a nine year old boy, you'll appreciate this - he didn't come running home to jump on YouTube, he actually wanted to PLAY!! Amazing! Thank you K'Nex, indeed!

If you've enjoyed watching our shenanigans, maybe come check out my YouTube channel?

Taking This One To The Youtube!

I bought a new mask, that I was pretty disappointed in. I didn't think words were going to do my disappointment justice, and I didn't even feel like an Instagram post would do it justice. I had to take this one to the YouTubes!

Please to enjoy!

Like my reviews? You can find me on Facebook where I engage in all sorts of silliness!

Sometimes You Don't Need Something...Until You NEED It...

The good people at Healthy Solutions generously gave me a tube of their OxyRub Pain Relief Cream, in exchange for my sharing my opinions on it. Awesome. Well, as the way of the world goes, I have a good couple of weeks pain wise, and I didn't really have much of a need for it. So I looked at it, and I thought on it, and I couldn't decide what on earth to do!

And then because sometimes life works out like that, I tossed it in my bag when we left for vacation. And within a matter of hours, my son has shin splints - and me without my children's aspirin! - and I jam my toe on the sliding door at the hotel, with no ibuprofen either.

OxyRub, take me away!

I applied it to my son first. It is mentholated, and I thought almost had a wintergreen sort of smell to it, although the Amazon listing claims the smell is citrus. I did not get that, I'll take their word for it. Despite the fact that I did not smell the citrus that they claimed, I do actually like the scent.

I noticed a little went a long way, I squeezed out the amount of rub that I figured would cover one leg, and was able to capably cover both.

Afterward, I asked his opinion on how the lotion went on, and how it felt. He said that it went on nice, but reported feeling like it took a long time to absorb. He described it as feeling a "little greasy". I will tell you to take that with a grain of salt though, he's pretty fussy with his opinions of lotion.

He also reported that it relieved the pain for 1 to 2 hours, and that when the pain returned, it was noticeably less. So, other than the greasy factor, he was a fan.

And I've now used it myself several times since we've been here, and one of them was admittedly kind of silly, so stay with me.

I jammed my toe on the hotel door. There is a sliding glass door, and I tried to go out it. The seal is really high, and my second toe didn't make the cut. Brutal. So I slathered up my toe, and down around the joint.

My opinion differed from my son a little bit. I found it easy to use, and fast absorbing. And it was very cooling, which immediately helped me be more comfortable, and feel like my pain was more under control, which was great. I was able to get comfortable and up off of my foot. By morning, of course, the effect had completely worn off.

Today, I used the cream again, for a reason that is admittedly sillier. We're on vacation today, and we did a lot of walking. Like, more steps than I'd ever done in one day on my Fitbit. And my feet were tired! I slicked the soles of both feet down with my OxyRub, gave it a minute to absorb, and walked to dinner. You guys...I didn't feel so silly after that! I mean yes, my feet were still sore, but I was in so much better shape! I'm not sure I could have made it across the street without the pain rub!

So, like I said - I was initially a little perplexed by this product. But if you need a quick acting pain relieving alternative - for cases like mine, where you're caught without, or just because it's your own preference not to take a pill - OxyRub has got you taken care of!

As a special treat for my readers, go to Amazon, use code "SAVEOXY2" and take 20% off of your purchase. It's well worth it - quick acting pain relievers are hard to come by, take advantage of the good ones!

Find them online;

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EASY536
http://www.healthydirections.com/product/oxyrub

Link Round Up, Maybelline Edition!

In blogger speak, a "link round up" is like a party of sorts, where everyone can bring the newest thing they've written or talked about, it's all collected in to one single place, and then the reader can come and be pointed at all the different articles, in one neat spot.

Rather than inviting multiple bloggers, I figured I'd just make my own tiny link round up! This one features all my posts where I've talked about Maybelline makeup!

Oh, There Will Be Shenanigans! (original post date: July 8, 2015) Where I talked about Maybelline Great Lash Real Impact! mascara. And had it proven to me, once again, that eyelashes are weird things to take pictures of. :)

Swatchery Version 2.0 (original post date: May 18, 2015) Featuring a swatch of "Cherry Me" from the Baby Lips line.

Swatchery! (original post date: May 5, 2015) Featuring a swatch of "Melon Mania" from the Baby Lips line, which was brought back for Christmas 2014 as part of their "Customer Favorites" selection.

Doctor To The Rescue! (original post date: March 13, 2015) Featuring some pictures of displays from the Spring 2015 selection of Baby Lips, as well as swatches from some of the Baby Lips: Doctor Rescue line.

Battle Of The BB Creams, Round Two! (original post date: January 14, 2015) Talking BB Cream, and my opinions on the Maybelline version.

Go, Go Electro! (original post date: January 6, 2015) Swatches from the Baby Lips: Electro line, which at the time looked to be getting closed out - and it feels like it's been a while since I've seen them in the store - but are still listed on Maybelline.com.

Makeup Primer, And How To Make It Work For You (original post date: December 24, 2014) Where I actually try my hand at a video demonstration of makeup primer, and why it's important, featuring Maybelline's Baby Skin primer.

I'm obviously a big fan of the Baby Lips line. I don't even know what happened! I had one, next thing I knew, I had 12! They just come out of nowhere!

When I'm not writing long form reviews like these, I can usually be found on Instagram writing short form reviews! Let's be friends there too!

Long Live the Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeshadow Stick!

Hi guys! Long time no talk! Turns out my nine year old being home for the summer didn't offer me quite the amount of time to blog that I'd hoped. But, I'm looking to get back in the game, so let's get started!

These three beauties are the Rimmel Scandaleyes eye shadow sticks. And they were fair to good quality - the gray was hard to blend, the gold and purple went on like dreams. I've talked about them before, and I've even Instagramed about them:

https://instagram.com/p/6idvQYNfsz/?taken-by=beautybytheresa11

and 

https://instagram.com/p/5SN3v5NfsO/?taken-by=beautybytheresa11

(And by the by, I'd be super pumped with a like on either pic. It's a public account, you don't even have to follow me to do it...although I'd be super pumped if you did that too, haha...)

I also noticed that I was seemingly always seeing these on clearance, but I could never put together why. A lot of times when you find makeup on clearance, they're either discontinuing that particular shade, or maybe changing up the packaging. But they seemed to be always marking these down. What was the deal?

I just logged on to the Rimmel site tonight, and figured it out. Long live the Rimmel Scandaleyes shadow stick, cause these guys are goners. Liners, shadows, cream shadows, they'll have them all. But if you're a fan of the chubby pencil format, you'll want to stock up, cause when they're gone, they're gone.

Like eye shadow? Me too! I talk about it all the time!

Oh, There Will Be Shenanigans!

Picture with me if you will...

5:30. 5:45 maybe. I get a text from my husband that says that I'm going to drive him to meet a coworker up town for drinks, while I'm gone to swimming with our 8 year old.

Never mind the fact that I didn't get invited to go out for drinks, I got bigger problems. I gotta look "meet the husbands coworkers" level presentable ...in about a half hour.

Oh boy. What's a girl to do?!

Throw on a little Queen Helene Mint Julep mask, and run out and clean up the car, for starters!

If you've got skin on the oily side, and you want to clean up that oil, pronto, Queen Helene is your girl. That stuff is old school, and it's made it so long for a reason! It's great!

Next, prime, perfect and good eyebrows. Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Water, Aveeno CC Cream and It Cosmetics brow pencil do the job nicely. Were I that pressed for time, I could have stopped here. But clocks still ticking, I gotta keep going!

An easy eye - champagne across the lid, a dark brown in the corner, and a little mascara. I read someone once compare Maybelline to the "training bra" of mascaras. Which sounds weird when you initially hear it, but then you go "You know what? Maybe..." it doesn't do anything exceptionally. Like, you can see from my before in this collage (the top one) - I was OK for length, and good enough for color. I mostly need volumizing help. I didn't especially get it, I didn't especially get a great enhancement in length or color either. I just got a nice, for sure better defined than before, lash. They do a little bit of everything with Great Lash, and probably better than anybody out there. If you need a just solid, working mascara, Great Lash will always be a great choice. But if you're looking for a little more Oomph, this probably isn't your gig. Or, to see that bra metaphor through to the end...if you're looking for a push up bra, it's not for you. :)

Eyeliner (I used treStique shadow crayon in "Kona Coffee", which is so long lasting, you'll practically have to beg it to come off), and lips, and I'm ready to go, with two minutes to spare! Woo!

And can we talk about those lips?! Cause holy lips, batman! That lipcolor is Wet N Wild Natural Blend lip shimmer in color 108 (Wet N Wild isn't much for naming their lip colors), and it packed 10 times the punch I expected. Went on smooth and even, a little bit of a glossy finish. A little bit of minty to it, even, which isn't enough to be irritating, just enough to feel kind of cooling and refreshing.

This is a long lasting color - I made it to dinner a couple of hours later, and when I wiped my mouth with my napkin, I was wiping off lip color. I often say that when Wet N Wild hits their mark, they hit it hard, and with this, they NAILED it. This stuff is fantastic. Where I didn't overwhelmingly, enthusiastically recommend Great Lash, I will overwhelmingly, enthusiastically recommend this lip shimmer. It's absolutely worth every cent.

As a bonus, if that's your thing, the lip shimmer also bears the seal of approval from the Natural Products Association, meaning it's been certified as a all-natural cosmetic product! This color is really good for you - it just keeps getting better!

I made it with two minutes to spare! I played swim class mom (actually, I got lost in my cell phone, which I kind of even hate myself when I do that. That's so awful...), and then met up with the coworker for dinner, and was so glad I took the time to get my face in order! 

30 minute face - it can be done! See you later, beautiful!

Since I got so super pumped for the Wet N Wild product, if you like them as much as I do, you'll be intrigued to see that I talk about them all the time!

I Got A Problem...

Well, I had a problem.

At any rate, I went to my son's elementary school field day. I'd never been before, so I figured why not? I was in charge of the "pizza box game", where the kids had to run a variety of relay races in order to stack pizza boxes. In a portion of the soccer field that felt like it was 1,000 miles from any sort of shade. On a scorchingly hot day.

And in case this IS your first time at the rodeo that is the Big Blog...I'm very fair.

As a result, I came home from elementary school field day, looking like this:

Starting to see my dilemma, right? Let me add in a few more layers (pardon the pun, but I'll get to that...). My day job is working at a local dance studio. I run the front desk, and teach a couple of classes, and it's an absolutely blast-y blast. The kind of fun that I feel awkward using words like "job" and "work" to describe it. This picture happened to be the same day as our end of the year banquet, and, a mere 4 days before I was going to have to look good, in a costume with exposed back and shoulders.

Yep, I got a problem. And then this sunburn began peeling like a beast because...well, because why not, at this point, right?

Enter my good friend;

Adovia Dead Sea Salt Scrub with natural oils. My burn was peeling, and I needed it to be over, much faster than it was actually going. And there are no pictures of my peeling sunburn, because let's be honest with each other - I didn't want to take them, and you don't really want to look at them. :D

I tried this scrub out on my hands first. Did you ever use the Mary Kay Satin Hands kit? This scrub sort of does both steps at the same time. It's kind of awesome like that. Your hands will come away smooth and buttery soft! Big, fat grains of salt and smooth, silky oils. Beautiful!

At any rate, back to the sunburn.

I got in the shower, dipped my hand in to the well, and hoped for the best. Scrubbed off my back and shoulders and chest, and hoped for the best.

I got up in the morning, and much to my surprise - it worked! It really, really worked! The peeling skin had dried up, and could simply be brushed away! I was so surprised! This stuff is great!

Here's a few other minor details I noticed;

Keep this A. WAY. from your kids. There's no fooling - you open this up, and it's salt and oil, clear to the top. Even with my 8 year old (who should reasonably know better than to pour oils all over the table), I was nervous to let him mess with it, it was filled to the top, and oily!

The scent is "Ocean Breeze", and I found it a bit...cloying. Stuck in my nose a little too well, you know?

But, otherwise, I was more than satisfied with this product. I gave it the biggest test I knew how (peeling sunburns are brutal. If you're lucky and haven't had one in a while, think back. You've been there. lol...), and it passed with flying colors. I would very enthusiastically recommend this to a friend!

See you later beautiful!

This was my first try talking about women's body scrubs, but I have talked about men's before!

Have you liked my Facebook page yet? Click the bar at the top! C'mon! It's easy!

Full Disclosure: Adovia was kind enough to supply me with this product in exchange for my opinions on it, however, the opinions are all my own. You can purchase their scrubs through this website here, and their products are for sale on Amazon as well.

And today I reach in the box...

...and pull out...

Ban Total Refresh Cooling Body Cloths in "Invigorate" scent. These come in a packet of 10, and promise "instant freshness, anytime, anywhere."

I'm not a super fan of these myself. They seem almost like a needless step in my beauty routine. But, I gave these the hardest test I could find to give them - a sweaty eight year old boy. Which, even he pointed out, next to a throwing up eight year old boy, a sweaty one is the worst kind. (He's nothing if not logical, right?!)

So, the following review is my conversation with my eight year old;

"So, what did you think of these wipes?"

They were good.

"Where they easy to use?"

Pretty much. Yeah.

"Could you think of anything that would make them easier to use?"

No.

"If I bought them again, would you want to use them?"

Yeah.

"What did you think of the smell?"

Wasn't too girly.

"Not too strong?"

*shakes head no*

"Did they make your skin feel itchy, or too dry?"

*thinks for a second, rubs arm* It did make it a little itchy.

"Just at first, or all the time?"

All the time. No, just at first.

"Did you feel cooled and refreshed?"

Yeah. Very!

And that is this weeks edition of "Product Reviews with 8 year olds!" His impression was considerably more favorable than mine - and I did have to say, after having a sweaty, hot boy, I did appreciate giving him the ability to clean up on the go. And he liked that he got some control that way, so everybody really won there.

And, pro tip? Ban releases coupons for these ALL. THE. TIME. I basically got these for free, by combining a sale price and a coupon. Don't pay retail if you don't have to!

I've never talked about anything like these wipes before, but I have talked about getting clean before!

A Tale of Two ...Dilemmas?

This post comes with a whole bunch of stuff. Some venting, some reviewing, and an awkward confession. Ready?

Meet the box by my bed:

This enormous box looks like a pile of junk, cause that's kind of what it is. My husband is a very...let's say dramatic, housekeeper, and this is the amount of stuff that he's collected that he didn't want to be bothered to find a place for, that he could reasonably prove belonged to me.

In the spirit of no longer sharing my bedroom with the box, I've decided to go through it, and tell you guys about the good treats, and get rid of the bad ones.

So something good will come out of something bad that my husband did, but please don't tell him, cause he might be encouraged to do it again! ;)

So, I reached my hand in to the great, mythical box this morning, and pulled out...

Nivea Lip Butter!

I remember buying this one actually - it was hard to find. Everybody was so gaga for them, they were impossible to find. Now they're everywhere, and cheap too!

This one has always felt strangely luxurious to me - the tin is like a real metal, I actually have to pull it open with my fingernails. Bonus, of course being, that if you were just going to toss this in your makeup bag, there's a reasonable expectation that it'd stay closed. So packaging, A+!

The scent sounds strange. "Vanilla & Macadamia" isn't a combination you'd put together real readily, right? Fear not, my friends. The scents aren't the perfumey versions - rather than a fake, chemical vanilla, you get a actual, mild sweetness. My first reaction was that it tasted like caramel, not vanilla. Or like a white chocolate mocha maybe. Except no coffee taste. So the scent is good - real, not perfumey and fake. And I have a thing about being able to taste my makeup. Long story short...I don't want to. Unless you're a Dr. Pepper Lipsmacker, I don't care what you taste like. I can't with this one. Real, but not overpowering. A+ for scent!

Usability...probably no giant mysteries there, right? Swirl your finger, and apply? This is also a wide and clear enough surface that if you wanted to use a lip brush of some kind, you totally could as well. This is solid - I've used some lip butters that had a bit too much give for my taste, this one doesn't. This sets up really well. A+ for usability!

Now, for wearability...I swiped this on, and swore to myself I'd take a better picture, and never did. So I cropped this one down to just the lips. Cause that's my prerogative, right?! :D

A slight shine, no other color to speak of. The only thing that I can really speak less than glowingly on, is the longevity. With typical...mouth usage (?), you'll wear this off quick. By the time you have a drink, or kiss your grandmother hello, or kiss your honey, this lip butter is gone. The macadamia is nicely moisturizing, so you're still left with smooth, kissable lips, but if you're after that shiny, freshly applied look...you'll be left having to freshly apply. So, A- for wearability.

So...no mystery here, I'm very pleased with this lip butter, and I feel like it should be in your makeup bag too! When you see this guy (and I feel like I see him on sale at CVS all the time, hinty, hint, hint), make sure to snap one up!

Always on the lookout for some hot lip products! Me too! Check out some other favorites!

Mani Monday: The Hunted Edition!

I looked for this color for a long time.

This week, I'm showing off OPI's "I Eat Mainly Lobster" nail color.

I went to the beauty supply to pick this beauty up, and to my disappointment, they didn't seem to have it. So I went home, and got on the OPI website to see if they still made it at all, and not only DO they, but I was looking for it as a red (as the word "lobster" in the title might suggest that I oughta), but OPI classifies it as an orange.

OOOH! So I tapped my decidedly NOT lobster colored fingernails, waiting for a chance to get back to the beauty supply, and the second I did, I ran my self in there and grabbed this beauty:

Is that not practically summer in a bottle?! A great warm coral, with a fine gold glimmer running through it. A few summers ago when I got married, this was one of my wedding colors, actually. And here, I had my toes painted red! If I'd only known about my lobster friend here! 

Is Mani Monday your jam? I've shown off different mani's before! Check out another!

Mani Monday: Minty Edition!

Rimmel 60 Second nail color in "Mintilicious". These bottles are smaller than most, but they also bear a smaller price tag than most ($1.50, and Rimmel frequently puts out coupons, so you can get it cheaper than that even).

Dries fast and well - I've tried other polishes that were several hours in, and still smudging. I've not timed it, so I don't know if the 60 second promise is true, but you're dry and ready to go, really fast.

The finishes tend to come out really true to the bottle, as you can see here. This is two coats, using a white base coat. No surprises, Rimmel delivers exactly what they promise.

Until next time, beautiful!

Mani Monday Version 2.0!

I was in the mood for something yellow and eye catching, and little did I know, how fantastic this guy is!

Cover Girl Outlast Stay Brilliant Glosstini in "Sulfur Blaze", which was a collection based on the Hunger Games movies. Already bright yellow, this has gold glitter running throughout, just for a little extra sparkle. Dries to a nice, high gloss finish.

My only complaint I suppose, is that the cap and the bottle don't line up right (which you can see in the picture - that bottle is fully closed, I promise...), which makes it irritating to hold. And if I needed all my bottles to line up in a nice, neat row, this one would just about be the death of me. :)

See you next time, beautiful!

Mani Monday!

New Monday, new mani!

First up! Cover Girl Outlast Stay Brilliant Glosstini in "Blue Hawaiian"

This has a really nice formula - it dries to a high gloss finish, and seems to wear pretty well. It's a unique color - blue, with just a pinch of green. It attracts a lot of attention. 

The strange part is the coverage - it's a little uneven. There are several parts that when you closer - which probably no one but me actually is - you can see base coat still.

I mostly like this polish though - high gloss finish, wears well, seems to be long lasting - so even with the uneven problem, I would still recommend!

Swatchery Version 2.0!

Baby Lips! Here we go again!

I've been challenging myself to wear red lips this week, so I thought I'd go back to "Cherry Me", a color from the Baby Lips standing line.

Now, my husband and son have both said this was clearly red. I offered my son some once when he said his lips were dry, and he turned me down, because he didn't want red lips. I don't think it's all that. Check it out:

...that's not clearly, obviously red, right? Am I crazy?! I mean, it's redder then my natural lip, but not by a lot.

I've been known to recommend this particular color to people who wanted to learn to wear red lip color though. Red, without being RED, right? If you're a cherry chapstick sort, this is a nice way to ease in the direction of red.

I'm a bit of a packaging junkie, but I also appreciate that this is a bright, colorful package - orange with red letters - so it will stand out, wherever you are.

It doesn't break the proverbial mold as far as formula, or longevity is concerned, so just to give you the short strokes on that - nice formula, terrible longevity. Sometimes these come a little scented, this one wasn't. The scents are never overbearing. They're almost kind of fun - I routinely make the comparison that these are like lip smackers for adults, so they take you back a little bit. :)

Stay beautiful, everybody!

I literally can not stop purchasing Baby Lips. It's a real problem! But at least you get to see them on someone before you buy, right? Everybody wins!

Are My Eyes Glowing?!

I mean... are they?!

Kind of? But like...no. Not really. Since I've gotten older, I - like many of you I'd guess - have bags when I never did before. I have wrinkles when I never did before, it's a hot mess. I've started buying eye creams when I never thought about eye cream, I'm always looking out for the newest tip or trick.

In one of my Ipsy bags comes this little gem:

Glamglow Brightmud, which promises to minimize dark circles, puffiness and fine lines, while delivering bright, hydrated and "amazing" eyes. Glamglow is virtually a cult favorite, the entire line treasured by beauty afficinados everywhere. Admittedly, this was my first experience with the line, I was pretty excited!

Since this is my first experience with the line, I don't know if this is how it's packaged regularly, but this is the package I opened. Curiously, I follow the instructions and tap it on.

Y'all, this is not cute:

So basically, don't wear this if you're in front of someone that you want to think you're really hot, because this is not...

Especially if you're following it with some Queen Helene Mint Julep mask in the t-zone. Yes, I own some. And yes, if you've got oily skin, you should too!

So, Sephoras notes on the Brightmud eye mask says you'll see results in as few as 3 minutes, I left it on at least 10, partly to get maximum results, and partly so I didn't have to rinse off one mask while leaving one in tact.

I felt a little light tingle, almost a cooling effect when I wore it. It's not overly scented, no stinging or burning. I kind of expected the black pieces to flake off as the mask dried, and they didn't.

So does it work?

Yes, but not overwhelmingly so. My eye area definitely looks lighter, and brighter. And the wrinkles are absolutely less pronounced.

But let's be serious you guys - Glamglow Brightmud retails for (and I'm not kidding) $69 for 12 applications. For $69, I ought to have the eyes of a teenager! For the sky high retail price tag, I'm just not sure I could justify the extreme price tag you guys. It'd have to be a real "treat yoself" type of day for me to go in on this, for sure.

So I'm not ready to pull the trigger on the full sized product, but if you are, Sephora's got your back.

No self-respecting eye cream junkie owns a blog without talking about eye cream a few times. I've done it before!

Fresh Food Friday "Hey...This is Pretty Good!" Edition

Still plugging away, working through Trisha Yearwood's "Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen" cookbook, and I was really skeptical about this one, you guys. It sounded kind of like a mismash of all sorts of stuff, and I just wasn't sure I'd like it. Check out the recipe, and you'll see what I mean. Aren't you a little skeptical? I sure was.

At any rate, I gave it a shot:

I did this a little bit the semi-homemade way, and just bought one of those $5 rotisserie chickens from the store, rather than seperatly prepare a chicken. Mayo, relish, eggs. Bada-bing. The eggs are new to my grocery store, they're called "Grazing Fields" eggs, and they're farm fresh. They're so fresh, a number of them actually still have the stamp on them from what field they came out of! You can purchase them for 40 cents per egg, or $4 for a dozen at any Busch's, if you're in SE Michigan.

Deboned chicken and shelled eggs!

Cut and dice them in to bite sized pieces like so:

Add the mayo and relish, stir, and bingo-bango;

Chicken salad!

I was really skeptical of this one, like I said, it seemed like sort of a mismash of stuff. But this was really good. I was pleasantly surprised! For a wide variety of flavors, none were particularly overwhelming, they work really nicely together. One of the notes in the book is from Trisha's sister, who says she's known to have this in the mornings spread on toast, and I'm not sure I'm ready to go that far with it, but it's really good!

None of the picky eaters in my house have tried this yet, and there's a lot here to trip them up anyway - my son doesn't like pickle, and my husband doesn't like mayo. With a different method of serving, I believe this would be gluten free or darn close to it, but my vegetarian friends would have trouble here - chicken and egg is a lot of substitutions to make! 

Last weeks "Fresh Food Friday" edition - which also included eggs, mayo and pickle relish, is over here!

Swatchery...

I've talked at pretty good length about Maybelline Baby Lips. If you're new, here's the short strokes: I'm a big fan. They're generally a nice little pop of glossy color. Low fuss, low maintenance. Which is great, cause sometimes that's exactly what you're looking for.

Rather than give you the schpeil again about my opinions, here's a quick swatch!

This shade is "Melon Mania", which was brought back at Christmas as part of their "customer favorites" display.

Where some of the Baby Lips colors also have a bit of flavor, this one doesn't really. You'll also notice, it's mostly gloss, there isn't a lot of color to speak of with this one. Maybe a bit of pink, that's about it.

Baby Lips aren't terribly long lasting. And mileage varies on how long lasting they actually are. But like I've said before, I buy them for the little low maintenance pop of color, which unfortunately, this one doesn't deliver on that anyway, it's too similar to the color of my own lips.

So I like the formulation in general, but not this color in particular.

There's my two second opinion! What say you, beautiful?

Two seconds not enough? I can talk about Baby Lips for a long time! No really, a long time!

Eyebrows!

I've posted to tell you guys about my husband, and his nuttiness with all things eyebrows before. He is generally mystified when it comes to makeup (as most guys are. I'm not expecting he's unique.), but the one that gets him every time is eyebrows. He doesn't understand why it's bothering me when it looks like a herd of caterpillars is marching across my forehead. Dude. It's not cute. My eyebrows aren't thick, but they do take up a lot of space on my face. You gotta take care of that mess.

So since I'd never really talked about filling them in before, let's talk about filling those babies in!

Natural brows;

See what I mean, about them not being thick, but taking up a lot of space on my face?

Filling in your eyebrows is a necessary step. It doesn't matter how - there's no bad way. Pencil, wax, gel, it doesn't matter. Powder. Still doesn't matter. Find your way that you prefer, and go your own way, baby. Pro tip: fill in from the middle to the end of the brow first, and then go back for the beginning. Your touch tends to be heavier at the beginning, and you don't want that heaviness right at the front. More often than not, if you're thinking that you don't like the "heaviness" of a filled in brow, it's the heavy front that you're thinking of. Start in the middle. You'll be much happier.

Today's product:

ELF eyebrow kit!

The darker colored side is a brow gel - which in my own professional opinion looks more natural than a brow pencil. The lighter colored powder is a setting powder to set the gel in to place. Honest, you could make it without the powder, just depends on how set in place you like your brows. I'll do whatever the notion strikes - sometimes I powder 'em down, sometimes I leave 'em. You do you, baby!

Gelled in to place. And...

Gelled and powdered. See what I mean? The difference is pretty subtle. But I'm obviously feelin' fine!

ELF is a line that's pretty hit and miss. They have some products that would be a steal at three times the price, and some that are hardly worth the cost of the packaging. This is one that's absolutely a steal. This is a great product! Buy this and use it. If you're not sure about brow gel and just want to play before you buy one that's expensive, buy this anyway. Just own this product, however you get there!

See you later, my gorgeous friends!

I've blogged about how crazy I think my husband is for not noticing my eyebrows. Get a chuckle about how unobservant my husband is, over here!