Beauty Box 5 | October 2014

Happy Thursday friends, today I am sharing my October Beauty Box 5 subscription.

The Beauty Box 5 is $12.00 a month or $8.00 a month for an annual subscription. Five beauty products delivered right to your door. 

Lashem | Picture Perfect Instant Wrinkle Reducer - I received a Lashem product last month as well and I liked the product. These are very small samples so it's hard to see if you get any good results to see if you would want to purchase the full size. So far though, I am enjoying this product. 

Nanacoco | Nail Polish (Full Size) - I of course love getting new nail polish but this color just is not for me at all. I did see some other girls got different colors, and they were really pretty though!

Extend Your Beauty | Cosmetic Tool (Full Size) This product is pretty cool, I am actually nearing the end of my foundation and I think this product will come in handy. I always hate when my pump stops even though there is quite a bit of product left in the bottle! I'm pretty excited to use this tool, and it's dishwasher safe so you can re-use it!

ChapStick | Hydration Lock (Full Size) I was super excited about this lip product because my lips have been super dry lately and I have been eyeing this since it came out! I love that it has two ends of product; one for moisture and one that says renew. I have been loving it. 

Bellapierre | Cheek and Lip Stain "Pink" - I am not one to get too excited over lip and cheek stains so this wasn't that exciting for me. I think it is a pretty color but too bright for my skin tone. 


With three full size products this month, I am pretty happy! 

Go check out Beauty Box 5 and try out a new subscription service! Even if you already have one you love, you can never have enough beauty products.



* I received this box courtesy of Beauty Box 5 for reviewing purposes only, all opinions are my own.*

Currently...

I love reading a good currently post, everyone else has probably already done one and I'm probs the last one to participate. I'm always late, just kidding I'm actually always 30 minutes early but to this game - I am. 

Anyway, on to the post..

Currently...

reading | I was reading "Eleanor & Park" before wedding planning and school took over my life. I need to get back to that book!

writing | This blog post and alternating between writing an essay for an early childhood education class. 

listening | To this awful Flo Progressive radio commercial. This woman makes me want to pull out my own hair. 

thinking | About how badly I want to make a pot roast, but I've never made one before. Pinterest here I come.

smelling | This delicious banana bread that I made and now am about to eat. 

wishing | For fall weather to officially start. No boots, no scarves yet, not here in California at least. #sad

hoping | To make some halloween plans. This will be our first holiday as a married couple! 

wearing | I actually look really fall appropriate in my maroon shirt and gold jewelry. Oh and I'm wearing flats, which isn't often because - flat feet. 

wanting | To take a vacation. Since we didn't get to take our honeymoon yet, we just jumped right back into our routines and we could use a vacation! I have been whining about wanting to go to Disneyland for far too long. 

loving | My husband and puppy. They keep me sane after long days at work. 

needing | For it to be October 25th so I can binge watch season 6 of Sons of Anarchy! Oh and to think of new blog name ideas, and someone to give me a pretty new blog design! Throw ideas my way.

Defining Moments | Beauty Box Five July

Defining Moments by Beauty Box Five is this months theme. They are celebrating moments in life that are special to each person this month and are giving us the products to help us look and feel great as well. 

Revlon Bold Laquer Mascara | I am a junkie when it comes to mascaras and I have been eyeing this one for quite some time, so I was very happy to see this in my box this month. It provides major volume so my lashes look really thick and long. I have had no problem with flaking whatsoever. 

Starlooks Lip Liner | I honestly don't use lip liner really at all. This is a brownish color and it glided on my hand great. I might even use as a soft eyeliner. 

HASK Argon Oil Hair Treatment | Hair masks for me are a must. I literally use one every single week because between the highlights, the heat, and all the products I use on my hair - it needs it. I have really thick, dry hair anyway so deep conditioning treatments are a life savor. I am trying this out this week. 

Body Drench Candy Licious Lips | A new favorite, for sure. I just got this box a couple days ago and I already love this lip balm. The one I received is lemon flavor and it makes my lips so soft and silky, not to mention they smell great. 

Anna Naturals Body Scrub | This is a vegan scrub that can be used on the face and body to help exfoliate. It is gentle and doesn't contain any parabens or harsh chemicals which is great in my book. I will use this before I do self tanner! 

You can get your very own box delivered each month for $12.00 at beautybox5.com

My Thoughts For The Week

~ The Fault In Our Stars.....hands down my number one on this list because it was perfect. I had my fears that the movie could never do the book justice, but I was so wrong. For 2 hours on Friday I sat in the theater and laughed hard and cried even harder. The director truly brought John Green's beautiful story to life and the casting was on point. I am now on my third John Green book and plan on reading them all because he is such a beautiful writer. I randomly had tissues in my purse and I was glad I did! P.S - We had to wait outside in a line for about an hour and let me just say the heat and being surrounded by 11-15 year old girls was not pleasant - I honestly hope I wasn't that rude, and awful at that age. 

~ Summer School starts next week and boy am I sad that this is my last free week of summer for a while. Granted, I am only taking one class over summer - but it was just so nice not to worry about homework after real work all day. 

~ Too many sales. This week is the week of semi annual sales, and I just know how this one is gonna go already. One of the things on my summer bucket list was to and I quote "save,save,save" well damn you Victoria's Secret because your semi annual sales always get me. I'll be there tomorrow don't you worry. 

~ Joe's birthday is the 17th of this month and I have no idea what to get him. We're planning a dinner, but he never has anything specifically that he wants. I wish we could take a trip but with everything else right now we just cant. Any ideas on fun gifts?

Oh...another thing. It's supposed to be 109 here today and I have never been more thankful to work in an air conditioned office. I guess it's officially summer here. 

Did anyone else read and see TFIOS?? I hope you loved it just as much. 

I'm The Kind of Girl Who..

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

After seeing this floating around blog land for a few months now I decided I had to jump on a little late. 

..Hoards nail polish like nobody's business. Fun fact - I haven't not had my nails painted in at least over five years, and my nails actually hurt badly when I don't have nail polish on. I know that can't be normal. 

..Will never be late anywhere. I prefer to be at least 15 minutes early.

..Set's at least 3 different alarms even though I usually wake up five minutes before they go off anyway and have never, ever slept through an alarm. I guess I'm paranoid they will disappear in my sleep, who knows. 

..Secretly googles what is going to happen next on shows that Joe and I watch because I can't handle the suspense. It's awful when we watch a dramatic show live and I can't do that. 

..Could live off of water and unsweetened ice tea until the end of time. 

..Actually enjoys cleaning my house. 

..Will check Twitter and Instagram all day.

..Doesn't understand the hype of diet coke.

..Will buy my dog a million toys, even though he only has one that he actually plays with. 

..Can go to Target every day and still find something that I need to buy.

..Will buy anything that's scented or smells good - even my trash bags.

..Dreams of traveling all over one day.

Five on Friday

Well this week has been pretty crazy, and here are some things I wanted to talk about on this Sunday (for me) Friday. 

1. If you follow me on twitter you probably saw that I mentioned that my eye looked like I got punched. Well, I've never been in a fight..ever. Don't plan to either. But I do think a lot of people in public thought I was in an abusive situation by the way I was being looked at. I'll make this short an sweet: Apparently I was bit by a bug or insect, who knows. It got really infected and turned into cellulitis, which isn't what it sounds like. I went to the doctor and now I am taking really huge antibiotics to help this stupid infection go away! I must say spring, if these insects make an appearance again I may knock you down to my least favorite month ever. 

2. Self tanner...If you read my Beauty Box 5 review post, you probably saw that I mentioned how excited I was to try out Jergens "3 days to glow". Well, sadly after using day one of this stuff my entire body looked a streaky mess. Now, I have so many Jergens gradual tanning products and love them, and never had a problem with streaking. This product is so intense that from just using day one my skin looked so dark but so messy and orange. I'm not sure if a tanning mit would have helped me or if I am too fair skinned for this particular product, but it just didn't work for me. Oh, and it has been a few days since applying and I have scrubbed and it still wont budge. 

Now, onto some happier things!

3. Easter is something that I am so looking forward to. Since I never have weekends off this will be nice to be with my family and to of course celebrate the reason for Easter. 

4. Flowers from Trader Joe's are a favorite right now. I purchased some pink tulips for only $3.99 last week and they are still going strong! 

5. Nail polish overload. Sometime last week I started following an instagram account that sells Essie nail polish for an amazing price and ships them to you. I had to buy more and now I have absolutely no more storage for anymore nail polish. Someone please tell me where to buy decent nail polish storage or how you have found to store yours. 

That's all for this week, I hope you all have a great Easter and I'll be back Monday!

I linked up for Five on Friday at North Carolina Charm

Smoothie Obsession

I recently received a blender as a gift from my sister and her boyfriend Anthony, I had been wanting one ever since Joe and I moved into our own place. I was a little too excited (adult probs) to have a blender and immediately knew I wanted to start doing smoothies for breakfast. I have noticed after doing smoothies every morning for a week straight that I have so much more energy, as apposed to when I drink coffee which gives me energy for about an hour and then I crash and feel grumpy. I already have a certain recipe that I kind of threw together and I am loving it, so I wanted to share with you all!

I have been using:

1 Banana
2 Tablespoons of Greek Plain Yogurt (great for protein)
2 handfuls of Organic Spinach (the tubs are so much easier and the spinach is already washed, organic has no pesticides.)
3-4 of the Frozen Peach Slices
3-4 Mango Cubes
A splash of Orange Juice
A couple of Ice Cubes

**This makes enough for Joe and I to both have a smoothie each morning**

~Always make sure when buying frozen fruit that the only ingredient is the fruit itself and not any extra sugar or anything else. ~



You honestly don't taste the spinach whatsoever and you know your getting all of your vitamins in the morning!

If any of you have any great smoothie recipes or other veggies or anything else that would be good in my smoothie let me know! I have been wanting to try Chia Seeds in my smoothies.

Radical Skincare - Instant Revitalizing Mask

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

I have been trying out the Radical Skincare - Instant Revitalizing Mask and absolutely love it!

Skincare products is something in my book that you should spend a little more time and money on because it is so important. A good skincare routine now will benefit you in the future so much! You can never start a good routine too young.

Here are some facts about the Radical Skincare line:



When I was given the opportunity to try out this line I was very excited, I researched their website which is SO informative, you all should go check it out! I found that the products are all paraben free which is amazing for people with sensitive skin.

I have been trying out the Instant Revitalizing Mask twice a week now. You apply this to clean, dry skin and keep it on for about 3-5 minutes before rinsing it off. You will feel small bubbles on your face disappearing (it's really cool). After rinsing the product off your skin literally feels so soft and amazing. They have a video you can watch on the product page showing how the product works!

My skin will tell me one day after using a product if it doesn't agree with it by breaking out, I have not had any breakouts whatsoever and my skin feels smooth and soft.

Where can you find it? The product can be found at http://www.radicalskincare.com/products or Barneys

What does it cost? $65.00

"The Instant Revitalizing Mask is the ideal coach for the skin: it delivers the nutrients necessary for hydration and regeneration while teaching it to breathe, stock up on energy and optimize its oxygen resources in rarefied conditions."

I absolutely love what the sisters Rachel and Liz are putting out there; empowering people and their skin!

I would never blog about a product that I didn't think was amazing, unless I state otherwise. I have actually been using this product, doing research on the product and really loving it!

The website has so much information including their mission and results of the products. I also see on the website that they offer free shipping and free samples which is always a bonus!


XO, Vivian


*Disclaimer- I was given this product for testing purposes only, all opinions are my own. *

Black Friday 2013

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the people you love! I know mine was great. With Thanksgiving comes probably the biggest shopping day of the entire year. Black Friday is something that I love participating in not only for the deals but for me it is really fun to go out with everyone for the experience also. I am super excited to say that I think this is my most successful Black Friday yet...I had somewhat of a list of things that I knew I wanted to pick up for sure and then something's were honestly impulse buys. So here is a breakdown of my night / morning!

I did go to Target on Thanksgiving night when they opened at 8pm, and honestly it did not interfere with my family plans whatsoever. We do everything in the morning and afternoon and my family really didn't mind us going that night when we were finished. We stood in line with our Starbucks for about 1.5 hours before the store opened and it was really fun we talked to a ton of people and made it a good time!

Target:

A new vacuum on sale for $25.00 I was way too excited for this, our vacuum recently just broke and this girl needs a vacuum!

Towels on sale for $2.00 each

Justin Bieber Christmas CD (don't judge me) on sale for $5.00

Black Riding boots on sale for $18.00 normally $40.00

Two pairs of gloves buy one get one free at $3.00 (my hands and feet are always freezing) and they're touchscreen compatible.

After Target, we went home and slept until 4:00am when we got up and went to the mall. The Victoria's Secret PINK didn't open until 6:00am so I first off went to Bath and Body Works..

I purchased:

2 Winter Candy Apple Wallflowers on sale for $5.00 for a two pack. Normally $12.50!

At Victoria's Secret / PINK I purchased:

A pair of yoga leggings on sale for $25.00

Two gift sets on sale 2 for $25.00

Two other gift sets each for $15.00

I also got a really cute free tote back with my purchase because I spent over $70.00 inside it also came with a sampler of their popular fragrances too!

I also got two secret reward cards that I cannot wait to use, I always hope for a high amount but I usually only get the 5 or 10 dollar ones!

I did some shopping online at American Eagle because they were having a killer deal and I love their jeans!

I bought my boyfriend several things from there online but cant say because he may read this!

Everything was 50% off and free shipping so I bought myself a pair of jeggings for $20.00 and they're normally $40.00 plus free shipping.

I plan on keeping my eye out on Monday for the Cyber Monday deals as well!

If you did shopping, let me know what you got and what stores will be having good Cyber Monday sales!!

Our Thanksgiving picture!

XO, Vivian

Holiday Guest Post: Style by Kristen Blair

This will be my very first guest post, and I am so excited that it is from Kristen! She reached out to me through the Lucky Community and I am so so happy that she did! Style by Kristen Blair is a fashion driven blog with a ton of inspiration! Kristen herself has such great style, as you will be able to see from her post below! She also is so organized and creative when it comes to blogging! I am thrilled that we are swapping guest posts, and I can't wait for her to takeover the blog again soon! Check out her blog and show it some love! http://kristenblair.com

Here is a little bit about Kristen!

Hi, I’m Kristen! I’m a 20-something student, intern, fashion lover, daughter, little sister, best friend, and author of Style by Kristen Blair.  I am a lover of all things clothes, shoes, and accessories… Basically anything and everything fashion related.  You name it, I probably love it.  I am a senior marketing major at James Madison University, and I am hoping to get a job somewhere in the fashion industry after graduation in May! I started blogging as a requirement for a class, but after the class ended I kept going in hops of sharing my love of fashion with the world.  I currently live in Northern Virginia, but I am hoping to move to New York City (my favorite place in all the land…) after graduation! If you want to learn more about me and my blog, stop by and visit me at http://kristenblair.com

Now...onto Kristen's post!



10 Must Have Gifts For The Fashionista This Holiday Season

 

Struggling with what to get the fashion lover in your life this holiday season? Trying to make a list of what you want for the holidays but struggling to pick what you should include? Whatever the reason is, here are 10 must have items this holiday season for the fashion forward ladies everywhere!

 

 

 

 

 

1.    Lia Sophia ‘Pinch’ Earrings, $24 – Get them here! (http://sites.liasophia.com/sites/lynnbooth/productcatalog?page=productgroup&productGroupId=1001412&showCrumbs=true)

2.    Lia Sophia ‘Exotic Bloom’ Necklace, $118 – Get them here! (http://sites.liasophia.com/sites/lynnbooth/productcatalog?page=productdetail&sku=103536401&showCrumbs=true)

3.    Tory Burch ‘Reva’ Ballet Flat, $225 – Get them here! (http://www.toryburch.com/reva-ballet-flat-51138200.html?start=30&dwvar_51138200_color=422&cgid=handbags-torys-classics&utm_medium=aff&utm_source=cj&utm_content=2687457)

4.    Michael Kors Rose Gold Studded Leather Watch, $180 – Get yours here! (http://www.saksfifthavenue.com/main/ProductDetail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374306616260&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524446642720&site_refer=AFF001&mid=13816&siteID=Hy3bqNL2jtQ-VVHWLGfV3aC0xopB9ZG9CQ&LScreativeid=1&LSlinkid=10&LSoid=304450)

5.    Burberry London ‘Haymarket’ Check Bowling Tote, $745 – Get yours here! (http://www.farfetch.com/shopping/women/16742-designer-burberry-london-haymarket-check-bowling-tote-item-10373604.aspx)

6.    Coach ‘Mysie’ Boots, $233 – Get them here! (http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/coach-mysie-boot/3628918?cm_ven=Linkshare&cm_cat=partner&cm_pla=10&cm_ite=1&siteId=Hy3bqNL2jtQ-lyoDFmQke06C4DXoS2faew)

7.    Tory Burch ‘Walter’ Thin Bracelet, $125 – Get yours here!(http://www.toryburch.com/walter-thin-bracelet-32135897.html?start=31&cgid=accessories-jewelry&dwvar_32135897_color=003&utm_medium=aff&utm_source=cj&utm_content=2687457)

8.    Marc by Marc Jacobs ‘Katie’ Bracelet, $163 – Get yours here! (http://www.mytheresa.com/us_en/katie-bracelet-256800.html)

9.    Kate Spade New York ‘Draw the Line’ Bangle Bracelet, $32 – Get yours here! (http://www.lordandtaylor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/lord-and-taylor/shoes/boutiques-46155--1/draw-the-line-bangle-bracelet/?avad=68853_e5666e1b&al_affid=52293&utm_campaign=52293&utm_source=Avantlink&utm_medium=Affiliates)

10.   MICHAEL Michael Kors ‘York’ Python Embossed Bootie, $198 – Get them here! (http://www.michaelkors.com/p/MICHAEL-Michael-Kors-MICHAEL-Michael-Kors-York-Python-Embossed-Bootie-BOOTS-BOOTIES/prod21180021_cat18501_cat121_/?index=58&cmCat=cat000000cat121cat18501&isEditorial=false)