Beauty Schooled | August 2014 Ipsy Glam Bag Overview

Hi! So I have been subscribed to Ipsy for over a year now. I started back in May of 2013 as a birthday present to myself and I have been happy to receive a monthly bag of makeup to my door.

Skip this paragraph if you don't need any of my Glam Bag background...

This is my first time sharing my Glam Bag on my blog so I'm going to explain a few things. First things first, I don't love everything I get in my bags and sometimes I don't use what I get. If I know someone will enjoy it more than I do then I will give it to them. I have thrown away a product and didn't even try it. I also don't force myself to use or even try the products as soon as I get them. Sometimes I don't even try them until the next month. That said I use Ipsy to expand my makeup universe and I am open to trying almost anything. I'm not going to focus on my past experience with Ipsy, this is just an overview of this bag. 

Starting with the polka dot bag... I love the bag! It came to me a little squished and sad looking from the mail but with some time to breathe it looks cute. I keep all the bags I get and I use them for different purposes.

You might notice I have six items this month, that is because I cashed in some of my IpsyPoints to get a sample of the Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Bronzer. I was a little bummed when I didn't get it a few months back so when I saw that they were offering it for only 500 points instead of the usual 1000 I jumped on it! 

The items that came in my bag were the Coastal Scents Shadow Palette Sample, Urban Decay Perversion Mascara, Jersey Shore Sun Mongongo Lip Conditioner, Klorane Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk, and Manna Kadar Cosmetics Sheer Glo. 

The eye shadow palette colors were not ideal (there were many color options) but I do like to smudge some blue on my lower lash line now and then, plus I enjoy Costal Scents eye shadow so this will be a nice, small palette to reach for. However, I've seen this brand a few times in my bag and I would like to see something else. Also, I have placed a Costal Scents order recently and I got the same sample in a different color for free. 

I was really excited to receive the mascara! It's newly released and I really enjoy trying mascaras. I have tried this a couple times already and I can tell I already like it! I was hoping I wouldn't because of how expensive it is... I think I will review it on here soon. My one problem is that I have received a mascara is my past three bags, I would like to see a bit more variety.   

The lip balm seems average. It smells and tastes good and it does the job.

I haven't tried the dry shampoo yet but it seems promising. I have sprayed it in the air and didn't notice any weird smell or any other red flags. I find it hard to try things like dry shampoo for the first time before I have somewhere to be. What is it's a total disaster?! I am excited to try it though!

I also have not tried the highlighter or blush or whatever it is. I have swatched it and it seems really pretty. It does lean toward the highlighter side but it's subtle and doesn't have chucks of glitter in it. It gives a nice sheen. I don't wear highlighter everyday, I don't even own one but I have been wanting to try one so I'm glad I got it. 

I was missing the little card they usually send you so I hope I didn't miss any announcements or offers. 

I did really enjoy this months bag; I thought it had great variety and I think I will get good use out of everything in the bag. I was a little bummed I didn't receive some of the other items but there are coupons and offers for the items I missed out on so I could buy them if I wanted. I really wish they had an Urban Decay offer this month... all the other brands do.

In case you were curious here are the products I didn't get:

I paid $10 and the value of my bag is around $27.24

Coastal Scents Shadow Palette Sample $0

Urban Decay Perversion Mascara $5.50

Jersey Shore Sun Mongongo Lip Conditioner $5.50

Klorane Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk $8.99

Manna Kadar Cosmetics Sheer Glo $7.25

If you want to join Ipsy here is my referral link:  http://www.ipsy.com/r/7bhk

If anything is worth a mention or a review you should hear from it again. Thank you for stopping by! ~Alissa

My Journey | Hot Rollers Part II

Hello all! This is the second par of the journey in trying to master hot rollers (Check out part one here). I'm still using the Conair Xtreme Instant Heat Jumbo And Super Jumbo Hair Setter with Super Clips, this is just my second time trying to use them.

This time I was going to an all day, special event and I wanted to do something nice with my hair quickly. It only took me about eight minutes to put all the rollers in my hair this time. I wasn't wasting a lot of time fumbling with really hot rollers this time because I only waited the recommended 85 minutes for them to warm up. I also used my trick where I would remove rollers two at a time from the heaters so that way they weren't too hot when I put them in.

It was a lot easier than last time to place them and set my hair. I gave them around 15 minutes to cool down completely in my hair as I got ready. When I carefully unrolled my hair I twisted the curls away from my face to define and guide them how I wanted them to look.

The only ones that turned out kind of funky where the ones around my face. They had little creases by the root (I ended up smoothing these parts out with a straightener). I think that this was user error because I didn't put them in right so I'll be more careful next time.

I ended up with a really wavy, volumized look that was much more tamed and polished than the last time. As you can see, the top layer of my hair wasn't curled too well but I had volume. I think this happened because I used the larger rollers on the top. You can also see that the right side of my hair doesn't look as curled. I started with that side of my head first so maybe that had something to do with it.

On this day I was pretty active in the 95 degree weather, I played ran around with my friend's dog, played tennis, barbecued, and stayed out around 12 hours. The curls lasted quite a long time with some hair spray. I used Tresemme TRES Two Extra Hold Hair Spray

Around four hours into my day I noticed that my curls were falling quite a bit so I put my hair in a bun and when I took it out I noticed that my hair had got some of it's shape back. I did this trick a few times during the day if I felt I wanted to put my hair up. After 12 hours of fun my hair still had some volume and slight wave.

All in all this was a good test of these hot rollers and I see myself using them again. Thanks for coming with me on this journey! ~Alissa

Better Habits | Nail Polish Storage

My nail polish addiction started 2 years ago and since then I have acquired a ton of nail polish. Different storage solutions became unhelpful as my collection grew. I began searching for a way to store my nail polish so that I could see what I have without taking up a ton of counter space.

I got my storage idea from MissGlamorazzi in this video (Again, YouTube made me do it!). I got my clear shoe organizer on Amazon (Whitmor 6044-13-CTF White Crystal Collection Over-The-Door Shoe Organizer, Clear).  It's such a cheap, organized storage solution! I love it.

I hang mine on my closet door. It is great because I don't need to make any holes in my wall to hang storage or take up counter space for a nail rack. And, again, you can't beat the price! I get a lot of complements from it. When someone walks into my room it has a wow factor. :)

I have mine organized by color. Some colors take up more than one pocket, others don't. I have some open space at the top because I am too short to reach up there (Haha!) and I like to keep track of some nail polishes I've wanted to use. I also keep recently purchased polishes up there.

On the bottom, I keep my top and bottom coats plus some other nail tools: toe separators, mixing trays, hand and nail cream, nail files, etc.

This is just the storage that I'm using right now, maybe I'll find something better in the future but I love this for now. I try to keep all the nail polishes upright but it can be kind of hard with this storage.

I hope you find this post helpful and enjoyed reading. Hope to see you back soon. ~ Alissa

My Journey | Hot Rollers + Mini Review

Today I tried the Conair Xtreme Instant Heat Jumbo And Super Jumbo Hair Setter with Super Clips for the first time. I bought them off of the recommendation of itsjudytime (One of those times where YouTube made me do it! Haha). I bought them off of Amazon when they were on sale for $17.99 earlier this week.

I know using hot rollers is sort of a learn-as-you-go sort of thing and I didn't expect a great look the first time. I was really curious and had nowhere to go today so I put them in.

As soon as you plug it in it starts heating up. Make sure that all the rollers are in there snuggly.

It took me around 15 minutes to put them in. Most of this time I was fumbling to place them correctly and not burn my fingers. The rollers were actually very hot and kind of hurt my fingers. Also, when I put them in they were really hot on my ears and neck. I actually dropped a few rollers on the floor because they were so hot.

The box says they warm up in 85 minutes and I left them to warm up for about three minutes. I eventually started taking the rollers out to cool down a bit before I used them and that seemed to help but I'm not sure if that will effect how well they work.

Today was also a really hot day; I think it was 90 degrees Fahrenheit so having hot rollers in wasn't very comfortable. I was planning on keeping them in for 20 minutes but it was so uncomfortably hot that I took them out after 10 minutes (which is the recommended time).

I know my hair and I know what it's like so I figured that I needed to leave them in for a really long time but I didn't. I should have at least left them in until they were cool but I didn't. :(

There were some results when I took them out. It looked really soft and natural with lots of volume.  I knew they wouldn't last; my hair was still hot when I let it down so I knew they would fall. I still liked the look though. It was what I was going for.

Here's me natural faced with some wavy, volumized hair. It didn't last long and I eventually put it in a ponytail.

It looked like this. I liked that it still gave my hair some volume and wave to spice up my ponytail. Thanks for coming with me on this journey! ~ Alissa