Blogmas: Days 5, 6, & 7: Wishlists!

It has occured to me that I'm really terrible at this Blogmas business xD

For this three day bundle we are going to look at toys!

I was talking with my sister about what all of the kids want for Christmas this year and it got us on the topic of things that we wanted as kids, and we noticed how similar the wants are, yet how different they are at the same time.

A lot of the things that her kids and my other niece wants are pretty similar as far as trends go, like wanting Disney princess stuff (that was all me - she mutilated Barbies) and My Little Pony. Then there are the differences like the Nerf toys for girls. Where was that when we were kids? Seriously!

Let's take a trip down memory lane....

Blogmas Days 2, 3 & 4: Food!

I'm behind on this. The last few days have been very hectic. A person I held very dear passed away earlier in the week. 

Story time!

My very first job, much like a lot of my classmates from school, was at our local Walmart. At the time there was no hiring freeze, we could get a buttload of overtime since we were understaffed, and they still offered benefits if you worked enough hours. It was a good time.

I worked in the softlines section, which is clothing and shoes. I worked the men's department primarily, though it wasn't uncommon for me to work other areas. Infants was always my favorite! 

There was a teeny tiny lady that was the queen of the fitting room. She was in her 80s and immediately took me under her wing. 

She had known my family for years so I ended up being yet another part of her extended family.

Rosie called herself my Italian Walmart grandmother. She did take on a very grandmotherly role, offering advice when I needed it, helping me try to work my way through my newly found independent life as I worked to help support mom after my dad left us in some crazy debt. 

She was always there to offer prayers, silly stories about my mom when she was young, and a shoulder when I needed to cry. Even so, she was always the reality check I needed when I was acting irrational. In that aspect, she reminded me of Sophia from The Golden Girls.

Even after I moved I would come back to town and visit her. She was always so happy when I would randomly stop by and see her. 

There was nothing on this planet like a Rosie hug. 

She's going to be so dearly missed. 

Read on for the rest of this Blogmas Foodie post.

I'm Sorry, We Don't Do Good Days Here

It's not even noon and this day has already been pretty crappy. 

The only good thin is I did manage to make it on a quick car trip with my mother. That was a nice small victory. It was a less than fifteen minute trip but I'm still considering it a total victory. 

But let's go back to the very beginning, when my groggy butt woke up in so much pain that I could punch something cute and adorable and not feel bad. I really overdid it on the workouts yesterday. 

I managed to get myself to the coffee pot and cleaned it to make this morning's brew of thou-shall-not-kill-juice. The sink was still full of dishes because the boy child had not done them, so I was going to get read to do them. 

No hot water. 

So that means until we get a new hot water heater it's going to be cold showers. 

I thank everything that is holy and sacred that we live in Florida. If this had happened and we lived in a place with a really cold winter we would be screwed. I also appreciate our Home Depot card, which will fund a new hot water heater. 

That is just a little bump in the road. The temperature has been in the 80s so a cool shower won't be so bad. 

Then we get to the car so I can do my daily mini journey to get my anxiety levels in a vehicle back to normal road rage rather than "oh, god, danger, gonna puke everywhere". 

Things seemed ok until we backed out of the driveway and the transmission sounded like it slipped. I reached over to the gearshift and jiggled it a bit (that's what you have to do to my car when it acts like a patoot) and away we went. 

We made it about a mile and a half to the next stop sign after the one at the end of my street, and it started doing it again. FML. 

I made a joke to my mother, at least we have AAA, buuuuuut she cancelled it. 

She figured we were already so far from the house that we should just go through with the journey, which we did. We went through the drive through cooler and got our drinks and started home. 

We did just fine until we hit another stop sign. It sputtered, she slammed the gas, and we almost hit a chick that didn't use her blinker when turning. 

And that is my day thus far.

Hopefully the rest will be much better, and I'll get some sort of good news. I don't care what kind. Something good. 

Blogmas Day 1: Music

After seeing a post on Lotte's Beauty Box with a cute Christmas tag, I'm going to try it myself! It will also give me inspiration to post every day, something I haven't been doing lately. I'm not a very holiday/Christmasey person so I'm not going to do the same thing she did, talking about traditions and things like that. We have tamales. That is our tradition!

Today's blogmas is all about music! There are so many songs that I hold dear that remind me of being a kid around Christmas, freezing my butt off watching VH1 when they still showed music videos while dad would cook. Mom cooked, but dad's cooking was better. On Christmas they would show a full day of Christmas music. It was amazing!

Something Has to Change

I knew that I've been gaining weight. Ever since my ankle surgery I haven't been near as active as I used to be. This thing hurts. It hurts almost all of the time. 

For readers who are new, you can read all about my adventures with a shattered ankle in this post. Somewhere in the deep abyss of my computer I have my x-ray photos. They are pretty gnarly, too. 

Either way, since then I've gotten (gasp) fat. This is the biggest I've ever been in my life. The only time I weigh myself is when I go to the doctor. I do this mainly because I depress very easily and I don't want to spend my life feeling even more like a big old beached whale like I do now. 

Right now, at my biggest, I am 164lbs according to my last trip to the doctor. The lowest I've been is 100lbs. 

It didn't really hit me exactly how big I've gotten because most of my clothes that my sister gave me still fit very nicely. One of my favorite pairs of pants is even getting big on me. 

Then I saw this picture that my sister in law took on Thanksgiving of me eating with my bf and dad. 

I wanted to cry when I saw it. 

I look like a huge beached whale. 

This is even after I've made changes in my life, like no more sodas and very limited carbs. I exercise by cleaning house and and walking my dogs yet I still look massive. 

Maybe it was the angle because this one doesn't look near as bad. Then again I'm hiding my gut with a sweater. (For once, it got chilly on Thanksgiving). 

It makes me so depressed to look at that first picture. I cannot believe I'm so big. 

I have already eliminated most meat from my diet, minus chicken. I'm thinking of kicking most meat and animal products. I have done a vegan diet before, and it might just be time to completely go vegan. I enjoyed it and I didn't feel as constantly full. 

I do minor exercising in addition to my housework and walking the dogs, like toning exercises. 

It is at the point where I am beginning to get desperate. 

One day I will get back to where I want to be. 

It's My Birthday!

Today is my birthday!

It's been so relaxing. I normally clean house all day, so I took the day and gamed all day long. 

I have been working on completing my FFX and I managed to get all of Wakka's reels and a trophy for learning all of Kimhari's overdrives. 

I won't lie - I spent the last six hours gaming. Hard. 

My sister came by and left me the most beautiful cuff. 

She weaved this by hand. If you want to see more of her work, you can find it at The Forward Knot on Facebook.

We are going to have a family game night after my bf finishes cooking dinner. My mother got me Monopoly so we are going to see how quickly family game night can turn into a family feud. 

To top it off, the mid season finale of The Walking Dead comes on tonight, so it's like I'm getting a birthday prezzie from my favorite show!

I'm just glad that my birthday hasn't sucked, like it has in years past. I'm either always sick or some kind of dumb friend drama comes up. It's been an incredibly good day.

I've also decided to get my first tattoo! I won't reveal it until I've actually gotten it done, if I have the balls to go through with it ^^ I'm going to get it when my bf goes to finish off the color on his thigh piece. Hopefully I won't back out like a sissy xD

See you later!

Thanksgiving 2k15

It's been so long since I've posted!

Since then I've changed my medications and I feel much better. I'm even starting to travel more, something that I was unable to do this time last year!

My sister has tried taking me on daily trips so we can get out and see how much I can do. We've done a little shopping, eaten lunch at our favorite eatery, and even just driven. So far, so good. Haven't gotten sick once!

I went a little insane at our dollar store when I found they had a stash of Revlon, Maybelline, Milani, and Essie products. Usually things like that are an upwards of $5, but since it's the Dollar Tree everything is only a dollar. I think I spent an upwards of $50 on just beauty products that would have cost me almost $200 had I gotten them at a regular drug store. Insane, right? 

I also got a fake septum ring to wear around, to test the idea of it. 

I love how it looks! I tried to surprise my mom with it, telling her that my sister and I went to the piercing parlor instead of going shopping, and rather than being surprised she just told me it looked nice. Prank fail!

If you're in the US, how was your Thanksgiving? 

I made my very first baked mac and cheese yesterday, and it was such a hit that my boyfriend's sister asked to keep the rest if she brought back my pan. 

This is the only picture that my boyfriend and I took together. His sister manned the camera. If you're interested, you can find the rest of our pictures on facebook. 

I ended up meeting a few animals yesterday at my boyfriend's cousin's house - it's like a damn zoo. I met some goats and a pig or two, but I was terrified of the turkey. It's huge and roams free!

He also had a little cage of guinea hens. They were so small and adorable!

Today has been incredibly rainy, and I've been recovering while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With chronic illness, even the littlest trips and events can tire you out. Yesterday was a pretty big event, starting with me in the kitchen from 8AM until noon, then an entire afternoon running around out in my boyfriend's dad's neighborhood eating and enjoying spending time with family. 

My sister and her kids came over last night. The night ended up being so long, full of food and good times. 

Tomorrow my boyfriend is off from work, so we are going to lounge around. My birthday is on Sunday and he works, so Saturday is our day to celebrate together ^^

I'm slowly but surely recovering. Hopefully I'll be back to my normal self, soon. 

Depression Is...

Depression is hell.

I have dealt with depression and anxiety issues since I was a teenager. It seemed, to someone on the outside looking in, strange for a person in my position to be depressed at all.

I came from a nice two parent household, my dad made decent enough money to help me finance a car when I was sixteen, I had a a decent circle of friends and good grades. I was given a small allowance for clothes and makeup and I essentially wanted for nothing even though we weren't the most well off.

No matter how nice things looked I've always had issues with feeling depressed, sometimes for no reason.

It wasn't until I was older and started regularly seeing a doctor that I learned that it is chemical. There is something off in that lovely noggin of mine that makes me have some days where I just want to sleep because my dreams always seem better than the reality that I'm living, even if the reality I am living is pretty good despite the changes I've experienced over the last five years of my life.

Depression doesn't always have a reason to rear it's ugly head.

I can wake up one morning and it's just there. 

And any plans that I may have had for that day are thrown out of the window because all I want to do is wear my fluffy footie pajamas and watch Netflix all day long. 

It can't be resolved by throwing chocolate at me and screaming "Satan has been fed" or by taking me out to do something I like. 

Depression can kill all simple pleasures in life. Even my favorite activities become monotonous and simply miserable. I want to get it through as quickly as possible and go back to my little hidey hole and sequester myself away from the rest of the world. 

Depression can actually hurt. Physically hurt. 

During my worst episodes it's not uncommon for me to ache all over like I have the flu. It's deep muscle aches, too, not just your standard take some ibuprofen and it's over ache. No amount of medicine takes it away and it makes getting anything done almost impossible. 

All you can really do is put on some comfortable clothes and hope for the best. 

And if you have other things that make you ache? Be prepared to hurt worse or have a flare. 

It makes my yet to be diagnosed gut issues flare up and causes cramps and nausea, and other side effects that are really too terrible to discuss in public without becoming a total TMI. 

I may have depression, but I am not lazy. Sometimes I have bad days. I have even worse days. I will spend a week at a time only doing the minimum of household chores because I can't bring myself to be fully productive. But that doesn't mean I'm lazy. 

I have depression but it doesn't mean that I'm a constant spoil sport. If anything, having depression and coming to terms with it has made me even more sassy and sarcastic, and it's given me the ability to throw shade and have the target not know what the hell hit them. Get me together with another person who has depression that acts like mine and we are unstoppable with the sass. I also think it can make me one freakin funny individual. 

I may have depression, but that doesn't mean that I can't function like a normal person. I'm just a little more cynical and harder to motivate on a bad day. On a good day I'll run circles around you. 

I may have issues with depression, but that doesn't make me any different. 

Most of all, depression is nothing to be ashamed of.

Mental health is a serious thing that does come with a stigma, especially if you are taking medication. I take several just to make me completely human, to balance the chemical imbalances. 

I just get really sick sometimes of the things that I've heard from others, like if you would exercise more then you'd feel much better. Balance your diet. Meditate. Think happy thoughts. 

Sometimes only medication will help, not standing on my head or doing a warrior pose while breathing through my nose. 

For those reading this and can relate, know you're not alone. 

For the past month and a half I've had a really bad low. Really bad. I haven't met some deadlines and I feel terribly bad, I just can't help it. I'm not trying to be lazy or behind or whatever, it is just the way it works when you've got an issue. All of the medications in the world won't help some of these lows. 

You're not alone and there is no harm in having to take a time out from time to time. To time. To time. To time. 

Just be you, because there is only one and that's pretty damn special in itself. 

Mini Hiatus

I know I've been gone for longer than usual. I've been rather sick. I also have issues with depression, which can kill motivation for me to do anything at all other than sleep. It's been very severe in the last month or so. I think it's because this time last year is when I was starting to get sick. 

I have tons of things I want to post and share, I just need to get myself back on track to do something other than be a useless lump of sappy and depressed chick bundled on the sofa watching mystery diagnosis shows. 

Love all of your faces!

Etude House Curl Fix! Mascara Review

I have been dying to try this mascara. After seeing the commercials and doing a little research it looked like it was going to be so damn fantastic that I'd never use another mascara again. I apologize in advance - the song is really catchy and it gets stuck in my head and I have a sinking feeling that you will suffer the same fate after watching this. 

After seeing the brush and how nice their lashes looked I knew I wanted to try it. I have never had a mascara applicator that looked like that before. 

Etude House Haul #2 + First Impressions

I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm a total Etude House whore. 

My last haul I fell in love with the products so much that I had another small shopping spree. 

Be Your Best Self Tag

Right now at Beauteque they are doing a week of positivity. All of the festivities include giveaways on their various platforms as well as blog posts from their staffers on the Beauteque blog about what makes them their best self.

I decided that it may be a good therapeutic thing for me to do this tag. I've always dealt with depression and self esteem issues, though I hide it well.

Why not give this tag a try for yourself?

• Was there a time when you had to be brave in a difficult situation? 

When my father went to jail, and subsequently prison. I will not get into the details of his crimes as that is family business, but I essentially had to try and step up and be a crutch to my mother. 

The day of his arrest I had a breakdown, physically and mentally. I spent most of the afternoon and evening crying until I vomited, until the point that my body just gave out. 

As a daddy's girl, it was tough to have to pull myself together to help support my mother through the situation, not only emotionally but financially. Around the same time all of the employees of the shop I worked at quit all at one time, leaving me working twelve hour days essentially by myself. That definitely helped on the financial side of things, and being so busy kept my mind away from the troubles I had at home.

• Who inspires you to be your best self?  

Definitely my kids and my family. I do not wish to set a bad example for my boyfriend's kids that I've been raising for the past ten years. I consider them my children at this point because their mother hasn't exactly been the shining example of stability. 

 I want them to see that they can accomplish their dreams and do what they put their mind to. 

Sure, to some other parents I may seem rather hard on them, but I'd rather be a little hard on them now and have them succeed in the future rather than try to be a friend to them and not give them the discipline and structure that they deserve. The oldest boy looks to be beyond my help, the girl child seems to have a bit too much of her mother's personality so I hope that she does not relive her mother's mistakes, but the youngest (the one I've raised from diapers) has taken on mostly mine and my boyfriend's personalities. He came to me at the age of 9 and told me he wanted to be an engineer. That moment made me feel like I hadn't failed as a parent. It still makes me proud to think of that.

• What is your greatest personal achievement?

As of right now, my greatest personal achievement is raising a very well rounded 11 year old boy. 

 

He's smart, very polite and courteous, a total goof ball. He is always willing to learn or try something new, something that the other two kids do not do. My Monkey is already more than willing to get into the kitchen to learn to cook (though he doesn't like doing the dishes), try foods that may seem weird at least one time, excels at sports....

He is my proudest achievement. 

• Share a time when you acted selflessly.

If I listed all of the times I acted selflessly, I'd write a novel.

I grew up without very much, but we were very happy for what we did have.

Now, when I see someone who does not have much, I am the type that will give up the things that I have to make sure that all of their needs are met.

For a long time, my house was more like a hostel. I had so many people living here in and out because they didn't have places to live. At the time, they did it rent free because I knew that there was no way in hell that they were going to be able to pay anything at all. All I asked is that they picked up after themselves because I'm not their bleedin mother.

Now, when I cook, I always send the extras to my friends who are struggling to make ends meet. I'd rather have them eating my home cooked meals for free rather than going to some place like McDonald's and buying fatty nasty foods off of the dollar menu.

I've always been the mother hen of my group of friends.  

• What is the best compliment you have ever given? 

I'm honestly not sure. I'm not sure if this counts or not, but the loving little insults my boyfriend and I share? I generally won't insult you unless I like you. 

• What is the best compliment you have ever received? 

Oddly enough, it was from a little girl when I was a waitress. 

I always had a habit of getting down on the level of the children when I would ask them what they wanted to order (it made them feel grown up and their parents adored it), and I distinctly remember this little girl of probably about seven, in this little whisper tone, saying "woah, you're pretty! I want to be like you when I grow up!".

At the time I didn't feel so pretty because one of my front teeth had a huge hole in it from getting hit in the mouth and I hadn't been to the dentist yet to fix it.

It almost made me cry, especially since children are brutally honest. Just the day before my youngest great niece asked me why my tooth was nasty. The little girl I served, who has to be at least seventeen by now, really made an impact on me that day. 

• What's your best beauty tip? 

Take care of your skin!

Your skin is your largest organ, as well as your canvas for your makeup. Make your skin the best it can be by having a skin care regimen. You'll glow! 

I have my own little routine, though I recommend you find the things that are right for your skin.

I always use a foaming cleanser, toner, serum, beta salic cream and a moisturizer morning and night, plus an oil cleanser when I wear makeup. Don't forget your sunscreen!

• What beauty product makes you feel like your best self?

Tatcha's Kyoto Red lipstick. 

There is just something about this product that turned me into camwhore central.

It's one of those products that just makes me feel good. Like I feel like if I'm wearing it I can conquer the world. It makes me feel so pretty.

• What do you do that makes you feel like your best self? 

I suppose staying spiritual. Religion has always been a large aspect of my life in one way or another, and for me serving Allah and following the teachings of the Prophet (pbuh) makes me feel like I'm doing my best in this life. 

• What is something that you love about yourself? 

I have a big heart, sometimes a little too big. It gets me into a pickle at times. I wouldn't know how to live if I didn't help people. 

So what makes you your best self?

If you participate in this tag send me a link so I can read your posts, too!

Hair Color Adventures: Etude House Hot Style Cream Hair Color

My hair has taken a lot of crap over the past few months. After trying to dye my ends purple and ending up with this weird red thing going on, I've been trying to dye it back to it's normal color. The last one I used was from Confume and I ran out of color so my hair was patchy. 

When I did my Etude House haul I picked up some of their Hot Style Cream Color because they said it was good for grays, which I have in abundance. I figured I could use the rest of the color, after I hit my grays, on the ends of my hair to get rid of the patchy red brown junk.

This is the color itself. It's priced very decently in my opinion. It is just about the same price level as a Garnier or L'oreal at $9.10 USD. 

Slowly Back To Health

It's been one week on antibiotics and I'm finally starting to feel better!

I've been hanging around the house, watching a lot of dramas (I just finished Mask and started Oh My Ghostess), and snuggling with the dog. 

One good note is I can finally hear out of my ear again, and I can pop it. Yeah!

Since I'm always rather unhealthy, and take more medications than a thirty year old woman should, today's post is going to be about medicine!

This is for all of my fellow spoonies out there <3

Rather than one of those "what's in my bag" thing, I'm going to do what's in my medicine bag ^^

Since I like to be organized, I like to keep all of my things in this VS Pink bag that I got from the girl child. I've got a fairly large computer, so you can see a bit of the scale. 

It keeps a ton of stuff. I think I have six or seven bottles in there plus other miscellaneous things. 

(Note on the Walmart bottles: my Walmart is a terrible pharmacy as far as organization, but they have the best prices in my city. It makes me so mad that they screw up so much. I suppose I pay for the service when it comes to the savings I'm getting. If I didn't pay out an arm and a leg each month for medications, I'd kiss them goodbye and go to a local pharmacy. Unfortunately most of my local pharms are not at all cost effective and charge almost double for most of my meds.)

In addition to my regular meds, I have other things in there because I'm one of those people who always likes to be prepared. 

The inhaler is a given since I'm asthmatic. Also immodium because of whatever the hell is going on with my stomach. It's a must. 

I'm not sure why I have matches in there. I suppose they will come in handy one day. I may need to set a fire. Or light a candle. 

I also like to keep a pen in each of my bags because you never know when you're going to need a pen. 

The Reed's Peanut Butter Ginger Candy has to different uses. 

Not only is it damn delicious, albeit a bit on the spicy side thanks to the ginger, but ginger is also very good for nausea!

If you've been following me for a while you know about all of my nausea issues. I like to have these on hand if I start to feel woozy and queasy, or if my sugar drops. It's got a very lovely protein count thanks to the peanut butter so it gets me as right as rain very fast. 

Sorry for the blurry picture!

They are about as big as my finger and really chewy like taffy. You can find them at your local health food store, or possibly even at the supermarket. 

So that's my spoonie edition of what's in my bag! 

I hope you have all been well, and I will see you soon (hopefully!)

I know they have broken up but DWV has been on my mind a lot lately so tonight I'm going to share the song that is stuck in my head <3

Health Update

My bronchitis finally left and I got stuck with an inner ear infection. 

Since I have sinus problems, sometimes your ears can fill with fluid as a side effect. It's not entirely terrible, but it doesn't feel the best in the world. 

I get to take antibiotics and hope that this goes away, but since I have a history of having lots of ear infections I may end up having to have a minor surgery to place in drainage tubes. 

That is the ultimate worst case scenario. 

Now I'm just walking around feeling like my head is under water, pretty much yelling "huh" and "what??" at my family when they talk to the "bad ear", and getting fiercely opinionated when I see ignorance on Facebook. Like lacking an ear has made my sass more fierce. 

I'm still schooling people on the issue of peace and Islam, getting pretty damn angry at this person who keeps posting on a page I follow saying "well, in Australia" on ever post about something going on in the US (I get it, Australia is really awesome, I'd love to visit), and spending endless hours playing the Ace Attorney series while snuggling with my cats. 

Once all of this is said and done, I'm getting my hair cut into a different style (this mermaid business is really starting to bother me) and getting the color evened out. Putting dye in your hair when it's this long isn't exactly easy. 

I'm going to lay down for a nap now because the antibiotics really take it out of me. I leave you with a picture of my kitten, Deeohgee Ronso. Front facing cameras really give her the creeps.

A Few Of My Favorite Things: July

I'm still laid up in bed, still coughing my little goo-babies. I've had so many ideas go through my head, I just lack the energy to execute them! Today I actually cleaned the house some more after getting into an argument with my mother this morning (like I'm not going to defend my kids when she says something rotten about them!) and talked with my step-son about rearranging his room so he has a little hidey hole cubby thing so he can have some alone time from his little brother, with whom he shares the bedroom. Pics will definitely follow after we do that. 

For now, I want to share with you my favorite things from July! I know, we're only 20 days in. I still have some things that have been amazing to me this month!

First thing I'm in love with: 

This is by Tony Moly and is a cute little lip gloss.

Quick Update

Sorry I've been a little absent, loves!

For the last week or so I've been down with a pretty gnarly case of bronchitis. 

Since it's a viral thing, all I can really do is make myself comfortable, take meds and stay hydrated. I'm trying to avoid a trip to the hospital like my sister wants me to do. I'm gonna ride this train until it returns to Happy Health-ville and hopefully doesn't head to Pneumonia-town. It's already stopped at Menstruation-station, I don't need things to get worse. 

If you've never had bronchitis, lemme give you a bit of a run down on what's been happening. 

Think back to the last time you exercised until you were out of breath. 

That's how I feel All. The. Time. Without my meds I'm left gasping for breath.

I get super winded just walking to the bathroom. And it's down the hall. Dashing to the mailbox for my Beauteque order today was super fun. 

I also get really tired really easily (like how does one get tired when all you do is bundle up and watch Korean dramas?). I'm starting to feel ancient. 

My inhaler is my best friend.

(I sail through these small guys, I like the huge inhalers with enough meds to make me breathe forever!!!!!)

I've been coughing up some of the most disgusting gunk. The globs have been so big in the last day that I've been naming them. I've got four or five Steves and a few called Louise. 

(There's no picture for that one - you're welcome.)

NyQuil is also my best friend. 

Generally an illness like this lasts a few weeks, but I've got a weakened immune system so I may suffer for a good month. I'm one week in right now without heading to the hospital begging for something to help me breathe better. 

Again, since it's viral all they can do is make me comfortable and send me right back home so why waste the money? 

Anyway, I've got some new products to test and review from Beauteque, and I still have to review my Etude House order. Let me just say now that the Surprise Essence Concealer is the ish. Sooo good, I look like I actually get a full night of sleep when I've got it on. It's that good. 

Stay healthy, loves! See you soon ^^

Etude House Haul

I got my first Etude House haul in the mail today!

I get alerts about the whereabouts of my packages on my phone, so the 6:30 AM alert that it was out for delivery had me excited all day long ^^

For the details on each product, read on! 

It's Skin Babyface Petit Blusher

I'm finally getting into using blusher. I realized exactly how dead I look without it so I've been on the hunt for the perfect blusher. 

In my travels, I found this cute little thing.

Isn't it just the cutest? 

It's very tiny. I figured since I'm not good with blusher I'd start with small packages so I didn't end up out on a lot of money if it didn't look right on me.

Since I'm fair I chose the first shade, which is a very light pink.

I love the cute little powder puff that comes with it.

This picture doesn't do it justice. It's a pretty almost baby pink.

As always, I'm a sucker for detail, so I loved how the powder was pressed into the pot.

I've just been using the powder puff that came with it to apply it because it gives it a very soft look when it's on the face. It also feels nice :3

What I love most about this blusher is it comes out very light, making it very easy for inexperienced gals like me. I'm always terrified I'll end up looking like a clown!

As you can see in this picture (taken on July 4), it's a very subtle pink. 

So here are a few swatches. I had to turn the flash on for it to be seen, it's that subtle.

This one is straight from the puff and onto my arm. As you can see, it's rather powdery, which is expected from a powder. If you've got fine lines or big pores, I'd suggest putting on a primer before use. 

And this is blended with my fingers. 

It makes the color even more subtle. 

For the price, I'm pleased with what I got. This was a part of my w2beauty haul, and cost $13.18 USD. There are four different shades. I have number one, number 2 is a purple lilac color, number 3 is more of a coral pink, and number 4 is a coral. 

What are your favorite blushers? Have you tried this one?