Lipstick Review!

I was sent the new Moisture Renew lipstick from Rimmel London last week from influenster to review.

I really love this lipstick! It is super moisturizing just like it says. I typically put chapstick on before I apply lipstick because my lips get chapped pretty easily but this time I decided not to to really test just how moisturizing this lipstick was. It totally surprised me and kept my lips nice and smooth all day! The color was really pigmented and it lasted all day, which is kinda crazy because it kept rubbing off on my drinks all day but the color still never seemed to fade from my lips.

So I totally recommend this lipstick! I will definitely be purchasing it in more colors myself!

*I received this product complimentary from influenster for testing purposes.

"Sorry I can't stay longer but I have to get home to my netflix"

My silence is finally over.

I am back to fill your news feed with nothing of real importance but I just became inspired to pick up my hypothetical pen and paper and write again.

You're welcome :)

But for reals, I came across Frans blog through Danielle at take heart who was featuring love stories on her blog leading up to valentines day and reading her love story inspired me to take another whack at this whole blog thing. 

Oh and no I'm not writing my love story, sorry if I misled you but I do not have a love story to write yet, unless you want to hear my fictional one I've concocted in my head where my future husband walks up to me while I am sitting and reading a book alone in a coffee shop and makes some kind of lame joke to make me laugh and then we immediately fall in love over our mutual obsession with books, coffee and zombies and ends with a theatrical proposal where he performs lets get married (the remix) by jagged edge in front of all my family and friends. 

Not that I've given it any thought. 

I also never daydream about him not caring what we name our kids and I get to name them all the crazy, off the wall names I want, all 10 of them.

Anyways....

Without further adu I give you :

The pros and cons of being single at almost 27 yrs old.

(Because this is a subject in which I am most knowledgeable)

Pros:

- Shaving my legs. Ain't gotta do it.

- I don't have to worry about anyone else's schedule, I have a hard enough time keeping up with my own.

-I can decide to randomly sign up for a missions trip to another country without having to consider anyone else. 

- when you split costs of things with a group of friends and you are the only single one in the group they feel bad and sometimes don't make you pay your part. True story. 

- I don't have to share a bed with someone who farts. 

- I don't have to buy any valentines day or anniversary gifts, and for someone who is the worst gift giver ever, this is one of my favorite pros of being single.

- I don't have to know how to cook. 

- by the time I do get married I have enough friends who owe me for helping them with their weddings that I will basically have to do zero of the wedding planning myself. #winning

Cons:

- when you are at a party or gathering you can't use your husband who is waiting at home as an excuse to leave early and apparently "Sorry I can't stay longer I have to get home to my netflix"  isn't a valid reason.

- sometimes being the 3rd, 5th,7th, or even the 9th wheel gets old. 

-you're grandma looks at you with her face as serious as a heart attack and says "do you just not want to be married?? Is that what's wrong?" And also expresses her sadness at the fact that she will be dead before she gets to meet her  great grandchildren. 

- your Facebook news feed basically only consists of engagements, weddings and babies now. 

-sometimes you have to sit by yourself at church and actually become grateful when the ushers make strangers scoot all the way down and sit next to you so you don't look super lame sitting in an entire row by yourself and making people around you wonder if you smell or something.

-you have to limit the amount of romantic movies you watch because they all make you cry. Even the crazy, never really gonna happen, un-realistic, outlandish ones.

-people assume since you are single that you have all the time in the world to do anything you want. Sorry but Angela and Hodgens are announcing that they are having a baby on the next episode of bones, so no I will not be able to attend your party.

Holler at me if you have more pros and cons, I'd love to hear them! (By hear I mean read, please don't call me, I hate talking on the phone) oooo another pro! I don't have to talk to someone on the phone everyday! Whoop, whoop!!

-Jamie 

* Meant to post this before valentines day but forgot to publish it. Whoops. 

Beauty on a budget: Eyes and Lips!!

I'm back with part 2 of some of my favorite drugstore beauty products! Hopefully you read my last post with all my favorite face products and found some of my tips useful :)
The products I am talking about today are all for your eyes and lips!
Enjoy!

Wet n Wild color Icon single eye shadows in nutty and creme brulee: $1.99

These are my go to eye shadows for an everyday neutral eye look. They have great pigmentation, and you seriously can't beat the price.

Maybelline color tattoo cream eye shadow: around $6

I can't remember what shade this is in and I don't have it with me to check but its just a basic champagne/neutral color. These color tattoo eye colors are really great! They are so creamy and blendable. You can use them by themselves or under your other eye shadows as an eye primer and it prevents creasing. I will just swipe this on when I don't have time to do a full eye shadow look and it adds a lil color and shimmer to my lids. I just bought a couple more colors today and one of them was gold rush and its a super shimmery gold color, it is gorgeous! I can't wait to try some new looks with it. I plan on eventually buying all the colors.

Jordana Fabu liner in black: around $3

This has become my favorite liquid eye liner. It has a felt tip that makes it easy to apply and isn't to wet, which is nice when you don't have a super steady hand like I do. And if you are thinking that you can't use liquid eyeliner because its to hard and messy then I say just try. Seriously, I couldn't do liquid eyeliner to save my life when I first tried, but I just kept practicing and I'm not gonna lie, I sometimes still mess up because I am so clumsy but for the most part I can swipe it on pretty fast and neatly now after so much practice. Plus this eyeliner is great for if you just want to try liquid eyeliner because its so cheap, so you aren't throwing away a lot of money if you decide later on that liquid eyeliner isn't for you.

Maybelline eye studio Gel Liner: around $8

If you are looking for a good Gel liner, then this is it. I like to go back and forth between gel and liquid, it just depends on how I'm feeling that day. (I never ever use a crayon or pencil anymore) Gel is great  because you can do the smudgy look really easily with it or use a good eyeliner brush to get a more precise line. I also just recently watched a you tube video with a beauty guru who is a professional make up artist and she recommended this liner. She liked it better then the MAC fluid line which is a super popular gel liner, and its wayyyy cheaper then MAC.

Loreal Voluminous Carbon Black Mascara: around $6

First of all I can't even tell you how many times I have repurchased this product, at least a dozen times because that's how much I like it. I buy other mascaras here and there to try but I always, always end up going back to this one. I use the mascara I am about to show you down below first to just separate and kind of lengthen my lashes a little bit and then throw this on top for some really good thickness. I just had my make up done by a professional at a wedding recently and this was the mascara she used, she said it was her favorite also. She even told me she recently took a make up class by someone who represented a very high end company and the instructor said even though she worked for that company she still used this mascara because it was the best. So there you have it, even the professionals use it and love it!

Maybelline Great Lash Lots of lashes: around $5

Now don't get this one confused with the original great lash mascara that looks almost exactly the same. The brush on this mascara is completely different, it tapers and gets smaller at the end of the brush so its good for getting those small bottom lashes. I love using it for my top lashes too though before I apply my Voluminous Mascara. I also just use this alone when I am not wearing a lot of make up and don't want to wear thick lashes.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Lip Stain in Honey: around $8

 

I love these Lip colors! I only own 2 but this one is my favorite, its kind of a mauve-y color and it gets a tad bit darker when it sits on the lips but I love the color. It is really moisturizing and last a very long time. I eventually plan on buying more colors. 

Rimmel Kate Moss Matte Lipstick: around $4

This is my favorite red lipstick. Although its not really a true red, but I don't think the true red's look that great on me so I lean more towards the darker more berry looking reds. I love this one because it's matte, which I didn't think I would like because I thought it would be really drying on my lips but its not. Now don't get me wrong its not really moisturizing either, but its not gonna dry your lips out. I just make sure my lips aren't cracked or chapped when I wear this lipstick. It also smells really yummy which always sells me on lipsticks because most lipsticks smell gross and chalky to me.

Well there are most of my favorite drugstore products. There are more products I love but these are just the ones I use pretty regularly. Have you tried any of these? What do you think?
-Jamie

Beauty on a Budget!

In case you weren't aware I am obsessed with anything hair or make up related.
But like many people I can't afford to spend a ton of money on high end make up. Don't get me wrong I love high end brands and I even used to only use MAC face products (back when my parents still paid for my make up) and urban decay is my fave for eye shadows but for your basics you can find products that work just as good in the drugstore that are A LOT more affordable.
Over $20 for a tube of mascara??? Ain't gonna happen, you know how fast I go through that stuff??
I am always trying out the newest beauty products at the drugstore to see if its really gonna do what it says. So over time I've collected some favorites that I thought I would share with you!
I think I am going to break up the posts because I have quite a few products to show you :)
Here we go!

Covergirl Outlast 3 in 1 foundation: around $9

 

I recently started using this foundation and I LOVE IT!! I've already used an entire bottle and repurchased it. I do my make up at 5:30 am so I need it to last a really long time for it to look even decent at the end of the day. This does just that. My face doesn't get greasy or oily throughout the day like it usually does and it covers really well. I would say this is a full coverage foundation so if you like more of a light or medium coverage then You may not like it. Although I just don't understand the point of foundation if it isn't full coverage but that's just my opinion. It says it has primer and concealer in it and although I still do use concealer I noticed that I don't need to use it as often as I used to with other foundations, this one covers so well.

Flower BB Cream: $12.98

If you haven't heard of the new brand Flower its a cosmetics line that is only sold at wal mart created by Drew Barrymoore. This is the only product I have tried from this line but I really, really like it. For those days when you don't want to wear a ton of make up you could just use this and with some powder and blush and be done. It really does a great job of evening out your skin tone . Like I said though when I wear face make up I like to wear it to completely cover my face, so I use this under my foundation on days when I know I am going to be busy all day long and need my makeup to last extra, extra long that day. When I do use this I don't need to use concealer at all, it covers everything! It creates a very nice palette on your face to apply the rest of your make up. It is very matte though, so if you like more of a dewy finish with your make up you aren't going to get it with this. Also maybe not the best product for people with super dry skin. This has become one of my favorite face products recently though, I am really impressed with it.

Hard Candy Tattoo Concealer:$6.00

First of all can we talk about how much product you get for the price of this stuff?? Such a good deal.
So this is supposedly supposed to be able to cover tattoos (haven't tried covering mine with it, so I can't vouch for that) so it is obviously a thicker consistency. A little goes a long, long way. I can't even remember when I purchased this but my tube isn't even close to being empty and I wear make up every day. This brand is also only sold at wal mart. (sorry, I hate wal mart too )

Maybelline Mineral powder: around $8.99

I use this powder to set my foundation. There isn't much to say about this product except that it gets the job done. I also sometimes use this for concealer too because  I have combination skin so some days my skin is a little more oily then others and using this powder with a concealer brush directly on my really oily blemishes works extremely well. So its kind of like having 2 products in 1!

NYC Bronzer in Sunny: around $2.79

 

This is a basic matte bronzer that I have repurchased many times. I have tried other bronzers but I always go back to this one. If you like to dust a little bronzer all over your face after your foundation to give you a little color I would suggest this one because it has no shimmer or glitter in it. Especially if you have oily skin you don't want to use a bronzer with any shimmer in it or it will just make your skin look even more oily. I think the color of this bronzer will look good on most skin tones too, plus you can't beat the price!

Wet n Wild Blush in Heather Silk: $2.99

I have a few different blushes that I use but this is the blush I grab for when I I'm not really thinking about it, I know I can trust it to give me a good color every time. You only have to use a little bit and it will give you a lot of color, so you do have to be careful not to use to heavy of a hand when running your brush through it or you may end up looking like a clown. There are other great blush colors in this line that I would have pictured but I broke them :/ oops. Although since they are so inexpensive it wasn't to devastating.

I am not a professional make up artist or anything so if you dis agree with me about any of these that's fine, these are just my opinions that I have formed over time of trying so many different products.

So what are your favorite Beauty products?? I love to hear what everyone else is using!

I will be doing a post highlighting my favorite eye and lip products next so stay tuned!

This is not what I had planned.

K so let me preface this post by saying that I know everything I usually write about is really light hearted and fun but this post will be more on the serious side. Let's be honest though not TO serious.

For some reason it was brought to my attention the other day that I will be turning 25 26 here in a few months. *tear*
Yes, yes I know 26 is not old, and I don't think so either.
Its just that if you would have told me that I would still be single and living with my parents at 26 I would have laughed my butt off at you.
I had plans you guys. Not huge career plans or anything like that just plans for what I thought I would be doing and where I would be by this age. And single and living with my parents was not on the Agenda. Not even close.

See, when I was younger I was very innocent/ and or Ignorant (whichever you prefer) and because my parents had gotten married when they were 20 and then had me right away I just assumed that's how my story would unfold also.

I truly believe I was put on this earth to be a wife and a mother. I believe it's what God has called me to do. So when I assumed I would be married and having kids really young I was totally ok with that. Which is probably the reason I hung on to the crazy idea that my life would look just like my parents.
I remember when kids were filling out scholarship applications and trying to pick which college to go to I was daydreaming of when I would meet my husband. I had zero interest in going to college. And some people might think I was just lazy and not motivated but now I know that wasn't it. I just was not called to go to college. Some people just aren't meant to go to college. Whether or not you agree with that I don't really care.

Now fast forward 8 years and I am still daydreaming about meeting my husband and coming up with as many ridiculous baby names as I can. I have people who sometimes ask me "Aren't you supposed to be married with like 3 kids by now?" Well according to my plans yes I was. But thank God that he had different plans for me. Looking back at myself when I was 20 I was so not ready for marriage. If I had gotten married at that age it quite possibly would have been to the wrong person and who knows if it would have lasted. Don't get me wrong I am totally not bashing young marriages at all! I think it's awesome when people find their significant other and are able to get married at a young age, that just means more years you get to spend with them, which is fantastic :)

But.....
I would be lying though if I said I don't occasionally think
"man I just wish I was married already" or......
"omg my eggs are dying, I don't have much baby making time left"
 JK.
 kind of.
But that's when I tell myself that God's plans are greater then mine. He knows what's best for me. It all comes down to having faith in knowing that God does have a plan for me (Jer 29:11) and plans for an abundant life (John 10:10)  and that he has given me the desires that I hold in my heart. And also trusting that his plans are far greater then any plans I could come up with myself.

Side note: I have a bone to pick with everyone that says "You have to be content being by yourself and quit wanting to get married before God will bring you your husband"
Being ok with not having a significant other I do agree with. I don't need a boyfriend/husband to bring me joy, Jesus does that. But I believe the desire to be married is God given and to try and push it aside and pretend its not there is just crazy.
Yes I really, really desire to be married.
Does that make me desperate?
Absolutely not.
If I was I would have probably already settled.

So all of that to say that am not even close to being where I thought I would be at almost 26 years old.
Am I ok with that?
On most days yes because it just makes me excited knowing and anticipating the great things God does have planned for me if I am just patient and obedient to his word. But I mean I'm human so some days I still can allow myself to become bitter about my plans not panning out. And On those days I just take it to God.
When I have negative thoughts come in my head about it I try and nip them in the bud because if allow them to hang around to long they then tend to turn into complaining and so I've found myself recently saying "I want your will, not mine Lord. Have your way in my life"
Sometimes I have to tell myself this several times a day. The more I say it though, the quieter those negative and unsatisfying thoughts are until eventually I don't hear them anymore.
I would suggest trying it the next time something doesn't go your way. I say it even when it's simple things like for example if I thought I was going to have time to take a nap one day and then realized I really wouldn't have time(I like my sleep people!) I will say "Your will, not mine Lord"
In that specific scenario I will say an extra prayer because when I don't have a nap I need a holy spirit intervention to get through the day (but for real). This may seem silly to you but I believe God cares about the little things, like when I am exhausted and my hair is doing that weird poofy/frizzy/ugly thing.

Now you know all the not so secret plans I had for myself when I was 18. And how they didn't happen.
But again, its cool.
What would also be cool is if when you all wish me Happy Birthday this year if you just pretend I am turning 25 again k??
Thanks peeps, you da' best!

Oh look, me jumping for joy and I'm not even married yet. Imagine that.

I'm out.
-Jamie

Pretty Pictures & some Sweetie Brown.

Where else can I unashamedly post several pictures of myself and my sister other then my blog??

No where.

So lucky you ;)

We like to occasionally go out and take pictures of ourselves in new spots as sort of a trial run to take other people's pictures there. I have to admit that my sister takes really great photos and she gets mad because she feels like the ones I take of her aren't as good. Why? because you guys she is 6 feet tall! I am only like 5'7 and photographing super tall people is kind of hard without a step stool or ladder and I always, always forget to bring one with us. I still think her pictures are super cute though, you should tell her how cute they are too :)

{My sister thinks I look like Kacie B. from the Bachelor in these photos...do we agree??}

{obviously there was no need to use the arrows to point out our tattoo's, I just like arrows so get over it k??}

There were a lot more pictures but let's be honest...

uploading them all that is.
Gosh. I love me a sweetie brown meme.
Later Alligator's,
-Jamie

That one time a stray cat gave birth on my porch.

{couldn't leave this post without a good Ron Swanson quote}

So yeah that totally happened.
And I'm gonna tell you about it.
I wanted to try and keep up with blogging through the week but didn't really have anything to write about today so I thought I would tell you a story. A very true story.
I also should preface this by saying that I don't really like cats. Like at all. Sorry if you are reading this and you are a cat lover, no offense I just kind of hate them.


So on to the story.......

About 5 years ago I shared an apartment with 3 of my friends and one night a stray cat made it's way onto our patio, and since one of my roommates was a cat lover she went outside to pet it. She came back in and told us she thought the cat was pregnant. My immediate reaction?? "No way. How would you even know that? Are you a vet or something??" I know rude right? I learned later that evening that it was wrong of me to have such little faith in her cat pregnancy wisdom.

So sure enough later that night the cat went into labor on our porch. OUR PORCH YOU GUYS.
Have you ever seen a cat give birth??
ITS GROSS.
And then you have all these kittens that look like rats crawling all over your patio and you freak out because Hello they were just born why are they crawling everywhere?? They cant even open their eyes yet but they just made it completely across the patio.
Oh and conveniently my roommate who actually likes cats went to bed before the cat ended up giving birth leaving my roommate and I (cat haters) to deal with it. (Thanks Stacy!)
And my other roommate has an extreme & unhealthy fear of rats and mice and since the kittens very closely resembled just that, she was no help either.
So I was left to gather all these kittens who had gone in every direction after they were born without being killed by the mom and put them in a cardboard box.
I felt like I was gathering a bunch of wet rats. Sorry for the visual, but it took everything in me not to vomit.

The cat made our porch her home for an entire day after that and then disappeared. Do cats have pouches they carry their young in like kangaroos or something?? How did she transport all of them to another location?? We will never know.

So the moral of the story is when your roommate tells you a cat is prego, believe her.
AND THEN RUN.
FAR AWAY.
Trust me peeps, not something you want to see.

-Jamie