January 2013 Favorites

My January Favorites

While I'm always vaguely terrified by how quickly the days fly by, I really look forward to doing these monthly favorites post.

However, between trying out a slew of Christmas and birthday products and being so sick that I didn't wear a stitch of makeup for a week, my list for January is pretty paltry.

To make up for the lack of products, I decided to include a few little random favorites - mainly because I personally love hearing about people's favorites in non-makeup categories on occasions because you never know when you might come across a gem and I think it helps you get to the blogger or video maker a little better.  

Laura Geller Fresh Brewed Beauty AD Shipment 2

Last week when I was in the middle of my miserable cold, the UPS man delivered the second installment in QVC's Laura Geller Fresh Brewed Beauty TSV.

Now, you know I must have felt pretty awful when I tell you that the box sat unopened for a three - three! - days.  Usually when makeup goodies arrive on my doorstep, I drop whatever I'm doing to look at the products and do some quick swatches.

The cold had knocked me on my ass so hard that even the promise of new makeup couldn't lure me out of bed.

So when I felt a little better this weekend, I was happy to play around with the new shades.

This and That: BE Ready Foundation Update, MAC Archie Girls Collection & Drugstore Makeup

BE Ready Foundation

1) Since I'm finally feeling better, I didn't mind playing around with makeup yesterday so I decided to try out the tips that Leslie Blodgett from Bare Escentuals shared for the Ready Foundation in the videos I posted about the other day to see if I liked it any better.

It was only one time but yeah...I did like it better.

Too Faced Boudouir Beauty Collection - Boudouir Eyes and Sweethearts Blush

Too Faced Boudoir Beauty Collection for Spring 2013

I always look forward to Too Faced's seasonal collections - from the packaging to the products themselves, there's usually something that just calls my name.

For Spring 2013, Too Faced offers the Boudoir Beauty collection, which features products that are designed to give you a really soft, romantic look. 

I love that kind of look, so this collection is definitely right up my alley.

In particular, the Boudoir Eyes Soft & Sexy Eye Shadow Collection ($36) and Sweethearts Blush ($29) caught my eye.

bareMinerals Ready Foundation Tips

So the cold that I was trying so desperately to fight off last week has been kicking my butt pretty good since the weekend.

I choose to be positive, so all I keep telling myself is, at least it's not the flu.

That said, I haven't worn a stitch of makeup (unless you count Chapstick) or really even thought about makeup all week.

Still, an interesting e-mail popped up in my inbox from bareMinerals the other day and I thought the info was worth sharing.

I've made it pretty clear how disappointed I was with the new Ready Pressed Foundation here and here.

Too Faced The Return of Sexy Palette

The first time I saw promo photos of Too Faced's The Return of Sexy Palette ($48), I'm pretty sure I fell half in love with it on the spot.

I am a total sucker for shimmer, and in the photos, that's all the palette seemed to be - 15 ridiculously beautiful, shimmer filled eye shadows.

The colors themselves weren't that much of a sell for me (If I'm honest, I've probably got shades just like them in my collection already), but all that shimmering goodness just did me in.

bareMinerals Return to Radiance AD Shipment 3

I'm sorry that I've been MIA this week - I've been fighting off a cold, so I've been really tired and cranky.

But few things make me feel better than some new makeup, so it was perfect timing when my UPS guy showed up with the third installment of the bareMinerals Return to Radiance TSV from QVC on Monday.

Well, the Nyquil definitely helped too.

Tarte Journey to Natural Beauty TSV from QVC

Tarte Journey to Natural Beauty TSV

A new year, a new round of makeup TSV's from QVC for me - I bet no one is surprised.

On February 5th, Tarte will be offering the Journey to Natural Beauty Collection for $59.94 (+s/h & taxes) on QVC.  Of course, I ordered early (because Tarte products are like crack to me) but my confirmation email had the delivery date listed in February so I wasn't expecting to receive the kit until after the TSV actually aired.

Imagine my excitement when it showed up on my doorstep earlier this week.

And because of my tedious computer issues, I've had a few days to play with collection before writing this post so I feel like I can give more informed opinions about the products than I usually do in these TSV previews.

New Year's Resolutions

I usually don't make any beauty related resolutions.

I see makeup as a really fun hobby, so if I'm a little overenthusiastic and have way more than the average person could ever really need, I cut myself some slack since my other "hobbies" (i.e. obsessively following baseball and hockey (sometimes football when the Jets aren't making total asses of themselves) and reading, mainly) don't eat up a whole lot of money.

And I usually stick to my monthly beauty budget so I can't really work up the motivation to make a resolution to go on a no-buy or try Project 10 again (I've failed at it on about 5 separate occasions, for the record) or any of those kinds of things.

That said, I really want to resolve to get the most out of my makeup in 2013 and because I have such a large collection, I think that does necessitate a few changes.

Experiencing Technical Difficulities...

It may only be Tuesday, but I feel confident saying that I'm having one of those anything-that-can-go-wrong-will weeks.

So the lack of blog posts doesn't mean that I've disappeared or become even lazier in the new year - my computer is just being a pain in the ass.

The good news is that it's still under warranty (because I just bought it in July... and it's already falling apart.  Can't really vouch for the quality here) and the tech is coming tomorrow to do the repairs.

The guy that I spoke to on the phone thinks that it might be a problem with the motherboard.

Now, I know next to nothing about computers, but that certainly doesn't sound good. 

Blech.

In the mean time, I have to use one of the slowest computers known to man.  It's bad enough to use for work stuff, but I can't bring myself to spend any more time on it for blog posts.

I will hopefully be back with a new post tomorrow night.

Thanks for your patience.

Best New Products of 2012 (and One Big Disappointment)

If I sat down and tried to write a post about my favorite products of this past year, it would be a novel.

Seriously.

There are tons of products that I loved in 2012, but some of them I've loved for years now and I've already mentioned them more than enough times on this blog anyway.

Instead, I thought I'd focus on new products that I found this year that really knocked my socks off.  Now, I've probably blogged about some of them plenty of times but this will be my last word on them, I swear.

Happy New Year!

Hopefully, we're all recovered from last night's festivities so here's wishing everyone a very happy, healthy and successful 2013!

Personally, I think this is going to be a good year.  In the first quarter alone, there's my birthday, the blog turning a year old (with a pretty amazing giveaway planned!), and a little escape to Vegas for a few days in March.

I'm pretty excited.

I've also got plenty of resolutions that I likely won't keep, but that's par for the course.  I'll be sharing some of my beauty-related ones in the next couple of days, actually, because I can definitely use some advice from you guys.

I hope you guys have settled on some good resolutions too and you manage to stick with them all year long.

Thanks for making this first year with the blog so much fun.  I have a feeling that it's only going to get better in 2013.

Happy New Year!

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