Mary Kay Vox Box from Influenster (pic heavy)

Hello Lovelies! Today I will be reviewing the Mary Kay Vox Box from Influenster.

The Box included:

• Mary Kay Lash Primer - $15
• Mary Kay Lash Love Lengthening Mascara - $15
• Mary Kay Cream Eye Color in Violet Storm - $14
• Mary Kay Cream Eye Color/Concealer Brush - $10
• Mary Kay True Dimensions Lipstick in Rose Cherie - $18

Holly Jolly Christmas Tag!

1. Do you start your Christmas shopping on Black Friday or wait until the last minute?

I normally start pretty early, but never end up finishing until the last minute. This year is looking to be the same way, seeing as it's already Dec 10th and I have only bought one present...

2. If you could be in any Christmas movie what would it be?

The Grinch!!! I would absolutely love to live in WhoVille!

3. Which do you like better: Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

Christmas Day. When I was little, I always loved Christmas Eve because we would always go to my aunt's house to open presents and pop fireworks, and it was super exciting knowing "Santa" would be coming later, but as I've grown up I am more partial to Christmas Day

4. When does your family put up your Christmas tree and who decorates it? 

I always decorate it :) I've never had a set date, just whenever I get in the mood. Usually around the first week of December. This year I put it up in the last week of November.

  

5. White lights or colored lights?

White definitely for the tree. Outside lights can be colored as long as they're not blue. Don't get me started on my hatred of blue Christmas lights...

6. Are you guilty of peeking at your presents or do you like the surprise?

I prefer the surprise. One year (I was 13 I believe) my mother was gone for the day and I unwrapped all of my presents, then wrapped them back haha. Christmas morning definitely wasn't as fun because I already knew what everything was. Granted, I do normally pick out my own presents, but there are always a few surprises :)

7. Would you rather live in a gingerbread house or in Santa's Workshop?

Santa's Workshop! I just think of the movie The Santa Clause and how fun it looked

8. Tell us your Christmas Eve traditions!

As I said before, when I was little we all went to my aunt's house. We quit doing that around 3/4 years ago and started going to a cousin's house. We always go to my husband's family usually the day before Christmas Eve, or the day after Christmas.

9. If you could be under the mistletoe with anyone who would it be?

My husband I guess :)

10. What tops your tree?

An atrocious bow... Well, the bow itself isn't that bad. But the ribbon I did it with doesn't blend with the rest of the tree, and I couldn't get it in the perfect position. I'm a bit obsessive when it comes to Christmas decorations lol

11. Can you name the 12 days of Christmas?

I can do about 9...

12. Have you ever gone Christmas caroling?

No.

13. Do you countdown to Christmas? If so, how many days are left?

I used to have a countdown decoration, but I always forgot to change it... 

14. What are some foods and treats you can count on having every holiday season?

Better Than Sex Pie! Omg it is so delicious! I will have to post the recipe one day. And of course the typical turkey/ham/dressing. I am a total pig around the holidays...

15. How has Christmas kept its magic for you as you've grown older?

I am the only one who tries to keep up the Christmas magic lol. If it was left to the rest of my family we probably wouldn't do anything. Even though I try to convince them that it's the most wonderful time of the year (also my fav Christmas song. Click it, you know you want to!), they don't see it like I do.

Beauty Bloggers Vox Box 2012

I know it's been a while, but let me first say that I think 2012 is trying to kill me... Without a doubt, this has been the worst year of my life. My father got really sick in April and passed away on July 1st, my husband's Grandfather (who raised him and was essentially his father) passed away on November 2nd, then I came down with a sickness that I can only describe as the Plague. Okay maybe not that bad... 2012 can officially kiss my ass. If I make it to 2013, I will formally kiss it's ass :) But enough about my horrible year...

Today I will be reviewing/showing what I received in the Beauty Bloggers Vox Box. All in all, I was pretty impressed with it.

 swatched over included primer

close up of the Illuminator

• NYC IndividualEyes Eyeshadow Quad in Union Square for Brown Eyes - I actually already owned this exact one, so I used my old one for swatching purposes. I really like it! The bronzy shade is my fav! They are decently pigmented on their own, which is great considering it retails for only $4.99. Over primer, the pigmentation is awesome! It comes with 4 eyeshadows, a primer, and an illuminator. This was actually the first primer I ever used. It works pretty well too. It's great at making your shadows more pigmented. The lasting power isn't as good as some others I've tried, but you can get a good 6-7 hours with it. Or at least that is the case with the one I already own. When I bought mine they weren't labeled for brown/blue/green eyes. They may have changed the formula since then.

• Kiss EverPro Lashes - I feel I must admit that I am not a false lash user. Not because I don't like them, but because I have never been able to get them to work. I figured since these came with a handy dandy applicator that I would have better luck, but alas I did not. So I can't really tell you that much about them :( They do look like they would be super dramatic/obviously fake when worn. The glue smelled like Elmers... not sure what that says. I wish I could tell you more, but I don't know what it is with me and lashes. I try to place them and it will not stay. I let the glue get tacky, but no luck. It will stick to the inner corner, then when I try to make it stick to the outer corner, it detaches from the inner. Maybe my eyes are just shaped weird *shrug* 

• Goody Simple Styles Spin Pin - I have used these before and let me tell you, they are amazing! No matter how thick your hair is, it shouldn't take more than two of these to make your hair stay up! I personally only use one... They last super long, and are super comfy! Love Love Love!

• Not Your Mothers Frizz Control Hair Cream -  I had a love/hate relationship with this. It smells amazing! It actually does reduce the frizziness of your hair. But it is so sticky! When my hair was wet, it was so bad that my hair actually stuck to my hands as I was trying to dry it. And you would think that maybe I put too much, but I only used about a dime sized amount. Once the hair is dry, I didn't really notice a stickiness. But it kinda makes the ends of your hair feel super dry. But once I straightened my hair, I didn't notice it. I don't know if it was my heat protectant that nourished it back to life, or if I got used to it...

• White Barn Candle in Nutmeg and Spice - Not much to say about it except it smelled great! It didn't have as much of a scent throw as the bigger ones do, but for it's size it was pretty good.

Well that's all folks! There was also another one of the Eboost energy powder things that you add to water, but I forgot to take a photo of it. But since I already talked about it in the Naturals Vox Box post, it's all good :) Sorry once again for being so MIA this year :) I promise to try and make 2013 better! Until Next Time!  <3 Rebecca


P.S. I wrote a post around the beginning of November that I just noticed I never published... My bad. Which is kind of a good thing cause after re-reading it, it's one huge ramble that makes absolutely no sense. I may try to salvage it, but basically it was just me saying that I'm currently doing a "use it up" project, where I'm trying to use up all the haircare/skincare/lotion I have accumulated. It's insane how much of a hoarder I am... So expect a few "recent empties" posts coming up soon :) That is all...

NOTD Zoya Caitlin

Today I have a quick NOTD featuring Zoya Caitlin. This is one of those colors that I always hear about, but never purchased. Anytime I asked someone for a recommendation of what polish to get from Zoya, they always told me Caitlin. Looking at pictures (these included), I never saw what the big deal was about it. Just a regular bluish gray...
 Well last time I ordered from Zoya I had to pick out 6 polishes (they were having a BOGO sale and if you had 6+ bottles you got free shipping. I started out with 4 but once shipping was added, it was only $2 cheaper than if I had gotten 6. So $2 for 2 more bottles sounded like a great deal to me...) After looking around the site and picking my fav's, and of course asking SayAnythingBr00ke what she recommended... which ended up being Zuza and Caitlin. So I figured what the hell! Everyone says it's awesome, and I do like gray...
OMG guys! This is the more perfect beautiful color ever! For some reason, it just does not photograph well! In person, it is kind of what you see in pictures, but so much more! It is gray, obviously, but there is also blue and purple if you hold it in the right light. In short (not that any of this was short) it is now in my top 5 polishes of all time! Seriously, so beautiful! So without further ado, here are the (not very accurate) photos!

Excuse my nubby nails... I had broken 4 nails in 2 days, so I got aggravated and filed them all down... and as you'll notice, I didn't apply my topcoat very carefully so there are some tiny bubbles. And this had been on for about 3 days by the time I remembered to take a picture...

Review: Alice In Wonderland EOS Balms

Hello Lovelies! Today I will be reviewing the Limited Edition Alice In Wonderland EOS Lip Balms (found only at Target). When I first heard about these I was super excited :) NOt because I am a huge Alice fan, but because the flavors/scents sounded wonderful! Then I heard they were only at Target and cried a little inside because I live nowhere near one... But thankfully my little sister needed a Homecoming dress so I tagged along so that I could go to Target and try to find them! As you can see below, I was successful...

 The back

It contains 3 flavors, Blueberry Potion, Watermelon Wonderland, and Sweet Vanilla Nonsense. I was most excited about Sweet Vanilla Nonsense, but as it turns out, it is my least favorite because it isn't very heavily scented...

• Blueberry Potion - Probably my favorite. I was a little worried about this one because I don't like strong candy-like blueberry scents. But this, to me, smells like blueberry muffin batter. It's got the blueberry, but it also has a sweet bakery-type scent to it also. 
• Watermelon Wonderland -  I was kind of worried about this one too because I am picky with watermelon scents also. But it has a nice smell, kind of like other watermelon lip products you see/smell. It also reminds me of a not as strong watermelon bubblegum.
• Sweet Vanilla Nonsense - As I said before, this was the one I was most excited about, and if they had sold them individually, the only one I would have bought. Kinda glad they didn't because it kinda sucks. It smells very "plasticky". Once it's on your lips, you can kind of smell the vanilla, but not really. I am disappoint...

As for the formula, to me they are exactly like the other EOS balms I've tried. Probably not the best lip balm in the world, but definitely one of my favorites. Here are some more photos...

On the seal, they have a cute little Micky Mouse design, where the regular ones have just that little circle, without the ears. As seen on my Summer Fruit one...

Disney sticker on the bottom

My poor deformed Blueberry Potion. When I was trying to pull it out of the package, I didn't realize that I had unscrewed it some and when I jerked it out, the lid came off and my fingernail dug into it :(

When you get all the balms out of the packaging, and remove the plastic panel, there is a really cute picture inside. But somehow I forgot to photo it, and I have already cut it out and taped it above my vanity... I suppose I could have just took a picture of it on my wall, but I didn't think about it until now... It shows them all sitting at a table and says "Very few things indeed were really impossible". I love that :) If you would like to see how it looks you can visit Nouveau Cheap's blog about it. She had the sense to take a picture before cutting it up and taping it to the wall...unlike myself. Well that's all for now :) Untill Next Time  <3 Rebecca

Naturals VoxBox 2012

Hello Beauties :) I know I've been gone for a really long time... It's a very long and complicated story but in short, after a very long and hard 3 months, my father passed away in July. I was going to do a whole blog post about it, explaining where I've been, but I just can't find the right things to say. Or if I even want to say anything. So I figured instead of waiting months and months until I feel up to it, I would just go ahead and start back up and if I feel like talking about it later, well then I can do it later :)

Today I have the Naturals Vox Box from Influenster. In case you don't know what that is, I will explain it really quickly... Influenster has "VoxBoxes" that they send out periodically. If you want to join, it is completely free. All you do is go to their website, click Request An Invite (which is totally new... I just signed out to see what you click and I could have sworn when I signed up it just said "register" or something like that... I guess once you do this they will send you an email saying you can join?) then enter your email, name, stuff like that... Once you are a member, you complete "badges" which consists of taking surveys to see if you fit in with the badge. As in, if you want the Beauty Badge, you click it and take a survey which asks you different questions about beauty related things and if you qualify, you get the badge. When they are having a VoxBox going on, if you fit the criteria (aka, if it's a beauty box and you have the beauty badge) you will get an email saying you qualify, and it gives you directions on how to get it.

I just made that sound so confusing lol... I swear it took me 30 minutes just to type out that paragraph... I apologize, it's 4am, I haven't slept, and my brain isn't working... If you didn't manage to follow that, which I don't blame you if you didn't... Go watch this video by SayAnythingBr00ke, she explains it much better than me... But now, On with the box!

                                                                    When I opened the box...

The card with everything on it

                                             
EBoost - This is a powder that you add to your water. The package says it's "A proprietary formula of vitamins, minerals, and super-nutrients, that deliver a boost of energy and immunity in an easy to mix effervescent packet". Obviously I can't tell if it is indeed a great source of vitamins and nutrients... But I can tell you that it tasted like orange... As for the caffeine, I didn't notice a difference. But I am pretty much immune to caffeine seeing as I drink it constantly... But it did taste nice :) if you like orange that is...

 It came with a coupon and recipe suggestions

Tea Recipe                                              

Nectresse - This is, as the package says, a sweetener. Now I will go ahead and say that I am not a huge fan of sugar-substitutes. They all leave a weird aftertaste to me. This one didn't have a horrible aftertaste, but I could still tell it was there. If you like sweeteners though, you will probably like this one

 Card that came with it

GeoDeo - Oh how I wanted to love you. First off, it smells amazing! But I'm afraid that's all I loved about it. One thing, I'm not very big on gel-type deodorants. It seemed to take forever to dry, and when it did "dry" it was super sticky. Which didn't last too long, but neither did the rest of it. Not going to go into any gross details, I'll just say it was a good thing I tested this out on a day I was home and not out in public...

Look at that cute little bee!

LypSyl LypMoisturizer - Now this I like :) It feels SOOO smooth and soft on your lips! It has a minty scent but it's not very powerful. (for reference, I hate anything mint flavored/scented but this doesn't bother me) It's also got another scent to it, but I can't place it and it's driving me insane. I suppose it could be the beeswax... The only issue I have with it, is that after about 15 minutes, you can't feel the actual product on your lips anymore. I guess it sinks in, cause your lips feel very moisturized, but when you rub your lips together, you can't feel it anymore.

Country Life Maxi- Hair Vitamins - After taking these, my nails did seem to be a bit stronger. I didn't notice any significant growth though. (although, it does just promise "healthier nails" not longer...) I want to think that my hair is a bit stronger, but I think it's just in my head because I want it to be true lol. The only issue I have with these is that they're $17.99 for 60. They would have to do some serious business in order for me to purchase them. Which they have not... Not saying they're bad. They actually seem to work a bit, just not $18 worth...

Trying to show the size of it, but some of it got cut off

And last but definitely not least...

The Original Dish Drying Mat - Is it odd that this was what I was most excited about? Granted, I do already own one... They are just so handy to have around! Especially if you are only washing a few dishes, you don't have to (in my case at least) drag out the big dish drain. It's super absorbent, and when it gets dirty, you just throw it in the washing machine. Absolutely love this :)

Well that's all I got in my Naturals VoxBox :) Overall I was really impressed & happy with it. I know the vitamins were a part of the "extras" so if you got one, what was your extra? Hope you enjoyed this post :) I will be back soon with more reviews/hauls/whatever other random crap I post :) Until next time, <3 Rebecca

P.S. It was supposed to come with CleanWell Hand Sanitizer Wipes, but mine didn't have any :( I don't know if they ran out or just forgot to give them to me...