Weekend Pamper

I like a good pamper, especially on the weekends when I have extra time to go that extra step in my routine. Tonight I slapped on a new mask, the Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque. This is a frugal favorite as this huge tube is only $3-4 and will last forever. I have to say I really liked this mask as I felt like it did a good job detoxing my pores and giving my skin a radiant boost without being painfully tingly. The only minor negative is that the tube is hard to squeeze! Then I exfoliated my lips with Lush's Bubblegum Lip Scrub and followed that up with Nuxe Reve de Miel Lip Balm. 

Meanwhile, my feet got into the action as I banished callouses with my Microplane Foot File (not pictured). This thing is freakin amazing, like a Ped Egg on steroids. I then slathered my tootsies with The Body Shop's Spa Wisdom Africa Honey & Beeswax Hand and Foot Butter before slipping on a pair of spa socks. While my feet softened up, I cleaned up my cuticles with the Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover and the Ulta Cuticle Trimmer. I never really paid attention to my cuticles before, but I have to admit this little step make a huge difference in the appearance of my nails! When it comes to polish I used Revlon Trade Winds on my hands and China Glaze Wicked Style on my toes. Of course, I also used my old standbys Orly Bonder and Seche Vite as base and top coats, respectively.

I'm not much of a bath soaker, so I kind of whizzed through that step with a shower, but some days I also give my hair a good deep condition with the Shiseido Tsubaki Hair Treatment. That's it for today, until next week's pamper session!

April Ipsy Glam Bag - Pretty in Pink

Hey all - sorry for the absence! I just started a new job and my current commute is a total b*tch! Hopefully things will improve in a few weeks as I'm planning on relocating shortly. On the plus side, since I've received a significant raise, I can buy more stuff! Haha, not sure if that's good or bad.

Anyway, my April Ipsy Glam Bag arrived in the mail today! This month has a "Pretty in Pink" theme and lucky me because pink is my favorite color. I'm not a huge fan of the bag which is pretty meh and sure to get dirty quickly. But here's what was inside...

be a bombshell blush in beach please - I've been on a bit of a hot pink blusher kick with recent purchases including NYX Pinky, NYX cream blush in Hot Pink and thebalm instain blusher in Lace. I love the name and the formula seems pretty decent.

MICA Beauty Shimmer Powder in 72 Earth - I'm not normally a fan of loose powders and pigments as they are more trouble than they're worth. However, this color is gorgeous and I think I'm going to be reaching for this a lot in the upcoming weeks. It's a fairly sheer light pink with heavy shimmer. This is going to look great with some smudgy brown liner.

Sation Nail Lacquer in Of Corset I'll Call You - Okay, looks like this company is following in OPI's footsteps of punny polish names. This bubblegum pink shade is an ipsy exclusive. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks very appropriate for spring and summer.

Healthy Sexy Hair Soy Renewal Nourishing Styling Treatment - According to the bottle, you can use this on damp hair to speed up blow drying time or on dry hair as a frizz reducing styling product. It also contains argan oil.

So that's this month's bag! I'm a little on the fence about continuing my membership. On one hand, I feel like $10 a month is a good value for a few little treats, but on the other, I have SO MUCH STUFF that I don't know what to do with it all. I guess I'll mull it over a few weeks and decide whether to cancel or not. How do you feel about beauty boxes?

Wet N Wild Limited Edition Spring Forward 8 Pan Palettes - Review & Swatches

There's nothing I hate more than driving all over town looking for limited edition products. Fortunately, I found an almost full display of these Wet N Wild shadows at the first CVS I went to. Score! Okay, well, maybe there's one thing I hate more and that is when retailers price above MSRP, especially when the MSRP is written all over the display. CVS had these priced at $5.49 each, although the display said $4.99. Not cool CVS.

I've just recently discovered the cheap and cheerful joys of Wet N Wild eyeshadows, so when I heard there was a neutral palette, I knew I had to pick it up. Nude Awakening contains 8 neutral, nude shadows ranging from ecru and taupe to gunmetal and a near black. The brown crease shade on the left is matte, while the others have more of a satin or glittery finish. This palette was a no brainer for me and something I'm sure to get a lot of use out of.

Going in the Wild however, was an impulse purchase and one that I'm glad I made. First off, can I just say the name "Going in the Wild" sounds weird and almost grammatically incorrect and makes me think of peeing outside. Now that I got that off my chest, I really surprised myself with how much I'm enjoying these pastel colors. I love the violet crease shade and I'm obsessed with mint anything right now.

As with other Wet N Wild shadows, these all have a buttery soft texture and are easy to blend. I appreciate that these shades aren't as super glittery as some of their other shadows though. My favorite thing about these palettes though has to be the packaging - I love the white and the little flowers on the front - how very spring time!

Asparagus Bacon Pasta

Since I neglected Tasty Tuesday for so long, you get a 2fer today including a recipe!

I love pasta. It's quick, easy, can be healthy and there are an almost infinite ways to make it. One of my favorites is a quick toss with bacon and asparagus. This is also great with spinach or peas, but really you could pick any of your favorite veggies. Here's how to do it.

Asparagus & Bacon Pasta

Pasta - I used thin spaghetti, but you can use whatever you have on hand
Bacon, cut into little pieces, 1-2 slices per person
Asparagus, cut into 1" pieces, I like a lot!
Garlic or garlic powder, to taste
Lemon
Parmesan cheese, grated, handful
Red pepper flakes, just a pinch
Salt

Bring a pot of water to boil and cook pasta according to package instructions

Cook bacon until almost crispy. Drain most of the fat and add asparagus and garlic. If your asparagus is really thick you will probably want to blanch them first - it's easy just add to the pasta pot about 2 minutes before pasta is set to be done

Add drained pasta to pan. Season to taste with lemon juice, parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes and salt. 

Eat! 

I love carbs so I like to serve my pasta with parmesan garlic bread. To make the bread, I just spread some butter on bread (any kind, but I like baguettes) and top with garlic powder and parmesan then stick in my toaster oven until golden.


Really, I'm embarrassed to even call that a recipe. It's more of a method that you could use with anything. Like I said I really like spinach or peas as well. It might also be good with something like tuna instead of bacon. Or left over chicken or ham. Oh and in the picture above, I topped my pasta with Onion Crunch. I'm kind of addicted to the stuff which is sort of like French's Fried Onions, but not exactly. It reminds me more of the fried shallots you can get at Asian markets. I bought a huge jar of Onion Crunch at Costco and add it to everything. So unhealthy lol.

Easter Candy Haul

Despite the image above, I really don't eat a lot of candy. Or even sweets in general. I've offered up boxes of year old Girl Scout cookies to friends who were shocked by my will power (or maybe horrified by old cookies). Put a basket of fries in front of me though and that's a different story.

For some reason these candies were just calling my name the other day while I perused the aisles of Target. I'm not a fan of Peeps but I do like chocolate covered marshmallows - these Milk Chocolate Covered Peeps are still yellow in the middle, although the shape is a little different. I was also intrigued by these Peepsters which come in milk or dark chocolate with marshmallow creme in the middle. I can't remember ever eating Marshmallow Fluff, but the creme inside these tasted almost like frosting. They were okay, but I feel like this bag might still be hanging around next year. Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs just make me think of childhood, or rather my junior high years. You see, when I was little I remember asking my mom about these Cadbury Creme Eggs and she told me that they had real eggs in the middle and that I didn't like eggs. It wasn't until junior high that I finally got up the courage to eat one and discovered it was a sugary creme that LOOKED like an egg inside. Well you'd better believe I made my mom go buy multiple cases of Cadbury Creme Eggs at Costco and I ate one at lunch every day. No wonder I got so fat. These mini eggs are much more reasonable for daily consumption with only 40 calories each! Finally, from Trader Joe's I picked up a bag of Bunny Gummy Tummies. I do really like my gummies and these have a tiny little bit of liquid inside like Gushers (remember those??).

Normally my cheap ass would wait until the day after Easter so I could buy them at 50% off, but the last few candy holidays (Halloween, Valentine's Day) my strategy backfired and there was nothing left!  This should be enough sugar to hold me over until the next holiday though. Wait... is there anything between Easter and Halloween?? Mother's Day?

March Glossybox - Spring Fling

Another month, another Glossybox. I have to admit, these beauty boxes have been kind of underwhelming for me recently. Maybe it's time I took a break or quit completely? I mean, I spend about $30/month on my two boxes (Glossybox and Ipsy) which is money that could be well used for something else. Well we'll see. This month I received the following:

Elite Models Liner in Matt Brown (full size $15) - I'm kind of glad to have a matte brown liner. When I swatched this on my hand I was impressed with the staying power, but it's not faring as well on my oilier eyelids. Also the nib is kind of weird, not really a brush, not really a felt tip, it's more like a stick!

Koh Gen Do Cosmetics Oriental Plants Emollient Cream (full size $123) - I love expensive face creams, who doesn't?? I haven't tried this yet, but it's a decent sized sample at nearly 1/4 of the full size!

ModelCo Cheek + Lip Tint in Rosy Red(full size $24) - I was hoping this would be the hot pink color of the tube, but it is cherry red just like Benetint or theBalm one or the Body Shop one. It kind of grosses me out when I first squeeze it out of the tube because it looks like blood. I generally like these, but how do you apply them without getting your fingers all red?? Also this one smells like candy!

Prestiche Essential Oil Bar Soap in Lemongrass (full size $16.99) - I like the way this smells and I'm sure I'll use it. The company also included a $40 gift voucher, which I thought was generous until I checked out their website and realized most of their products cost more than that! That's a little pricey for body products.

Sebastian Professional Shaper Fierce (full size $17) - I'm trying to use more hairspray, but I just don't! I have literally 20 million bottles of mini hairsprays now. Thanks beauty boxes.

That's it for March. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what to do about this whole beauty box thing. What do you guys think? Which boxes do you subscribe to?

Limited Edition Maybelline Baby Lips - Complete Set Review and Swatches

L to R: Twinkle, Melon Mania, Pink Wink, Coral Crush, Yummy Plummy

Same order as above

This post is quite belated because I picked up these Maybelline Limited Edition Baby Lips earlier this year, but I think you may still be able to find them in store. I actually ended up ordering all of them on eBay because I was going crazy driving around to drugstores looking for them. They were a bit more expensive on eBay (obviously), but I figure with the price of gas and my time, it really wasn't a bad deal in the end.  I don't really know why I like these so much. At the end of the day, they're just glorified chapsticks with a little bit of color and fragrance! Oh well, they're like Pokemon to me - I gotta catch em all. So lame lol.

You can't really see Twinkle on my arm because it is basically clear - maybe with a little bit of sheen. I don't have any of the non-tinted Baby Lips, so I can't really compare. In the bullet it has a very sheer pinky peach color, but it doesn't translate at all onto the lips. I like the smell which is a bit like Starbursts. Melon Mania is also very sheer despite the hot pink color of the bullet. This one doesn't have much of scent to me which might be a good thing considering I'm not a huge fan of melon. My least favorite of the bunch is Pink Wink because the light, creamy pink color leaves me with white, dead zombie lips. It also smells like bubblegum, which again, I'm not a fan of. Coral Crush is probably my favorite color for it's punchy sheer peachy orange color and citrus scent. Yummy Plummy is also one of the more pigmented colors in a mauve shade. I don't think it smells like plums, but then again, what exactly do plums smell like?? I'm not sure how this compares to the permanent Grape shade because that's the only color I'm missing! I guess I need to pick that one up.

If you're a fan of sheer lip colors, then Baby Lips are definitely worth trying out. They're only about $3-4 so they won't take a bite out of your wallet either. The hardest part is finding all of the colors in store! For more information on Cherry Me and Pink Punch, check out my original blog post here.