Oakland Athletics Manicure 2014 Edition
I’m not a sporty girl by any stretch of the imagination, but growing up in Berkeley and Alameda, my parents raised me with a healthy (okay, obsessive) love of the Oakland Athletics and baseball. So for years now I’ve looked at the schedule at the beginning of the season and plotted out all the games I wanted to go to based on opponent and promotion and put them on my calendar months in advance. I’m die hard. I go all out for games and don’t play around.
Read MoreThe next best thing to an Oscar is an Oscar Party!
Okay, not really. But, it’s the closest I’m ever going to come to holding one of those golden gentlemen in my hand. It just so happened last year that my dad & step-mom were visiting from South Carolina over Oscar Sunday, so I decided to throw a party. It was lots of fun with them, my step-sister & her fiancé, their baby (who was 3 months old at the time), and a few friends. As my friends left for the evening, they said “That was fun… can’t wait for next year’s party!”
Read MoreJulep’s Maven Beauty Box – Fully Customizable & Packed with Value
Did you know that Julep’s very popular monthly Maven beauty box just got even better? Just a few months ago when I first signed up, you could choose from several different sets/combinations of colors, but there was still some limitations. Now those are gone! Each month, Julep Mavens get:
Clean & Clear Morning Burst Hydrating Gel Moisturizer Review
The best investment a company can ever make is to put out trial size bottles of their product.
Seriously, without a small, trial size of this moisturizer, I would have never bought a whole 3 oz. tube and I’m in love with it now! As I mentioned, I BOUGHT this product – and I bought the trial size, too, so this is not something I was sent and felt obligated to review. Nope, I love this product, and now that I’ve been using it for a while I’ve decided to share with you my morning burst hydrating gel moisturizer review. If you’re anything like me, you may never have heard of gel moisturizer – I hadn’t before I saw this product.
I’m a sucker for the travel size bins at the store. Besides the fact that I do travel a few times a year and have legitimate use for small containers of product, I’m cheap. I hate spending full price on a bottle of product (whether it’s a lotion, facial wash, makeup, what have you) only to find in the first use that the claims are bogus, or it’s just not working for my particular need.
The Back-story
I’ve mentioned before that I have combination skin, which means dry next to oily areas, and it sucks hard. Most of the time, the oil is easy to control with some blotting paper, but the dryness is awful and flaky when really bad. I also hate heavy moisturizers. It seems, in my quest for a really good moisturizer, that all I come across is thick lotions that feel like they’re sitting on top of my face, and I can’t stand that feeling! It’s one of the same reasons I don’t wear foundation on a regular basis because I prefer a natural feel. But my natural look? A little rough around the edges for public consumption! In the past I’ve tried Ponds, C.O. Bigelow products, Bath & Body Works, Simple, Aveno, a litany of store brands, and many more. Heck, this isn’t even the first time I’ve tried a moisturizing product from Clean & Clear! So far, I was most happy with Meaningful Beauty’s Creme de Serum, but I needed a slightly more economical option.
The Results
A dollop of the gel in my hand.
This is perfect – it’s very light on my skin and truly doesn’t feel oily or greasy. It’s absorbed quickly and I don’t mind using it daily since it is so light. I could tell when I first smelled it that the main scent was cucumber, but there’s something more fruity than just cucumber. Upon doing some research (i.e. reading the back) I come to find that it’s green mango. If you’ve ever smelled the Bath & Body Works Cucumber Melon products, it’s very similar but not quite as sweet as theirs… more crisp. It definitely smells nice when I put it on in the morning and helps wake me up just a little bit. I’m so glad I was able to try a little bit before purchasing as I’m not sure if this is something I’d have tried had I had to pay for it. It’s not overly expensive (Drugstore.com also carries the Clean & Clear Morning Burst Hydrating Gel Moisturizer for $5.94) and a little goes a long way.
From the package:
This ultra-lightweight, non-greasy facial moisturizer wakes you up and leaves skin feeling immediately replenished. It’s formulated with water, not oil, and contains a unique blend of cucumber and green mango extracts, so your skin is left feeling clean and refreshed.
100% of that is true, in my opinion. It’s short, sweet, and really gets to the point of why this is a fantastic product. Troll your local drugstore or big box store’s travel sized items section the next time you’re there and see if you can find a small tube to try for yourself. If you have skin like mine but hate the super thick, oily moisturizers that tend to populate the shelves, you won’t be disappointed. Paired with my Yes to Cucumbers Hypoallergenic Facial Towelettes, these make for a pleasant morning routine!
Read MoreA Beautiful Birthday to Me!
Happy Belated Birthday to me! For my birthday this year, I finally did something I’d been wanting to do for a long time – I got mah hair did. I had won a gift card to the salon where a friend works that I hadn’t used yet, so I put it towards making a dramatic change to ring in turning 33. This is the picture my stylist took before and after. Holy crap, right?! It helps the dramatic “before and after” that my hair was damp when I came in so she quickly towel dried it, hence the frizz – I swear I didn’t normally go out in public looking like that! I had an idea of what I wanted when I came in, but Kacie encouraged me to look through the Paul Mitchell color book and I picked out something not quite as in-your-face red as I’d intended. I’m glad I went this route! Seriously, I’m very thankful to my stylist Kacie Kersey at Hairlights Salon in Pleasanton, CA for this amazing transformation. Check out Kacie’s Facebook page and if you’re local, go see her!
Read MoreMy Versatile Disney Manicure
After wanting to go for years, I finally had the opportunity to take a day trip for a friend’s birthday to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum at the Presidio in San Francisco. I highly recommend it, though it’ll take longer than you think to go through it! In honor of going there I wanted to do something Disney themed. Because our 3-year old “niece” would also be coming, I wanted to do something simple that would evoke Minnie Mouse, I decided on a Disney manicure. It evolved a few times, and ended up being one of my most ambitious manicures to date, involving new (to me) techniques and some on-the-fly Imagineering.
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