And the verdict is… e.l.f. Acne Fighting Foundation

Last November I went to New York City to visit family and was able to go to the e.l.f. Studio store. You can see my full haul and some first impressions on my youtube video here:

Long over due review, I know. But I wanted to be able to truly get a good opinion of these products.

One of the products that I was really excited to try was the Acne Fighting Foundation. I had read some very good reviews about it and, given that I have problem skin, I thought it just might work for me.

Sleek and small and nothing fancy.

Goals for the New Year

It's that time of year when most people set goals for themselves that are more often than not fairly unobtainable. Our hearts in the right place, but come February, when we are no where near this golden idol of an achievement we created for ourselves, most of us discover that our resolve is held together with duck tape and good intentions. And slowly the adhesive fails and we give up. The only thing a New Year's resolution has done for me is make me feel like a failure. However,  having goals in life is a good thing. They motivate and inspire us; push us to go farther and do more than we ever thought we could. So this year, I'm relaxing my expectations a bit, not because I don't think I could achieve something grand, but because baby steps can sometimes get us to our destinations faster than a gigantic leap. Many of these have grander ends and larger hopes. But instead of looking at the whole, vast panoramic as my goal, I'll take a small section of the image and improve upon that. And perhaps, but working on things a little at a time, the picture will come into focus even better than I imagined.

My Top 5 Christmas Songs

Pretty much since the day after Thanksgiving, I have been driving my poor fiancé crazy by keeping the car radio locked on the Christmas channel. I can't help it. I love Christmas music and there is only a precious few weeks out of the whole year that it is considered socially acceptable to blast "Jingle Bells". Plus, it helps put me in a festive moods when it's 5 degrees outside and the roads are so slippery it takes two hours to get home from work.

I though I might spread some holiday joy and share my top five favorite Christmas songs! Enjoy!

For the love of Twisted Peppermint...

Let me just take a few moments and declare my love for a little product that only comes around once a year: Twisted Peppermint

I'll get better at taking these pictures, I promise.

First Impressions: L'Oréal Lash Out Butterfly mascara

Most of us strive to make a good first impression when meeting people, but do our products? I thought it might be interesting to try a "first impressions" review theme; simply sharing my intial thoughts upon trying a product for the first time.

Meet L'Oréal's Lash Out Butterfly mascara

Ooh! Shiny!

In Memorandum: Products that have left us too soon.

Companies discontinue products for a number of reasons. Perhaps something is not selling as well as they hoped it would. Perhaps a style or a scent is no longer "en vogue". Perhaps they are doing a complete re-boot of their line and something just doesn't make the cut.

Problem is, I feel like my favorite things are constantly getting the ax. The surest way for a product to meet certain death is for me to fall in love with it. My love is a death sentence. 

Gee... That sounds kinda like a county song.

Now, is this an exaggeration? A bit. But I do have a handful of products that I did dances of joy when I when they came into my life and sobbed big tears of sadness when I found out they were no longer with us. I present a list of a few of my lost gems... and here's hoping that this blog topic is not a continuing theme.

Gluten-Free Sumbitches

... Say what?

Yes. "Sumbitches".

In case you don't get the reference, allow me to explain.

I love the TV show How I Met Your Mother. I started watching it about two years ago, right after I moved and before I had found a full time job. At that point in my life, I had the freedom to watch episode after episode of a show in between job applications. With How I Met Your Mother, I did a total TV binge and watched seasons 1-6 within a few weeks. When Mike and I started dating, it was the first TV show I made him watch from the beginning with me. We are both now obsessed.

Anyways, in the season premiere of the ninth and final season, Lily meets the yet unnamed "Mother" on a train to Barney and Robin's wedding. (Should I have said "Spoiler Alert"? Oops...) Lily is upset and the "Mother" offers her a cookie. The "Mother" states that she likes how trusting Lily is, since she ate a cookie from a complete stranger that could have been poisoned or drugged. Lily replies with something to the extent of "I don't care. There's chocolate and peanut butter and caramel in these sumbitches." The "Mother" then responds, "I call them 'Sumbitches'!"

Hence the name of the cookie.