All that Glitters...

So four days into the New Year, I've decided it's time to make some resolutions. I have a couple personal goals involving temper and patience...too much of one and too little of the other is not a good mix, sigh. Lots of love to the husband who has the exact opposite temperament (good for me, not so much for him).

As far as my New Year's resolutions, first is simple enough: I solemnly vow to remove all my makeup before I go to sleep. I know, it's the #1 no-brainer beauty rule but of course being genetically blessed with fab skin as a teenager spoils you. I think I had less than 20 pimples total as a teenager. Wait!! Don't hate me just yet, I paid for all that clear skin. When I was preggo with my first son, little did I know instead of fab glowy pregnancy skin, I would get rocked with adult onset acne because of all the hormones. Ever notice no matter what symptom you have when you're expecting, the doctor tells you it's due to pregnancy?

After my pregnancies, my skin takes a while to calm back down. I used to just crash with my makeup on and wash my face in the morning. Now if I do that my T-zone will be covered in pimples (and bits of shimmer, you know I do love my glittery makeup). To make myself more proactive about removing my makeup, I treated myself to some Ultra Bland from LUSH Cosmetics. That stuff is greasy but the almond oil based cleanser really wipes off every trace of makeup on my skin from the layers of Zoom lash mascara to the MAC Black track gel eyeliner that really doesn't budge otherwise. It leaves my combination dry-oily skin feeling soft and clean.

--Quick tip, for those of you who live near an actual Lush store, always shop in person, the sales people are the friendliest and trip over themselves to give you free samples and advice.

My big resolution is to kick the post-pregnancy workouts in to high gear. I'm thinking of having one of my bff's be my workout buddy. She just had her fourth kid but she is one of those freaky celebrity type moms that can walk the red carpet two weeks after giving birth and everyone's like "what baby??" I'm soooo not one of those moms, as my two-year-old daughter kindly reminded me the other day. She asked me if she was getting another baby brother. I'll keep posting about my progress, hopefully writing about it will keep my motivation up to get fit.

Wishing everyone a Glam New Year filled with Love & Beauty!

Black Friday & Baby

Well I am finally back from my "just-had-baby-number-3-and-now-don't-have-time-to-scratch-my-head" hiatus. The one thing I have learned now that the husband and I are outnumbered is that I have to multi-task in order to just get half the things on my daily to-do list done. This blog is being written with 2 out of the 3 kids snuggling up to me. How many years till I can send them off to college? Just kidding....sorta. ;)

Since I was homebound with the newborn (except for the occasional party), my Thanksgiving celebration included lots of online black Friday shopping. With all the free shipping offers that swirled around, I was able to indulge in a lot of guilt-free shopping. While most of my purchases were about the kids, (yep when you become a mom, your first impulse is to buy something for the kids), I treated myself to some great beauty finds.

Sephora's black Friday $10 door buster deals crashed their site, but once they went back up, I was able to get the limited edition Tarte for True Blood eyeshadow palette for a hugely discounted rate. There are 17 (!!!!) beautiful jewel tone colors in this palette and they are highly pigmented. I am totally a sucker for eyeshadow palettes, I just find that it is a great way to get the biggest makeup bang for the buck.

While the corset inspired packaging is a little tacky for my taste, the eyeshadows are set in a diamond angled pattern that gives it a good visual interest.  There is a bonus primer, mascara and a full size black eyeliner lurking under the eyeshadow tray.  Great thing about ordering online from Sephora is that I totally scored this cute Hello Kitty bag filled with samples. Of course my 2 year old pounced on the bag as soon as she saw it "My kitty cat purse!"

I am loving the shimmer eye shadows of this palette. Because let's face it there are going to be days when I will need all the help I can get to look semi-awake. The shadows are really silky and glide on very smoothly.  I was able to get great color payoff without using a primer, so this is definitely going to be my go-to palette for a special look on those rare nights I'll get to go out for some grown up time.

P.S. Stay tuned for my crazy beauty find at (of all the random places)... TJ Maxx