My Ring Collection

     Hello, lovelies! I have read that a lot of people have one type of jewelry they prefer over others. I love all types of jewelry! Earrings, bracelets, necklaces... they all make my heart sing. However, I definitely love rings the most. They are so easy to slip on your finger as you are walking out the door, yet they add so much personality and style to your look. 
     I keep most of my rings in my main jewelry box, which sits on my bureau, next to the tank that houses my frog, Bert, and my fish, Fiona. On the other side of the tank, there is a smaller jewelry box that houses a few necklaces and two pairs of earrings. I also have a hanging jewelry organizer in my closet. I bought this organizer for four dollars from the store Five Below. It was a bargain, and I love it so much! I keep my less-used jewelry in this jewelry organizer. 
     I mostly buy my jewelry from handmade artisans on Etsy. As you may know, I have an Etsy store called Green Owl Crochet where I sell items I crochet. Because I myself am an artist and crafter, I feel it is only right I support fellow artisans. However, I do buy jewelry from other places, such as Kohl's and Target. In fact, I love the LC Lauren Conrad jewelry that is sold exclusively at Kohl's. Where do you like to buy your jewelry?

Buxom's Full-On Plumping Lip Polish Gloss

I bought a Buxom Full-On Plumping Lip Polish Gloss set during the 2017 holiday season. The set came with six shades. Each shade has a metallic finish. In this post, I will be reviewing the shade Erica because it is my favorite shade of the set.

The shade Erica is described as “sheer light pink sparkle” on Sephora’s website. The formula is super-moisturizing. In fact, I once fell asleep with a Buxom Full-On Plumping Lip Polish Gloss on my lips, and when I woke up in the morning, my lips were still moisturized. The lip gloss has a pleasant vanilla scent. It is a rich, gourmand scent. I love it!

Because this lip gloss is meant to plump your lips, it tingles after you put on the gloss. This tingle is not painful, and it only lasts for a few minutes. I find that this formula plumps my lips well. However, for an added plumping effect, I sometimes put Too Faced’s Lip Injection Extreme on my lips before I put on this Buxom lip gloss.

You can buy a full-sized Full-On Plumping Lip Polish Gloss at Sephora or Ulta. A full size is 4.44 ml, or .15 ounces. The price is 21 dollars at both Sephora and Ulta.

Thank you for reading!

Braids, Buns, and Twists!

    

I bought Braids, Buns, and Twists! by Christina Butcher because I needed ideas for how to style my thick, frizzy, curly hair. I wanted to learn how to create everyday hairstyles that aren’t boring. Usually, I would wear my hair down or in a simple low ponytail. However, with the help of Braids, Buns, and Twists, I’ve gleaned some great ideas about how style my hair.

     I started with the Donut Bun (pages 118-119). This isn’t a difficult hairstyle at all. It looks sophisticated and works well to hide my frizz and get my hair off my face.     The next hairstyle I tried was the Flipped Over Ponytail (pages 22-23). Again, it’s not hard to do, but it’s a cute step up from a basic low ponytail.      Other hairstyles I’ve tried from Braids, Buns, and Twists! are the Fishtail Braid (pages 50-51) and the Rope Twist (pages 94-95). I got a lot of compliments on the Fishtail Braid! Although I think it would look even better on me if I had highlights or balayage.     In addition to the hairstyles themselves, Butcher includes ideas for hair accessories, where to wear, and what types of outfits work with each hairstyle. She also includes information on hair products and the tools you’ll need to create the hairstyles.

Belif's Moisturizing Eye Bomb

I first received a sample size of Belif’s Moisturizing Eye Bomb in an Ipsy package. I believe I got another sample in my Sephora Play box a few months later. I have been using it as my nightly eye cream for almost two months now. The size of the sample is 5 milliliters, or .17 ounces.

I usually use this eye cream after I wash my face with Cetaphil’s Daily Facial Cleanser and then tone with witch hazel. This cleanser and toner combination dries out my super-oily quite a bit, which is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a nice relief! However, I of course use a moisturizer afterwards. I’m currently using Herbivore’s Rose Hibiscus Hydrating Face Mist (review coming soon!) as my facial moisturizer. Thus, when I apply the Moisturizing Eye Bomb, the skin under my eyes isn’t completely parched, but still in need of an eye cream. When I apply the cream, it tingles my skin a little bit. This tingle isn’t painful, but at first it was a little scary, since I thought I may be having an allergic reaction to the eye cream.

The consistency of Belif’s Moisturizing Eye Bomb is somewhat thin for an eye cream. In fact, when I first started using this eye cream, I applied too little of it. After two days, I realized that my skin needs two coats of the Moisturizing Eye Balm. That is, I apply the cream, then wait a few minutes, and apply another coat of it to my skin. It works much better this way!  

The eye cream has an herbal and slightly medicinal scent. Although I do not love this scent, it is non-offensive to me.

All in all, I think this eye cream is doing a solid job providing moisture to the skin under and around my eyes. I cannot yet tell if it is helping with the fine lines under my eyes. A full-sized container of Belif’s Moisturizing Eye Bomb is forty eight dollars at Sephora.

In Intimate Detail

For those of you who do not know me personally, I have a confession to make: I am obsessed with books! I have about nine hundred books in my house (mostly in my bedroom but also in my basement). I also have a Kindle where I have numerous ebooks, and I use my local public library system a lot. I have books on a variety of topics, from cookbooks to poetry to books on fashion. For this blog post, I am going to review the book In Intimate Detail: How to choose, wear, and love lingerie by Cora Harrington.

I have been following Cora Harrington’s blog, The Lingerie Addict, for about two years. When I read that she was going to author a book about lingerie, I was ecstatic. I have two other books about lingerie: Paris Undressed: The Secrets of French Lingerie by Kathryn Kemp-Griffen and The Lingerie Handbook by Sarah Stark and Rebecca Apsan. However, being the bibliophile that I am, I immediately pre-ordered Harrington’s In Intimate Detail.

In Intimate Detail was released on August 28, 2018. If I remember correctly, I received the book the day it came out. I read the entire book in about three days. I could have finished reading it in one day, but I purposely made myself stop and truly savor reading it. In Intimate Detail is 143 pages of lingerie wisdom.

In In Intimate Detail, Harrington goes over everything you need to know about lingerie. She even includes tidbits about the history of lingerie, which I, being a history nerd, absolutely loved. In chapters divided mostly by types of lingerie (ie, bras, hosiery, etc) Harrington covers topics like how to properly measure your bust and how to clean your lingerie.
Harrington is a wise, gentle guide into the world of lingerie. She does not make blanket statements telling you what you must do. For example, in the chapter about bras, Harrington never states that you must wear a bra. Rather, she makes many a sage suggestion, and ultimately stresses that the functions and purposes of lingerie is highly individualized.

I enjoy and appreciate how comprehensive In Intimate Detail is. Harrington includes information on everything from selecting bridal lingerie to how to find lingerie after a mastectomy and more. I am thoroughly happy that she includes information for populations as diverse (but oft neglected) as pregnant people, nursing parents, and trans and nonbinary folks.

I recommend In Intimate Detail to anyone who loves and appreciates lingerie. This is also a great book for someone who simply wants to know more about the world of lingerie. Since Harrington includes solid advice on how to buy lingerie for someone else, I recommend In Intimate Detail to anyone who is planning on buying lingerie for a partner.

Stay tuned for more reviews on books about various beauty- and fashion-related topics. 

Fresh's Sugar Nourishing Lip Balm Advanced Therapy

I first bought Fresh’s Sugar Nourishing Lip Balm Advanced Therapy at Sephora during the 2017 holiday season. I originally went into Sephora to look for a gift for my cousin, and ended up seeing a lip care set that caught my eye. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I wanted to buy it, so I left the store with only the gift for my cousin. However, I later saw it on the Sephora website, and since I wanted to use a coupon code that required at 35 dollar purchase, I bought the gift set. The kit, Sugar Lip Lovelies, was a limited edition three-piece set. It included a lip scrub and a tinted lip gloss, in addition to the lip balm. It cost 26 dollars and is listed as a 36 dollar value. I do not use lip scrubs, so I gave the lip scrub to my sister. I do use the lip gloss that came in the set, as I like the moisture and the sheer pink color it adds to my lips. However, I do not care for the scent of it, so I only reach for it once a week or so.

The pot of Fresh’s Sugar Nourishing Lip Balm Advanced Therapy that I bought in the gift set gives you three grams of product, or .1 ounce. That may not seem like a lot, but the first pot lasted me about six months! I obtained a second pot of Fresh’s Sugar Nourishing Lip Balm Advanced Therapy from one of my friends. I had told her how much I loved it, and since she happened to have a container of it that she had gotten as a gift, she gave me to her pot of it. This pot of Fresh’s Sugar Nourishing Lip Balm Advanced Therapy is the same size as my first pot. Because my friend could not remember what gift set she had gotten it in, it is entirely possible that she had gotten Fresh’s Sugar Lip Lovelies set, as well.

My lips get very dry. Of course, my lips get even more dry when it is cold out, but I do need lip balm throughout the entire year. I do not use just one lip balm, as I find my lips do best when I rotate my lip balms and lip glosses among a variety of products. At night, I use a lip mask before I go to sleep. Right now, I alternate between Laneige’s Lip Sleeping Mask or this product.

The smell of Fresh’s Sugar Nourishing Lip Balm Advanced Therapy is pleasant. I would not say it is a drool-worthy scent. It is more of a pleasing scent that is not overpowering. The smell of Fresh’s Sugar Nourishing Lip Balm Advanced Therapy is both creamy and slightly minty. The texture of the lip balm is thick but it is not too goopy. It feels comfortable on the lips. It provides a lot of moisture and when I use Fresh’s Sugar Nourishing Lip Balm Advanced Therapy at night, I wake up with velvety smooth lips. There is not color to the lip balm.

I recommend Fresh’s Sugar Nourishing Lip Balm Advanced Therapy to folks with very dry lips. I especially recommend this lip balm as a lip mask to use at night.