Happy Birthday To Me!

My 18th birthday was Thursday, September 24th, and I decided to treat myself with a lot of goodies. I went online shopping on multiple websites, I went into Victoria's Secret, and I splurged at Sephora. On top of all of my treats, my boyfriend decided his birthday gift to me would be to take me shopping, and how could I say no to that?

Instead of listing off everything I got, which some people would bitch about and say I'm a snob who is bragging, here is my top five favorite things I got for my birthday.

1.) Marc Jacobs Instamarc Light Filtering Contour Powder in the shade 40 Mirage Filter.

Such a long name for such an amazing product! I was not expecting to ever buy this since Marc Jacobs' products are so expensive. However, I saw so many people rave about this contour duo, so I decided to check it out. It took me a lot of research to decide if I wanted to spend $50 on one palette, but I had more pros than cons in this case.
Every time I use this palette, my face looks flawless. Contouring comes so easily with this powder. It also has a yellowish banana shade, which is my most loved color to set my face with.

2.) Nars Lip Gloss's in the shades Chelsea Girls and Baby Doll

I've never been a lipgloss type of girl. I tend to lick my lips a lot, and I'm always drinking water, so it never stays on. Even wearing lipstick is a pain, sometimes. However, I wanted to try something new. I've heard nothing but good things about Nars Lip Glosses and Lip Sticks, but I never tried them until now. I ordered Chelsea Girls online with my first order, and Brandon bought me Baby Doll for my birthday. 

Since I have gotten these, I don't think I haven't gone a day without wearing one or the other! I will definitely be getting more in the future. :)

3.) Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade in the shade Dark Brown and Clear Brow Gel

Since I have gotten these two products, my brows have never looked better. To be honest, the dipbrow is very hard to use if you do not know what you are doing, so I wouldn't recommend it to beginners. But if you already do your brows, you need this in your life! It makes your eyebrows look bold but natural. Then putting the brow gel over top of it, it locks your hard work in place. I've tried other brow gels, but this is the best I've ever used.

4.) Ofra Long Lasting Liquid Lipsticks in the shades Miami Fever and Mina

This purchase was very special to me. It is a collaboration with one of my favorite beauty youtubers, Kathleen Fuentes, aka Kathleenlights. I own everything Kathleen collabed on, such as eyeshadows and other lipsticks. When I found out she did it again, I was so happy! I wasn't too sure about the color at first, but now that I have it, I am in love. It is the perfect fall lipstick shade, and I know I am going to wear it to death. 

5.) Marc Jacobs Twinklepop Eyeshadow Sticks in the shades Volver and On The Verge

Another Marc Jacobs product, I told you I splurged. I was not expecting to get these, but as I was walking around Sephora it's like a lightbulb went off in my head. I remembered I heard someone on youtube talk about these, and I loved the swatches of them. So I headed over to the Marc Jacobs stand and swatched them for myself. I was instantly hooked and I knew I needed all of them. But there were way too many and at $28 a piece, I would be broke forever. So I got two, and I do not regret my decision one bit. 

Jaclyn Hill: My Role Model

It all started with Jaclyn Hill. I found Jaclyn’s channel when I was watching a tutorial for winged eyeliner when her video popped up in the recommendation list. Her thumbnail intrigued me, so I watched it. Her video was a different take on how to apply winged eyeliner, which I was trying to master at the time.

Her voice, her style, her everything pulled me in forever. That day I binged watched all of her videos, and I learned more and more about her. That was the day that my obsession became real. Everything that she talked about, I wanted. Most of the products I bought when I was first starting off were based off of her.

When Jaclyn’s channel started growing, I saw no change. Many youtubers let their subscriber count, and the money, get to their head and change their personality. But Jaclyn is 100% genuine, which is why I love her so much.

What really amazes me is how someone with her past can influence so many people. Jaclyn was extremely poor after high school. She married her husband, Jon, at the age of 19. She would tell stories about how they would literally only have a stick of butter and cheese in her fridge. She always told herself that it was only temporary and that things will be better. She would say, “I want to that Michael Kors purse, so someday I will. Just not today.” And now that she can afford what she has, just by putting herself out there on youtube, inspires me so much.

Jaclyn is extremely successful from youtube. So many companies have reached out to her, good and bad, and she let’s her subscribers know the bad. She doesn’t lie for the money involved, which is hard to find in beauty youtubers. But then a company like Becca Cosmetics reaches out and asks to collab (which is the greatest thing in the world, BTW). Jaclyn created her own highlighter called Champagne Pop, which my lovely boyfriend, Brandon, bought for me just because he knew how much Jaclyn and beauty means to me <3 Anyways, Sephora sponsored this collaboration, which is crazy because it’s Sephora and what makeup lover doesn’t love Sephora?

If somebody can go from having an empty fridge to having their face on a wall in Sephora and still be the same person inside and out, that is saying something about their character. Jaclyn is truly a role model; lifestyle and beauty wise, I want to be like her.

September Ipsy Bag

Ipsy is a monthly makeup bag subscription in which I am subscribed to. The service is only $10 a month, while the bag is usually worth well over that! You receive anywhere between 4-6 deluxe sample sized products, and sometimes a full sized item is thrown in the bag.

Long story short, I really enjoy the bag and I recommend it to anyone; makeup lovers or makeup starters.

The first product I saw when I opened my bag was an eyeshadow trio from the brand NYX. NYX is one of my favorite drugstore brands out there, so I was pretty thrilled when I saw that I was getting this trio. The colors are just my shades: a shimmery bronze color, a shimmery copper shade, and a matte black. I haven’t had a chance to wear the colors on my eyes, so I don’t know how these particular shades perform. When I swatched them, they showed up decently. This trio will most likely end up in my school makeup bag so I can touch up throughout the day.

The second product, which is my favorite product in the palette, is an eyebrow powder trio from the brand Pixi Beauty. The trio comes with a light taupe, a medium brown, and a dark brown. I honestly have no use for the taupe colors, but I have been loving the dark brown for my eyebrows. My brows haven’t been looking this on fleek in a while! I will definitely repurchase this powder once it runs out. The full size only retails for $12, so that’s a plus.

The third product I got in my bag was a full sized lipstick from the brand City Colour Cosmetics in the shade One Night Stand. This shade is a really pretty burgundy-wine color. I wore it once so far, and I wasn’t that impressed. The color was beautiful and I don’t have a color like it. However, it did not last on my lips for long at all. I wore it to work, and I took a drink, and it was basically gone. I will try to make it work, but I will probably choose my other brands over this. But it isn’t so bad considering it was full size and they retail for $4.99 apiece, which is half of the bag.

The fourth product I received was a deluxe sample of the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream Intense Hydration - that is a huge name, but the product is amazing! This deluxe sample is 2oz, which on Sephora retails for $12. This is basically a lotion for any dry spots on your body. Last night I put some on my hands and my cheeks, which is where I have pretty dry skin. I woke up with super smooth skin! This lotion is going to be my holy grail product in the winter for my hands: they get so dry that they crack and bleed, yeah TMI. I am most definitely buying the full tub of this stuff come winter!

The final product I got in my September bag was a 1oz sample of Octavio Molina Hair Aceite de Argan which is an argan oil for you hair. This product claims to make your hair less frizzy and shine like no other oil will. If this is true, I will love it, because have you seen my hair? It’s pretty rough. I haven’t tried this yet, but I have high hopes. 

If you’d like to sign up for ipsy, use my link! :) https://www.ipsy.com/new?refer=2wbqb

Why Beauty?

Beauty has not always been a passion of mine. Before this last year, I had the slightest clue of what it meant to use a crease brush, to get my nails “filled in”, or that red lipstick looked pretty decent on me. My junior year of high school, I branched out of my normal makeup routine, which was mascara and foundation, stolen from my mom, which was way too dark for me.

I started watching youtube videos of beauty gurus with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. I would watch them with awe. I’d think to myself, “how did you do such a perfect winged eyeliner on your first try?!” I would attempt to recreate what I saw on screen, only to result with a black mess all over my face.

After months of playing with the makeup taken from my mom’s dresser, I got a hang of doing my makeup. My eyeshadow always got compliments from the girls at school. I decided I wanted to expand my own collection of makeup. So on Black Friday of that year, I made my first major purchase: the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette. I used that palette to death for months and months until I got pretty dang good at doing my makeup.

I started to collect more and more makeup and watch hours of youtube videos. After spending that much time on watching videos, I decided I wanted to make some of my own, and so I did. I made my first youtube channel a few months ago and recorded around a dozen videos.

Once school started, I ran out of time to sit down and film and edit. When I found out that we were assigned to keep a blog, with a topic of our choice, in english class, I was so excited! I was thinking to myself, “I’m just going to turn my youtube into a blog! That way I have to keep up with it.” And that is exactly what I am doing.

I chose to do my blog on everything beauty because I have a passion for it. I have already done things blog/vlog related in the past, and now that it is an assignment, I have no problem doing it. I can definitely see myself keeping up with this blog, even after my english class is over. The assignment will obviously be my motivation to keep up with it during the semester, but my passion will be the motivation for when it is over.

I hope that everyone reading this can see my passion through my words, and maybe even learn a thing or two while you’re here. :)

Until next time!

- xoxo Brittany