december favorites

Jake and I had wonderful Christmas with family this year. Here are some of the highlights and fun new products that have been my favorites this month.

1. Our family

Not pictured: some missing Skidmores, Heidelk clan, Bells, and Mroczeks.

For some bonus family fun, head over to Mom's facebook page and check out the videos of Dad's Willie Nelson imitation.

2. Cozy cabin in the woods and the wildlife

3. This awesome makeup gift set from Sephora!

I usually ignore the makeup aisle because I never seem to finish any of my own makeup besides foundation, mascara, eyeliner, and powder. And the “fun” products are the blush, lip color, and eyeshadows anyway – but when I saw this gift set with a "value of $150" and selling for $32, I could NOT resist.

Included in the kit (click links to find full size versions to try yourself):

• gold sparkly makeup bag
• full size NARS blush in “orgasm” 
• full size Stilla Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner
• full size Urban Decay eyeshadow in “sin”
• large (for a sample) sample of Smashbox Camera Ready BB Cream
• Benefit They’re Real mascara
• Bite Luminous Creme Lipstick in “palomino”

For a quick review of the products here are my thoughts:

• the blush is awesome - as expected since it's won awards for many years in a row now. It's so pigmented that I barely have to touch it to my cheeks to get a good amount on!
• the eyeliner is the easiest liquid eyeliner to apply that I've ever seen and I've tried quite a few varieties. Plus it stays on FOREVER, definitely will be needing remover to get that baby off your eyes
• The BB cream is all right . Nothing amazing, better than the drugstore kinds I've tried, no complaints. Can be a good substitute for foundation.
• the mascara is fabulous, no complaints. I'll probably buy the full size for my next mascara purchase as soon as I run out of my lancome definicils. 
• the lipstick isn't an every day shade for me, in fact, I almost didn't get the set because I wasn't sure about the lip color. It's a fun color to have, now I just need an occasion to wear it

• the “sin” eyeshadow is more of a pink-gold color that isn't clearly seen in the swatch below, very impressed with it! 

The lip swatches are shown below and I’ve added three more of my recent lip color purchases to the swatches  (one was a free gift with purchase- gosh I love Sephora! )

• Makeup Forever Aqua Lip Liner in “15C muted dusty rose” (Longest lasting of any, it's not technically "lipstick," but it's a good matte finish)
• Bite High Pigment Lip Pencil in “Chablis”
• Urban Decay Revolution lipstick “F bomb” (This lipstick stays on a LONG time and comes in awesome colors!)

4. Three watches in one!

For some reason I’ve never been a fan of watches that allow you to change up the band. I used to think they were tacky, but when Jake got me this watch for Christmas, I fell in love with it! It looks like I have three entirely new watches instead of just one! 

There are so many bands to choose from! I couldn't find the link to the exact "face" for my watch- it's sold at Village Pointe here, but check out all of these fun band choices. 

5.  Good food and drinks – here are just a few of the snacks I have leftover from break

Get a good start on those New Year's resolutions, I'll just be over here enjoying the last few days of break pointing out the Kardashians' skin imperfections on our new, entirely-too-large, fancy TV 
(Jake's reward to himself for passing all of those CPA exams! Woo hoo!)!

Have a good weekend!

P.S. I've spent a lot of time updating the links at the top of my blog with my HTML coding skills. So go click around!!  The "med school" button even works! (My level of HTML coding will NOT allow me to get it aligned with the rest of the menu options though ... sorry) . All of this entire layout was designed by me with HTML codes, image editors etc, I just can't figure out how to align the "med school" tab. If there's a guru out there who can fix it, call me, it drives me nuts that it's not in line with the others.