It is time for another Thursday Thoughts.

We have been very busy with moving into our new apartment, getting a kitty, and work/school taking over the majority of our time. But here are some updates.

Katie and Merri

We got a new kitten named Merriel. She certainly keeps us on our toes and sometimes up at night. However, she is settling in really nicely. Please ignore the remnants of our unpacking.

My New Desk

I am currently volunteering at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. It is a really great oppuntunity and providing me with the skills that I need desperately.

Us Daily

Mostly we have just been so busy between work and school and everything else. We have also set up a little fundraiser for ourselves that we would love you to take a look at. You can find the link Here. Please check it out. Share it with your friends. Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

A Day in the Life; or, alternatively, Listen to Me Talk about my Life

I know it's been awhile, but it's been stressful for Andy and me. Andy's been struggling with work, where there are big changes happening and a lot of the work is getting put off on her. I've had a summer class, two jobs and financial aid breathing down my neck. Safe to say, it's been a rough couple of months.

But things are starting to look up!

We've found a good apartment. It's in a good part of town, close to campus/work, has several bus stops and includes a security alarm (those of you in big cities will be shocked to hear that in Oklahoma, no one thinks you need a security alarm, who knows why). But now that we've found an apartment we had to find the perfect puppy.

We needed a small breed, that's smart, easy to train, hypoallergenic and friendly. It came upon us suddenly (after many hours of research and me vetoing nearly every small breed), that a Miniature Schnauzer would be the perfect breed.

For a long time we didn't think we would find a good breeder, and the ones we did find were RIDICULOUSLY overpriced. As in, you don't pay that much for designer breeds. When we'd given up on getting a puppy before Christmas, we found the perfect one. An excellent, ethical breeder popped up on our front door. Fifteen miles from our door to be exact. And they had just had a litter that would be ready to pick up in August, a good week or two after our move-in date. We looked at some pictures of the puppies they had available and found this little booger, at the time only 2 days old:

He's a Chocolate and White Parti Mini Schnauzer and we knew we'd found our puppy. We worked out some payment details with the owner (who was happy to work with us since she knew he would going to a good home).

After several weeks of waiting, he finally opened his eyes and we received new pictures.

While the pictures aren't great quality, you can see how precious and sweet he is. 

But that's the main things in our life right now. The move and puppy will be happening at the time that the August Ipsy and Julep boxes come in, so those posts will be a little late and you can expect a lot of pictures of the new pad and puppy. I'm about to go crazy with pampering for this pooch. 

Ipsy My Glam Bag for June 2013

Hey everybody!

The June Julep review is taking a bit longer than planned to get up a go, so in the meantime we'll skip on ahead to the June Ipsy My Glam bag Review!

For those of you who don't know, an Ipsy bag is one of the options for those of us who like to partake in monthly online subscription boxes/bags. Ipsy focuses on beauty products and as such they send you 4-5 items, sometimes even full size, for $10 a month.

The lineup this time is pretty strong:

The theme this month was "On the Wild Side", I thought the card was particularly pretty, but I don't understand how this bag really represents anything on the "Wild Side", so you can expect my interpretations to follow as captions. 

Are you in the jungle and afraid to put your
head in the water for fear of piranhas?
I bet you are, because you're wild right?  

So the first thing on the list is a can of psssst! Dry Shampoo. And I was kind of spectacularly not impressed. Because... I just... wash my head when it starts to feel gross? I mean... I understand that some people might be camping or whatever, but you're camping. I doubt you're camping for so long that your hair is in that kind of shape. Also, you're camping. The point is to rough it, not come with about fifty beauty products to replace your at home luxuries. But maybe I'm just being too judgmental. It's available over here for $3.50.

Need to create that perfect look of dappled sunlight on your
camo makeup? Look no further than this highlighter stick.

This is Chella's Ivory Lace Highlighter Pencil. While I don't know how this is "on the wild side", it is fantastic. I really like the color, consistency and it stays on a lot longer than powder highlight. It's not chalky or anything and blends well. It looks great for a pinup or vintage look. And this one stick is worth $18 over at Chella's website.

Need to create a distracting sparkle for escaping wild animals?
Raccoons and Squirrels go wild for these shimmers. 

This is J. Cat Beauty's Sparkling Cream Palette. And the problem I have with it is there is no way to use it without looking ridiculous. At first, like everyone I thought it was eye shadow. I would have never used it as that (because God, can you imagine?), but apparently it is dangerous to use it as an eye shadow, because the sparkles can get it your eyes and mess your junk up. What it's supposed to be used for is to add sparkle to your face. The problem with that is... look at those colors. What skin tone would it work on? None. They're too fake looking. And I know that makeup is fake anyway, but I like to look like I have some idea of what a human looks like, and we don't sparkle and we don't have those skin tones. Regardless, it's $4.49 over at J. Cat's website.

Need to look flushed in order to look virile enough to
fight off enemies? Look no further than this blush.

This is NYX's Rouge Cream Blush in Natural. It's a little dark, but applied properly looks pretty good. It can be hard to apply, because cream blushes have both the benefit and problem of sticking where you put it. So you need to spread it really well to make it look natural, blending the edges really well. The problem after that becomes when you try to blend it with your fingers, you make your face flushed by friction and then it's hard to tell if it's well applied for if you're just flushed. Over at NYX's website, they're selling it for $6.

Need to create the look of a poisonous animal by emulating the
unnatural brightness that screams DANGER? Just slap some
of this across your lips. 

This is Starlooks lip pencil in Tipsy. The problem for me is that the color really clashes with my skin, and not in an "oh this is artsy and cute" sort of way, but in a "you look like a nine year old playing with mommy's lipstick". It's available at Starlook's website for $12.

This actually reminds me of Snooki. The color and print contrast just scream's Snooki to me. I usually rate these at $8, and this time is no different. It's a good bag, holds a lot and is sturdy. 

Overall, I didn't like everything in this bag, but there are a few things I'm really happy about. The overall cost is $43.99 without the bag and then $51.99 with it. So for something you spent $10 bucks on -- it's a good deal. 

Ipsy My Glam Bag Review May 2013

Sorry for the start-and-stop posts on this blog recently. There's been a lot of intercession classes (me),terrible time-consuming and exhausting work projects (Andy), and tornadoes 10 miles or so North of us (which is right on top of us in tornado land). I managed to spit out a Julep post before my intercession course (which was awful by the way), but now that it's ended. I've decided to finally post Ipsy (a month late and 3-4 tornado scares later). 

So for those of you who don't know, Ipsy is a monthly subscription bag that comes roughly on the tenth of each month. It costs $10 a month for the subscription, and you get 4-5 beauty products alongside a makeup bag every month. And while some of the items are sample/small size, you get a few that are regular sized. It's always been worth my money. 

So let's start at the beginning: 

Ipsy comes in a pretty pink bag that lightens up your mailbox. 

Here's the lineup for this month including the cute spring chevron bag that goes with the "spring fling" theme, which I'm valuing at $8:

First item on the list is a concealer cake from Yaby Cosmetics. It's small, I already have a concealer, and honestly I was a bit put off by the color, which is honey. Because it doesn't really match my skin tone, and concealer is typically supposed to be lighter than your skin tone/foundation so that you can blend it better and so that it hides blemishes instead of highlighting them. And honestly, it's not too dark, but it's also not  not light enough. I was disappointed because typically Ipsy picks things that match my skin tone. Lo and behold, that was not the case this time. It's wearable, but I typically stick with my own concealer. For those who have received previous Ipsy bags, it can go inside your magnetic Glam RX palette. It's price tag comes at $4.85 over at yaby's website. 

Image from Yaby Cosmetics

Next on the list was a Shimmerati Glimmer Gloss from Mirabella. Which I was excited about because I love lip stuff. All lip stuff. Lip liners, lip sticks, lip gloss, chap sticks. All of 'em. And then I opened the package and the thing had busted everywhere inside of the box. Luckily it didn't escape the box and get over everything else. Once I got it out and cleaned up, I did notice that the lid was faulty, but that the gloss was intact and usable, but not for carrying with. 

On to talking about the gloss itself. It's a pretty red color, the site describes it as "ruby red", but I wouldn't go that far. My lips aren't that red and it barely tints them, but what it does do is pretty enough and it doesn't taste funky or anything (yay!). So I was still pretty excited and happy overall. 

Image from Mirabella

The cost on this bad boy over on Mirabella's site is $24 normally, but is on sale for $16 (probably because of Ipsy). That's still a pretty penny for a gloss though.

Next on the list is a perfume roller from Pacifica in Island Vanilla. Which I expected because Ipsy has a love affair with Pacifica or something (who knows). I mean, I don't really mind because their stuff smells good, but I do mind because it almost always has almond in it, which I'm allergic to and I don't really like rashes no matter how nice they smell.

This fortunately doesn't have almond in it, and it's a nice summer day smell because you can't wear Coco Chanel's Noir everywhere, even though I totally would regardless. The only problem I have is that the smell wears off quick. And I thought "well, it's just me getting used to the smell, like people do". Nope, it wears off to the point that the only time anyone can smell it is if they're smelling your actual wrists or neck where you put it on (thanks, Andy. You didn't know I was testing things on you, but I totally was). They can't be talking to you and smell it. They can't be hugging you and smell it.

"Well maybe you're just not putting enough on, Katie. God, you're so judgmental and harsh." Nope, tried that too. Put WAY too much on, still couldn't smell it like... half an hour later. Which is fine, it doesn't smell so nice that I want to like, waft it into everyone's noses all the time forever and ever, amen. Also, maybe my roller is faulty, because I can't really control the amount that goes on sometimes (I didn't actually try to put too much on, it just sort of opened up and spat a whole bunch out on me).

The cost for this bad boy over on Pacifica's site is $12.

Yet more things were waiting for me inside of my Ipsy bag, becuase I also received a Zoya nail polish in "Piaf". I liked the name, because who doesn't like Edith Piaf, but I'm not so sure I like the color. I haven't tried it on, so I'm not the best judge. But it just kind of looks... sickly. I don't know. I've seen some people with it on, and it looks better Zoya's site, but still. It costs $8 on Zoya's site. 

In this bag was yet another Pacifica item, this one with almond in it. It was Pacifica's Coconut Crushed Pearl Bronzing Body Butter. I have several issues with this. a.) almond, b.) it doesn't bronze, and c.) it smells like coconut. We've already covered that I don't like rashes, regardless of how nicely they smell. But when they smell like coconut, I especially don't like them. Because I don't like the smell of coconut. Don't get me wrong, to a normal-- not crazy and picky and neurotic person it probably smells fantastic. But to me, it smells like coconut. Finally, it doesn't bronze. I tried it on my leg, just to see if it "instantly added a sun-kissed glow" or if it made me "radiate from the inside out". You know or any of the other things that the website promised me it would do. Mostly it just added a lot of sparkles. Which isn't the same thing. If the joke's not too old yet, I'm not a vampire and I don't sparkle when the sun hits me (or maybe I'm just a real vampire and I burst into flames). Anyway, the body butter is $24 over at Pacifica's website. 

Finally, we hit the jackpot with the final item (which I'm sorry, but the picture's upside down). It's $110 off of a hair styling tool or extensions and a free thermal pouch (which is worth $19) from NuMe. The thing is, the cheapest styling tool they have, you still owe $18, but hey-- paying 18 dollars is better than paying 128 dollars. Overall, this one item is worth $129. And I checked, just in case it was a misprint and my code works. 

With everything added up minus the bag, this Ipsy bag was worth $201.85 minus the chevron bag and 209.85 with the chevron bag added in. Overall, I would say $10 dollars for $200 dollars worth of product is a pretty good deal, wouldn't you? If you'd like an Ipsy bag, you should head on over to Ipsy's site and get in line. Last I checked, they'd gotten through the waiting list and were just taking new people on, but that may have changed.

Julep Maven Box for May 2013

Hey everyone! I'm back again now that my boxes have come in. A few days ago I got my Julep box and after preparing myself mentally (and finishing up the last of my Finals for the semester), I got around to writing this post.

For those of you who don't know, Julep is a online subscription box where you can pay $19.99 a month and (depending on your profile) get either 2 nail polishes and a beauty/hand/foot product, or three nail polishes, or three beauty products.

The process is, you take a quiz that determines what you are (Modern Beauty, Boho Glam, Bombshell, It Girl, or, like me, Classic with a Twist). It doesn't really matter what you get, because if you don't like it, you can switch to another one. But Modern Beauty always gets all beauty products and It Girl always gets three nail polishes.

Your goodies come in a small black box every month:

And it's always really prettily wrapped, this month's wrapping was my favorite:

First Look:

And the Full Haul:

Julep has a thing for info cards that (usually) mean nothing to you if you aren't a first time "buyer". And I have a passionate hate for useless cards and things. I mean... if they tell me something I don't know and can't see plainly with my eyes, that's fine. But otherwise, save the paper.

This month's theme was Set the Stage, as inspired by the Roarin' Twenties. The quote that came along was from George Gershwin: "Life is a lot like jazz-- it's best when you improvise." Which is nice, but... eh? The card in the back there tells me the theme (which they email you about), a picture of what's in your box (look, look with your special eyes) and your profile type (which you choose...).

On the back they have hints to jazz up your look, which I won't judge too harshly, because I do spend a lot of time researching vintage makeup and just about all of this is wrong. But it's what people think of when they think 20s, so I'll let it slide.

It came with a lipstick trio. I got the Paris set. The first is Sweet Lorraine, the second is Charleston and the third is Lady in Red. Sweet Lorraine is way to light to show up on my lips. The second is really nice and sheer. The third is a nice matte color. They stay on really well and everything. They cost $28 (or $22.40 Maven Price).

My two nail polishes looked like this:

                                     

On the left is Zora, the right is Myrtle. I thought Zora would look horrendous, but it's actually really pretty on. The issue I have at this point is that I have received a red nail polish in each and every box except one. Every single box. Don't get me wrong, I love classic red polish. But I'd really like a little variation. Each polish is $14 (MP: $11.20).

Finally they also sent out this:

                                    

While these are super cute, they pull your hair like no one's business. But they are cute and I do wear them. They don't have a price for them anywhere, so I'm not going to guess.

Overall, the box is worth $56 (MP $44.80), which doubles your money. If you'd like to join, please include me as your referral. My referral code is 9021705, just write it in the code section when you sign up.

 

Ipsy My Glam Bag for April 2013

So I've finally gotten around to reviewing my Ipsy Glam Bag for April. And I've taken long enough already, so I'll just jump right in.

Ipsy is a company where you can pay $10 a month and recieve 4-5 beauty products. Usually it's a really good deal, and it definitely is worth more than the $10 a month.

And it comes in a pretty pink bag:

And here's the line-up for this month:

This month's theme was "Pretty in Pink" which I think would have gone better with Valentine's day than the "Red Carpet Ready" of February. But hey, I'm not the people running the company. 

This card just tells you about the convention that they're having in Los Angeles. Something that I'm not particularly interested in, but if you haven't figured out that I have very little patience for info cards then you must be reading another blog.

These are the products included in the glam bag for this month. Another good thing about ipsy is that they give you a percentage off of the brands included in the bag during the month. 

This month you have Be A Bombshell Cosmeteics (30% off + Free Eye Shadow), Mica Beauty Cosmetics (30% off), Miss Professional Nail (20% off), Sexy Hair (Save $5), Two Cosmetics (25% off + Free Lip Gloss). I didn't recieve anything from Mica in my bag, but I think that they sent some people Mica and some Two. 

First off we have:

Two Cosmetics' Duo Eye Shadow in "Heartache" which is valued at $6.99 regularly (but currently $5.75) at their website over here. I used it the other day and it was nice and neutral. The only problem I have is that one color is so light that it's still barely visible over top of my pearl primer and the other isn't much better. Once I heaped on enough for it to be visible, it looked nice. 

Image from Two Cosmetics

Big Sexy Hair's Powder Play, but only .07 oz of the regular .53 oz. I did the math and the teaser is worth about $2, I found the usual price over at Ulta's website. It's supposed to work as a texturizer and add volume, which honestly I do not need. My hair is thin, but there's so much of it that adding volume turns my head into a pumpkin. That being said, in the name of good reviews and science, I put some on my head anyway. It was WEIRD. Okay, so it's a powder, but it feels like a liquid on your head and once it's in your hair, it feels like hairspray. I did give my hair a little volume-- it may work better on someone with longer hair.

Miss' Sation Nail Lacquer from their Miss Antoinette collection in "Of Corset I'll Call You"

Usually, Miss' Nail Lacquer is $5 and so I was a little nervous that it wouldn't be the greatest polish, since the bottle was so large (.5 oz), Julep charges twice that for half the product. Despite the fact that it went on super thin for the first coat, it was nice-- it dried pretty quick and it's a pretty color.

Image from Miss' Website

Be A Bombshell's Blush in "Sweet Cheeks" which I started out thrilled with, just based upon the brand. I really like Be A Bombshell's cosmetics. I have some of their eyeliner and I've been eyeing the lip colors for a while. My heart dropped when I opened the box. It looked WAY too dark for my skin. I tried it anyway and it actually wasn't too dark. The site calls it medium rose, and I guess I'm lucky it's not as dark as I thought it was. Their charging $16 for it over at their site.

It looks much darker in my bathroom under artificial light

And then of course, every month they send you a cosmetics bag-- which I love. I'm a big fan of sectioning out everything and keeping it in different bags and the more bags the merrier. This one was cute inside and out. I always value their bags at $8 because good cosmetics bags can cost upwards of $14. 

Overall, this bag is valued at $29.99 without the cosmetic bag and $37.99. Either way, your money is at least tripled. If you want one, I suggest you mosey on over there and get in line (as there has been a waitlist lately, although when I joined there wasn't).

Julep April Maven Box 2013

I know it's been awhile and that I'm super late posting this, but to be completely honest I was swamped with schoolwork the last two weeks and this past weekend I took a breather at the Medieval Fair and the Zoo. But I'm back, and I've got several posts to make.

To start us off with the frantic catching up game we have the Julep April Maven Box. For those of you who don't know, you can go to Julep's website and subscribe to their Maven Boxes. For $20 a month, you get three full sized nail and "beauty" products from Julep. Good news is, Julep is a high-quality hand and nail company who make nice nail products and so you're not wasting your money. More good news is that, if you tend to want to get something makeup/nail/hair related every paycheck--like me, it helps you do that and get more bang for your buck. Since signing up for Julep and Ipsy, I don't go out and spend money at Ulta or Sally's Beauty Supply unless I need a specialty item.

Let's get this show on the road.

When you sign up for Julep, you take a quiz designed to pidgeon-hole, I mean... analyze... your sense of fashion. In all truthfulness, it really is a good thing because if you're not a bold person with an addiction to bright colors, you can be that person who doesn't get those things. And regardless of what you end up with (I got "Classic with a Twist"), you get sent an email with all the boxes a week or so ahead of time and get to pick which box you want. Which is good. I mean... it takes the surprise out of it, but it's good.

Every month, my Maven Box comes in a small black box:

Inside that box is your treat, and they wrap it up rather nicely:

Another thing Julep like to do is send you ALL the cards. The thing is, they're not info cards that tell you how to best use the product or tips and tricks or the newest style for nail art, no they're just there to tell you things you already know. Like that this is a Julep box and it's for April and that their theme is "Turn on the Brights" and that you are "Classic with a Twist". The reason they provide you with all of this info (again), is because you can send your box to a friend for the month. Just to let them have a nice little something. But here's the cards:

This month they actually did include a card with pedicure instructions. And one with a quote from RuPaul. Sometime you should let me tell you about how RuPaul is my favorite human being, accept no substitutes.

But anyway, that being said, I bet you want to look at actual stuff now.

This month, I got 2 nail polishes and one beauty product. 

In this order: Jackie and Avery

These two are Jackie, a deep red, and Avery, a hot pink, and each is priced on the Julep site at $14, but like all Julep items-- if you are a Maven you get a percentage off so the Maven price is $11.20.

I also got the Mighty Nail and Cuticle Serum. This is designed to help strengthen and smooth your nails and moisturize your cuticle beds. So far, I've seen a really nice improvement in my cuticle beds, but my nails look the same. And I have a bad issue with my nail splitting so that you can chip the nail itself back. It's a common problem, I've been told-- but it looks terrible and I'm hoping that, with regular use-- this serum can turn it around. It comes at $28 a pop (For Mavens: $22.40). So I'm pretty glad I practically got it for  free.

We also got the freebie of a stick of rock candy (they always send you a sample or a freebie of some kind). I'm not going to value this. I was so excited for it though and it was delicious. I was eating it and Andy came up and asked for a taste, when I got it back I had one solitary crystal hanging on to the bottom, I started to eat at it again, but she took that too! What a cheat!

Overall the box is priced at $56, way worth the $20 price tag. I really enjoyed this box and I hope you guys look into getting one yourself. If you want a Julep box for yourself you can get the first one for .01 plus 3.99 in shipping ($4.00) by typing JULEPVIP in the field box, also-- when you go type in my referral code: 9021705 in order to get me some free stuff!