October Glossybox, Halloween Party, and Pumpkin Farm!

When I got home from work, I was pleasantly surprised to see my October Glossybox waiting for me on our dining room table! According to the tracking code, it wasn't supposed to arrive until at least the 20th. I was super pumped about it arrive early, since it was my first Glossybox, so I grabbed it, ran to our bedroom to open it.

The first thing I saw was this coupon/gift card thing for a produce subscription box. Not something I'll use, because I follow a meal plan service so we need specific items each week, but a nice bonus if that's something that you're interested in!

I love the packaging - I'm actually going to keep the box for wrapping Christmas gifts this year!

The first item that I pulled out of the box was this Tarte Cosmetics Power Pigment in Flush ($24).

The packaging is adorable and fun, and the lip color is great - it's well-pigmented and so far has stayed on pretty long both times I've used it. On the right, I put some on the back of my hand (the top is the product applied directly to my hand, the bottom area is where I kind of smudged it around for lighter color).

The second product was this Proganix Volume: Root Boost Finish + Body Builder ($11.99). The instructions on the back of the bottle say to use this before blow drying, so I'm not sure if this will actually be a good product for me as I rarely use any type of heat on my hair, but I'm going to try the product without heat to see if it has any effect. If not, I'll give it to my sister!

Nails Inc. Westminster Bridge Matte Top Coat ($10). I love this product! First of all I love top coat, because even when I don't use nail lacquer/polish I tend to put on top coat just to make my nails look nicer and more put-together (also to prevent top-layer chipping that sometimes happens to my nails, since they're pretty weak - I'm working on that problem). But also, I love the matte look of this top coat! I think it gives my nails a very soft, silky look when applied alone and I can't wait to try it over one of my polishes. I will definitely be buying the product once I've run out of this one.

 Vince Camuto Amore Eau de Parfum ($12). This will actually be the first fragrance I've ever owned. I've bought a lot of body sprays and mists, but never any actual fragrance (the price tag is always a slight hindrance). So far I'm loving this one, and the bottle is absolutely adorable.

I forgot to photograph the last item, which was a Sesha one-time-use mask ($9). I haven't tried it yet, but I'll let you know what I think once I do.

As a whole I was pretty impressed with my first Glossybox. I received $67 in products, most of which I was really excited about! I can't wait for my next one, which will actually be sooner than normal because I purchased two previous boxes through a throwback special, which should arrive in the next week or so.Sam and I attended a Halloween party that my niece hosted at her house on Saturday night. I spent an exorbitant amount of money on a Bat Girl costume (thanks, Halloween Express, for the overpriced low-quality clothing to be worn one or two days a year), and Sam dressed as Jake from State Farm (that's his favorite commercial, and I thought the costume was pretty creative).

I spent a lot of time of my eye makeup for this costume, trying to get a Bat Girl-esque look going on. It ended up taking like an hour, but I think it looked pretty decent. I used bright yellow and yellow-gold shadows from an old palette that I picked up at Claire's like six years ago (I know, I totally should have thrown that away by now). The look would have been better if I'd had higher-quality yellow shadows, since Claire's isn't exactly known for quality, let alone makeup quality, but I worked with what I had. for the winged part in the crease, I used a taupe color from my Maybelline Expert Eye Wear quad, and then a black shadow from the Claire's palette over it. I used Physician's Formula liquid liner, the taupe shadow to line my lower lashes, iENVY by KISS lashes that I got in my October ipsy bag, and Urban Decay Perversion mascara. Overall I was pretty satisfied with how it turned out, but I wish I'd had a higher-quality, more pigmented yellow shadow.

Beauty Re-Organization and Today's Look

I haven't posted on here in forever (a little over a year, actually), but I'm trying again. I've actually got some stuff to share right now, so I figured this is a good time to try!

So last night I got an unexpected burst of energy/motivation at around 11:30 P.M., and I started cleaning and reorganizing parts of my bedroom - mostly my beauty products. I definitely need to get some kind of additional storage eventually - maybe trays or a desk organizer - because it's not as organized as I'd like, but it's better than before. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any "before" pictures, so you only get to see the more organized version.

So, to start with, here's my whole dressed full of stuff that I rearranged. This is most of my makeup and hair products, except for some lipstick and concealer and stuff that is currently in a makeup bag in my purse.

In the two drawer sets on the left, I keep most of my makeup. From top to bottom:

• Drawer #1: This drawer has all of my lip products - lipstick, gloss, liner, balm, chapstick.
• Drawer #2: Individual eyeshadows and palettes. It's getting a little crowded in there, so I'm thinking I'll get a desktop organizer like this one from Target, where I can stand the palettes up in the large compartment and store some brushes in the smaller compartments.
• Drawer #3: Eyeliners, mascaras, brow pencils/powders/gels, tweezers, false eyelashes and adhesive.
• Drawer #4: Powder foundations, blush, bronzers, finishing powders, highlighting powders - basically, all of my powder face products.
• Drawer #5: Brushes. I don't have a good system for brushes yet, so I lay all of my brushes next to each other in this drawer right now, besides my e.l.f. brush set that I keep in it's folding bag.
• Drawer #6: Hair stuff. Large and small hair clips, head bands, hair ties, etc.

This little basket was part of a Bath & Body Works gift set that I was given for Christmas probably seven or eight years ago, and I use it to store most of my lotions, body butters, hand creams, and a few little hand sanitizers.
On the right are all of my hair products - hair spray and dry shampoo in the back row; second row is sea salt spray, heat protectant, and thickening lotion; third row is a control creme and silkening creme; front row is another silkening/frizz creme, the old version of Redken Mess Around, leave-in conditioner, deep conditioning mask, and reviving spray.

My nail polish organizers stores - surprise! - all of my nail products: polishes/lacquers, files, buffers, clippers, cuticle pusher, cuticle oil, top & bottom coats. I also have my essential oils stored on the top left, along with my Mary Kay lip mask & balm, and my Physician's Formula liquid liner (just because I keep it standing up so the products will get down into the felt tip, so I don't want to lay it in the drawer with my other liners).

Next are my liquid face products: foundation, primer, setting spray, cleansers/exfoliants, and sunscreen. In the front, I have a spot treatment and some random "smoothing and relaxing eye patches" that I got in an ipsy bag. And my body spray and deodorant are on the right. The black thing sitting behind all of this stuff is the e.l.f. brush set that I mentioned before, in it's folding storage bag.
I think eventually I'm going to get this to put my hair and liquid face products in, just to keep them together and not just sitting on the dresser.

The last thing on my dresser is another, smaller, set of drawers where I mostly store jewelry. I've had these drawers forever, but still haven't taken the sticker off - oops! This isn't all of my jewelry...I haven't moved my jewelry pin board and magnetic containers up from the basement yet, and those have most of my jewelry on/in them, so I'll post that once I've moved it. From top to bottom:

• Drawer #1: earrings
• Drawer #2: necklaces
• Drawer #3: a few random things - mala bead necklace, coins from the Bahamas, casino token
• Drawer #4: more hair stuff - a hair band with gold metal leaves on it, bobby pins, and I think there's an SD card in there...
• Drawer #5: bracelets

And finally, a little metal shelving unit that I got from a house my parents bought (the owner apparently just moved and left everything behind?). I have baby powder and some lotion, nail polish removers and nail drying spray, more regular lotion and Jergen's Natural Glow moisturizer, hair brush (pretend that brush isn't covered in hair - ew), blow dryer and flat iron, cotton balls, and a loofah. And a container of cat litter! ;)

So that's it right now - as I said before, once I get the rest of my jewelry and my other set of drawers moved upstairs, I'll post those as well.

I guess while I'm here, I might as well show my outfit, hair, and makeup for today. Almost my entire outfit is composed of pieces I've received from Stitch Fix. You can check out my first post for an explanation of watch Stitch Fix is, and how it works (sorry about some of the photos not showing up in that post - I'm not sure why they stopped working). I LOVE this service, and can't get enough.

Sorry about the awkward camera angle...I couldn't move any farther back because my dresser was right behind me, so  the downward-slanted angle of the camera kind of makes my torso look huge and my legs look really short! Hopefully I can find a different place to hang my mirror...

Today, I'm wearing the Just Black skinny jeans that I got in a "fix" earlier this year, short-sleeved open-front cardigan that I got in my very first fix last year, a mixed-material top that I just received in a fix earlier this week (eep!), and a puzzle charm necklace that I got in a previous fix. The only things I'm wearing that aren't from Stitch Fix are my glasses and my shoes!

My hair and makeup are below - you can't see the makeup very well, because the lighting in my office is weird and yellow-ish, but this is the best picture I could get.

Primer/Foundation: Make Up Forever HD primer, and then Face & Body liquid makeup as foundation - I love this product because it's not heavy, and it lets my freckles show through, where a lot of foundations kind of cover them up.

Eyes: NYX Cosmetics Love In Paris eyeshadow Palette in Mercibeaucoup. I used the matte-brown cappuccino-esque shade on my lid, an old matte Covergirl bronzer of mine for the upper crease, and then a combination of the peachy-pink and burgundy/wine shades from the NYX palette for the crease, to bridge the two brown/bronze shades. Then I used my Physicians Formula eyeliner and Marc Jacobs O!Mega mascara sample that I got as a Sephora Beauty Insider reward. Then I used a bright blue eyeshadow to line my lower lashes, from an old Urban Decay palette that my sister gave me when she got a new UD palette - I don't think they make the palette anymore, because I couldn't find it on their website.

Brows: I used the NYX Automatic Eyebrow Pencil in Light Brown for the outline of my brown, and then went over the outline and filled in with the NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Auburn/Red. My brows definitely could have looked better, but I woke up late this morning so I was in a hurry and kind of just brushed over them pretty quickly.

Bronzer/Blush: Nars Blush/Bronzer Duo in Orgasm/Laguna. I went pretty light on bronzer/blush today, too, because I was in a hurry.

Lips: Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm in Audacious, and Starlooks lip gloss in Guilty Pleasure

I'm trying to be a little less low-maintenance when it comes to my hair (a lot of the time I just put it in a ponytail and that's it), but I'm also trying to avoid using heat often since I'm growing it out and wan't to avoid unnecessary damage. So in order to get wavy hair without curling it or getting the crimpy-waves that I get when I braid my hair overnight, I've been using Vivian Vo-Farmer's twist-braid technique overnight to get waves naturally, which I love. It not only makes my hair wavy, but it also has more volume, and doesn't go flat and straight after one day - I put it up in a loose topknot on nights that I don't wash my hair, so it keeps its volume). When I first take it out of the twist-braids in the morning it looks similar to how it looks in my outfit photo but curlier, but after I run my fingers through it a little bit it gets looser and more wavy. And then after I've brushed the curls out with my fingers, I flip my hair to each side and then forward, and hairspray it each way, just so that it keeps the volume all day.

Stitch Fix Review #1

I'm a recent college graduate (recent meaning I graduated a year and a half ago, in May 2012), living and working in Cincinnati. I love good food, fashion, and trying new things, so I decided to start a blog about my post-grad life and experiences. I decided that my first post needs to feature one of my new favorite things (and somewhat of an obsession): Stitch Fix.

Stitch Fix is a personal styling service. When you sign up, you fill out a detailed style profile for them, letting them know the type of styles that you like, your sizes, etc., and then you schedule a "fix" (it can be scheduled monthly/recurring, or you can just schedule one whenever you decide that you want to receive it).

When they ship your fix, you are charged a $20 styling fee, and if you decide to keep something (or multiple things) from your fix, that $20 goes toward whatever you decide to keep. Also, if you keep everything, you get 25% off!

Your fix arrives at your front door, you get to try everything on at home with your own wardrobe and accessories, and you have three days to decide what you want to keep or send back (they provide a postage-paid envelope to send items back). They also provide a style card with each item, to give you ideas/suggestions of what other clothing items and accessories would look good with each item that they've sent.

When you decide what you want to keep (or if you don't want to keep anything), you go online to check out, and you are able to provide detailed feedback on the size, price, style, and fit/cut of each item (along with a comments box for anything else you'd like to add), so that your stylist can make your next fix even better!

Also, in your style profile, you let them know your general price range for items in each category (accessories, bottoms, dresses, jewelry, outer layers, tops): "the cheaper, the better", $50-100, $100-150, $150-200, or $200+. I chose "the cheaper, the better", since I'm an almost-broke, semi-recent college graduate.

So far, I've received three fixes. Here are some photos, most of which are from my first fix (which was AWESOME). The last two photos are from the two more recent fixes.

Aztec Print Dress = $48

LOVE that this dress has pockets. It's a super comfortable dress that's perfect for everyday wear.

Cardigan = $38                   Necklace = $28

I wouldn't actually wear the cardigan with this dress (at least not without styling it differently), but I didn't want to change clothes before taking another picture. I didn't LOVE the cardigan, but it's cute and I tend to wear cardigans to work often. The necklace is very cute. I didn't really have $28 worth of love for it, but it's very cute and different from anything else that I have (although, I don't have very many necklaces anyway).

Polka Dot Minidress = $68

Ok, so I saw someone else post pictures of this dress when they got it in their fix, and I was like "ew, poofy sleeves...I'm not going to like that", but I actually love it! It's one of my favorite dresses! I didn't think that I would like the retro-ish style because it's usually not something I'd pick out for myself, but I was pleasantly surprised with this dress.

(below is a photo of me wearing the dress a few weeks later...I got compliments on it from three different strangers in the first hour after I left the house!)

Polka Dot Swing Skirt = $48

This skirt was the last item in my first fix, and I absolutely love it! It goes so well with so many different tops, and I've been able to style it with so many different things already (these tops were just some that I pulled out of my closet to try with the skirt for pictures). LOVE.

Even though I wasn't in love with the necklace and cardigan, I decided to keep them because I would get the 25% off, and it ended up being cheaper than if I would have sent them back. And I have worn both several times, so it was worth it.

3/4 Sleeve Button-Up Cardigan = $38

It looks simple, but I loooove love love this cardigan. I got it in my September fix, and I feel like it's a perfect cardigan for Fall with the color and style. I had a very monochromatic wardrobe before Stitch Fix, and most of my cardigans and jackets are either gray, black, or dark blue, so the color is a nice change.

I didn't take any other photos from my September fix, because I was busy and forgot. But I also kept a graphic print skirt ($48) that I LOVE. I'll try to remember to post a photo of it later.

Houndstooth Printed Skirt = $48

This skirt is from my most recent fix (two days ago). I really didn't think that I'd like it because it's longer that what I usually go for in skirts. Long skirts tend to cut me off and make me look really short, but I decided that I actually liked it, and there are many ways that I could style it. In the photo on the left, the skirt is pulled up to my natural waist, with a bright long-sleeved shirt tucked in, and a thick belt. The photo on the right is just with a dark, fitted sweater.

Puzzle Charms Necklace = $28

I also kept this necklace from my most recent fix. It's just so cute that I couldn't help it ^_^

So...there's my review of Stitch Fix. I'll continue to post more reviews as I receive more fixes - the next one will be around November 1st! If you're interested in trying Stitch Fix, you can use my referral link and I'll get credit for referring you :D

https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/3141202