Christmas Fun!

Hey everyone! After being out of town for about 6 days- I'm now home again! It was just wonderful to get to spend time with friends and family... and have it amount to more than just 24 hours! :) We went back "home" to western Illinois and spent time with both Tyler's family and mine, as well as some great friends we rarely get to see! We had a great Christmas and on the 27th we also celebrated my birthday! Cupcake was also there and was a very good little traveler! In an effort to really have some quality time I sort of "unplugged" myself from the online world for a few days. I am super excited to get back to the videos tomorrow- with a Christmas & Birthday beauty haul! :) Meanwhile- here are a few pics from my long weekend! I hope everyone had a great holiday & please have a safe New Year's Eve!

Cupcake loves to dive under blankets!

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I gave my sister-in-law Sarah some beauty gifts- Sigma brushes & Mally makeup! :) She also let me do her Christmas Eve makeup! Isn't she beautiful?

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It's become a tradition on Tyler's side of the family to get new PJ's on Christmas Eve! This is Sarah, me, and Tyler (behind me), along with cousins Derek & Dana. Notice how I'm barely taller than little 12-year-old Dana! That whole side of the family is tall & mostly blonde!

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At my parents' house on Christmas day- where one of the goofiest gifts got the most pictures! Each year my sister gets me an assortment of hilarious gifts from the catalog- Archie McPhee. Ever since Tyler & I got married, the gifts involve him as well, and this year my sister went all out and got him this Viking helmet (Tyler's family has a Norwegian background, plus he's big & blonde, like a Viking- LOL). Needless to say, EVERYONE tried on the helmet, while we all laughed our butts off.

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Even my adorable niece Ashley is sporting the Viking look! :) She also came over on my birthday and we played bingo, barbies, tea party, and coloring books. SO fun :)

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The night before my birthday, me and Tyler and Sarah and a bunch of other local pals (including Brittany, shown here) went out for dinner & drinks. We had such a fun time & ended up at a restaurant/bar that serves up the most gigantic tenderloin sandwiches. It was such a good time!

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Now that we're back home, I made a point to get all unpacked... I'm notorious for letting stuff sit around in a suitcase forever but not this time! Thank you SO much to everyone who left me such kind Christmas & birthday greetings on Twitter & Facebook! I'm honored that you thought of me! :) Looking forward to "seeing" you in the next video!!

Nails of the Day: Dark Sparkle

Hey everyone! Hope you're having a good weekend... I can't believe we just have one week until Christmas! I wanted to do something festive with my nails, and I'm enjoying neutral-toned glitters because they pop, but they go with almost anything.

The shade I'm sporting here is Wet n Wild Color Icon nail polish (limited edition) in Diamond in the Rough. Overall it just looks like a gun-metal toned glitter... but if you look closely, there are two sizes of glitter in this... a very fine silver-colored glitter, and larger glitters that seem to shine in various color tones. While it's overall a pretty dark look, it's actually rather multi-dimensional when you watch your nails move and catch the light.

Here- you can see that they match my grey sweatpants perfectly! LOL. I applied 2 coats of this polish, as well as my Milani Glosse Top Coat. I recommend using the thickest top coat you have... Sally Hansen Mega Shine would've been great for this. That way you smooth out the surface of the nail, which can be come somewhat rough and prone to chipping with glitter polishes. As far as taking glitter polish off, it's really not that bad. I actually just peel it off when I'm ready to change it!

Daily Nuggets...

• I have almost all of our gifts wrapped! Did it this afternoon.
• I like the Denver Broncos football uniforms. Go Tebow!
• Had a blast last night with my friend Kalee and her boyfriend Jonathan who stayed with us. She had her dog Mia Bean with her as well... (See Cupcake's Facebook)

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Me, Kalee, Tyler & Jonathan

For some reason we kept trying to take a serious picture...

It was really hard...

But finally we did it! :) lol

Mid-Month Favorites!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to post a quick blog sharing a few products I'm loving right now and have been using like crazy!

Maybelline Baby Lips in Peach Kiss

I've tried a few of Maybelline's Baby Lips tinted lip balms (I actually wrote a blog review on them not too long ago)... but it took me awhile to pick up Peach Kiss from the store. Probably because these balms have been flying off the shelves at my area drugstores! I just love Peach Kiss for the ultimate natural looking and FEELING lip. My lips naturally have sort of a mauve tone to them... nothing outstanding. But something about the golden-peach tone to this balm makes my lips look so much better! I'd call it a glowing, hydrated nude lip. I'm wearing Baby Lips Peach Kiss in this video if you want to see how it looks.

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Mally Beauty Blush in Mally's Glow

Hardcore Beauty Broadcasters might remember- I blogged about this blush in October. It's actually part of one of my favorite Mally Beauty kits called "Get the Look". I've been wearing a lot of pink and berry lip looks lately, and when I do that, I often reach for a pink blush. I have been ALL ABOUT this particular pink blush lately! It has some very subtle shimmer, but it's a wonderfully pigmented pink that seems to really work well with my skintone. Sometimes light pinks are so light on my skin they seem like highlights. Or they just don't show up- period. This one really makes me glow and I LOVE it.

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Slatkin & Co. Wallflower in Candied Sugar Plum

(from Bath & Body Works)

I picked up a few new Wallflowers from Bath & Body Works not too long ago... I always LOVE the fall & winter seasonal scents. When I saw the cute design on this one, I had pretty much decided it was going in the makeup room before I even knew what it smelled like. But guess what- my makeup room smells INCREDIBLE with this Candied Sugar Plum scent! It's sweet, lightly fruity, and just so yummy. Even Tyler noticed how good it smelled when he walked into the room today. I'm just nuts about it. Must get more before they sell out!

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Daily Nuggets...

• I love the timer function on my flameless candles!
• I have a bunch of gifts sitting under my tree that need to be wrapped. Kind of wishing I could bust into some of the things I'm giving to the women in my family! (Don't worry, I won't!)
• OMG what if I shot little Christmas hauls with my family on Christmas so they could show the beauty stuff I gave them?!
• I think I'm going to have some tea
• I have new series coming to Beauty Broadcast on YouTube this week!!! I am so excited!

It's Here...

Well, I'm not going to pretend to be the one breaking the news to you... but there's a new Naked Palette from Urban Decay!!! I ordered mine last week, and it arrived at my house today- which I thought was surprisingly fast. This isn't going to be a review on the palette... I'm against reviewing stuff I haven't used (makes no sense). But what's the harm in sharing a few pictures?

The palette came in a box that had pics of all the shadows on the back... within that box was this mini Lip Junkie gloss, and wrapped up in the tissue paper in a little plastic baggie was a mini 24/7 pencil in Eldorado. As you'll see in the pic below, it comes with a double ended brush- one side to pack on the shadow, and another to blend it out. Similar feel, but not quite as soft & dense as the Sigma Bunny Travel Set that I posted a review video on today.

When I DO choose to review video this palette, it's going to center around comparisons with the original Naked palette and other palettes that I have. Because let's think of it this way... the first Naked palette is like this palette's successful big sister. She went through school, everybody liked her, and she left a good reputation for the next sibling. She got good grades (reviews) and they both come from a good family (Urban Decay). I have no issue with the quality of Urban Decay shadows. And as you can tell from this picture... the swatches don't disappoint.

So the colors look good, but just HOW good is it? Is it worth the $50? Is it different enough from the original? How many different looks can you come up with? If you don't already have the first Naked palette, which should you buy? These are some of the questions I'll be answering in an upcoming video after I use this for awhile. Thanks for reading!

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Daily Nuggets...

• I have spent too much time in front of a computer today.
• Wondering how long it will be before Cupcake tries to shred the tissue paper my Naked 2 palette came in.
• My t-zone doesn't feel the least bit oily after 15 hours of makeup wear. (trying to remember what products I wore today...)
• My sister JUST tweeted a link to a blog post on the story of why we are Poof & Pup! Let's go read it!

A Merry Makeup Room

Hey everyone! After a brief blog break following Non-Stop November, I'm back! :) In case you can't tell, I love Christmas, as well as all the decorating that goes with it! Along with my Christmas trees and candles in the main area of our home, I don't neglect the makeup room when it comes to getting festive! And it's all PINK! Here's a quick tour of my decorations...

I have a mini Christmas tree in front of my window... I got it very cheap a couple of seasons ago from Big Lots (it was just bare, undecorated). It seems like almost every store is coming out with a more colorful array of ornaments, and I believe I found this mini velvet hot pink tree skirt at Big Lots as well. I just draped it over a container on top of my stool so the tree could sort of peek out the window. It's covered with white lights, pink polka dot ribbon, pink ball ornaments in a variety of finishes, and best of all- CUPCAKES!

I found these pink cupcake ornaments last season at Wal-Mart and I think they're just the cutest things! I have a few red ones on our big tree as well. Cupcake has successfully batted a few of these off the tree!

Here's my bookshelf, which appears in the background of most of my videos. I can't remember where I found this string of pink LED lights, but like I said, non-traditional Christmas colors are popping up everywhere! I also have my lipstick lamp from Target glowing on top of the bookcase!

I love the larger size on these lights- and I'm seriously thinking about leaving them up year-round.

Last but not least, my pink sequined santa hat! I found this at Walgreens a few weeks ago and decided to drape it over my tall mirror (when I'm not wearing it :) Hope you enjoyed this little tour! I'll probably blog about the rest of my decor at some point too.

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Daily Nuggets...

• Thanks to those who gave me such nice feedback on the Non-Stop November blogging. It really meant a lot to me.
• I've plotted out my drugstore makeup gift bag video... two words: BIGGER & BETTER!
• My Bath & Body Works hand sanitizer in Cinnamon Raisin Cookie makes me hungry when I put it on.
• Made my own peppermint mocha this morning! Using my Keurig I put in a Cafe Escapes- Cafe Mocha k-cup. Then added some sugar free peppermint flavored coffee mate creamer. It rocked!