Christmas Wishlist 2016

Typically I have a million things that I want for Christmas but as soon as it's time to make a list, I completely forget everything that I want. I usually just get money from my parents instead of letting them buy surprise gifts because my mom likes to disregard my list and buy things I don't want. So, here are a few things I may be getting this year. ♡

Louis Vuitton recently released Rose Ballerine interior for the Neverfull bag. I'm starting college in the spring and I won't be able to cope without the beauty of this bag to get me through it. 

If you know me, you already know that I have a keychain addiction. I'm torn between this cute little rose Burberry bear, 

or this beautiful Kate Spade champagne bottle.  

A glitter macbook case is obviously a necessity. obviously. 

I have to see these in person to know how I truly feel about them, but I think these UGGs look so adorable for fall with the pearl & diamond inspiration. 

I think these Tangle Angel brushes are so adorable. I really want to try one because I just want to feel like a Barbie brushing my luscious  hair.
 

This iPhone case with me on it. 

A new burberry scarf. I'm torn between Stone Check and

Ash Rose.

I have one in Stone Check already but it's the ruffle design rather than the classic design.


I'm also going to want EVERYTHING from the 2016 Victoria's Secret fashion show in Paris, so just pretend that's all listed. 

Nail Salon Horror Story

This story happened last summer. My mom and I went to get a manicure at the nail salon in my town. Usually the place was busy, but never SUPER busy. A bunch of workers were standing outside on their cell phones, we wen in and there were about 30 people standing in there and absolutely nobody was doing any nails at all. Finally they come in after about 20 minutes and I get a guy that had never been in there before. I wanted to get my acrylics taken off and get a new set put on. Most of the time they put my nails in acetone and get them to melt off so they can easily scrape them off, but nope.. not this guy. He takes a nail, puts it under my acrylics, and starts tearing them off, which of course makes every single one of my nails bleed. One  nail he completely tore my entire real nail off and it wouldn't quit bleeding, so then after that incident he decides to soak the remaining 3. I guess the first 7 bleeding nails weren't enough to give him the hint. Once he removes all the nails, he starts painting my nails and pulls out a box of crackers and eats them while he's painting my nails. The entire time he's painting my nails he's staring directly into my face, just looking at me. He then asked me how old I was, if I had a boyfriend, kept asking me very personal questions about having a boyfriend. When he was doing  my nails, he kept being rough with my hands (as if you couldn't tell) but since this happened a while ago I forget the specifics, but he did something that hurt me and then said something that I found very offensive so I started getting loud and being a bitch to him. The entire nail salon was staring at me. He finally put his crackers down long enough to talk on the phone while painting them as well. Then at the end he told me it would be $100 for my manicure.

Fitness

I lost about 30lbs in less than a year and people always ask me how I did it, then they don't want to go through with any of it. I'm not saying I'm a fitness/health expert by any means, but I do know what worked for me. In my opinion, fitbits are a complete waste of money. Your iPhone will track how many steps you take and you can log your meals. I'm going to give you some of my advice and tips because a lot of you are making it harder than it needs to be.

1. BE ACTIVE!
Changing your diet and not being active isn't going to make a difference. Sure, if you typically eat an abundance and you lower your food intake, it'll shed a pound or two. However, you need to actually MOVE along with that.

2. FOOD!
Listen. Bread isn't going to kill you. I eat bread everyday, and I ate bread everyday when I was losing weight. I'm tired of everyone freaking out about bread because it's so absurd. There's also good fat and bad fat. Pecans and other nuts are very high in fat, but it won't make you gain weight. Saturated fat is what you need to avoid. You can't cut all fat out of your diet. Your body needs fat. Also, starving yourself will just lower your metabolism and make it even harder to lose weight.

3. MY ROUTINE!
When I was losing weight I was very dedicated. I ate only turkey, lettuce, cheese, and mayo sandwhiches. I ate baked lays with them. I would then walk on the treadmill at night and burn 500-900 calories from walking an hour and thirty minutes on 3.5 speed.
P.S. I did eat out while I was losing weight. I would eat very shitty on certain days and I wouldn't gain weight because I was burning enough calories to be able to do that.

4. WORKOUT!
Honestly, doing crunches and sit ups and push ups are all so stupid to start your diet with. It's better to lose the weight you want/need to lose by doing something simple like walking or running. After you've demolished your fat you can start intense workouts to build muscle.

5. A FITNESS APP!
I have the app MyFitnessPal. You download the app and it asks you your age, current weight, height, goal weight, and how soon you want to reach that goal weight. Your homepage will tell you how many calories you can have per day to reach your goal. There's a log for each day and it's divided into Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snacks. You can scan the labels for it to automatically load all the nutrition info, or you can input it yourself. Also, there's a chart that shows Fat, Sugar, Carbs, etc and it tells you how many you can have per day to reach your goal weight. As you upload your meals, it lets you know how many more carbs and such that you can still have for the day. Also, on the home page it tells you how many steps you have walked and how may calories those steps burned. Also you can input "Walked on treadmill - 50 minutes - burned 100 calories" and it'll add those calories back to how many more you can eat for the day.

6. DIET PILLS DON'T WORK!
Diet pills don't work. Stop being lazy. Stop wasting your money. Detoxes don't work. Detoxes only make you lose weight because you have such bad diarrhea that it removes a lot of the water in your system (basically, you could've just taken laxatives and saved your detox money). Also, don't be afraid of SODIUM. If you eat a lot of sodium, you'll likely bloat and may "gain weight" but it's just water weight and will be gone in a day. Also, waist trainers don't work. I have a naturally hour glass shaped body, and if you're not naturally shaped like that, nothing is going to make you that way. You really think crushing your ribs together is a good idea in the first place?

Tanning Tips (for pale girls)

It's spring which means the sun is shining brighter and we're all looking even paler. I'm naturally a very pale girl. I always thought I was too white to tan, but I've been experimenting with tanning techniques for about 8 years now, and the last 3 years I found a technique that worked. Tanning beds don't work for me at all. They may work for you, everyone's skin is different, but no matter how many times I go into a bed, I stay pink/red. This of course means I'm pale in the winter, but I'm white, so I'm not ashamed/embarrassed of my paleness. Most pale girls stay in the sun too long, get burned, and then complain. You need to start out in smaller intervals. Depending on how easy you burn, start at 15-30 minutes on each side. Slowly work yourself up as the week goes on. I personally can't do anymore than an hour and thirty minutes on each side no matter how dark I am (and I get brown af). I use a clear tanning oil to speed up the process. I have tried every tanning oil/lotion on the market, and Hawaiian Tropics dark tanning oil is the ONLY thing that works for me. It's a pour bottle rather than a spray bottle, which is ideal because you need to apply A LOT. Don't be afraid to buy it, since it's for "already dark skin". The intensity of the oil just speeds to process up, so you don't have to lay out as long. Everyone's skin is different, so I can't promise this will work for everyone, but as someone who's incredibly pale, I've been able to become darker than everyone I know during the summer months.

Kylie Lip Kit

Everyone knows I'm annoyed about the Kylie Lip Kits, so I figured I'd make a blog post about my frustration and move on with my life. When the original three shades True Brown K, Dolce K, and Candy K came out, I of course wanted one because I'm a makeup addict. I didn't expect them to literally sell out within an hour of the release, but when they did I didn't care because I figured they'd be available with ease within a month. Of course, they weren't. I wasn't too upset about it though because I didn't really LOVE any of the colors. Then Koko K came out and I NEEDED it. NEEDED. IT IS A NECESSITY. I tried two restocks ago and it sold out as soon as I pressed add to cart. I was sad, but I figured I'd just wait until next time. I found out the release date and time two days ahead. I was ready, I was mentally and physically prepared and I could feel it that I was going to finally get some! I waited on the website for an hour and kept refreshing. When the clock struck 3:00 I was ready on my laptop and iPhone. I added Mary Jo K, Koko K, Posie K, and Candy K to my cart. I filled out all my info by 3:01 and placed my order. It said it was processing my order for FIVE minutes, and I assumed it meant my order went through, considering that it said it would send me an email. I had close to $200 worth of lipsticks in my cart, so I wasn't going to retry, because I literally thought my order went through. After 5 minutes of it telling me it was working on my confirmation email, it took me back to my cart and said Posie K, Koko K, and Mary Jo K were sold out. I went from happy dancing and screaming to literally bawling my eyes out. Candy K (the one I wanted least) was still available, so I replaced an order. Then that one sold out, so I didn't get it either. I was really upset and angry. I honestly cried, that's not just some dramatic flare for this post. I went straight to re-sell apps: Poshmark, Mercari, eBay.. everyone wanted double, triple, quadruple for one lip kit and I just couldn't see paying that for them. On Mercari, I found one for $55 which was close to double, but I bought it to ease my pain. Then I got a message from the seller saying, "Sorry! I sold this to someone else and forgot to delete the post! We'll have to cancel this order." At this point I was livid and heartbroken. So, I resorted to eBay. All of the "buy now" ads were more than I was willing to pay, so I looked at the auctions. One was close to ending and had 0 bids. It started off at $30.00, so I bid $31.00. Someone then bid $32.00, so I planned on waiting until the last minute to bid $33.00 so that I would win. Then someone bid $35 all the way up to $55 in multiple different transactions when NOBODY was bidding against them... people with a low IQ shouldn't be allowed on the internet. Anyways, I was upset again. I resorted to making a desperate post on Mercari about wanting to find Koko K for a reasonable price, and some lovely hero commented on my post and said "I ordered and extra Koko K today, I'll sell it to you for $40 with free shipping." I'm super excited. Of course it's not the same as having the satisfaction of ordering it from the site, and getting the cute package and card (we all know packaging is most of the fun of new makeup) but regardless, I have it. I really hate the people who keep buying 20 lip kits each restock just to resell them for profit. A lot of girls are really passionate about makeup and are dying to get one but can't because people keep buying them to resell for unreasonable prices and it's really sad. Next restock I'll probably try to order Posie K, but if I don't get it I'll probably be less heartbroken since I finally got Koko K ordered, even if I don't get the full excitement of the packaging.

Updated Makeup Routine

I have incredibly oily skin, so if your skin is more dry, these might not be the best for you. Having oily skin, makeup has always made me breakout & has always worn off really quickly throughout the day, but I finally found products that work amazingly for me. 😊

1. Cover FX Mattifying Primer {with anti-acne treatment}

- Ever since I started using this primer, I haven't broken out at all. I can't even explain to you how much I love this primer. The first day I wore it, it dried out all of the acne I had & I haven't broke out ever sense. My makeup also goes on really smoothly overtop of it. 

2. Almay Clear Complexion

- This is the same foundation I was using when I made my last blog post. I've tried many different foundations but my skin doesn't like any of them. This stays on really well & prevents breakouts for me. It's pretty high coverage & good quality for a drugstore brand. 

3. Smashbox Step-by-Step Contour Kit

- This kit comes with 3 shades of cream contouring pencils. I personally only use the darkest shade to do my contouring, and I use a concealer to do my highlighting. 

4. Makeup Forever Full Cover Waterproof Camouflage Cream

- I use this under my eyes as a concealer, underneath my cheek contour, and on my t-zone. This is super creamy & very high coverage, it doesn't come off at all throughout the day.

 

5. Revlon Colorstay Liquid Liner 

- This is my absolute favorite eyeliner. Liquid liners are the only liners I like, and this one is really easy to control and get even lines. It also doesn't come off throughout the day. 

6. Makeup For Ever HD Pressed Powder

- I use this to set my entire face & it gives it a perfect, flawless, photoshopped smoothness. 

7. Laura Mercier Translucent Powder

- This powder really is amazing for oily skin. If I don't set my makeup with this, it will start to look dewy, which I don't like. 

8. IT Cosmetics Love is the Foundation  Brush

- I use this brush to apply my foundation, it blends everything out smoothly while still applying enough coverage, unlike some brushes that soak up all of your foundation. 

9. IT Cosmetics Velvet Luxe LBD Foundation 302

- I use this brush to apply my powders instead of my foundation, and it's my absolute favorite. It applies powders flawlessly. 

10. Lancôme Hypnôse Drama

- I recently started using this mascara for my lower lashes & I love it. Since I have oily skin, I always have a problem with my mascara rubbing off onto my under eyes, but this one has absolutely no smudging & it makes my bottom lashes super full. 

11. Laura Gellar Gilded Honey Highlighter

- This always has & always will be my favorite highlighter. It matches perfectly with my skin tone, so it doesn't look overpowering. In the summer, I like to lightly dust in on the majority of my face for a nice glow because it isn't an overwhelming highlighter. 

12. Urban Decay Setting Spray

- I set my makeup with this & it really does make a difference. Your makeup lasts longer & it smooths everything out.