November Favorites
It is insane that this is my last favorites post of 2017 before I have to make a recollection of all of my favorite products from 2017! I'm thinking of splitting that up into categories but we will see. All of the products in this post have been with my for a few months besides my newest obsession, the Tartelette Toasted palette.
Makeup
I’ll start with makeup and make my way to gear. Ever since I purchased the Tartelette Toasted Palette, I haven’t put it down. First of all, I love the versatility of the Tartelette palette range from Tarte. The variety of matte vs. shimmer make it an amazing all-in-one palette for day and night wear. The shades in this palette are phenomenal. If you are into the warm-tone copper, orange and terracotta shades, girl, what are you waiting for? This palette is made for you. This has replaced my love for the Marc Jacobs palette that I reviewed here, and it is not even close to being the same value vs. cost. The only shade that has given me any trouble is the shade “crackle”. It’s a beautiful warm-toned brown with gold specks. However, if not applied carefully, it will shed like crazy on your cheeks.
Since it is the holiday season, and I’ve recently gone back to dark hair, I am rocking the red lips with no shame. If you’re someone who is scared to rock the red, don’t be! It may look odd at first, but any woman, no matter the complexion can rock reds. My newest favorite red (I will be doing a post on all my favorite red lipsticks) is the Nars Powermatte Lip Pigment in the shade Don’t Stop (also a great song by Fleetwood Mac). I am thoroughly impressed by the formula on this liquid lipstick. It doesn’t dry out my lips and stays on through everything (probably the lipstick I will bring with me when the apocalypse hits). This is going to be my red that I will have on throughout all my holiday gatherings.
To round off the makeup favorites, I will talk about these two together; DiorSkin Forever Perfect foundation and the Morphe M439 brush (shout out to Jaclyn Hill for this fabulous recommendation). I got the DiorSkin Forever foundation back in March and have been using on and off. One thing to know about me is that I am always looking for that perfect base. The reason it’s a favorite this month is because I picked this foundation to take with me on my babymoon. It is a no-fail foundation and will last hours on my combination-oily skin (oily t-zone and dryness on the outer edge of my face). The shade 020 is my perfect shade and despite the name, it doesn’t look cakey or feel heavy. It provides medium coverage that is buildable to full. I use two pumps for my whole face and that gets rid of any hyperpigmentation and evens out my skintone. I use the Morphe M439 brush with this foundation to get the quickest, flawless, and high-coverage application. I love my beautyblender, but you guys, in the morning before work, I don’t have time to mess with that nonsense. This brush gives me similar application and cuts down my application time.
Fashion
My little bump isn't so little anymore and the bottoms that fit me are limited to maternity pants, sweats, and leggings. I'm already a woman who loves to frolic around in leggings - hello, comfort - so this item I'm about to mention is an always favorite. They're a little pricey and my heart did hurt when I made the purchase (twice), but they are SO worth it. The Lululemon Align Pants are the best bottoms out there. I said it, sue me! They feel like butter, hold the right things in place and make me feel like I'm wearing nothing! I've owned the black pair for two years and they are still snag-free, beautiful and soft! I even asked for another colored pair for Christmas... santa?
Lifestyle
I've traded making cocktails to making potions with my YoungLiving essential oils. During my first trimester, I had terrible nausea. Ladies, let me tell you, IT IS NOT MORNING SICKNESS, IT IS ALL DAY SICKNESS. That term needs to be renamed. Work was awful, eating was awful and working out was awful. When you are pregnant, the medications you can take a very limited, so I decided to go the holistic approach. I am not here to preach you on using oils during your pregnancy. You use what you feel comfortable using, with your doctor's permission. The amount of reading I've done on the essential oils and pregnancy made me feel safe enough to use Digize as an aid to relieve some of that nausea. I made myself a tummy roller that I rolled onto my stomach every night and this definitely helped. It didn't cure nausea but it significantly reduced my symptoms. I also made one for my sister-in-law for indigestion. She said her friend used it and it worked like clockwork. May be a good thing add to your arsenal for when you can't go! Look out for a blogpost on this tummy roller recipe soon ;)
Things that didn't work out
With the good comes a little bad. All of these products things I tried out for a couple months and tried to love but just couldn't make them work. As I was venturing out into my natural beauty research, I picked up the Juice Beauty Phyto Pigments Flawless Serum Foundation. I'm not sure if this is geared towards people with dry skin or oily, because I have oily skin and this product caked up like crazy on me. It just looked unnatural. The consistency was very hard to work with as it didn't evenly spread over the skin and it just sunk into my pores like crazy. Another brand I decided to try was Crunchi (a safe cosmetics brand that makes their products with certified organic and EcoCert ingredients). I will do a more in-depth review of this brand as it does have some great products, however their mascara did not work for me at all. It flaked, didn't give any volume and felt like it was dried out the first time I opened it. I thought that my product was faulty but then I started reading reviews and a lot of people claimed that their mascara felt like it was already dried out.