Sunday Funday: Mystery Date!

Happy Sunday everyone! Every once in a while my boyfriend will surprise me and take me on a bit of a surprise outing.  Yesterday he took me on a drive up the PCH and we stopped at a couple places on the way, so I thought I'd share a few moments from the day as my Sunday Funday post:

The views of the ocean were so beautiful and the weather was pretty mild.

We stopped and had lunch at a restaurant called Nepenthe that had bar style seating with this amazing view of the hillside and ocean. Views don't get much better than this!

Then we drove a bit further down the road and went on a hiking trail with this beautiful view of a waterfall. If you look very carefully, you can see the word 'Love' written somewhere in this picture :)

This surprise date completely made my week :) Cheers to amazing views with great company!

xxSJ

bareMinerals Ready 4.0 Eyeshadow in 'The Truth'

Today's review is of an eyeshadow quad by bareMinerals, a brand I have had very little exposure to and was excited to check out.  I mainly purchased this eyeshadow quad because one of my favorite beauty girls on youtube, MakeupbyTiffanyD, recommended it and she is always spot on with her eyeshadow recommendations.

The envelope style packaging is super unique! It has NOTHING to do with the shadow but I like it, along with the 'Ready' written when you open it up. So definitive!

The compact is pretty sizable and is made of matte, black, rubberized packaging similar to NARS. Pro: It looks super sleek and expensive. Con: It gets dirty so fast! It was already kind of dirty when I took it out of the sleeve for the first time. 

Oh, hello! Open up the compact and there's a nice big mirror inside! Love it! The eyeshadows aren't huge (about the size of a nickel), and honestly this compact could have been a lot smaller given their size. This compact also comes with the dreaded sponge tip applicator which is just wasted space in my opinion. 

Here are the shadows. This palette is very gray and cool-toned which is why I purchased it. I've recently come to find that I love gray toned neutrals as opposed to brown and tan neutrals for my skintone. They are really easy to transition from day to night.

Serendipitous is a champagne highlight color with a satin finish. Magnetism is a perfect taupe with a buttery satin finish. Fate is a cool toned brown with the least sheen of all the colors. Apropos is a purplish gray that has silver flecks in it. These silver pieces do not transfer to the lid, however.

These shadows are all so buttery soft and they blend like a dream. So far, I'm in love. The one interesting thing I would say is that the colors swatch far warmer than they look in the pan. This concerned me at first because the mix of warm and cool tones I thought may look a bit muddy on the lid. However, the shadows manage to still look beautiful.

The bareMinerals 4.0 eyeshadow quads are $30 for 5g of product. That breaks down to 1.25g per shadow which is really close to a standard eyeshadow size (MAC Eyeshadows are 1.5g of product) so I think the $30 price tag is fair and actually a bit inexpensive considering the quality of the shadows! 

I don't know if I'll be purchasing other quads from bareMinerals as none of the other colors jumped out at me, but I definitely think this quad will be a staple in my collection!

What do you think of bareMinerals?

xxSJ

NOTD: Butter London 'Victoriana'

Today's nail of the day is of quite a complex nail color. It is Butter London's 'Victoriana:'

This light blue color is really neat and unique. It is a light blue with a hint of green with a ton of silver shimmer through out.  This color almost looks like velvet or denim on the nail.

This color is an amazing formula with full opacity in only two coats. It's incredibly easy to get on the nail but unfortunately is easy to chip off too! It only lasted a day with out chips.

This color is beautiful and unique so the price of Butter London polishes at $14 a bottle is right for this specific color, however just know this is a mani that won't last very long!!!

xxSJ

Sunday Funday! A belated post...

I'm a bit late on this Sunday Funday post but hey, better late than never, right??

1. Music
My favorite song of late has been 'Cardiac Arrest' by the Bad Suns. I'm gonna go all hipster on you and say that I totally discovered this song before it was popular. It happened, it's true, and I feel really cool so please just go with it!

2. The stimulation of going outside!
My boyfriend and I have been trying to be a little less cave-dweller and a little more active. Recently we've been visiting the Farmer's Market on Sundays and its a lot of fun! So many different people, colors, and things to look at. There was this 'statue' there this weekend...hint, he's not really a statue:

3. Cooking
We've been going out to eat a taaaaaad too much recently so we've made an effort to cook more at home. It was my turn to cook this past evening and I made a delicious enchilada soup and salad on the side:

With all this cooking expect some recipes coming up soon!

Hope your week was as nice as mine and that this week is off to a great start!
xxSJ

Shades of Orange

I am so excited for the warmer months coming up and its time to bust out the brighter makeup products! Inspired by the warmer times ahead I thought I'd share my favorite Orange-toned makeup products with you!

1. MAC blush in 'Peaches' $21: As you can see I've loved this blush to death. I've hit pan on it! This is the first MAC blush I ever owned and I love it now just as much as I did when I first bought it. This blush is the silkiest, smoothest blush ever which makes it so easy to wear and blend in. The orange tone looks so good for girls with the same complexion as me (fair with pink undertones and freckles!) and I think it would look gorgeous on olive-toned and darker skinned girls.

2. The Balm blush in 'Frat Boy' $20: This blush may not be as scary looking as Peaches since it has a little more pink in it but this blush is still pigmented! I did a full review on this blush here: http://sjspins.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-balm-blush-in-frat-boy.html

3. Urban Decay Eyeshadow in 'Freelove' $19: Brave enough to rock orange on your lid? Try this red-orange peach shade out! This shadow has a satiny and shimmery finish and can be really pretty on its own in the lid and crease with a highlight in the inner corner and brow bone. It's a favorite of mine in Summer as a way to rock some color in a bit of an unexpected way.

L to R: Peaches blush, Frat Boy blush, Freelove eyeshadow

4. MAC lipstick in 'Ravishing' $15: Looking for a bright coral to wear this Spring and Summer? THIS IS IT!! This is the prettiest coral color I have found that I am brave enough to wear! It has great vibrancy and still is super soft and comfortable to wear on the lips since it is a cremesheen formula. Try this color on the next time you go to a MAC counter or store. You may be surprised how universally flattering coral can be on so many skin tones!

5. MAC Cremesheen Glass in 'Richer, Lusher' $15: If you're hesitant to wear a bright coral lipstick, pop some orange-tinted lipgloss on over some nude or light pink lipstick to bump yourself in the coral direction. Cremesheens are so great because they feel soft on the lips and are less sticky than a standard lipgloss. Like all MAC lip products, the light vanilla scent is to die for making this gloss a Summer staple.

6. Revlon Lip Butter in 'Juicy Papaya' $6: A cheaper and even more comfortable way to wear an orange hue is by going for Revlon Lip Butters. These have plenty of pigment yet are so comfy to wear because of their hydrating, balm-like formula. Do yourself and your lips a favor and pick up some of these next time you're at the drugstore!  http://sjspins.blogspot.com/2014/04/revlon-lip-butters-wild-watermelon-and.html

L to R: Ravishing lipstick, Richer Lusher lipgloss, Juicy Papaya lip butter

6. Essie 'Tart Deco' nail polish $8: My favorite orange nail polish. This polish has a creamy formula that  makes this color so soft on the nails and pleasant to look at. Wear this for a beachy mani or if you're going to a Giants baseball game! Go Giants! Full review here: http://sjspins.blogspot.com/2014/04/notd-essie-tart-deco.html

What are your favorite orange shades to wear???
xxSJ

NOTD: Essie 'Eternal Optimist'

Today's nail of the day is of one of the prettiest neutral nail colors I own. It is Essie's 'Eternal Optimist:'

There isn't an occasion I can think of where this mauve nail color wouldn't be appropriate. It is such a great 'when in doubt' color. The formula is super nice and an opaque finish took just two coats. I imagine that on some skin tones this color may look a little too flesh-toned and not add much as a manicure, but on my skin it looks really pretty. 

Essie nail polishes are about $8 a bottle and can be purchased at most drugstores.

Jacob loves when I take pictures outside and he can get in on the fun!

xxSJ

Steph Reads: Book Haul!

I picked up some books recently and wanted to share what I'm reading! Grad school is fast approaching which means I have to get in my leisurely reading while I still can!

1) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: This book is about a wife who mysteriously goes missing and all eyes are on the husband as the suspected killer. Told from a couple different point of views, this book is apparently filled with twists and unexpected turns that I can't wait to dive into! I haven't read many suspense or mystery novels in the past so this should be a nice change for me. It's also been adapted into a movie so I need to finish that before the film's release!

2) Splintered by A.G. Howard: I am a huge fan of anything Alice in Wonderland related so of course I had to pick this up. This book is about a distant descendent of THE Alice who inspired Carroll's now famous tales of her adventures in Wonderland. It is up to the protagonist of the story, Alyssa, to fix all the mistakes that Alice made in Wonderland to lift a curse placed on the family during Alice's visit many years ago. Everything in Wonderland is a little bit different and twisted than Carroll's fun tales though...

3) Uninvited by Sophie Jordan: In this dystopian novel, a kill gene has been identified that reveals if someone is destined to be a murderer. These people are ostracized in order to keep peace within the community and the main character of this story, a girl who has everything going for her, finds out via a genetics test that she has this gene. The story follows her becoming an outcast and what happens to someone who knows they are destined to kill.

I am so excited to dive into all of these books! Expect some book reviews in the near future!

xxSJ