Suave Moroccan Argan Oil Products...My New Best Friends

Have I got a deal for you today!

Of all the Favorite Things Posts I've done, this has got to be one of my very favorites...

Suave Moroccan Infusion shampoo, conditioner, and styling oil.

Here's a close up of the shampoo...

The conditioner...

And the styling oil...

Okay, y'all know I have naturally curly (frizzy) hair, right? Well, I've been hearing all the buzz about Argan oil and even contemplated buying a bottle on Amazon...until I saw how expensive it was.

Then I remembered Suave had their own version. For only a few dollars, how could I go wrong? 

I paid about $4 each for the shampoo and conditioner and about $6 for the styling oil. 

The shampoo and conditioner did a great job and I could already tell it was working to make my hair soft and smooth and it smelled amazing!

But the real star of the show, is the styling oil. This stuff is spectacular! I towel dried my hair and used about four pumps of the oil on my hair from mid shaft to the ends. I have really long hair (past my shoulders) so you may not have to use quite as much if your hair is shorter. 

Anyway, I combed it through to evenly distribute it and blow dried as usual and was so pleased with the results! I don't remember my hair being this soft and straight...ever! 

I even used it on my dry hair after I'd spent some time outside in our 90 degree weather with lovely humidity and it worked wonders to smooth it back into place. 

It really made my hair soft, straight, and smooth and of course I had to share. :) Love this stuff! Let me know if you've ever tried this or another product that you love. 

Y'all have a great week!

~Lisa 

My New Favorite Makeup For Summer Humidity

I don't know about you, but it's VERY humid where we live. We've been experiencing triple digit temps with humidity levels reaching 90% or more. 

Y'all know I have a predilection for Neutrogena products, and I still do, but with our extreme weather this summer, I was tempted to try something new. As I was watching TV the other day, (I think it was Sharknado, don't judge~lol!) there was a commercial for Loreal Infallible Pro-Matte 24 Hour Foundation. Hmm...this instantly grabbed my attention. A makeup that lasts 24 hours??? I've never worn my makeup that long, but still...that's a big claim they're making. The die was cast...I couldn't wait to try it out!

They also make an Infallible Pro-Matte 16 Hour Powder that I tried out. I figured it was best to try both products together. 

BTW, do ya'll know that Walgreens will let you return ANY makeup for ANY reason? Yep, you can bring it home, try it out, and if you don't like the shade, etc. you can return it. This is at ALL Walgreens stores too. (I have to give a shout out to Melissa at 320 Sycamore Blog for this great info.!) Oh, and Walgreens has this very makeup "buy one, get one 50% off" right now. Mine were $13.79 each, but with the sale it would only be around $20 for the foundation AND powder.  

So, obviously I bought mine at Walgreens. :) Here's a pic of the foundation...

And powder...

Here's the foundation brush I applied it with...

It's the Up & Up Complexion brush from Target. My sweet friend (and personal makeup advisor) Selene at Restoration Beauty recommended it on Instagram and as usual, she was spot on! I loved this brush more than words can say! I used it as a stippling brush when applying the Loreal foundation and it worked wonders!

I dotted the foundation on my face, one section at a time (forehead, cheeks, nose, chin) and used the brush to stipple it on. I didn't drag the brush over my skin or use it in a circular motion at all. I literally used it the same way I would stipple paint on a wall. :) It was hard for me to see how it would blend without using a circular motion, but somehow it did. You can google "using a stippling brush for foundation" and see all kinds of videos explaining how to do it.

Here's the other neat thing about this brush. This is what it looked like after I used it four times...

See? Not a trace of foundation remains on the brush! I love that I'm not wasting any foundation AND I don't have to wash this brush as often. :) 

The powder comes with a sponge and I applied it using a blotting motion. I just kind of pressed it into my skin.

I have to say, this makeup lived up to its hype. It almost seemed to have an airbrushed quality to it. The coverage was phenomenal and I wore it over 8 hours before I felt the need to blot a little more powder in my T-Zone. 

I wore it for about 10 hours total and it really did look just as good at six o'clock at night as it did at eight o'clock in the morning, and that's really saying something when you factor in our heat and humidity. :)

So this makeup gets a big thumbs up from me. I can see it quickly becoming my "summer makeup" or any other time I want my makeup to last extra long. 

One more thing...I shared this pic on Instagram last week...

Looks inviting, huh? Well, let me tell you...this was taken on our recent trip to the beach and it was so hot, we saw people being taken by stretcher because of heat exhaustion. The beach is my least favorite place in the world. It's a shame that I live so close to the beach, but can't stand it. :) Don't get me wrong...I love listening to the waves crashing and I adore looking at pictures of the beach, but actually being there is another story. I can't stand the heat, humidity, sand, water, or roller coasters, but my boys love it all. I pretty much took up residence in a Starbucks until everyone was ready to go home. Lol!

I'm not much of an outdoorsy girl here in the Texas heat, but when we're in California, I'm outside all day long. There's nothing quite like that awesome Cali weather. :) 

Y'all have a good day and let me know if you try this makeup. It's one of my new favorite things. 

~Lisa

Let's Talk Beauty...

I thought I'd change things up a bit and talk beauty products today. Do y'all exfoliate your face? I keep hearing how good it is for your skin, but I have to admit, I've been a slacker in the exfoliating department. :) 

One thing I read was that it's really good to exfoliate before you apply a moisturizer or anti wrinkle cream because your skin is better able to absorb the product if it's just been exfoliated. 

Oh, and I should pause right here and say I originally looked into getting a Clarisonic. I have a few friends who have it and love it. But after finding out the cheapest one is $100 AND you have to replace the brush heads every three months, I decided to go another route. You can get a four pack of replacement brush heads for around $80, but I didn't want that kind of upkeep. 

So, I decided I wanted two different exfoliating products...a light one and a little heavier one. I wanted a lighter exfoliating product for those days when I don't wear much makeup or maybe for using in the morning before applying makeup. Then I wanted a heavier one for that once a week deep cleaning job. :)

I knew what I wanted for a light exfoliating product, but was having trouble finding it. What I wanted was an all cotton disposable pad that I could use with my OWN soap. Every one I found came pre-loaded with a soap that I didn't want.

Then I finally found these...

They were exactly what I was looking for. I love them! I got them at Target for about $4. They're plain cotton two sided disposable pads that I can use with my favorite Neutrogena soap seen here...

Here's a close up of both sides. This side is great for removing eye makeup or applying lotion, etc...

And this is the exfoliating side...

I simply wet my face and apply my Neutrogena transparent soap, then wet the pad and move it around in a circular motion, using the exfoliating side. It does a great job of lightly exfoliating my skin. 

Here's the heavier exfoliating product I found. I know you're all going to be surprised it's Neutrogena... lol!

It's Neutrogena Deep Clean Gentle Scrub. 

I got this at Target as well for around $5. It has these neat little microbeads that gently exfoliate. I keep it in the shower and wash my face with it about once a week. My face feels so soft when I use this! 

Here's another tip I recently read...it said to always wash your face AFTER you shampoo and condition your hair.  The reason for this is because shampoos and conditioners can sometimes leave a film on your skin. Even though you rinse your hair, some of that residue can remain on your face. 

Okay, now on to a few new makeup items. I recently tried this new mascara...

It's Neutrogena healthy volume waterproof mascara. 

I can't believe I never tried Neutrogena mascara. I love it! It doesn't seem to melt off with our humidity, so that's good. It also does a good job of separating my lashes and it hasn't clumped at all. 

Then I tried this eyeshadow. It's also by Neutrogena. It's a creamy stick, not a powder. 

It's Neutrogena crease proof eye shadow. You just roll it on like a crayon. :)

It really does stay on all day, which is a miracle in our climate. 

I've been using this concealer for over a year now and it's still my favorite...

Neutrogena 3-in-1 concealer for eyes.

It's very creamy and goes on smooth. It blends easily too. It says it's for around the eyes, but I use it on the sides of my nose and pretty much anywhere else I want to even out my skin tone. 

And last, but not least, this is my new eyebrow kit...

It's the e.l.f. Eyebrow Kit, purchased at Target. You can tell it's gotten a lot of use. ;)

It comes with a cream and a powder. I apply the creamy side (on the left) with the thin side of the applicator and then I apply a little of the powder (on the right) with the fluffier side of the applicator to kind of "seal" it in. It fills in my brows and keeps them looking natural. 

Okay, whew! That was a lot of info! Have y'all tried any new beauty products lately that you love?

~Lisa

A Few of My Favorite Things~Makeup Edition

Hello there! I recently discovered some new makeup and wanted to share it with you all. And just in case you're wondering...no, this is NOT a sponsored post, and I'm not getting paid or compensated in any way. These are just products I love to use and wanted to share. 

Y'all know I'm a fan of Neutrogena, but for some reason, I've never tried their Mineral Sheers powder foundation. Until now...

I love it!!! I can't believe how well it covers too. It has what they call "buildable" coverage which just means you can "build up" coverage on any imperfections you want to cover and it won't look cakey or over done. You can just keep adding more powder in problem areas and it won't look darker that the rest. 

I never dreamed I'd get such good coverage from a powder based foundation. I'm definitely a new fan of this stuff. It's so much faster to apply than liquid foundation. I think it shaved about 5 minutes off my morning routine. I love how light it feels on my face. I have pretty oily skin and this seems to stay on pretty much all day for me. 

Oh, here's a little tip too...I had to go a couple of shades lighter in the mineral sheers foundation. I used to buy Neutrogena liquid foundation in the color "Natural Beige" but had to buy "Nude" in the mineral sheers powder foundation. Natural Beige seemed a lot darker in the powder form. (in my opinion)

It comes with a foam applicator, which works well, but I also bought this Kabuki brush to apply it with. You just swirl the brush around in the powder and apply to your face. 

It's retractable which is nice because I can swirl it around in the powder, close it up, throw it into my purse, and have a little instant touch up on the go without having to carry around the entire compact. I bought mine at Walgreens, but they have them everywhere, including Amazon.

This is the brush fully opened, which is ideal for applying powder foundation.

But you can also retract it just a little to make it narrow enough to use as a blush brush. (of course you probably want to buy two different ones, so you don't mix the foundation and blush)

Before I apply the powder foundation, I wash my face using this soap I've used for years and years and years... 

My whole family uses this soap and I love how fresh and clean my skin feels after using it. 

Then I apply this moisturizer which I've also been using forever...

Okay, so here's another new product I just got and love...

It's Neutrogena Moisture Smooth Color Stick. It goes on just like my Lip Smackers lip balm. I've always had to use some sort of Chapstick UNDER my lipstick, otherwise the lipstick kind of cracks, but not with this. It just glides on my bare lips and has pretty good staying power too. The color I bought is called "Plum Perfect" but it's not nearly as dark as it looks. In fact, all the colors seemed to go on a lot lighter than they look, which I actually liked.

Okay, one more new product I'm in love with. This is an e.l.f. brand eyeshadow brush. These are only $1 at Target! I bought a couple and use one to apply my light colored eye shadow and one to apply the darker shade. These work SO much better than the little foam applicators that eye shadows come with.

I've shared this eye liner before, but I just thought I'd let y'all know I'm still using it and it's my favorite so far.

It's a gel eye liner that you apply with a little brush. To me, it's like a REALLY thick gel consistency. It's not messy at all and it's very easy to apply. Oh, and it stays on all day too. I've tried liquid eye liners and just can't deal with them. Way too messy. This however, is just right.  

Well, I guess that's all for now. Do y'all have a favorite makeup item you've been using lately?

I'll be back later in the week to share my Easter decor. :)

~Lisa

A Few of My Favorite Things

Okay, so like I promised, I'm back with a handful of my favorite things. :)

Let's get right to it with this Enjoy hair straightener.

I buy it on Amazon for about $10-$15. It's a gel consistency. I just wash my hair and towel dry it. Then I put the Enjoy on and blow dry it straight. I'm always looking for new products to help straighten my unruly curly hair and this one works great!

Speaking of hair, I've never spent a ton on shampoo. I usually buy Suave shampoos and conditioners. I guess I'm old fashioned because I still subscribe to the idea that it's good to use a "clarifying" shampoo every two weeks or so to strip your hair of all the product build up. 

So, this is what I've been using...

As you can see, it's still Suave brand. :) You can get it pretty much anywhere for under $2. I just buy it at the grocery store. Sometimes I use a lot of product in my hair and I feel this helps to kind of give it a deep clean. 

Now for the cat lovers out there. Santa brought Holly this spray cat nip for Christmas and she LOVES it! 

We've always used the dried catnip, but this is so much easier to use and less messy. I can spray it on any toy of hers and she goes wild. :) I even sprayed some on her scratching post and she LOVED that! We, I mean SANTA got it at Petsmart for $6. 

The last two are things we enjoyed at Christmas. I know, I know...you're wondering why I didn't share these BEFORE Christmas. Well, just think of it as being super early in planning for NEXT Christmas. :) 

This is hands down the best gingerbread house kit we've used. Here's what the box looks like...

Here's another pic of the one my son made that I put on Instagram...

You can probably see it's made exclusively by Wilton for Michael's stores. My youngest son built it and he was impressed with how well the icing "glued" everything together. Apparently the icing REALLY held the roof and sides together and made it easy peasy for the candies to stick to the roof, etc. In the past, we've had problems with the roofs sliding off, but not with this one. Another thing we liked with this one was the variety of candy. All in all, we gave it 5 stars. :) We bought it at Michael's for $5 (with a 50% off coupon)

Last, but not least is our Christmas ham we bought at HEB this year. If you're not in Texas, they probably have this flavor at other stores too. Or at least something similar.

Did you see that? TEXAS PECAN PRALINE AND VANILLA MAPLE!!! I mean, you can't go wrong with that flavor combo, can you? Yum!!! I'm making a note to try and find this flavor next year too. Everyone loved it (even my picky eater) :) And if you ARE local, HEB has $10 off these hams this week.

Well, that's it for now. So tell me, have you tried any of these things? What did you think?

~Lisa