Bath and Body Works Semi-Annual Sale Haul

I just added some social media buttons under my "About Me" if you'd like to take a gander! I'm pretty excited about them since I had to use some very mild HTML to get them to look all right. Anywho, after getting my hair trimmed at my mall, we walked past Bath and Body Works and noticed that all of the lotions and body washes were $3!! Well, except for the two labeled that were 75% off instead of $3 flat. Obviously my mom, sister, and I couldn't resist so we did some damage, however much less than if we'd paid $11 at the normal price. Holllaa!

| Wild Apple Daffodil body lotion and shower gel | 

A blend of red apple, daffodil, and pomegranate. A got a set of the lotion and gel for my friend's birthday and a shower gel just for myself. It smells slightly more daffodil than apple, but I can definitely smell the apple more in the shower gel.

| Citrus Orchid Chill body lotion |

With "iced" blue orchid, lemon granita, starfruit, lotus flower, and sunny musk. I can mainly smell the orchid, a little bit of lemon, and a bit of musk. It's dominantly floral I would say. 

| Cashmere Glow body lotion |

This smells light an evening lotion to me. It smells like vanilla with quite a bit of musk, and apparently it also has golden peach and cashmere. What does cashmere smell like?

| White Mango Chill body lotion |

I think this is my favorite lotion. It smells so goood. It has white mango, kiwi sorbet, strawberry frost, muguet blossom, and blue sugarcane. All it smells like to me is magic.

| Be Enchanted body lotion | $3.12

This has kind of a ridiculous description, but it smells really sweet with maybe a tiny bit of floral and some musk. It has a lot more in it than just that however: "this enchanting scent is a sparkling blend of iced pomegranate, sugared petals and chilled passionfruit frosted with notes of whipped vanilla and light musk."

| London Tulips and Raspberry Tea body lotion | $3.12

I loved this in the store, but it kind of smells like a cheap perfume on my skin while it smells lovely on my sister. I think my nose must do weird things to it. I definitely smell the tulips stronger than I'd usually like but the raspberry tones it down a little. The bottle says it has English garden tulips, raspberry tea, wild freesia, Windor apples, and white sandalwood. 

| Coconut Water Chill shower gel |

To me this smells like apples and melon. I think it reminds me of a bubble bath I used to use. It doesn't actually have any apple though... It has coconut water, acai berry, melon, jasmine petals, and Madagascar vanilla. 

This sale is still going on online with $1 shipping for orders over $25 so if you want to get lotions or body washes do it now! Thanks for reading! xo

(Partial) Summer Reading List

It's officially summertime and that (hopefully) means plenty of time to curl up outside in the garden, on my couch, or on vacation with a good book. I haven't had much time to read at all recently, so I'm ecstatic to start up a new novel! I recently watched Essiebutton's video with Sanne (booksandquills) about their favorite easy reads and I'm definitely going to tack a lot of those onto my list. Several of these have been on my mind for quite a while but  I ended up getting into the Divergent and Maze Runner series' however, and right before the movie news got out so I happened to have good timing with those ones! (Don't hate me for any over simplified descriptions, please!)

1. The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, and Kill Order by James Dashner (The Maze Runner)

I have to read these before I feel I can move on to other book adventures. Luckily I'm a pretty fast reader so hopefully I can finish them within the next week or two! The Maze Runner is about a kid who wakes up in a pitch black elevator and is lifted into a concrete world filled with teenage boys and surrounded by a chance to escape through a maze that becomes infested with deathly and grotesque creatures at night. Run-on sentences are okay if they're descriptive right?

2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

This book is about two teens who meet at a cancer support group. I was recommended to read this over a year ago and I really want to see the movie, but I'd prefer to wait until I've read the book since I know the ending already and I'm not prepared to cry in a movie theater. Commenters on Youtube videos can be downers sometimes, right?

3. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

I've heard this is a great book from many bloggers and Youtubers and it's a bit off my beaten path of young adult post-apocalyptic novels. It's a suspense-mystery book about a post psych ward patient that goes back to her hometown to investigate two pre-teen murders. That sounds pretty intriguing, right? I think I'm not doing the description justice..

4. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Set in Michigan, five sisters who are watched closely by the neighborhood boys commit suicide one by one over a year. The book is told by the boys' point of view as the whole ordeal unfolds. The way Sanne described this book in Essie's video made we want to read it ASAP. It sounds wonderful and captivating.

5. The Husband's Secret by Cecilia Fitzpatrick

A book about a wife who finds a letter from her husband meant to be opened after his death that could tear apart their family and do much more damage than even that. I need to know what it says! The suspense is already killing me. 

6. Across the Universe by Beth Revis

A teenager and her family are on a space ship and have decided to be frozen for 300 years until they get to their destination. However, she wakes up 50 years early and ends up romantically involved aboard the ship. It sounds fantastic. I love sci-fi books as well, and I can't help but want to read this!

I honestly have so many more, (like Eleanor & Park and The Giver) but I don't want this post to get too long. I think I'm going to start doing book reviews on here so I can give feedback on the ones I get through this summer. Who else is really excited to be a bookworm over the next three months?! 

Thanks for reading! xo

St. Ives Apricot Scrub: Dry Patch Fix!

I would probably describe my skin as normal, sensitive, and semi acne-prone. However, sometimes my skin goes through weird cycles where it gets dry patches on my cheeks or it gets a little oily. Since I'm not use to being dry, I had to test out different ways to get rid of my really stubborn dry patches. This St. Ives Blemish Control Apricot Scrub helps with blemishes, minimizing pores, and it also buffs away any weird areas. Yay! We have a winner.

| USE |

The first thing I do is gently cleanse my face and remove as much of my makeup as I can. Next, I apply a large dollop of the face scrub and run it under some warm water. Starting with my problem area (usually my cheeks) I rub it onto them in circular motions. Once I've covered the whole area, I massage the rest of the scrub on my fingers to the rest of my face, again in circular motions. At the end I go back to my cheeks and make sure I really buffed out any dry areas. To wash it off, I wet a towel with warm water and gently wipe horizontally to get rid of everything (especially the lingering exfoliating beads). Then I pat my face dry and apply my Yes To Cucumbers Soothing Daily Moisturizer. The after picture is when I also have makeup on, so you can clearly see that almost, if not all, of the weird dry patches are gone! Woohoo! In the after picture I also have a BB cream and powder on, and it's still smooth! Does anyone else have skin that does weird things like this or is it just me..? Thanks for reading, guys! xo

Macadamia Natural Oil Deep Repair Masque (mask?) Review

I'm going to start this off by saying that I'm not totally (or even a little) sure about the difference of "mask" and "masque." I've heard that a masque has to do with a costume or masquerade party, but that wouldn't really make sense sine this product is definitely not for faces or parties.. Anyway, let's get into the review!

| PACKAGING |

I think this packaging is adorable! It's covered in little doodle-style flowers with green labels and accents. I really like that it's a pot, especially since I can get as much product as I need really easily. Some people have complained that  it's hard to open and close in the shower since it has a big, threaded lid, but I keep mine in my caddy and it stays pretty dry so it's not too bad. I think it's really cute especially since I'm a total sucker for cute packaging!

| FORMULA |

This stuff smells really great! It's fresh and sweet. It's so hard to explain, but I can promise it's awesome. It's a pretty thick consistency, (as you can see in the third picture) which is normal for any deep conditioners or masks. It's a medium cream color that's pretty shiny with a ton of tiny swirls of extra reflective stuff. I'm not sure why it's like that, but it looks nice in the tub.

| RESULTS |

The first time I tried this was last summer on vacation when I bought a sample of it at Rite Aid (I think they're like three dollars for two or so uses). It made my hair really soft and shiny and it smelled phenomenal. I ended up buying a full 8.5 oz size on Amazon for $20 or $23 (buy it at Ulta if you're going to; it's always $23 and you could use a coupon) and when I tried it again it didn't work for me at all. A lot of people said it made their hair feel like straw and it totally did to me that time and the next time. I put it away (sadly, I might add) and forgot about it until about a month ago. Now it works amazingly for my hair again! I think it may be because I'm almost completely sulfate free except for my occasional clarifying shampoo showers.

| OVERALL | 

I'm glad that this works for me again; I love the smell and the results! This does have silicones and not-so-great stuff, but I think I'm totally fine with using it after clarifying my hair to put the moisture back in my hair that it desperately needs.
Thanks for reading! xo

May Hair Empties 2014!

I've recently finished quite a few products, but I figured I should split it up because there's so many hair products. This post is going to be just the hair empties and I'll do another one later. I'm skipping my May favorites this month like I anticipated since I only have three products as of right now. Hopefully I'll have more opportunities to experiment this month!

| Suave Dry Shampoo | $2.89

I've already repurchased this! It's my go-to dry shampoo (rhyming unintended). It smells great, works really well, and blends in really naturally to my hair. I can still feel that I have dry shampoo in my though, and Meghan Rienks said in a recent video that the Batise ones aren't like that, so that may be my next victim. ;) Especially since I now have an Ulta less than 20 MINUTES away!

| Tresemme Thermal Creations Heat Tamer | $3.99

I have a tiny bit of another heat protectant left, so I haven't purchased a new one yet. I wasn't all that impressed with this stuff, probably because I had high expectations from Youtubers. It does smell really good but it makes my hair feel kind of weird. You can definitely feel that I have something in my hair, however it doesn't make it soft. I don't think I'm going to repurchase this guy.

| One 'n Only Brazilian Tech Keratin Kurl Moisturizing Shampoo and Conditioner | $8.99 

This shampoo was too moisturizing for me. I liked the conditioner, but my scalp doesn't need a whole lot of hydrating like this gives. I purchased the Not Your Mother's Way to Grow shampoo and conditioner instead of it and I love it way more than these ones. If you have dry hair this would probably work wonderfully!

| It's a 10 Miracle Leave In Product | $9.99

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I have naturally frizzy hair. I've always heard really good things about It's a 10 so I thought I'd try it out. This smells so good! Do you sense a pattern? I love smelly hair things. It's a really thick cream that you can apply in wet or dry hair. I tried both (alone and together) and the tamed frizz never lasted for very long. For $10 I would expect this to work better. I may try the "plus keratin" version soon to see if that fares any better in my hair. Presently I'm not planning on repurchasing.

| Herbal Essences Moroccan My Shine Conditioner | $2.99

I'm always trying out new conditioners, and I recently found the end of this bottle when I was trying to finish my Keratin shampoo. This, again, smells wonderful. I don't think it makes my hair exceptionally shiny or soft, but it definitely improves the look and feel of my hair. I wouldn't say it's a drastic change, but it does do what it claims to. I may repurchase this sometime when I want to switch up my hair routine again.

| Herbal Essences Hello Hydration Conditioner | $2.99

I used to use the shampoo and conditioner throughout middle school and especially on vacation. I absolutely love the smell, partially because of nostalgia but also because it just smells awesome. It definitely makes my hair softer, and I know I'll eventually buy it again, since I always do. However, I also like exploring other options and right now I'm loving my Not Your Mother's.

That's all the hair empties I have for you right now! See why I split them up? I'll have to wait for a bit to post my other empties; I only have a few right now.

Thanks for reading! xo