Vacation time!

SO, im almost ready to start packing for my vacation!! its a much, much needed time off from the states! Dominican Republic sounds like a dream right about now. i bought tons of products that im going to test out while im over there in the hot hot heat! lets see how good these withstand the rays of sun down there. i'll have tons of pictures/stuff to post up once i get back. i'll even try to do a post while im down there! as you guys can imagine i have TONS to do today, tomorrow, and Friday. between pedis; Mani's; my hair; and packing, not to mention last minute shopping. ahhhh the joys of being a girl lol. any who; im going to try to do a post before i leave as well!

Tea Tree Toner Review

Hey girls! I'm so sorry it took me so long to post a review on the toner; but i really wanted to try this out for more than just a week so i can get down to all the pros and cons of it. let me start off by saying that MY SKIN HAS IMPROVED SO DAMN MUCH!!! but there are some warnings. let me start by telling you guys what the products used were.

I first started out with the witch hazel astringent. honestly, i didn't like the smell of this; so i used it for like a day and then decided it wasn't for me. it didn't smell; it just....its more of a preference thing. i heard it works very well; but i preferred the astringent that i was using before; regardless all astringents work the same; they just smell different and have different brands.

i decided to go with the sea breeze "sensitive skin" astringent because i have been using this one for over a couple of months and its pretty good. i have super sensitive skin; and it irritates over anything, so i rather stick with this if its working.

so my next step was the tea tree oil; if you wanna know more about this read the previous post where i get more into the benefits of tea tree oil. the trick to this is getting the RIGHT ratio of tea tree oil and toner. if your more than half way done with the bottle, you don't want to add too much. and if the toner is new; you don't want to add too little. tea tree oil is VERY STRONG!!! so be careful how much you add!! it took me 3 attempts to get the right amount! so i basically had to mix 3 different toners. the first one with the witch hazel was too strong. the second one with the sea breeze was a little too strong as well. the last attempt was the best. here's the deal; if you use too much tea tree it can give you a chemical burn!! SO BE REALLY CAREFUL! if it is a full; new bottle of toner; DO NOT ADD MORE THAN 8 DROPS!!! i know its very tempting to want to add more BUT trust me tea tree is so strong that just 8 drops will do the job!! so once again, DONT SURPASS 8 DROPS!! the next warning: DO NOT APPLY MORE THAN ONCE AT A TIME!! this was my mistake! i would take one cotton ball and clean my face with it; and then i would do it a second time to "make sure it was clean". DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOTTTTT DO THIS!! your skin cant handle two swipes of this stuff. i got a chemical burn from it and my face turned ALL RED!! it was the worst; so let me chemical burn be a lesson to you guys!! other than that lets move on to the actual review!!

after my chemical burn i stopped using the tea tree toner for a couple of days until my skin came back to normal. the chemical burn suckeddddd lol; so let that be a lesson to you guys. after it was back to normal i took my artistry toner; and put 8 drops of tea tree oil. trust me 8 drops does the trick. ALWAYS make sure you shake well before using so that the oil can mix with the toner. I SAW A DIFFERENCE IN JUST TWO DAYS!!! tea tree is AMAZING FOR SKIN IF YOU USE TO WISELY!! i highly recommend this stuff!! as long as you use it in moderation i guarantee you will see a change in your skin!!


along with using this toner, and putting vitamin E oil in my moisturizer; i recommend buying an aloe Vera plant! i cut off a piece and put it on either once or twice a day. not only did it help with my chemical burn(if you do get a chemical burn from over use of tea tree i HIGHLY RECOMMEND A ALOE VERA PLANT); but it also helps with the actual appearance of your skin!!

so the trick to better skin? 1. find a good cleanser 2. add 8 drops of tea tree to your toner 3. dont abuse the tea tree oil 4. add vitamin E to your face lotion 5. aloe Vera plant !!! this has SAVED my life guys! i cant explain how bad it sucks to have bad skin out of no where. my esteem was floor level high; i barely wanted to go out. it was horrible!! im going to stick with this regime because its truly working; and everyone has noticed and has been asking me what im using!!

Hey lovelys!

I know i've been super MIA! My auntie is here from DR and im hogging her! lol and to top it off i've been working on my makeup scrapbook; AND laundry/shopping for my trip. Im going to be leaving to Dominican Republic next weekend!! I'll try to do some quick posts before i leave, but i cant promise anything. I do promise to do at least one before i leave. Im trying to get my looks together so i can start working on my portfolio! Hopefully i get that going soon! Anyways check back soon!!

Bobbi Brown Makeup Mannual!!

I've been up and down boarders and other book stores looking for an awesome makeup book but i hadn't found anything worth buying that had any new info for me. While i was at Macy's i stopped by the Bobbi brown counter since I'm always all up in macs butt; i decided to swing by Bobbi instead. I'M SO GLAD I DID!! i found this baby....

After flipping through it for a couple minutes; i HAD to have it. If you want to know about makeup but don't know where to begin; or just want to learn more; THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU.

It has everything from; how to sanitize your makeup; what should be in your kit; makeup looks; how to pick foundations; makeup for different skin tones and ages; brush breakdowns; ETC. This book is amazing and only 33 dollars!! THIS IS A MUST BUY IF YOU WANT TO EXPAND YOUR MAKEUP KNOWLEDGE! You don't need to be a makeup artist to appreciate and want to learn about makeup; you just have to love it. I highly recommend this book!!

Vickies sale!

So, the reason why i have been so M.I.A. is because my aunt is visiting from Dominican Republic!! I adore her and since i only get to see her two weeks a year; i want to spend every second with her lol. My mom and myself took her to the mall today and when i passed by Victoria's Secret i noticed that instead of 5 for 25; their lotions and sprays were 6 for 19.99!! I blinked a couple times because i wasn't sure if i was seeing correctly. So, duh...i wasn't going to pass that up; even if i already have 3095723485734287 bottles of sprays and lotions.

I got two body butters! I've never tried the vickie ones; but the ones from the body shop are pretty good; so i figured I'd give these a shot. They smell delicious! The scents are "sweet day dream"; and "secret crush".
I also got the "honeysuckle belle"; in the spray and lotion because it smells delish.

And last but not least; "pretty in pink" and "passionate kiss". I loveeee passionate kiss; it smells very, very sexy! I'm always being complimented on smelling really good lol; so i always have variety to my smells. If there is one thing I'm totally picky about it hygiene and smelling good! I don't know how long this sale is going to go on for; but its a steal; so hurry up and go grab some!

Recent Makeup looks

Here are some recent shots from a couple of the prom/graduation looks i did. I have tons of pictures; and i promise to post some more up; but till then here are some teaser shots!

The body shop seaweed ionic clay mask review

Product: Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask

Brand: The Body Shop


Price: 22.00

What does this do?: "A deep-cleansing mask treatment with algae extracts and combined natural ionic clay action to draw impurities from the pores and absorb excess oil. Enriched with minerals to condition and revitalise the skin." - The Body Shop

Rating: 2/5

My review: im not gonna lie i was soooo excited to use this because i have heard that sea weed is good for your skin; and combined in a clay mask i figured it would do wonders. one thing that's annoying about this is that the instructions don't tell you how long to leave it on for so i guess you just have to...guess. right when i put it on it started to tingle which i figured to be a good thing. i could literally feel it working in my pore. after like 5 minutes with it on; my face started BURNING! it was no longer a tingle lol. it was so bad that i had to get something to blow my face with air. i soldiered it and kept it on for about 10 minutes and ran to get it off. it felt fine after i took it off; but after i let my skin air out for a while before i put my lotion on; i noticed that my skin felt really irritated! i know your thinking maybe that's part of the clearing your face part; BUT your skin shouldn't feel irritated! i gave this product such a low rating because i honestly feel its not worth the 22 dollars! there are way cheaper masks that work way better and don't leave your skin feeling the way this did. its different for everyone; but ask for me; i will not be using this product again. not worth my money; or ruining my skin over. and to top it off this morning i woke up and my skin was still irritated! me giving it two stars was nice of me lol. i suggest before you spend 22$ on it; ask them for a sample and try it on your face first!

Aside from getting the vitamin E for my skin; i also got the capsules because theres never TOO much vitamins. i mean im sure you dont want to over due it lol; but one capsule a day is great because the vitamin E skin oil from the last post is NOT edible!! so i got these so that the E can also work inside my body; thats never a bad thing!
and i also got some good old fish oil! my mom use to force me to wolf these things down when i was younger; who would of thought id be forcing myself now lol. these are both HUGE pills lol; but they are soft capsules so they look scarier than they actually are. both of these are great at promoting healthy skin and renewing skin cells. also they are great for your hair!!

Make your own natural toner/lotion

If your anything like me; you have oily skin, and oily skin makes it VERY hard to keep breakouts away. i have to be very careful with what products i use because alot of them will over dry my face; in the end making my skin even more oily because the skin try's to hydrate itself by over producing more oil. aveno works great but its a little too gentle for me; so im sort of stuck in between. there really arent that many face products out there that are gentle yet effective; so i took matters into my own hands. i've heard alot of good things about tea tree oil being good for break outs and clearing your skin; but its a little harsh to use on its own. if used alone tea tree can burn your skin; giving you dark spots; and severely dry your skin out.

i picked some up; it comes in a little bottle that looks just like this (pictured above).

i also know that witch hazel makes for a great toner; so i picked some of this up as well. i have been using another brand astringent for my face(which pretty much works just as good) but this bottle was bigger; so i went with this one. the one from the other brand smelled WAYYYY better; no next time i might stick with the other brand. Dickinson's witch hazel smells......really bad lol. not to the point where your gonna throw up; but egh its not the nicest smelling thing in the world. which leads me to my next point; tea tree oil IS SOME REALLY STRONG SMELLING STUFF PEOPLE!! i suggest you take a whiff of it before you buy it because not every one can stomach these two, let alone together. So, the trick to making the toner is to combine these two together. since i cant use the tea tree oil on its own, and i didnt want to buy products with tea tree oil in it(because they always add extra stuff and i dont want to risk breaking out worst) i decided to dilute the oil using the witch hazel. witch hazel can be used for pretty much anything from cuts; to bug bites; to treating minor burns. in other words its really good for disinfecting; which you need to get rid of all the dirt and oil from your face. and in return the tea tree oil is also good for killing bacteria; which causes break outs. i dropped about 20 drops of tea tree oil into the bottle of witch hazel; you can change the amount you add in according to how much you think your skin can handle. After you wash your face, take a cotton ball and put some of it on there(shake it well first!!). it feels a little tingly; but this is great because you can really feel it in there working! the smell goes away after a little while; it can be over whelming at first; but im sure you get use to it. my skin feels great right now; not too greasy or dry. im gonna do an update on how this works for me in about a month; so i can give it time to work its magic. so far so good though.

i also decided to get some vitamin E oil to add to my face moisturizer. i bought some vitamin e capsules BUT i saw this also and decided to get it because it was thinner than the oil from the capsules; and since i have greasy skin, i didnt want to run the chances of this making me super oily.

i took this baby and poured some into my cetaphil lotion. i also poured some into my body lotion as well because you can never get enough vitamin E, specially now with getting so much sun and drying out your skin and what not. i've been drinking nothing but water and real fruit smoothies to try to get my body to rid of all the oils and toxins that it doesnt need. i never realized it but sometimes i would go days without drinking a drop of water; and thats just not acceptable. im hoping that these changes in my routine give me some results; and i will be back to update you guys on it!! also, if you cant find the skin oil; just go ahead and pinch open some vitamin E oil capsules and drop it into your face or body lotion! vitamin E works wonders as far as evening out your skin tone; and lightening up dark spots from acne!

NO MORE BREAKOUTS!

So, im pretty much SICK AND TIRED of what ever problem my skin has going on right now. For about a year and some change my skin has been going crazy and i cant put my finger on whats going on. i pretty much had PERFECT skin up until i hit college. i dont know if maybe the stress did it; or my poor eating habits; or both! bottom line is my skin started breaking out. i was using what ever i got my hands on before my break out because egh my skin was fine so i was never too fussy about washing my face. sometimes i would even forget to wash it at night; and i still would never break out. that isnt the case anymore. i religiously wash my face twice a day because if i dont; forgetttttt about it! i've been trying different products; and i finally got it under somewhat control but then it got really bad again. im starting to think i might be allergic to something in these face washes or something. i've pretty much given up on trying new things; and thats bummed me out because im so use to having clear skin. last night i was like; "you know what, im done. im not taking this breakout crap ANYMORE" lol and started googling around and stuff for a way to help my skin. i decided that i needed to stay on track with my multi vitamin; because my eating habits suckkkk. thats step one. i went out today and bought some stuff that i think might help my skin; and im going to religiously give myself a facial twice a week to control my oil; specially now in the summer. im gonna do a couple of posts to show you guys the different things i got, and how i used them today/plan to keep using them! read along!

UMMM HI!!

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY LOVES!! i've been so darn lost huh?! before you go "YEAH, YOU SUCK!"; let me tell you guys its prom season; so i've been doing makeup like crazy; and im STILL not done! i have two more girls to do this week; and i've been trying to stall on putting up pictures until i finish those two girls up; BUT i might just put the pictures up todayyyy because egh i hate to keep you guys waiting! i've been getting tons of practice in and trying different looks and such. im SUPER excited because i ordered my 120 color pro palette that i've been wanting for quite some time! and next im gonna order two 31 piece brush sets(one for me; and one to use on other people); because i use some of my own brushes and its getting annoying to have to clean them every single dayyyyy. egh. BUT that being said; i cant wait to get my palette and try some crazy funky looks that i have drawn up. i invited all the girls i made up to come back and do some eye modeling for me! so hopefully i get into that stuff before i leave on vacation to the BEAUTIFUL Dominican Republic for two weeks!! i've also been busy with belly dance related stuff this week; so bare with me people!! pictures and stuff coming hopefully today! if you are interested in eye modeling for me...EMAIL ME!! or contact me in some way; facebook; the little wall post thing that i have on here; or any way!!

Nail Art

This post is so long over due! i think i made a post like this BUT it wasn't very detailed, and i don't think i showed any examples; it was when the blog was first starting, so i figured I'd do another one. i really hate that blogspot doesn't capitalize the first word of sentences because I'm truly too forgetful and technology dependant to sit here and hit caps lock every single time I'm starting a new sentence lol. maybe I'll type this somewhere else and then just copy and paste it into here. isn't it sad how much we rely on technology to do all the work for us? lol ANYWAYS; back to this post. i don't always have the time to get a mani/pedi at the salon; so for the most part i have TONS of stuff here at home. i must have at least 100 and something nail polishes; shoot i could probably start a nail salon right here at home lol. as far as nail designs go, I've tried some different approaches, and I'm going to share some of them with you guys.

Alternative A; is acrylic paint! i know it sounds crazy; but acrylic paint is actually awesome for nail design. it drys super fast, and you can wipe it off with water if you make a mistake and dont want to take your nail polish off. i use these with acrylic paint brushes; or nail art paint brushes; and they work even better than regular nail polish. i LOVE these, and i also love the fact that you can mix the colors to get the exact one you want. also i love that they have different kinds of paint (neon, metallic, shiny, etc). these little bottles go about 1$ or less; the big ones are under 2$ and you can get them at any craft store; michaels; a.c. moore; walmart. A.c. moore has the BIGGEST color selection i've seen so far. they literally have every color you can think of; so its your best bet to go there. i think the prices are still somewhat the same there, as to going to someplace like walmart.

Second option is nail polish that is actually meant for nail art. the only difference between these and regular nail polishes is that they have a really thin brush. the kiss ones(pictured above) have really pretty colors; but they smell VERY strong, and the brush isnt as thin as other ones i've tried. also the color quality could be a little better, so i'll probably just stick to the colors i have from this brand.

these on the other hand are great! the smell is very min. they have alot of colors, and the brush is very good on them. i dont have too many colors from these because i tend to use the acrylic paint more than these, but im going to for sure stock up on more of these when i start doing my nails more often again(i've been getting lazy and just painting them).

as far as brushes go, its to your own discretion. you can get acrylic brushes in packs; or separates. its cheaper to get them in packs but then you get some in there that you have no use for. i've gotten pack ones and singles; packs range from 5-20 bucks; and singles range from 1-20+ dollars depending on the quality and type of brush you get. Again, these are sold in A.c. Moore, walmart, michaels, or any craft store; and they are usually in the same isle as the acrylic paint.

You can also get nail art brushes at the beauty supplies. these are a little more expensive but they work great. the one pictured above is a stippling brush from sallys beauty supply; and i think it ran me for 5-10 dollars. the beauty supply doesn't have a HUGE selection of them because they are all pretty similar brushes. i think there are about 5 to pick from, so the acrylic brushes give you more of a selection. these can be used with nail polish; or acrylic paint.

a good trick to use is acrylic tips. just like the nail salon, i do designs on these that i can keep for reference just in case i wanna do the look again, or even just for practice. for design ideas, i either come up with some on my own; or google around for some ideas.

All the designs above were done with acrylic paint with the exception of the yellow and black look(pictured above) which was done with the stripe rite nail art polish. if you guys try some nail art; send in your pictures and i'll post them up!