Products to Get You Excited about Your Morning Routine

bare minerals, spring makeup trends, beauty blogger elizabeth ogle, 10 news this morning, knoxville beauty, west town mall

Christina Aguilera had a bill board in our town several years ago that affected my life forever.

My husband and I were dating at the time and driving past her giant makeup-ed face he said, you know I like it when girls wear make up like that.

I decided I would love that man forever.

This week on 10 News This Morning I talked about some spring makeup trends to help refresh your look. Watch my segment below to see how you can pull off the trends with products from Bare Minerals!

One quick thing before you do, I may have taken too long gushing about them to get to everything I wanted to say…so below is what I would have ended with and the great deal they have going on right now!

The final trend I was going to speak to is lips! Matte is aallll over the place and I’m SO okay with that.

I like the matte look primarily because it’s approachable. It doesn’t look as if you can bump the person and lip gloss will end up everywhere. I don’t know why that runs through my head but it does.

I love how their matte lip stick wears – it doesn’t end up in crumbs all over your lips by the end of the day. It just softly fades.

Anyway, I could go on and on…

Right now at Bare buy that large bag pictured in the segment for $65 and fill it with 3 complexion pieces of your choice! (That saves you almost $30!), or you can buy the smaller bag for $45 and fill it with three eye or lip products of your choice!

Take advantage of that to get what you need and try something new!

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Beauty Box Showdown

Delivery isn’t just for pizza any more. The other night I made a meal made entirely of fresh ingredients that came shipped in a box to my house. But as I’ve talked about before, it doesn’t stop at food here in the 21st century.

Now we can have beauty products delivered to us. And if you think it’s a waste of $10, I think you’re wrong. I haven’t purchased blush, dry shampoo and a number of other products in…well quite some time because they’re often getting delivered to my house. And I would have spent that $10 on just one of those products.

I’m bringing this subject up again because I recently made the switch from Birchbox to Ipsy. The funny thing is I had one more Birchbox left so my last Birchbox and first Ipsy bag both came at the same time.

This allowed me to do a direct comparison of both subscriptions…

 Birchbox:

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You know how your hair always looks fantastic two days before your hair appointment? (How does it know to do that?) That’s the thing that popped into my head when I opened my last Birchbox.

I decided to stop after almost 2 years of getting boxes from them. They were sending me too many little packets of things – the kind of samples they hand out for free at the beauty counter. And sometimes they’d throw in food that would just create more clutter.

Well, Birchbox, I’ll have to give you this one – you really stepped up your game. I got a full size lipstick, a nice size eye shadow pallet and a travel size shampoo and conditioner. Where were these “deluxe size samples” for the past six months?!

Another thing they’ve started doing which is nice, is they’ve started giving you a little more power of choice as to what kind of box you’ll get. If you’re a constant email checker, then this would work out perfectly for you because you have to jump on it quickly before they sell out of an option.
One more pro about Birchbox (I might have myself talked back into using them), they include a card that lists each sample and how much the full size product is worth. So for this box the full-size contents would be worth over $250.

Again, my biggest complaint is that they sent me too many little packets of samples. I’ve got a drawer needing to be cleaned out because of it, so thanks for all the memories Birchbox but let’s just be friends.

Ipsy:

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The first noticeable difference with this subscription is that everything comes in a bag. I think I’m going to welcome this change. For one, I’ve got plenty of little boxes to last me a lifetime (they really come in handy wrapping presents or organizing drawers), but it will be nice to make the switch to bags. Every month all of your beauty samples come in a bag you can keep.
That to me makes the $10 a little more worth it.

And speaking of things that make it worth it…check out that blush! That’s a full size product right there, friends! The blush is worth $15 if you were to buy it out right, so that makes up for your cost automatically.

From what I’m told, receiving a full-size product isn’t an uncommon occurrence with Ipsey, which is reason number 1-10 I decided to make the switch.

If you’re hesitant to shell out the $10 a month, think of it as a really well informed girlfriend sending you the latest and greatest beauty products that are worth way more than what you’re paying.
Ipsy does have a long waiting list so just know that even if you decide you want to do it you’re not going to be signed up right away. They won’t charge your card until you get off the list. For me it was about 3 months.

Think about it! It’s fun to get a box or a bag of calorie-free goodies delivered to you every month!

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JC Penny for Your Thoughts?

You know who’s stepping up their game and really working it lately?
JCPenny!

That’s right, they’ve gotten a new hair cut, plucked their eyebrows and got that one awkward mole removed-they’re the newly made over popular kid in town!

Don’t believe me? Here are three reasons why I’ve dropped some cash there in the past 6 months…

1. Selection Selection Selection. They’ve got a great selection of basics (ie: cable knit sweaters, button downs, skirts) while layering on top of that a very good selection of fun/trendy items like high low sweaters and colored jeans. Not to mention their workout section is to run for (get it? Instead of “to die for” I know, you’re rolling on the floor right now)

2. Even more than selection (because that’s great and all, but Nordstrom’s has a great selection) they’ve got great prices! And this is where I feel I’m most impressed with Penny’s. They’ve got good prices without even having a sale, but they don’t let things sit full price for long. They run sales often and when they go they go all out. Just as an example, over the weekend I bought what’s pictured: a skirt, a dress and shoes all for the low low low price of $25. That’s the total: $25…can you believe it!? That’s precisely why I keep going back!

3. The final reason to shop there-they’ve really stepped up their ads. When Sunday paper time rolls around, it’s Targets and JCPenny that I’m holding on to like it’s the last bite of the best cake ever. They’ve cleaned up their visual clutter and they get me excited from cover to cover.

Don’t discount this awesome department store just because the last time you were in there it was to buy something for your Grandma.

Make sure you pop in soon because someone’s bound to start letting out the secret! (Oops)

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The Philosophy Philosophy

If you’re experiencing one of life’s cruel jokes-a breakout-then chances are in your panic ridden dash to the drug store, you snatched the first thing that said “acne fighting” on the bottle, doused it all over your face and passed out in a acetone ridden stupor.

The best thing to do, though, is calm down and read and maybe do extensive research before you go, OR find a blog that does it for you…oh wait, what a coincidence! Here you are :)

Now, I will say that I am still a strong proponent of the face wipe, however (I am not admitting defeat!) but however, it is good to do a full on-face in the sink, water dripping down to your elbows-kind of wash about once a week or so (more if you’re having acne trouble).

When I do this, I turn to Philosophy-Purity to be precise and gently remove not only my make up but all the grime underneath.

It’s very gentle yet effective soap for your face that has no odor and strongly lives up to it’s name. It’s simple, and you feel clean. That’s all you need. It’s formulated to cleanse and tone, and is even gentle (yet apparently) effective enough to remove your eye make up as well, but I’ve yet to test that claim (it usually takes something from a science lab to get my eyes completely bare).

So before you go running out with a bag over your face, stop and remember the Philosophy philosophy-go for Purity.

Remember tune in for The Spiff live tomorrow morning! I’m going to be giving the 5 fashion do’s and don’ts for your Valentine’s date night!!

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