product review – the Spiff

My Favorite Beauty Products from 2016

December 27, 2016 No Comments

southernrootsphoto, 2016, ottd, metallic skirt, sparkly elbows, knoxville fashion blogger, knoxville tn, beauty blogger

Every year our beauty routine gets easier and more beautiful. Just think of how glorious we’ll look like by 2020!

In my world, this year was all about a refresh. I wanted to revamp my makeup routine, so I watched A LOT of YouTube videos and did a total refresh on my whole process. I’m really happy with the results.

Here are the things I changed and loved about the beauty world in 2016…

Bare Minerals:

When putting this list together, I realized it was going to be totally filled with Bare Minerals stuff if I wasn’t careful, I’m in love with a lot of their products…

Their new brush and foundation was exactly what I was looking for. It gives great coverage, is filled with ingredients that are good for your skin, it lasts all day (which is an upgrade from their original foundation) and it won’t break the bank. I also love the brush it comes with.

Tinted moisturizer is awesome. It’s truly hydrating, I feel as if I’ll look 25 forever when I rub this on in the morning because I’m just letting the moisture sit in my skin all day everyday.

Their primer is fantastic, and this mineral veil is life changing. I never believed in adding another layer of powder to my face at the end, but then I tried it and I saw the difference and how it gives you that airbrushed look. Now I believe.

They came out with a new line of lipsticks this year. This is from the matte collection. It’s so beautiful, so soft and won’t dry out your lips like matte lipsticks can tend to do.

Brushes:

The beauty blender I talked about a couple years ago, really seemed to open the door to new ideas for brushes.

This is oval brush is another big one to hit the market. I got the cheaper version from Amazon. You can also buy a really expensive version. I did some research and found that while there is a difference between the two, it’s only slight. And since I was only going to use this for my concealer, I went with the cheaper version.

I’m such a fan. It blends better than my fingers, and I don’t feel as if it’s soaking up a lot of product.

Concealer:

Tarte Creaseless Concealer is fantastic. It gives you great coverage without the cakey look. If you’ve ever tried to “bake” method, this concealer with the Bare Minerals Mineral Veil does a great job of giving you a picture-perfect look.

Here’s how to bake: after putting on your under eye concealer, cake, and I do mean, cake on the mineral veil. Apply loads and loads of it under your eyes to the point where you look ridiculous. Then let that “bake” on there for about 5-10 minutes (or 15 if you have it). What that does it is all starts to warm up with your skin and will mix together well. Once the time is up, buff off all the excess powder and you’ll be left with a very smooth, very very flawless finish. This is a great technique if you’re going to be taking pictures.

Sheet Masks:

These were a big trend in beauty this year. I couldn’t be a bigger fan, and I have stayed on top of doing a mask once a week because of these bad boys.

I get the cheap kind. These are about a $2 a mask. You can get them at Wal-Mart or Target. My husband makes fun of me because you do look like you’ve been hospitalized when you’re wearing it. But goodness it’s relaxing. And I love them because you can wear it in bed and you don’t have to get back up and splash water on your face when it’s done. You just take it off and rub the excess in.

Bath:

If you want a complete relaxation/spa experience, add some of these amazing bath salts to your bath! They are detoxifying, and so good for your skin. I loved sitting in the bath with these because I felt like I was doing myself so much good.

And the wonderful smell lingered on my skin well into the next day! Here’s where to get it.

Here’s my full review.

Ipsy:

Still my very favorite beauty purchase every month all year – it’s the gift that keeps on giving. This $10 subscription gets you all kind of great stuff and usually a full-fledged product along with some nice size samples. It’s ended up saving me a lot of money, and I have my life sorted out into really cute bags, so it’s a win, win.

Here’s a link to sign up!

I can’t wait to see what all 2017 will bring. I know it will be good and spiffy! :-D See you back here January 4th.

Beauty, beauty products, Spiffy, west town mall

New Makeup Review

September 21, 2016 No Comments

bare minerals, beauty review, beauty product review

In my first post for The Spiff I compared the maiden blog entry to opening a new makeup product. Because nothing beats the feeling of promise that you have when you hold a new product in your hand.

It’s a magical feeling that has you believing the thin plastic protector is the only thing that stands between you and perfect you.

Few products can live up to that kind of hype. I got to try a new one yesterday that had me believing in makeup again *camera pans off to the starry sky. ;)

Bare Minerals is for sure one of my favorite beauty brands. Cracking open my makeup drawer will prove this. I love the fact that their stuff is good for your skin, it’s hydrating, has lots of SPF, sold at a great price point, and makes me look good (it’s not a hard job, really *tosses hair).

BUT lately I’ve been on the hunt for new foundation because while I’ve been a long term fan of their original formula, it doesn’t wear well. And I got tired of coming home after work and having to really touch up my face. Single Elizabeth would completely redo her makeup for a fresh look. Mother Elizabeth doesn’t have the time.

Obviously, Bare found out that one of their most loyal slash INFLUENTIAL customers was shopping around, and immediately scrambled to produce something that would keep me happy. Don’t burst my bubble – they made it just for me.

Bare Pro is their new foundation. It’s equivalent to MAC makeup in that it’s the pressed powder. Except: It’s filled with natural ingredients and is still good for your skin and is in for the long haul.

I stopped by the Bare Minerals in West Town Mall yesterday to put it to the test and here’s what I thought about it…

1. It looked beautiful. The finish was even better than the original formula – very smooth and “airbrushy”.

2. I loved the feeling of the new brush it comes with. The liquid foundation Bare came out with a few years ago was very dissappointing (the brush was TERRIBLE) so I was hesitant about this one. But it’s great. The brush is super soft and does a great job of buffing the product onto your face.

3. I had it applied around 1:30 and from there did all my regular stuff – worked outside, chased Jackson around for a while, cleaned the house, made dinner, ran errands. All the while I would stop to check my face – FLAWLESS.

4. I went to bed a little earlier than usual but tried to hold off washing my face since it was applied so late in the day. I wanted to truly test its longevity. After 8 hours I felt as if it looked way better than my face normally does with the original formula. There were still parts that needed to be touched up, but I didn’t feel the need to start completely over. If I were to have left the house at that point and run into an old friend, I would have been good with how I looked. The next level up would be running into an old boyfriend, which I wouldn’t give it that great of a review. But that’s a high bar to reach.

Here’s a pic of me right before I washed my face. It’s hard to get the details, but don’t I look fresh? ;)

Summary: I’m in. It’s not a matter of if I’m going to buy, it’s a matter of – how fast can I use up the foundation I do have so I can justify going out and buying this.

Hey, if you want to hear more from me, get some great deals AND a little makeover – stop by the Bare Minerals store in West Town Mall this Saturday! I’ll be there from 12-2 talking about my experience with the products. There will be coffee and chocolate and giggles – we’ll have a grand time. So come on by! It’s right behind Starbucks near the main entrance.

Beauty, Spiffy

$10 for All This

August 24, 2016 No Comments

ipsy bag, beauty bag, knoxville beauty blogger, beauty blogger, beauty subscription bag, beauty bag

For less than a pizza, you can have all of this delivered to your mailbox. Well, not less than a Little Caesar’s pizza…or Domino’s on Tuesdays…never mind. How about for a mere $10 you can have all of this!

When I opened my Ipsy bag this month I was very happy with the size of the samples inside. And it’s not the first time it’s happened.

I’ve tried out several of the popular beauty subscriptions, and I can honestly say Ipsy is the best.

Here’s what I got this month and what I think about it…

The bag itself: Mmm not a big fan of this one. I talked about in this post how I plan to use these bags for helping me organize. This one just isn’t my style. But it would probably be good to hold hair stuff because that’s a mirror image of what I look like doing my hair in the morning. ….why are you laughing.

IT Hair Care – 12 in ONE: I’ve used a hair care product like this before, and I like it. It promises to do a bunch of things (a 12 item long list). I need to try it when I’ve got tangles, BECAUSE I HATE TANGLES. I only used a little and it made the ends of my hair softer and more behaved, so I can imagine this bottle is going to last me well into menopause.

IT Cosmetics: I don’t think it’s related to the hair care product, but it is ironic that they’re both called “it.” While this eyeliner brags about going on smooth (and it does) I didn’t like that it ended up all over my lid within a couple of hours. I use these types of eyeliners on days when I’m going light on the makeup and I was really hoping this would stay put. Maybe with a little bit of help – like a primer or eyeshadow – it will stay in place. Because going on smoothly will help me add the light touch of liner I’m going for.

Lord&Berry lipstick: Nice, neutral shade. Went on smoothly and you didn’t need a lot to add color. Not bad.

Josie Maran Whipped Mud Mask in Vanilla Apricot: I’ve never got done with a mask and thought DEAR LORD MY SKIN!!!!!!!!!! And this mask, unfortunately, didn’t break that streak. What I look for is ease of use. This one you leave on from 5-10 minutes and just wipe off – again, not bad.

Dermelect nail polish: It’s really a treatment that helps splitting, weak nails that happens to be colored a delightful shade of purply pink. I’m excited to see what my nails look like at the end of the week. Since I paint my nails every week they are certainly on the weak side, so I’m a great candidate for something like this. I’ll keep you posted…

Beauty, Spiffy

The Makeup Brush Everyone’s Been Yammering About

August 17, 2016 No Comments

beauty blogger, knoxville beauty blogger, beauty product review, beauty blogger elizabeth ogle, makeup brush review, brush review, makeup of the day, knoxville blogger

How do you react to makeup trends?

Do you jump on them the minute you see something new, or do you wait it out and let it get all the way down to a Walgreen’s knock off before you try it?

I have varying reactions when it comes to trends. When a makeup trend rolls around, I want to try it right away. I’m in bed watching makeup tutorials wondering if Target carries what they’re talking about so I can go get it YESTERDAY.

But clothing trends I like to let settle down and get passed around before I decide if it’s “me” or not.

When I heard about this new foundation brush, I wanted to be all over it. To the point where I heavily considered dropping $50 on the name brand brush from Net-A-Porter (I’m still not against that, but we’ll see).

So this brush I’m referring to looks like a hair brush (or a large toothbrush for giants with humongous teeth). And it’s said to give you an airbrush look.

I don’t know what it’s non-branded name is. The fancy pants one on Net-A-Porter is called the Artis Brush. The one I used is it’s $16 counter part on Amazon.

I watched a video review on the difference between them both and the reviewer said there wasn’t a huge noticeable difference. I figured I’d drop $16 now, see if I like it and move onto the better version come birthday time.

Here are the pro’s and con’s:

Pros:

I’ve stayed away from liquid foundations because I don’t want to apply it with my hand. This brush is a great way to get it everywhere without having to use your fingers, and really does a great job of spreading it around.

I also like the fact that it doesn’t seem to soak up a lot of product. It’s been compared to the beauty blender and comes out on top because it doesn’t soak up as much. When you drop some serious cash on foundation, you want to get the most out of it.

It’s pretty easy to use around the contours of my face. It’s pretty easy to use in general. I would recommend watching a video or two before hand, but overall I was pretty comfortable with it right off the bat.

Cons:

It didn’t deliver the “airbrush” quality that I thought it would BUT that could be the foundation I was using. (DANG YOU FOUNDATION). I’m also testing out new liquids and I’m not happy with my first trial run, so maybe once I find the right foundation it will act better.

They said this brush would make it so that you would only have to use very little amounts of foundation (again, this could be the LAMO foundation I was using), I didn’t see that to be the case. I had to use what I thought was a “regular” amount. A medium sized amount, a grande, if you will.

I can see where this brush would be great for blending. I’ve seen a couple of YouTube videos where they talk about using the same brush for foundation application and contouring. I don’t know how they do that putting all those colors on the same brush and not look like a circus freak. But hey, these women are strong enough to put their bare face on the internet for all to see, so… #respect.

It is something fun to get that will shake up your routine without having to spend a lot of dough.

Summer is almost over (yay!), check out what I’m wearing on repeat before the season comes to an end.

Beauty

Three Spiffy Things

May 11, 2016 No Comments

flowers, hairspray, lipliner, knoxville beauty blogger, knoxville blogger, beauty product review, mac lipliner review, tresemme hairspray review

Sunday morning as I was standing in the bathroom doing my hair, I peaked out down the hallway to see what Jackson was doing. The minute he saw me, he got the biggest grin on his face (so much so that his pacifier popped out of his mouth).

That is the best thing ever.

It’s the little things that make the most impact in your memory.

As I sat down to write about the three things that made me feel spiffy this week, that popped into my head. Here are the other things that closely followed…

Flowers

For work a couple years ago I got to write the bio for every employee in the company. This meant I got to gather fun info from people which also meant that I read “loves to travel” about 1800 times. One fact I still remember was how one lady buys herself fresh flowers every week. I think that is such a good idea.

To start putting that into practice, I bought flowers for myself at Aldi a couple weeks ago. These are not those flowers.

No, these beauties were delivered to me at work from my thoughtful husband and his 9-month-old accomplice for Mother’s Day!

They have brought me so much happiness every time I look at them, so I’m going to do my best to keep something like this going to lift the mood and help keep the dining room table clear :) Who wants to put the mail under something this magnificent!?

Hairspray

You know what has sold me on TRESemme products? Project Runway. They always have to whisk their models off to the “TRESemme hairproducts room” or whatever Tim says, and it turns out that wad of cash TRESemme dropped in order for him to say that has turned into sales.

I’m sure they’re rapidly making up for the cost of that placement with my $5 hairspray purchase. YOU’RE WELCOME, TRESEMME.

It’s called “Perfectly (un) Done” and it gives you natural movement with all day hold (which, ironically, is also something you’d want from Spanx).

Even though Dove is my go-to hairspray product, I like this because it’s a fine mist spray. You can just hold the button and spsssssssssssssssssssssss *pauses for air* spssssssssssss

Lip Liner

I bought this lip liner to directly match a lipstick I got in one of my beauty boxes and it’s been the best purchase.

I try to go more fuschia with my bold lip because I think red lips make me look like I belong in a terrible teen vampire love story.

This is by Mac and the color is “Fashion Boost.” It stays on my lips all day and makes some of the brighter pink lipsticks I’ve wrongfully bought, more wearable and less clown-like. I love love love it – and highly recommend taking in your favorite lip color to find a pencil that matches.

Hey! This is my second post of Three Spiffy Things so we’re well on our way to having a series, yay!