Month: October 2017

MOTD

What’s in my Travel Bag? Universal Halloween Horror Nights Edition

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I am activating mini-vacation mode. Hubs and I are heading to Orlando for Halloween Horror Nights and you know I have to prepare what I’m going to wear…. On my face!!!!

I’ll be there for less than 24 hours so going into it I was like “I’ll just pack a few things.” Well, let me tell you, apparently it takes like 20 items to make me beautiful.


I knew I wanted a sunset red look for the eyes, because I was going to wear my favorite red and navy plaid shirt, so I popped out Old Faithful (AKA: Modern Renaissance by Anastasia Beverly Hills). I figured I wanted a lighter face look if I wanted to do a smoky eye , so I then threw in some  mascara, brow pomade, blush, bronzer, highlighter, foundation, concealer and 3 lipstick options.

What no contour?

Nah…. I didn’t want to over do it.

Seven brushes later and a handful of travel size moisturizers, toners and face masks, I was finally done.

I wish I could have told you I carefully packed everything in a cute little (big?) makeup bag, but no. I threw it all in a huge zip lock bag and stowed it away in my overnight bag.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that ground you back to reality, right?

If you’ve never been to Halloween Horror Nights, it’s a yearly event Universal Studios Florida has where they shut down some rides at night and set up walk thru haunted houses. It’s fun and full of scares and good times. Below are some pics that I took and a quick video from one of the Scare Zones. I wish I had more, but I was really enjoying the moment and just forgot to snap more pics.




Till next time friends!!

Maritza

Fashion Hauls · Uncategorized

Tween Fashion with Sofia

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Fall is one of our favorite months in the Rodriguez household. Pumpkins, both the real and fake ones, are being picked and strategically placed around the house. We are prepping the house for Halloween and picking out costumes online. Something new is always popping up and now that Sofia is fully entrenched in middle school, we have lots more extra curricular activities to attend.

If it’s not a school function, like a dance or school movie night, it’s some outing with friends that requires a special outfit. I’ve realized that my little girl has entered that stage where things like “the perfect top to wear to the Haunted House” or ” I want something cranberry colored to wear to school on No Uniform Day” are examples of things I hear more and more each day. I suppose that’s normal with 12 year old girls, but it still shocks me how in less than 6 months she went from asking me to take her to the American Girl Store to Forever 21.

With that being said, our struggles have evolved. I find myself increasingly vetoing outfits that I deem too mature at these stores targeted to high schoolers and college aged girls, which leads to loads of huffing and puffing about how ” she is not a baby anymore!” But, ultimately it’s my credit card that takes the beating, so too bad. As my mom once told me, when you make your own money, you can buy whatever you want!

I knew that was eventually going to come back and bite me in the butt!!

Although, Sofia is not yet a teen, she is definitely a young lady. She’s tall for her age and not only has she physically outgrown stores like Justice and The Children’s Place, but her style has also matured. She likes stores like H&M, Forever21 and Garage.

For the upcoming Fall Dance at her school, we put together this mish mosh of brands. The top is from Garage. Bottoms are H&M. Shoes from Target.

The back is laced up, which we will probably wear over a cami.

Another recent purchase for an upcoming birthday party, is this top from Forever 21. She loves flowy, bohemian style tops and this was an instant love. We paired it up with the same jeans and booties. I did have to stitch up the straps a bit as they where a tad bit too long and exposed a little more than I was comfortable with.

She also loves makeup (I wonder where she gets that from?) and often goes with me to Sephora and helps me pick out makeup. As a matter of fact, a lot of my makeup gets handed down to her. These are a few items that I lets her wear for special occasions. Now don’t go hating on me for letting my 12 year old wear makeup. As I like to say… You do you and I do me.

Makeup:

Elf Brushes

Tartelette in Bloom Palette

Hard Candy Lap of Luxury Top 10 Satins

Maybelline Voluminous Butterfly Mascara

Covergirl Clean Matte Pressed Powder

Elf Lip Balm Tint

Burts Bees Lip Crayon

Benefit Precisely My Brow Eye Pencil

Hope you all enjoyed this tween edition fashion show. If you want to see more, let me know in the comments below.

Till next time, my friends!

Maritza

Fashion Hauls · Uncategorized

Fall ModCloth Fashion Show – October

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I was perusing the ModCloth app a few weeks back and was pleasantly surprised to see so many Fall and Halloween pieces. I love everything about Halloween. The pumpkins, costumes, trick or treating with my kids and eating their candy under the premise that I have to “check for razor blades”. Yeah, that’s definitely a ruse in case anyone was wondering.

They were also having a 40% off sale so I took advantage and threw in some pieces to make October a particular festive one.

For reference, I’m 5’10 and all the pieces are XL. Also, Sofia took the pictures so props to her for all the lighting and suggestion on how to pose.

I saw these two pieces and knew I had to buy them. First off, anyone who knows anything about me know I have a love of cats and purple, so this outfit pretty much sums up my life.

Oh My Gosh A Line Dress in Bats – $59.99. The dress is a little shorter than I typically go for. On me it’s about mid-thigh, so I will avoid bending over too much while wearing, however I must say that it’s quite comfy. I wouldn’t say the material is stretchy but the fit it true to size and the skirt is lined.

I paired it with this adorable Cropped Cardigan with Peter Pan Collar ($49). I also consider this cardigan to be true to size and it’s so cute! It also doesn’t have to be strictly for Halloween. I paired it with a black tank and my white jeans for work and got loads of compliments.

Did I mention it had spooked out cats embroidered on the collar? Meow!

I feel like I am channeling Wednesday Adams slightly more extroverted cousin with this look? Anyone else feel it?

My last purchase isn’t necessarily Halloweenie, but I still dig it. It’s fit my main criteria when it comes to fashion. It’s black and it has cute stuff on it. In this case, dinosaurs and a Peter Pan collar. Meet the Doubly Delightful Sleeveless Top in Black Dino’s $44.99.

I love everything about this top. It’s lightweight, whimsical and comfy. You can dress it up with a pair of slacks and a blazer or down with a pair of white or blue jeans. Throw on some red lipstick and you are all set.

I wasn’t actually looking at anything in particular, but isn’t this what the models on catalogs do? Look distractedly at something off camera?

I hope you liked my first fashion show. If so, shoot me a comment below.

Have a great day!

Maritza

Beauty Favorites · Uncategorized

Something Old, Something New….

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Something Blue?

I was chatting with my friend Karla the other day about makeup. She is that friend who totally gets your obsession with makeup and would never, EVER, make you feel bad for having too many nude lipsticks. In fact, she would try to convince you that you do indeed need both MAC X Nicki Minaj nude lipsticks because one is a pinky nude, while the other clearly has a peach based undertone.

Like…DUH! They are obviously two very different colors.

As we were talking, I found myself hardcore selling her on two of my favorite products:  my beloved Boscia Charcoal Makeup Melter and the newest edition to my ever growing eyeshadow collection, the Too Faced Just Peachy Matte palette. Both products are top shelf for me, although I will admit that if I had to pick just one, Boscia would win. However, we would then have a Chicken vs. Egg situation because technically would I even need the Makeup Melter if I didn’t have any makeup in the first place?

I think this would even keep Aristotle up at night.

Something Old

Boscia Charcoal Makeup Melter is the BOMB! I cannot put it any other way. I got a sample from Sephora a while back and the first time I used it I was so completely blown away, I immediately purchased a full size jar.

You apply it to your dry face and massage it in for a bit. Then just when you have worked up a bit of a sweat, you wash it away with some water. I kid you not, this stuff washes away waterproof mascara. It’s more of a balm than a cleanser, so it leaves your skin soft and supple. If I had one complaint, it would be that it does leave a slightly filmy residue on your bathroom sink, so I recommend wiping it down with a towel when you are done.

Something New

I am going to admit that I initially purchased Too Faced Just Peachy Mattes palette out of loyalty. I am a huge fan of the Sweet Peach palette. The colors are playful, yet earthy and bring out my green eyes like no tomorrow, so when I heard that Too Faced was going to add an all Matte palette to their Peach line, I was all in. However, as we started getting sneak peeks, I started thinking I was just going to waste my money. I’m sure there were going to be dupes of the same colors from the Sweet Peach palette. In fact, when I first got an in person glimpse and swatched Peach Sangria, the one color I was most intrigued by, I was slightly disappointed. It was patchy and not quite as vibrant as expected.

But as it happened, I came a across a Sephora gift card I got from Ebates a while back and seeing that nothing else was calling my name at the store, I decided to purchase the Just Peachy mattes as a partner to my Sweet Peach.

Truth be told, I was quite judgmental at first. It was smaller and not made of that same tin material the SP is made of. I didn’t even use for a few days, but when I finally caved, I have to admit I became a convert. There is such a lovely range of light to dark mattes, that I was able to easily create an eye look without dipping into the SP palette. The colors blended really well with a brush and even though Peach Sangria is still not all that to me, it works well enough. Hey, 1 mediocre color out of 12? Not too shabby in my book.

Something Blue

Ok. I will admit I don’t have anything blue. I’ve never been able to master blue eyeshadow and blue lipstick is just not my thing. I can’t even get into blue nail polish seeing as I have been a straight up French manicure girl since I was a teen.

However, I hate to disappoint, so I leave you with this.

That always cracks me up!!

Till next time, my friends!

Maritza