Month: April 2018

Trippin

Spring Break! Trippin Down My Camera Roll

Maritza4 Comments

You all know that every once in a while, I like to take you all on a little trip down my camera roll. Well, I don’t lead a particularly exciting life, so I have to accumulate enough footage to make it worthwhile for you all. However, seeing as last week, the kids and I were off for Spring Break, we did indeed venture out a bit more than usual and I think I reached that magical number of pictures.

I mean, if I am going to be honest, the majority of my free time isn’t exactly spent at “Da Club”, but rather in my PJ’s binge-watching Gotham on Netflix, but I don’t think you all want to see pictures of that.

Or do you? I know some of you out there love The Penguin as much as I do.

Anyways, without further ado. Let’s begin a-trippin’:

We went to the beach and even though it was a sunny day, the water was freezing! Didn’t stop the kids from getting in though.

We went specifically to Aventura Mall so the kids can go down their brand new slide. They had such a blast! I would have gone myself, but someone had to hold the purses, right? 😩

I love all the art pieces scattered around the mall, but I’m constantly telling the kids to not touch anything!!!

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That is HUGE Lladro sculpture. I kept on telling the kids to “Not get so close!”.

At another cheer event. This time at the Miami Dade County Youth Fair. It was a school day so we couldn’t stick around to ride some rides, but it was fun!

This is what usually happens when I ask Sofia to help me with some flat lays.

Took a trip to the public library to get the kids and myself some new library cards and fell in love with the murals.

Holly obviously thinks I’m her couch.

A pic of Sofia during her Washington, DC trip with her school.

At the FIU basketball game where her team were part of the halftime performance. Look how sassy my Aunt Diana looks.

Logan wanted to mask with mommy.

Now that’s one huge scary cupcake. Seriously, I’m on the Keto Diet and some days I swear I would eat that stuffed cupcake. I do miss sugar a bit!

That’s it, folks! I told you I don’t lead a very exciting life, but it’s just fine for me. 🙂

Till next time, my friends!

Maritza

Beauty Favorites

March Beauty Favorites

MaritzaLeave a comment

March was such a great month! It was busy, but it filled with lot’s of new and exciting things for me that I didn’t mind the all the commotion. It was so busy, in fact, that I don’t think I dedicated a whole lot of time in trying out new beauty stuff, which means that my Monthly Favorites list is quite small and there may definitely be a few products that you have already heard me talk about, so I will try to not talk your ears off about those.

For once, right? 🙂

Eyes

Burts Bees Nourishing Mascara in Classic Black. This is an example of something that I really had to use multiple times to come to a conclusion. When I first used this mascara, I was quite ambivalent about it. I liked it, but I didn’t think it was anything special. That is until I got tired of using the Maybelline Total Temptation Mascara because it was too damn hard to wash off at night and I felt like I was seeing one too many lashes fall off from all the scrubbing (and yes, I was being gentle). So on a whim, I picked this one from mascara jar. The wand is a tad bit prickly and bendy, so don’t be shoving it up in your eye or anything, but it really does give you soft looking and touching lashes. I personally like using this mascara on my natural make up days because it makes your lashes look like lashes, but better.

Maybelline Lasting Drama Light Liner in Moonlight Purple. I love colorful eyeliners. I think they add just the perfect kick of color to any eye look in a jiffy, so when I saw a METALLIC purple eyeliner, I didn’t even Add to Cart, I hit 1-Click Buy on Amazon (the link above is to Ulta, as I couldn’t find a link to Moonlight Purple on Amazon). This is such a gorgeous lavender shade to add to the waterline to lighten your eye look or smudge a bit on the lower lash and it amps up any smoky eye look without making it look heavy. It has the tiniest amount of glitter to it, but it’s nothing that will run down your cheeks and it really is long lasting. I haven’t heard too many people talk about this liner, but if you haven’t had a chance to check it out, please do so. I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Face

Ittse Illuminator in Barbados. If you didn’t check out my post on the Ittse Marcel Starter Kit, which included Barbados, then check it out here. You will get more details on the kit, however, don’t fret, you can totally pick this highlighter up on it’s own for $10 and add it to your singles collection without having to spend $49 on a set. Either way, I highly recommend. It’s a gorgeous light golden highlighter. It’s not going to give you a “wet looking” shine, but you will definitely be glowing and when the light catches it, it’s so pretty and natural. If I was going to compare it, I would say that it resembles, The Balm’s Mary-Loumanizer, except a tad bit lighter in color.

Garnier SkinActive Soothing Facial Mist.  I’m not much into setting sprays, mostly because I’m always rushing out the door and “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”, but I love anything with Rose Water. Yeah, it’s a little grandmotherly of a scent, but I dig it and it came in perfect when I got a slight sunburn from being outside one day with the kids. I spritzed this on my face and immediately became addicted.  I use it to freshen up, to wet my beauty sponge, to foil my shadows and, yes, to set my makeup. It’s not that big of a bottle, so be prepared to go through it fairly quick, but for $7, it’s a steal.

That’s it, folks! I told you it was a small list this time around. Drop your link to your March Favorites and let me know what I should try out this month.

Till next time, my friends!

Maritza

***Links above to Amazon and Ittse are affiliated, so if you decide to make a purchase using link, I will make a slight commission.***

Besame Cosmetics

Besame Cashmere Stick Foundation – Review Time!

MaritzaLeave a comment

You all know that I am big believer in the Universe sending you signs, right?

Have I got a doozy of a story for you. Last summer, I purchased the Besame Cashmere Stick Foundation along with the 1941 Victory Red lipstick. Unfortunately, I went a shade too light for me at the time and decided that I would put it away till my summer tan faded a bit. Well, in the process of moving houses in August, I misplaced it and was never able to find it and I just assumed it got lost among all the boxes and chaos.

Fast forward 7 months, I get an email from Besame saying that their stick foundations were going to be 35% off (I am an affiliate, so I get advance notice of sales from time to time). I thought about my lost foundation and figured that maybe I would take advantage of the sale and pick up a new one to give it a shot now that me and Snow White can compete for Ms. Pasty Skinned 2018. I headed over to their website and saw that the Cashmere Foundation Sticks were $10 each.

Umm….what?

I know I paid something like $25 or so last year, so to see them at $10, I though they must be discontinuing them. Long story short, I decided against purchasing the foundation, despite it sale price, because I am on this Low Buy and having already splurged on the Agent Carter Kit (future post in the works), I didn’t have any real need for it. I figured, it’s still $10 I get to keep in my pocket.

Ok, so this is where the Universe kicked in. A few days later, I am getting ready to head out to dinner with my friend Yudy, and I decide that I want to switch purses. I go into my closet and pick this GORGEOUS blue Coach bag from the back of the shelf and open it up to clean it out, as it’s been quite some time since I last used it. Lo and behold, sitting in the bottom of the purse is the Besame Cashmere Foundation Stick in Bisque.

Thanks, Universe!

The packaging of this product is STUNNING. Encased in a gold tube, with Besame’s signature flower design, it’s definitely a collectors item. It’s the kind of beauty product that you would display on your vanity.

Unfortunately, that is about the nicest thing I can say about this foundation because I just could not make it work for me. The consistency, when placed on your face, is creamy, but it somehow dries down to an almost powder feel and that was the main problem I had because it just made it difficult for me to blend. When I used a beauty sponge, I felt like the wet sponge was picking product up, instead of blending it, which made my skin look patchy. None of my brushes seemed to be dense enough to move the product around and disperse it evenly either.

The best method I found to evenly distribute the product were my fingers, but when I finally got it looking the way that I like, I felt like it sunk into every pore and collected into every line on my face.

I even tried different primers to see if it would help. The first one I used was the Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer, but I found that it exacerbated the powdery finish of the foundation and made my skin look too dry and cakey. Using the Farsali Rose Gold Elixir worked the best, but once my natural oils kicked in, I could see all the product settle into EVERY SINGLE PORE ON MY NOSE. So Gross!

If that wasn’t enough, I thought that maybe with such a thick consistency, this stick foundation might work best as a concealer. It actually did cover up my dark circles quite nicely, but I still couldn’t prevent it from settling into the fine lines under my eyes.

I honestly give up.

So, this is a serious pass for me. I don’t seem to have the right skin type or face products on hand to make this work for me. However, if you like this foundation, hop on over to the Besame website and pick up one for you now that they are on sale.

As I mentioned, I am affiliated with Besame Cosmetics, but seeing as this was a miss for me, it just doesn’t feel right to make any commission off of it. However, I will still share the code (not tied to me though) I got sent for 35% off $10. That means that the final price will be $6.50, which I think is a nice deal if you happen to like this product or like to collect Besame products.

The code is Foudation35.

YES, there is a typo and it’s missing an N, but when I was testing out the code yesterday and typed in FOUNDATION35, it didn’t recognize it, but when I typed FOUDATION35, it gave me the discount.

Till next time, my friends!

Maritza