Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's 2010 already. It came out of nowhere! I'm so ready for this new year and I have such a great feeling about good things coming my way :)

I'm not a big new year's resolution type of person because I feel like my priorities and/or needs change ever so often that I don't want to be stuck with something I promised I would do and not end up doing. Otherwise, it would just be a big disappointment. I'm the type of person that always has to accomplish my goal.

I guess I'll do New Year's wishes instead.

-I wish to be more generous to others and to myself.

-I wish to be healthier and keep on track with my workouts.

-I wish to be a better friend, sister, and daughter.

-I wish to be a kinder person.

I'm wishing all of you a happy and prosperous New Year :)

Happy Holidays

I just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays :) It's that wonderful time of the year again. I hope all of you enjoy it with your friends& family.

I've had a great past week. I went to my work's holiday party and it was a spectacular night. It was held in Downtown San Diego. Our President is part of this fancy club so we had this nice room at the top of this building all to ourselves with a really great view. I ended up taking Bubba (my sister's boyfriend) as my date and it was fun having him with me because he has his social skills down! Yes I took my sister's boyfriend but he's one of my best friends and I knew we'd have fun. Everyone teased me that night too with their "Oh, you're friend huh?" remarks. So typical but it was super funny because no one really knew the real story besides my close friend at work.

We had an open bar and all these yummy hors d'oeuvres. There were mushroom caps with a spinach filling, coconut shrimp, egg rolls, and lamb. Omg that lamb was to die for! Then we had our delicious dinner. That was hands down, the best meal I've ever had. Bubba and I both had the filet mignon with lobster tail. I thought it was going to be a tiny portion, but it was perfect! Sooooooo good! Then we got our dessert sampler which was really good too. There was like a brownie with berry sauce, bread pudding, chocolate dipped strawberry, and a chocolate cake.

When we finished dinner, we got onto our Secret Santa. For some reason, I knew I was going to be the first one to open mine since I'm the newest employee and I was right. I was kind of embarrassed because we also had to guess who our Secret Santa was, but that bit of wine helped me! haha. I ended up getting a MAC cosmetics gift card from my project manager and was super happy about it. I don't exactly know what I'm going to get, but a mineralized eyeshadow duo might be on top of my list. Another great thing that night was that I got a Christmas bonus. I was totally not expecting one because I'm new and I'm an intern. I didn't get my hopes up but I got one anyways and am super stoked. I hope I get hired full-time by next year!

Some Purchases

I have a holiday work party I'm attending in 2 weeks and I'm super excited. It will be nice to see how my co-workers act out of the office and with a little booze on them or maybe a lot of booze because we're going to have an open bar!

I already bought my dress and shoes for the event and got some good deals doing a little bit of research on retailmenot.com I don't even do any online shopping without first checking out that website because I love getting % offs on my purchases.

Isn't my dress cute? The top is a bow and the skirt part is really fun and flirty.

I got a deal on these shoes. I had originally tried them on at the store but they were too expensive for me at the time. Then I was bored last night and went onto the Jc Penney website and bought them for under $20 when I found a coupon on you know where!

I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to wear for accessories and makeup. I've been experimenting with my Urban Decay shadow box and did a nice brown smokey eye last night with a bit of green as my eyeliner to make my brown eyes pop. If I don't go that route, I may go for something with a bit more color. Maybe some purple?

If you have any recommendations, please share it with me by commenting!

One last thing that I bought was a new straightner. I've had my Solia straightner for about 5 years now and worked great. I think it was a year ago that one of the plates started coming loose and it started to snag my hair. I put up with it because I didn't have a job at the moment and it was still working pretty well. I got an e-mail from Folica that they were having a 10 hour private sale and got an AMAZING deal on a straightner with a couple of extras ;) for $89.99! there weren't even any taxes and shipped for free because it was over $50. Unfortunately, the sale is over but definitely join their mailing list because they always send me emails about sales and coupons. That's my go-to place to buy any hair tools because they have good brands and they have tons of reviews done by customers which I really appreciate. I keep tracking my package like crazy, but thank goodness it's somewhere in Southern CA right now. I'm expecting it in the next 2 days and I can't wait to use it!

Who needs a Boyfriend when you have a soft B. Makowsky?

As promised, here are some pictures of my new B. Makowsky purse. It came in the mail yesterday and it came in a huge box. I started thinking "Did I really buy that big of a purse?" Well I opened the box and was really surprised at how big this purse is. I was really thinking that it would be smaller but I can't complain because it's quite lovely. It is a bit heavy as well and it's because of the hardware. I love the dark brown color of the bag with the rose-toned hardware. It's a great match. And how awesome is the animal print inside? Love it! I've never spent so much on one purse before, but like I said, it is something I bought to celebrate for my new job and my 24th birthday. I really do like the B. Makowsky handbag line so I hope to purchase more in the future. Who needs a boyfriend, when you can just hug this bag instead (it's softer anyway)!

Urban Decay Show Pony Shadow Box

I just received my Urban Decay Show Pony Shadow Box through the mail today and I'm so pleased with it. I've never tried any eyeshadows from Urban Decay, but I knew they were good and when I saw this shadow box online, I really fell in love with the colors. I've been looking for an emerald green and a ton of neutral colors to wear for work. My favorite shadows are from MAC cosmetics, but these are ranking pretty high. They go on smooth and super pigmented! The swatches I have done don't even have any primer underneath them and they already look vibrant. Imagine wearing primer and these colors are going to be amazing!

So far I'm really liking Snatch because it looks great as an all over eyelid color and it's shimmery, but not too shimmery for my liking. Mildew is looking a bit light and I really wanted a dark emerald green so I'm still going to have to experiment with it to get it darker either by packing the color on or getting a dark base. I haven't tried Flash or Painkiller yet. Smog and Toasted are really pretty. They're nothing special though, because you could find similar colors at a drugstore for much cheaper, but the texture and pigmentation is important to me so I love them. I have a feeling that I'm going to gravitate towards these shadows on a daily basis. I've never even hit pan on any shadows, but since these are a bit smaller, it might just happen.

So for $30 you get:

• 6 (0.9 grams) of eyeshadow in Snatch, Mildew, Flash, Painkiller, Smog, and Toasted
• 1 mini size Urban Decay Primer Potion
• 1 mini size 24/7 Eyeliner in Zero

My 1st big splurge in a long time

i can't believe i just dropped about $200 on a new purse. i'm not really a big spender on purses or accessories so this was a big splurge in my books. i sort of have this guilty feeling but what the heck! this purchase is going to celebrate that i have a job that i really like and enjoy and as a birthday gift to myself. i went to Macy's or Nordstrom's about a year ago and saw the B. Makowsky handbag line and fell in love after I touched one. the leather is out of this world! it's like nothing i've felt before! after that day i've been trying to canvas around to see where i can get a handbag for a good deal and one day i saw it on QVC and they sell it for way less! luckily i knew that he was going to do a segment and tuned in, and couldn't resist and just purchased it because it was too good of a deal. $100 off retail price and free shipping. come to mama!

Elf Complexion Perfection

I wanted to try a powder that would help out with my oil slick and shine and have been hearing a good amount of reviews about Elf's Complexion Perfection. It's pretty much this pan of silky powder which has 4 squares in it. There's a pale yellow, mint green, baby blue, and baby pink color. You can use them individually to color correct. For example, use the mint green to cancel out redness. Or you could swirl all the colors together and just even out your skin tone and mattify your skin.

I've been grabbing for this everyday and I really do think that it helps to even out the skin tone and mattify my skin. The product description says that it's pretty sheer in color, but applying too much can definitely wash you out. I have a light skin tone so I haven't had problems with it washing me out, but for tanned or darker skin tones, you may want to use a light hand to prevent that from happening. I typically use this after my moisturizer and before any makeup. But I've been noticing that I will just use this alone just as powder for the entire day. I'm trying to figure out if my Everyday Minerals is causing me to become oily and so far, it seems to be a a factor.

So for $3, this is a great product. It comes with a good amount of product, 13.5 grams, and it comes in a "NARS like" packaging with it's matte black case and a nice sized mirror. I just wish it had come with a puff inside because I can't really take it and use it without taking a regular sized powder brush. I'm probably going to have to invest in the EcoTools travel kabuki.