Mojito Mason Jars

{Mojitos in Mason Jars}

One of my favorite people at school is my very cool friend Naomi.  I haven’t seen her in a while though because she was in London, then I was in London and she was living a glamorous life in New York, but alas after nine months we’re both in the same city.  We did manage to meet up in London though for Afternoon Tea, but it’s nice to only live a few blocks away from each other now.  We got together the other night caught up, and made some very yummy mojitos.  If you’ve never had one I suggest you order one next time you’re out, if made well they are delicious.  It was such a fun relaxing night just hanging out in good company.

{Strawberry ice cubes!}

{Blurry Namoi}

Make-up Fun: Lip Edition

One of the most fun things about makeup is playing up one feature, and doing so with your lips is super easy.  I love lipstick, I have a lot of them, but I hate lipgloss.  If there were one product that could not exist, I would pick lipgloss.  I think it stems back to eighth grade when I had to walk from 2^nd period French, which was outside in the mods, to Algebra, which was inside. I had a lot of books to carry between those classes and every girl was super into lipgloss that year (those Victoria’s Secret ones, you know what I’m talking about).  So, I’d wear some then the wind would blow while I was walking to class, getting my hair stuck in my lipgloss and I would be holding so many books I couldn’t get it out.  It’s sticky, tacky, my hair gets stuck in it, and I feel like I can’t eat/drink/kiss anything with it on; I just don’t like it.  Luckily, I own plenty of lipsticks. 

My absolute favorite is Clinique’s Blushing Coral, except it’s discontinued! Look how little I have left! If someone knows a color that’s extremely similar, please share. Clinique’s Raspberry Glacé is another one I like and wear a lot.  All my other colors I tend to wear sparingly.  I wanted a true red statement lip, so I went to MAC and got Russian Red, which is a matte finish.  I like it, and I think if worn correctly it looks good.  However, my ex-boyfriend hated it (funny how he keeps coming up isn’t it? I guess he affected my make-up choices more than I thought. Weird and annoying.), the color just wasn’t his thing, and my best friend recently told me she didn’t like it.  I’m going to continue to try to make it work, but it might unfortunately not be worn much.  Although I do love how the packaging reminds me of a little bullet.  As for chapstick, I have tried many, but my current favorite is C.O. Bigelow's Lemon lip balms.  I currently have the Lemon and Black Cherry one as well.  

{The only lipglosses I own, that I like never wear. C.O. Bigelow Lemon Lip Balm}

{Lots of colors}

{MAC matte Russian Red, Clinique Different Lipstick in Raspberry Glacé, and Clinique Color Surge Bare Brillance Lipstick in Blushing Coral}

Food Shopping Fun

{Almost all ingredients thrown together in one delicious meal}

Working at the Zoo is very fun (although my favorite animal is leaving next week!) and tiring.  Thankfully I only work part-time, but I’ve been busy in the lab the other days.  I have also been taking lots of dance classes, which have made me super sore, and hanging out with lots of friends.  This is why I love being back in the city.  This weekend I did all these things and my sister and I went food shopping.  May I reiterate from here how much I love Whole Foods? I do, so much.  We both bought their guacamole on Saturday and I’m already more than half way done mine.  We also spent a good 35 minutes in the produce section before we even thought about the rest of the store.  We make food shopping so much fun.  Then I decided to throw together just about everything I have and I made a hamburger with Munster cheese and put in on a whole wheat bun with guacamole and lettuce. I roasted asparagus on the side. It was delicious. I am so happy it’s spring and things like asparagus and strawberries are in season. I’m so excited to cook lots of yummy things. 

Make-up Fun: Face Edition

{Favorites. And yes that's a limited edition Karl Lagerfeld Diet Coke in the background}

Face:  I’m not one for powder or foundation, although I might try to get into it.  I do however, love bronzer. I love the Neutrogena Healthy Skin Blends bronzer in Sunkissed.  I’ve been using it since tenth grade maybe? Regardless I’ve been through about five of them.  Last summer I bought Nars blush in Orgasm since it has a cult following and I was very curious to try it.  Well, the cult following is understandable; the blush is fantastic. It’s also the number one best-selling blush across all beauty lines, or so the sales lady told me.  It’s supposed to give you that orgasmic flush and whatnot. The color’s a shimmery pink and it would look good on all skin tones.  Next up, Yves Saint Laurent Touche éclat, which also has a cult following.  As Camilla Morton said, “it is everything you need in a wand - magic”.  Seriously, if you know how to apply it, the stuff is amazing.  Clinique's up-lighting liquid illuminator is really great. I like using it when I'm tan to highlight my cheeks and make me shimmer a little.  If you really want to shimmer and sparkle though The Body Shop's brilliance powder is the way to go.  I often though use a separate brush to get the powder off the actual brush because it's so intense.  I only use that sparingly and for special occasions.  I also tend to use that on my body too, not just my face.  Those would be my favorites face-wise.  I intend on buying Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage concealer soon, since I’ve heard it’s really good and want to try it.  I will let you know!

{Neutrogena bronzer in Sunkissed and Nars blush in Orgasm}

Brotherly Love

{Philadelphia skyline ~6am, a night freshmen year I managed to stay up all night}

I have officially moved back to Philadelphia.  I grew up right outside the city and I lived in the city on campus for my first two years of school.  Actually living here made me very comfortable with the city and I grew to admire so many things about it.  Then I went to London, fell in love and had the time of my life, and then I came back home. I commuted last term for various different reasons and I am now extremely happy to say that I am back in the city, after nine months of being away, and most likely staying until I graduate.  I’m living in an apartment (my first!) in a building that a bunch of my friends live in, and it’s already been very fun.  I am happy to be back and I will upload pictures of my pretty room as soon as it’s all set up.  And conveniently enough, I’m doing my co-op at the Philadelphia Zoo right now, which is not even ten minutes away.  I’ve been there two weeks, and boy do I have some stories already.  Between my several hundred pound cow, Emmy, that I intend on kidnapping to 10 year old half Puerto Rican boys lecturing me on Komodo Dragons and insane Jewish New Yorkers.  By the end of these six months I can’t imagine what I will have seen.  And if nothing else I’ll be an expert parallel parker since I do it all the time now.

Make-up fun: Perfume Edition

{Aromatic perfumes}

This is the first of my make-up blogs, I hope you enjoy. If you don't, well I don't care because I did.  First off, can we talk about how many make-up bags I own? I don’t know if you can count in that picture but it’s 16. SIXTEEN. I use about five of them. Does anyone need one? Seriously, I’m offering here.

{So many cosmetic bags. Seriously, I'll give them away}

{The like five bags I use, and my current super messy storage situation}

{More awful storage}

{Favorites: Sauve and L'Occitane}

Moisturizers and perfumes: I love Sauve cocoa butter lotion. It is fantastic and I always carry that little guy with me. Also, you can’t go wrong with L’Occitance products.  Their little shea butters I love (seeing as I own three and they’re not even my first ones).  I always go for scents that are citrusy and clean.  Clinique Happy perfume will always be a scent I love. My mom always had it, which is why I started wearing it.  It’s light, fruity and just happy.  Then my aunt got me Lancôme Trésor last year for Christmas.  I normally go for fruity, lighter scents, but Trésor is nothing like it.  It’s musky, heavy, and floral.  Not what I would normally pick, but I like it nonetheless.  Although I wore it once last year and my ex-boyfriend told me I smelled like his aunt.  So either his aunt wears Trésor or it makes me smell old.  That always turns me off from wearing the perfume somewhat.  I just have to be in the right mood to wear it, since it is a more mature scent.  And my new favorite perfume: Juicy Couture Viva la juicy! I got that regular size bottle for free at London Fashion Weekend and I’m so happy I did because I fell in love with it.  The scent is so fun and fruity with vanilla and amber undertones. Love it.  I highly suggest all, dependent on what your own preferences are. 

Make-up Fun

I know, I haven't blogged in forever. It was the end of the term, I had lots of work to do and I thought I was going to fail my one class (literally, it was a possibility).  Last week was finals week and I was in a complete study mode i.e., yoga pants, big t-shirt, no shoes, study hair, books scattered around my room, don't even bother trying to talk to me. Alas, I finished my finals and I'm actually really proud of my grades this term; I did very well.  Spring break has been relaxing, but yet I have been running endless errands and cleaning like a mad woman. Now on to the actually topic.

When I was little and would spend time at my grandparents I used to play “dress-up” with my sister, cousins, and my Grandmom.  For some unknown reason to me my Grandmom used to make us put Vaseline on our entire face before we put on make-up.  She always said it made it easier to take off, which I’m sure it did, but I can’t imagine why she would have had us do this.  She never would have done that to herself and we must have looked like shiny, sticky, and ridiculous balls of make-up.  I tried to find a picture, but I failed in that endeavor so use your imagination.

I think that’s where my love of make-up started; it was always so fun playing with it all.  And my love has just been re-sparked by Rachel, who I went to middle and high school with.  We weren’t super good friends by any means, but we were involved in similar stuff in school.  About a month or so ago she put up a make-up tutorial video she did on facebook.  I then came to discover that she has this channel on youtube where she does tutorials and hilarious other videos.  She is so right too when she says people always notice her for her eyeliner.  In high school I always noticed that she could do a fantastic wing.  The girl’s hilarious, honest, and has killer make-up skills. So naturally, I’ve watched like all her videos and I have since become re-obsessed with make-up. I already have a list of things she has mentioned that I want to buy. Too bad my co-op’s unpaid. Womp womp..

Seeing as I wanted to try everything she was doing, I went through all my make-up and realized I own a ton.  I’m sure some of my friends (ahem: Ali and Amanda) could rival my collection, but I still have a fair amount.  My mom is also a big fan of using good quality make-up, so most of my make-up is high end.  Especially since, there is almost no reason to buy good make-up unless they have a gift.  Spend like $30 and get about $50 worth of make-up free. See? Why would you just spend the $30? Thus, I own a ton of Clinique and Lancôme products. So I am now going to start going through my make-up and reviewing stuff.  I was going to just do that in this post but it got wayyyyy too long. I know that probably none of you care about my opinion on make-up, but I had fun doing it so I don't care. Read my posts if you want to, or not.  First one should be up soon.

{Some of my collection. And I have no money right so I'm not buying more make-up? Well, I just ordered some Urban Decay. Woops. Now I really have to restrain myself.}