Things I'm Loving November 2017

New Spring Beauty Arrivals

Valentine's Day Gifts for Her

For the Home Lover:

For the Beauty Lover:

For the Everything Girl:

Men's Gift Guide

I put together a few gift ideas for the men in your life. All of this is stuff I would buy my husband. We have the sphere ice molds and he loves them. He also has those exact sunglasses. They are Maui Jim and they are the best ones we have found for him. He is actually on his second pair since he broke the first pair while flying. Hope this helps.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit

Recently I purchased the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit from Sephora.com. I was super excited to get this until I started reading all the negative reviews about the size. First, I must say it is extremely beautiful but, I sent it back. It is extremely small and after doing some math it is extremely over priced. 

Let's talk about the good stuff first, so that you can make your own mind up about the price. This palette includes 3 Ambient lighting powders. Top row from left to right- Dim light, Strobe light (which is new) and Diffused light. The bottom row from left to right is Mood Exposure blush, Luminous Flush blush and Luminous Bronze Light bronzer. Having such a nice variety in one palette is what drew me to it in the first place. This palette is also great for anybody that travels a lot. 

Up next to the Ambient Lighting Palette

Next to a full size Ambient Lighting Blush 

All three for size comparison

Now lets talk about the bad, The Price. This palette retails for $80 and each color in the palette is .049oz. So you are basically getting .294oz of product for $80.That is smaller than there full size Ambient Lighting Powder but larger than there Blush. Sephora.com claims it is a $132 value which they are getting from basing the price off Hourglass's new travel size Ambient Lighting Powder which is .049oz and retails for $22. But that is kind of ridiculous. Here is a breakdown based on the full size products.

Ambient Light Powder- .35 for $45

Ambient Lighting Blush-.15oz for $35

Luminous Bronzer-.39 for $50

So, here is the approximate breakdown of each item in the palette.

Ambient Lighting Powder-.049 for $6.42 each

Ambient Lighting Blush-.049oz for $11.66 each

Luminous Bronzer-.049oz for $6.25

That puts the total cost of this at $48.83. Well under the $80 price. So it is up to you on whether the palette is worth the price or not. You do get a wide range of products and one is limited edition. It is also very travel friendly. My personal opinion is it is not worth the money because of its size. Had they made it larger it would have been a great buy but I do feel like it is to small and to overpriced. I feel like they are ripping people off. 

Nordstrom Clearance Sale

If you missed your chance to grab some new fall gear at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, then here is your chance. They are now having a Clearance sale which includes summer and fall items. The sale runs September 2-13th. 

Under $150:

                                                               

Under $100:

Under $50:

LORAC Pro Contour Palette

Recently I purchased my first contour kit. I know I'm late jumping on the bandwagon. But, I haven't been sold on any of them before because of the color selection. I have light skin with pink to neutral undertones, which makes finding the right contour and bronzer pretty hard sometimes. I needed to find a contour powder that offered a light cooled toned contour powder. A lot of the others on the market are either a little to dark or a little to warm. So after seeing how light the contour color on the LORAC Pro Contour was, I decided to go for it. 

The palette includes three highlight shades, a beige, yellow and a shimmer highlight.  It also has three contour shades, light, dark and medium.  It has the same options as all the other contour palettes on the market expect for the shimmer highlight. This is the first contour palette out to include a shimmer highlight and to be truthful I wish it didn't. I think the shimmer highlight sucks as cheekbone highlight. The beige and yellow are really nice. I like to mix the two to get the perfect shade for me. They do a great job brightening my underage area. As with all LORAC products they are powdery, but on the skin they are beautiful. 

Now, for the contour colors,  I use the light for my contour and the color works great for my skin tone. It also is the most powdery of all the colors. I mean it kicks up a lot. I like to use the medium as a bronzer but, I do have to use a light hand because it is darker then my bronzer. The medium is also much larger then the light and dark. I believe that is because the medium will appeal to more people. 

The deep I doubt I will every use on my face because it is so dark but, I will probably use it as an eyeshadow. 

( Highlight shades from top to bottom: Shimmer, yellow and beige)

(Contour shades from top to bottom: light, dark and medium)

One thing this palette has that is different from the rest is that it includes a brush. The brush is shaped like the NARS Ita brush but they are totally different. This brush is much more dense and rounded. I like this brush to put the product on and then I like to blend it out with the Ita. I think this brush is way to dense for blending. It just doesn't work for me. 

The price of this palette is $45 and that includes the brush. It is available at Ulta, Nordstrom and Kohls. I got mine at Ulta because I had a 20% off coupon. Overall I thought it is that it is a good palette for the price.  I really could have done with out the shimmer highlight but it could be just my skin tone it doesn't look good on. If you have tried it tell me your thoughts.