Beauty Gift Guide

Hello loves,

It has been awhile since i last posted on my blog. Oops :/

Well, seeing as the holidays are literally right around the corner, I figured a gift guide would be a good re-entrance into my blogging scene.

Most of the stuff will be female oriented. Maybe I can help someone out there with ideas for their mom, sister, grandma, girlfriend or even themselves :)

 

Ill start off by listing off some of the things that I have had for awhile and have become essential to my everyday life. (well maybe not EVERY day, but you get it.)

 

First off is a product I mentioned a while ago, but I still love

 

ST TROPEZ Bronzing Mousse

As of late, I have become obsessed with protecting my skin. So needless to say I have been avoiding tanning beds like the plague. But my love of being bronzed hasn't faded with a little help from this baby. I got mine from sephora.com and it runs about $40. In the summer I would use it about once a week to maintain a nice glow. Now that the winter months are upon us, I am attempting to come to terms with my natural paleness. But this guy has helped me on those days that I'm feeling less than glowing. Plus when class resumes in January I can just slap some of this on and fool all of my new classmates into thinking I went somewhere exotic over break ;)

 

Speaking of skincare...

 

Origins makes a very nice moisturizer called

VitaZing with SPF 15

 

I liked it because it has SPF, I LOVE it because it is slightly tinted. But it isn't a tinted moisturizer. It is supposed to adjust to almost any skin tone with little micro beads infused into the moisturizer itself. I have very acne prone skin, and to make it even more difficult to maintain, my skin is combination dry and oily. But this moisturizer doesn't leave my skin feeling too greasy or too dry. And as an added bonus, the slight tint helps hide all of the dark marks my acne leaves behind.

 

I also have very fine hair that is also pretty dry (because I bleach the you-know-what out of it) so I tend to use a pretty heavy conditioner. Which can weigh my hair down making me look like a little kid that just crawled out of the swimming pool. So it should come as no surprise that Big Sexy Hair is one of my favorite brands. I have used a few of their root lifters but I have a new favorite.

BIG SEXY HAIR Blow Dry Volumizing Gel

 

 

As you can see, my little sample is all used up, but I have already asked for the bigger one for Christmas :) Thanks Mom!

 

As for make up, I have found two brands I LOVE.

 

First is Laura Mercier. This woman can do no wrong in my eyes. I have tried her eyeshadow, concealer, mascara, tinted moisturizer and I want to try more. But so far, my favorites are...

the Secret Concealer (in #2)

and the Full Blown Volume Lash Building Mascara

 

As I said earlier, I am acne prone and Laura formulated her concealer to hide just about any blemish. I haven't found another concealer with a similar consistency. It may sound weird, but it is almost gummy. It isn't liquid but it isn't solid but it covers and blends phenomenally. The mascara I cant say enough good things about. I already have relatively long dark lashes, but when I treat myself to wearing this, it feels like I am wearing false lashes instead of just mascara. Simply wonderful.

 

The next brand is NARS.

Again I have tried a lot of different products from this line. I know the lip gloss isn't every ones cup of tea because it is sticky and tastes plastic-y but I like it. However, I loveeeeee the bronzer and blush.

My favorites being

NARS Laguna bronzer and

NARS Orgasm blush

 

As you can see, my bronzer is especially well loved. These two together give such an amazing glow. The bronzer creates a natural shadow where I contour and the blush is a very natural color on the skin. I read on their website that the blush is supposed to mimic the glow you can only get in the *ahem* bedroom, hence the name Orgasm.

 

Now some things that are on my own wish list.

 

First of all, I have a new love of taking luxurious baths. So anything from LUSH would be a safe gift for me (hint hint). Lush products are all handmade, many are animal friendly and some are even vegan friendly. Using all natural products to make bath time extra nice.

Bath bombs fizz in the tub, leave your bath water whatever color the bomb is, send out a very fragrant aroma of your choice and moisturize while you soak.

This is the dragon egg bath bomb

Bubble bars are amazeeeeing too. You run them under the faucet and it leaves a very fine bubble in your bath, tints the water and is super moisturizing.

 

 

The French kiss bubble bar

 

 

This last product is something I have heard rave reviews about, but just cant bite the bullet to buy for myself.

The YSL Touche Eclat radiant touch.

 

I have always felt that I have dark under eye circles and this product is supposed to perform miracles. It is supposed to cover and highlight your under eye area. I currently use Maybelline instant age rewind dark circle eraser. It works well enough, it is supposed to be the dupe for this YSL one...but I would still like the touche eclat.

 

Hopefully I gave someone out there an idea of something to get that special person out there.

 

Happy Holidays!!

Lots of love from my computer to yours.

 

Alyssa