Ipsy Final Review

 Lets talk about Ipsy. Actually, lets talk about why I cancelled my subscription to Ipsy. I'd had a subscription about a year- a few more bags than what's pictured above- and I just started to get overloaded with sample products. If you dont know how it works, essentially you sign up, take a quiz with what your likes are and they withdraw $10 every month from your card on file and then send you a bag with 5 items. Thats it.

I love makeup, I love trying new things and I can justify $10 a month on something fun for me. (I can "justify" a lot more than that, so it made this choice easy.) Lets talk about what they got right first.

What's In My Makeup Bag?

I posted the above picture on Instagram of my makeup a while ago (if youre not following me there, I dont know what youre waiting on! @casualtyofwear) while I was getting ready to go out for girls night. I got a ton of questions about what is in my makeup bag?!

First, I should be clear that I have more than one. I have makeup drawers and boxes at home and that is either the best thing you've heard today or the most ridiculous. I decided to go middle of the road and show what bag I take to travel with on any normal day.

What you see:

Review: Jefferee Star Velour Lipstick

 
I don't know exactly when it happened, but people started to go crazy over these little lippies.  I wasn't the first to notice how amazing they were because when I finally made it over to the site to try to buy a few everything was already sold out and according to the Facebook page, it had been that way for a little while. Stalker Mode engaged. Once I realized this was kind of a cult-like following, I literally checked his Facebook and website daily to see if they had been restocked.

The day after my girls night out for my birthday, I was recovering on the couch and saw a post about 4 hours old on Facebook giving notice of the restock of colors I wanted. Click. Bought 3 right then. Less than 24 hours later- sold out. I felt pretty accomplished that Id gotten them instead of waiting the hangover out. Worth it.

Jeffreestar.tumblr.com

Aside from the amazing quality of the products speaking for themselves, everything that Jeffree Star is and does is art to me. The look, the makeup, the hair, and the tattoos are all stunning. I love a dynamic and interesting person and I could sit and try to absorb everything that makes up (pun totally intended) Jeffree Star all day long. I do understand that not everyone enjoys my favorite type of tea aesthetically speaking, but I highly suggest letting the products speak for themselves.

Why I wanted them:
1.) Super matte and super long lasting formula. I enjoy wearing lipstick, but I also really enjoy eating, drinking and kissing my male. I do not enjoy carrying lipstick around and reapplying all day/night and having lipstick transfer onto my glass really drives me crazy.
2.) The unique colors. I am no lipstick expert and I'm sure there are semi-dupes for all these colors, but I wanted both the color and the matte texture which was going to be a tough match. (If you know of any dupes, let me know in the comments!)
3.) I like a challenge. I wont even lie about this part. As soon as I knew they were always sold out, I made it my mission to get one. When I want something, I go for it... you coy thing you, velour lips!

Before we get into it though, I'm going to give you a disclaimer. No photoshopping, as with all my pictures, so what you get is what you see. The after pictures, I'm usually a few drinks in and the sun has left me to my own devices, so allow for a little error. I've also had to crop out more than one salsa stain on my shirt... so theres that. #classyonfleek

Oxblood

Hair Gloss | Before & After

As I'm getting older I am trying to take better care of my skin and hair. I'd like to say that I never come home drunk at 3 am and fall asleep with all my makeup on after eating about 6 pounds of nachos from Taco Bueno, but I wont lie to you. That still happens so I take extra care all the other times to make sure I'm doing whats best as if it will make up for the one or two nights of destruction.

All that to say, 'member how I got my hair done recently at Dear Clark? I scheduled my follow up appointment right then to make sure I stayed true to my new Take Better Care routine. After letting my hair grow a bit, I decided I wasn't ready for another cut yet (it has only been 7 weeks) so I called and rescheduled for a gloss. What is a gloss? Hell if I know, I read about it somewhere (I think it was Tess Munster's hair care routine) and thought holy -ish that sounds great!! So I scheduled it. This is pretty much how my entire life is lived.

Scroll down for the tl;dr.

Review: Dear Clark

You know its time for a haircut when you spend most of your day staring at your split ends silently cussing and glaring hatefully at anyone with nice healthy hair. I was becoming obsessed with how damaged the ends of my hair were, so I went searching for a new salon to try. I will admit that I am the worst about just not getting my hair cut. It is an emotional time for me. I literally cry a few tears because of the loss of inches.

There was a traumatic hair cutting incident when I was in 2nd grade. My dad had taken me to Toni & Guy for my birthday and a guy named Vic cut my hair. I wanted a cute little bob and I ended up with a pixi. I cried right then. We went to the movies after and during the movie, I leaned over to my dad and asked if it had grown back yet. It hadn't. I cried for days about my hair. Then I went to school and everyone made fun of the "boy haircut." Now that I think back on it, poor Vic probably had a rough day that day- he made a 9 year old cry. That has to be the worst case scenario for a stylist. Vic, if youre reading this, I FORGIVE YOU!

I ended up at a cute place in uptown called Dear Clark. It is huge! Everyone was very nice; clientele was a tad stuffy, but that's what you get in that part of Dallas. I worked with a stylist named Crystal and she was precious! We talked about my entire life and I am not one to be open with strangers. I had a mimosa, so maybe she made it a bit strong to loosen me up! There was also a shop dog. She had a pink and purple Mohawk. Already winners in my eyes. Booze, dogs and friendly girls. (Sad note: Crystal said that someone had called to complain about the dogs and that starting next week, no animals would be allowed.)

Dear Clark has their own line of products as well, and they will actually be sent out in the Birchbox this month, so if you have that- keep an eye out! She used one of their smoothing creams on my hair to keep frizz down and it was amazing.

I am still adjusting to my new hair as its quite different, but I am so happy with how much healthier it looks. I had to go quite a bit shorter than I wanted because so much of it was damaged. I really liked this little place!  I even scheduled my next apt six weeks out so we can keep it healthy as it grows back to my beloved longer length.

What are your thoughts? Which style is your fav?



blo| Blow Dry Bar Review

If there is one thing I love, it is having a girls day! If there are drinks involved perhaps somewhere on a patio in nice weather, you may never get me to go home. So when I read about Gwenneth Paltrow's new place coming to Dallas, I wanted to check it out. I made some appointments, called up a friend and we headed over to the soft opening of this blow dry bar.

The place is really pretty adorable. Very glam, very uptown but the stylists were the sweetest girls you could ever meet. I was offered a drink as soon as we came in (matching pink moscato it is!) and then my hair was washed and styled by Katie. (Hi, Katie!!)

blo has locations in 11 states here and 4 other countries, so if you're not in the Dallas area, don't worry! To find one near you check here. 

Katie and me on our mugshot wall

P.S. Can we talk about how I was matching all the stylists there that day? Hilarious. I have a full outfit post on this outfit coming up soon, but Im still trying to find some daylight for good pictures! Guys... there is so much pressure taking blog pictures!

Car selfie before lunch. Sunglasses are a Wet Seal purchase made after quite a bit of wine one night. Worth it!