It's almost Christmas time!!  You're done shopping, the presents are wrapped, the food is all planned out, but OMG...you find you forgot one person on your list!!  It happens to us all, but to keep yourself from giving them a belated holiday gift, here's a cute, fun idea that that is inexpensive, cute and that anyone will love.

These are little hot chocolates in a bag.  (I don't have a creative name for them..haha).  All you need is to run to the grocery store for a few items and you're set!  You can pair this with a gift card, maybe some banana bread or something like that.  Or they are cute enough to give all by themselves!  :)

What You'll Need:

-1 can of hot chocolate (3 Tbs. in each bag)

-mini chocolate chips

-mini marshmallows

-some sort of red candy (I used cinnamon gummy bears that were $1/bag at target!)

-pretzel bags or cone-shaped bags (I found mine at Michaels)

Happy Holidays!! 

Laura

Instead of always wearing dark nail colors during the holidays...I decided to switch it up.  I found the absoloute most gorgeous shade for winter.  

It's ESSIE MARSHMALLOW.  

(Nevermind my index finger nail...it broke yesterday..booo)

Its a creamy/milky white color.  I was looking for a color that wasn't stark white.  I didn't want my nails to look like I got bored with a bottle of whiteout.  ;)

The thing with most neutral/light Essie colors....it takes a lot of coats to get it to full opacity.  This is 3 coats and it's still at about 80%.  Which is fine, because I like the smooth, milky effect it gives.

I absoloutly love this color and I'm planning on wearing it to a Christmas party next week with nude shoes, black/blue lace dress and I'm thinking gold toe nails!  

Happy Holidays to each of you! :)

xoxo. 

Laura

I love ordering products from Eyes Lips Face for a few reasons...

1. They are inexpensive and they actually work!!  :)

2. They take awhile to ship out to California so by the time they get here, I forgot what I ordered and its like opening a christmas present!!

3. They always have crazy good deals on their already low, low prices.  I got this stuff from Black Friday where it was BOGO 50% off and free shipping if you spent over $15!  Awesome..  

All this was only $20-ish plus free shipping!

I can't do a review on here, because I haven't tried some things, but I thought it would be fun just to do a little mini haul for you.  I like watching/reading other people's hauls, so enjoy and let me know what you got from Eyes Lips Face recently!!  :)

-2 Studio Blushes - $3/ea.  In the colors Pink Passion and Mellow Mauve
-2 Makeup Remover Wipes 30ct. - $3/ea.  (I absolutely LOVE them)

-Studio Matte Lip Color - $3/ea.  In colors Tea Rose and Natural

-Studio Translucent Mattifying Powder - $3

-Studio Wrinkle Refiner - $3

-Studio Stipple Brush - $3

-Blending Eye Brush - $1

-Eye Shadow Brush - $1

-Eye Crease Brush - $1

If you would like a more in-depth review on any of these products, let me know.  Otherwise have an awesome day!

Stay Gorgeous.

xoxo

Laura

Hello Beauties.

It's been way too long since my last post.  I hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving.  With the Christmas holiday season rapidly sneaking up on us, I was finding myself needing some fashion inspiration.

I was at the grocery store (of all places haha.) and saw they had the cherries and blackberries next to each other.  I thought this was such a cute color combo...I wondered if it would work together...

I didn't think this odd color combination would work well with larger pieces such as shirts, pants, etc.  Personally, I like wearing more plain clothes and adding punches of color here and there.  I've put together a couple of pieces you can use to accessorize with to transform winter fashion "blahs" into a polished look.

Plum Scarf and Cherry-Red Shoes

Use these to dress up jeans and a long-sleeve white t-shirt.  Or you can wear the scarf over a brown or black coat and wear the shoes with skinny jeans.  Whatever way you choose, you'll turn heads in this bright, yet subtle combination.

Scarf: $14.99 at Target

Red Patent Shoes: About $12 at Target (in stores)


For Your Nails

I know in the picture "carry on" looks a little brown, but together, these two colors are to die for!
You can do the dark shade on your hands and have red toes or the other way around.  They look amazing together and I've gotten so many compliments.  This combo would be fantastic to wear to a holiday party.  You can have the red peeking through your little black shoes or the dark purple popping through gold glitter heels.

Hope this gives you some inspiration to help you out of your almost-end-of-fall fashion funk.  Stay gorgeous and be kind to others.

xoxo.
Laura

Randoms:

-We have a flippin' ant farm making themselves right at home in our kitchen.  Just bought some bait to get rid of these little suckers.  So annoying!

-I've found my new favorite candle scent.  It's Holiday Time's "Hot Apple Cider" from Walmart just $5 and it smells sooo yummy!

-I put my my Christmas tree!!  It's small, but just the right size for our little apartment.

Here is am icy blue smokey eye look that I created for winter.  It's very wearable during the day and it can also work for a night out!  Hope you enjoy!  :)

List of Products Used:

BASE:
Urban Decay - Primer Potion - $18
"Naked" from Urban Decay's Naked Pallet - $49 (any nude color eyeshadow will work as your base)

DARK LINER:
Eyes Lips Face - Studio Cream Liner in "Midnight" - $3
Eyes Lips Face - Essential Liquid Eyeliner in "Black" - $1

LINER IN THE WATERLINE:
Milani Liquif'eye in Black - $7.99

ACCENT SHADOW (in the crease):
Wet n' Wild Trio - "I Got Good Jeans" (the darkest blue) - $2.99

HIGHLIGHT (on eyelid and corner):
Wet n' Wild Trio - "Walking on Eggshells" (the lightest shade) - $2.99

MASCARA:
Physicians Formula Organic Wear in "Blackest Black" - $10.49

Best of luck re-creating the look.  Let me know if you guys would want to see a video tutorial as well!  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

xoxo. Laura

Hey All!

So over the years, I've figured out that this is my favorite time of year.  It's after Halloween, the weather is starting to get even more of a nip, it's right before the craziness of the holidays and the CMA awards are on!  :)

Everytime the CMA's are on (or any country music for that matter), it really makes me think.  The music and the performers pull me back from my busy life and brings me back to my roots and reminds me of who I am and who I was raised to be.

Country music is like a big hug from your grandma mixed the feeling of a post-supper food coma all topped off in gravy. :)  It's also is music for when you've had a break up & want to kill your ex.  It's music for when you're getting ready for a girls night out.  It's the voice of loved ones who have gone to be with the angles.

I am a transplant from the state of Kansas to California.  I love both places, but I will never be anything other than a midwestern girl.  Everything from the food I eat to how I view life is all tattooed on my heart forever. 

I guess what this random post is that no matter what you have been through or where you are from...that's what makes you beautiful.  Alluring.  Gorgeous.  Whether your experiences have been good or bad, embrace them.  I mean you've made it this far right??  :)  A happy girl is one who is comfortable with herself and embraces who she is inside and out.  Love yourself, be kind to others and the rest will come naturally.  

Like my Grandmother always tells me "everything in life in moderation and balance"

Lots of Love to my Readers.

xoxo.  Laura

"...Be a best friend, tell the truth, overuse I love you.  Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common sense.  Never let your prayin' knees get lazy.  And love like crazy!!"

-Lee Bryce "Love Like Crazy"

Hello Beauties!

I was wandering around Sally's Beauty Supply earlier today and as I was deciphering whether or not to buy a Hair One sample, the nail polish section caught my eye.  (surprise, surprise!)

I was browsing through the China Glaze section.  I've always been a huge Essie fan, but the China Glaze colors were just calling to me!  I've heard other people rave about this line, so I thought I'd give it a try myself.  They're a couple bucks cheaper than Essie and I've heard great things about them.  And, I mean, for $6.99/bottle ($5.99 for Sally's club members!) why not try one??!!

I was mainly looking for a new color that would transition nicely from autumn to winter and that I could wear throughout the holidays.  There were reds, eh...nudes, done it, pinks...did that last year.  Geez, I was getting discouraged.  I was perusing through all the gorgeous shades, but this one in particular caught my eye.

This is "Black Diamond" from China Glaze's Winter 2007 Ski Collection.  Even though it's 4 years old, I feel like it is the PERFECT shade to bring back for this season.  It's so versatile!  I can wear this to the family Thanksgiving supper, but I feel like it's dressy enough for a night out on New Year's Eve.

It's a gorgeous cool gunmetal color with a tad bit of a navy undertone along with little specks of silver shimmer.  It doesn't have that much shimmer that it's annoying, but just enough to give it a little bit of shine.  In the photo above, that's two coats taken with my iPhone camera.

The packaging, specifically the handle, reminds me of the OPI polishes.  The formula is very smooth, goes on opaque with two thin coats.  Then I topped it off with Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri Top coat to prevent chips.  I'm not sure about how long this formula wears, since it's my first China Glaze purchase.

I hope the formula holds up.  It might be a new favorite nail polish line!  :)

YouTube HOW TO: 

Get a Professional-Looking Manicure at Home

Happy November Everybody!!

Thanks for stopping by...I invite you to check out my YouTube, Twitter & Facebook!

xoxo. Laura

Randoms:

*I hate spring cleaning.  I like to "nest" more in the fall right before winter.  My closet is now the way I want it...nice and clean!

*Sunday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week.  Football, coupons, coffee with the boyfriend and shopping day (sometimes a big breakfast is in there somewhere).

*Excited about Thanksgiving!  I love holidays where you eat lots with family.

*I ate an entire snickers candy bar before lunch and I don't feel the least bit guilty about it!

If your hair is anything like mine...It's unmanageable to the max!  If I don't do anything to it, it's wavy, frizzy, thick, kinky and even straight in some places...what the HECK!?  It's like a cross between Taylor Swift and a beach bum maybe?  I have no idea.  Don't get me wrong...If I want it to behave, it will.  My hair can hold almost any type of style.  It just takes soooo much work, product and heat to get it to be where I want it.  After lot's of one on one fights with my hair, I came up with some ways to make hair like ours behave (well at least a little bit!) while spending minimal time on it  ;)

Find a natural shampoo & conditioner 

Gorgeous hair starts with a good base.  The sulfates found in shampoos strip hair of its natural oils/moisture, therefore, making it frizzy.  And the silicones that conditioners have, stay on the hair and result in buildup.  A brand I really like is from the Treseme Naturals line (the moisture kind).  It's affordable and accessible.  And best of all, they WORK.  My hair has never been this clean and shiny before!  :)

Minimize Heat

As difficult as this may seem...the heat only does more damage than good.  I will usually shower at night, blow dry my bangs so they don't dry too crazy and go to bed with my hair damp (not wet!).  In the morning I will flat iron large sections of my hair just to tame down volume and kinks...but don't straighten to get it perfectly straight.  It's going to give you a messy look.  Then when you achieve your desired volume you want, take a curling iron and wrap random sections around the barrel to give you that sexy, beachy look.  

**Don't forget that heat protectant!!  :)

Don't Wash Everyday

Hair will look its best the second day.  That's when the natural oils and moisture come back after washing and gives hair that sexy bedhed look.  Plus the next day styling isn't going to take that long.  Just use a curling iron in the morning for touch ups and you're good to go! :)

Serum is Your Best Friend

Use about a dime-sized amount (depending on your hair's thickness) for those pesky fly-aways.  Keep a small bottle in your purse, backpack or gym bag for touch ups on the go.  One of my all-time favs is the Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum.

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Best of luck to you and your hair!  :)  I'm planning on making a YouTube video about this post.  So subscribe and stay tuned!!

Happy Hair Taming!

xo.  Laura

Usually those four words in a sentence don't go together very well.   Having been a student veeery recently... I totally understand the stress that comes along with the good old college budget.  Besides the obvious expenses of books and tuition, people often forget about the little things that often come up.  

Personally, I completely forgot to budget in clothes and personal items such as, makeup, toiletries, gifts for people, etc.  In high school, I didn't have too many expenses and I was able to try out new goodies that Maybelline or Covergirl here and there.  After moving out on my own, those little "treats" became a thing of the past.  It wasn't until my last year of college where I discovered that you CAN look amazing without spending a fortune.  I have made a short list of tips and tricks that helped me through school and I hope they'll help you too!  :)

**DO: BUDGET IN MAKEUP.  Don't deprive yourself.

If you deprive yourself of little things you want/need, you end up spending way more than you need or intended to by randomly splurging.  Set a budget for yourself!  This may seem obvious, but it's a little thing that gets overlooked.  Tell yourself you're going to spend $X and stick to it!  You can always change it based on income or what have you, but know what your limits are.

**DO: MAKE A LIST

You don't have to stick to it.  When I'm watching YouTube videos or surfing the web and I come across a product I'm wanting to try, I'll jot it down on my "makeup want list".  I'll then have an idea about how much it's going to cost and I can then look for sales/coupons to knock the price down even lower.  Sometimes, I'll even write a product down and find myself, a week later, not really wanting it after all.  Lists help to eliminate the impulse buying problem I have sometimes! :)

**DO: KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR SALES/COUPONS

This ties into the "make a list" tip.  If you have a list written down, you know which exact products to look out for and what coupons to snoop out.  This will save you lots of bucks in the long run!  You can use the money that you saved and put it back into your "makeup fund" or towards something else.

**DO: JOIN REWARDS PROGRAMS

Sephora has one, Ulta has one, even CVS has one.  Just because you join a store's rewards program, doesn't mean you need to shop there exclusively.  I'm a member of about 5 or 6 rewards programs myself!  Having an option to build up rewards points with your purchases only works in your favor.  When you reach the store's threshold you get money off, rewards back, etc.  (depends on the store) I'll shop at whatever store is having the sale that week, rack up my rewards and eventually I will receive products or money back from every place I signed up with.  Another bonus is that if you sign up, the store usually will email/mail you coupons and other discounts you can use on top of the sales!

**MYTH: ONLY BUY THINGS ON SALE OR THAT ARE CHEAP

Makeup is like clothing for your face.  In your closet you have a few quality basic pieces like a winter coat, boots or black blazer.  In my makeup collection I like to have a few quality basics that cost a little more, but know I will use them for a long time.  Spend extra money on things that aren't considered "trendy" like foundations, primers and eyeliners.  Trendy items are things that change with the seasons and fads can be things like nail polish and eyeshadow.  Save up for more expensive items and you'll feel a sense of accomplishment.  If you are unable to, put pricier items on your "makeup want list", then ask for them for your birthday or christmas!  :)

**MYTH: DRUGSTORE ITEMS DON'T WORK

I used to have this thought.  For awhile everything I bought seemed to just not work!  I gave up for awhile and lately, almost everything I bought has done the job its supposed to do.  I'm not sure if the companies have been increasing the quality of their products to compete with high-end products or what.  But it's awesome!  Even drugstore companies like Wet n' Wild have really stepped up their game.  I just keep an eye on YouTube reviews and blogs to know what works and what doesn't so I don't end up wasting money.

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Thanks for stopping by!

Hope you guys found this helpful for your future pretty purchases!  :)

Stay Beautiful!

Laura

This past month, I received Philosophy's Purity one step cleanser in my Birchbox.  I was really excited to try it because so many people have raved about how good it is!

It's a natural product (no harsh chemicals), which is fantastic for those of you with sensitive skin.  It claims to wash away dirt, oil, makeup, even waterproof mascara.  I've been using it with my Olay Pro-X spinning brush and have gotten fantastic results!  My skin has been transformed from dull and lifeless to glowing and clear in just one use!  Now, the downside is that it's too expensive for my taste.  I mean $20 for an 8oz bottle of face cleanser?  Come on.  I'm starting to run out of the sample they gave me, so I've been on the lookout for something that gives the same result and is easier on my wallet.

Behold.. I've found it.  It's the Neutrogena Naturals Cleanser.  Both have a light, fresh scent.  Both have the ability to remove all traces of makeup.  It's even gentle on my eyes.  It doesn't strip my skin's natural oils and it leaves my skin feeling fresh and clean.  Not dry like other drugstore products do.  Pair this cleanser with the Olay Pro-X Brush, and you will have the best skin of your life.  Just be careful...this formula likes to foam when used with the Pro-X brush.  I got suds alllll over my mirror the other day!  :)  And the best part...the Neutrogena cleanser is only about $7 at drugstores.  YES!  You're skin will thank you for it!  :)

I will say this though...I absolutely love both cleansers.  if I HAD to choose one (money no issue) I would go with the Purity.  Reason being is that I feel like it gets my skin just a tad cleaner.  Not by much, which makes the Neutrogena a fantastic alternative.  It really comes down to just a matter of budget and personal preference!  :)

Stay Gorgeous.

Laura

For all you Twitter Bugs: twitter.com/allureable
YouTube Vids: www.youtube.com/simplyallureable1

Happy almost Halloween everyone!!  :)

This is my favorite time of year.  I love everything from the hot apple cider to the halloween costumes.  The air is getting chilly (except here in CA! haha).

This is my brand new blog and I hope to post everyday...or almost everyday!  Stay tuned to new updates, videos, etc.

Don't forget to follow me on twitter!  @allureable  Tweet me....I'll tweet back!  :)
And while you're online...check out my youtube channel www.youtube.com/simplyallureable1

Happy Autumn.  Stay gorgeous.
Laura