January Favorites!

I haven't done a favorites in so long!  So here we go........

Beauty

 1) Bath & Body Works, Triple Moisture Cream in Frosted Snowberry.

 I picked this up half off at the semi annul sale back in December. Since we are in the middle of winter I wanted something that would be extra moisturizing. I have been using this all month after my showers (you can tell by the picture I don't have much left). This smells so good. The smell reminds me of fruity pebbles. Is that weird?  Unfortunately this is holiday scent so you can't get it in the stores anymore (as of when I am posting this, they do have the regular lotion and body wash on their website 50% off).

2) Bath & Body Works, Secret Wonderland Shower Gel.

  This is one of my favorite scents for the winter. I would have gotten the triple moisture cream in this scent but I didn't want to pay full price. I just love this scent and have been using the body wash since December.

3) Stila, Lip Glaze in Sugar Plum.

 My bf  got me the All Is Bright Stila lip glaze set for my birthday in December.  Out of that set the one I have been using the most all month and the one I have been keeping in my purse is Sugar Plum (18). This lip gloss gives a bit of color and shimmer too. For me this is a great color for when I want a hint of color and shine for my lips.

4) Physicians Formula, Conceal RX in Fair Light.

 I needed a new concealer because my last on started to discolor. So while grocery shopping back in December I decided to take a chance and picked this one up. I have to say that I ended up liking it. It has pretty good coverage.  I haven't been wearing much makeup in January but my skin has been freaking out and I have been having many breakouts. So often before going out I will use at least this concealer.

Non Beauty

5) Lipton Black Tea.

 For whatever reason I have been drinking a ton of just plain black tea this month. I have all these different flavors but this is the one I have been reaching for the most this month. With honey its just so good!

6) TV Show: The Carrie Diaries. I am loving this show. First off, I loved Sex And The City the show and the first movie (the second movie not so much). Second because its set in the 80s and its fun to remember how things were (the music,the fashion,the hair,etc).

7) Book: The Age Of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker.

I finished reading this book this past weekend. It is the first book that I have read for my challenge. I am going to do a review, look for it in the next couple of weeks. Check out my page Amber's Bookshelf, to find out about my challenge, to see the books I have read, and the reviews I have done.

8) App on Phone: The Game Subway Surfers. I have been playing this since before Christmas but I have playing it like crazy this month. Its very simple, you run and collect coins and try to get the high score (you can play against friends if you link your facebook). You also complete missions and daily challenges for bonuses. I'm addicted and so is my bf ( he is the one who got me hooked). Its free for android (not sure about iphone) so check it out.

Till next time,
amber

Products I Regret Buying

Here are some of the products that I regret buying. They just didn't work for me. These were all  purchased quite awhile ago.


1) Clearasil Tinted Adult Treatment Cream.

My biggest dislike of this product is the smell. You can put it on in the morning and smell it throughout the day. I don't know about you but I don't want to smell my acne medicine. Especially one that doesn't smell that great. The other thing I dislike about it is that its tinted. Now it does clearly state that on the packaging, I just didn't really think about it when I bought it. But because it is tinted I was afraid to put it on at night because I didn't want it to come off on my pillow. As far it working on my acne, I couldn't tell you because I only used it a few times. I just couldn't deal with the smell.  

2) Bath & Body Works Fresh Strawberries Lip gloss.

I love Bath & Body Works stuff but I have to say I did not love this lip gloss. It was way to sticky. It did not feel good on my lips at all. 

3)EOS Shave Lotion Pomegranate Raspberry & Vanilla Bliss. 

The pomegranate raspberry smells amazing. But for me these shave lotions didn't work. I prefer the ones that foam. I found that with these ones I needed to use a lot more product than the ones that are gel and turn into foam. 

4) Biore Combination Skin Balancing Cleanser.

I went out and bought this cleanser and then I ended up with another bottle because I ordered the Allure Summer Beauty Box and one came in that.This cleanser didn't really work for me I think because my skin is more oily, with a few areas that get dry in the winter rather than overall combination. A few hours after I would wash my face with this cleanser my face would feel oily again. So now I just use this as a back up in case I run out of my regular face wash. 

Till next time,

Amber

Review: Cosmo Vox Box

Back in December I was lucky enough to receive Influenster's Cosmo Vox Box*.  If you wanna read about my first impressions on the products you can check out my post here. After using the products (and eating) for awhile I thought I would give a review on them.

First up is Two FriXion by Pilot pens (one in black and one in purple)erased. I like these pens. It is great being able to erase if needed. The one thing I did find that I didn't like with these pens was that the ink smudged if you touched it before allowing it to dry.  

Next is Forever Red Eau de Parfume by Bath and Body Works (Size .25 fl oz).  This scent is not bad. Will I be purchasing a full size? Most likely not.  Not because I didn't like the scent but because I have so many perfumes and body spays (many from B&BW). I do want to say that I am not really a fan of the packaging for the full size products. 

Then we have The Gillette Venus Embrace razor and razor handle and also a Gillette Venus & Olay razor. I already use Gillette Venus razors (the original). I like the Venus Embrace razor, the only reason I buy the original over the Embrace is because it cheaper. The Venus & Olay razor I like for when you are traveling (no need to bring shave gel) but I  wouldn't use these everyday because I find that the moisture bars run out to fast and you end up needing shave gel anyway. Also they are kind of expensive for day to day use. 

And finally we have Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape. I already have had dark chocolate Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark and love it. I am more of a dark chocolate person but I still thought this bar was really yummy. I have to admit I ate the whole thing myself (I was going to share it with my bf but we kept forgetting to eat it when he was over). After eating it I did go out and try another one of their chocolate bars. And I will definitely will be getting more in the future. 

 I was very happy to be able to test out these products, thank you Influenster.

Till next time,
Amber

Celebrating My Birthday!

My birthday falls in the middle of December a month that is always crazy (when I was in college my birthday would always fall right between classes ending and finals starting).  Even though my birthday was last month I still wanted to share how I celebrated. My actual birthday fell on a Tuesday this year. So on my actual birthday I had to work. Then I just went out to eat with my mom and step-father.

I celebrated my birthday with my bf the weekend before. We did a overnight trip down to Atlantic City and stayed at Revel, the newest hotel on the boardwalk that opened up in 2012.  Since we stayed on a Sunday night we were able to get the room for a pretty reasonable price which included 2 drinks from one of the bars and room service for breakfast the next morning. If you can travel at off peak times definitely do it,  you can end up saving a lot!

 The hotel itself was huge and gorgeous. Also it being decorated for for the holidays was a added bonus. Unfortunately the weather when we were down there was rainy and cold. So when we did venture out onto the boardwalk and to the other hotels we didn't stay out long and we quickly returned to our hotel.

Our room was pretty awesome too. Very modern. With the TV remote you could control all the lights in the room! Also all the rooms have doorbells. Even though it was rainy out I took a picture of the view from our room.

Good thing I did, the next morning when we woke up it was so foggy you could not see a thing out the window.

I also was super excited to find that the little soaps, shampoo & conditioner, and lotion they leave you in the bathroom were from Bath & Body Works! 

After we checked out our room, we had a late lunch, and explored the hotel.Then we ventured outside but like I said returned not to long after. We then got dressed for dinner. Since I was celebrating my birthday I thought it would be nice to dress up a bit. I wore a lace dress (the belt came with it) that I got at Kohls, some black tights and black heels that I have had forever.

My bf had on dress pants and a nice button up shirt. I kept my makeup and jewelry pretty simple, and just wore my hair down. 

We ate at one of the many restaurants in the hotel.The food was very good, (sorry I forgot to take a picture but I had meatloaf). We also had some yummy Sorbet for dessert. After dinner we walked around a the hotel some more. This hotel has so many lounge type sitting areas, we joked that we should have tried to take pictures of us sitting in each area. Then we had our drinks that came with the room package. 

I told the bartender what kind of drinks I like and he made me one that he had come up with himself so it has no name. It was very good though!

Once it got past midnight we decided to call it a night. The next morning we had room service for breakfast. My first time ever having room service. It was also yummy! The picture I took on my phone didn't really come out so I am not going to post it but I had waffles and my bf had french toast and we split a order of turkey sausage. 

After we checked out and put our bags in the car we came back in so we could get each other a memento from the gift store. I got my bf a shot glass because he has a collection and I usually get him one when we go somewhere new. And he got me this t shirt. I thought it was fitting since we had room service for breakfast. 

 He also got us each fake casino chips with Revel on them and I got a postcard with the hotel on it.

And that was how I celebrated my birthday with my bf. I will leave you now with a picture I took when were driving there of a restaurant we passed.

Till next time,

Amber

What is in my Cosmo Vox Box!

Hello all! I was lucky enough to receive Influenster's Cosmo Vox Box*, so I thought I would share what was in it and my first thoughts. Look for a later post reviewing the products. In case your not familiar, Influenster is a free online community were members review products and such. Check out their About page here as they explain in detail all about the site.

So here is what was in the box:

Two FriXion by Pilot pens (one in black and one in purple). They have gel ink which can be erased with the rubber tip. My first thoughts: I was excited I got a purple pen since purple is my favorite color. Also the black cause I prefer black pens over blue. I am also excited in general to try these pens out, since I like to write. Maybe using these pens will motivate me to get back into writing snail mail.

Forever Red Eau de Parfume by Bath and Body Works. Size .25 fl oz, the scent is a blend of pomegranate, red osmanthus and vanilla rum. My first thoughts: Any one who knows me, knows I love my perfumes and body sprays and such. So I was super excited to see this in the box, especially since I had almost bought the exact same trial size bottle in the store.I love being able to test a scent out before committing to a larger size bottle. Plus the smaller trial size bottles are great for travel.

There are two Venus products. The Gillette Venus Embrace razor and razor handle and also a Gillette Venus & Olay razor. My first thoughts: Yay! I use Venus razors and really like them. So its great to have a extra razor handle and razors. They also included a $2 off coupon for the razor refills which is pretty awesome.

Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape. Milk chocolate with sea salt and almonds.
My first thoughts: Ghirardelli has really good chocolate. I have some of their peppermint bark right now. This chocolate bar looks super yummy and I can't wait to try it. I think I will be nice and wait till my bf is over so I can share some with him.

                                                                                       

 That is what is in the Cosmo Vox Box. Super excited to try everything out. Look for a post in the future reviewing these products.

Hope everyone is having a great December!

Till next time,
Amber


*Influenster sent me the Cosmo Vox Box for free for review  Check out the links above for more info on their site.

Small haul (8/15/12)

Hello all, sorry for the lack of posts lately.  So today I have a small haul for you.  I stopped posting hauls because when I first started this blog I ended up having all haul posts (I shop to much :( ).  I still think its fun though to see what people get (I watch haul videos and read haul posts myself) so I figure every now and then I will include a haul post, like today. :)

I spent the day with my dad. Since the weather was stormy we went to the mall. I didn't go to crazy today but I did pick up a few things.  We went into Sears. I used to shop in Sears all the time when I was a kid. But I haven't really shopped in a Sears in years. They have a huge cosmetics section now! They have all the drugstore brands and they even had NYX,  which I have only seen at Ulta. The selection is not as big as Ulta's and I think Sears is a bit more expensive but I still think its awesome that I now know of a another store that carries that brand. I picked up one thing from NYX, the Jumbo Eye Pencil in Cottage Cheese, the one everyone talks about on YouTube. I was going to get it the other day when I went to Ulta but the ones they had all looked like they had been opened and used so I passed on getting it then. I was happy to see it and I got the last one they had out.  I also picked up a Maybelline Colors Sensational lip gloss in the clearance section of makeup they had for only $3.25. I got the color Sandstone Shimmer. I think these lip glosses have been discontinued because the two times I have seen them they have been on clearance, so I figured I should pick up a extra for when I need to replace my current one.  I also popped into bath and Body Works and picked up only one thing. A Candy Corn hand sanitizer. I only got one since I picked up five when I went last Saturday. I don't think the Candy Corn ones were out Saturday, I didn't see them. Anyway  I really wanted the Candy Corn one for October so I picked it up. I go through these fast since I use them at work a lot. Even though this has nothing to do with this haul post I just wanted to say  the gift from Saturdays party was so cute. It gets me all excited for fall. I will include a picture to show what was included in the gift.

Todays mini haul.

B&BW gift from Saturdays event. It came in a little blue (or pink) bag.

Then before we left we stopped into Old Navy and they had a bunch of cute new things in for fall but I resisted since they were full price.  I did pick up two pairs of jeans though, since I needed some and they were on sale for $19.00 (originally $29.50). $19 for jeans is pretty awesome in my opinion.



That is all I got today. Till next time. :)