The Monday Post #4

**Inspired by one of my favorite blogs, I write The Monday Post, aiming to bring a little bit of beauty inspiration during almost everybody's least favorite day of the week.**

Favorite Read: I've been in a motivational reading kick the past month or so. I've come across great productivity and inspirational articles lately which I'll gather and share on the blog soon but I started reading the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and I'm loving it! I've heard about the book for years and years and I finally got around to getting it. I'm reading on a slower pace as I've been reading one chapter a night and going back to ALL my highlighted parts from the beginning before I begin a new chapter. It's such a healthy read that promotes a beautiful, and positive outlook. I highly recommend it to anybody!

Goal: I'm pretty bummed to have taken a break from blogging for a little bit. I had to prioritize a couple of other things that took up most my time but I'm happy to be back! I still have my list of plans and ideas for this blog and I'm looking forward to getting back to the swing of things!

Product Love: I'm currently loving my Wet N' Wild trio palette in 'Walking On Eggshells". The brow bone color is becoming my favorite brow bone/ inner corner highlight shade. 

Beauty Lust: I want the whole Real Techniques Bold Metals Collection! Does anybody have anything from that RT line? Which ones should I get first?

Most Looking Forward to: Reading more of my book. Seriously. It's THAT good! 

How about you? How have you been, my friend? Would love to hear from you!

Are we insta-buddies yet? @hippiegypsy00

5 Marsala Drugstore Blushes

So, you want to wear Marsala?

Marsala, the Pantone color for the year of 2015 is described as "a tasteful hue that embodies the satisfying richness of a fulfilling meal while its grounding red-brown roots emanate a sophisticated, natural earthiness". To me, what that picture looks like is a burnt red color, a strong brown undertone and variably, something of a deep berry with an earthy flavor. 

Being a big fan of deeper berry shades, I'm really excited about this color pick. I have always gravitated towards this range and so I know that I already have a few in my collection. 

The Monday Post #3

**Inspired by one of my favorite blogs, I write The Monday Post, aiming to bring a little bit of beauty inspiration during almost everybody's least favorite day of the week.** 

Favorite Beauty Read: I literally found this article today (from one of my all time favorite blogs) about different tools to use to track your blog performance. Over the past few weeks, I've been working really hard to reshape my blog. I've seen increase in traffic little by little and I'm so excited to get more things running. If you're in the same journey, I think this will be very useful for you too! PS. If you have any more helpful articles about blogging that you want to share, please let me know! 

Goal: I'm having so much skin issues lately. My face has been especially dry and my breakouts are driving me crazy. I can't tell what's causing them. I don't wear makeup most of the time and lately, when I do, I've been switching base products to figure out what has been causing the flare ups. It doesn't seem to be coming from my makeup so now I'm thinking, skincare. I've been using a really, really old clarisonic brush and I have an inkling that might be it. I've stopped using that and want to send my skin into 'reset' mode so my goal for this week is to keep my skincare routine as basic as possible. I'm only washing my face with 1 gentle cleanser and only a moisturizer. Does anybody have any recommendations on a gentle moisturizer for super dry skin?

Product Discovery: I totally forgot that I purchased the ELF Poreless Face Primer in Clear. This one is white, looks and feels like a moisturizer as opposed to the Mineral Infused Face Primer which I also love, that is actually clear in appearance and heavily silicone based. Both items though, are great at smoothing my skin and filling in my pores.

Beauty Lust: My lust list has been very much driven by Instagram lately. My recent find has been this Purple Bambu Set by Bdellium. Ugh. How pretty are those? I've been looking into investing in a nice brush set and these might be what I've been looking for. Has anybody tried any of their brushes? Thoughts?

Most Looking Forward to:  Grey's Anatomy and Scandal are coming back this week. *insert high pitched scream here*

Are we insta-buddies yet?

The Remix: My Travel Makeup Bag

The Remix: Shaking Up Routines and the Usuals.

Hey Guys!

So today, I wanted to share with you what goes in my travel makeup bag. This is what I'll take this weekend when I go up to Massanutten. This is also the bag that I leave in my boyfriend's house. I used to pack a bag with me every time I know we'll be staying there for a couple of days. I could never just leave things there cos I have attachment issues and I didn't want to find myself needing a certain product when I'm at home and realize that I decided to leave it at the boy's house. Recently though, I finally had the time to really choose and pick things that are great enough to be trusted to be all I have for a weekend but also basic enough that I would have something comparable at home that I wouldn't miss them.

Here are the picks!

ELF Mineral Infused Primer in Clear: This is a pretty basic silicone based primer that I like to use to fill in my pores to make my skin texture smoother.

Missha BB Cream: I don't have a lot of base type products so I was glad I had a few samples to choose from. I got this Missha BB Cream from an Ipsy bag. You can read more about my thoughts on this BB cream here. 

Lorac Pro To Go Palette: This has all the basic shadows, highlighter, a peach blush, a pink blush and a bronzer. I can do a simple day look with those gorgeous browns and that matte black shadow would also be great to smoke out a look to make it night time appropriate.

Laura Geller Balance and Brighten Foundation in Medium: I threw this in to use to set the BB cream if needed and also to use if I wanted more coverage. I really like this cos it also brightens my face without being too heavy and feeling like I have too much product on my face.

Sonia Kashuk Hidden Agenda Concealer Palette in Hidden Agenda - 07: This concealer palette has a lighter shade to brighten my under eye area, a shade for blemishes and to neutralize slight discolorations and also a green toned shade to cover up any redness. It also has a setting powder that can go on top of any of the concealers.

Benefit They're Real Mascara: I have a few deluxe sizes of this so it was perfect for the bag. This mascara has so much hype around it so I think I expected too much. It didn't blow me away but I still really like it to lengthen my lashes. It looks very natural and it doesn't weigh down my eyes.

Urban Decay Perversion Mascara: I decided to also throw this in for a more volumizing option. I really liked this the first time I used it but the more air that got in the tube, the clumpier it gets. I have to be really careful when I use this mascara so I don't get super spidery lashes.

Anastasia Brow Wiz in Soft Brown: Hands down, my favorite brow product. You can read more about it in my Best of 2014 post.

ELF Wet Gel Lash and Brow Clear Mascara: I have super fluffy brow hair, it's ridiculous. I always need to apply brow gel and this is a great one! It's thick enough to hold down all my brow hair but also dries fairly quickly and lasts all day. It's also very light weight. At a dollar a piece, I have back ups of my back ups of this product.

Elizabeth Mott Pencil in Pearl: This is a champagne shade that I use to line my eyes to brighten and to give a more awake appearance.

Elizabeth Arden Lip Pencil in Crimson: This is just a basic, my-lips-but-better shade. I've been really liking lining my lips lately cos I don't really retouch makeup during the day and this just makes my lip color last longer.

ELF Moisturizing Lipstick in Ravishing Rose: Also another basic, my-lips-but-better (and a little deeper) shade.

NYX Matte Finish Setting Spray: I really like using setting sprays for days when I need my makeup to stay put longer. My favorite is the Urban Decay All Nighter that I also wrote about here. This one from Nyx is also a good one but I find that it's too mattifying for my combination-dry skin. If you have oily skin, I think you'll really like this one.

As for tools, I have...

It Brushes for Ulta Your Face and Eyes Essentials Travel Set: This set contains a complexion brush, crease brush, shadow brush, smudge brush and a liner/ brow brush.

Bundle Monster Face Brush: This is from a set I got and it's just a basic face brush. I don't like using the same brush for my blush and bronzer so I wanted to throw another brush in.

Everyday Minerals Flat Top Brush: For applying the BB cream on days when I don't feel like using my hands. I would probably get a Real Techniques sponge because that's my favorite way to apply my base but this one's great if you'd rather use a brush.

Eyebrow Razor Blade: Got this one from the Asian Market and I just keep it for brow shaving emergencies. Ha.

There you go. How about you, what products do you trust to take on travel? I would love to hear your recommendations!

Happy Saturday!

The Monday Post #2

**Inspired by one of my favorite blogs, I write The Monday Post, aiming to bring a little bit of beauty inspiration during almost everybody's least favorite day of the week.** 

Favorite Beauty Read: I've been super inspired about my blog plans and this post from Autumn Leaves totally pumped me up even more. All these blog tips articles are super helpful and motivating so I thought I'd share it with you in case you and I are in the same boat.

Goal: I'm proud of myself for accomplishing my goal last week which was to put up my 'Best of 2014' post so I'm going in to this week with that under my belt. I need to do a major brush cleaning and get my blog plans in action. I have so many ideas and I'm hoping to get started on the posts I have lined up.

Product Discovery: I'm on a self-imposed spending ban and so I've been 'shopping my stash' more. I've rediscovered my love for my It Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Palette. I've forgotten how gorgeous this palette is! 

Beauty Lust: Holy Moly! Have you seen the new Hourglass palettes? Monochrome, Infinity, Exposure, and Atmosphere are totally going on my wishlist!

Most Looking Forward to: I think my Ipsy bag is coming this week so I'm looking forward to that. And also, like I've mentioned, I'm working really hard on planning upcoming posts and I can't wait to share those with you! I'm also on Instagram A LOT! So if you haven't yet, come check it out. I post tons and tons of makeup pictures! 

Hippiegypsy00 on Instagram

Happy Monday!

Best of 2014 - Make Up & Tools

Hey beauty junkies! How's 2015 treatin' you so far? We had our first 'real' snow fall for the season here in the DMV area. It was more than what most people expected. Work wasn't cancelled so, I had to trek out to the school and it was the most horrendous commute of my entire life. It was REALLY bad. My usual 30 minute drive turned into 2 hours of slipping and sliding on the streets. I'm just really grateful to be able to make it back home. If you're experiencing snow right now, too, or are expecting it the coming days, please stay safe! 

Anyhoo, as promised, I wanted to talk about my picks for favorite beauty products of the past year. I listed down categories and thought about which products I really used and would recommend to others. I ended up not having a pick for every category as I wanted to only pick products that I absolutely love. For each one, I asked myself, "If this was the only one [for each category] I'm allowed to use for the entire year, would I still like it?". If I even had to take a minute to second guess, out of the list it went. I wanted to make sure that I'm only recommending the best of the best that had worked for me in 2014. I also didn't want this post to be forever long so I'm keeping my descriptions as short as possible. I'm sure you already know about most of these but please don't hesitate to ask me if there's anything else you want to know about a specific product. 

Let's get started!

The Monday Post #1

**Inspired by one of my favorite blogs, I write The Monday Post, aiming to bring a little bit of beauty inspiration during almost everybody's least favorite day of the week.**