Summer Essentials!

It's JUNE!! I can't believe we're already into the 6th month of 2017! What! I feel like we're still in March! It's crazy how time flies.

Since it's almost time for summer, I thought I would do a summer essentials post! I have provided a list of things I believe every girl needs for their 2017 summer!

1. Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. I know we all wanna get our tans on, but ladies, sunscreen is a MUST. It will protect you from the sun's rays, which in result will save you from skin cancer, but it also does give you a great tan... not as fast, but you will still get one, nonetheless. I use this one (below), it comes in a bottled lotion and spray form. I like to use the spray for my body and the bottled lotion for my face. Sometimes I'll even have sunscreen specifically for my face but if not, I use that one and I'm still good!

2. Swimsuits! I know this is one of my favorite seasons and it's primarily because of the cute swimsuits. I recently bought a few from target. One of my favorites is an olive green one-piece. This is the one that I bought and absolutely adore, in the color "Green Earth". This one-piece is very cute as well! I have found that one-piece swimsuits are very "in" right now, as well as any patterned tops, such as this, this, or this. I also really love this one-piece swimsuit in red. Something about that red color really makes me love it!! And of course, make sure you have a towel if you're going to the pool or beach. 
3. Makeup. I know that may girls want to wear makeup and slay in the hot weather, but you really don't need that much to slay. The only thing that I like to wear is mascara and maybe a pop of highlight. That's it. I know what you're thinking, is she crazy? I love makeup as much as the next girl but when the weather is beautiful out, there is no need to go all out. Maybe for dinner or going out at night, but for daytime, you really don't need as much. Now, I'm not telling anybody what to do with their bodies, but all I know is, all of us can slay with and without it. This Voluminous Waterproof Mascara is my absolute FAVORITE mascara ever! It truly is waterproof and is amazing when I put it on my lashes. L'Oreal even came out with a Better-Than-Sex drugstore dup, known as Voluminous Lash Paradise and it's literally the same because it covers my lashes the same way and is affordable! And, of course, my favorite highlight is Champagne Pop by Becca. I've been using it ever since it came out and I'm still obsessed.




4. Water. Make sure you stay hydrated so you don't pass out. The sun can cause many people to pass out if they become dehydrated, so please carry at least 1 water bottle with you wherever you go. I carry one in my car at all times. This is the one that I have, directly bought from Amazon. I like it because it's not a plastic bottle so it's not exposed to the sun and the chemicals from the plastic won't effect the water, as well as keeping my water cool all day. 
5. Music. There are a lot of summer hits already. The song that pops into my head is Swish Swish by Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj, as well as I'm the One by DJ Khalad, Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper Lil Wayne, and Quavo. For my Bosnian folks, I've been obsessed with Lana Jurcevic - Kim Kardashian, Milica Todorovic - Cure Privode (kinda old), and OBSESSED with Sandra Afrika - R.I.P. 
6. Sunglasses. I recently was sick of all the sunglasses I had and decided to purchase a good quality pair. I went with Quay x Desi Perkins with the black frame and silver inside. They just came in the mail the other day and I am in LOVE. They are so comfortable and cover my eyes entirely. I think they are really great quality and want to buy one in every color now.

What are some of your go-to summer essentials!? Is summer your favorite season too?! 

First Impressions - Jeffree Star

For those of you that don't know, I'm obsessed with makeup. I think it's such an art and the fact that you can take it off and do it all over again makes it that much better. You can do your makeup however you want and if you don't like it, you always get a second chance to redo it. Eyeliner, for example, is my arch nemesis because although I love how great it looks, I constantly have to keep redoing it so it looks nice. But, I enjoy doing it because it gives me practice. That being said, I am not a big fan of lipsticks, primarily because the second I put food in my mouth, it washes off. I was told by a couple coworkers that Jeffree Star makes really great ones and they last all day. I wanted to try them out so I ended up buying 3 of them.

From left to right: Androgyny, Celebrity Skin, Unicorn Blood

When I received them, they all came in little pink packages with Jeffree Star's logo on them:

To be honest, when I took them out of the box, I was a little disappointed in the size, as I was expecting them to be bigger. They each come in a 0.19oz tube as shown above. They can each fit into my palm and my palm isn't very large. I do wish they were bigger, but for $18 a piece, I was really hoping they were worth it.

So far, I've tried all 3. My favorite would have to be Androgyny. I know that everybody has raved about it and I couldn't figure out why, but after using it a couple times in the 1 day I've had it, I can definitely see why. It's a very mauve color. It's almost a dark nude with some dark purple undertones. I find that it fits my complexion very well. Celebrity Skin is a very nude color. I had to put on a few layers to get the desired color that I wanted. Unicorn Blood is a very dark, true red. It does not make your teeth look yellow as most reds do. I would say it has blue undertones that help with that. It's a really great dark red color.

From top to bottom: Celebrity Skin, Unicorn Blood, Androgyny

As for my thoughts on this, I am in love. Whole-heartedly. I put some on last night before bed and forgot to take it off. When I woke up this morning, it was still on my lips, same texture and same color. If that doesn't prove to you that it's long lasting, then I don't know what does. I am not a fan of Jeffree Star, I don't follow him or his videos or any social media, but I will give credit where it's due. I am a fan of these liquid lipsticks and highly recommend them to anybody that wants a lipstick that lasts a long time. I also recommend doing a lip scrub and putting some sort of chapstick on before, so it doesn't dry out your lips.

Have you tried his velour liquid lipsticks?! What's your favorite shade?!

Makeup Remover

I wanted to write a beauty post and figure my first blogged one would be about removing makeup. I have always switched from towelettes to water-based formula removers. I have found that I do not like the towelettes only because I find that I break out more and if they stay stored for a while, they can get dried up and then it's just useless to have. I recently switched to Garnier Micellar Water and have fallen in love with it! I bought it a couple months ago and at the time they had the regular pink one and a waterproof blue one. I decided to get the waterproof one, even though I don't wear waterproof makeup, only because I wanted to remove any and all makeup as much as possible. Well, I absolutely fell in love with it. I take a cotton pad and soak the makeup remover in it and then use it all over my face. I usually take one side for my eyes and the other for the rest of my face. I would say that it does a pretty great job at removing my makeup. I am left refreshed and my face feels like I just splashed some water on it. It dries within minutes and it doesn't make my face feel tight or dry. I find that it usually cleans up most of my makeup. I will say that sometimes, I do have makeup left over but that may be just me not cleaning it thoroughly.

SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Cleanser & Waterproof Makeup Remover

As days and weeks have gone by, I ended up using all of it and it was time for another bottle. Now, Garnier had come out with a green colored version, known as the Matte Micellar Water. I absolutely hated it. Now, I am someone that loves looking matte. I'm not into the dewy looks that other people obsess over, I would rather look matte with my foundation, bronzer, lips, the whole thing. However, when trying this makeup remover, it dried me out so bad and it did not even remove my makeup. Every time I used it, my skin would feel very tight as if I just used some kind of exfoliater for too long. I would also use it to remove my mascara and go to bed, but when I wake up in the morning, my eyes would be raccoon-like from the mascara because it didn't come off from the makeup remover. I also noticed that I would start breaking out randomly when I didn't before. I have given it plenty of chances. I've used it for about 3 weeks and I've finally decided to pour it down the drain because I could not stand how it felt. I would not recommend this to anyone, unless your skin is extremely oily because then the mattifying and drying of it would work wonderfully with your skin. My skin is oily/dry combo, so using this was very drying.

SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Mattifying

Just wanted a post on my favorite makeup remover. Have you tried any other ones by Gariner? What do you think of these? What is your favorite?!  I'm willing to try new things!