Product Review: Almay Eye Makeup Remover Pads

When I was younger I loved to experiment with new makeup, hair care and face products. I was always on the hunt for the perfect product at the perfect price. I wear a lot of eye makeup and have always struggled with finding the right face wash and even more importantly eye makeup remover. Two products that I have used recently have been better than most high end brands I've used and are cheap! I thought I would share a quick review with some pros and cons for each; and at the end I'll give my bottom line and the one I would recommend!

Almay Oil Free Gentle Eye Makeup Remover Pads:

• Pros 
• Nice Scent, 
• Oil Free so they aren't greasy, and they don't leave a residue at all  
• Hypoallergenic
• Cons
• I use one pad per eye because it doesn't remove the makeup with just one. 
• It requires a good amount of scrubbing/rubbing your eye
• I've only spotted these bad boys at Target, so if I forget them on a trip I'm screwed. 

Almay Longwear and Waterproof Eye Makeup Remover Pads:

• Pros 
• Quickly removes my makeup with little scrubbing/rubbing 
• Hypoallergenic
• Cons 
• GREASY and it's bad. I tried most everything to get rid of the residue that was left even after washing my face and nothing seemed to work 
• Odd smell, it's not terrible but definitely not as pleasant as it could be 
• Like the Oil Free I've only spotted them at Target

Bottom Line: I wear waterproof mascara and eyeliner and would rather scrub my eye a little more with a pleasant scent than be left with residue for days. Oil Free is a must have in my opinion!

I hope you enjoyed this review. If you have tried any makeup removers that also work great and you love; please share them, I'd love to try them out.

Valentine's Day Project

My friend Kat approached me last week and asked if I would like to do a Valentine's Day craft for our guys. She sent me a link to a project she had seen on Pinterest, and after falling in love with it, we decided to do it this past Wednesday.

Supplies Needed: Light bulbs (any size you like), Red Wire, a block of wood (ours have holes in them but in the original project she glued them on the block), pliers, paper, pen, old towel, and red push pins or in our case red rhinestones.

First you break the bottom out of the light bulb, make sure you lie your towel down because it gets messy. I learned that it's easiest if you remove the pin (if you look at the bottom you'll see it) and then just tap the black part with your pliers until it starts to break. You have to balance being gentle and using enough pressure at this point or the project will take a long time! After this you can use anything to break it up more and remove the pieces. We used a cocktail mixer, and it was the best tool!

Next you need to take the wire and make hearts. You can make whatever size or shape of heart, but do note that later you have to push it through the little hole you just created at the bottom of the light bulb, so we kept ours tall and skinny.

At this point you can also write the message to your loved one, and attach it to the block. We used modge podge here and it worked perfectly. Once the paper was dry we added decorative red rhinestones to the edges.

The finished product! When assembling all of the pieces together we used modge podge (in place of a glue gun) to hold the hearts up straight while we screwed our bulbs in. Try and let the modge podge dry mostly before you screw the bulb on, I moved mine too quickly and my heart is not straight (it adds character).

Hope you've enjoyed this project and be sure to check out the original project on Design Sponge

Dreaming of Hawaii

I've been dreaming of Hawaii for some time now. I think of lounging on the beach, the Pearl Harbor historic sites, fruity cocktails, and luaus. Brandon and I talk about honeymooning there, but if time and money allowed I'd love to go before then! These items are sure to make the vacation even more relaxing and stylish!

Clockwise From Top Left: Hat, Tumbleweeds Handcraft Sunglasses, Chunky Cherry Clinique Chubby Stick, Pink About It Essie Nail Color, Sandals, Swimsuit, Where'd You Go, Bernadette Book, Clinique SPF 50 Sunscreen

Altitude Summit: A Reflection

This post has taken me a lot longer than I thought it would, and the blame for that is my fear of saying something that will offend someone...somewhere. Like any experience there were a lot of wonderful moments and things that I would have changed. I've asked myself a number of times 'did I expect too much?' I honestly didn't know what would be coming my way but my expectations were high. I tried to join the bandwagon by instagraming my weekly sponsor gifts, reading the Alt Blog and other blogs of people I expected to see there, and by commenting on pictures/facebook etc. trying to make conversation. I expected to make a ton of new friends at Alt, to be surrounded by funny extroverts, to have cheeks sore from smiling, informative classes, and answers to the millions of questions running around in my head.

I walked away with lots of fun pictures, a few new friends, lots of goodies and some notes. Brandon continued to ask me throughout the trip if I was having fun, and at times I was having the time of my life, while other times I felt like I was a Freshman in college trying to get into an elite sorority. I joked with Brandon after the first day that I hadn't known what to expect...but that what was happening definitely wasn't it. So many bloggers came with one another; making it difficult to strike up a conversation, some seemed so genuinely nice while others only had time for sponsors and schmoozing. I had a few run ins with bloggers that I follow and love, one experience left me wanting to blog my heart out, while the other solidified my thoughts that she was just in it for all of the followers. I'll honestly say that if it weren't for me meeting Marissa from Practical Punch at the Green Party, I would have probably skipped most of the second day.

After coming home friends and family wanted to know if my blogging adventure was worth it and I have to honestly say I'm still on the fence. If you have the extra funds to go, do it! If you have to reach deep into your savings to fund it...I would think twice. Alt Summit also has three other events Alt NYC, Alt SF, and Alt Everyone. I would check out one of those out if you're interesting in taking the plunge! There were so many things at Alt SLC that were wonderful, but throughout the event I couldn't help but take note of how many things I would have changed, and what changes would have made me more comfortable or enjoy it more.

Some things that I did love: 

• The attention to detail, each room and event was carefully put together and you could tell that some careful consideration was taken when thinking of colors, props, and lighting, and the hotel was absolutely INSANE. (imagine the Titanic)
• The business cards 
• Meeting some really down to earth women who share my common interests
• The lounges
• Photographers taking pictures of every detail! (Took some pressure off, so I could focus on the millions of other things going on) 

Things I would have changed or added:

• More focus on building relationships with bloggers in your state. I think that meeting people from New York is awesome, but I can't call them up and have coffee. Having a dinner or time blocked for meeting people from your state would have made a huge difference for me. 
• More informative classes...I took the "A" classes which are for beginner bloggers, which I am, and almost all of the information was common sense. I didn't want to take any advance classes for fear that it would go over my head, but now I regret it. 
• More info sooner, maybe I didn't start reading the blog early enough but I would have loved some emails about the event right when I registered. I was so pumped but then didn't get emails so I started getting nervous 
• A little less going on at the same time..there was so much going on that you miss so many things if you aren't running around. I now know that if I attend next year the classes are less important, and the lounges/outside venues are where it is at. 

Overall, Alt SLC was an experience, and that was what I wanted. I learned some things about myself and about this blogging world. I've shared a few photos in this post and they were all taken by the photographers at Alt. More pictures are available to view at their Flickr page. (I was a naughty blogger and didn't take any pictures with my DSLR even though it was in my bag...oops! To see my personal pictures you can check out my Instagram!)