Friday Favorites: Drug store buys

This week's Friday Favorites is a day late. Apologies for being tardy, but such is life when you work full time and have an almost five month old to watch :)

Everything I've blogged about thus far are products found at department or specialty stores. These products are not for those on a budget, so I thought I would write about a few of my favorite things that can be purchased at your local Target/Walmart/what have you.

Most of the products I use on a daily basis are drug store brands. I go through them so quickly that I would not be able to afford the high end version.

Back row (L-R):

L'Oreal Elnet hairpsray, Jergens Ultra Healing Lotion, TRESemmé Fresh Start Dry Shampoo, TRESemmé Heat Protectant Spray, Almay Makeup Remover Pads (Moisturizing and Oil Free), Olay Quench Body Lotion

Middle Row (L-R):

TRESemmé Fresh Start Refreshing Mist, Dove Clinical Protection Antiperspirant, John Frieda FrizzEase, Yes to Cucumbers Soothing Eye Gel, Smith's Rosebud Salve

Bottom Row (L-R):

Maybelline Great Lash Mascara in Clear (works great as eyebrow gel), Maybelline Define-A-Lash Waterproof Mascara in Very Black, Maybelline Lash Discovery Waterproof Mascara in Very Black, L'Oreal True Match Concealer, Maybelline Define-A-Line Eyeliner in Black and Gray, Covergirl Smokey Shadow Blast in Onyx Smoke, NYX Eyelash Curler

What are some of your drug store favorites?

Tough as nails

Nail polish has become a recent obsession of mine. It's a fun way to try out a trendy color without much commitment. Since I'm frugal, I give myself a manicure at home every week and get one professionally every once in a while to clean up cuticles and such. I wear my nails very short. It's easier for me to function with very short nails and that goes double now that I have a four and a half month old! I also think that it's much easier to wear darks and brights on shorter nails than longer nails.

I've been buying up nail polishes like crazy lately. I see a pretty color and I buy. I even went through my drawer of polishes and got rid of old ones I haven't worn in a year or that have gotten weird from sitting around for so long. I try to bring my own bottle to the salon when I get a mani or a pedi. If my nails chip, I'll be able to fix it at home.

Since brights seem to be one of the big spring trends, bright nail polish seemed to be a good way to incorporate it into my current wardrobe of neutrals and darks without breaking the bank. Some of my current favorites are Essie Mint Candy Apple, Sally Hansen Commander in Chic, and Essie Lapis of Luxury.

What are some of the colors you like for spring? Do you get manis or pedis? How often?

Friday Favorites: The Bottle With Hips

I have decided to start a new segment on the blog where I talk about some of my favorite things (beauty or otherwise) and call it Friday Favorites. I will try to limit these to things I actually own and/or use, not things that I aspire to own or use.

Today's Friday Favorite is a beauty product I've been using for about five years and have introduced to several friends. Urban Decay's Eyeshadow Primer is without a doubt one of the best products I've used. It makes any eyeshadow stay on all day (and night!) without creasing or fading. It comes in especially handy for nights out with the girls where you'll be dancing your butt off until the wee hours of the morning. I've put it to the test and my vibrant eyeshadow and eyeliner has stayed put even if the rest of my makeup is sweating down my face.

While it is made in several beautiful shades, I only use the sheer original formula. The colored formulas seem to be universally flattering and would likely multiply a girl's eyeshadow collection instantly. If I were to try one of the colored formulas, it would be Sin.

I have only owned versions of UD's Eyeshadow Primer in bottles. While I love this product, my only (tiny) gripe is that I can never seem to reach the primer at the bottom of the bottle. It eventually ends up drying out and getting thrown away. It seems that Urban Decay has read my mind by introducing a version in a tube! I plan on squeezing all the primer out of it the way I squeeze toothpaste out of a tube. The tube version seems to be exclusive to Sephora for the time being. I hope they don't revert to the old style packaging.

Do you use any kind of a primer? What kind?

Happy weekend!

Eye of the Tiger

Eyeshadow. I love it. I own so many colors: neutrals to metallics to bright pops of color. It's no wonder that I'm a VIB at Sephora. Before E's birth, I wore eyeshadow almost every day to work. I work at a conservative place so my color of choice was usually neutral. The bright stuff was saved for evenings and weekends.

Once E was born, I didn't wear any makeup for a long time. We had a bit of a rough start with nursing and I barely left the house. My gorgeous little pots of color were abandoned. I would longingly look at them every morning after showering, wishing I had somewhere to go so I could wear them. Then I realized that I don't need to go somewhere in order to wear them.

My goal became to wear a different shade of eyeshadow every day. Some days I would wear something tame, others it was peacock blue. I loved wearing the brighter colors because they brought back memories of going dancing with girlfriends or out to a fancy dinner with D.

Some of my favorites are:

• Neutrals: Urban Decay's Shag is a gorgeous tan-bronze. I'm South Asian and it really works well with my tan skin tone. It's not sparkly, but it is shiny. It stays all day when I use it with a primer. I also really enjoy Stila's Kitten. It's sparkly and seems to show differently on different skin tones.
• Brights: Urban Decay's Ransom is a vibrant purple. A close second for bright is Sephora Collection's My Favorite Jeans, which is a bright blue - not for the faint of heart!
• Smoky eye: I have two older Sephora brand shadows that I use. One is a dark matte gray while the other is a matte medium gray. Unfortunately I can't find links to them online, but they're pretty basic.

I haven't done a colored smoky eye, but I'd love any suggestions for color combinations. What are your favorite go-to shadows?

Scent of a Woman

Did you know that Egyptians carried perfume with them from birth until after their death? They also valued the containers that held the perfume. Some were even made of gold or were decorated with jewels!

I am picky about perfume. I own a few bottles but only wear two main ones: Lola by Marc Jacobs and L by Gwen Stefani (no longer in production *sadface*). I would alternate between the two before E was born. I was really hesitant to wear them after his birth because I didn't know how he would react. My husband D is very sensitive to the smell of perfumes and colognes. There have been many perfumes returned because he has a reaction to them. I was afraid this would get passed along to E. I didn't want him to sneeze his head off or get congested by the scent.

I missed wearing perfume. It made me smell pretty and feel girly. I missed catching a little whiff of myself during the day. I started wearing 2 spritzes and gradually moved it up to the 4 spritzes I wear now. E doesn't have any issues with either of them, thankfully. I haven't worn my going-out-on-the-town perfume (J'Adore by Christian Dior) and hope E doesn't have any trouble with it. That's one of my favorites along with the classic Chanel No. 5. For my birthday last year, D bought me a vintage bottle of Chanel No. 5.

What are some of your favorite scents? Have your baby or SO had issues with it?

Pop.

Hi. Welcome to my blog. I decided to start one after the birth of my first son (referred to in the blog as E). He was born 3 and half weeks early, on December 10, 2010. Before I had him I would make sure that my hair and makeup were done, I would get my hair cut regularly, and my eyebrows threaded as they became unruly.

Once we came come from the hospital with Baby E, my life was consumed with all things him: nursing, pumping, and diaper changing (oh my!) among others - totally normal. What wasn't normal for me was that I didn't do anything for myself for the first two and a half months of his life: no makeup, no haircuts, no pedicures, no getting my eyebrows done. I don't think I'm high maintenance, but I do take care of myself. Not doing these little things for myself was really taking its toll on me. My husband (referred to as D) finally forced me to go get a pedicure while he watched the baby for a few hours. Oh it felt so good to be pampered! After that experience, I vowed to do a little something for myself every week, even if it was blow drying my hair without any place to go.

This blog is about my goal to do something for myself every week that I used to do before Baby E. I'm looking for insight and feedback from other moms who are going through or have gone through the same thing.

Here's what this blog will not be about:

• Birth stories. You won't read mine or anyone else's. There are plenty of other blogs out there covering them. In fact, a friend of mine has one. I'll provide a link to it.
• Parenting lifestyles. I'm not going to tell you what to feed your kid or how to raise him/her. Again, there are plenty of blogs that do that.
• Baby poop. I will try my hardest not to include any details of getting shit or peed on in this blog.
• Baby pictures. I use my Facebook to share pictures of E and I don't add people I don't know in real life.

I want to keep this blog light and fluffy. There are enough serious things about becoming a mother. Let's have our fun too.