Makeup

This weekend I went a little nuts buying makeup. To spend $25 in two days on personal care products is definitely more than usual for me. I blame it on my recent obsession with certain women’s YouTube pages where they talk about their beauty hauls. So here’s what I got:

Makeup

The elf and Wet & Wild cosmetics and Clean & Clear face wash were purchased at Target on Saturday. While I like the consistency and look of the matte lipstick, I’m pretty bummed about the color since it is more purple than the packaging implied.

ELF

Do they even look the same? No, they do not!

I noticed that the blush doesn’t match the color on the packaging either, although I could at least tell beforehand and was ok with that. I didn’t realize the difference with the lipstick until after I had opened it. The concealer is a bit disappointing because it makes my skin shiny under my eyes. I don’t see how that helps conceal anything, but whatever.

This is why I don’t typically spend a lot of money on makeup – half the time I don’t like what I end up buying, or I find something I like and it’s discontinued. Or, in the case of the foundation I bought years ago and was looking to replace (before you think ew, she’s been using the same bottle of foundation for years, I just stopped wearing foundation and recently decided I wanted to start wearing it again), they change it so I can’t figure out what my shade is anymore. I have what Covergirl refers to as their “Clean Liquid Makeup” except mine says it’s 115 – Natural Ivory. No such number exists now even though they still produce the Clean line. So am I now considered Classic Ivory or Creamy Natural? How many of these stupid bottles will I need to buy to figure it out? Ugh! And this, my friends, is why I don’t wear much makeup – it’s frustrating and expensive.

Getting back to my “haul”…

I haven’t tried the eyeshadow trio (made by Wet & Wild) yet, but I love how it is packaged as one complete look. The bottom color goes on your eyelid, the middle color on the crease, and the top color on your brow bone. I’m not great with that whole thing since I very rarely wear eyeshadow, so I figured I’d start small (and cheap) to see if I even like the look.

I love the Clean & Clear Night Relaxing deep cleaning face wash which I tried for the first time about a month ago. It smells so good, so I bought a second bottle this weekend.

I found the Clean and Clear Blackhead Erasing Cleaning Mask at Ulta on clearance. They stopped carrying it at Target which bummed me out because my tube was nearly empty. I love Ulta’s clearance section – I found the cute purple eyeshadow there for only $2 whereas it regularly sells for $6. The nail polish was on clearance for $5 instead of $9 as well. It matches another bottle of the same brand I already have so I can wear it on top of one nail for an accent, or on all.

Speaking of beauty hauls, I don’t know if I ever mentioned that I subscribe to Walmart’s Beauty Box. It’s $5 per box which is sent out once a quarter. I didn’t really care for the latest box. A lot of other people were unhappy with it as well, and I learned that anyone over 35 got the less desirable products. So I changed my age to 21 (LOL) on my profile so I can get less eye cream and crap that I don’t want. I’ll stay subscribed for at least one more box to see what the summer version will bring. I hear Target’s beauty box is much better but you can only get it when they announce it’s available and it quickly sells out.

I decided to try Birchbox since it’s a monthly subscription with better products and you earn half the of the box’s price back by reviewing the products you’re sent. Plus they customize it based on your preferences. I’m excited that I’ll be getting my first box in less than two weeks!

New iPhone Accessories

I recently did a month-long survey that paid $200. Much to my annoyance, however, was that when I went to pickup my payment from the survey company in early February I was given a $200 VISA prepaid card with an expiration date of March 2015. WTF? But I decided that instead of trying to find something to quickly blow $200 on, I’d be smart, so I went to Amazon.com and used the card to buy a $200 gift card that I sent to myself. We buy stuff from Amazon here and there (and more often now that we have a Prime membership) so it made sense since it never expires.

Tuesday I finally got around to researching some iPhone accessories on Amazon so I could use my credit. I hadn’t been in a hurry to pick anything out since battery life hasn’t been an issue with the phone but it’s nice to have some backup power and an extra cable just in case.

RND Lightning Cable & Anker Portable Battery

The battery came with a mini usb cord and a carrying pouch.

Anker Portable Battery

The lightning cable is even thicker & sturdier than the one that came with my phone.

RND 6' Lightning Cable

Each cost me $15 (I got the blue battery since all the other colors were $20) which was cheaper than other options I’ve seen.

Starbucks

I’m starting to feel like I want to break up with Starbucks. I don’t go there often but when there’s a deal I usually treat myself. Today I decided to try their hot chocolate, but since they use milk and I’m lactose intolerant (and wasn’t interested in trying the soy milk), I only got a short.

Starbucks

That’s my drink on the right. Apparently it’s also considered the child’s size.

Anyway, it was not very good and I was disappointed. My cousin later mentioned that she adds sugar to hers; I hadn’t even considered that but I’m guessing it would have improved it as it definitely wasn’t sweet enough.

It just seems like one of two things happen when it comes to Starbucks drinks:

1) It’s a huge disappointment.

OR

2) I love it and later get the worst stomachache (even if I opt for soy).

So it’s just not meant to be. It’s not you (every time) Starbucks, it’s me.

But hey, I still entered the win Starbucks for life contest because Joe loves his vanilla lattes and I do like them too but I only take a couple of sips to spare me any intestinal misery later.

iPhone 6 Camera

The more I use the iPhone 6 camera, the more I hate it. It’s gotten to the point I’d rather go out and buy a new point and shoot camera than mess with it because I am so disappointed with the resulting photos. The only promising thing is that based on this article, plus comments I’ve been reading online, most of what bothers me would be fixed via a software upgrade. But will Apple do it, and if so, when? I’m just extremely annoyed that my 4S took nicer panorama photos than my brand new $400 phone. I love taking photos so this is no small thing.

iPhone 6 & iOS 8 Review

It’s been a week since I got my new iPhone and it’s safe to say I’m in love. What do I love about it? It’s easier to say what I don’t love, and that’s pretty much nothing. ;)

Ok, to be honest the only thing that has me a little worried is reports of the phone getting bent in people’s pockets. It seems to be happening more with the iPhone 6 Plus, but I’m sure it can happen to either phone since they are thin and made of aluminum. I got the smaller of the two so I could still fit it into my front pocket but it’s rather snug in my jeans so now I’m really nervous about putting it in there. I’ve spent HOURS on Etsy trying to find the perfect little pouch that means my very specific criteria which is as follows:

1 – Closes at the top (whether that be via snap, velcro, or button with a bungie cord, I really don’t care).
2 – Has the ability to add a strap to turn it into a wristlet and/or crossbody purse.
3 – Has a way to attach it to a belt loop.
4 – Pattern is appealing.

I have yet to find one that matches all that criteria and price is not an object (within reason; but everything I see is below $50 anyway).

Ok, so here’s my review of the phone itself.

Predictive keyboard – This feature is awesome! As I’ve written here before, I suck at typing on my phone (or any digital device, really) and between the larger keys and the suggestions, I rarely have to type out a full word. I love that! It saves time and aggravation and is much better than the iPhone just auto correcting words since it likes to change correct ones to incorrect ones (at least for me).

Larger screen – Love that it’s easier to read text, plus I gained two extra rows of apps per page over my old phone.

Battery life – I used my phone on and off all day at work and when I got home it was around 60% whereas my old phone would have been almost dead. I’m not sure is an actual improvement over the 4S or just because the phone and battery is brand new opposed to three years old. In any case, now that you can view which apps are using up the battery, I have turned off Facebook and Facebook Messenger notifications as they were eating up 36% and 25% of my battery life respectively. eBuddy XMS (the app I use to chat with Joe) is also a battery killer but until I find a better alternative I will have to deal with it. I just wish I could pick certain apps to override the volume settings on the phone so that even if the volume isn’t turned all the way up the notifications from my chat app would still be at full volume.

Touch ID is frickin awesome! I let my phone lock within a minute because it saves on battery plus it’s so effortless to unlock it. I hated having to type in my pass code all the time. Plus I can use Touch ID to download apps which rocks because my Apple password is letters and numbers and switching back and forth between the two on the keyboard is annoying.

The camera is amazing and a very noticeable improvement over the 4S. I don’t feel the need to post-process anything before uploading it to Facebook. I’m impressed with the detail it picks up even in lower light situations and the focus appears to be spot on without any input from me. I am itching to make use of the panorama feature as that was always good even on the old phone so I suspect it will be even more awesome on this new one.

I haven’t really tested the video quality yet as I just learned this morning that if you want to shoot in 60fps (i.e. full HD) you need to turn that on in the settings.

I was having a weird issue where if I had the phone in landscape orientation with the volume buttons facing down, the red record button wouldn’t respond when I pressed it. After speaking to an Apple rep and updating to iOS 8.0.2 this morning that issue is now gone. Whew!

The larger screen has made me want to play games on my phone again so if anyone has recommendations, please post a comment!