Beauty Army, Month Two

Posted on by
Reply

Last month I posted about joining Beauty Army and how I was super excited to try my first beauty sample box.

Well, I wasn’t all that impressed with Beauty Army.  I did receive 6 samples of my choosing, and I’ve tried 3 of them, and only used up 1.  The other three I haven’t been bothered to try yet, but I’ll get around to it eventually.  This is what I received last month

The samples are good, but not exactly what I can use.  I can’t fault them though, or myself, as this was the first month I was using this program and had no experience with any of the products.  However, I did really like the first sample by Control Corrective.  It did offer some redness relief, and since my skin does tend to get quite red, I liked that.

I have not used the top two (middle and right), as I just keep forgetting about them.  The top right one though, I am afraid to use as it has benzoyl peroxide in it, and that ingredient does NOT mesh well with my skin at all.  I’ve used Clinique’s 3 step acne program in the past, and I had an allergic reaction almost to the benzoyl peroxide.  So I will probably toss that one.

I did use the foundation, by MyFace, and the color was spot on with my skin.  The coverage was not.  This is a very light coverage, and I need a medium to full coverage.  However, it might suit me in the summer when I don’t want to wear anything as heavy as my Lorac foundation (which I LOVE).  So I’ll keep it around.

And of the last two samples, I tried the BeFine moisturizer, but found it was not moisturizing enough for me at all.  I won’t use it at all.  I haven’t tried the Indi Lee lavender moisturizing oil yet, but will get around to it eventually.

So all in all, I wasn’t too impressed with the samples I was allowed to pick in April.  But this month? WOW! May’s selection is amazing for me, and I picked mine first thing this morning.  Here’s what I am getting:

Doesn’t that all look awesome? I’m so excited to get it.  The control corrective isn’t the same moisturizer I received before, but is a redness serum, so it should work the same. The pink sugar perfume I actually JUST bought at Sephora a few weeks back, so this will be nice to have for travel so I don’t have to take my big bottle with me (and we are going on a getaway Memorial Day weekend).  The dude shower gel is for Mr eHarmony, obviously.  And then the makeup remover cloth I’ll be able to use as well.  But the holy grail in this was the eye candy soothing eye coolers.  How great are those? They’re little gel packs to relieve swollen eyes, puffiness, allergies etc.  I snatched those up in a second, and good thing too, because guess what the retail value is? $12.  And Beauty Army costs $12 a month.  So the extra samples are just bonus on top of that.

Have you joined any beauty sample programs? What do you think of them?

 

*expect a birchbox review sometime next month. I just received my gossip girl box, and I’m not too sure I will stay with them yet, but I will give them a couple months.

Mr eHarmony, The Texting Noob

Posted on by
Reply

Wow has this blog been depressing lately, sorry about that folks! I’ll try to do a bit better in that department, but honestly…wow, being a single mom and an only parent on top of that makes my life that much harder and more stressful.  It really sucks some days.  We have had some wonderful times though recently, and Mr eHarmony and I celebrated our 7 month anniversary this past Tuesday.  We’re both remarking on how fast it has gone, and it seems like just yesterday that we met.  I jokingly tease him that we’ll be at a year before he knows it, and since we have talked about moving in together later this year, also remind him that his lease will be up a mere 6 weeks after our 1 year anniversary. *insert mischievious laugh*

Speaking of mischievous laughs…I have a funny quip to tell you about.  Early on in our dating history, probably a month or less in, we were texting each other like mad.  We don’t text as much anymore, we’ve really settled into a pattern that suits us both.  Anyway, I was saying something funny to Mr eHarmony and ended the text with “insert mischievous laugh”.  I wrote just that.  He responded with:

I don’t have that emoticon :(

And I laughed and laughed and laughed.  I tried to explain to him it was just a saying, and not an emoticon.  I think he got it eventually, but he hadn’t really got to know the real Joanna yet either, and her sarcastic silly side either.  He just had to learn how to text properly.  But with that, comes instances like this…what I received this morning:

And I responded with “Oooh a rainbow! I wish it was a double rainbow”.  Truth be told, I’ve never seen that whole YouTube phenomenon about the double rainbow, I only know about it.  So Mr eHarmony may have learned to text properly, but now he over uses clip art, ha ha.  It’s all in jest though, I tease him because I love him.

While writing this post, I went back through my iPhone and found you all this:

I’ve saved gems like this, for future posterity.  I love looking back at them and reading what we used to write to each other. Even though it has been only 7 months, it feels like a lot longer than that.  I guess that’s what happens when you really are in love with your best friend.

 

An Unexpected Turn

Posted on by
Reply

You know how when one thing goes wrong, everything else seems to?

Yeah, that’s been my week, sort of.

My oldest daughter is finally feeling better, but is still lethargic and tired.  I do suspect that will take some time to get over though, the flu is a pretty big deal.  I’m really happy to see her improving, and especially somewhat in time for Mother’s Day, as we were able to go and have a fantastic time at the river.

I woke up last sunday with Mr eHarmony, but instead of being treated with a luxurious mother’s day snuggle, he rushed downstairs to “help the kids”.  I was instructed to stay upstairs and not leave the bedroom, so I watched a bit of HBO GO on my iPhone, lounged around and got super bored.  I got up at one point and thought I smelled bacon, but I must have been wrong because I couldn’t smell anything after that.

But then the fire alarm went off.  And upstairs wafted the scent of delicious, crispy, flavorful bacon.  It smelled glorious.  I love bacon.  But it has to be crispy, well cooked bacon, and not floppy soft bacon.  You can’t call it bacon if it doesn’t crisp.  You wouldn’t put flaccid bacon on a burger, right? Crispy Bacon is where it’s at.

I scrambled back into bed, and no sooner did I do that, then the door opened and in walked all four kids and Mr eHarmony carrying a tray of breakfast.  I was handed four gift bags as well, and was really spoiled by the kids.  Thanks so much to my dearest friend Rebecca for taking them shopping for me :)  The kids really spoiled me!  This is what I got to eat for breakfast…

After that we spent the day at a river, and had a picnic and a wonderful time.  The day was capped off by enjoying some delicious ice cream at a cute little candy shop in Snoqualmie.

Then began the chaos that has been my week.  Today was the worst though.  I had to volunteer at my kids’ school, and got home at 9:30 AM after helping out in one of the kindergarten classes.  Not a half hour later, I received a phone call from my 11-year-old son saying he was sick.

Oh no.  Not again.

Yes, again.

As soon as we got home, I was giving him his tamilflu, and he projectile vomited all over the kitchen floor.  It was like a fountain of puke spewed out of his mouth onto the floor.  YUCK.

Off to Target I went to get ginger ale, powerade and crackers.  I had to hurry home though, because I had someone coming at 1PM to do an estimate for some fence repairs.  My fence panels have been separating for some odd reason, and I thought the fence was poorly made.  Not the case actually, you know what the problem is?

The retaining wall is sinking along the whole back lot where my house is located.

Sinking.  And pulling my fence with it.

I think my heart sank when the contractor told me that.  I’m pretty much just ready to throw my hands up in the air and pull out  my hair and gnash my teeth.

As soon as the contractor left, I put in a phone call to the builder and left him a voice mail, and I will also talk to my neighbor across the street who works for the builder.  I do NOT believe I am responsible for this repair, as it is the whole retaining wall, and not just my house.  It’s because of all the rain we get here.  The cement blocks are actually slanted down away from my backyard, and not straight as they are supposed to be. ARRRGGGGHHHH.

I really do wonder sometimes why something can’t go my way, and why I have to deal with  such major stuff all the time.  When do I get a break? Sometimes I wish I had never bought a house, and just kept on renting.

It seems to never end here.  Ever.