Benefit Cosmetics It's a Love Fest

I have always been a really big fan of Benefit Cosmetics. When I was younger, one of my favorite things to do around the Holidays was go to Sephora and buy all the Holiday Gift Sets Benefit would come out with that year (which luckily for my savings account, was usually only one, and very rarely two). Because I didn't know too much about makeup and there was no such thing as 'Beauty Gurus' on YouTube, getting these Gift Sets was a really good way for me to experiment with makeup. Usually what Benefit would do was bundle three to four of their most popular best-selling products, package them in the cutest mini faux purses and sell it for about $30-$40.

And today, they are still doing it! Every year, Benefit comes out with Holiday Gift Sets (a lot of them) and I still get just as excited as I did when I was younger when they start coming out, although they are a little different than they used to be. Oh and also, now they come out around mid-October! Somehow, ALL Holidays seem to come REALLY EARLY nowadays (its way weird).

I started reading blogs about this years Holiday Gift Sets, theres about seven of them! And, I came across this one, my very favorite one so far! I'll probably end up getting one more, but I'll wait till we get closer to Christmas so I can get that Nostalgic giddy feeling.

This specific one retails for $36 (and "is valued at" for $87,) Now I say is valued at in quotation marks because thats what Benefit values its' products at but they don't actually sell the sample sized ones OR the box it come in. But either way, you are getting an amazing, unbeatable price.

So it comes in this adorable pop-art inspired tin can (and I think it might be exclusive to Sephora too)
Now this is definitely a step-up from their cardboard mini faux purses so so far, I already love it!



The three products that come inside are:
Benefit Cosmetics:
-The POREfessional - a face primer that minimizes the look of pores and fine lines, makes your face feel silky smooth, and makes your foundation go on super nicely (for a lack of a better word) lol. I love this stuff it's one of my all-time favorite products.
-They're Real Mascara - a jet black mascara that lengthens, curls, & volumizes your eyelashes and the one and only mascara I ever wear (unless my sister buys me some other ones, which she occasionally does when she's in a good mood.)
-A sample size of the Coralista Lip Gloss - which is just a coraly pink lipgloss
&
-A sample size of Sun Beam - a golden bronze face highlighter



With just the POREfessional face primer and the They're Real mascara, this set it a must-have! The Coralista lip gloss sample, the Sun Beam highlighter and the adorable tin box are just an added bonus!

Very Classy by Derek Blasberg

I recently read an article on HuffPost on all these really cool unconventional proven health benefits that can come from reading. Now, we all know that reading is good for you for a couple simple reasons like, it broadens your vocabulary, it can open up your world views and it even makes you a little bit more cultured. But somehow, in-between leisurely reading and high school and college mandatory reading lists, reading got a bit of a bad rap. But here's the thing, just because reading is healthy and comes with great benefits, it doesn't always have to be as tedious as some people make it our to be (or as tedious as it felt back when you were school). Reading can be so much fun as long as you find a book that YOU like and YOU'RE interested in.

Now, I love reading great Classic Novels and the latest Mystery/Thriller/Suspense book, but sometimes it's really fun to just be able to pick up a book that's easy to read, doesn't have any sort of chronology or 'rules'. You know, the kind of book you can just pick up at anytime, open any page, and just start reading.

I'm not sure what category these kind of books would fall into, but these are one of my all-time favorites. I love gifting them and recommending them to my friends and family because you can never go wrong with these, they're just the type of books that are enjoyed by EVERYONE!

One of my favorites, or rather two of them, are:
Classy by Derek Blasberg & Very Classy (which is the expanded edition of the former)

It's a 'collection of humorous essays covering etiquette and social behavior' as Blasberg writes. But it's also much more than that, besides the fact that its entertaining, funny, and really easy to read, it's also really inspiring, encouraging and informative!

With tips on how to Throw a Party, Decorate, Look for Love and Stay Healthy, it's the perfect Beauty, Life, and Style guide for all Y-Gen Yuppies!

Simple Sensitive Skin Experts Daily Face Care Regimen

So as my "Ice Breaker" or 'My Very First Blog Post' I decided to review a skin care line I recently began using.

About a year ago, I went to this Grand Opening of a Walgreens store in LA. I know sounds kind of weird, but seriously, when I say Grand Opening, I mean GRAND OPENING! There was a red carpet, celebrities, press, there were live chefs & bartenders, they were giving away goodie bags, the whole nine, IT WAS INSANE! The goodie bags were the best part of course, they had a bunch of really cool things inside like magazines, cosmetics, vitamins, snacks, just pretty much the kind of things you would find inside a Walgreens store. One of these items was the Simple Refreshing Facial Wash Gel which, needless to say, I fell in love with and have been using ever since!

Now, I never thought to try any other products from the line just because I'm very reluctant to try new things, and thats just me in general, I don't know why, but I'm like that about EVERYTHING! (it's a bad thing)

So this past year I've been reading all of these positive reviews and have watched videos raving about this fairly new skincare line so I've been wanting to try some of these products for quite some time now. So the other day I was at Target, you know, just buying the 'necessities' when out of the bloom I come across this!:

The Simple Sensitive Skin Experts Daily Face Care Regimen Kit



What was great was that it was on sale for only $14.99, and Target was having a promotion where they were giving away a $5.00 gift card with purchase. A really incredibly good deal! So of course I ended up leaving the store with five of these bad boys (lol just kidding, I only bought this one. Promise!)

Now inside were these 3 full sized products, the Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes, Simple Moisturizing Facial Wash & the Simple Replenishing Rich Moisturizer which usually retail for about $4.99-$12.99 (depending on where you get them from) So not only was I really excited to try these products, but even more excited that I got such a good deal on them!



Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes
OK, so usually I HATE face wipes. I've tried so many of them, and every single one has irritated my face. Usually I get this sort of burning feeling all over and my cheeks get really red and become extremely sensitive. On top of that, I ALWAYS feel like I still have to wash my face afterwards because it leaves this sort of sticky residue behind. But these wipes. OH MY GOSH!!!! WOW!! Seriously, these have to be the ABSOLUTE BEST FACE WIPES EVER INVENTED!!!! No joke, these are so gentle on the skin, they don't irritate one bit, yet are still able to remove an entire face of makeup (including mascara) and the best part, you DON"T AT ALL feel like you still need to wash your face. So these are really great for nighttime or whenever you just want to have a clean face but don't want to wash your face for whatever reason.

Simple Moisturizing Facial Wash
I was really excited to try this face wash and I really wanted to like it but unfortunately, it just didn't work for me. Im not sure what it is about this particular product but after the first use my cheeks got really red and the sides of my nose became really dry. It's a little strange because it's supposed to be a moisturizing face wash, and even after a week of continuous use, it was still very drying on my skin. I'll probably try this product again, when we're not in transition from Summer to Fall, because that might have been the reason why my face was really dry but for now I'll just stick to their refreshing facial wash gel (which again, I'm obsessed with.)

Simple Replenishing Rich Moisturizer
I am a little in-between with this product. It's a very light face lotion, and definitely good for sensitive skin, but if your skin is on the drier side like mine, it doesn't do too much in terms of moisturizing. I liked it because it didn't irritate my skin, it doesn't have any kind of fragrance but I did have to apply a couple of layers in order for my skin to feel moisturized. So not my favorite moisturizer, but something I will continue using.

Oh Something Looks Different!

Hi guys! Thank you so much for visiting and staying interested in my blog! Unfortunately, at some point I stopped Blogging, and now that I tried to get back to doing what I love, which is writing of course, I realized my interests have completely changed! So, I am starting over, and I will start Blogging about my current interests (which btw are COMPLETELY different than those back in '07 when I was only 16!

So I hope you guys like it.

Stay tuned, and I will talk to you guys soon!

xxoo

Izzie