How to Get High End Makeup For Cheap! (or even free!)

Hey guys, I am so excited to share three tips that have gotten me some very expensive makeup for cheap or free.  I am talking about brands like Too Faced, Tarte, and Urban Decay.  I have gotten a lot of these for $10 or less so I have paid less for this makeup than for similar makeup at the drugstore!
My first tip is to shop Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Ulta Beauty Steals sales on Ulta and Sephora.  I love checking out the Black Friday deals in particular because I can get kits with 3 products for $10.
My second tip is to shop at Nordstrom Rack.  I know that others have amazing luck at TJ Maxx and Marshall's as well but I always have the best luck at Nordstrom Rack.  They always have tons of high end makeup items marked way down.
My third tip is to get on brand's email lists.  They will occaisionally run campaigns where they will send out samples for free to promote a new product.  I recently got a new Urban Decay mascara sample for free! 
See everything I have gotten in the past and more information by watching my video on this on YouTube here.
Thanks so much for reading!

What is Self Care and Why is it so Important?

Welcome back to my blog!  I am excited to share something that is super important today.  Self Care is something that I think most of us don't fully understand and that we probably don't spend enough time on.
For years I thought self care was skincare and bubble baths and exercizing.  I recently learned and realized how much more it is and can be and how personal it is.  Self Care activities that help me feel my best might make you feel horrible and vice versa.
For me I have found that Self Care is things that fill my bucket and that make me fill happy and fulfilled and also activities that let me recharge my batteries.
Some of my favorite Self Care activities:

• spending time with a friend (preferably without a million interruptions from our children)
• going to a new restaraunt
• going out to a community event
• going on a hike or getting out in nature
• having some time to run errands by myself
• having nights off without an endless list of to-do's
• taking a long bubble bath and reading a book
• watching YouTube videos while folding laundry (without a million interruptions)

I have realized doing these types of activities help me feel happy, in control of my life and recharge me.

I'd love to hear about some of your favorite self care activities in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!

Head to Head Review: Dr. Brandt's Microdermabrasion vs. Perfectly Posh Whole Lava Love

Hey guys!  Welcome back to my blog!  I am super excited to share this head to head review with you today!  I am going to be comparing two face scrub products today.  
The first product is Dr. Brandt Microdermabrasion Age Defying Exfoliator and the second is Perfectly Posh's Whole Lava Love Volcanic Ash Exfoliator.  First of all I wanted to say that I really love both of these products!  But that being said I do have a favorite between the two of them.

The Dr. Brandt Microdermabrasion product is a light yellow color with a super gritty consistency.  It scrubs so well and is perfect for a microdermabrasion product.  It also has a light lemongrass scent that I love.  This product scrubs well and leaves your skin baby soft.  It retails for $79 for 2 ounces at Sephora.
The Perfectly Posh Whole Lava Love is a black color and also a super gritty consistency.  It also scrubs super well and is also perfect for a microdermabrasion product.  It has a peppermint scent that I also love.  This product scrubs super well but it goes beyond that.  Whole Lava Love also contains charcoal and volcanic ash which help to remove dead skin cells, oil, bacteria, and impurities from your skin.  It retails for $19 for 2 ounces at Perfectly Posh.
I personally see more benefits for my skin after using Whole Lava Love.  The ingredients in it leave my skin absolutely glowing!  The Dr. Brandt's is still an amazing scrub that leaves my skin baby soft but something about it just doesn't clean or moisturize quite the way the Whole Lava Love scrub does.
I included a little bit more info and you can see the products side by side in my YouTube video linked here. Thanks for reading!

Deal Alert: Get Essie Nail Polish for $2!

Who is the Boss / Source 

Magnetic Collection / Source

Bell Bottom Blues / Source

Essie nail polish for $2!?  Yes, sign me up!!

I am so excited to share this deal with you!  This site also has lots of other makeup/beauty steals and their customer service is great!  

I ordered with them the first time a few months ago and had one item come broken (it was a small speaker in a set and I am sure it got to them broken too) and they were great about it.

They also offer free shipping when your purchase is over $25 and I have a $2 off for anyone who wants to get some awesome stuff!  You can use my referral link and get your $2 off and then share with friends and get another $2 off too.

If you are sitting there thinking, "okay, Jessica, give me the link already!  I'm in!"  Here it is :)  Just click here and you can get going.  They have so many other amazing things too!  

All nail swatches are from the amazing ThePolishAholic.com :)

Thanks so much for reading!  Happy Shopping!

D.I.Y. Shellac / Gel Nails Hack!

Sorry for my super long absence!  But I am back at it today with an amazing hack for you :)  I am so bad with my nails, my polish always chips off in the first day or 2.
If you are like me and you love having your nails painted but hate how quickly they chip then you have got to try this!
This doesn't take too long, the trick is thin layers and painting all nails with each coat then waiting a few minutes and doing all nails with the next coat.
Ready for the steps?
1 coat of base coat (I use Seche Vite) 1 coat of color 1 coat of Gelous 1 coat of color 1 coat of Gelous 1 coat Seche Vite Top Coat
I got all of my stuff from Sally Beauty Supply to do this and it has lasted me quite a while!  I use any color that I want to with the base, gel and top coat and it works so much better than regular polish and top coat. :) P.S.  Check out my Posh blog for a super easy one step pedicure!!  Seriously this is the ultimate lazy girl summer hack! P.P.S. Taking foot photos is so awkward!!  Sorry if these pics are super weird I just couldn't figure out how to take good ones. Thanks so much for reading!!

9 Tips to Banish Cake Face!

After a very rough month or so health wise and sleep wise, my face is in rough shape.  I did not wash and moisturize twice a day like I should have while I was sick and my skin shows it.  When your skin is dry, uneven, and full of dead skin layers, cake face is so hard to avoid!
Luckily I found a scrub and a face oil that really help! I can now actually salvage my poor skin and have my foundation apply smoothly without the dreaded cake face look.
Since I have been struggling with this and researching tips and tricks I thought I would make a post with all of the useful tips and tricks out there.  There are so many things you can do to help avoid cake face:
1. exfoliate (2-3 x's a week) 2. moisturize (2-3 x's a day) 3. add some oil to your foundation before applying (see demonstration here) bonus tip: if you have dry skin or lots of texture to your skin avoid watery, or very thin liquid foundations. You can even put your skin type into Sephora's website and see recommendations for foundation based on your skin type) 4. apply foundation with a beauty blender or soft foundation brush 5. try to stipple (push foundation straight into your skin) instead of rubbing the foundation around your face 6. use downward strokes when applying foundation (peach fuzz generally grows downwards on your face and you want it to lay smooth and flat not stand it up) 7. make sure your foundation is completely dry before adding any finishing powder 8. press instead of rubbing powder in 9. use a glycerin, moisturizing setting spray
Thanks for reading!!  Sorry there are no pictures in this post, my camera lens is not able to pick up cakey vs. smooth makeup difference :(

Shop Miss A!! A bargain hunter's dream?

What if there was a dollar store that had amazing makeup, jewelery, and accessories and you could shop for all of it from your couch?  What if they offered free shipping on orders over $30 and had good customer service too? I found this amazing site called ShopMissA.com and I love it!!  I have placed 3 orders so far and I have been able to get a wide variety of their products and feel like I can tell you what to look for and give you tips on it all. The biggest thing to watch out for is lead in their jewelry.  This is my only disappointment with this store.  I love the jewelry that I got from them, but several of the pieces had warning labels that stated "not intended for children," "for ages 14 and older," etc.  I believe one even had the "this product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause.." label.  Some of their jewelry items do say "lead free" on the website but not all do.  In the future I will only be ordering items that state "lead free" on the website. My only other warning is that you need to check your package and everything in it thoroughly right when you get it.  If anything is broken or defective or you just want to return or exchange something, you only have 3 business days from when your package arrived to you.  I had 3 out of my 40 something items that were broken/defective in my first order and 1 in my second order and 3 in the third. With the 1st order I contacted them about 2 weeks later and at first they just told me their policy and that I had missed their cutoff.  They did give me store credit when I complained that their cutoff date was not a normal amount of days for a return and that it was only listed on the site under the returns tab (which you wouldn't check until you were already trying to do a return and you might already be too late without even knowing it at that point).  The only other con is that stuff sells out quickly.  They get some really amazing things for $1 but usually the best colors and options are sold out when I look at the site.  They have an email subscription that alerts you when they add inventory and I would highly recommend joining it if you love the site. Thanks for reading!!  Have you ever tried this site?  Leave me a comment below with your thoughts!

Gibson's Green Acres Dairy Farm, Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze!!

Last week when I was writing about our corn maze experience I knew we wanted to also go to Gibson's Green Acres Dairy's corn maze.  I contacted Andrea Gibson to ask for their Facebook page to include in my last post's link and she was so sweet and gave us free tickets even though I told her we were already planning on coming out to her corn maze anyways.  So we had an amazing night and we are planning on going back again because we had so much fun!!
Gibson's Green Acres is a family dairy farm and Andrea talked about how they decided to diversify and do the corn maze and pumpkin patch in order to adapt to growth in the community and to benefit both the farm and the community.  They had a tractor tour of the whole farm where Andrea taught us all about the cows and the milk and the farm.  It was so fun!
They had so much stuff for kids to do with Spool Racing, Duck Racing, the Huge Corn Pit, the Big Slide and the Little Slide, a Petting Zoo, the Hay Maze and the Pumpkin Patch.  They also had a fire pit to warm up by!  The corn maze was also unique because the corn was soooo tall and they had different options once you got in the maze.  We did the quick maze because we had Jackson and it was getting cold.  It was perfect!  We got to wander around and find our way out pretty easily but it was still fun.  
The corn maze was actually planted by GPS and is the first precision planted maze in Utah.  Andrea designed the maze and was able to program it into their corn planter so the maze grew exactly where they wanted it to!  Their corn is so tall that you feel like you are in your own isolated world in the maze and it is so nice to not be tripping over broken off corn stalks or stubble from removed corn stalks like in some other mazes.

The pumpkin patch was another amazing part of the farm that I could do a whole post on.  They planted several varities so there are huge orange pumpkins, rounder deep orange pumpkins, super warty pumpkins, and even teal pumpkins.  Did I mention they are as cheap or cheaper than grocery store pumpkins!?  That's right you can take your kids out to the best pumpkin patch I have ever seen, let them wander around and pick the pumpkin they want and it is an amazing deal too!  We are definitely getting our pumpkins from them!!
They have extended hours for UEA weekend this weekend so if you haven't made it out yet you should definitely go. :)
Thanks for reading!!

3 Places to Buy Amazing Makeup Brushes Affordably

Do you need expensive brushes??  My answer is a definite, "No!"  I mean if you want beautiful, spendy brushes then go get 'em!  But if you are wanting to improve your makeup application by adding brushes or you need to replace old brushes, etc.  You can find some A-mazing brushes that are super affordable.
Personally I love e.l.f. studio brushes and EcoTools brushes but I have also recently ventured into buying cheap brushes from Amazon after researching reviews and I have been quite happy with those purchases too.
Brushes I recommend: e.l.f. studio line, e.l.f. professional eye shadow brushes (these are super cheap and are also good as long as you just stick with the eyeshadow brushes, the face brushes in this line are not good), any EcoTools brushes, and Amazon brushes with great reviews.  Link to my black set here and similar to my gold set here (the set I purchased is no longer available but this is from the same seller and looks identical).
I could make this a humongous post with a review of all of my brushes and which brushes I think are most essential, but I am trying not to do crazy, long, and hard to organize posts anymore. Trust me, this is so much easier to read!

Here's a link to a great post/infographic that has basic brush types/uses.

Thanks for reading!

It's Fall Y'all!!

Temperatures have dropped, leaves are turning, pumpkin spice everything is everywhere and Halloween is just around the corner!  
We were able to go to this amazing corn maze and pumpkin patch this year and last year.  I absolutely love all of the fun things there for our whole family!  Jackson has loved playing in the big tub of corn both years and of course riding the barrel train and wandering through the pumpkin patch.
I love just being there and seeing all of the fun things!!  They have lots of little fall photo opp set-ups all around and have a light show after dark and all sorts of fun things and yet it has a small, homemade feel to all of it.
Here's a list with some other fun corn mazes and pumpkin patches here in Utah.  Happy Fall!