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Gardening in High Heels

cultivate a beautiful life

November 27, 2015

Five Favorite Beauty YouTubers

November 27, 2015

I don’t pay for an expensive cable package. I’m rarely in a position to sit down and bingewatch Real Housewives and let’s be real, if I did have a cable package that included Bravo, I would get nothing done. So instead, I watch a lot of sitcoms on Netflix and keep up with a lot of YouTubers.

It’s no surprise that most of my subscribed YouTube channels include a ton of beauty vloggers. I can’t help it. I live vicariously through their eyeshadow that never creases and lipstick that never wears off. And their endless supply of new loot. Seriously. Where do they get the money? I know..brands send them things for free..just let me think that they buy these things themselves or I’m going to start begging companies to give me a lil’ somethin’ somethin’.

Five Favorite YouTube Beauty Experts. They basically taught me to do makeup.

Makeup By Tiffany D

Tiffany is my first and favorite beauty YouTuber that I watched and took seriously. I’ve watched her channel morph from tutorials and dupe highlights to being more open about life with her day in the life and random chit chat videos. I seriously learned how to do a smoky eye from Tiffany and trust her product recommendations completely. I also can’t get over her gorgeous house and adorable little Olivia.

Leighann Says

Leighann holds a special place in my heart. I love that she also lets you into her daily life with her Weekend Vlogs, but her personality comes through no matter what she does and it’s incredible. I don’t think I would like her channel as much if she wasn’t the animated character that she is. The way that she talks reminds me of my conversations with my best friend. Lots of hyperbole and connections to random things that shouldn’t be connected…ever.

I love her tutorials but my favorite videos are her monthly favorites/unfavorites and her hauls. They’re mostly drugstore/Target finds so when I want to go out and buy everything after watching her videos (like I do with all of these ladies), it doesn’t totally kill my budget.

Beauty Broadcast

Emily is the sweetest thing ever. She’s always so down to earth and real about what she’s sharing. Her mix of drugstore and high end is what attracted me to her channel in the first place. I love her Try This Not That series, her comparisons (thinking about splurging on a high end product? She probably has found a drugstore dupe that works even better), and her Beauty Broadcast Express channel with 5 minute reviews on one specific product.

Of course, the Emily Awards series is fantastic. She breaks makeup into categories and does a full video on each and pulls out the best products she’s found, both high end and drugstory, in each category. Emily is another YouTuber I trust completely when she reviews a product.

xSparkage

Leesha’s tutorials are insane. The girl can apply eyeshadow and rock all the crazy colors. Yellow and poison green on her eyes? No problem, Leesha can pull it off. I also turn to her when I hear about something new coming out. Chances are she already has it, swatched it, formed an opinion on it, and filmed five tutorials with it already.

And along with Tiffany and Emily, has an adorable baby. How do these people crank out genetically perfect children? Is the makeup in their genes at this point?

My Simple Little Pleasures

Colette is a genius with water marbling. If I had the time, I’d do all kinds of crazy things to my nails and change my polish daily (long-time readers know how obsessed with nail polish I am.) But I don’t have the time so I live vicariously through Colette’s nails.

Her water marbling tutorials are genius. I love her Polish in Motion series, too. It’s truly just that; she’ll show you how the polish looks when it catches the light at different angles. Sometimes a still photo just doesn’t do it justice. She also has tutorials for just about every holiday as well as nail care/polish application tips and tricks.

Who are you favorite YouTubers?

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1 Comment · Labels: Five Things, Makeup & Beauty Tagged: beauty, beauty broadcast, beauty vloggers, leighann says, makeup, makeup by tiffany d, my simple little pleasures, nail polish, xsparkage, youtube

June 2, 2015

I Could Write a Book on Nail Polish

June 2, 2015

Today is the first day of Emily Levenson’s Project:Food Budget.  I’ll get to that below, but first…

Ever since I was younger, I wanted to be a writer.  I know I’ve said that before, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise.  I haven’t written a book before, but I think I could probably write a book about nail polish, lipstick, and generally other makeup.  I’ve totally let the #LipStockChallenge slide, but I could write about it for days.

There are so many things I’ve learned about nail polish from working at a spa and generally being obsessed with my nails.  I feel much more confident, pulled together, and powerful when I have my nails painted.  There was a time that I could correctly name the polish someone selected for their manicure.

I’m sorry to say that since I’ve been working so much, I haven’t had time to paint my nails.  My poor collection misses me!  Gardening is also so rough on your hands.  It dries them out, makes your nails flake, and stripes the shine from your nails.

While my nails are more bare than normal, I still have much wisdom to impart about nail polish.

Essie Mint Candy Apple dupes and manicure secrets

— I’m not totally sold that matte top coat applied between coats of light or streaky polish will even it out and give you an even application.  But it does seem to help.  I need to work a little on this technique.

— I also know that you should wrap the tip.  I know, I know.  It sounds dirty.  But it isn’t!  It’s bringing the color of your nail polish or the top/base coat over the tip of the nail.  This seals everything in.

— OPI Nail Envy didn’t make my nails envious at all.  I think it actually made the more prone to breakage when I didn’t use it.

— Essie Three Way Glaze is fantastic.  If I don’t set it, though, it does crease when I’m asleep and my hand is resting against the sheets, which is annoying.  But the shine and staying power is worth being careful the first night after a fresh polish.

— You can set your polish with a little Pam.  Run under cold water to wash off the oil and go.

— I’ve heard that you can put Vaseline or moisturizer around your cuticles as a barrier for the color so it’s neat and clean.  I’m worried that it will mix with the polish and spoil its efficacy.

— I’ve been hunting for an acceptable dupe for Essie Mint Candy Apple since I broke my original bottle.  It was after the new formulation of the color so I couldn’t just buy a new one.  And it took me forever to locate my first bottle when I was at Penn State.  The formula available at Ulta now looks blue.  That is NOT minty or appley!

I think I found the best double in Formula X in Unmistakable.  It’s a light, minty, blue-green.  I thought Zoya in Tiana would be good, but it’s definitely more yellow-green than blue-green.  Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mint Sorbet is an exact match for Zoya Tiana, though.

OPI in That’s Hula-rious and Gargantuan Green Grape are too green to be Mint Candy Apple.

I’ve also found a combo pack at Target with an Essie Gel-like top coat and Mint Candy Apple polish that looks sneakingly similar to my beloved original bottle.


Sticking to a food budget is hard, but I love the accountability with Project:Food Budget

Now that I’ve gone on about nail polish, I’m going to go on about budgeting.  Today is the first post for Emily Levenson’s Project:Food Budget.  I do my grocery shopping on Tuesday morning (after this is published) so I can’t really say how I’ve done so far.  I have made a meal plan (and will try to stick to it..unlike some of my past weeks!)  I am setting myself up with a $50 per week budget at the grocery story and other places where I buy food to cook.

I’m going to try to be intentional with the bill and track food as well as things I purchase at the store that contribute to eating in (storage bags and aluminum foil for example).  I will not include toiletries, greeting cards, etc that I can also buy where I shop.

For that reason, I’ve also decided not to include eating out in the budget because a) I rarely do it and b) if I do, it’s usually with Jonathan, so that’s more of a “date/entertainment” expense than a food expense.  Are you joining in to track what you’re spending?

Follow along with these other budgeting babes!

Emily Levenson / McGinnis and Bean / Rainaldi.org / Red Pen Mama / Erra Creations / Eryn Says… / Seeking White Space / facepalmmama / Gardening in High Heels / Melissa Firman / Copy & Post / Rachel Olive Miller

What could you write a book about?

Be a Better Blogger is a weekly link up dedicated to helping you be a more intentional blogger.  Want to be a better blogger but don’t know where to start? Head over to the Be a Better Blogger page for daily prompts and a weekly linkup to help get the creative juices flowing! Oh, and use #beabetterblogger on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook to keep the fun going even after you hit Publish!

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13 Comments · Labels: Makeup & Beauty Tagged: dupes, essie, makeup, nail polish, nails, opi, project: food budget, sally hansen, tips, zoya

Who’s Angelica?

Life Un-styled Blogger, Gardener, Shoe Lover..among other things

I'm here to encourage and empower you to grow where you're planted and embrace the weeds that sometimes pop up. I'll share inspiration, products I like (and you may too), and stories from the garden.

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