My first Sigma Brush - Flat Kabuki F80

I recently won a blog contest held by Claire and so I was sent the Sigma F80. This is my first Sigma brush so I was super excited to hear that I won. 

The size of this brush is perfect for buffing in foundation. Here it is compared to the Sonia Kashuk flat top brush. I always felt that the SK brush was a little too small, but continued to use it because I loved the finish it would give me. Now I'm going to start using it for cream blushes and I think it will be perfect for that. 

This Sigma brush has to be my all time favorite for applying foundation and I've tried a bunch, including the MAC 109 (shed too much, not dense enough), Essence of Beauty angled blush brush (absolutely love this one, but sheds a lot too), Regular flat foundation brush (too streaky and "old school" imo). I find that with this brush there is little to no waste of foundation. It's so dense that I can just pump the foundation right on to the brush, dot it on my face and then blend it in.

I love the plastic slip the brush came w/, it makes it perfect for travel and for drying. The brush is also very  comfortable in the hand. Overall I'm so impressed with this Sigma brush. Even though I have more brushes than I know what to do with, it definitely makes me want to try some of the other brushes that Sigma has to offer. 

What is your favorite Sigma brush?

Post Op - Surgery Pics

Hi guys, so it's been about  5 days since I've had my myomectomy. It's been a pretty hard and painful recovery so far. Sometimes I have good day's and sometimes bad, yesterday was a really hard day, but today hasn't been so bad. 

I went in for my surgery on Tuesday at Oschner Medical Center at around 6am, by the time they admitted me, did the surgery and put me in recovery I was done around noon. The entire staff was so amazing, they would check up on me almost every hour to see how I was doing and if I was comfortable. The first day of the surgery was pretty easy, mainly because the anesthesia hadn't fully wore off so I wasn't in much pain, I also had a catheter in so I didn't have to move much or get up at all. On top of that they had me hooked up to a pain pump which I could hit every 6 minutes if I felt any kind of discomfort. By late that night it seemed like I was hitting that button every 45 min to an hour lol. (ooh pain pump, how I miss thee)

Day 2 - gift from my co-workers. No makeup obviously, but I did finger comb my hair lol. The flowers in the top left of the pic are from my friend Lyndi

The next day they only had me on the pain pump for half the day and then they switched me over to oral meds. That's when the pain really started to sit in. I made the mistake of coughing that day and lets just say I haven't coughed since, (thank god!) lol, it hurt like a mother effer. 

They released me late Thursday morning and I've been at my mom and dad's house just taking it easy and resting. Recovery time is 4-6 weeks and during that time I can't really do anything so it really sucks. Jason has been so great though and comes over every night after work to hang out with me and he spent the weekend w/ me as well. Here are some pics from the hospital. I can't take any of the actual incision due to it's location, but basically it looks exactly like a c-section incision so I think you guys get the idea :)

 From Jason, he said it reminds him of me lol

 Co-workers gift

 stretch marks (I think?) from where they pulled my skin up ( you can see the tape which is over the incision) 

This is the bruising just below my hip bone, since the fibroid was just to the right of my uterus most of the bruising and swelling is on that side. I showed Jason the incision and bruising and he said, "damn babe, it looks like someone beat you down there with a bat" lol, um thanks husband :P no, but then he added, "it's ok babe, it's only temporary and your still sexy to me." Awww ♥ him

Splurge VS. Steal - House of Harlow Resin Necklace

I'm sure you guys have seen this necklace everywhere. It's Nicole Richie's House of Harlow resin necklace.  This retails for $145 on this site here

I found mine on eBay for only $4.99 w/ free shipping! I even saw some for $3.50 w/ free shipping. 

Now for $5.00 the quality isn't great, but only in feel not look. I just hope the gold coloring doesn't rub off too quickly :)

What do you guys think?

February Face & Body Purchases

I Picked up a few things at Walmart and Lush the other day. I mainly just needed the face scrub. I usually purchase the equate brand of the apricot scrub, but since the St. Ives brand was only a few cents more since it was on sale, I got this brand instead. It's pretty comparable to the Equate brand except I find the little scrubers in the St. Ives brand to be a little more gentle. 

I also got the Olay Pro X face brush. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting a lot from this brush. It doesn't feel heavy duty or strong enough, but It does help to remove makeup better. I washed my face with my usual cleanser, rinsed and then went over my face again with the brush and a little more soap. I was pretty impressed with how much more makeup came off on the brush. 

At Macy's I stopped by Lush to get my all time favorite product. The Buffy Body Butter. You can check out my review of it here if you would like.

I Really didn't need another self tanner, but I've heard a ton of good things about the Banana Boat Summer Color self tanner. I've only used it once so far but I really like it. It's creamy and easy to  blend in and since it's really dark it's easy to see where you're applying it. I also heard that this fades gradually instead of coming off patchy (I'm looking at you L'Oreal sublime).

Before and after. 1 application. 

Since I like my tan to be dark I will probably do 2 to 3 back to back applications next time.

Have any of you tried these products? What's your favorite self tanner?

P.S I thought I would share with you guys that I'm having a myomectomy on the 20th. (Here's a link if you want to see what it's about). Recovery time is 4-6 weeks so I probably won't be posting much, if at all till I get better. If I do post it will probably be surgery updates and pictures if it doesn't look too gross lol.

Nivea Misses

Some of you may already know that I really love Nivea products. However these 3 were definitely a disappointment. Read below to see my review.

I found myself having really drying skin lately so I thought this body lotion would be perfect since it's really thick. Wrong!

Sorry for the not so clear pics above

As you can see, the second ingredient is mineral oil. I always try to stay away from mineral oil because it doesn't really do anything for you skin. The particles of it are too large to be absorbed so it just sits on top of your skin and doesn't let your skin breath. Not only that, it's also greasy. I actually used about half the bottle of this stuff wondering why it wasn't do anything for my skin until I turned it over and saw that it had mineral oil in it. I always check the back of stuff like this to make sure it doesn't, but I guess I missed it this time. So basically this stuff didn't do anything for my skin besides leave it feeling greasy and still dry the next day. It was also kind of difficult to blend in which I didn't like either. Definitely will not repurchase.

I had high hopes for these makeup wipes and I especially loves that they are fragrance free and textured. However, the biggest disapointment is that they are not wet enough. I always store my wipes in a cool dry place and always upside down so that the moisture goes towards the ones that you would end up pulling first. Even the very first wipe in the pack was not wet enough. and before I could even take off all my makeup, the wipe was practically dry. I actually needed 2 wipes to get the job done, but I still didn't feel like my face was fully clean enough so I just washed it with soap. 

I won't be purchasing these again since the whole point of makeup wipes is to remove makeup, it doesn't matter how great it's ingredients are if it can't perform the main task it's supposed to. I plan on trying Neutrogena's makeup wipes next since I love their eye makeup remover and I've heard good things about their wipes. 

When I first opened this I expected it to be a rich and super creamy body lotion that would leave my skin feeling silky smooth and moisturized. Well it was just that...for 5 minutes. After that my skin was so dry as I didn't apply anything on at all. It's a shame because I love the texture of this, It's really creamy and easy to blend in and smells so good, but it didn't really do anything for my skin. 

Have any of you tried these products? What's your favorite body lotion and makeup wipes?

Mini Rant: How annoying is the new captcha? Ok, maybe it's not that new because I think blogger changed it a few weeks ago, but I can't stand it! I find myself commenting on blog posts less when I have to type that thing in. Grrr. Ok I'm done.

February in Pics

Phone pictures taken in February 

Hibachi for a friend's birthday

My sweet pea Bacardi

My friend got my these chocolates b/c Turkish Delight used to be my nickname on my Myspace years ago.  These chocolates were actually scented, they were not good at all so I tossed them and kept the tin.

One of my bff's at her kid's b-day party

Bacardi hamming it up, he loves sitting by the fire. 

Margarita time at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. 

Love this stuff, a friend of mine from Turkey came down to visit and brought this for me.

At a Mardi Gras parade w/ one of my good friends. This was actually on the coldest day of the year. We froze our ass off.

One of the roses from my Valentines day flowers

Margarita's at Chili's for a friends b-day

This is their cobb salad I had, sooo good!

A  pair of fly hawks gettin' it on on my car. I took a pic because I've never seen it before...and because i'm weird like that. 

So what have I observed from this past month? I drink a lot lol

How was your Month of February?