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Fresh Sephora haul!

In case I hadn’t mentioned before, I’m getting married! And because I’m a basic broad who still is on a budget, I am doing my make up myself. Some people out there may be cringing, but I am one of those weirdos who did a ton of community theatre, and have had my fair share of practice. I am still pretty cautious, and will be doing some test runs on my own. Will post about those soon! For now I wanted to dive in on my Sephora steals for the upcoming nuptials.

As mentioned above, I am a basic broad, and have the essentials; like my Sephora Insider card. I don’t spend enough to qualify for VIB, but I still use up dem bennies Sephora offers. Like, your birthday gift, and points to earn you some free beauty minis. For this haul, I had three basic needs; a fly lip gloss, setting powder, and waterproof mascara. For these items I paid full pop, (they were all products that I had ran out of and def needed more of) and I received a gift card so this was the perfect opportunity to get the goods! I had stocked up some mega points, and of course used the most recent coupon code to get some more free minis. For instance the Zen Jelly oil wash, Anastasia brow dip mini, they’re real mascara, and the glam glow eye cream were all a recent coupon code to add four minis when you spent $80. Score! Then I got some goodies from the beauty bazar, which I’m not gonna lie, I’m hardly impressed with. Nonetheless, still got a beauty blender primer mini, and an IT cosmetic mascara added to the cart.

After all was said and done; I used up my $98.87 of my $100 gift card and walked away with:

-full size Perversion Waterproof Mascara

-full size mineral veil by Bare Essentials

-full size Boxum lip gloss in shade Dolly

-mini of Zen Oil Jelly wash

-mini Anastasia brow dip in dark brown

-mini IT cosmetics lash blowout mascara

-mini Benifit They’re real mascara

-mini beauty blender primer

Overall, great finds for some quality makeup! And I went from no mascaras to 1 full size and 3 minis! Can’t wait to show you guys the first attempt at a look with all this. I love to save my gift cards in a special place (that I will remember!) until I truly need it! What a way to spend this giftie! I got some products to complete my bridal day look! Hope this inspires you to take a risk, be creative and do some diy of your own! Until next time friends!

Love, Sommer

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Tea time is like a little break of luxury.

When I first had to cut back my spendings five years ago, it was because I realized that my spending was keeping me from living the life I wanted, and keeping me in a job that I didn’t enjoy to keep me buying things I didn’t need. I will tell more on that story later. For now, here is a little way I spend some time with myself, while enjoying little luxuries. (That normally cost a lot extra)

Eventually; I quit my full time job, because I realized that if I cut a lot of extras from my budget (getting my nails done, take out coffee, shopping spree’s, the newest and greatest phone this week...you get the idea) I would be able to work free lance and still pay all my nessesary bills. I now have more time at home, quality time with myself, and my dog and loved ones. But I was missing my afternoon Starbucks breaks hard. Enter tea time.

Since I have more time at home for projects, house keeping and other things; I decided that taking a break British style would be just the ticket. I did invest in some nice teas, and requested a nice tea set for a gift; but compared to the cost of one Starbucks, or just an afternoon in a tea shop, it is a bargain. So now at about 1pm, if I happen to be at home, I take the time to blend my favorite tea, maybe a cookie or two. And relax and drink, maybe read some of my book, before going to the next task on my to do list.

The result, I love this time of day, and it really feels like a little touch of something luxurious and decadent, even though it’s from the comfort of my home. The other thing that I feel good about, is this seems more economical. No gas used to get to the tea house or coffee shop, no stress of parking, and waiting in line, and most important no wasted cups and receipt. Of course I still go to the coffee house on occasion, mostly if I’m meeting a friend, or traveling. But I also like having the option of offering my own place, and hosting a tea time catch up. (Friends love this too, especially if they are on a budget as well, no need to spend money, just spend quality time!)

I hope this inspires you to cut something extra out of your budget, and get creative and ADD something special that is more friendly to your pocket book. Until next time friends, pinky out!

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Winter 2020 try and review.

I received Influenster’s 2020 Glowing voxbox, where I received these products in exchange to try and share my experiences. I really enjoyed a lot of these products that really cured some winter blues.

First was the Goldbond Radience Renewal: I already love Goldbond, and this thick whipped cream with a tri of oils, really felt good on dry winter hands. I enjoyed using it after giving myself manicures, before bed, and on elbows and heels for extra moisture. It did have a slight coconut smell, but I think this was from the oils as opposed to an added frangrance. Overall, this product was a winner, and is used everyday.

Bliss Bright Idea Brightening and Firming Moistureizer: So Im on that peptide train, like hard. I first used one with my birthday gift from Sephora with Drunk Elephant and I fell in love! Personally I use DE on the daily, but this Bliss was pretty good! A great alternative to the expensive brand, and still gives you the benefits! I love that this really improves the texture of your skin, making your bare days of no makeup feel even more glowy.

Type A Deodorant: fist off I was pleased to try an aluminum free brand and I really liked the easy no bulk packaging. I did as the instructions said and applied to squeaky clean skin, but alas I stank through it after two hours. So reapply is nessesary. Overall I liked the smell, and the idea of a new type of deodorant, but this may not be the best fit for my body.

Tic Tac X-Freeze: who doesn’t like a nice string mint? I was stoked to try these, I personally don’t like gum (I know, and I’m a born and raised valley girl) so having this in my bag was great to have in my bag whenever I needed a fresh boost. It’s a little bigger than traditional tic tacs, and when you get to the middle it feels like a snowstorm in your mouth. Def packs more power than your traditional tic tac. Both flavors were great, strong mint did as it said, and wintergreen gave a nice breezy boost. Overall, I will be buying more of this in the future.

There it is! My personal experiences with all four of the products from Influenster’s Glowin 20’s VoxBox. I always love getting these boxes, and who doesn’t love free stuff??? If you wanted to give them a try, go to their site and sign up so you can get some quality products to try and review too! See everyone next time for some more extra ways to keep it fab without spending extra. Keep it real friends!

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Brag moment for a second....but I have one of the best friends a gal could ask for! My bestie/soul sister/PIC whatever you want to call it, the me threw me BEST bridal shower, and I just have to document this so the world can see!

The original idea started because I wanted something fun, and to connect with some of my future in laws, and a high tea afternoon at my future mother in laws seemed like the perfect venue, the backyard was newly redone, with enough room for at least two dozen people, perfect!

The food. Any afternoon tea needs the perfect finger foods, we stuck with salads, cookies, sandwiches and scones. At first the big dream was to make it all, but time is precious. And we got it catered by Sugar Birds in Los Angeles. The food was great, they took the order four days before, and were even early to drop off; would recommend!

The Desserts. What is tea without cake? Cupcakes that is. And cookies too. All the cookies. Here we may have gone overboard, but the world can never have enough sweet things! Rose cupcakes, and gorgeous sugar cookies by Sweet Art Bakeshop in Moorpark. What is lovely is this shop is owned by high school friends, and they delivered with some beautiful work that left our guests speechless! The rest of the cookies were from Trader Joe’s in both vegan and non vegan varieties.

Plates/decorations. We used real plates and tea cups for this event! A lot is being used for my wedding, but we used them double for this event, including most of the linens, and they looked lovely! All were found via Craigslist/garage sales/eBay, for pennies per peice. Sure it was a lot more work to wash and pack before and after; but it is my most cherished work with how much people enjoyed the set ups and mix matched sets! The paper napkins/hanging decos and plastic cuttlerly were purchased via amazon. (Key yo planning a party in two different cities)

Bevarages. Well of course tea! We had a whole tea mixing station with boiling water and all kinds of tea to blend together. We had tea bases of black, green and chamomile; and then a divided tray with different mix ins to add to your blend. Like rose, lavender, ginger etc. Guests could bring up their tea cups and blend together in a sachet. There was also spa water, using my Craigslist find of glasses (also being used in the upcoming wedding) which was a water spout of lemon and rosemary infused water that guests could come up and grab.

Gifts games: Tiffany planned a lot of games she found on amazon including get to know you games (in this case a Disney guess who) so guests could mingle and chat right away. Guests also had a little jar to make their own tea blends to take home, and a heart shaped infuser, which was a little hard to work. But hey, that’s amazon! There was also a photo wall that we made that guests also had fun taking photos with.

All in all, the day was litteraly picture perfect, and I hope others find some insperation from this! Pinkies our!

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I came across this clip of Jon Stewart’s monologue for the daily show while working my shift at UCB theatre in Hollywood. My manager put this on while there was some downtime, and it’s the first time I can ever think of when a whole room full of comedians were perfectly silent, and listened to these powerful words. I hope it has the same enlightening effect on you, and we can all make a change towards the greater good.

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Come on baby light my fire.

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No waxing, no problem.

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And then your character research leads to this. To all my badass babes out there, who practice that when life gets rough they just touch up their lipstick and keep riding. I love you ladies 👠💄💋

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To be upset over what you don’t have is to waste what you do have.

Ken Keyes Jr. #positivevibes #glasshalffull #optimism

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"No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs, reality itself is too twisted"

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

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