spend and splurge: hair care

Trying to save money on hair care products?

These are some of Tips and tricks to saving money on hair care products. Just so you get an idea here are the products I use and the original price of each.

Paul Mitchell color safe shampoo and conditioner. This run anywhere from 20 to 30 dollars.

One and only aragon oil deep conditioner. This can cost up to $10.

Then I use the big and sexy leave in conditioner which is usually around 13 dollars.

And last but not least big and sexy hair spray which is usually maybe 15.

A grand total of 70 to 80 dollars.

While I spent 40 or 45.

Here's what to do. Only buy the shampoo and conditioner at a salon that the product is already on sale and is buy one get one free or buy one get one 50 percent off. Because keep in mind they are 20 to 30 dollars a piece your not getting both for that price.

Usually sallys beauty will have some amazing sales and I like to see if the have 50 percent off deals. If not I head over to rite aid. They have a hair care product lane with all the biggest brand names. But you want to make sure it has the special sticker that says for rite aid sale only because if not the product is not promised.

Also I like to buy in bulk at Costco because you will find when you do this your savings are a lot greater.

If all as fails buy shampoo at the dollar store. That saves you 20 bucks then splurge on the conditioner. Dollar stores have shampoos with the same ingredients and the leading brands of shampoos but the conditioners vary. So save money on shampoo and go spend it on conditioner.

You won't regret it! :)

accutane

For those of you who know me you know about five years ago I was taking accutane.

For those of you who read my blog you know I have been breaking out like crazy.

I haunt broken out this bad since before i started taking accutane.

Needless to say I have decided to go see my doctor and get back on accutane. I know I made this decision fast. Maybe to fast. I didn't give enough time for my break outs to clear up before taking drastic measures but I just break out more and more every day.

I've decided these break outs are different and they need drastic measures. So I'm seeing my doctor this coming week.

I'm really excited. :)

Accutane is not for everyone and you should talk with your doctor about it before setting your heart on it. They might have alternative solutions for you or believe you wouldn't do well on the medicine.

That's all guys have a nice day!

pimples pimples pimples and how to get rid of them

So I started breaking out really bad all along my chin. I seriously had 8 major pimples. I dont know if it's from all the grease at work and me touching my face. It could be because I'm always on the phone. Or even because I just switched facial cleansers. Either way they are just nasty. So here is how I get rid of them :)

So I start with Loreal go 390 clean deep facial cleanser. And I repeat. I do once to get all my make up off then once more to get the dirt grease and whatever else out of my pores.

Then from the same brand and line of facial cleansers I use the deep exfoliating cleanser. This gets and dead skin cells off and all the other ickys that got left behind before.

Then I apply eye drops to my pimples to decrease the redness. Then I ice them to decrease the swelling.

Then I apply rapid clear acne eliminating spot gel by neutrogena.

After that I moisturize my skin because all the products can really dry out the skin which makes your skin produce oil and oil Orestes the pimples even more.

I repeat this at least twice a day and already half my pimples are gone.

I hope you guys learned a little bit from this and good luck :)

Email: kb.red804@gmail.com

Hair Extensions Review

Part 1: Haha okay you guys are going to laugh. NEVER EVER..get your extensions put in at a cosmetology school. EVER! Lol First bad thing is that they are complete newbies and have no idea what they are doing. Second bad thing is no one there knew how to make a cornrow. Third thing is they had no idea how to do extensions. They were never trained in them or anything. Like I knew more them then and I was telling them how to do it. Well the worst part of it all is that they still tried! And everyone would walk by and be like wow that’s so cool. Omg you cant even tell. Wow.

Well guess what I thought they looked horrible. I wasn’t sure why it was horrible but I knew it just wasn’t right. So I went to my local salon who told me they cant do extensions because they had no training and that I should go to this other salon downtown.

So I walk in and the lady was super nice when I was complaining about my hair she was all trying to tell me stuff that was wrong with it and whatever. So I  just straight up and asked how much is it going to cost for you to fix it for me? And it turned out it was sixty bucks. I was totally fine with that seeing as how she redid some of my extensions and added more with her own bag of hair.

So now my extensions look really good and they blend really well. My only complaint about it would be that she reused some of the braids the ladies at the cosmetology school used and they seem really loose. Also my hair is really heavy! Haha but I totally expected that I added on 18 inches of hair! No duh its going to be heavy! Lol

Part 2: The day I finished typing that the ones that dint get fixed at the second salon decided to fall out! So I went to 7 different salons trying to just get them taken out. And that’s when I met Johnny. He is awesome. He took out my extensions and he washed  my hair and all that good stuff for free. Not only that but he kept my extensions so her can make me clip ons and he is going to teach me how to put them on and all that great stuff. I honestly have no idea how much he will charge me for doing the clip ons but I think it will be well worth it.

As you can see I went through a pretty expensive process here. If you decided to go get extensions go to a professional who specializes in them. PLEASE don’t make the same mistakes I did. =)

Prices:

Hair: 60.00

Needle: 1.99

Thread: 2.00

Cosmetology school: 90.00

Second Salon: 60.00

Second Bag of hair: 60.00

Third Salon: Free

Clip-Ons: unknown

Total: 273.99

All this could have been avoided if I went to the second salon first. And it would have been 120.00 ish

Questions Comments or Replys

Email: kb.red804@gmail.com

Twitter: @B_alanna

My Shopping List!

Basically these are just the stuff I am wanting to test out and or buy. Even though my mom thinks I spend enough money lol. Here's how I see it I have money saved for no reason. It's not going anywhere. So if I have some extra cash I'm going shopping :)
Im kinda a shopaholic... For real

Let's get started

I need a brown belt. Kind of a light brown. But I bought an outfit like a week ago and the only thing that will bring it together is a brown belt that I don't have :(

I want to dye my hair as soon as I get my extensions in because my extensions are lighter then my hair. So I want to try the fat foam hair dye.

Next I really need a purse. I am in a painting class and my current purse has tons of paint all over it and my other purses don't match with everything. So I need one of those every day purses.

I also need to but my college books for the summer time. I am taking two classes and I need to get those books ASAP.

I need a white eye liner that is really white bot just white when the sun shines on it lol

I want a light pink lip stick kind of a bubble gum color just to try it out and see how it looks with my face color and.

And last but not least I want to try a bronzed from Mac or nars because the ones I been buys suck really bad.

If you have tried or use these products give me some feed back before I buy :) email me at kb.804@gmail.com
Twitter @b_Alanna

Hair Extensions

Okay I TOTALLY HATE HAVING SHORT HAIR!

If you fallow me on twitter you already know that I absolutely had to cut my hair. Thats just how dead it was. So I was talking to my friend in painting class about it and I told her I want hair extensions sewen in or whatever so I dont have to worry about putting them in everyday and whatever! She told me that i could get it done at the school she is going to and it would be pretty cheap because the need so many clients.

Needless to say I am going in on Saturday at 9:00 am.

And to be completely honest i have no idea what I am getting in to. I dont know if I bought enough hair. I dont know how much time its going to take. Im going in to this completely blind. lol

I just decided to announce the fact that I am getting it done so if anyone needs to tell me something about it they can email me. And also so if you guys are interested in getting it done you can look forward to my blog post about it. I am going to ask tons of questions and tell you guys everything! =)

I actually got extensions that are to light for me but the lady i bought them from said they would be able to blend it in. If not I will just get my hair dyed one last time. I also had to buy my own needle and thread. Completely reasonable. That all cost me 70 dollars. And at the school I am getting mine done it would normally cost 90 dollars to get it done. But like I said I dont know if I even bought enough hair. I will give you guys all the details later this weekend. promise! =)

Pray for my brave soul haha! I feel this is a little bit sketchy getting it done at a school! :P But I am a trooper and at least Ill have the experience and if it turns out awesome I know for next time where I need to be going. Cant beat the price.

Any questions or comments please email me 

kb.red804@gmail.com

or contact me via twitter

@b_alanna

April Favorites

Been awhile guys. I'm super busy with work and school. I decided to slow down a little a make time for family friends and all of you guys. I missed you guys so much! But let's just get right into it. April favorites!

1.) lenscircle.com circle lens in blue. These are amazing they make my eyes look bigger and they blend in with my green eyes pretty well. The only thing I don't like is that when your pupils are small you see a lot of your real eye color and it looks even more obvious. But I think that is how it is with all contacts. But let me show you a picture with one contact in so you can see the difference.

Please excuse the horrible picture and even worse quality. I took this from my Ipad.

2.) clear care contacts solution. So the first day I got my contacts I went out and bought rite aid brand solution because it was like five bucks and buy one get one free. Well that day my contacts hurt really bad and dried out my eyes beyond belief so I immediately removed them and went on a mission for the best contact solution ever lol. So this one I was able to wear my contacts for 8 hours my eyes wear fine they didn't turn red or get dry at all and I'm absolutely in love with this brand. Plus it's kind of cool to watch it clean your contacts here.

3.) so my next product is revlon color stay liquid foundation. Mine is in 110 ivory. It covers a ton! Lol I have a lot of pimples lately because I have been working the greasy grill at mcdonalds lol. But this covers them very well and it's is not a heavy foundation at all.

4.) revlon colorstay aqua. I love thus the only thing is I definitely got the wrong color. My gay friend told me it looked like I was trying to look like mulan from that Disney movie lol. Well my face is really white because I always wear sun block so I have to get darker foundation so it looks normal lol. But I think this on top of my previous favorite is just awesome last all day and all night with out touch ups. It just always stays perfect. It has a lot of sparkle but I like sparkle. So if you don't do not get this product you will hate it. I know some people really do not like sparkle in their foundation.

5.) cover girl true blend minerals shimmering sands/ mineral blush in 430. This is just a prelacy pretty blush color. I love blush. This one gives you the perfect glow. I like to apply it on top of my next favorite.

6.) elf all over color stick in pink lemon aid. So maybe I'm tripping but sometimes I smell it and think it smells like lemon aid lol. Uhhh I'm probably wrong but really I do think it has a citrus smell to it. But this is a really pretty color and you can use it where ever you want. It can be eye shadow lip stick or blush. My favorite way is to use it as a blush. It is really pretty especially with my other blush on top of it.

7.) revlon just bitten lip stain in passion. Very pretty. I love that I can kiss my little chunkers of a sister and not get any make up on her. Speaking of which ima post a pic of her at the end of this post.

8.) last but not least wet n wild lipstick in 528A. I just love this color very pretty. And it last a long time. For the price it's just amazing.

So those are my April favorites. Not to many because I'm always working I hardly wear any other make up lol. But I'm going to make more of an effort to try new products and all that good stuff.

And heres my baby!! Ok baby sister lol.

My Baby Sister Is Here!

So i have been out for awhile busy with work and school. But in the process my baby sister was born! =)

Baby Madison LeAnne

Spice It Up: Pony Tail

So I work at a fast food restaurant and I know what it’s like to want to spice up that stupid pony tail sometimes! The same hair style day after day just gets so boring. So let’s SPICE IT UP!

I am going to start out with wet hair because I have so many layers if my hair is not wet a bunch of pieces fall out. It’s also good to keep down the fly aways. Even though I will tell you my trick for fly aways. All you do is spray hair spray where every they are. Then you get your all over make-up brush for your face and wipe those fly aways down. That will take care of them I promise! =) Back to the Hair Style though.

Step one is grab the front section of your hair. It can be as thick as you want or as then. I’m going to go with what I think is a small section. But I have really thin hair so mine will come out smaller than yours will. 

Once you have this section you want to want o come it out really good and smooth. Then you want to start braiding it. You want to braid it going toward where the pony tail is going to be that way there are no weird bumps.

Now you want to hole that braid somehow. I just hold it with my teeth. And you want to get your pony tail going. Put it where ever you would like but I’m going to do a middle pony because that’s wear it has to be at work. That, or a low one. But anyway.

Then you just want to add your braid to the pony tail and secure it with a hair band.

:ewww acne scars!)

Now you can keep it like that, or you can make it in to a bun.

Or even a braided bun.

Haha now I just want to show you guys my awesome robot. Its the pic for when I sign on my computer I though it was cute.

I hope you guys like this hair style and enjoy trying it out! =)

Email: kb.red804@gmail.com

Twitter and Blippy: @B_alanna

Review: Complexion Perfection

This is a product from E.L.F. It covers redness, dark circles, and shine. I’m not sure what else it does. But I am positive it does one more thing lol. The green is for the redness. The yellow is brightens your face and neutralizes the redness. The pink is for the greyer area of the face. Maybe like dark circles. And the blue is for the orange colors in your skin. So all you do is blend it all together and apply to your face. Here is a before and after pic. Keep in mind I have no other make-up on Just so you guys can see how much it does. Sometimes I even use this powder to set my make-up. I think this is a great product. Especially since it is only 3 dollars and does so much =)

Before:

Sorry about this pic. I look horrible! But yea there is no explanation. I look horrible haha.

After:

So yea its a little powdery looking but it makes tinted moisturizer or cover up do so much more work. You can see it took off alot of shine and redness. It also brightened up my face.

Contact me

Email: kb.red804@gmail.com

Twitter and Blippy: @B_alanna

Outfit Of The Day

So I just wanted to do an outfit of the day. Just for Fun! =)

Shirt is from forever 21. The 81 is actually sparkley. I know the quality of the pic sucks.

Jeans from anchor blue. Very blurry. I know

Cheesy smile. But yea. Outfit lol

These are my shoes from target. They are sparkley I had to make it more girly. Also to add girlyness i have a sparkley necklace in the shape of a star. My class ring is a huge diamond and i curled my hair and put tons of sparkley lip gloss.

Needless to say I think my crush started liking  my back that day lmao. JK 

Now I just wanna show you this shirt I made. No, this is not Hello Kitty. I couldn't be. Hello Kitty is Copy Righted. See This this uhhh Good Bye Cat? And she doesn't have a bow but she is thinking about a flower instead. =)

Nightly Skin Care Routine!

Okay, so I will include my mouth stuff to just because I love the brand and I think every one should know about it! lol

So I start off by brushing my teeth using Crest 3d White Vivid. They have Advanced Vivid but for some reason I keep getting regular vivid. I don't know if it makes your teeth any whiter because I haven't tried it. So I guess find out for your self. But I will tell you this brand for sure makes your teeth whiter within two weeks.

Next I floss my teeth. I dont care about the brand i floss with but im currently using Oral B. Uhh it gets all the food out of my teeth. Just like any other floss would. =) lol

Then I use Crest 3d White Mouth Wash. It has no alcohol so its not not bad. Lol before I use using Listerine and at the 30 second mark I was about to cry lol. But I have to do it or I dont feel like my mouth is really clean lol.

So now for the skin. I wash my face with sheer cover cleanser.

After I moisturize with Sheer Cover.

The I use garnier skin renew anti-puff eye roller. I use it for my dark circles.

Then I use Night of Olay firming cream. Just so my skin dosnt get old looking lol. I fear age will take a tole on my skin early. lol So yea. Im trying to find a good anti wrinkle cream.

And thats it. Then I go to sleep. I exfoliate2 times a week and I wear a skin mask three times. But those are for another day. =)

I hope you guys enjoyed. I just wanted to answer a couple of questions all in one blog and a nightly routine blog fit all of the answers! lol

Email me with any questions. Or whatever you would like to say
Kb.red804@gmail.com
Follow on twitter and blippy
@B_alanna

Reviews! =)

Review: E.L.F Tone Correcting Concealer

So I have this product in Apricot Beige. It was one dollar, just like most E.L.F products. Well I wasn’t expecting much from this concealer. I kind of expected it to help blemishes blend in more but not cover them in any way. That’s pretty much exactly what it did. I put a couple dabs on my dark circles. It did cover them, but you could totally tell I had dark circles still. I guess it kind of just lightened them up a bit. This for a dollar is great. But definitely I will not rebuy this. I really don’t enjoy the texture of this on my eyes. It feels way to sticky for me. And it made my make- up look odd. It creased which made my eye make-up look worse. So yea I’m experimenting with concealers to, I think my next concealer will be the one from Kat Von D and I will let you know how that goes. It will be awhile before I get that. I’m just letting you know that is what I have in mind.

Review: Rimmel London Glam Eyes Mascara.

Just another ordinary mascara. It works ok. I got the color brown black. The brush means nothing. As a matter of fact I kind of hate the brush. I don’t really know what they claim the brush does but it really makes no difference. I really like Lash Blast. I get the purple bottle just because I like the color purple better then orange. They claim the purple one is a step up. I never really tried but I’m sure they are. They are the same price so I guess it all depends on what color you like best. I really like that brush and I’m thinking about putting that brush in this Glam Eyes mascara to see if i like it better. But color payoff is good. It does make lashes appear longer but so does any mascara. So I don’t know I think I’m going to stick to lash blast for a couple months and try to change it up again. Actually I might buy one from mac to see if it’s worth the money! =) Let me know what you guys think of mac mascara!

Review: Elf Plumping Lip Glaze

So I got this in the shade Plum Pout. The color is really pretty. The plumping part is okay. It doesn’t really make your lips bigger or anything. It gives the tingly feeling. I like the tingly feeling and I would re buy this product. I think the color is just so pretty and all the other color options are gorgeous. So think I’m definitely going to pick another one up. For a dollar it’s pretty fantastic. It’s not sticky. I hate when lip glosses are sticky, so trust me I would tell you. As much as I love victoria secret lip gloss colors  they are just so sticky!

Review: Wet n Wild Perfect Pair Eye Wand

These have really good color pay off. I just swatched my hand I havnt really used it on my eyes but wow im already impressed. Actually im going to go put this on right now and let you guys know how it goes really quick! Oh yea this is going to be a rebuy, stock up on every color they have rebuy! It is so cheap and it looks really good. I don’t have any make up on no foundation no base no nothing just this and the color pay off is still amazing! I would just love to go to the store right nog and pick up all the colors. But its like 1 in the morning! Lol. So I will do that tomorrow. But yes get this for your collections ASAP! =) Ph yea one bad this is the make up fell out but whatever I just popped it back in and it was fine. Just letting you know. I dont want you to go and be like damn it this isn't perfect like she said. lol

Anyway Let me know about the mac mascara. And if you have questions comments or recommendation hit up my email.

Kb.red804@gmail.com

@B_alanna

Thats for twitter and blippy.com! =)

Blippy.com

Ok guys I'm on Blippy.com now. One of you guys mentioned it to me and I thought wow how cool. Well here is my issue; no way am I putting my credit card number in there! Neither should you guys. I gave it access to my email. Because you know, whatever. But yea now I can only reveiw stuff that sends an invoice to my email which kind of sucks.

Whatever anyways you guys know Im not going to lie to you about shit. So when i say its good quality and that i really like the product. I mean it. The reason I say this is because already someone was like girl, forever 21 sucks in quality and blah whatever.

I was like girrrrl dont be hatin on my forever 21 one dollar and 50 cent earrings. I said they are good they are good! lol

No I didnt really say that but thats what I was thinking! =)

I just want you guys to know im not going to lie about that stuff. Its so pointless. So please know that and dont go commenting on it like this girl did. lol Its my thoughts my opinions if you want to write a review on it go buy the product and say all the bad stuff you want =)

But other then that I hope you enjoy my product reviews! Love ya!

Kb.red804@gmail.com
@B_alanna

How To: Get Rid Of A Pimple-Fast!

We all had those nasty huge pimples the day before a big date, picture day, and/or prom. You know the ones that look like this.

Sorry I didn't want to use a real picture of a pimple because thats really gross. I know some people can tolerate it but it makes me want to gag so I would like to think I am not the only one! lol
So here we go. How to get rid of a pimple ASAP!
Step 1: Wash your face! You want to keep your skin very clean when trying to get rid of a pimple. After you wash your face try to avoid touching it. I.E putting you had on you cheeks to rest your head. All that good stuff

Step two: Ice the pimple area. This is to take down any swelling. Later it will appear less red but while your putting ice on and a while after the area will more then likely be more red then when you started to put ice on the pimple. Hold ice there for 10 minutes.

Step three: Give your self a face mask. You can use yogurt. You can find this way in one of my previous blogs. Or just a cleanser/mask you have laying around. If you have a mask thats great, use it!

Step four: Get medicated acne medicine and apply to your face according to the directions on the box. Try spot treatments. Proactiv and Clearasil both have them. If you dont have these you can try tooth paste. Tooth paste will dry out the pimple. But dont leave it on to long because it will literally start burning you and eating you skin.

Now repeat this every 3 to 4 hours and your pimple will be gone in no time! =)
Questions, Comments, and Request can be sent here to my email
kb.red804@gmail.com
Follow me on Twitter
@B_alanna

Oh yes, once again I just googled these pics. You know how this goes. I take no credit. And yea! =)
See ya later guys!

Make-Up Questions/Survey

I just thought it would be nice to post this for you guys. Just so you guys get a chance to see what I use. Hopefully this will help me gain your guy's trust with make up so you all come back and read my other posts. I just do these blogs to help lady's ann hopefully answer questions you guys may have. And also share what I like. Im very honest about products to so I will not lie and tell you something is good if it isnt. Well heres the survey I hope you guys enjoy!

SKINCARE -
How many times do you wash your face daily?
Two to three times a day. I take a shower before work and after work. But most of the time I put make up on after my showers and I need to wash my face again to get all that make up off before bed.

What skin type do you have? (dry,oily,combo) 
none really. My skin is not dry or oily. Its just soft but I think that I just take good care of my skin so I never see it get dry or oily.

What is your current facial wash?
I use a lot of

Do you exfoliate? 
Well I use face wash with beads in it that supposedly does that for me. But I need to get an actual exfoliating brush. I just don’t know which one I want to get.

What brand do you use?
Like I said I don’t really do it.

What moisturizer do you use?
Sheer cover

Do you have freckles? 
No I don’t.

Do you use eye cream? 
No, but I probably need to.

Do you or did you have acne prone skin?
I don’t know but I used to have acne prone skin really bad.

Did you ever have to use Pro-activ? 
No I have not. That is like the one product I didn’t try for acne.


MAKE-UP
What foundation do you use? 
Im not really wearing foundation now days. I need to find one that matches me. My skin color is forever changing

How about concealer? 
I like to use e.l.f a lot and it works pretty good for the price.

Do you know your undertone color?
I am cool toned with pink undertones =)

What do you think of fake eyelashes?
They are so awesome! I just wish I had glue so I can wear them right now!

Did you know that you are supposed to change your mascara every 3 months? 
Yea you don’t want bacteria in your eyes do you? And never share!

What brand of mascara do you use?
I love lash blast fusion. I more of a drug store make up kind of girl. Even though I do love high end make up. But lets face it I have to save up to move out.

Sephora or MAC? 
Sephora just because its more convenient for me to go there. Mac counters are getting harder to come by around here.

Do you have a MAC Pro-card? 
No! haha I don’t shop there much.

What makeup tools do you use in make up application? 
Everything! Lol I have like brushes sponges cotton everything! lol

Do you use make-up base/primer for the eyes? 
No. Actually I almost lied I guess I would consider what I do a base.

For the face? 
Yea I do. It has to stick to something for longer lasting make up.

What is your favorite eye shadow (color or shade)?
I love browns purples and greens

Do you use pencil or liquid eyeliner? 
I use a pen. Like mac has but it’s definitely not mac.

How often do you poke your eyes with an eyeliner pencil? 
I don’t really do that. Ever. But now I think I just jinxed myself.

What do you think of pigment eyeshadows? 
Yea I don’t really like them.

Do you use mineral makeup? 
No, but I think im going to break into my mom’s tomorrow just to test it out.

What is your favorite lipstick?
Im not to big on lipstick. I love red and nude colors though when I do wear them. But for every day I throw a liquid lip stain on and call it good 

How about lipgloss? 
I like nude colors I match my lip stains lol.

What is your favorite blush to use? 
I need to find a new one! I think I am going to buy mac’s orgasm! It looks so pretty!

Do you buy your makeup on ebay? 
No. I don’t know why I would pay skipping when I could go to the store buy it for the price it would be just for shipping alone lol.

Do you like drugstore makeup? 
Yes I am a fan. You just have to find the good stuff and have patients.

Do you go to CCO's? (cosmetic company outlets) 
No I don’t.

Did you ever consider taking make-up classes? 
Nope. I do it for fun not for a career. If I took classes it would probably ruin it for me. Kind of like how I used to love drawling but after my drawling class I don’t like it at all not matter how much better that class made me. (a lot)

Are you clumsy in putting on makeup?
haha yep sometimes I get really clumsy and start dropping everything.

Name a makeup crime that you hate? 
People drawling on there eye brows. That’s not what bugs me but its when they are totally different shapes!

Do you like colorful shades of makeup (lipstick,eyeshadow) or neutral ones? 
Everyday I got for nudes but I definitely like to spice it up and put on some pretty colorful shades.

Which celebrity always has great make up?
hayden panettiere

If you could leave the house using just ONE make up item, what would you use?                            Mascara. Some days that’s all I put on.

Could you ever leave the house without any makeup on?
I do it all the time. I love make up and I think its awesome to enhance your beauty but sometimes its just nice to be natural.

Do you think you look good even without any makeup on? 
Yes I do but yes I think make up enhances my beauty.

In your opinion, what is the BEST makeup line?
Mac had to be the most consistent with good products. Other companies are touch and go with the products some are great some just suck.

What do you think of Makeup?? 
Its pretty awesome! =) I love experimenting. Its just a fun hobby.

Dark Circles: 101

Do you have dark circles?



I know I do. I am here today to tell you how I reduce my dark circles. Then I will tell you how to properly conceal them.

So to start lets take a look at what causes dark circles. Lack of vitamins, dryness, getting to much sun, bruising, and lack of sleep are the major causes of dark circles. Getting to the underlying cause makes it much easier to find a cure. Now, just so we are clear, I am not offering a cure. All I am doing with this blog is sharing what I do to reduce my dark circles and how I hide them.

Lack of vitamins is among the top causes to dark circles. So what is the easy way to ensure you are getting all your vitamins? Take a daily multi vitamin of course! =) Any one could have told you that. But I am here to tell you, as a student majoring in nutrition; it is much healthier to get your vitamins from food. So please, eat a variety of foods in a variety of color.

Dryness..hummm Now how do we fix dryness? Moisturizer! Duh. Apply moisturizer to your whole face including under your eyes. But please be gentle. You don't want to break the blood vessels! Which leads me to the next topic.

Bruising. Bruising comes from rubbing the eyes. This breaks all the little blood vessels under your eye and can cause bruising which is also considered dark circles. So be gentle around your eyes and you can reduce dark circles that easy.

Wear sun screen because sun exposure is bad for your skin and worsens your dark circles.

And lastly, get enough sleep. That was the obvious one. Sleep deprivation causes dark circles. 8 hours of sleep a day keeps the dark circles away. Well hopefully you sleep at night but you get my point. I hope.

Now my secrets to hiding dark circles. Yellow cancels out darkness. Just like green cancels out red. Apply yellow tinted concealer on your dark circles. If you do not have yellow tinted concealer try this. Apply a light yellow eye shadow on your dark circles. Kind of like the yellow on this flower.

Blend the crap out of it. Make sure it is hardly noticeable and then apply a concealer.

Then apply your normal foundation. Now your dark circles should be hidden and you should look even more amazing! =)
Hope you guys enjoyed. I really hope this works for you guys since it works for me. I would never tell you guys to do something that didn't work for myself.
If you have any questions feel free to email me at kb.red804@gmail.com and follow me on twitter @B_alanna

Almost forgot to mention I just googled these pictures as always. I do not take credit for these pictures. I feel like I have to say this every time so I don't get in trouble someday! lol

Getting Rid of Acne: 101

I figured since it’s a new year we all have new resolutions. One of mine is capitalizing my I’s in blog posts! I know that annoys the crap out of some people so I am going to try my best to make sure I keep capitalizing. =)

But for those of you who have different more complex resolutions more power to you! If one of you resolutions is to treat your skin better or clear up your acne look no further. I have all the answers for you right here in one blog post! How can it be? Well like many of you I struggled with really bad acne for years. And I had it all acne on my face, chest, and even my back. I know what a struggle it can be. So I figured why not starts the New Year off by letting you guys know my secret to clear skin.

Let’s get started. First I went to my dermatologist who prescribed my Accutane. I am here to tell you this is the key to clear skin. Accutane changed my life forever! I never thought highly of myself when I had acne. I never had any confidence but now I have all of that and more. It really encouraged me to do a lot more than just clear up my acne. It made me care how I look and dress too. So let me show you a picture and then I will get on with the review.

When I was, hummmmm, maybe a sophomore in high school I had really oily skin. It was gross. I will describe how bad it was just so you know. I would take a shower in the morning and by lunch there were just puddles of grease on my face. So I was washing my face 4 to 5 times a day just to keep grease off. Once I got on Accutane I no longer had to do this. My skin dried up so much. To be honestly I got a little bit to dry. You know the occasionally flakey dry skin. Nothing a little moisturizer couldn’t take care of though.  So I took the pills for about 6 months. It was actually longer because I caught mono and had to stop taking them for 2 months. But anyway, while I was taking them I was required to be on birth control. Even if you are not sexually active you need to be on birth control. Here is why. Accutane causes serious birth defect. My doctor told me that if I were to get pregnant while taking this pill the baby would more than likely come out with missing limbs and other really crazy stuff. You would never want to put an innocent child through that. So please take the birth control. Besides that I had to get monthly blood tests. They have to keep a close eye on how you are progressing while taking these pills. I am sure you have all seen the crazy scary commercials. Those side effects are real, but this is why the highly monitor you. They want to make sure this doesn’t happen to you. In fact I think things got so bad with Accutane they don’t sell the brand Accutane anymore. But I know for sure they have tons of generics which are just as good.

So let me tell you about my skin now. Three years after taking 6 months of Accutane. My skin is normal. It’s not oily it’s not dry. When I wash my face I have to put a moisturizer because it can get a little bit dry just from the soaps and cold air. I don’t get acne at all anymore. I haven’t had any acne for three years now. I had the occasional pimple. I promise you though; I get maybe 1 pimple every couple of months. It goes away in a couple of days and it’s like it never happened. I mean everyone gets those, right? So if one of your new year’s resolutions is to cure your acne, go see your dermatologist about this! =) You will be happy you did.

Now for those of you just trying to be nicer to you skin.  Here are my 5 simple steps.

1.)    Wash your face twice a day. Once in the morning and once before bed.

2.)    Moisturize after washing your face.

 

3.)    Drink plenty of water.

4.)    Exfoliate the dead skin cells.

5.)    Treat yourself to a weekly mask. I use Neutrogena cleanser/mask. 

As a lot of you know, I use google for pictures because it is hard for me to get find the time to take pictures of my self doing all this stuff! lol Not only that but let me be honest! I am lazy! lol So I take no credit for these photos I just googled and this is what came up.

If you have any questions about this blog please feel free to email me. You can ask me anything regarding the Accutane process. Even if you have very personal questions. I'm open to helping you guys out. 

Here is my email: Kb.red804@gmail.com You can also follow me on Twitter: @B_alanna

Hope you guys enjoyed my first blog of the New Year! =) I wish you all a good one!