Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Eyeshadow Palette

What? Jay has another neutral palette to show you?! What a surprise!.... ;)

You knew another would come soon enough! I received this gem as a birthday gift back in April. It's Tarte's Rainforest of the Sea eyeshadow palette. Tarte's Rainforest of the Sea products have been everywhere and talked about by everyone. I personally feel like it's the most hype I've heard from this brand myself. I've even gifted products from this line to other's. It's needless to say I literally jumped for joy when I opened this beaut.

I'm a sucker for packaging. I probably look at that as a factor almost as much I do the quality of the product. It's definitely a selling tactic. Packaging = sell - sell - sell! I fell for Tarte's blue and purple ombre packaging for this palette just on the outside! It's even more beautiful when you actually open it up. The palette itself is covered in gold, purple, and blue and the back of the palette is like a little (distorted..) mirror. It's chic to say the least. Honestly, out of all the palette's I own - this one has the most beautiful aesthetic.

Opening it up, immediately you notice the good sized mirror inside. This one isn't distorted thankfully - haha. It also contains 8 gorgeous neutral shades with a mix of shimmers and mattes. I'll be frank and say I can't really tell which one's are matte except for the shades Sand and Cove but I'm sure you can figure it out better than I can. This palette has a whole bunch of different shades of browns, a silver / purple and even a true nude. I tend to gravitate more towards Sand, Cove and Reef. But I love to try and discover other color combos also.

It's the perfect size to just chuck in your purse if you're traveling and looks beautiful in your makeup collection if you're not. Super excited I was gifted this. I'm not sure if the collection is limited edition (I really hope it isn't) but if it is - I'd suggest grabbing this palette if you're looking to splurge a bit on a higher end eye shadow palette. Definitely a staple in my collection.

This is not sponsored. Although it was given to me by family as a birthday present. I just truly think it's a great palette. And it's really pretty to look at!

Have you tried this palette yet?

Do you know of any dupes for it?

Until next time,

Jay

The Shoppes At Farmington Valley Blogger Event July 29th, 2016

Hello, lovely!

On the 29th of July I was invited by Kat from A Little Bird Told Me, to a Blogger Event down at The Shoppes At Farmington Valley in Canton, CT.  I was super excited to go seeing as it was my first event and I was ready to meet other inspirational bloggers! I was accompanied by my best friend Mia from Confidently Curly. We both got together after work and got ready for this wonderful event.

Our meeting place was at Feng, Asian Bistro. We got together to meet other bloggers and thanks to Kat, Diane, Jordanna and the great chef at Feng we were able to try a multitude of delicious hors d'oeuvres and drinks. The creativity and the unique taste of everything they brought out absolutely blew me away. It was my first time at Feng and I can honestly say I'll be going back again to have the delicious appetizers that we had and even venture out to see what else I can fall in love with on their menu!

I'm so thankful for the goodie bag and deals other shops allowed for us as well. We first went into Loft. They had a cute little snacks table ready for us as well as discounts on their amazing items! I don't feel as you can go wrong with the clothes in their store. They have a verity of different items such as cute and casual or more spunky and dressed up. I also appreciated their "Petites" sections as it can be a bit hard finding well fitting clothing items at the grand height of 4'11 ;)  Here are some photos of the amazing clothing at Loft.

(Permission was granted to photograph in the store)

Next shop was J.Crew. I fell in love with this store the second I walked in. Their style of clothing is right up my street and they even had different articles of clothing already put together on mannequins that were perfect combos! I eye'd down this maroon blouse and pleated skirt combo the entire time I was there. Great outfit ideas for summer styles.

(Permission was granted to photograph in the store)

The next store we went into was Simply Mac. Simply Mac is an Apple Specialist store who kindly gave us a tutorial on the iPad, useful information and even added in an awesome Pocket Power USB Charger in our goodie bag! It was great to look into the desk tops, phones and accessories they had available there. Definitely making me excited to one day buy a Apple Desktop!

Lastly, we went into a quaint little shop called O'Live A Little. O'Live A Little is a specialty gourmet shop that sells the finest olive oils, and vinegars as well as specialty cheese, pastas olives and an array of other things! Along with the other shops, we were greeted so kindly by the staff in this shop in Canton. They informed us of what they had in the shops, the local owners and even gave us a sample of their delicious desserts! They so kindly put together their own goodie bag filled with their best items. This included Lemon Parsley Malfadine Pasta (I'm truly excited to get this one cookin'!), G.F Lemon Basil, Pineapple Balsamic Vinegar,Scallion Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Traditional White Balsamic Vinegar, Traditional Dark Balsamic Vinegar, Basil Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and a yummy Beemster Premium Dutch Cheese in Extra Aged Hard and Robust cheese! Along with all that, O'Live A Little also provided us with a 10 Favorite Recipes booklet and even a cookie for the road. (Mmmmm.) Mia and I did buy a little extra and grabbed some different flavor jerkies and fresh corn that pops into popcorn.

Overall this event was absolutely wonderful from the kind people who put it all together, to Feng restuarant's delicious food and drinks, all the way down to amazing shops and building new friendships. The Shoppes at Farmington Valley generously gifted us a Shoppes At Farmington Valley reusable tote bag, a brochure (something I will keep close with me seeing as I will be back again!), a Shoppes lip balm - got to keep that pout mousturized ;) , a wonderful $25 gift card to The Shoppes, as well as additional goodies such as samples from Sephora - stoked to try them out and fall in love with new products, a first time offer as well as a Murad sample from Massage Envy as well as a free enhanced therapy for one of three of our choosing to the Spa, a discount coupon to Clarks, a Snip - Its Kids Haircut certificate - this one will be going to my nephew, an informational magazine of Muscle and Performance from the Vitamin Shoppe as well as an in store coupon, and  free class card to Barre 3.

I was overwhelmed with just how great this event was. Once again, Thank you to Kat, Diane and Jordanna for this amazing experience. Setting it all up, it came together beautifully and the food was delicious. Thanks to The Shoppes at Farmington Valley for hosting. As well as thanks to Loft, J.Crew, Simply Mac and O'Live A Little for the generous freebies and discounts. Click their links to check out their sites! I'm looking forward to trying out all this stuff and for the next adventure!

For this event, I wore a dark maroon jacket from Macy's over a black basic tank from Old Navy. I'm also wearing this skirt/short that I got from Forever 21 and these gladiator sandals from Shop Hopes!

*Disclaimer: The contents in the goodie bag were generously given to us as freebies along with the contents in the O'Live A Little Bag. It was Sponsored kindly by J.Crew, Loft, O'Live a Little, and Simply Mac.

Thank you so much for reading!

Jay

Scentsy

"Today will never come again. Be a blessing. Be a friend. Encourage someone. Take time to care. Let your words heal, and not wound." - unknown

Good morning, Gorgeous.

I thought it would be a nice little touch to insert a little encouraging quote when I find one. I know it can be pretty cliche but you never how one might take it. There can always be more positivity, so why not.

I have for you today something that excites me and that I knew I wanted to make a blog post about it as soon as I ordered it. It's a Scentsy! For those of you who don't know what a Scentsy is, it's pretty much a wick-less candle. You choose from a variety of warmers that has a bulb inside and a cord to plug in. You can choose from the multiple different scented wax bars. What you do is take some of that bar and place right on top of which ever warmer you would like - eventually the bulb warms up the piece of wax, it melts and it smells of whatever scent you chose. Just like burning a candle, except safer and the warmers are super cute.I don't know too much about it but there isn't a store to get them at. There are actually consultants that you buy from and can even set up parties where the consultant goes to your house and you can have a fun little party with your family and friends - learn all about the scentsy, play some games, have some fun, and buy some stuff!

About a month ago my friend had a Scentsy party at her house. I'm going to be honest and say I've heard of Scentsy in the past and I wasn't curious enough about them to go searching or find out more about it or even purchase it. I don't think I'd ever know how much I like it if I didn't go to this party. (Thanks Cari. Haha) Not only did I have a great time at the party, I learned so much about Scentsy's and thought I'd give it a go and order one.

Now let me say that there's much more to it than what I have said. Such as there's not only warmers of different shapes and sizes and even nightlight warmers, they have diffusers also! But you can find out all about that on their website HERE .

The warmer that I got is a $35 warmer and stands at 6' tall. It's an owl! The order name for it is Hoot which I think is absolutely adorable. I definitely fell in love with this warmer when I saw it and for some reason even though they told me how tall it stands at I figured it's a pretty good size! I actually thought I was going to look a bit smaller. I love this little guy and think he sits perfectly right on top of my shoe cubbie.

I also got 3 scented bars that I can switch for different scents. If you read my A La Maison De Provence Hand cream post, you know that I can't deal with strong scents. I get headaches, dizzy and even nauceous from strong scents - even if they smell good. When it comes down to perfumes, hand creams and even scented bars I need fresh scents that's not to over baring.

The first scented bar I chose was Seashore. In the information booklet they give you, it has this description for Seashore - "A breath of ocean air, dappled with salted grapefruit and sweetened just so by hints of pink ginger, lemon zest and vanilla bean." Needless to say this was the first scent I put in my warmer when I received it!

The next bar I bought was Bamboo Yuzu, it says "Imagine a Japanese garden as you breath in dewy bamboo, tranquil lotus flower and fresh yuzu with hints of sage." Honestly, the description sold it to me even before I smelled the bar! Um Japanese garden!? Yes Please!

The last bar I chose was actually a last minute decision. I saw it sitting on the table just before handing my order in and when I smelled it I knew I had to have one for myself. It was Scentsy's Scent of the Month for May - Rosewood & Freesia. I tried to find this one in the booklet but I couldn't. So it's a good thing I saw it on the table. It's hard for me to describe but it's definitely a beautiful fresh scent and I'm happy I purchased it as my third.

I am super happy that well.. one.. Cari had the party and invited me. Thank you! Two - that I took the plunge and decided to learn more about it and three that I bought my own warmer and wax bars! It's a cute little touch to my room and when it's on, it just fills the room with a beautiful scent.

If you've never heard about Scentsy or invested a little time learning a little bit more about it, I think you should. It definitely a staple in my room in more ways than one and I love it. My little Hoot looks awesome warming up wonderfully scented wax bars.

If you have any Scentsy's let me know which ones and what scents you paired it with!

Thank you once again for reading!

Until next time,

Jay

The Beauty Blogger Tag

Hello lovely!

I'm here today with a tag! Now, I know the point of tags are.. well.. to be tagged to do them. I saw Leya from Leluroxx got tagged in this and although I wasn't tagged, I sent her over a little tweet on twitter asking if I would be able to do the tag and use the questions she asked. And because that girl is a lovely peach she said yes. ;) Thank you Leya!

I'm familiar with the Liebster Award tags that go around, I have a couple up on my blog if you would like to check those out after. I've never heard of this tag and well.. it's always fun to try new things! I'm taking the rules right off of Leya's post.

Rules

Tag the blogger who nominated you

Answer the questions you were given

Nominate 3 beauty/fashion/lifestyle bloggers

Ask them 10 original questions

Let the people who you've tagged know

Simple enough! Let's get into the questions she asked.

1. How has blogging had a positive effect on you?

Blogging has had a HUGE positive impact in my life. From being able to share things that I enjoy with lovely readers, to making amazing blogging friends, to having my own blogging mentor (That's exciting! Thank You Julie! You can find her here at happystronghome.com). All the way to being invited to my first blogger meet up! It's all so wonderful and I'm just so happy to have made that leap!

2. What is your go to makeup product?

This is a hard one because I don't just have one go to product. Concealer - my favorite being Maybelline Instant Age Rewind. I always go back to it! Gel liner - Maybelline's Eyestudio is my go to now for years! Love it! And lastly mascara - I've been using Maybelline the Mega Plush Volum Express. So far so good! Just by writing this out I noticed I really like Maybelline! Haha.

3. If you can recommend the best lipstick ever what would it be?

My go to would be the Too Faced La Creme Lipsticks -Mine is in Naked Dolly -and I love to pair that with Kiko's chubby stick. I love me some pinky nudes. Definitely restocking.

4. Do you have a skincare routine? If so, what are your steps?

Well funny you should ask! I have a blog post up all about my updated skincare routine. Unfortunately, my laptop doesn't want to link to this post.. so just have a little search through my blog and you'll find it. :)

5. If you had to choose either eyelashes or eyebrows to live without which would you choose?
I would have to say eyebrows! With all the great tools we have now to just fill them in I feel like it wouldn't be as dramatic as eyelashes. At this point I would just have to learn how to do my own.

6. What is your biggest beauty hangup?
I'm going to be honest, I have NO idea what this question is asking me? Haha Sorry! Is it like.. biggest beauty blunder? Something beauty related you're not good at? If so, it would have to be blush! Isn't that so weird? It's so easy for pretty much everyone but I can't seem to get it right! If you have some tips let me know!

7. Do you have a special makeup tip that you use without fail? If so, what it is?
I'm really not going to call it a makeup tip. It's just something that helps me. For my gel liner, instead of using an angled brush I actually use the small tapperd like brush that Maybelline includes when buying the Eyestudio gel liner. It actually make my liner much more sharp than when I use an angled brush. Not a tip, just my secret weapon.

8. What three products would you never buy again?
This is a tough one. I actually don't have any in my collection right now that I would say I would never purchase again. Probably because I've gotten rid of any that I feel didn't work for me.

9. What is your signature makeup look?
My signature makeup look consists of neutral shadows, winged liner and nude lips. Never fails.

10. If you could pick a celebrity that projects your look / style who would it be and why?

I absolutely love this question! It's fun to think about really. I honestly feel like it would have to be Cheryl Cole. Besides being absolutely gorgeous I find myself always seeing what she's wearing next. I don't know how to describe it but I would love to have her wardrobe!

That's all the questions answered! Thank you Leya for allowing me to use your questions. I really enjoyed this tag!

My 3 Nominations are:

Mia @ ConfidentlyCurly.com

Katie @ MissKatieF.blogspot.com

Chrissy @ BeautyBitsnBlogs.co.uk

Elle @ GirlTalkWithElle94.blogspot.com

(Yeah, I chose 4.. I'm a rebel) ;)




My questions to you:

1. Would you rather have your makeup completely perfect and bad hair day or your hair comes out perfect each time but your makeup comes out terrible?

2. What do you procrastinate most on? (Beauty or non-beauty)

3. Favorite Summer Nail Polish?

4. Do you plan ahead when getting ready or is it a last minute rush?

5. Beauty regiman that you rarely do?

6. When applying makeup, do you do your eyes first? Or your face?

7. Favorite healthy meal?

8. How would you describe your style?

9. What's your skin type and what products work best for you?

10. Name 3 memorable Blogging experiences you've had.

I can't wait to see what you ladies put for your answers! This was a pretty fun tag to do and I did enjoy answering the questions! If you would like to do this tag also and weren't personally tagged.. go for it! I'd love to read what your answers are. Thanks again to Leya at Leluroxx. Go and check out her post on this tag.

Thank so much for reading.
Until next time,

Jay