Lipstick Queen

Welcome back, little birdies!

Today I have a grand discovery I've made recently. As you may or may not know, I've made some purchases over at Ulta during Black Friday and Cyber Monday for Christmas shopping. I did however get my hands on something that intrigued me. I got myself a little chubby lip pencil by the brand Lipstick Queen.

I'll be honest and say I've never heard of Lipstick Queen before. I don't really know what they have in terms of products - besides lipsticks of course. They were selling it at Ulta I figured I would just give it a try. The shade I bought is Cupid's Bow Golden Arrow. Can I just start off by saying how much I love that name!? Super cute! The shade is a very dusty mauve color. Perfect for the nude trend and my go to lip colors. I swatched it on my hand and was instantly impressed at how creamy the formula was. I figured it would be perfect seeing as my lips can get a bit try at times.

The packaging of this product I felt was unique and that is a bonus on purchasing something. Something that I found useful was, when I opened up the packaging, they included a pencil sharpener that fits the size of the chubby stick! How thoughtful of them to add and at this rate I'll need to use it quite quickly.

The application was smooth and seemless and the color is absolutely beautiful. It does go on very creamy. The only thing about this is that it sticks to dry patches on my lips if I don't exfoliate before using. But that doesn't go against it seeing as it's a great product.

I'll love to find out other colors and products of theirs to try out as I've fallen in love with this one. Would definitely recommend if you're looking on Ulta for something new to try out. If you have used this brand before, what's your favorite shade?

Thanks for reading!

Until Next Time,

Jay

The Blogging Friends I Christmas Q+A Tag (2016 Edition)

Welcome back, little birdies!

I have some exciting news. For the past month I've been in a blogging WhatsApp group called The Blogging Friends. TBF was founded by non other than Peta from Pe-ta. She is so talented, goal driven and such a great friend to all the girls in the group. I'm BEYOND happy that she thought of this idea and added me along to it! There's about 19 of us all together and I couldn't be more excited with everyone involved. With speaking pretty much everyday and them becoming a norm in my everyday life, they've become some of my closest friends. The love and support (and banter) that goes on in our chats are some of the best. I'm so glad to be involved. So to Peta, thank you again for your brilliant idea and bringing us all together.

One of the girls from the group, Emma from Emmalanglands came up with the idea to do a TBF Christmas tag. All the girls in the group pitched in to come up with questions for the tag. Although I'm not sure how many questions were originally involved, I think it is condensed down to 30 questions.

Grab your hot chocolate and let's get into the questions, shall we!?

1. What is your favorite Christmas song?

My favorite Christmas song has to be Santa Baby :)

2. What is your favorite Christmas film?

Elf! For sure. Either that or Home Alone 1. Classsic.

3. When do you start feeling festive?

Normally right after Thanksgiving, but this year I started feeling festive on November 1st!

4.What is the best Christmas present you've ever received?

I'm not to sure which is the best. I'm thankful for anything I receive. :)

5. What is the worst Christmas present you've ever received?

The worst present I've ever received was when I was like 5 years old and my sister gave me COAL! The worst thing about it is she wrapped it in a box and bow. We laugh about it now ;) haha

6. Do you prefer traditional or modern Christmas decorations?

Can I have a mixture of both? What I grew up with and some new ones as well.

7. What is your favorite Christmas Advert?

I don't think they're as big here in the U.S. but I have been watching the much hyped John Lewis ones that I can find on YouTube. :)

8. White, muliti-colored or something completely out of the box when it comes to Christmas tree lights?

We've always had multi-colored lights on out tree. I leave the white ones for my room :)

9. Have you ever been on a Christmas holiday? If so, where? If not,where would you like to go?

I don't know if I'd call it a Christmas holiday. I did go to Puerto Rico for Christmas one year to visit family. It was so weird being somewhere where it was hot for the holidays!

10.  Do you prefer going out or staying in at Christmas?

Definitely staying in unless we're going out to see more family. Nothing is open on Christmas anyways :)

11. Who cooks Christmas dinner?

My mom! It's always very delicious.

12. When did you stop believing in Santa?

At a very young age. Don't remember the exact age but believing in Santa didn't last long haha.

13. How did you find out Santa wasn't real?

When I was younger when I saw my dad and uncle bring in my Christmas present that said "from Santa" on it haha.

14. What is your favorite thing to do to get you in the Christmas spirit?

Wrap presents while listening to festive music. Never fails!

15. When do you put your Christmas decorations up? When do you take them down?

Usually beginning of December to the end of December. 

16. When do you start Christmas shopping?

I started kind of late this year but I like to start slowly in September so I'm not broke by December haha

17. Do you go see a pantomime?

I'll be honest, I didn't know what that is. I had to google it. From the definition on google, I think it's safe to say I've never seen one. So I certainly haven't this year :p

18. Basic or patterned wrapping paper? or gift bags because #GirlHasNoTimeToBeWrapping

Patterned! I love cute designs on wrapping paper. Sometimes I'll wrap it AND put it in a gift bag.... #ThisGirlHasTOOMuchTime hahaha

19. What is your favorite winter tipple?
I did have to ask the girls what this was haha it was explained to me that it's like a Christmas-y drink? Well mine would have to be hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmellows. YUMM..

20. What is your favorite Christmas smell?

Hmm, good question. Well, I like my Bath and Body Works candle in Roasted Marshmellows. Smells delish!

21. Do you have any festive family traditions?
Unfortunately, we don't have any! Maybe when I'm older I'll have a festive tradition with my future husband.

22. What has been your favorite Christmas so far and why?

I don't think I have a favorite. Any Christmas I spend with my family is a good one :)

23. What is your favorite Christmas food?

That's a tough one because we really don't have a traditional Christmas meal. Whatever mom decides to make I guess haha

24. What's your favorite part of Christmas Dinner?
Just like Thanksgiving, my favorite part of Christmas dinner is spending time with the fam! Like I said before, we don't have a certain meal we eat every Christmas so Family and whatever the food is on that day :)

25. What is your favorite Christmas product?
My favorite Christmas product would have to be a bath bomb... does that count?! I tend to love it much more during these cold holiday months rather than the summer.

26. What is your favorite Christmas tradition?
We don't really have a tradition. I guess just as everyone else, waking up in the morning to exchange gifts together.

27. What is your most treasured Christmas memory?
I treasure every memory spent with family and friends on Christmas. I really love when I spent Christmas in PR with my brother. I also love my group of friends, we have Friendsmas. Just a couple out of many.

28. Did you ever look for presents before Christmas to see what your parent's had stashed away for you?
Absolutely!! All the time when I was younger! I would pretty much always find it. My sister and I once, we very carefully removed the tape to open the presents to see what it was and then would re-tape it. Haha that was the sneakiest I've been to have a peek at presents haha.

29. Online, highstreet shopping or handmade?
I'm not very good at handmade gifts. This year it's pretty much all been online! It's made it THAT much more simple for me!

30. What time do you wake up on Christmas Day?
Probably around 7am. It's the only day that I wake up that early and can't fall back to sleep! haha.


So those were all the questions! I hope you've enjoyed and that it put you in the festive spirit of Christmas! I'll link the girls that are part of The Blogging Friends that took part in the tag down below so you can check out their answers to these questions. I recommend that you take part as well!

Peta - Pe-ta
Emma - Emmalanglands
Holly - A Branch of Holly
Char - Maltesers and Mumblings
Jenny - Beauty Behind Illness
Emily - EmiMarie
Em - Emmjoy
Shannon - ShanyLou
Elena - Elena Isabelle (YouTube)
Claire - Claire Petersen (YouTube)

Go check out their fun answers to the questions!
This girls are amazing and I can't wait to continue to grow in friendship with them!
If you're reading this, I tag YOU to answer these questions as well. :)

Thanks for reading!
Until Next Time,
Jay

(Sorry if you notice the color on the wording got weird. Don't know why they won't go normal haha)

Box Swap with Ashley Nicole!

Welcome back, little birdies!

Over the past few months I have been in cahoots with another lovely blogger, Ashley. We became friends on twitter and quickly started bonding over the fact that we are American bloggers in a mostly British dominated blogosphere. We've gushed over the beautiful country of England in which she now lives, and a country I'm excited to visit someday and I've followed up with her posts that deliver a variety of content.

We quickly started talking over the idea of doing a small box swap together seeing as the U.S. and the U.K. do have different makeup that aren't easily accessible in each others countries. We took maybe a little over a month to plan everything out and gather our goodies before shipping them off to each other. I found it funny that our boxes arrived both on the same day.

I opened the box to find a very sweet card (which by the way, Ash. Your hand writing is FAB. Sorry for my chicken scratch haha.) and my goodies that were all wrapped up like little presents to open.

The first item I unwrapped was a Revolution makeup palette. It instantly became a favorite seeing as it is an exact dupe for Urban Decay's Naked 3 palette. It's small and compact so it'll be easier to travel around with rather than the UD palette.

The next thing I opened and was SO excited to receive was the Sleek Highlighting Palette in Solstice. Sleek isn't easily accessible here in the States, so I was nearly bursting with joy when I opened this up. The gold mirrored packaging of this itself got me excited let alone the beauty that was in it! There are 4 shades in this Highlighting palette. They're called Ecliptic, Hemisphere, Subsolar, and Equinox. It does come with a small little dense brush to apply the product which I think I'll use until I get myself a proper fan brush. This palette also includes what's got to be the best mirror ever. This palette is definitely travel friendly.

When I looked into my box there was this kind of thick box thing all wrapped up. I couldn't put my finger on what it could possibly be so I was eager to open it up to find out. This is like, the coolest thing ever. It's Seventeen Instant Glow Pink Bronze Bronzing Rocks. Yup, you read that correctly. Bronzing ROCKS. Whhaaat!? It says in the back to "Dust these beautiful rocks over face and body for a shimmering bronzed glow". I am ALL over the sound of that. Ashley is trying to make me into a beautiful little disco ball. :)

I then opened up what I knew to be a lip product seeing as how it was wrapped. It was Sleek's Matte Me in the color Birthday Suit. I'll be honest and say that I didn't read what type of lip product it was before I quickly swatched it on my hand. What I noticed after I swatched it was that although it went on really creamy, it dried and became very matte. I kid you not, I had to wash my hands SEVERAL times before it could come off. Very long lasting. I am super excited that Ashley decided to send me this as well. It's great.

The last product that I received was another lip product. It's by the brand GOSH, a brand I've never heard of before. Ash, picked out 134 Darling, it's an absolutely beautiful nude shade which is a staple in my collection at the moment. It is just sligghhhtly drying so I do put a light nude cream on top of it. Makes for the perfect nude combo.

(I'm not sure why the pictures make it look like two different colors. It's the same lipstick :) )

Big THANK YOU to the beautiful Ashley for wanting to do this swap with me and for the absolutely beautiful gifts that were sent. I love each and every product and have even more fun doing my makeup with them. I look forward to our next swap next year. Please check out her blog and send her over some love because her and her blog surely do deserve it!

Thanks for reading!

Until Next Time,

Jay

Confidence, Self Worth, + Love

Welcome back, little birdies.

This is something that I wanted to write for a while. I realize that my blog is beauty and fashion focused but Blissful Beauty Bird is still my creative outlet. So with it being an outlet, I decided I wanted to write down how I was feeling and publish it for my readers to read if they so pleased. In all honesty it's just something I want to let out and put into perspective for myself to see how I'm feeling and hopefully to look back at this years from now, when I no longer feel this way and realized just how much I've conquered. This will be very informal as I don't know how to let out my feelings properly. I'll just kind of ramble. Sorry about that.

I don't really know where to start with this so I'll start with how I feel confidence wise. I have never really been a confident person. I've always been really shy and would often doubt my capabilities. Confidence as in how I look, I've never really felt "pretty". What's "pretty" anyways? I've had low self esteem about my looks a lot. I never felt I was pretty enough to be loved by a good man. I never left the house without make up. No matter how badly I used to do my makeup during my teenage years. I always found flaws in my looks and if it wasn't one thing, it was the other. Not that long ago on the #PrettyLittleChat we had a talk about confidence. It made me realize how I view confidence now that I'm a bit older (because you start thinking a little more clearly when you're 23 apparently). It made me realize that I don't just see confidence as how someone looks. How I view a truly confident person is someone who loves themselves for what they've got, for what the Lord has given them. (No matter the shape nose or ears, or what color eyes they have ect.) Someone who is independent, they could get things done and haven't a need to depend on others. Someone who is kind. They love to help others physically and mentally. Someone who is humble and thankful to the Lord for what He has provided in their life. Someone who is genuinely happy and not just because of money. Someone who is happy with the little things in life like quality time with their friends and family all the way down to just happy to experience the day. I feel as though I'm slowly growing into that kind of person how I envision a confident person to be. Although I still have a lot of growing up to do when it comes to that and with life in general. It's just to know I've taken those first few steps towards it. That in of itself is motivation to keep going.

Self worth is something I still struggle with. Something I have to find in myself. I know I shouldn't be defined by the things I can't do. I always seem to not try things because of fear of failure. I never felt I was very good at anything which hinders what I do. When I think of "talents" and think of how some people can sing, some can dance, some can speak multiple languages. I feel like because I don't really have a talent that there isn't much great with me. I used to draw a lot but even with that I didn't feel good enough. Even with my writing. I love my blog but I don't feel as though I'm a good writer but maybe that's something I'll learn to do better in time. The sense of self worth ultimately makes me think of relationships. I have a tendency to feel as though someone wouldn't want to be with me because I can't do this or I can't do that. Sometimes it even ties in with my looks and I feel that no one would ever look at me as someone beautiful from the outside in. I've always been a hopeless romantic. I wanted the happily ever after with the prince charming and to just feel that unconditional love for someone. That we would grow old together and still fall in love with one another like if it was our first day. What scares me is that with everything I've mentioned before I feel like I will never find that person or if I do that it wouldn't last long and they'll eventually get tired of me and find someone else. Sometimes I find myself pretty down in the dumps because I haven't found the "one" when I watch everyone around getting together or getting married or having babies!

I don't have the answers to my feelings towards all this. And to be honest, this isn't everything I'm feeling. I just didn't want to get in too deep. The only thing I can do for myself right now is to stay focused on the Lord and try and stay positive about things. I'm only 23 which means I have plenty of years to figure myself out and sort out all these feelings to hopefully, eventually, update that I see myself differently. Hopefully I'll be able to update you on how I truly see myself a confident person who is happy with absolutely every bit of myself and my talents and maybe even at that point, have found someone I deeply love who loves me too.

It feels really good to just let out how I'm feeling about things. Just to let them out and not have them all bottled up inside is definitely worth it. With that being said, if you finished all that, I applaud you. I am sorry for the ramble and how disorganized it was but I was just writing things down as they came up. I didn't make bullet points for this. I also apologize if you read this all hoping I have found my way past these feelings and haven't yet. I'll get there.  Thanks for reading and if you're feeling the same way I am then I hope you find out much quicker than me just how amazing you are.

Until next time,

Jay

Lorac GIVEAWAY!

Welcome back, little birdies!

I hope you're all doing well. I bring you a VERY exciting post today. I feel like I've come a bit a ways with my little space here. To celebrate that and my new and improved layout. I wanted to be able to say "Thank You" to my readers who have supported me with "Blissful Beauty Bird". I have been truly loving my blog and my goals towards it have skyrocketed! I love every thoughtful comment that goes into these posts and all the blogging friends I've been making from Twitter because of it. And because of that, I'll be hosting my very first giveaway! This is so exciting for me and I wanted to make sure it was the right time to do one. I made a Twitter poll a few weeks ago asking if you guys wanted a few drugstore items or one high end item as a giveaway. The majority of you voted for one high end product. Luckily, I found the perfect gift!

When I saw this gift I knew it was the perfect one to grab to give away to one of you lovely readers. Not only did I just recently review a lip gloss from this collection not that long ago, but these colors are stunning and are just the right shades you need for this Autumn weather. I'm giving away this Lorac Alter Ego Dynamic Duo Set! It contains two lipsticks in the shade Dominatrix and Socialite and their matching lip gloss! What a treat to be able to get FOUR items for one. :) I'll be honest and say I was so tempted to keep this for myself haha. They are stunning shades and literally the best shades for this season. The box also states that these are two of their best selling shades. I figured it would be the perfect giveaway gift. Check down below to find out how to enter!

Here are the rules to this giveaway:

1. You must be following me on Bloglovin'

2. You must be following my Twitter

This is open INTERNATIONALLY seeing as a lot of my readers are from other countries. :)

You may enter on Rafflecopter down below.

Any Giveaway Accounts will be disqualified! 

Winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter.

I will be checking all entries before choosing a winner.

The winner must reply to the email within 48 hours of me choosing or a new winner will be chosen

Giveaway ends on Friday, November 4th 2016

Mini Disclaimer: I am not working with Lorac for this giveaway. I purchased this with my own money.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you again for all the support you've shown! I'm so happy to be able to do this giveaway for you guys. Good luck to all those who enter!

Jay

Liebster Award #3 & #4

Welcome back, little birdies!

Well I think it's safe to say that third time's the charm! I've been nominated for my third Liebster Award by the absolutely beautiful Shannon from the blog Shannon-Marie. As I've said many times before, I love doing / reading these types of posts because I'm a bit of a nosey bugger (No, we don't use the term "bugger" here in the States. Yes, I thought it was cute and fitting seeing as Shannon is from the UK. And yes again, I did just use you (Shan) as an excuse to use the word.)
While getting this post ready, I was nominated again by the lovely Jen from Beauty Life Mom ! I'll be adding her questions to this post as well! Thanks so much, ladies!

  Anyways, if you didn't already know what the Liebster Award is - it's just a fun way for bloggers to get to know each other and to help you discover other blogs. It's a great idea really seeing as I love finding other blogs and even getting to know a little bit more about the person who runs it.

The rules to this tag are as followed:

1. Thank whoever nominated you

2. Post 10 facts about yourself (optional) 

3. Answer the 11 questions given

4. Nominate at least 5 but no more than 11 bloggers and let them know they were nominated :)

5. Create 11 questions for your nominee's to answer.

(For the sake of doing another tag that requires me to post facts about myself that should be up soon, I will only be answering the questions that Shannon and Jen has asked. Let's face it, it's really hard to think of facts about yourself!)

Grab a cup of tea, we're going to be a while ;)

Shannon's questions:

 1. What is your favourite TV show?

My favorite TV show at the moment is definitely between The White Queen, and Reign! 

2. Name three things you could never live without?

My family (that's a give in), My Bible, and Seafood :)

3. Do you have any tattoos? If so, what are they and what's the meaning behind them?

I don't have any tattoos, actually! I'm not a needle person. No pain tolerance what so ever.

4. How long have you been blogging?

I've been blogging on and off for 2 years now. Although I don't really count it as that long seeing as I've only posted 5 times in the year 2015 haha. I've gotten much more into it this past year.

5. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

That's a tough one seeing as I'm a BIG foodie! I looove my seafood but to bring it down to one meal.. I would have to say the meal I had the other day at this restaurant - it was English Pea Ravioli with Salmon. It was actually SO delicious and I'm already thinking of the next time I can go back and have some more.





6. If you could go anywhere on holiday right now, where would you go?
That's such a hard question because there are so many places I'd like to visit! I feel like my first travel spot will definitely be England. I have friends there that need visiting and the country is absolutely beautiful. I'd like to see the rest of the UK and the rest of Europe as well!

7. What's your favorite quote?
Good question! There are so many, so I went to my Pinterest board "Quotes I love" and picked out one of my favorites, it's "A ship in port is safe but that is not what ships are built for."

8. Favourite book?
Honestly, the only book I've been reading has been my Bible. Apart from that and blog post I don't really remember the last time I read a good book! Any recommendations?

9. Who is your beauty inspiration?
Ah! Again there can be so many good ones! There are so many inspirations on YouTube and Instagram and even from other bloggers! I'm really loving lupescuevas  on Instagram. Her makeup is always on point!

10. Favourite YouTuber / Blogger?
I can't choose just one blogger there are so many and it's always growing! I'm always finding more that I just love to follow. I feel same goes with YouTubers. Can't pick one!

11. What's your best feature?
I would have to say for myself, my best feature (looking outwardly) are my legs. I'm only the grand height of 4 foot 11 but I do really like my legs. Is that a strange one? Haha.

Jen's questions:

1. Have you figured out your life calling or is it something you're still discovering?
It's definitely something I'm still discovering. I'm still finding my way with life so I don't think I'll have it figured out this soon.

2. Name one thing that you're proud of that you did this week?
Well I'm quite proud that I went through my clothing items and figured out what I want and what I don't want / need / fits and that I'll be bringing it to a shelter soon enough so they can be given to someone in need. It makes me feel pretty nice to think about it.

3. You just won a million dollars! What are 3 things you would do or get for yourself?
I would help my parents pay off bills, I'd move and I would go travelling!

4. What song are you really feeling right now? Any special stories or significance behind it?
I'm really loving the song called "He sees what we don't". It's a Christian song and it hits me right in the faith feels haha.

 5. Name your one strength as a blogger and one thing you'd like to improve.
That's a bit of a tough question haha. I'm not really sure what my strength is as a blogger just yet. I feel as though I'm still getting a feel for everything. As far as improving, I feel I can definitely improve on making and keeping to a schedule.. It's just so daunting knowing you have a deadline for posts and have to get those creative juices flowing!

6. What does a really good day look like to you?
I would say a really good day looks like me being productive. Getting things done and achieving goals. Along with being with family and friends. Sounds perfect!

7. When life gets crazy, what's your favorite way to de-stress?
I would definitely need ME time! Whether that's a nice bath with some Lush bath bombs, or cuddling under my heated blanket and watch Netflix. It could even be going out for a walk and enjoying nature.

8. You've been given the opportunity to travel back five years to visit yourself! Name something about your life now that your former self would be happy to learn.
Jen, you make me laugh. Can I just say that some of your questions remind me of the Monopoly game haha. - Well 5 years ago I was 18 years old and my whole mindset has changed since then. I think my former self would be happy to know that at 23 years old, I'm happy. That I can achieve things, I am worth it, I have great friends, family, church family ect. and I'm doing well. I've become a stronger and more independent person and it feels great!

9. Describe your favorite piece of jewelry.
To be quite honest, I'm not much of a jewelry wearer. I KNOW... the horror, right!? I feel like the only pieces I actually wear are statement necklaces - and even those are rare lately.

10. Name one thing you're looking to buy.
You've limited me to only one thing?! But there's so many.. :( In all honesty, right now, the one thing I'm looking forward to buying is my corner writing desk. I really need my own work space because doing things from bed just isn't cutting it anymore haha.

Thanks soo much again to both Shannon and Jen for nominating me for this. Both set of questions were great and really had me thinking! I really enjoyed them and had fun answering them. I highly suggest you go over to their blogs and show them some love! Now onto my nominee's.

I Nominate:
Robyn - midnightandlace.blogspot.co.uk
Nicole - nicolecorbettblog.co.uk
Tania - whentaniatalks.com
Elly - ellymitchell.co.uk
Shannon - pinklemonadeandpaperbacks.blogspot.com
Chloe - chloetommo.co.uk
Rebecca - staticnova.blogspot.co.uk
Summer - theblondecafe.wordpress.com
Guilianna - guiliannamarie.blogspot.com

Here are your questions:
1. What is something you feel strongly about?
2. What is something you feel proud of?
3. What are three words or phrases that make you laugh?
4. What's the meaning behind your Blog name?
5. What inspired you to start a blog?
6. How would you describe your style?
7. Where do you see yourself in 3 years?
8. What are you most excited about for the upcoming season?
9. Is there a vacation (holiday) spot you would visit again?
10. How would you describe your personality?
11. How would you like to inspire others?


Good luck to all my nominee's! I look forward to reading your answers and getting to know more about you! Please remember to check out all the other amazing ladies I've mentioned. It's always nice getting to know a little bit more about the person behind the blog.

Until next time,
Jay

Lorac Alter Ego Lip Gloss in "Goddess"

Welcome back, little birdies!

This is just a quick post to show you what I've been loving recently! I made a purchase not too long ago at Ulta (something you'll find out about soon enough) and while I was checking out, they said I was eligible for a mini free gift. So when I got home I saw that the gift was a mini Lorac Lip Gloss! It look super cute and not just because the lip gloss can fit in the palm of my hand. I was really excited as I've tried Lorac's eye shadows before but never got the chance to try out any of their lip products. I was just a tad bit skeptical seeing as I'm definitely a nude shade on lips type of girl and I never would've thought I would own a shade like this. It's a very soft Lilac color.