For this Sunday's $10 haul, I decided to purchase some products that I really really really needed.

I've been meaning to purchase a new bottle of dry shampoo since my roots have been oilier than normal lately. I think it's because I blast my heat at night and sweat, causing me to wake up with dirtier hair (gross, I know). I really like the Suave dry shampoo -- it does the job, doesn't smell too powerful, and doesn't leave any residue in my hair. The best part, it's only $3! They've been out of it at my local Target for the past few weeks, so I'm glad they restocked this week and I was able to snag a bottle.

Next, I decided to pick up a finishing powder. I've been faithful to my bareMinerals Mineral Veil for quite a while now, but I hate how it makes me look chalky since it's a white powder. I wanted to try a tinted finishing powder in hopes that it would look more natural on me, so I picked up the L'Oreal True Match Super Blendable Powder in the shade W5. I wear the L'Oreal True Lumi foundation so I just picked up the corresponding powder shade...easy as pie! I've heard good things about this powder so I'm really excited to try it out.

That's it, a quick and simple little $10 Sunday. I'm quite proud of myself for not caving to the bunches of new lippies that hit the drugstore this spring season. I haven't been wearing lip products all that much lately, so I didn't want to buy more lip products that would just sit in my makeup drawer unused. The new Maybelline Lip Elixirs are really really tempting and calling my name though, so I feel like I may cave in next week??....

March Ipsy Bag

Woo! My second Ipsy bag is finally here :) I subscribed to Ipsy back in December and finally got off the wait list in February. I got my first bag last month but I didn't make a blog post about it given all the crap that was going on around the time. But from now on, I'm hoping to post a monthly Ipsy bag post. For those of you who may not know, Ipsy is a monthly $10 beauty subscription. Each month, they mail you a package with 5 deluxe size beauty samples inside a patterned makeup bag . My favorite part about this subscription is that it's ALL beauty items, which makes it different than Birchbox or Pop Sugar where you get a bunch of different kinds of items. I love discovering new makeup brands and different types of makeup, so the Ipsy bag is perfect for me. There is a similar monthly beauty subscription box called Glossybox, which is a bit pricier at $21 per month but has higher-end beauty samples. I thought about subscribing to that box, but I wanted to first try a cheaper beauty subscription and Ipsy was one of the best, most affordable ones by far. 

This month, I received products that I think I'll get a lot of use out of! I haven't gotten the chance to play with any of them yet so can't speak as to the actual quality of these products. However, watch out for them in my monthly favorites if I like em! So starting things off, I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of this month's makeup bag. I absolutely LOVED the pink February makeup bag, but this one's a bit of a flop for me. The design just looks cheap-ish to me and the quality isn't as nice as the February bag's. For the products, I'll start off with the skincare items I received this month. The first thing I got was two packets of the Skyn Iceland Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels. This product sounds heeeeavenly! I can definitely see myself popping these babies out during my next spa night or when I need a bit of pampering. Next up, the Coolway Glow Oil Treatment. I don't particularly like putting oils on my hair since they can sometimes weigh it down. I'll give it a shot, but I have a feeling I may not like this product and it's gonna go straight in the garbage can :( 

The rest of my products are all makeeeeeuppp, my fave! I really liked the Crown Brush Infinity Shadow/Crease Duet Brush that I received this month. I'm pretty sure I've heard good things about this brand before. I think this brush will be really nice for my travel makeup bag that I take to work. I'm glad that it's a good sized brush, not a dinky sized one, and it's dual-ended so it's perfect for traveling. I'm hoping this brush gives decent eyeshadow application because it may just become my new on-the-go makeup brush! Next, I got what looks like a full-sized NYX Cosmetics Butter Lipstick in Hunk. In the tube, it looks like a really scary vampy purple but when I swatch it, it comes off as a really nice purply-berry color. I tried it on in front of my mom and she said it looked pretty good on me. Plus the formula goes on smooth and is very hydrating. She tried a bit of it too and it looked stunning on her, so if I don't get much use out of this one, then it's definitely going straight to her! Lastly, my favorite product this month, the Pixi by Petra Mesmerizing Mineral Duo. Ohhhhh my god. It's a tiny tiny eyeshadow palette, but the colors are absolutely stunning, everyday shimmery browns. Right up my alley. I swatched these bad boys on my hand and they're quite buttery, pigmented eyeshadows. Not as good as Urban Decay or Makeup Geek of course, but definitely up there. Again, I'm loving how perfect this will be for my work makeup bag since it's so compact. You guys have no idea how excited I am to try this duo!

So that is it for this month's Ipsy bag. Overall, I'm loving the nice mix of products I got and can see myself definitely using 4 out of the 5 products. The sizes of the products are pretty generous (although I wish my eyeshadow duo was a big bigger!), and I think well worth the $10. I'm hoping Ipsy keeps it up with the amazing round of products they've been sending!

Target Spring Beauty & Accessory Haul

Hey everybody. Sorry for the lack of posts! I know I'm done with surgery but things have still been a tad crazy. I've been feeling mega mega tired lately even though I've been getting a full night sleep, relaxing when I can, and drinking coffee. I have a hypo-functioning thyroid gland but I know that's not the problem since I've been taking my medicine religiously. I think my recent lethargy has been coming from my recent weight gain. I've been meaning to take charge of my body and start shedding some pounds, but it's very very frustrating when you're tired all day, work all day, and then come back and are tired. I know something's got to change and I will double my efforts starting tomorrow.

But anyway, this Sunday instead of a $10 sunday post as usual, I figured I'd do a post from my recent Target shopping trip. I went there to pick up a few things I needed like eye makeup remover and a new mascara, but came out with a bit more. Now most of the beauty products above came from Target's clearance section, believe it or not! For those of you who may not know, Target occasionally cleans out their beauty section and starts off by putting discontinued items on 30% off, then 50% off, and finally 70% off. When my shopping trip occurred, everything had been on 70% off. Of course most of the good stuff had been picked over, but I still managed to nag some goodies.

First things first, what I actually went into the store for -- the all-new CoverGirl Full Lash Bloom Mascara. My old mascara is now 4 months old and is getting mega dry, so it was time to get a new one. I love CoverGirl's Original Lash Blast, so I decided I'd give their new formula a shot. The packaging is beautiful and I cannot wait to try it out!

Next, I needed some of my trustworthy Neutrogena Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover. It's what I've always used to get my eye makeup off and it does it beautifully. On the same note, I also picked up a pack of my favorite Simple Cleansing Wipes. If I haven't already mentioned this in a blog post before, these babies are the secret to my recently-breakout free skin. Ever since I started using these at night to get rid of my makeup, my breakouts have gone down by I'd say at least 70%. It dutifully removes all traces of makeup and dirt from your face at night and I usually don't even need to wash my face afterwards (even though you should I guess...).

Next, I picked up the ELF Eye Shadow Brush. I've been using the heck out of my other flat eyeshadow brush lately, so I wanted to add another one to my collection. The other one I use I believe is the Up & Up Smudge Brush, but I couldn't find it in the store so I thought I'd give the ELF brush a shot since all the ELF brushes I've tried so far have been amazing.

Now I'll get to my lovely clearance goodies from Target! On the top left, you'll see some of the KISS Nail Dress kits. I don't know the name of the particular design I got, but it has a ton of silver and gold sparkle. I don't like to wear nail stickers too often, but at the price of $1.50 I really couldn't say no. I think it's going to be a fun little bling bling for the summer. Another nail product I picked up was the Sally Hansen Triple Shine Nail Color in Dream Sequins which was also about $2 after sale. It's a beautiful rose gold sparkle finish and I cannot wait to use this upcoming spring season! I hope it can be worn on its own, but I think it would look really nice on top of a baby pink or an opaque pink nail color as well. And lastly, I saw one of my favorite products in this haul -- the CoverGirl LipSlicks Smoochies Sizzle Gloss in Make It Sparkle on sale. Reduced from $6 all the way to $1.50! I love love love these glosses. They're very kiddish, but they are super gorgeous, sparkly, and smell like fruit. They are my favorite lip glosses to wear in the summer, especially on vacation or just a fun day outing. Their scent is what gets me every time -- they smell like watermelons and just scream summer to me. Cannot wait to bust it out this coming season! :)

And very very lastly, as I was getting ready to check out I figured I would get check out the jewelry section since I needed a new pair of studs. Luckily I was able to find one with both diamond studs and pearl studs, two of my favorite everyday earring types.

Well there you go that is it for my lovely Target Spring haul.

My First Makeup Geek Goodies

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Setbacks

I hate to keep making depressing posts frequently on this blog, as it wasn't my intention for this blog to become a "rants" sort of blog.

Just when I thought the haunting experience of my surgery rotation was behind me, I got an email on Tuesday afternoon informing me that I had failed the anesthesia portion of the examination. Now, naturally being that all of us in medical school are overachievers and have never failed anything in our lives before, I was stunned and traumatized.

Luckily I have managed to get a few answers about the prognosis of this grade and so far have been reassured. The course director informed me that whether or not this will be in my narrative evaluation will be determined by my retake score and my clinical evaluations; if they are above average, they won't be reported. While they will be always a part of my academic record (blah...) they won't necessarily find their way into my Dean's Letter.

I could write pages about why this happened and how I could've done better but the fact that is that we're all human and we all fuck up sometime. Some students fail a tiny exam, some students fail an important one, and some students fail a whole academic year. I'm lucky that the latter didn't happen to me but being that this is a 3rd year clerkship exam, it is a pretty big deal. I was a huge mess when I first found the news out but talking to a few people in the academics department reassures me that things may work out fine. Anesthesia isn't a core core rotation, but it's still a required clerkship so it still looks not good that I failed the exam. It was a rough exam and surgery left me traumatized. The exam was a huge blur, but I remember it being quite difficult, nitpicky, and all the answer choices seemed correct to me.

But I'm going to be the bigger person and try to look past all of this. We all have setbacks and this rotation and exam was mine. I hope it doesn't bode an ominous future for my residency applications given that my Step 1 score was subpar to begin with and this adds another (hopefully tiny) red flag. I'm going to choose to forget this happened, study my butt off for the retake, and put this all behind me. I won't let it affect my drive to study for my current rotation's  shelf exam which is next Friday. Let's hope this works out well. Hopefully have some beauty posts soon, I'm sorry I've been such a slacker! Life's just been crazy crazy crazy these past few months....

The 5 Product Busy Girl Makeup Tutorial

I meant to upload this post ages ago, but I guess I never got around to finishing it in the midst of my crazy schedule over the past two months.

Honestly, these past two months have been crazy busy and I've been living like a total slob. Forget makeup, I haven't even had time to make dinner most days. I've become kind of an expert in the art of putting on makeup in a rush at work minutes before I have to head to the clinic or the wards or wherever I will be for the month. Having a travel makeup bag is essential for any busy girl. I make sure to always have a small/medium size makeup bag full of a few beauty essentials that I trust and know will make me look put-together in a matter of minutes. For me, this consists of a brightening eyeshadow, a mascara, and some concealer. That's just what I like to work with in the morning but for other girls, it may be a particular lipstick or even a bright blush. I like to focus on my eye makeup on busy mornings because I know it will last all day and will make me fake a good night's sleep. And I also like to carry around only 5 or 6 items so that I'm not lugging pounds of makeup to work everyday, and can keep my makeup routine simple and quick.

So above you see what I have stashed in my travel beauty bag. I do tend to switch it up every now and then, but these are the general products I always carry - a mascara, concealer, eye primer, eyeshadow brush, and an eyeshadow palette. For concealer, I use my trusty little Milani Secret Cover Concealer Stick. It's a full-coverage concealer that matches my skin tone perfectly. I can easily spot-correct my trouble spots with this product alone. I don't worry too much about wearing a foundation on busy days because I know I won't have time to put it on, and because I don't want to carry around a large foundation bottle and brushes to apply it. For those of you from whom foundation is essential, try a foundation stick or a liquid foundation you can easily apply with your fingers.

Aside from concealer, I like to focus the rest of my makeup on my eyes. I normally don't have the time to be re-applying my lipstick or lipgloss every few hours at work, so I stick to a neutral but bright eye on busy days. That way, if I use the correct products, my eye makeup should stay put the whole day. I first prime my eyelids so my eyeshadow stays true to color and lasts all day.

On rushed mornings, I just stick to one color across my lid and don't worry about putting on a crease color, blending, etc. I like to keep it nice and simple. I really really like the Wet & Wild trios for my travel makeup bag because they're compact, come in a variety of shades, and are aaaaamaaazing quality shadows. They wear like a lot of my favorite high-end eyeshadows but come at an affordable price and can be easily found in multiple drugstores. The particular one in the photo above is Walking On Eggshells, which is one of their most neutral palettes. I apply the eyeshadow with my Sonia Kashuk Smudge Brush. To complete my eye look, I put on a few coats of mascara. The one I've been obsessed with lately is the CoverGirl Clump Crusher.

So that's it, that's all of the products I need for a quick speedy makeup look on busy mornings. As you see, it's comprised of only 5 small products so I don't need to lug my makeup collection to work with me everyday. It's always important to look awake, refreshed, and confident at work and keeping a travel-sized makeup bag of a few, good beauty essentials makes it easy as ever for busy girls like myself to look their best at work! :)