How To Shop: Forever 21

Hello Shopaholics, Tiffany here, and this is an amazing store, if you can find the right things. Now, you may be thinking, what do you mean “How to Shop?” well, that is because either people miss the deals or just overlook places like Forever 21 because of how many people crowd the place. Now, moving on… Forever 21 is in high comparison with H & M. When I first went into Forever 21, I was absolutely overwhelmed with how much it had inside the store, however, that depends. For me, Forever 21 is the most fashion forward for a girl on a budget to shop for and get the basics as well as add pops of the most recent trends in their wardrobe.

Now, Forever 21 has a variety of many women’s fashion in their collection of items in their store. I will be basing my knowledge on the ones I have been to so if I am missing something or saying something that doesn’t seem right, it is because all Forever 21′s vary when it comes to how big the store is generally. So, for clothing, it all depends on how durable the material is, there is the belief that Forever 21 doesn’t last for a long time and that can be true if you don’t take care of it. So far, I have had my Forever 21 clothing for a few years and it has been good. However, I am not a huge clothing buyer at Forever 21, but my sister is and she would definitely say the same.

Jewelry is the most amazing stuff and I find that it has to be the certain few that will be good. Certain pieces of jewelry are absolutely a steal and a great find. Don’t head for the jewelry that is over $6.80 unless you will wear it almost every day to every week generally. I find that spending a lot of money on jewelry at Forever 21 is not worth it. I only spent $10.80 on fancy feather earrings which I love and it is so much fun to wear when I want to feel fancy. Other than that, just look at the jewelry carefully and check if the jewelry looks cheap because, no offense, but there are pieces that are not good at all.

Shoes are not something that I find is something that I don’t gravitate to because the shoes are either not my style or just cheap looking and it isn’t to say that you won’t find a good pair of shoes from there but I just haven’t thought that the shoes were good for me or that they were priced fairly. Makeup is a good find when it comes to saving on a budget and I love a blush that I purchased from them.

Also, before I go, when going into the store, it is so hectic that you want to pull out your hair…or is that just me? There will generally, probably, be clothing and jewelry on the floor and that is a part of shopping here because Forever 21 may be nice and clean at first but once weekend traffic hits, it is kind of shot. You will have to dodge a lot of people and make sure that you keep all belongings with you, not to say that anything will get stolen but it is easy to misplace things.

Last piece of advice, look for the deals such as: 50% off of clearance, Buy One Get One Free Clearance, etc.

Clearance is your best friend.

Tags: makeup, clothing, forever 21, jewelry, How to Shop, twenty one, shoes, accessories

Makeup is What We Make It

Hello Shopaholics, Tiffany here. Now, I know that this kind of blog post is odd but this is important because I find that people are making makeup to be thief magical thing that makes women beautiful and that is kind of a weird statement. Makeup can make you feel beautiful but not look more beautiful. Most women nowadays will go out wearing makeup just to the gas station or wear it around the house just because they don’t want to be seen without their face on.

No matter what anyone else says or how much makeup you put on, know that you are beautiful and that this is not something that changes with makeup or surgery or whatever you do to make yourself “more beautiful”. In all honesty, I love makeup but I do not wear it everyday, I did have a kick of wearing makeup everyday when I first started getting the hang of it. Now I just don’t see the reason to make myself with makeup unless I feel that I want to. I feel most at ease when I don’t have makeup on and I think that young girls need to know that makeup is not everything that will make them beautiful, it is how they carry themselves. That statement includes all females really.

Makeup has gotten out of hang because surgery can make you look like you are ready to go with all the new advances in this world, it is hard to see natural beauty, true natural beauty, literally no makeup, powder, concealer, etc. Makeup is fun, it isn’t a mechanism to make people see a false you.

“God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.” (Hamlet, 3.1.131)

Tags: Make up is not everything

Review: e.l.f. oil blotting sheets

Hello Shopaholics, Tiffany here, and it is getting hotter and hotter by the day! Seriously, this is the most amazing product and it is only $1.00!!! You can buy this at Target and it is such a great deal! You can also find other affordable makeup from e.l.f. at Target. Now, these are small sheets that suck up oil like a black hole. I love these sheets because I have extremely oily skin that gets out of control quickly when I am outside. To be absolutely honest, when I first bought these I thought that they were probably going to be mediocre because for $1.00 how well will this work? I was totally wrong and this is amazing, it comes with 50 sheets which is always a plus and the fact that it is so cheap is another great plus. If you would like to compare, there are Clean & Clear oil blotting sheets that are $4.99 for the same amount of sheets. Now, I don’t really plan on trying them out because I don’t feel the need to spend the money on the basically same product. Not to say that it wouldn’t be good to see which was better but the fact that this works for my excessively oily skin, I am happy with it. If you have used the Clean and Clear ones let me know in the comments below.

Positive: Best blotting sheets I have used.

Negative: Nothing.

Disclaimer: the image is not mine.

Tags: blotting, e.l.f, face, makeup, oil, sheets, shine eraser, skin, target

Beauty Spotlight: Cassandra Bankson (Diamondsandheels14)

Hello Shopaholics, Tiffany here, and this is going to be a new segment on beauty and different products or gurus on youtube I think that should be seen more. Not to mention that sometimes I don’t know about some amazing gurus or products that are out there and should be shown. If you have any beauty gurus or products you would like me to consider, please leave a comment below :]

Now, Cassandra Bankson or as many of you know as Diamondsandheels14 is absolutely an inspiration when it comes to overcoming acne but she has a bright spirit and brings life to whatever she does. I find that Cassandra being a model brings inspiration to younger generations and keeps them motivated to be who they are and not conform to please everyone else.

Below you will see links that she has as well as the first video I saw of her:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Diamondsandheels14/221566097874085

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cassandra-Bankson/214919915187678

http://twitter.com/#!/SincerelyCass11

http://diamondsandheels14.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/callhercass

http://diamondsandheels14.tumblr.com/

Tags: acne, beauty, cass, cassandra bankson, diamondsandheels14, guru, makeup, youtube

Review: Clean and Clear Deep Action Exfoliating Scrub

Hello Shopaholics, Tiffany here, and this is one of the best daily exfoliating cleansers that I have found. I love trying clean and clear products and find them to either be better than I thought or not so much. I will say that this is great for those of you who have acne. I find that it is cool and the beads that are in the scrub take time to scrub away into the skin, of course, it takes time to scrub the beads away. I find that you don’t need a large amount and if you stick to the target areas (mine are where the acne is most prominent, my cheeks) then you will cool the skin down. This scrub works slowly but at a good pace to heal the skin. My favorite part is the cooling mint feeling on the skin when you have been scrubbing at your face for a minute or two. There are two parts that I don’t like about this scrub is that the bottle isn’t full and that may be because the bottle is in need of oxygen to keep the beads and scrub from not working. The second is that the scrub can be gel like rather than a smooth consistency but that is not a huge issue.

Positive: Works great

Negative: I don’t like that the bottle is not full of product, it is about 3/4 of the way full.

Disclaimer: I do not own the photo

Tags: beads, clean and clear, deep action, exfoliating scrub, skin care

BREAK

So, for the next week or so, I will be gone because of the work load from college at the moment. I will definitely be back around or after finals which will be early May! Thank you for understanding and if you get bored, just look back at my older things I am sure you will find something that you will like (Don’t forget to click the LIKE button!)

Review: CoverGirl Eyeliner in Smoke 605

Hello Shopaholics, Tiffany here, and if you are looking for the most subtle type of pop to your normal every day makeup, then this is your eyeliner. I thought that this eyeliner would be the light blue that the container it is. However, when you apply it, the color is one of the most lovely blues. It is lighter than a midnight blue and darker than a generic shade of blue. I honestly love using it when I want a pop of color. I also love the felt tip pen that it comes with because it is so easy to use and the hilt of the felt is amazing to use. Pigmentation is great and if you want to blend it out, you will need to do it relatively quickly, but it looks amazing. I cannot say how much I would actually pay full price for this product.

Positive: Works so great and is great for a pop of color.

Negative: Nothing.

Tags: blue, covergirl, eyeliner, liquid, makeup, review, smoke

Review: Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Blush in Soft Plum 40

I bought this blush on a whim…also because it is part of the dream collection by Maybelline dream matte mousse, which I love but is too light for my skin tone since I bought it in the wrong color! Um, but this is a really great product! I love the consistency of the product, especially when you take it on your fingers, it blends so well too!

I love the packaging (not the plastic that it comes in) the glass is really nice and not thin. I like that you can see the product inside and it looks like there isn’t a lot but it takes a while before you run through all the blush. I find that using a light hand works best because it can look like your face is really flushed when you don’t mean for it to. I generally blend more if it becomes too pigmented on my cheeks.

The swatch above is just a run through and it looks really nice and you can see that it is an easily blendable blush. There is flecks of shimmer/glitter in the blush but when applied it doesn’t show. If you have acne (like me) you might not like this so much because it is not a blush that will cover it up along with your foundation. However, it works really well so I don’t mind it so much.

Positive: Amazing color and easy to build.

Negative: Won’t help cover up blemishes/acne and can show “imperfections”.

Tags: blush, dream, makeup, maybelline, mousse, soft plum 40

All You Need: Blush

e.l.f. blush palette

Price: $3

Absolutely cute and compact, you can buy this at Target and it comes with a baby pink, hot pink, light peach/highlight, and a bronzing color. This looks like a palette good for lighter skin colors because the bronzer color doesn’t look very dark so if you have darker skin, it would look odd. Anyway, this is super affordable and if I get all my makeup through and done with, I might go and try this out!

                                                                             

BHcosmetics 10 Piece Professional Blush Palette                                          Coastal Scents 10 Piece Professional Blush Palette

Price: $10                                                                                                                        $16

This is by BHCosmetics and Coastal Scents has a similar palette with the same amount of blushes but not color. I have seen both of these at work and think that either of them would work out great. Of course, looking at the palettes side by side, you can see that the Coastal Scents one is a bit more neutral than the BHcosmetics one, so it is all on preference.

Coastal Scents Contour and Blush Palette

Price: $18

This is a little on the hefty side when it comes to price for me. I have not personally tried this product but I heard that this is good and if you think about it, it is like a cheaper version of the Nars blush palette. If you look at the 10 blush palette and this one, you can see that there is only a $2 difference, however, if you only like the 6 colors above rather than the other colors which you might not use, just choose this one. I would suggest looking up reviews because I am not certain. I will also say that these are just suggestions and ideas for saving money and to help you find new products that you might like to try.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the photos.

Tags: affordable, all about, bhcosmetics, blush, coastal scents, e.l.f, palette

Review: Ruby Kisses in Steel Magnolia

Hello Shopaholics, Tiffany here, and the picture above does not do this polish justice! I absolutely love dark gray’s that have beautiful sparkle in them. I bought this because of the country band Steel Magnolia and even though they are not my favorite, I really had a country music kick so this was something I had to get, not to mention it was $1.00. This polish is subtle when it comes to showing off its different colors, so if you like generally one color polish, this is just a little sparkle. The way it applies is lovely and you can just go with one coat. I find that this polish lasts on the nails for a good while. I don’t know exactly where to buy this polish because I found it at a local place. Anyway, if you want a vampy look or are going for the spring trend of ombre, you can definitely use this and have another color be the “pop”.

Positive: Great polish

Negative: Nothing.

Tags: gray, nail polish, nails, ruby kisses, steel magnolia