September Project 200 Pan

It is the end of October, so you know that I am finally getting around to telling you what I used up last September. If you have read my 15 to Jess post, then you know that I am up to 115 out of 200 items. I only have 75 more things to use up by the end of the year. Now, I know that this is very much of a stretch. I would have to use up (not including September) 25 items in October, November, and December. I really do not use up that many items in a month. I thought that I could do it, because in the beginning, I had so many minis. As the year went on, items started to decrease in numbers and I am very happy to have gotten rid of a bulk of the clutter. I am happy with my current number 115, but I want to still push for that 200. I’m not going to use things for the sake of an empty though. I am using my items and enjoying most of them.

MAKEUP:

116/200 I painted my toe nails this bright red orange from Julep in the shade Gloria from the Bombshell collection. I will be keeping this for the toes. It is more red than I like for my fingers. Painting my nails is a miracle which is why I’m counting it as an empty to motivate myself to paint my nails more. Next year, I am actually having 2 nail polishes in my finish 19 in 2019. This shade will not make it in there though since I can only use it on my toes. It is a pretty color though.

BODY CARE:

120/200 I am not counting Dean’s Shampoo/Body Wash as he goes through them pretty regularly. I finished off two of my dad’s body scrubs. He leaves a lot in there, because he doesn’t want to work hard to get the last bits out. I get roughly two weeks of body scrub out of each bottle that he wants to throw out. I count them, because I am not using my own body wash most of the month. My dad never liked this lotion. I finally finished this huge bottle. I used it at night after a bath/shower, because it is unscented. I like to use scented body lotion during the day. I FINALLY used up my Bio-oil from my pregnancy days. This did nothing for my current stretch marks, but it did help against stretch marks during pregnancy. I didn’t get any stretch marks until I started to loose the baby weight. That is how I got my original stretch marks from my teen days. Any time I lose a lot of weight fast, I get stretch marks. I really want to try a stretch mark cream and a cellulite one, because I have both thanks to Dean. 🙂

HAIR CARE:

124/200 Hair care was where it was at this month. I redid my grey hair, although it is looking more brown toned than the icy grey that I was getting before. This is the last time that I am doing grey, because I think I will need to lighten my hair again. I’m going to do a smoky blue and maybe a purple. Since I have this darker ash vibe, I still want to play with color and maybe I can be a bit more vibrant but dark at the same time. I finished a one time use foil packet of a hair mask and it was okay. I used up this scalp scrub that I did not understand and all it did was dry up my hair. The Infusium 23 I received from Influenster for review purposes and I really didn’t care for it. I am sad that my Aussie conditioner is done. It is my favorite conditioner, but they are not CF. No repurchases in this category for me.

SKIN CARE:

126/200 I got the little deluxe sized sample of bronzing face lotion from Danielle and I really liked it. It gave a natural tan look to my face and never looked orange or fake. I didn’t care for the Kiehl’s face gel. It wasn’t moisturizing enough and I don’t think it did anything for my acne. It also pilled up ANYTHING applied underneath it. I ended up using this on my legs and it helped with razor bumps. There are cheaper things you can purchase for that though than this moisturizer. I really want to try their midnight recovery oil/serum thing. I’m not turned off by the brand. I just don’t like this product.

MISCELLANEOUS:

I finished up two pens. Both my favorite: PaperMate Ink Joy pens, but the orange is the gel pen. I am IN LOVE with the gel pens. I will repurchase another pack once I’m down to my last few ones. They have lasted two semesters so far with only one causality out of 10 pens. We finished up a mini toothpaste from the dentist and a pack of 100 cotton rounds. I am currently working on a huge bag of cotton balls. We don’t use them and they just sit. Honestly, I don’t see much of a difference between the two. I might switch to cotton balls, since it is more cost effective.

126/200 That is not bad for the end of September and nine months into my year long pan project. October isn’t looking too promising, so I think ideally, I would want to hit at least 150 to 175. 200 is looking farther and farther away. I’ll be relooking through my collection. I think there is one more color corrector that I need to declutter, but I pretty much did most of my decluttering already of items that I am not a fan of. I might be resubbing to Sephora PLAY in 2020 if my 2019 project pan goes well. That was my favorite sub box and I have been keeping an eye out in case I wanted to buy any months after the fact.

With Love,

Advertisement

5 OUT: Product Reviews

So, I have uncovered more old reviews that I have written and never reviewed on my blog. I thought that I would share another 5 of these today. I am happy to see that my drafts on my blog are getting smaller in numbers. I mean, I always a few in there so as to not forget to write about them like my Monthly Reads, Movies, EI, ABA, Semester, and Project 200 pan posts. I always have a draft with the titles in there for those. Other than that, I am free to write whatever posts that I would like. It is a great feeling. I used to have a ton of posts that I planned in there. I have greater freedom now to do what I feel like doing and not feel guilty about it. I still plan on doing some cooking/baking posts now that I have a camera! I am looking forward to those posts!

New England Coffee in Blueberry Cobbler

This was just terrible. I usually enjoy coffee from this brand, but this flavor tasted terrible. Not even coffee creamer could redeem it. I love trying new flavored coffees and would buy from this brand again, just not this flavor. I’m very picky when it comes to my flavored coffees. It has to be just right and hit all the right notes. This coffee just tasted burnt to me, even though it was never burnt once or left out too long. I brew by the cup, so no chance of that happening. There was definitely no “juicy, berry flavor” like they claim. This did not taste like fruit at all. I figured it would taste good like fruit and chocolate but no.

Yankee Candle Tropical Island Breeze

The candle scent was so good that I burned through two of these that I bought at Marshall’s. It is sweet and light and perfect for those muggy summer nights. It smells like summer. These are huge candles and I burned through them so fast, because the scent was always there but never overwhelming. The candle itself burns clean and there is very little wax left in the jar. I would repurchase this if I saw it at Marshall’s again and I am going to be keeping an eye out for more Yankee Candles at my local store. $13 is such a steal!

Gerber Sweet Potato Puffs

Dean really enjoyed these puff snacks, but he had to be in the mood for them. They are kind of bland, so I am going to see if there is any healthy adult cereal that he can try with more flavor to it. I would purchase these again, but he is over them. He loves strong flavors.

MJCARE Snail Sheet Mask

I was really afraid of trying this mask, but I had nothing to fear. It smells light and perfumey. I didn’t notice anything but more moisturized skin and a more plump appearance. I find that all sheet masks do the same thing, but I love the experience when I have the time for it. MJCARE masks are also really basic and a dollar a mask. I’ve tried Tony Moly masks and I feel like they only perform a little bit better, giving me a little more glow or a bit clearer pores. I will repurchase on my next Amazon order and I don’t buy very often from them.

Avon Advance Techniques Keep Clear Anti-Dandruff Treatment

Anytime I had a bit of dandruff, this leave in scalp treatment did the trick. I can no longer find this on Avon’s website. I’ve had this for a very long time. I no longer shop Avon, because they are not cruelty free and that’s a big thing that I am trying to stick by now when it comes to beauty products. Avon is also a big pyramid scheme but that is a story for another time.

There you have it. 5 more reviews of products that are no longer part of my collection (besides the other MJCARE sheet masks). What have you used up lately? I still got a ton of reviews that I need to write and share on my blog. I am very backed up. Doing this 200 pan, I am using up stuff faster than I can review it and with school, I don’t even try anymore. I need to start writing these at least twice a month. I know everyone says that they are busy, but I mean, I really am. I’m not sitting here watching Netflix. I am blogging and getting my papers edited to upload for school that’s due today. Speaking of which, I should probably get those done now before I start another procrastinating blog post.

With Love,

Sally’s Haul & Hair Update

I just realized that I totally could have put two of these items in my empties, because I used them up. Being coloring boxes, I put the used tubes in there and throw the whole box out. Hence why I didn’t save them. Oh well! I made my first order on Sally’s website and spend $27 on my hair stuff. I also had a 5 dollar coupon, so I treated myself to some no heat hair rollers that I have yet to try. I will be doing that soon though, don’t ch’you worry and I’ll document the before and after on here as well. So, for the hair update part. I thought that I would share with you what my hair looked life before and after each step with the stuff that I purchased.

Before:

As you can tell, all of the silver rinsed out of my hair and it was left with a yellow and slightly ashy tone with white pieces. I needed a toner really bad to get my hair down to a more ashy, grey tone. Grey needs to be ashy or white. Over yellow, the hair can appear green. I remembered hearing about Wella so much on Youtube, so I purchased that.

Wella Color Charm T18: Lightest Ash Blonde

A little too late, I realized that the 050 would have been better for my hair needs, but this one did a great job at getting my hair to that nice white ashy base. I needed a developer to go with it so I bought a 10 volume, which is for depositing color only, no lift. After bleaching my hair twice at the salon, I did not need anymore lift.

Clairol Pure White 10 Volume Developer

This bottle is huge and will last quite a while. I used a half a cup of developer per one bottle (1/4 cup) of Wella T18. The mixture was white but started turning blue on my head. It took me about 10 minutes to apply it and I let it sit on my hair for another 20 minutes before rinsing it out.

I had white ashier hair. My hair where it was bleached twice, because it is stuborn is still more blonde than the rest of it. It is still a level 8 or 9, so it is a pretty light blonde. The rest of it that is white is a level 10, the perfect blonde for grey hair. I bought the color Chrome from Ion for my grey color.

Ion Color Brilliance Demi 7VA Chrome

Again, I used one whole tube of color to about a cup of developer. You always want to use double the developer to color, a 2:1 ratio. I also didn’t want it going dark, because I didn’t see many reviews on this color. All of the videos on Youtube (2), it didn’t look good on the person and I was looking for a purple smoky more true grey color. Well….I got it.

It is so multidimensional! In the light, it is a gorgeous light, true grey and in the shade it is a cool grey with purply tones to it. I absolutely LOVE my grey hair now. It is exactly what I wanted and I couldn’t be happier. BTW, this is after 2 shampoos! It didn’t rinse out. I put the color on for 40 minutes with a shower cap. I am hoping that it lasts at least a month, so I don’t have to do it more often than that. Coloring is still damaging. I feel more like me now. For once, I love my hair. It matches my eyes PERFECTLY. It feels authentic. I found a me color that I am going to be sporting for a very long time.

With Love,

 

Grey Hair, Don’t Care

The story of my hair goes like this…I have never been happy with my hair. In my youth, I was too blonde and too curly. Then, my hair was too long, too short. Too brown. I added highlights at age 10 to be blonder. Then, layers to my hair for movement. Senior year, I did a really bad ash blonde hair dye. That sparked my dying journey. I then added purple extensions. I dyed my hair little mermaid red. I dyed my hair brown, black. I added bleached chunks underneath that I did myself. I dip died my blonde hair purple. I had my hair bleached and it ended up too brassy, but I didn’t know about silver shampoo then.

My current hair: Last Saturday, I went to the salon for 8 am. My stylist Charlie Cook from 126 Post Salon in Worcester MA (He requested a plug in. 🙂 He has never done the grey hair before, but two other girls at the salon had and added their two cents in. My guy has been doing it for years, so I’m sure he knew everything that they were telling him already. So, he applied the bleach to my hair and did my dad’s haircut and wash and blow dry. Then, he checked my hair and did my son’s hair cut. I had my hair rinsed out and blow dried. I had bleach put on a second time for a shorter period of time a few inches from my roots to a bit past my ears where the hair was still orange. That part was still brassy after the bleach rinsed out. I guess that is the darkest part of my hair.

I had the Pravana silver color and developer (just a clear add in) mixed and put in my hair for about 5 minutes. I wish it would have been left on a bit longer for a stronger silver hue. He then rinsed out my hair and I had a final blow dry. I had $150, which I think is a really hair price. Each bleach was $50 and the toner/color was $20. He ended up with a $30 tip, which I thought was very good. It came out a bit blue, which I wanted a more lead pencil grey tone. More due to the dye than anything my stylist did. I have only washed my hair once since then and the blue tone came out. In sunlight, my hair is a very pretty light silver, grey. In my bathroom lightening, it looks more ash blonde and a little gold. My hair has very strong gold undertones. A little blonde is peeking through, but I think with leaving a toner on longer, it will coat it grey.

I’m going to try the Wella grey toner in three weeks, since I want to keep up the grey color and not look white/ash blonde. So, I will be sharing before and after with the toner. Here is the final look though!!!! I love it!

As you can see, when the light hits it, it can appear a bit more blonde. It is actually very grey if you can tell by the photos. It is hard with indoor lighting to show the grey hue. It looked more grey away from the light. At work under the florescent, my whole head looks light like the far right picture. I feel like grey is a hard color to take a picture of. My camera kept on auto fixing the tone of my hair. It matches my grey eyes perfectly!

With Love,

PR Love From…

I recently received a lovely package from eSalon due to a false offer from a spammer. I went directly to eSalon to ask if it was a genuine collaboration and was told that it was not. They kindly sent me a product to try from their line to make up for being falsely asked to collaborate, even though it wasn’t there fault. Great customer service all around and I loved how they mentioned the scam in their blog post.

So, if you are unsure if an offer is real, reach out to the actual company’s customer service department. You might even be rewarded for it like me. I never trust an email offer at face value. I always double check with the company to make sure that I’m not being hacked or spammed. I asked another company JSShoes to see if their offer was real and they said that it was. However, the rep won’t get back to me now. Oh well, you win some and you lose some. In this case, a pair of free heels. 🙂

With Love,

December Empties

Instead of saying another month gone, I’ll say another year gone this time around. I believe the older you are, the faster time seems to go by. Time never went by this fast when I was in high school. It only ever went fast when I was actually enjoying my life. Now, days that drag and days that fly, all seem to go at the same pace. Sounds cliche and maybe it is but it is also the truth. I would never go back in time. I want to always be moving forward, never going back. For the new year empties, I am going to be trying a new style of empty posts. Stay tuned until Feb to see the new empties.

1. & 2. International Delight Coffee Creamer

3. & 4. Gerber Graduates Lil’ Beanies

5. New England Coffee Colombian Supremo

6. Dunkin’ Donuts Caramel Coffee Cake

7. Gerber Puffs in Sweet Potato

8. Dr Fresh Kids’ Toothbrushes

9. – 12. Two Sharpie Highlighters & Two InkJoy pens

13. Zesty Paws Turmeric Curcumin Bites

14. ProActiv Refining Mask

15. Belif The True Cream Moisturizing Balm

16. Coty Vampire Perfume

17. Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder

18. Velvet Purple Scrunchy

19. The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% and Zinc 1%

20. Biore Baking Soda Cleanser

21. Gliss Ultra Moisture Shampoo

22. Equate Motrin

23. Soap & Glory Clean On Me Shower Gel

December was a light month for me and January is already looking better. I have been decluttering some makeup products here and there that are just not good anymore. As I go throughout the year, I plan on decluttering anything that I don’t like that I know are recent products to friends and anything else can and will be thrown away. It’s time for a new me that doesn’t keep products around just to have them.

With Love,

 

December Sephora Play!

The last box of the year and it came on December 23rd. Seriously. I usually get my box from 10-20. I feel like it took FOREVER! Okay, I’ll stop complaining. lol. I really do love the Sephora Play subscription that I get every month. Some months are better than others, but overall, I think you get good bang for your tenner. I might not use everything immediately, but I am happy to try everything that I can. I am rotating through my makeup collection and making it a big priority next year that if I don’t love something, I give it away. If it is too old, throw it out. If I’m not loving it, it isn’t worth the effort to use it up or pan it.

I love the bag! It is very cute, but I really don’t have a need. I usually just donate these bags away to be recycled and proceeds goes towards a local charity. I’m actually going to be using my card, because I am hitting up Sephora. I want to buy something during the 20% off sale and possibly cash in some points.

Drybar Triple Sec, 0.35 oz for $2.17

This is a 12th of the full size, so to me it seems like a tiny sample. I would have at least liked to have seen a half of an ounce for a hair product. This will probably only be a couple of uses. I have to use a lot of dry shampoo to soak up the second day oil in my hair. It gets oily super fast. I think it smells nice and I cannot wait to use it once I use up my Not Your Mother’s dry shampoo. So far, I really love the Amika Perk Up dry shampoo for my hair. I don’t have to put a ton in and it really works.

Stella McCartney perfume sample

I love that this is a natural rose scent. I’ve been really into rose scents lately. I would love to receive a foil packet instead of a perfume every other month though. I haven’t gotten one yet and I would really like to. I have too many perfume samples at the moment since I’m trying to work through a bottle of perfume.

Clinique Pretty Easy Liquid Eyelining Pen, 0.34 g for $7

I’m going to say that this is a third of the full size, since I cannot find how much is in a pen anywhere. I look forward to using this when I don’t currently have an eye liner open. I am trying to use up a black and glitter eye liner. I’m pulling it out in January, so we shall see if it is still good or not. I’ll be blogging about my makeup clearing journey, so you guys won’t miss a beat. Subscription bags are great, but if I don’t like it, I’m not going to be keeping them around anymore.

Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Eye Colour in Matte Au Natural, 1 g for $17.40

This is more than half of a full size! It is pretty close to a full size and way more than half. I am very pleased with the amount of product in this one. This is a nude color that I will be using all of the time. I actually prefer to work with cream shadows, so I am excited to try this out in my January rotation. If it wears nicely on my eyes, I will be very happy. Eye shadow creases on my hooded eyes like crazy, especially creams. I had a hard time getting rid of the swatch so I have high hopes for this one. I would work this on the lid and crease and pop a bright eye shadow on the lid.

Caudalie Vine[Activ] Energizing & Smoothing Eye Cream, 0.16 fl oz for $13

This is a third of the full size of eye cream, so I am happy that it is a really decent sized eye cream sample. It takes me a while to go through eye cream. I almost never need to buy it, because these samples carry me throughout most of the year. I am curious about this brand, but I feel like the beauty world is over it. I’d like to try more of it. I really love the beauty elixir, but I can buy a Smashbox Primer Water for less and get more. I feel like they are overpriced and trying to be luxury.

MUFE Artist Rouge Creme Lipstick Fuchsia Pink, 0.04 oz for $7.34

Another generous size for being a third of the full size. This lipstick is super soft. While I love the purple pink color, the bullet is already being smashed around inside of the tube. I would not buy a full size of this. I will be pulling it out in the spring and summer, but this really isn’t a winter color. I would have appreciated a soft pink or a winter berry.

$46.91 is the total value of this box. I would give this box 3 out of 5 stars, because of the great value and I’m not excited for the lipstick and the black liner. I am excited to see what the next year brings to the Sephora Play! box. I have been really happy with the items that I have received this year. I plan on going through my collection soon and getting rid of the samples that I didn’t enjoy.

With Love,

Hair Inspo

Hey guys! I thought that I would share some links of the hair that I really want my stylist to create for me. I’m going for a Guy Tang Dusty Lavender look.

Look 1

Look2

Look3

Look4

Look5

I just love this look so much and I feel like it looks unique while also being very work appropriate. What are your thoughts? Do you think I should go for it?

With Love,

 

A Hair Of Excitement

I just realized yesterday that it has been 1 years and 7 months since I last colored my hair. It seems like it was just yesterday that I had bleached my whole head with my 5 month old in my arms. I have had an interesting hair journey. I was blonde growing up until the age of 12 when my hair turned a darker blonde. I would say that my hair is a dark blonde to a light brown. My stylist calls it dirty blonde. I say it is darker than dirty blonde playing on the edge of brunette.

I never colored my hair until senior year of high school. I colored my hair blonder and kept on coloring it. Freshman or Sophomore year of college, I added purple extensions.

I then went through a red stage, which I have no photos of. I dip dyed my hair purple, again no photos of that. The next ones I have is when I went black and really dark brown.

I then had my blonde moment:

Now my hair is like mostly natural looking:

As you can see (ignore my greasy AF roots that are super flat), The blonde has mostly grown out. It is more of an ombre and it is so brassy. I am looking to do something colorful. I’m thinking rose gold or purple or pink or blue. Like IDK. I need help! I want to do something fun but still professional looking. I figure that I would just do my blonde ends to spice them up. I am considering doing my whole head rose gold though. Oh, and I’m talking TEMPORARY. The kind of color you mix with conditioner and rinses out in a few shampoos. What do you think I should do?

With Love,

❤ Selena Hannah ❤

Beach Spray

For Marc Anthony Beach Spray

This smells delicious, but I would not purchase this one. It left my hair feeling sticky and looking greasy the next day. If you wash your hair after using this and you don’t mind the stickiness than you might like this. It did keep my waves looking piecey and held them in longer. It is good for a bed head sort of look. The sweet scent also attracted flies, so its a pass from me.

With Love,

❤ Selena Hannah ❤