Pop Beauty Lip Crayons: A Love Story

 A true tale of love, lost. Then found again.

Once upon a time in July, I got an Ipsy bag. In that bag was a Pop Beauty Lip Crayon in Rose Romance.

That lip crayon made it as far as my August Favorites.

Then this girl went on this Vacation.

All of the sudden, Rose Romance was gone!

How could it be?

I lost the damn lip crayon. And that lip crayon is $10. I don't buy lipsticks for that much. Well, I take that back. I try not to. But ever since I lost Rose Romance, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

What's a girl to do? Hop on the Ulta.com of course! I realize Ulta is having a sale that is you spend $25 on Pop Beauty you get a free lip crayon in.......{drum roll please} Rose Romance!

So I ended up getting 5 full sized Lip Crayons for $25 and a back up of my beloved Rose Romance- for free!

Now that you've heard that love story, let's get on with the review.

These Lip Crayons are really nice. Even though they look like a crayon/pencil, you don't need to sharpen them. The colors of the actual tubes can be deceiving. I will get into that later. They are all creamy and mostly moisturizing. I would call them a moisturizing lipstick. They have a slight mint scent but do not taste like anything. Some look like a stain. Others look like a lip stick. And some seem to accentuate the cracks on my lips. Maybe I applied too much?

Apricot Adore:

Last week I wore this to work and it seemed to make the lines in my lips more noticeable. They actually felt a little dry after a while. It was an isolated incident and if im being fair, my lips were chapped as I had a cold. On other days I have used this, I haven't had that problem. The tube looks like a tomato red. On the lips, it's a nice peachy pink color. It has a brightening aspect to it. Looking in the mirror, it didn't look so streaky. In the photo, it's another story. So it has some flaws, apparently. This is my second favorite color, regardless.

Coral Crush:

This one has power. It is really pretty bright coral and right up my alley. This would have been awesome for this past summer. This is one of them that seems to have a staining quality. After the lip crayon wore off, the color was still there. Wait. This one might be my favorite.

Rose Romance:

You guys already know how I feel about this one. This is a nice nude color that can look like a nude pink but I call it a nude. This one is the creamiest one. It goes on the smoothest and feels the nicest, for whatever reason.

Petal Passion:

If I went into Ulta blindly, never to have experienced Rose Romance, I would have thought this was the perfect color for me. I love nude pinks. But this one guys, is the worst. Think of it as a clear lipstick. I think of this one as a clear chap stick. It's nothing special, really. Maybe it would be good for using over a more drying lip crayon {or lip products in general} but I wouldn't buy this one solo or anything. Unless any of this appeals to you, of course. I have no clue why they decided to put the word "passion" in the name. There is no passion. There is just blandness. And sorrow. And death. 

Fuchsia Flirt:

I thought this would be the brightest color in the box, but turns out it's not. This one reminds me of Apricot Adore, but this one is a little more pink- a medium pink.

Barely Bitten:

this one is a little bit of a darker nude than Rose Romance. And Rose Romance has more pink to it. If your looking for a brown nude, you have found it. I never would have bought anything in this shade for my lips but it turns out that I like it a lot on my lips.

I really would recommend this little kit to anyone that wears lipstick, really. I think we tend to stick to what we think is right for our taste and skin tone as far as makeup goes. Considering you get to try 6 different shades with this kit, you really get to see what you should be wearing as opposed to what you like. I have said time and time again Rose Romance and I have a thing. Looking at the photos, I think I look way cuter with a couple of the other colors. Rose Romance doesn't really up the ante on my face as much as, say, Coral Crush. 

I almost forgot to add these swatches! This will give you even more insight. I do like lip swatches but I also love seeing them swatched on hands/arms just to compare them side to side.

 

So yeah, the love story I guess isn't a love story ending in girl meets lip crayon (hm?). I ended up loving every crayon in the box. Well, most of the crayons.

One thing I learned with these particular lip crayons is that you should never apply too much or else you will surely accentuate the wrinkles and lines on your lips.

What are your favorite lip crayons?

 Any beauty products in general that your bizarrely in love with?

xoxo
Erica

A House Tour and a Ton of Simple DIY's and Super Quick Tip's

As you all know I moved and I have been shopping, DIYing and decorating like crazy! Here, I am going to give you a tour of my living room (in the video) and my room (through photos). 

In the video, while I am showing my living room, I am taking you around and showing you all of the awesome deals I got on everything. I try not to buy expensive things. I also show you the makeup I got at Ulta and Lauren Conrad shoes I bought at Kohl's. They were around $70-something and I bought them for under $20! This was a really fun day and I hope you enjoy it too!

My room is the big room up in the attic. As you can tell, I don't have high ceilings. The shape of my room is in the form of what a roof looks like. I kinda like it like that. I think it adds character. 

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And Then There Was Light:

This is my bed where I sleep at night. I got the comforter for Christmas and even though it wouldn't be my first pick, it is really comfy and looks cute. I bought my actual bed in high school and never did buy a head board to go with it. So, I made my own head board with stringy lights I bought at 5+Below. I love the light it gives off, making it look dreamy. I also hate having the big light on in any room, especially my bedroom, and try to avoid it at all costs. These type of lights are perfect for me. They are the only lights I keep on in my room. I have a different style of stringy lights in my kitchen that are colorful. They're adorable. And it's so simple. 

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Jazz Up An End Table:

My end tables were my first decor venture in this house. The end tables you are seeing were from my mom's house. She kindly gave them to me. Thanks Mom! I especially like how this one has that shelf to put stuff on. I have a notebook underneath a decorative box I got from Target in the $1 section. I throw my junk in there: reading light, a pen, makeup remover, Pocket Bac, etc. It's great because it catches junk but also looks cute. Stylish and purpose-serving. The drawer isn't a drawer. It's actually a filing cabinet. I want to use it but haven't yet. The last thing I want to do is start throwing stuff in there without any plan, place, rhyme or reason. That is how clutter starts and that is how you lose things.

Cheap DIY:

On top of the end table's, I have my bouquet's I made for $6 a piece from Dollar Tree. You can buy different fake flowers there. Be creative and put together your own flower arrangement! I think it adds a special touch. Nobody else is going to have that exact bouquet. To help the flower's stand up, you can add decorative rocks. They had a few different colors at Dollar Tree. I preferred the clear non-colored one's. They also have fake water at Pat Catan's for around $10, but I like to have the option of changing out the flowers. That glass vase is also from Dollar Tree. To me, it looks classy and stylish but I didn't have to spend a bunch of money and I also got to create something.

Instead of hanging up my wall art (bought at Ikea years ago) and make more holes in the wall, I decided to simply set them on the end tables. I think it looks cute! They are a little out dated to me so I wanna do some kind of DIY with them but for now, they look cute and totally go with the purple floral print on the comforter. I also have some silver photo frame's to go with my cool toned room, and some cute tea light holder's I bought at 5+Below for $1 a piece. They are on sale right now 2 for $1!

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Work With What You Got

My beauty dresser, as I never called it but-needed-some-type-of-name-to-differentiate-it-from-the-other-dresser, dresser. It was a surprise to me that the dresser which is darker wood went so well up against the cool toned off-purple walls. I quite like it. I made the nail polish rack myself. I bought the T-Bars at Pat Catan's {$4 and $10}. The bucket serves as another place to throw junk instead of having it laying out. My body spray's and lotions are sitting on an old candle tray I had lying around. Another Tip: Things that used to be used for one thing, could be used for something else completely another time around. I love that tip! Give something a new life.

The shelf I hung up has all the rest of my nail stuff. Manicure scissors, emory boards, that kind of stuff. I used an old candle jar from the small candle's from Bath and Body Works to store that stuff in. Told you! Give thing's a new life. And it even looks cute. Boom.

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T.V. Dresser DIY

This is another piece of furniture from my mom's house. This actually matched my "beauty" dresser but I decided to paint it to go with the cool toned theme that is my room. I wanted an off white base with silver accented drawers and that is exactly what I got. It looked cute outside when I painted it but I am un-sure of it at this point. I feel like it may clash with itself and even then may clash with the walls. It works for now! Maybe it will be cuter when I get some drawer knobs on there. Whoops. Haven't got around to it yet. The Off White Color I used is a spray paint from Krylon called Ivory. I bought it at Wal-Mart for like $5 a piece. I used the same color base coat from the same brand. It was only $1 extra. That equaled 5 cans total, including the base coat. I have used a top coat before when spray painting furniture and found it served no purpose in the long run so I didn't use one this time around.

For the drawers, I used a metallic spray paint called Silver from the Metallic Collection by Krylon. It was also around $5 and I only used 1 can of this and even have some left over. This really sparkled outside in the day light and I am in love with this color/finish. It looks a little more toned down in the house. It does however reflect objects in my room, picking up those colors making it cohesive with the whole room. I am just not sure if it goes well with Ivory which is the color of the dresser itself. I used 3 coats for the drawers.

About Spray Painting:

I recommend spray painting furniture any day! Pick a spring or fall day where it is neither too humid or cold. It takes 10 minutes or less to do 1 coat and it takes 10 minutes for each coat to dry. Spray painting is goof proof. After the first coat you might be wishing you haven't even started it. It will look like you tried to tag up your piece of furniture but after that last coat, it looks even and opaque.

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 The Closet:

I used to organize my clothes from tank tops all the way to hoodies and then assort them by color. Since there is no door, I wanted it to look a little more aesthetically pleasing so I went with every single piece being organized by the colors of the rainbow. ROY G BIV. It's harder to find things this way so I don't know if it is going to stay like this, but for now it works.

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The Walls:

 I really wanted to go with a neutral toned silver. I went for a paint called Simple Shimmer from the Metallics line from Valspar. I bought it at Lowe's. It is a pretty penny- literally. {metallic humor} With the special paint sponge/brush, base color, and the actual paint it cost me around $100. If I could do it again, I would have went with something else. You can kind of see the strokes from the paint roller too. For $100, it just isnt worth it. They had paint similar to this from Martha Stewart at Home Depot. If your dead set on a metallic or a shimmery finish, look to Home Depot. The wall directly behind me in this photo {the wall with the closet and beauty dresser} was only painted with the special base coat paint.  After doing this wall, I kind of liked the way the base color looked and it was way less work. Luckily, we still have some left of each paint can so I need to come up with another project to play around with. You better believe I am not letting it go to waste!

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Computer Desk:

I painted this with the same method as my T.V. dresser. Only when I painted this, I used a top coat and sanded the whole entire thing. Seriously, an unfruitful venture in the worst way. This spray paint is by Krylon and the color is called Gum Drop. I used 4 cans of this but I think I could have went with less. I got a little paint happy lets just say. I painted this a couple years ago and I am not sure I would have chose this exact color to go with this room but I do actually think it work. In fact, I like it better than the T.V. dresser in this room which was thought out for this room exactly. Going with your gut isn't always the best option.

By the way, those pink drawers are from Target. I bought that for like $12 and they are also on sale right now for even cheaper. The drawers hold both my makeup and office supplies. Call me crazy but it works for me. 

That is rule #1. 
Find what works best for you. That's the best piece of advice I could ever give yah!

Writing all of this out made me think that it may have been better in a video form. I dunno. Whatever. 

So let me know what you think!

What do these room's need more of?

How awesome is that mirror and those shoes?! 

thank you for reading!
xoxo
Erica 

August Favorites

Geez, this whole project took a while. The fact that it's almost 20 minutes long is hilarious considering I didn't even get to talk about every thing I wanted to. But, I do think you all will like this mini series I got goin' on. These videos are so me. I always think its fun to see a blogger convert into a vlogger. You think you know someone, but then you actually get to know them thru videos. Quirks, Voice, Mannerisms, whatever.

Even if you could care less about me, the stuff I am talking about is obviously awesome. I talk about some beauty products and also some spiritual type of stuff. The things I do to keep myself in check, be happy, and live a better life. All that stuff is in Part 2.

Tweet: @MeetMissJackson
Instagram: @MeetMissJackson
Pinterest

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Products Mentioned:
♥ Bath and Body Works Gelato 3 Wick Candle
♥ OPI Nail envy for Sensitive and Peeling Nails
♥ Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Nail Polish in Berry Juicy
♥ Paul Mitchell Twirl Around Crunch Free Curl Definer
♥ Milani Brow Fix Brow Kit
♥ Chella Ivory Lace Highlighter
♥ Mica Beauty Shimmer Powder in Bronze

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Person Mentioned:
Elle Sees

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Products Mentioned:
♥Pacifica Alight Multi Mineral BB Cream
♥Pop Beauty Pop Crayon in Rose Romance
♥Avon Glimmersticks Lip Liner in Simply Spice
♥Bath and Body Works Pocket Bac in I Love Cinnamon Buns
♥Cinnamon Sugar Anything
♥The Magic by Rhonda Byrne
♥I Heart Life Podcast with Evette Boylin

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People Mentioned:
♥MaskCara

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Let me know what you all think of this! I need to start getting on some sort of schedule when it comes to blogging and vlogging. Not sure what that schedule will be yet, but yah no. Im finally putting this up on the 12th of September which I think is a little late for a monthly favorites video.

I must ask you all, how do u stay on track? I am the one that plans out each and every day with a list that is separated hour by hour. But I am still behind. I had a great rhythm going at the beginning of the summer. That was when I lived at my mom's and life was simpler. Now I have my own place. Can I tell you how many bills I pay? That might be tacky but I feel like I am going to the bank every other day. And I am obsessively compulsively decorating my home that I call my own.....kind of. Philly lives here some times as does my Dad. But I pay the bills and I decorate how ever I want. So I am pretending it's all mine. The house also came with my dog growing up, Choochie's (choo-cheeee's). So there's that.

What were your favorite things from August?

How do you guys stay on track?

Thank you for viewing!

xoxo
Erica

July Ipsy Bag Review

This is the second month that I have gotten the Ipsy bag. Last year, I was using Birchbox. I wrote a review every month about it. I loved Birchbox for the simple fact that you could build up points to buy really expensive products with them. For every review, you got 10 points. 100 points = $10 towards your purchase. Every 2 months I would end up with $10 worth of points. Almost like I got the sample boxes for free. I bought a ton of stuff with my points. I got some really awesome stuff from Birchbox: Laura Gellar Baked Blush n Brighten, and a Stila shadow single to name a couple. But I love Ipsy because your not paying the $10 a month for a toss up between samples and maybe some full size items. Your getting around 5 products every month. Most of which are full sized. And all makeup and hair. Let's take a look at the things I got this month:

BH Cosmetics

California Collection

Eyeshadow Trio

It says that these are eyeshadow samples but as you can see, your getting a good amount of product. I love California so naturally, I loved this palette. I have never tried BH cosmetics and I have heard they are pretty good. Once I swatched these, I noticed the swatches weren't all that great. The colors itself are gorgeous but I have tried better eye shadow in my days. Even at the drugstore. So yeah 1 out of 5, im giving this a 2.5.

so as you can see they aren't crazy pigmented.

Big Sexy Hair

Weather Proof

Humidity Resistant Spray

This is another deluxe sized sample. I have curly hair. I have a ton of hair. My hair is prone to frizziness. When I used this the couple times I did, I can't say I noticed a difference in my hair. It's not that it weighs my hair down either, it just doesn't do anything. It smells really nice but I know of better products to combat frizziness. Paul Mitchell Skinny Serum or John Frieda Frizz-Ease are the best for that problem. Im giving this product a 2 out of 5. It smells good, but other than that I don't see a point to it.

Pop Beauty

Pouty Pop Crayon

Rose Romance

This is a full sized lip crayon. It has a faint mint scent and is a gorgeous rosy, mauve, nude color. If your looking for a pink based nude that borders more on the nude side, this is the crayon for you. I would describe this as a hydrating lip cream. It doesn't feel sticky or dry. It feels nice on the lips and has great pigmentation. I am giving this baby a 5 out of 5. I really like this.

Benefit

Benetint

This is a sample. I'll call it deluxe because you can get more than one use out of it for sure. However the full size product is .42 oz. This sample is .08 oz. I have never tried anything from Benefit! Isn't that crazy? As an intro to the brand, I am impressed. This has a rosy scent to it and you can use it on your cheeks or your lips. I have tried Stainiac from The Balm and you had to work quick with it. It didn't blend into a pretty rosy tint like Benetint does. Benetint is so easy to use and blends out beautifully. I am giving this a 5 out of 5 because of that.

Coola

Mineral Sunscreen

Tinted Moisturizer

I know this brand is expensive! This is absolutely a sample. I will probably be able to get 5 or 6 uses out of it. It has a strange scent and that scent isn't sunscreen. I can get past that though. It is a normal tinted moisturizer as far as im concerned. Light coverage. It more or less blurs imperfections. It doesn't feel as oily or greasy as other tinted moisturizers I have used. SPF 20. Im giving this a 4 out of 5 because. It is the best tinted moisturizer I have used due to the consistency and the finish it gives my face but I just don't love tinted moisturizers. I haven't found one that just wows me.

thanks for viewing!

xoxo

Erica