Inspired

First, a nod to Miss Raven over at Just Expressive. She's been working on this Wear Your Stuff project--an attempt to actually wear all the things in her closet, not just the favorite few that hang out near the front. Since I'm lucky enough to have 2 clothing swaps a year with my friends, this keeps my closet pretty well pruned. What I'm really, really, woefully inadequate about? Accessories. I know! My sister B is a WHIZ when it comes to accessories. She WEARS all her stuff, and she's got a lot! Jewelry, scarves, shoes, etc. It reminds me of that line from Steel Magnolias: What separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize.*

So, to sum up--I'm practically an animal. I HAVE lots of jewelries and scarves and such, but I'm crap at actually remembering to wear any of it. So I took some inspiration from Raven, cleaned out and organized my jewelry box and have made an attempt to wear earrings & necklaces that match my outfits. So far (2 days) so good. Let's see how long this lasts. Maybe if I'm lucky until the baby gets here. Then I shall stop wearing things that can be used as torture devices by tiny hands.

The other part of my recent inspiration is in two parts. First, TJ tweeted about a sale at Ulta, so I went, and now, in the style of the Fabulous Ms. Sarah Lena, I shall tell you about it. So, by spending $17.50 on Ulta brand makeup for a friend's birthday, I got this:

this is the picture of all the stuff on the inside from the Ulta website. 

It's a little green makeup bag full of makeup. Yep. More makeup. I can only recall having purchased one Ulta brand makeup thing before, and while I wasn't impressed at all (it was an eyeshadow crayon thingy in "white wedding" that didn't blend... like, at all), I was willing to give them another shot. Normally, I'm a Sephora girl because of brands like Makeup Forever and they give me lots of free stuff because I spend as much money there in a year as my husband does at Chipotle--which is A LOT.**

There is a lot of stuff in there, by the way. I took it upon myself to wear as much of it at one time as possible.  Strangely, that didn't result in the complete disaster you might be picturing. 

 These eyeshadows are the reason I chose the green bag over the purple or orange version. While the purple would have made more sense in term of stuff I'm more likely to wear, I already have so much purple makeup, and I don't have any yellow eyeshadow, so... you know... I'm branching out. All in all, I like these quads very much. For free makeup, they're wonderful. The shadows aren't as pigmented as I would like, but they're not pale, pasty pastels either. The yellow is truly yellow and I actually wore it on my face, with all the other colors in that quad at the same time and it was pretty ok. Kind of a rainbow-y effect, without pink or purple. Sadly, I have no photographic evidence of this, as it was on a Thursday night and I went to Lace rehearsal. But if the Lace didn't scream at me, it couldn't have been that bad.

 Here we have some truly neutral lip gloss & cheek color. They're fine. The gloss is sparkly on the pale side and matte on the nude side. I'll probably only ever wear the sparkly side, because I find nude lips to be... on me, kind of pointless. My lips are pink to begin with, so to make them "nude" is to make me look... well... dead. Anyway, I'll save you the trouble and tell you the same thing about the lipstick below. Nude. Pointless. For me.

The "Voluptuous Volume" mascara and the nail polish were both a big disappointment to be honest. While the mascara wand looked promising, the formula just did nothing for my lashes. Nada. Squat. The nail polish is a color that is very much not up my alley--kelly green--but that's not my biggest complaint. It went on super streaky, because a single coat was nearly sheer. It was weird. It took 3 coats to get solid coverage, and then it chipped right away. Not the best polish I've ever worn. But you know, free, so worth every penny!

That's all I got. Over all, I'm pleased with the gift bag. The eyeliners aren't as awesome as my Urban Decay ones, but nothing ever will be. They're functional and versatile, so that's good. I mean, there really are only so many uses for an eyeliner called "Ransom" but "Chocolate" goes a long way on many days.

And now I'm done!

*It should be said that roughly 85% of the dialogue in that movie is deliciously quotable, more so now that I live in the southern portion of the States.

**Also, Chipotle never gives HIM any free stuff, so, I feel my spending is somehow... cooler.