Tag Archives: Kiehls

Christmas Gift Guide For Her 2013

I mentioned in my Stylish Sunday’s Post that I would be doing my Christmas Gift Guides early this year. With Black Friday fast approaching I decided that it would be more convenient for my readers if I put them up now. So the next 4 posts will be the Gift Guides.

I’m kicking off with my Gift Guide for Her:

♥ This Gift set from Kiehls is perfect. It’s their Greatest Hits set, but if you don’t think this one will work, the I recommend checking out their Gifts for Her section.

♥ I personally have this Lorac Pro Palette on my Christmas Wishlist this year. All the colors are beautiful and this palette has been getting rave reviews.

♥ Fresh’s Sugar Stars gift set is a great collection gift, but if she’s not a lip product junkie, Sephora has some other amazing options for you to check out. I’ll probably do a post closer to Christmas on some of their Gift Sets.

♥ If your at a complete loss, a candle is a good way to go. I adore the way Yankee Candle’s Celebrate Christmas Candle smells.

♥ Glitter, Kate Spade, Shoes. What more could a girl ask for? Personally I am dying to own these Keds x Kate Spade collab shoes and they are at the top of my wishlist. They’re so fun and glitzy and practical at the same time.

♥ Pajamas are always a great gift. I’m certain you’re all well aware of my love for Victoria’s Secret Pajama’s by now. They’re so cozy and they wash really well.

♥ Jewelry is a classic gift that’s pretty hard to go wrong with. Since Rose Gold is still a really hot trend, I thought this Make Me Blush Pave Idiom Pendant from Kate Spade was perfect.

♥ This Cozy Plaid Scarf from Gap would make a lovely gift, especially if you live in a cold snowy area. Bonus it feels way more luxe than it costs.

♥ Perfume, another timeless gift. But give it an update by picking somethink modern like Viktor and Rolf’s Flowerbomb rather than the much purchased Chanel N° 5. If you want to be extra fancy this Limited Edition version of the bottle, pictured above is just stunning.

♥ For the Bibliophiles like myself, books are always the perfect gift. I recommend Someday, Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham.

Anyone of these gifts would be perfect all on their own, but you can also combine them in numerous ways. For the girl that adores Kate Spade pick up the necklace and the shoes. The Pajama’s, Candle and Book are certain to make for a lovely night in. And the Scarf, Kiehls Gift Set, and Lip Balms are perfect for the girl that loves to be out in the snow. Or you can pick up the Eye Palette and Perfume for the Princessy woman in your life. The combinations are endless, and combining things to give your gifts a theme says you put in so much effort, but really it takes only a little fore thought before you head out shopping.

I’ll be back tomorrow with my Gift Guide for Him. Leave in the comments below what you want for Christmas ladies.

Gift Guide for Her by fashionandhappythings featuring christmas home decor

Kiehls Rare Earth Cleanser and Toner Review

I bought the Kiehls Rare Earth Cleanser and Toner a while ago. Originally I had gone in to get the Rare Earth Mask but they didn’t have it, and since I needed a Cleanser and Toner I just went for these. I still haven’t bought the mask, but I really want to.

I don’t think I’ve had a rave review about a cleanser in a very long time. Not since Liz Earle broke my heart. But I really like this cleanser. It’s a cream cleanser, which means it doesn’t foam at all. Which I like. I’m not actually a fan of foaming cleansers, I much prefer cream, balm, or milk cleansers. This one has bits of Amazonian Clay in it that help soak up the oil, keep it at bay and provide a bit of exfoliation. But unlike other products that claim to have gentle exfoliation this one really doesn’t tear at your skin or rip open acne blemishes unless you scrub too hard. It sort of reminds me of that Dermalogica Powder exfoliant, which I have added to this on occasion to give it some extra oomph. I absolutely adore this cleanser, and while it took me a while to figure out how much to use, you really only need the tiniest bit, I will be repurchasing this when it runs out. I keep forgetting how much I love Kiehls products until I repurchase one.

How I Use It: This is either the first or second step in my routine. I use it every morning first thing, followed by another cleanser and the rest of my routine, and if I’m not wearing makeup I use it first at night, followed by the same morning routine, but if I’ve worn makeup that day then I take my makeup off first then follow with my morning routine. I apply it to slightly damp skin, and then take it off with a Hot cloth.

I’m gonna have to give this toner the same love that I’m giving the cleanser in this line. If you have oily skin even if you use nothing else, use this before your moisturizer. I’ve used it with another toner before, I’ve used it on it’s own. With the Rare Earth Deep Pore Cleanser, with Origins products, with a heavy moisturizer, and with a light oil free one. In a box, with some socks, this toner is better than green eggs and ham. Instead of feeling oily all day, my skin feels like it properly absorbs my moisturizer and is clean and fresh. It’s probably my favorite toner I’ve ever used.

How I Use It: I mentioned above this varies. Sometimes I use it with another toner or other products, but it’s always the last toner I use if I’m using other toners with it. I shake the bottle really well, poor a bit in my hand and pat all over my face. A little goes a long way, and I find I use less of this product applying it this way, rather than with a cotton pad.

All in all I highly recommend both of these products if you have oily skin.

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Liebster Award…OMG!

Or Squeee!

When he heard I was nominated Howl said”Where’s My Leibster Award? I’m adorable!”

I’ve seen this going around the blogging community and I’m so happy to be a part of this tag now! If you don’t know what it is, it’s where other bloggers choose bloggers with less than 200 followers, that they think should have more followers. I was nominated by Kerry from Dosage of Beauty and Fashion

The Rules are that you have to tell 11 things about yourself, answer 11 questions from the person who nominated you, and then create 11 questions for the 11 people that you nominate to answer. I’m so excited so lets get started.

11 facts about me

1. I met my husband right after I turned 18 and we’ve been together ever since.
2. I am an obsessive reader, when I pick up a book once I’m into it I won’t put it down, I read all 19 of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum Series in 2 weeks.
3. Given the choice between clothes and makeup, I will choose to buy clothing 99% of the time, the other 1% means I’ve run out of something.
4. I have severe Allergies and Asthma, I spend a lot of time sick. It’s actually why I stopped making Youtube videos and started blogging.
5. When I met my husband my hair was purple and orange, it’s also been green, pink, blue, black, red and all purple.
6. I used to shop at Hot Topic, with my dad, who only wore sweatpants, military style parka and steel toed boots. The worst/best bit of that story? The people that worked there overheard my dad designing a dress for me to wear to senior prom, and started taking notes and asking him for advice. I never went to senior prom though. (Heartbreaking because that dress would have been amazing). They would follow him around every time we went in looking for ideas.
7. My dream house is made of stone and has a window seat, porch swing, library and a fenced in or walled garden.
8. If I could be any person from a T.V. Show I would be Rory, but during her time at Yale, because I love her style then and I never did go to college .
9. I have a really diverse taste in music I range from Kitty to Emily Autumn to Taylor Swift, I also really love Placebo and am so excited for their new Album Loud Like Love.
10. I’m obsessed with skincare (bet you guessed that already.)
11. My favorite day of the year is my birthday, I start making wishlists and plans for it 2 or 3 months in advance, and I pretty much already know what I want to wear (post on that tomorrow)

Kerry’s questions:

1. Do you prefer to shower mornings or nights

A. Nights, I love the feeling of climbing into fresh pj’s after a shower, plus I almost never blowdry my hair.

2.What is your make-up cleansing/removing routine?

A. I use some sort of cleansing milk or balm to take it off, currently I’m using Ren’s Hydra Calm Cleansing Milk, but some past favorites have been Caudalie’s Gentle Cleansing Milk and Kiehl’s Washable Cleansing Milk, which is what I’ll be using next, I miss it.

3. How would you describe your sense of style?

A. Taylor Swift meets Taylor Momsen. You don’t see a lot of my edgier looks here on the blog, but they do happen. However I’ve been copying Emma Stone more and more for Fashion and Hair inspiration.

4. If every season you buy unlimited shoes, bags or jewellery/accessories, but only two of the others, which would it be and why?

A. Shoes, I love them and always have another pair that I want. I actually only have 2 bags as it is, and one more that I kinda have my eye on. Jewelry I really only receive as gifts and buy less than 2 pieces on my own as it is. But Shoes, I just love them and completely obsess over them.

5. What is your favourite make up product at the moment?

A. YSL Babydoll Mascara, or really any YSL Mascara, they don’t irritate my eyes and they make my lashes look amazing.

6. Do you use fake lashes?

A. Nope, I’m horrible with them, and I don’t really need them, I have long lashes, and they’re pretty full on their own.

7. What was your first memory of using make up?
A. I was 4 years old and my mother was headed to work. She let me use her blush brush after she did, and then kissed me so I could wear her lipstick too. It’s probably one of my favorite memories.

8. How light/dramatic is your everyday makeup?

A. It’s pretty simple, I don’t even use eyeliner on a daily basis.

9. Do you prefer fashion or make up?

A. Fashion, I’m just better at it. I’m terrible at blending shadows.

10. What is a make up item you’d like to try?

A. The Chanel Bronze Universal or whatever it’s meant to be called. Or the Bourgeois version. I suck at bronzer, but I think a cream version might work better for me.

11. Do you have a high-ended item (fashion or make-up) that you really want to own, if so, what is it?

The Suart Weitzman 5050 boots in Napa Leather. They’re gorgeous, and Emma Stone wears them in the upcoming Amazing Spiderman 2, and I adore her, and her as Gwen Stacy, and those boots are just stunning.

Now it’s time for my 11 questions:

1. If you could be someone from a movie or show who would you be and why?

2. Your all time favorite book?

3. You have absolutely no budget, but can only shop at one store and it cannot be a department store, where do you go?

4. If you could have any other blogger/youtuber popular or unknown give you a makeover who would you choose?

5. Why did you get into blogging?

6. If you could have high end designer Fashion or Makeup just gifted to you forever, but the other one had to be highstreet or drugstore forever, which would you choose to be high end?

7. It’s girls night in, what movie is on and what do your pajamas look like?

8. Your favorite skincare item?

9. It’s pouring rain, what is your go to outfit and hairstyle?

10. What’s your style? If you could change it, what style have you always admired?

11. You have to move to another country, where do you go? Why there?

And now it’s time for the people I nominate, I’m so excited about this!

I tried to double check and make sure they didn’t have secret GFC followers that numbered over 200, but I mostly went by their bloglovin followers.

Many Thanks again to Kerry for nominating me, I’m so excited about it.

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Nordstrom Beauty Spot Haul

As I mentioned in my post on Sunday, I went up to Kenwood to meet Sarahbelle93, and while I was there I did a bit of shopping. Howl decided he wanted to help show you guys what I bought.

I’m running out of my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish, and I don’t know if my skin has changed or if their formula has changed, but it didn’t work for my skin this time around. So I picked up the Kiehl’s Rare Earth Cleanser. I bought this cleanser because it seems that my skin has been absolutely out of control oily lately. I’ve only used it for 2 days now but it seems to be helping.

Then because I actually am completely out of my Liz Earle Toner I also picked up the Rare Earth Toner, which I kinda really love because it separates and has powder or something in the bottom, and then you shake it up to use it.

I also ran out of my Fresh mask and wanted to pick up the Kiehls Rare Earth Pore Cleansing Mask but they were out of stock so I ended up with a bunch of samples. Only one of those is Kiehls, the others are Kate Sommerville, Clarins and Dr. Dennis Gross.

Then after I checked out I noticed that they had some new Emi-Jay hairties so I grabbed a couple packs for myself, and I grabbed the same ones to give to Sarahbelle. These seriously are my all time favorite hairties, and even though I keep loosing them, and they’re kinda expensive I will always repurchase these. I can pretty much guarantee that I will include a pack of these in my future 100 followers giveaway (hey, I can dream right?)

I know I said I was going to stick with Liz Earle, but I really do think they reformulated or something because my face actually seemed to get a bit worse. I had some left from the last time I bought it, and my skin started to clear up. When I started the new bottle I didn’t change anything or add in any new skincare that I hadn’t been using before and my face started getting worse. I’m actually really heartbroken about it, because I had such good results the first time around and I honestly thought it was going to be my holy grail. But I guess it’s back to the drawing board. Everytime I say ” OMG I love this forever” it either gets reformulated or my skin begins to hate it.

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Blogmas Day 4: Stocking Stuffers

For today’s Blogmas post I’m writing about Stocking Stuffers. I already did a gift guides for him, for her and for children, but more often than not people forget about stocking stuffers. I know I do, I either forget them or I put them off to the last minute. Sometimes it’s hard to think of stuff that’s little but will still fit in the stocking and is interesting.

So I compiled a list of things that I think will work overall for most people. This list is especially good if you’ve put off shopping for Stocking Stuffers until the last minute.

1. Nail Polish. Really it’s the perfect stocking stuffer, I don’t know many men that wear nail polish but there are nail polish lines for men. While it may not be the best for the men in your life, it would be absolutely lovely for the lady in your life. There are lots of brands out there but Lancome, Essie, Butter London, Deborah Lippmann and China Glaze are my favorites.

2. Trial Sized Beauty Products. I know this is another one that seems aimed only at women but there are actually trial sizes for men too. Jack Black and Kiehls have some lovely products for men that come in trial sizes, but even most of the full sizes would fit in a stocking. For Ladies, I recommend Caudalie and once again Kiehls has a lot of really nice products and almost all of them come in a small size.

3. Lip Gloss/Chapstick. For the Ladies in the range of lipgloss Stila has some gorgeous glosses. For either gender you could go with Jack Black Lip Balm or Caudalie Lip Conditioner.

4. Gift Cards are amazing for stocking stuffers you could easily pick up an itunes card or one for Amazon or Barnes and Noble, they’re easy and they work for anyone

5. Earbuds are also awesome stocking stuffers, they’re tiny and everyone can use a pair. Apple has amazing ones but you can always get ones from Sony. Or Marc by Marc Jacobs and Kate Spade have earbuds as well depending on your price limits.

6. Ornaments are good, and they’re best when they mean something so I’m not going to recommend any but really think about the person and scour the internet and stores until you find something you know they’d adore.

7. Moleskine Notebooks. They’re perfect for anyone to put in their purses or to carry around with them in their pockets. Great for the listmaker or writer in your life. Bonus- They also come in larger sizes if you want to use this as a bigger gift.

8.Small silly toys are always good. You could go in store build a Lego Minifig that looks just like them or nothing like them, if they’d like that sort of thing. A yoyo or a slinky may be exactly what they need to bring back childhood memories and put them right back into the Christmas Spirit.

9. If you know their favorite Candy I say fill it to the brim. Almost everyone has a favorite candy or snack that’s tiny enough to fit in a stocking. Multiples of this are best.

10. Hair Bobbles. Emi-Jay makes some great ones that I swear by. There’s sort of a craze surrounding them and lots of copies, but I still maintain that the Emi-Jay ones are the best, and they make pretty cute bracelets too.

11. Socks. The more crazy the pattern the better. You can find them anywhere from your local Target to Kate Spade/Jack Spade.

12. Iphone Wallet. Perfect for the guy that doesn’t want to carry anything but his phone.

13. A Mug. Barnes and Noble has some cute ones, as does Anthropologie. This is another gift that’s pretty personal since you want it to become their favorite for their morning cuppa.

14. DVD. These are perfect stocking size, you could pick out a Christmas movie to be watched that day, or one that’s been recently released. Also a surprise Netflix subscription would be adorable.

15. Keychain. This is another sort of sweet gift that you want to put a bit of thought into. You want the person to like it enough to hang it from their keys and it’ll going to remind them of you whenever they use their key.