2014 drugstore favorites

lipstick | primer | eyeshadow | mascara | hair mask | face powder | eyebrow kit | nail polish | clarifying shampoo | foundation

Whatcha guys up to today? Want to read a post where I try to describe why I love things and fail miserably? Are you ready to see me use the words "perfect," "amazing," and "the best" fifty million times? You are? THEN GET TO READING!

Rimmel Airy Fairy Lipstick: This is a slightly glossy, pinky nude lipstick. It's practically perfect in every way (hey, Mary Poppins, what up, gurrrlll?!). It's not too nude, so you won't look like a mannequin if you wear it. This lipstick is hard to find, but if you're in the market for an affordable nude lipstick, check Ulta's Rimmel display first.

L'oreal Magic Lumi Primer: This primer is similar to Mac's Strobe Cream but at a quarter of the price. It gives your skin a radiant glow, which is great if you have dry skin, or if you're trying to make your matte foundation a bit more natural looking. I apply this after moisturizer and before foundation. You can also mix a drop or two into your foundation, if you like!

Wet N Wild Brûlée Eye Shadow: The perfect nude shadow. The best, ever, in the world, forever and ever (amen). AND IT'S $0.99. WHAT!

Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara: This mascara is a relatively new find of mine, but it's an all-time favorite, nonetheless. It gives you the results you'd expect from layering a lengthening and thickening mascara, but you only need one to two coats of this baby to achieve the same thing. It lasts all day and never flakes, either!

L'Oreal Total Repair 5 Damage Erasing Balm: Soooo, this product has the longest name, ever. I can't even really begin to explain what this hair mask means to me. It changed my hair forever. The back of the container has these ridiculous claims about reversing years and years of damage in just a few minutes, but they're actually not lying at all. I can't live without this. (If you have the Macadamia hair mask, throw it in the trash, cry about your wasted $30, and go buy this immediately. YOU'RE WELCOME.)

Coty Airspun Loose Powder in Translucent: This powder is so beautiful. (What? Who describes face powder like that? Geez.) It helps keep oil at bay, but it doesn't mess with the finish of your foundation. And I swear to you, it makes your foundation even more beautiful than it looks on its own. I don't know how (witchcraft?), but just trust me. Also, it smells like a grandma's perfume, which I surprisingly don't hate.

ELF Eyebrow Kit in Medium: GAME CHANGER. I like this better than the Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade because it's so so incredibly easy to work with. This would work for women who just want to fill their brows in the slightest bit, or for crazy people like me, who have to draw completely new eyebrows on their face. Hey, when I was in seventh grade, and I had a unibrow (RIP unibrow), I plucked my eyebrows practically completely off my face, and they've never been the same since. Someone, PLEASE, tell me you did this too?!

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Top Coat: This is the best topcoat I've ever used. Better than Seche Vite. It glides on seamlessly, doesn't shrink or crack, and makes my nail polish last a full seven to nine days. The best part? You can use this with any nail polish you have, and it'll prolong the wear. I really like using the Orly Bonder first, followed by Essie polish and finished with this topcoat. **Angels start to sing at the thought of this perfect manicure**

Clairol Hair Food Clarifying Shampoo: I've talked about this on the blog before, as I have with most of my 2014 favorites, but man, this stuff is good. It gets all the gunk off your scalp and smells like strawberries. I'm on my second bottle in just a couple of months. It's absolutely gentle enough to use every day (well, every time you wash your hair, which is every three to four days for me), and it's sulfate and paraben free. Score!

ELF Acne Fighting Foundation: This is my holy grail foundation, and I just found it in November. It gives you a full coverage look with a satin matte finish, and it lasts a good six to eight hours on me before I have to blot my T-Zone. If I blot though, I can wear it for twelve to sixteen hours easy. I wore this to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (yes, I know, I'm awesome), and it looked amazing the entire day, even with the heat and humidity and rain and yelling and spell-doing and roller coaster riding.

SO. Now that my hands hurt from typing all this, I'm dying to know what you loved in 2014. Please let me know in the comments below so you can help me become even more of a makeup hoarder in 2015. Goals, people, goals.

a reflection

In 2014, I started this blog. I had no clue what I was doing, and to be perfectly honest, I still don't. I thought I was supposed to blog five days a week. I thought I was supposed to host givewaways. I thought I would have more subscribers. I thought it would be all fun and games. I thought content would come to me instantaneously. I thought, I thought, I thought. But the bottom line is that nothing can really prepare you for blogging. It's this weird, up-in-the-air, do-whatever-the-hell-you-want kind of thing, which is practically impossible to prepare for. 

But through all of it, I'd like to think I've learned something. I learned that I can't blog five days a week, because as annoying as it is, I have a full-time job as a lawyer, and sometimes I don't have the energy or time to write a post every single day after work. I learned that my blog is small, and that's okay. So what if I don't have the most subscribers (I have one, to be exact), and so what if not a single person entered my December giveaway, at least I started this damn thing after years and years of hemming and hawing about whether or not I should. I learned I'm not great at photography, and I don't have great equipment either (**goes to Amazon and orders 50 books about photography**). I learned that coming up with new and interesting content is a pain in the ass. But I also learned, that despite how much work goes into this thing, I love it, and I've had a lot of fun. It's given me a chance to write, it's given me a chance to design, and it's given me a chance to use my damn undergraduate degrees for once. 

So for 2015, here's what I want for Navy or Nothing:

To post three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday),

To grow my online presence through Twitter and Instagram,

To gain a larger following,

To produce better quality content,

To make the blog's design more clean and sophisticated,

To incorporate more subject matter, and

To have fun.

So, now that I'm done rambling on and on and on, I'll see y'all tomorrow for a roundup of my favorite drugstore products from 2014.

tip tuesday: curls for days

[lips: lime crime velvetine in wicked; hair courtesy of the curling wand-wielding angels.]

Let's start this post off with a story about how weird I am, shall we? It all began way back in 1743... Just kidding.

Okay, really though, I used to be psychotic about straightening my hair. My friend, J, who I've known for almost six years now, talks to this day about how I have this nervous tick where I pat the back of my hair to make sure it's as board straight and un-volumized as possible. Like... What? What even IS that? So strange. It's not like the patting motion is going to straighten my hair out any more than it already is. Like my hands are 450 degree straighteners or something? Sigh... I digress. 

So anyways, I just recently I got into wearing my hair curly. And by curly, I mean wavy in that third-day-unwashed-bedhead kind of style. Side note: Do you know how crazy you look if you have a bob, and you curl your hair into ringlets? GURL. STOP IT. 

With daily touch ups, I was getting away with wearing my hair wavy for about four days. But then I read a tip from Kristen Ess over at the Beauty Department. She said that if you want your waves to last and last, do not blow-dry your hair. The idea is that if you blow-dry your hair and then curl it, you're giving your hair mixed signals. You're telling it to simmer down and straighten out and then you're like, "girl, get crazy up in here! Why are you so straight!?" 

The past few times I've washed my hair, let it air dry, and then curled it, it seriously looked like tiny curling wand-wielding angels did my hair and then sprayed it with magical never-fall hairspray. I haven't touched it up at all, either. This tip is great if you live in a humid/wet state, as well. My curls withstood the entire day yesterday, and it was a rainy, crappy disaster outside.

Another tip: sleep on your hair/with your cats like a crazy person so you get that homeless-chic look. That, my friends, was a freebie.