Influenster:Beauty Blogger VoxBox

Blah blah blah. Grad school is slowly draining my soul. Blah blah blah.

Nothing new around here.

EXCEPT…this fun thing:

A couple of months ago I heard about a website called Influenster. It’s a fun website when you can earn badges based on things you are interested in and have experience with. You can write reviews, answer questions, and fill out surveys all about your favorite items.

And it isn’t all just beauty items. They have stuff for foodies, candy lovers, spirits enthusiasts, nature lovers, fitness gurus, and many many more.

Every month, they send out a box based on certain badges to members who have qualified. Everything is free and they send you boxes of fun products for you to sample and review.

This month’s box was a beauty blogger box and I was one of the lucky ones chosen to receive it, and let me tell you, it was fantastic!

First of all, it’s either full size items, or if it’s a sample size, it’s big enough for several uses to really determine if you like the products.

So, first up is the Boots No. 7 Night Cream:

I really like this stuff. I have super dry skin and this stuff is great. The first night I used it, I did have some excess drying, but I also have SUPER sensitive skin, so after another couple of nights, my skin feels great. It feels the tiniest bit oily at first when I put it on, but after about 5 minutes it soaked in and, again, I love it.

Another item in the box were the Goody Spin Pins:

New. Love. I have really thick hair and to do ANY kind of updo, I single handedly keep the bobby pin industry in business. For our wedding, when I only had half my hair up and nothing intricate, i pulled out 45 pins. 45. Yeah. It’s nuts.

But these babies are fabulous. I have used them and they held up all of my hair in a bun amazingly. It was very cute and stayed all day. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was wonderful. These babies are on my new must-have list and I strongly recommend them!

Another of the fun items was the New York Color Individual Eyes Compact:

Now, I know a lot of you use really expensive makeup. I don’t go all out, but I do use stuff that isn’t bought at a Target. That being said, I might know where some of my next eye makeup is coming from. I really liked this compact. I had actually never used an eye shadow primer before and I will be doing so from now on- it made so much difference. Also, I love me a smoky eye- I’m not always excellent with execution, but I’m working on it. The colors were sharp and didn’t look chalky or cheap. I really thought this was a great product, and for the price it’s definitely getting added to my lineup.

I also received Not Your Mother’s brand Kinky Moves Curl Defining Cream:

I usually wear my hair straight. I have thick hair, that tends towards frizziness. It’s naturally wavy, but not a pretty wavy, so a straightener is my best friend for not having crazy hair. However, I have always loved, when on rare occasions and with lots of mousse, I could get my hair to be kinky/pretty wavy. I think it’s fun and something different. And now that I have discovered this product, I think I will be doing it more often. First off, it smells fantastic. So many hair products smell, well, product-y. This doesn’t. Also, it really helped my hair stay pretty wavy and not be frizzy and all over the place. It didn’t feel too heavy on my hair and I loved it. Again, my thick hair meant I still needed some mousse for it to hold (I use a half can of hair spray every time I try to curl my hair…), but I needed much less and my hair looked pretty cute, if I do say so myself. 🙂

As soon as I opened my box, I smelled the Bath & Body Works Candle:

I received a miniature candle in the Mahogany Teakwood scent and it is phenomenal. I am incredibly picky with scents. I don’t like pumpkin or cinnamon or vanilla and others are iffy. When Mr. A and I found a scented holiday candle we liked three years ago, we bought 5. So when I opened my box and smelled it, I was so so excited. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s a rich scent, but not so overwhelming that you can’t breathe or feel suffocated. In the box there was also a coupon for the three wick size, so we made sure to go buy the large version. Hey, now we have TWO scents to rotate. HAPPY DAY!

The last item I received were Kiss Every Pro Lash Starter Kit:

This is the only item I haven’t tried yet. I have never used false lashes before so I want to try this when I have time to fiddle with it. That being said, they are getting good reviews Influenster and I’m looking forward to trying them out this weekend when we go to my hometown. Hopefully if I can make them work, it will force Mr. A to take me out for a fun night because I don’t want to waste those bad boys on a night on my couch!

Basically, all the products were wonderful. I may have lucked out, but it’s true. I will definitely be buying a lot of this stuff and am excited to have some new products to add to my repertoire.

So what other new products should I try because I am apparently in the mood to change it all up.

 

*All opinions expressed here are entirely my own

You’re Not Always Right

I am currently on fall break. That is one thing about my job/career field I wi never complain about since I get holidays, random breaks, and summers off. Am I usually still working during those times? Yes, but in sweatpants, with kitties, and SATC on my tv. After 5pm, probably with a glass of wine as well.
However, I’m dreading going back to work on Thursday. (Yes, I only have classes/teach in Tues/Thurs this semester, but believe me that those days are killer and was not my original choice.)
It’s not the amount of student papers I will be getting back or the amount of reading I am behind on for my classes or the fact that I still haven’t finished y thesis outline.
None of that is fun, but I did that to myself.
No, I’m dreading it because I seem to work in a department where everyone else is right all the time. They even know what I like and what I’m thinking or what my opinion on something is.
I should just hire them to write this damned thesis and be done with it, since they seem to know everything .
Granted, I think this happens in most grad programs. Put a bunch of smart people together and they feel the need to be “right”.
But this goes beyond discussions of authors and critical theories and interpretations. They like to tell me I’m just wrong on what I donor don’t like.
For one, my focus is on contemporary and late 20th century lit. It’s fascinating and bonus, not many people have written on them so I don’t have to wad through 70 years of criticism to see if my idea is original or been explored before. It’s what I love and think is important.
But I also understand and respect people that study and love the classics and earlier literature. I know it all has value. Doesn’t mean it’s what I want to do, buy I’m not going to put down anyone else’s preference for century.
But I don’t get the same respect. I, for one, don’t like Jane Austen. I just don’t. But I get argued with that in wrong.
Yeah, my opinion is wrong.
Not trying to enlighten me on how she is relevant today or how her character development can draw you in.
No, I’m just wrong.
Downton Abbey? Same thing.
Drinking 5 nights a week? I’m just boring.
Coffee early in the morning? What’s wrong with me?
The fact that my husband and I choose to spend on our money on us and our home instead of blowing it as soon as I get a paycheck at Target and the bars? Wrong. (Someone actually told me that I was dumb for preferring to spend myomeres on date nights with Mr. A instead of buying new clothes every month. Yeah…)
And I’m just so effing tired of it all.
This is one reason I no longer hangout with a certain group of people because I was tired of having to agree with the ringleader all the time, even when I didn’t, or knew for a 100% fact that she was wrong.
I’m an adult. Adults can disagree yet remain respectful and still be friends.
Apparently this concept escapes many of my fellow TAs and it makes me insane.
And don’t even get me started on political arguments discussions. I got caught in the middle of one already and I know it’s just going to get worse as the election draws nearer. I may start hiding and working in the bathroom.
Too bad our secretary insists on continuing conversations with you as you are in the stall. Awkward.
Since I’m already swarmed and stressed, I think I’ll take a page from the obnoxious undergrads and start wearing headphones but have the music so loud that everyone else can hear. At least I won’t have to hear them tell me my taste in music sucks.

* excuse any typos. Written on my phone.

Ahem

Well, it’s been a while.

I AM alive. So there’s that.

School is kicking my ass in a way I’ve never experienced before and I want to crawl into a hole and hide and hope some magical faeries will do my work for me.

It’s a problem.

Mostly I’m in such a state of panic that I don’t do anything because everything needed to be done last week. So prioritizing doesn’t happen because, again, everything needed to already be done.

Catch-22

Mostly I need to kick my own butt into gear and just get through this semester. If I can do that, next semester should be a little easier.

Also, Mr. A will be out of town all next semester for another amazing internship. LUCKILY, he won’t be as far away as he was last summer. He will be in my hometown and will be staying at my dad’s house. It will be a free place to stay, my dad is doing some really awesome stuff for Mr. A’s stay (such as turn one of the spare bedrooms into another living room so Mr. A will have a place to hang out).

BUT, because he will be gone, I will be back to blogging. I will finally have free time to do so and will need some more company.

I know people hate when people blog about not blogging, but I have met so many of you in person and have talked with so many of you on a regular basis that I thought I would check in. When I come back, I might start over, or just revamp this old thing. We shall see.

But no matter what, I’ll fill you all in. Also, you all rock, I hope your lives are super fantastic and amazing and I can’t wait to finally have time to catch up on it all!!

Now, what’s a thesis?