July Favorites 2013

July is my favorite month of the entire year so writing about how it is the end of the month makes me extremely sad! I don't want summer to be over, but it's flying by me and I have so many things to do before I go back to school. I can't get too upset though because my best friend, Meghan,  who I haven't seen in months, comes home from Germany today! Without further ado, here are my July favorites!

Essie Topless and Barefoot: I have been absolutely loving this shade on my nails this month. For some reason I've let it sit in my nail polish collection untouched all summer long. Fortunately I've picked it up and rekindled our love with just enough summer left to enjoy it. I think when I tried this before it was in the dead of winter and I didn't like the stark contrast between ghostly pale white and the nude nail polish. But, now I've got what I call a "summer glow" (if you know me, that's a joke) and I think it is my perfect nude shade.

Josie Maran Coconut Watercolor Cheek Gelee in Poppy Paradise: I posted a haul with this blush and mentioned that I'd come back to post about how I was liking it. I obviously have not gotten around to a full review, but since this is a favorites post I think that says a lot about the product since it is included in here! Beautiful natural color that stays pretty much all day long.

Revlon Lash Potion Mascara: I'm not one to venture out to try new mascaras, but the packaging on this one got me. I love the formula and it doesn't clump. Not much else to say! It's great!

Psssst Dry Shampoo: I'm a dry shampoo fanatic lately because who has time to wash their hair in the summertime? Not me! I ran out of my Batiste Dry Shampoo and grabbed this at Walgreens. I'm in love. It's like every new dry shampoo I try is my new favorite. Maybe I'm on to something...

Boscia Purifying Cleansing Gel: This is my everyday cleanser and it's basically an everyday all the time favorite so I felt like it needed a mention. This is a gentle cleanser that has never given me breakouts and I love the scent of herbs and freshness. This product was feeling left out of my blog so I needed to add it because I love it so much.

Caress Passionate Spell Body Wash: I ran out of this body wash in July and now I need to repurchase it because I love it that much. It's amazing. I suck at describing smells. Just go buy it. It's amazing.

What are your July favorites?

Beauty and Fashion Bloggers Blog Hop

I haven't been a part of many Blog Hops, but am excited to announce that I'm a co-host for the Beauty and Fashion Bloggers Blog Hop started by Laila at Townhouse Palette. Check it out tomorrow morning and make some new friends! I can't wait to meet some new blog friends.

Click this link below for all of the fun!

Milwaukee Love

As some of you may know, I'm in love with Milwaukee. I love the Midwest and Milwaukee provides me with the feel of a big city while still being in my comfort zone. It's a fusion of urban and natural landscapes. To the east is Lake Michigan. This beautiful lakefront is my favorite thing about Milwaukee. To the west is a modest, yet proud, city scape. The two together give me chills. I love Milwaukee and the people I've met there. Here's a photo journey through the city that I love while also modeling my outfit of the day.

Dress - Anthropologie (Feather and Bone), Earrings - Soul Harbor Jewelry on Etsy (similar), Bracelet - Fauna Flora on Etsy, Sandals - Birkenstocks Gizeh

There's such a rich history that Milwaukee has to tell. Every building tells its own story.

Milwaukee has so much to offer and I've only scratched the surface!

And finally Bradford Beach. My favorite place in all of Milwaukee.

I hope you learned something new about Milwaukee through this photo journey! I had a lot of fun running around with the camera just shooting my favorite places.

A Haul Because I Finally Went Shopping

Today was one of those rare days where I had very few things to do and had some extra cash laying around. As a college student, this is a glorious occasion. I always have a list of things I'd like to check out if I have some money so I knew right where I was heading...Sephora, of course! 

I've not heard too much about the Josie Maran Coconut Watercolor Cheek Gelee because it has only come out recently, but I felt like it was my duty as a blush obsessed girl to check it out. I grabbed the "Poppy Paradise" color because it looked quite natural when I swatched it on my hand. It was hard to decide between this color and "Pink Escape," but I went for the shade that seemed most different from shades I already own. I didn't know much about Josie Maran until I wandered through the aisle at Sephora today, but I was happily surprised to find out that it is a socially and environmentally responsible company. Josie Maran says herself, "I believe in balance. I believe that doing the right thing is glamorous. I believe in beauty without the baggage." This is the kind of company I want to support. A company that uses organic ingredients and doesn't believe in animal cruelty. So it's needless to say that I'm the newest Josie Maran enthusiast. 

While I was in my Josie Maran cloud of happiness I also grabbed the BEARNAKED nail wipes because a portion of the sale goes to Polar Bear SOS Initiative, a project of the National Resources Defense Council. These nail wipes are also made with no acetone and smell like grapefruit instead of nasty nail polish remover. 

With my purchase I was also given a Bumble and Bumble Surf shampoo and conditioner sample. I'm super excited about this because I've been wanting to test out the Surf line from Bumble and Bumble for a long time, but have just never felt like shelling out the 30 bucks to try it. 

In the check out line I quickly grabbed these two ribbon hair ties because my hurling teams are green and pink. It was meant to be!

As with any mall trip, I had to stop by Lush to see if they had anything fun to test. I have read rave reviews about the Ocean Salt Body and Face Scrub (and it smells like summer) so I figured it was necessary on this random beauty day. I am excited to try it out and I'll be sure to report back with my opinions.

Because I'm a frugal and responsible citizen of the earth I turned in five Lush pots today to receive my free Fresh Face Mask. I struck up a conversation with one of the girls working and asked her which face mask was her favorite. We discussed which face masks I'd tried and my skin behavior before she settled on BB Seaweed. It's similar to Catastrophe Cosmetic which I loved, but different enough to make it fun for me. I'll be sure to compare the two and decide which one I'd recommend.

What have you purchased recently? Anything new I should look out for at the mall? 

When I Read This Book Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

“His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do - the best ones. The ones who rise up and say 'I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come.' Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out. More of them have already found their way to other places.” 

-Markus Zusak - The Book Thief

I read this about a month ago and never got around to reviewing it. This surprises me because The Book Theif even brought me to tears. It's eloquently written from the perspective of Death. It was interesting as a reader to personify the character of Death in my mind. To me he was a skinny, sickly looking skeletal man in black tattered robes floating above human sight lines until he was called upon to do his job.

I know, I know. It sounds dark, but I will tell you this, it's worth the read. I'm not saying this book was life-changing, but it really made me think about the world in a very different light. It also evokes strong emotions for the people that endured WWII and risked their lives to keep others safe. 

I won't go into great detail as to what the book is about because you could easily search Google for a better plot summary than I could give, but following Liesel and her friend Rudy as they fight their own war is an inspiring and thought provoking experience. I highly recommend this to anyone, but especially to those who enjoy historical fiction with a tad bit of adventure and a smidge of romance.

What have you been reading? Have you ever read The Book Thief? What were your thoughts?

21st Birthday Festivities

So tomorrow is my official birthday, but all week long I've had surprises and wonderful days full of fun! Tomorrow tops it all off as I will be spending my entire day with my Milwaukee Hurling Club family at the pitch. I'm so excited to celebrate the big 21 surrounded by some of my favorite people in the world.

Here are some photos of other events this week!

                   

My charming, thoughtful, and silly boyfriend surprised me with a date to the zoo on Wednesday morning, little did I know we would also be stopping by the Giraffe Experience to feed giraffes! They're my favorite animal and unfortunately we got rained out, but we will be back later this week for round two.

The Fourth of July has to be one of my absolute favorite holidays. Beautiful weather, tasty food, and fireworks to finish out the night. My dad took us out on Pewaukee Lake for a beautiful fireworks display and a spin around the lake. The next day we visited another lake in our area and went tubing and sat in the sun. I'd say this week is one of the best of the entire summer.

And today I was lucky enough to have my brother home from Madison to join us for a birthday breakfast at my favorite spot, Le Reve! I had a delicious mushroom and leek omelette and a fruit crumble. I'm so happy to be able to spend so much quality time with the people I love this week.

Perhaps I'll upload some pictures tomorrow after the birthday at the pitch!

In the meantime, check out this awesome blog hop that will be happening next Saturday, July 13th! I'll be checking it out :) Will you?