My Eye Make Up Favorites

Eye Primar

Fran Krauss taught me about these first two products:

Prime Time Primar from Bare Minerals either HERE or HERE:

Eye Liner

Estee Lauder's Double Wear Pencils are my most used.  I own onyx (black), coffee (dark brown) and a midnight blue (blue/navy).

Lancome Art Liner is terrific, but I feel that the L'Oreal or NYX Studio Liquid Liner are alternatives at a much lower cost.
I find that the Art Liner is rarely in stock in dark brown; same for the L'Oreal.  So tonight, using my 20% Ulta discount, I purchased NYX.  I only tried it on my hand, but I LOVE this brown color that I purchased. 

Eyeshadow

Now this is difficult because there are so many good options on the market right now.
Urban Decay's Naked 1 Palette (I did not like palette 2).  Also, palette 3 and their matte palette both look great, but I have already moved onto Stila.

Stila's Palettes are great because, like Naked Palette, they have fabulous pigmentation.
I use In the Light:

 And when there was an Ulta sale, I purchased two eyeshadow quads from Bare Minerals.  WOW - these are awesome, especially because I only paid $15 for each quad!  I own The Truth and The A List:

For Brittani's wedding, I wanted to create a soft purple look for her (her wedding colors were purple).  I found this POP Beauty palette on Beauty.com at a 20% discount (sign up for their emails - they are the only site that every once in awhile offers Nars cosmetics and other high end brands at a full 20% discount - this never happens at Ulta).
The Amethyst Palette - LOVE THIS PALETTE!

Mascara

I have always been a Lancome fan, however, I have been CAREFULLY using only one mascara recently: Bare Minerals Lash Domination
You must CAREFULLY use this.  It took me over a month of practice and I still get big black racoon eyes.  It is a big brush and I have small eyes, so if you are not careful, you will end up with a mess.  However, no mascara has ever come as close to making my lashes so long and full.  I love it that much that I will not recommend any other brand at this point (but if you have naturally long and awesome lashes, then go to Lancome so you can avoid the mess because that is a downfall of this mascara).

2013 New Year's Eve Wedding of Brittani and Ben

I was so excited to attend Brittani and Ben's wedding on New Year's Eve in State College, PA.  Brittani's parents are my godparents and her dad married Kevin and I!  It was a bittersweet day for me though because my poor husband had to stay home due to a back injury.

I did Brittani's makeup (and applied false eyelashes - a first for her) and assisted some of the other bridesmaids with their makeup.  It was so much fun to sit and enjoy makeup with so many girls!!!!

HOW ADORABLE IS THIS!!!!

Not much of a baby bump at 12 weeks

My God-Mother

The one halfway decent photo of my God-Father who gave an incredible sermon when marrying Brittani and Ben

Meghan and Justin

Vince and I

Brittani's Terrific Brother

Bruno and I

I spent a significant amount of time shopping (and crying) trying to find something to wear for this wedding.  However, I was pleased with the end result:
DRESS: lace Diane Von Furstenberg
paired with
EARRINGS: an old pair of Stephanie Somers (the stones were matte rather than sparkly - so they were not too over-the-top)
and finished with
SHOES: my nude "go-to" LK Bennett heels.

LESSON: Yes, you can wear non-maternity clothes, especially when you are not quite ready for maternity wear.  However, this dress in a size 4 needed to be altered because it was too big across the back but not too big in the waist.  I normally wear an altered down size 2 for DvF (but her size 0 typically is too small on at least one part of my body, so I buy her 2s).  All in all, once the tummy grows another few inches, I will be glad to switch to maternity wear - even if it is expensive.  On the positive side, I can get this dress altered after the baby and wear it in the future!

Christmas Eve 2013

Since Kevin and I skipped Thanksgiving (thank you again morning sickness), we were thrilled to finally see family on Christmas Eve.  I was also sad to miss my family, but at least I had my morning sickness under enough control that I was able to drive to North Carolina prior to Christmas to see Marissa and Hailee (oh yeah....my mom, sister, and brother-in-law also were there....but their purpose in life, in my opinion, is to ensure that Marissa and Hailee are alive and well.....and yes, I expect the same to occur for me after I give birth to Kevin Charles McNair, Junior!).


CONGRATULATIONS TO MARK AND SHANNON ON THEIR ENGAGEMENT!!!!!  The first photo is Shannon and Mark chatting with her brother, Joe, who was in Spain pursuing a professional soccer career. 

Enjoy the photos!

WHAT I WORE: Stretchy is KEY here.  My mom said that I looked horrible when visiting North Carolina (she was right!).  So she went shopping and purchased me leggings and this sweater (among other things) from White House Black Market.  I purchased a pair of low-heeled knee high boots to complete the look at Dillards. 

Judging Heavenly Angels National Pageant - November 30, 2013

What a great time - seeing my sister queens, Rachel and Ashlee as we judged the Heavenly Angels National Pageant in Harrisburg, PA.

It was so much fun sharing my wonderful pregnancy news with my sister queens!  They are simply the best!

Will it be a prince or princess?  I learned in January of 2014 that it is a prince!!!

What I wore:
Top and Jacket: CaBi
Jewelry: Sabika
Pants: they were CaBi
Shoes: very old boots by Nine West 

Dressing was a bit hard because my body had started its pregnancy shift, so I was limited to blousy tops and stretchy bottoms.  Jeans were starting to become quite uncomfortable (and they were not appropriate for a pageant!).  Again, I am grateful for being pregnant, but I don't think anyone could have adequately prepared me for the depression that would set in over losing my body.  I learned to get over it; but it took some time. 

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