It's the holiday season and I lured myself into Sephora to scope out all of the holiday gift sets, mini sets, fragrances, and all the other goodies. I was also hoping to get to swatch any Huda palettes that were on display at Sephora and luckily the New Nude palette was on display, and there was one left for sale. I swatched the glittering shades, fell in love, and quickly grabbed a hold of my very own palette to take home. Having a little security device attached to the palette, the slightest jolt of me lifting it out of the display case set the device off to embarrass me throughout the entire store as I kept shopping since no workers even batted an eye. Finally, someone approached me to assist and allowed me to leave the palette at the front counter while I continued to shop, so I could save myself the embarrassment of walking around Sephora with a beeping and blinking palette.
I also decided to pick up a lip gloss from Anastasia Beverly Hills because clearly having 76 other pink shades to choose from at home is just not enough. At this point, this is becoming a collection and just acquiring more shades of pinks and nudes is like a game...that one can never win.
The Fenty Beauty counter was another big hit. Rihanna has hit said gold with the release of her incredible beauty line. Every item perfectly curated and thought through. I decided to get myself the Diamond Bomb and be that girl that leaves behind a little glitter everywhere she goes. The diamond bomb glitter is so finely milled and buttery to the touch, I know I will use it. I have been looking for something that will give me that glimmering glow. This summer was all about the glowing oils, but my long hair, and living in South Florida, puts an end to that fun real quick.
I enjoyed my little retail therapy session and have quenched my holiday thirst for Sephora goodies. I will be sharing my little haul from Kylie Cosmetics on here as well so keep an eye out for that. In the mean time, I will be doing a look and swatches using this palette and the lip gloss that I picked up. I'm excited to share!
xoxo,
Katrina
This shirt reminds me of that one episode of Seinfeld where Jerry Seinfeld is wearing this puffy shirt that he refers to as a "pirate shirt". Kramer and another woman start a clothing line and Jerry is going to model the puffy shirt because the pirate trend is going to the next big thing according to their style predictions. The episode is hilarious and every time I wear this shirt I think of it. This style had a huge comeback when Gucci reintroduced the puffy shirt, and many other clothing brands started to follow along.
I did some early cyber Monday shopping today. KKW Fragrances dropped at all Ulta stores nationwide today for a limited time. I have purchased one KKW Fragrance around Valentine's Day when KKW released her adorable V-day hearts perfumes. I loved the BFF one and went for it due to the scent of marshmallow and vanilla tones that were in it. The downside is that you can't smell the fragranced before you buy them, but the V-day collection was $35 and that doesn't really hurt. Luckily I love the fragrance and it is one of my staple scents. KKW Fragrances have released a Crystal collection and a Kimoji collection, but I could never decide which ones I wanted, and not being able to smell them to see if I liked them totally turned me away...until now! I headed down to my local Ulta and smelled to my little hearts desire! I decided that I must have the Crystal Gardenia scent, and I actually picked it up. I also have my heart set on the Kimoji peach scent. It was so fresh and fruity.
The KKW Crystal Gardenia scent hit a high note with me. I knew I just had to buy it right away because it reminded me of the scents I was around when I traveled to the Cote d'Azur in France. Women there smell divine. Every woman I walked past had a lingering, beautiful scent. I couldn't pinpoint if it was a scent of jasmine, honeysuckle, or gardenia. When I smelled the KKW Crystal Gardenia, it smelled so similar to what I dreamed about in France, that I just had to have it. I'm going to douse myself in it and walk round like those gorgeous French women down the streets of Cannes.
How was your day? Did you buy anything during the cyber Monday sales? Or perhaps on Black Friday?
xoxo,
Katrina
This weekend was an eventful one in Miami, Florida. Besides the Heat playing against the Lakers, the Miami Book Fair was in town! I was especially excited for this Book Fair because one of my favorite authors was going to be present! This author introduced me to the magical world that she had crested in her first book, and I had already put in my preorder on Amazon to get whisked away in Book 2.
This post is photo heavy. These are the photos from my adventure to the gorgeous French Riviera.
Anastasia Beverly Hills has released their newest palette, the Sultry palette that is an essential smokey eye palette that features 14 gorgeous colors including an intense black that is buildable and blendable to for that perfect sultry look. You will notice that the price of the ABH palettes has increased from $42 to $45 which has some buyer talking especially since ABH has sold a minority stake to a private equity firm which now leaves the company at a whopping $3 billion in reported value. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for ABH.
I purchased my palette from Ulta.com and it has become available online but not in stores as of yet. It should be available in stores within the next couple of weeks.
Are you going to get your hands on the sultry palette?
Ivy Lovely is a simple girl who knows not of her lineage of magic and glory. The Crowns of Croswald takes us along as Ivy is thrown into an adventure to discover who she is, her magic and all the challenges of dark magic that await her. Once Ivy crosses the boundary that sonic booms her into an enchanted world of magic, her powers come to life and reveal a girl who has been hidden away for a reason.
The Crowns of Croswald swallowed me whole as soon as I started the first chapter. As a fan of the Harry Potter series I was reluctant to want to fall in love with another story of magic mixed with the enchanting halls of a school, but this story was different. I love how the author builds an entire world into the mind of the reader, making it quite easy for the reader to create a move-like sequence of events while progressing through the story. The descriptions and details paint a beautiful scene into every event that takes place and recalling events becomes simple.
This story has been receiving rave reviews on sites such as Amazon.com and GoodReads.com with reviewers calling this the best story they read the entire summer, and a read that transcends all age groups. I fell in love with this story so much so that I started following the author on Instagram in anticipation of the release date to the second book in the series. Once finishing The Crowns of Croswald you know that there will be a book 2 and luckily for us, it will be releasing soon!
Check out the author's website for more information and a beautiful leap into the world of Croswald. It is probably the most beautiful website I've ever seen! www.denight.com
My review - 5 out of 5 stars
Photography can be an expensive hobby, but one that has such a valuable reward. Your money will return, but the moment cannot, so capturing it in quintessential quality is important. Questions about photography are asked to in abundance, but most of them revolve around lenses and which ones are most recommend. Some lenses can take you back thousands of dollars, and even though they are typically worth every dime, there are options that are available on the market for a fraction of the cost that can give you a look back at the moments in your life that you has wished to capture, and even convince you that the photo made it seem even more so like a beautiful dream.
Today I created a look using my new Anastasia Beverly Hills Norvina eyeshadow palette. I had so much fun creating this look and I will probably be doing this exact look again soon. I love how it came out. I typically do not go for pinks and purples, but this palette is so fun and the shades are so buttery soft and it made the look come together effortlessly and blended exactly the way that I wanted it to.
I did a little shopping on Ulta.com and picked up some new goodies that were just released and are all the rave right now. The items I picked up are the Anastasia Beverly Hills Norvina palette, and the DOSE of Colors X iluvsarahii collection lipglosses.
The Anastasia Beverly Hills Norvina palette dropped a few days ago and features some of Norvina's absolute go to shades in bold bright mattes and soft pastel shimmers. If you didn't know yet, Norvina is the daughter of Anastasia, and President of the company that the mother-daughter due have grown from the ground up. This mother-daughter duo has certainly shaped the makeup industry in recent years. They remain very hands on in company decisions and I am a huge fan! They have a very unique and interesting company history, so if you're interested in finding out more about how Anastasia got into the beauty industry, I recommend a quick Google search that will land you to many interesting articles about her.
The palette itself is very beautiful. It comes with its own brush which I think makes the palette totally worth the money. Anastasia Beverly Hills eyeshadow palettes are all around $42.00 and come in a beautiful velvet packagings. I am thinking of starting a collection and getting them all after swatching this palette and seeing how buttery smooth each shade is. I will be doing a look using this palette and will have swatches of each shade up, so check back for that.
xoxo,
Katrina
