DIY: Upcycling a Candle Jar

Hey guys!

Recently I burned through a favorite candle I purchased from Hobby Lobby. I felt like it would have been wasteful to throw away the glass jar so I decided to up-cycle it and use it for something else. This post will show you how I did that :)

First, boil water, enough to fill the candle jar close to the top. 

Now, grab your candle. I LOVED the smell of this candle! 

Set the jar in the sink, and begin poring the boiling water into the jar. Be careful not to burn yourself or touch the glass jar after it is filled. If you spill any water, don't worry, it'll just go down the drain. The hot water will melt the wax and cause it to float to the top. 

Wait until the jar has cooled enough to handle, and pull the wax out of the top of the jar. You may have a little extra candle wax at the bottom but it can easily be removed by hand or with a green scrubber sponge.  

This is what you should have once the wax is removed.

If you have trouble with removing the outside label, set it into a pot full of warm water and fill the jar full of water to weigh it down into the pot. 

Next, take a green scrubber and and soap and completely clean the jar.

You should be left with something like this.

You can use your candle jar however you wish depending on the size. I chose to use mine to hold bobby pins, hair clips, and hair ties. 

Wondering what to do with the excess candle wax?...

Cut it into pieces and use it in a tart warmer! :) 

I felt very good doing this because I recycled as much of this candle as I could. It makes me wonder what else I can up-cycle... I hope you enjoyed this and try it out for yourself!

What things have you up-cycled? 


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Difference Between Bronzing and Contouring

Hey everyone!

First off, thank you so much to everyone who entered my Skin Regime Giveaway and congrats to Kaylyn for winning! So exciting! :D I didn't think doing a giveaway would be that exciting so I'm definitely considering doing more.

Today I wanted to do a lesson/how-to type of post and explain the difference between bronzing and contouring. I've inserted pictures below to visually show you the difference between the two. 

Here is my face with no bronzing or contouring, just foundation, concealer, and powder. 

ELF's Contouring Blush and Bronzer and ELF Complexion Brush

When choosing a bronzer, go for something that will give you a glow. Bronzer with a little golden sheen or slight shimmer looks gorgeous on the skin. Especially for summer!

Face with bronzer applied

With bronzer, apply it to the top of your forehead, around the edges of your face, across your cheeks and nose, slightly on your chin, and down the neck to blend with the rest of your skin. Apply it with a light hand. You want to look sun-kissed, not like you just put Nutella all over your face.

MAC's Powder Blush in Blunt and NYX Highlight and Contour Powder. Sonia Kashuk Flat-top Sculpting Brush and Sigma's Small Contour Brush.

When choosing a contour color, ideally, choose something that is neutral (meaning not orange/red). The idea of contouring is to make your face look like it has more dimension. To create this, you want your contour color to look more like the shade of a shadow (with grayish tones). You also want your contour to be matte. This is very important because if you use a shimmery bronzer, the shimmers will actually have the opposite effect and cause your face to look muddy and accentuate the areas in which you applied it. The shimmers will reflect in light, which is the opposite of what a shadow does naturally.

In this case, I used the Sonia Kashuk brush and NYX's contour powder. I wanted to show you exactly where I applied it.

The idea of contouring is to enhance your facial features, not to really look "sun-kissed" so to speak. You want to chisel or carve out the areas with your contour you want to recede. In turn, this accentuates the areas you want to highlight. Above, you can see where I initially placed my contour- along the hairline, down the sides and tip of the nose, under the cheek bone, under the jaw line and on the temples. To really get fancy, you can extend the contour from the temples into the crease of the eye and use it as a transition color or just to add more depth to the eyes. You can also contour the collar bone area if you wanted to add more depth to your declate/chest.

Here is what the contour looks like blended. Keep in mind you want to make your contour look like it's given your face a "lift." Think upwards.

Before, Bronzed,and Contoured.

Well, that's pretty much it. I hope you found this helpful! Let me know if you have any questions. I'll be more than happy to answer them! :)

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The Tangle Teezer Review

Hey guys!

About a week ago I picked up a Tangle Teezer from Sally's Beauty Supply for about $12. I had seen and heard so many great things about this brush and thought I'd give it a try. This is a handheld brush that is supposed to detangle your hair gently with less damage.

A little background on my hair- I have thin hair that easily tangles. I have always used round or paddle brushes through my hair and am definitely not tender-headed by any means. I'm used to my hair being pulled and tugged at. 

As you can tell, this brush does not have a handle but is shaped in a way where it fits comfortably in your hand. 

When I first used this brush, not gonna lie, it was a little weird. It glided through my hair and didn't pull at any of the tangles. I guess I'm so used to having my hair pulled at when brushing it that it was weird not to have my hair yanked at by a brush. 

There are rows of alternating short and tall bristles. The bristles are actually not as stiff as what I initially thought. They give (move and bend) quite a bit. This is most likely why it doesn't pull at your hair. When it comes across a knot or tangle, it gently brushes it out little by little instead of yanking at the entire knot at one time. 

This brush is also great to use as a shower brush. I had never used a brush in the shower until now. I ran this through my wet hair to evenly distribute the conditioner and it never once snagged. My hair felt incredibly soft the next day!

Overall, I really like this brush. The one thing that could be improved upon is possibly the plastic back. I feel like it can be a little awkward to hold at first so maybe if it had a slight rubbery backing it would be easier to keep ahold of it but other than that I think it's great. If you don't mind spending $12-13 on a brush, then go for it! :)


P.S.- Make sure to enter my Skin Regime Giveaway! It ends in a few days! Plus, check out  Kristen's Summer Beauty Essentials Giveaway! She's giving away some great stuff :)



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My Skin Regime Experience + GIVEAWAY! [Closed]

Hey guys!

Today I wanted to share my opinions and experience with "The Skin Regime." Dana Ramos, the author of this book, contacted me about 3 weeks ago and sent me a copy of her book and a sample glycolic peel. Her book, is a funny and short read. She explains how women everywhere spend waaaay more money on wrinkle creams and serums that don't work. She also goes into detail about which products work and which products to stay away from. She discusses how glycolic peels are beneficial for anyone and any age with nearly any skin issue. 

Since I am pretty familiar with facial peels, after working at a beauty counter which offered them by appointment, I pretty much knew there was nothing to lose with trying a sample. I knew it could only improve my skin. After reading this book, I will definitely look into purchasing more glycolic peels from the companies she mentions. I mean, who doesn't want great looking skin?

Here is Dana's website. There is lots of information and other before and after pictures to check out.

Here is my clean naked face before the first peel. 

This pad is pre-soaked with the glycolic acid. 

Here is a close up of my skin right after I applied the peel. My skin started to sting and it itched on my neck. There was noticeable redness on my cheeks, chin, and forehead. (This is normal. It's working! :))

After I rinsed the peel off, I still felt a little lingering sting but it eased up significantly after a couple minutes. As you can see, I still had redness, and little bumps appeared on my cheeks and chin, which almost looked like a heat rash. (Again, normal)

This was the morning after. My face felt slightly tighter and my skin felt soft for the most part. There was a patch of skin along the side of my right cheek which felt like a very fine grit sand paper (It felt like skin that needed to be sloughed off with an exfoliator). The bumps disappeared and the redness was almost completely gone. 

Overall, I really enjoyed doing the peel. I tried it again later with the left over glycolic I had and the sting felt nothing like the first time- it was much calmer. There also wasn't as much redness and I didn't get those little bumps.

**GIVEAWAY**

Dana has kindly offered to give one of my readers a chance to win a copy of The Skin Regime: Boot Camp for Beautiful Skin, and a sample glycolic peel. This is an international giveaway so ANYONE can enter! Good Luck! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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DIY: Dry N Shape

Hello Everyone!
If you haven't figured out by now that I love easy DIYs, then now you know. I saw a YouTube video yesterday of this DIY. I actually had no intensions of dong it but yesterday afternoon I finished cleaning my brushes and I just so happened to remember watching that video. I checked to see if I had the stuff on hand, and in fact, I did! I was pretty excited that I didn't need to go but anything and then figured I'd make my own tutorial. So, here it is! I hope you like it and try it out for yourself. It works wonderfully! Now... if I could just think of a way to make them stand or hang upside down, it'd be perfect!

Supplies Needed:

• Elastic
• Hot Glue Gun
• Scissors
• Makeup brushes (duh!)

First, start by cutting the elastic into pieces. I cut mine in 1", 1 1/2", and 2" pieces. These seemed to fit all the brushes I wanted to use these for. 

Next, fold over one small edge and put a line of hot glue.

Take the other end and layer it over the top of the strip of glue and press together firmly for a few seconds (until it dries). Avoid overspilling the glue. Make sure you can see right through the hole you created. It shouldn't be sealed by the glue. 

Last, place the elastic pieces on your freshly washed makeup brushes. Slide the bottom of the brush handle through the elastic and slide the elastic piece all the way up the brush. This will ensure the bristles are straight and uniformed.

And that's it! Easy enough, right?

It literally only took a few minutes to make all of these. It's super easy! Let me know what you think or if you'll give this a try. :)



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