Shop Miss A Haul & Review!

January 17, 2016

I absolutely love bargain hunting so when I heard about the new website Shop Miss A (via my favorite beauty vlogger Miss Emily Noel - check her out!), I knew I had to try it. While I appreciate the appeal of ahigh quality, well-made product, after learning in college about how much branding and marketing plays a part in our decisions, I always try to give new brands or shops a try. Plus, as a woman on a budget - a bargain product keeps my wallet happy (:

Everything on the Shop Miss A site is $1. Yes, you heard that right - $1! I decided to get a range of products to test out the quality and worthiness of the Shop Miss A products. I ordered a grand total of 31 items for an awesomely low $31 (You get free shipping for any purchases over $30! - hence the awkward number)

Make-up:

Kleancolor: Retractable Eyebrow Pencil in Charcoal
e.l.f. Essential Shine Eraser
e.l.f. essential natural lash kit
e.l.f. essential eyebrow stencil kit
Santee Eyebrow Powder #4
Santee Perfect Liquid Eyeliner
Wonder Eyelash Curler in Pink
Mixed Makeup Sponge Set
LA Colors Chunky Lip Pencil in Crème Brulee
Kleancolor madly matte lipstick in #28 rosewood
Beauty Treats Lip Crayon in #4
Kara Eyelash adhesive - clear
Kara Eyelashes flare - short size
Kara Eyelashes flare - medium size
e.l.f. essential individual false lashes

The make-up products were really all over the board on this purchase. Since most of these brands were brands I'd never heard of, I made my purchases based on the product alone. Most of the products were middle of the line, "just ok" products but the Kleancolor lipstick and Beauty Treats lip crayon stood out to me the most - on opposite sides of the spectrum. The Kleancolor lipstick's design and quality felt just like that of any other high quality lipstick I'd buy. Plus, I love the deep Rosewood shade. The Beauty Treats lip crayon, on the other hand, smelled so artificial that I had a hard time doing everyday things without being repulsed by its smell every couple of minutes. Unfortunately, I tossed the lip crayon after only a few uses.

While I won't be shopping for makeup on Shop Miss A regularly, I do think it is an awesome resource for trying out new products if you're not yet ready to invest too much and just want to experiment a little before committing to an unknown product. Since I've never tried false eyelashes before, I bought a variety of different false eyelash sizes and kits so that I could figure out what works best for my eyes! Given that everything was only $1, this was an awesome opportunity for me to try a new make-up product without having to break the bank.

Jewelry

Ancient Metal Crescent Necklace
Connected Stone Pendant Necklace in Orange
Stone Drop Jacket Earrings in Blue
Three Layer Stone Necklace in Teal
Bead Drop Threader Earrings in White
Vine Pearl Drop Earrings in Silver
Crescent Threader Earrings in Purple
Heart Front and Back Earrings in Gold
Crystal Vine Linear Earrings
Narrow Teardrop Earrings in White
Dainty Vine Ear Cuff in Gold
Endless Hoop Earrings in Silver

The jewelry I bought was definitely my favorite part of this Shop Miss A haul! While a couple of the pieces came a little bit loose, most of the jewelry looked like jewelry I would buy at any other store - but for a way lower price! I especially loved the statement necklaces - they appear to be well made and easily brighten up my outfits. Plus, I got to try a couple of trendy new threader and front/back earrings! Plus one for the accessories department of Shop Miss A!

Everything Else:

Pink Dotted Washi Tape
Plated Leaves Barrette in Silver
Solid Colored Hair Ties in Multicolor

I also decided to try out a couple of their more miscellaneous categories. Since I'm constantly losing my hair ties, I threw in a pack of hair ties for good measure. Unfortunately, I wasn't too thrilled with the hair ties since they ended up being a lot thinner than I had expected and since I have pretty thick hair, they haven't been holding up too well. I'm also a huge stationary junkie so I was excited about the $1 washi tape (especially since washi tape can get very expensive), however, I was sorely disappointed because there was hardly any washi tape on the roll! On the plus side, though, I am in love with the leaves hair barrette - it's adorable and looks fantastic in an updo! I guess with any purchase, you win some and you lose some, right?

Overall Verdict:

Overall, my experience with Shop Miss A has been positive. While the quality of everything wasn't the greatest, I wasn't really expecting too much in the first place since everything was so cheap. In total, it was definitely worth the $31 I paid for the whole lot. I received a bunch of stylish accessories that I will definitely be wearing in the future and got the opportunity to try a ton of other products without making a huge investment in experimental new trends! While I don't think I'll be looking to Shop Miss A for any of my regular makeup purchases, I'll probably hop on a couple of times every season to take a quick look at any new accessory or makeup trends I want to test out.

Have you tried out Shop Miss A? How was your experience? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

4 Favorite Organizing Apps!

January 12, 2016

With a new job, a new apartment, and a new city, life has been insanely hectic for me during the past couple of months! This had made me appreciate just how much technology has changed my life. While I still have a physical planner to write down my daily to-do's and assignments, I really try to limit my planner to more current to-do's and use my virtual apps as the place where I store anything else that comes to mind.

Trello

I have no idea what I did to organize my life before Trello. Being the nerd that I am, I used to google phrases like "best organizing apps" and stumbled upon Trello as a result. Trello is a website and app that allows you to organize all of your projects and to do lists in a board format. Within each board, you can make lists, and within each list, you can make cards of to do's. Trello is great for anything that is project-based because you can organize it however you'd like, attach files to the corresponding cards, and even share projects with other people so that you can assign tasks to different people. For my personal use, I have two boards - one for work and one for home. From there on, I have lists of anything from shopping lists to blogging projects all under the same board. Since I have the Trello app downloaded on both my iPad and iPhone as well, everything syncs seamlessly.

Evernote

Evernote is a cloud-based note taking website and appthat allows users to make notes, organize them into notebooks, and then even into stacks of notebooks. You can share notes with others and clip pages off the web easily. My favorite part of Evernote, however, is how easily photos integrate into your notes. You can drag and drop photos from your computer into a noteand make comments right next to any photo. The only downside of Evernote is that in the free version, you can only upload 60 mb worth of notes per month. For me, this isn't too much of a problem since I use Evernote mostly as a place for lists (i.e. gift lists, wish lists, vacation places), but for users like my mom, who uses it as a place to store photos, these 60 mb can go very quickly.

OneNote

OneNote is an application from Microsoft that is exactly what it sounds like - a virtual notebook. While at first, OneNote wasn't accessible to Mac users, it is now a free download that Mac users can easily add as an app on any Macbook. What I love about OneNote is that it allows you to organize things as if it were a real notebook! You can put tabs within each notebook and then pages within each tab.

Note: When I initially started using both OneNote and Evernote, I was trying to decide between the two applications because I wanted to keep everything on one system instead of being spread too thin. After using both, however, I discovered that I really like both systems but felt that they were best used for different functions. I tend to use OneNote for more intensive note-taking because it has more options for highlighting and labeling notes. I use Evernote as a place to keep lists, save inspiring articles, and recipes.

Siri

There are a millions of Apple users out there but I doubt most of them use Siri to the extent that I use her. I am a loyal Apple fan all around - I own an iPhone and iPad and two Macbooks so I feel that since there's really no turning back at this point I may as well utilize all of the features available! On a daily basis, I'm asking Siri about the weather, telling her to wake me up the next morning, giving her notes to jot down and asking her to give me directions. While these are all things I could physically type into my phone, having the ability to speak the commands without unlocking my phone saves me a ton of time in the long run. If you're not too familiar with Siri commands, just ask her "What can you do?" and she'll give you a nice little list of commands to start you off. My favorite command is the "Remind me" command because I can let Siri know to remind me of tasks I need to do when I get to a certain location or at a certain time - and being the forgetful person that I am, she has saved me on multiple occasions!

What are your favorite strategies for organizing life? Technology has made organizing so much easier for me and I'm so grateful for it!

Simplicity & Animal Prints

January 7, 2016

Sweater: Old Navy/Scarf: Urban Outfitters/Jeans: American Eagle/Shoes: Sperry Topsider/Watch: Urban Outfitters

This outfit is a classic example of something I'd wear on a day when I'm running late in the morning and don't have time to think too much about the outfit I'm wearing! While in college, my go-to running late outfit was something along the lines of sweatshirt and yoga pants but since I've started a full-time job I know that no one at work is going to appreciate the baggy workout look so I throw on this simple combo instead: sweater + scarf + skinny jeans.

This combination looks so much more put together even though it's just as easy to throw on as a sweatshirt and yoga pants combo. I have a couple of sweater + scarf colors that I already know go very well together so having those ready In the back of my mind saves a ton of time in the mornings!

For scarves like this spotted animal print one, I try to keep the sweater simple in order to let the scarf really be the focus of the outfit without too many competing patterns. I like to center my outfits around a specific theme so I decided to throw on these Sperry topsiders because they have a touch of animal print on the sides! I love having a theme to every outfit I plan because it not only helps make planning the outfit easier, it also makes the outfit appear more continuous since all of the pieces tie together more thoroughly.

What is your go-to running late outfit? I'd love to hear your ideas since I'm always up for an outfit that lets me sleep in an extra half hour (: