My May MUST-Have.

Hello Internet Friends! I'm here to tell you about a brand new ALL TIME fave of mine...

Now, I like to consider myself a concealer connoisseur of sorts. Like I've divulged before, my pores are a prob & in my efforts to remedy that prob I have tried roughly seven hundred & twenty two different concealers, give or take. I'm constantly looking for the most natural looking yet totally perfecting formula out there..and I just may have found it!

Enter, Sonia Kashuk's "Hidden Agenda" concealer palette. 

 

This stuff is the bee's knees! It blends out like nothing...no resistance to blending and no weird patchiness - it's the perfect color for my skin! (I use the "light" version of this palette because there wasn't one called "pale as the moon"...my real color.) And the coverage? GIRL. It covers like some sort of magical eraser of blemishes that you can buy at Target for only $10.49, which honestly feels like you're robbing this poor Sonia Kashuk woman, whoever she is. The poor sap! Does she even know?! I'm happier with the coverage I get from this product than I have been with the last 10 concealers I've tried. 

It comes with 3 different cream concealers & a flesh tone setting powder. The top left concealer is the lightest of the 3; top right is a darker warm tone; bottom left is a darker olive, almost green tone concealer; bottom right is the powder. On an every-day, natural makeup basis the warm tone is even dark enough for me to use as a contour! (Like I said...pale as the moon). I use it every day, sans brush until I get to the powder. I know some people get skeeved out by dipping their fingers into something like a creamy concealer, but I'm not sharing it with the neighborhood here & I feel like the body heat from my fingers actually helps it blend even better than it does on its own. I love the formula, too. Not only does it look natural, but it feels much less cakey & makeupey than most other concealers I've used, from drugstore to high-end. Super smooth! It even does a killer job on covering up my PORES! That's right - those problem pores become much less noticeable under this magic wand product.

Here are some before & after photos for y'all. These pictures were NOT touched up & there is nothing on my skin other than this concealer from before to after. Of course, the iPhone front camera gives a picture quality that sucks, let's be honest, so I look weirdly grainy...but you get the jist! I was working on my own here. This is how the concealer performs solo: 

Here I applied it on bare skin with only a primer underneath, but it blends just as well over foundation - AKA, how I usually apply it when I'm not trying to take before & after pictures. I used the lightest color under my eyes, around the base of my nose, down the bridge of my nose, & of course, on those annoying blemishes. 

Annnnd, like all product reviews are, this is how it worked for ME & MY skin. :) I do recommend you trying it out, though! Sonia Kashuk is definitely a pricier drugstore line, but so far I'm impressed! MOST importantly, Sonia Kashuk's line is cruelty free! Read their animal testing statement HERE, on their official Facebook page. 

Have you tried this product? What was YOUR experience? What is your must-have concealer? 

Lions, & tigers, &....KITTENS, OH MY!

Hello Internet Friends! I think this post will be the most unique & undoubtedly the cutest you'll ever see on this blog. 

For a few months now, a cat has been chilling on our back porch. She comes & goes, of course, as most feral cats do, but I've caught her more than once enjoying an afternoon nap on our porch swing. She allows little to no interaction - she stares with HUUUUGE green eyes at the slightest sound of humanity nearby & flees far too quickly when we come outside for us to even think about coming over to her. My biggest victory with her so far has been the little paw prints of dirt that I saw leading up to the bowl of warm milk I'd sat out for her on a cold morning.

But this week, we noticed another victory that had occurred quite clandestinely! Kittens. Yes, kittens! When my dad pulled out the lawnmower and started it up this past weekend it startled one of the four little guys enough to get him to crawl out from under one of the other 2 lawnmowers my dad's got stowed away back there. (He's got a big manly lawn tool problem.) And with that first little one's bravery the rest followed and soon they were crawling all over the porch, dangerously close to escaping & dangerously tiny. I'm talking, they fit perfectly in the palm of my hand!

So we scooped them up and put them in a little box, hoping that mama would be chill with it. And...she was! Not only did she seem to have no problem with it, but the next morning she was in the box with them! We set up a bowl of cat food & water for her and she hung out! She even stayed there when we came onto the porch to sneak a peek! Alright, alright...she definitely hissed a few times, but eventually she got cool enough with us to hop on top of the table & grab some chow while we were outside with her! Talk about a 180 from her pre-mom self!  My mom was even able to pick up one of the kittens without any sort of reaction from her.

Mama keeping watch. 

Tragedy of tragedy, this morning mommy & babies were nowhere to be found - the box was empty. We were beyond bummed, but the internet has assured us that feral moms, and even some domesticated moms, move their kittens numerous times while they're young to ensure safety from predators, like the daddies, and privacy. The food is still out for her, so we're hoping she'll keep coming around but if not, we enjoyed her little family while we got to see them! :)

Yes...we named them! LOL 

It was such a cool experience, but definitely a sneeze-inducer for me & my mom who are both allergic to cats! HAHA! I couldn't be out on the porch for more than 10 minutes without dissolving into sneezes & watery, itchy eyes. Regardless, I will be keeping my eyes peeled for any sign of a striped tail.