Style Lush

Cheap Beauty: Sonia Kashuk Blush in Pink

By Sara

Does anyone else find that the search for just the right blush takes many years and many purchases before you find "the one"? I've dutifully followed the best of Allure's beauty editors and Sephora's top picks. I've tried to love Nars "Orgasm" blush. Too shimmery. Tarte cheek stain was pretty but pricey. Smashbox O-Glow turned a strange consistency within a month of using it. All of these so-called winners let me down and left me without a rosy flush. 

Thank goodness a routine trip to Target straightened me out. On a whim and at my wit's end with blushes I picked up Sonia Kasuk Beautifying Blush in "Pink" (link is for the color "Sunset" as "Pink" was not available online). For me, this is the perfect, gentle pink and layers beautifully. It's not garish or bright, not too shimmery or chalky. It's simply...pink. Just like its name implies.

I've happily used this blush for about four months and am consistently pleased with it. A quick sweep on both cheeks is all I need to add a little color in the mornings and it easily layers for an evening application. At $8.99 and available at all Targets this is definitely in my beautifying budget.

Crazy-Affordable Chevron Rugs

By Leah

A million years later, I'm finally catching up with the rest of the world and have bought my first piece of chevron decor. I don't even care if this makes me sooooo 2000 and LATE; I LOVE IT.

Listen, I know I wrote about a rug last week, but I have to share this great deal: I saw this rug on the Urban Outfitters website and couldn't believe they were selling a (cute!) 5x7 rug for under $100. I bought it partly just to see if it was too good to be true.

It showed up within a week, and you guys, it's awesome. The design is printed on only one side (not woven through with different colored material, if you care about such things), but otherwise the quality seems pretty top-notch to this non-afficianado rug purchaser.

It comes in two sizes (5x7 and 3x5, the latter of which is only $39, if you can believe that), and you have your choice of a bunch of cute colors--so many it was really hard to decide which one to get, especially since I'm using it in my craft room, which currently has a design aesthetic called Cardboard Boxes Everywhere, meaning it's basically a blank slate.

Now that I've done a quality check on one, I'm seriously thinking about getting another for the front porch just so I can buy a different color. ZIGZAGS EVERYWHERE. (Hey, is anyone still wearing their Missoni for Target stuff? Just wondering.)

Anyway, get yours now, before the rugs go out of stock/go out of style/get all bought up by meeeee. 

Update: I couldn't stand it and totally just bought one for the front porch. 

Slipcovers that work: Sure-Fit

Our couches are at least ten years old. TEN! They've survived a cat, a dog, a baby, three moves, countless juice spills and snack-dumping incidents, an endless parade of misdirected crayon use and frankly, they show every big of wear and tear they've earned. These things are nasty. NASTY. No matter how many times I scrubbed the arms, laundered the cushions, vacuumed the crevices, they still looked . . . disgusting. Comfortable, but disgusting.

After finally coming to the determination that it was time for a new set, I got pregnant again. Which means another small person to spit up, spill juice, dribble snacks, pour lotion on the arms, ETCETERA. 

(This just in: children are foul, delightful little creatures.)

I didn't want to spend the money on a new set that would be destroyed in a matter of months, but I sure as hell didn't want to keep being positively MORTIFIED every time someone came into our home. Slipcovers seemed like an awful idea until a friend promised me that Sure-Fit would be different. (I sound like an infomercial. I swear, I bought these myself, and Sure-Fit doesn't even know who I am.)

I went with the Royal Diamond stretch, seen here, but in chocolate brown:

And BADOW! My couch doesn't look QUIIIITE as sleek as the photos would have you believe, and it's true, I have to do a fair amount of tucking and smoothing a few times throughout the day to make sure they don't look like bags, but overall, I am thrilled. THRILLED. My couches are no longer humiliating sacks of shame, the covers are completely (COMPLETELY!) machine washable, and I only spent $170 at Overstock for a couch AND a loveseat cover versus, say, thousands of dollars on a new set my kids are bound to demolish. 

The covers are super-stretchy (well, the form-fit ones are anyway) and have a TON of elastic to fit around all the important bits on the couch. And they cover EVERYTHING, stem to stern, leaving only the tiny feet underneath, if you can even see those. Putting them on took about ten minutes, and I'll bet they'll be ready for their first wash next week. (I've heard they DO wash well, and since they're mostly synthetic---but soft, I swear---I'm not surprised.)

Do it! You won't be sorry. The only thing there is to be sorry about is buying red denim couches in 2001. Red denim shows EVERYTHING. 

Little items to save you time

by Christina

I'm a busy lady and I bet you are, too. The to-do list is long and the daylight short. Right? And it's not often I get everything I need to do get done and I know I'm not alone. I thought I'd share a few little things in my life that are just easy, things that may grant you a few extra minutes to yourself which around here? Is everything.

The bounce dryer bar. I know, how hard is it to toss in a dryer sheet? It's not hard at all and yet not having to do it rules. It rules I say! The bar lasts about 3 months at my house and I do about 8-10 loads of laundry per week.

Neutrogena make up remover wipes. I fall into bed and pass out more nights than I get ready for bed. I read somewhere that going to bed with your make up one night, ages you 10 days. That adds up and I'm old enough as it is. I keep a pack of these in my night table and I like to pretend they keep me from aging. What I know for sure is they keep my eye makeup off my pillowcase.

The intuition razor. I never thought it was such a big process to soap up my legs before shaving but I love this razor. I got it in my goodie bag at the hospital after one of my births and hello, target audience nailed! I don't know how much time it saves me but it feels like I'm in and out faster which is good since I'm never, ever on time.

Febreze car air freshener. Having two kids means a lot of crap gets left in my car. Sometimes it gets smelly. Since I put this in it smells like rainbows and unicorns and not that other, stuff..

I'm sure I've mentioned this here before but my Shark steam mop. Most of my house is hardwood and I need to mop a lot, like every day or every other day. This makes it so much faster and physically easier. Not kicking around a big bucket and the floors dry almost instantly which means no little people fall down after slipping.

Your trun! Tell me about what you love, I'm always looking for more ways to improve monotony!

The Club at ULTA Rewards Program

By Tara

With the exception of my undying devotion to MAC Studio Tech foundation, I am primarily a drugstore makeup kind of gal. I like spending time at Sephora or various department store counters when I can, but considering I have the product attention span of a gnat, I can't afford to be buying twenty different colors of eye shadow at either of those locations.

(I mean, not that I have any desire to go buy twenty different colors of eye shadow or anything. I'm just saying, hypothetically speaking, it would be cheaper to do so in a drugstore.

If I wanted to.

Which I don't...)

So, now I do my eye shadow lusting at ULTA, where I joined The Club, a free rewards program where you accumulate points quarterly to be redeemed for one of a number of free gifts at the end of each period. Even with my new year's resolution to stop spending unneccessary money, I still manage to rack up a decent number of points on things that I need, like shampoo, moisturizer, mascara and gifts. And then, every three months, I get to pick out something new.

Like, say, maybe some new eye shadow color?

You know, if that's your kind of thing...

Thrift Stores: Yea or Nay?

By Rebecca

I have a few friends who seem to have magical luck at thrift stores. They go in and find amazing designer jeans, nice tailored jackets and beautiful printed dresses. And yet anytime I set foot in a thrift store, I...find an ancient collection of ratty t-shirts.

I want to love thrifting, I really do. I like the idea of recycled clothing, and I love the idea of saving money. So what am I missing? I started looking around on fashion blogs and found a couple of posts with some really good ideas.

• Sal from Already Pretty wrote a post called Power Thrifting. The first tip she offers is to shop by color. If you know you need an item in a particular color, that makes for an easy way to scan the racks since thrift stores often organize clothing first by size, then by color.
• This article from Painfully Hip provides tons of great tips. My favorite was to avoid thrift stores near high concentrations of college students because they will be more picked over. In college I spent a fair amount of time combing thrift stores for the perfect worn-in pair of 501s. (Which I would obviously wear with my baggy flannels. Ahh, college in the 90s...good times.)

I think part of my issue is that I have limited shopping time these days, which makes it difficult to do the extended browsing that I think is necessary in a thrift store. I'm thinking about trying again, though I will probably steer clear of the baggy jeans department this go-round.

What do you think? Have you had any success in thrift stores? If so, spill your secrets!

Found: My Holy Grail Hair Product, Resurrected

By Kate

I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to achieve just the right beachy waves look for my hair. Easily tousled, with a little bit of volume and some wave -- but not too much! And lo, it has been harder than I'd like. 

When John Frieda discontinued their much-loved Sea Spray for hair, I was, well, sad doesn't even begin to cover it. That was the perfect hair product -- not heavy, but gave your hair perfect piecey, wavy, beachy texture without being sticky and had a light salty coconut-y smell. It even worked on my stick-straight, super baby fine hair. All this, and it was CHEAP to boot. It was truly my holy grail hair product.

I have long searched for a replacement with no luck. Bumble and Bumble's Surf Spray had the right smell, but the wrong texture (and was uber pricey.). Garnier's sea spray didn't do anything at all. John Frieda briefly revived something sort of similar, but formulated differently with lots of silicones and consequently all wrong. Other, pricier replacements also just fell flat. Most of them literally.

Y'all, I have finally found it. The perfect replacement. At WalMart, of all places. It's Not Your Mother's Beach Babe Texturizing Sea Salt Spray, and it is amazing. Just a little bit gives your hair a touchable wave that lasts, and best of all, it is less than $5. 

What is your holy grail hair product?

{photo credit: NYMBrands}

What I bought: sweaters and scarves, oh my!

By Elisabeth

There has been a recent scarf swap amongst some fellow Twitterers and it has me wanting to go out and buy anything SCARF. As I mentioned last week, the polka dotted one I found in teal was so up my alley, I bought it for myself. (Also, the turquoise one I got for Christmas is now back in stock!)

And THEN, I found these adorable sweaters on sale for $8.50. Can we all say it together? EIGHT FIFTY! Priced down from $34.50. I bought two. The white and the gray. While I really wanted the cherry one, at the time, they were out of my size, but now it's BACK. How does this happen, btw?

As I began "researching" for this post, I came across this lovely.

It's on sale for $9.99.

It's in my shopping cart. (And... then it went out of stock while I was yapping about it. I got the navy. STILL. DARLING. Just, not as.)

I need help.

 

*Also, get FREE SHIPPING with code BLIZZARD, 1038 !

 

{photo credit: landsendcanvas.com}

 

 

Lands' End PolarThin Insulator Parka

By Beth

I bought myself a badly-needed new coat this year and have been hating it. You see, we have had a balmy winter so far, so balmy that my family spent most of New Years' Day climbing rocks along the Potomac River in light jackets. I have been roasting in my new coat, ripping it off and fanning myself and mopping sweat from my forehead. And then two days after New Years' it did not once get warmer than 27 degrees and the wind chill was abysmal.

And now, how do I love my new coat, let me count the ways. Well, ok, really just one way. My face is freezing, my feet are on the verge of frostbite, but everything between my chin and my sit-upon is toasty warm and comfortable. The coat is thin, not the least bit bulky, not a bit of Michelin Man about it, but so, so warm. It is Lands' End's warmest coat, rated -20 to 0, and after this week I believe them. The best part? As of this writing, they are on sale for $39.99 (although checking my email I got mine for $39.94, so if you are a bargain hunter be sure to hold out for those extra 5 cents).

The other awesome thing about this coat? If you, like me, initially order the wrong size and call Lands' End to ask about an exchange, do you know what will happen? An actual live person will answer the phone, almost immediately, and that actual live person will ship you the correct size for free. And then you can just return the wrong size to your local Sears. Awesome.

Photo credit: landsend.com

From My First Birchbox: A Definite Must

By Jessica

 

You've heard of Birchbox, yes? Jonniker mentioned it already and it's all the rage on twitter, so of course I had to try it for myself. I absolutely love getting to try new products without feeling like I've wasted a bunch of money if I don't like them and the fact that they come right to my door? Well, anything that allows me to avoid a mall? SOLD!

In my first box I received a gamut of products ranging from perfume to energy boosting powder, but I have to say that my absolute favorite thing out of the whole box? Even morseo than the fantastically scary in the container but much better on pink lipgloss, or the lovely smelling perfume is this:

Benefit The POREfessional Pore Minimizer this stuff is MAGIC. I am always dubious of anything that claims to shrink pores or hide pores or reduce pores because to me that just reads as clogs pores with my highly annoyingly sensitive skin but so far so good! (*knocks on everything wood nearby*) It makes my pores nearly non-existant and my skin feel like silk before I even put on the rest of my make-up. When my sample runs out? I will definitely be purchasing the full size of this one!

 

{Photo credit: Birchbox}