Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Favorites

It's been awhile since I shared some of my recent obsessions so I thought I'd share them with you right now!

Nars Gentle Cream Cleanser

Foams up so good, removes everything and smells like an orange creamsicle.  I use it with my Clarisonic and it is the greatest. 

Diorskin Nude Natural Glow Fresh Powder
It's a loose powder foundation that is 20% water and gives the skin such a fresh and natural look.  Makes your skin look so healthy and luminous. You can use it alone or over your regular foundation. 

Josie Maran Argan Oil Illuminizer 
Ultra light skin brightener that gives skin a lit from within glow all day.  I use it just about every day under my foundation and it makes your skin look amazing!  Feels so nice on the face too.

Lancome Teint Idole Ultra 24H Foundation 
Speaking of foundation....holy amazing foundation Batman!  This is Lancome's newest foundation and I'm OBSESSED.  It's so creamy and feels so natural.  It lays on the skin beautifully!  It's re-touch free for 24 hours and you know how annoying it is when you're blowing your nose and your foundation rubs off?  Or when you give someone a hug and you give them some of your make up back on their shirt?  EW...this does NOT DO THAT AT ALL.  I'm amazed and in love.

YSL Voile de Blush Gel Blush 
I love a good cream/liquid/gel blush and this is one of the best ones I've ever found.  Goes on so smooth and blends beautifully.  These types of blushes are my favorite to use in the winter for a healthy natural glow.  

Lancome 5 Pan Palette "Lavender Grace" 
I think I've mentioned how obsessed I am with these palettes before right?  Well we just got a bunch of new colors in and I'm in love with this one.  The colors are to DIE for and the texture is amazing.  

Lancome Artliner liquid eyeliner 
The best liquid liner I've ever used.  I'm not biased...it's just simply the best.

Lancome Rouge In Love Lipstick "Roses In Love"
I've never really been a lipstick wear-er but I'm in love (see what I did there?).  It's so lightweight but it's a 6 hour wear which is amazing.  Roses In Love is my favorite shade that I wear EVERY day but the rest are gorgeous as well.

Essie Luxeffects Top Coat "A Cut Above" 
The most gorgeous top coat for nail polish.  Just the right amount of sparkle.

Fresh Brown Sugar Body Polish 
LOVE LOVE LOVE It's a gentle exfoliating product for the body.  It's so nice to have during these DRY winter months.  I love this stuff.

St. Ives Soothing Oatmeal and Shea Butter Lotion 

This is my favorite lotion right now.  It immediately soothes dry skin without burning or irritation.  My skin looks better after ONE time using it.  I have been lathering it all over lately.  Love it. 


I can't even express how obsessed I am with this show....

Bought the first 2 seasons of this.  Can't stop watching.  It was such a good show.

Favorite candy of all time.  If you want to be my friend....send me one of these.  If you want to be my best friend...send me 5.

Anything you're currently obsessed with and want to share with me??
xoxo

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Monday, February 27, 2012

Weekend Collage

my weekend

my weekend by vanessanelson featuring tear drop earrings

Hello!!!  I think I'm finally back!  Did you miss me??  Awww....thank you.  I missed you too!  My weekend was wonderful!  Did you all watch the Academy Awards?  An update on those to come (promise)
How was your weekend?
xoxo

Thursday, February 16, 2012

my life according to Instagram

So...I've basically given up on The Bachelor.  I know....but I'm sure I'll be right back to it in about a week.  I just need a break from Ben and his dragon face.
In other news...let me update you on my real life.  I'm obsessed with Instagram.  I'm such a hipster.  This is my life according to Instagram over the last 2 months.

January:

Celebrity Shoot Out in Park City

(my husband was supposed to be there....and was not)

Andi McDowell

That guy from Everwood

Alan Thicke

Cuba Gooding Jr. and others

Michael Vartan...beautiful beautiful Michael Vartan

Drive back down from Park City....

Other random activities:

Sometimes even the best of friendships can end....


February
Got a Valentine from my BFF Jen...yes that is Jon Hamm as my prince.  She gets me.

Love Potion #9

He really wants to be her friend.  She does not accept.

Every day.  At least a million times.

xoxo

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Love Songs


A Thousand Years - Christina Perri
I have died every day waiting for you, darling don't be afraid I have loved you for a thousand years, I'll love you for a thousand more

Cosmic Love - Florence + The Machine
I took the stars from my eyes and then I made a map and I knew that somehow I would find my way back, then I heard your heart beating you were in the darkness too so I stayed in the darkness with you

Look After You - The Fray
There now steady love, so few come and don't go, will you, won't you be the one I'll always know?  When I'm losing my control, the city spins around, you're the only one who knows, you slow it down

I Won't Give Up - Jason Mraz
I won't give up on us, even if skies get rough, I'm giving you all my love, I'm still looking up

Enchanted - Taylor Swift
This is me praying that this was the very first day, not where the story book ends, my thoughts will echo your name until I see you again, these are the words I held back as I was leaving too soon, I was enchanted to meet you

Make You Feel My Love - Adele
I could make you happy, make your dreams come true, no there's nothing that I wouldn't do, go to the ends of the earth for you, to make you feel my love

Maybe I Love You - Lenka
Maybe I love you, maybe I do, maybe this feeling inside me is true, and if I love you, and if I do, then maybe baby maybe you love me too

Kiss Me - Sixpence None The Richer
Kiss me, beneath the milky twilight, lead me out on the moon-lit floor, lift your open hand, strike up the band and make the fireflies dance, silver moon's sparkling, so kiss me

Faster - Matt Nathanson
You make my heart beat faster

On The Other Side - Augustana
I wanna feel your feet lifting off the ground, want to feel you love me at the speed of sound, babe it could end tonight, know it will be all right because I'm gonna love you, somewhere on the other side

Northern Wind - City and Colour
You're the lullaby that's singing me to sleep, you are the other half, you're like a missing piece

I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers
When I'm lonely, well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who's lonely without you, when I'm dreaming yeah I know I'm gonna dream, I'm gonna dream about the times when I'm with you, when I go out well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you, and when I come home, well I know I'm gonna be I'm gonna be the man who comes back home to you, I'm gonna be the man who's coming home to you

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Weekend Collage

my weekend

my weekend by vanessanelson featuring short sleeve shirts

So are there any competitions going on right now for worst blogger in the world?  And if so...did you already nominate me for it?  Good.  I know I've  been the worst!  My counter manager had a death in the family last week and so I've been working overtime while we are still in gift at our counter.  My apologies for the absence! No Bachelor blog (I didn't even watch it), no Friday letters....I'm sorry.  I will try my hardest to do better this week!  (no promises)....in other news...have you gone by your local Lancome counter to get your gift with purchase??? If not...why???  Let me know if you need suggestions on what to buy ;)

Did anyone else watch the Grammy's???
Here is my commentary:
1. Fergie's mom is straight out of Toddlers & Tiaras.  Love her.
2. I was waiting the whole show to see Kanye bring out Blue Ivy and present her to the audience like in The Lion King.
3. The Beach Boys performance was like the Hall of Presidents show at Disney World with the robot presidents reading the constitution.  Plus Uncle Jesse wasn't even there.  What was that about???
4. The showed Rihanna talking to her friend about Adele and it was totally like when Regina George decided to let Cady sit at their lunch table.
5. ADELE!!!!!!!

I hope you all had an amazing weekend!!!
xoxo

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

the best of....


This was a request by a reader and I was more than happy to accommodate.  I completely love Miranda Lambert.  She is incredibly talented.  She's strong, sassy, and beautiful.  Her music is great when you're in a great mood, an angry mood, a sad mood, a relaxing mood...she has everything.  Promise you won't be disappointed.  
*I included her song "Housewife's Prayer" which is actually a song by the group she's in called Pistol Annie's. You should listen to them too.  Beautiful harmonies.  

Monday, February 6, 2012

Weekend Collage

Weekend Collage

Weekend Collage by vanessanelson featuring fitted t shirts

I had a great weekend but so so busy!  (sorry I missed Friday Letters....) I got my tax refund back and spent some of it on some luxury items (make up of course) and footwear (Toms ballet flats...could you die???)  It's still gift time at my counter which is both exciting and painful....kind of like childbirth except I will have nothing to show for it except for regret and despair.
Lana Del Rey's CD was released on Tuesday and I have not listened to anything else.  Amazing!!!
AND of course.....THE SUPER BOWL.  I'm gonna need someone to link me to all the pictures of Tom Brady crying please.
Congratulations Eli Manning!  ONLY Manning's are allowed to win the Super Bowl in Indy ;)
How was your weekend???

I'd like to leave you with this video because it's pretty much my favorite thing ever (and my favorite song of all time)


xoxo

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Happy Super Bowl Sunday...

Pretty much sums up my feelings.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The Bachelor: "Who knew strippers could play baseball?"

Welcome back.  Is this season over yet?  It basically is but they are forcing us to sit through 10 more episodes.  The crazy thing is that we are 5 episodes in and some girls have no business being here.  I'm looking at you Casey S., Blakely, and that one girl who's name I always forget.

We are in Puerto Rico and at least 73% of the girls announce "this is the perfect place to fall in love"....I'm confused because they clearly don't know they are on The Bachelor which is the exact opposite of the perfect place to fall in love.  Nicki gets the first one on one date.  She wants to know what it will be like to date Ben without 10 other girls around....oh! oh! pick me!  I know!  Boring!


I have decided that I would actually kill to be Chris Harrison.  He gets to travel to all these beautiful places for free while simultaneously ruining the lives of people who hate themselves.  I always thought working at Disneyland was my dream job but I'm seriously re-considering.

Release the Bachelor Copter!!!  Nicki has a serious serious case of "crazy face"...all the time.  She's also wearing what is quite possibly the most offensive dress in the history of The Bachelor.

 I also forgot she used to be married....probably because she hasn't been mentioned in the last 3 episodes at all.  Nicki says she's with the man of her dreams. I don't know if he's the man of anyone's dreams but he sure puts me to sleep! Jokes!
If you saw Ben and Nicki from behind I honestly don't think you could tell the 2 of them apart.  I actually think Ben's hair is getting shorter in back and longer up front.  Maybe he's like Pinocchio and every time he tells a lie about owning/running a winery...his bangs grow.

Ha ha ha look at this doofus in a hat....I think his hair may actually be holding it up.

Nicki gets the rose.

The next group date is announced and they realize that Elyse will be getting the next one on one date.  She gets excited and nobody really knows why because she's definitely getting sent home and in the most humiliating way possible: by BEN.
Hey do you guys want to see something really awesome?
You're welcome.

For the group date they go to a baseball stadium.  They are going to play baseball and all the girls are really excited because apparently they were all "born to do this" and they are all "super athletic".  File that in "pointless pieces of information I get on The Bachelor" (aka the entire show).
Lyndzie always looks down when talking to the camera and somehow it makes her look crazier.
Chris Harrison graces us with his beautiful presence and tells us there is going to be a beach party BUT "not all of you will be going"....You can hear one of the girls saying "that's so meeeaaaaaaannnnnn".  This is NOT Glee!  You are not always a winner!  This is reality TV guys!
They have to play baseball against each other to decide which team gets the beach date.  The Blue team does really well in the first but then the Red team catches up real quick thanks to a throwing error...by Ben.  Leave it to him to even suck at this.

Blakely starts doing really well and catching everything that is coming her way (and no I'm not referring to the STD's that she has also caught).  Courtney then states "who knew strippers could play baseball".  And yes...Courtney is the worst but also...kind of the best because she has a point.

Red team wins and the Blue team starts crying.  Ben then refers to their loss like "losing the series".  Yes folks...Ben just compared losing a fake baseball game for time with him to THE WORLD SERIES.  Congratulations Ben....I dub thee Lord of Doucheville.

Blakely is so pissed they lost she starts slipping into her trashy southern accent that she has clearly worked very hard to hide.  What she isn't trying hard to hide?  Her Bob Knight impersonation and her boobs* (*I deeply apologize for using the words "Bob Knight" and "boobs" in the same sentence and for the damage it inevitably caused you)

Ben tells Kacie B. at one point that "all of the women I've fallen for in my life....have never loved me back".  File that into the "pointless pieces of information I already knew about Bachelor Ben" aka....I hope I never really know that much about Bachelor Ben.

After Kacie gets her alone time with Ben (and gets the rose), Courtney starts the ball rolling in her devious plot to ruin all our lives.  She says "Those girls have no idea what I'm capable of". Actually, I think they are pretty aware of it.  She tells Ben they should go skinny dipping later.  Fact: skinny dipping was invented by the creators of Laughing Cow cheese in 1493.  Also it's a terrible but effective way to get a man to think he's fallen in love with you.

Side bar: Casey S. is the best looking girl with the least amount of air time in Bachelor history.  And my credentials as a Bachelor historian can not be questioned* (*yes they can)

It's time for Elyse's date of doom.  There is no way she is coming back from this.  There's a better chance of Kacie's hair staying straight through an entire episode, of Casey speaking more than 2 sentences in a row on camera, Blakely's boobs being real, of Courtney having a pretty mouth, of Ben actually owning a winery, of Rachel being in her twenties....
Ben and Elyse go on a yacht.  Bachelor Yacht!  Ben is exactly like Leonardo DiCaprio in "Titanic" except for the exact opposite.
Elyse says she's done "everything" in her life and that's because she counts living on her own as doing something.  She gave up her job to be here!  I can only imagine it's because she thought Brad would be the Bachelor again.  HOLD THE PHONE!  I just realized that Elyse is a personal trainer.  So she gave up nothing.
Sidebar: I was very very distracted during that portion of their date because I was laughing so hard watching Ben's hair flip around in the wind on the yacht.

Later...they eat dinner. Sidebar: my sister messaged me about this scene and she said "did you notice Ben's clip on bowtie???"...so now all I can think about is how he is a GROWN MAN with GROWN MAN bangs and he had to have a clip on bowtie.

While trying to distract us from his failures Ben brings up the obvious red flag "umm....earlier you said you had accomplished everything you wanted to accomplish...?" and then Elyse shoots herself in the face by saying "I'm sick of being single".
Ben is so uncomfortable during this date it's hilarious.  You can tell he's looking for an excuse to dump her but he doesn't really have one besides the fact that she's clearly too classy for him.

Elyse kind of looks like she could be Ben's crazy older sister who got addicted to meth in high school and ran off to Mexico.   Needless to say...she does not get the rose.
It's important to note that Ben is wearing tuxedo capri pants which are kind of like tuxedo pajamas in the sense that they don't exist and never should.

Courtney pulls a Vienna later in the night and stalks Ben at his room and announces she has lotion in her pocket so already you know that either A.) She's going to murder him or B.) you're going to want to change the channel.
Courtney then pulls out her Royal Flush of Bachelor moves and goes skinny dipping with Ben.  She has pretty much guaranteed a spot in the finals because there is no way Ben is going to turn down a naked model. Ben has needs too!  Really really terrible and gross needs!  She's playing for keeps people and by keeps I mean keeps for a month to help her modeling/actress career before she dumps him and sells the story to In Touch magazine.

Blakely is nervous about getting eliminated and I must say she really has turned herself around.  She tells Ben she keeps a notebook and every day she writes one thing she really loves or respects about him.  I find myself almost rooting for that plucky little stripper "cocktail" waitress.

Rachel is at least 43.  For real.


Courtney brags about her "secret" with Ben and then proceeds to hint to all the girls and get them to start talking about skinny dipping.  Poor Jennifer goes on and on about skinny dipping, not knowing what happened.  Poor, sweet, innocent, dumb, fake red headed Jennifer.

Oh here comes the resident Debbie Downer aka Emily.  She apologizes to Ben for talking crap about Courtney.  She wants him to know that from now on she's only thinking about him and not Courtney and she feels awful she even brought it up.  AND THEN she starts talking about how Courtney is such a weirdo and how she would hate to see him end up with her and so on and so forth.  This girl has a PHD?!  In what?  Committing Bachelor suicide!?  The only worse thing she could have done would be to tell Ben she's a virgin.

FINAL ROSE CEREMONY

All the girls look terrible

Lyndzie - She's really just floating by

Jamie - speaking of unknown....this is the girl I always forget exists

Rachel - she might be a grandma!

Courtney - she acts all surprised

Casey S. - an enigma


Blakely - one more week

Emily - WHAT!?

Shockwaves erupt at my house.  What just happened?  Jennifer gets eliminated??  Really Ben!?  Jamie is still here but Jennifer is gone?  That is madness.  Complete madness.

Kasey S. is a mute!  She was born without a tongue and she's still around?  Nothing makes sense.  And now Jennifer is asking the one question that bothers me more than any other question on this show "What did I do wrong?".  I hate that the girls on this show immediately blame themselves.  If Ben were in the real world, Jennifer wouldn't even give him a second look.  I am upset.  That was hurtful Ben.  You should be begging her to date you.

Next week: Panama City where Casey S. finally gets some screen time but apparently someone either had to die or she did something naughty to get it.

And just so you feel fully satisfied that Ben is indeed the worst...here is Ben making out with Jennifer moments before sending her home.
*I could have made that smaller but I want his sleaziness all up in your face.  You're welcome.