PSA: new domain, same great(ish) blog!

Attention attention! I have officially discovered my holy grail blogging app/host: Weebly.com.

 I was browsing around looking at reviews, discovered a new blog and really liked the layout so I downloaded the hosts app and love it. My new domain is:

www.shannonsswatches.weebly.com

I will be posting there MUCH more often because it's a thousand (approximately) times easier to edit/format/publish from my phone through them. Thank you all for your cooperation and I hope you'll continue to read my blog on Weebly!:)

Rimmel London Lip Crayon Balm Review going up today! Click here to Check it out!

Review: Maybelline ColorSensational lipstick in Born With It

Hello again everyone!

I was reading blogs all over today and it really gave me the kick in the butt I really needed to start posting regularly again, even if it's just an Eye Of The Day (EOTD). I like to tell myself I don't write more often because of being busy, but let's be real.. I find myself sitting on my ass more than one might think a new parent would (perks of having a very happy baby!). So that's that, now on to the good stuff!

So about a month ago (almost exactly, actually) my mom was in town and that's when I picked up everything fautured in my Walmart Haul one of those items was Maybelline's ColorSensational lipstick in "Born with it". This color is absolutely gorgeous, it's the perfect pinkish-nude on me. It reads "my lips but better" (MLBB) without a even a hint of "my lips are covered in concealer" and honestly, what more could a girl want in a nude lipstick?! 

However, this lipstick is not without a fault or two, which we'll talk more about in a few moments. Alright on to the review!

   Packaging is nice and solid-feeling.

    Giving some perspective size-wise.

   If you look veryyy closely at the part of the lipstick where I used it and broke the "seal" you can see the hidden sparkle.

    Swatch on the left is two swipes and the right swatch is one swipe.

Color and texture: This lipstick, like I said, is a perfect pinky-nude. It is by no means more-pink-than-nude but juuust pink enough where it doesn't look concealer-y or unnatural. The texture I find to feel semi-moisturizing and not drying at all (unless you already have chapped lips in which case, you should be wearing lip balm, not lipstick!), and very creamy! It does settle into my lips fine lines ever-so-slightly but is only noticable if I look at my lips about three inches away from the mirror. Basically unless you live with someone who has a lip fettish or finds themselves staring at lips very close up as a pastime then you should be good to go! 8/10

Pigmentation: This lipstick is well pigmented, its medium opacity which is how I prefer my lip-products because I feel like if it's too heavily pigmented it can bring out flaws and accentuate dryness. With one swipe I get the perfect pigmentation for the "MLBB" look and if I want it to kind of "override" my natural lip color I'll go two swipes because even then it's very flattering. 9/10

Fragrance or Flavor: I don't detect any fragrance or flavor to this particular lipstick, maybe a very light vanilla scent but just barely-there. 10/10

Downfall(s): The singular and pretty big downfall to this lipstick is that once the color fades away from the lips (after about 4 hours) it leaves behind this verrrrry fine silver glitter. God Forbid if you touch that sparkle, it gets everywhere and is hard to get off of hands, face, boyfriends face, etc. I mean I like that it's not gritty at all and the glitter doesn't show up initially but I just sooooo wish Maybelline had left out the shimmer all together. The name of the color is Born With It, who on Earth is born with glitter all over their mouth?! Major downfall for me but it won't stop me from wearing it although it might stop me from repurchasing. It's a real shame.:(

My favorite way to wear this product is with a very thin layer of a thicker lip balm on my lips (Carmex in my case), let it sink in a minute or two, and then the lipstick.

Overall verdict: I really enjoy the color, texture, and wear of this lipstick but that glitter hassle might be a deal breaker for me. Hopefully Maybelline has something similar sans glitter or will reformulate in the future because other than that it's HolyGrail worthy. 6/10

Walmart Haul & Micro-Reviews

Hello ladies! Today I bring you my very first haul, ever!

I went to Walmart with my mom the other day while she was in town, and I may or may not have spent more than expected on makeup.. But it was well worth it as I love every single thing I purchased! Here is a photo of everything I ended up bringing home.

1: I finally picked up the ever-infamous Rimmel Stay Matte pressed powder in Translucent to use for setting powder over my foundation to help keep oils and shininess at bay.

2: I was previously using the Rimmel 9-in-one BB Cream (and I will have a specific review coming for that soon but basically I despised it) and I wanted to find something I liked better, so going off of many blog reviews I bought the Covergirl TruMatch liquid foundation in L3. It has a pummmmp!

3: After seeing it in Marie Claire on Rita Ora I was suuuper excited to purchase the Rimmel Color Rush Balm in Viva Violet, which is significantly less purple than one would expect from a lip color with violet in it's name; however, it is wonderful!

4: I have some really pathetic unfortunate eyelashes, short, thin, and straight as a pin (haha, rhyming) and I had heard some splendid things about Hard Candy's Lashaholic Mascara in Blackest Black lengthening and volumizing abilities so I decided to give it a go!

5: I was planning on picking up Blissful Berry from the Maybelline Color Sensational lipstick line but that being one of their top fall lippies, it was sold out. However, I did end up finding a beautiful pink-nude color that is an exact "my lips but better" (MLBB) shade called Born With It. I love the color, there appears to be shimmer in the color in the tube but isn't apparent when applied but to my dispare once it fades from the lip a pretty good amount of glitter (not chunky though) is left behind which I'm not a fan of. 

6: I've been using a Milani spoolie/brow pencil combo for quite a while and I've never really liked it that much, it just got the job done. Hard Candy just released their brand-new brow product that's supposed to be a dupe of Benefit's Gimme Brow, it's called Brows Now! I must say, there's a tad of a learning curve to it, especially if you're like me and have never used tinted brow gel before (this stuff is "fiberized" too, which is great!) but once you get the hang of it it's easy-peasy. I promise!

7: Whenever they released back in January or Fedruary I really wanted to pick some up and I finally got my paws on the Maybelline Mater Hi-lite in Coral. Its a smidge shimmerier than I expected but it's really really gorgeous and has great staying power and pigmentation to give a really natural glow. I used to yesterday for a "5 minute face" on my eyelids just to brighten my face up since with a newborn tiredness is common in this household and it was beautiful!

8: I am so excited about this one ladies! I've been wanting to try a makeup setting spray for ages, but this girl is not going to pay $20 for MAC Fix+ and hunting down Vegtable Glycerine is just as hard as finding a drugstore setting spray so DIY-ing was out of the question. Just as we were walking out my mom spotted the Elf  products and I saw this beauty! I still have to get the hang of it and test some more before I can review but for $3 why not!?

9: As a brown-eyed girl I know greens and purples flatter me, especially because I DO have some green in my eyes. I was going to get an all-matte neutral palette called Birthday Suit but then thought I already have the Lorac Pro palette so I decided to snatch up the Hard Candy Top Ten eyeshadow palette in Green With Envy. Before purchase I of course googled swatches and I must say, they lived up to my high (for drugstore eyeshaow) expectations! They also have some pretty unique colors in here that I love.

10: Being constantly tired isn't a cute look on anyone, insert the Hard Candy Sheer Envy Illuminating face primer! They have a lot of different options there, like color-correcting, mattifying, etc. etc. I think there were like 6 to choose from. This one has a very slight purple tinge to it and some subtle shimmer which makes for a brighter appearance when used under or blended in with your foundation.

11: this is a looonng time favorite concealer of mine, you have to be careful because it can definitely get cakey but it is a seriously heavy-duty concealer. It's the only concealer that makes my under-eye bags look diminished, with the teensiest dot and my Beauty Blender dupe (and a light hand with the setting powder!) it looks very nice and conceals wonderfully. You don't have to use quite as much caution when using it on zits, which it totally disguises!

I hope you all are having a great October so far, we certainly are having finally settled into our new home in Arizona and enjoying our baby girl bundles.:) 

~best wishes~

New Mommy Life Update!:)

Hello again!

I sincerely apologize for my absence ever since August 19th, but as a lot of you have probably figured out by now, I was induced on the 21st and had our little girl on the 22nd. Safe to say my life has been very busy with doctors appointments, recovery, and adjusting to parenthood! It's been a much easier transition than I was expecting and for that I am so grateful. Recovery has also been generally pretty easy and I'm endlessly thankful for that as well. Our little girls' name is Mckenzie Cathryn Shea (she has two middle names, I will not be sharing her last name here), she weighed 8lbs 9oz and was 20 & 3/4 inches long. Which is much smaller than everyone was expecting, especially because the ultrasound we had the day before induction said she was going to be 9lbs 11oz (and she could be as much as 22oz bigger than that!) so I was very pleased.

I will post my birth story if anyone would be interested in reading it, it's quite long but pretty interesting so comment below if you would want me to post that!

We are thrilled to report that Mckenzie is doing wonderfully at home, she's gained 1lb 1oz since birth and we will find out how much longer she's gotten at her 1 month appointment in about two weeks. She will be 3 weeks old tomorrow and I'm so happy to see her growing and her little personality blossoming, but also kind of sad because I know she's still really little but I don't want her to grow up too fast!:( I'm feeling great emotionally, which is a huge relief, I was very worried about being effected by post partum depression. Snuggles with the baby and hubby always help when I start to feel all over-emotional and teary-for-no-reason.:)

Here are a few pictures (I tried to restrain myself!!) of Mckenzie from the past 3 weeks;

Right after birth, I was on lots of pain meds and was obviously crying

Her going home outfit!

Five days old and was smiling already!

The weekly pregnancy photos have transitioned into weekly baby pictures!

She is SO happy almost all the time, she wakes up smiling constantly and always wants to just hangout, look around, and smile at everything/one she comes across!

She has big feet too!

She's so sassy, one of my favorites!:)

I hope you all enjoyed my life update, and again I apologize for the longer-than-anticipated absence, thank you all for being patient with me!:)

EOTD & pregnancy update!

Good day, lovelies!

Today I went to the doctor for my 39 week appointment, and after not going for a whopping week and a half it felt like such a hassle with my intense laziness in full-swing. My doctor went ahead and did a membrane sweep without warning me and can I just say, ouch. I was sitting there getting checked as usual and all of sudden it was very not-usual. Afterward I found out my cervix is soft (albeit thick, boooo) and I'm 1cm dilated. She is still measuring quite large and so I got rescheduled for my ultrasound tomorrow at 1 which is a huge pain in the you-know-what because a nurse scheduled it incorrectly the first time. Besides that relatively small inconvenience we also went ahead and scheduled me to be induced on Thursday evening! We are so so so excited, I'm a bit nervous because they plan to use Cytotec on me, which using for an induction is off-label use and quite controversial but after some research it shouldn't be any more dangerous for baby or I compared to Cervadyl. We can't wait and you can bet I'll be posting 18,000,000 (roughly) pictures of the baby once she's here and I have time to make a post! 

Moving on though, today I broke out my UD Naked (original) Palette, that I really don't use as much as I should. I forgot how much I enjoy it! In the end I ended up with a darkened (but not too smokey or muddled) eye look. Check it out:

Products used:

Face- Covergrl 3-in-1 foundation, Benefit High Beam, Benefit Posie Tint, Maybelline Instant Age Rewind dark circle eraser (in Neutralizer)

Eyes/brows- Wet N' Wild Ultimate Brow Kit (in 963, Ash brown), Elf Eyeliner primer, Lorac PRO Paltte (in shades Nauve, Taupe, Sable, Espresso, and Cream), Urban Decay Original Naked Palette (in shades Dark Horse, Side Car, and Virgin), L'oreal Infallible The Super Slim liquid eyeliner, and Kat Von D Sin-full Lash Mascara

Thank you all so much for stopping by & reading, I will keep my twitter (@sassysuburbia) updated as much as I can. Have a wonderful day!!:)

37 week pregnancy update!

Happy 37 weeks of pregnancy to me! 

Throughout the pregnancy I have had my worst discomfort from weeks 32-35 the past two weeks really haven't been too bad. Although, that in no way lessens how much I want this baby girl to be born already!

I've gained just about 30 lbs so far and really hoping that at this coming doctors appointment (tomorrow) that I've only gained 1lb or less this past week. It's hard to accept the fact that I'm supposed to gain this amount of weight, having had previous body/self-image/weight/eating issues. I know that weight gain is sanonamous with pregnancy, but it's just so odd seeing the number on the scale and knowing I shouldn't be panicked by it. If you know what I mean?

Anyways, I've been doing a lot better with not panicking over the number on the scale. I feel pretty good, I know I could go into labor any moment now which is exciting (in a nauseating kind of way), nerve wracking, and kind of puts my mind at ease knowing she'll be here soon.:)

My worst symptoms thus far are:

Feet being quite swollen, random nausea that hits without warning and is very intense, heartburn, overall soreness, recently I've been having random sharp cramps, and being exhausted all the time!

I've been feeling her shifting around a lot, and now that space is so right in my belly it kind of feels gross. My mother-in-law would describe it as "feeling like a belly full of snakes" which is spot. on. However, it's still so nice and comforting feeling her moving knowing she's doing well in there, especially since we haven't seen her since I've been 22 weeks! 

Send labor dust my way, we are so excited.:) thanks for reading stay tuned for more updates!

Tutorial: Golden UD Smokey Eye

Hello lovelies! After weeks of searching and really kind of being convinced that I was never going to see it again, I found my Urban Decay Vice Palette (original)! I'm thrilled, it's going to be so nice having all these fun colors to play with and produce some more interesting posts for you guys. Because let's be real, I love my Naked, Lorac PRO, and all of those other palettes to pieces but there's only so many looks I can do with neutral colors. So today I'm diving into a step-by-step of a look that's certainly out of my comfort zone, gold!

If you're interested to know how I got this look, keep reading!

Step one: I primed my eyelids all the way from lash line to brow bone.

Step two: I opened up my Urban Decay The Vice palette and dipped a dome-shaped blending brush (mine was quite large, and synthetic) into the color Laced, (which is a dusty-nude pink) and blended it across my entire crease. This is just being used as my transition color and I didn't even really deposit enough color to bother taking a picture of it, just enough to make blending easier and more seamless.

Step three: I then dipped that same brush into the color Muse (a beautiful cocoa-brown with golden shimmer, it leans slightly cool) and dabbed it into my outter "V" and gently blended it into my crease making sure to steer clear of the inner 1/3 and concentrating the most color in the outter 1/3.

Note; I used tape to get a clean line to get the cat-eye effect that I desired but it's completely optional.

Step three: I then took the color Sable from my Lorac PRO palette one a flat-fluffy brush and used that to buff out the crease a little more and just add a bit of warmth and depth to my outter corner.

Step four: then I took my flat, dense, shader brush that came with my UD Naked palette in the color Blitz from The Vice palette (a yellow/gold color that's very matallic, not chunky glitter) and ever-so-gingerly patted that onto the naked part of my lid. I did this a couple times to get the desired effect and make sure it was deposited in the right spots.

Step five: after making sure I had that color right where I wanted it, I went back in with my fluffy flat brush (not wiped off so there's still a hint of left over Sable on it) and verrry gently blended just the edges of Blitz so it doesn't look so blunt, going for a more soft and "air brushed" effect. I also went ahead and added my tear duct/inner-most lid highlight which is the color Nude from the Lorac PRO palette and my browbone highlight which is Anonomous from The Vice palette.

Finally I slapped on some mascara, eyeliner, concealer, and blush. Here is the completed look;

I hope you all enjoyed this look and are just as excited as I am to do many, many more looks and tutorials using outside-the-box colors. Thanks for reading!:)