how i blow dry my curly hair

his one's for all you gals out there with hair similar to mine!  Today's video is all about how I blow dry my curly hair!  I almost always blow dry my hair,

mostly

because I'm too impatient for it to air dry.  If you couldn't tell, I embrace the poof and I love volume.  The bigger the hair, the closer to God, right?  

I've been trying out Living Proof's curl line lately and have been enjoying their products, so I'm sharing my thoughts on some of those, as well as a few products from Original Moxie and Miss Jessie's as well.  I chat for a bit about those products, and than at 6:30 you can watch as I blow dry my hair and see my process (thrilling, I'm sure, but for the sake of thoroughness).

I'm still getting used to this whole video thing, but it's been fun to make "moving pictures" and I'm enjoying the learning curve.  I'm counting on getting less awkward as I get used to it, that's how it works right?  Practice makes perfect, eh?

Anyway, I digress.  Do you curly ladies out there have any favorite products?  Do you use any of the products I mentioned?  Like them/dislike them/meh?  It's a never ending hunt for the perfect product, amirite gals?  #curlyhairproblems

the brave show ep.1 / meet the new brave!

ne thing that I've heard over and over again in regards to starting something new is to start before you're ready.  As a perfectionist, that's hard because I could spend forever tweaking details and fixing things to get it just right, but what that means is that I never end up actually launching the new thing, it just sits in draft status hiding away, imperfect and unfinished.  So, today I'm starting before I'm ready.  Done is better than perfect, right?  It's not perfect but here it is!  I filmed the first episode of The Brave Show!

Oh, right, and other big news: I bought a new (old) Brave!  Ahh!  Yes I am a crazy person.  I'll tell you more about the new gal in the show and give you a tour as well!

It's so bizarre to think about how it's almost 5 years exactly since I found my first Brave.  There's some sort of kismet in my life with Braves and I feel like it's a sign that when I'm doing things with the Brave, I'm on the right track.  Things just come together in a really perfect way that kind of freaks me out sometimes.  My friend Kristi calls me an automotive empath, which she claims is a real thing, so I'm just going to go with it.  What I do know?  I feel most alive when I'm behind the wheel of a Brave, chasing adventure and listening to the knowledge the road gives.

It ain't perfect, but it's done!  Here goes nothing!

and now for something a little different...

or some reason I thought it'd be fun to make a little video of some totally useless facts about me! I talk a lot about pets, make a lot of weird faces and voices, and David Bowie is involved. I think it'd be fun to do more of these, but you guys should probably help me come up with things to talk about so I don't keep talking about pets. Ask a question or suggest a topic for me to ramble on about in the comments and I'll make another video! I can't promise I won't make more weird faces though, I think that just comes with the territory.  What do people even talk about in Vlogs?  How do you even say "Vlog"?  These are important questions, people.

head scarf updo tutorial

After posting the outfit where I was wearing my hair up with a scarf, I got a lot of requests for a tutorial, so I made a quick video to share how to do it!  It's really easy and very quick, so it's a perfect hairstyle if your hair is yucky, but you don't have time to wash, dry, and style it.  I also wear my hair like this to air dry it, so if you have big curly hair, you can also wear your hair like this while it dries!

my everyday makeup routine

Lately I've been getting quite a few requests for a post on my makeup routine.  Truth be told, it's pretty simple.  I've never been much of a makeup maven, and while I love getting fancified for some occasions, my daily look is quick and basic.  None of this takes longer than a few minutes, and I like my makeup to be as light as possible so it doesn't feel like I'm wearing makeup.


I use 1-5 products, depending on how lazy I'm feeling.  Sometimes I just throw on some eyeliner and go, sometimes I do eyeliner and blush, and sometimes I use everything.  It really just depends on how I'm feeling that day.


Lately I've been using this tinted moisturizer as a base.  Modcloth asked me if I'd be interested in trying anything from this line of makeup that they're carrying right now, and a tinted moisturizer piqued my interest, since my skin gets dryer (and whiter) in the winter.  So far I'm really liking it.  I've never liked liquid foundations (or foundation of any kind really). It feels heavy and oily and I always feel like I have makeup caked on, even if it doesn't look that way.  This moisturizer is nice because it doesn't feel heavy at all, it's just a nice base to give my skin some moisture and a little glow.


I've been using the same blush for a while.  I just scrub it lightly on to my cheek bones, and blend it out a bit with my powder brush.  Sometimes I go over everything lightly with a bit of powder, sometimes not, but I do like how it kind of evens everything out and blends.  Like I said, I hate feeling like I have makeup on, so the lighter the better.  Less layers of stuff is better, in my mind.



The thing I do everyday is eyeliner.  Always winged.  I started doing this years ago and now it's just my standard eye makeup.  I do variations for fancier events by adding eyeshadow (like the makeup I did for our wedding), but for just every day, I don't use any eyeshadow, just the liner.  It's pretty standard cat-eye winged eyeliner, but I thought I'd do a little video tutorial since it can be hard to explain using just pictures and text.  So if you want to watch me ramble on and put on eyeliner for five minutes, here's your chance!

Recently I discovered lipliner and it's one of my new favorite cosmetics.  I never wore it before because I really only thought it was to draw a line around your lips so your lipstick didn't bleed.  Then I read somewhere that you should fill in your lips with lipliner before applying lipstick, so the lipstick has something to stick to and make it last longer.  So I started doing that and I realized that I actually liked the look of just the lipliner without adding any lipstick on top.  I usually line my top and bottom lip and then sort of lightly fill in the rest of my lips, creating a bit of a gradient with the darkest liner around the edge of the lip, and then getting lighter as I get to the middle, where my top and bottom lips meet.  I like it because a) it looks natural, but fills in the uneven colors in my lips and defines them more, and b) I can still kiss Dan without him being afraid of getting lipstick transfer.  I still like using lipstick, but I use lipliner more for everyday.

Products I Use:

Motives Pressed Powder in Neutral Rose // Motives Blush in So Peachy

Motives Luxe Precision Eyeliner in Black // Palladio Lipliner in Spice

theBalm Balm Shelter Tinted Moisturizer in Light c/o Modcloth

Thats it!  Let me know if you have any questions and if I missed anything you want more info I'll update this post.  I've linked all the products I use above, so you should be able to find it all online!