Maybelline - The Nudes Palette

With the success of Urban Decay's Naked series, it seems like everyone wants a piece of the neutral palette action. The hype is understandable. While bright, bold colors are fun and can add some serious punch to a look, neutrals have a certain versatility that makes them the bread and butter of the eyeshadow world. While there are many an offering among prestige brands if you're looking for a do-all palette, affordable options have been lacking.

Until now.

Birdie Bites - The Perfect Margarita

If I could only drink one cocktail for the rest of forever, it would be you, Margarita.

Playing Catch-up

You know that feeling you get when you realize you've neglected to respond to a text, and it's been just long enough that saying something now feels incredibly awkward?

This is what I feel like when I come back from a blogging hiatus.

As my co-worker Gigi has reprimanded me (lovingly, of course), "Lauren, you're slacking!"

It's true. I've been pretty absent for a while now.

There are a good 6 or 7 posts-in-progress crying for my attention. And I've got what feels like a billion other things to write about. But I've been pretty distracted with the happenings of life outside the blogosphere. Between the gentle (or sometimes not so gentle) words of encouragement of my friends and readers, as well as some excellent news that's come my way, I've decided I was way overdue to say hello.

First Look - Japonesque Color

So, I should start off with a little disclaimer...

I've been going a little crazy with the beauty shopping in the past month or so.

Between amazing sales at ULTA and some ridiculous couponing sessions at CVS I've been able to score some awesome products at prices that are pretty much impossible to pass up. That being said, I have SO much to share with all of you. Rather than try to incorporate everything into giant haul posts, I'm going to break things down into smaller snippets by brand or product type so I can give you a more in-depth look at how everything performs.

To kick things off, I wanted to introduce you to these lovely Japonesque Color goodies that I was able to snag from ULTA at 50% off during their 21 days of beauty sale a few weeks back. I realized that I hadn't heard much about Japonesque Color products before, but they looked awfully pretty, and I thought it might be fun to go out on a limb and give them a try.

Birchbox April 2014

A new month is underway, and it's about time that I get around to reviewing my April Birchbox. This month was a bit hit or miss for me. While I did enjoy pretty much everything in my box, there was nothing that floored me either. Let me give you the scoop.