Wantable Accessories September 2015

Oh Wantable. You basically make my life.

I'm so smitten with this month's box it's kind of unreal. From the moment I opened the package I'm pretty sure my eyes turned into hearts. With a mix of delicate and chunky pieces, elegant and glam styling, everything inside is so incredibly me. I do make it a point to review all of the pieces I get each month, and over time I think my stylists have really honed in on my personal tastes. I haven't included any kind of special message to my stylist either, so this was entirely based on my profile and what I've liked before. So, without any further rambling, let's take a look at each piece up close.

September 2015 Favorites

Holy crow...how is it the end of September already?! I feel like I say this every time I'm writing up my monthly favorites post, but man, it seriously feels like August was yesterday. It's been a busy month for me both blog and life wise, which is probably why time just seems to evaporate. In addition to trying a whole bunch of new amazing products, I've also been working hard to get my YouTube channel off the ground. As much as I really enjoy writing and photographing posts to share with you guys, I think videos lend themselves really well to things like tutorials. It's so much easier to actually demonstrate how to contour or blend out an eyeshadow than to try to describe it in writing. If you haven't seen it yet, I posted a fall inspired makeup tutorial last week that you might want to check out as well as an unboxing video of a YSL VoxBox that I just received.

Anyway, on to the real reason you're here! There are so many good products to share this month it's hard to know where to begin. Trying to pick and choose what to show you out of what I've been using was no easy feat, although I think I managed all right. Let's dive on in, shall we?

September 2015 Birchbox

It's Birchbox's 5th Birthday, and there's serious cause to celebrate! This month Birchbox is all about saying thank you to its subscribers for being a part of their awesome journey. From creating a gorgeous box design inspired from the pinboards of three subscribers (psst...you're beautiful too, Birchbox!), to a 20% off discount code for all subscribers to use in the shop, to the return of Customer Appreciation Day, Birchbox really knows how to treat its customers well. As much as the samples I get each month are great on their own, it's really the whole Birchbox philosophy that makes me glad I'm a subscriber (which I raved about here, in case you'd like to learn a little more). Speaking of samples, I'm absolutely in love with my box this month, both inside and out, and can't wait to share it with you!

Fall Inspired Makeup Tutorial

Despite the fact that everything pumpkin has already exploded everywhere, it is finally, offically, TRULY fall! As much as I may poke fun at Pumpkin Spice Lattes (Dunkin' Pumpkin Swirl fo life!) I do thoroughly enjoy all of the warm, spicy, delicious flavors and scents of this time of year. 

Know what else I love?

Fall makeup.

Berry lips. Golden hues. What's not to love? Fall colors are so rich and beautiful that I totally felt inspired to create a makeup look to share with you guys. I may have gotten a little ahead of myself by going full-on thanksgiving mode with a gold and cranberry toned eye, and a deep wine colored lip, but...you know. Sometimes you gotta go big or go home. Since I think it's way easier to show you guys how everything works rather than just tell you about it, I even filmed a video (oh snap)! So come, grab your pumpkin chai, cozy up under that big o'l blanket, and see how you can recreate this super snazzy fall inspired makeup look.

New In: Drugstore Lippies

Guys...I've gone a little crazy with the lip products lately. Switching up your lip color is one of the easiest way to pump new life into your beauty routine, and what better place to snag a new shade than the budget-friendly aisles of the drugstore? There were a few products in particular I've heard fellow bloggers rave about that I really wanted to try for myself, so I rounded up my Extrabucks and my coupons and ended up with this little collection of lippies. I've had a few weeks to swatch, play, and test these bad boys out, and am finally ready to give you all a verdict!

Cozy As Can Be: The David's Tea Fall 2015 Collection

When I think about the seasons, I'm definitely a summer baby. I love the heat, the long, sunny days, taking trips to the beach, eating ice cream. However, I'll also be the first to admit that there's nothing quite like fall in New England. The changing leaves, the cool, crisp weather, pumpkin flavored everything. And as much as I hate being cold, it also means that I can snuggle up under a big blanket with a delicious cup of tea. Now, I drink tea pretty much year round, but the flavors of fall are quite possibly my favorite. From sweet and spicy, to rich and nutty, everything about them just screams cozy. Which perhaps was the inspiration behind the David's Tea Fall Collection ($25). This set contains 5 of their 8 Limited Edition fall teas and is wrapped up in a package so adorable it's almost impossible not to want to take it home.

Maple Holistics Lavender Hybrid Bath Soak and Vitamin C Serum Reviews*

It's amazing how much junk we're tempted to put into our bodies on a day to day basis. Processed foods, sugary drinks, artificial dyes and flavorings - they're everywhere you turn (and sometimes in incredibly sneaky places). Take your beauty products, for example. If you were to reach into your bathroom cabinet and grab out of bottle, how likely would it be that the ingredients list on the back would be full of fillers and chemicals that you can't pronounce? Now, I'm not one to judge, as I too have tried my fair share of non-natural beauty products. However I find myself getting the most excited about the ones that are full of essential oils, plant butters, and other vitamin and nutrient rich ingredients that I know I can feel good about using.

Which of course is why I enthusiastically accepted Maple Holistics offer to let me try out a few of their products. Using the finest natural ingredients possible, their products are formulated to provide a number of therapeutic benefits for your body from head to toe. As an avid bath lover, I had to give their Lavender Hybrid Salts a try, and their Vitamin C Serum sounded delightful. I've been using them both for a few weeks now and have totally fallen in love!

September 2015 Julep Maven Box

Happy Sunday, friends! It's a bit of a gray, cloudy day in my neck of the woods, which makes me want to cozy up at home and spend a bit of time pampering myself. One of my favorite lazy day activities is giving myself a manicure, and what better time than right after my Julep Maven box has arrived! Continuing with the trend of finding inspiration from cities around the world, September's theme is Kisses From London. I have a special place in my heart for UK beauty bloggers, who were some of the first that I ever started following and are sort of responsible for sucking me into this whole blogging scene. I'd never been one with wanderlust, but after spending so much time watching the videos of these lovely girls overseas I've found myself totally dying to walk the streets of London (and have myself a massive beauty haul while I'm there). This collection boosts beautiful, moody hues that totally capture the feel of what I've seen and heard about the city, and it was really hard to just pick a few shades for my box.

Mini Ulta Haul

Who loves sale shopping? Lauren loves sale shopping. Is it true? Mhmmm. I do I do I do-ooo.

I don't get over to Ulta all that often because it's a little out of the way for me in my day-to-day wanderings, but last weekend I found myself in the area and couldn't resist poking around. If you've never been to an Ulta, it's basically like a beauty wonderland (complete with its own salon and a Benefit Brow Bar). Drugstore makeup, prestige makeup, hair styling tools, bath, body, skincare...you name it, you'll find it. Aside from the awesome selection, Ulta also always has coupons, special offers, and sweet gifts with purchase available to give you the most bang for your buck.

As I was shopping around I noticed that there were a TON of amazing sets for purchase, and it took a whole lot of will power not to buy any. It was also the very start of the Ulta 21 Days of Beauty Sale, which means every day for three weeks a different product will be on crazy discount for you to purchase. I'm thinking I might just have to do a "What's Hot at Ulta" shopping guide kind of post just to share with you guys all the amazing stuff that's available right now.

In the meantime, let me show you what I DID actually buy. I'm quite proud of myself for keeping my haul down to these four little goodies, and for only spending $17! That means I basically got everything here at a 50% discount (woop woop!). Let's take a closer look.

Tarte Airblush Maracuja Blush & Glamazon Lipstick Reviews

Good morning everyone! Today is my Friday (hooray!) and I wanted to kick off the day with some happy makeup-related vibes. A few weeks ago I posted about the crazy, gigantic Sephora End of Summer Sale along with some of my recommendations of products to snag. While I pretty much wanted to buy everything, I decided to reel it in a little and only add this lovely pair of products from Tarte to my shopping cart. For those of you who may not be familiar with the awesomeness that is the Tarte brand, they create cruelty-free, ingredient-conscious beauty products that offer serious performance without lots of junk and fillers. From their Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blushes to the ever popular Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara, Tarte has a number of well loved products in the beauty community. Did these beauties follow suit? Come find out!

Sephora Favorites Brow Wardrobe Review

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you're slapping on a full face of makeup, DON'T neglect your eyebrows. Heck, even if you're going for a super low maintenance makeup look, giving your brows a little bit of attention makes a world of difference. A strong, clean brow really pulls together any look, and balances out all of your other features. Fortunately the beauty industry has really gotten behind the whole brow trend. There are TONS of amazing options to shape, define, and groom to your hearts content. The downside? It can also be totally overwhelming trying to figure out where to start.

Before you panic from product overload, there is an answer. The awesome folks at Sephora have rounded up some of the best of the best from the brow world in their newest favorites kit. The Sephora Favorites Brow Raising Brow Wardrobe has basically got everything you need to take your brows from blah to badass in a single box.

Get a Perfect Flush with the Milani Limited Edition Rose Powder Blush

Guys, I have a problem. I have a serious weakness for blush. This is probably not shocking news, what with my writing a blog called Little Blushing Birdie, but I digress. It's just so darn lovely, and there are so many beautiful shades and formulas out there that I just can't stop trying new ones. One of my most recent purchases was this gorgeous Milani Limited Edition Rose Powder Blush in the shade Blossomtime Rose. I've been eyeing the Rose Powder Blushes for some time now, but since they're a permanent part of the Milani collection I'd kept myself from pulling the trigger. And then of course I saw the display of three new Limited Edition shades while I was at CVS, and with the added pressure of sales and coupons I cracked. I mean, who could resist taking home such a beaut as this when it was essentially free? It'd almost be a crime not to!

BH Cosmetics Sculpt and Blend Brush Set Review

*Affiliate Links used

Highlighting, contouring, strobing...oh my!

In the past year or two it seems like the beauty industry has exploded with products geared towards sculpting and defining your face. It's not that the techniques are new. Makeup Artists everywhere have been contouring and highlighting for years. But as celebs share their secrets for why their cheekbones look so flippin' amazing, the demand for products that can help you achieve the look has seemingly gone through the roof.

Full-on highlighting and contouring a la Kim Kardashian is probably not necessary for the everyday. However, incorporating a toned down version of these techniques can really make an amazing difference in your overall makeup look. It's a lot easier than you might think, especially when you have the right tools in hand. Which, of course, brings us to the topic of today's post. When I stumbled upon the BH Cosmetics Sculpt and Blend - 10 Piece Brush Set I just knew I had to take it home with me. With ten brushes specifically designed for precision application of powders, creams, and blushes, it's the perfect way unleash your inner makeup artist. Not only are these brushes beautiful, but they're also an incredible value! Come find out why.

August 2015 Flashback

Who else is crazy excited that labor day weekend is finally here?! I don't know about you, but a three day weekend feels SO necessary after this past week. I've spent the first hour of my day so far snuggled up on the couch with my cup of coffee catching up on a bit of blogging work and it feels glorious. I love Saturday mornings on any given week, but knowing that I have three whole days of freedom ahead of me makes it even better.

So, to kick things off I thought I'd share this slightly overdue roundup of August blogging highlights. I hit a really productive streak mid month and was able to churn out so many posts that I had been wanting to write. It felt really good to be able to actually focus on blogging for a bit and made me wish I had that kind of time all of the time! So without more of my rambling, here's a look back at some of the happenings at Little Blushing Birdie from last month.

August 2015 Favorites

Hey friends! I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited to share last month's collection of favorites with you. I feel like I had SUCH a good month beauty-wise and really fell in love with a multitude of different things. Narrowing down the list to something that wouldn't make for an epic-ly long blog post was pretty challenging, but I think I've done all right. From makeup, to skincare, to some body bedazzlement, I think I've managed to cover all the major beauty bases. Come take a look!

August 2015 Ipsy Glambag

As per the usual, it's time to round up the last of this month's subscription reviews with my Ipsy Glambag. This month's theme was "prep school" which has me nostalgic for my college days and all the hustle and bustle of an impending new semester. I certainly don't miss the stress of exams and essays, but the opportunity to try and learn and explore is something I don't think I fully appreciated way back when. So before I go off on a wistful tangent, lets get back to beauty. I think Ipsy always does a pretty great job of finding products that fit with their theme, as these beauty staples would all be perfect for getting in that back-to-school mindset. Let's take a closer look!