I was so excited when I opened my mailbox and saw a Voxbox waiting for me. I was even more excited when I opened the box and saw four….FOUR…full size Estee products! I love Estee!!!
First Impressions: I loved the packaging!!! So clean and professional looking. I loved the white and blue.
The Products
Beam Team Hydrate + Glow
What it is:This is a double-double decker with an illuminating hydrating lotion in the tube and a touch-on shimmer concentrate in the flip cap.
Thoughts: I liked the feel of this lotion. It went on smoothly without feeling greasy and gave my skin an all over glow. It looked nice under my makeup and didn’t irritate my skin. The flip cap shimmer is really pretty and I used it as a highlighter of sorts and really liked it. I wish it was a little easier to apply. I ended up using a brush to apply because trying to rub the cap on my face wasn’t happening. Two in ones are perfect for traveling or touching up on the go!
The Barest Lip Color in 06 Nude Scene
What it is:A lipstick/balm hybrid with muru muru butter and real flower petal waxes.
Thoughts: I loved the color of this!!! It is a dark nude and will be perfect for the fall and winter for me. I love that you can swipe on a quick layer for a sheer coverage or you can really layer it to get it whatever color you want. The formula was smooth and creamy without being sticky or drying. An all around win in a lipstick for me!
Pore Vanishing Stick
What it is: Glide-on stick to blue the look of pores and minimize shine and oil.
Thoughts: I used this around my nose and cheeks and went on nice and smooth. While I don’t feel like it got rid of all my pores, it certainly made my skin look better. Also, my makeup applied very nicely over it. You can wear this under or over makeup.
Flash Illuminator in 04 Day Light
What it is:A high-impact highlight cream that instantly illuminates skin while proving skin care ingredients like hyaluronic acid.
Thoughts: Unfortunately, this color is way way way too dark for me!!! This comes in five different shades and I wished they would have sent me the lightest one so I could have tested it out appropriately. What I can tell you just from sampling it on my hand is that the color is gorgeous and it gives you a nice glow without looking too done. This would be perfect as a highlight, blush or for strobing.
Overall I loved this line from Estee and I will certainly be checking out more of the products! Have you heard of these or tried them?
I received these Estee Edit products compliments of Influenster in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are of my own.
We are just cruising right through July, aren’t we? I am not even sure where my weekend went or how it can possible be Monday morning already. I want a recount!
For Friday Lunch Club we hit up Real and Rosemary in Homewood. I can always could on having healthier options there. Well, minus the fried green tomatoes we split as an appetizer. Hehe!
I tried out their Strawberry Mint “Spa Water” and am determined to make some of this on my own at home. So refreshing!!! I had the roasted turkey plate with seasonal succotash and corn polenta as my main dish. Everything was fabulous, as was the company of my Friday Lunch Club!!
Saturday I started on a new book (The Restaurant Critic’s Wife) and cleaned the house. Chris and I headed over to Babies R Us to start our registry!!! We had so much fun picking out things that we are going to need to Baby M! You guys, there are sooooo many choices in every item category. It gets a little overwhelming! I had gone in having researched the shit out of car seats, strollers, bottles, and a few other things…but I clearly have more research to do after walking around that store for a few hours. It’s so exciting though!
Also, Laura bought Baby M her first dress! How adorable is this???
After all that registering, Chris and I headed to The Tavern for a late lunch. It was delicious!
Sunday my sister and I headed over to Kohls to pick out some baby clothes! My mom had gotten me a gift card to go crazy once we found out the gender. And crazy we went! We picked out so many cute things. Plus, Kohls had 15% off your purchase and they were giving $10 Kohls cash. They know how to get me back for more.
Tracy took me out to lunch at Jim n Nicks to celebrate, and then we headed to Target to start the registry there. Unfortunately, after 45 minutes of going back and forth with customer service we gave up. Their system was having issues and we weren’t able to sign in to scan things. Ugh! So I took pictures of some stuff I don’t want to forget to add online.
Have you guys tried to Iced Coconut Milk Mocha Macchiatto at Starbucks??? I grabbed a small one this weekend and it was amazing!!!
There was also a lot of snuggling this little guy while watching Breaking Bad.
And just like that, the weekend was over! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!!! You can find me fixing our registry today. Somehow a bunch of diapers and stuff we didn’t register for ended up on it. Maybe they default when you start a new one? I don’t know but it was ridiculous and it must be fixed! Any baby favorites out there I just have to have??
Favorite Song: I heard this song the other day and I was like OMG I LOVE THIS SONNNNGGGGG. Good by Better than Ezra. Good indeed.
Favorite Moments:
–My favorite moment ever is finding out that our little Jelly Bean is A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!And now I can stop referring to my baby as “the baby” or “it” and start calling her by her name. Which I don’t plan to share until after she arrives.
–Getting this text from my sister, who was just a little excited to find out she is going to have a niece.
–All of your super sweet comments to my announcement! I can’t believe I managed to go 19 weeks blogging without sharing the biggest thing going on in my life.
Favorite Recipe: A coworker ate a cookie in front of me at lunch this week and that was all I can think about. Totally whipped out my peanut butter cookie recipe and baked cookies at 6:00am one morning before work because cravings!!!!
Favorite Nordstrom Anniversary Sale Lusts: Luckily I am not tempted to buy any clothes for me seeing as how I don’t know when I will be fitting into my old ones soooooo that’s good. Unfortunately, Nordstrom has everything else I like too! Here are a few things I have my eyes on.
I have been lusting after the Kate Spade stud earrings for about two years now and have never pulled the trigger. I finally pulled the trigger on the rose gold pair. I really want the navy and black ones too but one pair at a time, right?
The sigma power pair make up brush cleansing mat and brush is a great deal!!!
Favorite Links:
–Have you read Lindsay’s post on banishing the “f” word? And it’s not my favorite “f’ word. That girl just gets me.
I was excited about Dani and Erin’s Read My Books link up for the month of June because I have a serious hoarding issue when it comes to books! I keep requesting more books on Netgalley, downloading free ebooks when I see them on Bookbub, and picking up actual copy of books from thrift stores if I see a good deal on one I wanted. I don’t have near as many physical books as I do ebooks, so I mainly focused on my Netgalley list. You know, because archives and stuff. Oops!
I have been keeping a little secret for awhile now.
I’m pregnant!
*Blog land gasps”
Yup, it is true!!! Since the day the first test read positive (who am I kidding- the first three tests) I have been trying to think of a fun or clever way to announce our big news. But when it came down to it, I couldn’t think of a better way than a confessions post. So here are the answers to the questions you may be asking:
How Far Along: I will be 20 weeks on Friday. For those who can’t math, Baby Mathews will be debuting around December 2, 2016.
Holy shit I am going to have a baby before the year ends!!!
Were we trying: Yes, we were trying. By trying I mean we got it on the first try. I wasn’t expecting that and couldn’t be happier.
Gender: Sure life has few surprises and blah blah blah. But you know what? I don’t like surprises! And I don’t want a bunch of gender neutral shit. We actually had our anatomy scan yesterday and we know whether or not we will be bringing home a son or daughter!!! Butttttt I want you to guess before I give it up. It’s just more fun that way.
Symptoms: I am feeling alright. There were a few weeks there in the first trimester where I came home and felt like death every night, but I never physically got sick. Though there were days I wanted to. Oh, how I wanted to. I have really bad hip pain most days but such is life.
Sleep: I never knew what true exhaustion felt like until I started growing a human. The struggle is real. I slept fine until about week 10. That is when my hip pain started and let me tell you, it isn’t much fun. I got a Snoogle Pillow and while it does ease my hip pain, I still have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep. I wake up at least 5 or more times a night just to change positions. I can only imagine it getting worse as the bump grows. Oh, and the bathroom visits increase!
Workouts: Yup, still waking up at 4:30am Monday-Friday to get my workouts in. I have quit running and am walking on the treadmill. I do some pregnancy barre work outs, still do strength training with weights, but have moved down to 3 and 5 pound weights for the most part. I have also been doing random pregnancy workouts from Youtube, and staying away from jumping around like Jillian Michael type stuff. Trust me, I don’t miss her. Or running.
Cravings/Aversions: Starting around week 7 or 8, I started to not want meat. The only meat I could stand was in the form of a hamburger or tacos. Also, salads were not my friend there for awhile either. I have been craving a ton of fruit and carbs. So many carbs! Then there was that day I had to have mac n cheese, and the day I had to have ramen noodles, and the time Chris and his friend were heading to Walmart and I told them they had to get me hot tamales. Oh, and the visit to Taco Bell for a beef chalupa supreme. But that one was a huge let down. Never again. It just wasn’t good. Sorry, Taco Bell. My most recent obsession? Chocolate Cheerios with milk. I have had like six bowls in the last four days.
Missing: I am not going to lie, I miss sushi and my soft cheeses like blue and feta. I can live without alcohol, it doesn’t really bother me at all. Except for when Laura sent me a picture of a Strawberry Shortcake beer from Cigar City and I really wished I could have had just a sip to see if I liked it. And that occasional glass of wine after a long day.
To be honest, I am surprised no one has said anything about my lack of beer pictures in my weekend shenanigan posts. You guys aren’t very observant! Not to mention all of the natural products and shit that I have been obsessed with. Not sharing a whole lot of clothing options on my favorites post because well I can’t really buy fun clothes anymore! And have you noticed you have not seen a single picture of me in months?? Come on guys!
It has been so hard not to share in my favorite moments of the week that I had a positive pregnancy test, or getting to hear my sister squeal when I told her the news, or that we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. Hearing that heartbeat? Probably the coolest moment of my life so far. No joke!
And of course yesterday was my most favorite doctor appointment yet. Chris and I sat staring at the monitor as they were taking all the baby’s measurements waiting to get to the goods. We were so excited to just know already!!!
Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn in to a mommy blog. There is nothing wrong with mommy blogs but that hasn’t been my style here. And let’s be honest…
I have toyed around with starting a separate blog to document my pregnancy journey because I know that those who don’t have kids and care nothing about them probably don’t want to read my bump dates and other baby related things. So I took the leap this past weekend and started Mommy Babbles! If you want to follow along with my pregnancy journey, you can follow me there as well. I will keep blogging a regular schedule on Life by Nadine Lynn and the Mommy Babbles blog will be sporadic as I feel like it for now.
On Mommy Babbles I wrote a post on telling our family, first thoughts of being pregnant, gender wives tales and a bump post where you can see a few pictures of my bump on various weeks. Let’s just say if you saw me, it would be no secret that I am pregnant! My torso is super short and this baby is allllll kinds of out right now!
