Melting your lipsticks & making your own lip balms

Do you fear that you're turning into a lipstick hoarder? Do you have tons of little lipstick tubes hanging out in your drawers, purses, car and bathroom? Then maybe you will want to consider this interesting idea I have for you: make them into lip-palettes. It's a very simple process that anybody who owns a microwave can do. I imagine that at this point you're basically picturing a Salvador Dali-esque lipstick melting slowly all over the place. I assure you, this is not the case, I have a way you can do this in a very controlled and neat manner. I promise it's all worth it.

There are very logical reasons why you might want to do this: to de-clutter, to see all of your colors at once and make choices more easily, and to get the small remaining amount of lipstick out of the tubes you have mostly used up. The melting method lets you get the most bang for your buck, so you don't go out purchasing another lipstick when you have a decent amount stuck inside your lipstick container that you just can't get at. If you have colors that you absolutely loathe, this is a good time to get creative, you can mix them together and get new and exciting colors! Let's begin.


What you'll need:
- tiny spatula or cuticle pusher
- microwave or a candle (I recommend using tongs if you're considering the latter)
- container to put your melted lipstick in
- lipstick
- rubbing alcohol

First, you will want to take your container of lipstick and use a tiny cuticle pusher/spatula to scrape out the lipstick, you don't have to worry about making a mess or crushing it (I promise we'll reconstitute your lipstick in a manner that is beautiful). Place the lipstick chunks in your new lipstick container. You can choose an empty pillbox, palette, plastic container, glass container, used-up lipbalm case, or stacked dollar-store containers or bead organizers (my personal favorite). Whatever container you choose, make sure to put your lipstick in and dilute it a little bit with a few drops of rubbing alcohol so you can mix it together for an even consistency. Then nuke your lipstick in the microwave. Be careful not to do this for longer than a 5-7 seconds at a time (depending on the strength of your microwave) because your container can crack. Try to work with a material that you know won't crack in the microwave.

If you use a lip brush to apply your lipstick, you will get the most out of your product and you won't be wasting any on your fingers. Also, if you think your containers will melt in the microwave, use a microwaveable tupperware container or bowl and then simply scoop or pour your melted mixture into your container of choice. If you choose to turn your lipsticks into more of a 'lip balm' you will want to mix in some shea butter. How much you add really depends on how much pigment you want in your lipbalm, because the more shea butter you will add, the less color you will see. Make sure to thoroughly mix them together with mixing medium or rubbing alcohol before you melt them. This is a fun and easy project! Enjoy yourselves and show me some of your creations!

Black Friday madness

So, after am enormous Thanksgiving meal, those of us dedicated to shopping, haul our fat butts out the door and waddle on to our store destinations. We do this, hoping against hope that we'll be amongst the first ones there. This is almost never the case, as people have been camping outside of the most popular stores (like Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy) for days in advance even in suburban localities outside of Seattle. So without any hope of ever reaching a cash-register within the next 12 hours at any of these stores, my husband and I moved onto ULTA. This store was the complete opposite, it had cutesy deals, very few ladies inside, no pushing or shoving, and we could easily reach the cash register. To me, the decision was simple, I'm a much larger fan of cosmetics than I am of technology anyway, so I picked up a few things.

They had this collection of items which were all just $1, so I grabbed 5 CHI Silk-infusions bottles for $5 because I love the way these make my hair feel (a small bottle usually retails for $14). Then, I purchased a mint lip-balm, swirl lipgloss and 3 ULTA nail polishes for another $5. Most of the items are $3 each, so the savings is of 66%. I purchased two Stila eyeliners in a pack, one being gold (named Koi) and one being silver (named Silver Dollar) as this was on special for $10 when the regular value is around $40, you can still get this deal here. I thought it was a great deal and Stila's smudge stick eyeliners are absolutely fabulous. The pigmentation is strong and they glide on very smooth and easily, they are absolutely perfect for the holiday season. I spent $20 in total on these items and ULTA gave me $5 Bonus Cash, which can be redeemed on the next $25+ purchase at their store. I was very happy with the overall experience.

Colors: The Jungle Look, Alter Ego, Scene Steel-er

I was drawn to the nail polish because the color was very pigmented and festive, also the price was right and I was looking for more colors to perform my 'water-marbled nails' look! This is a fun and funky way to set yourself apart from everyone else.

The next day, armed with new ambition and rigor, we headed out to Southcenter Mall in Renton, Washington. This place was controlled chaos. The parking lot was chock full of cars, there were tons of security guards throughout the mall, but if you can stand feeling claustrophobic, it was a fine shopping experience. The lines to cash out were not that long, especially at MAC. I went to use their BACK2MAC program where I recycled 12 containers and got 2 eyeshadows of my choice, in the colors Brown Script (matte2 finish) and Swish (frost finish). These colors are both very beautiful, and best of all, they were free! The color pay-off is great, as with all MAC eyeshadows and you can de-pot them (which I did) and then recycle these containers as well when you have 6. I only purchased a 15-color palette to house my colors.

MAC's Brown Script (Matte2)

MAC's Swish (Frost)

I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving and I would love to hear about your Black Friday deals! Stay tuned for our IKEA haul in an upcoming post!