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Influenster VowVoxBox!

Influenster is a point based. You get points based on your presence on the various social media sites and however many reviews you do on Influenster.

(If you would like an invite to Influenster just let me know by leaving a comment with your email address.)

Every so often Influenster sends out what they call a VoxBox. It's a box full of free goodies! And who can say no to free stuff?! Not this girl. When you get the box, you just have to check in and then do any bonus activities to get even more points. Pretty simple just to get a box of stuff!

The theme for this box is the VowVoxBox as in Weddings! Not sure how I got picked for this one since I'm not getting married and no one I know who is engaged even has a date set. It's probably cause I spend most of my time in the beauty section of Influenster.

Here's what we got:

 

Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward

I swear I'm not ignoring this blog. I just had nothing to write about. Then I read this book. Then I read another. Then I did an awesome makeup look. And I just forgot that "hey, I have a blog I can write about this in!"

So here I go. 

I've read books with more than one author before. One of my favorite books of all time is Good Omens by Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchett. I'm not sure how they handled the dual authorship but let me tell you, it was a million times better than Lisa Lutz and David Hayward did. 

And that sucks. I wanted to love this book. I love The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz and it always upsets me when an author I like just bombs. And this felt like a bomb to me. 

Simple enough, odd chapters are written by Lisa Lutz and even chapters by David Hayward. Between each chapter is correspondence to each other. If this was supposed to be endearing... It wasn't. Turns out they dated in the past and if that wasn't clear in the beginning of the book, it's made clear by their snipping at each other. Childish banter between adults is bad in person and felt even worse in writing. Especially when one writer than decides to write a chapter as if it's a "See Spot Run" book to get back at the other. 

What I took from it. Nothing good. Ego and insults galore. Lisa killing off David's characters. David being a smart ass in his chapters to get back at her. 

And the story wasn't good. I could not tell you the names of the main characters (except Sook who isn't even a main character and only cause his name was uncommon). The story was so back and forth, and you could tell that it was written by two different people, which would've been fine, I think, if they had an actual plan. I feel like every other letter from Lisa mentioned how they needed to focus on "this part" but she wouldn't focus on it in her own chapters! 

All in all, not good. 

Ipsy May 2014 Unbagging! "Fresh Picks"

What is Ipsy?

Ipsy is a beauty subscription service. For $10 per month, subscribers receive a makeup bag filled with 4-5 beauty items each month. Some sample sizes, some full sizes. The item's values always add up to more than $10 so that you always get you're money's worth. You can subscribe on a month to month basis for $10 each month or subscribe for a full year for $110 (meaning one month for free).

If you want to check out Ipsy and sign up, just click HERE. (That is my referral link.)

This month was sparse on makeup. There were more hair care and skin care items. I got three skin care items, a nail polish, and one makeup item. Here's the thing. I'm cool with that. I signed up for Ipsy knowing that I'd be trying new beauty products, not just makeup products. I do agree with some of the complaints on their social media that it should have been a little more spread out (not so much skin care in one bag), but it was still a decent bag for me so I can't complain.

Here's a look at what I got in my bag!

Haul + Review: Sephora Sol de Rio Bronzing Powder

This has been a week of cleaning and shopping for me. I'm doing a major spring cleaning of my room which includes moving all my makeup over to my desk and ordering a stand up mirror (which should arrive tomorrow) so that I have an actual makeup station. No one knows how excited I am.

Plus! Ebates (a cash back site that I swear by, just got my check the other day for the previous three months) is having a Ebates birthday celebration where a bunch of online stores are at 15% cash back. That is amazing. Included in this is Sephora, Ulta, Lancome, Drugstore.com, and a whole bunch of other awesome online stores. 

If you have not signed up for Ebates, you should because who can say no to free money for shopping. If you want to sign up, please click this link. Yes, it is my referral link. If you don't like referral links, you can head over to ebates.com, sign up, and shop!

With that said! Here is what I ordered at Sephora:

Smashbox Full Exposure Palette sample, Make Up Forever HD Pressed Powder sample, Make Up Forever HD Primer sample, and Sephora Sol de Rio Bronzing Powder full sized

Adventures In Getting My IPhone 5s

This whole situation was just too ridiculous not to type out. 

A little over a week ago, I ordered an iPhone 5s using my upgrade. Best Buy had it on sale for only $50 with an upgrade, so I went for it. 

On Monday 5/5, I got the dreaded "we tried to deliver" notice from UPS. Ok fine. I call up UPS and ask about picking up my package either then or before work the next day. And I am told "the sender [Best Buy] restricts you from picking up the package". 

Fuck. Well, I work at their prime delivery time (everything gets delivered to my house at like 3:30pm). 

I complain in a Facebook status and a friend mentions calling the sender to see if they can change it. Ok, I call Best Buy. And they are no help at all. They restrict it cause they need a signature. Why I can't just sign when I pick it up? Who knows! Ask Best Buy what my options are and it's basically the package will be returned to them and I can have them resend it. /fml

The next day, I took a mental health day from frustration. And waited around my house until around 4pm when they finally delivered my phone and I could sign for it. 

Two hours later, my phone is set up. It's perfect. I'm thrilled with the phone especially the camera. 

And then I shake it a little (don't even remember why) and I hear a rattling. Again, fml. It's coming from the power button which was loose. I could push it around. I could've dealt with it. IF it didn't make noise while trying to take a video. If I moved the phone while recording, you could hear it rattle. 

So, Wednesday after work, my mom and I head to Best Buy to exchange the phone. The girl helping me was sweet as could be and had a Dalek sticker on her name tag. I was hoping the Doctor Who thing would bring me luck, but no. We go through the process of returning my phone and exhanging it for a new one.

Now, you have to go through this whole process before even opening the box. Cause Apple products come in a box surrounded by plastic. And god forbid that plastic comes off before the phone is sold. 

So the phones are switched and I take it... And the rattling is worse. 

No fault to the girl at Best Buy cause it's not her fault. She even said our best bet was going straight to Apple. When I got home, I immediately made an appointment with the Apple store nearest to my job. 

And after work the next day, Mom and I trudged to the Apple store. 

Now, I love the Apple store. I've bought two iPods and an iPad at the Apple store. It's the quickest process I've ever seen and everyone always seems nice. 

And our helper was nice. The guy was actually helping me and someone else at the same time, but was paying attention to both of us enough that it was perfect. 

He listened to my phone and apologized like crazy. Even pulled out his own 5s to show me that they are not supposed to make that sound. Great! He pulls out a new iPhone and gets started on charging it so we can switch everything over. 

After a while, everything is switched. All of my information and apps are on the new phone. Only thing left is to make sure I can make phone calls. 

SIM card failure. 

The guy is on the phone with Sprint going through SIM cards and none of them are working. No clue what's going on. So, he turns to us and says in the nicest way possible that we have to go to a Sprint store and have them switch out the SIM card which should be easy peasy. 

Ok. There's a Sprint store next to the mall, so we head over. 

But they're not a repair center so they don't have any SIM cards. 

25 minutes later we're at the second Sprint store that does have SIM cards. I explain the situation to the woman helping us. She first scares me by warning me that Apple may have tried to "flash" a Verizon phone so it could be used at Sprint. Then she types on the computer for a while, then says she's going to talk to their tech. Which she does except they aren't only talking about my phone, so it's taking a while and I'm getting irritated for the first time in this process. 

She comes back and types a lot on the computer while saying that it looks like Apple never actually put this phone on my account. They never switched the new one with the old one with Sprint. (I swear he did, but maybe the person on the line at Sprint effed something up). And that was the only issue. SIM card was fine. Phone was fine. 

We left work at 4:30pm, got to Apple at 5pm. 

We did not get home until 7:30pm. 

The phone is awesome, but if I'd known the work I was going to have to put into getting it, I wouldn't have. Because I'm lazy. 

Before and After

I got a new phone and the camera is amazing so I wanted to do a before and after. This is using the front facing camera which is usually HORRIBLE. 

Products:

Face:

Pixi Correction Concentrate in Brightening Peach

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser

Urban Decay Naked Skin in .5

Pixi Blush in Purest Peach

e.l.f Studio Golden Bronzer (lightest shade as a highlight)

Eyes:

Lorca Pro Palette (Taupe to fill in my brows)

Urban Decay liner in Smoke

Clinique High Impact mascara

Lips:

NYX Butter Lipstick in Hulk

NYX Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee