The Mom Makeover

My mother has been an inspiration of strength and intelligence to me my whole life, my father thought he could make her decide between her education or him and she chose wisely, two spoiled kids, a house, a full time job and college on her free time is all I can remember from our years in California but I remember loving every minute of it.

Around 17 years ago my mom finally let go, she got kidnapped when I was about 13 years old and things were never the same since, she slowly began to use less and less makeup, less and less girly clothes, fortunately the kidnapping only involved a heavily aggressive pat down by her aggressors but that was enough to feel like she had to hide herself behind baggy clothes for life.

We went through so much struggle after my brother left us and later joined the forces, I never got a chance to go to high school because we needed food and that involved me and my mom working for low paying jobs because my mother was let go the year I was meant to and being a lady in her mid to late 30's was never a good look on your resume in a place like Mexico City.

Slowly but surely I landed a good paying job when I was 19, she got a secure good paying job around the same time, we were slowly getting back up on our feet, never enough to indulge but just enough to not complain (mind you we did indulge quite a bit whenever there were Christmas bonuses).

In all this time, all the ups and downs, my mom always found a way to spoil me, she bought me my first ever high end beauty product which was the first Smokey Eye palette by Too Faced and of course I died LOL. Again, she always found a way to spoil ME... the older I got the more that notion hurt me because I know she always put me first no matter how bad we had it.

As much as it was Josh and my wedding I wanted my mom to SPARKLE and stand out and I have to say she did, she looked more beautiful than I had ever seen her before in my life, the smile, the makeup, the dress, the hair. I was a picky bride when it came to makeup and hair but BOOOOY did these girls deliver.

And she did what she always does... she put me before her again that day, on our way from the chapel to the venue she twisted her ankle and didn't tell me. She went on through dinner and some dancing, she finally asked me "Hey do you mind if I put on my sneakers and I actually told her to wait because the photographers were still taking pictures. She told me the next day about her ankle and I flipped! I felt like shit for telling her to not change her shoes but I honestly had no idea!!! UGH!!!! Momma Norrigan, why you do this!!!

Anyway, this was by far the most awesome time I had while she was visiting us un England, even with all the wedding madness I took her shopping, proper shopping, just for her! I made damn well sure she splurged, she even got 2 dresses for the wedding, I took her to Primark, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, everywhere I could think of that she might like and I'm pretty sure she maxed out one of her credit cards on herself and I'm freaking happy she did. Yes she did give us quite a wedding gift and bought my dress and yes that made me feel guilty but then she told me to shut up, I was her only daughter and she was going to do with her money what she wanted.

My beautiful mother

Mom-in-law AKA Momma Janel and my Mom

Fixing my mom's hair

Today a bride, tomorrow a wife, forever your little girl.

Now excuse me while I go curl up in a ball and cry my heart out... I miss my mom!!!! I'll see her again next Christmas! YAY!!!!

The Bridesmaids Gifts and Goodies

Caitlin and Jayden were the only 2 girls left on my bridesmaids list, I had a couple more but for one reason or another they couldn't make it which was kind of expected due to the fact it was a destination wedding. My husband and I live in England but most of our family and friends live in either Mexico, Germany, and the USA.

Now Cailtin is my lil love bug baby girl, to my eyes she's the little sister I never had and I wish I was there in her life a lot longer to teach her all the things! She's 25 now and I'm 30, she had just began to start using makeup along with other girly things around the time I got engaged, so hair products, how to style your hair, eyeliner, all that fun stuff was new to her. She had done theater makeup before when she was in school but lets be fair, it is quite different to your everyday look or your going out tonight look.

Jayden my drama ridden half breed, British mum who is always looking for an excuse to not go to work and her very set in his ways American dad pushed her to mature a lot faster than most of her schoolmates. She just turned 21 this past weekend, she's a good kid with a good heart but is put into the position of having to be the grown-up a lot. She's familiar with makeup, getting her hair done, but as most youngins' makes a lot a mistakes along the way (heck, I still do!). My biggest beef with her is that she sometimes forgoes washing her face after a long night of partying and those ridiculously dramatic eyelashes she wore at my wedding.

I told the makeup artist I was going for a natural beauty look on my girls because they're both very youthful looking and there's nothing worse than a beautiful young girl with perfect skin caking their face up with unnecessary goop.

#bridesmaid gifts #tarte #Revlon #wedding #theknot

A photo posted by Laura Cain (@lau_is_gone_now) on Apr 11, 2015 at 1:07pm PDT

So what I got them was a lovely Tarte palette each including the mother of the bride and groom which contained very lovely and neutral colors that would enhance their natural beauty yet have a lil bit of glam, just enough for such a fabulous day and of course the most amazing mascara ever.

We all had matching earrings and bracelets and I got them each a set of makeup brushes in that lovely flowery pouch, they were about $12 a set, yes they are cheap and not the greatest brushes ever but these were their first makeup brushes so I figured it would be good for starters because even though Jayden is familiar with makeup she never really used makeup brushes, she used the applicators that come with your regular Covergirl makeup sets.

She looks so precious!

Think skinny!

Jayden (left) Caitlin (right)

We look precious! 

Our engagement photos... and the hangover

So my best friend/maid of honor has a super talented husband, Greg Bales, he did our engagement photos and most of our wedding pics too, we did hie and extra 2 photographers so he could enjoy himself as-well.

My husband had this whole thing planned out, we had gone to Edinbururgh every year for his birthday and this time was no different except he planned his birthday trip around all the wedding planning. He made the appointments with the locations, the venue, the whole enchilada and all I id was plan the engagement photo shoot, lazy bride? No, apparently this was his plan from the beginning.

But also we were celebrating his birthday and our engagement, so what did we do you ask? We got shitfaced and a heavy metal bar called Opium where they had this magical concoction called "The Opium Bomb and my husband thought having 20 of those was a great idea the night before our photoshoot. I also thought it was a great idea to drink all the scotch placed in front of me that night so of course we were super hungover the next day so here is what I did to try and avoid looking like crap in our engagement photos:

Slept in as much as I could, eat a heavy breakfast, shower for like 40 minutes and then applied the following:

I washed my face with my Clarisonic Mia and First Aid Beauty (FAB) cleanser, toned with Olay's witch hazel toner, applied my Josie Maran argan oil and then the magical unicorn Shiseido's Benefiance WrinkleResist24 Pure Retinol Express Smoothing Eye Mask
I left this on for as long as it was wet, this puppy help mask the nightmare under my eyes. Of course I packed on the makeup like crazy but I think the under eye mask helped sooooo much.

Here are some sample photos where you can't really tell that I'm actually dying inside:

Long time no type!

I feel like I should be apologizing to myself more than my 2 or 3 followers LOL I promised myself I'd get back into this and look at what happened... I got engaged and came to a complete stop when I could've been super cool by documenting all the beauty do's and don'ts at you wedding, my emergency bride bag, the makeup artist I hired to do my face on the day, etc.

Lucky for me/you, I kept tabs on everything! I have the pictures of the makeup trial, the artists name, number, email, website, the products she used, the one's I asked her to use (she was excited to use products we don't get in the UK), pictures and stories to share.

I also have an update on my skincare routine, my hair products, nail polish collection has been reduced, makeup has duplicated... (no shame), the husband and I are moving to Germany in less than a month, missing my old friends, looking forward to making new ones, aaaaand of course MY NEW HUBBY :)

Late July of 2014 was when my husband (then boyfriend) came back from a long ass business trip, we've been through it before, this time was no different. We then planned a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland for his birthday which was in late August, hotel was booked, flights were booked (for some reason it was cheaper by plane this time of year). Anywho, nice sunny day on August the 13th and oh I decided to surprise my BF with my new found skill on how to make sushi all by myself, so he comes home from work and I'm just now finishing up, he seems anxious, he got a package in the mail, goes upstairs and I hear all the shuffling in the office, he comes downstairs and tells me he got me a souvenir from his trip and he just got it in the mail... I'm covered in rice that smells like rice vinegar and rushes me to open this AMAZING handmade mini wooden chest with the TRIFORCE painted on it along with me name (he knows me too well) I got all excited because of course... Zelda LOL. So I open it and see grassy looking stuff some glass stones that I guess were meant to look like rupees and this shiny ass breathtaking "make me yours" looking engagement ring and all I could say was "OH MY GOD!" for like 3 minutes and then he finally said to me "You haven't said yes" of course I yelled "YES" at his face and hug him non-stop to then follow with something only I could be thinking about right then and there...

 As I tear up and start to cry as I hug him, my romantic side says "I smell like sushi..."

Yeah, I'm super romantic LOL! And of course I called my girlies and went to the pub a couple hours later and told my sushi to fuck off for now.

Empties Vol 2

My first empty is my holy grail of skin care products. In the past I have used acne focused moisturizers for my face, Retinol SA's, Retin A's, AHA's, BHA's, Salicylic Acid, Benzoyl Peroxide, OMG! You seriously have to study biochemistry engineering to be a woman, or a very self-conscious human being for that matter, to "look good". So when I came across a sample of Josie Maran's 100% pure Argan Oil, it was a blessing... that's literally all it contains: Argan Oil.

No fuss, no chemicals, just that. And guess what? My skin has never felt better; redness has been reduced, I hardly ever get any spots (sadly if I wear makeup I do get some), it doesn't feel oily, etc.
The pros could go on and on and the only "CON" is the price being a little out of my range although I can't really complain that much about the price either; I bought one full size bottle in Jan/Feb this year and I haven't finished the whole thing, we are now in August. It could've easily lasted me another month buuuut (this was unexpected) my partner has started using it to style his hair/treat a severe case of eczema he had for years which has been significantly reduced and has nearly disappeared since he started using Josie's Oil! Go Josie!

I know this isn't a "Single Product Review" post but I am in shock that now my guy is hooked on it too and he says he doesn't like using other styling products because this oil gives him  nice "natural" (non gooey) look. :)

Next empty that I swear by: It's a 10! Leave in Conditioner (purple lid, not orange). I've gone through 3 bottles already in the past 5 months.... I seriously need to find a dupe because this stuff is NOT pocket change friendly!  I am used to buying my own stuff with my own money, but I recently had to quit my job and go for anything else that was out there... and that meant a considerable pay cut. So nearly $20 for something that; yes, is amazing, but doesn't really give you the best bang for your buck (AKA tiny ass bottle) is NOT worth the splurge, unlike the previous mentioned product which was like $50 or $60 that has lasted about 6/7 months.

I thought I'd never go back to L'Oreal. I am currently on my second tub of L'Oreal's Total Repair 5 Damage Erasing Balm. It claims to repair up to 1 year of damage in one use. That's overrating yourself a bit L'Oreal. But I do have to admit that after a month of use I began to see positive results. The one day; my curiosity got the best of me. Once a weeks I will put some coconut oil in my hair, leave it over night in a silk scarf and wash in the morning. So one Sunday night I did the same thing and before pining my hair up into my scarf, I stared at my tub of Damage Erasing Balm and decided to experiment on my hair, rubbed some on my hands and braided my hair (already covered in coconut oil) with the Balm as-well. The next morning after wash and letting my hair air dry to about 70% I ran my fingers through my hair to detangle it..... OMG!!!!! My hair felt like baby hair, in a good way. It was crazy soft! And stays that way for days and days without weighing down my hair.

That's another empty, my organic coconut oil LOL.

The not so great one: Tresemme's Two Extra Hold Non-Aerosol Hair Spray. I know I've said in the past that I just don't like hairspray in general, but sometime you need a sleek look for a formal affair or a special event. So I bought this one day during my lunch hour because it was a crazy windy day in East Anglia and my do was all over the place. I chose unwisely. It took me forever to wash this out of my hair, made me feel like I had a helmet on my head, I tried to brush it out a bit before washing... didn't help. I had to wash it again and again. Now I'm not bashing on Tresemme, I love their regular hair spray, it's not too sticky and stiff but unfortunately it is in aerosol form. Sorry ozone :(

Glossybox UK May 2014

Hi there! Well I'm just going to get straight to the point; I got my glossybox mid-may but I decided to wait a couple weeks before posting my video because I wanted to give on honest review on what I thought about the products in my box.

The first one up is Garnier's BB Cream.It was a love/hate product for me, I love the fact that I don't wear makeup that often anymore, but most of the BB Creams I use are Asian and I absolutely love them. This product doesn't have as much coverage as other BB Creams I use and my skin tends to get oily in a matter of hours where with my everyday BB Cream (Skin79's Classic BB Cream) I can go all day without having to worry about what I look like at the end of my work day and it covers my acne scarring perfectly. I love the fact that is has high SPF protection but the down side to it is the shiny face you get after. It didn't break me out so it's good for sensitive skin and I more than likely would use during winter time.

Next: Rimmel Scandaleyes Mascara. I tried this a couple times and to be fair, it's just "OK". Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it, it's perfect for every day use, if you want crazy lashes you'll have to layer it quite a bit.

Ummm I haven't used the 2True 3D Nail Candy at all LOL. So I can't give an honest review, I tend to have shellacs all the time.

I couldn't find the I love... Strawberries and Milkshake lipgloss on the website so sorry for not linking it. I loved it, the smell is just amazing! The formula isn't too sticky and stays in place for a very long time. :)

The Large Doughnut Ring is as always amazing and a lifesaver, you running late in the morning? Slap that baby on and you're ready in 3 minutes.

Ganier's Ultimate Beauty Oil Lotion. This was awesome!!!! Smells like heaven, left my skin deliciously soft. I super super OMG recommend this, I will probably be buying this as soon as I run out of my current body lotion (Bath and Body Works Black Raspberry Vanilla Body Lotion). NO JOKE! I'm buying this!!!

And lastly, the little perfume sample... I can't remember the name LOL (I'm bad at this, I know). But I am a butt when it comes to perfumes, I have my 3 faves, Flower by Kenzo (I've used this for 14 years now), Amor Amor by Cacharel (I've used this one for about 7 years now) and Loverdose by Diesel (I've been hook on this one for the past 2 and a half years now).

Hope my reviews were helpful and entertaining and don't forget to check up on videos and more reviews :)

Have an awesome weekend! TGIF!!!

My NuMe InVogue Straightener & Magic Wand

I do have to put a disclaimer that neither of these products were given to me for free(nor have any of the other products I've reviewed in the past), I paid out of pocket to purchase these products and no one has asked me to review them, I just enjoy either giving my opinion or complaining about something :P

OK, let's start with the straightener. The day I tried it (and yes I did film but still editing video), I had pretty curly hair, I tried a new technique, new to me anyway, of heatless curls over night, so when I brushed out my hair it was crazy frizzy and curly. It took me exactly 2 and a half songs (approx 7.5 mins) to straighten my whole head! I was in shock at how fast it straightened my hair in one go instead of having to go over the same spot over and over again as you would with a cheap straightener. My hair was left feeling soft and manageable and it didn't feel dry at all! I am impressed in so many good ways, I can't even find the words. Worth every penny sums it all up.

The Magic Wand. I have 1 curling iron and a 1 curling wand, both give their own style of curl, both very different. The reason I bought these two was because I want BIG voluminous waves, something I could never achieve with either of them. I'm not saying I don't like them, but they were definitely not what I was looking for. The 32mm Magic Wand gives me EXACTLY what I was looking for. BIG voluminous waves, they just look so natural and beautiful. I'm still a little afraid of using it because of it's high heat settings, which of course you can adjust as you can with the straightener.

I still have to fiddle around with them a bit and figure out on my own how to use both these tools because unlike your typical $20 curler or straightener, you only need these on you hair between 5 to 10 seconds max, where with cheaper tools I would have to count up to 20 seconds to get a decent curl/wave.

I am extremely pleased with this purchase and hope they both last me for years and years to come!
Also, the shipping was quite decent considering I got them both from the US online store and got them shipped to an APO in Europe. Total time was about 3 weeks wait.

2 thumbs up for me :)