Tag Archives: Beauty

Mindful Monday: What’s Beautiful About You?

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My sisters and I had a skype conversation last week. They had just been on a hike and, in talking to each other about what they want to do with their lives, they both became very inspired. They called me for some advice, “we want to help people (women especially) with their confidence issues, how should we do it?” They already had a bunch of great ideas and we worked over a few details. They will, hopefully, be starting work on their campaign in the next couple months.

Around the same time, I got an email from my mom. She sent me a link to this video. It made me cry, of course. Watch it. It’s three minutes you won’t regret using. Continue reading →

Thriving Thursday: Free Makeover?

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Caution: Men you may be very bored by this post. Ladies on the other hand, huddle around, it’s story time. Ok, so I was perusing TJ Maxx looking for summer dresses when a woman walked up to me, “I just have to tell you, you have beautiful skin.” Hah! Maybe from over there but get a little closer and you’ll see how wrong you are. “No! You have gorgeous skin!”

This woman was about my age, stunning with a brunette bob and huge almond eyes. And dressed stylishly to boot. And here she was telling me that I had gorgeous skin. I knew there was something wrong with this picture. But I went with it anyway. I was curious where she was going with this. Turns out, she works for Mary Kay. If you provide the location and friends, they will come over and do your makeup for free! Obviously they hope that you buy something but there’s no obligation. So she took my number and promised to call.

I got back to the office later that afternoon and my coworker, Elle, sidles over to me and says, “You’ll never guess what happened to me today. A woman walked up to me in TJ Maxx and said I had beautiful skin…” You can guess where it goes from here. Same woman, same store, different days. And we are coworkers!

So obviously it’s some way for her to make money but at the bottom of the situation there were FREE MAKEOVERS! So we thought it over, we communicated with Emily, our Mary Kay consultant, and we decided that we wanted to get them done before a night out.

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So a few Saturday’s ago, I cooked up some appetizers and several ladies, including Elle, sat around my dining room table with bare faces. It’s amazing how naked you feel without makeup on, especially around relative strangers. Of course I forgot to take photos when all the food and makeup was on the table but the above photo is us with Emily looking all beautimous.

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All the significant others sat and watched March Madness while Emily guided us through our makeovers. She gave each of us some great tips and gorgeous makeup supplies. Being the hostess, I got a sweet deal of $75 worth of makeup for $35.

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After we had finished the makeovers and the men had told us how gorgeous we looked, we went line dancing! It was a fantastic night and so cheap! I love the makeup and face wash I bought and Emily got another party out of it. I highly recommend a Mary Kay Makeover to anyone looking for a fun Ladies Night. If you live in Peoria, let me know and I’ll get you Emily’s contact info.

I hope you’re all having fantastic days. Love and hugs – Ash

ps. I’ll be on vacation in Louisiana this weekend for a good friend’s wedding so no post tomorrow or Monday. Enjoy your weekends!

Friday DIY: Brazilian Wax (Ladies Only!)

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Men (and conservative women), you are forewarned: this post contains A LOT of in depth lady jargon. It reveals the dark side of beauty. DO NOT READ THIS. STOP NOW.

If you’re still reading, be prepared. Now ladies, how many of you get waxed down there in your nether regions? How much does it cost you? $30, $40, maybe something like $80? First, let me explain why I wax:

  1. Shaving really sucks. I used to get terrible razor burn and razor stubble is just foul. I don’t want my VJ to feel like sandpaper.
  2. Waxing only needs to be done every 4 weeks, and once you’ve been doing it for several years, you can go as long as 8 weeks!
  3. It actually makes your hair follicles weaker and your hair thinner. I’m to the point where my hair has stopped growing in some spots. Awesome!

Yes, it hurts. But it’s so worth it. And because your hair follicles get weaker, the pain actually gets less the more you do it. One thing I should mention is that, once you start waxing, you should NEVER shave. It reverses all the long term benefits I mentioned above. If you shave once, it’s like starting from zero on the waxing scale.

When I moved from Boston to Peoria, the price of Brazilian waxing went from $40 to $80. WHAT?!? I’ve been searching for months for something cheaper to no avail. I did find a beauty school that did the simple bikini waxes (check out this post) but no one would take it all off without charging an arm and a leg. So I decided to do it myself.

Needless to say, I was VERY nervous. Who the heck takes the chance of buying their own wax, spreading it hot and sticky all over the very sensitive patch between their legs, and then ripping it off with their own two hands? I could be making a very big mistake. But I will say, I’d watched quite a few estheticians do it to me, might as well try and do it to myself right?

Moom

So I did my research on wax and found this great option on Amazon. Of course I had to go natural so I bought sugar wax. It’s water soluble and works great on thick and thin hair. It’s called Moom. It came with everything I needed to wax (except for the sweat-absorbing starch) including microwavable wax, reusable strips, and wooden applicator sticks. And the best part, it was only $14!

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So it arrived and I stared at it on my dresser for several weeks before I plucked up the courage to try it. I set up my little station and went to work. The only things I needed that weren’t included were a towel to sit on, a mirror for when hunching over wasn’t enough, rubbing alcohol to disinfect, starch to soak up the moisture before I got started, and tweezers for post-wax clean up. Here’s how it goes:

  1. Use a cotton ball to spread rubbing alcohol over the region first.
  2. Dab some baby powder, corn starch, or any kind of starch (I used tapioca because that’s all I had) before you get started. It soaks up any moisture and the wax sticks better.
  3. Trim your hair down to 1/2″ (1cm) so the wax can pick up more of it.
  4. Heat up the wax until it’s a honey-like consistency.
  5. Analyze the direction your hair is growing in. Spread the wax in a thin layer in the same direction.
  6. Pull your skin taut and pull the strip off very fast in the opposite direction of hair growth.
  7. For a bit of relief, put pressure on the area immediately after you pull the strip off.
  8. Work methodically in sections so you don’t have to wax any area more than once.
  9. You won’t get every single hair so use the tweezers to snag stragglers.
  10. Rinse off any patches of wax with warm water. Dab dry then apply a light moisturizer to soothe the skin.

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I did feel a bit like a hunchback after 45 minutes of sitting in front of the mirror but it went really well! I didn’t rip off any skin and my happy triangle is smooth and clean. The tub of wax isn’t even 1/3 gone and I rinsed the strips clean with hot water and can use them again next time. It was a MUCH better experience than I anticipated and I’m so stoked that I found a cheap alternative to salons.

Who wants to try it? Ask me any questions, I’m happy to answer. I hope you all have very wonderful, very sexy weekends 😉

Fabulous Friday: Bargain Beauty

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From time to time, I may have to post about some incredible deals I find for lady stuff. Today, I’ll be sharing some sweet knowledge nuggets with you fellow females.

Last month, for my birthday, I really wanted to treat myself to some pamper time. I get a monthly wax of my nether regions (SO much easier than shaving and much less red and bumpy) and thought maybe I could add in a facial or manicure or something equally awesome. I had not yet found a salon in Peoria so I started the search!

Where to look, where to look…I must have checked out 20 salons in a 10 mile radius and couldn’t find anything even close to affordable. Then I remembered how cheap massage schools are and decided to just get a massage, delay the search, and postpone my wax until next month (poor Mike).

As I drove to work, I mulled over my tense shoulders and the forest growing in that pretty triangle between my legs, and I spotted it! A beauty school! I got to work and immediately looked up their price menu. $12 for a wax and $20 for a body salt scrub (wth is that?).

I went in for my appointment later that week and had vague memories of my mom bringing me to these fun places when I was young (man, that woman is full of great ideas!) . The wax was painful as usual but the body salt scrub was incredible. I was in a giant, humongous shower and instead of faucets in the wall, there were 6 of them attached to a long arm that extended over the bed I was laying in. It looked like a scene from the Saw movies. I disrobed and laid down. They (2 people!) laid a “modesty towel” over my lady bits and proceeded to scrub me down with a glorious smelling salt scrub. They showered me down with the Arm O’ Faucets (oh my gosh) and then dried and mosturized my body. I died and went to heaven. It was so intensely relaxing.

 ^Yes, please tell me more about your wonderful body treatments.

Anyway, all that was MORE than worth the $32 and teacher poking her head in every once in a while to make sure everything was going ok. Treat yourself to something nice and don’t feel guilty about it. Just Google “beauty school”  in your home town.

**If you are one of my 55 wonderful followers, I received a very interesting comment on yesterday’s post and have since edited the content a bit. Please check it out quickly if you read yesterday. Thanks!

And have a WONDERFUL day! WOOOHOOOO, it’s Friday.

🙂

Friday Design: Me!

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Alright so yesterday I said I changed a big thing in my life. Well here it is, I got a hair cut! Haha. To some people, men especially, it may not seem like a huge deal but, to me, it’s huge. I chopped off about 6 inches of hair and now have a cut comparable to that of Justin Beiber. And I love it!

Here’s a short story for you: When I was in kindergarten, my mom was having my three siblings and my stress levels were through the roof (anxiety from a young age!). I never wanted to leave her side and when I did, I would pull my hair out. Literally. I would twirl it around my finger and pull it out. Eventually my parents had to cut it very short and everyone in my class called me a boy. It was awful. Every Christmas and birthday all I would ask for was “long hair like a princess.” My hair grows VERY slowly and, needless to say, when it finally hit mermaid length (long enough to cover the ta-tas) I was very attached to it.

I have had a couple of chops since my senior year of high school but nothing like this. The first one was to shoulder length and truly a terrible haircut so it scared me away from hairdressers for several years. Now, as a working adult, I realized that my hair was thin and straggly and it was an effort for me to look at all professional and put-together.

^ This is the “before.” I was just a little nervous.

So 5 days ago I decided to cut it all off. Thankfully, my mom has a pixie-like cut and looks beautiful and sexy in it so I had high hopes I could pull it off too. My main fears were that a)I would look like a boy, b) I would no longer be sexy, c) it takes a spunky and fun kind of person to pull off a haircut like that and d) I would look like a boy.

^ That’s a lot of hair.

Well check it out for yourself. I think that, yes, people could mistake me for a boy, until their eyes travel down and they see the curves I have going on. And yes, some people may not find a cut like this sexy, but who cares because Mike loves it! And yes, I AM a spunky, fun person and I CAN pull it off. It’s pretty crazy how a new cut has absolutely changed my perception of myself. I keep getting startled by my reflection, then eyeing myself and thinking, “dang, that’s actually kinda cool.”

^ And here it is! According to Mike it looks much better in person than in the photos. But I love it! ps. I did not color it, all natural baby!

BIG shout out to my Dad today. One year ago he started his own big redesign when he signed up for the Challenged Athletes Foundation Million Dollar Challenge. Together, he and his awesome friend Steve have raised $20,000 to help physically challenged athletes get back on their game. But that’s not all. Starting tomorrow and over the next 7 days, they will be riding 620 miles from San Francisco to San Diego. 620 MILES! I have no doubt that training and raising money for this ride has changed my dad’s life. He has been touched by so many athletes that he’s met along the way, and I’m pretty sure he’s been amazed at what he can still make his body do. I can say that I am in awe of his drive and enthusiasm for the cause. He has, once again, proven himself to be an incredible role model and wonderfully giving man. Go dad! I love you.

I hope you’re all having wonderful days. And don’t every be afraid to take the plunge and do something crazy.

🙂

GO DAD!!