Galentine's Day

If you're like me and haven't had a chance to knock Parks & Rec out of your Netflix queue yet, you might not have heard of the Leslie Knope girl-power alternative to Valentine's Day - Galentine's Day. As you can probably guess, it's a day about girls and celebrating your love for the women in your life. My best friend Ana (Parks & Rec lover) suggested we have a Galentine's Day this year and when I responded with a blank stare, she told me it's held on Feb. 13th  and is basically accompanied by a giant breakfast. As the 13th fell on a Friday this year and because our friends all had school/work in the morning, we decided to meet up at 8:00 pm so while we could have had breakfast for dinner, we decided to just have real dinner with loads of finger foods and chocolate everything. Since I couldn't really make this post until after the event, maybe this is something you can bookmark to get some ideas for next year, but the main point is that you get together with your bffs and celebrate how much love you have for each other while indulging in all the chocolate goodness that this time of year has to offer (any excuse for chocolate, amirite??) and, it doesn't have to be just girls because I saw another friend of mine partaking in Palentine's Day!

Obsessions | Top 5 Red Lipsticks for Valentine's Day

Here's the obligatory Valentine's Day is around the corner post and while I've never been a fan of the holiday, I like the idea of using it as an excuse to pay more attention than I normally would to my hair or makeup and pop out some pink or red lipstick (not like anything's ever stopped me before though). I've gathered a few lip options to cover all the bases if you're in the market for a red lip and as I will be doing a Galentine's Day with my girlfriends - look out for that post in one week - I thought it would be fun to choose a couple options I don't reach for often because they aren't matte or vampy.

SWATCHED! From left to right: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Cherries in the Snow, Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple, Sephora Cream Lip Stain in 01 Always Red, MAC Lipstick in Lady Danger, Tanya Burr Lip Gloss in Vampire Kiss

Review | Urban Decay Naked Basics 2

One of my first major makeup investments was the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette almost two years ago. Never having been one to successfully blend shadows together and create art on the eyelid, most palettes scared me because they offered way too many colors and I couldn't figure out which shadow would go on the lid and which belonged in the crease. This was clearly when I was still in a newbie eyeshadow phase (not like my skills are much improved tbh) so the less intimidating, the better. Naked Basics also appealed to me because of all the love surrounding the Naked Palettes online, with claims that the shadows were pigmented and easily blendable, all good things for a beginner. Urban Decay's latest release of the Naked Basics 2 also seemed right up my alley as it was more cool-toned and had hints of taupe and reddy-brown, two flattering shades for my lighter skin tone and brown eyes. I held out on buying it because I didn't need another palette and there were other ones ahead of it in line, but my extremely generous friend Amanda gifted me the palette for Christmas, so now I couldn't feel guilty about having it in my collection.

Urban Decay Naked Basics (left) and Naked Basics 2 (right)