BOLD BEAUTIFUL LIFE

Day 3 Eliminate and Enhance: Eyes

July 16, 2015July 16, 2015Leave a comment

Welcome to day 3! Hope it is going well and you are feeling more beautiful already.
Today I’m sharing my most simple eye makeup tips to make the biggest impact. They are meant to enhance and highlight the natural beauty of your eyes. Also, they should take no more than five minutes, so they can be done even when you are running late!

The steps move left to right, starting with the top left, moving to top right, then middle left, middle right, so on…

1. Start with a primer, if you would like to, otherwise just a blank slate.

2. & 3. Use a light eyeshadow and soft brush to highlight under the brow (not the whole eyelid, just the brow bone) and the inner eye.

4. & 5. Softly brush a light layer of eyeshadow on the top of your cheekbone, under the outer corner of your eye.

6. Add eyeliner to your upper lids.

7. Add mascara to the upper lashes. If you want, you can also add a strip of false eyelashes to add a little oomph.

8. Begin shaping your brows. Use a brush to create a line from the outside of your nose to the inside of your eye. Mark it on your brow.

9. Next, create a line from the outside of your nose to the outside of your iris. This is the highest point of your brow.

10. Create a line from the outside of your nose to the outside of your eye. This is where your brow ends.

11. Use a brow kit, powder, pencil, whatever you prefer to fill in and connect the three points.

12. Soften your brows with an empty mascara wand. You can get them at the grocery store, or just get one from a cosmetic counter in the mall. Brush softly from the inner brow towards the outside.

That’s it! Quick, simple, and effective!

Day 2 Eliminate and Enhance: Healthy, Shiny Hair

July 15, 2015July 15, 2015Leave a comment

Welcome to day 2!

How was day 1? Does your skin feel softer and look brighter?

For day 2 we are focussing on restoring shine and preventing further damage to your hair. I’m a believer in many kinds of fancy hair products, but nothing beats a good DIY conditioning treatment. I love this one, because of how shiny it makes my hair! Once you get over how weird it feels to smash avocados into your hair, hopefully you will love it too! Starting with damp hair will help you work the treatment in a little easier. I also prefer to quickly warm the treatment up in the microwave. I feel like it makes it smoother and able to penetrate better. Start by working the softened coconut oil in. You may need to adjust the amount based on how much hair you have. Leave that on for ten minutes while you combine the olive oil and avocado together. Make sure they are very well blended. If they aren’t you will be picking chunks of avocado out of your hair for a while…been there! I use a hand mixer. Work the avocado paste into your hair, keeping the coconut oil in as well. Pull your hair into a shower cap, or use plastic wrap to lock it all in place. Then wrap a towel around it and let it sit for 20-30 minutes. I like to blow dry the towel occasionally to keep the hair warm inside. At the end, rinse with cool water. I know, cool water is rough, but your hair loves it. It will help seal the cuticle around all that good stuff you put on it. Shampoo well and condition. When it’s dry it should be nice and soft, with a beautiful shine! It shouldn’t feel oily after it’s dry. If it does, you needed more thorough shampooing 🙂

Hair Mask: 2 Tablespoons coconut oil (microwaved about ten seconds to soften) 2 Tablespoons olive oil, blended with half an avocado (I have to double this for my amount of hair, feel free to adjust to fit you)

Some of my tips for keeping your hair in great shape:

Avoid brushing it when it’s wet. This can cause the hair stands to stretch and break. If you feel you have to comb it out, use a leave in conditioner and be gentle.

Protect it from heat as much as possible. If you are using heat, try a thermal protectant product.

Wash your hair less often. By removing the natural oils from your hair, they don’t have a chance to nourish your strands. You don’t have to wait until the point that it looks greasy, but giving it a day or two in between washes will improve the health of you hair. At first, you may feel like your hair is overly oily, but it will eventually level out as your body learns it doesn’t need to produce as much.

Eating nutritious things will help your body look and feel it’s best. Same goes for your hair!

Protect your locks from the sun when possible. Those rays can be damaging and drying.

Have fun! Hope you have a great day!

Day 1 Eliminate and Enhance: Brighten and Refresh

July 14, 20157 Comments

Hi! My friend Ashlee Buchert and I have teamed up to combine fitness and beauty for a five day “Eliminate and Enhance” challenge! I will be posting the “Enhance” part here. If there are any of you out there reading this and you want to be a part of the whole challenge, let me know and I’ll get you involved!

Before we can get into makeup and hair tips, it’s important to start with the basics! A clean, fresh face and scalp, and healthy hair. That’s why day one is going to help heal your scalp, especially if you suffer from dryness. While you are conditioning your scalp, you can try this fun sugar scrub to brighten and exfoliate your face. A clean, healthy base is going to do more for your natural beauty than any magical tip or trick can do!

Lemon scalp treatment:

2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 Tablespoons coconut oil (liquid, or slightly heated to soften) you may also substitute olive oil

2 Tablespoons water

Mix together and massage well into damp scalp. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes, then rinse and shampoo.

Sugar face scrub:

1 1/2 Tablespoons sour cream

1/2 Cup white sugar

1/4 Cup brown sugar

1/4 Cup ground almonds

1 Tablespoon olive oil

Mix all ingredients together and gently scrub your face. Rinse with water. Make sure to use sunscreen to protect your fresh skin and help it continue to look its best!

Enjoy!

Comfy and Chic (but mostly comfy)

July 7, 20158 Comments

I’m going to be honest…I would way rather be in sweats than dressed up any day of the week, and usually I am. I never thought an outfit could change my mind, but this one totally has. I have to talk myself out of wearing this skirt to bed. Its amazing, so soft and stretchy. Also, it’s long enough to juggle small children without needing a third arm to keep it in place. That is probably what I appreciate most as I’m carrying Viv in one arm, my diaper bag and carseat in the other, and attempting to corral Myla with just my feet. As for this top, so comfy too! I love that it has such a unique design with the open back, but still has structure. It’s from the Rambler Boutique, if you haven’t checked them out yet, make sure you do! They have really unique clothing and jewelry, and it’s run by two of the greatest girls I know!

Hope you have a wonderful week! I have a fun collaboration coming up this week so stay tuned!

Skirt: Old Navy on sale right now!

Top: The Rambler Boutique

A Fourth of July Treat

July 3, 2015Leave a comment

Happy almost 4th of July! I love treats. All kinds, really. I love to make them even more than I like to eat them, so I decided for this post to share a quick dessert idea with you. It feels like it is a million degrees outside, so I wanted something light and refreshing. This is what I came up with! Start with angel food cake. I usually make mine from a box, but if you are feeling extra ambitious, go for scratch. Or just buy one! While cake is baking, whisk together instant vanilla pudding with 1 1/2 cup cold milk. Refrigerate to let it set. When the cake is cool, cut it into small cubes and layer in the bottom of a dish. Add blueberries and strawberries on top of cake. I like my blueberries a little sweeter, so I sprinkled them with sugar before layering them in the dish. Combine equal parts cool whip with pudding until smooth. Spoon on top and garnish with a berry!

Hope you have a wonderful holiday and don’t burn anyone with your sparklers!

Don’t mind us, just sitting in the park, eating our treats haha

Photos by BreAna Thomas Photography

For Those Beachy Days

June 23, 2015June 25, 2015Leave a comment

We love spending time at the lake! Of course, a Hawaiian beach would be my first choice, but we don’t have those in Idaho. So a lake it is! My hair takes a long time to dry, so I usually try to avoid getting it wet. Turns out that is impossible when you practice AcroYoga with your husband on a paddle board haha. Yeah I got drenched. In salt water, my hair gets a lot of texture and I can usually coax a little wave out of it, but without that salt, I just get the flat wet dog look. Sounds amazing, right? No. Thankfully, I have a hair product from the KMS Hair Play line called sea salt spray. It brings the salty beach texture right to you. I spray this on my hair as it dries and it helps me get more texture and movement into my limp locks. One tip I’ll tell you that I do is avoid brushing your hair with anything, including your fingers. It feels uncomfortable sometimes, like you have giant knots all over your head, but it looks way better I promise. The exception to this is if you have a lot of natural texture already built in (lucky) and brushing your hair out doesn’t cause it to flatten out. Spray it in, scrunch a lot, and don’t run your fingers through it. Once it is mostly dry, I like to spray in some wax to add even more texture. My favorite spray wax, going on five years now, is flip it over by Sexy Hair. I also use this after I curl my hair to add separation. Just like the name says, flip your head over and lightly spray it over your hair, then scrunch again. Don’t use too much or you will be a sticky mess and might as well head back into the lake to start over ha

Enjoy!

Swimsuit coverup from Nordstrom Rack

Photos by the amazing and beautiful BreAna Thomas

Bling and a Braid

June 19, 2015July 3, 20151 Comment

So I have this incredibly beautiful friend. Her name is BreAna Thomas. Check out her blog here if you want some beauty and fashion inspiration. Just be prepared that she is perfect, but here is the kicker…she is also the sweetest ever! I love hanging out with her and our husbands get along just as well as us girls do, which makes them the best kind of friends to have. She is also an amazing photographer and we decided to do an impromptu photo session to highlight some jewelry I got from the Rambler Boutique. They now have a website, so check that out here as well! I did a neutral makeup look for this including one of my favorite new lipsticks from Clinique. It’s called Beige Pop. I find myself wearing it almost everyday because it goes with everything!

Preschool Graduation

June 18, 20152 Comments

I’m always surprised at how fast time flies. You’d think I could come to expect it by now, but it still catches me off guard. My little Myla has now officially graduated from preschool and is heading to Kindergarten next year! Crazy. Part of me feels like she has been a teenager her whole life, and the other part still wants to carry her around on my hip everywhere I go. She is charming, witty, intelligent, adorable, etc… I really could go on forever. I’m a fan. So grateful to have this little babe in my life!

She asked me to make her “a b c” cookies for her last day as VIP so we came up with these. Her requests are getting more and more labor intensive, haha, but she is worth it, right…?

So Much Wind

June 1, 20158 Comments

So I have had these pictures for a couple months and haven’t posted them because of my own insecurities. For starters, my babe was only a couple months old, so I was still getting used to my shape. Also, a golden retriever bit my upper lip when I was nine years old, and even though I had multiple surgeries in the years following, I can still see the scars and imperfections. Of course, there are other things, but those are what stand out to me here. However, recently I have been working on letting go of some of my insecurities and embracing imperfection. I think that allows for more honest and meaningful connection with others, such as my family, and with God. Since those things are far more important to me, I’m moving forward in my efforts to embrace imperfection! I know it’s a process, but that is why it’s worth it.

I owe it to my wonderful photographer, Hannah Swenson, to post these because she is amazing! The wind was crazy! Hair was everywhere. I have a lot of hair anyway, but add crazy curls and it’s all over the place haha. To get these curls, I wrapped my hair around a one inch curling iron in all different directions. The goal was for it to look unkempt and free. If you are ever going for this look just add lots of hair product and lots of wind!

French and Pull Through Braid Wrap Around

June 1, 20152 Comments

Myla loves getting her hair done. Well, actually… she loves the bribes I give her to hold still while I do her hair, but kind of the same thing ha. She is so funny. I don’t understand how so much personality can fit into such a little body. Always posing and making jokes, I love her. I will be posting her hairstyles every now and then because she is too cute to leave out.