September Birchbox

As a self-proclaimed beauty junkie, when I heard about Birchbox I thought it was a FABULOUS idea! If you haven't heard of it, Birchbox is a $10 monthly subscription service where each month you receive a box of beauty goodies, and more often then not your box retail value exceeds your $10 purchase price. 

I began subscribing to Birchbox a couple months ago after watching so many Youtube videos and being jealous of all the awesome samples everyone was getting. It's a great way expose yourself to new brands and products of skincare, makeup, haircare, and other fun things.

So without further adieu, here is what I received in this month's box. 

Here is how the box typically looks every month

Each box also comes with a card with a note from the Birchbox girls as well as a list of the all the products your box contains.

Box contents 

**things were packaged a little neater, but I took a sneak peak before this photo!**

*not sure why this pic flipped??*

Incoco Nail Polish Applique

Description on info card: We all have a wild side. Eye-catching nail strips are the latest trends - try them on your fingers or toes.

Size I received: 12 strips

Full size: 16 strips for $7.99

Retail value: $5.99

Initial Thoughts: Every month I get on Birchbox's facebook page and *somewhat stalk* what people have already gotten in their boxes, so I knew these were coming. People who had already received their boxes had gotten zebra and weird leopard color patterns, so I wasn't looking forward to these. But when I saw that I had gotten blue glitter ones, I was thrilled! I have had a slight obsession with glitter nail polish recently, so I am much more inclined to try these out!

*again apologize for the wonky photo*

Jouer Lip Enhancer

Description on info card: Why settle for plain 'ol lip balm when you can hydrate, plump, and condition all in one go? Right, we thought so.

Size I received: 0.07 fluid ounces

Full size: $14 for 0.33 fluid ounces

Retail value: $2.97

Initial Thoughts: I am OBSESSED with Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm (@ Sephora) so I'm not really in the market for a new lip balm. However, I have only used this once and like it as well! I only used the Jack Black lip balm at night because it is rather thick. This once is lighter and smoother and could potentially be a go-to lip balm for the day. And you only need the tiniest bit!

LIV GRN Earth Eau de Parfum

Description on info card: Made from sustainable ingredients, this sultry scent is laced with jasmine and sandalwood. Plus, ten percent of sales go directly to Global Green, an environmental non-profit.

Size I received: No sized listed, but I compared it to a typically perfume sample which is 1.5 ml or 0.05 fluid ounces

Full size: 3.4 fluid ounces for $60

Retail value: $0.88

Initial Thoughts: Is it weird to say that this smells like a green perfume? My initial reaction is that it smells kinda soapy and not a scent that I would naturally gravitate towards. 

Pangea Organics Facial Cream for Normal to Combination Skin

Description on info card: An all-natural moisturizer, with antioxidant-rich grape extracts and essential oils, keeps skin both hydrated and shine-free.

Size I received: 1.0 fluid ounces

Full size: 2.0 fluid ounces for $36

Retail value: $18.00

Initial Thoughts: I got so excited when I saw this in my box! I am a big skincare junkie and am always looking for the next best thing to get rid of acne and help cleanse my skin. Surprisingly I've never tried any natural skincare, so I am very excited to see how this works. I have heard a lot of good things about the Pangea brand, so hopefully I will have luck with this. And this is a VERY generous sample size!

Treat: Birchbox Friendship Bracelet

Retail value: unknown

Thoughts: While it is a nice gesture, I highly doubt I will actually wear this bracelet. Someone said it reminded them of a kabbalah bracelet, and now thats all I can think of when I look at it. Nevertheless, it is nice that the girls at Birchbox thought of us on their birthday :)

Total Box Value: $27.84!

Are you subscribed to Birchbox?? If so what did you get in your box this month??

Please let me know if you liked this post. Hopefully I'll get around to posting my Birchbox every month!

**I purchased my Birchbox subscription with my own money. I was not "gifted" anything and not compensated for my opinion.**

Day in Athens

This past Saturday Dad and I made the trip down to Athens to see the Gamecocks take on the Georgia Bulldogs. Dad got his undergraduate degree at UGA and his masters at USC so I've always harped him about going down to Athens and "reliving his college days." Needless to say the whole time we were down there all he could say was that it looked almost NOTHING like he remembered and the trees were much bigger than he remembered (to which I promptly told him that the trees had 30 years to grow! They don't stay the same size!)

Lemme just say though...Athens is NOT an easy town to get around!! If you've every been to Williams-Brice stadium, you know it's not on USC's campus, but about a mile down the road by our fairgrounds. Therefore, there is PLENTY of parking and you don't have to be afraid if you car is gonna get towed or not. So needless to say, after the parking/traffic situation, we were MORE than ready to get into the stadium and mix ourselves a little cocktail (hey Dad wanted to relive the good ole days, I was only happy to oblige!)

Our first view of Sanford Stadium and the back of the scoreboard

Full view of the stadium our way up the stairs

First time back at his Alma Mater in 30 years!!

My first visit to another SEC stadium!

As you can see our seats were pretty awesome! Yea we were in the 600-section, BUT we were on the 50 yard line and surrounded by fellow Gamecock fans!

View of the campus

Halfta say Sanford's scoreboard is really nice! 

Hopefully when ours is updated it'll be similar to this

(Notice the final score!)

All the Georgia fans leaving early when they thought it was over.

It was easily the CRAZIEST game, let alone 4th quarter I have EVER seen!

Field after we WON!

Carolina flag waving in all its glory!!

Sea of people going across the bridge after the game

Sea of people to the left. 20 minutes after the game is over.

So the game ended at 8:15. We hung out in the stadium till around 8:30 then began making our way down and out towards our car. Since the parking was SO atrocious, we FINALLY got to our car around 9:15. THEN we sat in MORE traffic with the non-working traffic lights. Fortunately, the route we chose took us through sorority row so we at least had some nice scenery. 

Sorry for the major blurriness but this was the Kappa Kappa Gamma house! 

So glad I got to see it. 

Gamma Phi Beta 

Apologies for another bad pic but this is the Chi Omega house.

My dad got super excited when he saw this because all throughout college he was the Chi O house boy!! He said the house looks exactly the same as he remembered and was just stunned it was still the same house!

Another pic of Chi O. 

Once we turned off sorority row we thought we were home free, but O NOOO!!! There was even MORE traffic! We FINALLY made it out of athens around 10:30pm...TWO HOURS after the game ended!! 

Overall it was an AWESOME weekend!! I got to spend an entire day with my dad watching the Gamecock on a beautiful Saturday. What more could a girl ask for???

Accent Tag!! + mini haul

Accent Tag + mini haul from natalie hames on Vimeo.

 I recorded this yesterday but only posted it to twitter so I wanted to make sure to share it with all my readers who aren't on twitter (which you should be!) I've been watching these accent vlogs all last night and tonight and they are hilarious! It's also cool to be able to put a face/voice to some favorite bloggers/twitter friends! Make sure to leave a comment below if you decide to record one!
Directions are as follows: The instructions are to say these words:
Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And answer these questions:
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you use to change the TV channel? 

Where my Head is at

I apologize in advance. This post is long and not very well thought out aka scatterbrained. I did not sit down and anticipate writing about all this, but this is what came out. If you get to the end, CONGRATS! I am so thankful for ALL my readers and welcome ANY advice you may have! Now, without further adieu....

4 years ago I was a 17 year old girl getting ready to enter the college world. I still wasn't old enough to legally sign papers with my parents, yet I thought I had my whole life figured out. I was gonna complete 2 years of undergrad, go straight into pharmacy school, and graduate in 2013 with a Pharm.D.

Funny how things work out. Turns out that getting A's in college is MUCH harder than in high school, and even though I told myself I was gonna work hard now that my classes actually mattered *haha* my grades still weren't good enough. I am now finishing up a degree that was only supposed to be a stepping stone, and flippantly decided to add a minor to (a) buy some time and (b) I came to the conclusion that jobs I could maybe want have nothing to do with my major

I'm not going to go through the whole story of why pharmacy school didn't work out, or how it took me 3 years to discover this (I'm sure I wrote a post about this at some point, and if you REALLY wanna know all the deets, email me), but all I know is that I have put that on the list of things I do not wanna do anymore.

Here's the problem.....

I have absolutely NO idea what I want to do with my life

***Before you comment and say that I am young and have plenty of time to figure this out, at least read the rest of the post and see what I'm feeling.***

YES I know that I am only 21 years old and in the grand scheme of things that is young, but with my circumstances and surroundings I can't help but feel that I need to figure out some sort of direction. With the exception of 2 other friends who are also graduating in December, everyone else has graduated with their degree. While they might not have jobs right now, at least they know WHAT they wanna do. I DON'T!

I decided not to take a class this month in the hopes of "getting my life together", at least thats what I told everyone. When in fact I am more confused than ever as to where I am going or where I want to end up. It's so discouraging when I come across a career that I could potentially see myself doing, only to have to put that on the "not able to" list because I have already shot myself in the foot with my GPA. Yes I realize that I have no one to blame but myself for that one, but it's still hard when there is very little I can do about it now. And yes I could take classes and raise it, but it would essentially take an extra semester taking hard science classes and making all A's, and by looking at my track record that just doesn't seem plausible.

Another reason I feel that I need to figure this out is the fact that I am graduating in December. Yes this does give me an extra semester essentially in the spring to firmly decide what I want but I have GOT to get the ball rolling on SOMETHING! I mean I need to decide if I need to take the GRE (which will probably happen) and start looking at post grad work or maybe I need to really delve into the job market and see what's out there.

I just feel like at this point in college I should have a general idea of what I would like to do. And I don't. And that's hard to say because to a lot of people I want to give off the notion that yes my life is put together and I'm doing ok. But in reality I feel like my life is in shambles. I have these random thoughts and careers bouncing around in my head and I feel like some are just so out there that I'm terrified of going for them. For some, it would essentially mean requiring a ENTIRE NEW degree and area of study. I DO NOT WANNA START ALL OVER AGAIN! But what if it meant finding what I really want to do?? I just don't know and I don't know how to find internships or jobs to explore these options.

If this post wasn't jumbled up enough as it is, here are some of the career ideas that I have been bouncing around....

• Cosmetic Chemist
• Genetic Counselor
• Sports Broadcaster
• Broadcast Journalist
• Retail Buyer
• Dermatological Physician's Assistant
• Forensic Chemist
• Pharmaceutical Rep
• SOMETHING in the beauty industry (but what??)
• Mariska Hargitay (haha just kidding!) or am I?!? ;)

haha that last one WAS a joke! This post needed some humor

So anyways as you can see my mind is all over the place. And about half of them require starting over so to speak. I would love to explore these options further, but I don't know how.

That is kind of why I wrote this post. I truly wrote it for a number of reasons

(a) because I feel like I have all these thoughts bundled up inside and I needed to put them SOMEWHERE

(b) maybe one day I can look back on this post and realize that hey I was a lot closer to figuring out my life that I thought (hey i can dream right?)

(c) to get input. I have met some amazing people through this blogging world and truly value the relationships I have developed. Which also means I value your opinion. Maybe by writing this out, someone would maybe know someone I could just email and talk to about their career or something. I don't know! Maybe YOU are in one of these industries and have some advice. I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR IT! I am open to anything at this point. Even if you know a website where I could look at jobs or internships or something.

So this is where my head is at right now. Like I said in the beginning, CONGRATS if you made it all the way through!! And again I value any and all advice you have. If you would rather email me (I LOVE email!) my email is

uscnmh {at} gmail {dot} com

Thank you so much for reading and sticking with this!

I love you all

xoxo

Recent Hauling

While I was taking my summer class, my days were consumed with formulas and titrations and frantically fitting all I could on a notecard the night before a test. Now that my class is OVER (and PTL I got a B!) I have more time for things I love...like shopping of course!

Here are some things I have picked up over the last couple weeks...

I actually went to a different Bath and Body Works again during their Semi-Annual sale from the haul I showed in the video and picked up just a couple more things. The sale is over but I went into B&BW yesterday and they still had a couple tables with things clearanced out.

Now that we have a Forever 21 in town its so hard for me to purchase jewelry anywhere else! This was a small purchase but I have already bought 5 other pairs of earrings and a couple rings.

Can you believe all these earrings only cost $4.80! Main reason I bought these is because I needed a pair of earrings to wear to work that wouldn't hurt my ears since I'm on the phone a large part of my day. The smallest balls will probably be too little but I'm excited to try the 2 larger options.

This is the first time I have bought anything beauty-related at Forever 21. I needed a light blue nail polish because I bought the OPI Last Friday Night from the Katy Perry collection, which is a the blue glitter polish. Unlike Last Friday Night from that collection, it is a very sheer glitter, so I bought this light blue polish to use as a base. Hopefully it will be a decent enough polish!

My mom and I recently took a day trip to Charlotte for some shopping and you know I had a list prepared for Sephora!! I didn't get as much as had planned (my mom doesn't quite understand my beauty obsession and I didn't wanna give her sticker shock!) but did get a few fun things!

This is my absolute most favorite lip balm!! If you can't read it, it's the Jack Black intense therapy lip balm in lemon and chamomile. At $7.50 it is a little pricier than drugstore lip balms, but I only use it at night right before I go to bed so 1 tube lasts me almost 6 months. My lips get really dry at night, especially in the winter, and this by far has given me the best results. If you look on Sephora.com they have a special duo thats only $10 for 2 of the full sized tubes (different flavors) so I definitely suggest checking these out!

I have been on the hunt for a "waterproof" eyeliner that actually stays on my water line. I have tried numerous drug store varieties and even the famous Urban Decay 24/7 pencil and nothing has worked. So while I was in Sephora I wanted to pick up a new option but didn't want to spend a ton of money. I quickly found out that most high end brands do not sell and black-brown eyeliner! They would have black, all the crazy colors, and a rich chocolate brown, but no black-brown. (I have the UD 24/7 pencil in Whiskey and the brown color just looks weird on me) So I decided for $9 I would try this Sephora pencil. Hopefully it has put an end to my search!!

The product I was MOST excited about purchasing was my NARS Laguna Bronzer! I bought a kit from Sephora way back during their friends and family sale that had a mini size of the Orgasm/Laguna duo. I always thought that I would fall for the Orgasm blush and would just toss the bronzer aside, but O NO MY FRIEND! This bronzer is amazing!!!

I quickly found out that NARS' Orgasm blush has quite a few drugstore dupes that are almost the exact same or very very similar, but I had been having a really hard time finding something like Laguna. The awesome thing about Laguna is that it has very little to no shimmer in comparison to the other bronzers I own. If you look in the pan it does have a little sparkle, but it barely shows up on the face. It's great for an all-over face application that will give you that great summer glow as long as you use a light hand. It's also great for contouring if you use a little bit more product. It is definitely pricey at $33 (probably the most I've spend on a single makeup product! **not including palettes**) but its a pretty good size and I never need to buy another bronzer!

As excited as I was about the bronzer, my Toms were by far my most favorite purchase of the day!!! I had heard very little about Toms until about a year ago when they quickly become popular on campus. I had seen all the different glitter pairs and fell in love! I'd been debating for a while now whether or not to get a pair (are they my style? would I really wear them?) but I finally bit the bullet and got the black glitter! The black is definitely the most subtle of the glitter options, so I figured I would get the most use out of them and would be able to wear them to work.

I wore them 2 days ago running around town and have to say they were pretty comfortable! The true test will be a long work day when I'm on my feet for 8 hours, so we'll see what I say then! But I so happy I decided to get them, and it's also great that a child in need will also be getting a pair of shoes!

So those are the things I have purchase over the last month or so. I'm trying my best not the spend too much money the rest of summer so I can save for bills (ugh!) and a potential big purchase later on!

Have you bought anything recently you just absolutely love??

Any recommendations on a truly waterproof eyeliner??

Hope yall are having a fabulous week! My June favorites post should be up in the next day or so!

xoxo

Natalie

I LOVE GROUPON!

Thanks to Groupon, my friend Jordan and I will now be seeing these 2 ladies in Atlanta July 17!!!!

When I found out Britney Spears was bring her Femme Fatale tour to ATL, I immediately wanted to snatch up some tickets! When she last came on her Circus tour my friend and I had planned to go but nothing every really came out of it. Flash forward to this year, we looked at tickets this year and tickets in the 400 level started at $50!! So when I saw this deal Groupon had thanks to the @_grits aka Nicole on twitter, I immediately called my friend Jordan and got us some tickets. In the end, we got 2 tickets in the 300 level for just $30 a piece!!

So lesson learned, sign up for Groupon not just in your city, but in cities you like to visit as well! I would have never known about this otherwise, so you know I am definitely signed up for Atlanta's groupons now!

If you would like to sign up for Groupons in your area, just click here and start getting some awesome deals!!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous Tuesday! Let me know if you have been to a Britney concert and how it was!

What I did this weekend

Met the parentals for breakfast here...

...did more damage at the sale here...

...went to dinner here...

...to watch some of this...

(Gamecock victory! game 2 tonight!)

And of course a typical weekend would not be complete without some studying here and there.

What did you do this weekend??

June 10 haul video

Today was an awesome day. As of right now I am in full swing with my first summer class, and needless to say these first two weeks have been filled with class, lab reports, online homework and tests :( not much time for relaxation or retail therapy! Thankfully today (after I did some homework of course haha) I was able to meet up with my cousin for a late lunch at Olive Garden and headed over to do some shopping. And thankfully I was FINALLY able to upload a video and have it actually work! Every time I've filmed with my webcam and uploaded to Youtube, my sound and picture would not be in synch (a HUGE pet peeve of mine when watching). But I uploaded this one to vimeo and thank goodness it worked!! So here is a haul of what I purchased today from Ulta, Bath and Body Works, and Victoria's Secret.

June 10 Haul from natalie hames on Vimeo.

***Links to Items Mentioned***

• The blog sale where I bought OPI Teenage Dream no longer has any, BUT if you search for it on amazon it brings up many sellers with some available (and cheaper than I got it!)
• Benefit Movers & Fakers kit - at Ulta
• Benefit 6 piece skincare kit - at Benefit (was not on Ulta's website)
• TRESemme Tres Two Extra Firm Control Hairspray - at Amazon

**visit Pink Lou Lou's FABULOUS blog here!!**

Bath and Body Works Items

• Tahiti Sweetie Body Lotion
• White Citrus Lotion
• Heel of Approval Cream
• Need a Margarita Citrus Body Scrub
• White Citrus Wallflower Bulb
• Sparkling Mojito Candle (small size linked)

Victoria's Secret Items not online. check stores for availability!!

Hope yall had a great week and start of a FABULOUS weekend!!! xoxo

***all items were purchased by me. I am not being compensated for mentioning any products***

Getting to know you Sunday

First time linking up for Getting to know you Sunday! Lemme know if you participate :)

1. What's your favorite rainy day activity?

sleeping in, then lounging on the couch watching mindless tv

2. What time do you go to bed?

haha it could be anywhere from 12am to 4am. On a typical night about 1am.

3. How many magazines do you subscribe to?

o goodness I think two right now...Glamour and Lucky

4. Did you sell all your belongings because you thought the world was ending yesterday?

haha no.

5. What's your beauty obsession?

anything NARS! and mascara

6. If you could only wear one designer/brand for the rest of your life...what would it be?

o goodness thats hard! I'm gonna cheat and use a store....Nordstrom

7. What's your summer must have?

norts!!

8. Do you make weekly dinner menus?

haha considering I don't cook....no!

My excuse for not blogging

I had every intention of getting back into a blogging routine once school finished up, but as you can see that just didn't happen. And my excuse is this....

Pinterest seems to be the newest online craze. Pretty much all it is is a way for you to save/organize all your favorite photos online and share them with other "pinners" and your followers. Sounds like a simple enough concept but trust me its SOO addicting!!! I've been a member for about a week and have already created 18 boards (basically categories for your pics) and 294 pins!!!

You have to be invited by a member in order to become a part of Pinterest, so let me know if you would like to become a part of the fun!!!!