LUSH Haul #2 : stocking up and trying new things!

Hello everyone!

     So it is time for a promised LUSH haul! If you saw my last post you know that I recently got a job at LUSH Cosmetics, so I decided that while I was in the mountains this weekend I would take a day trip to Georgia to (for the first time ever) go into a LUSH shop. 

I also hadn't made an order in a while and was running low on shampoo… 

and also wanted to pick up a few things I got to try while training.

If you want an in-depth look into a product let me know in the comments! But for now I am just briefly going to introduce each item.

I suppose I will start with the shampoos that I bought first since I already mentioned them. 

 This is the Seanik shampoo bar, and you may recognize it from my last LUSH  haul/review. 

I really liked this bar because it added volume and shine to may hair, and made it feel super soft!

Karma Komba shampoo bar is another repurchase from my last Lush post. Karma is the name of Lush's signature fragrance, and I cannot get enough of it! My hair smells amazing after I use this shampoo, and there are essential oils in this that help detangle hair which is an added bonus for me!

This is NEW! shampoo bar. I haven't used this one before… but I fell in love with the cinnamon smell the first time I got a whiff! 

This last shampoo bar is Ultimate Shine. I bought it because it has a similar kind of spicy smell like NEW! has, and because who doesn't want shiny hair?!? 

All of these shampoo bars are $11.95 and these four bars should last me around 6-8 months! 

Sticking to the subject of hair products the next thing I picked up was a conditioner.

My hair fell in love with Veganese the first time I tried it! So of course I had to get some, it smells amazing and makes my hair super soft! I got the biggest one that is 16.9 oz for $32.95

The last product for hair that I picked up is Sea Spray Hair Mist . It may sound kind of weird, but I use this instead of hairspray now.

 I have naturally curly/wavy hair so this makes my hair look super curly and be achy.  $12.95

 Moving away from hair care the next thing I got is a facial cleanser.

  I decided to go with Herbalism instead of sticking with Angles on Bare Skin. When I made my first purchase at LUSH I got a lot of mixed messages when picking out a face cleanser, some people recommended Herbalism some Angles on Bare Skin.

 So I decided, that since I was about to run out of my other cleanser, I would try out Herbalism.  $21.42

Now, I know what you are thinking… yes, I did do a post where I did a DIY lip scrub but Mint Julips  just works way better than the one I made. This lip scrub has essential oils and is made from castor sugar which is a total 180 from the one I made ….  $9.95

Then I headed over to the emotional brilliance and got some confidence (see what I did there? hehe) , I tried confident out in training and didn't expect to like it, but my coworkers kept telling me that it looked awesome on me so I decided to get one.  $18.95 

I wasn't planning on getting soap when I walked in because I wasn't running low, but as soon as I saw that they still had Demon in the Dark I had to get some! I got a quarter of a pound, but after I left I wish I had gotten more … oh well maybe if enough people miss it LUSH will bring it back!  $9.40

The last thing I got while I was there was Karma solid perfume. I love this scent and the solid perfumes are awesome to take on the go! $10.95

I hope you all enjoyed this haul!

 If you want to know about any of these products in more detail let me know in the comments! 

Or if there are any products from LUSH that you want a review on let me know!

Until next post,

Ashton

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My New Job!

Hi everyone!

It has been a long time since I have had time to sit and plan out/put together posts for you all! I have felt sort of weird the past couple of weeks because I haven't been blogging … but if you have seen my last post then you know I have also been super busy.

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you have probably seen a picture that I posted about where my new job that I told you all about is at ….

Yup, I work at LUSH Cosmetics now! It is so exciting!! A couple of weeks after I put up my first ever LUSH review I found out that a shop was opening 45 minutes away from where I live. Needless to say I applied very quickly after they announced that they were hiring … 

Our shop has not opened yet, but I did complete training last week 

(it was super fun! and I learned a TON of stuff). 

I hope you all are looking forward to a haul soon! If there are any questions or anything you may have about a product or the company I would be super happy to answer them for you in the comments, or you can email me or tweet me, you could even Instagram a picture of a product and tag me in it, you can also add me on Facebook and send me a message! I will reply as soon as I can! :) 

I will be putting up 'regular' posts on a more routine basis soon!!

Ashton

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Updates!

Hi everyone!

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in two weeks now! Don't worry I have lots of things planned! :)    And I don't want to make excuses, but we all know what is going to happen when we hear someone say that. …

If you follow me on Twitter (@PhotoBeautyBlog) then you may have seen a tweet about me getting a new job! I haven't announced yet where it is that I am working, but I might very soon! because it is super exciting.  So the past couple of weeks I have been preoccupied thinking about that as well as school on top of it all.

Now I know what you are thinking, lots of bloggers juggle blogging, school, and work. I will applaud those who do! because I know how much work we all have between those three areas of our life. But its a little more stressful at my college. Instead of doing semesters like a normal college I have 11 week quarters, so the workload is the same (if not more) and we have 9 weeks less to get it all done.  In the world of photography it's a lot to get done especially when editing just a few pictures can become days of editing!

Hopefully soon I will be back to posting more often like I was, but in the mean time I am working on a couple of posts that will be going up soon! I promise.

 Let me know in the comments what kinds of things you want to see in the future or if there are any tags going around that you would like to see me do!!

Thanks for being patient!!!

Ashton
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ALMAY Liquid Lip Balm!

About a week ago I was looking through the newspaper catching up on current events, okay you caught me I was just looking for beauty coupons…  And I stumbled upon a really good one! 

I was lucky enough to have a $4.00 off any ALMAY product! I later found out that not every body got one of these in there section of ads/coupons that comes with the newspaper… so I was super happy!  I haven't tried many ALMAY products apart from a couple eye shadows here and the a year or so ago, but I had been wanting to try the color + care liquid lip balms that they have out. 

I got mine at Target (of course ^.^ ) and they sell them for $4.49. So when I used my coupon I got mine for just $0.49!! It was a huge steal in my opinion. 

                    























I got mine in the color 'Blooming Balm' because I hadn't used these before and didn't know how sheer they would be one I put it on my lips. In the picture on the right I built the color on my hand quite a bit, so that you could kind of get a feel for the color out of the tube, and so that you could see that it is somewhat build able. But I personally do not use this much when putting it on. It is very sheer and matches pretty closely to my natural lip color, but it adds a richer color and gloss to them (if that makes any sense at all … ) 

I was also expecting this to be like any other lip gloss. You know the ones… they feel kind of sticky and heavy on your lips. But this one is nothing like that! It does truly feel like I've just put on a moisturising chap stick/lip balm, only it adds a bit of color and shine! 

Over all I am super happy I found that coupon and tried this product. It is now the lip product that I reach for when I am getting ready, or when I need one to toss in my bag and use through out the day!

I hope you all enjoyed this post, and if you have already tried or are going to try this product I want to know what your favorite shades are and what you think of it! You can tell me what you think in the comments or tweet me @PhotoBeautyBlog ! I respond as quickly as I can, as long as I am not driving  or a professor is walking around the class room at school :) 

Hope you all are having a good week!

Ashton

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The Frankly APP

This is not a beauty post, but it is an awesome post about an app that i think is super awesome! I found it in the APP store one day just scrolling through the free section of the store and found 'frankly' . 

I decided that I wanted to tell you all about it because I don't want to be just another blogger sitting behind a computer at home, and not have any sort of interaction with you guys! Yes, I have twitter but I am going to be honest here… I normally only check twitter when I tweet or get a notification. These times when I do check it, it is normally for 15-20 minutes at a time but thats not a lot of time when you look at the day as a whole… 

If you want to get this free app you can find it here

   Once (or if) you get it you can find me by going to the friends tab and select add by pin. This is a short code that the app assigns to you…

My pin is: sarahash  

My name should show up as my first and middle name   …   Sarah Ashton

I will always respond! It may take a few minutes for me to if I am in class, or if I am driving I will wait until I get wherever I am going… 

I'm guessing that a lot of people that read this blog have heard of or have Snapchat. And this app is kind of similar, but not entirely. You can still send pictures and video and they still disappear after ten seconds, but you can also just send text! 

You also have the ability to change the size of the text… 

and the background color!! 

And when you get a message it is 'coded' so it just looks like these little squares on the yellow color below! All you have to do its tap it to see the message! After you have read it and the ten seconds is up it disappears from the senders chat and yours so make sure you keep up with the conversation, or else it could get confusing lol! 

This is just a super small look into the app, but I hope you give it a try and add me so we can chat about beauty things, blogging, or anything really! 

You can even add a pin number password so only you can get into the app!!!

I hope to add you, and hear from you soon!

Ashton

            x

Maybelline Baby Skin vs Benefit POREfessional

This is a pretty 'behind the times' post. Benefits the POREfessional has been out for quite some time, and other companies have slowly but surely been introducing their dupes for the primer. 

Over all these two products are fairly (in a very general sense) similar. Baby Skin is a clear primer and feels slightly more oily in texture (if that makes any sense at all). The POREfessional is a very neutral skin toned primer that feels oily but it is a sort of dry oil texture (I really need to get better at describing things! lol).  While these products are made to do the same thing and can be compared in that regard, they can in no way be compared price wise; The Maybelline Baby Skin is $6.99 on the Maybelline website, but I got mine at (you guessed it…) Target for a little less.  Benefits the POREfessional is $31 dollars. I suppose it all depends on how much you are willing to spend on make up, I am just now starting to break away from the 'drugstore' brands and have been overwhelmed by some of the prices I have seen! 

Never having tried anything by Benefit I figured that this had to be the first thing I tried since everyone was raving about it! I set out on a search for a mini of the product because I didn't want to spend the $31 on the full size not knowing if I would like it or not. My search lead me to Amazon where I quickly found the primer advertised as a mini for half the price as the full sized product. Atleast thats what I assumed based on the word mini and the price…

When I got it in the mail it was apparent that it was a SAMPLE. I spent roughly $14 on something I should have gotten for free, and feel really stupid about that. But I didn't return it since I really wanted to try it and figured I could make it last a while… 

Honestly I am not sure what all the hubbub is about when it comes to this product; maybe I just had really high hopes or I just have really weird skin … but I was really disappointed by this product. Part of it could be my slight resentment towards the fact that it is a sample and I paid way more than its worth for it but it didn't do wonders covering up my pores. Im not even sure I can tell a difference in the appearance of my skin after I have put it on!

I have tried it numerous times to give it a chance, but after I apply it if I even slightly touch my skin or begin to apply a setting powder it comes off in little flecks. It reminds me of the part on sunscreen bottles where some of the product gets left behind and dries (ew!)  … and then my skin just gets so dry even wham I have used moisturizer before hand. 

Maybe I just have really weird skin, or I am just really oblivious and missing a huge key in how exactly to apply this, so if you have any tips please let me know down in the comments!! 

I am in love with this primer! In my opinion this dupe blows the original pore eraser out of this galaxy. A lot of beauty gurus are probably not going to like m saying that but this product just works a million times better for my skin.  My face looks so much smoother and softer than before I apply it. AND I can actually tell a difference in my pores looking less pronounced!

It doesn't come of if i touch my face or begin to go through my routine of foundation, bronzer, blush, and highlighter. Also while I mentioned earlier that in texture it feels oily, it does not make my face look or feel oily! 

If you have any other dupes for Benefits the POREfessional I would love to know what they are and how they work for you so I can try them out! 

Ashton

                   x

Super Easy DIY Lip Scrub!

As a Pinterest addict I am always looking up fun and easy beauty DIYs that (as a student) will save me money too!  Recently, even though winter is over, my lips are still fully recovered from the cold dry wind that winters bring.

I already knew that a lot of people make their own lip scrubs, and I debated whether I should buy one or try to make my own from things I already have in my house … I decided to go this route (as you can probably tell by the headline of this, hehe )



There are only a few ingredients :
1 Tbsp brown or white sugar
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey or pure maple syrup

and you can add a couple of drops of flavoring or essential oils if you'd like :)

But it tastes pretty good without any too!

             

You will also need some kind of container to keep it in as well. I found mine on etsy.com for $8.00 including shipping. It is a lot bigger than the little sample pots you can order off of other websites and  really unique!

 

There is no specific way of combining the ingredients, all you have to do is combine and mix!! I doubled the amount of ingredients because of the size of the jar - Once I got everything mixed up it was a little more liquid-y than I wanted so I just added in a small amount of sugar and mixed until it was a good consistency.

This is by far the best sugar lip scrub that I have ever used! I was worried it would make my lips sticky because of the syrup, but it didn't. My lips are super soft and feel amazing!! Ill keep you updated on how long it lasts without going bad, and how long it lasts!

I hope you guys liked this DIY! If you decide to give it a try let me know how it turned out in the comments! Or tweet me pictures @PhotoBeautyBlog !

EVEN IF YOU ARE ALREADY FOLLOWING ME ON TWITTER OR BLOGLOVIN OR COMMENT ON THE GIVEAWAY  POST YOU WILL NOT BE BE ENTERED UNLESS YOU  ENTER IT INTO THE RAFFLECOPTER ON MY 100 TWITTER FOLLOWERS GIVEAWAY POST  ONLY 12 DAYS LEFT TO ENTER!!! 

Ashton

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