Madi loves "Stay Matte"

I started wearing makeup daily when I was fourteen years old. I am now seventeen years old. You could probably fill a whole display shelf at a store with all the bottles, tubes, and compacts of foundations I've used. My favorite is my current foundation I use called "Stay Matte" by Rimmel London. I use the liquid and powder foundation together. The liquid foundation comes in a tube and the powder comes in a pressed powder compact.

 The thing that is really great about just the packaging of the liquid is that it comes in a tube rather than a glass bottle like a lot of liquid foundations. Because it's in a tube, it's easier to get every last bit. Imagine if your toothpaste came in a glass bottle. It would be really frustrating and difficult to get any toothpaste on your toothbrush. Because of the fact that it is in a tube, the consistency is naturally thicker (almost like the mini containers of sour cream you get at fast food restaurants or school lunches). In my opinion when it comes to foundation, the thicker the better. This allows it to be spread out further and it does a better job of covering acne, acne scars, and clogged pores.The products are called "Stay Matte" because they are long lasting and doesn't give a shiny or oily appearance.

I like the powder because it is a long-lasting pressed powder. I prefer pressed powder over loose powder because it lasts longer after each use because you don't use as much each time. Loose powder has the tendency to look "cakey".

If you're tired of your current foundation or looking for what to try next, look to Rimmel London's "Stay Matte" for the reasonably priced "no mess, no fuss" makeup for your skin.

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Cords

Recently I purchased a pair of corduroy pants from Old Navy. Corduroy pants or "cords" are making a comeback in popular fashion since its last popularity boom in the 1980s. There are many properties cords have that make them highly desirable. They're comfortable, functional, and just about as classic as jeans. You can find cords in just about any color you can find a blouse or shirt these days. They can also be found in practically any cut or fit that you can find denim jeans in. I managed to snag my cords at $13 but the main reason they were so cheap is because someone returned them to the store from online so they were half off. This means that the original price was less than thirty dollars which is fairly reasonable. This makes cords the perfect garment to add to your winter wardrobe.

I recommend Old Navy for cords as they are well priced.

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Exfoliation and Moisturization

Winter is officially upon us whether we like it or not. Even if it's not snowing wherever you live, the air is definitely lacking humidity and moisture. All of this causes our skin and lips to be rough, dry, flaky, chapped, and altogether uncomfortable. What's the solution? Exfoliation and moisturization. Exfoliation, for those that don't know, is getting rid of the top layers of your skin that is just dead skin. This leaves the new, heathy, and unexposed layer of soft skin. Your next step is to moisturize. You can do this by using some type of moisturizer like a lotion for example. This hydrates your skin and keeps it healthy for as long as possible until it's time to exfoliate again.

To exfoliate is easier than one might think. A simple scrub with something abrasive is all you really need. "Exfoliating beads" are in a lot of face and body washes these days but even sugar in a homemade sugar scrub will do. A recipe for a sugar scrub can be as simple as two cups of sugar (for exfoliation), one third of a cup of olive,almond, or coconut oil (for moisture and consistency), and two tablespoons of lemon juice (for scent and refreshment).

To use a sugar scrub, apply in circular motions with moderate force before using your razor when shaving your legs. After you shave, the dead skin should be gone and your legs should feel smooth and hairless like a  baby's bottom. A lip sugar scrub can be used similarly, just without shaving. Make the proportions three or four tablespoons of sugar, half a teaspoon of oil, a teaspoon of honey, and a drop of vanilla.

Even though the oil has moisturized your skin, still remember to apply a moisturizer like a lotion, body butter, or balm. This will extend the effects of this process.

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What's The Benefit?

There are a million and one mascaras you can buy from a variety of places and believe me, I've tried a fair amount of them myself. But there is one that stands out among the rest: Benefit's "They're Real" . To have such a name indicative of its power just really shows how well it works. The goal is to give the appearance of full and natural lashes and it does this so well that people might have the suspicion that you're wearing fake eyelashes.

Ok this sounds great, right? Why doesn't everyone just buy this mascara problem solved end of story? The reason is that it's $23 for one full tube. Benefit has become privy to the fact that their mascara has become so widely popular that they have recently come out with a smaller sample size tube priced at $10, which is still more expensive than a full tube of what most people buy like Maybelline or Covergirl. And with a current trend of wearing multiple coats of mascara at once, the size of a tube that only gets maybe about 10 to 12 applications is still highly expensive. Some people try to make a tube of mascara last until it's expiration date which is about 3 months. This adds to about 90 applications. If you bought sample size Benefits, it would cost you over $90 in just mascara rather than something like $8.99. 

So then why would anyone spend that much on mascara? Well, buying it at the price of $23 at a time wouldn't cost quite as much as, but why would someone pay almost 3 times as much for mascara? Some people aren't as determined to try all the mascaras made to try to find a comparable mascara for not as high of a price. As a student with a minimum wage job, I've found that L'oreal Paris' "Million Lashes" do a pretty decent job for its price of $9 per full tube.

Benefit's benefit is that they make such a high quality product that has been praised on high by many a woman and many a magazine. So you have to pick your benefit- budget or beyond compare lashes.

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