Uni VoxBox

So I received the Uni VoxBox from influenster to sample and I have to say I'm not that crazy about a couple of the products. I have received two voxbox from influenster before and have loved everything about them but this voxbox is not that impressive. I was really hoping to be able to use all of the products in the box but unfortunately I was not able to.

The very first thing that I noticed in the box was the Rimmel liquid foundation. First off, the foundation is not my skin tone at all. It's not even close to my skin tone. After receiving this I looked to see what other shades Rimmel has and I have to say I am very disappointed. The shade I received was the darkest shade they had. These types of foundation are not made for women with a darker skin tone like me. The second product that I didn't use was the playtex sport. I didn't use this product because I don't wear tampons. These two products were a huge let down for me. 

One thing that I really loved about the voxbox was the impress manicure. I really liked that the press-on nails are super easy to apply. I also like the design that I received. I also loved the pilot pen. At first I was a little disappointed because I have more than enough pens in my house but this pen is now my favorite pen to use. I definitely will be buying more Pilot Pens. I also like the NYC Lipstick. I liked the color. It is a little bright that I like but it was workable. I really like that it doesn't make my lips feel dry. At first I was a little skeptical about the real tea because I'm not a huge tea drinker but I have to admit that it's not that bad. 

I don't think that I will be buying everything in this voxbox. I probably will buy more Pilot pens but other than that, I will not be buying anything else from this box. Although I like the lipstick, it didn't really wow me enough for me to switch from what I use now. Although I also like the press-on nails, I will not be buying them also for the same reason as the lipstick.

Journey to Losing Weight 2

So I had decided to work on my portion control and use the app myfitnesspal to help track what I eat.

I wasn't using myfitnesspal as often as I should have but I did use it for quite a while. I have to say that I absolutely love this app. At first I ate what I normally to see where I was lacking in nutrients as well as to see how much calories I was taking in. I was definitely shocked to see the results. I was eating a lot of calories and not enough nutritious food to balance my meals.

I few things that I have noticed are, even though I don't eat a lot of fatty foods, I take in way too much sugar and carbs. I also wasn't getting a lot of vitamins from the foods I ate as well.

After seeing the results, I definitely changed the way I ate. I notice that now my food intake is more balanced and more nutritious. I have also improved in portion control as well. Although I'm still not 100% on the portion control, I am definitely getting better at it. I have started to use smaller plates and eating a healthy snack in between my meals to help me eat less during my meals.

So far this journey is getting better but I still have a long way to go.

Journey to Losing Weight 1

Losing weight has never been an easy thing for me, usually whenever I try to start my journey I always give up around 1-2 months in the journey. One thing I decided to try to keep going was to cut down on the amount of times I workout and the types of workouts I did. I decided to try and workout about 3 times a eek, of course if I worked out for more than 3 days then that's better but 3 days a week was my goal. I did that because I noticed that whenever I would skip a day it would set me back a lot because I started to get lazy. By doing 3 days a week, even if I skip a day I know that I can keep going the next day. I also decided to change the type of workout I did for the same reason. I use to do p90x and Insanity and whenever I skipped a day I would get lazy about completing the rest of the week. I decided to do workouts that don't require some type of schedule to complete it and that is more fun for me. I decided to do workouts by Billy Blanks and just dancing. Although I'm not a professional dancer, dancing is definitely a workout that I can do that is fun. I usually dance for about an hour and the Billy Blanks workout I do is 45+ minutes. These workouts are fun and I sometimes end up doing them for more than 3 times a week because I really enjoy doing it.

One huge problem that I have though is eating. It's not that I eat unhealthy foods, because I've been working on that, but now I'm having a hard time with portion control and having a set time for eating. I don't wake up at the same time everyday so my breakfast is at a different time almost everyday. I have a hard time with setting my eating time. I'm also having a hard time with portion control. I know how much I should be eating but I keep on wanting to eat more then I need to.

So far my journey has been alright, I hope to get better though. I plan on using myfitnesspal, which is an app that helps you count calories as well as how much fat, cholesterol, sugar, etc. that you are eating in one day. I hope that this app will help me not only control my portions but help me to have a more balanced diet as well.

Journey to Waist Length 2

I've finally decided to join a hair challenge. I've always wanted to join some type of hair challenge but have always been to late in trying to sign up. I've decided to join the castor oil challenge done by kinkycurlycoilyme.com. I decided to use cold pressed castor oil that I got from amazon. I plan on using the castor oil as a scalp and edge treatment because my edges need a little TLC. I decided to straighten my hair, even though I had plan on not using heat or any styling tool. I wanted to straighten my hair so that I can see the full length of it and be able to compare with the after shots when the challenge is over. I'm really excited about this and hope that this challenge will help my hair grow a little bit more.
After straighten my hair I ended up trimming a huge amount of my hair because the ends were sooooo horrible, I hadn't trimmed my hair in months. I think I trimmed off about 2 inches of hair and now my hair ends feel pretty good. I plan on combining the castor oil challenge with protective styles to maximize my hair growth.

Journey to spending less money 1

I've had a hard time lately about saving more money but I'm doing a little bit better now because I've found a new way to save more/ spend less money.

So in my journey to save more money I ran into a few YouTube videos showing how some people were able to spend a few bucks on items worth over $100 by couponing. I decided to give couponing a try and went to my first couponing trip after days of researching how to coupon properly and reading the coupon policy for each store. And these are the fruits of my labor:

Journey to ten garments 1

After a lot of hard work and a very long night I was finally able to complete my first succesful and completely wearable garment. I followed a pattern for this skirt but decided to make a few adjustments since I didn't have the twill tape mensioned in pattern. I decided to substitute interfacing for twill tape and changed the hem allowance so that the skirt didn't turn out too short. I'm in love with this skirt because not only did I make it but it was so cheap. I got the fabric on clearance for $4 a yard. It has little hearts on it and is super cute.

The hardest part of this garment was putting on the zipper. I ended up breaking one of my needles because I got too close to thw zipper. Luckily I had a spare needle to use. The skirt took me about 5 hours to make, hopefully I get better at this and can complete the next one in less than that, maybe 2 hours. I have definitely learned a lot from this experience and hopefully my next garment will be even beter.

Journey to Waist Length 1

My ultimate hair goal is to reach waist length. Although I've been natural all my life, I never really knew how to take care of my hair and because of that my hair never grew past shoulder length. A little over 1 year and a half ago I decided to take better care of my hair. I researched online and found a bunch of forums with a pile of helpful information. Then I found a lot of natural youtubers who helped me find the best way to take care of my hair and keep me encouraged even when I get stressed out about my hair. Now my hair is at bra strap length and it has never looked better. Now that I've finally got a good regimen for my hair I've decided to set a hair goal for myself. Although this is not going to be easy, I hope to get to waist length by the end of 2014.

Here are a few things I've decided to follow to get to waist length:

1. Keeping my hair in low manipulation and protective hairstyles
• I plan on keeping my hair in protective styles that will last more then a week. If I don't have time to do a protective hairstyle then I'll keep it in a low manipulation style. 
2. Deep Conditioning my hair more often
• I plan on deep conditioning at least once a month and doing protein treatments more often as well. I haven't done a protein treatment in my hair in a long time and whenever I do a protein treatment my hair feels so nice and soft.
3. Moisturizing my hair at least twice a week
4. Trim my hair when needed
5. Never using a comb
• I plan on using my fingers to detangle/comb my hair from now on. I tend to be rough when combing my hair so I hope this will help