And so it begins

And me and this old man are off! If you're interested in following along on our roadtrip adventure you can do so here on instagram. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Foundation for Dummies

Ok, let's just get some disclaimers out of the way. I am in no way a beauty blogger. I didn't start wearing mascara until college. I don't know how to apply eye liner. Eye lash curlers freak me out. And chapstick is my go to in the lip department. But I have had the pleasure recently in dealing with some lovely hormonal acne that has caused me to try out quite a bit of different foundations in an effort to cover those suckers up. So from a fellow make-up dummy to another here are my honest reviews....

Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Full Coverage Foundation
I have bought this foundation on two separate occasions. It is clay so it comes out a little thicker, but it is in no way shape or form "heavy". It overs medium coverage, not full. If you are looking for a more natural foundation look, but still wanting to cover up some imperfections I would highly recommend it. My only complaint is I noticed during the warmer days it would start to sweat off a bit, even after using finishing powder. I would buy it a third time, but would only use it during the fall/winter when sweating profusely is less of a possibility.

Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Make-up
I have also bought this foundation on two separate occasions. I specifically bought this foundation because so many reviewers said it offered actual full coverage. This was when my acne was the absolute worst. I was feeling insecure and wanted a foundation that would hide as many of my blemishes/hyperpigmentation spots as possible. Well, this bad boy certainly did that. It is 100% full coverage, especially when applied with a foundation brush or beauty blender. It never made my skin feel oily and I didn't break out from the heaviness. It did just what I wanted during that time, however now that my face has calmed down I would not purchase this again. When my face is happy I prefer a more natural looking foundation and dewy over matte. I would consider trying the "light"though.

Too Faced Cocoa Powder Foundation 
Let me just start with the obvious: this foundation smells like straight up heaven. Do you remember lip smackers? And how it was hard to resist licking them because they just smelt so darn good and real? Same thing with this. So besides the smell, it goes on and stays on nicely, however I don't feel like it gives much coverage at all. I've only purchased it once, a year ago, and still have a good amount left if that tells you anything. Overall, not horrible, but nothing to write home about.

COVER FX Natural Finish Oil Free Foundation 
This is a recent purchase but I'm loving it so far. It's a creamy foundation, so not too thick, not too light. Oil-free is always a plus in my book. When I was at the store a consultant told me this brand was previously only available to dermatologist. Not sure if that's true or not, but she sounded pretty convincing, and with all the C & E vitamins and non of the parbens or sulfates I decided to believe her. After putting it on my skin looks dewy and naturally covered with is exactly what I want during these hot summer months. I would suggest wearing finishing powder with the foundtion though otherwise you might get a little too "dewy" aka oily.

bareMINERALS Complexion Rescue Tinted Hydrating Gel Cream
Another recent purchase and another love. I bought this with the pool and beach specifically in mind. I still have some redness that I'm not comfortably with, but I don't want to be one of those girls that get's all dolled up only to sweat/swim it all off, so this is the perfect compromise. Plus SPF 30. This stuff goes on crazy soft. It doesn't look like I'm wearing anything but evens out my skin tone enough where I feel confident. On occasion I have put this underneath my COVER FX and its a great combo when I need just a little extra coverage.

MICA Mineral Foundation Powder
Last, and yes least. You know those cart people in the mall that you would walk into a glass door to avoid making eye contact with? Well I'm ashamed to say not only did one of them manage to drag me over to their booth, but she also managed to convince to buy this despit the fact that I didn't have a lot of money and really didn't need another foundation. People pleaser much? The foundation itself is not terrible, but it's also not worth the price. I have only used it on 3 occasions when I really didn't care about my appearance. It doesn't go on smoothy and it does clump in certain areas. Coverage wise I would say somewhere between sheer and medium. Now, I really have not used the right brush to apply this foundation so take this particular review with a grain of salt. But really 64 dollars?!

So lets hear it, what foundation do you love?

And I'm off again

I come from a military family so a love for travel has been imbedded into my DNA. My moving timeline looks a little like this: Florida, New York, Texas, Maryland, Japan, Maryland, Indiana, Virgina, Maryland, Rwanda, Maryland, Texas, and now I am off to North Carolina. The majority of my moves were with family, a few for school, and one I knew was only for a year. This is the first time I am moving by myself with no expectations to live with my parents again, and with that comes a lot of different emotions. I am a little nervous. This is completely new territory for me. I am a little overwhelmed. Graduation, starting my first big girl job, moving out of my parents house to a new city almost 15000 miles away. That's a lot all at once. But I am also excited. I love being independent and figuring things out on my own. My mom assigned a catch phrase to each of her children and mine has always been "I can do it myself." And so on Friday I will load the last of my things into my car, make sure the pup is comfortable, hug my parents goodbye, and then I'm off to experience something new, a little scary, and a whole lot of exciting.

Currently in May

Feel free to follow along on instagram for hopefully less basic posts

Drinking iced vanilla chia soooo maybe I'm more basic than I'd care to admit.

Acknowledging this will be the last few days I ever live with my parents Lord willing.

Appreciating all that my parents have done for me. Truly, they have done more for me in the last 24 years than I deserved.

Reading nothing! I have a never ending list and nothing but time, but for some reason haven't gotten to it. I'm going to try to read The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jo Jo Myers. I've already read Me Before You and loved it, so I'm hoping this one will be just as good and easy of a read. I'll let you know how it goes.  

Craving watermelon. There's one sitting in the kitchen as I type and the only thing stopping me from indulging is how much it makes me pee and I would rather not have to get up a million times in the middle of the night. 

Watching 90210 please don't judge me.

Going to P-Cola in 3 days to see the boy graduate, beach it up, and eat more than I should.

Planning on a real deal roadtrip to P-Cola. I downloaded the roadtrippers app and managed to find 7 stops along the way. Not sure if I'll be able to do all 7 because of the pup coming with, but we're certainly going to try. 

Eating pancakes, ice cream, blondies, BBQ, and anything else I can get my hands on while still in San Antonio. I'm going to miss all the food the most. So I lied, clearly I'm already eating more than I should. 

Dreaming of Rwanda. It kind of hurts my heart I'm coming up on 2 years since I've moved back to the states and still have yet to go back. It's funny to think about the fact that it only took me 2 days to decide to move to Rwanda and 4 months to make it happen, but it's taken almost 2 years of a desire to return and still no actual plans. I may not always understand God's timing, but I know and can rest knowing that it is always perfect.  

Waiting for Whole Foods to get it together. Their shelves need to be restocked asap. 

Praying for the future, and whatever that may entail. 

Sleeping not so great, but much better than I was a few nights ago. I mean it's only 3:25 am. Yay for progress!    

Working on finding a job. This whole doing nothing isn't working out. 

Loving my new blog design! If your shopping for a new look I couldn't recommend Eve more so be sure to check her and her gorgeous designs out here. 

Thankful I got the writing bug back.

What are currently up to?

Another change

Because I currently do not have a life I have fallen back into my night owl ways. Two nights ago I fell asleep at 9am and woke up at 330pm. Last night I fell asleep at 11am and woke up at 3pm.  When I move next week I am fully aware I am in for a rude awakening. But the whole point of me sharing my sad life is to say I have finally reached the point of netflix-can't-even-fix-this-boredom that I’ve decided to start blogging again. 

So now that I’m actually going to give the ol’ blog here a real college try it’s time for a change, both appearance wise and name wise. I am and will always be impacted by my time spent in Rwanda, but God has me on a new and just as exciting path right now, and I want my blog to reflect that. So this little blog of mine will go from Forever Changed (coop4cause.blogspot.com) to E-nuf Said  (e-nufsaid.blogspot.com). I'll continue blogging about everyday life, travel, and what God is doing, but I'm also going to start blogging about trying recipes lord help me, switching to more natural living, DIY projects, and whatever else I feel like in the moment. So basically we're going to be all over the place and I'm excited. I hope you continue to follow along! 

*new blog design & url to follow

The business of growing up

So clearly I have gotten lazy about writing. Part because I felt I had nothing to write about and part because I would rather binge watch Netflix I watched the first 3 season of scandal in 3 days. Judge hard.

 http://www.pastemagazine.com

So besides wasting away my life watching Olivia and Fitz go back and forth what have I been up to? Well, I started and finished an internship at a homeless shelter, graduated finally with a degree in psychology, started job searching, and started gearing up for my move to North Carolina.

 

officialwhitegirls.com

 

I'm excited to finally put on my big girl panties, move out of my parents house, and start working, but I'm also a little nervous. It's weird to think at 8 years old the idea of 24 seems so mature and put together but the reality is I still have to look at the void check as an example before writing a new one, I still feel like I'm doing something wrong when I order an adult beverage, I still wait before I'm out of underwear before deciding doing laundry is a good idea, and I still get pimples probably the biggest let down. So maybe when I'm 30? But probably not. Growing up is weird, beautiful, and never ending after all.  And just because I feel her pain...

Happy Thursday!