Quick and Easy Teeth Whitening

Hi everyone! I know I probably don't have a huge audience but I just wanted to say I'm sorry for being gone for roughly a year I'm guessing.  It has been a very long crazy year and it still is. However I really want to try to make this blog a thing of mine. Not just a whim hobby.  I set up a word-press account but I'm still figuring it out.  The address for that is afternoonramble.wordpress.com. I will be following a rough schedule there and here so I will be posting Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  My current idea is Rambling Monday, Weight loss Wednesday, and Foodie Friday.

So now that that is out of the way onto the title of this post.  I apologize beforehand for not having before and after pictures. This is just something I do when I feel it's needed.

Imagine, you wake up and enjoy the most delicious cup of coffee before getting ready for the day.  Today you feel fierce and decide to rock a red lip.  Looking into the mirror you think "I'm hot!" and then you smile.  Your mojo pools onto the floor as you see yellow teeth.
   Has that happened to you? It has to me.  I always gt confused how yellow they seem to turn overnight.  No way am I paying 40 bucks for white-strips so I came up with the easiest way to whiten your teeth.  Depending on your store you might spend $6 or you might just have these on hand.  You will need hydrogen peroxide and a Q-tip, whitening toothpaste is optional.

• Take your Q-tip and dip 1 side into the peroxide
• Smile like you're applying for clown school, teeth bared
• Brush peroxide on top set of teeth (don't put on fillings, it will hurt), Keep smiling!
• Repeat process for bottom teeth and you guessed it, keep smiling

You want to keep this ridiculous smile on so the peroxide doesn't wash away right after you put it on. Stay like this for roughly 30 seconds. During this time I like to put everything away and get my toothbrush ready.  I like to use the Crest whitening toothpastes for good measure and just brush your little heart out. And that's it!  Easy thing to add to your routine right? I only do this once a day for about a week but depending on your teeth sensitivity or if you feel your teeth are really yellow you can do this two times a day.  

   You might prefer this method because it's cheap, quick, easy, isn't as harsh for those with sensitive teeth, and doesn't give uneven whitening. Are you confused by that last one?  Well I used a sample whitestrip and when I took it off I had blinding white polka dots on my teeth. As soon as I smiled you could tell, cute right?  So I had to warn my husband so I didn't scare him away when he got home. Luckily I fixed it with the peroxide trick after a couple of days. 

If you try this out please comment and let me know below!  

Revlon Lash Potion Mascara Review

Alrighty today I have some more terrible pictures of another beauty product, go figure. Anyway this is Revlons newest mascara out that promises length and volume. And really I know a lot of people do multiple coats of different mascaras to get those two things. However I'm lazy and want 1 mascara to do it all. On top of that, I don't even bother with more than 1 light coat. I hate when my eyelashes stick together and start looking like spider legs. I also hate when they are crunch and just bleh.
   I needed a new mascara in black since I grabbed the wrong color when I used the clump crush and decided to try this, it's new and I had a couple coupons that made it only $2.69! Since when is mascara ever that cheap? Speaking of price this retailed for $4.99 at Target which is cheap to begin with.

                                                                   

Its super pretty packaging. Purple blue green and sparkle! 

It's quite a large tube. One thing I find interesting as that it comes like this in the package, I kinda like when the brush is separate in the package. I feel like it keeps the mascara fresher and I get a weird sense of satisfaction from seeing that clean brush haha.  Another downfall for me is that as far as I could see, there is no water proof version. 

                                                                      

A ginormous wand! 

The wand is huge which scared me when I saw it, I thought for sure I'd poke an eye out! But it's actually quite nice. Its a spiraled brush which you can't tell from here, but it reminds me of those pictures of the spiraling DNA strands. Is that weird? Why must my brain make these comparisons. Anyway it's a great brush for getting those strands separated.  

Now I love that this mascara is cheap, the brush, and how it makes my lashes look. It really does add length even though my lashes are pretty long. I didn't curl them for the upcoming pictures and I know they are blurry, stupid webcam but in person it is a crazy difference. I'm not sure how much volume it gives but length for sure. It's fantastic. 

                                                

Before application

Excuse my crazy wide eye, I didn't curl my lashes. But I can tell the difference it makes in the upper lashes they look thicker and separated. 

That being said I will not be re-purchasing this mascara. The reason being that it smudged on me like CRAZY!  Now I do have oily eyelids and skin in general so that could be a problem. So maybe this would work if you didn't have that problem or live somewhere crazy humid. But I have both of those problems and even if it was only worn on the top lashes a little while later I literally had black on my cheek. It was terrible. So I'm not sure that I will use this up, maybe if I just do a certain look for this blog and not going out which is a shame. I really like the formula except that it's not waterproof and smudges. I think if there was a waterproof version it would be my go to mascara. So if anyone knows if I missed that please let me know!  

I think it's worth a try for those who don't have oily eyelids or live in crazy humidity. I mean it's cheap after all so I'm not sweating it too much. 

Any recommendations for a good mascara? 

Yo Mamma!

What? No one else thinks of Yo Mamma jokes when they see the "Not Your Mothers" hair care products? Well fine then, onto the actual point of this blog.

I was terrible and had some retail therapy yesterday and while in the hair aisle I decided I need to start trying to do my hair.  So naturally I went for the most interesting bottle that was also fantastically cheap.  No kidding at Target this brand is $4.75 across the board.  For a big bottle might I add.

                                                         

Sorry terrible pic but you get the basic idea of what it looks like. 

 So the proper name of this is actually "Not Your Mothers Beach Babe Texturizing Sea Salt Spray"  Infused with Dead Sea Salt and Sea Kelp.  That might sound scary but anything with sea salt in it I'm all over. I keep seeing this sort of thing pop up as well. But seriously back to the price, the size of this bottle ( 8 oz) for $4.75 how cool. 

So basically I've always sucked at hair and this seemed perfect for summer, just spray and go and have it be wavy and awesome and be a model. Well in my head. It is supposed to add waves, texture, and separate. All you have to do is mist generously all over your hair and you can use it dry or wet.   

My hair does tend to have some wave to it already but nothing great and some pieces are flat while pieces like my bangs curl so weirdly that it looks like the letter L.  But after I came home I tried it on my pretty straight dry hair.  I have to say I wasn't a big fan of it that way. I felt like it made it chunky to the point of looking like I hadn't washed my hair in a couple of days on the top of my head.  It also just felt strange. I brushed it out a bit and that helped but it looses some of the effect that way.  

This morning right out of the shower I decided to try spraying it in wet hair.  I think I like it better this way  but for me it does make my hair take quite a long time to dry for some reason.  I think the wave looks better, though I did miss pieces. And another downfall is that it made my hair incredibly frizzy and had a lot of fly aways. I guess that does happen after being on the beach but I have a problem with frizz to begin with. But no matter I took some styling spray (I'm sure you could take hairspray or anything you use with frizz normally) and just sprayed it on my hand and combed where I needed it. 

                                                           

This is what it does for me. It's a little difficult to see with my dark hair but it does add nice wave. 

I'll continue to experiment with this but I do like it. The smell is strong but lucky for me I love it haha. But for the price why not try it?  Hope you have a good day!  

Mani Mania: A Cheaper Alternative

Ok so I know I've been on an Essie kick through this whole thing. That hasn't changed too much, there are still a lot of colors I want in my collection, especially in the Resort collection.  For the last 3 weekends I've searched every store I've been near hoping to find In the Cab-ana and Under Where? A Blue and purple that I've been obsessed with finding. But frustrated I found myself in Target looking one last time hoping to find it, but nope of course not!  But I did see the display for L'oreal polishes.
   Back when I was younger I tried a few Salley Hansen polishes and a couple glittery wet n wild ones that I just wasn't a huge fan of but hey, how could I complain? Now that I'm on my own I've been a China Glaze, OPI, and Essie only person. I know I feel like a snob but really it was just the other polishes always chipped right away and I just don't have the time to do my nails every other day anymore.
   There were two blues on the stand and since I was mainly after a blue, just to shake up my normal colors, I took a look. There was a brighter one that was pretty but the one I bought was a darker turquoise color. The name is quite appropriate, I've been obsessed with getting back to the ocean and just the colors of it all and this really seemed like a good color for me.

What is it you asked? Of course it is L'oreal but it is called Now you sea me.

                                                     

Such a beautiful ocean blue. I love that it's a brighter color but it's not a super bold blue like most polishes I see. I just can't pull off blues very well. 

It's very opaque, I only ended up needing 2 coats though in the beginning I thought I'd need 3. The brush I'm not sure about, it is a wide brush a lot like the Nicole by OPI. I'm not a fan of big nail brushes but I got used to it pretty quick and it's just a personal preference. 

The great thing about this that has really impressed me though has been the lasting power. I bought it thinking it would only last a day and chip all to hell.  But as you can see they look brand new, I just took this picture, but painted my nails on Sunday. Crazy right?! Plus it's only about $5 and some change. I'm all for a great polish at a cheaper price. I am not a L'oreal fan for makeup but I am in love with this polish. I will probably take a closer look at the other colors next chance I get!