Standout Products of 212

I cannot believe that 2012 is already over. Making it to 2013 means that the world has yet again made it through an apocalypse scare, my best friend is getting married this summer and it is the year of the snake. I have a few resolutions to set forth this year, such as washing my make up brushes more regularly, actually running instead of pining to be one of those girls that can run around for what seems like miles and miles, and to start eating healthy on my own.

With the start of a new year comes the release of brand new products from all of the beauty companies, so before I start doing reviews on the new products, I wanted to give an honorable mention to all of my standout products of 2012. I buy a lot of makeup, and I enjoy almost all of it, but as with everything, a few shining stars always break through and make their presence known. So, without further adieu, here are my favorite products over the last year.

• Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer

As a fair skinned girl, I can rock some pretty intense dark circles under my eyes and I am always on the lookout for a good under-eye concealer to help combat this. This has been my saving grace as far as drugstore concealers come. I have tried practically every concealer in the drugstore (true story) and this is the only one I have ever finished, let alone repurchased. I use the shade Light because I need some coverage as well as highlighting, but I have used the shade Radiant to go on top of my MAC Pro Long-wear, which I wear when I am going with a full glam face of makeup. This Maybelline I can wear with only a little powder on top and I look good to go all day. It does crease a little on me, but I have some lines already set in my under eye area due to longtime wear of contacts and glasses. This is my holy grail concealer and I don't know what I would do without it anymore.

• Maybelline Volum' Express the Mega Plush Mascara

 I have already written one review on this mascara, but I had to include this in my favorites for this past year.
 This mascara is nothing like I have ever used before. While it doesn't give a false lash look by any means, it gives my eyelashes a very natural look, and the feel of them after I use this is incredible. I am so used to using mascaras that make my lashes brittle and stiff, but these are almost pet-able (almost). This mascara feels so great on my lashes, and when used over any of my other mascaras, which I do quite often, it gives amazing volume. Definitely worth picking it up, if you have somehow not tried it yet.

•  Wet N Wild Mega Last Nail Polish

If you haven't heard any kind of rave review on this nail polish yet, welcome to my soap box. I cannot even count how many of these I have off of the top of my head right now. If I ever need a new nail polish, this is the first display I look at to see if they have what I'm looking for. Anytime a limited edition collection pops up, I scour it like I was looking for treasure, which I kind of am (beauty treasure). This nail polish rivals my Essie and OPI nail polishes, and the staying power is truly incredible. I can go on and on about this polish, in every single color, but this would be a very long blog. For $1.99 a bottle, you can't go wrong with any of it.

• Wet N Wild Mega Last Lipstick

These lipsticks are like the unsung heroes of the drugstore. If you haven't ever tried these, I highly suggest them. These lipsticks are usually about $1.99, come in an array of colors from nudes to dark purple and reds, and are a drugstore MATTE FINISH LIPSTICK. I always have such a hard time finding a truly matte lipstick at the drugstore, but these never fail me. The pigmentation on these is out of this world, and there are more than a few MAC dupes in the collection, including dupes for Viva Nicki, St. Germain, Rebel, Pink Nouveau, Russian Red and Creme Cup. These lipsticks are a steal for the price, and I always end up picking up one more that I don't have anytime I go to my drugstore to look for practically anything.

• Revlon Lip Butters

I am pretty sure these were a late 2011 release, and I acquired a few back when they first came out, but I had to include these, because they are so life changing when it comes to lip color. I have picked up a few shades throughout the year, and I have not regretted any yet, and probably never will. Creme Brulee is a wonderful nude, especially for a girl that doesn't care for nudes much. Cherry Tart is my go to red lip, especially in the spring and summer. The way they feel is incredible and the way they perform on the lips is just as impressive. While on the pricey side at about $7 a piece, they have lasted me for a good long while, and I will repurchase any of them if I ever run into that problem.

And for my grande finale...

• Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

If you are interested in makeup in any form or fashion and you haven't heard of this god-send, I don't know where you have been for the last year. I do know for a fact that this was a 2011 release, but I didn't acquire it until 2012 and I absolutely HAD to include this. Since I have gotten it, I haven't used any other eye shadows in my collection. The quality is incredible, the colors are perfect, and I have not had any kind of problem utilizing this palette for any occasion yet. I had a hard time trying to decide between the Naked and Naked 2 Palette when I was making my decision, but I prefer cool tones over warm tones on my eyes. Both of them are beautiful and I am so impressed with the shadows now that I have them to play with. This is my favorite item I have gotten this year, and I would buy it again if I ever have to, but I don't anticipate hitting pan on any of the shadows any time soon. The price tag of $50 is a little scary, and I must admit that that was a deciding factor with my holding off on acquiring the palette, but it is completely worth the money, and I have gotten $50 worth of use out of it already, and I have barely scratched the surface.

Thank you for stopping by the blog today, and be sure to let me know what your stand out products were this year. What changed your make up and beauty life this year? What are you looking forward to this coming year? I am always looking for new products to try out!

Personal Tidbits
- We got snow on Christmas Day here in Texas! It was so gorgeous. I hadn't ever seen snow on Christmas before, so even in my 20s, I was awestruck.
- Starting from base level when running really makes you see how out of shape you are. I hadn't run in almost a year when I started back up again, and quickly remembered why I had stopped before. Busting your knee when your running is zero fun sir. But I have a brand new knee strap waiting for me today, so hopefully if it doesn't continue to rain, I will be able to get back out and keep building my endurance. 
- I am ready for the spring to get here. So many new exciting adventures and preparations will pick up starting in about March, and I am so excited. 

Thanks again for stopping by! Y'all are awesome!
Love, Hannah Leigh

Let's talk make up...

Hello lovelies,

So today, I wanted to do my very first make up post, and to commemorate this grand occasion, I wanted to talk about my very favorite make up product category out there, MASCARA. This idea came to me while I was getting ready this morning for work, and found myself being incredibly tedious with my mascara, even though that is literally all I am wearing today.

I, my friends, am a mascara FIEND. I have a ridiculous collection of half used, but all needed mascaras. They each do something different for me, and I know exactly which ones to pull out for whatever lash look I am wanting to go for. So, I thought I would share a few of my favorites with all of you.

My all time favorite mascara is the L'Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black Million Lashes.

I could swear by this mascara and have repurchased this many times over the last 2 years or so. This mascara is the blackest of the black, and it is a dryer formula than most. I have pretty average lashes, not too many not too little, not too short not too long. This is perfect for me. I get all of the definition I could want plus volume to boot. In my opinion, with this mascara, I could never go wrong.

Running a close second behind Million Lashes is L'Oreal Carbon Black Double Extend.

 The Carbon Black mascaras are seriously the darkest black mascaras I have ever tried. I cannot even explain how wonderful that is to me (I don't care if I'm a blonde, I love me some blackest black mascara). This mascara is no exception. The 2 step process is pretty fantastic, and this combined with the Million Lashes is pretty much my holy grail. The primer is the reason I use this. I love to have extreme length to my lashes, and this helps my lashes out big time. I always add the primer to my lashes first, let it set, then run my Million Lashes through before adding the black from the Double Extend (Note: Depending on how I want my lashes to look that day, I sometimes reverse the use of those two for more definition and less volume). This mascara gives me wonderful length thanks to the primer, and fantastic volume from the black mascara.

My other notable mascara from my collection is the newest addition, and if you read any beauty blog or watch any beauty guru on YouTube, you've definitely heard of this one.

Maybelline Mega Plush Volum Express.

Let me just say that I do, in fact, love this mascara, and I love what it does for my lashes. BUT  I have to say, because I have seen negative reviews on it too, it is ALL about how you use that brush. The brush on this mascara is a triangle. There are 3 sides with long bristles and also 3 sides with shorter bristles. The short bristles is where all of my love for this mascara comes from. When I want to go for a truly natural look, I use the long bristles and I'm done. When I want to add some legitimate volume to my lashes, I get those short bristles into my lashes, and I never hate the results. And the formula. My goodness, it is so wonderful. It really does make your lashes soft and touchable, not stiff and brittle. I think I read in Cosmo one time that you should use a soft mascara so your boyfriend can touch your soft lashes. Now, I don't know about all of that, but I know if I touch my lashes and they're soft, I love the feeling.

So, as you can see, I love me some thick, long, dark lashes, and I pretty much rock that look on a daily basis. Mascara has always been one of my favorite things to buy, and I get so excited when I see a new brightly colored tube hit the shelf at wherever I am at the time. It's a self control issue. I am totally aware.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, and if you have any requests for things you would like for me to write about, feel free to let me know!

'Til Next Time,
Love, Hannah Leigh

Photos Courtesy of L'Oreal USA and Maybelline USA

Long time, no see

Hello lovelies,

Sorry for the severe hiatus from the blogging universe. With life's changes, blogging just was not the first thing to come to my mind. So let me catch you up.

In May, I graduated from University, and when we last spoke I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. I was still living in my same house in my college town, and I was trying to figure out where the next move was going to come from. I ended up in the good ol' town of Abilene, TX and worked a couple of different jobs until I settled into an office in a high rise, doing a little bit of everything. So it seems that, at least for right now, I have found something to do with my life.

If anyone has ever heard of Abilene, they probably know that there is quite a large Air Force base in this city (praise the Lord for Blues on Mondays). Since moving to Abilene, I have seen my fair bit of Airmen wandering through out the town, and I have seemed to find myself one of my own. That's right. After 22 years of saying I would never be strong enough to be a military SO, I am one. And it has honestly been one of the best experiences of my life so far. So there's that.

Other than that, I have just been trying to get my life to settle some, and hopefully be able to slow down these days. My best friend, Sami, deserves a special shout out in this post because she is the one that alerted me that I had abandoned my post and I needed to get back into blogging. So I will.

I have a few posts planned out to be up in a few days, and honest to God, whenever I figure out how to add pictures into these posts (sorry, I'm still new to the scene), this blog will be up and running.

Until next time,
Love, Hannah Leigh.

About Yours Truly

Hello beautys! I know this post is a little bit later than I had planned but life has been hectic over the last week. I have been helping people move, started a new job, and have been trying to get my life figured out now that I am a college graduate. Anyway, this post is to let everyone know a little bit more about me and the person that is trying to share her opinion. I have come up with some questions over the last week that I feel are important to know me as a person, and what I am going to be discussing over the course of this blog. So, lets get this started.

*Name: Hannah Leigh
*Age: 22
*Location: Texas, USA
*Industry: Up until a few weeks ago, I was a professional student, but since I graduated, I have been working retail trying to figure out what I am going to do with my life.
*Degree: I have a Bachelor's of Science in Sociology with a minor in Political Science
*Relationship Status: Single
*Favorite Makeup Brands: I love drugstore make up, due to the fact that a college student budget doesn't always allow room for high end make up brands. My favorites are ELF, Wet n Wild and Rimmell.
*Favorite Recipes: My favorite recipes are always snack and dessert recipes. I always find some fantastic ones on Pinterest. My favorites are Betty Crocker's Honey Bun Cake and Eagle Brand Milk Magic Cookie Bars. (I will link at a later date)
*Favorite TV: Glee, Secret Life of the American Teenager, and a lot of reality television. I also enjoy watching the History Channel, Comedy Central and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
*Favorite Music: Classic Rock, Texas Country, John Mayer, Zac Brown Band, Crizzly, anything else you can think of I probably listen to.
*Favorite Movie: I'm only going to pick one, but I think my favorite might be Freaknik: The Musical.
*Beauty Inspirations: I only got into make up and hair because of watching YouTube and looking at other blogs. The one I recommend to absolutely anyone that's looking for ideas is Beauty Broadcast on both Blogger and YouTube. I also subscribe to Glamourista16 and LetsMakeItUp1. They're great to look at for younger girls and LetsMakeItUp1 is great for any kind of hair tutuorial that you can find. Side note: if you're looking for something wonderful to watch on YouTube and you haven't seen any of Jenna Marbles stuff yet, I don't know what you are doing with your life, I really don't. What Hip Hop Songs Taught Me is the funniest thing I have ever watched.

So there is a little insight into who I am. I hope you enjoyed it and be looking out for an upcoming blog on how I have transformed my desk area in my room of my house to a vanity area. It was my graduation present to me. If there is anything else you are interested in knowing about me, feel free to ask in the comments section under it and I will do my best to answer anything you're interested in.

Peace&Love.

Hello There...

My name is Hannah Leigh and I recently graduated from Tarleton State University with a degree in Sociology. I began this blog because I love a few different things and I just want to share them with the world. This blog will mainly focus on make up and hair products, reviews, tutorials and etc, along with shopping content. I may also throw in some recipes, because I do love to cook.

I want to focus on the blog, but I hope to be able to do videos. I really am passionate about these things and I hope to please my readers.

The next blog will be so you may get to know me and I will try to do my first video. I'm so excited to start this blog and we'll have to see how this goes! If you have any recommendations for anything, by all means let me know!

Love and life,
Hannah Leigh