December Luxe Box...

 It's here! My December Luxe Box from Loose Button has finally arrived!

 love the personalization

 featured samples from left to right: DDF Advanced Firming Cream, Nina Ricci L'Air perfume, Nina Ricci Nina perfume, China Glaze polish in Material Girl (full size!), Kerastase Elixir Ultime, and a foil chocolate with the loose button logo.

I tried out the Kerastase Elixir this morning and my hair feels like absolute butter right now.  I've been wanting to try out Morrocan Oil, but now I'm tempted to get the full size of this.

 I'm really happy with my first luxe box and I'm excited to receive one every month! Christmas in a box! So fun!!

 xo,

melissa

sephora haul...

 whilst christmas shopping online, i got distracted and before i knew it, these goodies arrived in my mail box.  Oooopsie.  honest mistake right? i guess i'll just have to keep them! :)

ok fine, i went on sephora to buy some falsh eyelashes and then lost complete control!!

benefit's tan about town (i always get sucked into the value products)

UD falsies in black velvet

 Urban Decay's Naked Palette 

 the colors are ah.maz.ing

 also picked up this fun little palette from urban decay (feminine palette)

absolutely love the colors in this one too!

 completely forgot to grab outfit shots when i got home from work and only realized after i put on my pj's....however i did snag two shots on my iphone this morning!

(blouse: ruche (borrowed from jana)//pants and shoes also from ruche

november favorites...

could i BE any later with this post??

here are a few of my favorite things from november in a couple of different categories...

 mac eyeshadow in satin taupe (makes a lovely smoke!)

too faced shadow brushes from sephora

Uglies series...SO GOOD

amarixe

You tube beauty bloggers, i've watched way more beauty videos that i should be admitting to last month!

a few more of my fav utube beauty gals...

makeupByAlli

FleurDeForce

makeupTIA

MissGlamorazzi

and two of my favorite tunes!

xo, 

melissa

all buttered up...

 revlon lip butters (creme brulee, cherry tart, strawberry shortcake)

 finally! i got my hands on some of the much anticipated revlon lip butters!! it's seriously a huge bummer when things are released in the US (and raved about online), but then are not due to be released in canada until a month or more later....TORTURE!

i think these aren't due to hit canadian stores until January, or at least they haven't hit any of my local stores, but thanks to well.ca i was able to snag up three of them (for now).  i'm in love, i have never been a lipstick wearer (slowly getting into that), so to have something that feels like a gloss yet looks like a stick well, i'm in LOVE. and i can see quite a few of these hitting up my make up bag in the future.

wearing: creme brulee

xo,

melissa

surgery #2...

 hi all!
i'm BACK! if you remember from this post, i had my second reconstructive surgery last wednesday.  i went into the hospital with a mix of emotions.  excitement because my journey would be coming to an end and hesitant because my first surgery was just seven weeks earlier and i was still a bit traumatized over it all.  at one point, while i was waiting for the anesthesiologist, i thought about running out of the hospital.  i had a little panic attack, but i stuck it out, i knew i was doing the right thing.

 recovery has been interesting this time around, i was a lot more stomach sick, even three days post op so i had to stop my pain meds to help out my stomach.  i rather pain, then feeling sick...once that went away i felt almost human.  just a stiff one with a mild case of t-rex arms and frankenboob.

i got my stitches removed yesterday and don't see my doctor for another three weeks so i guess it's just me and the twins, gotta take care of them to make sure everything goes well.

through all the pain this entire process has definitely been worth it.  if obviously isn't for everyone, but it was the right decision for me...i regained what i once lost and so far, it's awesome.

xo,

melissa 

the post of christmases past...

 hey all!  i'm jana, from randomness at it's finest!  i'm doing a little guest post while our lovely melissa is a little under the weather.

cliff-notes version of our friendship to get to our post:

we met in grade 7, when melissa's class graduated from their elementary school and moved to my junior high school.  we hit it off right away! well, after a while... in the spring actually.  because for some reason, when we met, and our two groups of friends merged as one, we each thought the other was a complete snob, and didn't talk to each other. go figure. 

lo and behold, some 18 years later, we're still BFF's.

enter our topic: christmas.

since the dawn of time, or junior high, we started the tradition of our gift exchange on christmas eve.  melissa comes to my family home every christmas eve and we open our prezzies together, before she heads to mass with her family, and all of my mom's family comes over.

enter 2007:

 here we are, showing off our new purses.

(mandatory photo in front of the tree) 

2008:

 melissa buys me awesome vintage teacups, and an amy butler apron.

then proceeds to call me 'sally homemaker'.

i think she planned these gifts purposely so she could tease me!

2009... oh wait, we skipped photos that year, as melissa was 3 days post-natal from having cutie pie Avery (my amazing godson).

2010...

we tend to purchase each other similar items/themes every year... 

and our classiest to date: my tacky christmas party in 2008.

we be stylin.

stay tuned to melissa's blog for our 2011 christmas eve exchange!!

:)

j.

swappies!!

 another round of clothes swapping with jana!!
finally i got to borrow her arrowhead dress from ruche! it's a little longer than i would generally go for in a dress since i don't have the longest legs on the blog but the pattern simply makes up for it! i just love it!

and of course i had to try and match my eye shadow to the dress incorporating some browns and navy blue.  i used all shadows from my Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Collection from the neutral side i started (from inner corner out) with vanilla (shimmery white gold) then midnight 15 (oyster pearl with silver glitter) and midnight rodeo (medium metallic brown with silver and gold glitter) finishing off with ace (dark gunmetal shimmer) on the outer corner to smoke it out a bit.  lined my upper and lower lashes with black out (darkest, most saturated black).  i'm seriously having way too much fun with smoking my eyes lately!

(on the phone w/ my mama)

AND! did ya see that Urban Decay released the new palette NAKED2?? I don't even own naked 1 yet (but i ordered it!) but naked 2 looks pretty fun too....i may or may not have put my name down on a waiting list.....what? i like shadows....and i looooove neutrals....i think i can do some pretty sweet 'smoked' looks with that palette that will be great for the office!

yes, i realize that is just way too much excitement to have posted about eyeshadow....

xo my lovelies!

melissa

what i wore: on friday

 took these shots but forgot to post (apologies)
this is what i wore on friday, usually i got more casual (as in pants), but Jana and I were planning a clothing swap for Saturday and she wanted this dress so I wanted to wear it one more time!
today I'm wearing one of jana's swapped dresses, so stay tuned to this afternoon to see that outfit!!

dress//cardi: ruche

xo,

melissa