Huge Beauty Haul - Sephora, Ulta, and B&BW

Over my blog break I went to Sephora, Bath & Body Works (semi-annual sale), and Ulta (a few different times) and I thought you might be interested in what I purchased. If you're interested, I could do a review on some of them too. Let me know!!

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Bath & Body Works

True Blue Shea Cashmere & Silk Shower Cream || 3-Wick Candle in Endless Weekend || Forever Red perfume || Mini candles in Champagne Toast || Triple Moisture Body Cream in Endless Weekend, Velvet Sugar, and Mad About You

Loved the Endless Weekend scent, obviously. The mini candles were only $1 each and they're gold, so I just thought they were cute. Actually really love the Forever Red scent. A huge fan of the Triple Moisture Body Creams. I like the Shea Cashmere & Silk scent more when I'm just smelling it out of the bottle.. It's really strong for a shower cream.

Sephora

Josie Maran 100% Argan Oil Light || Two Faced Bronzer Wardrobe Collection (not available) || Kat Von D Tatto Liner in Trooper || Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Rockstar

Two Faced Bronzers

Milk Chocolate Soleil || Sun Bunny || Chocolate Soleil || Endless Summer

Top: Urban Decay Glide On Eye Pencil in Rockstar
Bottom: Swatches of Two Faced Bronzers - L-R - Milk Chocolate Soleil, Sun Bunny, Chocolate Soleil, and Endless Summer

I wanted to test out the Josie Maran oil before I bought a whole bottle, because it's pretty expensive, but of course, I absolutely love it! You would not believe the wonders it does for your skin. Obsessed. I couldn't decided on what Two Faced Bronzer I wanted and I just happened to walk by and end-cap with this special Holiday edition tester pack thing, so I bought it. Excited to try the Kat Von D liner. Beyond obsessed with the Urban Decay liner and more, I'm in love with the Rockstar color. When applied on your eyes, it's not quite purple, not quite black, not quite brown, and not quite gray. It's just amazing. Especially for my green eyes.

Ulta

Tarte Light, Camera, Flashes Statement mascara || Revlon Colorburst Balm Stain in ***** || Stila All Over Shimmer Duo in Kitten || Revlon Colorstay Concealer || Maybelline Color Tattoo Metal Cream Eyeshadow in Barely Branded || Ulta Eye Shadow in Sable || Palladio Lip Liner in Raisin || Ulta Eyeliner in Black || Calvin Klein Lip Liner in Mistress || L'Oreal Smoldering Eyeliner in Black

Swatches of Stila Kitten on top, both sides
Bottom is swatches of the eye shadow and eye cream

Swatch of the Revlon Colorburst Balm Stain - But I can't for the life of me remember the shade right now - Will update

I really like the Tarte Light, Camera, Flashes Statement mascara, but I will say the the brush takes some getting used to. I'm not ready to give a full review yet. Also, I should note that I didn't want this particular Tarte Light, Camera, Flashes. I wanted the 4-in-1 mascara, but they only had the Statement mascara. There is a difference. In love with the Revlon Colorburst Balm Stains, especially the matte ones, by the way. Excited to really try this Stila highlighter, I've watched ton of reviews on it. Love the Maybelline Color Tattor cream eyeshadows as a good base. Ulta products were buy 1 get 1 free, so I got a shadow and a black eyeliner, just because. Really excited to try out this Palladio lip liner, because it was a pretty affordable brand. Okay, I'm in love with the Calvin Klein packaging AND the price of the lip liner was so worth it. Love this liner and I definitely want to try more of this brand! Also, so far I'm loving the L'Oreal Smoldering Eye pencil. I want to try some new things with it though, so we'll see.


So there you have it! A lot of products, but like I said, it was a collective haul this time!
Happy Wednesday!

January Book Reads

First of all, I really want to thank everyone for their input on my post from Sunday! To update everyone, I do think I'm going to try switching to self-hosted Wordpress. Having said that, I have no idea what I'm doing. So any other tips/tricks/advice is always welcome!

Something I forgot to mention in Sunday's post that I want to address now - I've decided on a posting schedule. In the past I was a lot more "willy nilly" with my posting and completely inconsistent. I liked this and I didn't. I liked having freedom, but I'm a little type A, so not having a set schedule annoyed me and more than anything else, it made me lazy. I've decided now that I will be posting blog posts consistently on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. That will mean a minimum of 3 posts a week and it'll be something my readers and friends can count on. Any posting on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays will be considered bonus posts! But I will not guarantee that they will exist week to week.

Moving right along to a bonus Tuesday post!

Yesterday Jen posted a fabulous 12 Month Book Challenge and I decided I needed to make it happen. It helps that she posted this on the same day I pledged on Goodreads for their 2015 Reading Challenge to read 20 books this year. I originally pledged to read 30 books, but realized with everything I have going on this year I might be setting myself up to fail.

20 books in a year is slightly less than 2 books every month, which is perfect because some months will be more hectic than others. This month I've decided to try to read THREE to get a head start.

In December I started trying to read before bed every night instead of playing on my phone, because I think my phone plus my laptop were factors in my inability to fall asleep most nights. Reading has been helping, so that's my current plan.

My books I chose for January are as follows..

Girl Online by Zoe Sugg

Penny has a secret. 

Under the alias GirlOnline, she blogs about school dramas, boys, her mad, whirlwind family - and the panic attacks she's suffered from lately. When things go from bad to worse, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets the gorgeous, guitar-strumming Noah. Suddenly Penny is falling in love - and capturing every moment of it on her blog. 

But Noah has a secret too. One that threatens to ruin Penny's cover - and her closest friendship - forever. 

Zoe is a very popular British YouTuber, whom I watch pretty consistently. I like Zoe and I like her videos, she vlogs as Zoella, and I like her friends. This is her first book, which was released in November. I ordered it the week it came out and it's been sitting around waiting for me to read it ever since. I just like supporting people I like and who I think deserves it. Sue me.

Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew...

A good friend of mine read this last year and she texted me and recommend it, so I told my sister, who actually bought this for me for my birthday last year. I just never got around to reading it, so now, a year later, I'm making myself finally read it. It also fits into Jen's 12 Month Challenge: A book that's been on your to-read list for over a year. I mean, almost a year, whatever. I'm a cheater.

Sex, Lies, and Online Dating by Rachel Gibson

SEX...
What is it about men anyway? Bad cars, bad jobs, even bad teeth -- nothing convinces them that they can't snare a Size Two Babe with a D-cup chest. And after way too many internet dates with men named "luvstick" and "bigdaddy182," Lucy Rothschild should know.
LIES...
But sitting across from her now is "hardluvnman," and he seems different -- sensitive, honest, and hot! He says he's a plumber, while Lucy claims she's a nurse! She's really a mystery writer, dating online while researching her next book. Hey, everyone lies a little, don't they?
AND ONLINE DATING...
But Quinn's really an undercover cop hunting down a serial killer, and he sees Lucy as his top suspect. And while he could really go for this smart, sexy woman with the killer bod -- if that's the only thing "killer" about her -- he knows he needs to wine and dine her and discover the truth. Hey, he realizes the dating scene can be deadly -- but this is ridiculous!

I have a few Rachel Gibson books and I liked them all, some of them quite a bit. Mostly though, this book was on my shelf of books I've purchased that I haven't read yet. I've mentioned the store Half Price Books before and it just sucks me in every time and then I leave with a book or two. Now that "book or two" has grown into an entire shelf of books I haven't read. I chose a light, easy read to follow up Paper Towns, which I don't think is going to be light and easy.

Want to read any of these with me this month? OR what're you reading instead?

24 Things From My 24th Year

***In case you missed it - I wrote a surprise Sunday post yesterday! I'm announcing some news in it and asking for some tips and advice. Specifically about switching to wordpress and etc. etc.***

One of the things that I love about being a January baby is that my birthday always goes directly with the new year. Which means that today there are only 24 days left of my 24th year (my birthday is the 29th in case you didn't want to do the math). How odd. I very (very, very, very) vividly remember being stressed, worried, freaked out, and even upset a few months back about my upcoming 25th birthday. Now here I am, 24 days away, and I'm just crazy excited about turning 25.

However, it's not time to talk about that yet. For today I want to quickly recap my 24th year.

4 Of My Most Popular Blog Posts - As Chosen By You

Garlic Parmesan Turkey Meatballs
Which are so freaking good and still one of my favorite recipes.

15 Words To Use More Often
I'm so glad this post gets so many hits, because it is one of my absolute favorites! A nice, big vocabulary is so attractive in a person and I loved sharing those words with all of you!

Meal Preppin'
This is a post about how I used to meal prep a lot, but honestly, I don't love this post and it's not quite as accurate now. But it's a popular post and I do think I included a few good things, especially the recipes I used.

24 On My 24th
I wrote this so quickly before work on my 24th birthday and it seems everyone loved it. It's definitely a fun post to read now that I'm coming up on my 25th birthday!

3 Of My Popular Posts About Blogging

36 Of The Best Blog Post Ideas.. EVER!
I still love this post and I still love getting the emails from people telling me that they used my ideas! Now I need to kick my own butt and do some more of my own ideas!

Blog Followers vs. Blog Readers
I wrote about the difference and about blog friendships and how much I love having blog readers.

Blogger Dictionary
It is slightly embarrassing how much time I put into this post. Weeks. I spent weeks compiling my list of words. I love this post. One of my personal favorites.

**Bonus**
Why Blogs Die
I absolutely love this post because it is so honest and relatable. Blogging is hard and time consuming and only other bloggers can really get that. So I'm adding this one because I love it so dang much.

9 Instagram Pictures

I chose 9 photos from my Instagram that reminded me of things I wanted to remember from my 24th year. Some of them are the most random pics, not all of them are perfectly insta-glamours, but they remind me of specific memories that make me smile. Sigh, 24.

5 Seflies Of My 24 Year Old Self

This is just to remind you of how awkward I am. Holla.
…Do people still say "holla"?

3 Vacations I Went On In My 24th Year

Las Vegas, NV (my post about this trip) || St. Louis, MO || New Smyrna Beach, FL (my home away from home - post-ish about t
This year involved some of my absolutely favorite vacations of my entire life. I can't even possibly go into detail because I'll start to get emotional or something ridiculous, but honestly, these vacations were fantabulous.


So there you have it.
24 things from my 24th year.  
Putting this post together made me smile and cringe and laugh hysterically and tear up all at the exact same time. I was ready to say goodbye to 23, really ready, but I might miss 24 a tiny bit. Except that I'm so crazy excited for 25 that I can hardly stand it!

Hi January! & Hi 2015! --Some News & Help Required--

Happiest of holidays to you! Basically a super late "Merry Christmas" and a kind of late "Happy New Year"!

I have a special little Sunday blog post for you today!
My first ever Sunday blog post!

I had every intention of not taking so much time "off" from Blogland during the holidays, but things didn't turn out that way. I have a really large family, which meant lots and lots of different Christmas get-togethers, my best friend got engaged (see pic below of my excitement), and I've just been soaking up all of this time with everyone. I had mentioned that I didn't feel like I got to enjoy Thanksgiving this year because of my insane work schedule, so I took a little extra time to enjoy everything this holiday break had to offer. However, I've had quite a bit going on behind the scenes of The Best Of Intentions this break and I wanted an opportunity to clue you in and ask for some advice/assistance.

The Best Of Intentions is going to be getting a fairly serious face-lift in January 2015. I'm talking botox, lip injections, implants, liposuction - the whole she-bang! For my 25th birthday I've decided to give a gift to my blog, because that obviously makes perfect sense.

Right before Halloween I had a crazy idea pop into my head and I let it sit in there for a few weeks before I told anyone about it, just to see if I was still excited about it or if it was just one of those things. Mid-Novemeber I finally mentioned it to someone, but I really wanted to let simmer a little longer. I wanted to make sure that I was sure and I wanted to make sure that this wasn't just a crazy idea. It's January now and I've filled an entire notebook with thoughts and plans and excitement. I'm still really excited.

I'm telling you all of that to tell you all of this: I'm going to be changing my blog name (among other things). I never really fell in love with "The Best Of Intentions" and it doesn't quite have what I'm looking for anymore. Since I had decided to change my name, I started thinking about making some other changes as well. Particularly the Blogger vs. Wordpress decision.

From all of you I'm looking for some advice, comments, questions, concerns, etc. The good and the bad!
-- If I do decide to switch to Wordpress, I'm going to need some help/a lot of help - Any recommendations? Any comments at all?
-- When I change my blog name, I want to purchase the domain name. If possible I'd like to stay away from GoDaddy.com. I haven't heard the best things and I'd love some new suggestions. Who did you use?
-- Blog name suggestions? I know that's fairly personal, but I'm open to anything.
-- Also, tips on how to deal with changing my name and Bloglovin? Like how does this work.. ?

Last but not at all least, I just have to say that I wouldn't be putting any of this work in this little piece of the internet if I didn't have all of you. I never thought anyone except my parents would read anything I wrote and I could never have imagined actually making friends via Blogland. Seriously, and from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate you and think you're the greatest!

Get ready 2015, I'm comin' for ya!