Beauty Watch: Summer Love List

Since summer has arrived and is in full swing, I thought I'd compile a list of beauty essentials  I'm loving this season. ♥

With the sun blazing and humidity in full force, the first thing on my list would have to be my hot tools waver.

Have I mentioned how much I love this styling tool? If you don't have one, you need it!

This waver is a-m-a-z-i-n-g! It's super easy to use and gives you fabulous waves.

. I love doing my hair this way if I know I'm going to be outside a lot. 

Its perfect for a summer cook out or a day on the beach. 

 The humidity here in va beach makes it nearly impossible for me to wear my hair straight during the summer 

time, so this is a great alternative for those of you with the same problem. 

Here are a few photos so you can see the end result.

Love, love, love it!! ♥ 

Next on my list would have to be the NYX "Nude on Nude" Palette. 

Not only does this handy little collection come with 9 natural shades for your eyes and 2 lip glosses, but its very compact and easy to take on the go.

 I love using three or four shades together and I like the fact that there are a few "shimmery" shades as well as some "matte" shades. 

The pull out lip gloss tray is genius, and the colors are gorgeous! ♥ 

When it comes to summer time, you definitely need a good lotion to keep your skin looking soft and sunkissed. 

Two of my favorites right now are Hempz Herbal Body Moisturizer and Ulta Vanilla Sugar Moisture Intense Body Butter. 

The Hempz smells like breezy floral and strawberry banana and makes your skin so soft and glowing. 

This is the lotion I use everyday! It works great for your whole body and will leave you feeling fresh and smelling summery and sweet. ♥ 

The Vanilla Sugar body butter smells amazing and has a deeper moisturizer.

I usually use it on my arms and elbows, just to add a little extra pampering for my skin. :) (sorry the pic is so small, it was the only one I could find!)

One of my favorite summer essentials this year is the "Getaway Glamour" 58 piece collection from Ulta. I am in love with all the different colors and varities I can try out. 

There are a ton of gorgeous eyes shadows as well as 8 lip gloss shades, powder, blush, bronzer, sparkly lip gloss and some black and brown eyeliner. 

Basically everything you need to look gorgeous! :)Here's a shot of me wearing one of the eyeshadows from the collection, called sage. I adore this eyeshadow!

I also can't get enough of this mac blush called "dainty." Its shimmery and light and makes your whole face glow. 

Well lovelies, there are probably a million more things I could post but that's all I have for now. :)

I'll be sure and post anything else I come across and happen to adore this summer. ♥

What products are you loving this season?

A day at the beach

Sunday was a gorgeous day, and my friend Sarah and her hubby decided to get me out of the house and head to the beach. First we stopped at this local restaurant/gift shop called "Taste Unlimited" and this place was AMAZING!!! 

 They had an array of different sandwiches along with a shop full of other goodies. I got something called "the northerner" and it was delicious...I also got some yummy cherry coke in the glass bottle. It was pretty fancy, and delicious to boot! ;) 

We brought their puppy Ajax along, and sat outside in the picnic area. The sun was shining and it was just an all around gorgeous day. Look how cute he is!

He had a blast and was excited to meet the other doggies there too. :) 

After eating our lunch we headed down to the beach and spent a day in the sun. 

 Ajax played and swam in the water until he was exhausted and shivering.

 Poor little guy was so cold I had to wrap him up in my Hello Kitty blanket and hold him like a lil baby! ♥

He had so much fun, but really enjoyed being held and wrapped up nice and warm afterwards. :)

We had such a good day, and it was so nice to be out in the sunshine and enjoy the beauty in this world.♥ 

All Dressed Up: Out On the Boardwalk

It's Wednesday and that means its time to link up over at Lady's blog and show off your outfits! Today I was lucky enough to have the day off, and I got to spend the day with a good friend of ours from back home. Jimmy and Isaiah went to school together since they were three years old, and they both just happened to get stationed here in Virginia Beach...it's so nice having someone to hang out with that you know from home and that misses all the same things you do! :) I also figured it was an occassion to wear my new dress I got on Monday with Sarah. I am in looooovveee with this dress! Its so comfy and casual but can be dressed up a little more with the right accessories.

  We decided to live on the edge a bit and try some Greek cuisine...we ended up at this little ocean front restaurant called Ammos. This was my first time getting Greek food, and I failed epically and forgot to take a picture...dang it! 

 Although I forgot to capture how yummy our food was, I can definitely say it was delicious. We got to sit outside on the terrace and had a fantastic view of the ocean from our table. We ordered some fried zucchini with a Greek dipping sauce, and it was interesting. I loved the zucchini of course but the sauce I wasn't crazy about, a little too much garlic for my taste. Anyway for the main meal I got a grilled chicken pita with romain lettuce, roma tomatoes and some kind of cucumber sauce. It was delicious!After we ate we decided to walk along the boardwalk and grab a starbucks. Here's a view of the beach today...

;And here is a snap shot of me enjoying the windy day on the boardwalk. It was a little cooler than I'd hoped, but nothing was stopping me from wearing my new dress!

I was also dying to jazz it up a bit with these light turquoise and orange bracelets.

And of course you can't forget the shoes...I adore these bright multicolored sandals I Got from Target 2 summers ago. I call them my "Mexico Sandals" because thats what they remind me of. They are one of my absolute favorite pairs of sandals and I will wear them until they have holes and are falling apart! ;)

All in all we had a great day, and I got to enjoy a beautiful view of the ocean and play dress up...Now that's my kind of day. ♥ This next photos a little blurry, but I still thought I'd share it with you. I think it has a little mysterious quality to it. Also please forgive the huge size of all my photos...I edited them to be smaller, but for some weird reason they are still appearing ginormous!

Here's a shot of my necklace, up close and personal. I love the little white elephant on it...too cute!♥

 Well that's all I have for today my darlings, but we will meet again next week for "All Dressed Up." I hope everyone had a wonderful Wednesday!♥

Dress: Forever 21, Shoes: Target, Necklace: Styles For Less, Earrings: Charlotte Russe, Bracelets: Forever 21