H&M Makeup Haul and Swatches

I was at H&M buying a few items for Christmas when I saw their makeup display. I'm so glad that H&M decided to start selling makeup again because they had a few years without selling it. I used to love their shadows when I was in high school.

I picked up a lip balm, a lip gloss duo and an eye-shadow quad.

Their eye shadows are just as pigmented as ever. They are really smooth and not chalky at all. The pictures of the swatches below were taken in natural light. I got the lip gloss because I liked the pink gloss in the duo. The red could be useful over a red lipstick however for the holidays.

The eye-shadow quad was $5.95 USD, the lip balm was $2.95 USD and the lip gloss was $2.95 USD as well.

I did a look using the shadows but like the absent minded person that I am, I forgot to take pictures. I will post an EOTD soon. 

Repeat Offender (Thanksgiving OOTD)

So remember how I said I would re-do some outfits for you guys and show you different ways to wear them? I decided to do it for Thanksgiving with an outfit I wore back in Spring. The first time I wore this outfit was on Mother's Day, I even did an OOTD video on it. 


So here is the first time I wore the outfit, May 2011..

And this is how I wore it today for Thanksgiving..

Forever 21 polka dot top
Forever 21 pink shorts
Joyce Leslie over-the-knee socks
Rouge booties

To make the outfit more appropiate for Fall, I added some over the knee socks and black wedged ankle boots. It is very possible to wear shorts in the Fall, most of them look great with tights under them. Just be sure that the material is not too thin. So you don't have to put away your shorts when the weather gets colder ladies, there's still some use for them!

You can view the OOTD for the original outfit here:



Stay tuned for more repeat outfits. Also, if there are any past OOTD you have liked that I did, let me know by email (Hav@abeautywithbrains.com) and I'll do a repeat outfit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

(CLOSED) ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN ADVANCE-SCREENING PASSES TO SEE NEW YEAR'S EVE!

An early Happy Thanksgiving to you all! As a little treat, I will be giving you all a chance to see the highy anticipated movie "New Year's Eve" before it hits theatres nationwide.

A little about the movie...

Film: NEW YEARS EVE
Studio: Warner Bros
Starring: Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Reed Bennett, Jessica Biel, Zac Efron, Sofía Vergara, Lea Michele, Hilary Swank, Michelle Pfeiffer, Abigail Breslin, Halle Berry, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sienna Miller
Directed By: Garry Marshal
lRelease Date: December 9, 2011
Genre:  Romantic Comedy
Rating: PG-13
Trailer: http://www.newyearseve-movie.com/

Synopsis: Director Garry Marshall and a stellar ensemble cast will ring in the 2011 holiday season with the romantic comedy “New Year’s Eve.” “New Year’s Eve” celebrates love, hope, forgiveness, second chances and fresh starts, in the intertwining stories of couples and singles, told amidst the pulse and promise of New York City on the most dazzling night of the year. The film stars Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Academy Award® nominee Abigail Breslin, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, two-time Academy Award® winner Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Hector Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Academy Award® nominee Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Ryan Seacrest, two-time Academy Award® winner Hilary Swank and Sofia Vergara. Reuniting with Marshall from last year’s hit romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day” are screenwriter Katherine Fugate and producers Mike Karz and Wayne Rice. Serving again as executive producers will be Josie Rosen and Diana Pokorny, joined by Heather Hall as co-producer. The creative filmmaking team includes director of photography Charles Minsky (“Pretty Woman,” “Valentine’s Day”) production designer Mark Friedberg (“The Darjeeling Limited,” “Morning Glory,”) editor Michael Tronick (“The Green Hornet,” “Hairspray”) and Oscar®-nominated costume designer Gary Jones (“The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “Valentine’s Day”). “New Year’s Eve” will be shot entirely on location in and around New York City.

I wil be giving away FIVE (yes, five!) passes away for screenings in each of the following cities:



Wednesday, 12/7/11 7:30PM
Dallas, TX
AMC
NorthPark 158687 N Central Expy # 3000
DallasTX75225

Wednesday, 12/7/11 7:30PM
El Paso, TX
Cinemark Tinseltown USA
11855 Gateway West
El PasoTX 79936

Wednesday, 12/7/11 7:30PM
Houston, TXEdwards Marq’E Stadium 237600
Katy Freeway
HoustonTX 77024

Wednesday, 12/7/11 7:30PM
Los Angeles, CA
Krikorian Pico Rivera Village Walk
158540 Whittier Blvd
Pico Rivera CA 90660

Wednesday, 12/7/11 7:30PM
Miami, FL
AMC Sunset Place 245701
Sunset Drive South  
Miami FL33143

 To enter, just leave your name and email as a comment below. Winners will be selected randomly. Winners will be contacted by email and will receive the passes in pdf format so they can print them out. This giveaway ends December 2nd, 2011 at 11:59 pm. Good Luck!

Disclaimer: I was contacted by a PR company to host this giveaway and was provided with the items.

NYX & Essie Haul

This is a haul of numerous items that I have bought in different places. I bought them all in a course of a week and just wanted to share them as well as my thoughts on some of the items.

"pumpkin pie" lip swatch

I purchased a palette and a liptstick off of Amazon from the seller BeautyJoint. The palette is the ten shadow Runway Collection in "Strike A Pose". The lipstick is their round lipsticks in Pumpkin Pie. I was pleased with the lipstick. It's a nice nude with an orange tone. A nice color for everyday. I will wear a neutral lipliner under it since I have pigmented lips. I was kind of disappointed with eye shadow palette. I already own one ("Bohemian Rhapsody") which I love but this one hardly has any pigmentation. Some colors I had to swatch heavily for it to show up.

"real nude" swatch

 "whipped" swatch

I also bought a few NYX items at a beauty supply close to my morning job. I always get excited when I see a store that has NYX because they aren't many in NYC. I purchased 2 of the round glosses in the shades "Real Nude" & "Whipped" as well as a white eyeliner. I've been wanting to try out the round glosses for a while. I really like them! They have good pigmentation and aren't sticky at all. The only thing is that they have a strange pine-sol type smell. It's not a huge deal for me though.

ewww at the sloppy paint job

I also got one of the nail polishes from the Essie holiday collection in the color "School of Hard Rocks". I love it! 

Music Review: Formula Vol 1 by Romeo Santos

Album: Formula Vol 1
Artist (Artista) : Romeo Santos
Release Date (Fecha de Lanzamiento) : November 8, 2011

We all know how obsessed I am with this guy. After all, he's the man that I plan to marry one day. Ok, I'll stop with the creepy devotion. Anyway, I wanted to share how awesome this album is. Romeo Santos is the lead singer of Latin supergroup Aventura. This is Romeo's first solo album, and he definitely nailed it. As always the lyrics are on point and he experiments with different music genres. My personal favorites from this album are "You", "La Bella y La Bestia" and "Mi Santa". A couple of the songs are really personal, where he addresses his insecurities and how sometimes fame isn't always all that pretty.

Aventura is missed in this album. I miss Lenny's production, his beats were always crazy-creative. Formula Vol 1 doesn't have any melodies that had me saying "Wow" but I was blown away with the lyrics. Guess we can't have everything.

For the most part, the album is great. There is one semi-crappy song ("All Aboard"), it was full of corny entendres and I really don't like hearing Romeo singing in English. It just sounds odd to me. I also found the intro a little corny, but that's because I don't find George Lopez funny at all. But skip those and you'll enjoy the album immsensely. And Romeo makes up for it by having Antony Santos, Luis Vargas AND Raulin Rodriguez all in ONE song ("Debate de 4"). He is truly the man for that.


 Todos sabemos lo mucho que estoy obsesionado con este tipo. Después de todo, él es el hombre con quien me voy a casar algún día. Ok, voy a dejar con la devociónes peluznante. De todos modos, quería compartir lo maravilloso que es este álbum. Esta es el primer álbum en solitario de Romeo (cantador del grupo Aventura) y él definitivamente lo logró. Como siempre, las letras están en punto y experimenta con diferentes géneros musicales. Mis favoritas canciones de este álbum son "You", "La Bella y La Bestia" y "Mi Santa". Un par de las canciones son muy personales, donde se dirige a sus inseguridades y cómo a veces con la fama, todo no es como parece ser.

Aventura hiso falta en este álbum. Echo de menos la producción de Lenny, sus ritmos son siempre una locura creativa. Fórmula Vol. 1 no tiene ninguna melodía que me había dicho "Wow", pero me quedé impresionado con la letra. Supongo que no se puede tener todo.

En su mayor parte, el álbum es genial. Hay una cancion que es so-so ("All Aboard"), ya que estaba lleno de sentidos cursi y yo realmente no me gusta oír cantar Romeo enInglés. Suena extraño para mí. También encontré la intro un poco cursi, pero eso es porqueno encuentro George Lopez divertido. Pero si ignoras esas par de canciones, vas a adorar el resto del disco. Y Romeo lo compensa por tener Antony Santos,Luis Vargas y Raulin Rodriguez todo en UNA canción ("Debate de 4"). El es verdaderamente el rey para poder lograr eso.

Rating (Clasificacion): 3/4

L.A Girl Mark My Eye Eyeliner Pen Review

I fell in love with this eye marker when I saw YouTube guru SCCastaneda use it in one of her tutorials. I just had to have it! I had trouble finding it locally so I just chose to order one online. It was sold out on Cherry Culture so I bought it off of Amazon. The seller had it shipped promptly and I received it within a week. I was amazed by how easy this product it is to use. You can control how  thick you want your line to come out. The thicker shape makes it easy to use for looks such as a winged eye. It is also long lasting, it stays put with out smearing or fading for hours at a time. I am very satisfied with this product and would highly recommend it especially to makeup rookies and/or those intimidated by traditional liquid eyeliners.

Overall:
Pros: Easy to use, very affordable, smooth application, user-friendly
Cons: not available locally but easy to find online
Rating: 4.5/5

The LA Girl Mark My Eye Eyeliner pen retails for about $7.00 USD and can be found on Cherry Culture or on the LA Girl Cosmetics Main Website.

OOTD and Hav's No Buy Challenge

This I what I wore last night to my twin niece and nephew's 5th birthday party. I went out with some friends afterward so I needed a transitional outfit as I like to call it. I wore flat shoes to the party then switched into the wedged boots. Can you believe this outfit cost under under one hundred dollars??? I posted the details beneath the second picture.

Esto yo lo que llevaba la noche anterior a la celebraccion de cumpleanos de mi sobrina y sobrino. Son gemelos y cumplieron cinco anos de edad. Salí con unos amigos después, así que necesitaba un equipo de transición, como me gusta llamarlo. Me puse los zapatos planos a la fiesta y luegos cambie a las botas de cuña. ¿Puedes creer que este costo en conjunto menos de cien dólares?? He publicado los detalles debajo de la segunda imagen.

dress (vestido)- Forever21 $12.80

tights (medias)- Hue $6.00

wedged boots (botas)- $30.00

necklace (collar)- Forever21 $5.80

ring (anillo) - Forever21 $6.80

My No-Buy Challenge (Mi Desafio De No Comprar)

I have noticed that I spend too much on clothing and that I could save a lot by cutting back on my shopping. I have decided to go on a no-buy and challenge myself to spend less and be more creative with the clothes I already have. I'm going to be blogging about my journey and also doing posts on any repeat outfits worn a different way. Wish me luck!

Me he dado cuenta de que gastar mucho dinero en ropa y que me podría ahorrar una gran cantidad por la reducción de mis compras. He decidido ir a un no-comprar y desafiarme a mí mismo para gastar menos y ser más creativos con la ropa que ya tenemos. Voy a serun blog sobre mi viaje y también hacer los mensajes en cualquier trajes usados ​​repetir de una manera diferente. Deséame suerte!