Top 5: Mascara 

All right guys today I’m kicking off my Top 5 beauty series and I thought I would start off with Mascara. So today I’m going to tell you my top five choices and why. I’m sure everyone had different favorites and I have by no means tried all the mascaras on the market, so my top five is based on what I have personally used. I would love to know your top five so please share in the comments.

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Too Faced:

Better Than Sex Mascara,

From the website this is an intensely black, volumizing mascara with an hourglass-shaped brush the separates, coats and curls.

The first time I used this mascara I was very impressed, while I only own the travel size the wand was very easy to hold and I had no issue sweeping the brush over my eyelashes. I found the color to be dark and when it dried my lashes still felt nice and they was no flaky mess under my eyes at the end of the day.

  

           Milk Makeup: Ubame Mascara

From the website this is a lash-loving, buildable, 74 percent natural mascara formula that won’t flake and stays put all day.

When I saw the brush  of this newly launched brand I new I wanted to give it a try. I believe that the shape of the bristles allows it to separate your lashes better so you don’t get clumpy lashes. It has nice coverage and no flakiness, it did make my eyelashes a little crunchy.

Buxom: Vanity Lash Mascara

I don’t believe I have had this mascara long, but I could not find it for sale on Sephora or Ulta, but some other sites did have this one still available.

I have several mascaras from Buxom, it was one of the first non drugstore mascaras I purchased. This one is my favorite the bristles are somewhat short and do a good job of separating your lashes, I normally do 2 coats of this one to achieve maximum coverage and my lashes always feel soft, there is a bit of flakiness if you wear it for longer than about 9 hours.

 Benefit Cosmetics: They’re Real! Mascara

From the website The specially designed brush features staggered bristles that grab close to the root, boosting length and volume beyond belief.

This is one of those mascaras you have to use a few times before you really like it, at least for me it was. The first few times I didn’t really like it, but after putting it down for a few weeks and then trying it again, I don’t know if the formula just had to settle or what, but yes these really make my lashes look full and flirty.

Glamour Dolls: 

Mermaid Lashes Mascara

From the website Glamour Doll's Mascara gives you voluminous lashes in a splash proof formula this limited edition formula will be back for summer 2017.

 I received this mascara in a beauty box and it is one of the only waterproof mascaras I wear. The formula is nice and when it comes time to cleanse your face it does not take forever to remove this beauty from your lashes. Its does make your lashes a little crunchy, but there is no fall out and the easy removal makes it a good one.

Honorable Mention:

Icona Milano: 

Emotion Allowed Mascara

From the website ICONA MILANO is a “Made in Italy” brand. Long lasting and with no smudges at all this mascara is water, sweat and humidity resistant.

I only use this one on my lower lashes the slim handle and the short brush make it perfect to apply to lower lashes with out getting smudges of mascara under your eye. The waterproof formula is great as I have water eyes and no one wants to see black lines flowing down their cheeks.

Happy 2017 Everyone!!! 

Can you believe the month of January is almost over? I should have posted this at the beginning of the month, but instead you are going to get a couple of back-to-back post. 

For 2017 I didn’t want to make any grand resolutions or crazy promises to myself. I just want to be the best me I can be. I want to try and pay it forward and use my voice when I can. I want to continue to be someone my kids can look up to. I think in this day and age that is one of the better things to ask of yourself.

I'm trying to get all my social media outlets  going strong look for weekly post to my YouTube channel and monthly post to the blog their will of course be daily images and post to Instagram and Twitter. Its nothing crazy, but you have to start somewhere. I will be introducing a TOP 5 make up series on the blog and I will be having a giveaway soon in conjunction with my Birthday!

I know it has been pretty sporadic here on the xoxorajshel blog, but for 2017 I want to change that. I have several exciting events coming up this year and will be posting about all of those. I will continue with the beauty, lifestyle and tech/geek post categories as well. 

As Always 

xoxoRajshel

Apple iPhone 7plus Review

Hello Everyone, Today I'm reviewing the new Apple iPhone 7 plus!

Here is my phone & everything that was in the box.

So like many of you Apple fans out there I watched the keynote on September 7^th eager to see what was in store for my beloved iPhone. It already new I would be upgrading I really wanted to switch over to a gold phone and I have never had an iPhone longer than two years since I purchased my first one in 2007. I’m a bit of a fangirl and I’m okay with that. I respect people that don’t like iPhones, but for my MAC based household it is all I need or want. 

I was actually grocery shopping when the event started so I was not able to watch it as closely as I normally would, but I was very impressed with the new camera that the iPhone 7plus would be outfitting and more megapixels on the front facing camera is great for a girl that likes to post on Instagram as much as I do.  So at 2:55am I awoke to place my online order. I had already paid of my previous NEXT plan with AT&T so I was waiting for my spot to open up on the apple site and I also had the app open on my phone. It took about 15 minutes before I was able to get in and place my order. This year the Jet Black and Black phones were the most wanted so I had no issues selecting my Gold 128gb 7plus. My order was completed around 3:20 with a 9/16-arrival date. After a few post to social media I was off to dream land.

My precious arrived around 5:30pm on 9/16 and it took me about an hour to get everything backed up, updated and set up, including the new touch sensitive home button. I took it out this week to shoot some photos; I wanted to see how much the lens had really improved so I took the same shots with my 6 as I had already sold the 6plus. I was pleased at the improvements on the front facing camera as well as the overall image quality. I did notice that images taken in low light and zoomed in are still pretty blurry, so I’m not sure this is going to do the trick at a concert or the back row of Hall H, so don’t throw your DSLR in the trash just yet.

I’m still trying to get used to the new OS 10.0.2 on the phone, but there are a few things that I am really enjoying some things I’m not sure if they are OS updates or things the were in the 6s that I skipped, however the top three things the I am enjoying are:

1.   The new swipe up from the bottom control center. I like that they have separated out the music and it now has its own screen and there is now more space in the main screen so you not accidently hitting the wrong button.

2.  Camera access now; now you can just swipe left and you’re immediately on camera view this seems to open faster and respond quicker that previously and that perfect when I trying to take an unexpected photo quickly.

3.    The Widgets that are now just a swipe away I like that I can remove and add the one’s that I’m most interested in and this a great way to get a lot of info in a few quick glances

**   Bonus, The fact that you can now delete all those apps that you never use like stocks, podcasts and many more on my phone is great. Just click and hold down like you would do to delete any other app and click that x and now its gone. From my understanding its still somewhere on your phone so if you decide to master the stock market you will be able to add it back. 

Front facing camera iPhone 7plus

Front facing camera iPhone 6

Guess who's back....

It has been far to long since I have posted here on this blog, due to a series of misfortunate events I put this little guy on the back burner, but I am back and ready to resurrect this blog.

I don't want to put to much pressure on myself so the goal is 2 post a month until probably the end of the year and I'm currently working on my content calendar so I can keep myself on a schedule and not fall behind. The topics will continue to fall under 1 of 3 categories Beauty, Lifestyle and Tech/Geek all the things I love to talk about and as we get closer to the end of the year I will be hosting a giveaway!

In addition to the blog post I have also started a YouTube channel. Sometimes it's more fun to just be able to talk about things and show you how well the work (or not) and so I have launched the channel for those fun things... Unboxing, Beauty purchases, Crafty projects. So in addition to the two blog post their will be at least 2 videos as well so make sure to subscribe to my channel xoxorajshel so you don't miss any of the fun stuff.

So I'll leave you with a few photos of some of the things I have been up to over the last few months.

 Celebrated my Birthday

 Added a new member to the family

 Attended HOW Design Live

My Daughter Graduated High School

Attended San Diego Comic Con

And Started a YouTube channel

as always & until next time

xoxo 

Review: AOA Studio makeup brushes

So a few weeks ago  ShopMissA launched their own line of brushes and as makeup and beauty lovers flocked to their site to place orders, I decided to join in and was able to get a full set of 10 brushes and beauty roll for $10. This is only my second order on this site, but based on what I have received and watched on youtube their products can sometimes be hit or miss, but for a buck you almost have to give it a try.

Description from their website: Introducing AOA Studio Professional Kabuki 10 Brush Set, a collection of ten full-size kabuki-style makeup brushes that help you contour, sculpt, blend and highlight a flawless, full-face look. The brushes feature matte black, wooden handles and silver ferrels which firmly secure the ultra-plush, densely-packed, velvety bristles for minimal shedding. 

The Brushes have arrived and my first impression is good. The handles feel sturdy, but light weight and the bristles are really soft, but dense enough that they should be able to do their job. Their are 10 brushes total 5 for face and 5 for eyes. I wish it had the different style numbers on the handles as I am still new to the beauty world and I like to have my brushes labeled it helps me use them correctly and not get them mixed up during application. Nothing like getting your bronzer mixed up with your blush brush. 

The face brushes are all similar but with enough unique differences that you can say this is for foundation, this is for blush and this is for concealer. I put them to work over the course of 3 days and was really pleased with the results. They blended very well and did not leave any streaks on my face, I only had one bristle show up on my face and each brush held the product well. I normally use a sponge to apply foundation, but the F1 flat top kabuki brush did such a good job, that its my new favorite way to apply foundation.

The eye brushes are my favorite, I didn't really have anything in my modest brush collection that was similar to any of these so I had fun trying them out and seeing what they worked best for. The two that I loved the most are the E105 pointed precision kabuki brush this is great for under eye concealer and to highlight my brows and the E103 angled precision kabuki brush that works well for the lid and all over eyeshadow application.

All in all I'm very please with this set of brushes and I believe that they would make a nice addition to someone who is building their collection or if you just like having a wide assortment of brushes that you can select from this is an inexpensive set, that you can buy.

tech/geek: Whats new with Apple

Whats new with Apple

This March brought us a keynote from Apple and if your a fangirl like me you were glued to your monitor to find out what new goodies they would be rolling out soon. Of course I was disappointed their was no mention of the new iPhone 7, but as we all know that normally comes later in the year. However Apple did roll out a few new items that some of you may be very geeked about and I'm going to give you a few of highlights in case you missed it.

All image courtesy of Apple.com

The 4-inch iPhone is here to stay. Apple announced the release of the iPhone SE. So many people were unhappy when the iPhone 6 and 6plus were first announced in 2014 and did not agree with the bigger is better slogan. So Apple always a team player has amped up the guts and gave her a minor face lift and we now have the iPhone SE. The SE is sporting the retina display and an A9 chip as well as a 12mp iSight camera this baby is ready to go. For those who may have upgraded and enjoyed the 3d touch that feature will not be available on this model. The SE is now available in Rose Gold along with Silver, Space Gray and Gold it is available on all carriers, comes in 16gb and 64gb and can be purchased unlocked directly from Apple.com Price starts out at $399 us.

Next up is the Watch, while their are no big changes to the product itself (a new update was rolled out a couple of days ago) The have decided to release a new band style in several colors. This woven nylon band($49) comes in several color combinations including gold/red - gold/blue -  blue - pink - pearl - scuba blue and black each band is woven from over 500 thread and creates a unique, colorful pattern.  They also released several new colors in the sports band. In addition the biggest news was the price drop for the Watch sport with the 38mm now starting at $299 us.

Finally my last item to report is the new size of the iPad Pro, the new 9.7-inch screen starting at $599 and wiill be available on 3.31.16. This is in addition to the 12.9 iPad  Pro that was rolled out late last year. This new size is defiantly on my holiday wish list you can pair it with the Apple pencil for drawing or note taking, in addition you can add a smart keyboard and Microsoft office so this can really be a light weight versatile device. It captures high-resolution video and has a retina display. The 9.7 inch iPad Pro will allow you edit video great for all us aspiring you tubers. Both sizes come in the standard set of colors Rose Gold, Silver, Space Gray and Gold. You can select from 32, 128 or 256GB.