Surprise: I'm 40

So I had a pretty exciting weekend. It was my birthday weekend and it was FULL of SURPRISES. First off I was supposed to do Escape Atlanta with by best gal pal, but when I arrived she had rounded up all my friends for a surprise birthday celebration. We missed getting out of the room by a few seconds we had all the clues, I just didn't know there was a fifth combination to the lock so my bad. 

I had wanted to have a birthday dinner that night with a few more of my friends, but my hubby said he had plans for us so to move it to Sunday, by actual birthday. So after that fun adventure, I rushed home changed my clothes and jumped in the car with him. The next stop was a photo shoot, which was super awesome, the guy took some awesome shots and my husband brought along a cute chalkboard sign for me to write on.

After that, he said we were headed to dinner, but I knew something was up when he blindfolded me. I  was not ready for the surprise I received when he removed the blindfold and I was in a room with all of my closest friends for another surprise party. I could not believe he pulled it off and it was a great night.

When we got back to the car to leave the restaurant I noticed my weekender bag in the backseat, he had another surprise for me. An overnight getaway at Chateau Elan a very nice winery and spa located outside Atlanta that we had stayed at years ago. When we checked in the gave me a card and voucher for a massage the next morning. 

I can say without a doubt that this was the best birthday I have ever had and I'm so proud of my husband for putting it all together. 

Head over to my YouTube channel and find the above video thumbnail watch that vido to learn all about the giveaway! I also have all the rules below and a photo of all the awesome things you could win!! So share with your friends and don't forget to enter.. 

I’m doing a huge giveaway for my birthday in order to enter you must be subscribed to my YouTube channel, you can also get bonus entries from following me on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat

1.Subscribe to my YouTube channel 

2.Leave a comment On This Video letting me know your entering the contest (1 entry)

3.Follow me on Twitter & Tweet the contest with hash tag #rjbdaygiveaway (1 entry)

4.Follow me on IG, Find the giveaway post and leave comment (1 entry)

5.Follow me on Snapchat & sent me a chat with rjbdaygiveaway (1 entry)

6.Repost the IG giveaway image and tag two friends + #rjbdaygivaway (2 entry)

You have to be subscribed to my YouTube channel in order to get any of the bonus entries. Give away is open until March 13th Winner will be announced on March 17th.This contest is open to US Residents only. Good Luck to everyone

 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.