life isn’t perfect, but your hair can be

Published on January 12, 2017November 17, 2017 by blonde rosie1 Comment

I wanted to let you know that I washed my hair today. You are probably like, okay..but why are you telling us that you washed your hair? With my work schedule, I wash my hair two times a week because it takes so much precious time out of life to do. My hair routine revolves around dry shampoo because my hair gets oily very fast. With my frizzy hair I often have to use serums and products to keep my hair tamed which causes oil and more dry shampoo is needed. In my calendar I plan when to wash my hair, that is how little time I have to style my hair!

While I try to spend as little time as I can fussing with my hair during the week, I also spend a lot of money on my hair and a lot of time in a salon chair. I am at the salon at least once a month and block off time in my calendar to spend time on my hair. I get a lot of compliments on my hair because it is healthy and dyed a perfect shade of blonde. With a new year, comes an urge to make a drastic change with our hair. If you are thinking about going blonde, going for a major chop or getting bangs, here are some tips and advice.

1) Go to a Professional

When I was a freshman in high school I started dyeing my dirty blonde hair blonde platinum blonde. Once a month, I would have my mom dye my hair with box dye and while I loved the look and the low costs, after a few years I started to see the damage it did to my hair. I always had long hair, and I was forced to do a major chop to get my healthy hair back. Now that I found a salon that I love (and trust) I know that I can sit down in the chair, stroll Instagram and not look back up until it’s all done! It usually takes a few appointments for them to correct any color damage or hair mistakes from a previous salon. I found a hair salon that allows you to have a Hair Membership- it’s like a gym membership where you only pay a monthly fee and can get unlimited hair cut, color and blowouts. Every month I book a root touch up, every two months I get a trim and every 3-4 months I get new highlights. With this investment, I can protect my hair keeping it healthy and shiny in between salon visits.

2) Use The Right Hair Products

I am always the bargain hunter, but a few years ago my hair stylist lectured me on using the right products for my hair. Using a cheap shampoo is great for the wallet, but you are literally washing money down the drain. My hair started to get brassy, I was losing my blonde and my hair looked like bleh. Influenster reached out to me and analyzed my hair with a questionnaire. I love the blow out look I get from the salon, but lack the energy to use various hair tools and a million products to achieve the look. Influenster and Loreal sent me a package of L’Oreal Hair Expertise Extraordinary Clay Mask, Shampoo & Conditioner. My roots are oily, my ends are dry and with every product I use it fixes one issue and damages the other. I have used the Loreal Hair Shampoos and Conditioners for years, but with the broad line of shampoos I never knew which one to use!

Plus, I love the blue colors of the bottle because it looks so pretty in my shower! After one use, I loved the way my hair air dried and it felt very clean. My hair also kept its blonde color post shower which is a huge plus!

3) Invest in a hair mask.

I use a face mask twice a week and have a moisturizer routine every night, but I didn’t see the benefit of using a mask. But then I did my research! After using the L’Oreal Hair Expertise Extraordinary Clay Mask I cannot imagine a shower without using one now! It is important to know that not all hair care products are made equal! Lately, hair care is changing drastically. So take advantage of the changes and improvements in hair care. On Pinterest, there are all of these DIYs with mayo and eggs and I was not letting any of that touch my hair! But now companies like Loreal are investing in hair products.

L’Oreal Hair Expertise Extraordinary Clay Mask is applied to dry hair and left on for 5 minutes. I was happily surprised by the clay, it was a smooth texture without any gritty feeling. It is light and airy and not like a dense clay like I was expecting. This combination makes applying super easy and easy to wash out. The result is clean and silky hair without having to apply any other products. I am in love with my hair and I want the world to know it!

5) Protect your shine

The sun, product build-up, overuse of hair tools and chlorine all dull your hair color and dull your shine.

6. Purple Shampoo

To prevent my hair from looking brassy , use a purple shampoo. This helps hair from turning brassy, which is my biggest hair problem. Once a month I use a purple shampoo and I recommend this one!

Thank you to Influenster and Loreal for sponsoring this post and sending me my new hair care favorites for free for a review!

now is the time to buy a winter coat

Published on January 11, 2017January 11, 2017 by blonde rosie2 Comments

For todays Wear it Wednesday, I am sharing how to save money on winter coats. After all of this snow we have been having (it even snowed in Dallas, Texas!), all of us had to bundle up to survive the cold. If this snowstorm made you realize you need a new coat, good news because now is the time to buy one!

Keep scrolling to find out how to get one for cheap this month!

One of my skills in life is getting the best bargain when I am shopping. I have ways of finding J. Crew for super cheap, finding Lilly Pulitzer pieces for only $10 and have two closets full of clothes that I never paid full price for. In college, I always had friends borrowing clothes out of my closet because I had so many great pieces to wear.

Today I thought I would share with you how I have built an amazing closet over the last few years. One of my biggest trick is to never buy anything full price. I get a lot of my clothes at consignment or Goodwill for just $2.99, Crazy, huh?? It takes some practice and patience to sort through the junk, but I have found some amazing pieces for just a few dollars. When I went to Texas last year, I went to one of my favorite consignment stores and bought a whole new J. Crew wardrobe for our 10 day visit. I spent only $200 for dresses, shirts, pants and a few Lilly Pulitzer pieces for that summer.

An expensive purchase that everyone needs to have is a winter coat. For my first job out of college, it was so close that I would just walk the five blocks to work and not drive. My first winter home I realized that my college peacoat or North Face was not going to cut it for the commute to work! In January, I started to look for a proper coat for the winter, and when I started to look in department stores I found that there was nothing left in the stores or I didn’t like the options. Then I went over to the clearance section and found a big puffy coat from Vince Camuto for under $100! There were a ton of coats in clearance because the stores in January are trying to get rid of the winter clothing and make room for resort wear!

At the store I work in, all of our winter coats are in clearance as well. And you might have gone last week and realized they were not your size. Here is a helpful hint, for Christmas a lot of people get nice coats for their kids or family members, but after Christmas a lot of them were returned. When they are returned, they go straight to clearance because we don’t have room for them on the floor anymore. If there was a coat you saw but didn’t get in time before it sold out or it was above your budget, be sure to go to the stores now and check clearance!

I shop a lot, but I am very smart when I shop… Just like every other girl, I want the newest trends and to fill my closet with beautiful things. I have made some big purchases lately, but I have to point out that they were all on sale. Christmas time is the best time to buy perfumes and makeup, and January-March is the best time to purchase a coat. Just remember that the day a new style hits the stores, you don’t have to buy it right away. Wait a few weeks (or even months) and I can guarantee it will go on sale or be in clearance!

My red coat is on major sale right now! Fellow blogger prepsterange and I have the same coat and we are both obsessed!

SHOP MY LOOK

#goals : declutter

Published on January 9, 2017January 8, 2017 by blonde rosie1 Comment

One of my yearly goals is to clean and declutter. This may not seem like a lot of fun, but decluttering you room, your home, car, closet, etc. brings so much happiness into your life. Walking into a space that is messy makes me very stressed out. It’s hard to go to bed if I have clothes on my floor or there are dishes in the sink. It sounds crazy, but waking up in the morning and everything is in its place helps me get out of the house faster. This is coming from the girl who loses her keys at least once a week (because I put them in a new place every night)!

Cleaning seems like a big task, but if you do one big clean in the beginning of the year and maintain it, it’s not as scary as a task. One way to make it easier is to declutter. Go through each room at a time and then go through each drawer, and each category of clothes. I wrote another post on this here that I highly recommend.

Another exciting project that I am starting is the Home Organization 14 Week Challenge. It started when I found this Facebook group and every year they have this house cleaning challenge. Each week there is a different room to clean and it provides a to do list to make sure you go through all of your items, purge, declutter and do a big clean so it is easier to maintain throughout the year. You can find the challenge here.

Over the weekend I started with my kitchen and checked off a lot on my to do list, but there is still a lot more fun to be had! Since I did this last year, so far the cleaning has been very easy to do. I created places for everything last year, so it is just me putting some things back to where they belong.

My parents are in for a big surprise when they try to find things this week! I am sure they want to kick me out of the house after all of this cleaning!

Who wants to do this with me??

Blend in 2017

Published on January 6, 2017January 4, 2017 by blonde rosieLeave a comment

I have always struggled with bad skin since middle school so I have always worn foundation to cover my face flaws. Since switching to higher quality face moisturizers my skin tone has definitely improved from its previous splotchy and red face I was used to. Now I can wear makeup for fun and not because I am trying to hide my face! For work I do a 6 minute face and wear minimal makeup. What has changed my makeup routine dramatically is switching to a Beauty Blender. A lot of makeup vloggers and bloggers have talked about them for a few years now, but I thought it was silly to spend money on a sponge. A month ago I found one at TJ Maxx for $4 and thought I would try to see what the hype was all about. I tend to mix different shades of foundation, concealer and moisturizer so blending has always been tricky. Now with the beauty blender I no longer have awkward lines and my makeup looks more natural.

Here is how to use one

Rinse the Beauty Blender so it is damp
Put foundation on Blender and apply makeup to face

It seems easy, right?? I apply face moisturizer first on my face and let it dry a bit before I apply my foundation. Then I pour foundation onto my Beauty Blender and dot my forehead, cheeks and chin so there is foundation spots all over my face. Then I start to rub the foundation in with the pointed part of the Beauty Blender. I apply face powder with the applicator it came with and apply a highlighter and bronzer with my Beauty Blender. Previously when I would add bronzer or highlighter you could see the line of color, now with the Beauty Blender I can easily blend all of the products.

Start the new year with a new beauty tool in your makeup bag, I promise you won’t forget it!

cozy sweatshirt + pom poms

Published on January 4, 2017January 4, 2017 by blonde rosie1 Comment

wear-it-wednesday

A fellow blogger (PrepsterAnge) pointed out that lately I haven’t been blogging as much as I usually do. I feel like the last few months life has been so busy with the holidays and it getting dark outside so early I never had time to take photos for Blonde Rosie. I started this blog a few years ago because I was bored and needed a hobby. I didn’t care if no one read my posts or cared about what I was wearing, but I had so much fun doing it! Then I started to run into friends and family and they would compliment me on my blog or say that they looked forward to posts every week. I don’t plan to make money with Blonde Rosie, but I wear really cute outfits and feel it’s a shame not to share it with the world wide web! I hope to be more involved in my blog in 2017 and make some improvements. This started off with some cute outfits and some Post Grad Life advice, but now Blonde Rosie will be going in a new direction (TBD)! If you want to see certain things on Blonde Rosie definitely let me know! I love to do photoshoots and write, so let me know what you want to see!

For some reason I got the week off for both jobs and I have been doing a lot of lounging in bed catching up on my Netflix shows. I am in the process of doing another Netflix Recommendation post too because I am going through shows like crazy! I am a big Target fan, and I cut my spending budget once I switched jobs, so I had to stop my weekly trips to Target. In December, I broke my rule and did some Christmas shopping at Target and immediately fell in love with this fleece sweatshirt. I didn’t have the funds to spend money on another sweatshirt so I had to walk out without it. But luckily, Santa delivered it under the tree for me. I have been wearing this nonstop since I got it! Hurry up and go to Target because this is the most comfortable sweatshirt I own! And the pom poms are just too cute!!

Women’s Knit Fleece top – Xhilaration •
Wunder Under Pant (Hi-Rise) *Full-On Luon • Lululemon •

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The Perfect Holiday Look

Published on December 5, 2016December 5, 2016 by blonde rosieLeave a comment

The day after Thanksgiving I start dressing for Christmas everyday. Christmas has to be one of my favorite times of year and not just because it is the day after my birthday. With my house being on the towns annual house tour, Christmas has exploded all over my house. There are boxes of ornaments, fake trees in piles and pine needles everywhere! It is chaos, but I love to see the sight of Christmas in my house. With my work schedule lately we haven’t had time to get a Christmas tree as a family, but I woke up earlier on Sunday, grabbed breakfast and went to Holly Brook Nursery to pick out a tree before work. I am very picky about my trees every year, and now that we raised the ceilings in our living room by three feet… we were getting a bigger tree! My mom and I were looking at trees that were perfect from every angle… my dad was being the engineer trying to figure out how we would get the tree into our house. Some were too big… others too small.

But, we finally found the perfect tree! Measuring tape and sass were involved in the picking of our tree. I could have spent hours walking around the tree forest, but I had to get to work!

I woke up at 6am to curl my hair because I am crazy and on the weekends I try to dress up for work. Working retail during the holidays means that we dress for Christmas every day. I have been wearing all of my red, flannels and cute skirts that I would wear to a holiday party. I have also been wearing a red lip every day after I got a free Bite Beauty lipstick form Influenster and Sephora in November. It is a matte red lip crayon and when I put it on in the morning, it lasts the entire day! The color is Red Velvet.

If you have a holiday party you have to go to, I definitely suggest the plaid classic button down shirt in perfect fit. I wear it at least once a week to work and sell a lot of them at the store. It is the perfect classic, preppy look. Scroll to the bottom for the outfit details! We did a quick little photo shoot while the guys were putting the tree on our car. I love that my mom is now the person who suggests I take photos for the blog. She has been so supportive of my little hobby lately and I am so appreciative of it!