My favorite make-up products {part 1}.

     Happy Wednesday friends!  

     I realize that this is my third post in a row that has to do with fashion/material type things. I don't want any of you new readers to think that those are the only thing that I'm going to post about on my new blog- totally not true! These are just some topics that I've been inspired to write about lately, and also things that I wanted to post about on my old blog but never got around to.

     Since I'm a self-described girly-girl, I do enjoy wearing and playing with make-up. I wear make-up most days. Occasionally if there's a day when I'm not really leaving my house (or now, dorm) I'll go make-up free, but for the most part I wear it regularly. I don't wear what I'd call "a ton" of make-up, but I wear enough so that it's noticable.

     For any younger readers, I don't want you to think that you need make-up to be beautiful! My mom was always strict about how much make-up I could wear when I was younger, and now I'm grateful for that. She taught me how inner beauty is the most important, and also how crazy it is that we live in a society that makes young girls think that they have to grow up too fast. I didn't start wearing make-up on a weekly basis until my sophomore or junior year of high school, and even then it was just light eye shadows and sometimes mascara. I did get to wear more make-up for special events like school dances, and that made it something to look forward to!

     My senior year of high school is when I really got into make-up. It was also the year that I got my car and started driving a lot, and it was just one of many "right of passages" that came last year. A lot of the girls at my high school dressed very casually and sloppily, and to me getting dressed up everyday for school and wearing make-up/doing my hair made me feel pretty and prepared for the day. Now on an average school day at college I wear some light face powder, a little blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara and lip gloss or lip stick. While there's some products that I use almost everyday (such as my face powder) I like to switch up the colors of my eye products and lip products to coordinate my outfits, and also just for the fun of trying something different!

     I thought it would be fun to share with you all some of my favorite make-up products. I have very sensitive skin, so finding affordable and appealing hypoallergenic make-up is always exciting for me! I titled this post "part 1" because there will be more posts like this in the future as I find new products.


1. Almay Intense i-Color Smoky-i Eyeshadow for Hazel Eyes

     I love a lot of things about Almay make-up, but one of my favorites is that they make eyeshadow trios customized for your color eyes. I have hazel eyes (and you can probably guess from what this product is called) and these colors help to bring out my natural color! However, the only shade from this trio that I really use on a regular basis is the top shade, the bright silver. It's very shimmery yet light enough for daytime wear, and it stays on all day without fading! I wish that they sold just the top shade seperately. You can find Almay make-up at most drug stores and places like Walmart and Target.

2. Mally Volumizing Mascara

     I am so thankful that I have Mally make-up products as a part of my beauty routine! :-) My mom first found out about Mally about a year ago thanks to a segement that the company was doing on the QVC channel. It was advertised as being hypoallergenic and since my mom knows I have sensitive skin she bought me a sampler kit for my 17th birthday. I adored all of the products but especially the mascara! This is probably the best mascara I have ever used. It volumizes my lashes so well, stays fairly clump free, and lasts forever. Seriously- they pack a lot of product into this little tube! It is on the pricy side, and since Mally isn't really sold in stores you also have to factor in shipping. However, this is a beauty splurge that I find totally worth it! You can find Mally either on their segements on the QVC channel or through the official website.


     What are some of your favorite make-up products? If you liked this post let me know and I'll soon share more of my favorite beauty products.


     xoxo Miss ALK

My new 'do!

     After 18 years of having pin-straight hair, it was time for a change. So, I got a perm. :-)

     I'm so happy with the results! I wanted to do something different to my hair that didn't involve cutting it all off or dying it completely. I've always been obsessed with curly hair, so then it occured to me that I could try a perm! What do y'all think? It's a little frizzier then I expected but so far I'm really enjoying it!

     One thing that I've been thinking about a lot though since the perm is how although it is fun to play around with different hairstyles and fashions, what truly matters is inner beauty. God keeps reminding me that what He cares about is if I have a loving and compassionate heart. It truly can be a challenge for me to keep my thoughts focussed on Him and not worldly things such as materialism. Here are some bible verses that I found online about inner beauty.

     "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. ⁴ Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." -1 Peter 3:3-4


     Have any of you done anything different with your hair recently?


     xoxo Miss ALK

Fashion post {9/21/12}

     After almost 2 years of blogging, here is my first fashion post!! As you can see from the pictures it's still summer weather here in NC, yay! I'm posting this on a Saturday but this was my outfit for Friday, September 21.

• Shirt: Dillard's (September 2012)
• Shorts: Macy's (Summer 2011)
• Necklace: Goodwill (Summer 2009)
• Shoes: Sears (2008 or 2009)

     I am in love with this navy top that I'm wearing form Dillard's! It's a peplum top and I love that trend. It's made of very light material which is good to wear in Southern humidity (still something that this Maine girl is getting used to!). I found it on a clearance rack a few weeks ago. Clearance shopping is the best! Dillard's itself is just amazing. We don't have any back home.

     Macy's, where I got my shorts, is the closest thing that we have to Dillard's in New England. While Macy's can be very pricy you can get good deals here. I can't remember how much my shorts were last summer, but I do like my white shorts. They're a nice change from denim and they aren't super short. The only bummer is that it's easy to stain them!

     My necklace was only .99 cents at Goodwill a few years ago. It's very blingy and "out there" which is totally my style. Goodwill is an awesome place to find jewelry at! A lot of times the jewelry that they sell is new, it'll just be stuff that didn't sell at other stores that ends up there, still with tags and in packaging. Such was the case with this necklace. I went to sleep-away camp in 2009 and my mom took me to Goodwill to find some cheap jewelry for camp. That way I could accesorize my basic t-shirts and shorts and not have to worry about losing anything while there! You can't beat .99 cents. :-)

     I found these sandals on a clearance rack at Sears 4 or 5 years ago. I'm not really a Sears fan, a lot of their clothing is cheaply made and not really my style. However these sandals were a great buy! I love the pretty gems on them, and since they're multicolored they go with everything.

     What did y'all think of my first fashion post? Should I do more of them? I thought that it was a lot of fun! Shoutout to my college friend M for taking this pictures!

     Have a blessed weekend! 

     xoxo Miss ALK

My life on this Monday.

     The past couple weeks have been so crazy and busy for me, and I apologize for not posting more! I have wanted to do some fashion posts but right around the time that I started this new blog my old camera broke. It was just a basic Kodak digital camera, and I'd had it for six or so years, so it lived a good and long life in camera years. :-) However no camera meant that it was difficult to take pictures of my outfits! But fear not, outfit posts will be appearing soon because my sweet parents bought me a new digital camera for my birthday! It's a little Canon and much nicer than my old camera... all that's left to do is to figure out how to use it. :-)

     I've also had a ton of homework lately. This week I have a paper, presentation and huge test... along with other smaller homework assignments and readings and textbooks. I'm stressed to the max right now and also trying to fight homesickness. For the first few weeks of being at school I was so excited to be settling into my new home that I barely had time to miss my old one. But after my birthday it really started to hit me how far away I am from my friends and family back home. I try to cure homesickness by staying busy and involved at school (like joining different clubs and going to activities), and also by skyping with my closest friends back home. If any of y'all have great cures or ways to beat homesickness- do share! I'm always open to new ideas. :-)

     And things are getting finalized for my first give-away with this new blog! I do have some fabulous sponsors lined up, but if you have an Etsy shop or know of someone who does, please pass on the info that I'm looking for a few more sponsors for a fun fall give-away to host within the next couple weeks!

   I leave you with a few songs that I've been enjoying lately. For those of you that are new to this blog, you'll quickly learn that I have varried music tastes. My all-time favorite music is 90s/early 2000s pop (such as Britney Spears's old music and the Backstreet Boys!) but I also enjoy some light rock, dance-pop, country and Christian music.

Dido-Here With Me, Keith Urban-For You, Little Big Town-Pontoon, and Conor Maynard-Vegas Girl.

   

xoxo Miss ALK

A fresh start for my 18th year.

   


     Greetings!


     I'm Miss ALK. I'm turned 18 years old today, and I'm formally of the blog Confessions of a Maine Teenager, but recently my life was turned upside-down (In a good way!) so I decided that I needed a new blog for this exciting stage in my life. My old blog was a safe place for me to vent during the tough high school years, and also a great introduction for me into the wonderful world of blogging.

     As you probably can guess by the title of my old blog, I'm from Maine. Almost 3 weeks ago,  I moved to North Carolina for college. This was a huge leap of faith for me- I'm close to my family and I'd lived in the same small coastal town in Southern Maine for my whole life. My senior year of high school was the year when I finally started to make some best friends, and I knew that it would be hard to leave them as well. But I fell in love with a college down here when I visited in February 2012 and I knew that it was the school for me. I trusted that God had lead me to the school in the first place, and that it was part of His plan for me to go here!

     So far I'm absolutely *loving* college. I've met some great guy and girl friends in the past few weeks, and I'm getting settled into classes and the Southern lifestyle! But since this is a clean break from my high school years, I thought that creating a new blog to celebrate this transition would be smart. This blog will be focused on my adventures in college, celebrating God's blessings in my life and a place for me to share things that I like. One thing that I never got around to doing on my old blog was fashion posts, and that's something that I definitely want to incorporate into this blog! When I had my old blog my parents were concerned about my privacy in the online world since I was a minor, and they didn't like for me to put many pictures of myself up on my blog. This made fashion posts difficult. But since I'm 18 (as of about an hour ago!) and in college now the rules have changed a little bit. :-) I'll still be going as "Miss ALK" instead of my real name though... Miss ALK has stuck and I'm not ready to give that up! Some of my friends in real life even call me that sometimes now. For new readers: ALK is my initials.


     On my old blog I was always concerned about how many followers I had or didn't have, and sometimes I only wanted to post things that I thought would attract more followers. While it's great to know that people are reading and enjoying my blog, this new blog is just going to be what I want to post because I like it, not because I'm trying to impress anyone else. But with that said- please do follow if you'd like! :-) I hope that many of you are here from my old blog, as well as new readers. I think of all my readers as friends and I love making friends!


     One more exciting note- I'll be having a huge give-away very soon to celebrate the new blog, so keep reading! There will also be a more polished design coming, I just put up this temporary background until my blog designer finishes what she's been working on for me.


     xoxo Miss ALK