Fa la la la Ahhhhhh!!

I know it isn't even Halloween and here I am bringing up Christmas.

Less than 10 weeks until Christmas!!!

Sorry, but it had to be said. 

Now onto the actual reason for this blog. Halloween!! Did you guys see my blog on the different makeup ideas from the other week? How many of you took inspiration from my ideas?

How many of you are going to be using regular face makeup? No shame in it. I've used it before too. But remember how hard it was to take off at the end of the night? We used vaseline, rub it all over our skin then wash it off with warm water and a rag. By the time I was done it felt like I had took a layer of skin off. No bueno. 

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. MK has this amazing potion that removes all of that face paint, with only the help of a cotton pad. No skin pulling, eye lash ripping, or crying kids. 

MK also has this small elixir that protects your face from the product. It makes a protective layer over the skin and makes the makeup/paint stay put.

What are these magical wonders? Simple, the tried and true Mary Kay makeup remover and foundation primer.

Ladies, your consultant will almost always have these two items in stock at all times! These are two big sellers for us. I sold 10 bottles of makeup remover in one afternoon. Crazy right? Think of how good a product must be to have 10 different ladies buy this in one setting.  

Don't let this Halloween hurt your face. Try our products out, worst case scenario you don't love it. If that happens MK has this wonderful 100% satisfaction guarantee. So it really is a TREAT not a trick. 

Thanks again ladies,

xo Andi Joe

Second Thoughts...

So, prior to my Mary Kay life......well prior to having my daughter, I was a makeup junkie. I had a box from Sephora and Ulta coming in every week. New Naked Pallette? I pre-ordered it. New Nars pallette? Got it. New MAC collection? Already watched the product review videos and have it ordered. It was my drug. I lived for a new product and to be in the mix of the new and unknown.
I still get a thrill when I see a new pallette come out.

Well the other day I decided to pull out one of my old favorite pallets, I won't say what company it was produced by but I will say it is a brand that you can get from Sephora. I used to love it so much! So I thought, "well I don't have any MK things/programs today. Why don't I use it today?". That morning I loved the color so much! It took me back to a time of colorful and fun pre-wife&mom time. No, that pallette is not that old! I got a new one, just like my old one, right before I started MK.

I went through the whole day thinking that I was a bad girl wearing the opposing team's colors. When I got home my guilt quickly faded. My eyes looked awful! I wish I would have taken a before picture to show just how bad it faded.....

My eyes were done in a nude gold smoke that day. The gold was on the center of my eye, chocolate on the outer corner, and black liner in a mid wing. I used the same color brand and primer brand. I used a different brand mascara, but as I stated before all products I used could be bought at Sephora.

As you can see my gold is gone. My chocolate is smeared out and creased into my lid. My liner is faded to a medium gray and running off. My under eye area has caught all of my fall out creating this nice sleepless witch look. 

Guys, this was not a 20 hour day where I ran a marathon. I was up at 6:30am per usual, got home at 5:30 per usual. This picture was taken around 6:30pm. 

Now to counter this picture I decided the next day I was going to wear only Mary Kay. I personally wanted to see the difference.

I put my makeup on at the same time, I worked the same hours, I took this picture at the same time in the afternoon. See the difference?  

For my eyecolor I used a gold shadow in my crease and on my lid, a dark tan color for the outer corners, and a vanilla color by my tear ducts. I used brown eyeliner and black lash love mascara. I also used MK eye primer.

I want to do another controlled test to see if the primer is behind the magic or if the eyeshadow alone is that awesome. I just learned early on that primer of any kind is your best friend. Anything that smooths the surface and makes the product last longer is a win-win in my book. 

I was really impressed with the difference. I know that sounds funny, but you never really notice this problems with your makeup until you use something different. I now wonder what my co-workers and family thought of me before I switched to MK. Did they think I was constantly tired???

Now the sad part is I have $200 worth of eye palettes that I am afraid to use up because I don't want to look like the walking dead. Looks like MK will be making some pocket change for me to swap out my palettes for their MK dupes. Maybe that will be my next post.....

Until next time

xo- Andi Joe

Looks from Vegas

As most of you know, I hold down a regular job during the week, Mary Kay is my hobby. I use the term hobby loosely in that sentence. How Mary Kay helps me is by bringing in, using a term that I had the pleasure of hearing my National call it, 'Front pocket money'. That extra spending cash that I can spoil myself with or whomever I want to use it on. But I digress, this is about my week with my regular job. 
Our insurance provider at our company puts on an elaborate summit each year to educate its policyholders on the field of insurance coverage and other related areas. 

Have I lost you yet?

This year was in Las Vegas! Did I get your attention back? I decided to document some of my natural business looks while I was there. Notice I said natural, I was in Vegas for insurance not to party... 

Let's start off with going to the airport....
I did have to go into work that day, so I used a little more than what I normally would for a flight.

I actually used my custom mini palette from MK for my eyes. I used a medium taupe-gray for the outer corners and blended it into the crease. I did a small black winged liner and used a volumizing mascara. For my cheeks I used a baby pink color to bring some color to my skin.  My lips I used a red matte gel lipstick and lightly dabbed it on until I built up the color to what I wanted. I used a setting spray to finish and voila!  

Day one of the conference! 

So my eyes are open and its harder to see the shadow, but I used a deep metal gray color for the crease and black for the outer corners. I did some highlighting with a light cream color near the tear ducts and under my brow. I used a gel black liner with  medium wing as well. For my lips I used a berry colored liner and ombred it to the center and tapped some light gold-ish lipgloss in the center to highlight the fullness. I decided to forgo blush and stuck to some warm bronzer and lightly dusted it across my cheeks, nose, and forehead. 

Day 2!

My personal favorite

This is one of those love it or hate it looks. I went for a 90s vibe. I used a cool brown tone for my eyes. I packed it on the corner and blended outward with it. I used a brown eyeliner with a mid wing. I used a lengthening mascara for drama. For cheeks I used a peach-tan tone and a peach highlighter, it didn't show well in my pictures sadly. My lips, oh my lips, I used a med-nude lip liner and went heavy on the outer rim and softer as I went in. I used an apricot color in the center for that ombre look. **Also look at my necklace!! That was my first gift from Angie Day, our Senior National Sales Director. Pretty sweet huh?!

Last day

This was an evening cocktail event

Again, my eyes are open. I need to remember to take a few open and closed next time.

My eyes were in a black to gray smokey eye. I used a thick black liner to make them stand out and make my eyes look bigger. Now check out those lashes, that is two coats. IKR!!! I went back later and added a highlighting shade to the inner corner and center of my lid to brighten my look. On my cheeks I used a med-nude color, so I wouldn't over power my eyes and lips. My lips were lined in med-nude and covered in matte gel berry, a heavy hand was used in this process. I dabbed some my my eye highlighter on the center of my bottom lip to add dimension. 

I had a ball while I was in Vegas! I also got a ton of compliments on my makeup. It made me feel so good!! 
Now if any of you are interested in any of these looks, message me and lets see what we can do about getting you a make-over set up or a pricing on the product bundle!

Hope you enjoyed!
xo- Andi joe

My First Party

So last week was my first Mary Kay party! It was exciting, scary, fun, and crazy.
Exciting - the thrill of starting your own business.
Scary - the thought of starting your own business.
Fun - spending time with your friends and family.
Crazy - well that was my family that attended. 

This was my 'viewing' section. I laid out products that were for sale only for everyone to see the color in person and get a better grasp on the size. I sold almost everything on this table. The only things not sold were a few eyeshadow colors.

My wonderful mother let me host my first party at her house since her house has more room than mine. Her house is in a rustic ranch theme with wood floors so it made for an adorable rustic set up.

Guys, I made pink chocolate!! Okay so I used food coloring but it made for some super cute sweets!!

I also offered a selection on wine for the event. The wine was still chilling at this point. I found these cute small wine glasses at the Dollar Tree, six for a dollar! 

For savory food, I made lil smokies. I found a fun twist on the usual smokies on pinterest that involved beer and brown sugar and gave it a whirl. I made about 80 of those little buggers and only ten were left!! The craker/chips were different flavors, they were not a big hit. I think I would have done better with some ruffels to with the smokies. Lesson learned.

Now my setup for the product overview and hand facials was super simple. I tried to find a small table and had no such luck, but I did find an old highchair! 

Now let's get down to business, I know you want to know the good stuff. How much did I make?

Well between 10 guests I made 1300 that night. By that following Monday (Some had to wait to get check or whatever reason) I had made a grand total of over 1500 in wholesale!! Now, as a consultant half of that amount is pure profit. So my front pocket total was 750, in one weekend with 10 guests.

I couldn't believe it! My husband was in awe. Now guess who has some play money to spend in Vegas this week!!

I can't wait to see how my next party goes!

Now, I don't like to put this at the bottom of this fun post since it seems like an ad, but I know some of you are going to be curious about it. This business and the program that I am in may seem appealing to you and maybe you have some questions. Awesome! Contact me and let's see if we can set up a time to chat a little more in detail. I just don't want my post to come off as a recruiting technique. I will touch on recruiting on a different post. 

Hope you enjoy this short post! I will be back next week with some before & afters with a fun review!

Weekend in Waco

I mentioned last week that I was going on a girls trip, well I'm back! I had an amazing time with some pretty awesome people. We toured different places, ate way too much food, and enjoyed our time together. I really can't complain about anything from this weekend.

This weekend was sort of special to me. My travel companions were family, family that I don't get to spend much girl time with. I, in a sense, got to reacquaint myself with these ladies and learn new things about them I didn't know before.

I highly recommend taking a weekend and spending it with you mother and maybe an aunt or two. You will be surprised to learn how much has changed since you were little. Believe it or not, those boring adults that you tried to avoid as a teenager are quite interesting now. I got to see a little bit of the mildly-wild side, I mean come on it was just Waco not Cancun.... But let me tell you, playing the adult cards on Heads Up will tell you a lot about a person.

On another growing up note; I know I have a small family of my own now, but it's nice to get out and a singular person instead of a plural family. Does that make sense? With these three I got to be an irresponsible adult. I stayed up late, slept in, and ate whatever I wanted! For a few days I got to chill out and forget about all my worries. There is nothing better than that, well maybe except a trip to Perry's Steakhouse.

Old Fashioned at Perry's Steakhouse in Austin, TX

Speaking of Waco, if you were wondering, yes we did go to see the Fixer Upper's Magnolia Silos. 

Setting on the field waiting on my fellow shopping companions 

Waiting to see if it rains

Oh, yes! We bought a ton of cupcakes and goodies!

The morning we checked out of the hotel you could tell there was a sad feeling, we didn't want to be wives/mothers/workers. We wanted to continue our adventure a little longer. But that is usually how the best trips go. Maybe we can make the next one a little longer. 

List your favorite Girls Trip destination in the comments below!

Trick & Treat

So, Halloween is around the corner. Who else is excited?!

I decided in the sport of the season I would create some fun looks that aren't just for dress up. You could reuse this makeup for any occasion! Lets use this holiday as an excuse to splurge and get some new makeup! 

You will have to excuse my crude editing skills..... I'm new to editing.

Let's talk about Anna. She has this can do spirit and full of joy. Beautiful blues and rose-y cheek colors are perfect to duplicate her look. Be sure to use some dark liner and maybe some false lashes to copy those doe eyes of hers.

Belle, my personal favorite, she has that dreamy enhanced natural beauty. Easy to see why she was named Belle, which means beauty. Some muted browns and a dash of pink on the eyes will create that natural smoke look for you. A slight peachy pink blush and medium nude lip color will set this look. If you want to really pump up the look use white eyeliner on your water line for the appearance of a larger eye.

Now, I don't know any about game of thrones. I have a ton of friends that love this show so I had to include it! Use some pink and tan eyeshadow for an easy eye look, some natural nude-to-pink blush, and a light pink matte stick or stain. Use the thinnest black liner to hug your lash line and powder to fill in your brows for that full look.  

Tiana is super simple and gorgeous! Throw on some pink or purple toned shadow and bring out that crease with some medium toned brown. Peach blush and lip gloss will give that youthful look that she gives. Using a mauve colored lipstick will give a more dramatic feel if you are up for it. Also be sure to wing that liner like there is no tomorrow, I recommend a creme liner for this look.

Evil Queen, for those who dare. She loves a good smokey purple eye. Use purple on the lid and up through the crease, black for the outer corner and blend into the outer half of the crease, and baby pink to highlight the eye. A deep nude blush or slightly pink tone will work nice. Now the kicker, use a bright red with a pink/blue undertone. If you use a red with an orange undertone it will contrast to much and make the look seem gaudy. If you want to go all out drawn on your brows with a dark eye pencil for that dramatic look.

I hope that these fun ideas inspire you for your costume this year. If you are interested in any of these looks send me a message and use the code NOTRICKS* for a special treat!


* Code NOTRICKS is only valid through October 15, 2016.

Castaway Time!

Freehand Friday Again!

Freedom. That is my subject. I am about to leave on a four day GIRLS road trip. On a normal day I am a wife, mom, taxi, cleaning service, laundromat, teacher, counselor, chef, and nurse. For the next four days I get to be Andi. I get to be a little irresponsible and crazy. If I want to go test wine or go to a fancy restaurant where kids aren't allowed, I CAN. Don't worry, I will post pictures when I get back.
I don't hate my life by any means, but everyone needs a vacation. Am I right, Amen sister.

https://youtu.be/vaFeJNGEtFM

I will be back refreshed and ready Tuesday!

I have Today's and Monday's posts pre-scheduled. Next Friday will be my first post. post vacation. :-)