My Hair Donation

Many of you - my lovely followers - may be aware of the fact that over a year ago I decided I would donate my hair! After the long process of growing it out, on April 6th, 2013, I cut off 8 inches! Yes. That's how long it took to grow out a healthy 8-inches of hair. My hair is very fine and breaks and splits very easily - I tried to get trims around every 3-4 months. May I mention I hadn't had my hair this short in over 3 years?!

It was quite a scary decision. I grew very attached to my hair while growing it out, and very addicted to doing french braids down my back. I hadn't even planned on cutting it all off that day; it was just supposed to be a trim! But it did teach me that being spontaneous (something I am never) can be a good thing. I do have to admit though, there was a lot of hesitation before it was cut off, and a lot of "its so short"'s afterward. It took a lot of getting used to; but I'm finally truly  embracing it. And honestly, having such long hair was a PAIN. It's grown about two inches since then, and I think I finally found the right shampoo to use with it; which has made a big difference. 

Let's talk about why I love it being shorter:

1. It takes less time to do in the morning

2. It doesn't get tangled as easily (and its easier to de-tangle)

3. I go through less shampoo, conditioner, and hair product in general

4. My natural color is all growing in

5. It dries faster (naturally and with a blow dryer) 

Now; the big question. Emily, what organization did you donate to?

I'm going to be honest and say that I originally was going to donate to Locks of Love but I didn't cut enough off to fit the criteria, and if I'd known about it sooner I'd do the whole #hairforhazel thing happening now. I went with the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. Which gives hair to specifically women who've lost their hair. 

The timing couldn't have been more perfect; I ended up sending away my hair on the 17th anniversary (August 2, 1996) of my aunt passing away to breast cancer. You heard that right - 17 years - the age I will be turning in November. Hence why my middle name is Deborah, my aunts name. Obviously I never knew her but I've heard about how great a women she was and so I donated my hair in her memory along with the memory of my cousin Amanda, who passed when she (and I) was just 12 of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2009. She actually passed 5 days before my birthday, and it was the same illness my grandmother passed away from in 2010. (Her name was Jean which Amanda was named after as her middle name was Jean - so many connections!)

sorry for the story time - didn't expect this blogpost to turn into that. 

But this is a happy post because some brave, beautiful women is gonna get that hair I grew out! It makes me feel so good inside to know that. 

So what products have I been using?

When I first cut my hair, I was using the Pantene Aqua Light Shampoo and Conditioner. I thought it was working really great; it didn't have any extra chemicals in it, it just left my hair feeling normal. But after a while I noticed that it just left my hair natural. And my natural hair tends to be very frizzy and poofy. Although, I am glad I went with that shampoo in the first place because it felt really nice to just cleanse my hair and give it a fresh start. But once those bottles were empty, I switched to the Head and Shoulders Smooth & Silky shampoo and conditioner and I like it much better! My hair is much more smooth and easier to work with. Head and Shoulders is obviously a brand that helps with dandruff, etc. and I find that it does help with flaking, but my scalp still feels itchy and a little dry from time to time. I've also gone back to using my Herbal Essences Long Term Relationship Split-End Protector just to keep my ends in check now that my hair is getting longer. Tip: just because your hair is shorter, doesn't mean you still can't get things like split ends and breakage.

The verdict? I will definitely donate my hair again if it ever gets long enough. But I think before I do it again, I'm gonna have fun doing different things to it!

x Emily

PS If you'd like to see some back to school videos on my youtube click here to go to the playlist I made

Cool People + Shirt-Making

In these past five days I've been to two concerts. I decided they were too amazing to not share with my beautiful followers! I went to the Paradise Fears Battle Scars Release Tour on saturday, so i'll share that with you first.
When buying the tickets, we had a choice of getting regular tickets or VIP. We decided on the VIP which included a Meet & Greet before the show and we got to watch sound check. I loved that we got all the perks but the Meet & Greet was cut a little short and we didn't get pictures with all the members of the band because of it. I think this happened because they showed up a little late - maybe trouble getting across the boarder. We made shirts to wear to this concert and the band really loved them. Concert advice of this post: make your own shirts; the band really appreciates them!
 When we made these shirts we bought the black t-shirts at Michael's and then traced out the cut we wanted with chalk and turned them into tank tops. Then we each got a color of dimensional fabric paint. The fabric paint was a good idea because once it sets for the indicated time on the bottle, we can wash them. We bought silver sharpies to get the band to sign the back, so obviously we can't wash them after that, so mine is now tacked up on my wall.

There are 6 members in Paradise Fears, and like I said, we didn't get pictures with all of them. But the VIP was worth it because we got in early to see the soundcheck, which means better spots during the concert (aka closer to the band and their beautiful faces!). The band (and all the opening bands, which were awesome!) came outside of the venue after the concert to get pictures. Which is when I'm grateful of meet and greets because although we were rushed by their manager, there was more time to talk because they weren't surrounded by so many people.

Okay, now we can talk about the We The Kings Summer Fest Tour. This tour consisted of a lot more popular bands, which meant lots of people, and since bands don't come to Canada often, a sold out show. So I got up at 9am and we left around 11 and spent the whole day in line. My sister, friend Nicole, and her sister, Shawna decided they wanted Meet & Greet for The Ready Set, so they got early entry and got a good spot in the crowd, while me and our friend Carlin stayed in line. The thing we wanted the most was We The Kings Meet & Greet (obviously) so when Carlin and I got inside we got the Meet & Greets right away. And can I mention how lucky we got? There were only about 25 Meet & Greet wristbands and we managed to grab 5!
The crowd got pretty squishy, and during Breathe Carolina, pretty crazy. I'd been in worse crowds, but it's still not the best feeling to be pushed around by sweaty bodies. I don't want to sound too whiny though, cause Breathe Carolina put on a great show! And Keep it Cute, The Ready Set and TMills!
Also, Corey Vidal came to the show and we got to meet him and the ApprenticeEh crew! They're such awesome people, so super nice, and put up a great conversation! We told Corey how excited we are for Vlogumentary and how good the trailer was. He told how emotional everyone got while they filmed Alli's interview - which is partly shown in the trailer.

We made shirts again for this concert! We modeled the front after The Tampa Bay Rays logo, since they're from Tampa. And since five of us went we were able to keep with the jersey theme and chose one of the memeber and put their last name on the back. After watch the CTFxC vlogs and the We The Kings video diaries we tried to match the numbers of the basketball jerseys they own. This time, we bought a pack of white men's t-shirts from Wal-Mart and again, cut them to the style we wanted. Shawna and I sewed our sleeves to make them into tank tops, which I liked because they felt more sturdy. Everyone else just cut theirs. We used acrylic paint for the shirts this time (which meant no washing the shirts). It made more sense because we used more colors. They got pretty stretched out during the concert, but I definitely liked the fabric better; it was a lot more comfortable. 

The guys loved the shirts; they were excited about us having their names on them. Which was exciting for us cause we worked so hard on them! Travis even wanted a picture on his phone!

Shawna - Hunter - Rachel - Danny - ME! - Travis - Carlin - Cooley - Nicole - Charles

We really wanted to meet Alli but I don't blame her for not coming out cause it was such a crazy night; everyone was exhausted! 

x Emily

Three Of My Favorite Books

So I've been sitting in my room all day just wanting to do a blog post, but not sure what to do it on. And then I look over and see that the answer was right in front of me. I've been re-reading on of my favorite books recently and figured I'd tell you lovelies what my favorite books are!
The one I'm reading right now is by Lauren Oliver. It's called Before I Fall. I've had this book for a while and this is about the third time I've read it.

Before I Fall is about a girl named Samantha Kingston (or Sam for short). She's a senior in high school and has three best friends, two parents and a little sister. Throughout the book you're constantly finding more and more about her life. But the big twist on this book is that it starts the day she dies and she forced to keep reliving the same day. This book consists of 470 pages. And it's all full of the secrets and stories of her life. You meet all her friends and find out about them also, along the way. It's really an amazing book that I'd recommend to anyone starting high school or in high school because it really shows all the dynamics that take place there. I'm not just specifically recommending this book to teenagers because of mature subject matter (it's definitely PG-13) but because it contains a message that I think is really great for a teenager to know.
Lauren Oliver is one of my favorite YA writers, and I read this before her Delirium trilogy came out - which consists of a world where love is a disease (also great books).
This next book is one I've only read once, but it was very recent and once I finished I knew it was immediately part of my favorites list. After reading The Fault in Our Stars I wanted to run right out and read another John Green book.

I'm sure you've all heard of this book by now, since it's being made into a movie (and if you haven't heard of John Green what are you doing with your life?!). This book is inspiring and awful and beautiful all at the same time (plus, I cried like 5 times).The Fault in Our Stars is centered around Hazel Grace who is battling a terminal cancer despite the medicine she's been given to stop her tumors from growing. One day in her support group she meets a boy by the name of Augustus Waters who had his leg amputated because of Osteosarcoma. Here's my review for this book on Goodreads: John Green points out all the obvious and brilliant things in our every day lives that we don't notice often. This book is life-changing. I feel like I see things a lot differently. Hazel Grace is the strongest head I've been inside (and not just because she's battling cancer); she's one to hold her own on any opinion, having cancer stops her from doing some things, but not quite everything. Meeting August doesn't change her; it makes her better. A MUST READ! I'd recommended to basically anyone. Even someone who doesn't necessarily like reading. Basically that's all I have to say about it. It's just a great book.
This next book is also one I've only read once, and it was a while ago. But when I started think of the books I was going to write about here, I knew this had to be one of them and now I want to read it again! You may have seen the movie, in which case: read the book it's so much better. This book is Nicholas Sparks', The Last Song.

Since I haven't read it in a while, I'm just going off what I remember to help explain why I love this book so much. This book is about Veronica Miller (but people call her Ronnie), her parents are divorced and she's not very close with her father. So her mother decides to send Ronnie to live with her father for a summer in Wilmington. Since this is a Nicholas Sparks book, obviously she eventually meets Will, and other events unfold in the little beach town of Wilmington. My favorite part about this book (excluding the love of course) is seeing the drama between Ronnie and her dad about music. He is a former concert pianist and she seemed to be following in his footsteps until her parents got divorced. I'd specifically recommend this to teenagers because Ronnie is a typical teenager, but I did read this book and grade 8 and enjoyed it a lot. This book also made me cry like a baby for reason I cannot say unless you want a spoiler!
I rated all these books 5 stars and Goodread and they all have a home on my favorites shelf there. You can add me as a friend on Goodreads to see all my shelves and know when I post a review or see what books I'm currently reading! 
I also just finished The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones but I felt like I couldn't put it in this post since I read it so recently. 
What are your favorite books?
x Emily

My bedroom walls!

Me being me, I have tons of posters in my room. If you ask me why I really couldn't give you a reason, it just looks fun to me, I guess. Before, I had at least one poster on each wall, but a couple weeks ago I decided to change it up. And that resulted in this

I just clumped everything into this corner in my room. I actually really enjoy the way it looks. Some would find it to look cluttered, but I like everything together.

There was a con to all of this: my green wall looked terribly bare.

So the first thing I did was extended the posters through the corner so some were also on the green wall. My cork board was also looking a little full, so I kept all my tickets but moved the pictures to my wall.

Not only did this wall photo collage make more room on my cork board but now I also have a bunch of wall space to fit more pictures!

Now for the other side of my green wall I decides to do this

I did this around midnight. Which was around the time I had this sudden urge to re-arrange my posters. Anyways, this is one of my favorite quotes! I wanted to do a different one but it was a lot longer. And this took long enough! Also, construction paper and a knack of drawing block letters (which I obviously don't have). 

Basically, i think someone's bedroom should reflect their personality at all times, and sometimes that means making some changes! 

In other news:

I can't believe tomorrow is the start of august! In september I'll be starting my last year of high school :(

x Emily

Shop My Stash: Lips and other Bits

Today we are venturing into the two back squares of the organizer on my vanity. This is filled with mainly lip products, but there is also a few little bits (hence the title of this post).

First we have three lipsticks.

As you can tell, I'm someone that goes more for warm peach-tones, rather then cool blue-tones.

MAC's lipsticks are some of my favorites! They have a really creamy texture, and they smell AMAZING. 

Hue is one that I tend to pick up a lot. I find that it really looks good with my skin tone. It's sort of a nude-peach color. 

Angel is a lipstick I've heard many people rave about. I'd have to agree that it may look good on just about any skin tone. It's your typical neutral pink.

Chanel isn't something I usually buy. But while in NYC a couple summers ago, my mom got me a lipstick while we were in Bloomingdales. These Rouge Coco Shine lipsticks are amazing! They have a really nice creamy texture (much like MAC's lipsticks) and have a great shine to them. It's almost like wearing a non-sticky, more moisturizing, lipgloss! Evasion is sort of like MAC's Hue, but has more pigment to it.

The Fresh SUGAR Lip Treatments are one of my favorites! They're super moisturizing and smell great. They also have SPF 15! Swatched above is the Rose tinted one; which is a very similar color to Benetint. I got these two minis on my birthday last year at Sephora for free. I'm not how I feel about dishing out $30 CAD for this when I'm done, though. I feel like another lip balm could treat me just the same. 

I'm sure you all recognize this beauty! The EOS Lip Balm in SummerFruit. I won't talk much about this, but it's something I use very often, and I have a back up hanging around cause it's so awesome!  

The NARS Lipgloss in Turkish Delight is one of my favorites! Particularly because it's not sticky at all! This is a great pale pink color that looks great on most skintones. I definitely recommend it!  

These two are also way up high on my favourites list! The MAC Tinted Lip Conditioner in Petting Pink is great for everyday. It's just your typical pink color and has SPF 15! This is something I can wear any time, any where and it's not like I need a mirror to help apply it, as the color is sheer. It also smells great and is moisturizing!

Rose Salves are a great! I got this Blueberry scented one by CO Bigelow at Bath and Body Works. This is a great multi-tasker and I love using it on my cuticles and my lips! The consistency is like Vaseline so it's greta to put on before bed. 

Something I forgot to take a picture of is the CO Bigelow My Favorite Lip Balm which I think is great and moisturizing and smell delicious... until you leave it in the hot car. My turned really watery after leaving it in the car and I'm so sad! But I still use it sometimes cause it smells nice.

I also keep a mini Too Faced Shadow Insurance and Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin here. I don't use them often anymore, I'm more just trying to use them up! They're really drying out as I've had them for a while. But I think they're both great primers and Sin is super pretty!

This is one of those products that I don't think my collection would be complete without! Benefit's Eye Bright is a great multi-purpose product that I especially love using under my eyes! I'd definitely recommend it!

I bought GOSH's Extreme Art Eye Liner in 12 after I decided I wanted an eye liner that matched my school colors for events and pep rallies! Since it's currently summer I'm not using it much but it's a really great long-wearing liquid eye liner. I got mine on sale at Shopper's Drug Mart here in Canada, and it was great deal!

What lip products are you using currently? Would you recommend it or not?

x Emily

Shop my Stash: Face

If you follow Beauty Broadcast, you're familiar with the title. This will be a bit different though...
Usually a "shop my stash" is pulling things you don't normally use or used to love and trying to use them more often again. MY shop my stash is about this thing...

this is an organizer I keep on my vanity and plop in the products that I'm using the most at the moment. I thought I could take each section and do blog posts about what's in each and what I think of them!
In today's post we're going to the right to where I keep my face products

The first products in here are my BB Creams! I'm not really one to use foundation. Mainly because I don't want it to break me out and I'm not one to fuss over coverage. Plus they provide a lot of different properties that are great for your skin!

The Marcelle BB Cream* is one of my favorites! It's a Canadian brand and you can buy this at Shoppers Drug Mart or Wal-Mart. I find that this one has great coverage for a BB Cream but it doesn't feel heavy at all! That's really all there is to say about it.... except the price. At Shopper Drug Mart it's around $24CAD and at Wal-Mart around $20CAD. Honestly? I will definitely repurchase this BB Cream, I just really love the way it works! There is also no SPF in it. It doesn't really concern me too much. And I do use a moisturizer with SPF in it after I wash my face. 

*this link is in french... my browser is Google Chrome and it offered to translate it for me. 

The Revlon Photo Ready BB Cream is great for the price. A plus to this is that it has SPF built in and I would not recommend this for oily skin. I think it may be the SPF in this product that makes my skin look pretty shiny. you may find this with most BB Creams anyways because they have a lot of moisture in them, but I don't find that the Marcelle one does this. Other then that I think this is a great option if you're looking for a BB Cream.

The Rimmel Stay Matte Powder has been a cult favorite for a while now. This is one of the first makeup products I ever used. I think this is a great choice if you haven't used this powder before. However, after using MAC's MSF Natural and the next product I'm going to tell you about, I've found that this powder can look a tad cakey. The problem may be that the powder isn't thin enough, it's not "finely milled". Maybe Rimmel figured that if they didn't thin it out it to make it better coverage? I think in order to REALLY enjoy this powder, one of the shades has to really match your skin tone. 

Revlon's Nearly Naked Powder is a hit in my books! I find that it takes away shine without making me look too cakey. Plus it gives good coverage! What confuses me about this powder is that the color is labeled 020. It was the lightest shade on the shelf, there is no shade with a one. After checking the website this powder is the lightest shade available. The picture above is very accurate to the color of the powder in real life. My sister originally bought this powder, but it was too dark so she gave it to me and I fell in love. So obviously, if you're fair skinned, you're out of luck.

Benefits Tints and Beams are one of my staples. These products are so universal I don't know how a collection is complete with at least one of these products! They're also great during school cause they're so quick to slap on and run out the door. Just a warning about these, when you're using the tints make sure to blend right after dabbing it on your cheeks because they sink in really fast. (It was impossible to photograph BeneTint in the first swatch photo). Also, do you see how beautiful that second swatch of high beam is! This is why I love it! 

MAC ProLongwear Concealer is another staple in my collection. This is my second purchase of it, and i will definitely purchase it again!It has great coverage without feeling heavy; it kinda just blends right in. The only thing I wouldn't recommend this for is under the eyes. I also hate the pump cause a little goes a super long way and it pumps out way too much.

Revlon PhotoReady Concealer is something I haven't been using quite as long as the MAC but it is one that I'd definitely recommend. Unlike the MAC, it's great for under the eyes! It's super creamy and light and won't crease! I find that it also has a great, light coverage for acne and redness. The only complaint I have is that because of it's "PhotoReady" name, it has those little flecks of shimmer, which is noticeable if you look close enough. I also wouldn't recommend it if you're going for something long-wearing.

So that's what I'm currently using on my face! If you noticed, there was no blush in there. Mainly because I switch my cheeks up a lot. Plus if I keep it all together, I'm always going into the drawer, so I'm always using different ones!

What ear your favorite face products right now?

x Emily

Relaunch! New Bits + my YouTube

Hello!
It's been quite a while since I've done a blog post (or even posted a YouTube video) but I did want to share some new little bits - AKA reasons for not being around.
In May I took a trip with my wonderful school band to Disney World! It was really a great time and I had tons of fun! In 5 days, we visited all 4 parks and Downtown Disney. We also had a great experience doing the Disney Preforming Arts Workshop and preformed in Epcot! It rained quite a bit but the last day was beautiful and sunny and perfect before we had to come back home the next day. I also ate Mickey shaped waffles every morning for breakfast cause why not?! We also saw the fireworks display at Cinderella's castle, FANTASMIC!, and La Nouba Cirque Du Soleil!
(Speaking of Cirque Du Soleil I heard the incredibly sad news of the 16 ft fall.)
Obviously since it was only five days, I have been home for a while now. My lack of YouTube videos has partly to do with school and partly to do with overall laziness. Just last week, I finished grade 11 and my 2nd semester finals drove me a little crazy. It was project after pro
ject. Exam after exam. Let's just say I've spent this past week off of school catching up with friends (because during exams all we do is worry) and enjoying my summer. I've also begun taking action with myself and have decided to try and do Just Sweat (a feature on Just Dance 3 for Wii) at least 3 times a week. Since I started high school I haven't exactly taken the best care of myself and it's something I think is important for me to do.
As general laziness goes, I just haven't found the energy to get myself up and sit in front of a camera and talk about a bunch of beauty products. I find it difficult to even sit and watch a beauty video. I'm not sure if my interest level has gone down or if it's just the reality. I've found myself unsubscribing to a lot of people lately. I feel like we're all just talking about products we like and nothing really has any background to it. And frankly, it's not entertaining. I've found myself wanting to do more interesting things with my videos, I want them to be entertaining and educational.
That being said, there is a lot of videos that'd I'd like to film and I am not stopping making them. But I think that they won't be consistent (not that they are anyways) because I want each of them to be unique. So I think I'll be taking a lot of the video I want to do and make them blog posts instead so that my youtube and my blog are up to date.
There are many other things that have been taking up time in my life. I'm still trucking through my musical passions. Although everything seems to be dragging at the moment. I've also found myself on tumblr and writing fanfiction a lot. These are all things I like to keep separate from my videos but sometimes they can effect each other.
Without further ado, here's the re-launch of my blog! I've decided to make this blog anything I want. Whether I want to tell you about a new product or an experience somewhere you're gonna hear about it here!
x Emily