Dressfirst review. The perfect prom dress is calling you.

The following post is a sponsored post. All thoughts are my own and are not influenced by others.

Prom time is almost here and it's a magical time for most girls. A time you have dreamed of for most of your life. Depending on where you live the selection may be quite limited and the prices high. I remember my own prom and having the most horrible time dress shopping. I ran into the issue that my smaller town didn't have the size options that I needed. After many days and visiting every store in town I found 2 dresses that fit me, both in the same store. 1 was a discontinued dress (and let me tell you no wonder it was discontinued it was made of what felt like old stuffy curtains) it itched, wasn't what I liked but was in my price range. The second was a plum empire waisted dress with a flowy layer over the dress that split in the middle. It fit like a dream and made me feel like a princess. The problem? It was more than double my limit at almost $400. In the end I got my dream dress after telling my Aunt's and uncle's who then gave me birthday money that I used to get the dress combining it with what my step dad would put towards a dress. I got lucky but many girls don't and I have found the perfect solution for this issue thats affordable and has so many choices you are sure to find the Prom dress that will complete your dream.

Dress First has dresses starting at size 2 and going up to a 26W. They often run specials of free shipping on their dresses. The thing that impressed me the most other than their size availability was the sheer affordability of the dresses! There is only 1 dress currently in the prom section thats over $250!!! 

YES YOU SAW THAT RIGHT!

Almost the entire prom inventory is under $250!!!!!

So don't settle for less than you deserve because Dress First has the perfect prom dresses 2014 for you!

Saving money on makeup

Did you know that you can save money on makeup? It’s simple. I did not believe it until I tried it. I discovered mineral makeup. I had heard about it before but I wasn’t able to try it until seven years ago. Ever since then, I have been hooked. I love using mineral makeup because it saves me money and it is natural and gentle on my skin. I also love how versatile the colors are. 

I love makeup. I love trying new colors and creating a new look that works for me. I am a little addicted to makeup and my makeup case is overflowing with products! 

So how does mineral makeup save money? When I use mineral makeup, I only need to use a little bit of product as it goes a long way. My makeup lasts all day. The only time I do spend money on makeup is when I want to add new eye shadow colors to my collection. Other than that, I have foundation, veil and bronzer that I have been using for a few years now! My eye shadow collection keeps growing but my colors will last years. 

I love using mineral makeup as it is gentle on my skin. The ingredients list is usually under 7 ingredients. The ingredients come from the earth and are good for my skin. 

The eye shadows can be applied wet (by using the foiling method) or dry. Either way, they will both last all day. If you want a bold look, you can foil your eye shadow. Dip your brush in water and squeeze excess from your brush. Dip your brush in your eye shadow and apply to your lids. 

Stephanie is a blogger at Beauty Brite and Fairy Tale Reviews. I am a full time working mom and wife. We have one son who has special needs. I am a founding independent consultant with a mineral makeup company. You can find my link on my blog. 

Beauty spoon Review

I received the following product in exchange for a review. However I only recommend items that I or  I believe my readers will find useful.

 I got the chance to review the Beauty spoon and here is what I would like to tell you. I wish I knew about the beauty spoon before in the past. I have spent much time beating and banging bottles trying to get the last drops of product (much to the dismay of the Old Man). An example would be I am in the shower washing my hair and I notice that I can't get anything to come out of the bottle. I would then proceed to bang the bottle either against my knee or against the wall causing all kinds of racket. I work nights now and have been doing it so long I just do it out of habit, so imagine being dead asleep and hear a banging and you will know why the old man hates it. Thats where the beauty spoon comes in! 

CampusBookRentals.com An alternative for text books.

Hey college goers school is expensive so why not save some cash. Have you heard of http://www.campusbookrentals.com/ ? Well I am here to tell you about it! Campus Book Rentals can save you money on your books so that you can use it on other things like maybe a much needed car repair.

 Some of the reasons you should rent from them are:

-save 40-90% off of bookstore prices

-free shipping both ways

-can highlight in the textbooks

-flexible renting periods

-highlight as if you owned the book.

To me this is the best part....

Mio water enhancer..... vs. crystal light/generics. A battle review

So I hate and I absolutely mean HATE water. It taste funny to me; and I know what your thinking its all in my head, but I know other people that feel the same way so maybe its all been ingrained in YOUR mind & we are the normal ones. Anyway I had been using these drink mixes usually I stuck with the generics from IGA that were $1 for 8-10 drink mixes because I was trying to cut cost, but sometimes I would splurge for the good ones from crystal light or the Walmart ones that were almost as much as the crystal light ones.

Before I started to use the mixes I was drinking the 32 oz of powerade all day at work. That’s 10 hours at work plus lunch. I’m talking on the phone all day so I’m always drinking. So I would consume anywhere from 2-4 a day, that’s 200 calories a bottle so that means 400-800 calories just from drinking while at work. that’s not counting anything I drank before work or after! So that’s why I converted to the mix because it was 8-10 for$1 @10cal each instead of 1 for $.85 @ 200cal each. It just made sense and I had wished I had noticed it sooner.

The bad thing about the generic mixes is that they would clump at the bottom and if I swallowed a unmixed clump by accident it sent me into sputtering fits so bad that my eyes would water. Heaven forbid I be on a call with a customer and have to put them on hold because my beverage is trying to kill me. So then I switched to the box of 10 for $2.50 each, ouch I hated seeing that money fly out of my pocket.

I had hoped that the crystal light stuff wouldn’t clump and it didn’t clump as much but it still clumped. They are bitterly sour when you swallowed the clumps enough to make you gag and make a face like you took a giant bite from a lemon thinking it was an apple. (if someone was dumb enough to do this I would love to be there with a camera.) Although I will say their flavor selection was amazing because I always tended to get tired of the same flavor after a while. (NOTE: I forgot to mention the WalMart generics were comparable to the crystal light mixes and nothing like the horrible mixes I got from my local IGA)

I was working on a morning shift not sure of the hours but a girl on my team was always drinking mio at work and I thought it was a cool Idea but I never gave too much thought. Then I was at a friend’s (Kerrie & korey) and korey had the berry pomegranate and asked if I was thirsty, knowing I hated tea and plain water, offered me some of the mio. Right away I was hooked, I went right to the store and bought the berry pomegranate and drank it till it was all gone. What got me was the pure flavor no bitter after taste that I had experienced with some of the mixes, a simple bottle that I didn’t experience any spills with. Oh and here is the BIGGEST one……. Not a single calorie! Not one! So now it was helping with my quest to lose weight. Any other benefits you ask? Yes there is! One bottle is good for 24 uses or more if you like yours weak like I do. So now we have gone from 1 use for $.85 to 8-10 uses for $1 and then to 10 uses for $2.50 and now 24 for $3.50.

I am totally addicted to the strawberry watermelon I almost don’t get anything else at this point because I haven’t gotten tired of it yet and it’s been a year and I’m still drinking the same flavor! For those that know me that is a total shock because I get bored with things.

So now I was still bad with energy drinks occasionally when I felt I was going to fall asleep. Now I know I said occasionally but I drink a lot at once. Here is the lable from the can I would drink:

That’s 300 a can and I was drinking 2-3 cans of monster energy. Omg there we go with extra empty calories!

Well I went to the gas station about 2 months ago and I saw an empty display for something labeled mio energy. I asked the cashier about the display and they told me a guy that came in swearing by it bought the whole shelf! So I started to do some research on it. The red one Is black cherry but with the green I was getting conflicting information on wither its call thunder punch or green thunder. So knowing I’m picky and not wanting to waste the money I picked up the black cherry first because it was the best bet. So I tried the next night on my way to 3rds, still adjusting I’d felt tired every night. I loved the taste and as the night progressed I realized it did work and it didn’t cause me to have the adverse affects I always had to the monster such as stomach ache. A few days ago I picked up the green one (green thunder officially) and didn’t know what to expect because I couldn’t find what the flavor was supposed to be. I tried it and I love it more than the black cherry so definitely for normal I will go with the strawberry watermelon or wait there is a new one I forgot! Its orange tangerine I love that too!(not an energy mio). So I am keeping these 3 in stock at my home.

Walmart just came out with a GREAT VALUE version of mio and its $1 cheaper and they have some flavors that mio doesn’t have like grape. I have to deplete my mio stash and ill let you know what I think once I try it. They even have generic energy ones!