Friday faves

Did you enter my SkincareRx $20 giveaway?   You have until July11 to do so
Thank goodness it is Friday. This week has been really rough on me for some reason, really sinking low this weekend. The best cure I know? A weekend. How do I make it an even better cure? Going up to San Jose to visit my cousin. I'm up heading there later today and flying home on Sunday. If you don't know the closeness of the relationship that I have with my cousin I have mentioned it a few times on the blog. She is 1.5 years younger than me and growing up we were asked if we were fraternal twins A LOT because our mothers are identical twins and that created a very close bond. She was my maid of honor at my wedding (almost!) two years ago.

For a few Fridays now, I have been sharing 5 of my favorite things with you all and it is back, 5 Things Friday. These are some staples in my routine and others are recent addition.

1/2/3/4/5

1. John Frieda Root Booster, I was just made aware of this great styling product and I love it. The smell is like a beach mixed with coconuts, I feel very tropical when I spritz it into my roots each morning. Then I flip my head upside down to blow-dry to provide even more lift to my style. Definitely glad I picked up this product. 

2. The maxi skirt from Target, I was swooning over the black and white striped maxi but all the Targets around me have completely sold out of my size, XS, so I saw this blue beauty and am loving it. The flow of the skirt is really nice and the color is really eye-catching and for only $18 you can't beat the price.

3. I picked up this deodorant thanks to the $2.50 off coupon the company was dangling in front of me, yes they got me. I am really glad they got me because this deodorant easily became my number 1 choice for deodorant. I have never felt more dry, I feel protected and there is no noticeable scent. Definitely recommend to to everyone!

4. I can't even consider putting on eyeshadow unless I put this primer on my eyelids first. Before I used a primer, I would apply eyeshadow at 8am and by 10am the shadow was all up in my creases, so not attractive. I tried drug-store brand primers, L'Oreal for example but it still didn't keep my eyeshadow in place. Then I tried Urban Decay and I am stuck on it ever since just like my eyeshadow is stuck to the primer and doesn't budge. The best eyeshadow primer I have ever tried. I like the new tubing Urban Decay switched, and it makes getting the very last bit of primer out of the tube so much easier.

5. I am a natural look type of girl, so I tend to stick with bronzes and this palette collection by Maybelline is perfect for my every day eye make-up. This quad palette comes from Maybelline's Expertwear eyeshadow and it is called Sunlit Bronze 50Q. 

If you do try any of these products or have some Friday faves, I would love for you to share them with me!

SkincareRx Giveaway

Lately, I have been on a serious take good care of my skin kick. Why, because it is the largest organ system you have and you need to take good care of it each and every day. I was recently contacted by SkincareRx (or Apothica) to be sponsored by them and to kick off the sponsorship, they are allowing me to host a $20 giveaway, which can be redeemed at SkincareRx, Apothica or SkinBotanica.

With summer being here, it is extra important that we keep our skin moisturized and SkinCareRx has some of the best lotions. 

My legs tend to end up looking like a desert and I would love to moisturize them with lotions like these:

via

Or this yummy sound moisturizer sour cherry.

via

It is so easy peasy.

How to enter:

(1) you must be a follower of henning love. 

(2) Go to SkincareRx or Apothica and leave a comment of your favorite product and provide a link to the product in the comment section. That is all you have to do to enter, follow and then comment what is your favorite product from either site and you must provide the link of the product. Sorry if no link then the entry doesn't count.

The giveaway will close on July 11. Don't forget to enter!

What I'm Loving Recently...

Have you entered my Hat Attack giveaway yet? Winner gets to select the hat they love best.Yes Friday and thank goodness this short week flew by! Sometimes a Monday holiday will be the week just dragging to get to the next weekend. But it is Friday already, yippe! And it is June 1 already, how did we get here already? New June sponsors are on the right hand side and sponsor posts going up later this month.
I'm sharing with you all today a few things that I am totally digging recently. Things that I have recently acquired or have been siting around in my house or in my make-up drawer and I am now like wow, why haven't I used this before?

1/2/3/4/5/6

1.Loving these wedges especially after the half marathon, easy on my legs and they are still comfy after 8 hours of work. 2.The foundation primer in radiance, feel likes my face has woken up and doesn't have the dull look I feel it did. 3. Bare Minerals blush in fruit cocktail shade also worn by ms. emily maynard but I had it first. 4/5.Mango shower gel and lotion by Body Shop, husband bought them for Christmas and they were sitting under the bathroom sink. All my friends say I smell wonderful after I give them a hug, no perfume necessary I guess. 6.The facial wash I got as a sample, makes me face feel clean but not dry.

Loving these!

$50 Make-up Giveaway

What a better way to end this week with a little beauty and glamour and the best way I can show my appreciation for all the support you give my little blog is with a $50 make-up giveaway. I won this giveaway myself recently and it is definitely worth it to end this giveaway! The company is Soap Hope is this is their mission:  Helping Women Everywhere. We believe that every woman in the world who wants an opportunity to support herself and her family should have that opportunity. That's why we created the GOOD RETURNS business model on which Soap Hope was founded. It's simple: every dollar of profit earned by a Good Returns company goes first to an institution that uses it to solve world problems. After those profits have spent a year in service, the money is returned to Soap Hope. It's like the Peace Corps for money: we volunteer every dollar for a year of service.via You can feel good about wearing their products because you know each dollar is spent to help women around the world and it doesn't hurt either that you look pretty darn beautiful yourself, although I believe in beauty with or without make-up. When I won the giveaway, I used the opportunity to select colors I normally wouldn't purchase or think would look good on me, I didn't go super crazy, don't worry. I bought a blue shade, I heard opposite colors are good for eyeshadows so with my brown eyes I went blue. I also bought a lovely shade of pink called Love Potion as demonstrated for you here. These eyeshadows along with their make-up line is natural minerals based.These are the four colors I picked from the giveaway I won:

This is also my normal make-up routine, starting with Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer. Seriously without this, my eyeshadow is all up in my creases by 10am, not a pretty picture. I have tried drug store brands, especially L'Oreal and nothing can compare to Urban Decay. Plus they changed up their packaging lately so when you get down to the last little bit of primer, it is a lot easier to retrieve. Then I put my eyeliner on before my shadow. I like to put the liner on first because the shadow helps cut down on the exact line look. Then my shadow and finally after curling my lashes my mascara. Here is my eye make-up routine.

I put on the Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer

Then I put on my eyeliner in a dark brown shade.

Then I put on the Soap Hope Love Potion eyeshadow, curled my eyelashes and then put on my brownish-black mascara.

The finished look!

To enter the giveaway for $50 worth of Soap Hope's makeup (and the giveaway is for the make-up only), click on the link below to enter and you must be a follower of henning love to win! http://s-hope.co/whOfC6This giveaway is open until next Friday, March 9.

Glamour at the End of the Week

One thing that blogging has given me is the courage to find new hair curling techniques, hair products, nail polish and make-up. I will alternate on Fridays between fashion and glamour and for this first Glamour at the End of the Week is a hair straightener review.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Misikko to see if I would be interested in doing a flat iron review. Of course I couldn't say no! I pretty much always curl my hair but I couldn't turn down the opportunity to do a review. I received the HANA Titanium Flat Iron 1.5" and a whole bunch of other goodies. 

I couldn't believe the size of the box when I received it and saw that the extras the people at Misikko stuffed into the box. 

This is the box I got!

The beautiful straightener with its case

And everything else that came with the flat iron.

 A towel

This is a heat shield solution I put on my hair prior to straightening 

I can now try elf makeup 

A plastic mat to lay the straightener on so protect your counter from the heat

I asked my friend, Laura to be my test subject on the straightener. In roommates, when we were roommates I would straighten her hair usually while watching Sex in the City or Friends. Plus Laura would be perfect because she has naturally curly hair and I think you would be able to tell the difference of the before and after photos.

Here is Laura before with wet hair.

Then she blow-dried her hair. Craziness!

Now we were ready to straighten! I divided her hair into sections and was amazed how smooth the hair glides through the titanium plates.

You can tell the difference, the left side is has straightened and the right hasn't.

I finished all the underneath hair.

 Her hair is really shiny

I finished the top layer of her and asked for a full rotation of her straightened hair!

Here is the after photo with straightened hair using the HANA Titanium 1.5" straightener. 

Laura commented that her hair felt really soft, softener than any other straighteners she has used before. The hair glides very smoothly between the two plates and I didn't have a snag once with her hair.

Misikko has sells the HANA hair dryer which I have noticed a lot of other bloggers got to review as well. 

If you are in the market for a new hair dryer or straightener, I would definitely recommend the HANA titanium 1.5" straightener!

Thank you Laura for being my hair model and thank you Misikko for giving me the opportunity to review one of your products.

*I was not paid for this review, other than the box of goodies I received, that was my compensation for writing this review. These reviews are entirely my own. 

LWD - Its Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! Boy, am I glad this week is practically over. It has been a good but busy week. Yesterday I was invited to attend a lunch by my Masters alma mater in association with the professional society for public administrators. My good friend, Jeanna, and I were both invited so as well as hanging out with a friend and being able to catch up, we saw a lot of our former professors. It was nice to catch up with them and found out how they were doing. After this busy week, I am doing looking forward to relaxing tonight, packing up 

and getting ready for my week of vacation. 

I did the little white dress for Friday Fancies today and linking it over to Long Distance Loving. I'm gonna admit this was a bit of a difficult assignment for me for some reason. I was piecing together an outfit and there was just something I didn't like about it, so I would add new accessories or change the shoes and it still didn't seem quite right. Also Polyvore seemed to be giving me a hard time, so that is why I don't have a bag with this week's outfit, the bag option didn't want to come up for me, and I didn't want to mess with it any longer. 

Side note before I continue with Friday Fancies, I have plenty of guest posts lined up next week. You will be impressed with the girls that graciously written some posts for me, please give them plenty of comment love and be sure to follow them. Believe me, you will be impressed with what they have written for you, my lovely readers!

And here is my outfit!

LWD by mhenning featuring satya jewelry

Also I wanted to mention my newest favorite shampoo and conditioner especially great for colored hair. I received a small sample the other day of Aveeno Living Color collection. Wow this stuff makes my hair so silky smooth and the smell is wonderful. Check it out yourself!

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday and an awesome start to your weekend!!

Favorite beauty products!

Beauty products, dang you, have sucked me in from spending my money on other things like shoes or purses or clothes, oh screw it I just spend money on all those things in general. Recently, however, I have taken a good interest in beauty products or expanding from what was my standard go to products to branching out and trying different products.

Here are my standard go to products that are used pretty much on a daily basis and I don't drift away from buying anything different, why because they work so well for me!

Shampoo

Conditioner

Curling iron

Conair, heats up so quickly and my hair really holds the curl

Body Wash

Here are some products that I change up from time or time or have recently found and now love! They are definitely a staple in my beauty product line-ups now!

Blush

I love blush and if I am having a minimal makeup, I always at least put a little blush on. These are a few of my favorites.

Shade: Orgasm

Shade: Laughter

Shade: Fruit Cocktail

Lips

I have never really been able to find a lip shade that I was extremely happy with, nor do I feel like I know what colors suit me best but these are two that I usually pretty regularly. I was especially interested in the Smashbox because it comes out clear and then transforms into a custom pink color, so everyone's color would be slightly different. Have anyone of you ever tried it?

Shade: Rosy Glow
 

Newest Favorite Hair Product:

Alterna Bamboo Brilliance Creme

Ok this product is truly my newest favorite, why because I put a little bit of creme on the ends of my hair and it holds the curl, it makes my ends look more full and it smells good. Man I go continue to rave about this product. I got a small sample at Sephora and couldn't pass the opportunity up to stop using it so I bought a whole tube. My hair just feels stronger, my hair doesn't grow limp after a full day, wow do I love it!

Has anyone ever tried any of these products? Did you like them or did you have to pass? 

Quickly posting dinner last night, when it is hump day and you are just dying for the weekend, what makes life a little bit better, macaroni and cheese! Then we have to add a healthy side dish so grilled zucchini. My Sean brought home a huge zucchini from work so that is why the slices are extra large. 

To prepare the zucchini, I sprinkled some olive oil, pepper, salt and garlic over them and grilled them each side for a few minutes. Enjoy!

Yum! homemade mac and cheese with grilled zucchini

Also I have been a a bit of a funk this week, not sure exactly why or what the cause of it is but I thank each of you for all your wonderful comments on my posts, I certainly look forward to connecting more with you and sharing a bit of my life and hoping you will do the same in return with me. 

Any thoughts on how to get out of a funk?