Rachel Knows... Too Faced Natural Eye!

I was actually impressed with this palette. I had been putting off reviewing this palette because there seemed to be more matte eye shadows than I'd like and I have never had luck with matte eye shadows before. I've never really tried a higher end matte eye shadow though and two of the three were really decent, which surprised me.  I am pretty sure I compare everything to Urban Decay, but I just really, really love their eye shadows. These seemed right on par with them. They were smooth, soft, pigmented and applied very easily. I usually just swatch with a brush, but I bought some disposable, cheap foam tipped eye shadow applicators and these applied wonderfully using those crappy things, so I can only imagine how great these will look with a good brush. Of course there are always problem children and this palette is no different. The good news is that out of nine shadows only two were troublesome. They also have the dirtiest names. :-X The names make me blush! Anyway, Sexpresso and Erotica just weren't up to par in my book. Sexpresso was patchy and it wouldn't become opaque. It behaved the way most mattes do for me, so yeah; it bummed me out and brought back bad memories. Ha-ha! That last part is an exaggeration. Erotica was a very sheer, not very opaque shadow and just seemed like a weird almost matte shadow with some sparse glitter. I don't know. I just wasn't a fan of it really. I just expect very dark crease colors to be very opaque, but this one just wasn't. At $4 a shadow this is a pretty good deal. I feel good recommending this palette to you guys!

 

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Rachel Knows... She's Gonna Bitch Some More!

          I know all of my blog readers and friends on Facebook are probably up to their ears with hearing me bitch and moan about my pregnancy, but here is a little more. I have never felt as low about myself as I have these past couple of months. I just feel awful pretty much all day long. There are maybe a couple of hours a day where I feel like maybe I can tolerate a trip to the grocery store or a walk around Target. When I come home from that though I always feel 10 times worse and end up puking like crazy, so even that isn't worth it. I'm on these horrible steroids that have made my face and neck swell up like crazy and I hate even looking at myself in the mirror. My self-esteem hit an all-time low about a week ago when I was feeling down and thought to myself, "I think a cute, little haircut will make me feel better!" That was the worst idea ever. I went to Great Clips. Definitely a place that is pretty much at the bottom of places I'd like to choose, but Mr. Cheapskate didn't want to go anywhere else. I should have just left my hair alone instead of going there. Long story short, I got the worst hair cut I've ever gotten. It has layers and is short as hell and I HATE IT! I would have told her to stop after she got it all even and a little bit above my collar bone, which looked nice, but I thought she was done because it is basically what I asked for. I never mentioned layers. I also need to add that I was nauseous from the moment I sat down. I think my subconscious knew that this was going to be a mistake. I also couldn't quit staring at my horribly swollen face and neck sticking up out of the apron they put on you when you get your haircut and I just wanted to sob. After the first layer was cut I knew I had to let her finish because I couldn't go out in public with just one layer. I guess that may have been better than how it ended up, but how was I to know.
           I have the Gestational Diabetes test on Monday at my appointment. I'm a nervous wreck about that because A. I hate eating or drinking new things. It makes my panic and anxiety go through the roof. So that will be a horrible panic attack experience. and B. I read that this crap makes women feel terrible and throw up who are perfectly healthy. This stuff is going to make me blow chunks faster than you can say, 'blow chunks." I don't want to feel horrible and then puke in a waiting room with other people around. I threw up in public once in the 3rd grade and it scarred me for life. I can only imagine being an adult and doing it. Plus, I don't want to have Gestational Diabetes. Who wants that? My Dr. said that the steroids increase the chance of Gestational Diabetes, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised if I do have it. I'm just 100% over being pregnant. I just want my precious little baby girl to be here and for this to be over.
           I'm trying to think if there is anything else for me to bitch about. Oh yeah, I had to go to the E.R. again. I thought I was having contractions, but they were Braxton Hicks. I was pretty sure that's what they were, but after talking back and forth with my doctor all day and him telling me that since they weren't getting any better to go to the E.R., I went. I'm glad I did go, because I ended up being dehydrated again and had to get I.V. fluids for the third time during this pregnancy. Lucy's heart rate was accelerated because of my dehydration. I can only imagine how bad my dehydration would have been had I not been drinking 2-3 mug fulls of my 34 oz. Bubba mug. I was astonished when they told me I was dehydrated again. I also had a low grade fever, which shocked me as well. I think all of this is just taking a huge toll on my body. I just hope Lucy is okay and that all of this and the medicine isn't harming her. None of the medicine is supposed to pass through the placenta to her. I just hope that is truly the case. It would be much more dangerous though for me to be throwing up everything and not getting any nutrients or staying chronically dehydrated than for some of this medicine to pass through. At least that is what I'm telling myself... I suppose I'm done bitching. Woe is me. Ha-ha!

Rachel Knows... Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeshadow Stick!

If anyone follows my Rachel Knows... Facebook page, then you might know that I have been looking for these everywhere for a while. I'd read that these rivaled Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-on Pencils. While I wouldn't go quite that far, these are nice pencils. They were smooth, creamy and just applied wonderfully. They were also awesomely pigmented. The price couldn't be beat either. I got them for around $4.50 apiece. Urban Decay's pencils are $20.00 apiece. These did smear when I ran my finger across them, but I did pretty heavy swatches. I think if I'd let them dry a little more they wouldn't have smeared as much. The Guilt Grey swatch stayed on my arm for several days. Not looking perfect, but there was a pretty noticeable mark left. I'd say that these are a pretty decent investment and addition to my makeup collection. As I said earlier, they aren't nearly as good as Urban Decay, but in terms of lasting without a primer, they beat NYX.

 



Rachel Knows... Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoo Metal!

Whenever I get my new makeup I always make snap decisions about which of the colors are going to perform the best. When I got these I thought the order that they would perform the best would be: 1. Blue 2. Silver 3. Gold 4. Pink 5. Beige. Boy was I wrong. Gold and blue were tied for the worst performing of the bunch. Silver was the 2nd worst. Then there was Pink and surprisingly Beige was the best in my opinion. It really took me by surprise. Unless you're just totally in love with the Silver, Gold and Blue or if you have really awesome powder shadows in similar colors that might look great over these, I'd say skip them. They just don't cover well enough to warrant almost $7.00 apiece. You'd have to do so many layers for this to become opaque that it would take forever and would probably feel uncomfortable on the eyes. The Silver isn't as bad as the Gold or Blue, but it still doesn't perform like the Pink or Beige. It is a shame though because the colors are really pretty.

All set up like the Olympic rings, unfortunately I don't think these would take home any medals. 

Rachel Knows... This Pregnancy Thing is Rough!!!!!

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I posted last. This month has brought a whole new host of pregnancy problems. I have been having lots of vascular issues. Very bad headaches, dizziness, shortness of breath, lots of pressure in my upper body, eye pain, my heart jumping around in my chest. Just about everything you can think of. All of those things mixed with my nausea have made for a very unpleasant month. My doctor also tried tapering me off of my steroids (which I can't remember if I wrote about the steroids or not) and that didn't go well at all. I went down just 5 mg one day and the next day I woke up miserable. I was so sick all morning and I ended up throwing up. I hadn't thrown up in over a month, so I was pretty bummed out about that. I went back up to the normal dosage of steroids, because I just CAN NOT handle going back to how I was. I've gained back 5 of the 25 pounds that I'd lost since I got on the steroids and I'm just not going to go back to how I felt. I've felt worse since that one day of tapering and I just can't believe that one day got me so out of whack. So swatching and taking pictures isn't really something I feel up to lately. I apologize and I want to get back to it. I've had to write too many of these posts and I'm just ready to feel good, have my baby here and get back to blogging!