The Clunkster

Anastasia Beverly Hills' Ultra Matte Eye Shadow Single in Fresh

Cruelty-Free, Beauty, Beauty ReviewKristenComment

I used to play with makeup a lot when I was little. I had a Bratz glitter makeup set that everyone was jealous of. But I didn’t start ~seriously~ wearing makeup until my sophomore year of high school, and it was super gradual. Over time, I’ve learned more and figured out what works for me, but that never included eyeshadow. It just kind of confused me, to be honest.

Then, I got Urban Decay’s NAKED3 palette for Christmas, and I started wearing eyeshadow almost every day. I feel like my look is incomplete without it! Even if I don’t go all out with a cute blended look, I’ll try to rub a light pink in the crease.

Long story short, I completely underestimated how much I used Strange, the pale color in NAKED3. Since I don’t use anything on my eyebrows (yet), I rely on a nude shadow to make them pop. I also use it to prime my lids and highlight my inner corners. So when I realized that I literally couldn’t get anything else out of my pan (RIP), I decided to try a new nude shade.

After wandering the aisles of Sephora and rubbing an absurd amount of lipsticks on my hand, I decided to try something from Anastasia Beverly Hills, since they sell individual eyeshadow shades and I’ve heard awesome things about their products. Their nude shade Fresh, an ultra matte “ivory pink,” was perfect for me since most of the other shades I use are rose gold-y. It was pretty close to Strange.

Guys, I love this eyeshadow SO MUCH. I love how soft it is and how it glides onto my eyelids. I honestly love it more than Strange! The color is still relatively even with my skin tone, but it pairs so well with the other shades in NAKED3 and gives things that pop that I need in a nude shadow. I need to head back to Sephora soon to get a full palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills. If you have a favorite ABH palette, let me know in the comments! I’m really disappointed that I hadn’t tried them until now.

I also just really love the fact that Anastasia sells eyeshadow singles. In this case, it wouldn’t have made sense to buy an entirely new palette just for one color. And for it to be so high-quality too? I’ve been blessed.

I honestly don’t even have that much left to say. I was just so happy with this eyeshadow, and I use it almost every day. It’s literally never let me down. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a new nude shade, or really any new eyeshadow color.

ultimate squad goals

Outfit of the Day, StyleKristenComment

blue light glasses. flannel (similar).

top. shorts. sneakers. sunglasses (use my code CLUNKSTER25 for 25% off your order!).

If you’re following me on Instagram, you know that I spent my Spring Break in Disney World with my best friend Kennedy! I had so much fun with her, and I wish I could go back every day. So, I figured I’d share some of the looks I wore to the parks with you guys! Here’s one that I wore on our second day, which we spent at Animal Kingdom, Kennedy’s favorite park.

We kicked off our day with the Pandora ride, which absolutely blew my mind. If anything, it’s actually underrated. I highly recommend it. Then we ate french fries while we tried to avoid a swarm of weird looking birds (they weren’t snipes, even though I did flip out when I saw Kevin). We hung out at Dino Land for a while, rode Expedition Everest while the sun was setting, and finished off the evening with a nighttime safari ride. It was so cool!

Since we were at Animal Kingdom, I figured it was the perfect time to break out my “Squad Goals” crop top, featuring, Simba, Timon, and Pumba. I wore my high-waisted shorts, which looked awesome with the cut of the tee, and my neutral flannel since it was a little chilly while we were there. Rude.

When we were in the sun, I wore my adorable Sunice Sunglasses. But when we went on rides with screens, I threw on my blue light glasses. I’ll write a more in-depth review on them another time, but I get super sick when I deal with a lot of screens, and stupidly didn’t wear them on Mission Space, a ride in which there’s a screen pressed against your face as you’re shaken like you’re in space, the day before. It probably would’ve been really fun if I had my glasses. So I wore them the next day, and I felt a lot better.

What’s your favorite ride in Animal Kingdom? Let me know in the comments!

Lush Twilight Shower Gel

Cruelty-Free, Beauty, Beauty ReviewKristenComment

Hello, my loves! You all know that I’m a huge fan of self care. While self care is something that looks different for everyone, for me it’s a combination of things I love to do for myself and things that I need to do for myself. One of my favorite forms of self care is showering! I really love feeling the water on my skin and scrubbing off the dirt of the day. I’m a night showerer, so I process a lot of my day in the shower. And I sing and dance. A lot.

But what’s a shower without some good body wash? Before you get your hopes up about this review, I should tell you that this product is only available seasonally, unfortunately. Last summer, I got some really bad news while I was at the mall with my friends, so we wandered through the stores that had nice-smelling things, like Sabon, David’s Tea, and Lush, to calm down. Smelling things is another one of my favorite forms of self care.

While I was crying through Lush, a sales associate named Gabrielle asked me what was wrong, and we talked for a bit. She comforted me a lot and gave me this small bottle of Twilight Shower Gel left over from the wintertime. It was probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. It seriously meant so much more than she realized. In her honor, I use this shower gel whenever I need a little boost of self love.

This beauty smells like lavender and tonka, a combination I never knew I needed in my life, let alone my shower. According to Lush’s website, lavender absolute is used to “calm the mind, aid restful sleep, and promote relaxation.” For those of you who had never heard the word “tonka” used in a non-toy truck context until now, the tonka bean is commonly found in Brazil, Peru, and Costa Rica. It’s commonly used to reduce inflammation, which makes sense as to why it’s used in a comforting shower gel like Twilight. Tonka absolute is known for its “sweet, comforting aroma.” To be honest, I thought it was cinnamon until I wrote this post, so I guess it’s somewhat in that ballpark. I’m fully aware that cinnamon is not sweet, just go with it.

Basically, Lush assembled the perfect dream team for a shower gel designed to relax you to sleep. I loved using it at the end of a long day. Aside from the mental benefits of this shower gel, it made my skin super soft and smooth. I truly felt cleansed after I showered. I also loved using it to shave my legs! Literally the only downside of this shower gel is that it’s only available seasonally.

On the bright side, this shower gel is inspired by the Twilight Bath Bomb, which Lush’s website says is also made with lavender and tonka and smells very similar. If you’re not into bath bombs, they also have a Twilight Body Spray that’s also made to help you drift to sleep. Lastly, there’s the Sleepy Body Lotion, which is pretty self-explanatory. It’s also full of lavender and tonka, as well as almond oil and cocoa butter, so if you have a nut allergy, please use caution!

I feel like my experience with my Twilight Shower Gel encompasses how I feel about Lush. They’ve built a brand that assists with self love, from their sales associates to their processes to the ingredients in their products. I love popping into Lush whenever I pass one, sniffing through some of the new bath bombs, and having a chat with a really cool sales associate with a nose piercing. I always feel like I deserve the world when I leave. Thanks, Lush!

For more information about going cruelty-free, check out PETA’s Searchable Database or Cruelty-Free Kitty’s alphabetized list of cruelty-free brands.

groovy tuesday

Outfit of the Day, StyleKristenComment

jacket. bodysuit. pants (by just-one). boots. sunglasses (use my code CLUNKSTER25 for 25% off your purchase!).

Brace yourselves: I’m not wearing black leggings.

Don’t worry, I haven’t (completely) lost my mind, I’m just trying to switch things up a bit! I’m always on here complaining about things I have that I love but never wear, so I decided to actually do something about that and wear these adorable funky pants that an ex got me as a birthday present. I may have bad taste in boys, but they have great taste in presents!

Usually I wear these leggings with a black crop top, but this time I wore a bodysuit, and I really loved the way it looked. I’ve actually never worn these pants with black boots before either, so I was really pleasantly surprised.

I topped this look off with my new denim jacket, which I’ve been absolutely obsessed with since I got it. I’ll spare you the details and profess my love for it in another post.

And last but not least, I wore my round Sunice sunglasses that I’m also obsessed with. I thought I lost them the other day and almost cried.

Hopefully, you’ll be seeing a lot more patterned pants around here. Where do you buy funky pants? Let me know in the comments!

Physician's Formula's Organic Wear Natural Origin Work It! Full! Flared! Fit! Mascara

Beauty, Beauty Review, Cruelty-FreeKristenComment

You all know how much I love my eyelashes. Mascara is the most important part of my makeup routine, so I’ve been on the hunt for a mascara that I really, really love. Last year, I tried out Physician’s Formula’s Organic Wear Natural Origin Work It! Full! Flared! Fit! Mascara. That was fun to type.

The reason I took a look at Physician’s Formula’s products in CVS was because the mascara that I was using previously was starting to make my eyes really itchy, and I knew that Physician’s Formula uses hypoallergenic ingredients. I wanted to find something that stayed on really well, since that was also a problem I was having, but my number one concern was the itchiness. Thankfully, I found this mascara (I can’t type all those exclamation points again), which claimed to address both concerns.

The packaging of this mascara claims that this formula is “guaranteed to last through your toughest workout,” and “delivers maximum strength adherence.” So I figured this was the one to try.

The Pros

This mascara definitely didn’t make my eyes itchy, but I’m not sure if I can attribute that to the organic ingredients. I love a good all-natural formula, but since I bought this mascara I’ve used organic formulas that make me itchy and non-organic formulas that don’t. So I don’t really think it’s relevant.

I’m a really big fan of the brush. It covers a lot of ground and its bristles get in between my lashes, which I really love. I like mascara better when it helps me define and lift my lashes as opposed to giving them volume, which is exactly what this mascara did. I love the way it looks on my lashes. This mascara indeed makes me feel both “Full!” and “Flared!”

The Con

I’m such a fan of Physician’s Formula’s mission to use organic ingredients to help sensitive skin. But I can’t ignore that the claims that this mascara is “10K Proof. Gym Proof. Sweat Proof. Water Resistant,” are completely untrue. After about a week of wearing this mascara, I found myself crying in public (hey, it happens to the best of us). I wiped away my tears and honestly didn’t think about how I looked because I was wearing my new rigorously waterproof mascara.

Guys. I got home and looked in the mirror, and I had mascara all over my face. Literally all over my face.

Usually, when I cry with makeup on, my mascara gets clumpy and stubborn, so when I wipe my tears things just get a little sticky but I only look a little bit like a raccoon. In this case, however, my tears took the formula and collected it into small pools under my eyes which then descended down my face in small rivers. And wiping my tears didn’t help things at all!

I really don’t mean to be harsh, but I was very disappointed with this part of the formula because Physician’s Formula claimed that this mascara is “rigorously tested to withstand your most athletic activities,” but it couldn’t withstand an anxiety attack on the T. Since this was a big part of why I decided to purchase this mascara, I felt really let down.

We were rooting for you, Physician’s Formula. We were all rooting for you.

Overall though, I definitely recommend this mascara for days when you know for a fact you won’t be crying or for days you don’t care if you have Physician’s Formula decorating your cheeks. I really loved the way this formula made my lashes look, so I would only use it when I would go out or to top off my lashes after I used another mascara. I’m done with the tube now, and I don’t think I’d purchase it again, but I’m happy I gave this brand a try. I probably won’t buy any other Physician’s Formula products in the future because I don’t trust a lot of what they say now, to be honest. But if Physician’s Formula works for you, I’m so happy!


For more information about going cruelty-free, check out PETA’s Searchable Database or Cruelty-Free Kitty’s alphabetized list of cruelty-free brands.