08. INFLUESNTER

Influenster.


Where do I even begin? I discovered Influenster back in March of 2012. I cannot believe that almost 3 years has gone by since I qualified for my first VoxBox! I will never forget the day that I actually received my 2012 Spring VoxBox. I was in shock! How did I even become eligible to get this box FULL of free full-size product? I didn't have much of a social media presence...I only had a couple hundred facebook friends and didn't even have instagram or a blog! I began to tell people about it nonetheless. After that first box, I did not stay as active for a few months. Then one day I decided to get back in the game. With a new facebook, instagram, twitter AND a blog, I was ready to really get into it! I have since received 6 VoxBoxes, as well as 2 Virtual VoxBoxes. Influenster inspired me to become active in social media. Not only to earn rewards for my work, but to help people out, whether it be by telling them where the best place to buy a certain product is, or how great a product I was able to test is. It has been such a fun journey. When Influenster re-vamped the website, I was fortunate enough to have my blog and some of my wedding stuff featured on The Hub! I was so excited and happy to see my blog post on the site, along with my pictures pinned to Influenster's pinterest board! It was so awesome and really neat to share with my family and friends! Influenster has most recently come out with an app! Do everything you need to do, ON YOUR PHONE (or tablet.).

I am not a huge social media presence. I do not influence the masses. I do not have a million subscribers on youtube, and I do not have posts sponsored by a company. However, I feel that I represent the average person who participates in Influenster. I am married, have a little boy on the way, work a full-time job earning an average salary. I enjoy shopping, doing my hair and makeup, and all things pinterest. My influence may not inspire people to blow their life savings on high end makeup or clothing. I do think I can give people an idea of how to achieve looks they want for what they have to work with. I know how to live within and less than my means. As my blog's slogan says, "You don't have to spend big bucks to look like a million." I am living proof of this.

If you are reading this blog and have never heard of influenster, you have now. My blog has a link to influenster where you can sign up and begin making your mark and begin your journey to earning these great rewards. If you have heard me sing the praises of influenster and you haven't joined yet...WHY NOT?! If you have any questions about how it works, email me, comment, let me know somehow, someway and I will do my best to make you successful. Oh, and in case you didn't know, INFLUENSTER IS COMPLETELY FREE. No ifs, ands, or buts. No gimmicks. No inputting your credit card number for any reason. It's free. With that awesome PSA, I bid you farewell.

To join Influenster, simply visit www.influenster.com

07.

What are YOU Thinking??

I need YOUR help! Although my blog is still very new and doesn't have much content yet, I want your opinions on what the posts should be about! 

Please take the quick 3 question survey below to let me know what is going to benefit you the most!

Beauty Budget Blog Survey

06.

Influenster Spring Fling Vox Box

   I adore influenster, I really do. It takes a little bit of work and patience, but it is so worth it when you get your box in the mail and get to marvel at all the FREE stuff you get. I love being able to review stuff that was sent to me completely free of charge! The following is a review of each item in the box that I have used, as well as my thoughts on the ones that I have not had the chance to use yet! 

   Rimmel Scandaleyes Retroglam: This mascara is great! The formula is fantastic and ends up looking great. The only thing I do not care for is the hourglass shaped brush. I am not a huge fan of odd shaped brushes in general, I'm more of a regular classic mascara brush. However, after a few coats of this stuff I had my lashes looking scandalous! (see what I did there?)

Softlips Cube: I. AM. DYING. I am a religious soft lips user. Anytime anything softlips comes out, I buy it. When I saw this coming in my box I was so excited. I had tried the EOS lip balm and tried to make myself love it, I really did. But I hated the EOS. It was not a nice formula, it smelled and tasted weird, and overall I just didn't like it. This softlips cube, is TONS better than that junk. It smells great, tastes great, has the most adorable packaging, AND it has the perfect softlips formula that gives you super soft lips! 

Nivea Skin Firming Lotion: I love the fresh, clean smell of this stuff. It leaves my legs and arms feeling smooth and very well moisturized. I've only been using it a couple of days so obviously there is no sign of skin firming yet. Overall a nice product. Not sure if it is one I would repurchase, unless it does actually firm my skin up a little. Then it'd be totally worth it!

KISS Everlasting French manicure: These nails are beautiful. I have heard so many good things about the KISS nails and was super stoked to try them out. The only thing I don't like about these nails is that they are the medium length. Who knows, once I actually apply these I may love them. But I'm more of a natural nails person than having nails that are obviously fake.

Playtex Sport Tampons: I've used playtex before, but I can't really judge these if I haven't used them yet. And well, you can't just try these out for fun....

Labor Day Car Freshener: This was adorable. It smelled great. For 5 minutes. I got out of my car and got back in and the smell was gone. But that's not a big deal. It was a promo car freshener that I paid nothing for so I have nothing to be disappointed in. It's not like I could go repurchase it anyways.

Overall, this box was fantastic. I love having the opportunities influenster has given me! 

05.

  Five Fact Friday

Rather than post a big long blog of my life story, I want to let you learn a little about me little by little. So I am introducing you to Five Fact Friday! It's pretty self-explanatory...Each Friday I will post 5 facts about myself/my life! Feel free to comment 5 facts about yourself as well...I'd love to get to know you!

1.) First and foremost, I want each of you to know that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior of my life. Without Him I could do nothing. My main goal in life is to live as much like Christ as I can. This does not mean I will preach to you, judge you, condemn you, or anything along those lines. It's my beliefs and how I live. I completely understand you may have different beliefs and opinions than me and that's completely okay. This blog is designed to talk shopping and beauty, not religion.

2.) I think my husband is the best person God put on the earth. We got married March 22, 2014. Yes, still newlyweds! Being married to Jon has been the absolute highlight of my life. We have so much fun together. It is so wonderful being able to be myself around someone without worrying about if my hair looks like I've been through a hurricane, if my breath still smells like Mexican food, or if my face resembles an oil spill (thank you, Georgia humidity!) Oh yeah, and he is super hot. (You'll hear that one til I'm 107 years old.)

3.) I sing in a praise and worship band called Impact Band. We currently do not sing or write our own music, although we are hoping to get to that point someday. We go to local churches and have concerts. It truly is so rewarding and so much fun. My favorite part about doing this is that I get the opportunity to influence people's lives through the talent God has given me. God called me to worship ministry years ago and I pray that He continues to use me in whatever way He sees fit. I get the opportunity to lead worship with my baby sister (who is my best friend), my cousin (also my best friend), my cousin's husband, and MY very own husband. Can I just say, he is a super hot drummer!

4.) I am 22...almost 23 years old. This fact isn't that interesting, but now you know.

AND last but certainly not least...

5.) GO DAWGS!! (Now you know where I live!)

04.

BzzAgent Alert!

I received my first shipment from BzzAgent this past week and am now prepared to review it! I received the BIC Soleil Glow razor campaign, and y'all...Thank goodness I did! I got a 3-pack of razors, along with SEVERAL coupons for $3 off!

First off, I must say I have really sensitive skin when it comes to shaving my legs and underarms. I typically buy Venus razors for sensitive skin and pay a little more for them due to this. I was nervous to try out a razor that was not for sensitive skin. Now I am in LOVE with these things. My legs were insanely smooth after using one of these babies! Did I mention they didn't bother my sensitive skin?! The best part about these is the 3-pack is only $6.99....that means if you use one of the coupons received in the package, they can be bough for only $3.99!

If you have not ever heard of BzzAgent, it's so much fun. All you do is answer surveys and do reviews on products. Your activity and involvement qualifies you for 'campaigns' that give you the opportunity to receive products to review! It's definitely worth the time you put into it..which really isn't all that much!

Thank you for reading my blog!

03.

My wedding day was the best day of my life. Most people thought we were insane to plan a wedding in only 4 months...AND to intend to pay for it all ourselves with a very tiny budget. However, my thriftiness did not fail me and the day was beautiful. I'm going to post a few pictures so you can see my "bridal look". And just because I think my husband is super hot. ;)

My Top 5 Tips for Planning a Wedding are:

1) Wedding Wednesday: From the time I got engaged, every Wednesday was designated to wedding planning. Whether is was addressing invitations, painting chalkboards, designing bouquets, I got a lot of stuff done for the wedding on Wednesdays, that way I didn't wait until the last month to do everything!

2) Don't spend a ton of money of you don't have to: My husband and I paid for about 98% of the wedding ourselves. I am a bargain hunter, so I always bought things when they were on sale. I also decided what was most important to spend money on and eliminated things that were not essential. For example, for my wedding favors, rather than shelling out $2 or more per guest for a favor, I signed up on shutterfly and received 100 4x6 prints for free. I printed up multiples of my most favorite of our engagement pictures, wrote a thank you note on the back, and we put them up on a jute cord with mini clothes pins in the entrance to the reception hall. When shopping for my dress, I found one that I loved in the store but it was $1000. I knew the style/silhouette I wanted, so I went to the internet. I was able to find the EXACT dress I tried on in the store on a site based in China for only $129 (with FREE SHIPPING!). The dress had to be altered a little, but other than that you could not even tell that it was not the $1000 dress from the boutique! www.aliexpress.com was where my dress and bridesmaids dresses were from! When I ordered our invitations I was able to get a deal on Groupon for 100 invitations for $40 on zazzle.com. I was able to pick from a few different designs then I was able to completely customize the design to our wedding! 

3) Do-It-Yourself  Projects(DIY): Thank Heaven for Pinterest! I gathered lots of DIY projects from pinterest for my wedding. I painted picture frames from the Dollar Tree with black paint to use as chalk boards (cost for 10 chalkboards was roughly $10!). I also had ZERO real flowers at my wedding. All flowers were purchased from Afloral.com. Boutonnieres and Bouquets were pre-made. We took them apart and put them back together using burlap and jute to give the rustic feel. 

4)  Get your groom involved in the planning: My husband really enjoyed having an input in the plans, but he enjoyed even more getting to build/design stuff. My husband is an engineer so when I had the crazy idea to build a backdrop for our wedding cake out of wooden pallets, he jumped to the task! It turned out so beautiful! He also really enjoyed helping me put up the pictures we used as favors! I also let him choose what him and his groomsmen wore. I gave my opinions and colors I wanted, but pretty much gave him free reign over the guys clothes. 

5)  Enjoy it! When we planned our wedding date for 4 months out, I thought it would never get here. I had a ton of fun planning though, so it went by so quickly! It can get stressful, but always remind yourself of what is to come at the end of the road and you'll realize it is all so worth it! 

**Photography by Dana Oliver Photography**

Dana Oliver Photography's Facebook Page

02.

I am going to post a quick blog that has links to all of my obsessions. I visit these sites multiple times daily. My husband gets frustrated when I tell him to expect a package when he gets home from work, because I have ordered something else. Then I try to justify buying it. I just can't help it! I will put a link to each site (The title will be the link, so click on it!) along with a description of what the site is and how you can save money with it!

1) Ebates

The slogan of Ebates is "Where it pays to shop!" and this is SO accurate. I am very much an online shopper since we don't live too close to stores that have what I want or like. Basically, you go to the ebates site (or you can use the iphone/android app), find the store you want to shop with and click on it, then shop! It's that easy. As long as you go to the site from Ebates, a percentage of your purchase will be given back to you as cashback! There are daily doubles where the cashback percentage is doubled, and ebates also has any available coupons listed on their site so that you not only get cash back, but you get a discount too! I will be receiving my second "BIG FAT CHECK" in May. This check is for over $45 just from shopping online from January to March! If you don't use this site, YOU HAVE TO! Be sure to click the Ebates link above to get started!

2) Ipsy

Every month, I look forward to receiving my Ipsy Glam Bag in the mail. I get entirely too excited to see the hot pink mailer in my mailbox! Ipsy is a subscription service that is $10 a month. The $10 gets you a super cut makeup bag and 4-5 high end deluxe beauty samples to try out. On your ipsy site, each month a glam room will be updated for you, telling you what products you are receiving. Once you receive them, you have the opportunity to review them and rack up points. Once you have 1000 points you can redeem them for a makeup/beauty item such as a full size bare minerals lipstick, a Nyx Makeup Palette, Benefit High Beam, etc. I am so in love with Ipsy for many reasons. #1 being, I get to receive 4-5 products I would typically not buy EVER due to how much they cost and I only have to pay $10 a month. I highly recommend ipsy if you are a cheapskate like me and don't want to spend a ton of money on makeup but would like to get a taste of the higher end stuff. Did I mention your $10 a month typically values over $25-$30 in products, PLUS ipsy posts coupons for savings in the products? Get to clicking that link and become my fellow ipster.

3) Zulily

I seriously get so excited every morning at 9 AM to see what all is being put up on Zulily. They have some STEALS on everything. I first became obsessed when they had TOMS for super cheap. I bought the ring bearers for my wedding both a pair of TOMS, as well as a pair for my sister. They were SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than I could've gotten them anywhere else. Then the following week, they had a pair of fringe boots I had to have. Now I wear those boots at least once a week. Next thing you know, they have $50 Kavu Rope bags for $28.99. Apparently the Zulily gods know the way to my wallet. If you want great deals on stuff for women, maternity stuff, kids, or home, You need to get signed up on here!

4) Influenster (No link, see below)

Influenster is a site where you do surveys, share to social media, and do brand challenges to become eligible to receive a VoxBox, aka, a box full of full-sized FREE products. I've gotten everything from a granola bar, to a hair brush,to Hershey Kisses, to Men's vaseline spray lotion for my husband, to a full size Bath and Body Works Fine Fragrance Mist. I just write reviews, answer questions, share to facebook, pinterest, twitter, instagram, etc. and BAM, free stuff. To the right of this blog, you will see the Influenster badge. You can click this badge to get to the site, or you can contact me via facebook, email, or the comments to get an invite to the site! It's so fun!

5) Hautelook

Hautelook is a high-end, high-fashion site. They don't typically have steals for my liking. However, every now and then you will get an email announcing some awesome upcoming shops. Here recently they have had Laura Geller Makeup and Stila Makeup for excellent prices. They have a shop for everyone on there! It's definitely worth looking into!

6)Derailed

This site is a Chaco-lover's dream. Most people with awesome fashion sense despise Chaco's. I however, love them and wear them ALL the time. I have even gotten my husband and sister hooked on them as well. This site has a great Chaco selection and they ALWAYS have a coupon. These are way cheaper than buying them at REI where they are no less than $85. I'm talking, $40 with a coupon. Come on, Why haven't you signed up yet?! They also have a lot of other brands of stuff like Tevas, Columbia, etc. Mostly camping/hiking/outdoorsy kind of stuff. You get $10 off for using the link above! GET TO IT! 

7)NoMoreRack

Last but certainly not least, NoMoreRack. I seriously love this site. They have absolutely everything you can think of for excellent deals. Seriously the stuff is so cheap. They have tablets, computers, tvs that aren't like, super cheap but they are still incredible deals. They even have Ray-bans for $80 occasionally. I don't know what else to really say about it other than if you click the link above, you can get $10 off your first purchase! 

This concludes my general list of sites that I'm hooked on. What are yours??