Bioré Charcoal Pore Minimizer Review

The new Bioré Charcoal Pore Minimizer is a product that claims to actually shrink your pores.  Not just to blur their appearance and make them look smaller, but actually shrink them.  So naturally I had to try it out.

I use this product at night right before bed.  First I wash off my makeup then I wash my face with my Clarisonic.  I leave my face and hands wet (with warm water) then gently massage in one pump of the product.  There is no specified time on the bottle to keep massaging the product into your skin, so I just wait for all of the dark gray gel to turn into a blue-white foam lather, then I rinse it off with warm water.  I immediately apply moisturizer after. 

This product claims it will make your pores smaller after only one use and will clean out dirt, oil and impurities.  I’ve only used it twice so far (it’s recommended 2-3 times/week), but I will continue use and update.  I instantly see a difference in the size of some pores, mainly right around my nose and near my undereye area, and right in the center of my nose.  The next morning they still seem a bit smaller, but throughout the day and in the following days they seem to be back to their normal size.  (However, this may improve with continued use.)  I also notice that the day after, my skin is just a bit less oily, but this does not persist either.

The gel has a nice scent, fresh and a bit fruity but not overwhelming.  It’s a little strong, but not offensive, and the scent does not last into the next day.  It definitely has a drying effect on my skin, which is why the application of moisturizer immediately after use is a good idea.  It also causes some temporary redness for me right after use, however the dryness and redness are gone the next morning.

Overall, I’m excited about the Bioré Charcoal Pore Minimizer and can’t wait to see if it really does what it claims to do!  At the very least, it’s a good way to get a deep clean a couple times a week.

~Alyssa 

Trashy Friday: The Slap and Eye Candy

Welcome to another edition of Trashy Fridays. Today we will be covering NBC’s The Slap and MTV’s Eye Candy. Let’s get to the trashiness!

The Slap

I saw the trailer for this show, and I honestly thought this would be really bad. The whole idea and the title just made this seem like a show that will be cancelled very soon, but I am still willing to give it a shot.  

This show is super confusing so far, it involves a guy named Hector who works all the time. He fantasizes about the babysitter and he has the average American family. (His kids are very annoying...) They will be celebrating his 40^th birthday and will have a party. Hector just seems sick of everything. The relationship with him and the babysitter is so awkward and I just don’t get it. 

The party starts and it is a little crazy, kind of like my family get togethers. Hector’s mom is very overbearing and is kind of annoying, haha.  The cousin is played by the same person who was Thredson in Asylum and I love him. 

Hugo is a little boy at the party and his parents baby him and don’t let him receive any punishment for anything. There's more annoying family stuff and arguing, which is dumb. Hugo seems like a child that can’t be controlled and his parents need to step up. 

The kids play baseball.  Hugo gets out of control because he's having a temper tantrum. The cousin tells Hugo's father to control him, which he barely attempts to do, and when Hugo gets violent with the baseball bat, the cousin goes down to restrain and yell at the kid.  After Hugo kicks him in the shin, the cousin slaps him. 

Now there are problems because Hugo’s parents are very, very upset. (The cousin seems to think the kid deserves it.) The party ends there, and Hugo’s father is convinced that the cousin needs to pay. Hector decides to tell the babysitter that they can never be in a relationship. 

So now this show will be about getting back at the cousin. The issue here is whether or not it is ever okay to hit a child under any circumstances, and whether or not anyone else but the parents should discipline them. 

I still don’t particularly love this show at all, but it was good to check out.

Eye Candy

It seems the creepy stalker guy targeted Tommy for some reason. Now he also punishes Sofia’s gay friend, by trying to kill his date. (Nice… But he deserved the punishment.)  He wanted to kill him, but instead cut this girl’s tongue out because she wouldn’t stop laughing really loudly. (Ugh, I hate the reasoning for the killing.) 

More police investigation, yay. The gay guy’s boss keeps posting articles about the murders, which makes Mr. Creepy-Stalker mad. 

Hemish is having a party and Lindy decides it is a great idea to have it at the bar Sofia works at, so they can catch the killer. (After all, the party is in his honor.) Midway through the party the security feed is lost, by the killer I presume. Tommy gets beat up by some guy who thought he was cheating with his girl and somehow the killer does some cash sweepstakes thing. (Where you kiss a random person or other weird things, and take a selfie for cash, as long as you play by the rules.) The creepy killer seems to be after the gay guy’s new boyfriend. (Because he obviously can’t get away like the way he did before.) 

Lindy figures out that Bubonic, some infamous hacker, is actually in control of the game and he is messing with Tommy.  Bubonic has set up a bomb and the timer is based on how much money the people are winning. Once it hits zero the bar will blow up. (This is so messed up! People will do anything for money… Someone actually let another person cut off their finger for money.) 

Tommy is super protective of Lindy. Bubonic sends Tommy a message saying that he seems to want to hurt Lindy. (Which makes him mad. Yay for some type of emotion?) Lindy is so stubborn and keeps going alone to dangerous places, without any backup. (Honestly not smart.)  Bubonic confronts Lindy saying that the cyber crimes unit is hiding something from her and then gives her a phone to end the problem. (Like, what was the point of that?)  

The show ends with Jake kissing Lindy (with Tommy watching jealously), and Bubonic and Hemish are working together. Also, the psycho killer finally gets the gay guy's boyfriend and hangs him to death. (Baited there by his phone.)

I really like this show, but I want to see the creepy stalker/killer mess with Lindy more. I hope that will happen in the coming episodes. 

~Katrina

Pretty Pink Eyes Look

If you’re looking for a soft, sweet look for Valentine’s Day, a shimmery pink eyes look is perfect!  Add some rosy blush on the apples of your cheeks and a natural, light pink lip to finish the look!

Start with an eye primer then sweep a pale pink shadow over your entire lid.  Use a dusty rose shadow to accentuate the crease, focusing primarily on the outer edge.

Use a thin, stiff brush to apply hot pink shadow (or liner if you prefer!) along the upper lash line, winging it out slightly at the end.  Brighten the inner corners of your eyes with a cream color shadow or pencil, and then create a very thin line of black liner along your lash line, again winging it out.  (You want to make sure the black doesn’t overpower the hot pink; the black is only to add definition to the eyes.)

Curl your lashes then apply mascara!  Focus mainly on the top, outer corner lashes, but make sure to hit all of them!

~Alyssa

Trashy Friday: Match Made in Heaven and Eye Candy

Welcome back to another edition of Trashy Fridays! This week we will be covering WeTV’s Match Made in Heaven and MTV’s Eye Candy. Let’s get to the trashiness!

Match Made in Heaven

So we found this show while randomly searching for trashy shows. This is basically The Bachelor with the church involved. When Alyssa mentioned it to me, I knew that it belonged in this series and I had to give it a shot. 

Basically, the show involves 24 year old Shawn Bullard, who is the bachelor, and Pastor Johnson. The pastor puts a house together filled with 24 women to find the love of Shawn’s life. Shawn apparently is looking to settle down and find a wife. (Because he is done just having fun... haha) In the previews, there seems to be a lot of tension to come in future episodes in the house between the ladies and Shawn’s mom. (She’s there to defend him to the end.) 

So Pastor J introduces himself to the women and already announces that Shawn is rich. (Like, really..? Really..?) 

Haha, so the girls are getting introduced, and Nes is like "I’ve only been with women..." Like, this should be great… OMG these girls have no shame and this is not a Christian dating thing… Like, not even close. The girls are also deciding who they seem to hate in the house, which didn’t take that long. 

The next day everyone gets all dolled up to meet Shawn. We learn that he has a successful real estate business and his mom just tells her opinion and has no filter. (I like mom.) The general consensus from everyone about Shawn is that he’s hot and they will all sleep with him. (Wow...) Shawn gets to meet all of the girls and he gets his first impression. Some of the girls do poorly, like Dolly, who kept mentioning her uterus and STDs. (Not cute, girl.) Everyone thinks Kindle was a stripper, because she is flexible… These girls are crazy.  So the girls make fun of her and Kindle gets her feelings hurt. (OMG, so dumb!!) For the next day, Kindle threatens to leave and the girls continue to make fun of her stripping moves. (So annoying.) Kindle ends up leaving and Pastor J counsels the girls in his office. (To make sure they get out their feelings.) Then Pastor J meets with Shawn and they discuss who is going home.  

Shawn has to send 4 home and the pastor saves one of them.  They basically get text messages to see if they stay or not. The message will say "please stay" or "let's meet by the pool for a chat" or the preacher’s choice or "we aren’t a match, sorry"... Those who got the sorry we aren’t matches text went home immediately.  The girls he has to meet by the pool, will chat with him and he will send home two of them.  

Shawn sent home Lucy, Rosemery, Kimberly, and Angelica. 

This show reminds me of The Bachelor mixed in with I Wanna Marry Harry, with a pastor. It is very trashy and it was entertaining enough. 

Eye Candy

We start out with party bus and YOLO. (Haha, that’s fun.) Somehow the bus gets trapped on a construction site with the stoner kid left there, bloody, without his friends. 

Lindy stares at her sister’s bracelet for a really, really long time. (Perhaps to look for answers.) She tries to go to the police but they are busy finding the idiotic party bus kids, so she doesn’t show the bracelet just yet.  Lindy uses her hacking skills to help find these kids and make the cops’ lives easier. 

The police think that the stoner kid is the prime suspect in the incident. The head police officer wants Lindy to work on the case and interrogate the suspect.  After Lindy talks to the weird kid and gives him his phone back (spyware included), we find out his friend Amy is dead. (Like really creepy looking, good job makeup people!) The police find her body with a camera from the bus attached to her wrist. 

After Tommy accuses the kid, the police are convinced that Lindy can help because she has made a connection with Max (stoner kid) and her hacking skills are helping them out a lot. They keep showing supernatural kind of things that are happening on the bus, which is really weird. As they investigate, they find a video of a masked guy (like from the Scream series) attacking Amy. (Apparently it was believed that some ghost came after them?) They figure out the kids on the bus were looking for the Stowaway, a legendary odd kid out stalker/ghost/thing. (Honestly it is a bad idea.) 

After more investigating, the cops find the kids on an abandoned boat. Lindy, with her hacking skills, finds out that Amy and Max created the Stowaway story while they were in rehab and they passed the legend on to their friends. These kids tried to make the scare a viral hit, but the one death was accident. Max blames himself for the death (the scare was his idea I guess…) and he attempts suicide by locking himself in a room on the boat and turning on the gas. Tommy and Lindy try to save Max’s life. (It works!) 

In the end, Lindy does a slow run (that looks ridiculous, and not much emotion again) for Tommy, and Tommy asks a fortune teller where Lindy’s sister is. (The woman says she is alive.)

Well this was good, but I like to deal with the stalker more than Lindy’s involvement in the Cyber Crimes Unit. The acting is the same, but this show is still good!  

~Katrina

January Favorites

Here are a few of our favorite things from January!

-Never Have I Ever: My Life (So Far) Without a Date: This book is a must read before Valentine’s Day.  Alyssa recommended it to me and I found it to be so hilarious and very relatable!  I loved this book and I couldn’t put it down once I started to read it; I would recommend it to anyone.

-CoverGirl Lipstick: Alyssa went lipstick shopping (uh oh) and came across a few different CoverGirl ones in great spring colors.  Specifically, 397 Yummy Gourmandise (a pastel, cotton candy pink) and 323 Delicious Exquis (a light lavender with pink undertones).  Gorgeous.  

-Clean and Clear Advantage Acne Control: I’ve been looking for a different facial cleanser to help get rid of those stubborn pimples and honestly, out of everything that I’ve used within the last few months that had salicylic acid in it, this one did the best job by far!  Whenever I have a pimple this solution will start clearing up my acne within a day, and it is strong enough to use on any stubborn shoulder/chest acne.  However, it is very drying with the salicylic acid, so you need a good moisturizer to use with this solution. Which brings me to my next product...

-Nivea Soft, Moisturizing Crème for Face, Body, and Hands:  This whole winter season has caused some seriously bad, dry skin for me, especially on my face.  I use this product twice a day, and I have to say it has done an amazing job of keeping my face soft and moisturized!  It is pretty inexpensive and will last you a long time, as you only need enough to cover your index finger.

-Eye Candy: We've been keeping up with this new MTV show and we're hooked!  It's a great crime/mystery/thriller show, with a twist; a perfection-obsessed, loveless stalker/murderer.  (He just wants an honest, flawless date.  Is that too much to ask!?  LOL)  While the acting could definitely improve and there are occasional plot points that are a little too unbelievable, overall the show is addictive!

~Katrina  

Yummy Pork Rollups

This is a super simple recipe that is really easy to make and very delicious!

Ingredients:

2 tbsps of butter

½ apple, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

1 med white onion, chopped

1 package of baby bella mushrooms, chopped

2 sprigs of thyme

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 package of plain croutons (if you can’t find these, Italian are okay)

Chicken broth, up to 1 cup

Italian dressing 

¼ inch pork chops, boneless

Directions: Take pork chops and marinate them in Italian dressing for at least 2 hours. (If you can’t find boneless, just do your best to cut the bone out.) Then melt the butter and cook the veggies and apple for about 10 to 15 minutes on medium, until softened. Add the thyme and cook for another minute. Next add the croutons and pour the chicken broth on until they have been softened. Finally, season with salt and pepper. 

When you are ready to eat, preheat the oven to 350. Remove excess Italian dressing, then line the middle with the stuffing. Next fold the sides over, sticking them with toothpicks to keep them together. Repeat with however many pork chops you have. Finally cook them for 10 to 15 minutes and enjoy.

This is super simple and can be made ahead of time for an easy dinner.

~Katrina

Disney Princess Nails: Pocahontas

Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?  These nails are inspired by the princess from the movie Pocahontas (1995).  Each month I will bring you a new set of nails based on a Disney princess, in the order of their release.

You’ll need:

Base coat

Top coat (I prefer Seche Vite)

Striper brush

Nude, light yellow, golden yellow, medium green, dark green, gray/blue, light blue, bright blue, dark gray, white, black, medium pink, light pink, bright pink, orange, golden brown, medium nude, and dark brown nail polishes  (I used: OPI Nail Lacquer in My Vampire is Buff; OPI Nail Lacquer in Megawatt?!; Pure Ice in Excuse Me; OPI Nail Lacquer in Don’t Mess with OPI; Butter London in British Racing Green; Pure Ice in Kissy Kiss; OPI Nail Lacquer in Greece Just Blue Me Away; OPI Nail Lacquer in Can’t Find My Czechbook; Rescue Beauty Lounge in Stormy; Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in 110 Hard to Get; Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in 880 Black Heart; Sephora by OPI in Three Way Mirror; Pure Ice in Love; OPI Nail Lacquer in Strawberry Margarita; NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel in 112 Times Square Tangerine Cream; Sally Hansen Satin Glam in 01 Go Gold; Sephora by OPI in Nonfat Soy Half Caff; and OPI Nail Lacquer in You Don’t Know Jacques! Suede)

Start with a base coat.  Paint your pinky nail nude, ring and middle fingers light yellow, index finger medium green, and thumb gray/blue.

On your pinky, use your striper brush dipped in dark gray to create the outline of Meeko.  Just above halfway up your nail, create the curved top of his head, coming down and forming a slight diamond shape.  Fill in the sides of your nail under the diamond, leaving a long inverted triangle shape blank, with the dark gray.  Add a short line coming about halfway down inside the diamond shape from the top center of the diamond.

Fill in the diamond (leaving a spot on either side of the center gray stripe blank) and the inverted triangle with white, and use the striper brush to create to white triangles on top of the diamond shape for the ears.  Add a golden yellow circle right in the center of the white inverted triangle.

Fill in the two spots on either side of the center gray stripe with black, paint two thin black lines with your striper brush coming up from the base of your nail to the golden circle from each side, and add small black triangles inside the white triangle ears.  Add a small black dot at the bottom of the center gray stripe.

Now just add some details.  Put a white dot inside the black eye sections, with a smaller black dot inside the white.  Then use the medium pink color to add a small open mouth and the light pink to add a tongue.

For both your ring and middle fingers, use the dry brush technique to create a slight ombré from light yellow at the base to light pink at the tip of the nails.  On your ring finger, use your striper brush dipped in bright pink to paint “colors of the wind” (or any other quote you like).  On your middle finger, use your striper brush dipped in bright pink to create small leaf shapes going from one corner of your nail to the opposite.  Then do the same with small orange leaves.

For your index finger, use your striper brush dipped in dark green to make small, short lines all over the nail for blades of grass.  Then use the striper brush dipped in bright blue to make rectangular shapes down the sides of your nail, meeting near the center at the base.  Add a nude diamond shape at the base between the blue shapes to finish Pocahontas’s necklace.

On your thumb, fill in the bottom portion of your nail with light blue polish.  On top of the light blue section, use your striper brush in the golden brown color to create the shape of Pocahontas’s canoe.  Use the medium nude color to make a small circle with a small body shape underneath, and two bent arms.  Use the striper brush in the golden yellow to add her one-shoulder dress and the nude polish to add the fringe.  Add a golden brown oar extending into the water.

Now add some details.  Make two small white dots with smaller black dots inside for eyes; add a light pink mouth; paint on her light blue necklace; make her black hair flowing behind her; outline the canoe and the oar in dark brown (for more definition); and finally, use the striper brush dipped in dark gray to paint some faint stripes in the background above Pocahontas and the water, to serve as distant trees.

Finish everything with a top coat and you’re done!

~Alyssa