Current Obsessions

Going back to the beauty part of my blog, I thought I would catch you guys up with what products I am currently loving.

I might just narrow it down to my top 4 because it might be too much!

Jumping right into it...in no particular order:

1. Makeup Forever HD Foundation
Perfect for my gals with oily skin!


2.  Clinique Moisturizing Gel
I have used this years before but stopped but just recently purchased the rest of the 3 step line...I will keep you guys updated on how I feel about it with an updated skincare routine. 



3. Smashbox Photofinish Primer
Its pricey but I will probably never use a different primer...so worth it!



4. Lemon Water 
Alright so I am aware lemon water is not really a beauty product BUT it aids in keep your healthy and your skin clear and glowing so you will always catch me drinking some!




I know this post was short but sometimes short and to the point is all you need!

Till next time...
xoxo,
Alexuss 

My thoughts and prayers

Most of you all have heard about the horrific attack at the African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston.

So I want to dedicate this post to the victims and the family and close friends of the victims. 

There's people grieving everywhere, and my hearts definitely go out to them.

What I don't want to do is give the guy that committed this evil crime any attention. Because we all know that's what he wanted. 

What I don't want to hear is people pull the excuse of him having a mental illness. Mental illness or not, he needs to take full responsibility of this hate crime. He knew exactly what he was doing.  

Don't pull up the nicest picture from his Facebook page to try to prove hes a nice guy. Nice guys don't go into the house of the Lord and shoot innocent people. 

This senseless act just proved to us that we are no longer safe, even in time of prayer. 

Because I am black, this hits home for me, and because I attend a black church, this hits even closer to home. 

This violent act could of happened anywhere. 

Of course, nobody wants to pull the race card, and we never want to believe racism is still alive, but you cant help but think about that when a white man targets a group of black people. 

Look at how the cops even arrested him vs when they arrest someone black. Would they of put a bullet proof vest on a black guy? Nope. 

There are so many unanswered questions at this point its frustrating. And all I wish for is Justice. 

OKAY let me stop before I get heated. 

To the families:
Although I know you wont read this, I just want you to know that at this very moment our community has become closer and we are behind you. Saying "I'm sorry" a million times to you couldn't change a thing and probably wont even help but just know I am sending all my love your way. I could tell you to forgive the guy that did this to your family member, but truth is....that's probably the hardest thing for you to do right now. What I can encourage you to do, is lift each other up and keep praying. 



Lets continue to spread the love guys and keep Charleston in our hearts right now. 


xoxoxo,
Alexuss 

P.S. I know this post was a little all over the place, this incident just makes my thoughts go wild. 

Life Lessons with Lex: Dealing with Rejection

Hey guys! 

So I previously mentioned how I wanted to do something different on my blog, including a series called "Life Lessons with Lex" 

And as you can probably already tell by the title....I want to talk about dealing with rejection.

Now I have just recently become addicted to the website BuzzFeed (downloaded their app and everything) and they had a video on there about a guy that decided to put himself out there and force himself into being victim of rejection for 100 days. Then they also had a girl do the experiment for 7 days. Heres the link to the video: http://www.buzzfeed.com/shanemadej/is-rejection-good-for-you#.xnvXwEpBv

In the video they show them being put in every possible awkward situation, except for when it comes to relationships! & that's exactly what I want to share with y'all. I feel like everyone can relate to this and has had to deal with it at one point or another, especially people in my generation. 

So....Rejection....

If you know me, you know that I never dated in high school and I would have to say its because I was always afraid of what guys thought of me and all together its because I was afraid of being rejected. 

But now that I am in college and have been dating for a while now, I think its safe to say that I still hate it but its something that I have definitely had to go through a few times. So here are the top 3 things I have learned about dealing with it.

1. Its not the end of the world when the person your interested suddenly stops answering texts, calls, SnapChats...etc. lol (Yes I had to mention Snapchat helloooo) I mean of course we feel upset at first but just remind yourself: "I was enjoying my life before you entered, and I am still going to enjoy it now that you're gone"
2. Don't EVER force someone to stay interested in you. Save yourself the stress...
3. Stop beating yourself up over someone, if they wanted your attention they would move mountains to get it.

We need to learn how to make ourselves uncomfortable, its the only way we learn how to grow as a person. 

Speaking to my females: 
Challenge yourself to make the first move sometimes:
Text him first! Just make sure your not doing it all the time because he needs to be able to show interest as well.
Or, If your really feeling confident, when you and your girlfriends are out one night, make it a challenge for each of you to approach a guy and ask for his number. My girls wanted to try this one night, didn't end up happening, but we are for sure going to try again! (Be ready ladies) 

Speaking to my males: 
Dont be afraid to approach a female no matter how intimidating she looks. I hear this all the time, "I hate approaching a group of pretty girls because they intimidate me." OR "wow you seemed intimidating at first but now you seem really cool." Stop making that an excuse! 

In all honesty, I don't think rejection is something a person can get used to but it can definitely get easier when you are learning to cope with it. 
In the end, the most a person can tell you is no, which is probably what you don't wanna hear, but when that happens you just gotta keep it moving!

"Do one thing everyday that scares you" -Eleanor Roosevelt 

xoxo,
Alexuss 

Bring Back the Blog!

Guess who is back...
I have been getting a lot of requests from people to start blogging again, which I love! People have been asking "Alexuss what happened to your blog?!" 

School happened! finals, projects, work, internships, & life in general.

Which I know shouldn't be an excuse because blogging was and still is one of my favorite things. 
Blogging allows me to put myself out there and share so much with you.

So I wanna thank my best friends for supporting me through this and of course my beautiful family for always encouraging me (even though I am the biggest pain in the ass sometimes) 

Moving forward with my blog....
I have a lot of new ideas and things I wanna do differently on here BUT I am always open to suggestions so help a girl out please!

I was thinking about doing a little segment/series called Life Lessons with Lex. Hashtag it maybe? 
I love giving advice to my girlfriends so why not share some of that? Of course it would be a lot more personal part of my blog so prepare yourself. 

I might also start talking about more controversial issues and pop culture and share my opinion on things other than makeup and fashion, just to spice things up, you know? 

Also, I have been thinking about making a separate Facebook page for my blogs in the near future just so its easier to access them all. 

Oh and my new day to publish a new blog is probably going to be Fridays so keep an eye out for them!

Thanks again for supporting me guys, I appreciate it sooooooooooo much. 

xoxo,
Alexuss 

My Fitness Journey

I'm back guys! Sorry for going MIA...school has me sooo busy this semester but busy is good! (just a heads up this post is a little long) 

Quick update...I just turned 22 in Feb so Happy Birthday to me! Spring break is coming up next week, and my girls and I are going to visit our best friend Emily up in San Marcos and I couldn't be even more excited to get out of town, even if its just for the weekend. 

So in honor of Spring break and all my college students trying to get into shape to show off their hot bodies during the spring/summer, I just wanted to share my tips on how I have been attempting to get into shape.

Please keep in mind that I am no expert on fitness or anything, in fact, if you knew me before I started loosing weight you would know that I was THE most laziest person when it came to being active. I hated to sweat. Now its addicting to me. So when I say anybody can do this, really, if I can get up and change my unhealthy ways, you can too!

So around last year, out of nowhere, I had the urge to start being more healthy. At this point, I was at my heaviest (150 lbs) I couldn't handle it anymore, I wasn't confident in myself, all I wanted to do was sleep all day, and most of my eating habits were terrible.(Fast food all day err day) And trying to get me to work out was like pulling teeth. So when I finally decided it was time for me to loose weight, I started off with Herbalife.

Now most of you are probably gonna say "that crap doesn't work" but pleaseeee trust me when I say, it really does work. I am in no way trying to promote them either, but I have pictures to prove what Herbalife did. (I will show them at the end) It was a slow process for me but it was worth it! I went from 150 to 130 lbs. That was my goal weight so I decided to stop Herbalife and just learn to maintain that weight.

So from then to this day, I work out daily (sometimes work and school get in the way though) I eat healthy and make all my meals at home. Dont get me wrong, I am human and slip sometimes cause you know what its like to have Girl Scout cookies in your house?! Temptation is real let me tell you. But basically, I just try to save my bad eating for the weekend so I am not completely depriving myself. 

For workouts, 30 minutes of cardio and about 15 minutes of weight training. And I do that for about 3-5 days out of the week. I have also just started doing Insanity, and I die every time. Its amazing.

A few extra tips:

*drink lemon water or green tea first thing when you wake up and throughout the whole day.

*eat veggies at EVERY meal. 

*dont weigh yourself everyday...you're only stressing yourself out

*be patient with your body 

*find motivation within yourself, think about why you really want to do this.

*carbs aren't all bad, just limit yourself. 

*No More Fast Food...just stop. 

Loosing weight should be a slow and steady process, don't expect results overnight, It took me about a year and I am still nowhere where I want to be. Its a lifestyle change not just temporary, Remember that.

Before....                            A few weeks ago.                                

Okay so the pictures aren't body shots simply because people have told me they can tell just in my face that I have lost weight. 

So those of you that are looking to be healthy, go for it! If I can do it, so can you! Its not easy but in the end you will thank yourself. 

xoxo,

Alexuss

MAC MatchMaster Foundation Review

If you know me well enough, this should be no surprise to you that I am using a new foundation. I've always loved trying out new ones to see what I like and don't like. High-end and drugstore, I try them all.

 If you remember from a past blog post, I mentioned I was using the Covergirl 3 in 1 foundation, which was amazing!

Now I've switched to a brand that I have tried everything else but their foundation, which is MAC. Lipsticks, blush's, and powders I am pretty familiar with when it comes to them, but foundation? Nope.  

So I figured why not try out the MatchMaster foundation. I heard it was perfect for oily skin (which I have) and they had a wide range of colors to choose from. 


 Going on almost a month of using it I can tell you that without a primer, the foundation will still make you a little oily BUT this foundation lasts all freaking day. 

I only have to pull out my blotting papers once a day which is a lot less than I'm used to.

One of my favorite things about this foundation is that the bottle is in pump form so its less messy and you don't have to worry about wasting product. 

Basically, I like this foundation but am I in love with it? Not really. The coverage is really good but for the price I feel that it should be able to keep me oil free all day. 

So if you are looking for a foundation with medium and build-able coverage I recommend it, and if you have oily skin, don't forget that primer!

Would I purchase it again? Yeah probably, but I have other foundations that I want to try first. 
*I was wearing the foundation in this picture. 

xoxo,
Alexuss 

Top 5 Favorite Candles

My obsession for candles has been sooo real lately and I know I'm not the only one! Thanks to the combination of my bestie (hi Emily) and Bath & Body Works having their awesome sales on candles, I am always so tempted to just blow all my money. That was a little dramatic but you get the point. 
So I thought it would be fun for me to share with you guys what my top 5 favorite candles are. They are all from Bath & Body Works too!

5. Tis the Season

4. Snowday

3.Watermelon Lemonade

2.Coconut Leaves

1. Marshmallow Fireside



All of these candles I totally recommend if you are looking for some new candles to burn around your house. 
Of course I burn these scents according to season, but who says you cant burn Marshmallow Fireside during the summer?
If you have any suggestions on candles I should try, let me know! 

Till next time
xoxo,
Alexuss