Trying to Get Back into the Swing of Things....

I come to you with my tail between my legs, profusely apologizing for my obnoxiously extended absence from the blogosphere.

I'm currently in my 2nd semester of grad school and along with that comes my first field placement (which I'm loving), going up to full time at my grad assistantship, and classes that are just sucking the life out of me.

When I get stressed I tend to avoid things and shut down a bit, so unfortunately Amber Likes Beauty has been the innocent casualty.  But lately I've been slowly reintroducing the things I used to enjoy back into my life like shopping and taking the time to apply my makeup each morning before work, and wouldn't you know that I've started feeling better already.

So I'm hoping to start easing back into blogging as well, since I've been getting so many things I want to show you.  I'm getting my photos ready now, and with any luck I'll have some posts up for you within the next week or so :)

Thanks for hanging in with me here!

Happy New Year! My Beauty Wishes for 2013!

Turns out that the Mayans were wrong and 2013 arrived without incident (unless you're as scared as I am that Kim and Kanye are procreating....).  I'm always excited to see what what a new year has to bring, but I'm especially interested in the new beauty products thrown at us this year.  Here's my list of things I'd really like to see come to fruition within the beauty world!

So I Have Some Sort of Blogger's Block.....WTF?

I've been MIA for a while now and I just wanted to peek in for a second to apologize.  I just made it through finals week and, thus, the end of my first semester in grad school.  I've had to churn out more assignments and papers within these last 2 weeks than I've had to the entire semester.  So originally I decided to take a small break from Amber Likes Beauty (and the rest of all things fun in my life) so I could focus on the end of school.  At the time, it seemed like a responsible, grown up thing to do.

Well, now it turns out that I've seemed to have lost my juice, so to speak.  I don't know if I'm a little burned out from the past 2 weeks or what but every time I sit down to put out a post I can almost hear the crickets in my mind.

I think a big part of the problem is that I'm overwhelmed.  While in school, I never stopped the rate that I bought new makeup (especially when the holiday sales started).  But at the same time I haven't had time to really use any of it.  Getting up early for my hour and half commute to work and school made me dread rolling out of bed let alone getting all prettied up.  So I really haven't been able to use all these new products and therefore cannot review them yet.

Being so overwhelmed has also kind of put a negative feeling towards blogging for me, which I don't want that to happen because I LOVE doing this so much.  I've just been dreading it lately because I know I don't have anything worth writing about.

I've done a lot of whining in this post, but my purpose isn't to call the WAHHHHHMBULANCE here, it just to 1) beg your forgiveness and 2) let you know what's going on with me and that I'm not purposefully ignoring you.  I just don't know what to do right now.  Hopefully I can get my act together soon because I miss you guys sooooooo much <3 p="p">
I'd love any advice from you guys on how to get over this wall of funk too!  Have any of you ever hit some sort of wall in whatever it is you do?  How did you get through it?

Glam or Sham? The Sticky Buddy!

Lint Rollers are an important thing in my life.  In my house and with my dogs, if I even think about putting black pants on it's like fur flies to them even if I haven't touched the dogs yet.  The thing about lint rollers that gets on my nerves though is 1) having to always keep the packaging on there lest the sticky paper gets wasted picking up lint from wherever you've laid it, and 2) constantly going through sheet after sheet when the sticky paper gets filled up with lint.  

Recently the As Seen on TV world has given us a couple of these new reusable rollers that supposedly eliminate the need to buy refills.  Also, according to the infomercial, the lint easily rinses off with plain water, revealing the roller's original, sticky surface.  Today, we're going to examine these claims with the Sticky Buddy!  (There's also a seemingly identical product called the "Schticky".)

Celebrities I Would Totally Buy Makeup From!

Sometimes when celebrites come out with their own brands of clothes, beauty, or perfumes etc, I can't help but roll my eyes.  I always have the sneaking suspicion that they have a bunch of minions doing all the real work and at the end they just slap a famous name on the label and call it a day.

There are a few celebs that have done it right though, expercially where makeup's concerned.  Kat Von D has had crazy success with her line of products at Sephora and Salma Hayek has received praise too stemming from her CVS-exclusive brand.

So I thought it would be fun to dedicate a post to the celebrities I would buy makeup from if they decided to start a product line.  Some of my picks do have the potential to do exactly what I was talking about in the 1st paragraph, but let's all assume that they actually did it themselves...

A Quick Heads-Up!

Hey Beauties!

Just wanted to drop you guys a line addressing a few things that may be affecting this blog in the very near future.  I will be entering my 1st semester in grad school Monday, August 27th (tomorrow) as I was accepted into a counseling education master's program.  I'll also be starting a part-time graduate assistant position.

The reason I'm telling you all this is because it's very likely that my new schedule will effect the frequency of my blog posts.  I've never been in grad school so I'm not yet aware  of how hectic my schedule will end up being and have no real way of predicting the amount of time I'll be able to devote to Amber Likes Beauty.

Please don't get me wrong, I have no intentions whatsoever on giving up this blog or even necessarily putting it on the backburner.  I just have a strong feeling that during these first couple weeks, while I'm getting used to my new routine, there may be some times when I don't get to post as frequently as I'd like because, you know, my head might be spinning ;)

So if you notice a week go by without any new reviews or swatches, please don't think I've peaced out on you, I promise I'll be back soon!  I'm just getting used to all this. Hopefully I'm just being overzealous in writing this post and there won't be any disruption of the blog at all. *fingers crossed*

I also just want to take the time to thank all my readers and devoted followers thus far for sticking with me!  I love hearing your comments and will still get back to all your messages ASAP <3 font="font">

P.S.  I'm already slacking on Sample Sunday -_-  I've been going to orientations and what not for school and forgot to try any samples.  I see that it's something that I'm going to have add to my schedule in order to keep up with it ;-p

P.S.S.  If there's any of you out there that have been in grad school or are presently attending, or that have been in a counseling program, I'd love to hear any general advice you'd be willing to give!  I have to admit, I'm kind of nervous :-/

Beauty Sins Confession: I Completely Waste my Free Samples!

I love getting free shit.  It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's free.  So it goes without saying that nothing makes me happier than going to checkout at Sephora's website and seeing that I can get 3 free samples with my purchase.  I think this is a normal thing for all of us.  What I can't seem to figure out for the life of me is why I'm so anxious to grab these samples when I, literally, never freaking use them!

UTATZ Temporary Tattoo Review + Giveaway!!!!

I had a really good time reviewing UTATZ for you guys!  I constantly go back and forth on whether I want a real tattoo or not so it was great getting to have a tattoo I didn't have to make a commitment to for a few days.  UTATZ is a new temporary tattoo system that's fun and easy to apply and wear.  And before you ask, no, this isn't like those little, kiddy temporary tattoos you get out of the bubblegum machines.  And as an added bonus, I've also got a giveaway for you at the end of this post!

Amber Likes Beauty Under Construction Again!

Just letting you guys know that if you're wandering around on Amber Likes Beauty any time soon and something looks different and/or broken, it's just me playing with the design of the site.  I bore easily and am getting tired of the same ol', same ol', ya know?  Thanks in advance for bearing with me <3

P.S.  Pray for me that I don't mess anything up too bad ;-p

Sorry, I Just Have to Laugh at This For a Moment...Yankee "Man" Candles

Source

This has to be a joke, right?  A kind of tongue-in-cheek thing?  Yankee Candle has come out with a line of what they are referring to as "Man Candles".  What is a Man Candle, you ask?  Well apparently men just can't stand the idea of having to go into a Yankee Candle store and being seen buying a candle that smells like fresh laundry or sweet strawberries.  Those universally accepted pleasant smells?  That's girly shit.  But they don't mind going in and grabbing a big jar of "Riding Mower" and "2 X 4".  


I want you to know that as I'm typing this I'm laughing my ass off.  It's actually not the scents themselves that I find amusing.  I actually know people that enjoy the smell of fresh cut grass, so no judgment there.  But I really hope they aren't actually making an effort to market this specifically to men to expand their consumer base.  If a man likes candles but doesn't feel comfortable enough popping his head into Yankee Candle to buy himself something, it's not because there aren't scents available that appeal to him.  It's because he, mistakenly, perceives candles as a feminine purchase and doesn't want people (read: stupid people) thinking he's a sissy or something.  That kind of guy isn't going to go in the store....ever.  Yes, maybe his girlfriend will buy him something, but probably not.  A majority of the time when a girl buys a candle for her guy, its because she's trying to make his place smell better, so the purchase is really for her.  


And the type of guy that doesn't mind going into the store?  You can't convince me he'd rather the smell of sawdust than fresh laundry.  If he does, it's not a gender thing, it's just because he's that type of person or he associates that scent with a pleasant memory.  Plus, he's already been coming into the store and has a pre-interest in candles, so you're not getting any new customers here. 


So do you think this effort to get men into candles is going to ignite or fizzle?  You can also check out the different manly scents at YankeeCandle.com

Top Non-Makeup Items I Need for my Makeup Station

Yes, this is pretty much how my desk looks all the time!

My makeup station is chaotic, mostly because I have an obvious compulsion to buy new products all the time and have no place for them.  But also because there are a lot of things I use here that one wouldn't necessarily think belongs in an area dedicated to cosmetics.  I'm not talking about q-tips or cotton balls here, although they're there too, more along the lines of thumb tacks or tape.  So today's post will be dedicated to these things  that keep my makeup processes running smoothly, despite they're non-makeup purposes.