So I do apologize for today's post being another "haul" post. I was planning on reviewing the virtual scavenger hunt that I participated in for a work event, but I'm not sure how to phrase what I thought of it.

So, if you haven't seen from recent Instagram photos, Cupid has begun to crib. She has had a collar put on and had her feed changed from a sweet feed type to something more fiber based. In addition, we've also discussed the possibility of ulcers. Because she does not show any other signs of ulcers, putting her on an ulcer/digestive supplement has been discussed. After much research and discussion, I decided to try Uckele Equine's G.U.T. supplement which was available through SmartPak. I was excited to see this included in their Black Friday sale so quickly threw it in my cart.

Because I try to get free shipping whenever I use SmartPak, and the deals were fairly good, I included a few extra items in this order. The first item was dewormer. Every equestrian dreads having to deworm their horses and I'm no exception. But Cupid is due soon so a tube of Quest Plus was added to my cart. Thankfully, this was included in the sale so the price wasn't as painful as usual.

The third item was also for Cupid. Because she needs to be dewormed I need to get an accurate weight on her. Enter the SmartPak Weight and Height tape. Hopeful, y this will give me a fairly accurate weight on her so we can avoid over or under-dosing with the dewormer. I like that this tape includes height measurement on one side so that I can determine if she really is 14.1 hands or if she's gone from the large pony to a small horse classification.

The final item is something that I've had my eye on for awhile. I love the Kensington SmartPink line and have been trying to gather all the items. So far I have a grooming bag, fly mask with ears, and light turnout sheet (which might be for sale soon as it's a bit too small for Cue). The tall boot bag was discounted and included in the sale which brought the price down a considerable amount. After thinking about it for a few hours I added it to my cart and hit the purchase button. Even though my tall boots are from eBay I would still like to keep them as nice as possible. By storing them in a boot bag they should hopefully avoid unnecessary scratches and bending. I like that this bag has a divider in the middle to keep the boots from rubbing against each other too much.

Today on the NYX Lippie Countdown I was a bit dismayed to see the preview as a bright purple. I'm starting to settle into the fact that purple lipstick will never be a color I can successfully pull off so I wasn' too happy to see that was today's color.

Upon opening the tab I was a bit surprised to see that I liked the purple shade that was on the tube. Between the metallic cap and the collection name, Intense Butter Gloss, I knew this would be a shiny and bright purple.

The shade is called Berry Strudel, and if this were a lipstick from the 90s it would probably be scented. One item that I found a bit strange was that the application is flat on two sides and not a doe foot like NYX typically is.

After applying the color I was surprised to see that I didn't hate it. It is more of a gloss than a lipstick, and the shade is definitely not professional. But this would be a good color for having fun or a costume. It is extremely glossy and does not dry, which means that it gets on every glass that I use and needs to be reapplied several times throughout the day.

Overall, this isn't a color that I would buy again but I do plan on using it while the sample lasts.

On a whim I signed up for the Jingle Jolly Jog 5k run by the West Orange Junior Service League. Some people I work with had been discussing doing this race after they run the OUC Half Marathon and after some (ok, virtually none) debate I decided to join them. While registering I looked back and realized that my last race 5k had been in December of 2015, back when I lived in Illinois, so a Santa themed run seemed like a great reintroduction to the distance!

Packet pickup ran almost all week, but I waited until the Friday before to go and claim mine. I had some concern about shirt availability because I waited until super late to register and was hoping for an extra small, which isn't a commonly ordered size. Much to my surprise there were still plenty of shirts available! Now I know I normally don't obsess over the race shirts but give me a quick second to go off my normal track. The shirts for the Jingle Jolly Jog are amazing.. They're a nice soft, Christmas green with a tear away tag which is a huge plus in my book. I prefer clothes to either have a printed on tag or a tear-away tag because I'm always self conscious that the tags are sticking up. When I say these shirts are soft I don't mean a cheap soft but more of a ready to wear, old tshirt that's been well loved, type of soft. My plan was to race in the shirt so I'm somewhat themed but this idea was quickly scrapped because I'd rather not put pin holes in something I fully plan on wearing.

In addition to the tshirt one of the sponsors also provided a drawstring bag that was filled with various goodies! Though I won't use the drawstring bag, other than maybe at the barn, this was a nice gesture that made me smile.

The bag included a few pens, a purse size bottle of hand sanitizer, a magnetic clip, and a pocket first aid kit that may or may not end up in my tack locker.

It also included pamphlets from the sponsors with coupons, and a few brochures from the charities that will be receiving the race proceeds. This was nice because I liked being able to see who is getting the money and what they do for the community.

My favorite item in the bag though was a little postcard from the West Orange Junior Service League. This postcard was a simple thank you note for supporting them and on the back it listed all the charities that will receive funding from the race. For me this instantly set the race apart from other locally run races. I like knowing where funds are going, and this showed that the WOJSL really wants to keep their benefactors in the loop. Because of their transparency I have already bookmarked the WOJSL to keep an eye out for future events. 

Arriving at the location I was a bit dismayed to see that we had to drive down a construction road and jump a curb to get to the parking area. I have a little car and just had to repair two tires from nail punctures so I wasn't excited to drive in an area that may have that risk again. Despite this the parking was extremely organized and well thought out.

Before the race I was happy to see that there were baby pools filled with water bottles and ice for the participants to enjoy. This isn't something I commonly see at races so it was a welcome gesture. The race began after a prayer led by the announcer and it was a quick start. One thing I wasn't fond of was that I didn't see any timing mats at the start and finish area so I wasn't entirely sure about when to start my Garmin. 

The first mile felt quicker than I planned but I felt like I was in a good place. I completed it in 9:13 and hoped to keep it around under 10 minutes per mile. According to my Garmin I failed at this. Mile 2 felt rough for me. There were Florida hills, which in any other place would be considered an ant hill, and sand all across the course. Because I've been running on strictly flat ground I was a bit unprepared for the hills. This is something I'll have to work on because at this point in my running "career" lack of hill training shouldn't be an excuse. Mile 2 was my slowest mile and took me 10:56. Mile 3 was similar to mile 2 but I was determined to not let this race get the best of me and completed it in 10:12. The final 0.1 mile was a sprint because I could see the finish line and wanted to power through it. The biggest issue I had with the finish was that there were cones across the course that looked like they were directing you to a side road. I almost turned down the side road then did some quick mental/visual math and decided to power to the finish. This turned out to be the correct decision and I finished the race in 31:01 which made my overall pace a perfect 10 minute mile. I'm not happy with this time but I am highly amused by the overall pace.

Overall, I''m not thrilled with with my time. I could have done better, but it was good enough to earn me my first age group award! I took 3rd in the 25-29 age group and got a cute little bronze medal in addition to the participant medal!

Overall, I would happily do this race again. The only negatives were caused by my lack of training. I know better but I didn't think while training. At least I know for my Princess training that I need to get out and do hill repeats or long hill runs to get that endurance and muscle strength back.

Now onto day two of the NYX Lippie Countdown. If you're wondering what they heck I'm talking about please see this post from yesterday. After my enjoyment of Eden from yesterday, I was excited to see what today had in store for my lips.

Today's color ended up being Soft Spoken from the Liquid Suede collection. I was excited to see this because I've been eyeing the Liquid Suede collection but have always hesitated because I already have too many full sized lip products. 

As you can see Soft Spoken is an extremely pretty shade that I initially had issues finding the correct words to describe. After looking at other blogs I tend to agree with their description of this being a mauve nude shade. This has that nice boldness of a mauve but is, like the name describes, softer and more of an everyday fall color. The application is extremely simple as this includes NYX's standard doe foot applicator. This is highly pigmented and applies extremely easily, but also cleans up easily if you color outside the lines. 

This lasted nicely through drinking my morning tea and only required a second application after lunch. Now, I did find this lip color to be a bit more troublesome than yesterdays. It retains a bit of a sticky feeling for an hour or so. This isn't bad and I didn't feel like it was going to peel off on my cup but I was constantly aware of it being on my lips. The second issue I had is one that's common with matte lipsticks. This color settled into every line on my lips and did make them look a bit drier than normal. Now, this didn't make me look dehydrated like some matte colors have done in the past, but it didn't have that healthy and plump look that I usually like. 

Despite the heaviness and the settling I would use this color again for an all day wear. It is too dark for a weekend color but I tend to prefer soft pinks and true nudes on the weekends. 

It's no secret that I have really, really bad skin. I've dealt with horrible acne since I was in middle school, and have tried almost everything on the market to treat it. One item I've lusted after but haven't been able to justify the cost was a Clarisonic. On July 13th Good Morning America had the Michael Todd Soniclear on the daily deal for $49.99, regular $149.00. I did some quick research and decided that this brush wasn't a cheap knockoff of the Clarisonic and put in my order for a Soniclear Elite in the Leopard Me Purple pattern (because nothing beats animal print!). I also added a Sonic Infuser Head, Shower Caddy in white, and the C35x Retinol Serum because they were all on sale.

Box of Goodies!

When I finally received my order I dove right into the box. I was happy to see that everything was packed securely with plenty of padding. The Retinol Serum was wrapped in bubble wrap and sealed to prevent it from leaking onto anything if it had opened. The box with the Soniclear was wrapped in plastic so if the box had gotten rained on it wouldn't have gotten damaged. Overall, I was pleased with how everything arrived.

Unboxing the Soniclear

Once I opened the Soniclear box I was excited to see that there was an instruction manual included. This manual is on good quality paper and should be able to withstand being referenced heavily while I learn all the features of the brush. The charger is simple to set up and took me only a few seconds to figure out how to charge the brush. One item to note is that I don't believe the brush is extremely secure in the charging cradle. If you were to bump the counter it seems like the brush could slip out of the cradle.

Charging

After using the brush for a few months I can officially say that I don't know how I survived without having a face brush is my daily routine. My skin is clearer, and I feel like I'm actually cleaning my face completely when I wash it. The first three weeks were rough. I didn't see any difference in my skin for the first week, then the next two were full of breakouts. My poor face broke out in areas that hadn't had issues in years, but thankfully these went away quickly. On the fourth week my face settled down and seemed better than normal. I contributed this to hormones and thought about throwing away the brush but couldn't justify just throwing away the money I had spent.

Body Brush, Serum, and Infuser Head

As weeks five and six went on my face surprisingly looked good. There were no new major breakouts and my skin looked brighter. I actually went a few days without foundation which is something I never do during the work week. On week 7 I changed my cleanser and noticed a world of difference. Since then I have only had minor breakouts (which is a huge improvement) and they don't last long. I contribute this improvement to both the new cleanser and the Soniclear brush! I spent the last week without foundation and concealer because I feel like my skin looks great! I would highly recommend the Soniclear to anyone looking to take their beauty routine one step further.

The wonder soap that made all the difference

Pros:

• Skin feels extremely clean
• Beeps to let you know when to move to a new section
• Has multiple speeds so you can customize the cleaning to your current skin condition
• Includes a body brush that is larger
• Antibacterial head so you don't have to worry about it getting "nasty" 
• Easy to clean
• Waterproof so you can use it in the shower
• Has several different heads for different skin situations that you can buy. 

Cons:

• Expensive
• Difficult to tell when the battery is low
• Not a miracle worker. You need to find the right combination of cleanser and brush speed. 

Overall: I would 100% recommend this to my friends and anyone looking to improve their skin!