bailey bee

beauty, home and lifestyle blog

Pixi Beauty Vitamin-C Collection + Skin Update

The Pixi Beauty Vitamin-C Collection

Yo, guys. Let me tell. you. My skin has been through the WRINGER over the past month. Now that I’m on the upswing I am getting the opportunity to really test these goodies that Pixi sent. We will ignore, for now, that they’ve been waiting for me for six months! For the most part I’m writing this post to be a PSA of these products being available, less for how they worked for me.

The Pixi Beauty Vitamin-C Collection
shown above:
Vitamin-C Serum, Vitamin-C Tonic, Vitamin-C Caviar Balm,
Vitamin-C Juice Cleanser and Vitamin-C Lotion

As for my skin, I had all of these posts planned that were along the lines of “HOW I FIXED MY SKIN! SKINCARE ROUTINE!” and “HOW I CURED MY ACNE” but…. as the months went on, I realized that my skincare wasn’t doing anything.

I decided to get off of birth control at the end of 2018 because I had been wanting to, generally, as I had been on BC since 2012 and also because I was able to be unemployed and thus, uninsured. It seems it took about seven months for my skin to react to the hormone change because the acne that began popping up in July turned out to be just that: hormonal acne.

I fought and fought and fought my face— walking the line between being overly harsh and aware enough to not harm my skin’s natural moisture barrier. I had prescription creams, prescription pills, endless moisturizers and chemical exfoliants and nothing seemed to work. It wasn’t until the end of November when I decided to get back on birth control. My skin cleared up within two weeks.

Lesson learned: outward beauty is only worth so much. Even when I attempted to combat my acne inwardly with eating less dairy and more probiotics, I still had no luck. The other lesson learned? Medicine and more particularly, birth control, is not a bad thing. I know there are so many positive, practical reasons for being on birth control. I fell into the myth that I needed my body to have a “natural” moment to “reset”. My body clearly needs assistance in the hormone department and I’m glad to be back on the regulated train.

Thank you to Pixi for sending me their Vitamin-C goodies. I would have been able to give a far more comprehensive write-up far sooner than it took me to provide this, had they arrived at a more opportune time.

I hope anyone reading this had a wonderful wind-down to 2019 and cheers to 2020!

Feel free to shop this post below:

A Rainbow of Bathroom Renovation Inspiration

One day I will finally move out of this apartment of mine and one day I will be able to renovate my bathroom into the bathroom of my dreams. Bathrooms are some of my favorite rooms to daydream about. There are so many possibilities in colors, finishes and creative storage solutions! I don’t really have a specific plan in mind for when it comes time to renovate my future master bathroom so I wanted to showcase the array of colors and styles that are currently inspiring me. This is my bathroom renovation inspiration collection via my Pinterest ‘Home’ and ‘Bath’ boards.

You’ve got your…

black and white bathroom with built in, rounded top shelving
black and white bathroom vanity with gold scones
blush and gold tiled shower in bathroom
blush painted bathroom with chair moulding and silver sconce
blush herringbone tile shower with niche
stacked earthy green subway tile shower with gold fixtures
light blue bathroom vanity with marble countertop
baby blue herringbone tiled bathroom with freestanding tub
neutral hexagonal tile bathroom floor with antique rug
stacked taupe tiles in shower with black fixtures and statement niche

Natasha Denona Mini Gold Eyeshadow Palette Review

The Natasha Denona Mini Gold Palette

Ever since I saw the sneak peeks for the Natasha Denona Gold palette, I have been waiting for the mini palette release. I still, to this day, want the full-sized VERY badly. That price tag is the only thing standing in my way.

Anyway, I was so excited to pick up this mini version when it released a few weeks ago. From what I had heard, this was one of Natasha’s best mini palettes to date. I knew (from swatching in-store) that the brand has incredible shimmers but what I was most impressed with in this palette were the two matte shades. They are so well pigmented and the tones bring a lot of depth for two fairly “medium” shades.

The Natasha Denona Mini Gold Palette swatched on-arm

Oh, man. Bia. How pretty is Bia?! It and D’or were the two shades that made me want this palette. Although D’or swatches a bit chunkily it is a strangely wet formula that applies beautifully to the lid. Additionally, Antheia is a beautiful duo-chrome with an incredible pay-off from the get-go and is a more traditional shimmer formula.

Lastly, Lodge is the ideal transition shade for my skin tone. Having it plus three other “winners” (Bia , D’or and Antheia) make this mini palette worth stashing for me. I’m going to utilize this a lot over the coming months to create some classic looks, some smokey as well as some funky– I’m thinking Bia as a structured, winged eyeliner? OH yes.

Here’s a look I did with D’or on the lid, Bia on the outer third with Lodge as the transition. I’ll continue to post looks as I wear ’em!

Even if it has a slightly different color story, it’s hard to pass up this $25 baby palette in place of its $129 counterpart. One day I WILL get that full-sized gold palette, though! What are some of your faves from ND?

Feel free to shop this post below:

A Weekend in Dallas for Oklahoma v. Texas

This past weekend I flew out to Dallas, Texas to partake in one of the best parts of my year: Oklahoma/Texas weekend. This weekend is focused around the Red River Showdown game between the two rival schools. The game is played at a neutral site between the two school’s cities at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas– centered inside of the Texas State Fair.

To say these two events together are EPIC is truly an understatement.

This was my third OU/Texas weekend. My first was during my freshman year at Oklahoma before I transferred away and my second was last year with my dad and my sister. This year was extra exciting because we added Charlie to our crew! We all got in Friday afternoon and spent our days watching sports, sports and more sports (the Washington Nationals are currently en-route to the World Series and we had to keep our eyes on them this weekend as well!)

Me and my family at Oklahoma v. Texas football game at the Texas State Fair, top. A view of our tickets, bottom.

The better the teams, the earlier the game. Oklahoma was ranked #6 last week and Texas sat at #11 so this game was early at 11am. We got up briiiiiight and early to get to the fairgrounds by 9am but not without setting the weekend up right the night before by attending the OU Club of Dallas’ pep rally in Addison. This is THE official pep rally prior to gameday. The band stops by at the end of the night to really get everybody ready to rumble. Even Boomer and Sooner, Oklahoma’s two mascots, show up!

Top photo is of me and my family with the Oklahoma Sooners Ruf-Neks, bottom photo is a close-up of Oklahoma's mascot Sooner and his painted hooves.

The mission of the day on gameday is to…

  1. wake up, eat breakfast
  2. roll out, step foot in the fairgrounds (takes awhile)
  3. grab your tickets, head over to the media
    • last year we had College Gameday in attendance and this year it was Fox Sports
  4. drink as much as you can, play some games before the crowds
    • this year was the first time alcohol was allowed within the entire stadium so, thankfully, future years will involve less chugging at 10am
  5. get to your seats, BEAT TEXAS
Oklahoma v. Texas football game at the Cotton Bowl stadium
we had some incredible seats this year. shoutout to my dad for tracking them down!

Once Texas has been rightfully silenced (hopefully), you get to roll out and eat some crazy fried foods and meander your way out of the fair. My go-to is the fried cheesecake and this year I fell in loOove with the fried mac and cheese. This year we made our way out of the fair into downtown Dallas to watch the Nationals beat the Cardinals for the second night in a row. We then ventured home and began to plan our final day in town.

Otto's Coffee & Fine Foods at The Adolphus hotel in downtown Dallas.

On Sunday we hit up the Adolphus hotel where we grabbed coffee and goodies at Otto’s Coffee & Fine Foods. The Adolphus had just undergone a $100mil renovation in 2018 and holy. c-r-a-p. It is BEAUTIFUL. My dad told us some fun stories of when he stayed here back in 1972. To imagine my 18-year-old father romping around this insanely well-manicured hotel was beyond what my mind could handle. Clearly some things had changed over the years— haha.

A view from the seventh floor overlooking Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated, as showcased by painted X's on Elm Street.

After starting the day off at The Adolphus and Otto’s we walked over to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Dealey Plaza was the location of President JFK’s assassination in 1963. The museum brings you on an audio tour throughout the sixth floor where Lee Harvey Oswald barricaded himself in to shoot and kill the 35th U.S. President outside of a corner window. This view from the seventh floor (above) allows a sightline above the now-mature trees to see painted X’s on Elm Street that show the specific spots Oswald shot at the President’s motorcade.

The museum charges $18 per adult for the audio tour. If you have a couple of hours to kill and even the slightest bit of interest in this massive event of American history, I highly recommend.

Full table spread of tacos at Torchy's Tacos and the "Let Them Eat Cake" neon sign at Bird Bakery in Highland Park.

Throughout the weekend we ate at a couple of places in town but none better than my favorite, Torchy’s Tacos. There are few fast or fast casual restaurant dishes I love more than Torchy’s fried avocado tacos on corn tortillas. Above you will see that during our first meal in town I had three massive ones.

MmmmMMmmmMmmm YUM.

On Sunday before we headed to the airport we found ourselves wandering around the ultra lush Highland Park neighborhood. I grew up in a fairly affluent area but I had never laid my eyes on the kind of stores that were in Highland Park Village. To name a few, they had Chanel, Balenciaga, Celine, Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, Tom Ford and wow, yeah, I could go on. Highland Park Village is the epitome of luxury and within all of that is Bird Bakery, owned by Armie Hammer’s wife Elizabeth. It’s a refreshing spot where you can experience opulence while spending under $10.

Oklahoma and Texas Coke bottles at Walgreens with the Texas bottles turned upside down to shot an upside-down Longhorn.
Before heading out to DFW, we spread a little mischief at a local Walgreens. I was born with a hatred for the Longhorns— what can I say?

Texas is the one of all states in the United States that I continually travel to. There is so much to do and Dallas is the central zone of all there is to do. I’d challenge anybody to find something that you cannot track down in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metro area. It’s on New York City levels of density and I doubt you’d ever run out of plans. I’m sure I’ll be back before my next OU/TX weekend but we certainly will be back for that in 2021. Our wedding is the Sunday after the game next year so we won’t be in attendance but rest assured, we will be watching at our rehearsal dinner!

Where is the one place that you don’t have any connections to that you continually find yourself in? I’m curious to know!