bailey bee

beauty, home and lifestyle blog

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: JEWELRY LOVER

jewelry laid out from south moon under, baublebar and kendra scott for holiday gift guide inspiration

I’m not big on gift guides BUT I have found myself drooooooling over some jewelry lately across a few different sites so I figured I’d throw together a mix of what I’ve seen that’s new and pretty in jewelry land.

1. I have two favorite stones from Kendra Scott. I love her opals and I love her dichroic glass. These studs are the latter– and come in two more colors! They’re fairly large for studs– which I prefer. If you’re gonna buy pricier jewelry that you think is cute for someone, I think they should show them off as much as possible!

2. If you follow me on Instagram then you know about my obsession with South Moon Under’s resin tortoise earrings. I own two of the three shown above and fully intend on buying the third as well. I love the creaminess and contrast of this tortoise pattern and they’re sooo light. It’s like you aren’t even wearing earrings. I sent a picture to my sister after I bought my first pair and she immediately went and bought the same ones. They’re definitely a gifting winner!

3. Another fave of mine from Kendra Scott are her lariats. This one comes in three colors and is a unique addition to a layered necklace look.

4. This necklace looks a bit wild but I think it’s just so cool. The discs look like they’re floating on your neck and the choker length creates an edgy, yet simple vibe. AKA MY VIBE. Edgy, yet simple. Always. This one also comes in silver!

5. On the topic of creamy and contrasted, this sweet bracelet is just that. I’m a sucker for anything black and white and speckled. This bracelet is made of dalmatian stone– which, other than sounding cute, balances the emotions and body. Plus, it’s stretchy. Who doesn’t prefer a stretchy bracelet? This allows it to fit many different sized wrists so it makes a worry-free gift.

6. Next are some statement earrings. They also come in a blush but something about the black and gold screams New Year’s Eve to me and these would be the BEST party earrings for somebody. These also come in blush!

7. Lastly is this delicate letter necklace. You can pick any letter you want for your recipient for your name, their name or anything else your heart desires. I want to pick up the ‘B’ for my first name (and future last name!) The chain balances the off-kilter letter by placing in two small stones up the chain to the left. It’s dainty and understated but will feel extra special with the personalized letter– without having to pay for an actual personalized gift.

Feel free to shop this post below:

FULL FACE OF MAKEUP SAMPLES + FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Hi there!

I recently uploaded a video to my YouTube channel trying out various makeup samples that I have had sitting around for ages. I love collecting samples of products but I’m terrible at using them up and this video was the perfect solution for that problem. Check the video out below and keep scrolling to get the dirt on my first impressions of each item.

I started with the Glossier Priming Moisturizer which made my face moisturized and tacky. The tackiness spoke to how this product performs as a primer but I can’t speak any more on that because I don’t know how the other face products would have performed unprimed or over my usual primers. As a moisturizer, though, it was solid.

I began my eyes with the Stila Shimmer & Glow Liquid Eyeshadows in ‘Kitten’ and followed up with ‘Twig’. Kitten was insanely metallic and reflective (very Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Beauty Wand-esque) and blended great. Twig was terrible. It stuck down where applied and did not blend whatsoever. On top of that, it wasn’t even that shimmery. In order to blend Twig out as much as I could I applied Bite Beauty Multisticks in ‘Cashew’ to the crease and it solved all my issues. I’ve used Bite’s Multisticks in the past (from samples) and they’re a fantastic multiuse product. To date I’ve used it in the browns, on the eyes, on the cheeks and lips. I tried to add a bit of depth by adding in Twig as a top eyeliner. Didn’t work very well as that either.

To start with my face I applied the Dr. Jart Premium Beauty Balm in ‘Light to Medium’. I’ve had a few samples of this in the past and liked it enough to ALMOST buy it on one occassion but it is simply just a shade too dark for my natural complexion and for that, I haven’t bought it. But I do enjoy it as a product. To clean up my undereyes I applied Cover FX Power Play Foundation in ‘N30’ in a concealing manner with a stiffer, detailed face brush. I initially expected this shade to be significatly darker than me but it ended up looking just fine. It did its job as a concealer but I can’t speak to the longevity as a full face foundation. Next was Hourglass Cosmetics Ambient Lighting Powders in ‘Dim Light’ and ‘Radiant Light’ to set my undereyes and bronze up my cheeks. I really enjoyed Dim Light as it brought a healthy filtered glow to my eyes. I liked it so much that I may even pick up a full size. To finish up the face I went in with Bite’s multistick in ‘Biscotti’ as a blush.

I got the godfather of all samples in the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade in ‘Ash Brown’ and three other shades. I expected Ash Brown to be a terrible match for me but in the theme of this video, it ended up being just fine. I never expected to like Dipbrow because I’ve always been happy with powder products and never even enjoyed pencils like the masses do but MAN.. I LIKED DIPBROW. I already purchased it in my more proper shade. Review coming soon!

Last up was Sephora Collection #LIPSTORIES Lipstick in ‘Labyrinth City’. I applied it over a base of that Bite Multistick in ‘Biscotti’ and it was a pretty, typical matte rose lippie. It was super comfortable on the lips but I feel that may have been because I applied it over the creamy multistick.

I was so caught off guard with how many products I genuinely liked and I’m proud that the samples served their purpose– to allow me to try a product for free and form an opinion prior to buying.

Filming this video inspired me to use up my samples as I receive them in hopes of finding more products I like that I had never thought to try out before. Do you like the final look? Let me know in the comments!

To shop the products I used in this video, see below:

HIS, HERS AND OUR PINNED LOCATIONS

This thing was so popular on my Instagram stories that I wanted to pop on here real quick to share with the link so everybody can have this before it goes away after the holidays!

I bought this cork USA map ornament from Target last year and pinned all of the places me and Charlie have been either on our own or together and color-coded it all. The cute star pin comes with the ornament!
Yellow = Places Charlie has been by himself
Pink = Places I’ve been by myself
Orange = Places we’ve been together
These are the pins I have but Target also sells a gold, black and white pack as well.
I hope you all enjoy.

THANKSGIVING OUTFIT

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my U.S. readers!

I wanted to pop on real quick to share the outfit that I wore today. Let me just say one quick thing prior, though: stretchy pants.

I picked up my pants and sweater the other day during South Moon Under’s 20% off $150 sale. The pants are PULL ON with an ELASTIC WAISTBAND. They’re unbelievably comfortable and super, super cool. My (future) bro-in-law told me I looked straight outta the 1970’s and I could have melted into a puddle of pride right there. That is my goal in life like, every day.
The sweater has a hella dramatic cowl neck and I was worried it wouldn’t ‘lay’ right but it somehow naturally falls really well. It wasn’t my initial plan for my top but it was record-breakingly cold today so I absolutely needed more warmth than the tunic I’d originally planned.
I wore some studded, open-toed shoes (old Jeffrey Campbells, also from South Moon– the ‘Bess’ style) with socks because again, cold and paired everything with these really chic resin tortoise hoops. It was entirely unplanned but somehow my entire outfit was from South Moon.
IMPORTANT NOTE: South Moon Under’s Black Friday sale is currently on and they’re advertising 30% off EVERYTHING! This is an post is not sponsored– I just love that store! Go go go get whatever you’ve been wanting.
Check out my ShopStyle below to see the exact items I wore and again HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

WELCOME TO BAILEY BEE

I am so excited to finally share my new blog name and design with you all!
In just a handful of weeks, my blog turns six years old. I began this blogging journey while on an off-semester in college shortly after deciding to transfer to an in-state school from my out-of-state family school. Throughout the life of this blog I have proceeded through and finished college, joined the professional world and got my own place with my significant other. Beautymunson was my place to pop on and interact with others who share a love for all things beauty. It became such a part of my identity that it is actually a nickname many of my friends now call me in real life.
However,
I love sharing things with all of you so much and those things are no longer limited to just beauty. That paired with the fact that I will eventually be dropping Munson as my surname led me to the decision to rename and rebrand this online home of mine.
Bailey Bee is a beauty, home and lifestyle blog.
Nothing changes but a name and a color scheme so please stick around! I have my own domain now (check it out!), a new email (hello@baileybeeblog.com) and a whole slew of ideas for this page. My main goal for this blog has not and probably will never change– it is still to create a personal community within the larger beauty, home, lifestyle and overall blogging communities.
Thank you for all of the support over the past six years and here’s to six more successful ones!
Love, Bailey

FOODIE FRIDAY: VEGGIE LASAGNA

Happy Friday! TGIF!

I’m SO happy it’s Friday because I FINALLY get to share this recipe with all of you that I perfected this past weekend.. I always take recipes that I find online/in books as “suggestions” and add or subtract whatever I want and kinda just…. make it up as I go once I’ve gotten some guidance from the original source. I, for the first time, truly perfected a recipe while completely winging it. Mmmmmm I wish I had more of this left to eat it again even though I ate it alllllll week long.

Let’s get into it. Making a veggie/vegetarian lasagna. Trust me, you will love this one.

Adapted from Cookie and Kate

Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3 large carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)
  • 1 medium zucchini, chopped (about 1 cup)
  • half one medium butternut squash, chopped (about 1 cup.. or a bit more)
  • 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
Tomato sauce
Remaining ingredients
  • 2 cups (16 ounces) ricotta cheese
  • ¼ teaspoon salt, to taste (aka more)
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste (more)
  • 9 lasagna noodles
  • 8 ounces (2 cups) freshly grated low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese (more won’t hurt)
  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. To prepare the veggies: In a large skillet over medium heat, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Once shimmering, add the carrots, zucchini, yellow onion, and salt. Cook, stirring every couple of minutes, until the veggies are golden on the edges, about 14 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside.
  3. Meanwhile, to prepare the tomato sauce: Pour the tomatoes into a mesh sieve or fine colander and drain off the excess juice for a minute. Then, transfer the drained tomatoes to the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add the basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes. Pulse the mixture about 10 times, until the tomatoes have broken down to an easily spreadable consistency. Pour the mixture into a bowl for later. Rinse out and return to the machine.
  4. Transfer the cooked veggies to the bowl of the food processor. Pulse until they are more finely chopped, not super puréed (although that’s okay too!), about 5 to 7 times, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. Pour into a separate bowl and add in ricotta cheese. Mix then add salt (to taste) and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Stir to combine. Now it’s lasagna assembly time!
  5. Spread ½ cup tomato sauce evenly over the bottom of a 9” by 9” baking dish. Layer 3 lasagna noodles on top (overlap their edges as necessary). Spread half of the veggie & cheese mixture evenly over the noodles. Top with ¾ cup tomato sauce, then sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese on top.
  6. Top with 3 more noodles, followed by the remaining veggie & cheese mixture (we’re skipping the tomato sauce in this layer.) Sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese on top.
  7. Top with 3 more noodles, then spread ¾ cup tomato sauce over the top (you may have a little sauce leftover) to evenly cover the noodles. Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup shredded cheese.
  8. Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil, but don’t let the foil touch the cheese. Bake, covered, for 18 minutes, then remove the cover, rotate the pan by 180° and continue cooking for about 15 more minutes, until the top turns spotty brown.
  9. Remove from oven and let the lasagna cool for 15 to 20 minutes, so it has time to set and cool down to a reasonable temperature. Sprinkle additional basil over the top, then slice and serve.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you make this lasagna! 😋

HOUSEPLANT SPOTLIGHT: FICUS TINEKE (VARIEGATED RUBBER PLANT)

This is the first post of a little series I am beginning on houseplants. I bought my first true houseplant last January and fell into a deep, deep obsession over the first half of 2018. I’ve calmed down a bit and have sold off many of the plants that I purchased. If you want to see my path of destruction (to my wallet and much more), check out my @plantlifebai account on Instagram.

Now that I’ve found myself on the other end of my obsession, the plants still standing have stood the test of time and I can whole-heartedly call them my “favorites”.

photo of variegated ficus tineke

My first and considerably my MOST favorite plant is this guy: Ficus Tineke. This is a variegated version of a Rubber plant and thus, sometimes is called a Variegated Rubber plant. The variegation in the leaves of this plant is soooooo pretty to me– it looks like a watercolor.

I first fell in love with Ficus Tinekes on Instagram and it took a few weeks for me to hunt down a little 4″ one from my local nursery. I babied that little plant until one day when I got a call from that same nursey informing me they had 6″ Tinekes with multiple stems and beautiful variegation. The issue with most Tinekes that I had come across was that the variegation was mostly dark green without much of the pretty white in the leaves that I loved. Skeptical, I went over to my nursey and COULDN’T BELIEVE MY EYES! So many perfect ones with the most variegation I had ever seen! I took a few and plopped them down on the ground to compare to one another and finally landed on a winner.

The plant came home with me and I repotted it into a slightly bigger nursey pot and added in the cute 4″ one that I had been growing in the few months prior. I now had a massive, insanely photogenic Variegated Rubber plant.

The Ficus family is a hardy bunch– with the exception of the well-known Ficus Lyrata– and don’t need tons of direct light. They are okay with indirect light in a South or West facing window– possibly even East. Ficus Tineke need a bit more than your run-of-the-mill Ficus simply because they are variegated, which means they have less chlorophyll in their leaves to absorb sunlight. That being said, this plant has been in a planter behind my desk and has done just fine. Each day after work I will place it on my kitchen table next to a Western window for a handful of hours to give it some brighter sun before putting it back into its planter.

As for humidity and watering, I like to mist my Tineke every other day or as often as I remember. You can’t really harm the plant with too much humidity, however, you CAN water the soil too much. I learned this the hard way when my 4″ plant got fungus gnats from my overwatering even though I only watered about once every week or week and a half. Thankfully I caught the gnat problem when they were still larvae and swapped out the wet soil for new (dry) soil which suffocated those buggers. My current watering plan is once every two weeks and I will wait even longer between waterings as the weather cools down and the plant enters dormacy.

Are you guys interested in my houseplant series? Let me know below 🙂

I would love to know if you have any houseplant questions or requests for care tips. LMK in the comments below!

CURRENT LUSH FAVORITES

Hello everyone!

I hope nobody is dealing with the Sunday Scaries right now although after what seems to be the official “halloweekend”, I can only imagine most are.

Today’s post is about my favorite products from LUSH. I went through my YouTube channel a few weeks ago and took note of some videos of mine that had tens of thousands of views. One of them was a video talking about my five favorite LUSH products and I thought it would be fun to remake that video/post today because my faves have changed SO much. FYI, if you’d like to watch in video form, my (new!) YouTube video version of this blog post is at the bottom of the post.

Before I get into things, I want to give it up to LUSH’s website. When you search for products they will immediately show you a video of that product performing in water on the product page. It’s so easy and helpful. I love LUSH.

LUSH dragon's egg, avobath, snow fairy naked shower gel, metamorphosis and brightside
I have three bath bombs, a bubble bar and a shower gel to rave about.
First up is Dragon’s Egg bath bomb. This is my favorite smelling bath bomb of the crew– it’s a bright and poppy orange scent that is strangely relaxing (I don’t necessarily associate citrus scents with relaxation). I would admit it’s not the most exciting of bombs in terms of a show but when it boils down to it, you want your bathroom to smell wonderful and that’s exactly what I get from this lil fruity pebble of a bath bomb.
Next is Avobath. It is, as you guessed, made with avocado. I would think that is part of the reason why this bath bomb leaves me feeling sooo silky smooth afterward. That plus the olive oil that I’ve read is in the ingredients! Avobath is similar to Dragon’s Egg in scent– a fresh lemongrass that is such a welcome scent after a long freaking day or a cold freaking night!
My last bath bomb is Metamorphosis. I like Metamorphosis for its scent, of course, but also for its PIZZAZ. Quite unassuming to begin with, this bomb is spicy and stormy grey but as it dissolves in the water it makes way for a rainbow of greens, oranges, and pinks. It caught me by surprise the first time I used this bath and although I continue to purchase this one because I like the peppery aroma, it may also be because of the surprise colors inside.
Brightside bubble bar is my go-to bubble bar. It shares the same orangey perfume as Dragon’s Egg but gives you piles of bubbles AND lasts much longer. I have been a fan of bubble bars for as long as I’ve liked LUSH because of their value. You can use a tiny bit of a BB and get so many damn baths out of it whereas a bath bomb is a one-timer. Usually, Brightside is a much cuter, swirly (kind of tie-dye) bar but when I purchased mine they were all a little worse for wear.
Lastly is Snow Fairy (naked) shower gel. I make sure to pick up all of my Snow Fairy goodies during the holidays as that is the only time they’re stocked. I have a sweet spot for this sweet scent and it seems I’ll never kick it. I used to be a big fan of LUSH’s Melting Marshmallow Moment bath melt because it was big, pink and smelled like bubblegum. I recently learned that Snow Fairy products are the same scent as Melting Marshmallow Moment! Who knew. I love both. I love the bubblegum. My fiancè does not. Whatever.
I decided to include an honorable mention because I have a product that I do purchase often but did not pick up in my most recent visit to my LUSH store. I really like the Dark Angels face/body scrub/cleanser. It’s a solid block of product that you break a piece off of to create a paste in your hand before massaging it into your face and/or body. It’s a bit messy but if you use it in the shower you should have no problem and it exfoliates so nicely once skin has been softened a bit in warm water. Dark Angels was an important addition to this post because it diversified my bath and shower product-heavy favorites list.
I hope I inspired someone to pick up one of my favorites or at least check them out in-store next time you’re in. Let me know if we share any faves and if you have any holy grails from LUSH pls let me know below. I clearly need to fall in love with some products for skin, hair or beauty.