Other than inner beauty, skin care is the most important part of being beautiful. You may the most beautiful modelesque woman and have the most horrible skin under all the face paste. Taking care of your face should  be more important than the makeup you buy.

You only have one face, so take care of it.

I didn't start out taking as good of care of my face as I should have. I have dry, combo, acne prone skin. Big thank you to the family genes and being a woman. I have used the cheapest, the cutesiest, and most popular TV brands. Most are crap products or not the right products for what I really needed. I grew up using Clearasil, Clean & Clear, ProActive, Neutrogena, Avon, and any other drugstore brand you can think of. I have also seen a dermatologistand that was a big mistake.  Everything dried out may face and made me a wee bit scaley.

Fast foward a few years.....I finally saw an Esthetician.

About 6 months before I got married, my skin went bezerk! We had just moved (1200 miles) to another state, started new jobs, and I was just plain stressed out all the time. I was using my dermatologist prescribed products that seems to suck every bit of moisture out of my skin. Big mistake. She (lovely esthetician whom is married to a Nebraska man) told me that my skin was very dry and needed some serious hydration. So, like any other junkie, I spent a crap load of money on a few ounces of products. Decleor. Beautiful and lovely smelling skin care products that come with a hefty price. They performed very well and I still use the oil. Yes, I said oil. Oils are good for your skin. No, not canola or 5W-30. Legit, skin oils. Like, Decleor, Josie Maran, or Garnier.  In reality, they were great products and worked well for my skin. And again, like any other junkie, I just decided to try other new things. 

I tend to spend a bit of money on skin care.

I never buy a product without doing the research on it. In part, this comes from the musings of my husband. He is a nerd. He researches everything before he buys it and has instilled this very important quality in me. I am grateful for this quality. I could have wasted thousands of dollars on crap products that are just hyped up. I read blogs, read reviews,  read complete product descriptions, and YouTube all of it. The later is my favorite. A blogger that I absolutely live is Caroline Hirons. I caught her on the Pixiwoo blog. She is a skin guru from the UK. She is funny, very informative, and knows her stuff. Pixiwoo.....my favorite makeup artists, also from the UK.

Oh, most importantly, i sample the products first, if I can.

I have a 3 drawer organizer that has a dedicated 2 drawers to samples. One of those is skin care samples that i have received from purchases at Sephora, Ulta, or any department store that I frequent. The other is new makeup stuffs. If you are thinking about a new skin care product that is available through a makeup counter, ask for a sample. Any great sales person will gladly give you a sample that tailors to what you need and a generous enough sample to give it a thorough go.

Keep your receipts.

This goes with any beauty related purchase. I keep them for skin care, hair care, and makeup. Why keep a product when it breaks you out, doesn't perform the way it claims, or is simply doesn't work for you?

Below is a picture of my current and favorite skin care products. This is on my sink in the bathroom. The gorgeous mirror is an antique from one of my grandmothers. I have everything right there, so I can not have an excuse to not use them!

Miss Presley......

I felt that I need to give a little background/explain my profile picture a bit. I did mention in my "Intro to my life" blog post that there are "no little Sarahs running around yet", but my picture has this beautiful little girl in it. That gorgeous little curly-haired thing is Presley Jo. She is the daughter of my goddaughter. And, Yes, that makes me feel old.

Anywho, I call her Miss Presley because this child is a little diva-to-be in her own right. Big sparkling blue eyes, gorgeous curly blond hair, and a fun little attitude!  This little thing knows who she is already and is barely six months old.  She has everyone she meets wrapped around those tiny fingers, not to mention her grammy and papa.

My husband and I went to Nebraska the week before Christmas for some holiday time. This is when I finally got to meet her. It seemed like I waited forever. All I could think about was seeing my family and getting to play with gorgeous child. In hindsight, I think we timed it just right. She is sitting up in her own, recognizes people,  and knows how to get what she likes. Not to mention....she is the kind of child that you want to pinch her cheeks like an old lady because she is so beautiful!

We got to spend some quality time with the little diva and I loved every single minute of it.

While talking with my sisters, via conference call, I was inspired for this blog entry.  Sorry Rachel....tried calling. FYI....I have 3 sisters and I am the lucky one that is the oldest. We are like The Golden girls. Well, almost. We fight, laugh, cry, and have been known to throw a few punches at each other.Hence, the Demon part of this post.

We are your typical farm girls. We all know how to drive a tractor, we live through harvest, we  know what it means when Dad comes rolling in the driveway honking the horn ( he needs some sort of help with something), and know how to run cattle. Well, back in the cattle lot anyway. We walked beans every summer, played softball, worked summer jobs, and did everything we could get out of mowing the lawn when we wanted to hang out with our friends.

We fight. Not your typical argue and slam door fight. We throw punches, find things to hit each with, have stabbed each other with various objects, and have run into each other with vehicles. We were taught how to fight at an early age, better yet, to stand our ground and stand up for ourselves or each other. No matter what the issue, we always, stand beside or up for one another. You don't mess with one of us, because you will likely feel wrath of all four of us. The Fabulous Four Farrens Sisters. We are each other's best friends, worst enemies, and each other's most loved family. We complete each other.

I can't imagine my life without every single one of them! Needless to say, we are each others Angels.

Pictures of my Clinique bags. The left grouping is from Belk. The right grouping is from Elder-Beerman.

Elder-Beerman knocks it out of the park on this one. The colors are gorgeous! Hopefully, I can arrange the #20 jammin eye shadow duo (purple & pink) on my eyelids in a cutesy way as to not look like I was beat up.

If you want more detail on the products or on Clinique in general, please visit their website or each stores websites.

It is Clinique Bonus days at Elder-Beerman (Younkers-like for you Midwesterners) and Belk. Notice...there is an AND.....yes, I had to go to 2 different stores to get my makeup fix today.

For those of you that do not know what Bonus days are, I will explain. It is a certain time of the year that if you spend $27, you get this cutesy bag with 5-7 deluxe sized samples from the brand to test out. Other than Christmas, Bonus days, is my favorite time of the year....I just sang that in my head like a Christmas song!!! I bet you just did, too. Anyway, it is like getting a gift with purchase from Lancome, Estee Lauder, or perfumey thingys that you can buy that come with free bags/ totes. As I have mentioned, I LOVE bonus days.

I was chatting today with my local Clinique person/sales woman/all around fun gal and told her I am starting to blog. She had to have known that I would be blogging about Clinique and the fantastic service I receive at Elder-Beerman. Then, this happened. One of the newer sales persons introduced herself to me and says "It is so nice to meet you, we have heard a lot about you". At that moment, I realized that I spend more time at my local Clinique counter than I do in my own basement washing clothes. I. Have. A. Problem. Like any other junkie, I sat in the parking lot opening up the new products, smelling them, and trying them on. Imagine that...clown face in the parking lot of a shopping mall weirdly sniffing her cosmetics. This is part of the nurse in me...we smell everything. Is is strange to smell your cosmetics???

Hey there! Welcome to my blog! 

My name is Sarah.  I am a Registered Nurse living in Wild & Wonderful West Virginia and am married to the most awesome computer nerd, Bruce. 

I am starting this blog for an outlet for the the things I love, things I hate, things I am obsessed with, things to ramble about, and products/things to review.  Oh, by the way, I am a makeup, skin care, and hair care junkie!!!! Consider yourself warned.....
My husband and I moved to West Virginia about 4 years ago from Nebraska. We live in a college town, yay.  And ,yes,  I said Nebraska.  I am a Nebraska girl through and through..... I love my Huskers, eat steak every chance I get, can drive a tractor, grew up on a farm, and have the greatest family in my world. 

I chose to become a nurse about 10 years ago and I am so proud of myself for doing so. It has been the greatest accomplishment of my life, so far. No little Sarahs running around yet. 

And last, but certainly not least, my husband, Bruce. He is a computer nerd.  I heart nerds. He has this "meh" (his favorite answer to any question) outlook on life, the best baker, the most loving, hilarious and the messiest ex-military man I know!

See ya,

Sarah