The Five Minute Manicure
Between cleaning cooking and running after our kids I’m sure you don’t have much time to pamper yourself. I go through the same thing daily but having my nails done is one of those things that make me feel good. Plus it keeps me from biting my nails, it’s a terrible habit I’ve always had. What I like to do is after I shower I take the five minutes to do my nails. That way my cuticles are nice and soft. I keep all my nail polish and everything else in a little tin in the bathroom. I like to use a cuticle cutter but if you’re the type of person that likes to push them back then that’s fine too. Remove any old polish with a polish remover. Let’s backtrack here. If you need to shape your nails do that before you hit the shower. You can break your nails if you do that afterwards since they’d be soft. But after you come out of the shower and finished with your normal routine you can finish by applying your polish. I also use a nail hardener as a base coat. All you’ve got to do is wait a minute or so for the nails to dry and you’re all set!
Mami’s Tip: my Mami taught me in order to reduce chipping apply your nail polish in three nice strokes: One in the middle and one on each side. It’s also a good idea to start with the pinky and work your way to your thumb. You should paint all your fingers before starting the second coat. (Two coats should do it). It would also cut your time if you get fast drying nail polish. And Listo! Pretty nails for at least the next 5-7 days!
Mis cositas (My things)
These things make me feel bella:
MAC lip gloss: don’t knock it until you tried it. I bought one and I was hooked. Their whole product line is amazing and flatters every skin tone from the mas blanquita to the mas morenita. The brand might be more expensive than drugstore brands but I will gladly pay $14 for lip gloss that has substance to it. It stays on most of the day and it has a thickness unlike the cheap brands. It will last you longer too so it’s worth the price. I own like 6 or 7 and they I feel like they all flatter me very well. You can’t say that about a lot of products.
Frizzease: If you’re like most Latinas you have to deal with frizz. My hair is Shakira curly and if I don’t put some Frizzease on it I can’t have it curly or straight without the frizz. Even if the snow or rain hits my hair it’s still silky smooth when it’s straight. It’s the best product when you want your rizos or when you want it straight. I use the serum but there’s a whole line of products from shampoos and conditioners to finishing crème.
Rimmel: I might splurge on my lip gloss but for nail polish this drugstore brand to me works just as good as the OPI with half the price. They have every color imaginable and I swear I have at least ten! Walmart and drugstores carry them and for less than $2 it’s a steal and can fit any Mami’s budget.
Aveeno face wash: I bought this a few weeks ago and it’s actually working for me. I have sensitive acne prone skin and I haven’t really broken out since I bought this. But my face doesn’t feel dry either. And I’ve tried everything from Proactive to Ambi, Neutrogena the works! And this is really working for me! I think the bar of soap wash was less than five bucks!
What things make you feel bella?
Decorate on the Cheap!
I found this on the Michael’s website. It gives you step by step directions to do and would be nice to accomplish! I would love to do one for my living room and another in my half bathroom. We’re doing a gray black and white theme in there and that black and white one would be nice! And it’s just paper which you can find as low as 4 for $1. I’m going to add links at the bottom so you can check it out. You’d need about 1-2 hours to complete but the skill level is a one so it’s not hard to do at all! I’d probably would do four or 6 squares 9 for a bathroom looks too much! My favorite flower is the lily so I can see doing the daisy project with lily pictures. What do you think? Have any ideas for spring decorating?
I’m also looking for some pretty tela (fabric) to do some throw pillows for my living room. I’m trying to tie in some colors of my dining room into my living room. My living room is painted a sand color and I’ve got shades of brown and my dining room is painted a nice muted light blue. I’m thinking of getting chocolate brown and blue striped fabric for the throw pillows. I’m a sewing Mami in training though. I can do small stuff like throw pillows and cross stitching but I haven’t made my way around a sewing machine. I do have one but I’ve never used it. I got it as a wedding gift. But it would be perfect if I can use that same fabric for some nice curtains to match. You know, I’m going to have to look into that! I’ll post some pics of my finished projects! If they ever get finished! http://www.michaels.com/art/online/projectsheet?pid=e06201
Got Clutter?
What about paper clutter though? I try to keep mine at a minimum. I’m all about online banking. All my bills are set up online and I don’t even have my bank statement mailed. I just get an email that says it’s ready to be viewed and my bank saves around 12 months worth of statements. So that definitely reduces the paper clutter. Like I mentioned all my bills are set up online. I have a planner I get every year and I arrange the bills in there by due date. So every week I know what I have to pay for the week.
Mondays are usually my bill paying days. I can set up all my bills to be paid on whatever day I want the payment to post. It’s a great way to organize my bills they are all in one place, the planner sits right by the computer and all I have to do is add the numbers in and hit make payment. So much better than writing checks! If your bank account has online banking available especially if it’s gratis then you should check that out. It would save you time in writing out all those checks stuffing them and mailing them and it would save you money on stamps. It also gives me a total payment amount so I’m sure I’m balancing with the bank. I balance my check book like twice a week I’m really anal about it. I hate bank fees they are such a waste of money and so expensive! So I try to make sure that I am in agreement with the bank all times. It’s also a good idea to do it will save you money in the long run.
So Now What?
You should have three piles: Donate, Throw Away or Keep. Go through the things you don’t think you’re going to be wearing anymore. I live in the northeast US and I don’t think that we got the memo yet that it’s spring. So I can’t put those sweaters away just yet. Congrats if you can! Sort your clothes shoes purses (yes I said purses!) that you’re not going to be using. Whatever is good enough to donate go ahead! It’s a great tax deduction at the end of the year.
I’ve started my donate pile at the back of my closet. It’s a nice way to reduce your clutter and saves you time. It also gives you new space you can put your spring/summer clothes in. Do the same for the kid’s closets. Anything that is still in one piece that your child has grown out of go ahead and include it in the donate pile. You’ll be doing two good things: Reducing clutter and giving to the needy. Dios te lo multiplica! I also take the time to go through my sock and underwear drawer for anything that I can toss. Why store clothes and accessories that you might not even wear next year?
My Purse Essentials
Easter has come and gone I still can’t believe Easter was so early this year! Well, Friday I had this heavenly facial and I would love to go back for more. My face didn’t break out or turn red or anything! The only thing is that it was a Beauty School so you get the luck of the draw. You can have someone almost graduating or someone whose first day is the day you come in. But my friends and I all loved our facials.
I’m going to share today what I my essentials are for my purse:
Kleenex
Wallet (obviously!)
Ipod (don’t go anywhere without it!)
Cell phone and Bluetooth
Keys. J
Small makeup bag ( I like to have my pick of lipgloss)
Small notebook
Pen
Checkbook
Calculator
And yes I carry a pretty big purse! Speaking of purses…look at this purse. I love the banana yellow I might have to add this one to my collection. I love baby phat and nine west. J
Spring Cleaning Diva Style
Since I’m in Beauty Mode right now and I’ll be talking about spring cleaning the next few days I figured I’d start with two things that should be cleaned out on a regular basis. These two things most if not all Mamis probably own. That is your purse and makeup bag.If you’re like me, you own millions of purses and eye shadow eyeliner and mascara. But we forget that makeup does get bad. And now is a good time to get rid of it so you can fill it up with some new stuff! I’m not the jump on every trend type of person but I say that if you want to experiment with different things buy cheap first and go from there. But that’s a whole ‘nother topic mija!
But before you do buy one, two, or a whole new collection of makeup you need to go through that bag and see what you can keep and throw away. You should be careful about mascara because when it turns bad it can give you an eye infection. Be extra careful if you’re a contact wearer. I would say every three months throw it out and buy a new one. They’re cheap anyway! I love Maybelline’s Extra Black Mascara. And it’s less than $7 at drugstores.
I can definitely tell when my foundation goes bad. It starts to break me out. If you notice that it’s cake-y or discolored it’s time to toss it. Sponges should be only used one time to apply makeup. I tend to use liquid makeup so I use my finger. It works great! But make sure to wash your hands previously or you’ll get bacteria in it. Then that would REALLY break you out! Eye shadow doesn’t go bad as often just make sure to change the brushes or wash the brushes you use weekly. That goes for all your makeup brushes. I use my face wash but I hear that baby shampoo works just as well to clean makeup brushes. Any lipsticks that you don’t wear or haven’t worn in forever just toss it. You are not going to miss it and it reduces clutter. Or it gives you more space for all that new stuff you just went out and bought!
Now that you’ve gone through your makeup bag and cleaned it out your purse is next. I haven’t been following my own advice but I think we should clean out our purses at least once a week. It ends up being a catchall for everything! Especially if you’re like me and usually carry a big bag. I think I’m going to end up changing my purse just so that I can clean it out. Absolutely everything goes in there. You know how it is receipts for stuff you’ve bought, makeup, business cards I even had baby socks in there once!
Hope that this helped with the start of spring cleaning. Sometimes Mami’s overlook this part when they think of spring cleaning. Today’s question is: What do you consider essentials for your purse?
“New” Latina
March 20, 2008 by Jai
Filed under Entertainment
When they had Jessica Alba last month on the magazine I didn’t want to say anything. I’m definitely not the hater type and want to see everyone do well. Now I know she’s had some criticism in the past for not being “Latina” enough or “denying” her roots. And you know how the media can be about blowing things out of proportion so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. But I would have never thought she’d be on the cover.
Now this month they’ve got Kat DeLuna. And first I want to say that as a fellow Dominican I have nothing but love for her. Plus I’m also from NYC so she’s repping for me both ways and I know a lot of people feel the same way. She’s the first Dominican to do it and she’s got a HUGE voice so I’m excited to see what she’s going to turn into. But that said, didn’t her album come out LAST summer? If you were going to feature her wouldn’t it have made sense to do it when her album was coming out and you heard her song on the radio? It just seems the timing is off on this one. I hope that Kat doesn’t slip through the cracks and becomes a success because our little Latinas always need someone to look up to that they can relate to. Puerto Rican’s have J Lo, Mexicans have RBD so it’s nice that there’s someone out there representing Dominican Republic. The article did mention the label was planning a re-release so maybe this was a good time to put her on the cover for the re-release.
With the new layout of the magazine I just don’t know if I like it. I can be stubborn sometimes and maybe I don’t like change. But all I’m saying is “If it ain’t broke…..”
Are you a Latina Magazine reader? What do you think of the changes that’s been going on in the Mag?
Easter
Anyway growing up my mami didn’t have much to do with tradition or decoration or anything. She wasn’t the domestic diva that I hope to be one day. J So in my family we do Easter baskets for my hubby’s nieces and nephew. We also bought our son his first Easter basket. I actually went to the store and got a good price for nice looking baskets. I bought four baskets for under $20. We did make them last year but with a toddler this year I don’t want to bother with all that. Plus they were cheap.
I do want to start traditions like Easter egg hunting and coloring eggs. We now live in a Bi-Cultural environment. Let me explain. I like French fries (American) but I also like my fried platanos (plantains) or tostones too. And I know I’m not the only one. Lots of Latinos who are first generation American or we raised here are the same way. We know our roots but we embrace the American culture as well.
So that brings me to this question… what traditions do you have with your family? Do you consider it an American tradition or a Latin Tradition?
Today is the first day of Spring so I’m going to be talking a little bit in the next few weeks about Spring Cleaning and finding out what you do around this time to clean up and how do you get it done. Talk to you soon and Happy Easter!
