Tom's Natural Deodorant

When I ran out of deodorant a while ago and I was browsing for the one I wanted to try next, I ran across the Tom's Natural Deodorant. What really caught my attention was the "No Aluminum" sticker that was on the cap. I've heard studies and read articles that say that aluminum has been linked to cancer so I was wanting to try to find a deodorant that was formulated without it. There was one other that I saw without aluminum, but it was unscented so I decided to go with the Tom's which is a more natural formula altogether.
To keep on the topic of scent, Tom's does come in unscented, but it also comes in the Apricot, which is what I chose. It's a very light fruity smell, which I like because it doesn't smell super perfumey and fake.
The front label does say that this is a 24-hour protection deodorant, which I would not agree with. Because it's a more natural formula, it isn't packed with preservatives and all that yucky stuff, it lasts for my work day but not much more than that. If you have a job where you're more on-the-go or you just perspire more heavily throughout the day, this might not be enough for you.
As you can see in the second photo, it is technically a solid stick, but it applies like a gel. The texture is fine with me, it's just a little cold in the morning because I'm used to a more solid stick!
What I'm happy about most with this product is the back label...No animal testing or animal ingredients and no artificial colors, flavors, fragrance or preservatives. You do pay more for all of the natural-ness, of course, but deodorant is a product that lasts a while so I don't feel like I'm constantly buying it.
I know this was a different type of post, but let me know if you've ever tried this or another natural deodorant!

Welcoming Spring

This piece of furniture, lovingly referred to as "The Coscto Furniture", because that's where we bought it, gets redesigned all the time. For major holidays or events I'll decorate the entire house, but for smaller things like Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day or in this case just Spring in general, the only piece that really gets decorated in the house is the Costco furniture.
I love this piece of furniture and I know you've seen it before in my Christmas House tour, but I just love the color (unlike me), the style and the fact that it's a great size for the landing at the top of our stairs. I just love to decorate it because I feel like when you get to the top of the stairs it looks all cheery and it greets you as you come up.
The lantern and the metal sphere stay out all the time and just get thrown in with whatever decor I put there. As far as the banner, I decided to DIY it with some scrapbooking paper, mini clothes pins, glitter letters, twine and scrapbooking flower stickers. I think it turned out pretty cute and added a bit of color that it really needed. I really like the "cluttered" look on this piece of furniture. We're still adding furniture to our house, so it's really the only piece that I get to change with the seasons and I take full advantage of it!
I usually have fake flowers sitting there, but my mom was sweet enough to have these flowers sent to my work on the first day of spring so I couldn't resist adding that here.
Dresser- Costco Mirror- Kirkland's Burlap Runner- Target Metal Lantern- Pier 1 Metal Sphere- TJ Max Daisy Candle Holder- Bath and Body Works Lady Bug jar- Marshall's Silver mercury glass jar- Unknown (gift) Glass Lantern- Kirkland's
I'm so happy it's finally spring! Now if the weather would only cooperate! :)

Benefit Push-Up Liner

It's no secret that I'm awful at eyeliner...It takes me forever to put eyeliner on, it's thicker on one side, not a smooth line, etc and some days I just skip it altogether because I don't even want to go there.

Oh, and I have trouble with all types of eyeliner...my struggles aren't limited to one method. However, I will say that I've had the least amount of trouble with gel liner because it's easier to manipulate than any others in my opinion.

So, I decided to try the Benefit They're Real Push-Up Liner. It's a gel liner pen, which gives the benefit of gel liner, but without the hassle of a little pot that dries out and dealing with a brush.

The tip on this pen is supposed to draw an easy line and hug your lash line to make your eyes look bigger. On the box there is also percentages of people that claim that it's long-wearing and water proof.

The first time I used this I loved it. It seemed so much easier and it didn't take me forever to apply my eyeliner to both eyes. I felt like I finally found a solution! However, as I've used it more, I'm still struggling with getting a thin, even line on both sides so it hasn't exactly solved all of my problems.

I will say that it is very long-wearing and is difficult for me to remove with makeup remover so it's probably waterproof as well. I seem to touch around my eyes a lot and they get watery as well, so that's always a good thing to have in an eyeliner. It's also very pigmented so it's very opaque and black. I really dislike eyeliners that I have to go over multiple times to get a dark line out of. A negative that I've found with this product is the packaging. You have to twist the end to get product to come up through the tip. That's fine, except I've twisted it and had nothing come out, so I twist again and then I get a huge clump that I then have to waste and wipe off because there's no way to apply that. This is a higher end product price-wise and I don't like that I feel like a lot of product gets wasted that way.

If you're an eyeliner pro, or even decent with eyeliner, you'll probably love this product. I think I just struggle with applying eyeliner no matter what the type is so while the product is good, it's not magical!

Have you tried this? What is your favorite eyeliner?