Tuesday's Tips ~ How I Scored Miu Miu Pumps for $40 and How to Stretch Your Leather Shoes

Hiya lovelies!  So today I thought I'd share with you how I scored my amazing Miu Miu pumps, seen in yesterday's post.  

I got them at a high-end consignment boutique in Ormond Beach, FL, called Miss Priss.  They were brand new, and only $40.  I'm guessing they retailed for over $500. Insane, right?  I'm such a fan of thrift and consignment shops because of steals like this. My tip today is to go to your nearest thrift or consignment shop and sift through what's there; you never know what you'll find!

I've got another tip for ya too :)  Sometimes those new leather shoes are a wee bit tight.  Wear them around the house for about an hour while wearing socks with them and it will stretch them out.  Now this will only work if they are only a little tight.  If they need some major stretching, either take them to a cobbler, or give up on them.  This has worked like a charm with nearly every pair of shoes I own, and I swear by it.

What's been your best thrift/consignment store find?
xx
Lia

Tuesday's Tips ~ How to Get Free Beauty Products for Travel

Happy Tuesday!   Today I'd like to share some of my tips with you on how to save valuable suitcase real estate while traveling!  Ever notice how much space your toiletries take up?  Even putting your hair care products into those small bottles, it still takes up a lot of space.  Here's how I do it.  I sign up for free samples and save them aside for when I travel.  So simple and they seriously take up such little space.

My current stash of samples includes hair care, body wash, lotion, face cream and cleansing cloths.
Alot of you (if not all) are familiar with Birchbox and receive their samples.  I go beyond that to get these.  There are several blogs and websites that alert you when there's a sample opportunity.  For example, All You magazine sends a daily email with a sample of the day.  That's how I've amassed all of these.  Sometimes it's a heads up about a coupon on Facebook for a free product for the first however many people, other times, it's instructions to go to a product's website and receive a free sample.  I highly suggest you all do this! My most recent score was this:

I love this fragrance and wear it so much!  I also get free fragrance samples when I order online from Sephora, those travel perfectly as well and I don't need to worry about hauling my huge bottles of perfume with me!

So what's the takeaway here?  Sign up for the daily emails and get your samples!  It's a great way to try products for free, and it really helps to use them when traveling!  Hope this helps you!

xoxo

Lia

Tuesday's Tips ~ How to Clean Your Makeup Brushes

Happy Tuesday lovelies!  I'd like to start sharing some of my tips with you, so I figured what better way to do that than to share one of my favorite tips!  We need to take better care of our beauty tools, ladies!  We spend a lot of money on them, we'd be so foolish to not take care of them too!  Here, I'm going to show you how to clean your makeup brushes using my favorite, MAC brush cleaner.

I hope you all have learned something helpful here!

xxooxoxo
Lia

Tuesday's Tips: Cold Water Bottle and How to Remove Sticker Residue

Hey lovelies!!  I am starting a new series with some of my tips that I thought weren't so super duper, but apparently some people think they are pretty rad!  So please let me know if this is a feature you would like to see more of!

I'm pretty obsessive about recycling and upcycling whenever possible.  I drink alot of vodka from time to time, and was inspired by a swanky little restaurant in Denver who uses their empty liquor bottles for water bottles they bring to your table.  I washed my empty in the dishwasher, and used some adhesive remover (more on that below!) to remove the rest of the label.  I keep the bottle in the fridge, filled with water.  This way I always have super duper cold water on hand, and when I give guests a glass of water, they *always* ask how I got my water so cold!  I mean, you could use ice, but everybody does that.  I like this way of sprucing up my plain tap water :)

I buy alot of my shoes at TJ Maxx.  You seriously can't go wrong for the price, it's hit and miss though, like everything there.  Anyhow....I *hate* those friggen stickers they put inside that NEVER peel off nicely.  Grrrr.  I used to just peel them off as best I could and then hope the rest wears off.  But it just got yucky instead.  So here's what to do.

Peel off as much of the sticker as you can, leaving just the residue.

This stuff is beyond genius.  If you don't have it, go get it!  It has a little sponge applicator and then the scrape-y cap.  So using the sponge, press a little and rub the liquid into the residue.  The majority of it should come off this way.  Then after letting it sit for about 20 seconds, put the scraper cap on and use it to scrape off the rest of the residue.  Repeat if necessary.

And there ya go!  It took about 2-3 minutes to get it all off, and it looks like it was never there!

So what do you think of these tips?  Do you have any tips to share?  Please email them to me and I'll include them next week!
xoxo
Lia