Why You Should Sleep On a Silk Pillowcase

Around Christmas time we were hearing all the rage about silk pillowcases and felt a little left out.  We had never really even thought about silk pillowcases and all of the benefits of sleeping on one until then.  We started reading and doing a little research and y'all!!!!  We feel like we had been living with our heads in the sand.  Good for your hair and your wrinkles?  You better believe as soon as we found that out we were all about jumping on the silk pillowcase bandwagon.

Allergic To Mornings t-shirt//pillowcase

Apparently studies have shown that sleeping on a silk pillowcase can help reduce wrinkles because the older you get the "sleep" wrinkles that happen overnight don't disappear as quickly as they once did.  Over time they may become more permanent.  No one wants that!  When sleeping on a silk pillowcase your face glides over the silky smooth fabric keeping lines and wrinkles to a minimum.

Not only is it good for your skin, but also for your hair and it totally makes sense when you think about it.  With a regular pillowcase your hair is met with friction when it moves, which can not only damage and break hair, but also give you a serious case of bed-head.  With a silk pillowcase your hair glides over it smoothly keeping hair healthy.  Bonus, if you curl your hair it will often keep some of it's curl while you sleep.

Jen's next day hair: 

We reached out to our friends from Fisher's Finery about trying their silk pillowcases after seeing they were available on Amazon and had over 1,000 reviews. They come in several different colors and sizes and we both got one that was similar to our regular sheet color so when the bed is made you can't even tell it is different. We didn't think the guys would care too much about a silk pillow case, so we just got ourselves one.

The Fisher's Finery silk pillowcases are made from pure 100% Mulberry Silk and also won the Good Housekeeping stamp of approval!  We both love them and really feel like the hair thing is the best because we can wake up and not have to do much to our 2nd day hair.

After loving them so much we also ordered some for our girls because they all have some form of curly hair that becomes super tangled overnight.  This has really helped prevent as many tangles and makes mornings a little bit easier.  For the girls we decided to try satin pillowcases.  They obviously aren't quite as silky smooth, but for them we feel like it was a great alternative at a lower price point.

These Morning Glory satin pillowcases come in a two pack and are available in a ton of different colors and patterns.

We are so curious to hear what you all think?  Do you sleep on a silk pillowcase?  Do you believe the hype like we do?  Let us know in the comments!

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Our Favorite Drug Store Beauty Buys

We love a good beauty product...from hair products to make up and everything in between.  We've been known to spend a lot money on beauty products, but a the same time some of our very favorites are items that just cost a few dollars.  We don't discriminate when it comes to the type of beauty products we use, so today we are focusing on some of our favorite drug story beauty products.  These are items you can get just about anywhere...Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens and Amazon.

Sheer Blonde Hair Spray - I picked up this hairspray on a total whim at the grocery store and fell in love it it. It's really light weight and holds my curls, but doesn't feel sticky or heavy at all.

Batiste Dry Shampoo - I've tried lots of brands and for the price, this is my very favorite!  It comes in a ton of different scents, but I love the bare one best. It just smells so fresh and clean!

L'Oreal Mascara - Best mascara in my opinion.  It has build-able coverage so if you just want a little on one swipe will do, but if you want more of a dramatic eye, just put on more coats.

L'Oreal eyeliner - This eyeliner goes on so easy and smooth!

Vaseline Lip Therapy - After having some serious lip allergy reactions going on with various chapsticks and lip products, this was recommended to us by a dermatologist and to this day we won't use regular chapstick.  This comes in a few varieties and we have them all!

Burts Bees Lip Shimmer - See above!  Because of the months of pain and discomfort I went through I was scared to use anything on my lips.  This is a nice mix of moisturizing and color and never dries my lips out. It is like a sheer lipstick.  It comes in a ton of colors and I have a bunch of them, but my favorite is Watermelon.

Coconut Oil - Good old fashioned coconut oil!  I buy it on the oil aisle at the grocery store.  I keep thinking I will do a post on this, but haven't gotten around to it yet. There are SO many uses for it, but I keep a jar in my bathroom and use it to take off my eye make up every single night. It is the BEST makeup remover.  It also works to get off things like eye-black (what baseball players wear under their eyes) when nothing else will work!  Sounds weird, but trust us!

Neutrogena make up wipes - When we are lazy and tired at night and don't want to wash our faces, these come in handy!

Essie Nail Polish - Our favorite nail polish because it comes in so many fun colors!  There is nothing better on a random Monday grocery shopping trip than throwing a new fun color in our buggy.

Cutex Swipe & Go Nail Polish Remover Wipes - These are the best!  It's like a gauze/felt pad soaked in nail polish remover.  One pad will take off nail polish on both hands!  They are so great for around the house, but even better for traveling when you can't bring bottles of liquid more than 3 oz. on a plane with you.

Aquaphor Advanced Healing Lotion - Good ol' Aquaphor. We use this stuff for everything!  Dry, irritated skin is the worst this time of year so we love to lather up with this.  We use it on our kids and on ourselves.

Jergen's Natural Glow Firming Lotion - We've been using this stuff for years!!!  It a moisturizing lotion that very slowly and very gradually builds color.  It is great to start using in the winter because when spring arrives, you have a nice healthy glow.

Neutrogena Tanning Spray - Reviews are mixed on this, but we love it.  It's like getting an air brush tan in the comfort and modesty of your own bathroom. The spray makes it go on evenly and the color is gradual if you follow directions and avoid ankles, elbows, and knees.  Tip - We put down an old towel before spraying ourselves and make sure it dries completely before putting on clothes.

Do you have any favorites?  Please share because we love trying out new stuff! 

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How to Transition Your Beauty Routine for Fall & Winter

Fall is in full swing and Winter is just around the corner. Just like our wardrobes have changed, our beauty routines have changed too! It seems the minute the temps drop, and the heat gets turned out, our skin starts to crave a crazy amount of moisture. We tend to ramp up our skincare routines this time of year to counteract the harsh elements of cold and drying heat.

Otherwise we begin to look like a patchy alligator, and as we all know, that's a big no no on multiple levels.

This is Bulldog country.

We'll own at least our big smooth, moisturized wrinkles.

Today we thought it would be fun to dish like good girlfriends do, and share our beauty tips and tricks on how we transition our beauty routines in the Fall and Winter. We'll share ours and along the way we hope you share yours too! We are lacking in a few areas, and would love a few product suggestions if you have ones!

How to Transition Your Beauty Routine for Fall & Winter

Skincare

Cooler weather means drier skin so we are constantly trying to moisturize like crazy.  From our faces, bodies and even our lips!

We've shared this lip conditioner before, but it is the perfect alternative to a sticky chapstick and we love the sheer feel to it. Plus, the tiniest hint of peppermint scent is amazing and perfect for winter!

Another thing that we aren't always as good about in the cooler months is still remembering to apply sunscreen to ourselves and our kids!  Especially our sports loving kids that spend hours in the sun. Our favorite, hands down, is this Beautycounter stick sunscreen.  The kids love it because it goes on sheer and doesn't leave their faces all white. Plus, the stick makes it easy for a quick application on them and us! 

For everyday use though, we tend to lean towards the Protect All Over Sunscreen. Just a thin little layer before applying our make up and we've done what we can to protect our skin against the harsh rays of the sun. And let's be honest...we're doing everything we can these days to try to combat those pesky signs of aging.

Which brings us to our heavy hitting skincare line up...

This little combo is our current defense against aging. It's inevitable. We know it's going to happen, but until it does we are doing what we can to keep our skin rocking that youthful glow. Especially when stress, lack of sleep, and our love of cocktails are things that aren't going to go away anytime soon. #momlife

Without boring you with a ton of details, let's just say you need these in your life. We've gone through a ton of products, but these seem to be the best combo, especially at keeping moisture and a healthy glow through the Winter months.

• SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic Serum - Has tons of great reviews and can back them up. It does an excellent job of brightening and firming, and after a short period of use noticed right away finer lines looked minimized or non-existent. Pricy but worth it. 
• Derma E Radiant Glow Face Oil - Gives an amazing instant youthful glow. We were given the chance to try it last year, and fell in love. Use it during the day after serum and before moisturizing. (Bonus: super inexpensive and smells amazing!) 
• Rejuvenating Radiance Serum - Love, love, love! Give it a few weeks, but your skin is firmer and feels better after extended use. 
• Countermatch Adaptive Moisture Lotion - We were given a tube of this to try a few months ago and instantly fell in love. It adapts to your skins needs and it makes your skin feel like it just took in a huge drink of water. Use this as your last line of anti-aging defense before make-up and to seal in oils. 

The last winter skincare must have on our list is hand lotion! All that constant hand washing and drying with cold air makes our hands so chapped. This hand lotion by Derma E is the absolute best! You can use it on any part of your body for a good hit of moisture. But it isn't thick or sticky, smells great, and feels like instant relief.

Another great lotion that smells amazing is the body butter from EVER. We chatted a little bit about it here, but Lavish is still one of our favorite all time moisturizing products. 

Make-up

We are all about some sparkle and shine when it comes to make up this time of year...especially when we have holiday parties, events and get togethers to attend.  

This Velvet Eyeshadow Palette in Classic has tons of great shades for fall and we love how it goes on so effortlessly. We've been using a mix of Ivory, Copper and Sahara as everyday colors, and then for nighttime or when we want to ramp it up a little bit more we use the Cinnamon and the Penny. The Penny is ah-mazing!! It looks so good on! We have completely different skin tones and this palette looks fabulous on both of us. 

Because of dryer air and trying our best to keep our skin well moisturized, we tend to use creams vs. powders for a lot of our make-up products.

This cream blush in Pale Pink has been a long time favorite, and as long as Bobby Brown still makes it we will still be buying it. It will be a sad sad day if they ever discontinue it.

This cream highlighter is on our short list to buy. We love that it is a stick and have heard phenomenal things about it. If any of you have tried it we would love to hear your opinions about it!!

For lips we tend to go both bold and neutral in the cooler months. Our skin isn't rocking that summer tan anymore and we feel like a little pop of color goes a long way in brightening our faces.

Our favorite neutral colors are...

• Beauty Counter Sheer Lipsticks: Petal, Rose (see below) & Terra
• Beauty Counter Glosses: Blush Shimmer (shown above), Bare Shimmer, & Belini
• L'Oréal Paris Infallible Gloss: Blush & Bloom

Our favorite bold colors are...

• Milani in Desire: This is the color we are both wearing in the above pic! 
• Beauty Counter Intense Lipsticks: Garden Party, Little Black Dress & Girls Night
• Beauty Counter Gloss: Azalea & Poppy Shimmer

Hair

Summer in the south means tons of humidity, but as the temperatures drop in fall and winter so does the humidity...thank goodness!  Our hair LOVES the drier air and it makes styling it SO much easier. One product we both use and love is this Moroccan Oil Root Boost. It is AMAZING for helping give you a little extra umpf and volume. 

In the warmer months out of the year we tend to let our hair dry, or because we are at the pool/beach/lake a ton we rarely do much with it. In the Winter months we can't stand wet damp hair when it's freezing cold. So we are using more heat products. More heat products means more damage. In comes one of our magic hair secrets is...

Coconut Oil! This coconut oil has a crazy ton of uses in our homes (best eye makeup remover ever!), but it works as a great hair mask as well. Just a little dab on your damp ends over night and voilá - shinier, moisturized hair. 

Nails

As we move into the cooler months we like to change things up with our nails and go a little darker. Deep reds, dark blues, grays, purples, golds and even black! 

Some of our favorites are this iridescent shade called For the Twill of It. It's either gray, purple or sort of green depending on how the light hits it.

Also, this deep burgundy called Wicked is super shiny and so pretty!

And these are in constant rotation throughout the Fall and Winter too! 

From left to right...

• Good As Gold
• Penny Talk
• Mochacino
• Can't Hardly Wait (love this combo nail color! keep meaning to get more colors in it!)
• Seeing Stars
• Tribal Textiles

That wraps up our beauty favorites for Fall and Winter. Hopefully you found some of them helpful. And feel free to email us and ask any questions you might have about any of them!

Now share with us - what are some of your favorite Fall and Winter beauty tips and tricks? What is the number one product you use in Winter? Share with us!

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Friday Favorites: Beauty Products

Happy Friday!!!  It's my favorite day of the week. I love knowing we have the whole weekend ahead of us. This weekend we don't have too much on the calendar so that means you'll be able to find us at home cheering on USA in our favorite winter sports.  We're so excited about the Olympics starting!  Here's a random bit of info for y'all.  I actually danced in the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics when I was 16 years old!  It was such a cool experience and since then I have always loved the Olympics.https://www.instagram.com/themagnoliamamas/

Today I'm not talking about the Olympics though...instead I'm linking up with some of our favorite bloggers to share some of my favorite beauty products for Friday Favorites.

Here's the deal, while I love products, I really don't use that many. I like to keep things pretty minimal  mostly because I want my getting ready for bed or getting ready for the day routine as quick as possible.  I can't stand buying a product thinking it is going to be great and then realizing it isn't really as awesome as I had hoped.  I use a lot of reviews and recommendations from other people to try to make sure I'm not just wasting money to get products that I'm not going to love so that is how the idea of this post came about. Maybe by me sharing some of the products I love, some of these will become your favorites, too!

Back in August I shared this shirt on Instagram and SO many people wanted to know where they could get it. Well here is a confession.  I don't drink Diet Coke and at that point I had never used dry shampoo!  

That actually isn't true. I had used one brand of dry shampoo that I got a sample of, but it made my hair sticky, weighted down, and just gross.  After that first attempt I had written it off and said no more to dry shampoo.  Well, then my friend told me about how she just started using Batiste Dry Shampoo and how it changed her life.  Not in some crazy big way, but it did change her daily routine and allowed her to go longer between washings so I was willing to give it a try.  I'm telling y'all, this stuff is amazing! If you haven't tried dry shampoo, start with this brand because it is the best.  

I used to wash my hair everyday that I wanted to fix it because it just did better after a fresh wash and blow-dry.  Now though, I can use this and still style it and it looks good, if not better.  Or I can use it when I know I'm going to be throwing it up into a ponytail and working out, but don't want it to look greasy. I'm telling y'all, this has changed my routine! 

  There are so many different scents and varieties and I wasn't sure which to start with, but I just went with the Clean & Light Bare and love it. It smells SO good and fresh and I feel like it smells like my hair does after leavening the salon.  I'm obsessed with the scent. It does seem a bit white when I spray it onto my roots, but for me that works because I have blonde hair.  My friend who told me about it has dark hair and she uses the one for darker hair. There is a brunette one and a Dark and Deep Brown option also if you have darker hair.  

While we are on the topic of hair, another product that was recommended to me and I now use regularly is this Moroccanoil Root Boost. 

I have really fine hair and it can look pretty limp and lifeless if I just dry it straight. I usually have to add some curl or something just to give it some life. When I tried this for the first time the former pageant girl in me rejoiced!  Jen and I always joke we love big hair and this stuff does the trick. I just spray it on my roots before blow drying and it adds texture and lift that I need! 

I have tried a lot of different mascaras and eyeliners over the years.  From expensive ones to things I pick up at the grocery store and I always come back to this combo.  I prefer them over any expensive brand and I think they work so much better.  The eyeliner goes on really smooth and the mascara makes my lashes look long and full.  

I like Blackest Black for the mascara and both Espresso and Carbon Black for the eyeliner. 

I've been using this e.l.f. highlighter in Blush Gems for a while now. I have other brands and different types (stick form, loose powder), but always come back to this!

Plus, it is only $4 so you can't beat that! 

When I'm not wearing LipSense, my go-to for some lip color is Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer. I have to be really careful about what kind of products I use on my lips because I had a horrible allergic reaction a few years ago, but this stuff is the best.  

It's moisturizing and adds color and simmer, but it is more sheer at the same time and feels very light on. My favorite colors are Peony and Watermelon. 

Last, but not least for day is my secret for taking makeup off...especially eye make up.  I use coconut oil!  Just plain, get from the grocery story, coconut oil.  I once read that this could be used for taking off makeup and I tell you it is the BEST!!!  I keep a jar in my bathroom that I use only for beauty use. 

I use these make-up wipes first and then use the coconut oil to take off my eye makeup. I just put a bit on a tissue and rub it onto my eyes and it gets off all the mascara and eyeliner. I also sometimes use it on a q-tip the next morning if I have remnants of eye make-up from the day before. It might sound weird, but I promise this is one of my favorite beauty tricks! 

So my last favorite is something I'm hoping y'all can help me with. I'm on the search for a great concealer. The brand I used to use is no longer available and I've tried at least 4 since then trying to find the right one and just haven't come across one I love. I have darker circles under my eyes and need something light to help brighten them up.  Do you have one you love?  If so, please email me or share in the comments! 

What are your favorite beauty products?  Anything you have tried and loved?  Please share! 

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Sharing is Caring: Staying Fresh with Dove Advance Care Deodorant

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One of the reasons we love blogging is being able to share fun new finds, or mom hacks to help you survive...well, motherhood! We love sharing with you guys just as much as we do our close girlfriends. Carrie Beth and I chat all day long about everything, and 99.9% of her mommy maintenance series is something we've chatted about as girlfriends behind the scenes.

So when I gave Dove Advanced Care Antiperspirant a try she was the first person I thought of. No, not because she needed it - but because she totally did!

Let me backtrack... I was grabbing essentials one day and needed a new deodorant. Mr. Cute was low too, and uses a Dove Men's Antiperspirant - so I grabbed one for me to give a try. I keep deodorants everywhere - in the bathroom (obviously), in my travel kit, in my gym bag, and even my car.

Yes, my car. Because you never know when you might need to smell good.

In fact, this has saved me on more than one occasion as a mommy because (1) some days you are just so tired you can't remember if you put some on after your shower, or (2) some days you don't even have time to actually shower.

But you get the idea - I like smelling clean. We all do. And when I tried Dove Advanced Care Antiperspirant I instantly fell in love. First, it smells amazing! I picked up the Revive scent and it smells kind of fruity with hints of pomegranate and lemon verbena, and lemons always make me think fresh. Second, it feels amazing! With Dove 1/4 moisturizers and NutriumMoisture built in, it makes your skin feel softer and smoother.  Throw in up to 48 hours of odor and wetness protection, and a full on love affair has been born.

(Again, rocking the mom life and we all know that last part is a major bonus!)

Now this is where Carrie Beth comes in. Last week we met for a fun catch up lunch. It had been forever since we had hung out and since my birthday was in a few days she wanted to bring me my gift. Little did she know I had a gift for her too. When I was purchasing one of my many Dove Advanced Care Deodorants to stash everywhere, I grabbed her one too. Then I shared with her all the ways of why she needed this in her life.

Does she think I'm crazy for showing up to a luncheon professing love for a deodorant, and putting a newly purchased one for her very own use right next to her freshly ordered meal? Probably not any crazier than she thought I was before the luncheon. ;) But, here are her thoughts...

Is Jen crazy? Yes - but in a totally good way. ;) But like a good friend, I always listen. I took my newly gifted Dove Advanced Care Antiperspirant home and gave it a try. Even after only a few uses I knew I loved it just as much as she claimed I would. She gave me the Dove Advanced Care Cool Essentials Antiperspirant and it has a lighter, refreshing scent made of cucumber and green tea. It feels so good on my skin, and love the silky smooth moisturizing effect it leaves behind. As a busy mom constantly on the go, feeling great and knowing that I will smell great (even after a gym session when I might not have time to shower post workout) is so reassuring. I am so glad she shared her tip with me!

Now just wait until I catch up with my other friends and give them their new Dove Advance Care Antiperspirant presents too. Because sharing is caring, and I love my squad! Give it a try, refer it to your friends too (just maybe not at lunch), and let us know what you think!

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I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.