Beauty Haul from Ulta

Check out this write up I did today on Sassy Sweet SF about all the wonderful makeup I bought from Ulta Beauty last weekend.

SassySweetSF

It’s that time of year again. Going through my current makeup caboodle and seeing what’s old enough to toss and what I should keep. After doing just that, I realized that I need to stock up on a few things. So, I told my wonderful husband and he agreed to pay for my next beauty haul, because he’s just that amazing.

Lately, I have been obsessed with Too Faced products (specifically their Born This Way foundation) and instead of purchasing online, I googled to see which beauty store, Sephora or Ulta, had the most of their products. While it was about even, I ended up going to Ulta to purchase my latest beauty products.

From left to right:

1. it Cosmetics Cheek Blush Brush. The MAC blush brush that I was using was about 10 years old, so it was definitely time for a new one.
2. it Cosmetics Concealer Brush

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Oscar de la Renta Exhibition in San Francisco

The Oscar de la Renta: The Retrospective has officially opened at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It’s definitely worth checking out. Here are the details.

SassySweetSF

Earlier this morning, I had the pleasure of attending the press event for Oscar de la Renta: The Retrospectiveexhibition at the de Young museum in San Francisco. When I got there, let’s just say I channeled my inner Carrie Bradshaw when she was rummaging through her closet in the first Sex and the City movie (or in the wedding dress scene of the same movie) and appreciated every de la Renta piece that I saw there.

If you are able to recognize de la Renta on the red carpet, but don’t know a lot about the late designer and how and why certain things influenced his work, do make your way to the de Young museum to check it out (exhibit opens March 12).

Walking through this world premiere exhibition of de la Renta’s work is truly an experience one should partake in. It includes more than 130 pieces…

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Star Wars: CoverGirl Makeup Collection

Check out these great Star Wars looks! Are you ready for Star Wars: The Force Awakens this Thursday?

SassySweetSF

It’s almost here…the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (opening in theaters this Thursday). Leigh and I both share a mutual love of the movies, and decided to pay homage this week by transforming the look of our blog and writing about all things Star Wars! First up, I’m talking about Star Wars inspired makeup.

CoverGirl recently released a limited-edition collection of makeup inspired by Star Wars. The collection includes 6 lipsticks, 3 nail polishes, and 2 mascaras (waterproof and regular in Very Black). The lipstick shades are a little out there for my personal taste, but I could see myself wearing the Nude 70 (last one, below) and maybe the Red 30 (3rd one, below).

All three nail polish shades are very wearable and perfect for this time of year in the colors (left to right): Speed of Light 200, Red Revenge 180, and Nemesis 195.

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Married One Month

I know, I know… I haven’t updated in over a month. Can you blame me? It was a whirlwind leading up to the wedding and a big sigh of relief once the wedding was over. Then heading off to Hawaii for our honeymoon and back a week later, straight into work mode.

I’ll share with you all some highlights from the wedding and honeymoon.

Wedding Highlights:

• Morning of: I arrived at the venue with my hair stylist at around 9:15 a.m. the day of the wedding and started preparing everything. I was smart enough to pack a majority of the decorations into a suitcase, allowing for easy transport and unloading. Between 9:30 and 10 a.m. my mom, aunt, cousin’s girlfriend, and my bridesmaids arrived at the venue. I had started getting things ready and my girls – one by one – started with their hair. My makeup artist from Fresh Face Makeup, based out of San Francisco, arrived at around 10:30 and started the makeup process. While all the girls were getting their hair or makeup done, my mom, aunt and I were setting up place cards, signs, straws, the selfie photo booth, and everything else.
• Afternoon of: My wedding photographer, Vinh Nguyen, showed up with his fantastic team at around 2:30 p.m., as did the great cinematographers from Major Diamond Productions. They filmed me getting my hair and makeup done, and part of the putting-on-the-dress process. I started in the women’s locker room (where we were all getting ready prior to the wedding) and ended finishing getting ready in the ballroom, where our reception would be held. Here are some photos by Vinh Nguyen Photography to show the process: 
  
• First Look/Ceremony: I was so nervous leading up to the first look. I barely ate anything or drank any water… But once I saw Max, I was instantly relaxed. During our first look, we participated in a Ketubah (Jewish marriage agreement) signing prior to taking photos before the ceremony. Once we were together for photos, etc, I was fine. It wasn’t until right before the ceremony did I really have a panic attack. I thought the song I would walk down the aisle to wouldn’t play – but that was solved. Then I got golf carted to the location where we hid before the ceremony and as people were walking, I broke down, wishing my dad were there to walk me down the aisle. He has been gone for almost eight years and it’s still tough. Leading up to the wedding I didn’t think much about it because I was so consumed in what I was preparing. A couple of weeks before the wedding, I felt my dad’s presence more than I ever had, knowing he was looking down on his daughter on her big day. My mom and my uncle walked me down the aisle.
• Reception: This was a BLAST! After the ceremony, there was cocktail hour and then Max and I were taken away for sunset hour photos… But then we went back and heard beautiful speeches that made us cry, danced till we couldn’t anymore, and mingled with all our wonderful guests. I don’t have reception photos, but I’ll update this post when I get those in.
• Selfie Booth:  i thought this would be a hit or miss kind of thing. Max and I decided we didn’t want to pay upwards of $1,000 for a photo booth, so I came up with the idea of a selfie booth! I’m obsessed with taking selfies – ask anyone – and I figured this would capture my personality a lot. We ordered props galore from Amazon and it turned out everyone had a blast with it. I uploaded the photos to Facebook asking people to tag themselves. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad I came up with that idea.

Honeymoon highlights:

• Oahu, Hawaii: This was AMAZING. I hadn’t been to Hawaii since high school graduation eight years ago, so it was a blast to head to a beautiful place with my husband for our week-long honeymoon. Mimi Towle of Hawaii Islander planned every excursion and made all our dinner reservations. We were truly spoiled during our honeymoon.
• U.S.S Missouri, Aviation Museum, Pearl Harbor, U.S.S Bowfin Submarine: This was a fun day trip. Plus, our tour guide looked like Walter White/Heisenberg. All you Breaking Bad fans know what I’m talking about. We spent the whole day touring historic Waikiki. From touring the U.S.S. Missouri (which played an integral part during WWII), to checking out cool planes at the aviation museum and then finally heading to Pearl Harbor and the U.S.S. Arizona to pay respects to those who lost their lives, and finally ending at the U.S.S. Bowfin to tour this very claustrophobic submarine. I honestly don’t know how people can live on a submarine. Walking through all the passageways, I was so afraid the thing was gonna break off the pier and take us under! Luckily, that did not happen. That was a lot of fun. One of our favorite things we did on the honeymoon.

Heisenberg?

• SKY Waikiki: This is all I have to say. DO NOT MISS THIS PLACE. A hip, cool, nightclub/lounge with great food, live music and more, you don’t want to skip out on this place if you’re ever in Waikiki. Attire is dressy-casual and be sure to make a reservation.
• Morimoto Waikiki: Nothing beats Chef Morimoto’s restaurant. You may remember him from Iron Chef and Iron Chef America on the Food Network. Luckily for us, we got to experience his cuisine first hand. I ventured out and tried some sushi, granted it was just kappa maki, but truly enjoyed my chicken ramen. Bonus: We saw Samuel L. Jackson while we were leaving the restaurant!
• Royal Hawaiian Aha Aina Luau: Per the recommendation of Mimi from Hawaii Islander, she told us the luau at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki had the best luau during the week. We booked the luau, which is only held on Mondays (take note), and had a blast. From great live performances to delicious food, free drinks and a kukui nut lei, it was a great evening spent with cool people. We met another honeymooning couple who sat across from us.
• Outrigger Reef Beach Resort: While Hawaii Islander planned our excursions and dinner reservations, we found a great deal for flight and hotel on hotels.com for the Outrigger Reef. Great pool. right on the beach, Shorebird and Ocean House restaurants past the lobby, and great pool-side restaurant. We wanted to relax a lot during our honeymoon and spent a majority of the time on the beach and by the pool. Also, they have Holokai Catamaran snorkeling right next door to our hotel. We did that and saw some great big sea turtles and fish.

Our wedding and honeymoon were fantastic. We are still getting messages and comments about how much fun people had at the wedding and Max and I really want to go back to Hawaii sometime soon. While this post is long, I hope you enjoyed my highlights.

xoxo,

Leigh

Wedding DIY: Two Weeks to Go

Alright. It truly has been a jam packed month for me. With summer coming to an end and fall officially beginning (my favorite time of year!), the wedding countdown is now at two weeks. Yes, two weeks exactly. It’s pretty crazy as I have been preparing a lot of things. I told you all that I would post pictures of my signs when they’re finished. Unfortunately, this is my last big project to be working on. I am almost done with them and will be sure to take pictures as I am setting up versus now in my mess of a house.

Here’s what I have been up to the last few weeks.

1. Second dress fitting. I was so happy to see my dress after the first batch of alternations. It was almost a completely different dress as it fit so well. I can’t wait to post some photos on here to show you all after the wedding!
2. Hair extensions. So, this is my first ever experience with hair extensions and I have to say that I love it. I have always had medium-long hair and it’s nice to have really long hair for the wedding. Plus it adds volume for my up-do which is great. Here are the after pictures as I didn’t take a before.
   
3. Bachelorette party. This was amazing. My lovely matron of honor planned an overnight stay at the beautiful Cavallo Point Lodge, including dinner at Copita in downtown Sausalito, followed by a fun time at The Mint Karaoke Lounge in San Francisco on Market Street. I highly recommend that lounge. The drinks are good and the karaoke singing is either really phenomenal or incredibly horrendous. Either way it’s surely a good time. The next day we headed over to AT&T Park to watch the San Francisco Giants play against the Diamondbacks. The Giants won so that was a great treat for me as I am a huge fan. 🙂
4. Chalkboard word search. This was actually a fun project to do. Granted, my matron of honor helped immensely in this regard. Actually – her husband did! He spray painted a target poster frame and then I took it home and a couple weeks later generated a word search online and copied it over and voila! Here is the cocktail hour word search. This can easily be moved up to the reception hall if it hasn’t been completed by the time cocktail hour is over.
5. Center piece sample. My mom and I were really excited to see the sample of our center pieces. We hired Vanda Floral Design and they are truly great to work with. Here’s a sample of our centerpieces. They won’t look exactly like this the day of the wedding, but pretty darn close. 
6. Escort cards and table arrangements. To be honest, I thought this would be the most difficult task as I didn’t want to seat people where they potentially didn’t want to be seated. While there are 13 tables total, Max and I have a sweetheart table on the dance floor angled in a way where everyone can see us.

With two weeks to go there’s still a bit to do, but not a whole lot more. I am grateful for all the help I have had over the last year and a half and I can’t wait to see it all come together!

xoxo

Recipe: Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

Those who know me know that I truly enjoy cooking. On a cold day a great big bowl of minestrone soup hits the spot. But what most don’t know is that I truly enjoy baking. I take after my father when it comes to my sweet tooth. Give me a good batch of double fudge chocolate brownies any day (but just the ends because I love the crunch!). While perusing Pinterest a couple years ago, I came across a recipe for banana oatmeal muffins. It was deemed a “healthy” recipe, but usually that just means a sugar substitute. I click on the picture and it led me to the actual recipe. What I then discovered was that this was a flourless, granulated sugar-less muffin recipe. So when you’re craving that morning or mid-morning sweet treat, opt for one of these. Note: be sure to eat them fairly soon after you bake them as they won’t last more than a week or so. (Here’s the original recipe)

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 cup plain low fat greek yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp ground flax seed
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 ripe bananas
• Optional: unsweetened dark chocolate chips
• Optional: walnuts, sliced almonds

To Prepare:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grab a cupcake baking tin and spray with non-stick cooking spray or line with 12 muffin tins (with silicone or foil liners).
2. Place your 2.5 cups of old fashioned oats in the food processor (or blender) and pulse for about 10-15 seconds. Add the 2 eggs, 1 cup low fat Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup honey, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla and the bananas into the food processor.
3. Process until everything is mixed together and oats are smooth.
4. At this step, you can either add unsweetened dark chocolate chips, walnuts, toasted almonds or any other nut or chocolate you’d like in the batter.
5. Divide batter among cupcake liners, and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

This is the end result:

 

Now if your bananas are getting too ripe, you can peel them and put them in a freezer bag and store until your next batch of muffins. These taste great with a warm cup of coffee. They are not high in caloric intake, so perfect for any bride-to-be or person wanting to curb that sweet tooth while trying to stay healthy with their diet.

Did you make these? Leave a comment below and let me know how they turned out!

xoxo

A Bittersweet 30-Day Countdown

Today is a bittersweet day. It not only marks the 30-day countdown of our wedding, but the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City. I remember that day so vividly. I had just started 7th grade and my mom woke me up abruptly to have me rush and get ready for school so I could watch the news. I had no idea what had happened – and then I saw what was going on. A plane had crashed into one of the towers and as I was tuning in, I saw live footage of the second plane hitting the other tower. My neighbor (and old babysitter) called my mom and rushed over to our apartment to watch the news with us.

I remember being slightly late for my first period choir class. At school that day, there was  a long moment of silence, followed by an eventual impromptu assembly to lower the American flag to half staff. It’s crazy to think about how my children will ask me and Max where we were when the September 11th attacks happened. #NeverForget

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

•••

An a brighter note, today marks the 30-day countdown to our wedding. It’s now hitting me that I really am getting married. While I still have quite a bit of preparation left, I’m really excited for the day to be here. With everything going on, there is still a lot of celebration to be had: my bachelorette party is in two weeks and my mom is throwing me a hafrashat challah with my friends and hers the Thursday before my wedding. It should be a lot of fun.

I am finishing up the signs this weekend (I promised a picture, I know) and starting on my chalkboard word search. My matron of honor was kind enough to recruit her husband to spray paint it for me, so I just need to generate the search and hand write everything in! I’ll post a picture of that, too.

Hope you all have a great day and never forget about those who risked and lost their lives this day 14 years ago.

xoxo

DIY Wedding: Table Signs

When finally nailing down a theme for my upcoming wedding (we have exactly 40 days until we say “I do”), I decided to make my own table signs. Why? Because I wanted a majority of my wedding decor to be DIY. The hard part was deciding what needed to have personal signage, what fonts to use, and honestly, I needed some inspiration. Note: in college I learned how to use the program InDesign and since graduating (back in 2013), it has come in handy on multiple different occasions.

That’s where lovely Pinterest comes in. For the last year and a half I have been perusing Pinterest to come up with ideas for the types of signs I need to make. I decided to make:

1. A selfie booth sign (5×7 frame)
2. A “well wishes” sign (5×7 frame)
3. A social media hashtag (#) sign (5×7 frame)
4. The menu (8×10 frame)
5. His and hers drinks (8×10 frame)
6. Gift sign (5×7 frame)

I then headed to the dollar store (it sure comes in handy when buying things for a wedding!) and grabbed two 8×10 frames and four 5×7 frames. With InDesign, it didn’t take me too long to make. However, if you don’t own that ridiculously expensive program, you can easily make these signs in a word document or even a paint program (standard for more PC’s). Here are the signs I have come up with so far:

I will be working on more signs over the long weekend, as well as starting a bigger project: a chalkboard word search for cocktail hour! Stay tuned to see the final signs (I’ll take a better picture using a high-resolution camera) and the word search.

If you’re in the same boat as me and need some inspiration for your wedding, check out my Pinterest board.

xoxo

Fall Fashion is All About the 1970s

So as you know, I work for a magazine here in the Bay Area called Marin Magazine. Our September issue just hit mailboxes this last weekend and I posted the whole issue online as of 9 a.m. this morning. I have to say that this issue is one of my favorites. The two fashion issues this year (March and September) have been my two favorite issues ever while I’ve worked at Marin Magazine. 

Styled by Fashion Editor (and Art Director) Veronica Sooley, makeup and hair by Elizabeth Chang and shot by Claudia Goetzelmann, this 14-page spread is not one to miss. The ’70s are back! Here’s a sneak peek at the spread. To see all the looks, click here.

If you’re loving what you’re seeing, be sure to subscribe to the magazine (it’s free!) or follow Marin Magazine on instagram @marinmagazine.

xoxo,

Leigh

We Changed Our Name!

As you can tell, Much Ado About All Things is now Live. Laugh. Love. And Lipstick! Why the name change? Well, while prepping for my upcoming wedding I was putting together a list of words to generate in a word search for cocktail hour. The first three words I came up with was “life,” “love,” and “lipstick.” Since those three words were already taken by a WordPress user, I added the word “laugh” and changed “life” to “live” and voila! My new blog title and link were born.

What does this mean for readers, too? Well, I’ll be posting more about makeup and go over palettes that I currently use or purchase and give my opinion about lipstick shades and more. Things will still continue in the food posting front (even though I’ve been slacking pretty hard core – I’ve been busy!)

I hope you’ll enjoy what’s to come and keep following and staying tuned in to what I write!

xoxo,

Leigh