Ivy Van Dusen: April 2016

Ever since I was a little girl, I have had the craziest, biggest eyebrows. They were seriously out of control! I guess everyone looked a little awkward in their pre-teen/jr.high years, but those brows made me look even more awkward. Eventually my mom let me start getting them waxed, and I have been able to control them a little more ever since. However, they are still super stubborn and difficult to deal with. I am always looking for new eyebrow products to help them look a little more even, because each of them have a mind of their own and like to do their own thing. Today I am talking about a company I recently discovered called Billion Dollar Brows. I have been using their products for a few weeks now, and am so happy with them. They are the only cosmetic company that deals only with eyebrows, and you can tell from the quality of their products that it is their main focus.

I got the opportunity to try out their new Brows on Point Micro Pencil, and am so in love with everything about it! I use their pencil in the color light brown and it has been perfect for me.

On one end is the actual pencil, and the main thing I love about it is how THIN it is! I have used so many brow pencils that are so thick that it looks totally overdone and fake. Because of how thin the tip is, it is easy to fill brows in easily while looking natural.

On the other end is an awesome brow brush. My eyebrow girl used to always tell me to brush my stubborn eyebrows every day to get them to all go in the same direction. I have been using this brush every single day now and I really love the results.

4/26/2016 No sweet note{s}

I recently discovered a new haircare brand called HASK. If you know me and know my hair background, you know that I am constantly looking for products that help strengthen my hair and all of it's damage!

They offer so many different types of oils in their products (and I will be trying more later on), but I first tried their Melon Oil Color Protection Collection and I am loving it so far! I haven't tried the hair mask yet, but that absolutely adored everything else in the collection!

The shampoo and conditioner have been awesome for my hair. Plus, as you know, I am a huge sucker for hair products that smell good. Well, this product is one of them! My husband loves when I use this stuff in my hair because it smells so good for so long afterwards. I love it, my husband loves it, but most importantly, my hair loves it :)

Everything in this collection was great, but my favorite product of all was the actual Melon Oil. The ends of my hair get frizzy and you can tell by looking at them that they are damaged. So what I do is when my hair is still wet, I brush it out (with a Wet Brush) and then apply this oil to the ends. Sometimes I even do it when it's dry! It helps my hair look way smoother and healthier. Plus it smells SO YUMMY too!

So there ya have it! I will try more HASK products soon and let you know how I like them!

4/26/2016 No sweet note{s}

As I said in my last post, lately I am obsessed with everything face/skin care related and that includes MAKEUP!

My Instagram feed is full of all kinds of makeup artists who do videos of all kinds of crazy contouring and stuff, and I just think it is so fun!

Recently I came across a new cosmetic company, MAKE Beauty. They are a fantastic company that uses all-natural ingredients and supports businesses run and owned by women.

Anyways, it is a pretty cool company, and today I am wearing some of their products. Just thought I'd share :) Also, you can use code MAKEBEAUTY for 20% off your entire purchase at makebeauty.com

Happy Sunday!

4/17/2016 No sweet note{s}

I am just ridiculously obsessed with skincare products lately. I feel like I just need to try everything that is out there! Today I am reviewing another Valentina product! I am so happy I found this company, they have amazing products.

About two weeks ago I started using their Clear Lift Revitalizing Serum. It reminds me a lot of their Hydrating Rose Serum, except I only use this one once a day at night, and I do not put any makeup or anything on top of it. It goes on super smooth and just like all of their products, smells wonderful (Kody always notices when I am wearing new face stuff because it usually smells weird, but when I put this on for the first time he said it smelled good!).

Here are the ingredients:

- Wakame Bioferment (Seaweed): Increases skin oxygen consumption to detoxify and boost antioxidant defense.
- Gotu Kola: Lessens the appearance of scars and increases skin firmness.
- Lactic Acid: A natural Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA) that increases skin cell turnover, for healthier renewed skin.
- Licorice: Lightens unwanted pigmentation and corrects skin discoloration.
- Argan Oil: Naturally rich in Vitamin E, this oil reduces water loss and protects skin's resiliency and elasticity.

I love being able to pronnounce and understand what is in my skincare products.

I am going to keept this post simple, but overall I really am loving this stuff, and I am being 100% honest :) It is a little bottle, but it goes such a long way, so I am not worried about running out any time soon.

Let me know if there are any specific products you'd like a review on!

Thanks to Valentina for sponsoring this post!

https://www.instagram.com/valentianatural/
www.facebook.com/valentiabeauty

4/14/2016 No sweet note{s}

We have been in our apartment for about 2 months now, but I just got around to decorating our bedroom! Decorating apartments can be SO hard because there are rules about what you can and can't put up, we can't paint any walls so everything is white and since we probably won't be here for more than a year or so, we don't want to invest a ton of money into things.

We had a big photo of us on our wedding that we put right above the headboard, but in this apartment we can't nail anything into the wall, so we put it up with those command strips. Then one night we heard a loud SLAM, and the picture had fallen off the wall and it took about a month off each of our lives because of how much it freaked us out.

After that we decided that we needed something that would stay on the wall. That's when I went over to Davis Vinyl Designs! We custom-made a piece with our names and colors of our room. They were AWESOME at working with us, and the piece turned out so perfect, don't ya think!?

At first I was worried about putting it on the wall, but it came with perfect instructions and came on just fine! We have a huge king-sized bed, so the piece had to be super big. Luckily, they make pieces of all different sizes and it was perfect.

Then I added some mirrors above each of our side tables and now it looks complete! Someday we will have a real house and I can get into the decorating a little more (and actually be able to nail things into the walls), but for now we LOVE this.

Thanks so much to Davis Vinyl Designs for the beautiful piece! You can check their shop out here, and their Facebook page here!

Happy decorating!

4/13/2016 No sweet note{s}

I had never heard of Lularoe clothing, but then my cute sisters-in-law started selling it, and I became absolutely OBSESSED.

I'm sure a lot of you know how difficult it is to find a dress that is modest + cute + doesn't make you feel chunky + comfortable + affordable.When you find a dress that is all of those things, it is the best day ever and I found that dress from Lularoe! It is the perfect spring dress and I wore it to general conference last week and to church today! Yes, two weeks in a row :)

This is their Amelia dress and my favorite part about it- it has pockets!

The shoes are by Lauren Conrad and I love them too!

To buy from them, you can join their Facebook page and keep checking it because they are always posting new inventory and if you see something you like, you need to snag it before it's gone! (If you were wondering, I am 5'5 and wear an xs in the Lularoe dresses).

To brighten up your Monday, Kati and Jessi are hosting an awesome giveaway this week for a free dress. To enter, just go to my Instagram page.

Good luck!! :)

4/11/2016 No sweet note{s}

This weekend my in-laws came down and we all went skiing! Last year Kody took me snowboarding in California, but this was my first time on skis, and I did much better. At the end of last time, I swore I would never go up another mountain covered in snow again. After this time, though, I might be able to again someday :)

Kati, my cute sister-in-law, was so sweet and hung out with me on the bunny slopes all day while everyone else did the crazy stuff. Things were going well and we were having so much fun until we went up to the top of the mountain on a really long lift and ended up getting lost and going down sooo the wrong way. In our defense, they did a pretty crappy job of marking the trails and reminding where the green circle went and where the black diamond went.

It was bad.

At one point we ended up completely off any kind of trail and had to slide down the entire slope on our bums because that's how steep it was! It took us over an hour to get down the whole thing. I kept falling out of my skiis, got in the way of so many people coming down, and may have used some not-so-awesome language a few times. But it was okay because it was good bonding and we both made it down alive :) THANK HEAVENS.

Other than that one little mishap, however, it was an awesome day! I am by no means good at skiing but I can get down a hill without dying, so that's good! Kody and I had a discussion about how we are starting our kids young and putting them in ski school so they don't end up like me :)

4/07/2016 1 sweet note{s}

For the longest time I have been looking for the perfect pair of ribbed jeggings. They re so in right now and can go with so much. I tried some on at PacSun, but they fit me so weird! I tried on about three other pairs from other places, but I just didn't feel cute in any of them, I found a pair from Shrieking Violet Attire, and thought I'd give it another shot. They came in the mail the other day, and I was a bit nervous, but they ended up fitting PERFECTLY! They are the perfect amount of stretchy, so they are so so comfy.

This is just one of the outfits I wore with them the other day, but believe me when I say they go with anything! I am being totally honest when I say that I'd recommend these to anyone.

Right now you can use code "IVY15" for 15% off of anything from ShriekingVioletAttire.com (which is awesome because basically everything on that site is adorable!

4/03/2016 No sweet note{s}

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