Emily Johnson

Friends! How are you? I miss you all so much! And I’m sorry I’ve been MIA but I’ve been busy with life, the universe, and everything. I’m trying to slowly back my come back! Life has been pretty busy lately. I’ve been traveling, enjoying Summer events, and just busy being silly over here! Yes, I still love beauty but it’s just taken a backburner lately. Sometimes you need to take a break from the things you love the most so you realize how much you miss it!

I heard E.L.F. Jelly Pop Primer is making a come back and instantly I ran over here to blog about it. Because it’s Jelly Pop Primer and it needs to be screamed about it. Maybelline Grippy Serum Primer is my new current fav but I will forever be a Jelly Pop girl. I love how tacky it is, adore how makeup sticks to it like magic, and really think it just makes things look so much more flawless. It returns this Friday along with a new Jelly Pop Makeup Melting Cleansing Balm and a Jelly Pop Luscious Lip Mask plus the return of Jelly Pop Glow Reviver Lip Oil. I’m pretty excited about this and will absolutely purchase a few tubes when it drops! Are you a fan of the formula?

The past two weeks I’ve been spending time with my soulmate aka my online best friend turned real life best friend. Picture it. It’s 2020, we’re deep in lockdown mode. I download Tiktok and spend way too much time doom scrolling because during lockdown all we had was time right? I laugh and comment on a Tiktok and suddenly I’m on the fast tracking going 100 miles an hour to becoming the fastest friend with the guy who posted it. Suddenly we are talking daily, learning to cook yummy meals together because I burn boiling water and so does it! We end up taking a Jamie Oliver online Maserclass together (but we’re still a little hopeless)! I mean, how cool are we right now? At one point, we nearly burn down my house and his apartment as we attempt to make the perfect mushroom risotto which by the way we did using the microwave because we found a “quick recipe” online to do so. Don’t worry, Jamie wasn’t the one that endorsed that method. We end fangirling out to dramas together, game together, and I even met his boyfriend last Summer when he came to New York on a business trip.  We laughed a lot, we shared a lot, we texted, video called, and acted like two tween girls together for the next few years of our lives. We exchange gifts on our birthday, during the holidays, and just because. We’re over here living the best times of our online life together. 

And suddenly years flew by and I’m not even sure how that happened because it seems like yesterday I laughed at his Tiktok. He lives a million miles away but last week we finally got to meet. We went to Mexico together, saw Jeff Satur in concert, went to the Heart Killers meet (like, all four of them, together, in the same room!) and screamed so loud that we both had sore throats the next day. What is my life right now? It was pretty special considering Jeff so rarely makes it to this side of the universe. This week, we ended up eating all the things. He wanted to go to Olive Garden, he wanted to go to Wendy’s, etc…etc….the list if crappy restaurants and foods he wants to try is endless. I can’t believe I had to sit through endless salad and breadsticks with him but I did it haha! He weights about 140lbs soaking wet so, I’m not really sure where the food is going. At one point he asked me where the nearest Buc-ee’s was and I had to break his heart and tell him that would be Texas.

Here’s the thing though…! I was so nervous when it was time to meet him for the first time. Hand shaking, knees knocking, almost about to cry nervous. We had spent so much time together online but I was really scared he wouldn’t like real life me. What if the magic we had online didn’t work the same way offline? My boyfriend kept telling me how much I was overthinking it and I had no reason to feel the way I did but I was just scared as hell anyway! I mean, I met my Whovian Reddit group recently and that was a little awkward.

So, what happened next?

It worked. Everything just clicked. When I met him at the airport he ran towards me screaming and crying and we completely melted down in front of God and everyone. Like gulping out of breath tears! There was no hesitation from him. I thought maybe that first moment we’d be shy, say a quiet hello, and slowly adjust to real life us. But nope, it was instantly him squealing BELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I was excited to finally see him, hold his hand, hug him, and laugh together but I thought it would take time to do all that. It didn’t. It just happened instantly. We hugged, we walked out of that airport swinging hands and acting like we’ve done this before a hundred times over. And the laughter just came right away! As soon as we got in the car we started giggling over something. It all came naturally. I didn’t expect it to happen that fast and was delighted it did.

Sometimes you meet friends in the most unexpected places. These last several days our online live has leaked into real life and it’s pretty wonderful. Turns out the real challenge isn’t in the first meeting but it will be in the saying goodbye when the time comes. I just know that’s going to be hard. And unfortunately, it’s not like it’s easy for either of us to just fly around to see each other often as we live a million miles away from each other.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. I hope you meet friends in unexpected places. I wanted to share it because the world has been pretty chaotic lately and this was what brought me joy this month. I hope it made you smile a little reading it. I miss you all! I’m doing my best to make a come back.

Happy Monday, friends! It’s Monday and there isn’t a lot to smile about today but it’s ok. I got you. I hope had a good weekend, I hope you aren’t sweating too hard today, and I hope your walking around in 96 degree weather with a full beat on your face that isn’t melting off because that’s what you deserve. I know things are a little chaotic but if you want my sand pit is pretty comfy and we can all just stick our heads in it for a little while and pretend things are copacetic.

If it all goes well I should be posting this while fighting off tourists in Chinatown to get my hair cut. No, I’m not doing a pixie cut. But I’m taking several inches off because it needs it and my waves are looking like I put my hand in an electric socket as I screamed, “IT’S ALIVE!” Ya know, wavy hair+heat=holy freaking airball! Oh P.S. That made me think of Sting! We should all watch the Bride together. Who wants to do a online watch party with me? How hot sauce was he in that movie?

Anyway, here’s a few things to smile about in the world of makeup as we struggle through the chaos of the world. Guess who’s back? Back again!

Stains! Well, not really but E.L.F. is thinking of making that happen. Sheer For It Blush Lip + Cheek Tint are five bucks and available in five shade selections. I told you I had reasons to smile for you! You gotta smile so you can dot this new stain on the apples of your cheeks and get that doll-like look we all know and love (or am the only one stuck in my doll skin makeup era?). If you don’t like them on cheeks you can use them on your lips too! In this heat, I’m always up for a long-wearing cheek stain.

I’m throwing out there and you can disagree but I don’t hate Tarte x Dunkin. I don’t even drink coffee but these cute charms they did for the Maracuja Collection have me in a chokehold! How adorable? Don’t buy them on Ulta’s website though as you can both for $27 with free shipping! Super deal!

You know what I hope? I hope that Christmas in July isn’t a thing this year. I hope we actually get some cool Fall Collections! The last few years we haven’t and as a Fall baby that loves autumn I really love the colors of the season and adore makeup collections that feature them! We’re off to promising start as Lancome just dropped their Idôle Café Crush Nude Eyeshadow Palette and it’s stunning! Take my money! This screams warm, cozy eye looks! If you can’t smile at this palette I’ve failed you, my friends.

I can’t save you if you aren’t smiling to ear to ear at the fact Essence now has a collection of Juicy Bomb Body Mists! Inspired by their bestselling lipglosses and available in four fragrances these cute body mists look like an oversized lipgloss!

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Hey guys I’m not sure if you realize this or not but Flower Beauty has been around for 13 years. Why does it feel it launched yesterday? Yup, in 2013 Drew Barrymore officially launched Flower Beauty at Walmart and for a while the brand was exclusively available at the evil empire and later branched out to other stores like Ulta and even CVS. One of the biggest drops from the line that we all went crazy over were the Flower Beauty Flower Pot Blushes. This was a time when packaging was everything in my makeup life and I think a lot of you felt the same. I’m actually trying to remember of Flower Beauty introduced their blushes first or was it Milani who dropped Rose Powder Blush first! Remember they looked identical to each other!

But yeah, here we are 13 years later….! Drew has moved on to other things at good old Wally World. She has appliances, home furnishings, and more under the Beautiful logo. Yeah, I brought the toaster judge me if you must. Why am I telling you this? Because Flower Beauty is 50% off at ulta.com as well as at CVS and other drugstores. Hmmm…! I’m a little concerned Flower Beauty is being discontinued so I’ll be stocking up on Plump Up Gloss Stick just in case! You can even use promo code MEMBERSONLY for an extra 20% off.

With brands going down like the Titanic it’s not too farfetched an idea that maybe Flower Beauty is going out of business. Or maybe they are just prepping for rebranding? Which do you think it is? Drew is really pushing the home collection lately and that collection gets new seasonal additions constantly but it’s been a while since we saw anything new from Flower Beauty.

Let’s hope I’m wrong and that Flower Beauty is just preparing for a rebranding! What do you think?

Where to buy

Ulta

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I’m an Etsy girl but I readily admit I’m cheap as hell when it comes to paying Etsy for shipping. I know, I know, Etsy is all about small businesses and artists and those businesses can’t foot the bill for shipping expenses but man, it’s hard to purchase a smaller item on Etsy and proceed to get slapped with a $8 or more dollar shipping cost. I feel like some small items I buy don’t even cost that to ship. But I get it. Like any seller website Etsy charges seller fees and some of that has to be passed on to the person purchasing the items. I don’t have to like it but I do understand it and hey, lots of the items I purchased are well worth it.

Etsy Insider is a fairly new program that will set you back $18 bucks for three months of service. The membership gets you early access to new drops from sellers as well as limited-edition items. But wait, the best part is the fact that you get access to free shipping from hundreds of sellers as well as a slew of different coupons.

I’ve always been an active Etsy buyer but lately I’ve been in my bag and phone charm era and have found so many great artists who create some amazing designs with collectibles like Skullpanda. I got two gorgeous phone charms coming soon from a seller who designed custom Skullpanda phone charms and another who is doing a baby duck phone charm to match a phone case for one of my fandoms. Best part, I got a small discount on both of these thanks to the Etsy Insider Membership.

This was one of the ones she created for me!

I also have a few upcoming fan meets and two concerts I’m going to shortly (I’m seeing Stray Kids tomorrow. So of course, I have postcard bag charms all over my purse of Felix!). I ran over to Etsy and got these incredible postcard photo bag charms made for each event. I already have photo post cards I’ve collected and I know I could have probably just purchase idol photo holders on Amazon and converted those cards to a charm myself but I didn’t want to ruin them as I’d rather use those for autographs. When you spend a good deal of money on a photobook that comes with post cards you really aren’t terribly inclined to wear them on your bag where they could be damaged. It was easier to grab some images off Pinterest, send to the Etsy artist, and have them do the charms. It honestly didn’t cost all that much to do either and they were able to create a cutout design versus the traditional postcard style that Japanese and Korean girls so commonly carry on their bags. I just hauled Dream Voyage from eThai and it comes with a few postcards but legit, I can’t see myself using those cards on my bag. I know how anal I am and dropping that kind of cash on a photo book only to ruin the cards on my bag is a no go. I’ll keep them safely tucked away.

Again, best part, I got them with a coupon code thanks to my Etsy Insider Membership! It cost me $18 and so far my savings on shipping plus with the coupons is $28 (I’m only a member for a month). So, yeah, this sounds sponsored as hell but it isn’t. I just thought I’d share as if you’re a frequent Etsy shopper it might save you a buck or two! So far I’m liking the Membership and I’ll be renewing it when the three months is up!

Anyone have this service? How’s it working out for you?

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Ahhh the good old days of makeup when E.L.F. Cosmetics was smack talking in your e-mail like gangstas! Remember those days? When they’d casually slip in with a side by side pic of a NARS Blush and a pic of their own blush bragging how their version only cost a buck! Times have changed my friends and E.L.F. is no longer a dollar.

BRB let me check. Ok, cheapest we’re getting is lipliner at $2 bucks and your girl isn’t a lipliner user so that’s a bust. But yeah, E.L.F. has surpassed cheap as chips one dollar makeup a long, long, time ago in a galaxy far, far away from this one.

And like most things in this economy E.L.F. is about to increase prices again! Starting August 1st select products will be increasing by $1 due to inflation and tariffs. Despite the increase, the E.L.F. emphasizes that 75% of its products will remain at $10 or under. And their promise is they are “also keeping an eye on the tariff situation.” In my experience, once something goes up it rarely comes down. So, I have doubts that even if things improve at some point we’ll still see the price points remain the same.

The good news is that most of their latest launches are incredibly over-priced. They seem to come to a standstill at the $5 buck mark. So, if you’re in the mood for budget beauty E.L.F. Cosmetics remains affordable. But that being said, things can be murky with foundation, skincare, and other popular lines they carry like their “Halo Glow” Collection which has gone viral several times. The new Halo Glow Skin Tint SPF 50 is a whooping $18 bucks and some may question if they want to spend that much on an E.L.F. product which is known for being budget friendly.

I could be way off the mark but I feel like some of their more influencer pushed items, like Halo Glow products, seem to have a crazy markup compared to their less talked about products which seem to hover around $5. These is particularly the case with many of their lip product drops. I gotta admit $24 for their Jumbo Power Grip Primer seemed crazy to me taking into account the prices we know and loved from E.L.F. The Big Gripper is 2.7 oz at $24 and contains $30 worth of product versus their original size at 0.81 oz at $10.

The moral of the story is stock up on your favs before prices go up again this August!

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