The Brunette Ecoholic: Celebrating My (AHEM!) "29th" Birthday (For The 16th Time) With A Little R&R, Family, Food & Green Beauty!

Hey, loves! So, this past Friday was my birthday and it was such an amazing weekend of love, family and delish foods that I wanted to do a quick little recap and share some of the fun with you!

My husband recently was hired at a new company and his last day happened to be on my birthday. He doesn't celebrate birthday's (being a Jehovah's Witness), so I thought we would just acknowledge his new success. He really surprised me, though, when we were trying to think of where we wanted to go or what we wanted to do for dinner when he said that it was up to me as it is my day!! Whaaaaa????! Really???!! And Squuueeeee! :-D He added to the surprise when he came home with this deeeelish cake (I was so excited for it, I totally forgot to take a pic before we dug in!).

Triple Chocolate Cake from Wegman's

Dinner was steak and salad and roasted sweet potatoes (again, too excited to do anything but eat!) and Josh brought home the most wonderful Pinot Noir to go with it all. Later that night, his mother called to wish me a "happy anniversary of my birth" and my night was complete!

On Saturday, my parent's had a big dinner for my brother (whose birthday was on Wednesday) and I and it was lots of fun, great food and of course..lots of presents!!!

My dad is Spanish, so he made us seafood paella, a favorite of mine and my mom made a homemade pecan pie (another favorite). I'll probably be spending the rest of today recovering from my food coma, but it was oh so worth it! ;-)

Because I work from home and I spend the majority of my time with little to no make-up on, my hair either pulled back or up and my daily ensemble is pretty much sweats, yoga pants and a tee shirt, I wanted to spend a little more time pampering myself and make myself look a bit more "human".

Pre-makeup - just curled my hair with a 1 inch curling iron and brushed out with my fingers

I started my routine with some new organic skincare products, then since I really don't wear a lot of make-up and my skin is just soooooo "moody", I didn't use too many products (list of what I used below).

For my skin, I skipped the face wash and just used a lovely, detoxifying mask from Northport Naturals (full review to come soon!), let that dry and then rinsed off in the shower. Then, I tried out some products from the new "7 Essentials Collection" I recently purchased from Sircuit Skin (so far I'm pretty impressed), to prep and prime my skin before applying make-up.

For my make-up, I chose to go simple and since the top I wore was a deep shade of purple, I used purples and nudes for my color palette.

For face:

Jane Iredale Glow Time Full Coverage Mineral BB Cream in BB3
Jane Iredale Pure Pressed Base in Amber

Eyes:

I used an old Bare Escentuals loose powder kit I had gotten at Sephora ages ago, but the colors are just sooo pretty, I haven't had the heart to toss it! I used a light silvery lavender on my lids and a deep purple in my crease and on my lower lash line.

Mascara is a new favorite from Pacifica

Lips:

Lauren Brooke Cosmetiques Lip Color in Creme Brulee - code "brunetteecoholic" will save you $$ at checkout!

For hair, I kept it simple with loose curls. I washed my hair the night before with some new Acure Organics products (recent clearance scores at my local Target!), then added a few drops of Auve Beauty's Radiance Infusion Serum to my ends for extra hydration (and because I'm obsessed with the light Jasmine scent). I used a one inch curling iron to create tight ringlets, then brushed my hair out with my fingers until the curls were loose. I don't use hairspray, but I "set" my curls with a sea salt spray from Tone it up.

All in all, it was a great birthday (weekend) and one that was made extra special by my husband and our families..oh, and my mom calling me to sing "happy birthday" was pretty sweet too - a tradition she's kept since I moved out 16 years ago! :-)