Do Not Take It Personal

Today, my lovely friend Marjan is guest posting. Not only were we roommates for a while, I consider her a sister, a best friend, someone I can talk to without sugarcoating a thing. I am so glad she is in my life, even now with a huge distance between us. I cannot wait to see her and her family again once I am reunited with California, my favorite person, and just regular life as usual.

Have fun my lovelies. Miss you all, but I promise to be back. Things are looking good and I know I can do this and soon saying see-you to my hometown again. As much as I missed it, I miss my new home more. :D

*****

When Selma asked me to write a guest post for her, I asked, “but what should I write about?”

Her response was: “How Mary Kay changed your life!”

It is amazing how one doesn’t realize the change in themselves unless they reflect on their past which not many people do often.

I told myself that she must see a change that I don’t. So, I decided to write about how my life has changed since I became a Mary Kay Cosmetics Independent Consultant about a year and a half ago. Keep in mind, Selma and I have been roomies for a while and she knows me really well.

One of the very first things I learned at my weekly classes at our Mary Kay Studio Pink was that I should never take anything personally, and that I should hang out with people I want to become like. The latter, I had always heard of and tried to do, but to not take anything personal??!??? I decided to be faithful in the Mary Kay process and follow the advice she had passed along to generations that came after her. I figured, if it didn’t hurt me then there was nothing to lose. 

A half year later, I stopped taking the way other people act and react towards me personally. Today, I can say that I am a more understanding person, because I don’t take the time to think about why people may dislike me. Instead, I realize that people do and say inappropriate things because of their own insecurities, hurts and pains and with no intention of hurting anyone...they simply don’t know any better. Key word is intention.

I have learned to be on purpose in my life. Meaning, I am not just going to say "hi" and "how are you" as a courtesy. When I say "hi"and "how are you", I WILL listen to how you really are doing! I WANT to know! Why else ask someone how they are doing or how their day is going? Although, I will mention that it is definitely not easy to not take things personally. After all, why would a server at a restaurant who does not know me, not be nice to me just because they are having a bad day? But I will say this: when you are surrounded by amazing mentors and Mary Kay Directors, it becomes a lifestyle as you watch them live what they teach us at every meeting.

Right when I was asked to join Mary Kay, I did my research online and saw many, many, many negative reviews. So I decided to take my time and go to a few meetings and check things out for myself before becoming an Independent Consultant. When I saw that these Directors take time to help not only their own but other consultants as well, I was sold. When you work with leaders that are willing to help you achieve your goal with NO benefit for them, THAT is who you want to be surrounded by!

In addition, I have learned to be a better listener and understand that everyone is different! Both of which have helped in having better relationships with God, myself, my husband, my brother, my friends and my in-laws. Mary Kay has drawn me closer to my mom and I love her more than ever now that I understand HER!

I hope this helps you! I can go on forever with examples, but I do not want to bore you or take over Selma’s blog. LOL! I will start posting more on my blog and hope to see you there!

Marjan

I Love My Lips - Do You Love Yours?

For years I was told to lubricate my lips, and not let them dry up. Sunny or bitter cold days can dry up lips and make them look brittle. Girls should have beautiful, healthy lips and no sandpaper-lookalikes. Lip balms and lip gloss became my best friends. I felt girlie, beautiful and just fantastic. Then I had my moments, and even though my lips were taken care of they felt dry, gross, and even itchy. It was like someone put spicy jalapeno pepper all over my lips. Yuck. 

My lovely friend M. started working for and with Mary Kay last year. I went to a few meetings with her, as a supporter, and learned so much about skin care, including lips. It is true. We take care of our skin, wash it, lotion it up, and make it look pretty but we often forget our lips. We put lipstick on or gloss but don't clean them. They need to be cleaned and scrubbed, too. They are part of our skin as well, even though they look a little different. So I started learning more and more about lip care and balms. Some researchers say we shouldn't put balm on our lips or not as much, because most lip balms have alcohol in them. Thus, they dry the lips up and make us use more unnecessary balm. Others say, lips need to be hydrated because dry, brittle looking lips will crack and cause irritation, scars, and what not.

I believe in my own story. 

Scrubbing my lips once a week, sometimes twice, makes their natural color appear and I don't need lipstick anymore. Also, I do use lip balm and gloss. My friend M. may just explode reading this {I hope she doesn't - hahahaha, but I am sure she does}. I don't overuse it. I use it once or twice a day, that is it. Lip gloss just enhances their natural color, and is sparingly used. Plus, the more I hydrate myself the better my skin {including my lips} stays hydrated. Makes sense, doesn't it?!

Here are my favorite products for my lips:

My Sunday ritual...I love this product. My lips feel fantastic afterwards, so refreshed and new.

 These, among many lip balms are my favorites. The SPF one is a must during summer, or even during winter. Remember, the sun is out all the time even when you don't see or feel it. Anyways, there is a bunch of lip balms out there and these work best for me. I tried Blistex, and what not but these just work for my crunchy lips.

When I feel very girlie I add a little color to my already pink-red lips. I have a few lipsticks even though I don't like lipsticks that much {I prefer lip gloss}, but when I do I use the ones I tried on a gazillion times with my friend M. Here's a few of my favorites.

The left one is called Firecracker and is THE best selling product. Red doesn't work well with my skin tone and hair but this red works, especially when applied lightly. The one to the right is called Pink Passion. Love it. Both are great summer colors, and I just can't wait to dress up soon again and wear some cute lipstick to an already cuter outfit.

Do you like wearing lipstick?
My lips always feel sticky but I slowly got used to that "weird" feeling.

Any suggestions for me?!

Nivea images via here

Mary Kay images via here