Five for Friday

Hello and welcome to my Five for Friday! I am linking up with Bright on a Budget, Della Devoted, and BYBMG!

1. We finally got our Christmas trees decorated! I think they turned out pretty nice! 

2. And this is my Christmas Hallmark ornament for the year. My mom buys us a Hallmark ornament ever year and this is the one I picked out. I've gotten one of these little penguin ornaments every year for quite a few years now, but they sure are cute!

3. I finally finished my Christmas shopping! It took me a little longer to get things figured out this time around, but I'm glad to be done. I wrapped presents yesterday and I still have just a couple more things I ordered I'm waiting on, but otherwise I'm done!

4. I don't remember what started it, but my sister had really been wanting peppermint bark and I had told her I would make some. So yesterday I finally made it! It was really easy to make and everyone enjoyed it! 

5. In case you missed it, on Monday I shared a review of my October Ipsy glam bag, and then on Wednesday I shared some pictures from when we visited Berkeley Plantation!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Visiting Berkeley Plantation

Back in October we took a trip out to Berkeley Plantation. The plantation was built in 1726 and has quite an interesting history! The first Thanksgiving was here (a whole year before the pilgrims.) and focused completely on prayer instead of food.

The plantation is also home to several presidents: William Henry Harrison, the 9th president, and his grandson, Benjamin Harrison, who was the 23rd president.

Taps was written here, the area was also one of the first shipyards in the new world, and it's also home of the first whiskey distillery.

You can read more about the plantation's history here.

Pictures weren't allowed inside the plantation house, so the following pictures are all of the grounds. The tour of the house was interesting and our tour guide was friendly and did a good job talking about the house and the grounds. 

We also found out while on the tour that a movie was being filmed nearby, and the grounds of the plantation were being used for the cast and crew. And I believe some of the movie was being filmed at the plantation as well. 

Two of the guys who were working on the movie were on the tour with us and they were really interesting. We ran into them later and talked to them again. We could have talked to them for quite a while as the one guy (the other one didn't really talk) was just full of information about the area, history, and the movie they were making. 

Anyways, back to the pictures! The sun was just starting to go down which made for some interesting lighting. You'll notice some lens flare (which looks like rays or dots of light.) in several of the pictures. I think it looks kind of neat!

October Ipsy Glam Bag Review

YENSA Tone Up Primer: This primer surprised me. I don't know why but I was expecting to not really like this. I guess because I had never heard of the brand before? (Poor excuse really, but just being honest!) But I ended up liking it! It's quite tinted (a darkish tan color like the bronzer packaging in the below image.) but it blends and covers well. It evened out my skin and did a great job at reducing the appearance of pores. 

I probably wouldn't go out and purchase this on my own, but it was a great sample to receive.

THEBALM COSMETICS Take Home the Bronze in Oliver: This bronzer is okay. The color is pretty light and not very shimmery or anything. It's just okay. Nothing spectacular or anything but it's something I'll use up.

MAKE UP FOR EVER Ultra HD Liquid Foundation in R230: I liked this foundation. It was just the right color for me; which I was a bit surprised about! It is a somewhat light foundation coverage-wise, which is okay for me. I don't usually like anything too heavy or too light, just enough to kind of even out redness which this did.

APHRODITE Olive Oil Deep Cleansing Face Mask: This mask didn't have the greatest smell. And it did feel pretty oily when applying to my skin and after I washed it off. I really just didn't care for this. I didn't notice any difference in my skin after using it, but it didn't make me break out or anything either. I really just didn't like the oily feeling it left. I mean, okay, it's an olive oil mask, but I don't want to feel like I literally just put olive oil on my face, you know?

SUGAR COSMETICS It's A-Pout Time! Vivid Lipstick in Better Call Salmon: I thought this color was pretty. It's not too bright but it's not too dark either. It's just a nice color and one I can see myself using often.

I was a bit behind in posting this review as it took me a while to try out each of these products. Overall though this was a pretty decent bag with the face mask being the only item I didn't really like.

Have you tried any of these products?