Best Mascara On a Budget

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There is nothing more convenient than buying something cheap yet the quality isn't! For us women, makeup costs can add up in a blink of an eye. Most of the time when you want the best type of makeup, it's typically sold at a pretty high price. Well, if there is one piece of makeup that can brighten up your face, it's mascara so we compiled a list of some awesome mascara that you can snag on a budget. Click the links above to see some of our favorites!

Do you have the secret to the cheapest, best mascara out there? Then, leave a comment or email us at secret@thesororitysecrets.com!

Easy Super Bowl Recipe

Co Founder, Karen, is a Seahawks' fan so of course she cannot wait for the Super Bowl! Like her and probably many other fans, she will be hosting a Super Bowl party. No Super Bowl party is complete with out food, drinks, friends, and football. But, the most important would be the food! Whether you decide to order pizza, KFC, or grill some hotdogs and hamburgers, it is always good to have variety. One of our favorite items to make the most amazing dishes is a crock pot. Slow cookers can make the most amazing dishes from meatballs, to tasty dips, to rice and beans and much more. Target is one of the best places to get a variety of crock pots. To help you with a Super Bowl crock pot recipe, Boulder Organic, has shared with us a special recipe they've suggested that is the perfect dish. Check out all the details below and get excited for Sunday's Football Showdown!

Boulder Organic's Souper Easy Super Bowl Pulled Pork 

Ingredients

• About 2 lbs of pork shoulder
• 1 tub of Boulder! Organic Green Chile Corn Chowder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (if desired)

Cooking Instructions

• Place the pork shoulder, 1 tub of Boulder! Organic Green Chile Chowder, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt (optional) into your crockpot. Leave in the crock pot for 6-8 hours.
• After 6-8 hours, pull the pork apart with a fork and eat as desired!

Suggestions on how to eat the pulled pork:

• Place on a bun and eat as a sandwich
• Use as a side with mashed potatoes and beans

You won't be disappointed with the tasty results!

5 Staple Pieces Every Girl Should Own

dress | necklace | jeans | tee | booties

There is nothing more comforting than gravitating toward that staple piece in your closet. You know, that one go-to item that you know will totally wrap your whole outfit together because it just has that affect. Staple pieces are a breath of fresh air in a wardrobe malfunction or crisis. We have really been loving finding ways to integrate our favorite staple pieces with other pieces in our closets to form multiple different looks.

Our first staple piece are booties! Wow, talk about a pair of shoes that can be worn for just about any occasion. Dress them up with black tights and a cute skirt or dress them down with jeans and a fresh top. Speaking of jeans, basic boyfriend jeans are our second staple piece. Denim of any kind is such an easy starting point for just about any outfit look you're trying to pull off. Boyfriend jeans are comfortable and we usually go through many outfits with them throughout a given week. Every girl needs a little black dress hanging in her closet for those random nights out in the town, making it our third staple piece. A black dress is safe but still flirty and dressy depending on the type of jewelry you rock with it. When it comes to jewelry, a dainty necklace is the perfect touch to just about any outfit which is why it's our fourth staple piece. Katie Dean Jewelry is still our number one favorite shop for all things dainty like this super cute wishbone necklace or this leaf necklace. If there's one thing that goes with everything, it has to be a basic v-neck tee!  You can dress it up or down however you want and it's also the comfiest thing ever!

What are your staple pieces in your wardrobe? Share with us below in the comments!

A Girl's Guide To Living With a Guy

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At some point in your life or relationship you might find yourself living with a guy. It's definitely a big adjustment since living on your own means you've taken advantage of all of your living space for all of your stuff. Living with another person, male or not, means making some sacrifices. We decided to come up with a list of things you can do to make living with a guy a little bit easier.

1. Clean out your closet. It's time to donate half of your wardrobe, girlfriend! We know, we know, having the same shirt in 10 different colors is so necessary, but not if it means that it will take up more space in the closet that you'll be sharing with the boy moving in. Consider this an act of charity as you can send your clothes in as a donation and attempt to write it off in your taxes. Guys need closet space too.
2. Put things in storage. If you have storage or can afford to pay for storage monthly, free up space by putting your big items that you don't need immediate access to into a storage unit. This will make parting with your things easier because instead of throwing the items away or donating them, you're putting them into a different space. This portable closet is also great for you to have in your storage for clothes and shoes that you don't need access to for a third or half of the year!
3. Buy shelving at Target or IKEA. Target and IKEA have great accessories to help you keep your things organized separately. Consider shelving, shoe racks, and drawers that can allow for great separation of each person's items. One shelf can be your stuff, the other his. Here is a link to one of our favorite bathroom shelves from Target: Home Bathroom Space Saver. Here is another link to great fabric storage cubes you can use for separating your stuff on shelves: Fabric Cubes. 
4. Consider neutral color shades. We don't know many men willing to live in a pink themed bathroom or with a pink and leopard living room theme (haha) so consider neutral shades in those common areas. Again, Target is the best place to find some earthy and neutral tones for just about any home accessory. 
5. Practice patience. When he leaves the toilet seat cover up--be patient. If you find pee on the toilet seat--be patient. If he squeezes toothpaste from the middle of the toothpaste bottle (don't you hate when people do that?!)--be patient. Bottom line is, change and adapting to people's preferences takes time. Just consider that you have spent x amount of years evolving into who you are and they have spent x amount of time evolving into who they are. When you both come together, there are going to be many things you'll have to compromise to make living together effective.

Good luck!!

Sisters Succeeding: Cami Fannin

We love hearing about sorority girls succeeding and hearing about the wonderful things Cami Fannin from TCU is doing is no different. Cami Fannin is an Alpha Delta Pi at TCU and this past summer she decided to create her own service project, "Just Makes Cents". Check out the Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/JustMakesCentsservice

Cami's service project came to life on January 7th, 2015 and she has been fundraising to raise money through coins to donate to an underprivileged community of girls. There they will learn to count, save and spend their money wisely. This is an education service project focused on combating poverty and encouraging girl power and independence.

Cami feels that her efforts through the "Just Makes Cents" mission is a great way to encourage other Greek women to follow their dreams and help others at the same time. We couldn't agree more!

Are you or a sorority sister you know succeeding? Submit their story and high resolution pictures to secret@thesororitysecrets.com for a possible feature.

3 Ways To Let a Guy Know You're Interested

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While we are incredibly old-fashioned when it comes to dating, we acknowledge our part as women when it comes to letting a guy know you're interested. We believe that you should let a guy lead, but in order for a guy to make any moves you've got to first make it clear that you are available. Below are three ways to let a guy know you're interested:

1. Make Eye Contact. Picture yourself in a crowded bar, club, or social scene and you spot a guy you're crushing on. He locks eyes with you but you quickly turn your head or looking away. That is the universal sign for NOT INTERESTED. Don't make that mistake if you're interested, rather, make eye contact for longer than 3 seconds. More likely than that, he will come over.
2. If He Doesn't Ask For Your Number, Offer Your Number. If you end the night or day clearly liking each other and having things in common, then what's the harm in giving up the digits? Sometimes a guy can be shy about asking for your number in an effort not to be too forward. If that ever happens, show him that you're interested by casually offering to exchange numbers to talk some more. Let your ego go!
3. If He Calls Or Texts You, Answer The First Time. Playing hard to get when you really like someone is pretty childish. Don't waste time playing games. We all know you're super giddy and excited when you get that first call or text from your crush. Don't be slow to answer. It just slows down the great opportunity of possibly getting to know someone really great for you.

What are some tips you have for letting a guy know you're interested? Share with us in the comments below!

How to Preserve Your Smartphone's Battery

Oh the dreaded red zone warning. Meaning, your lifeline, your support system, your connection to the world aka Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, are about to get cut off unless you recharge your battery! Every phone whether it's an iOS or Android has its issues with battery life, but there are ways to preserve and stretch your battery. Here are some ways we have learned to keep our batteries green for a little longer:

1. Invest in a Mophie . Having a Mophie has been life changing for Karen since she is constantly on her phone. Karen got her hands on the Mophie and it keeps her phone charging way past when her actual iPhone dies. The Mophie is a battery pack that you slide onto your phone and it charges your phone from its own charge. Seriously UH-MAZING!
2. Put Your Phone On Airplane Mode. 
3. Lower the Brightness Of Your Screen. Your phone uses a lot of battery life keeping the screen bright, therefore, lowering the brightness will preserve the battery life more.
4. Use Wifi. It uses less power than a cellular connection
5. Close Inactive Apps. If you're not using an app but have it open, it is running your battery. Make a conscious effort to close out of apps after you're done using it.
6. Update Your Phone. Whenever there are new updates for your phone, pay attention to whether or not it will help with battery life. When it comes to the iPhone, according to the Apple site iOS 8 is designed to be the most battery-efficient iOS ever. It gives you more precise ways to manage your device’s battery life because you can see the proportion of your battery used by each app (unless the device is charging). To view your usage, go to Settings > General > Usage > Battery Usage.

What tips & tricks do you have for saving your smartphone's battery life? Share with us in the comments below!