ColourPop Gel Liners & Lippie Pencils
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During Christmas week, I decided to order a few ColourPop Creme Gel Liners and Lippie Pencils after deciding I needed the Aquarius Lippie Pencil from their collab with Kathleenlights.
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What's In My Travel Makeup Case?
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The holidays are upon us which means I've made my trek back east for two weeks to visit friends and family. This year, I scaled back a lot in what I normally bring for makeup, at least "scaled back" by my standards. :)
Read MoreWinter Destinations- Honolulu
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Vacation is usually synonymous with summer time, but there's something to be said about traveling in winter. It's usually the cheapest time of year for many destinations worldwide, and traveling in a shoulder season means places are less crowded. Why not spend some time next December strolling through Christmas markets in London or Germany? Or, if you're wanting to get away from the cold there's always Hawaii.
Read MoreColds, Tea, and Flash Gordon
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Currently, I'm parked on my sofa taking a nasty hit from a cold that was going around the office. I managed to feel well enough last night to see Postmodern Jukebox, but woke up feeling incredibly worse for wear on day 5 of Coldmas.
I have my tea in my Han Solo mug, lotion coated tissues, and Flash Gordon on TV. I've spent most of today asleep or watching various Vlogmas blogs when I should have written more of a fiction draft I'm writing, but I can barely sit up for long. Hurray for the Blog app!
How is everyone's holiday season going so far? It feels like December is going by so fast! I'm trying to be good at posting on Monday and Wednesdays every week, although tomorrow will likely not happen now as I normally try to prep those posts on Sunday and today has been a total wash.
But I digress. Hopefully we carry on as usual for Wednesday.
Winter Skincare Favorites
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With the weather outside growing cooler and already living in a dry climate, winter becomes the time for careful consideration in the skincare department. I normally have a bit of combination skin, but it does get drier in winter. I've found the best routine that works for me is cleanse-acid tone-spritz tone-serums-treatment-moisturizer. With that in mind, I've broken down my winter skincare favorites by where they sit in my routine. I prioritize gentle exfoliating to combat any flakiness, brightness, and moisturizing overall during winter as my desired results. Most of what I recommend should work for all skin types, but your skin mileage may vary and ultimately what works for you will work for you. :)
Read MoreVirgin America Upper Class SFO-LHR/LHR-SFO
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On our vacation to London, we chose to fly Virgin Atlantic Upper Class for the 10.5 hours there and 12 back because we had amassed the required 50,000 Elevate points each to redeem the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class award, through just flying a lot on Virgin America, both having Virgin Visa Credit Cards (we get 8 points per $1 base airfare using our cards to book Virgin America flights), some Amex Memberships Reward point transferring, and a good points buying sale around last winter time. Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic, despite being both Virgin, are separate brands and airlines, but they do partner together. This means if you are a Virgin Elevate member and have enough points, you can redeem them for award seats on Virgin Atlantic, also Virgin Australia, Hawaiian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and more.
Read MoreEmma Hardie Amazing Face Moringa Cleansing Balm
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Emma Hardie Amazing Face Moringa Cleansing Balm is a product I've seen get a lot of love by the fabulous Caroline Hirons, Tanya Burr, and many other UK beauty bloggers. While browsing through Liberty in London, I found it in one of the displays and decided to buy it and see if it lives up to the hype. And oh, does it ever. It is the hype.
Read More24 Hours in Paris
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I've been, admittedly, putting this post off for a month now. Partly because I got very busy at work, and a largely in the wake of the events a few weeks ago in Paris. It felt trivial at the time to post about my brief 24 hour visit from October right after the attacks. But life must go on, and it's important to see the bright spots after dark times.
Read MoreJust Stopped By to Say
/Happy Thanksgiving!
A Day In the Cotswolds
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A few days into our London trip, I had planned for the boyfriend and myself to go out to the Cotswolds for a day. Our friend Hope had gone a while back and had nothing but great to say about it. As someone who frequently reads historical fiction set in the 19th century and often in country settings much like this, how could I not visit?
Read MoreThere's No Place Like London
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Now that the after effects of jetlag are wearing off and I'm not staring at my ceiling bemoaning that it's 3:30 am, why am I awaaaaakeeeee I can finally get down to business and talk about my trip to London, which was the first proper international vacation my boyfriend and I have actually ever taken.
Read MoreComing Soon...
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About to depart London to return home. Blog post forthcoming and am flirting with idea of Boots/City Pharma haul video. Until then, cheers!
essence Get Big! Lashes Volume Triple Black Mascara
/Great lashes at a great price.
Want a great mascara for about the cost of a latte? Obviously yes, because who doesn't love a makeup product that's cheap and cheerful and does a good job. I was at Ulta last month actually look for this mascara's neon pink sister that I Love Extreme Crazy Volume mascara, but since that one has been raved about so much on Youtube, they were out of it. So I picked this one up instead for $3.99 and let me tell you, it's pretty good.
It's called triple black because it's supposed to 1- give maximum volume, 2- add density to lashes and 3- is carbon black for intense darkness.
Well, two of three ain't bad. I do notice there's definitely an uptick in volume, and it is quite black on my lashes, but I'm not convinced on the density part.
Still, it's a great workhorse mascara that's under $4 and is the one I decided to pack for my upcoming vacation. I really like brushes like this one, and honestly, this is pretty up there for me with Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes, which is one I reallllllly love, especially layered. Which, layering these two? Really, really nice.
This is my first essence product, and as I hear quite good things about the brand's affordability intersected with quality, it likely won't be my last.
You can find essence products at Ulta and some other drugstores and grocery stores depending on your area.
Fall Favorites Tag
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It's officially Fall and pumpkin spice, apple cider, changing of leaves time and I am full of the excite! Sure, the leaves don't change so prettily in the Bay Area and cool Fall days can be far and few between, but I will get a bit of autumnal weather in England so there we are.
As it is now Fall, I decided to play along with Jaclyn Hill's Fall Favorite Tag. Make sure to check out her video!
Read MoreOwn Your Throne with Poo~Pourri
/The toilet air freshener review no one asked for.
Look, we all know it- everyone does the doo. And it doesn't smell likes roses. But what if it could. I've been overtly curious about Poo~Pourri since I saw it's ingenious and wonderful commercial which has led to this strange, somewhat beauty-related in a loose way review. Take a moment now to watch their commercial:
This sort of cheeky marketing appeals to me on all levels and I applaud how humorous and effective this advert is for what is really a perfume for poo.
So cut a year later, I'm at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and I see some of this at the registers and thought, you know, why not? I've been wanting to check it out if anything because it's such a novelty. I picked up the Original Citrus kind, and after testing I can confirm it's not just simple novelty, this stuff does it's job and I want Poo~Pourri room sprays ASAP.
The Original Citrus smells so flipping good, I can't even. The Poo~Pourri website describes it as lemon + bergamot + lemongrass, which is one of my favorite citrusy scent profiles in general so it's like they made a beautiful porcelain throne spray from my dreams. Other scents include Call of the Wild (grapefruit), Deja'Poo (white flowers + citrus), Royal Flush (eucalyptus + spearmint), and a many more included a few roses scented ones so your business can, in fact, smell like roses.
I should also note the packaging is hilarious to read and there's even a little "meter" to let you know how much spray you have left. It's less hippy-dippy than the writing on Dr. Bronner's and very much in line with Poo-Pourri's tone. It reminds me a bit of Help Remedies' tone (which Help's website is a great way to kill some time one afternoon.)
I'd say this is a neat and affordable product to buy and try out because honestly, who doesn't like a nice smelling bathroom?
Anatomicals- Skincare With a Cheeky Flair
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It's always the same story, you go into Ulta for two things and walk out with seven. In my case, I happened to see a new range of eye-catching soaps called Anatomicals on the shelves and was hooked by the witty packaging and affordable price tag.
Read MoreLike a Virgin...Elevate Program
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Because I'm from the East Coast and currently live on the West Coast, there's a few times a year I go back and forth. And sometimes I also make jaunts down to Texas. Because of this, I've found Virgin America to be the best middle ground (for me) in terms of economical and comfort. I will fly Southwest when I have to and it makes sense, I've flown other airlines across country, but Virgin tends to me #1 choice.
Read MorePause, Hit Rewind
/The past couple of weeks have been a mixed bag of crazy. Two weeks ago on a Friday, I gave myself a mild concussion which left me out of sorts for the next few days. A new position opened up in my team at work that I'm applying for, which has been a little anxiety-riddling. Cut forward to this past weekend, I woke up early Saturday morning with moderate lower abdomen cramping and tried to be a trooper about it, but ultimately ended up at urgent care on Sunday with what they've diagnosed right now as an intestinal cramp. I did not know this was a thing.
Suffice to say, it's put the C25k training on pause, and I think I just need to start week 5 over because there's no way in hell I'm physically ready to jog for 20 minutes straight. I really still don't like running and I think I'm going to opt to devote more time to strength training and getting better at bicycle riding and make a return to the elliptical when this is all over. If running is your thing, you do you, more power to you, but for me it's just not my fave.
Moving along, I have a few beauty posts upcoming as well a travel related one talking about Virgin Elevate.
London time is creeping up fast, six more weeks!
The One Stick Balm To Rule Them All...To Me Anyway
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Ever since my first time around doing seasonal retail at Bath & Body Works in college, when I discovered the C.O. Bigelow Mentha Lip Shines and balm, I've been a bit obsessed with them on again/off again for a good while.
Read MoreMUJI Refresh Sheets
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As I mentioned in a previous post, I was off to Dallas this past weekend for a friend's birthday/cancer remission celebration.
It also happened to be one of the hottest weekends in Dallas, going into triple digits. Yay. Luckily, this is where an accidental purchase became so very handy.
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With round two of London accomplished, I thought I'd share my Top London Travel Tips for those who might be first or second-time goers to this amazing town. It might be some familiar bits for the veteran world wanderers, but hopefully there's a few nuggets of wisdom you might not have heard yet or will inspire your future travels to what is, basically, my current favorite city in the world.
Before you think about dropping a lot of quid on a black cab, or think you absolutely must fly into London Heathrow, take a pause and read on, because you might not necessarily require either things for a great trip, but you should probably still bring an umbrella.