KL Polish

KL Polish

If you hang around the YouTube beauty community, you probably have heard the name Kathleen Lights. Kathleen is one of the most popular beauty gurus currently on the site, charming viewers with her bubbly nature, adorable dogs, and candid chats about her life and anxiety issues. I personally think she's great and has had a great track record curating collections and colors in her brand collaborations. And as things seem to go lately with the big name YouTubers, Kathleen launched her own brand in recent months, a nail polish brand called KL Polish.

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Cheap Drugstore Cleansing Oil Alert!

Cheap Drugstore Cleansing Oil Alert!

After lamenting the sadly discontinued Nuance by Salma Hayek Cleansing Oil, I've been hoping the drugstore could fill the hole it's left in my heart, and oh, it has! 

Palmer's Cocoa Butter has thrown its hat into the cleansing oil game with their Skin Therapy Cleansing Oil, devoid of mineral oil and instead full of nicer ones like soybean, grapeseed, rosehip, etc. It is so so good. 

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The Clever Hair Product With Backpacking A-peel

Wash that long flight right out of your hair!

                       via Lush Cosmetics 

In an effort to bring as little liquids as possible when backpacking in Italy to ease going through airport security and avoid any messes, I've been testing out the Lush Shampoo Bar in Montalbano. It's the one that is quite unmistakably lemony, promising to "make hair shine bright like a diamond from root to tip." The Lush counter girls were also telling that these bars tend to last a long time, sometimes longer than a bottle of shampoo. 

So does it work well? 

First thing to consider, if you're not a fan sulfates this won't be for you. It's the first ingredient on the list, right before fragrance. I personally don't mind since I haven't been coloring my hair and don't wash my hair every day, but it's important to keep in mind for those looking to avoid SLS. 

That being said, this thing suds well, very very well. I don't think you'd even need to run the bar over your hair, you could easily build up lather in your hands and go town. It also smells divine thanks to the lemon oils and fragrance. It's very citrusy without being cloying or overpowering. I find a little goes a long way and it gets the job done cleaning. My hair is squeaky clean after use, and as far as I'm concerned it does what it says on the tin. You will want to use a conditioner after this, whether it be the Lush one or another kind. I'm more middle ground and kinda eh on the one conditioner bar I have, but it's not awful either. If you want that feeling of slipping, creamy conditioning though, I suggest you stick with a regular cream one.

Speaking of tins, you can buy one from Lush to carry your shampoo bar in which really does make this ideal for travel. Aside from this one, there's twelve types of shampoo bars in total to choose from, making it easy to find the perfect one for your hair. Fans of Honey I Wash The Kids soap will be delighted to know there is a corresponding shampoo bar with that same oh-so-lovely honey toffee scent. 

You can find the Lush Shampoo Bars online or in-stores ranging from $10.95-$11.95, and considering how much use you can get out of them that's a pretty great price.

 

Trilogy Make-Up Be Gone Cleansing Balm

Trilogy Make-Up Be Gone Cleansing Balm

I'm a bit of a cleansing balm addict. When you find a great one, it really feels like it can do anything: take makeup off, cleanse, treat, double duty as a mask, maybe pay off my taxes? Okay, that last one is reaching just a wee bit but hey, a girl can dream! 

The Trilogy brand from New Zealand is slightly newer to the US skincare market, but every product I've tried so far I've ended up loving and gave the brand a nod in my winter skincare favorites. The Cream Cleanser, Hydrating Mist Toner, and Certified Organic Rosehip Oil Antioxidant+ are all incredibly lovely and constantly rotate their way into my routine. So when I saw they had released a cleansing balm when I was at Whole Foods recently, I had to try it.

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Neutrogena Healthy Skin Anti-aging Perfector

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Anti-aging Perfector

I picked this up on a whim at CVS, hearing some good about it. Alas, I think this is more suited for those who already have really good skin and don't need much coverage because it's pretty sheer. I make it work right now by using a lot of concealer where I need to color correct and even things out, but I wish it were just a little more packing in the pigments department.

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My Current Favorite Travel Apps

My Current Favorite Travel Apps

In the digital age with an app dropping every five minutes, there's a lot to choose from in the travel market. Everyone has a few favorites, be in the app that'll pull up a city map, or order a cab and rate it, and the ever important and occasionally handy translation tool.

For a long time I resisted apps, being a bit semi-Luddite about it. I think one can get along perfectly fine in their travels without relying on them, but I have to admit...they are so handy, when you have the data and Wi-Fi to support using them, of course! It's always a good idea to check the Wi-Fi situation of your destination. 

Having now embraced apps more, here are my current favorite ones for travel.

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Sunday Riley Blue Moon Tranquility Cleansing Balm

Sunday Riley Blue Moon Tranquility Cleansing Balm

I've recently gotten into cleansing balms, because quite frankly I think they're amazing. A good one removes makeup gently, cleanses, and leaves the skin baby soft. When Sunday Riley launched Blue Moon Tranquility Balm, featuring the blue tansy oil popularly in their night oil Luna, I figured it was a good time to test!

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A Drugstore Anastasia Brow Whiz Dupe?

A Drugstore Anastasia Brow Whiz Dupe?

As someone with dark brunette hair, finding the perfect eyebrow pencil can be Sisyphean to say the least. So many pencils, even listed as dark brown, lean reddish brown and end up looking a bit rubbish on my brows. I've had luck with Tarte Emphas-Eyes and Anastasia Brow Whiz pencils, but they aren't cheap at $19 and $18 respectively.

And then L'Oreal said, "hey, let's dupe that!" Probably. 

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City Pharma/French Pharmacy Haul

City Pharma/French Pharmacy Haul

Much belatedly, considering I was in Paris in October, here is my French pharmacy/City Pharma haul. Given than it's been over two months now, I've had time to test these products pretty thoroughly so consider this a haul and a review after months of trial.

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Virgin America Upper Class SFO-LHR/LHR-SFO

Virgin America Upper Class SFO-LHR/LHR-SFO

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. 

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essence Get Big! Lashes Volume Triple Black Mascara

Great lashes at a great price.

essencegetbiglashes

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.

Own Your Throne with Poo~Pourri

The toilet air freshener review no one asked for. 

poopourri

 

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? 

Like a Virgin...Elevate Program

Like a Virgin...Elevate Program

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.

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MUJI Travel-Sized Beauty

MUJI Travel-Sized Beauty

MUJI has become quite the popular cult brand in the beauty community, notably for its organization products, travel-sized containers, and more recently it's simple and effective skincare lines.

I'm fortunate to have a small brick and mortar MUJI storefront in my town, and with Gen Con looming, it was the perfect time to pick up some travel supplies for my toiletry kit, which is also MUJI.

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Tortuga Air Carry On Backpack

Tortuga Air Carry On Backpack

Tired of my wheeled carry on that's on it's last legs and looking for something more portable to use for weekend trips or hauls where I get away with less clothing items, I decided to get the Tortuga Air.

The regular Tortuga website's recommendations suggested I might be too short for their regular Tortuga backpack, which holds about 20% more stuff and comes with a few more bells and whistles.

So what does the Tortuga Air feature?

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