It’s been a while since I wrote about my skin care routine. Which you can read My More Consistent Skincare Routine. My routine is much simpler now and easier than it was in the past. I… More
April Favorites
Medusa Jewelry– Finally I was able to switch out the post for my medusa. I went for the 8mm post and is the perfect length for me, not to tight or to big. Before I had a 10 or a 11mm post. I still have enough wiggle room for movement. I paid $9.99 for 4 posts.
Lotus earrings– I was browsing through amazon, what else is new and stumbled on to these earrings. You get 4 different colors, silver, gold, rose gold & black for $6.99. I love how they look and are my favorite for earrings right now.
Fitbit Versa lite – I updated my fitbit flex 2 and I am so happy that I did. I have really enjoyed the versa lite, especially the heart rate monitor for workouts and being able log your workouts, water on the watch. Plus I can check the time and see my step count on my wrist.
I used up the rest of my Pacifica bb cream and was cures to try something new but still on the lines of a natural BB Cream. I picked up Burt’s Bees BB Cream with SPF 15 in light & Physicians Formula Super BB All-in-1 Beauty Balm Cream SPF 30 in light. From what I can tell the Burts Bee is more neutral in color than Physicians Formula, more on the warmer side. Both work well for me since I am neutral with slightly warm undertones. Both apply really nice with a brush, I have yet to try with a sponge.
OGX Bodifying + Bamboo Fiber-Full Sugar High Tousle Spray I really like how much volume this spray gives my hair and does not fall flat. A light hand is needed, at lest for my fine hair, when applying. I normally apply on damp hair and blow dry. I might also add a little volume powder too just for extra poof.
In my April boxy Charm I received a Artist Couture – Diamond Glow Powder Its a loose Powder highlight and can be used on the eyes, lips, face and body. Its amazing! It gives you just enough shimmer.
Pink recently had one of their 8 for $28 sales for underwear and I bought myself some more. I normally wait for a big sale like that to buy underwear from Pink.
Holy Grail Hair and Makeup Favorites of 2018
Too continue my Holy Grails of 2018 I made list of hair and makeup favorites that I really enjoyed and repurchased thought out 2018. You can read about my Holy Grail Home Favorites and Holy Grail Skin Care Favorites.
NYX Epic Ink Liner NYX is insanely dark, pigmented formula that doesn’t flake or fade throughout the day for under $10. My go to liner.
Urban Decay HeatI bought the Urban Decay Heat palette during a black friday sale from ulta for 50% off. Normally $54 and I got it for $27. The colors are gorgeous colors and they blend so well. I can use this palette with no primer if I choose to.
Both Morphe Jacklyn Hill Palette & 35M Boss Mood Artistry Palette are to die for. The colors are gorgeous and buttery. I have no need for primer when I use ether palette and the staying power is great. I don’t know which one is my favorite out of the two, it would have to be a tie. I almost got the Jacklyn Hill Vault Collection instead of the Boss Mood Palette, but then I saw the color story of it in the store and decided for the price and how many shadows you get compared to the 4 and it’s almost the same color story. I thought it was a win win.
Pacifica’s Ultra CC Cream Radiant Foundation and Alight Multi-Mineral BB Cream Some days I like to use ether one when I want a no makeup makeup look. Both are very light and natural looking.I normally will use one of them on work days and need to be up at 5am, add some mascara and I’m ready to go. The bb cream is a little heaver then the cc cream, I tend to use when I work earlier than normal and have to be up at 4am. Who has time that early to do makeup? Not me.
Maybelline TattooStudio Waterproof Eyebrow Gel This is a game changer. At first I hated it. The spoolie is too big and makes a mess. Then I tired it with a tiny/small angle brush, and I love it! The gel does stay on for about 2-3 if you don’t scrub at your eyebrows, when washing your face. Normally by day 3 I just fill in a tiny bit and I’m good to go, then later that night i will wash it off complete with hardly any effort.
P Quicke Me Light Dry Shampoo. I picked up the light one for blondes and pastel hair because I have light pinkish color at the moment. It works really well at soaking up any oil I might have in my hair and makes it look so fresh.
Puff Me Up Light is one of my favorites to use to add volume to my hair. A couple of puffs in my hair and we have some big hair.
GlowSpin : Premium Facial Cleansing System I have been loving this Spin Brush. It came with 3 brush heads- daily cleansing facial brush, exfoliating facial brush, and silicone facial brush and 2 settings a lower speed for a gentle, everyday cleanse, or a higher speed for deeper exfoliation. My skin has been looking great since I have been using it.
Overtone I bought the Plumberry Kit with the extreme pink and vibrant purple. I think my favorite part of coloring your hair a fun color is the fade out. Basically Overtone is a conditioning treatment with color and extra-hydrating ingredients. The colors lasts forever me.
Holy Grail Health Favorites of 2018
Too continue my Holy Grails of 2018 I made list of health favorites that I really enjoyed and repurchased thought out 2018. You can read about my Holy Grail Skin Care Favorites,Holy Grail Home Favorites and Hair and Makeup Favorites.
Fitbit Flex 2 – For the longest time I wanted a fitbit. I use my Fitbit Flex 2 to track my steps, sleep, water, period, and fitness. I love tracking all of that on my fitbit. For the most point I reach my 10,000 steps 5 days out of the week. I just find it neat to see how many steps I take in a day. Or how much water I’m drinking for the day. Sleep is one that I need to work on more and I think Im getting better with it. Seems I don’t get enough sleep at night or I’m too restless. In time I would like to up date to one that tracks heart rate for when I work out. *Its seems the flex 2 is no longer offered on the Fitbit website and has been replaced with another model.*
Tone it up– I have tired so many fitness apps but I always go back to the Tone It Up. They have so many type of work outs to pick from. It has daily workouts, on demand workouts and studio classes that you sign up at a certain time and can chat with before and after the class. Every week they send emails of workouts for that week. This app does have a monthly fee of I believe $12.
Diva Cup– I started using one in March or April of last year and it has been life changing! I absolutely love mine. I hardly feel the cup, once I trimmed the stem and it settles in. Honesty I forget sometime I have my period. The best part, absolutely no leaks. I have also saved so much money since buying and switching from tampons and liners to my diva cup. You also save on creating zero waste for the environment, since it is reusable.
Zenni Optical– They offer so many affordable glasses its unreal. We no longer buy our glasses in store. I have 6 pairs of glasses from them. I don’t want to know how much I would spent in a store or at a Dr’s office for glasses between my husband and myself. Im so glad I found them. They also accept FSA/HSA.
March Favorites
Mariro Bascado Drying lotion
This last cycle of mine I had about 4-5 big fat zits on my face. Lovely. This made them disappear. This is my new best friend and all you need is a q-tip size do on the zit and some beauty sleep. Magic.
Coco Cabona Cream
Tropical island. Yum. Hydrating. Not much more to say, but smell it. Just don’t eat it.
Yes To Dual Ended Mask Tool
I was so happy to find this tool. It is so helpful with my skincare. The straight edge is to apply mask and the round edge helps lift peel masks. It’s also very easy to clean off and no more wasting product. Some masks do apply better then others and I will use my fingers for my nose and other harder areas.
EcoTools Facial Cleansing Brush
I like to use this guy when take off my makeup at night. The bristles are soft enough that I can use daily without making my skin red or irritated. Its also very compact & travel friendly. I still use my battery operated facial spin brush, for shower time with the harder bristle head for deeper exfoliation.
Litter Genie Plus Pail & So Phresh Odor-Lock Crystal Cat Litter
Im not sure how we have made it this long without the litter genie or using a non clay litter . For my two cats the genie holds up to two weeks of waste. Since we don’t use a clay litter anymore, it gives us a bit more room. I have yet to notice a smell coming from the genie. I empty it out every two weeks when I completely change the cat box. The refills last about 8 weeks or so. You can buy a 4 pack for about $20 and be set roughly for the whole year. Not bad in my opinion. Before we would use little doggie bags and throw them in the garbage. As for the crystal litter, it awesome. The tracking of litter is so minimal now. Occasionally there is a few crystals that get kicked out but nothing like before. The crystals also absorb the urine so there is less to scoop, which is also awesome. The bag does say that it can absorb liquid, waste and odors the box up to a month for 1 cat or two weeks if you have 2 cats. Like I said before I change it out completely every two weeks.
22 Easy Ways To Be Happier This Year
At some point or another we start feeling drained and burned out or maybe picked up some bad habits that can cause you to feel tired and worn out. It’s best to take a pause and give yourself a good look, so you can try to improve your energy and happiness levels every day.
Here are some ways to help you from having your energy drained (both spiritually and physically) and to be happier throughout the year.
- Put your devices away for an hour.
- Be more grateful.
- Go to sleep a little earlier. Allow yourself enough sleep to wake up refreshed.
- Doing to much.
- Spend more time outside. Take walks. Stand in the sun. More nature, more life!
- Let yourself be sad without guilt. Don’t wish you felt better right away. Sometimes you need to be sad.
- Write down your goals. Track your progress and make adjustment to your goals as needed.
- Make a vision board.
- Spend some time alone. Sometime alone is good for you.
- Start a journal. Write about the day.
- Read more books.
- Eat a healthy.
- Move your body more. Lift weights, try yoga , do Zumba, dance. Get moving.
- Learn something. Learning is good for you. Never stop.
- Take daily quiet time. Try meditation.
- Get rid of some things. Don’t let yourself be buried in clutter. If it doesn’t make bring you joy, you probably don’t need it.
- Spending unnecessary money.
- Celebrate victories. Big or small.
- Make people smile. One of the fastest ways to feel happy is by making someone else happy. Do a good deed. Smile at a stranger. Volunteer your time. Buy someone a meal.
- Say no. Stop saying yes and feeling obligated to do things that you don’t want to do.
- Focus on the long term goals.
- Have more fun.
Holy Grail Home Favorites of 2018
Here is a list of items that we really enjoyed in our home for 2018. This list isn’t really big but they have made life a little smoother for us in our home. You can read about my 9 Holy Grail Skin Care Favorites Of 2018
Method Cleaning Supplies We started using Method early in the year. I wanted to find a cleaner that was more natural around our cats but would also do the job. So far we use the laundry soap, Bathroom cleaners- toilet and daily shower, Daily cleaner for the kitchen, Antibacterial cleaner for the cat box and Degreaser for the stove and oven. For natural cleaners, their line is very affordable.
Echo Dot Alexa reminds me to water the plants, take my nightly vitamins and insulin, time dinner or laundry and she also plays Spotify for our at home work out sessions. I also have her telling me each morning what the weather and news is like for the day. My husband on the other hand, uses her to tell him jokes or to confuse the cats by playing cat noises.
Kindle Fire HD 8 I love using my Kindle Fire for all of my ebooks. I could use my iPad Pro for my books but I don’t really like the idea of walking around with a tablet of that size. The kindle is the perfect size. I take it on the bus with me on my way to work/home, read during my lunch break, camping and day road trips. I don’t keep many apps on it besides my books on it since I have the iPad Prom for games and drawing.
Seagate 2TB Game Hard Drive for PlayStation 4 For awhile we played russian roulette with the games that we had installed on our PS4, since it only has 500 Gb of memory built in. It became a pain having to delete games that we both wanted to play but didn’t have enough memory space on the console. One of my favorite games Elder Scrolls Online takes up roughly 95GB alone, and we have 23 games right now. Since we bought the 2 TB external hard drive, it has fixed the problem and have yet to run out of space. We don’t have the issue anymore of logging on and finding out the other person deleted the game that you wanted to play and now have to wait almost an hour or more to install.
