May 2016 Favorites

I think this might be the biggest monthly favorites video that I've filmed to date. I began trying out a lot of new skincare products in mid-April, so because of that I discovered a lot of amazing skincare products for oily/acne prone skin that I'm going to rave about in this video. If you're looking for natural or Korean skincare recommendations, then you're going to be really happy with the things I'll be recommending. Apart from skincare, May was also a great month for new beauty launches and discoveries. I was able to fully embrace light makeup and glossy lips thanks to some of the products that you'll be hearing about in my video. And the fancy Marvis Toothpastes will also be making an appearance because I'm still obsessed with them.

Sephora Hand and Lip Masks

Sheet masks have been taking the beauty world by storm as of late, and it's not just Korean brands who are making great sheet masks. Sephora started making their own sheet masks sometime last year or in late 2014, and they've now expanded their collection to include hand and lip masks. I'm not going to lie to you, the reason why I even picked these up was because they sounded kind of weird. The second reason I picked these up was because both my hands and lips have been on the dryer side as of late, which is a big no-no for me. So I put these to the test for you guys, and I even recorded some very awkward Snapchats in the process.

Top 10 Affordable Makeup Brushes

I don't know why it's taken me so long to make a video about my favorite affordable brushes. I'd say that around 80% of my brush collection is composed of very affordable brushes, many of which are over 4 years old. In this video I only decided to include brushes that are readily available at any Target, Walmart, and Ulta store. Maybe I'll do another affordable brushes videos with brands that you can buy online in the near future if you guys want me to, but for now I'm going to share my favorite drugstore brushes and how I use them on my face.

Nails of the Day | Relentless

The other day when I went to Walmart I came across a brand new display of L.A. Colors nail polishes that claimed to last up to 10 days. With claims like that, you know I had to pick up one of these bad boys up to see if they really hold up over a week. There was a decent selection of shades available from the classic white, to very unique shades like this vibrant purple. I went ahead and bought a color that I was 100% sure that I didn't already own, and I was right! I don't have anything as vibrant as this purple shade, so it made me very happy to get such a fun shade for the summer. Now for the important thing, does this nail polish really last up to 10 days?

Review | Marvis Toothpaste

When I began to test out Marvis Toothpastes I asked myself this. Why do we spend so much money on makeup and skincare, but hesitate on splurging on a toothpaste? First of all $10.50 isn't even that expensive, but when you're constantly buying from the drugstore you kind of see that $10.50 price tag and do a little double take. I have seen the various colorful Marvis Toothpaste tubes on the Sephora website plenty of times, but I would just ignore them for the longest time thinking I was doing just fine with the major American toothpaste companies. After giving the beloved Marvis Toothpaste a fair shot, I've definitely changed the way I view toothpastes and noticed how much cleaner my mouth feels by using a more gentle toothpaste.

Outfit of the Day | Feeling Blue

It's been a month since my last fashion post and since then I've made the big decision to stop supporting unethical fast fashion retailers. That means saying adieu to shopping at Zara, H&M, Forever 21, Topshop, and even Uniqlo. There's nothing wrong with the actual clothes themselves, but I personally started to feel very guilty when I made the association between a getting good deal at the cost of someone's life. In order to stop supporting fast fashion I've had to rekindle my love with thrift shopping. At first it was a bit tough because thrift shopping requires a lot more time and patience, but now I've come to enjoy digging through the racks to find hidden gems like this silk blue top which I've been wearing a lot recently.

Glossier | Best & Worst

Nowadays I'm all about the minimal makeup look, and no brand does minimal beauty better than Glossier. The company was founded by Emily Weiss of the incredibly popular blog, IntoTheGloss.com (one of my all-time faves). Glossier's motto is "Skin first. Makeup second." so it's all about letting your  real skin peek through and enhancing your natural beauty. I've been raving about the Boy Brow for a few months now, but I thought it would be very helpful to review all the Glossier that I currently own and have tried in a video. That way you'll get an idea of the products I love, the ones I like, and the ones that just didn't work out for me.

Review | Salvatore Ferragamo Emozione Dolce Fiore

I'm sure everyone immediately thinks of shoes and leather products when they hear about Salvatore Ferragamo, I know I personally do. Last year the fashion house launched the very elegant Emozione fragrance which features a blend of floral notes and woody undertones. The word Emozione means "emotion" in Italian, and the fragrance actually aims to capture all the emotions that one experiences in life. This year Salvatore Ferragamo launched Emozione's lighter and sweeter sister, Emozione Dolce Fiore. Dolce Fiore means "sweet flower" in Italian, and that's exactly what this perfume is- a sweet floral perfume. Look at me use what I learned in my Italian 101 class in a blog post!

Menstrual Cup FAQ

Since I published My Menstrual Cup Experience video last November I've received the same questions over and over about menstrual cups. I'm not going to lie, some of the questions I've received on both of my channels have been a little alarming to me because it goes to show what a poor job schools are doing with teaching sexual education and women's health. Talking about your menstruation shouldn't be considered a taboo or disgusting, it is normal and healthy part of a woman's life. Thankfully I'm not shy about talking about these things so I've accumulated 10 of the most commonly asked questions and answered them in a video. I've also made sure to include helpful articles and websites to help women learn more about menstrual cups and their vagina.

Recreating My Prom Makeup

A lot has happened since I went to prom eight years ago. I went to college, studied abroad in Paris, worked a few jobs, graduated college, chopped off my hair, and started making YouTube videos. As a high school senior I had very limited knowledge of makeup, but YouTube changed all of that. I began following people who loved makeup like Judy (itsjudytime), Elle (allthatglitters21), and Lauren (panacea81). I practiced and practiced my makeup skills so I could do my makeup, as well as my friends makeup on prom night. Looking back at those pictures, I'm really glad I stuck to what I was comfortable with and what I thought made me look pretty but there are a few things I would change about the makeup now. In this video I'll be taking inspiration from my old prom look and also putting on my prom dress for the first time in eight years.

The Caolion #PerfectPores Kit

Pores, we all have them and for some reason we always want to magically get "rid" of them. We use silicone based primers to diminish the appearance of pores, abrasive exfoliators to "shrink" pores, and harsh strips in hopes to get "eliminate" of those pesky blackheads. I know there's a million and one articles and videos out there where people claim they've found the solution to get rid of big pores, but in reality the concept of opening and closing pores by using products is a myth. A huge myth that has made the cosmetic industry thousands, if not millions of dollars. The size of your pores is determined by your genes, so if you have large pores then you have your family to thank for that. While you can't do much about the physical size of your pores, you can in fact decongest them to give the appearance that they're a bit smaller. In this post I'm going to be talking about the Caolion #PerfectPores Kit which I've been mentioning a lot on Twitter and Snapchat. It's honestly some magical skincare!

5 Things Your Should Know About Getting a Double Helix Piercing

A few days ago I decided to get a few new additions to my growing piercing collection. What can I say? I just really love piercings. This time around I decided to get a double helix, which is basically two cartilage piercings in close proximity of one another. Helix piercings are one of the most popular among men and women, but there are a few things you should about them before getting one. In this post I'm going to run through all the things you should know before getting a double helix (or a helix piercing in general). I'm going to be talking about everything from pain, to the heated piercing gun vs. needle debate.

Review | Lancôme Juicy Shaker

Here's a little fact about me, I am a huge Lisa Eldridge fan. I've been following her channel for years now, and she's the reason why I've been embracing more natural makeup for close to 5 years now. When she was named the newest Lancôme Creative Director I just about lost my marbles. I've always loved Lancôme, in fact my very first high-end makeup purchase was one of the iconic Juicy Tubes that every girl in the early 2000's had. Earlier this year many of the European based bloggers started raving about the newest Lancôme launch, the Juicy Shaker. As you can imagine, I wanted to get my hands on a Juicy Shaker really bad but I had to wait for the product to launch in the U.S. in mid-April. Now that I have one I'm going to let you know if they truly live up to the hype, or if they're a product you should skip.

Nails of the Day | Royal Crescent Gardens

As much as I truly hated the Nails Inc Paint Can that I recently tried out, I just couldn't stay mad at Nails Inc. I did end up going back to Sephora to return the Nails Inc Paint Can, but instead of getting my money back I decided to exchange it for a new bottle of their fabulous Nailkale polishes. My favorite color to wear on my nails is mint green, I actually kind of have a thing for that color if you've noticed my blog's logo. When I saw this color I knew I needed it in my mint nail polish collection and thankfully it is quite different to the other colors I currently own.

Review | OSEA Malibu

Recently I've been getting so many questions about my skincare routine on social media and YouTube and I'm finally spilling the beans on what I've been using for the last few weeks. I've been switching my skincare products to more natural and Korean products, and to be honest my skin has never looked better. My skin is clear, looks much brighter, and blemishes have been controlled significantly. In this video I'm going to share my experience about the natural and vegan skincare products by OSEA Malibu. As you can guess by their name, the company is based in Malibu, California and they specialize in natural, vegan, and non-toxic skincare products.

Birchbox May 2016

The last two Birchbox boxes were absolutely incredible! They included some of the best selection of samples that I've ever received in a subscription service, so you can imagine how excited I was to open up the May Birchbox. This month's box was made in collaboration with Keds and inside of every box was a sunscreen sample. I got around to actually choosing my SPF sample and I went with the very innovative Supergoop! Sun Defying Sunscreen Oil which is supposed to be a very moisturizing broad-spectrum SPF. I don't know if everyone gets as excited about SPF as I do, but it's such an important step in my skincare routine.

5 Floral Perfumes to Check Out

I may not wear clothing with florals, but I do love myself a nice floral perfume. My love for floral perfumes almost doesn't make any sense when I really think about it. Here you have this tomboy who really doesn't care much for flowers smelling like she walked through a flower field. For whatever reason it may be, I'm just really attracted to the delicate and feminine floral scents. I may not dress like a lady, talk like a lady, but I sure smell like one classy lady (although I'm way too awkward to be considered one).

Found In San Diego | The Crack Shack

This past weekend I sadly became a crack addict, a Crack Shack addict to be exact. I have my parents to blame for this since they were the ones who enabled me to devour the dangerously delicious fried chicken. Normally I'm not this crazy about fried chicken, but I quickly learned that this ain't your run of the mill fried chicken that you can get at the drive-thru window. If you're into healthy meals like kale and quinoa salads or those fancy but gross detox drinks, then look away. This is the cheat meal to end all cheat meals, the comfort food that will magically get rid of any of your worries, and the meal that will create the most epic food baby.

Review | CoverGirl Clean Matte BB Cream and Katy Kat Matte

The drugstore summer launches are coming and CoverGirl has a brand new BB Cream for oily skin and a whole range of demi-matte lipsticks. The Clean Matte BB Cream is the very first CoverGirl BB Cream that's made specifically for oily skin, so it promises to leave the skin shine free all day. Another exciting release is the widely anticipated Katy Kat Matte Lipsticks that were created by Katy Perry herself. The Katy Kat Matte range offers 11 different shades ranging from natural nude shades, to loud and in your face colors like black and lilac. I literally picked these two products just 5 ago and it didn't take me too much time to figure out if they were hot or not so much.

Watercolor Nail Art

I feel like I've tried almost every nail art technique imaginable. Dotting tools? Check. Nail stripers? Check. Stickers and gems? Yep, I can check those off too! I've even used straws and toothbrushes to create a splattered effect. And yes, I've even tried the very messy water marble technique which I made a tutorial about and it happened to be my most disliked video I've ever uploaded to YouTube. In all honesty, it was a pretty terrible video. One technique that I had never attempted was the watercolor nail art technique. For some reason I thought it was going to be very challenging to get that effect with regular nail polish, but it turns out that all you need are a few colorful Sharpies and some rubbing alcohol. Yeah, that's basically all you really need for this easy and playful springtime nail art.

Review | Nails Inc Paint Can Spray Can Nail Polish

It's not often that a product shakes up the beauty world like the spray can nail polish did earlier this year (see what I did there?). Leave it up to Nails Inc to come up with a truly innovative way to paint your nails. The Paint Can Spray Can Nail Polish was designed for the woman who doesn't have too much time to perfectly apply nail polish. I had heard mixed review about the Paint Can polishes on YouTube, but I still decided to purchase a can and try it out myself. Unlike other reviews I've seen, I'll be showing you how it applies and also how it wears for a week. You already know I'm a huge fan of Nails Inc if you read this post, so I'm definitely going to be expecting this to wear as amazing as their other formulas.

Lip Liners for Spring

Once upon a time I was not a fan of lip liners, in fact I thought they were a complete waste of time. Well things have certainly changed quite a lot since then and now I have a pretty decent sized lip liner collection. You don't even want to know how many browny nudes lip liners I have, because it's honestly a bit embarrassing at this point. Since I've developed quite a love affair with lip liners as of late, I've decided to dedicate a full post to five of my favorite lip liners for spring. And yes, the browny nudes colors will be making an appearance in this post.

The 5 Product Face

If you follow me on Snapchat, then you've seen me really embrace minimal makeup recently. Sometimes I just can't be bothered by a long and complicated routine, and that's when the 5 Product Face comes into play. This is a very quick routine that you can do when you've hit snooze a few too many times or plan to do your makeup on the go. The 5 Product Face has undergone many changes over my time as a beauty blogger, but this is my latest take on the minimal makeup look. Think bronzed skin, feathered brows, and a touch of shine on the lips.

Empty Products #7

It has been forever since my last Empty Products post! And if I'm honest it has been 9 months to be exact, so you can only imagine how many products I managed to accumulate. Someone should have called TLC on me because I was just hoarding empty products underneath my bed for the purpose of recording a video. I swear saving your trash is only logical in the YouTube/blogging world, otherwise you'd be a complete weirdo. But if you're a fan of quick reviews, then I'm sure you're going to enjoy this latest empty products post. There's a lot of skincare, body care, sheet masks, and mascaras in this post.

Review | derma e Evenly Radiant Dark Circle Eye Crème

By now I think you know that I really love derma e skincare products. Derma e is completely natural, vegan, and cruelty-free skincare company with an incredible range of skincare products. So many of their products have become staples in my skincare routine, and this one is no exception. Months ago I raved about the Evenly Radiant Brightening Serum in this post and it's still my go-to serum. To absolutely no surprise the Evenly Radiant Dark Circle Eye Crème has completely stolen my heart and become my go-to eye cream for both day and night. In this post I'm going to let you know why I love it and if it really does anything to minimize dark circles.

Mother's Day at Las Americas Premium Outlets

Mother's Day is a only week away and if your mom is anything like mine, then chances are that she loves a good shopping trip. One of our all-time favorite places to go shopping in San Diego has been Las Americas Premium Outlets because of the wide array of stores and all the savings to be done. In this post I'm going to share some of our favorite shops to visit, as well as some of the activities you can expect to see if you visit Las Americas Premium Outlets on Mother's Day weekend! PS. There's also going to be a little giveaway for my local followers that you won't want to miss out. Hint hint.