Found in San Diego | Carlsbad Premium Outlets

I still remember back when the Carlsbad Premium Outlets were the only outlets in San Diego county. My family would drive from Tijuana all the way up to Carlsbad in order to score some great deals at the factory stores, the trip would often take 3+ hours since the line at the border were ridiculously long in the 90's. Back then you had a decent selection of store such as GAP Factory and Banana Republic, but the Carlsbad Premium Outlets have really stepped up their game since then. If you're a beauty fan like myself, then this is the place to come splurge and save some money. I'm talking big luxury brands like Tom Ford, Lancôme, Estée Lauder, Bobbi Brown, and YSL for 10-30% off! That's way more than waiting around for a Sephora VIB sale and these deals can be found everyday.

Found in San Diego | The Flower Fields

I think by now pretty much all of you know how proud I am to be from San Diego. I tend to mention my hometown in a lot of my posts because I absolutely love it here, but now I've decided to start a new blog post series to highlight some of my favorite places and areas in San Diego. To kick off this series, I'm going to share the stunning Flower Fields that are only open for a few months out of the year. You might remember The Flower Fields from a post I did last year, but this time around I got to see more of the fields and learn about the variety of events held here. Whether you have a family or not, this is a fantastic place to visit and release your inner flower child.

Random Favorites #1

In case you haven't heard, my vlog channel got a little bit of a re-branding and is now my lifestyle channel called Bonus Laura. Apart from posting an occasional vlog, I will also be using the channel to share my other interests such as food and pop culture. Since my regular favorites videos focus so much on makeup and beauty products, I've decided to start sharing my lifestyle and food related favorites over on my second channel. My first favorites has a lot of healthy food options and a little natural remedy that has helped me establish a much more healthy sleeping pattern. And there's also a little cameo from a little dog that wanted some attention while I was filming.

Thin Tea Review | Does It Really Work?

You've probably seen a lot of these detox teas on Instagram in recent months, I know I certainly have. I've tried detox and weight loss teas long before the Instagram trend, so when I was reached by Thin Tea to try their tea out I agreed to give it a try so I could compare my experience with the other teas that I've tried. The Thin Tea products are all-natural and quite different to other teas that I've tried in the past. Do I think these work miracles? No, but I will talk about my experience with them and what I've done in order to help these teas to perform better. This isn't a "get thin fast" scheme whatsoever, so I will be discussing my experience and lifestyle changes that will hopefully help me for the long run.

The Easy Way to Cook Spaghetti Squash

Just like many of you, one of my goals for this year was to change my lifestyle and eating habits. After being a yo-yo dieter for the majority of my life, this year I promised myself that I wouldn't fall for those "get slim quick" schemes. Instead I want to focus my energy into making small changes that will allow me to have a healthier relationship with food. Some of the changes I've been implementing into my lifestyle has been finding healthy alternatives for foods that I enjoy, such as pasta. Having pasta once in awhile isn't bad for you, but having too big of a portion is. A way I've avoided the temptation of overeating pasta has been by switching it with spaghetti squash, which is a much healthier alternative. For my very first cooking video I'm going to be showing you how easy it is to cook spaghetti squash at home.

Best Planner for Bloggers and Vloggers

One of my goals for 2016 was to become more organized since I do have a lot of my plate in my online world. I currently have and run three YouTube channels, a bilingual beauty blog, and four Instagram accounts. On top of that, I do have other social media outlets to worry about and of course my private life. Last year I found myself a bit overwhelmed with balancing my personal and blog life at times, so I made it a goal to learn how to organize my life better in the new year. I've been an avid planner user since my days in elementary school, so I've tried numerous planner throughout my life. Although I was more than content with my cheap planners, I decided to give a more expensive planner a shot in 2016. The planner that I ended up picking up is the Family/ME Planner by a local company called Plum Paper Designs.

Is Social Media Fake?

Ever since Australian blogger and YouTuber, Essena O'Neill, published her heartfelt video about why she quit social media there's been a conversation about whether or not social media is fake. I've seen many people discredit O'Neill's claims and experiences, but to be honest no one but her knows what she went through. To most of us social media provides us with a platform to share our interests and meet people, but we also have to be completely honest with ourselves and admit that there are aspects that are a little fake. I was recently tagged to participate in the Stripped Down Challenge, which is a series of videos aiming to prove that social media is in fact not fake. The video contains over 10 minutes of raw, unfiltered, and unedited footage about my thoughts about social media and Essena O'Neill. Unlike other people who have participated in this challenge, I will not be bashing O'Neill for her own personal experience about the topic.

Top 15 Memories of 2015 and Goals for 2016

Happy New Year, everyone! As my first video and blog post of the year, I decided to make a chatty video about my favorite memories of 2015. I thought it would be so much fun to share the moments that meant a lot to me and those that I was really proud of. You'll also be hearing some of my personal and YouTube/blogging goals for 2016 in this video. If you're one of the people who wants to see a room tour or makeup collection video, I'm making it a goal of mine to get around to posting both of those videos in 2016. To hear more about my memories and goals, just click below to watch the video.

December Nights at Balboa Park

On the first weekend of December, Balboa Park transforms itself into a winter wonderland. December Nights is an annual 3-day festival that brings people together to celebrate the holidays, history, culture, and joy. As part of the festivities, the museums at Balboa Park are free of charge and there's also a lot of other free activities for the whole family to enjoy. December Nights is by far my favorite time to visit Balboa Park, so I grabbed my mom and we went to the festival to check out all the beautiful holiday decor. It was crazy packed as usual, but we got to do some different things this year like ride one of the fair rides and take a selfie with the giant Christmas tree!

Celebrating My Latino Pride Through Beauty

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Orgullosa and Latina Bloggers Connect. The opinions and text are all mine.

Today's blog post will not be a review about the latest mascara launch or an another outfit of the day featuring pieces from my capsule wardrobe, today I'm going to talk about my Latino heritage. I am incredibly proud of my Latin heritage and I make sure to show it off whenever I can. To me, I'm not just a beauty blogger -- I am a Mexican-American and a bilingual content creator. I am what I would like to refer as the modern Latina. The modern Latina is a woman who is not afraid to march to the beat of her own drum and venture to the unknown, and I'm certainly not afraid of either of those things. With Hispanic Heritage month here, I want to share how I honor my heritage and celebrate our beautiful Latin culture through this beauty blog that you've all come accustomed to. There's a lot more to beauty bloggers than meets the eye, that's all I will say.

The Walt Disney Family Museum and Golden Gate Bridge

I swear this will be the last post you'll see of my trip to San Francisco. I know I've shared quite a bit from this trip, but it's because I really enjoyed myself. The last day of San Francisco was a very special one because I finally got to visit The Walt Disney Family Museum and the Golden Gate Bridge. Believe it or not, it took 25 years for me to walk on the bridge. And you may not know this about me but I'm terrified of heights, to the point that my knees will give up on me if I get too scared. Being able to walk on the bridge was a huge thing for me, it didn't get rid of my fear of heights but I can finally say that I was able to do it (even if it took me a while). To see a whole new side of me, you'll have to watch today's vlog!

Wedding and Silent Disco | #Snapvlogs

This is only my third #Snapvlog and I have to say that I'm really enjoying this series on my vlog channel. My blog was definitely getting a little too serious for my liking and for some reason I stopped sharing my vlogs on here. While I love reviewing and talking about beauty, I adore being silly in real life. If I had to pick my favorite thing about myself it would definitely be my silliness, even though I tend to hide whenever I feel uncomfortable or don't know a person really well (introverts will definitely understand). In this #Snapvlog you'll get to see how I don't know how to dance at weddings or silent discos. I'm unfortunately one of the stiffest Mexicans around and it's something that I love making fun of because it's 100% the truth. I can't dance to save my life!
 

Room Makeover | #Snapvlogs

RIP yellow walls (2012-2015). My room got a complete makeover a few weeks ago and while I was absent from my blog/YouTube, I was Snapchatting the whole thing. My paint covered hair got documented, and so did my really sweaty face because it was really hot outside. Redoing my room wasn't easy whatsoever but I'm so happy with how my room turned out. You'll be seeing a formal room tour later on this month but you can see snippets of how it currently looks like in this vlog.

San Francisco Photo Diary

San Francisco is easily one of my favorite cities in the world, and it's quite an underrated one in my opinion. If I ever move out of San Diego, I would love to move up north to the Bay Area. Not only is the weather more my thing (as you all know I despite hot weather), but there's so much culture here. The music scene here is what my dreams are made of, and let's not forget about the copious amounts of incredible food establishments here. As a public transportation aficionado, San Francisco easily has the best public transportation in the state of California which is very reminiscent of the efficient Parisian public transport (despite the fact that some French people would think otherwise). In this blog post I'll be sharing some of my favorite shots I took with my DSLR during my trip to San Francisco.

San Fran and Outside Lands | #Snapvlogs

If you don't have a Snapchat or don't follow me on there, sometimes I like to use it as a mini vlog channel. Here's why Snapchat has become my favorite social media app: First of all, you all know by now that I love sharing bits of my life with you and the app makes daily "vlogging" a breeze. I don't have to worry about editing anything and each snap just uploads in an instant. I also enjoy getting instant feedback from my Snapchat homies in the form of text messages, pictures, or video. It just makes my community of like minded and silly women that much more real to me. Since I do treat my Snapchat account like a small vlog channel at times, I've decided to immortalize my interesting stories and create actual vlogs out of them! The first installment of my #snapvlogs will take you around San Francisco and Outside Lands! You'll see a proper vlog soon, consider this is a small preview of what you'll get in a few days. 

Happy Healthy Dogs

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AmorBeneful #CollectiveBias

By now pretty much everyone who follows me on my blog and my social media accounts knows that I love my three dogs. All of them are different breeds and sizes, but they're all spoiled rotten and very healthy. My family and I value each dog's health a lot since we want them to stick around for as long as possible. Our love, healthy food choices, and activities have kept the dogs very happy and healthy over the years. Francis is the smallest of our three dogs and as previously mentioned on my blog, she's the pickiest eater. She won't eat the regular adult dog kibble because it's too big and hard, and even though the puppy kibble is much smaller she won't even touch it. Luckily for Francis, Beneful has come up with a dog food specifically for the tiniest members of the family! In this blog post you'll see a few of the things that my family does to keep Francis as happy and healthy as possible by using products that are conveniently available at Target. And there's also a bunch of adorable pictures of dogs in this blog post!

Francis' Finds | Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Freeze-Dried Dog Food

Last month you met both Bowie and Buster, now it's time to meet the lady of the house. Francis is a 4/5 year-old Yorkie that was found on the streets in my neighborhood. She was malnourished, very dirty, and had knots everywhere. To be completely honest, we were all very surprised that she managed to survive in an area where coyotes often eat small pets but she was able to keep herself alive. No one claimed her or made the attempt to find her either which was incredibly weird. Francis is known in my house as the #1 diva and daddy's little girl. She absolutely loves both my dad and brother, but me on the other hand not so much. And out of all the dogs, she's the pickiest eater. We struggle getting her to eat her dog food because all she wants to eat are treats. When I first heard about the Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Freeze-Dried Dog Food I knew that I had to make Francis try it because otherwise it's tough to get her to eat properly.

Premios Juventud Slumber Party!

Who's ready for a pijamada? Yes, I said just said pijamada which is Spanish for slumber party. Has it been awhile since you last went to one? In this post I'm going to show you how you can a more grown-up version of your favorite childhood event. Los Premios Juventud (The Youth Awards) are taking place tomorrow night (July 16th) on Univision, and there's no better way to enjoy a fun award show than with a small viewing party. The traditional finger food and obligatory slumber party manicures aren't going anywhere, but they definitely getting a major upgrade. As part of Target's #SinTraducción campaign, I'm going to be teaching you some words in Spanish that just don't translate easily into English. What can I say? My days as a language student are definitely coming out to play at this pijamada.

Content and/or other value provided by our partner, Target. All opinions are my own.

Outtakes #2

You know what time it is? It's time for me to show you all the bad, blurry, and derp pictures that have been taken during OOTD posts and YouTube thumbnails. I have a whole folder in my computer dedicated to these pictures because I think that they deserve to be seen (plus I really want to laugh at myself too). It seems like you guys really enjoyed my last outtakes post so I had to do it all over again! The very first picture was taken in February when I did my 1940's makeup tutorial. Bowie was too small to be left alone at the time so he was sleeping in my room while I recorded my video. Once I got around to take the thumbnails, I wanted to take a few cute pictures with him and caught him yawning in my ear. And this is only the first derp picture in this post!

Buster's Bite | Merrick Backcountry Grain-Free Hearty Beef Stew Canned Dog Food

You were introduced to Bowie's Corner a few days ago, and now I'm going to introduce you to Buster's Bite. Buster is my 12 year-old chow chow, so you can rest assured that he's the best candidate to test out dog food. He's a picky guy too, there's been a few times where my family has purchased food for him that he has flat out rejected. Out of the food that he's tried out, his favorite is canned dog food that has chunks of meat and gravy. I was not expecting Chewy to send out a bonus item in my review package, but when I saw the case of Merrick Backcountry Grain-Free Hearty Beef Stew Canned Dog Food I knew Buster would be the best candidate to try out new dog food.