Opening Subscription Boxes | Birchbox + Vinyl Me, Please

It's that time again to open some subscription boxes! This time around I'm going to be opening the February Valentine's Day box and March Women's History Month box from Birchbox. This time around I received a lot of cult skincare products that I've been curious to try out. I also recently signed up to my first music related subscription service- I know, I can't believe it took me this long. The subscription service that I went with is the popular Vinyl Me, Please. What makes Vinyl Me, Please different is that each month they send you an exclusive pressing of a record that "everyone should own." With each record you get a custom cocktail recipe and artwork that pairs perfectly with the record of the month. Sounds cool, right?

Record Store Day 2016 Haul

Music used to play a big role when I began this blog in 2013. I still remember awkwardly sitting in front of my iPad Mini with my auburn hair to record the Music Tag. From there I started curating and posting monthly playlists, those were honestly some of my favorite posts and I still find myself listening to them from time to time on Spotify. As much as I loved curating the playlists, it seemed that many of my readers couldn't care less about them so that discouraged me quite a bit. That's also around the time when I started being told to "stick to my niche" in blogger events. "If you write about beauty, then stick to beauty" but what if I like other things other than makeup? That's why I've decided to back to my blog's roots and start posting about music again. Music is something I really enjoy talking about, so why not share that aspect of my life? I'm going to get started with a little Record Store Day haul to re-introduce you to the music posts.

Found in San Diego | Record City

As someone who grew up going to Tower Records once a week as a child, I've always enjoyed buying and collecting music. There's a few record stores in San Diego that I like, but my favorite by far is Record City in Hillcrest. I've been coming to Record City for around four years now and it's been my go-to record shop to support on Record Store Day. If you've been following my blog for some time, then you know how passionate I am about supporting local small businesses and this store combines both my love for music and small businesses. The store itself seems like it's stuck in the past, but that's exactly what I love about it. There is no fancy decor here, no pretentious employees who judge your taste in music, and no social media accounts to tag in your Instagram pictures- all you get is music and tons of it!

Kaaboo Diary | Pictures + Vlog

A few weeks ago I attended the very first Kaaboo music and arts festival in Del Mar. This was an odd festival for me because I honestly bought my pass on a whim after seeing that The Killers were headlining the festival. As far as the rest of the lineup, I thought it was alright but it definitely didn't compare to Coachella or Outside Lands. During the months leading up to the festival I began to regret buying the pass, something that has never happened to me in the past. The management was definitely a lot more focused on ripping people off, even more than the Street Scene festival which faded into existence after 2009. Thankfully I was able to make the best out of a bad situation, but I'm unsure if I'll attend next year's festival.

Outside Lands Diary | Vlog + Pictures

I am finally done catching up with all the Outside Lands 2015 coverage. What can I say? I think I got carried away this year, but it was so much fun recording videos before and during the festival. In this blog post you'll find some of my concert photography, as well as a vlog. I tried my best to capture as much from the festival and I really think that I managed to capture my experience very well. I hope you enjoy both the pictures and the vlog, and next week you'll be seeing the Kaaboo festival coverage.

Get Ready with Me: Outside Lands Music Festival

Although I'm mentally getting ready for the Kaaboo music festival in San Diego, I wanted to share with you this look I wore to Outside Lands last month. I recorded this little Get Ready with Me on the third and last day of Outside Lands. While the look itself isn't anything crazy, I did decide to add some metallic tattoos to jazz things up. Plus, I think a touch of gold was more than appropriate considering Elton John was the headliner that night. I totally missed my opportunity to rock a 90's Elton John concert shirt though! Ugh, I'll have to remember to dig through my collection of concert t-shirts next time.

What's In My Music Festival Bag?

One of the most popular videos to record for beauty/style YouTubers is the classic "What's in my bag?" video. I've even done a few myself but I decided to add a little twist this time around. Why not show you what I'm took to a music festival AT the music festival? Yes, I asked my boyfriend to record me take out all the items out my backpack while I was waiting for the next act to go up. I got a lot of weird stares, but it's ok because frankly I'm used to them by now. The video was recorded on the third and final day of Outside Lands, a.k.a. the day I camped out in the front of the stage to see Elton John. That should explain why I had so much food in my bag, but I have absolutely no excuse for all the lip products.

Music Festival Makeup Bag

This is my 500th post and I happen to be celebrating in Outside Lands. What can I say? The timing was perfect. Last year I showed you what I was bringing along with me to Outside Lands and we're to go through everything once again! This is my third year attending the Outside Lands music festival and my seventh music festival that I've attended so far, so by now I consider myself somewhat of a pro when it comes to packing for a music festival. My makeup and toiletries bag is a little full, but take into consideration that there's no camping at Outside Lands and that the weather is much cooler in San Francisco. When I'm packing for a music festival the products that I take along with me have to meet the following criterias: 1.) Is it versatile? 2.) It is compact and does it meet the TSA guidelines? 3.) Does it travel well? (There's nothing worse than a cracked powder product). This video might be helpful for anyone considering attending a music festival in the future, or go on a short trip.

December 2014 Playlist

It's time for me to present you the last playlist of the year. Are you ready to see and hear the biggest playlist on Laura Neuzeth history? I really hope you are! I've compiled some of my favorite tracks of the year to make my "Best of 2014" playlist. Also since I skipped the November playlist I decided to include 20 songs in this playlist. There's a bit of everything in this playlist, from underrated female pop singers to rock legends. You might recognize some of the songs from previous playlists but that just goes to show how much I enjoyed those songs throughout the year. I'm also super interested in knowing what your favorite songs of the year were, so please feel free to share your top songs and playlists in the comments section.

October 2014 Playlist

This month's playlist is going to be unlike any other playlist so far. This will be the very first playlist that has very few words, or in other hand it's entirely composed of instrumentals. Sometimes songs don't need any words to convey emotions or story. Then there are other times that you just want to find the perfect soundtrack to your own movie- don't pretend like you've never imagined yourself as the star of your own movie when you listen to music. Whether you just want to relax or let your imagination go wild, this is the playlist for you.

Paul McCartney in San Diego

It's now been over a week since the magical Paul McCartney show and I'm still thinking about it nonstop. It had been over 30 years since the last time Paul performed in San Diego so as you can imagine it was a very special night for everyone there. As someone who has always traveled to see Paul McCartney it felt so incredibly nice to be seeing him in my hometown. I know this isn't beauty or fashion related whatsoever but I wanted to share some pictures I took from the concert, as well as the vlog. I really hope you enjoy my coverage of the Paul McCartney concert in San Diego.

September 2014 Playlist

While I'm not in school anymore, part of me still thinks of September as back to school month. This month I've been listening to a lot of music that I used to listen to in my high school and early college years (aka the MySpace days). Don't you miss the days when you would spend minutes (or sometimes hours) trying to find the *perfect* song for your profile? I know I would spend so much time browsing the music section on MySpace trying to find obscure European bands that many of my high school peers had never heard about. I still love and listen to some of bands and singers I discovered on MySpace like The Bird and the Bee,  Feist, and Nouvelle Vague. This month's playlist is inspired by MySpace and the music discoveries I made during those years.

Face of the Day | Lykke Li Concert

Last night I went to see Lykke Li right here in San Diego and I decided to dedicate a little post to what I was wearing. Since Lykke Li is a fan of dark eye makeup I decided to ditch my soft makeup and embrace a smoky eye. I've been such a huge fan of Lykke Li since 2008 when her debut album Youth Novels was released. That was one of those life changing albums that I will always hold close to my heart. You might not know this but I used to run a Lykke Li tumblr fan page a few years ago so I'm not kidding when I say that I'm a huge fan. I'm hoping to recreate a Lykke Li makeup look very soon as a tutorial, but for now here's what I wore for the concert!

August 2014 Playlist

It's time for yet another playlist! This month's playlist doesn't really have a theme like my past ones. I just grouped some new releases and threw them all in one kick ass playlist. There's a little bit of everything in playlist! There's some dance music, some experimental stuff, and even some more mellow songs. If you're looking to some new music then this is certainly the playlist for you! If you've never heard of anyone in this playlist just take a listen, you never know you might find someone that you really enjoy.

Outside Lands 2014

Music festivals for me are like religious gatherings. It's a place to celebrate music, discover new artists, and reminisce about the past. Last year I attended the Outside Lands music festival for the first time and fell in love with the festival. This year some of the acts who performed at Outside Lands were The Killers, Haim, Chromeo, Death Cab for Cutie, the Flaming Lips, and Tom Petty. I had an amazing time up in San Francisco and I would like to share some of the pictures I took at the music festival. There will also be a vlog later on this week, but first let me tell you a little about my second year at Outside Lands.

July 2014 Playlist

The Outside Lands music festival is in exactly two weeks! I can't believe that in two weeks I'll be back in San Francisco doing the whole festival thing once again. To commemorate such an exciting event I decided to do the same thing as last year and feature some artists and bands that I'm excited to see at Outside Lands in the July playlist. In this playlist I included one of my all-time favorite bands, some artists I've loved since high school, and then some newer additions to my music library. This is also the first Outside Lands related blog post, I promise there will be a lot more to come!

June 2014 Playlist

Summer is now here and despite the fact that it's my least favorite season, I still want to make the most of it. I got the idea for this playlist from seeing the San Diego bay whenever I drive up to the train station to either go up to see my boyfriend or pick him up. I may not like the beach too much but the bay is another thing. There's something about seeing these tall buildings right next to the water that I just really love. To me summer is fun, carefree, and chill so I made a playlist that would reflect exactly that.

May 2014 Playlist

There's so much more to Canadian music than Justin Bieber and Drake. This month's playlist is inspired by our neighbor's up north because why not? Canada is an amazing country! I visited Vancouver in 2010 and instantly fell in love with the city. My trip to Vancouver still sits very high on the list of cool cities that I've traveled to. And if I could live anywhere else in North America I would choose to live in Vancouver, that's how much I loved that city. So here's a playlist filled with the best that Canada has to offer.

April 2014 Playlist

In April one band kept me dancing all month long (although I'm one of the stiffest dancers in the world) and that band was Chromeo! I was introduced to Chromeo back when I was in high school and they've been one of my favorite electrofunk acts for years. Although I didn't go to Coachella I still found myself watching certain bands on the webcast and one of the bands I couldn't miss was Chromeo. It's safe to say they were one of the best acts at Coachella and thanks to their great performance now I'm impatiently waiting to see them again at Outside Lands this August.

Record Store Day

Record Store Day is a relatively new holiday for music fans around the world and one of my favorite days as a music fan. It was started in 2008 as a way to spread the word about the independent record stores and is now celebrated in every continent (minus Antarctica of course). I was introduced to Record Store Day at Coachella in 2009 and ever since then I've been purchasing limited edition records and supporting local stores on that day. Although I grew up in the digital era, there's something about owning records that makes me think about my childhood.