The Weekly, 01.25.2021
I am writing this from bed, enjoying a lazy Sunday. I slept in until 9:30, an almost impossible feat for myself that I didn’t think was possible in my thirties. But here we are, and I am watching, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (P.S. the last one is coming out on my birthday in a few weeks – super adorable if you’ve never watched), cozied up with no where to go in this freezing cold weather we’ve been experiencing, and, oh yeah, a pandemic still happening. Sigh…
On the bright side, I received my first dose of the vaccine after my last post, and while things are starting to feel more optimistic, especially after the inauguration last week, it’s hard to feel like things are still so much the same. And that makes optimism or excitement a bit hard. I’m trying to look forward to something, anything, and it’s my birthday month coming up, and we rented an AirBnb with our best friends for February break to get a small change of scenery, safely. Anything to maintain our mental health.
The good news is that I have some fresh blog content coming at you for this week after a couple of dry weeks. What can you look forward to? I am sharing some thoughts on “clean” beauty and my favorite non-toxic mascaras that are in my solid rotation right now. And I also spent Saturday morning cleaning out and re-organizing my entire vanity of hair and beauty products, as well as cleaning my brushes. All of that to look forward to…
In other devastating news, one of my absolute favorite masks that I talk about all of the time is being recalled. Ironically, I had gone to order a refill this week only to find it was mysteriously out of stock. Turns out, lots of customers complained about a recent batch that caused quite a bit of skin irritation. I do love that Summer Fridays was super up front about it, and the reality is, I’m never giving it up and will use the last bit of my current tube sparingly. This brand is an all-time favorite, including a recent reorder of their lip balm, the first one that I think I have ever finished a full-tube of without losing. Both these products remain hydrating magic for me.
Don’t worry, I didn’t leave my Sephora cart empty – I don’t even think that is possible for me. I have been patiently waiting for Sephora to carry the new Fenty Skin launch, and they finally got it in stock over the holidays. I picked up their new SPF moisturizer after seeing the incredible finish it had under makeup (tricky for an SPF!). I am serious about using SPF regularly on my face, as we should all be at any age, and I am looking forward to trying some skincare from a brand I already love for makeup. I also decided to try a new under-eye cream after finishing up one of my favorites from Farmacy. I have a hard time not trying out new products, even when I love what I love, so I grabbed this one from First Aid Beauty to try in my rotation, which is supposed to be great for dry under-eyes, a chronic issue I have especially in the colder months. And lastly, a fresh tube of my favorite mascara, but more on that later this week, as promised.
In other empties from the last few weeks, I finished up my favorite tanning product that I mentioned a few weeks ago in my post about how I maintain healthy skin during the winter. I love love love these tanning drops that have hyaluronic acid in them, which make them the perfect combination with lotion to maintain a healthy glow all year round, especially when we aren’t getting as much sunlight as we usually would while staying inside. If you’re nervous to start with self-tanning and don’t feel you have the skills for it, first check out my post on that here, and second, grab yourself these drops which don’t smell, don’t streak, and don’t stain, which make them super beginner-friendly.
I’ve recently been testing some new eyebrow gels to see what I like working with best now that I have some serious eyebrow regrowth happening. I decided to take some tips from a new follow of mine, @glowbynats, and watched her video on how to groom your eyebrows to maintain a nice shape (highly recommend – mine most definitely needed a trim). Recently, I had decided to try this brow gel from benefit, and while I do like it, I don’t love it the way I love my all-time favorite from Blink Brow Bar. If you have a thinner eyebrow with straight hair, then the benefit option is a great pick that will give you serious hold. But if you have coarser, bushier eyebrow hair like mine, then this gel from British brand BBB is where it’s at. I grabbed a new tube this week, and have no regrets. I even save the old spoolies to brush through my brow serum at night.
In my favorite products from last year, I shared my absolute favorite bralettes after searching far and wide, from Lively to Spanx and many more. For me, the ultimate comfort and quality come from Skims, and now, I am absolutely addicted to their bralettes, so I decided to try a few new styles recently. This time, I went with the Fits Everybody Triangle Bralette and the Body Basics Wide-Neck bralette, which is similar in style to one of my favorite bras at Everlane. The Triangle fit better than anticipated on my shape, and I think this is a great option for under sweaters, as it doesn’t offer a ton of support. While the Fits Everyone line (including my favorite scoop neck option) is not the most supportive material, right now, my main focus is all-day comfort when I am sitting so much at a desk (I mean, my kitchen table). If you’re looking for more support, then I definitely recommend the Basics line, as it gave lift and support with a firmer material and shape. Bottom line, I love this brand for bras and likely will not be shopping bras anywhere else until we stop working from home.
With my desire to wear real clothes every day waning over the last few weeks (something about the cold…), I have continued to be a hoarder of sweaters and sweatshirts that are easy to throw on in the morning, even when I push myself to wear real pants (it really does help with motivation). Madewell has been having a big sale over the last few days (I am not positive when it ends), and so I grabbed this fun fleece pull-over last week. It’s super comfy, runs true to size, and is something I can wear from Fall to Spring. I love the color combination of a rusty brown with a bright blue – it brings me a bit of energy.
I was desperately looking for a bigger full-length mirror for our bedroom, but couldn’t find something for a decent price that wasn’t going to charge me an extra $200 for shipping such a large mirror. I finally scored this gorgeous brass arched mirror a few weeks ago, and I am so happy with how it looks. What was scary was not having it secured to the wall, as I really wanted that leaning look, especially when my nephew came to visit last weekend. Hot tip – you can buy these simple supports for your leaning items you want to secure on Amazon, and they were easy to install (trust me, Chris and I are like below novice level handy-people) and lock the mirror in place so we don’t have to worry about it coming crashing down.
One of the highlights of last week, and honestly this whole bizarre school year so far, was hosting a live stream of the inauguration last Wednesday for my students. Not only was it so powerful to get to watch the first woman and person of color be sworn in to the vice presidency with my students, most of whom are young women of color, but it was just an incredibly awesome and inspiring ceremony, especially given the last few weeks. As if I needed another reminder, getting to work with young people is such a gift, and their excitement and activism in this moment of history, even as pre-teens and young teens, is just the best. If you missed out of watching National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, read her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” please be sure you check it out. I have watched and read it a few times, and can’t do so without getting chills. Both my students and I were totally in love, and it was just such an incredible moment in history for women’s empowerment. To commemorate, I picked up this t-shirt from Spoonful of Faith after I saw Ailsa of @happygocurly wear it on Wednesday.
On that note, I am clinging to any small shred of hope, and I am going into the next few weeks of work ready to jump into planning events for students to try and refocus some of my negative energies. I’ll leave you here with a reminder to try and find something small that you feel can shift your energies, whether it’s planning a safe activity to change your scenery, baking chocolate chip cookies like I did to lift my mood on Tuesday, or finding projects to channel some creative energy, don’t wait to do it. Looking forward to sharing my own with some new posts this week, as well as the art project I’m finishing up. Stay pretty busy, friends, whatever that means to you.
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