Life Update: Quarantine Beauty Routine

Hi all, I know it’s been a long time coming since I’ve last been on here but I’m here now! It’s been a crazy little bit for me. So before I start sharing my routine, I wanted to give you guys an update and explanation where I’ve been. I recently moved out to my own home and for the past little bit, I’ve been just decorating my new home along with stocking up/taking the precautious measures against COVID-19. I’m currently working from home but will be returning back to work next week (varying in what our Prime Minister says, later on, this week.) I hope you all are doing well and practicing social distancing. As we will need to for the next couple of months to suppress and minimize the spread of COVID-19. Many people were affected during this time of crisis, lots have lost their jobs, family members affected by the spread and etc, I just want you all to know, I’m sending you all love & positive vibes. I want us all to practice kindness and be considerate of our surroundings.

Now for many of us, we are likely working from home/stay at home because schools are closed. Some may be enjoying this time off, some may be really bored but regardless, I hope you’re all staying at home and avoiding going anywhere you don’t need to be. I’m not going to lie since I was away from the office, it kind of threw me off from my existing day by day schedule and forced me to create a new one. I came from having a very well structured week to not having any structure at all but I’ve been gradually implementing good little things into my life so I can live a better life such as working out, eating less junk and focusing/prioritizing house chores.

Here are 10 things I implemented in my life that have made this quarantine period a lot more chill and nice for me.

When stocking up for groceries, I like to buy 2 weeks of groceries in advance so that I’m not making a bunch of trips back and forth for small little things.
Meal plan, before even thinking about going to the grocery store, has an idea of what you want to eat for the week and write down your grocery list. Don’t shop blindly and take your time. Act like you have a limited time at the grocery store and go in and get your supplies and out as soon as possible. We are in a pandemic here, friends – now is NOT the time to dilly dag and take our sweet time. The less time you spend at any public place, you will minimize your exposure to COVID-19.
Sanitize everything and especially every time you return back from going out, sanitize your keys, wallet, credit cards and if you drive, your stirring wheel.
WASH YOUR HANDS, I feel like I’m in kindergarten again whenever I say this. I’ve been practicing good hygiene since I was very young because I grew up around germaphobes such as my mom. I find myself unconciously and obsessively washing my hands everything I handle so I need to apply hand cream. The hand cream that is heavy duty and that works best for my dry hands is the bioderma atoderm ultra repair hand cream. This hand cream works like no other and no, I was not sponsored to share this and I genuinely enjoy their products and I will continuously support them.
I love junk food and snacking but there comes to a time where things need to change. I did myself a favour and I stopped walking down in the snack aisle and I bought foods that would fill me up. If I felt snacky, I had vegetables I could grill, fry or bake myself. I’ve been avoiding anything frozen, packed because it’s not good for you and all that sodium is bound to affect your health whether now or later on in life. So I make my own comfort food and know exactly what I put in it. Take, or instance, I made myself some delicious Chiptole Lime Homefries and I also made a Pizza flavoured Homefries. They were way better than any packaged food I had.
I never hated working out, I was either too lazy to do it or I was not in the right environment. Gyms are closed, anything public is closed so enough is enough – I made myself a mini-workout studio at my own home. There is a whack load of workout routines you can do at home without needing weights so no excuses! Just make sure you don’t go too hard or eat/drank before your workout because you could throw up and hurt yourself and you don’t want that. Learn from my mistakes.
I stopped reading about COVID-19 articles and minimized the number of youtube videos I watched regarding this topic. Yes, we need to be aware of what’s going on the world but if it takes a toll in your overall mental space and you’re panicking about something you have limited/no control over, then don’t put yourself through that. Instead, practice social distancing, good hygiene and minimize the spread of COVID-19. Be kind to yourself and those that are around you. We all have family and loved ones we want to protect.
EDUCATE YOURSELF BEFORE FEAR MONGERING + SPREADING HATE. There’s a lot of racism, hate crimes and ignorant individuals out there that have very limited education on COVID-19 and what it is. Because it’s a novel virus, medical professionals are working closely to formulate a super vaccine to fight this virus and stop it from spreading in the future. In addition, because this is a novel virus, many people are panicking and scared so they act out in hate. I just want to be very, very clear that this virus is not caused by Chinese/China. It surprises me to hear this behaviour and what people have said so far. If we dive in history a little bit, there were so many plagues, viruses long before this. This is nature, people. Things like this happen. The Black Plague, Spanish Flu, HIV, Ebola, SARS were WAY BIGGER issues that were rarely even spoken about today and the fact there are people opening their mouths and rambling about how a certain race or country originated this virus is sickening. I don’t tolerate garbage behaviour and those who are uneducated and speak poorly of any race, I don’t spare a minute of my time and neither should you!
Find new hobbies and things to keep yourself occupied like painting, dancing, singing, anything you like! Step out from your comfort zone. It’s not like every day (before) where you can do these things in the comfort of your own home so do it now! Life is too short and we should keep ourselves occupied and uplifted.
Practising generosity is crucial during a time like this. If you or you know someone who has a surplus supply of products and supplies, please offer it to anyone who in need of these sorts of things. I have elderly neighbours who go grocery shopping once a week and I’ve offered to help them, not only because they’re elderly and at a huge risk but because things get harder when you’re older. You don’t process things as fast, vision and hearing can be limited – so I get it, I really do. I personally find offering help to others gives me such a warming and comforting feeling.

I hope this helped you all and sending you all love and good vibes during this time! We can get past this, just be sure to practice social distancing.

[ROUTINE] Haircare + Lessons I learned (tips)

Hi friends, as many of you already know – I am very big on makeup and skincare however, I don’t seem to really care for my hair as much as I should. I was blessed to be born with very thick hair, that being said, I never really appreciated as much as I do recently because I notice I started to lose a lot of hair recently; which is normal because that comes with ageing and possibly because of stress. They say the average person loses between 50-100 strands of hair a day so don’t be alarmed if you see that many or approximately. I wanted to come on here and share with you some hair care tips and what has been working for me.

Brush your hair

I recently started to comb my hair more, I know this sounds ridiculous but I honestly never cared much for combing my hair. What combing does it separates your hair strands apart so they do not get tangled, evenly distribute your scalp’s natural oil to nourish the rest of your hair and the trick behind this is to be gentle as possible as you brush your hair. Do not brush your hair aggressively, you will do the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve and you find yourself damaging and breaking your hair by doing that. I really love using the wet brush, it’s fantastic for my coarse hair and gently brushes away tangles. These can be found at your local drugstores, beauty supplies stores and if you’re in a pinch and you got no time to go to those stores – amazon has them and it’s available for amazon prime as well.

Available here: Amazon | Sally’s

Don’t overdo your hairdo, avoid using chemicals and don’t overwash

I am very low maintenance with my hair, I do not care to style it so this is never a problem for me really. When I do style it, it’s likely because I am going to attend a wedding or a party of some sort. Now, onto the unnecessary chemicals part – I don’t like to blow dry my hair, I usually just let it air dry so I don’t really use heat protectants. On very rare occasions, I will skip a day of washing my hair with shampoo simply because it’s very dry for scalp and I find myself losing a lot more hair when I constantly wash it every single day. The only time you will ever see me use dry shampoo is when I have to go out and look professional for work meetings. Overall, I don’t like the idea of using silica-based powder from an aerosol that can temporarily fix my hair because I don’t know exactly what the chemicals can really do to the hair for the long term. I stopped using batiste dry shampoo altogether and have been using the VERB on really rare occasions.

What has been working for me is I would do something called “co-wash”, this stands for conditioner-only wash and I would do this every other day so I’m not drying out my scalp too much by over washing it. Conditioners have a lot of nourishing, rich ingredients to keep the hair healthy and soft, it does contain a small percentage of surfactants to clean the hair. I would wash my hair with my VERB ghost shampoo and then the following day just use my Live Clean Conditioner and this has been working for me. Let me know if you have tried this and if whether it has worked for you as well.

Try not to tie up your hair too often

If you’re going to tie your hair up, try to use the hair ties without any of the metal piece and ones that stretch nicely without feeling too stiff. You don’t want your hair tie tugging your hair. If you tied your hair too tight, then try again but tie it looser. What I like to do is I use hair clips to hold my hair in place and that’s how I avoid from tieing it up. The hair clips I use are stylized ones but you’re more than welcome to use bobbi pins or plain design ones, they work just as well.

Say goodbye to tangles

For someone who has coarse, dense hair, I also struggle with very stubborn and annoying hair tangles. I recently found an amaaazzing product from Cohorted subscription box and they curated this box with a beautiful hair product called Color WOW dream coat. This hair treatment spray separates my hair strands and loosens them up making it comb through easily. I won’t like, I thought it looked quite gimmicky when I first looked at it but man, this is stuff I swear by to detangle my hair. I will be repurchasing this over and over again.

Available here: Amazon

Take your vitamins

These are words of wisdom! I see this as the adult version of telling adults to “eat their vegetables!”. I know this sounds ridiculous but you’d be surprised what happens to the body as we age, we think we’re invincible and aging+illness will never affect us. As we age, our health declines and our bodies are vitamin deficient. The vitamin I’ve been taking a lot to maintain my hair and nail health is biotin. You might have heard of it before but the biotin is fantastic for those who suffer from hair loss, thin hair and there are countless research shows that biotin can improve hair thickness, shine, and quality.

Available here: Amazon | Amazon – Gummies

Wear a hat

If it’s cold out and super windy, I really suggest you wear a hat. Your scalp will get extra dry. Now that it’s winter here in Canada, it is crucial to wear a hat when we’re going out anywhere. It doesn’t have to be a tuque, baseball hat, it can even be your jacket hood.

Well, that’s all, for now, folks, I hope you found this helpful or even some of it because these steps definitely were a game-changer in my hair care routine.

*Some links on this post are affiliate links. This means that I will earn a small commission if you purchase from these links.

[REVIEW] JayJun Roselle Tea Eye Patches

I’m a big fan of eye patches and I love what they have to offer. Life code boutique sent over an amazing package for me to share with you all and also, I wanted to share my experience with the Jayjun Rosellete Tea Eye Patches. I have seen these around for about a year now and have been dying to try them. Special thanks to Alice and the Life Code Boutique team for sending these over for me to share with you all!

Available on: Life Code Boutique | eBay

What are they?

These are hydrogel patches that provide conditioning benefits and brightens dark, dull skin for a fresh, awake appearance.

How to use:

After cleansing the skin thoroughly, ensure your skin is clean to apply these on. When taking the product out of the container, use the spatula to pick up the patches and gently apply them on the skin under your eyes.
Leave the patches on 20-30 minutes and gently massage + pat the excess essence into your skin.

*bold = nice ingredients, italics = to be aware of.
Ingredient List: Water, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Niacinamide, Chondrus Crispus (Carrageenan), Potassium Chloride, Tripropylene Glycol, Dipropylene Glycol, Betaine, Sodium Hyaluronate, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Flower Extract, Sambucus Nigra Flower Extract, Lilium Tigrinum Extract, Plumeria Rubra Flower Extract, Magnolia Liliflora Flower Extract, Pentylene Glycol, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Fruit Extract, Pinus Sylvestris Leaf Extract, Hibiscus Sabdariffa Flower Extract(0.2%), Saururus Chinensis Extract, Ceratonia Siliqua Gum, Sucrose, Isopropyl Alcohol, Calcium Chloride, Cyamopsis Tetragonoloba (Guar) Gum, Cellulose Gum, Chondrus Crispus Powder, Allantoin, Adenosine, Disodium EDTA, Calcium Lactate, Ethyl Hexanediol, 1,2-Hexanediol, Propanediol, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, CI 77491, Polyglyceryl-10 Laurate, Fragrance, Chlorphenesin

TIPS & TRICKS: You can apply these on your cheeks and forehead for a full detoxifying and cooling experience. Who said eye patches are strictly for eyes? I find these are really nice on the cheeks especially if you’re having dry skin and puffy skin kind of day.

Put these on before applying on your makeup and then remove them off after 15-20 minutes, your skin should be depuffed and bright!

My thoughts

I found these so comfortable to wear, I almost forgot I had them on the handful of times I’ve worn them. There are these little flower petals on them that sometimes get of your skin but you can just wipe them off. I find these super detoxifying and they feel amazing under the eyes. If you have puffy eyes and need a little pick-me-up, just wear these! They make a huge difference in my skin’s overall feel and appearance. I look more alert, refreshed and hydrated! If you’re guilty of staying up late, eating too much sodium and etc, these definitely will do the trick and give you that refreshed look and you’ll less puffy.

I know there is alcohol in this product but a lot of eye patches do have alcohol in them for the formulation purposes, a lot of the time alcohol is used to create a lightweight feel to the product’s consistency, it also can help ingredients to penetrate more easily into the skin and used as a preservative to prolong the shelf’s life of the product. I mean, the last thing we want is dry eye patches and we cannot use them, right?

I have very sensitive eyes and I have this a handful of times in the past where my eyes are very reactive, they will turn bloodshot red if it’s irritated by the ingredients I put on my face. I’m quite surprised and pleased to say that my eyes did not turn bloodshot red when using these eye patches and that they were just fine. The skin around my eyes

Overall

Texture: 5/5 – Perfection, they’re not too thick where they don’t allow circulation on your skin, they’re also not too thin where they tear easily. The fit and adherence for these are spots on, I don’t have the issue of where they slide off because there’s too much essence or because of the fit. They fit very well and I’m pleased with these.
Scent: 5/5 – I don’t really notice a scent from these, maybe something faint but I don’t really pick up any specific notes from smelling it.
Performance: 5/5 – They’re excellent and I have no complaints about these. Well worth the hype, they’re affordable and are available at a lot of places online.
Packaging: 5/5 – The packaging for this is gorgeous! There’s a gorgeous floral design on the lid and also the print is in gold font. It has this luxurious felt and appearance to it.
Overall: 5/5 – No complaints here! I love it and it deserves more love for what they are. I use these in the morning to depuff my eyes and also in the evening before I apply my eye cream and eye sleeping mask on. They’re really easy on my sensitive eyes and I am very likely to repurchase these.

*Some links on this post are affiliate links. This means that I will earn a small commission if you purchase from these links.

[REAL TALK] Influencer survival guide and Genuine content/ product reviews

Hey friends, I wanted to start on a new series for my blog where we can discuss, rant and share our experiences with similar issues from topics that aren’t really discussed. I want to welcome both creators and also non-creators to join me on this topic.

Disclaimer: This post was made to open a discussion and allow people to whether influencer or not, see the ugly side to social media reviews and what to look out for.

Today’s topic, I will be shedding some light on product reviews. Whether it’s on youtube, Instagram, Makeupalley, Sephora or Influenster. There are billions of reviews on the internet, some are helpful… some, not so much. I specifically want to target Instagram reviews today. I personally don’t trust Instagram review for multiple factors.

You may come across some brands have really close deadlines when you receive the product – leaving you with limited time to try out the product and have an opinion on it.
Some influencers (big or small) are afraid of giving bad reviews about products simply because they want to be on the brand’s good books – this can be harmful to the community and also those who are just consumers because the information listed/review is inaccurate and not truthful.
There are some influencers I have caught where they just misinform their audience, whether that was done or purposely or not, I am not aware of that. Brands sometimes make insane claims about their products and I think influencers should be responsible for what they choose to say for and about the product. It’s vital for influencers to do their research about the brand, ingredients, and products prior to posting. I’ve been seeing a lot of posts where people just copy and paste the product description of the brand’s website. This is irresponsible behavior and needs to change.
Take everything you see through the internet with a grain of salt. Brands will sometimes as you to write POSITIVE reviews on Sephora. Shady, I know. This is why I usually check reviews on youtube or blogs because these are evergreen content, you can always access them and people are likely to the tell the truth when exposed in that sort of nature. I find a lot of people are more comfortable speaking freely on blogs rather than Instagram (there’s also no character limit).

My tips how to survive as an influencer at any size:

Whether you’re big or small, stay humble and always stay true to yourself and create genuine content.
Be serious about yourself and brand because no one will take you seriously if you most certainly don’t. Hold yourself accountable to things you post and say on social media and own it!
Stay professional, I know it’s funny and some of us may think it’s “cool” to be vulgar on social media but at the end of the day, remember that you have an audience of all sorts of ages. Be respectful and thoughtful with the content you choose to share to your audience.
Set up a schedule for everything you do. No, not an internal schedule in your brain. An actual one! One that you can refer to, whether’s it’s on your phone as an alarm clock or calendar.
Ask yourself if whether you are here for the long term or short term and set some goals what you want to achieve and your end game goal. We often get sidetracked with ideas and what our peers are doing with their accounts. What do YOU want to do with your account? Think, plan and make it happen.
If you dislike the products you’ve tried and feel “uncomfortable” to share your feedback, you don’t have to post it at all. What’s worse? Misinforming your followers and readers or being honest and critical? You decide. I personally will post it anyway because I know my negative/honest feedback will always help someone!
Don’t be afraid of being honest. A lot of brands will understand and take your feedback, you could benefit others and also the brand by providing them your honest feedback and experience. And if a brand, dislikes your feedback simply because it wasn’t positive then forget them! At the end of the day, it looks bad on them because they don’t know how to handle criticism.
You should with brands you enjoy and have experience with. Never settle for less and work with just any brand even if you feel bad rejecting.
Never take things personally especially on social media. There are trolls, people who are unaware, brands that may reject your PR inquiry. Point being is, you need to understand that there are people that won’t see you eye to eye and you may face rejection. Brands will always welcome you try again later. Learn to take “no” as a positive answer and give yourself the opportunity to level up your content game.
Never see rejection as a failure, always try and try harder every time. If you give up so easily, that means you never really wanted it and if you make excuses for yourself… one after another, that means you were never really passionate about it. You just wanted something to come to you easily and fast.
Most of us already think our content is perfect or/ and does not need to change. Truth is, sometimes we need to welcome change and accept it so that we can see growth. How will you know if you don’t even try?
Be patient with yourself, experiment around, change your content and learn what works and what doesn’t. Step out from your comfort zone and try something new!
Don’t buy things for the sake of the gram. It’s just silly. Do you see how silly that sounds even reading that? Check out my blog on decluttering and getting organized, where I discuss being more of a smart shopper.

I hope this helped you and if you’re curious to know more about this subject or want me to share something along on the lines to this topic, please feel free to suggest it in the comment section or DM me on Instagram. I love hearing from you all! I hope you all have a fantastic and blessed week.