Beach Vacation Beauty Prep Checklist!

1. Razor - The disposable Venus razors are great.

2. Exfoliating - It's great to exfoliate especially before shaving - it will make the shave last longer. It's also great to give some loving to areas that rarely get exfoliated like the upper back. St. Ives is an intense scrub especially for the price.

3. Tanning - I like to do both at home self-tanning and spray tanning. For at home self-tanning, apply every day for a gradual tan until you reach your desired color. I normally use Jergen's Natural Glow. Again, its great to exfoliate before self-tanning. There are two options for spray tanning - Mystic Tanning (in-booth spray tanning) or Airbrush Tanning (employee applies tanning solution with misting gun). Both actually work really well. Airbrush tanning is slightly more realistic looking, but its also normally double in price and forces you to bare all for the employee. With Mystic Tanning, you can really help make it look more natural by asking the salon employees for spray tan blocker. Then apply the blocker to problem areas like elbows, knees, hands, and feet (soles and top of feet). I normally do Mystic or Airbrush 1-2 times before I go to the beach and supplement with self-tanning for even better color!

4. Whitening - What looks better against a great tan than a beautiful, white smile? Use Crest Whitestrips for a few days and your smile will be looking so much brighter.

5. Mani/ Pedi - Duh. I love coral colors for the beach although I'm pondering a Lapis Lazuli blue for my upcoming trip.

6. Highlighting - I try to schedule my highlighting appointments before I go away or at the beginning of summer so I have fresh color against a tan. You can also use the at-home spray lightening products to quickly perk up your hair color a bit. I've used the John Frieda Sheer Blonde Spray many times and its never turned my hair orange; it gave nice, subtle highlights.

7. Clay Mask - Soak up your excess oil and help clear up blackheads with a clay mask. You may not be wearing as much makeup on the beach so a mask can be helpful to ensure your skin is looking its best.

8. Waxing - First, figure out your bikini line. Personally, I can't deal with the waxing pain so I normally shave or use Veet. Then remember to deal with any minor facial hair. I always use wax strips at home to make sure my upper lip and chin has no hair even though my hair is blonde. Keeping a lot of your face hair free actually tends to make your face look clearer not to mention much cuter when you're getting up close and personal.

9. Hair Mask - Dryer hair frizzes more. So if you're about to head off to a humid climate, its a good idea to do a hair mask to ensure that your hair is moisturized. Kerastase Masqintense is amazing. Your hair will be so shiny and soft after using it. The expense is actually worth it and you can find it for slightly cheaper than salons/ stores on Amazon.

Have fun at the beach! 

Temporary "Peel and Stick on" Floor Tiling that is easy to do, looks great and lasts!!

Ugh do you see how dirty it would get!? One of the tiles had just been scrubbed and the other needed to be scrubbed, but a week later they would all look like the one on the right again! 

Last year, I moved into a one bedroom on New York's Upper East side. The apartment looked slightly dated, but I thought it was a reasonable price for the space so I went for it. The one thing I couldn't stand though was the gross tiling in the kitchen. It was black and white checkered linoleum that was old so no matter how many times I scrubbed it, it never looked clean.

I was willing to re-tile it and asked my landlord if it was fine to re-tile it. You would think they'd love for tenants to make improvements, but they said I wasn't allowed. I guess they've been burned in the past with half-finished DIY projects from other tenants. So I found out there is something called Vinyl Plank Flooring from Home Depot.

It's basically a strip of what looks like three tiles with an adhesive section so that tiles can attach to each other rather than the floor underneath. You can just lay them on top of your existing floor so if your landlord ever complains they can be easily removed!

To do the project, you need a few tools. First, you obviously need a few boxes of the plank flooring. There are a bunch of different color/ style options at Home Depot. One $50 box covers 24 square feet. It took just over 3 boxes to complete my kitchen (my kitchen is tiny). You also need a utility knife (the only slightly difficult part of this project is cutting the planks to fit into your space). Last, I needed a hammer (used the back) to pull up the transition strip between my tile and hardwood floors prior to tiling.

It took my boyfriend and I about four hours of solid effort to finish our kitchen.

Here's my step-by-step:

1. Remove everything from your kitchen and detach any transition strips.

2. Start in one corner laying the plank down.

3. Press the next plank onto the adhesive strip, making sure they are pressed as close together as possible. You CANNOT lift it once pressed down so lower it slowly and carefully to ensure a tight fit.

4. Continue on until you've reached any edges where the tile is too big to be fit into a space. You then need to measure and and see how much of the plank you need to cut off with your utility knife. This can be pretty challenging. My boyfriend was using some serious muscle to get it done. You also need to cut around strange edges like around appliances (around my oven was a bit tough).

5. Reattach the transition strip - you're done!

6. If the landlord ever complains, remove the tiling and reveal the previous floor undisturbed!

Paleo Butternut Squash Soup

Making soup is surprisingly simple. When you make it yourself, you ensure that all the ingredients are healthy without tons of salt, sugar and ingredients that you can't pronounce. I normally make a large batch of soup so that I have it for a few meals for the rest of the week, which helps cut down on my cooking time. 

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash, peeled and seeded

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cups chicken stock

Nutmeg

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut the squash into 1-inch chunks. In large pot, add the coconut oil. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the squash and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender, or about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove squash chunks with slotted spoon and place in a blender and pure. Return blended squash to pot. OR you can use a stick blender (here's mine) to mix the ingredients - it is much neater if you have a stick blender. Simmer until the soup reaches your desired thickness. Stir and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Serve and enjoy!

Quick detox for the beach!

I'm headed to Hawaii this weekend and am trying to get bikini ready. See a few tips below for losing a bit of excess bloat and water weight. You'll feel refreshed and slightly slimmer if you have these drinks the week before your trip :)

1. Water with lemon – Lemon is a natural diuretic, increasing water loss.  Drink a few glasses of water with a quarter or half a small lemon squeezed into them to promote loss of excess water you’re carrying. Especially with many salt laden diets, its easy to retain a lot of water. Plus, lemons provide a nice boost of vitamin C (36% of your daily vitamin C per lemon) and are only 12 calories.

2. Water with Cranberry Juice – Cranberry juice, again is a natural diuretic. It has also been shown to prevent urinary tract infections by clearing bacteria out of the urinary track and is a potent source of antioxidants. Most cranberry juices are sweetened, but I only advocate drinking unsweetened cranberry juice mixed with water. Otherwise, the health benefits are negated by the massive amount of sugar in the juice. Mix 1/4 cup unsweetened cranberry juice with 8 oz water. Drink a glass in the morning and evening.

3. Dandelion Root Tea – Be careful because dandelion root is a strong laxative. Don’t drink more than one cup in a day! But it will leave you feeling de-bloated and lighter by the end of the day. Dandelion has been linked to increases in liver function.

Theses are great, healthy drinks to keep in your diet on a regular basis too!

Picture Sources: 1, 2, and 3.

Ikat Envy

Ikat print fabric is a beautiful way to bring color and style into your home without spending a fortune, whether its just buying a few accessories to add to rooms or reupholstering furniture in Ikat prints.

1. Joe's Jeans Ikat print - While this trend originated in home decor, I love that it is becoming a fashion trend as well. These pants also go along with the Spring trend of printed denim. I also liked them a lot in the violet color; it is a bit more subtle looking.

2. IPhone Case by Zazzle - Why have I not discovered this website before? It has a huge selection of cases that can be customized (adding your name, initials, etc). If I searched the website for "Ikat IPhone" alone, there were 365 results?! Certainly not wanting for choices.

3. Pillows from StitchedNestings on Etsy - First, I love Etsy. I wish I were more handy in the sewing department, but I'm not so its great that I can get fun homemade stuff at reasonable prices. This fabric has wonderful contrasting colors.

4. Antique reupholstered chair - Adding an Ikat fabric to a vintage piece is a great way to make it feel more current.

5. Mugs from C. Wonder - It's surprisingly hard to find cute mugs especially at reasonable prices. I think these are a winner.

6. Napkins from C. Wonder - So C. Wonder has really nailed this trend. Check out their website for a bunch of different Ikat-printed items at great prices.

7. Tray from C. Wonder - What a perfect addition to a coffee table or bar! Check it out in blue too.

Paleo Spicy Pumpkin Muffins

These muffins are tasty, healthy treats to eat anytime you're getting hungry or having a craving. They have a pinch of cayenne for a tiny bit of spiciness.  I always keep muffins in the refrigerator so I have a great snack or an easy, take-it-to-go breakfast. These are really low in carbs and sugar. My recent health kick/dieting has involved watching carbs and sugar carefully (following some combination of Paleo/ Low Glycemic diets) so these are great for me!

There are only 180 calories with 8 net grams of carbs*, 5 grams of sugar, 5 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein and 130% of your vitamin A for the day. Just for comparisons sake, another healthy breakfast food, Fage 0% Yogurt Strawberry has 17 grams of carbohydrates and 16 grams of sugar, or 11 more grams of sugar than each of these muffins. See - a perfect breakfast!

Ingredients:

1. 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
2. 1 cup coconut flour
3. 1/2 cup coconut oil
4. 6 eggs
5. 1 tsp vanilla extract
6. 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
7. 1 tsp nutmeg
8. 1/4 tsp cayenne
9. 1/4 tsp baking powder
10. 3 tbsp honey
11. 1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:

Makes 12 muffins.

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
3. In another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients.
4. Add the wet ingredients slowly and mix well. The batter ends up having a fairly thick consistency, much thicker than regular muffin batters.
5. Line the muffin tins with paper liners.
6. Scoop the batter into the liners.
7. Bake for 20 minutes until the tops of the muffins are lightly brown and a fork comes out clean.
8. Let cool and enjoy :)

*Net carbs = Total carbohydrate - fiber content

Kale Chicken Caesar Salad

First, homemade caesar dressing tastes so much better than anything you can buy in a store and is not too hard to make. It also isn't as bad for you as people make out (the only "unhealthy" ingredient really is the parmesan).

Dressing Ingredients:

1. 2 garlic cloves peeled
2. 1/2 tsp salt
3. 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4. 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
5. 1 egg
6. 3-4 anchovies (mashed to a paste)
7. 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
8. 1/4 cup parmesan

Crouton Ingredients:

1. A few springs of fresh Rosemary
2. Garlic powder
3. Onion Powder
4. Sea Salt
5. Baguette

Other ingredients:

1. 1/2 head of kale
2. 1 Chicken breast
3. Olive oil for sautéing


Mash together the garlic and salt until nearly a paste. Similarly, mash the anchovies. Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend.

Cut up a baguette into small pieces and place in a bowl. Take the leaves off a few springs of Rosemary and add to the bowl. Sprinkle with salt, onion powder and garlic powder and toss. Bake until lightly browned at 350 degrees and let cool.

Cut your chicken into strips and sauté in a cooking pan with touch of Olive oil until cooked through.

Prepare the kale (about half a head for a large dinner for two) by washing and ripping the greens off the stems. Chop the resulting kale.

Toss the dressing and the kale. Sprinkle with sea salt, grated parmesan and pepper.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you liked the placemats, they're only $9.95 for two at Williams-Sonoma.

Little Luxuries: Brightening the everyday for under $30

1. Fresh Soap - This soap smells amazing. It is the best smelling soap I have ever used and makes showering so much more fun. Plus, the wrapping is beautiful.

2. L'Occtaine Hand Cream - If you put this on every night, your hands will never be dry again. It smells glorious and it is wonderfully thick so your hands feel really refreshed after using it.

3. Sea salt flakes - This is the finishing touch for great meals. Sprinkle on your salad or pasta for a delightful crunch.

4. Loose leaf tea - It is so much higher quality that bagged tea. Whenever restaurants serve Twining's bagged tea, I cringe. However, the Twining's loose leaf is actually delicious. My favorite is Jasmine Green Tea. There are also many great loose leaf places opening up such as David's Tea and Argo.

5. Rose Bud Salve - Fixes dry lips quickly and comes with a light rose scent. Comes in tube for as well if it creeps you out dipping your finger in the pot.

6. Truffle oil - Add to pasta or pizza for delicious extra flavor.

7. Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products - If you have to clean, you might as well have some lovely scents to enjoy while you're at it. I love all their cleaning products and appreciate how much less harsh they smell than mainstream cleaning brands. Their candles are great too and aren't too expensive given their quality (potent, lovely smell). 

Practical, black work totes under $250

I am always running to get to work in the morning and carrying an excessive number of things. I bring a Laptop, iPad, packed lunch, and umbrella to work nearly every day so you can see how my tote would fill up really quickly. Given I'm always running and carrying a bunch of stuff I also tend to destroy totes within about six months. Needless to say, I hate spending too much money on work totes. At the same time, I wear it everyday so I want it to be cute! It's surprisingly hard to find cute, large and practical totes, especially when you are hoping to spend under $250. Here are some totes I've found in my never ending search for the perfect work bag.

1.  Light and simple - This is a great bag by Carlos Falchi. It has a fair amount of space to store your work gear and is surprisingly light. It's $170.

2. Perforated trend -  Just found this bag on Neiman Marcus Last Call so it may not be on there for long. I like that this bag is just slightly trendy without losing its practicality. Also, its currently on sale for 30% off, but NM Last Call changes its sales every few days. If you don't see if on sale, add it to your bag and check every couple of days to see when it goes on 30% or 25% off again. It's currently $245.

3. The classic tote - I've used this bag for MANY years. It's very light and has the most space for stuff of any bag I've tried. I also love that it has both black and brown on it because for OCD matching people like me, it always irks me wearing a black tote with brown shoes, but I hate switching work bags too often. It's $145.

4. Roomy tote - This is my current tote. This picture doesn't do it justice. Check out the MZ Wallace website -- they have this tote in a bunch of different sizes and styles. Its really light, which I appreciate given all I'm normally carrying and came with tons of pouches to organize your stuff inside the bag. I use them for my makeup, but they can be easily removed. Only problem with this bag is that its getting more popular in New York. I seem to see someone everyday on the subway to work with this tote. UES problems. It's $225.

5. Not quite black - This tote has a fun, shimmery off-black color that would match with a ton of different colors.  It's currently on sale at Bloomingdales for $208. 

The many surprising decorating uses of agate geodes...

1. Coasters - You can buy them at Amazon for on $28!!

2. Bookends - I found these on Ebay for only $30!

3. Side Table by Brenda Houston

4. Table Lamp by Rab Labs

Here is another cute table lamp.

5. Platter by Rain Collections

Vitamin C and Your Skin

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Topical vitamin C is a great addition to your skin care regimen. I use it every night and feel that my wrinkles and sun spots have improved drastically without having to spend a fortune on skincare products.

Research has found numerous benefits, including:

1. Increased collagen 

2. Reduction in photo-damage

3. Reduction in wrinkles

4. Lightening hyper-pigmentation

I like making my own vitamin C concoction using equal amounts of vitamin C powder and organic coconut oil. However, even if mixed its very grainy and you need to avoid area directly around your eyes or else it will sting your eyes. It also tingled slightly with the first few applications. I apply it every night to sleep as my moisturizer. I also mix it every night as vitamin C loses its potency after a few days after being mixed with an oil. 

There are many vitamin C serums you can purchase if you aren't into making your own. I've been meaning to try the serums below. You apply the serum before your night and morning moisturizer.

1. NuFountain Vitamin C Serum
2. Mad Hippie Vitamin C Serum

The effects of vitamin C are well-proven. See just a few of the articles I found in a quick Google Scholar search explaining the benefits of Vitamin C below.

http://www.nature.com/jid/journal/v116/n6/full/5601085a.html

Farris, P. K. (2005), Topical Vitamin C: A Useful Agent for Treating Photoaging and Other Dermatologic Conditions. Dermatologic Surgery, 31: 814–818. doi: 10.1111/j.1524-4725.2005.31725

Fitzpatrick, R. E. and Rostan, E. F. (2002), Double-Blind, Half-Face Study Comparing Topical Vitamin C and Vehicle for Rejuvenation of Photodamage. Dermatologic Surgery, 28: 231–236. doi: 10.1046/j.1524-4725.2002.01129.x

Magnetic Makeup Board

 

Magnetic makeup boards are so convenient. I can easily grab all my makeup and keep it organized.

I don't find myself balancing all my makeup on the edge of my sink and I don't leave a bunch out since it is so easy to put back with the magnet board.

Plus, it adds a cute touch to your bathroom, especially if you find/ make a board with a cute frame.

I decided against making mine and got this really cute, framed board from Etsy for $25.


To attach your makeup, some people recommend adhering the magnets with a hot glue gun, but I didn't have one so I just bought adhesive magnet squares and stuck my makeup to them. Only about one article of makeup has fallen off in the two months I've had the board.

Adorable Coffee Table Books I'm Dying to Buy!!

The BEST Blow Dryer!

I hate when my hair takes forever to dry so I was looking for the most powerful blow dryer on the market (that was still a reasonable price, I didn't look at anything over $75). I searched Amazon for the blow dryer with the highest wattage and best reviews and found the Ovente 3600 Ceramic Ionic Professional Hair Dryer (La Vida Collection). It dries my hair so quickly!! My hair would take 20-30 minutes to be completely dry with a standard blow dryer and now it takes 5-10 minutes.


My only caveat is that it is slightly noisy compared to conventional dryers and given how strong the air is, it can be slightly hard on your hair (a bit drying). To me that's totally worth it because before I got it my hair was rarely be blow dried. Oh and I have wavy hair, but the blow dryer straightens it for the most part. With other blow dryers, I would have to use a flattening iron after blow drying, adding extra time to my routine.

The best part is that its only $39.99 on Amazon currently!!

Cute Wrapping for Mother's Day Presents!

Craft Paper + Baker's Twine = Cute wrapping!

I got both from Amazon, of course.

1. Craft Paper

2. Baker's Twine

I doubled the twine to make it slightly thicker before wrapping. This is the Diptyque candle wrapped!

I wrapped the NY Times 36 hours book I bought the same way, except I folded the string three times so it would be thicker for a bigger present.

Gifts for Mom :)

These are the three fun gifts I got for my mother! Even better - I ordered them all on Amazon with Prime 2-day free shipping :)

1. Diptyque Candles - These smell amazing and I love the scent of Jasmine! 

2. The New York Times 36 Hours: 150 Weekends in the USA and Canada - I first saw this book at one of my friends apartments on her coffee table. It is the perfect coffee table book! So cute and had really great travel tips!

3. Accupressure Mat - It really helps with back pain! Lie down on it or walk your feet over it to relieve pain and stress.

Paleo Lemon Bars! Amazing Crust!

Ingredients for the crust:

1. 2 cups almond flour
2. 1/4 cup honey
3. 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
4. 2 eggs

Ingredients for the topping:

1. 6 eggs
2. 1 cup fresh lemon juice
3. 1/2 cup honey
4. 1/2 cup coconut oil
5.  Dash of salt




Directions for the crust:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together the honey, eggs and coconut oil. After whisking together, add the almond flour and mix.
3. Line a 10x10 pan with parchment paper and press ingredients down evenly.
4. Bake for 15 minutes until edges are lightly brown.
5. Set aside to cool.

Directions for topping:

1. In a small saucepan, whisk together eggs, juice, honey and salt. Slowly stir in the coconut oil.
2. Whisk while on low to medium heat for about 4-6 minutes until the mixture begins to thicken. It should have the consistency of pudding.
3. Let cool.
4. Once cool, pour over to top of the crust and put in freezer to set. Move to the refrigerator after it has set.

This recipe makes about 16 bars depending on how you cut them. 

Paleo Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

Juice of 2 lemons

Zest of 2 lemons

1/4 cup honey

1/3 cup coconut oil

2 tbsp poppy seeds

6 eggs

Makes 10 muffins.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl. 

3. Mix wet ingredients.

4. Mix together slowly. 

5. Bake for 20 minutes. 

I like my muffins bigger so I only fill 10 paper liners in a muffin pan. Add more honey if you like a sweeter muffin :)

I also just tried making these with Stevia and they turned out just as yummy! I used 8 packets of Stevia instead of the honey and they were great. The lemon wiped out the bitter taste that Stevia sometimes has and instead they just tasted sweet. But if you aren't into Stevia, you can stick with the honey.