I can't believe another month has passed away already (do all my favorites post start out like this?!). I'm feeling under the weather today, and am currently sitting on my couch with a cup of Sleepytime tea and a warm chocolate chip cookie from the batch of cookies I baked for my friend last night. I thought it was a good time to talk a bit about my March favorites. I've continued to not wear too much makeup this month, so there is a lot of non-beauty stuff, but some stuff I've been loving from my new stash of makeup this month! 

BareMinerals READY Eyeshadow Duo in The Overachiever -- If you're a BM eyeshadow fan and don't recognize the duo above, it might be because it's part of the Neutral Eyes set, and not sold individually. Although I initially thought I wouldn't like this duo, I've definitely changed my mind on the left-sided shadow (Schmooze). It's a beautiful buttery cool-toned shimmery taupe that applies beautifully, , makes my eyes pop, stays on all day, and doesn't leave glitter speckled around my eye area. I wish this was a tad warmer, but I can't complain given its excellent application and texture.

Maybelline Baby Lips Crystal in Pink Quartz -- This is a rediscovery that's been featured in numerous favorites on my blog. I've been wearing a sheer hot pink balm to usher in the spring and this is sooooo easy and hydrating. This instantly perks up my look and makes me look refreshed and ready to tackle the day. My favorite formulation in the Baby Lips line.

Rimmel London Stay Glossy Lipgloss in Always Lovely -- Hooooly moly. I've fallen so hard so fast for this lipgloss. The color is again, sheer cool-toned hot pink with a lotttt of sparkle, which I initially thought was not my cup of tea. But like the product above, this lipgloss adds a refreshing element to my look and makes me look incredibly radiant. I love so many things about this gloss -- the way it glides on my lips, the high amount of shine it adds (truly Stay Glossy!), the fact that the sparkles are fine and not a chunky mess, the precise flat-shaped applicator, and of course the low price tag of only $4! Cannot wait to get a few more shades from this line in the upcoming months.

Shea Moisture Superfruit Hair Masque -- Now this has my been my most favorite product this month. My hair has always been my biggest struggle, especially in the peak winter and summer months that often leave my strands extremely dry and frizzy. I've been looking for a strong hair mask forever and was ready to give up and indulge in expensive hair products, when I decided to give this mask a try at Ulta. Holy crap. First off, it's a thick butter not the runny stuff that is the OGX and L'Oreal hair masks. This product softened my hair SO much, and my hair has never looked better. It makes my hair so touchably smooth and silky, and leaves it feeling a lot healthier and hydrated. It's only $13 a jar and meant for us girls with extremely dry wavy/curly hair. Definitely try it if you struggle with coarse, dry strands like I do!

Sea Salt & Black Pepper Brown Rice Triscuits -- Favorite snack of the month! I've been looking for healthier, whole grain, easy portable snacks and I picked this up in early March. I was a little afraid at first because I haven't liked Triscuits in the past, but the picture on the box looked like these had a different texture so I decided to give it a try. They've become my favorite snack! There's so many ways to eat these -- plain, with cheddar slices, cream cheese, hummus, etc. I love them and they're relatively healthy, low in calories, and full of fiber as well!

Good Housekeeping magazine -- Call me old-fashioned, but even in this age of technology and digital everything, I still love reading magazines! One of my favorite relaxations is to sit on my couch with a  cup of coffee or tea and peruse through magazines. I've been a fan of Allure, Shape, and Glamour magazines in the past, and read them all in a month, which can be a little exhausting and too much to read (especially for a busy medical student!). My mom recently subscribed to Good Housekeeping, and I was flipping through her April edition this past weekend. I love that it has a bit of everything -- beauty, fashion, home decorating tips, fitness, recipes, random bits and bobs. And plus, I can read just one magazine and get the latest in all those realms instead of having to spend the money and time perusing through three different subject-focused magazines! Multistasking, ftw! I will definitely be subscribing to this magazine in New York! #coffeetableporn

New Beginnings

Hey guys! So it's a few days past Match Day. If you can't tell by the picture, I'm so so so excited to announce that I'll be moving to NEW YORK CITY in the summer for residency!!!!! While it's not a program located directly in Manhattan, it's located on the eastern border of Queens, which is an even better location for me. It's a great children's hospital, located perfectly between the Big Apple and suburban Long Island, a well-balanced curriculum, a large global health program, and has excellent benefits like a large salary and subsidized housing. It really couldn't get better than that. It's been my dream to live in NYC since I was literally 16 years old. And now I finally get to live it out!!! I can't believe how lucky I got. The only unfortunate part is that I'm going to have to move 8 hours away from home, for the first time in my life. I've never lived away from my parents so it's going to be a really huge change for me. But I'm ready to live on my own for a few years and really learn what it means to be independent. To make things even better, a few of my really close friends from medical school matched in NYC programs so at least I won't be completely alone. And then about 8 other people from my class matched into NYC programs. Annnnd to make the deal even sweeter, some of my undergrad friends/acquaintances will be doing their residencies at NYU and Columbia. So I'm not alone and have help if I need help or support or just a friend. I'm so excited to have the world at my feet, and ALL the conveniences of a large city meshed with a huge suburban mecca at my disposal. Definitely pumped for the foodie scene and to relax in Battery Park, one of my favorite spots in Manhattan! All I can hope for is that my co-residents are as friendly as I imagine and I can make a few lasting friends out of the whole experience. 

Massive Winter Haul: Drugstore Beauty

Good afternoon, loves. I'm just sitting on my couch relaxing, drinking a cup of coffee, watching some Kardashian's and thought this was a good time to do some blogging before the weekend. This is part two of my winter haul, featuring all drugstore goodies. Most of the stuff was bought at Ulta, but a few of these things were from Rite Aid. The drugstore has definitely been stepping up its game recently! Like the Sephora stuff, I haven't used many of these products but I have swatched them so I can offer my first impressions at least.

Physician's Formula Argan Wear Blush in Natural -- The packaging on Physician's Formula stuff always gets me, and that's exactly what happened with this blush. It's a pretty ordinary pink blush, buttttt what makes it stand apart is the gold outlining, gold embossing in the center of the product, and the gold packaging. Just makes it seem so luxe! I also love the quality of the Physician Formula's blushes so I'm hoping this one lives up to the standard despite the inclusion of Argan Oil in the product.

Makeup Revolution The Matte Blush in Beloved -- I have never tried Makeup Revolution products and heard good things about it on Youtube. Ulta recently started stocking Makeup Revolution products so I thought I would add one of their products to my online order (they aren't sold in my local Ulta store). At the time I was in the market for a matte peachy-apricot blush and this one looked decent and got decent reviews. However, when I swatched it, I honestly was not impressed. It's chalky and swatched as more of a whitish-orange color. I'm not sure if it will even show up on my skin. I'm still going to try it out on my cheeks, but unfortunately I'm not expecting much after the disappointing swatch :(

L'Oreal Voluminous Volume Building Mascara in Blackest Black -- Not much to say about this one. It's one of my favorite mascaras ever and I needed a new tube, enough said :) one of the best volumizing mascaras at the drugstore!

Essie Nailpolish in Ballet Slippers -- SO excited to wear this Essie classic this spring! I've been wanting this shade for literally two years now -- two years it has sat in my Ulta shopping cart! I decided to take a plunge and buy it this year since interview season got me in the mood for neutral polishes and this is a beautiful sheer pink.

Wet & Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trio in Bohemian Wrapsody -- Another product that I was super pumped to try but am super disappointed with after swatting. Wet & Wild released some new eyeshadow trios as part of their holiday collection. I picked up this one because it had all neutral colors. They are obvious glitter bombs in the pan, but I did not expect them to be as poorly pigmented or chunky on application. Even after three swipes, they barely left any color. Just chunks of glitter :( I'm not sure if these are meant to be used on top of other eyeshadows? Definitely not the same quality as other W&W trios, and like I said a huuuuuge disappointment. I'm afraid to even try them on my eyes because I can see these having a huge amount of fallout.

NYX Prismatic Eyeshadow in Liquid Gold -- NYX shadows are one of my favorites at the drugstore. They're incredibly pigmented and perform at the level of high-end eyeshadows. My biggest problem with NYX shadows is the packaging. My singles aaaalways fall apart --I've had the plastic breaking off, the pan falling out, the shadow cracking, pretty much everything with these eyeshadows. As for this one, the pan fell out, causing the product to crack :( I probably won't be getting more of these in the future because of the packaging issue, but gives these shadows a try if you're in the market for drugstore eye makeup because the product performs quite well.

Rimmel Stay Glossy Lipgloss in Always Lovely -- This is another product I've had in my Ulta shopping cart for a long, long time. I have so many lip products though that it was hard for me to justify getting yet another gloss. But I decided to pick this up when I saw that it was 50% off at Rite Aid (maybe they're discontinuing the line?). These glosses are good, but they're nothing out of the ordinary. They are very high-shine and come in a nice range of colors. The shade I picked up is a classic pink that leans a bit more cool and has some micro-shimmer in it. Quite a pretty shade for the spring and  nice one to toss in your bag on the go!

Almay Smart Shade Butter Kiss in Berry Light-Medium and Color + Care Liquid Lip Balm in Blooming Balm -- While I was waiting for my prescription to get ready at Rite Aid, I was scouring the makeup aisles and saw this product. It's a Almay lip butter with a free liquid lip balm. The whole package was $6, which is the regular price for one of the lip butters...so pretty much you get the lipgloss for free. I've been wanting to try one of the Berry shades and the gloss seemed like a pretty sheer pale pink, so I picked it up. The lip butters are beautiful and one of my favorite lip formulas, so I'm really excited to try that. However, I've tried Almay's liquid lip balm before in the shade Canteloupe, but have not been a huge fan of the formula. The color doesn't go on very smoothly and streaks/patches up on my lips. I'm going to give it another shot with Blooming Balm and hopefully I have good things to report!

Shea Moisture Superfruit Complex Hair Masque -- I was in the market for a hair mask since my hair has been atrociously dry over the winter, which is pretty bad since my hair is veeery course and prone to tangling very easily. I was ready to buy an expensive hair mask, but then I saw excellent reviews for this mask and decided to give it a try. Ohhh my gosh, if you have dry coarse hair you need to try this mask. Unlike the other drugstore masks I've tried, especially the L'Oreal and OGX ones, this one is SUPER thick and moisturizing, and really sticks to my strands. I put a shower cap on top and leave it on my hair for about 10 minutes and my hair is soooooo soft afterwards! It's only $13 and Shea Moisture often runs for Buy 1 Get One 50% off at Ulta. Definitely new holy grail product for me and something you will see for sure in my monthly, if not yearly, favorites!

Soap & Glory Smoothie Star Breakfast Scrub -- Lastly, but certainly not least, I finally got this bad boy!!! I've wanted this scrub since Soap & Glory released it a couple years ago. They recently pulled out of Sephora and have been available at Ulta for $10 cheaper so of course I decided to pick it up. It doesn't smell as good as its body butter counterpart, but it's still divine and I can't wait to use it this!

Massive Winter Haul: High-End Beauty

Hello, hello everyone. Well that hiatus was short-lived, huh? Luckily the situation got sorted out fairly fast and I'm feeling tons better now. With the grace of God, no patient harm came out of the situation. I'm finally getting around to cleaning out my makeup drawer and unpacking my huge beauty haul from this past November/December. Yes, I realize it's three months later...time flies! As you can tell from the flood of personal posts lately, I've been in a really bad mood ever since coming back from vacation. I've been on this constant go-mode since November and I'm just exhausted at this point. And the whole issue with the HIPAA violation just got me really really upset. I've been mustering as much energy as I can, and I hope things will be different now that match day and graduation are approaching. 

Anyhows, enough of my personal bantering, on to the makeup! I split this haul up into two parts -- high end and drugstore. There's just SO much stuff and I would be incredibly overwhelmed if I went through both parts in one post, so hence the splitting. Interestingly enough, the high-end side is much larger than the drugstore side this time. Usually it's the opposite!

So let me go through each product one by one. I haven't used any of the products yet, but I swatched most of them so I can offer my first impressions at least. In no particular order, here goes. The ones without links were limited edition holiday products that are no longer available.

bareMinerals Tutorials: Neutral Eyes -- Let me be honest, the main reason I bought this kit was because I had a 20% off coupon at Ulta including prestige brands, and this set caught my eye as I was about to checkout at Ulta. It's actually a pretty handy. It comes with a (full-size?) eyeshadow duo, a mini size of their 5-in-1 BB cream shadow, a eyeliner, and mini eye brush. Plus, it comes cased in a  gorgeous reusable metal tin. I really like this set, but I am a bit disappointed with the eyeshadow duo. I expected it to be more warm-toned based on the picture on the back, but it's in fact a bronzey-taupey mix. I'm hoping it's still wearable on my super-warm skin tone, and I'm definitely looking forward to using the other products in the set. Neat little gift idea and it would make a good starter makeup set.

Clinique Whole Lotta Chubby Set -- I saw this cute little holiday gift set as I was online shopping for a cream blush stick. I was about to buy the full size of the Amp'd Up Apple, but I stumbled upon this set and decided to buy it! For $25 you get deluxe sizes of five products from their "Chubby" line -- a cream blush stick, an eyeshadow stick, one regular chubby lipstick, one baby tint, and one intense chubby lipstick. The shades are Amp'd Up Apple (blush), Bountiful Beige (eyeshadow), Curvy Candy, Mightiest Maraschino (intense), and Poppin' Poppy (baby tint). Overall, I'm very glad I bought this set since I'm a huge fan of their Chubby range. I never finish a blush, and this set allows me to try a bunch of other shades and products from the line. Also, the sizes in the set are quite generous!

Clinique Even Better Makeup Foundation in Cream Caramel -- I've been wanting to get a heavy-duty foundation from a makeup line that emphasizes "good ingredients" and sensitive skin. I'm not a huge fan of the bareMinerals or Tarte foundations, so I thought I would try a Clinique foundation. It's an old formulation, but it got excellent reviews on multiple sites. I'm going to have to experiment with it a bit more before making a final verdict, but so far so good! I put it on my face using a Real Techniques Expert Face Brush and it applied well, blended seamlessly, and was lightweight. Going to have to use it a bit more to determine if it's a good color match and if it's heavy duty enough.

Clinique Stay Matte Sheer Pressed Powder in Stay Honey -- To match my new foundation, I picked up this powder from Clinique. Not much to say about this one. I didn't swatch or test this, but I imagine it functioning like any other old pressed powder. We shall see!

Too Faced Love Flush Blush in Love Hangover -- I've wanted to try a blush from this collection for sooooooo long! Yes, the packaging is definitely what sucked me in. I didn't fall in love with any of the shades in the collection, but I figured I couldn't go wrong with Love Hangover which is a dusky rose shade with a slightest bit of sheen. It's a gorgeous everyday, natural sort of blush. This shade is perfect for the spring and summer!

Burberry Wet & Dry Silk Shadow in Pale Barley -- This product was a total splurge! I love dabbling around with luxury makeup, but I don't have the funds to purchase them on a regular basis. So every time I feel like it's a particularly challenging time of year for me, I splurge on a makeup item and remind myself that I've worked incredibly hard to get where I am and I should be treating myself, not being down in the dumps. This time, it was application and interviewing season that had me feeling really nervous and frantic, and I decided to splurge on one of these shadows. It's one of those products that just makes you feel extra fancy everytime you bust it out of your makeup drawer. The shade isn't particularly unique, but the formula is really silky soft as the name suggests. This color leans more cool than I initially thought, but it's not as ultra-cool as other taupes I've played around with. Definitely not a product you need to rush out and purchase, but definitely check these out if you need a little pick-me-up ;)

Bite Beauty Luminous Creme Lipstick Duo in Pepper/Fig -- Recently, Bite Beauty started making mini size duos of their lipsticks at only $12 a pop. I bought the Fig/Date duo last year, but the colors unfortunately didn't suit my skin tone. This Christmas, they came out with new duo combinations and one of them happened to have Pepper, which I've wanted for a long time! It's a beautiful dusky pinkish-red shade and the perfect MLBB shade. It has the signature creamy Bite Beauty formula and I love the way these duos feel on my lips. Unfortunately, the duo came with Fig, which is in the other duo I have, but luckily Fig looks gorgeous when topped with a pinky gloss!

Fresh Sugar Rose Ritual -- During holiday shopping season, I'm always excited to see Fresh's holiday gift sets. Since a full size of their lip balms are quite pricey at $22, getting a bunch of different colors and types of Fresh lip products in mini sizes is my favorite way to try Fresh. This year, they had quite a few awesome holiday sets to pick from. I ended up picking up one that had both a lip treatment and a lip balm, and was reasonably priced -- the Rose Ritual set was perfect. I love the wash of sheer red the lip balm gives me, and am super pumped to try out the Rose lip treatment counterpart, which is just a glossy version of their lip balm.

Tarte Fanciful Favorites Deluxe Discovery Set -- I bought this at the Sephora black friday sale. I'm a sucker for Tarte's Amazonian clay blushes and so I always pick up a set during the holidays to try out some new shades. The Tarte Amazonian Clay blushes blend so beautifully, are packaged well, and last all day on my cheeks. This one is a nice everyday matte (I believe) medium pinky rose shade that has the awesome Amazonian clay blush quality. The set also contains a sample of the Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara that I have been dying to try and a small bottle of their Maracuja Oil.

Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask -- I believe this was a deluxe freebie Sephora was offering around the time I put in my online order. I decided to include this because it's one of the best face masks I have ever used and does an excellent job at cleansing my pores. Granted this is the only high end face mask I have tried, but honestly it's quite affordable for how well of a job it does. The deluxe sample I got was 1oz, which is very generous for a sample considering that the 1.7oz tube is $17! Hands down my favorite mask and I would encourage anyone, especially those with oilier skin, to try this awesome charcoal mask!

Lorac Pro Metal Palette -- I saved the best for last! Out of all the stuff I bought over the holidays, I'm most excited to try this palette. This is a permanent item, but it was discounted at 50% on Ulta over Black Friday I believe. Or it might have been after Christmas, I'm not entirely sure. I was skeptical on getting this palette at first because I've been buying way too many eyeshadows recently, but after I read some reviews on this palette, I knew I had to get it. I absolutely love metallic pressed shadows and this palette featured a lot of my favorite colors. I could definitely see myself wearing more than half of these shades on a regular basis. It has a rose gold, olive-gold, buttery golden, and a copper which are all amongst my favorite neutrals. I'm also excited to try out the grayish taupe shade and cobalt shade even though they are slightly more cool-toned! The quality on these shadows is AMAZING. Super buttery and richly pigmented, and very very metallic for all of us metal lovers out there. I loved the palette so much that I took a close-up of it below. Isn't it gorgeous? So excited to play with this baby in the next few weeks.

Brief (Hopefully) Hiatus

Hey everyone. Just as one emotional period passes through, another thing crops up to take its place. I submitted my rank list exactly one week ago and was looking forward to the rest of my year, especially March since I have no clinical responsibilities this month. However, on day one of my awesome month-cation, I was emailed by the privacy officer at my hospital saying that I've been implicated in a HIPAA violation. I don't want to write about the details of the situation on this blog. It was a relatively minor Level 1 accidental violation, although it's still a serious offense that requires paperwork and various levels of administrative involvement. I'm thanking my lucky stars that no patient harm resulted from this violation. I met with the privacy officer who said that the issue was a contained matter that thankfully did not need to be reported federally or even to the state since no third party discovered the contents of my improperly disposed patient health information. Not sure what that really means, but I'm hoping that it's good news that won't lead to any incriminating charges. He reported the matter to the human resources at my university and I'm waiting to hear back from them, or from the student administration from my medical school. The privacy officer reassured me that termination was highly unlikely in this case, although I'm sure I will receive some sort of oral or written counseling/warning, which I totally deserve. I'm not sure if this will go on my permanent record or if the hospital I will be matching at will receive report of this. I'm not sure of anything at this point, which is why I'm incredibly nervous and haven't been able to function lately. Like I said, although the privacy officer made it seem like this incident wasn't a relatively huge deal, I'm still really worried about what sort of punishment I will receive for this and how this will impact my future career. I've been a very good, professional student throughout my entire career and the last thing I wanted for this to happen and potential patient harm to occur only two months before I graduate. In any case, I will be taking a break for blogging and I hope to be back soon with good news.