Hey guys! Lonnnng time no talk. I'm finally getting started on packing my things, so things have been quite busy and hectic. I'm pretty much living at my parents house and going to my apartment a couple times each week to move stuff. It's coming along, slowly but surely. I only have my clothes, shoes, and scarves left to pack in my bedroom, sell my furniture, and then clean out the kitchen and bathroom. The thing that took the most energy (and caused alotttt of stress) this month was finalizing my housing arrangement. Long story short, I won't get my permanent apartment until July 1st, so I have to sublet until June 30th. I found a three-week rental on Air B&B in a house really close to the hospital, so I'm excited about that. Only downside is that I have to live with a family, so it's going to be a little different and not as private of an accommodation as I would've preferred. As for my permanent apartment, I managed to score one of the hospital-owned apartments at a really good deal! The rent is only $930/month, and that includes all utilities and is a short 5-minute drive to the hospital. I just have to suffer a bit until July rolls around, but it's going to be worth it!

So now that you know a little bit about this month's struggles, lets talk about some goodies I've been loving these last few months! Most of these are new discoveries I've made over the last two months. Spring has just creeped up and is almost over, so I need to start cherishing it a bit more before the summer officially begins in a few weeks. 

Clinique Even Better Foundation in Cream Caramel -- I bought this foundation over the winter since I needed a full-coverage product. This one is absolutely amazing! It's made with good ingredients, comes at a reasonable price in about 30+ shades, and provides medium-full coverage. It's a very lightweight foundation and has quickly become one of my holy grail products.

Clinique Stay Matte Sheer Pressed Power in Stay Honey -- I bought this powder to go along with my new Clinique foundation. Again, absolutely perfect and I have only good things to say about this product. Plus, look how cute that compact is!

MakeupGeek Eyeshadow in Purely Naked -- Although it looks fairly ordinary and boring in the pan, this eyeshadow is a new favorite everyday eyeshadow color. You can't see it in the photo above, but it has a few specks of glitter and some sheen so it's not a completely matte. It adds a little bit of color and brightness to my lid without looking too shimmery. Great work color!

EOS Lip Balm in Strawberry Sorbet -- I usually hate wearing lip balm. I can never get into my Burt's Bees lip balms no matter how much I try. I purchased this one because, hello it's pink and I love strawberry-scented everything. I can't put this lip balm down! It has a very natural, not-too-sickly sweet scent and leaves my lips extra moisturized. Not to mention, super fun to apply! 

Nivea In-Shower Cocoa Butter Body Lotion -- I never used to be the kind of girl who required daily moisturizing, but I've been noticing that my skin's been more patchy and scaly lately. I still hate moisturizing, so I decided to try this in-shower body lotion. It's pretty good! It definitely doesn't replace the need for a body butter or lotion if you have extra dry skin, but if you just have mildly dry skin like me, it will moisturize and leave your skin feeling smooth. Plus, its light cocoa butter scent is very exhilarating first thing in the morning!

Trim Slant Tip Tweezers -- Chances are that if you read any beauty blog about tweezers, they all talk about the Tweezerman brand, which come at around $25 a pop. Although I've never tried a pair of Tweezerman tweezers, these ones from Trim come for $1.99 at Target and work very well. I've always hated tweezing my brows, but these tweezers pluck hair efficiently and without a lot of pain!

Kirkland Signature Pacific Bold K-Cups -- These babies right here are why I'm considering getting my own Costco membership in my new city. K-Cups are super expensive and before discovering these, I was paying around $11 for a box of 18 K-Cups. Not horrible, but I'd be going to the grocery store every other week and was spending way too much on these, especially since I enjoy about 2 cups of coffee a day. I found these on sale at Costco last time I went, and I'm in love. I love me a strong, bold cup of coffee that doesn't taste like burnt -- these are perfect! They compare to the Starbucks medium roast coffee in my opinion and the Donut Shop Extra Bold Medium-Roast K-Cups that I used to love before these. They cost $37 for 100 cups which is a steal. Definitely try if you're a bold coffee lover like me!

The Good Table Parmesan and Herb Sauce and Crust Mix for Chicken -- I have so many food favorites this spring that I should do a separate blog post about all them. This one, however, stood out amongst them all. I love making chicken parmesan, but hate having to buy a big thing of breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese, only to throw them because I can't use the whole thing before the expiration date. This baby just changed my whole chicken parm game! This package allows me to make a delicious baked chicken parmesan in less than 30 minutes! And it's relatively low in the fat and sodium department since you can control how much sauce, crust mix, and cheese you put on each chicken breast. Definitely a must have for busy gals out there!

Ulta Haul ♥

Hey everyone, hope you are all having an excellent weekend. I, for one, have had a pretty lousy weekend :( Lots of shitty stuff happened, and I just felt like de-stressing and writing a bit on this beautiful Sunday. The sunshine outside has honestly been my saving grace today! Given my crappy weekend, I decided to go ahead and do some stress-shopping at Ulta this afternoon. I was actually quite proud of myself for behaving and not getting every little thing I eyed. I also spent $62 at Sephora last weekend on a YSL lipstick and eye cream (post soon...maybe?) so I had a bit of a tighter budget. I also had a few Ulta coupons and some of the products above were on sale, which brought my total down to $30 for all these goodies!

A good chunk of this haul was actually skincare items. Especially, moisturizers. I've never had issues with dry skin, but my skin's been scaly and patchy over the past few weeks and in desperate need of some moisturizing. I absolutely hateeeee applying body lotion because it leaves my hands so greasy and yucky, so I decided to try out the Nivea Cocoa Butter In-Shower Body Lotion. I'm hoping it really does work and hydrates my scaly skin! I also needed some more hand cream for my backpack, so I picked up the Pacifica Malibu Lemon Blossom Hand Cream. It's thick and moisturizing like my favorite Body Shop hand lotions, at a reasonable price of $9, and smells soooooo yummy and perfect for the spring season. Plus, how cute is the tube? Lastly in the moisturizing department, I got the cult classic EOS Smooth Sphere Lip Balm in Strawberry Sorbet. Let's be honest, I'm a sucker for anything packaged in pink, and I love strawberry-scented things. I've gotten sick of my Burt's Bees lip balm and so decided it was time to finally invest in this baby. I tried it in the car and it smells sooooo good, exactly like a strawberry milkshake. This is one lip balm I'm sure to be sporting all spring and summer.

I also picked up a few other bits and bobs. I needed an eye makeup remover, but they were all out of my usual Neutrogena Eye Makeup Remover. However, the Simple Cleansing Micellar Water was on sale and I decided to give it a go because of all the rave and hype I've heard about this product on Youtube and beauty blogs. I also got a pack of my favorite Ulta Premium Round Cotton Pads to use the micellar water with. I normally just clean my skin with Simple Makeup Wipes at night, but I wanted to get something that cleaned my skin deeper. I don't like using my St. Ives Green Tea Scrub more than once a day, since it is quite exfoliating and you generally shouldn't use a scrub more than once a day if that. Since the Simple wipes do a  good job at taking off my makeup and don't break me out, I'm hoping that the Simple Cleansing Micellar Water will work with my skin. Lastly, I got some makeup products to try out. The NYX Cosmetics Glitter Primer is something I've had my eye on for a while. I own a ton of glittery pressed eyeshadows, but I hate that they never stick on eyelids and fall out over the course of the day. That includes my L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows. So I'm hoping that this glitter primer is tacky enough to keep those types of shadows on all day with minimal fallout. And lastly, I've been obsessed with wearing smudged brown eyeliner on a lazy makeup day. I love the NYX retractable eyeliners so I decided to pick up the NYX Cosmetics Retractable Eyeliner in Bronze, which is a beautiful bronzy color with a ton of sparkle. It looks like it would be perfect for everyday looks.

There you go, my stress-shopping Ulta haul. I'll have my updates from the Skinny Jeans challenge sometime this week or next week. It was a bit crazy last week, which is why I have to wait another week before posting the results. They will be up soon I promise :) Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

January Favorites!

I honestly cannot believe January is gone! I spent most of the month out of the country on vacation and it was a really nice, relaxing time. Sad to say that on my very last day in New Delhi, I got sick :( I had a cold with a mild fever that's resolved, but now I'm having major stomach cramps. I think I have gastritis from all the rich, spicy foods I had been eating in India. I've been sleeping most of the time since I've  can barely keep any food down without getting cramps and have zero energy because I haven't been eating much. Tums, omeprazole, and eating really light foods like toast and tea has been helping a lot though and I'm feeling a little bit better. The worst part of it all is that I can't tolerate coffee right now, so I'm going through maaaajor caffeine withdrawal. I've been drinking green tea, but it doesn't contain nearly as much caffeine as coffee does and I'm still having major headaches. Can't take ibuprofen either since my stomach's irritated, blargh.

Anyways, back to favorites! I haven't been wearing too much makeup this month and when I have been wearing makeup, I've been sticking to tried and true products.  So not a whole lot of new beauty discoveries this month. I'm hoping to try a bunch of new products this upcoming month, so I should have a ton of beauty products to show in my next monthly favorites!

EOS Shave Cream -- Never thought I'd feature a shaving cream on my favorites, but I picked this up last month and I've been in love ever since. This is the only shaving cream that has left my legs super soft and moisturized afterwards. I don't even need to lather on lotion once I get done shaving and get out of the shower! I've tried this in Lavender and Pomegranate Raspberry, which are both really pleasant, non-overpowering scents. Plus, the bottle has a pump for mess-free application, which I love. At only $2.99 a bottle, this one is a must-try bath product. 

Bonita Cosmetics Nail Polish Remover Pads -- I stumbled upon these at Rite Aid when I happened to be looking for nail polish remover pads for traveling - how lucky! These were only $1, so I was a bit skeptical on how these would work. But, oh my gosh these are amazing! The pads remove nail polish really well, leave a nice scent on your nails, and hydrate your cuticles since they contain a bit of cuticle oil. The small tin is perfect for traveling. Needless to say, I'll be buying a couple more of these and using them every time I take off my polish, whether it's at home or at a hotel!

Bath & Body Works Winter Candy Apple Shower Gel -- This one is a oldy, but a goodie. I love this scent so much during the winter time and this season was no exception. Very classic apple-candy scent without being too powerful, and the scent lingers on your skin for hours after your shower. Love!

NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Smokey Look -- Another oldie but goodie I've been reaching for a lot this month. This lipgloss is just the perfect nude (although it looks a bit pink in the picture). This is one of my favorite lip gloss formulas -- they're so shiny, lightweight, moisturizing, and have such a pleasant cherry scent. Highly recommended drugstore lipgloss!

Trim Slant Tip Tweezers -- I decided to start plucking my eyebrows again this month and purchased these tweezers at a mere $2 from Walmart. I've always been really bad at plucking my eyebrows, so I was a bit scared that these wouldn't work either especially with the low price tag. To my surprise, they actually work really really well and allow me to pluck my eyebrows really easily. I know everyone raves about the expensive Tweezerman tweezers, but I think these work pretty darn well for $2. Definitely give these a try if you're new to eyebrow-land like me.