Birchbox

Thanks to Rachel  over at Rachel Phipps, my eyes have been open to a whole new world. She recently did a post on something called Glossybox. I immediately went to check it out. Glossybox is a company in the UK that sends out about five beauty products a month for you to try at home. My interests were piqued, but as I started to scope around the site, it said that they couldn't ship to the states. Total and complete sad face from my side. Luckily, someone on the site said that Glossybox wasn't necessary for Americans because we have Birchbox. I had never heard of this either so I had to go check it out. Oh my god, I was so happy with what I found! It was exactly the same as Glossybox and it actually cost the same. I was afraid that since it cost 10 pounds over there it would cost like 15 bucks over here. Nope! It is only $10 a month for 4 to 5 different high-end beauty products that are sent to your house without shipping charges. I am so excited. I ordered mine and should be here around the tenth of June and I cannot wait. I've been in situations where I've spent more than 10 on a tube of mascara that I end up hating and have to throw away. If I'm going to spend that money, I might as well get 5 things that I can try. I'll have to let you know how it all goes down when my package gets here, but I'll be waiting at the window like a sad puppy until it does!

Beautiliscious

I'm back from the salon and boy do I have red hair!! Unfortunately, the weather here has still been less than pleasant, and I believe it will really glow in the sun, so you'll have to wait for some pics of it. I've gotten some mixed reviews from the rest of the fam, but I personally love it!

I have a little confession to make. I love shopping. This might not seem like such a surprise from a twenty year-old woman, but It's becoming a bit of a problem. While I like shopping for clothes, I really like all the little things that come with being a girl. I guess I get it from my dad who is obsessed with any sort of gadget whether it be for computers or for camping. I'm the same way when it comes with hair and skin products. Through my various purchases over the year, I've been able to weed out the dud products out there that sound good, but in reality just cost a bundle and don't stand up to the hype. I've put together a little list of the products that I currently use and think that the world needs to know about.





These are two products that have become a must-have for my daily. The L'Oreal Go 360 Clean cleanser is awesome and cheap! I really like the scrubby thing. It gets my skin squeaky clean without causing any breakouts that I've experienced with other cleansers. The moisturizer is equally great. I've tried all of the different expensive moisturizers from department stores, but they all clog my pores which is a big no no. This one, since it is oil free, feels very light while still deeply locking in all the goodness.

Who doesn't love a facial scrub? And with a combination of pore scrub and Burt's Bees how can you go wrong. I've had some issues with other scrubs I've tried and they haven't been...well scrubby enough. I like a scrub that you can feel removing the dead skin cells (how scientific).Since Burt's Bees prides themselves on natural ingredients, this scrub uses real peach pit parts to help renew your face. I use this about once a week, and it's like a little facial in a bottle!

While we're on the discussion of scrubs, I absolutely love this body scrub. It's by the British company Soap and Glory, and what initially drew me in was the cute packaging. I'm a sucker for something in a cute wrapper. All of their products have a vintage vibe that I can totally get behind. Again, this body scrub has all the little granuals that you can actually feel working your skin. This is especially great right after shaving your legs. Silky smooth!

These two items are the main reason for this post. During spring break, I was with my mama in Target and I came across this new brand: Yes to.... They have an entire line that features only natural ingredients to promote the natural beauty in your skin. These are from the Yes to Carrots line (the other ones have cucumber, blueberry, and tomato depending on what you're skin needs are).On the left here is the body lotion that makes your skin feel baby soft. It also has this great clean sent that doesn't seem bogged down with a lot of perfumey smells like a lot of other lotions out there. On the right is the facial mask. It is this refreshing mud mask that feels good on and off the skin. I highly recommend both of these, and I can't wait to continue my collection these products!

Now lets move on to a little caption on my hair. Being born with pin straight hair is something that I used to see as a curse. I have always wanted curly hair, and have even endured TWO perms in my lifetime both with disastrous results. I've come to embrace the straightness and the fact that I don't need tons of product to tame my hair. With that said, the longer my hair has gotten, the harder it has been to keep its strength up. So along with strengthening shampoos and conditioners that I use, I've recently come across this.

I really enjoy having a nightly routine that I have to go through before I can catch some zzzs. I found this in the drug store the other day, and have used it religiously since. You rub it into your hair, focusing on the tips, and you go to sleep. It smells divine, and when I wake up, my hair is as soft as can be. My hair just feels healthier because of the botanicals used and the fact that it's sulfate-free means it won't make your hair dry and brittle. 

And there's just a little taste of what I have on my bathroom counter. What kinds of things do you guys use? I"m always on the look out for new and exciting things that I can waste my money on so please be honest. I've seen all of these products for sale at a number of Targets so they're all affordable and do great things for you! I am not getting paid to sell any of these things. It's just a way for a normal gal like me to give the world an honest view on a small fraction of stuff out there. Instead doing the whole blog trend of saying what people wish they could have, I've decided to do something on the things I already have. I just like keeping it down to earth. I hope everyone had a stupendous day and good night!

On the Sly

To be perfectly honest, I don't really have much to say for today, but I've decided to blog at least once every two days so I can stand true to some sort of schedule in my life. It's already gotten to the point in summer where I"m not exactly sure what day of the week it is. I have to keep asking my sister since she's still in High School and is forced to know the days of the week. 
Anyway, I get my hair cut and highlighted tomorrow!!!! So excited. It has been months since I've been unable to have it highlighted and the color is not looking so great right now. I'm not at the point were I'm comfortable getting my hair cut while at school. I've built up a trust with my hairdresser and its not something that I'm very willing to give to someone else with scissors near my head. I'm thinking about going with a little more red. I absolutely love being a blonde and I wouldn't give it up for the world, but there's something about the mysterious red head that speaks to me. So I'll have to contend with red and blonde highlights. I'm so excited. I'm definitely keeping the length because it's getting really close to what I call "Eve-hair" territory. I used to have such short hair so now I revel in my long hair. The big question is to do bangs, or not to do bangs. My hair is pretty thin, so I think the thick fringe I might be interested in wouldn't work. I also do practically nothing to my hair and apparently having bangs takes a bit more maintenance. We shall see. Pictures are soon to follow.
I have currently been making the most out of my netflix account. Quite seriously the best thing that was ever invented in my opinion. I've had netflix ever since I started school and have used it for my various film classes. For pleasure, I would try to catch up on all the classically "smart" films that I "had" to see to be fully cultured. Now, I use it on the sly to fulfill my guilty pleasures. It's great to be able to watch all of the movies that I want to watch but would never put money down to see in theaters or to buy the DVD. Within the past couple of weeks, I've watched such gems as Hot Tub Time Machine, Kick-Ass, and Wet Hot American Summer. To be fair, they're all extremely entertaining. I highly recommend WHAS as the perfect summer movie that hearkens back to such seventies classics like Meatballs. Sometimes it's nice to not analyze the what a montage sequence means for to the production value of a film like for a film class.
I'm hoping that with this blog, I will be able to take some of the older, and younger, movies out there and over analyze them to a point of hilarity. Hopefully I can do this in weekly installments to share with all of you out there. It's something that I tend to do with a group of funs and we all have quite a laugh so I hope to share this happiness with the rest of the world. I'm asking around to my friends, and sister who has gotten much funnier with age, to contribute to these analyzes so hopefully there will be different flavors from everyone. That's quite a lot of ambition from my part, but I like to think that this blog will help me get my life in order and set up a schedule that is both practical, but chalk-full of things for me to do.
And with that, I bid you all goodnight! Hope you all have had a great week so far. Please feel free to tell me if there are any movies out there that you would like me to watch and over analyze. I'm open to any suggestions!

The Night Owl

It appears that I'm going to be one that blogs at the late hours of the night. This pretty much fits into the rest of my life because I am totally not a morning person. I currently have my alarm set for 10:00 am and have trouble getting up that late. Luckily, I'm getting into a much better sleep schedule since my time in uni (I'm very excited to study abroad next year in London so please forgive any of the British quips that might appear). It's been nice staying up late with my sister and just talking about anything from boys to music. Although she gets up at 5 and seems a little less willing to chat too long into the night.

Anyway, not much has been going on here in old PA except for copious amounts of rainfall. There were flash flood warnings everywhere today as both rain and hail came pouring out of the sky. Is it just me, or does hail seem to be much more common in the recent years than during our childhood? I felt like it only hailed once while I was growing up, but in the last couple of years, I can hardly count how many times those icy balls of destruction have come down. Unfortunately when the worst of the thunderstorm started I was at my sister's riding stable to pick her up from exercising a horse. I took a little nap in the car and woke up to streams in the middle of the roads. Lancaster is full of hills and farmland so a lot of the times, these puddles can turn into some seriously dangerous problems. This rain is suppose to continue on for the rest of the week, so I don't know if I'll be able to go out and take as many pictures as I would like, but we shall see. That's part of the reason I started this blog. I wanted to have an excuse to take pictures so I can put them in one coherent space that isn't facebook since I don't really see why people would be interested in what kind of cereal I ate this morning (if you really must know it was honey nut cheerios with sliced bananas). My dream would be to start taking outfit photos like a lot of other blogs out there because I feel like I have a kind of unique style where vintagey hipster meets comfy chic. This blog just might be the thing that motivates me to put together new and exciting outfits to share with the rest of the cyber world.

So again, I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with this new and exciting thing I've created, so until I find my footing please bear with me. I'm currently waiting with bated breath for my new Garren heels from Blowfish that I ordered on Saturday as a reward for finishing everything for my finals. I have been eyeing these seventies beauties for quite some time now, and I cannot wait to get my hands on them. I might just need to get a pair of bell bottoms to go with them. I'm so excited that fashion is now trending towards the sixties and seventies because I feel that these were the decades that reached their peek in beauty. The amazing amount of color and confidence in the women at this time is something that I admire greatly, and I love to wear clothes that compliment this same vibe. Does anyone else understand what I'm trying to say or possibly feels the same way? My mother thinks that it is a complete gas that I am now voluntarily wearing the same things she wore when she was in high school, but that's just the cyclical way fashion is now.
And with that I bid you a big Peace Out

First Official Post!!!

Hello blogosphere! Carly here about five years behind the blogging "fad," but I wouldn't have it any other way. Instead of following the rest of the world, I want this blog to be a place where I can relax and hopefully it will help me reorganize my life. I just finished my sophomore year at Clark University so I'll have a lot of time to complete everything I want to do during the summer. Since I will want to continue to post, I'll have to come up with new and exciting things in my life. This first post is short just because it is late, and I wanted to start on Sunday, but really couldn't wait. When I get used to the whole format of these posts, I think I'll come up with weekly structure that should be fun and interesting for all. Please feel free to comment and I look forward to hearing from any and all who have any advice for starting or formatting a blog since I'm kind of learning as I go.
And with that, good night everyone!!!