New Year, New Adventures

Hello fellow interweb friends!

With today being the first day of 2014, I just wanted ring in the new year with a positive note and a cute little message for you guys. 

For me, 2013 seemed to be like the year with many obstacles and challenges that I think I have somewhat successfully overcome. I may not be a completely different person than who I was last year but for sure a more improved version of myself. I believe that 2013 has helped build my character, preparing me for what's to come this year. 

For a while, I just thought this blog was just going to be my distraction from all the bad things going on in my life, a place where I share random tidbits with you guys, however, the past few weeks, though I was not active on the blog, I have come to realize that I do very much enjoy this blogging experience and want it to become more of a permanent thing. Because I used my blog as more of a coping mechanism/distraction last year, I only did it whenever it was convenient for me, but that is not fair to those of you who do come and read my posts. With the new year starting, I want to restart on this blog, a clean slate! 

Hope you guys will still stick around to support me!

Thank you,

Uyen

Musical Monday?!?!?

Hello fellow interweb friends!

It has definitely been a while since I've posted something on here and I am so sorry! I promise I still love my little bloggy baby but just haven't had a lot of time. So I thought maybe I can post a song that I've been slightly obsessed with on here for you guys since it's been a while.

Compass - Lady Antebellum

If you guys don't already know, I enjoy country music, quite a bit and this song has definitely been one of my favorites. Whenever it comes on, I always start to sing at the top of my lungs, even though I can't sing even if my life depended on it!

Hope you enjoy,

Until next time...hopefully, not too long!

Uyen

High End Quality Hair Mask Minus the Cost

Hello fellow interweb friends!

With the holiday season around the corner, or just life in general, I'm sure we do a lot of things that are harmful towards our hair and stripping all the nutrients necessary to keep it healthy. Unfortunately, sometimes we don't think of using things like coconut oil for our hair but would rather turn to other serums and things that can cost a fortune just to give a little bit of life back into our hair. As great as macadamia oils and moroccan oils and argan oils are for our hair, the cost to get one of those bottles, at its finest form to give the most benefits to our hair, is just ridiculous because no one needs to spend $30-$50 on a bottle of diluted stuff! Instead, we should all be checking out coconut oil that can go for anything from $4-$10 a tub that can last us just as long as any of those expensive stuff. 

So why coconut oil?

The oil, when put into the hair before you shower, actually penetrates the moisture deeper into your hair shaft and when you wash it, the vitamins will still be in the hair, unlike conventional conditioners that would just wash away with the shampoo. Coconut oil works both for dry and oily hair, so that means everyone can use it, just at different amounts. For me, my hair is thin and slightly oily, so I will use about a dime-sized amount from the tip of my hair to around my ears, and it'll be enough. I use it about 2-3 times a week, depending on how lazy I am as well as how bad I treated my hair in other days of the week.

Coconut oil has been a hair treatment for hundreds of years, so this isn't anything new. The only reason I'm bringing it up now is because I don't think anyone should be paying a fortune just to get nice hair when you can get the same effect for about a tenth of the price! When buying coconut oil, just make sure you are buying the extra virgin because that will give you the purest form of the oil and you'll be able to reap all the benefits of it. 

Here, I'm only talking about coconut oil as a hair mask/deep conditioner, but it can be used for your skin as well, facial cleanser, and of course cooking. If you want to check out more, I'll link this Huffington Post article for you to check out!

Until next time,

Uyen

DIY: Stimulate Your Skin and Senses

Hello fellow interweb friends!

If you remember, about a month, maybe a little less, I shared with you the uses of toners on your face. Well, now, I thought I'd share with you how to make your own toner/facial spray so you can save money as well as use less chemicals on your face!

So, what I did to make my own tea tree oil with rosewater toner spray is I took 10 cap-full to a third of the oil and half of the rosewater bottle. In other words, one bottle or rosewater will give you two bottles of the DIY toner spray. I only used 10 caps of the oil because I didn't want the tea tree oil to be too concentrated, which can cause my skin to dry out. Also, if I really wanted to concentrate the oil onto my skin, I would just use a cotton swab to dab some of the oil directly onto areas on my face that I think needs extra oil attention. 

What are the benefits of tea tree oil you may ask? 

1. it kills bacteria (i.e. helps fight acne)

2. help get rid of dead skin cells 

3. an anti-fungal to help treat eczema, infections, etc.

4. treating dandruff

What are the benefits of rosewater?

1. hydrate skin without leaving it oily

2. high in vitamins A, B3, C, D, E, which can help improve overall skin health

3. resolve skin inflammation and irritation 

4. maintain skin's natural pH to help treat eczema

Now that you know some of the benefits of tea tree oil and rosewater, imagine the synergetic effects that can happen when you combine the two together? For me, I've seen an improvement in my skin and I've been using it for about a month now. I spray it in the morning, after I shower, or just anytime I feel like I want a little spritz to wake my senses as well as my skin up. That's another benefit of this little concoction. Both of these ingredients are great for aromatherapy as well, so when you want to calm your nerves or invigorate your senses, just a few sprays will make you feel like you just walked out of the spa and ready to take on the day!

Until next time,

Uyen

Caudalie Beauty Elixir: Ridiculously Magical

Hello fellow interweb friends!

It has definitely been a long time since I've posted something for you guys and I apologize! I feel like from now until December, I won't be able to post as much as I used to just because of my school scheduling and workload and what not. In other words, I won't be able to post as much of the fun and random stuff, but I will for sure pop in every once in a while to share something cool with you guys!

Lately, ever since I started school, I have been super stressed out to the max and it definitely showed up on my skin because I started breaking out like nobody's business! Literally, I think my skin went on a purge and zits were just popping up all over the place. Anyways, so to deal with that, I washed my face and exfoliated more than I usually did just to get all the dirty and dead stuff out of my skin. However, the one major thing that I've changed is I sprayed my face with Caudalie's Beauty Elixir as a toner afterwards everyday for the past two weeks and definitely saw an improvement in my skin. 

Ingredients: Water, Alcohol Denat, Glycerin, Rosa Damascena Flower Oil, Rosemary leaf Oil, Potassium Alum, Bitter Orange Flower Water, Orange Flower Oil, Peppermint Oil, Commiphora Myrrha Extract, Styrax Benzoin Resin Extract, Balm Mint Leaf Oil, Grape Fruit Extract, Citral, Citronellol, Farnesol, Geraniol, Limonen, Linalool

So why use a toner? And why this one?

Well, first off, I'd like to emphasize the importance of using a toner after we wash our face. Toner is important to neutralize your skin's pH and bring it back to equilibrium after we wash our face, which means we've demolished the top layer of our skin, especially when we exfoliate. When we wash our face, we clean the upper most layer. The point of using a toner after is to bring the cleansing components deeper into our skin. And if you're like me and you also use a moisturizer after, toners actually act as a helping agent to bring the moisturizer deep into your skin. Just imagine, when you put on lotions or hand creams, after you wash it, the moisture goes away, but if you were to put a toner on it first, the moisture will remain even after washing it. 

Now, why this specific one? Well, the main reason why I am ridiculously in love with this is because of the smell! Yes, I know that doesn't sound super professional, but for some reason, this little thing smells like the spa and just totally relaxes me on top of its skin-healing ingredients. As you can see on the ingredients list I posted under the picture, this elixir is really just made up of a lot of natural oils, from fruits to plants. Now, glycerine is one of the main ingredients and its purpose is to bring moisture into the skin. As for the rose oils, that helps clarify the pores. The mint oils are used as an aromatherapy ingredient to help calm your senses as well as your skin. When sprayed on, you feel a cooling feeling and a tingly sensation on your skin. I am totally in love with the feeling and scent that the elixir gives off. I can honestly say that my skin condition and acne scarring has improved within the past two weeks that I've started to use the elixir religiously again. 

I really think this can be used for all skin tones, minus the sensitive one because of all the natural ingredients. I'm not saying you cannot experience the magical effects of it, but maybe you can try using it every once in a while. It won't do much harm to your skin since the ingredients are all natural oils that our skin can adapt to. 

So pretty much, I've been spoiling my skin and my senses with this. It is a perfect spray to use before bed to calm yourself as well as treat your skin. The elixir comes in 2 sizes, the small travel sized one goes for $18 and the large one goes for $49. I've been using the travel sized one just because that's the one that I've had since I went to Vietnam, so obviously it lasts you for quite some time. I will definitely be purchasing the large one soon because I think skin care is a long-term investment and it's always better to have long-lasting healthy skin since I'm super lazy when it comes to make-up.

What kinds of toners do you use? And what are your thoughts on tea tree oil and rose water because that's the next thing that I'll be posting about soon!

Until next time,

Uyen

UPDATED: Manic Madness Management

Hello fellow interweb friends!

With the school year finally starting and what not, I know we're getting tempted to put things off, especially school-related things, so we can try to hang on to whatever is left of summer. Unfortunately, that's a really bad idea, unless you have an organized way to procrastinate. As weird as that sounds, being organized is actually helpful when you want to procrastinate. How does that make sense, I have no idea, but here's a little video that can go more into detail about it!

Hope you guys enjoy! What are some of your organizational tips?!?! Please leave it as a comment down below and follow & subscribe for more!

Until next time,

Uyen

Foodie Tues-dee On a Wednesday?!?! Sure!

Hello fellow interweb friends!

Now, I know I haven't posted one of these in a long time, but that's just because I haven't gone out to eat that much and if I did, it wasn't great enough for me to share. But then again, maybe I should share things I don't like as well...I don't know! Thoughts, comments, leave them down below and help a girl out, please and thank you!

Anyways, for this one, I wanted to share with you my thoughts on Starbucks' Bistro Boxes/Sandwiches/Salads. Now, I know the prices for these things are ridiculous, but when you're an avid Starbucks-goer like myself, then most of the time, they wouldn't cost a thing because you'd just use your free item to redeem it. Anyways, I love their chicken caesar salad as well as the roasted tomato and mozzarella panini. Both of these have one thing in common that just makes them extremely delicious and that is: roasted tomatoes!!! Good lord, I love me some roasted tomatoes because they just smell amazing and tastes delicious!

Now, does that not look delicious or what?!?!? So this is the panini and I just had it last night before my horrible 3 hour long night class. The sandwich was toasted to perfection because it had just the right amount of crispiness to it and everything blended so well together in the sandwich. The taste, texture, and coloration of it just makes me so happy and pleased, so much that I had to share it with you guys!

Gosh, looking at the picture now and see this all over again makes me want to go out and get one right now. If any of you guys are hungry from this, please do go try it out! The best part is all this gloryness and deliciousness is only like 380 calories! Ya, that is not bad at all, especially since you are more than likely to burn more calories than that in a day just by doing everyday activities like breathing and laughing. 

Until next time,

Uyen