Summer Morning Smoothie

Hello Lovely!

On of my favorite things about summer is relaxing in the early summer mornings before the California heat sets in.  I always like to get up early and go for a walk and when I get back I treat myself to a yummy smoothie. Everyday it's a new recipe I've come up with or stumbled upon on Pinterest, various combinations of fruits and sometimes veggies, too.

Today, I'm going to share with you the yummy recipe I made today. It's light and filling and refreshing so it's perfect for summer!

Strawberry Pinapple Summer Smoothie:

~5-6 large frozen strawberries

~1/4 cup of fresh or frozen or canned pineapple (I used canned because it's all I had)

~about 1 cup milk (Almond or Soy or whatever kind you want. I used Almond)

~a little bit of lemon juice

Optional: protien powder

Just put it all in a blender and enjoy!

So yummy!

~

Daily Summer Skincare

Hello Lovely!

On this wonderful summer day I want to talk about the importance of taking care of our skin and my personal daily skincare routine in the morning and at night.

Often times, I feel like the importance of taking good care of our skin is often forgotten about.  I know I am guilty of this sometimes.  In the hustle and bustle of daily tasks, its sometimes hard to find time to do more than just quickly wash our face and put on some makeup.  I encourage you to try to find sometime every now and then to show your skin some extra love.  Even if that just means drinking an extra glass of water to help keep your skin hydrated or doing your own quick facial before bed or eating food that's good for your skin.  Trust me, your skin will thank you.  One think I like to always remember is that skincare is not limited to just your face so show some love all over by wearing sunscreen and moisturizing with those wonderful smelling lotions from Bath and Body Works we all hoard or whatever other pretty lotion you have.

My daily routine consists of easy products we all probably own, just maybe a different brand.

Each morning after I wake up and finally roll out of bed, the first thing I do is use my Clean and Clean 3-in-1 cleanser.  I've seen a huge change in my skin since I started using it a while ago so its defiantly one I would recommend.

Following this I use my Neutragina combination skin moisturizer.  I love this moisturizer! Again, another great product that has worked wonders for my skin and I would definitely recommend.  Growing up, I never understood why people used moisturizers until I started using one daily and noticed a MAJOR skin improvement.  I started using it everyday because I found out that without using daily moisturizer, your skin produces too many natural oils to make up for it and ends up causing more acne.

I also make sure that I apply sunscreen everyday to protect my skin from the sun. Make sure you use at least 30 SPF for a good amount of protection. You can always use a higher SPF if you want. My sunscreen is 70 SPF.

After I've done this, I brush my teeth and put my contacts in.  Then I apply light makeup, if any, since I don't like wearing a huge amount of makeup in the summer.   My daily light makeup consists of some cover-up under my eyes, a purple-ish/brown-ish eyeliner, some mascara and either a colored lip balm or just my favorite EOS lip balm.

After that, I'm ready to greet the day and whatever adventure it holds.

When my day is done and I'm ready to curl up in bed, or just curl up and watch some Netflix, I remove my makeup with some facial cleansing wipes.  Then I use the same cleanser and moisturizer that I did in the morning.

About twice a week, to give my skin some extra love, I use one of the many facial masks I own and give myself an at-home facial.  This one is my current favorite. It's Freeman's Anti-Stress Mask with Dead Ses Minerals.  If I choose to do this, I like to wait to moisturize until after.  

Another thing I will do 2-3 times a week is use an exfoliating scrub.  This one is Apricot and White Tea from Bath and Body Works.

Then its time to take out my contacts, brush my teeth and skip off to bed (but not before reading a chapter or two of whatever book I'm reading).

~

Some Inner Ramblings

Well, its official.  This post now marks the start of my blog.  I thought this photo I found was appropriate because I am striving to be more kind (not that I wasn't before) and I have a love of fashion and style that I want to share here on my blog.

I've never had a blog before but have thought about starting on for quite some time.  So there I was, on a hot summer night exactly one month before starting my senior year of high school and I opened my laptop to start this new endeavor. However, to my sudden surprise, the lights flickered and the I was left in the dark, only able to see with what little light my candle gave off.  So sitting without Internet, I waited for the power to come back on in my home so that I could finish setting up my blog.  Well, after a few hours I gave up and went to bed.  Thankfully I awoke in the morning to the returned power and now here I am, finished setting up my blog and writing my first post.

Prior to today, I spent weeks deciding if I even wanted to start a blog, days coming up with a name, hours thinking about all the things I could post when I did start a blog, but not a minute on what I should actually post for the first post.  For some reason I felt like it should be special and thoughtful and introduce myself, but instead I've written something slightly random and fully of rambling, but then I realized, well that's kinda exactly who I am, or at least my inner ramblings.