Ulta haul
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Mini Beauty Hauls and more

Quick note before diving in to this week’s Friday Five: yesterday was the seventh anniversary of my blog! It’s not a huge milestone, but it’s still a milestone. I’m proud of myself for keeping this blog going for so long, especially in a time where blogs are kinda passé. Thanks for reading!!

1. Mini Ulta Haul: last week I mentioned this year’s Make It Black collection. I ordered a couple of the items from Ulta, along with a few other goodies! Here’s what I got: Morphe X Make It BLACK 18-Pan Artistry Palette, MAC Make it BLACK Lipstick in Hug Me, Garnier SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Cleanser & Makeup Remover, Patchology PoshPeel Pedi Cure Intensive Foot Peel Treatment, and L’Oreal Elvive 8 Second Wonder Water. I’ve heard about the wonder water on a podcast and wanted to try it! I’ve used the micellar water many times and have also used this foot peel before. Lots of things to play around with!

Ulta haul

2. Tower28 x Cocokind Lunar New Year Bundle [affiliate links below]: a few weeks ago I learned about this $55 bundle (a $73 value) offered by two popular beauty brands founded by Asian-American women. Five dollars from every bundle purchase is being donated to the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, which focuses on amplifying AAPI women’s stories and impacting policy. The bundle includes Cocokind AHA Jelly Cleanser and Ceramide Barrier Serum, along with Tower28 ShineOn Lip Jelly in Chill and BeachPlease Luminous Tinted Balm in Magic Hour. The bundle is no longer available, so I’m glad I was able to snag one!

Tower28 x Cocokind Lunar New Year Bundle

3. Promising Young Woman: wow, this movie. I know I’m late to the party on this one, but damn. I really didn’t know anything about it going in, and I preferred it that way. So I won’t drop spoilers here. The cast is fantastic and so is the writing and direction (Emerald Fennell won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2021 for her work). I absolutely loved the set design, costumes, and music too. The film deals with really tough material (sexual assault), so fair warning if that’s a trigger for you.

Promising Young Woman
Image Credit: Focus Features

4. And Just Like That: much virtual ink has already been spilled about this HBO series, but I’ll add my two cents (maybe four or five cents). I enjoyed being back with these characters, and some of the new ladies who were awkwardly added for diversity (each main character gets their own well-off BIPOC friend of color? Okay…) were great, especially Seema. At times it felt like the producers had made a list of the types of people they needed to include for diversity and went down the list in the casting process. Representation matters, but IMHO the show did not pull off the inclusion seamlessly. Overall the show felt sloppy, as if the writing hadn’t evolved since these characters were last on screen. Oh, and we’re glamorizing smoking again? WTF? Also, I thought most of the fashion was absolutely horrendous. Carrie’s orange dress in the finale? I thought it was insane, and I do mean that in a bad way. But would I watch a second season? Yep.  😛

And Just Like That
Image Credit: HBO

5. Girl Scout Cookies: I love me some GS cookies! This year I got a box of Samoas, two boxes of Thin Mints, and a box of S’mores. I wanted to try the new Adventurefuls, but our Girl Scout’s online store was sold out. Those must be super popular, so my guess is they’ll be back again next year. Samoas are my all time favorite. SO GOOD.

2022 Girl Scout cookies haul