Happy final day of the Spring Sephora Savings Event! I’ve completed my purchases and filmed a haul video that you can watch below. Note: today (April 15, 2024) is the final day to receive a discount on your in-store or online purchases, so make sure you take advantage while you can. Use code YAYSAVE at checkout for online orders.
1. 2024 Eclipse at Totality: early this week, John and I traveled to St. Louis (where I grew up) to view the April 8th total solar eclipse with my parents and his dad, who flew in from out of town. We weren’t able to go there for the 2017 eclipse and did not want to miss this one. So this Friday Five is all about the total eclipse!
On Monday morning, we packed up a picnic lunch and drove to Mount Vernon, Illinois, located in the path of totality. There was a lot of traffic on the road, but getting to see the total eclipse was absolutely worth the effort. I bought this inexpensive solar filter from B&H, but it did not work out well for me. I know basically nothing about photography and followed some online advice on how to photograph an eclipse, but most of my eclipse photos aren’t worth sharing. However, here’s one of the photos I took during totality that I just think is pretty:
Is your Sephora cart ready for the upcoming Sephora semi-annual savings event? The number of products that I currently have in my cart is embarrassing, but it’s more of a “to look at in person” list than an “items I’m definitely buying” situation. I’m curious about a ton of lip products, so I want to go to a store and swatch as many of them as I can find. Then I’ll cull the list down quite a bit.
I’m so excited that we’re finally starting to see signs of spring. Winter in DC was pretty mild, with only one significant snowfall, but I’m ready for more consistent warmth. Now that it’s starting to warm up, I’m looking forward to doing some morning weekend hikes again.
Let’s see what beauty products I emptied last month!
1. Black Halo Domino Gown: we haven’t attended many weddings in the past few years, but we ended up with three weddings clustered two weeks apart this year. So of course I took the opportunity to rent dresses for the occasions! This gorgeous burgundy velvet number was actually a replacement for the original style I ordered. I had picked out a different dress in two sizes, but I turned out to be in between both sizes. Fortunately, I had time to get two replacement dresses shipped to me for $12.95, and this Black Halo gown worked perfectly. I absolutely loved the color, the style, and the fit!
Happy March! I hope you enjoyed your extra day in February. We went to LA for a friend’s belated wedding celebration on Leap Day, so that was a super fun event to head west for.
I had a decent number of beauty empties in February:
Is it just me, or did January feel approximately three months long? I know that January is a long month, but this year it felt longer than usual. Maybe that’s why I emptied so many products! I’ve broken my empties down into categories below.
1. Mean Girls: on opening weekend, went to see this movie based on the musical based on the movie. And I loved it! The original Mean Girls is an iconic favorite for a reason. I saw it in the theater and own the DVD. Plus, I’m a sucker for musicals. So of course I wanted to see the new version in the theater! The cast is fantastic—I particularly loved Auli’i Cravalho as Janis and Jaquel Spivey as Damian. The new cast and script are much more inclusive, as the original was super white and had some problematic elements. The music is a lot of fun, and I ended up buying the soundtrack the day after seeing the movie. If you’re an OG Mean Girls fan, I recommend going to see this new version!
Happy New Year! I hope 2023 closed out well for you. Let’s get right into the beauty products that I emptied in the final month of last year…
1. US Capitol Christmas Tree: on our way to the US Botanic Garden for an evening event, we happened upon the US Capitol tree. Obviously, we walked on over to check it out. We’ve lived in DC for almost seven years and I had yet to visit the Christmas tree at the Capitol. It’s quite impressive, especially with the view of the Capitol Building in the background.
