1. Soo AE Pure Brightening Sheet Mask: I bought this Korean sheet mask from Club Clio awhile back and finally slapped it on my face earlier this week. Twenty minutes later, after having scared my husband by texting him the below photo (as you do), I removed the mask and patted the remaining serum into my skin. The result felt a little sticky for a bit, but like a dry sticky feel, if that makes any sense. It’s hard to say if this vitamin-infused mask had any legit brightening effect after one use, but I it’s so fun treating myself to sheet masks, and when they’re so cheap it’s hard not to try them!
Friday Five
#tbt to My First Orchid Show
In honor of the 2016 Orchid Show opening up at the New York Botanical Garden this weekend, I’m posting a Throwback Thursday pic from my first visit to the Orchid Show in 2009. My husband (boyfriend at the time) and I attended that show’s final weekend on a whim, and I completely fell in love with these plants. This photo is from the main showcase room—the centerpiece, if you will—inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. The orchid display was literally breathtaking.
I’ve attended at least once every year since and have a ton of photos to prove it!
Are you going to the Orchid Show at NYBG this year? If so, check out my planning tips on my orchid blog before you go!
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An Easy Birchbox-Only No-Makeup Makeup Look
Now that I’ve been a Birchbox subscriber for more than a year, I’ve tried my fair share of beauty, skin care, and hair care samples, and I thought it was time to try out a makeup look using only products I’ve received Birchbox samples of. I could have done any number of different looks because at this point I’ve received 65 Birchbox samples (!!), but I decided to do a quick and easy no-makeup makeup look. Below are the products I used to achieve the look:
Friday Five
1. Deadpool: the ultraviolent, foul-mouthed trailer for this flick was a huge hit at Comic-Con last year, and when the major nerds serious enthusiasts at Comic-Con approve of something, you know it’s gonna be good. My husband and I saw the movie last weekend, and it was so much fun that I want to see it again. Ryan Reynolds was the perfect casting choice for the role. The movie was just so fucking funny! Go see it. Now. (Warning: you will have Salt-N-Pepa’s “Shoop” stuck in your head for about a week afterward.)
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Thrive Market: Making Healthy Living Affordable + Accessible
I follow a few celebrities on Instagram (who doesn’t?). Some time ago I saw Ian Somerhalder post about a website called Thrive Market, but it didn’t fully register with me because it appeared to be a brick and mortar location in Los Angeles, and I live in Brooklyn. Then Olivia Wilde posted about Thrive Market more recently, and my ears perked up. I started doing some research on Thrive Market, and my conclusion was that it’s brilliant.
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Happy Blog Anniversary to Me
This post will be a quick one: today marks one year since my first post on this little ol’ blog! I kicked off my personal blog with a post about an organic beauty bag that I won in a raffle, and this post is my 130th! That means I’ve averaged 2.8 posts per week over the last year—not too shabby.
I’d like to mention that I did a bit of blog reorganization last week. You can now browse through my post categories in the main menu up top. If you’re interested in reading my posts about subscription boxes you can also do so via the main menu. My subscription box posts are interspersed throughout the Categories drop down as well (e.g., Stitch Fix is in “Style”), but I figured I’d put up a second way to find them. I hope these changes help you navigate my blog a bit better!
Thank you so much for reading, and here’s to many more years of blog posts to come!
Birchbox: February 2016
I received my February Birchbox this past Saturday—a perfect little Valentine’s weekend treat. Whoever is creating the graphic design on these boxes is just nailing it. February’s box is sort of a pastel neon peach hue with illustrations that would be really cute as tiny tattoos:
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Friday Five
1. Bioré Deep Cleansing Pore Strips: yup, these are still around, and are still as fun and gross as ever! #sorrynotsorry for the image of all the blackheads I ripped out of my skin… 😛
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#tbt to Snowmass
I don’t know if there are any “official” rules about Throwback Thursday needing to be a photo of yourself, but I wanted to share this photo taken in Snowmass on a family vacation we took in March 1987. I love the rainbow pop of color from the hot air balloon…and why on earth does it appear to be flying so low to the ground?!
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HelloFresh Veggie Box Review + Promo Code!
Last week’s HelloFresh experience was a frustrating one for me, starting with the delivery. To be fair, I’d never had an issue with HelloFresh’s delivery in the past. I had scheduled my box to deliver on February 1st but it arrived on February 2nd. I don’t know if they recently switched carriers, but this box came via UPS and required my signature, whereas whichever service delivered the previous boxes left them on my porch (which I was fine with). Anyway, the late delivery sort of mucked with my cooking plans for the week, but it ended up working out alright—and HelloFresh did give me a $10 credit when I contacted them about my box arriving a day late.
So, what were last week’s vegetarian dishes? Read on to find out…
Swiss Chard & Wild Mushroom Penne with Chili and Parmesan.


















