beauty hacks |

Happy New Year! Since my last post, I have gotten engaged, received my MBA, planned my wedding, and a million other things in between! A whirlwind to say the least 🙂 With my wedding less than a year away (OMG lol) I have been trying to start my skincare routine as far in advance as possible. Last month I got a facial for the first time in a LOOOONG time. It was recommended that I go monthly, so I have about ten other tabs open trying to figure out which one I should do next!

I do know that there are so many other variables that go into skincare though – diet, stress, exercise, water consumption, and of course products! I have been transitioning my products to all natural, or as natural as I can get for all of them. It’s definitely been a lot of trial and error hahah. I was lucky enough to test out some product’s from philosophy – one of the highest rated skincare lines out there. Their new collection, nature in a jar is full of amazing products that help restore, rejuvenate, and recover skin. These formulas are natural, clean, and vegan! So triple the YES factor.

I tried the cica complex recovery moisturizer and the nourishing in-shower oil and just wow!

The moisturizer is nice and thick yet goes on very lightweight and is absorbed quickly. It feels sooo velvety and smooth and in turn, makes your skin velvety and smooth! Most times I don’t even wear primer. I put this on every PM and usually in the AM, especially on colder days. My skin looks so much more hydrated and dewy. The key ingredients are: cica, prickly pear fruit extract, shea butter, and agave. It retails for $49.00 – totally worth it.

Next is the in-shower oil, a must have for your shower routine!

The oil is so luxurious. It seals in moisture without the whole greasy feel and residue that most other oils leave. I saw some reviews that mentioned the smell, but honestly I couldn’t really smell anything strong or strange about it, I thought it had a very subtle smell to it. What we all can agree on though, is that our skin definitely felt more nourished and moisturized! The main ingredients in the oil are hemp-derived cannabis sativa seed oil, soybean oil, and olive fruit oil. It retails for $32.

Check it out and let me know what you think of this new collection!

XO,

Ok so there is noooothing better than smelling good buuut some of these amazing smelling perfumes cost an arm and a leg. My love for Creed cannot be satiated, even though it costs $425 a BOTTLE. Yes, you read that right. I am sure I can get it on some website for much cheaper, but honestly with perfumes, you do not want to mess around. A lot of those sites are not legit and are definitely not sending you the right stuff. The perfumes can smell sour or different over time, or are just water based – bottom line is do not buy off of those sites. There is no way they can sell a full sized $425 bottle for $30 bucks!

Okay, back to my Creed habit. It has such a distinctive, wonderful smell and I get compliments on it everywhere I go. No literally, everywhere I go. When they are done fainting over the price, I usually let them in on a little secret. That secret is…decants! After living like a Kardashian and buying a few bottles, I realized I was spending a car payment on a bottle of perfume. It was a wake up call to say the least. I did some research and came across ScentSplit.com. They are 100% authentic hand decants of the best perfumes and colognes around. They have the best (and most recent) selection of top notch perfumes and colognes from around the world. The cologne I was only able to find in France or Nordstrom (for another $400)? You bet they have it.

I was nervous at first because I guess the Italian in me is un-trusting of everything, so I bought a small decant of Creed as a test purchase. Since Creed has a very distinct smell, I knew I would be able to tell if it was real or fraud on the first spray. It was totally real and I was hooked, leading to my obsession with ScentSplit.

Everything is packaged very securely, and once you start buying a lot, they often send nice little discounts, always pulling me back in for more! I can also attest to their customer service. One of the bottles I had received had a finicky spray, so they sent me a shipping label to send it back and sent out a new one for free. They are based in Houston so there was a little bit of a time delay but overall I got the new bottle and life is good.

Now my perfume limits are nonexistent, I buy decants of all sizes from all designers and I love it – and so does my wallet! I love having that variety in my perfume collection without breaking the bank whatsoever. I feel like money and I smell like it too :P.

Seriously go check them out, you will forever thank me!

beauty hacks

Nature In A Jar – Philosophy

AUTHENTIC DESIGNER PERFUME FOR CHEAP?!