My Skincare Routine

This may sound really weird but one of my fave things to watch on Youtube is other people's skincare routines. For whatever reason I'm fascinated by them. Therefore, I base all my skincare purchases on what these complete strangers have told me is good, and this is the result.

I do the most to my face at night, before I go to bed (mostly because I'm too lazy to do anything in the morning).

If I wore makeup that day, I use the Ponds Cold Cream Cleanser and baby wipes to remove it. It's a really gentle alternative to makeup wipes. 

A lot of beauty gurus use the Clarisonic Mia cleansing brush, but that is mad expensive so I ain't about that life. One day while binging skincare routines I came across this Australian Youtuber who was using a facial brush that she liked better than the Clarisonic. I decided to look it up and it just so happens that this exact facial brush was on Groupon for $17 for that day only! If that isn't fate idk what is. 

The brush is called Ultimate Skin Spa System by Vanity Planet. It comes with three brush heads and runs for $125 normal price, but the Vanity Planet site usually has deals to get 40-70% off.

I use it every night with my Philosophy Purity face wash. I have never found an face wash that I'm in love with that's completely cleared my face. But, this one is the best one I've used so far. It leaves my face so soft and it smells delightful.

I then go in with my Neutrogena Healthy Skin Eye Cream. Everyone says the sooner you start using eye cream the better, so I just bought a basic one. Who knows if it's actually doing anything beneficial but it was pretty cheap so oh well. 

I also use the Aveeno Positively Radiant Target Tone Corrector on my dark spots. As any teen knows acne scars are a pain, this stuff helps a lot.

I've recently started using the Benefit Total Moisture face cream and it works wonders. Someone once told me that there is such a thing as over moisturizing, which can cause breakouts from clogged pores. This definitely does not do that, it is gentle and effective. 

The last thing I do before I go to sleep is dab on the Mario Badescu Drying Lotion. This is the best spot treatment I've ever used. You put it on at night and wash it off in the morning and your breakout is almost, if not all the way, gone.

In the morning I simply cleanse my face with Micellar Cleansing Water. Some people use this as makeup remover, but it also works as a cleanser and moisturize. I just pour some on a cotton pad and it's a quick and easy way to wash my face in the morning. 

And that's it. This is what I've found works for my skin but everybody's different. It's important to not get frustrated when trying to find what products work for you. Trust me, I have been trying different face washes for years and it sucks. It's all a matter of trial and error.

Packing for College

Back to school shopping is the best and worst time of the year. My whole life I've been in love with back to school shopping, but no kid ever wants to go back to school. That all changes once you get into college, though. Now I'm counting down the days until I get to go back!

I also used to have a weird obsession with the back to college checklists that were available at stores. I would always have to snag one, even if I was just going into eighth grade. 

Like this one from Target

When it finally came to shopping for dorm supplies I thought the checklists were super helpful. But now that I've gone through a full year at college I see that some stuff was really unnecessary and others I wouldn't have survived without. 

 As we all know, dorms are tiny! So don't bring stuff that you're not going to use because it will only take up space and clutter the closet that you call home. Here are some things I encountered and the tips that I think everyone should know.

1.) Too many shoes

 I have a chronic problem of overpacking always and nothing changed when I 

 packed for college. I brought maybe 12 pairs of shoes because I wanted to be 

 prepared for any and all occasion. Huge mistake. I ended up bringing about 5 

 pairs home over Thanksgiving because I hadn't touched them once

Tip: Only bring the shoes that you regularly wear at home. You are not going to wear the three pairs of high heels that you're thinking of bringing. 

2.) Ironing

 It may seem smart to bring an iron but you're wrong. First of all it takes so much work to heat up an iron, find a spot that you can iron on and actually do it. I bought an iron and an ironing pad and tried to use it the first week and it was a complete disaster. The ironing pad just slide around everywhere and my shirt wouldn't lay flat.

this one's from Target

Tip: Buy the Go Mini Steamer!!! I got one for Christmas and I never thought I'd be more excited about a steamer but it is literally the best present I've ever gotten. (I sound like a mom -_-)


3.)  Seasonal clothing
If you school isn't too far from home and you know you'll be going back home sometimes, then there's no need to bring everything at one time. I brought some summer stuff and my fall clothes when I first moved in. Then after Thanksgiving I brought all of my winter clothes. Then I brought my spring clothes back after spring break.
Tip: It saves space not bringing all of your clothes at one time and you need to save as much space as you can.

4.) You can fit everything under your bed!
My closet was small, and my dresser drawers were overflowing last year. It's hard to cram your whole life into a tiny room. Most dorm beds are able to be raised and lowered. I raised mine at the beginning of the year to fit my fridge underneath. Then when I dropped half a bag of goldfish under my bed I had to crawl down there to clean it up and realized that there was so much space!!
Tip: Raise your bed to the highest setting and buy a bunch of those tri-drawers from Target for extra storage. I put everything from sweaters to all my snacks in them. 

5.) If you won't use it at home, you probably won't use it at college

When I started dorm shopping I was going for a turquoise theme. So anytime I saw something that color I needed it! For this reason I made a lot of dumb useless purchases. I bought one of those lap desks, a brita pitcher and a mini lamp that clips onto things because they matched my bedding. I used all of them a total of zero times! 
Tip: shop for your dorm like your shopping for your bedroom. Only buy things that you know you would need/use at home because you're not turning into a completely knew person at school, trust me.

I hope my stupid mistakes are helpful to you in some way. If they don't apply to you or they weren't useful, oh well. No matter what you pack, just make sure you also bring your great personalty and be ready to meet new people and have the time of your life.
Tip: You're going to make great friends in college, but not everyone you meet in the first week is going to stay with you until the last week. Be open to new opportunities and new relationships.
(that got real cheesy real fast, sorry)

Mel Tries Tasty: Mac & Cheese Breadsticks

If you don't know what Tasty videos are, then what are you doing? I'm so obsessed with these 30 second cooking videos it's unhealthy. I might make a thread of me attempting Tasty recipes, but if I forget about it, oh well.

 Recently they posted one for Mac & Cheese Breadsticks.

Carbs stuffed inside of carbs! What's not to love?!

They looked easy enough to make, having only 5 ingredients, I thought I'd give them a try. 

Here are the directions that go along with the video. 

I started by preheating the oven, and greasing my pan. 

Then began to cut the frozen mac and cheese.

 This was for sure the hardest part. First of all, it's completely frozen so it's impossible to cut. I started using a large, straight-edge knife and when that barely worked I switched to a serrated knife, which wasn't much better. The recipe says to work quickly, and that's because it will start to melt! So I ended up with cheesy hands trying to pry apart this frozen brick. 

It. Was. A. Struggle. 

Now the hard part is over. I then sliced the pizza crust and wrapped my mac & cheese sticks. I brushed on oil and sprinkled cheese and Italian seasoning, as instructed. 

And in the oven they went, for about 18 minutes...

That's it!

I have to say that they weren't as mindblowing as I wanted them to be. It might have been because I accidentally bought whole wheat dough, so they were healthier...ew. But, I don't think I would make them again. Solely because of how much work it was to cut the frozen mac and cheese. Everything else was simple but that part was a pain.

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DIY Lash T-shirt

During one of my many wild Friday nights spent on Pinterest, I found a tutorial for a super cute tee on this blog. The only problem was THE WHOLE THING WAS IN SPANISH!!! So I just based my shirt off of these teeny tiny pictures that were in the post I found and just hoped for the best. 

I picked up a white t-shirt, sponge brushes, and soft, matte fabric paint at the craft store. 

Before doing anything I sewed the sleeves on my shirt, simply because I wanted them to be cuffed. This is a totally optional step, I just love the cuffed sleeve look. 

(I'm not a good sewer, I just kinda shove the needle through and hope it stays)

Then I found the lashes I liked by googling "lash t-shirt" and pasted them on a Word document so I could print it out. 

In the Spanish tutorial, it looked they used a some sort of this cardboard as a stencil. This was the part I struggled with the most. I tried to use scrapbook paper as my stencil. I thought it would work since its kinda thick. But cutting it with an Xacto knife was a nightmare. So I found some cardboard and used that instead. It was still pretty thick, and kinda tricky but I made it work. 

Once I finally had a useable stencil, I could actually start making the shirt. Make sure you put a piece of cardboard inside the shirt, so the paint doesn't bleed through. I then taped the stencil on where I wanted it on the left side with masking tape (about 5 inches below the neckline).

 And went in with my sponge brush. Of course another problem arose. Since I used cardboard and it was pretty thick, the brush didn't reach all of the small crevices that made up each lash. Luckily, I found a small paint brush. So I got the basic shape of the lash with the sponge brush. Then I took off the stencil and defined the shape with the paint brush. (Maybe a fabric marker would have made this easier but oh well)

Then I flipped the stencil over and did the same for the right side, making sure it was in line with the left lash. 

*PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT* 

Your lashes will probably not look identical. It's almost impossible for that to happen. So don't stress about making them look perfect. Focus making each one look good individually, and I promise, you'll be much happier. 

(Follow the instructions on your paint in regards to drying time and washing.)

Now you have a super cute, super inexpensive lash t-shirt. If you wanted to, you can make a stencil for lips and add those below the lashes. Then it would look very similar to this shirt from Nordstrom, which is priced at $49.

http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/sincerely-jules-lips-lashes-graphic-tee/

(No one has to know you actually made it for less than $10)

Homemade Smoothie Bowl

Smoothie bowls, or acai bowls as they're properly referred to, 

are veryyy trendy at the moment. All the hip internet kids are posting about them. Of course, I had to see what the hype was about

 so I went to a juicery nearby and bought one.

(see poor quality photo featured below)

I loved it!! That is until I had an allergic reaction to the nuts in the 

granola and threw up all over my car :|

But it seemed like such a simple concept - thick smoothie with 

fruit/granola on top - I didn't think it would be that hard to make my own.

I did some research on my holy grail, Pinterest. But decided to completely ignore everything I read and make it up as I went along.

For the base I used frozen raspberries, thawed slightly, vanilla greek yogurt, and a splash of milk (just to get all the goodness flowing). Then topped it with any fruit I could find in my fridge, some oats, and flax seed.

Start by blending up the base ingredients in a blender. Since the raspberries are still mostly frozen it takes awhile for them to blend properly so have patience. Also, you don't want to add too much milk to your smoothie base or it will become too liquidy. 

Here's my finished product, now for the fun part!

Take whatever fruit floats your boat, and wash/cut it accordingly. If you've ever had (or seen) an acai bowl before, you know that the toppings are always arranged beautifully. So, now you create your masterpiece however you like.

 

And that's it! Super simple, and super tasty. Grab a spoon and dig in!

Not gonna lie, I think I finished my bowl in 2 minutes, it was that amazing. 

I will defs be making this again, and for sure trying it with different fruit combos. I'm so pumped!! 

Ingredients

Smoothie Base

1 1/2 cups of a frozen fruit of your choice 

      (thawed for about 15 sec. in the microwave)

2/3 cup of greek yogurt (or 1 single-serving container)

Splash of milk

Toppings

Any granola, or oats that you like

Handfuls of whatever fruits you want to use

Directions

1.) Blend together frozen fruit and yogurt. Add milk as needed to 

     get mixture moving.

2.) Once the consistency of a thick milkshake, pour into bowl.

3.) Wash and prepare fruit, as needed

4.) Top smoothie base with fruits and granola

- Makes 1 Serving - 

Why I Fell In Love With California

Recently, my family and I spent a week in Santa Barbara and I 

fell in love with everything about California, general.

It's always been a dream of mine to visit California. Being an avid Youtube 

watcher, I've seen a lot of it through my computer screen while living

vicariously through the lives of complete strangers. From what I had seen

I knew I would love it, but it was even better than I imagined. 

There are a few things in particular that are lacking in my hometown 

that I wish I could have take home with me.

         1)  Everything there is beautiful! The people, the scenery, the weather - it

              was absolutely incredible. It made me wish I could live there.

         2)  It's so fresh (and not in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air sort of way)

              As basically everyone knows, so many crops are grown in California    

              and then shipped around the country. But being in Cali, you get the 

              freshest of the fresh so all of the food tastes out of this world 

              amazing.

              Also being right along the Pacific Ocean brings in a lot of fresh 

              seafood. I'm not typically one to order fish at a restaurant but I felt 

              obligated to here and I was not disappointed!

         3) Speaking of food, THEY HAVE WHOLE FOODS IN CALIFORNIA! I have a 

             rather abnormal obsession with grocery stores and they don't have 

             Whole Foods where I'm from. For that reason I kind of hold it on a  

             pedestal, as the holy grail of grocery stores. It was beautiful 

                                       *insert crying emoji here* 

              I could have spent hundreds of dollars there, but I was rational, 

                                                 don't worry.

         4) There's so much more to do there. It just seemed like there was a 

              market to go to, a thrift store to look around in, a festival to attend, a     

              trail to hike, or a Watersport to try (and miserably fail at in my case). 

            5) Lastly, there were so many cute coffee shops I was overwhelmed. My 

             number complaint about my hometown is that there a literally no cute 

             coffee shops near by, but in California there's one on every other 

             corner. It's heaven. You know how people go on wine tours, well I want 

             to go on a coffee tour in California. I only had time to go to two, but if I 

             had it my way I would've gone to two a day. 

         

          I know every place has it drawbacks. I mean in addition to all of the greatest that is California, they do have earthquakes, 

landslides, and outrageous wildfires. 

(this photo was taken while there was a wildfire about 40 minutes away. 

I know its awful, but tell me the smoke didn't make the sky look sick)

But it's still a 10/10 in my eyes and I'm ready to go back.

       

        

I'm new here...

Hi there. I'm Mel and I'm new at this. 

I've been thinking about making a blog for some time, so today I decided

 to take a leap and just do it. I've been following so many youtubers 
and bloggers for years who have really inspired me. I found myself 
daydreaming about certain things I would post if only I had a blog or
a vlog channel. Then I thought to myself, "well why don't it?" 

So here we are. 

I really have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just gonna try my best 
and see what happens. And if no one ends up reading it, 
oh well. 

-- Mel