Julep October Box

My Julep October box arrived much quicker than my September box! I know there's been concern about Julep switching to DHL for shipping, but I haven't experienced anything bad with it yet. If anything it seems better so far. We'll see how long it lasts...

I decided to stick with my Classic with a Twist box for October. I wasn't too excited for the colors, but I didn't like any of the others enough to switch.

They included a little pack of candy corn this month in celebration of Halloween! I thought it was super cute and sweet. I love little surprises.

The Classic with a Twist box included Anisa, a deep burgundy crème, and Winona, a buff greige crème. The two together remind me of the classic Burberry plaid (like this).I like the Anisa so far, but the Winona is rather... muddy. I haven't tried it on yet. I'm hoping that I'll like it more on my nails that I do on the swatch.

It also included the new Julep Kajal Eye Glider (with carbon black and brown shimmer) and sharpener. I don't wear a ton of eye liner, but it will be nice to have a quality liner for when I do.

Julep has teamed up with another subscription service, Citrus Lane (they send out monthly boxes of fun things for little ones), for a giveaway: 3 months of each! The giveaway is open through October 8th at 11:59PM PST. You can enter here! (FYI, if you use my link to enter I'll get additional entries, too.) I haven't tried Citrus Lane myself since I don't have any little ones, but it would make a great gift!

As always, you can sign up for your own Julep Maven subscription using my referral code here.

Julep September Box

Woohoo! My first "real" Julep Maven box finally arrived! I knew what I was going to get ahead of time, but that doesn't make it any less exciting to see the box waiting for me.

On the 20th of each month you can see what your box is going to include... then you can choose a different style box, add on up to 3 items, upgrade to the entire collection, or choose to skip that month completely. I chose to keep my Classic with a Twist box and even added on items!

September's collection is called Cityscape.

The Classic with a Twist items:

Florence... a pretty camel creme, Padma... a deep, royal plum creme, and the new Bare Face Cleansing Oil.

My Add-Ons:

Reece... a purple holographic glitter, Daria... a dark slate grey creme, and the Freedom Polymer Top Coat.

I love all of the colors and I'm excited to use the top coat! I already use oils to clean my face, so I'm hoping that my face will like the Bare Face Cleaning Oil, and that I can transition back to my other oils easily if it's not any better than what I'm currently using (which is a mixture of olive oil, jojoba oil, and castor oil). I'm hesitant to try any new facial products since my oil regimen (if I can even call it that) seems to be working the best of anything I've tried in the past.

I had to play with my new polishes... Padma, Florence, Daria, and Reece:

And then decided to put on Florence... I love how clean and simple the color is! I put on about 3 coats for a solid coverage (the photo above is just one coat of each).

Did you get a September Maven box? Which style? Any add-ons? Do share!

If you want to become a Julep Maven, you can sign up here using my referral code!

the oil cleansing method, I

I have always had different timelines in the back of my mind for major life events. I thought I would be married by the time I was 25 and that I would have my first child by 27--like my mom. I am now 28 years old and neither of those events have taken place. (But I am seeing an amazing guy and have a wonderful nephew to spoil, so no complaints!)

I also thought that I would have clear skin by my 20's. That also hasn't happened. I hate to complain much about it because I know that there are people that have worse issues than my own, but it is still something I deal with on a daily basis. The combination of oily-ish skin and PCOS work against me.

Last week I decided to try a new cleansing regimen: the oil cleansing method.

It is just what it sounds like: you clean your face with oil. Seems backwards at first until you realize that oils cut through oils. There are a lot of resources and other bloggers out there that go into greater depth so I won't repeat it all here.

I ordered some jojoba oil and castor oil to go with the olive oil I already had. I was impatient to start so the first couple of nights I just used olive oil... it was weird taking the bottle of EVOO that normally sits next to my stove into the bathroom to wash my face... but that didn't last long. My face was so soft!!

I picked up a little plastic bottle from the store so I could have a separate oil dispenser for my food prep and face wash. I am still using mostly just EVOO with a little bit of jojoba oil mixed in (it is supposed to be good for acne-prone skin) and will eventually add the castor oil, too. (There's not enough room in my bottle for it yet.)

What I do: massage oil into face, gently wipe/rinse with a wash cloth and hot water, pat dry. I only wash at night and don't wash my face at all in the morning... unless I forget the night before. If I feel any areas of dryness/tightness in the morning I'll rub in a SMALL amount of oil--no lotions! (The only downside I have right now of no lotions is that it also means no SPF.)

After a week my face is nice and soft and seems to be less oily than usual. It also looks more "fresh" to me. I hope to keep it up and check back in with my thoughts down the road!

Like I mentioned above, there are a LOT of resources out there about the oil cleansing method... however, this blog post from Thank Your Body is the one that finally got me to just do it!

The Beauty of Lake Louise

I saw that a friend of mine (via Facebook, of course) recently went to Banff National Park with her husband and some friends. Since I knew we'd be going through the park on our way to Calgary for the Specialty and working tests, I asked her where she recommended that we stop on our way. Her top two places were Lake Louise and Moraine Lake.

We initially planned to stop on our way to Calgary but our car issues put us behind schedule and we went through in the dark. Not so much fun. After talking to some friends at the show and hearing about how amazing it really is, we decided to back-track back into Banff and stop at least at Lake Louise... it is my middle name after all. That's got to mean something.

waterlogged

I'm sorry. I'm obsessed.