Current Beauty Wish list
Lots of skin care and hair stuff on this list, I know. They’re both what I’ve been into for a while now, so I’m going with it!
- Isdin Eryfotona Ageless Ultralight Tinted Mineral Sunscreen, $70
- Skin Media Lytera 2.0 Pigment Correcting Serum, $160
- Medik8 Crystal Retinal 3, $62
- Raw Sugar Mighty Hair Cream Leave-In Conditioner Coconut + Papaya + Shea, $6.99
- Pantene Sulfate and Silicone Free Baobab Shampoo and Conditioner Dual Pack, $14.99
- Sephora Collection Colorful Multi-Stick in Purple, Taupe and Brown, $14 each
- Goldfield & Banks Australia Discovery Sample Collection, $45
Speaking of hair products, do you like higher end or drugstore? I usually do a mix of both, so please note the items I plan on grabbing at Target and Ulta soon!
Another thing I’ve been into lately — makeup you can draw on your face with, particularly lipsticks and eyeshadows in crayon packaging. If you have any ideas to add to my list, please drop your recommendations in the comments.
Where did the summer go?
It’s Connor’s last full week of summer before she goes back to school next week. First grade already!
I didn’t schedule any camp for this week because I wanted time with her to just “be,” and I also wanted the flexibility to do things like get her haircut, or pop on over to the park, etc., on a whim.
Yesterday, she wanted to a spa day at home, so we made that happen.
It’s a little crazy to me how school starts in August now. When I was a kid/teenager, school didn’t start until the first or second week of September.
When I was in high school, August was devoted to band camp. Yup, I was a band geek back in the day!
Funny how I didn’t realize just how geeky it was until my mid-30s. I think I must’ve been 32 or 33 when I called my friend Jen up one morning and said, “We used to walk around a field. With instruments. IN UNISON. And we were super serious about it. That’s so dorky!” LOL. We had fun, though.
I didn’t play sports or do any organized team activities growing up because when you were a first generation Filipino child in the ’80s, the only acceptable non-scholastic activity was banging on a piano keyboard against your will while a stern, humorless piano teacher glared at you.
Band was my first fun experience where I felt part of a team. It was geeky, but I have lots of good memories.
All this to say, Connor will be doing her first team activity this year. She’ll be joining the junior competitive dance team at her studio this year. They have a program called the “prep” team where younger kids like her can get a sense of what it’s like; the prep team gets the experience of weekly rehearsal and the chance to perform at community events, but the schedule’s not as intense. If she likes it, she’ll have the option to go all in next year. We’ll see how it goes!
Anywho. I’m off to go write some stuff (so many deadlines this month). Have a great Tuesday, OK?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
I just bought some OGX volumizing shampoo and conditioner from CVS because I’m shedding so much postpartum! Maybe it’s just a normal amount but to go from literally not losing a strand of hair for about 9-10 months to handfuls of it after a shower, I’m a little concerned!
That spa day list is the cutest thing ever! I would save it or frame it and hang it in the bathroom or something!
One of the twins is cutting her first couple of teeth on the bottom. She is normally the more temperamental one and even more so now! 🤣I love it though! It’s sure going fast!
Oh, you’re going to miss those gummy smiles. 🙂 I remember that time well!
BTW totally normal to freak out about your hair postpartum. Mine fell out in huge clumps. It’s never been the same.
OMG! Those are the cutest masks ever! Where did you find them?
I’m upset/mad. L’Oreal seems to have discontinued the drugstore shampoo and conditioner I use. After not finding it anywhere, I bought two back-up containers from Amazon. Now I have to start the process of finding an affordable substitute. I feel like shampoo needs to be affordable since it doesn’t stay on that long and just gets rinsed down the drain.
My cousin was and still is a band geek. He still plays the clarinet and he’s in his 50’s. He went to U of Michigan and was actually in their marching band and played at every football game. Huge commitment considering how big of a football school Michigan is.
They were at Nordstrom Rack (my new safe place, haha). They had a bunch of masks in the beauty section from quite a few brands. Unrelated: I also bought some reading glasses there for $12 by a brand called Prive. LOVE!
UGH, that’s the worst when an affordable shampoo/conditioner you love gets discontinued! Going to keep my fingers crossed that you will find something you love soon.
That’s so cool how your cousin still plays! I bet he still has some serious chops. I had friends from high school who continued playing through college and beyond, and I kinda wish I kept up with it. I couldn’t play flute now if my life depended on it.
Haha. I played flute in school too. So when Dear Daughter started to play flute in the grade school band class, Dear Husband bought her a flute instead of using a school instrument. He’s like show her how it’s done. And I’m trying to make that instrument sound good, but I just couldn’t. Lol. When she went to high school and got interested in other things we donated the flute to the school.
BTW, I watched that video all the way through., trying to find you. You guys were seriously good!
Heading off to my local Rack to see if I can find some sheet masks.
Hope you found the sheet masks!
BTW I love how Lizzo made the flute cool in pop culture.
Just had to comment that my husband and brother-in-law both attended the same high school in Union City around the same time as you. Small world! His nephew is now a very dedicated member of the same HS marching band and also takes it very seriously.
How funny, KC! When did you husband graduate?
They both graduated in 1991, and my husband says he had a couple of friends who were in band then. Maybe you crossed paths at some point!
OK! Maybe! I wish I could remember names of people from that era… That part of my brain has decided to leave the building, LOL. I do kinda remember some gals who played flute — Trudy and Rochelle.
My husband texted his old HS friends but unfortunately, like you, they don’t remember very much from those days. One of them did say, though, that it makes him want to start playing the clarinet again haha.
Oh and I can totally relate to your 1st gen Fil-Am of the 80s stories! I was “allowed” to play organized sports but my parents never came to see me play on my HS tennis team. They only came to academic-related events. My dad claims to this day that he didn’t even know I played tennis!
I totally get it. On one hand, it feels like high school was just yesterday. BUT THEN I DO THE MATH. LOL! Did you grow up in the East Bay, too?
You’re lucky in that you were “allowed” to play tennis. My parents saw absolutely no value in sports. 🙁 I think I would’ve liked to have done more team sports, for sure.
OK, re: more first gen stuff. Did you and your cousins (some of whom you were probably not even related to) all have to play piano at family parties? I still have emotional scars! LOL. For a while I got out of it by saying that I didn’t have my music memorized, and then my mom straight up starting bringing all my piano books to the parties. She’d take them out of her purse, and she’d be like, “You’re gonna play a frickin’ concert by the end of this.”
Oh I know what you mean about the family parties/impromptu talent shows LOL. There were usually cash “prizes” aka bribes. I feel for you because I did have distant cousins who were MADE to perform. You must’ve been really good if you were the entertainment! I wasn’t musical at all, so I was spared haha. The ironic thing is that the 2nd Gen kids in my family are super musical and don’t have to be pressured much to do their thing now.
I grew up in LA but I moved up to the Bay Area when I married my husband. I ended up living there for 9 years. He grew up in Union City and still has all his family there. We’re back in SoCal now, though.
I think you did a post once on getting persimmons from your parents, and we had literally just gotten a huge box of persimmons in the mail from my in-laws’ tree when I read that. So yeah your posts weirdly hit home sometimes!
At Ulta there is a brand called Live Tinted and they have a Huestick Corrector that you can use on eyes, lips, and cheeks (never tried the brand). It’s in crayon form. If you try it, let us know how you like it!
Oh, thanks Marcia!
That sunscreen looks great, but pricey! I recently bought, and am loving, the new one from Summer Fridays. It’s only SPF30 and I prefer 50, but for days when I’m not spending a lot of time outside it’s perfection!
Those masks are just too cute! I was a band geek as well, clarinet. I’m still good friends with a couple of the boys I sat next to in band for years, the three of us in regular contact and visiting if we can. One is widowed (not sure if he and his partner of 18 years were allowed to legally wed at the time, but his “spouse” all the same), and the other is a minister married to the girl he met our first year in college. Lots of memories there!
As a first generation Filipino-American child of the 80’s I feel this post deeeeep in my soul!
Oh, I need to do a spa day with my daughter and borrow this to do list! For us, school starts in September, first time my baby boy goes too. Now I have two kids in elementary school, which makes me feel old.