 Hey guys, it's Monica. Thank you so much for joining me. In this video, I'm going to talk a little bit about some of my things I've been enjoying in the last, what, two months, maybe, and probably a little bit of a rant, but not much. And yeah, I don't know. Maybe, maybe a little bit of this, a little bit of that. So if you're interested, stay tuned. Tomorrow, well, maybe today by the time you see this, because, well, Sunday, I'm going to a sprinkle, and I'm like a sprinkle. I had never heard of a sprinkle, but apparently it's quite a popular thing. My niece is having a baby, and it is her second child, and she's having a girl. So her first child is a little boy. So even though she had a shower, like about, I think maybe two and a half years ago, she's going to have a sprinkle for her little girl. So yeah, we're going to go for a sprinkle. We're going to meet my mom, my, one of my daughter-in-law's, down at my mom's house, and my sister, and we're all going to go together, and enjoy a little bit of a sprinkle. I just think that's so cute. And last week, Mother's Day, last weekend on Mother's Day, I had everyone here, and we did a little bit of a barbecue. We sat outside, and we had a fire pit going, and we just kind of chit-chatted, and it was very, very casual, very low-key, but it was, it was so nice to have everyone, not everyone. You know, obviously, we all thought of my dad, and you know, and we thought about my nieces that went here with us, but just to have a good amount of the family members together, and you know, not really have to wear masks, and just, just relax. So I had a wonderful, wonderful Mother's Day with family, with my kids, my grandkids, and my mom and my sister were here, and my brother-in-law, so it was just really, it was really a nice day. So I was super blessed to have had my family members with me on Mother's Day. I know it. So I hope that you guys all had a great one. However, you spent the day. So a couple of things. It's May, and here in New England, the weather is finally starting to warm up, and of course that means you have to be all the more diligent right on sunblock and sun care. So I've never ever stopped being diligent about sunblock and sun care. I just amp it up a little bit more in the summertime. You know, I wear more hats. I wear, I always wear sunglasses. I think because I wear sunglasses, even on a cloudy day, that helps prevent me from squinting, you know, into the sun as much. So sunglasses, I have several different styles of sunglasses. I love them all. I wear them all. Many of you see them. I have a couple. I have two that are a prescription and the rest are just regular sunglasses. And I think the more sunglasses you wear help, it really helps you, especially if they're darker sunglasses, and kind of helps you not squint so badly into the sun. So that said, a couple of things that I have really been using and enjoying a lot of is obviously the color science. This is their Sun Forgettable Total Protection Face Shield. This is 50 SPF. I think that whatever you do, whenever you're done your skincare, whatever sunblock you put on your face, that first step of sun protection, I think it needs to be something super, super strong, at least for my skin. And I think you can use Retin-A. You can use all the anti-aging or whatever you want to call it, products. If you are not using something good to block the sun, the harmful rays, it's all for naught. It is really all for naught. So whether or not you use a makeup, a foundation with sunblock in it, I don't think that's enough at all. So I have been loving Dermatology and the Dermatology, I've talked about this a lot, they have the Tinted SPF. I really like it. And they also have the Regular Broad Spectum. This is SPF 45. This is the white one. The Tinted one, I'm all out of. I've got to get some more, but I want to go through some of the products I have before I buy that. But the Dermatology, this is a white, it leaves a little bit of a cast, but it does absorb into your skin pretty quickly. The Sun Forgettable, this one from Color Science, their face shield. I've used Color Science products for a long time. I bought some. I've been gifted some over the course of time from Color Science. I really like this a lot. This is the 50 SPF. This plays super nice with my makeup, the Dermatology. This one plays nice with my makeup. And also probably the one that is the most affordable is going to be your Australian Gold. And this is their Botanical. This is 50 SPF. This is their Tinted Face. This is what I use a lot. I've used this for a couple of years. This is a non-greasy. So when I put this on, non-greasy, right? I put this on, I have to have a little bit of an oil mixture with it. I should use a little bit of Squalene Oil or something that I mix into this because my skin is dry. So Color Science and the good old dependable Australian Gold Tinted. And they've got a couple of different tints now. Sunblock. This works super, super good. And then I also have, of course, the Powder. This is the Color Science Powder one. You know, when you use this Powder one, you're going to make sure you shake it really, really good. I tap it, shake it around. Then I open it up. Then I lift it up, you know, and I go like this before I even put it on. And then I put it on. Then you can see, you know, the coverage. And sometimes I do my face. Sometimes I always do my hands. I have this in the car. I would never depend on just this solely for sun protection. I don't feel it would give me enough. So I do my skincare in the morning. I put everything on that I'm going to put on. And then I put whatever sun block I'm going to be using as my base, whether it's going to be the Color Science or the Dermatology brand, or if I'm going to go right into the Australian Manual Gold that absolutely is used. I put that on. I let it dry, whichever one it is, before I go into the next phase. And the next phase would be my foundation. You know, whatever you use for sunblock is going to be important. What you cannot do is depend solely on your foundation. Most foundations are going to have an SPF of 15, some might have 13, some might have 20. But in the summertime, whatever, at least me, I don't wear enough foundation on my face to get enough coverage that I need for my sunblock. So I've been using the number seven. This is the Protect In Perfect. And this is all in one foundation. This is the 50 SPF. This does really good on my skin, but never alone. You know what I mean? I only couple this with another sunblock underneath so that I make sure that I'm covered. I would never depend on sunblock in my foundation because, like I said, I don't wear enough of it to really adequately cover. And then I also have the other number seven. This is the one, the Hydro Luminous. I really like this, but this is not yet sold in the States. You can only get, I think, in the UK. But this is really, really nice. I like this a lot. When I use my Estee Lauder, I use a bunch of other foundations, and they all have a little bit of sun protection in them, but never enough. So just make sure that, you know, you're doing all this treatment for your skin, anti-aging and all of that stuff. If you're not using good sunblock, it's all for not. Truly, it's all for not. So I really love my number seven, but one of the things that I've noticed lately, and I don't know why, but I think it's been oxidizing on my skin. I've been getting more of a little bit of an orange tint. So the thing that I've been using all the more, and I've talked about this before, I bought this at CVS. And this is the Flower Beauty, and this is what they call their Light Illusion Perfecting Powder. I think this is awesome. I don't usually wear a lot of powders at all. In fact, very minimum. But what I do is, I will brush this powder on, and it will even out my foundation. Like, if I feel that I'm looking too orangey on my face because of my foundation, this lightens and brightens it right up. I really like it. It doesn't make my skin look cakey. I use it as a combo setting and finishing powder, I guess, you know what I mean? Because it's just a beautiful, beautiful light veil of coverage. And you can, of course, put as much on as you want, but I use it very, very lightly. And it just kind of gives me a better, more brighter, brighter skin, which is something that I really like. And I have been super enjoying the, I got this in Octoly. I talked about this in one of my previous videos. I still don't know how to pronounce this. Palladio. This is their cream, their, their blush. I have several of them. I've been using this one. Oh my gosh, I really like it. What it does, I don't know if you can even pick up color, but it just gives you a little tinge of sun-kissed look, you know what I mean? Just a little bit of a, you know, brightening look and pink kissing, pink sun-kissed look. I love it. So I do enjoy my ColourPop. I've been using this awful lot. This is the ColourPop blush that I got, Vogue Press Powder Blush. This was given to me, Marlene Fab and Glam, had given this to me along with the Stone Cold Fox palette. I don't know if I've talked about this before, but you know, it's a really color. So she had sent this to me and I absolutely love this blush. So what I've been doing is I've been putting this blush on and then on top of it, I've been doing a little bit of that look and I just think it gives me that little sun-kissed look on my face. I absolutely love it. So I've been enjoying, enjoying the heck out of those blushes that I received. I got like six of them, all different colors. I really, really like them a lot. They're so super awesome. I bought, and again, this is Marlene Fab and Glam talked about this Daily Dose of Love from Essence, right? Essence. And I bought this because she talked about it and she said what how pretty these shades were. And I'm going to hunt for pink. I'm going to hunt for something with a lot of pretty pinks in it. And I thought, hmm, I'll try it, right? So I bought it. I really like it. It does give me a little fallout, but you know what? Just about every, every shadow I wear gives me fallout. And I just take a big fan brush like this and I just brush it off my cheeks. But this, I really like. I think this is really cool. Now, if this had a more pinkier pink, it would be perfect. It's got pink. It's got mauve. It's got a peachier color. It's got some glimmers and all that stuff. And then a really light, light pale poisellantly pink color. It's got a lot of pretty colors. I can do an awful lot with that. I've worn that palette a lot, but I also bought, and this is the hottest palette to get. This is the Morphe Vintage Rose palette. I went into a couple of different altars. They were sold out in the store every single time I went in. So finally ordered it online. And this is what it looks like. I don't know if you can see it. I thought these colors, I thought these colors were really pretty. So it has, it has sort of a beige. It has a couple of mauves. It has some pinks. It really has some really nice shades on here. So I have been enjoying this and it's really affordable. It's Morphe, right? It's not, not going to break the bank, but I've been wearing a lot of these little pink pops in the middle and then all around the lid shades and all that. I've been really playing around with my, my eyes. So this I've been enjoying this month and it took me forever to get it, right? Because like I said, I, I, I don't like to order makeup, cosmetics off the internet. I don't mind ordering it, but I want to see it in real life first. You know, I want to see the colors. And in altar, all I could do is look at pictures. I want to be able to see it. So I finally ordered it. I really like it. This is the vintage rose. I like the color combo. And I, you know, I like the day, the essence, the daily dose of love. And the other one that I got, I think I mentioned this too and I've been using the heck out of this. This is the Lorac Pro Matte and I like this. This, for a smoky eye, for me, for a smoky eye has almost every color. It's got a pinky, mauve color. It's got sort of a corduroy color. That's a little bit warm for me. A latte color, a chocolate, a jet black, a burgundy, all mattes. I think I got this in Coles. I think I got this in Coles. So I just, yeah, I just have been enjoying the heck out of all that really a lot. My, my color pop stuff has been awesome. And this palette, the Stone Cold Fox, I mean, I've used this a whole lot, a whole lot. So really like it. The other thing that I have been liking an awful lot is the, and I kind of missed the date on this because this actually was available to the General Park public on May 9th. They, they had a big promotion on it. This is the City Beauty Ultrafirming Dry Oil. They sent me this for review. I think I got this about two months ago and I was able to try it pre-launch and then I was supposed to talk about it at the launch. And I just, the last two weeks in my life have been like totally nuts. I mean, totally, totally nuts. Anyways, I've been, I've been using this. I took this with me when I went away on vacation, when I went to a wedding. And this is ultrafirming oil. You put it on your neck, your decolletage, your decolletage, right? You put it all on and you just upward motions and you really kind of massage it in. I love how this makes my neck skin feel. Instead of feeling thin and creepy, I, my skin feels more supple. Now I still have a ton of wrinkles, you know, especially when you're squinting down. I have a ton of wrinkles, but I feel that this gives me, like, I will use this on, especially on a special occasion. And I feel it plumps up my neck skin. Is it going to be something that over time will continue to plump up? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But I do like this and there is a coupon. I know it's a pricey number, but to me, this is sort of like that. You know, you're going to indulge, you know, you're going to indulge in something special, like a bubble bath, you know, type of thing. So yeah, I really like this. I'll make sure I link all the information below. I'll tell you guys, you know, I've been, I have been a real estate agent for 36 years. I've seen markets, good markets, bad markets. I, you know, I know when the market crashes and I've seen what happens to home values when they plummet and when they sky rise. I have never seen a market like this in 36 years. So this market is totally, totally insane. And I, you know, it is really difficult to be a buyer in this market and buyers say the seller's not sympathetic and the seller's not giving them a break. And it's really difficult to be a seller in this market because the seller gets like, you know, 60 offers, right? And these offers are all over asking and they're waving contingencies. People are buying without a home inspection and they're saying they'll make up any shortfalls on an appraisal. Some people are waving appraisals and I don't know. It's like, it's, it's very, very scary. It's a scary real estate market out there and everyone, everyone in the industry, we're all holding that breath. We're trying to, you know, go along with the flow and show the properties and advise our clients as best as we can. And if we're dealing with a seller client, advise them to really look at all the offers, you know, make a decision. But I tell my buyers, you have to be prepared for banking, maybe seven or eight, nine or 10 offers before yours might get accepted. So it's almost like learning to love rejection. Oh, no, we didn't accept your offer. Better offer. Oh, thank you. But no, thank you. The more you hear that, the closer you're going to get to that. Yes. That's what I tell them. So, you know, hang in there. But what, what a market it's like, totally insane, totally insane. So that's not anything I've been enjoying this past month. It's just what has tied me up being so super busy between that and training and, you know, doing the pre licensing classes and all that stuff. It's like, it's just an unbelievable market. So I would say, thank goodness for my podcast. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen to when I'm driving, when I'm trying to exercise, when I'm trying to walk around. I just listen to podcasts all the time and then kind of, you know what, I listen to true crime and true crime podcasts. And I think it gives me a whole awareness of what's around me and not that I'm paranoid and not that I think something's going to happen, but I am way more aware of what can happen in situations than I ever was before because some of these podcasts are just unbelievably in true crime. You know, they're all true stories, especially riveting is the one that's happening in Indiana right now from the, the Delphi, Indiana where the two girls a couple of years ago were murdered on a hiking trail and the Abby and Libby, you know, Abby and Libby, and one of the girls actually filmed the guy on her iPhone and he actually had his voice on the bridge telling them to get down. They probably have a lot more than that, but they've recently arrested a guy that is like maybe 15 or 20 miles away from them from where this happened and they arrested this guy because he had abducted, raped and beat and was probably going to murder a neighbor girl, a nine-year-old neighbor girl, I mean really, you know, unbelievable and they caught him in the nick of time. So now they're looking at him to see if there's any connection to the Delphi case, you know, and I don't know if there is or there isn't, but thank God, you know, as morbid as it sounds, thank God they arrested this guy before he could do anything worse and what a creep, you know, who knows what he's done, but I sure hope they find the guy that really, if it isn't him, who the person that really is responsible for the murder of those two sweet little girls, you know, they were just 12 years old, 12, 13 years old, little girls. So anyways, yeah, podcasts, that's been another favorite of mine, I really like that and the probably the very last and I didn't bring it in is my apple cider gummies, my apple cider vinegar gummies. My weight has been at a standstill, I haven't lost a pound these last two weeks, very, very frustrated, but I feel great and, you know, I just, I feel more energetic and I'm doing that with intermittent fasting, so I think that's helping somewhat and I just have to bust through this standstill so I can ditch the COVID weight. Yeah, ugly COVID weight. Anyways, that's about it for me, I know this is a little bit all over the place, but just wanted to say hello to everyone and tell you about some of the things I've really been liking and yeah, I'll let you know how the sprinkle goes in my next video. Thanks so much for watching guys, bye bye.