 Hey guys, it's Monica. I'm to do a Sort of a little bit of everything type of a video I'm going to talk about some of the products that I've used up and my thoughts on them and Some of the things that I've been doing that are somewhat new and then you know Just kind of like talk a little bit about my past year in general I'm going to try to keep it fairly short, but I can't guarantee that so First of all, you know, it's kind of appropriate that this is right before Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is this coming week and I probably Will not be doing a video for Thursday night because it is Thanksgiving So I'm going to be skipping that but the plan right now is to spend Thanksgiving here at the house with my mom and dad coming up My sister and brother-in-law are coming one of my sons is coming with his wife and my granddaughter I'm not too sure if my oldest grandson will be joining in or not So and my brother will be here with a friend of his so there'll be like 11 of us It's kind of small in comparison to Previous years when my sister's daughters have been here and both my sons have been here So it is more on the small side But it is a it is going to be a time for reflection at least on my part And I realized that there are many people out there that don't have family Surrounding them or don't have their loved ones that they can celebrate Thanksgiving with anymore And so I know that I'm blessed that I still have my mom and dad with me and my immediate family all around I know that and I'm so Thankful for that. I'm so thankful. It has been a difficult time with my dad having been very sick and still very sick and in the hospital and in rehab since October for us. He's been home for about two weeks now and doing better each day, but still Not a hundred percent or and probably won't be a hundred percent, you know, he still has a long way to go So I'm very very thankful of the health that he does have and the time that we we do have together So when I just take this moment and wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving and that I hope that whatever you do on Thanksgiving Day that it's a good day for you And I know it isn't good for everyone I know everyone has their trials and their their tributes and the issues and things of that nature But I I'm wishing you the very best Thanksgiving. So that said my year a reflection of my year I have learned so much this year I really have and most of what I've learned has been YouTube related as far as my channel as far as my videos go As far as engagement with my community goes. I've learned it off a lot and that can be a whole separate video I've had some people say, you know, can you do a YouTube 101? Well I'm not too sure that I'm qualified to do a YouTube 101 All I can really do is talk about the things that that I've seen happen The mistakes that people can avoid but you know, I understand like skincare How how people actually run their YouTube channel is individual What works to someone else may not work for me and vice versa same thing with skincare And that's the other thing I learned and even though I knew it I knew every one of us had different skins different expectations There are products that I can rave about that have been Fantastic that I'm willing to spend the money for and other people go. No, it doesn't work for me And that's fine, you know, that's what kind of makes it interesting here in the world And in YouTube is that we all do have different opinions and different skin But you know, I've never been the type of person where it's my way of the highway I respect everyone's opinion. So I really like that this year. I was so fortunate enough I got to meet this past September and I want to start a couple of pitches as I talk about this But I got to meet Maline Fab and glam and Sheila who at that time was life with early But she's simply Sheila now I got to meet them We actually spent a long weekend together I think Thursday to Monday at Sheila's Beach House Jay and I had flown down to South Carolina to Charleston We stayed a few days there then we drove up to Myrtle Beach area And we spent the rest of the time with Sheila her husband David Maline and her husband Wayne joined us and that was definitely the highlight of My YouTube career up to that point if you want to call it a YouTube career But my YouTube time was meeting these ladies. I had felt such a strong connection with them for so long so meeting them face-to-face just kind of kept that all off and then in November as you probably saw my recent videos. I was fortunate enough to go to Nashville and Nashville, I met up with a gale random life production I've known gale. She'd stayed with me a couple of times here in New Hampshire and She brought to the States traveled with Bella beauty on the budget and Bella is just an absolutely adorable Adorable person absolutely loved meeting her and also joining us was Marta and Marta has a channel I'll make sure I link them all below. She's from Florida and then on the very last day We were there Melissa 55 and Miss Kristen 3 2 1 drove all the way over To join us and spend a day with us and and it was It was like we we connected with long-lost sisters. We just felt this instant connection There was no awkward silences There was no like what am I gonna say now and we would just gab it and gabbing and gabbing like long-lost girlfriend So what a year it's been for me having met Melissa and Kristen and even though I talked to them often in a in a chat I Really feel like I really know them. I don't talk that often too, but Marta and I do go way back We've had a couple of collabs early on and Bella the time difference, you know being in the UK You know, we're we talk but not as much. So yeah, it was really fantastic and gale every time she comes over she brings me something royal inspired and a tea towel and this is Amazing last time she came she gave me some YouTube stickers and a tea towel and you know, I'm all about the royal family So I absolutely love love when I get things like that from from gale because they just mean so so much to me so I went away and One of the things that I I did is I bought these two bags. They're they're just TJ Maxx I could probably have gotten them at home, but I was in the TJ Maxx. I saw them. I absolutely love them. They're so Affordable, they're so thinking affordable and they're too they kind of dressy And I really like them because I've got a couple of dressy events coming up And I just wanted to have something big enough to hold my cell phone Maybe a lipstick or two and I thought these were perfect. So I found them at TJ Maxx. I Bought them in Nashville. I'm sure they probably have a Matija Maxx up here in New Hampshire But I bought them in Nashville. I thought they were really awesome the other thing that I bought and and I've already showed I believe that you all know that I got the land comb Holiday set. I got the glam set. I'm going to show you those shadows again Not that I've used them yet. I haven't look at those colors Those are all my colors. I am going to really enjoy digging in to this So I've not ever owned any kind of a land comb Shadows before I have owned the mascara. I have owned the primer. I really really like the primer I bought that a couple of times about little sample sizes. I think in either ultra or Sephora But this came with the full-size set. So I was really excited about that. I'm glad I got it I have not tried the skin care yet. I've heard good and bad about it. So we'll see and the lipsticks Hmm, I don't know, you know, I'm more of a pale lip person and they looked a little bit dark for me So I may not keep them. I may give them away The other thing that I bought and I actually have been playing with this I don't know if you can I'm almost embarrassed to show you because I really just kind of slapped colors on like crazy But this is beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself This is the LA girl palette This is the limited edition and I bought this because 100% because of Marlene fab and glam So when I saw this and such an affordable price, I figured, okay, I'm gonna give it a try. She loved it I love the look she creates. I should have known I can't recreate those looks. I'm not Marlene I don't have her lids. I don't have her ability, but I've been playing with it So the one thing that I did do you can see I've dipped into this This doesn't have a mirror by the way If that bothers you then that's something to think about but I never would use a mirror my Tati Palette that I got has a mirror. It's a beautiful palette Beautiful mirror, but the mirror does nothing for me because I use a makeup mirror to get ready So I was playing with some of these different shades in here to kind of create this look that I've gotten going on which is sort of a Mishmash of a little bit of everything. So like my lipsticks. I layer I layer all my shadows as well But I thought this was a really nice gift I also bought at the same time, but haven't used them yet. I bought the That I wanted to try their LA LA girl Volumatic mascara. This is their extreme long lasting a long lifting volumizes in lengthens I bought this haven't tried it yet and I bought their brow And I haven't tried that yet. So these were the three things that I that I bought So this palette is really nice. I really like it I've played around like I said with it I just um the one thing I liked about the Tati palette is if you are like me and I know not everyone is like me You might have a hard time. I have a hard time thinking. Okay, what colors go together, you know What kind of colors go together? What can I play with? So I go from here there and I dip all over the place and I kind of create sometimes a total mess At least the Tati palette all the color themes were the same and I could go here and here and here This one involved a little bit more of a thought process for me, but I've used one two three four five six six of the colors and of course I thought out with my wet and wild Cream brulee not the brulee that you can get. This is so hard to find the cream brulee last time I bought it on eBay. It's so hard to find you can get it on Amazon, but it's just the regular brulee It's not the cream brulee. So anyways, I really like this. I thought it was a great I thought it was a great value and this I'm I can't believe I haven't even used it yet, but I'm not a I'm not a palette person But I've actually bought my I bought two palettes about the Tati palette and I bought the LA girl and then I bought the holiday gift set I think the Lancome holiday gift set a big part of the poll was this palette And also I wanted to try the foundation I haven't opened the foundation yet because I'm working through my CYO currently on my face right now I have my CO my CYO 106 and 107 mixture. I want to finish I have I get a little bit antsy when I have too many bottles of stuff open and so I have I Have the CYO I have the I've got a kick-ass open. I've got my my Estee Lauder open. I have a whole bunch of things that are open Too many things that are open. So I want to work through the CYO. I have that on my face I did buy a new Avon blush And I think I showed that when I was in not South Carolina because I bought it there But a couple of things that I want to mention because I don't have a whole lot of empties But I do have a couple so I'm going to just mention them now The first one is I've totally finished out my macoo full sprectum. This is the 5,000 milligram one Full disclosure these this these were sent to me for review I really like this at the time that I was using this. I had bought the Flora and baths. This is the one from Sephora. I bought this as you can see it's totally empty I really really liked this a lot It was good on my face and then this I continued to use when I would use this because it's 5,000 milligrams When I would use this I would use a tiny tiny drop of this tiny Mix it in with an other face oil, and then I would put that on my skin. I really like it what I'm currently using on my skin is the macoo 2,500 milligram CBD and I decided not to buy the Flora bath I'm going to give this a try and I'm going to To mix this a little bit too because this is a higher concentration of CBD than this So when I traveled I took one of my small little bottles and I put this in it And that's what I traveled with for my skincare. So I'm really liking this a lot. Yes, it's pricey But I'm seeing a difference when I use it and I'm going to update my skin care Routine video because that has been a request from a number of you I'm going to update that so that you can you can see exactly what I'm doing and not doing the other thing That I ran out and finished is the Kakei oil elixir. This is for your hair hair repair. I Like this a lot. I'm not like hung up on kakai oil versus rose hip seed oil I know that some people like one better than the other and that's perfectly fine I'm looking more at the price point I use the rose hip seed oil more than I use this and have used it more than I use this But I was just happy to finally get rid of this in the sense that I finally finished it So what I'm doing is I'm taking my rose hip seed oil and sometimes I have like a little tiny bit of marula oil and There's some hair companies that Promote marula oil for hair So I take a little bit of the rose hip seed oil and a marula oil and I mix it in my hand And then I put that in my hair and I let that sit in my hair So that's what I'm doing instead of using the Kakei oil. This is the hair hair treatment I liked it, but I'm not going to buy it I'm going to stick with the the more affordable rose hip seed oil the other thing that I bought and I and I really like this a lot and I will buy this again because this is the Perfect travel size. This is the living proof and this is the perfect hair day I can't tell you when I use this on my hair It gives me so much volume so much. I Think it's just amazing. I really like this. This is however pricey So what I've been using instead of this is the helium So I've mentioned the helium before This I really like I would say that the helium fiberflex multi-function styling spray is I mean this will this says it'll fix define it'll lift It it lives up to everything. It says everything. I can't remember what I paid for this I really can't it wasn't as expensive as this when you consider the size difference So this is just perfect travel companion. I love this. This was a no fail for me I would buy it again definitely before a trip because it's a little more convenient than this I'm going to look. I don't know helium may have a smaller size I'm going to look and see but this stuff is the best. I absolutely love love using that on my hair So I think it's I think it's a super. I think it's a super great hairspray I really do the other thing. I'm really enjoying and I use this When I was down in a Nashville and this was sent to me full disclosure actually had two of these I have the hum night repair nighty night It says it rejuvenates and repairs your cells overnight. It's for skin and body It's get a ton of really good ingredients. I'll link all the information below but this was sent to me originally via the Octolene network from the company and I Really am enjoying these more importantly. These are a collagen and Let's see if I can open it. It's sort of like I'll take one out You take you take it. I'll make sure I drink this you take this out It's sort of like an elk itself the thing you put it on water and sizzles and dissipates you let it set in the water You don't need to shake it all up and do a whole bunch of stuff And you couldn't shake it if you want but you can put it in a water bottle or whatever And then you can drink it and this is just really super super good it's it's collagen it's Vitamin C it gives you a whole lot of it gives you a nice little boost during the day And I swear when I was away a lot of times I get When I go to a different climate or whatever my skin dries out or my skin reacts completely different than normal I swear this helped keep my skin at an even level because I I had so many compliments on my skin when I was away and Normally it's like You know, everything doesn't work the same will look the same But this stuff is awesome. I did get this as I as I said Complementary from the company via the octaline network have already reviewed it. I really like it a lot The other two things I just want to mention since this isn't empties is evalum This was also something that was sent to me. This is going to show via the octaline network And I did do a review on this this is a it's a cleansing balm it came with a a linen Sort of like not a linen now. I can't describe it but came with the cloth You put your wet your face You put this on you put the hot cloth over it and it lifts all your makeup off This is really really nice. I really enjoyed it. However, this is a pricey pricey number I don't think it cleaned any better for me than my clean at zero and I just bought this clean at zero At cvs to replace the one that i'm almost empty on my pink one is almost empty So while this is really nice dollar for dollar This worked better and I also tried and I don't have it in here the physicians formula one that people were raving about It's a smaller container. It works really good. I really liked it But this still is my favorite and dollar for dollar You get more product for the same amount of money as the physicians formula because it's a smaller bottle So I really like that. This i'm sorry to say beautiful, but i'm not buying it It's just a little bit too much for me So really I think that's it. I just wanted to talk about a few of the things that I got while I was away And some of the products that I've been using and what I think of them and and all of that So I just again just want to wish you all a very very happy Thanksgiving day Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers for my dad I appreciate every single one of them so much This has been an amazing year. It really has growth on youtube. I hit 10,000 subscribers. Thanks to all of you I learned so much. My baby grandson was born baby. Ah, he's adorable And I have another Thanksgiving With my parents. So what a wonderful year it's been. It really has been a wonderful year Even though it's had a lot of challenges, so Thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart and I will see you in my next video and have a great great Thanksgiving