 Hello, hello. Good afternoon. Happy Monday. Just sprayed some dry shampoo in my hair. I was feeling a little flat. But hi, welcome to another vlog. It's the start of a new week and I'm feeling good. If you guys saw my last weekly vlog, I was going through a little bit of a rut. I had just been feeling really burnt out. It's slowed down a bit at the salon the last few weeks, which has been good because it's given me some time to just reset a little bit. Now I feel like I'm getting my energy back and I'm just ready to start cooking some healthy meals, create more content, just, you know, be on my A game. But I just finished getting a whole bunch of work done today. I had two videos that I edited and now I need to go to the grocery store and I wanted to share with you guys. I got some new jewelry from Ana Luisa. I've been working with them for almost a year now, I want to say. And every so often they send me some new pieces to share with you guys, which is always super exciting. And this time around I got some new rings. So look how cute. By the way, this portion of the vlog is sponsored by Ana Luisa, so thank you so much to them. But like I said, I've been working with them for almost a year now and I have so many jewelry pieces from them. These bracelets, actually, these two chain bracelets, I wear nonstop. Like, I mean, if you guys watch me regularly, you know that these are always on my wrist. Like, I never take them off. I wear them in the shower, swimming, everything, and they have not tarnished. They still look good as new. They're super beautiful. I've never had any issues with them, you know, breaking or turning my skin green or anything like that. These huggy hoops are also from them. Same thing, I keep them in my ears all the time. Shower with them, everything like that. So these are the two newest pieces I just got and I'm obsessed. This is so beautiful. The like emerald green. And then I also have this rope ring, which is from them, too. I've had this one for a while though. And yeah, all their pieces are really high quality. And what's really great about them, too, is that they are sustainable and eco-friendly. So they make everything in small batches so that they don't have excess waste. They offset 100% of their carbon emissions. And I feel like most of us nowadays want to try to shop sustainably, but it can be more expensive. All of Anna Louise's pieces start at $39. So it's actually really reasonably priced for what you're getting. So they are currently running a sale. I will have in the description the link to their website. So if you want to go and save yourself some money on some jewelry pieces, they make a great gift for a friend or a loved one or just for yourself. Thank you so much, Anna Louise, again for these beautiful rings and for working with me. So here's my little OOTD, what I'm wearing to the grocery store, by the way. We have a rug tape over here. Someone peed on the rug the other day. So yeah, that's why this is like that. But I'm just wearing this like netted sweater that I tied up from American Eagle. Jeans are American Eagle as well. These like pillow slides or whatever they're called are from Amazon. They're super, super comfortable. And then these sunglasses are from Target. And even though, yes, it is super hot outside, I think the weather report, yeah, since it's 84 degrees right now. So I'm not dressed appropriately for that. However, I always find it to be so cold in the grocery store. And I normally hate going. And I've realized the reason I hate going grocery shopping is because I'm always freezing in the store and I hate being cold. So I figured, let me be smart about this and wear warmer clothes so that way I'll be comfortable in the store. Benny, you have to stay home. You can't come with me, okay? Gonna stay here. Stay. I'll be back soon. I have all of these bins in the back that I have to drop off to my parents' house. So yeah, I am gonna pick up a bunch of healthy stuff from the grocery store. I've been doing pretty good. Like the last several months, I've definitely been eating healthier, eating at home more frequently, not getting takeout as much. But I actually am planning on getting off the birth control pill within the next week or two. I am gonna be vlogging that entire journey just like, you know, in separate specific blogs. But I know that coming off of the pill because I've been on it for so long. It's been 12 years now that I've been on it. I know that my hormones are gonna be totally out of whack because I've attempted to get off of it once before a few years ago. And I had terrible, terrible symptoms. And I ended up just going right back on it because I was like, I just couldn't handle the symptoms. I didn't have as much information at the time. I didn't know what was going on or you know, what to do, how to treat my body naturally. But at this point, I feel like I'm more prepared. I kind of know what to expect this time around. So yeah, that's why I especially want to make sure that I'm eating super healthy, super clean. And I'm just excited. I feel like I get in these ruts sometimes where I just feel tired and I have no energy. And I really just don't feel like doing anything. Like I just don't want to take care of myself. Don't care to exercise or eat healthy. Don't feel like cooking. Now that I'm out of that, I'm actually really looking forward to cooking some healthy meals. So yeah, I will see you when I get back. So I got some coconut water, some kombucha, which this one I think I'm gonna have now because it sounds really good. And then I got this kind and this one. I've never had these ones before but they sounded good. Then I got some red potatoes, some peppers, some pizza sauce, cream cheese, which I thought this would be a good little like low carb snack to some of the peppers and cream cheese. Blueberries, they were on sale. So I got tons of those. I love having those as a snack or in the morning for breakfast. Got some sprouts and some lettuce, butter lettuce. I just feel like the shape of it is perfect for doing like a lettuce bun kind of situation. So that's what I was planning on doing. I'm gonna use these as buns for some turkey burgers and put the sprouts on top. And then I got some frozen fruit for smoothies, some broccoli, bananas also for the smoothies, some green beans, asparagus. And then I got a bunch of different kinds of seeds. This is for my post birth control diet plan. Seeds are supposedly really good for your hormones. So we got some sunflower seeds, some flax seeds, and some pumpkin seeds. I got this gluten-free whole grain bread. Also got some cookies. I love this brand, Sweet Lawrence. They are gluten-free, dairy-free, plant-based, nut-free, and made with clean ingredients. So each one is only 120 calories. So they're like pre-cut, you just pop them in the oven and they're really delicious. So I got chocolate chip and fudgy brownie. So if I'm ever in the mood for cookies, you know, it's a better option. And then I also got these mango popsicles because these are a good little sweet dessert after dinner and they're only 70 calories each. And then I got these flax oat bran and whole wheat flatbreads. So I was thinking I would make a little flatbread pizza with this because I have some fresh basil to make a little margarita pizza, some turkey bacon. I got these tortillas as well, brown rice. They are also gluten-free. Then I got some cheese that was on sale. And then in here we got some clams, some salmon, and then I also got a rotisserie chicken. So I'm going to make a little flatbread pizza with the salad on the side. So I have one of those Joseph flatbreads on a pan. I have my pizza sauce. I'm just going to bake that for like 10 minutes at 350. And then once that's done, I'm going to take some fresh basil, which I'm going to go grab that from outside. All right, here is my lunch. I just put a little bit of the rotisserie chicken on some romaine lettuce. It's a very plain boring salad, but I didn't have many other salad-y things. I don't know. And I like a more plain salad to be honest. And then I just put a little bit of like a lemon vinaigrette dressing and then I threw the fresh basil on top and it smells so good. I'm going to have that with my kombucha. Change back into some comfy cooler clothes. And I'm just going to go eat this in front of the TV and relax. I'll see you later. I'll show you what I'm going to have for dinner. I think I might make one of those turkey burgers and have like asparagus or something on the side. We'll see. It was just like having a little mini panic attack for a second because I was washing my face and this happens to me like at least once a day. I just get so many little hairs. Like sometimes I'll just get a random blonde eyebrow hair. And the way it catches the light, it looks like a gray hair. And yeah, I was just sitting here like inspecting it, but it's a blonde hair. And it's weird because like at the root it will be darker, but then like the tips of it will be blonde. And it's like really only noticeable sometimes when it like catches the light a certain way. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with gray hairs and I'm 29 years old now. So I mean like it's inevitable. It's probably going to happen sometime soon. My mom started going gray after she had my younger brother when she was like 32, 33. But it's like, I don't know, the fact that I don't have any yet, at least none that I've found so far. I feel like when I do finally find the first one, it's just gonna be like, you know, it's just, I'm not afraid of aging by any means, but it's like getting your period for the first time, you know? It's like, there's no going back from there. You know what I mean? Anyway, I was in the middle of doing my skincare. I just finished washing my face with the Mario Badescu Acne Facial Cleanser. And now I'm gonna do some vitamin C suspension from the ordinary. I actually started going to get facials about once a month or so back in, what was it? I guess in the winter time, I had really bad mask knee and I had never gotten a facial before, but I was like, you know what, maybe I should try it out and see if that will help get my skin back on track. And it really has helped a lot. My skin has improved so much over the last few months. And the woman who does my facials uses circadia products and I really like everything that she uses. So I actually applied to have an account with them because since I'm a licensed cosmetologist, I can get professional skincare products. And my facial lady doesn't keep retail products like in stock, so it's not like I can buy anything off of her anyway. So I figure I may as well just order some of the products myself, get my professional discount. They need to like approve me first before I can start ordering stuff. So we'll see. I just did that today, but I definitely want to switch over to using more professional stuff at home. But as far as what I've been using at home lately on a regular basis, I do the vitamin C suspension from the ordinary. This is good for brightening and the little bit of like scarring I have from like past breakouts. It helps to fade those and just like brighten up my complexion. And then I use the Ole Henriksen Goodnight Glow Retinol Sleeping Cream. I really love this stuff. I've repurchased this a million times. I've been using it for a few years now. And then the Tatcha Silk Peany Eye Cream. And that's it. Oh, and then I just did a little Cocoa Butter Palmer's Chapstick. And then the last step, what I have been doing like the last couple of weeks is using an eyelash serum. So you might have noticed that I don't have my eyelash extensions anymore. I've been wearing lash extensions on and off, oh God, since like 2015, a long time. And I love them. I really do. They just make me feel like so pretty. But they are expensive. And I have been at a point, I don't know if like my hair has just been growing faster or what, but I've been having to go to get my lashes filled every two weeks. Like I cannot go any longer than two weeks between fills. And the place where I go to get my lashes done is like 40 minutes away from where I live. So it's just a lot of driving back and forth. It's time consuming, a lot of gas. Because then you know each appointment takes like an hour for the fill. So it's 40 minutes driving there, then an hour during the appointment and then 40 minutes back. To do that every other week, it's been a lot. And you know, it gets expensive. It adds up. I decided to just let them all naturally shed. And I'm just gonna rock my natural lashes and try to grow them as long as possible. So this is how my natural lashes look without any extensions. Naturally, they are decently curly. But because I've had the extensions on for so long, I don't find that my lashes get damaged from the extensions. They can. It all depends on who you go to, how good of a job they do, and what kind of extensions are getting put on. I don't do ones that are like super long and heavy and crazy anymore. I get more natural ones. So they don't cause any damage at all to my lashes. But they do from having the weight on them. I find that it makes my lashes grow in a little bit straighter. And it takes a little while, like a couple shedding cycles for them to grow back in with their natural curl. Anyway, I have been using this lash serum. This is from Grande Lash MD, the Lash Enhancing Serum. I got this on Amazon. I'll put a link to it in the description. Not sponsored. The girl who does my lashes actually recommended this one specifically to me. She had used it on herself and said that it worked really well. So I think you're supposed to use this for six weeks before you start to really notice a difference. And I've only been using it for like a little over two weeks. So it's too soon to say whether I've noticed a difference or not. But I've been putting it on every night. You're supposed to use this nightly and you just put it on like eyeliner. And then later this week I actually have an appointment to get an eyelash lift. So that will help make my lashes curlier and look a little bit longer, open up my eyes. Because I just feel like when I don't have any mascara or anything on, my eyes just look very sleepy. Just apply this on my lid. Let it dry. And that's it. I haven't noticed so far anyway no like irritation or any bad reaction or anything. So yeah I just wanted to share that. I am gonna go to bed now though. Just got back from my nail appointment. Here's how my nails turned out. I was eating peppers and I stained this one a little bit. So yeah I went with this like periwinkle purple and then she did a matte top coat. And I've mentioned this before but in case you are new these are my real nails. As in I don't have like tips. All of the length is real. And I just get an acrylic overlay so that it keeps my nails nice and hard and strong. Especially as a hairstylist you know my hands are constantly in water and stuff. So it's hard for me to keep them long and strong without something on top to harden them. So we do acrylic which I actually always was scared to do because I thought that it really damaged your nails. But what I have learned is that it all depends on how it's removed. So the girl that I go to I go to nail teak in Stroudsburg. So if you guys are in like the Pocono mountain area she is amazing. She's right on main street in downtown Stroudsburg. And she's been doing my nails for years now and she always does such a good job. My nails are so strong and healthy. So yeah we do acrylic on top of my real nail and then we do a gel color over the acrylic. And as far as the shape goes I don't ask for anything specific. I would say that they're like between almond and oval. My biggest suggestion is to just bring in photos. Like I think that's the best thing to do. So if you want to take a screenshot of my nails if you like the shape it's easier to visually show what you want than to try to verbally describe it. So yeah that's what we do on my nails. So anyway I am currently making dinner. Oh this is boiling. I am making this quinoa mix and then I have some salmon in the oven and then I'm just going to heat up some of the leftover green beans from yesterday. If you're new here and you didn't know I had curly hair, surprise! Normally when I wear my hair natural I just let it air dry but every so often if I want to actually like wear it down and have the curls really look as good as possible I will use the diffuser head on my Dyson blow dryer. All I do is I take some of the Paul Mitchell Invisible Wear Velvet Cream. It just gives like some lightweight hold and definition without making your hair feel crunchy or like weighing it down and I just put like a big lob in my hand and I just evenly scrunch it into my hair all over and then I just use the diffuser like you saw. I'm just gonna really quickly do my brows a little bit. I don't want to wear makeup today because after work I have my eyelash appointment like I said but I am going to just spike up my brows a little bit. See the difference? So all I use is the Got2B spiking glue. It's just a hair gel so I'm gonna put on a little bit of perfume. This is not sponsored but I last summer did a sponsorship with dossier. They make dupes for popular high-end like designer fragrances but it's like a fraction of the price. So I have a couple that they had sent me last summer when I was working with them but then I recently bought this one myself. It's Floriental Almond. I can't remember which perfume this is supposed to be a dupe of. It's not one that I've ever tried before. I was just on there and I was looking for a new perfume and I was just reading the notes and the reviews and this one just sounded like right up my alley. So it's definitely like a warm, sweet, like sexy, sophisticated kind of smell. If you guys are interested I'll put a link to this one in the description. Like I said not sponsored or anything. I bought that with my own money but what is good is that they do free returns. I know it's like weird ordering a perfume online especially if it's not a scent that you've ever smelled before but at least if you do it on there it's kind of like risk-free. So I was gonna actually just make my own coffee this morning like I normally do but last night one of my future clients sent me a Starbucks gift card. So nice. So I'm like okay I'm gonna treat myself to some Starbucks this morning. Thank you so much Sydney. It's gonna be so exciting you guys. She is coming from Florida to me and PA for a color correction and I'm really excited about it. We did a virtual consultation already and we've just been DMing like every day for the last month or so and I just can't wait to meet her. I can't believe she's coming all the way here. I blocked out the whole day and we're just gonna hang out and do her hair and I'm definitely going to record the whole thing. So yeah that'll be next week so the next vlog. Actually you know what I don't know what I want yet. I have enough time that I can just order it in person and that way I can think about what I want. I ended up getting a bacon and gouda sandwich so good. I haven't had one of these in so long. This used to be like my go-to. I would get it all the time when I was in cosmetology school so anytime I have it now it's very nostalgic and then I went with the iced brown sugar oat milk shake and espresso. Such a long name but it's so good. I've been getting these all the time ever since it came out a few months ago and they're so good because it's strong and like a little bit sweet but not too much. I'm gonna eat my breakfast. I have about a half hour till my client's supposed to get here. I have one client today. I did her hair one time before last summer exactly a year ago but yeah I'm gonna eat this and then go in and set up and I will show you her hair when she gets here. I just got a new plant. So random. I got done with work a lot sooner than I thought I would because I have extra time to kill before my lash appointment. I was like I don't know if it's worth driving home to then just like turn around and come back down into town. So I wanted to just stop at the grocery store and get a little snack so I could just like chill in the car and watch some youtube videos or something and I wanted to get that peach belini kombucha again because it was so good and outside they had all of these cute house plants and I was like what they never have stuff like that here and I saw they had monasterias which are beautiful. They like I just love the look of them and at least where I live they're like very hard to come by. I never see them anywhere. They were all only $20 which this one is huge. I definitely can split it up into at least three different pots. So it's like multiple plants basically for $20. That is a really good price. Here is my lashes before so you can see the length is pretty decent but they're just not super curly. So here is the before and here is the after. What I freaking hate about my natural lashes is that like the tips of them are so light. Do you see that? They're like blonde. So my lashes are actually like decently long but they don't look it unless I have mascara or something on them. So we just ended up doing the lift not a tint. I figured the tint really only lasts like a week anyway and on me I feel like it lasts even less than that because I have pretty oily eyelids and I'll just you know wear mascara and it'll be fine but the lift really just makes them like more curly, makes them like sit upright more and it just like I don't know I feel like it makes my eyes look more open, more awake and then when I do put on mascara it just gives the effect like if you were to use an eyelash curler before putting on mascara but they stay like that all the time which is really nice and it lasts six to eight weeks. It's basically a perm for your eyelashes so they stay curled like permanently but you know your lashes shed so as they start to shed and the new lashes grow in the new ones are going to grow in with just like your original natural curl patterns. I'm not supposed to get them wet for the next 24 hours and then no mascara for the next 48 hours which is actually totally fine because tomorrow morning I have a facial before work anyway so I wasn't gonna wear mascara tomorrow so when I can finally put mascara on them I will show you guys how they look with mascara on so you can get like the full effect but yeah I'm excited and that was super fast I was in and out the whole appointment took like 30 minutes so I'm gonna head home now and I'll see you later. Good morning it's the next day I just got home from my facial oh and I have deodorant on my sweatshirt now because I had pulled this down under my arms anyway I'm a little bit of a mess right now but I have been getting facial I think I mentioned this earlier but I've been going since I'd say like around March-ish maybe March February and I was just going like every once in a while just as like a little treat for myself because it's just it's so relaxing honestly like the music and the steam and the massage that you get and she does a scalp massage and it's just I feel like I really have noticed a difference in my skin and now I'm noticing that when I am not going as frequently like the last time I went was like the beginning of June my skin was looking really good for a while but now like the last week or so it was starting to look a little congested but we did an oxygen facial today which is the same thing we did last time and it's supposed to be really good if you have any like bacteria you know any acne or even just like little bumps and then she did some extractions and stuff as well so my skin feels so good right now it feels so hydrated and all of these like little bumps and everything that I have on my face within the next couple of days are going to be completely gone because that's always how it is sometimes even by the next morning highly recommend going and getting a facial every once in a while I go to actually the same place that does my nails nail teak I go to candy she is awesome love her highly recommend and she really really knows her stuff and is very passionate about what she does and the products that she uses it's a good day today I just finished my client and I didn't get any footage she was a new client and she did not find me through social media she just called someone that she used to work with used to go to my boss like years ago so that's how she had heard of the salon but she didn't like request me specifically or anything my clients that find me through social media and know about my social media and habit themselves I feel more comfortable recording them but she doesn't even have Instagram or anything like that so I didn't you know be like hey mind if I record some clips of your hair for my youtube channel I did get before and after pictures so this is what her hair looked like before she had just been getting like a full head of traditional highlights and they actually were really good I've had people come in before with splotchy stripy belity looking highlights hers were really beautiful and nicely done but they were just a little bit on the thicker side so they were just more high maintenance you know just traditional highlights when they grew out there weren't like super harsh lines but it didn't look like intentional grow out you know it could have been more blended so she just wanted something that was going to be more low maintenance a softer grow out so I just did a full head of teeny tiny like tiny or even than baby lights like strand lights because her hair was really fine so even like a baby light would have looked kind of thick on her and then I pulled the light in her through because she felt like her hair was a little yellow too so just bumped up her ends and then I did a little bit of a root smudge and toned her ends and it came out so beautiful and she was really really happy with it and then she bought a bunch of product super super nice really easy going and it didn't take very long that was like exactly three hours so I'm gonna go home hello guys happy friday it's friday right yes so I spent most of the morning editing this vlog and I realized it's very long so I think this is gonna be the last clip but I wanted to show you my eyelashes I put mascara on so you can see the lift definitely makes a big difference and you can see the curl of them a little bit better now and it makes your lashes look longer because rather than them like sticking out like this they're lifted like this so you can actually see the full length of the lashes and the mascara that I used was the l'oreal infallible just the regular one and my skin of course now I'm in the car and it's really hot so I'm like sweating and I look a little red but it's looking really clear I already like this morning when I woke up I was like oh wow I already could tell a difference since getting my facial yesterday so it's just going to continue clearing up and these little spots will just keep fading I'm about to go ahead to work now I'm gonna wrap up this vlog here don't forget to check the video description for that link to Ana Luisa so you can go and get 20% off your purchase if you want to go and get some of these rings or bracelets necklaces earrings thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you in my next video bye