Going Greener: Fortune Cookie Soaps

I'm trying to make an effort to be more green, both in food and lifestyle choices, including my beauty products. I'm trying my best to find brands that don't test on animals, and are free of harsh and harmful chemicals. I signed up for Eco Emi, which will help a lot. If you don't know what Eco Emi is, it's basically an earth friendly version of Birchbox. Except it's a lifestyle box so you generally get a few beauty products along with things like food, tea, things to clean your house with, etc., that are all cruelty free, green, free trade, eco friendly, and all that good stuff.

I've been eyeing Fortune Cookie Soap for quite some time, but never got around to buying anything. All of the products are "gunk free" and they don't test on animals. Plus they are super cute! They recently had a summer sale and I bought an "In the Loop" bar soap.

It's probably one of the cutest soaps I've ever seen. It looks so much like Froot Loops in milk, and smells EXACTLY like Froot Loops. And it's a pretty decent size, too, I'm sure I'll be using this for a while. I usually prefer body wash over bar soaps, but this was on sale, cute, and is helping me go greener in my life so, why not! I haven't used it yet but I'm really excited to.

I'm going to be making a list of all natrual, green, chemical free, cruelty free, etc., brands and websites that I find. I'll probably put it in the sidebar or make a new page and link it or something. I'm not sure. But anyway, Fortune Cookie Soap is definitely going on that list. This is my first "green find" in my journey, haha.

I also received a free sample of their "Love Doctor" bath melt. It melted a little bit in the mail box, but it still smells really good!

Update: I was a bit too excited about my soap and described it to my coworkers tonight (which happened to be all guys) and they thought that sounded super amazing and badass. So your male friends may love Fortune Cookie Soaps as well :P

Have you bought anything from Fortune Cookie Soap? What are your favorite "green" beauty brands?

My Beauty Must Have

No matter how much time I have in the morning or how much makeup I decide to wear that day, mascara always makes it into my beauty routine somehow. It's one of those magical products that opens and brightens your eyes, and makes you look more awake.

I know it's not just me thinking that too, because I went to work and forgot to put mascara on and you wouldn't believe how many people asked if I was ok, asked if I was sick, tired, etc. I don't know about you, but the sickly/tired look is not what I generally go for!

I find that drugstore mascaras work just as well as the high end mascaras (with the exception of MAC's Haute & Naughty, my only full size, high-end mascara purchase!). Not saying high end mascaras are bad, I just wouldn't shell out the money for them unless they come with a product I'm already buying.

What are your favorite mascaras? Do you have a beauty must have that you wear everyday?

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

My Thoughts on Vita Coco Coconut Water

At the beginning of summer, I posted about my summer resolutions for this summer, and drinking coconut water was on the top of my list. After extensive (well, what I consider extensive) research and reading several reviews, Vita Coco seemed like the way to go for coconut water drinkers. Most said that it tasted sweet, kept them hydrated, and talked about other health benefits of drinking coconut water in general.

I went to GNC and picked up the Peach and Mango flavor. I stuck it in the fridge before work to chill it, and took it to work with me.

I happened to be running very late for work that day, and had to park far away because of some event that was going on. I literally had to RUN to work in the awful Charleston summer humidty/heat, wearing long pants. Being the out of shape bum that I am, under normal circumstances I would have passed out by the time I got to work and/or felt absolutely awful. Lucky for me, I had my coconut water and drank it on my run to work. I felt wonderfully hydrated when I got there. Just a little hot (thank god I work in an ice cream shop...) and a bit worn out.

However, it wasn't the taste I was expecting. Considering it was coconut water, with peach and mango mixed in, I was expecting it to taste fruity and sweet. But it tasted like...tomato juice, like V8. It didn't taste bad necessarily, but not what I was expecting. So the taste wasn't good but tolerable because of all of the benefits of coconut water.

By the end of my shift, I had gotten a HORRIBLE headache, which I assumed was just from the running. I had gotten tired of drinking my coconut water and decided to switch over to regular water. (I gave the rest of my coconut water to my coworker who LOVED the taste. So I guess it's an acquired taste?)

I went back to GNC and got 2 other flavors, the regular coconut water and one with acai berry.

Same thing with both flavors: I felt hydrated and healthy, if that makes sense. But the taste wasn't quite right and I got awful headaches both times.

Needless to say, I got tired of the headaches and after the third coconut water I realized I got them after drinking coconut water, so I stopped drinking them. As I thought, the headaches stopped after I gave up coconut water. I have an allergy to most fruit (nothing fatal, just itchy mouth, throat, lips, tongue, etc.), so maybe coconut water was no different for me. Someone suggested I may not be allergic to it but I have an intolerance to it, like some are lactose intolerant.

Final thoughts:

-If you go to the gym or play a sport and drink sports drinks like Gatorade, this could be a healthier alternative to keep you hydrated.

-The taste wasn't as fruity as I expected, but it wasn't too bad. Others love the taste.

-Had horrible headaches after drinking it.

-Other than keeping you hydrated, coconut water has many other health benefits.

Do you or have you had coconut water before? Did you like the taste? What did you like/dislike about it?

Boyfriend Series: Picking out a Present

Hellooo everybody! On the 18th of this month, my boyfriend and I will have been together for a whole happy year. Yay! I'm kind of having a difficult time picking out a present for him (and I still owe him a graduation present).

I've offered to take him out to dinner instead of the other way around, because he's taken me out several times throughout this lovely year. It only seems fair that I take him out for a nice dinner for a change.

At first I was considering getting him gift cards. To thinkgeek.com, because he loves all that nerdy stuff. Or from americanmuscle.com because he has a Mustang and is constantly wanting things to buy for it.

My second thought was to get him DJ2GO because he likes to dabble in the DJ world. But it's kind of a cheaper and smaller version of this DJ setup, which I would buy him if I had $280 to spend. Buuuut I don't.

image via apple.com

And my third idea was an engraved butterfly knife. He had a butterfly knife (you know those cool ones that you flip around and stuff?) that his friend got him for his birthday but I kind of took and haven't given it back yet. So I thought it would be cool if I got him a new one and get it engraved. The problem with that is, I don't know where to get that done.

It's not really that big of a deal, but he deserves the best I can get, so I want to get it right haha.

SO basically I need suggestions, what would you get your boyfriend for a 1 year anniversary? I need help haha.

Shark Cupcakes!

My boyfriend came over last night to watch Shark Week with me, and we made shark cupcakes! Or sharkcakes as he likes to call them. We didn't wait for them to cool before we put the icing on, the icing melted on some of them. But they turned out very yummy :)

What you'll need:

Cake mix (and ingredients needed for making a cake, like eggs, oil, etc. We used red velvet)

Blue icing

Construction paper and scissors

Peach rings (or small powdered doughnuts and red fruit rollups)

Cupcake cups and a cupcake pan

When I took the picture the batter looked more like spaghetti than red velvet cake mix so I had to edit it a bit. Anyway red velvet seemed appropriate because of the bloody tint to it, plus it's delicious!

The shark fins! Boyfriend had to draw me a model shark fin because the one cut out looked like Jimmy Neutron's hair (anyone?).

We used gummy peach rings to resemble one of those life preserver floats. You could also use mini powdered doughnuts for the float and cut strips or red Fruit Rollups for the red stripes, but we figured this was easier and less messy.

Well that's it for today :) I hope you all are thoroughly enjoying Shark Week if you watch it. You can find the inspiration for the cupcakes here.

Also don't forget to enter my MAC lipstick and print giveaway! Ends August 22nd!

Do You Use Toners?

When I got my Mario Badescu samples, a toner was included called the "Special Cucumber Lotion". I hadn't used a toner really before, except a while back I did use a Clinique toner that stung like crazy! I looked over my samples, and noticed the second step after cleansing was to use this Special Cucumber Lotion. I knew it was a toner, but I had no idea what the purpose was. So, I referenced my handy little booklet they included and looked up the mystery product.

"Refreshing, disinfecting and deep cleaning astringent that is effective in drying up existing acne blemishes while preventing new eruptions. Sulfur and soothing Cucumber help to fight against oily build-up and bacteria that can cause acne."

Alright, so it cleanses my face...after I already cleansed it? I was pretty confused at this point. So I decided to skip this step my first few days of using the skincare line. Unfortunately, it was around that time of the month, which meant that minor breakouts were starting to appear around my chin. Not huge pimples, just several small whiteheads. I figured I'd give the Special Cucumber lotion a shot. I used it in the morning and at night after cleansing. The first thing I noticed after the first day of using it, my skin wasn't as oily as usual! When I woke up the next morning, my whiteheads were pretty much gone.

Then I looked at the rest of the toners and astringents listed in the booklet, and there are so many options for different skin types! So I learned, toner is not necessary in one's skincare regimen, but it's definitely something to look into if you have problem skin! It's like one of those products (like face primer for me), where you don't realize or think it's necessary until you stop using it, and then you really see what a difference it makes.

After further research, I learned that toners are supposed to get rid of any residue the cleanser may have left behind, so that moisturizer will be more effective. If you get dehydrated skin like me, you may want to look into a good toner (with no alcohol! Don't want to add to the problem).

Toners can also help balance the pH of the skin after you cleanse it, so if you get oily skin throughout the day, a toner could help you out.

My toner isn't going to be one of those products that I HAVE to repurchase as soon as I run out, but I definitely notice it benefits the overall condition of my skin.

*Arielle commented and wanted to know if there was a difference between a toner and astringent. From what I've gathered, an astringent is much more harsh and generally contains more alcohol than a toner, and can dry or irritate skin more. Toners are more for everyday use and astringents are for a few days out of the week. That was kind of a grey area so please comment and let me know if this is wrong :)

Do you use a toner? Do you feel it is necessary? What toner do you use?

Split Personality

So lately I've been observing a certain...trend, if you will, of things being half one thing, and half another. Now I know this is nothing new really, but it's just becoming more obvious to me and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

It's just a bit baffling to me. It's like this trend is pin pointed at indecisive people like myself. "Oh I can't decide if I should wear this dress or this dress. Oh I know! I'll wear both...at the same time!" So odd.

credit

credit

Ok in terms of beauty, I don't mind this trend so much. Both of these ladies did a fabulous job of making it wearable. Just enough change so that you have to take a second look at it to make sure you are seeing correctly. If I could get away with it in real life, I would probably rock that eye look. The lips are more color blocking so I do like the lips. I'm not much of a bold lip person myself so I personally wouldn't wear it, but it looks great on her.

The clothes (and the MAC brush??) are the most odd to me. What do you think of this trend? Have you rocked any of these styles before?