My Skincare Routine

When I was younger I suffered with bad acne and scars from it throughout high school and college. In college I started using Murad and it worked so well that I no longer needed to use it. I thought I'd share my skin routine routine with you all. First are the exfoliators, the first is First Aid Beauty's Skin Rescue Deep Cleanser with Red Clay. I use this bout once a week. For days that I really feel my pores clogged I use Lush's Dark Angels. When I exfoliate but still see a bunch of blackheads in my pores, I use the Black Charcoal peel off mask from Daiso Japan. This is similar to the Biore Pore Strips, but in mask form. It takes a while to dry on your skin, but the results are worth it.

Then I use the Fresh Soy Face Cleanser. The cleanser leaves my face feeling smooth and fresh and it smells like cucumber, which is fantastic! On some days, when I have free time I used the Fresh Rose Face Mask. This mask also smells amazing and really makes my skin feel fresh and helps with redness from acne. The moisturizer I use is the DDF oil free Moisturizing Dew. This is the only moisturizer that keep my skin from breaking out. I use it before I go to sleep and when I wake up in the morning. Finally I sometimes use the Garnier Skin Renew Clinical Dark Spot Corrector for acne spots that aren't going away as fast as I'd like. The results aren't very noticeable, but I still use it.

Once and a while when I see my face breaking out too much I use my Murad facial cleanser, but only about once or twice a year when I'm really stressed. Also, I always hear about Neutrogena but as a teen I found out I as allergic to it so I've usually gone to other company's that focus on my type of sensitive oily skin with dry patches throughout.

I'm Back!

I'm back from my vacation and I've re-opened my Etsy shop, Sea Sand Vintage for two weeks, before I go on another vacation later this month. But in my travels I did found one new vintage item that I've added as a new listings, you can check out this vintage antique lama bronze figurine here.

I'll also, I'll post my vacation photos from Texas, travel tips and YouTube videos soon. In the meantime, you can check out my Instagram here, and my YouTube channel, here.

A lazy person's guide to Halloween Decorating!

And by lazy, I mean a busy person's guide, because I am a very busy person. First, I got these Fall Paper Fan decorations from Target's Oh Joy Fall Collection. I love her blog and her products. I hung them at my front window.

Next, I bought some small pumpkins, because I was too lazy to carry heavy pumpkins into my apartment, design, carve and or paint them. So I got three small pumpkins and I had some gold paint. So I painted the stems. I saw on Pinterest and Instagram that people with free time have painted their stems and added glitter also. Who has the time? I wish I did.

 

Once completed, they looked like this:

 

I placed the the third pumpkin on a bowl and placed it on my dinning room table.

 

Lastly, I make Reese's Peanut Butter Cup stuffed in Chocolate Chip Cookies, in a muffin cup tin. But, unlike most years, I didn't have time to make it from scratch, like I did in this previous blog post.
Instead, I used these products, which saved me 2 hours!

I just use a piece of the Chocolate Chip dough, place on the bottom, add a peanut butter cup, then add more Cookie dough as needed. See each step here:

After about 15 minutes in an oven that is set at 350 degrees, they should be done and should look like this:

Once cooled, I removed each with a knife. They should come out easily (if you use PAM or a similar product) and then place them in individual paper cups. I don't heat them with the paper cup because, I hate eating a cupcake and some of it is still on the paper... what a waste!

The finished product! I cut a piece off to show you all what it looks like. I hope you'll enjoy making some for yourself for Halloween or Christmas, or any day really. I've also enjoyed this great song (click here, to listen on YouTube), so I had to share it before the month is out, I hope you all had a great October!

Design Tips

1) Don't buy your artwork from Cost Plus World Market or Michael's
2) Don't use faux plants or flowers, real ones are better
3) Don't buy all of your furniture from one store, don't make it look like a "show room"
4) Don't mix your wood tones, choose one and go with it
5) Frame photos of places you've been and people you know
6) Personalize with objects from your childhood
7) Display some of your favorite books around your home, not just on shelves
8) Ask friends and family to create artwork for you to display
9) Mix and match with colors, don't just stick to white, grey and brown for your home
10) If possible remove the store bought glass candle holder and use use a beautiful candleholder/lantern instead