January came and went so quickly. Feels like I was just at Suraya in Fishtown lifting a glass up to cheers to the new decade. And now it’s almost Valentine’s Day! But life goes on, and today I wanted to share a few of my monthly favorites and fails from January.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t tried many others flavors from them but the Cashew Butter & Raspberry Dark Chocolate bar that I did try was absolutely phenomenal that it makes me not care what any other bars taste like because I can eat this one for the remainder of my days. It is on the pricier end, it’s about $6 and is relatively small compared to your regular chocolate bar, but I think it’s worth every penny. If I’m not mistaken, I believe there’s 8 little squares that you can break the bar into. I allow myself one or two squares each evening right before I shower & get ready for bed. It’s a lovely little sweet treat without any of the bad ingredients.
I talked about the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask previously on my insta stories. However, after I tried the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment, I feel like the results I’ve seen have been much more significant than the Laneige lip mask. The Fresh Sugar one is a few dollars more expensive than the Laneige one, but I think it’s definitely worth every penny.
Although another great lip treatment I’ve been hearing about is the Tatcha Kissu Lip Mask. It goes even higher up in price, but I love Tatcha’s skincare products so I’m sure it’ll be worth the pretty penny. If you’ve tried the Tatcha lip mask, I’d love to know what you thought about it!
This coat has been my go-to since December actually. It was super affordable (roughly $50 from H&M – sadly now sold out) and has held up pretty well so far. I always worry when buying a fur-like jacket because I’m afraid the faux fur will get weird after a wash so I don’t want to spend a lot of money on a coat like that (at least not at this time in my life) so I was quite excited to find this one for quite the steal. Although, I have yet to wash it, so we’ll see how it holds up after a wash. I wore it all throughout our trip to Washington DC two weeks ago and it kept me quite warm and cozy.
This one isn’t really an item, but this service to myself has been something that I use to hate but learned to enjoy in January. My sister and I started working out with a personal trainer in the beginning of December and would dread going to him because we knew he would kick our butt. However, in January I became one of those people who actually looked forward to working out (now there’s a sentence I never thought would come out of my mouth LOL). It feels good to be one of those people that I used to look up to! I even started to enjoy going to the gym and just doing a workout on my own. I can see why people find working out therapeutic because now sometimes I’ll crave a gym sesh.
This is a spot in Paoli, PA that I was introduced to via a blogger dinner. The owner, Meridith Coyle, actually used to cater dinners for a few Bravo housewives! She’s all about clean eating and turning comfort food into healthy food. You can either eat at the restaurant or order take out. I highly recommend you pick up her cookbook there as well, it has so many mouth-watering recipes. So far I’ve tried her Salmon Provencal and brownies recipes and they were too good for words!
I also wanted to mention a few products that didn’t quite work out this past month like I hoped.
I love and use the Kerastase purple shampoo so I wanted to try other shampoos they offer. I tried the Densifique Bodifying shampoo and loved it! So then I decided to try this Aura Botanica shampoo. However, oh my goodness, was this one a mistake! The Aura Botanica shampoo just makes my roots super greasy. And trust me, it’s not greasy because I don’t wash all the shampoo out. For some reason, I thought that this would change the more I used the shampoo but nothing is changing and I feel so bad going back to Sephora to return it. So I think I’m just going to give it to my husband to use since he doesn’t care what goes on his head LOL. Maybe it would work for someone with extra, extra, extra dry hair?
Sidenote: Check out this post with my full hair care routine.
You guys, this product cost me $118 and it makes me want to cry!!! I ran out of my Tatcha Vitamin C serum (review on it in this post) so I thought I’d try something new and pick up this Naturopathica one at my local Heyday Skincare boutique. The lady there spoke very highly of it so I decided to bite the bullet. Well, turns out it breaks me out… So now I’m out over $100 with a product that I don’t like and can’t return. Since I still need a new vitamin C serum, I’m going to be picking up the Summer Friday’s one next to try out.
I’d love to know which products/services were your favorites and fails this month! Let me know in the comments below!
♥ Alena
Welcome to Love Everything Lovely, a life & style blog filled with my take on living a life all around lovely and with the goal to inspire you to pursue your loveliest life! I’m Alena, a twenty-something with a heart full of passion for beauty, fashion, and always striving to live my best and loveliest life.