k, byeee! – Beauty. Wellness. Inspiration.

Activities for Social Distancing

This time last week, I had never heard the phrase “social distancing” in my life. As an introvert, the concept of never leaving my house is always appealing, but now I have a legit reason to indulge in my hermit ways. Obviously, a deadly virus isn’t the reason anyone wanted, but here we are. While it’s easy to get sucked into a fear spiral and have a cute emotional breakdown (hi!), it’s also a great time to reconnect with what matters. Or a great time to do mindless activities to chill out. Either one, really.

Here are some random activities to do while you’re living that quarantine life!

RECONNECT: The biggest blessing of this whole ordeal is that we get to reconnect to the people who matter to us. Many companies are letting their employees telework until things get better, and that means more time at home with our loved ones. Getting to be at home all day with my husband and our fur children is basically my dream. Furry coworkers are the best coworkers, after all. All this social distancing also means you have more time to talk to friends and family. Text someone you haven’t talked to in a while!

CLEAN YOUR MAKEUP BRUSHES: For the love of God, clean your makeup brushes while you have all this time off. You’ve probably cleaned everything else at this point anyway! Don’t have brush cleaner? Dr. Bronner’s or Dawn do the job well. I can’t tell you the last time I used an actual brush cleaner.

JOURNAL: There has literally never been a better time to journal. It’s important to get your emotions out. Plus, think about it, we are living through a future history class right now. You’re going to want to remember it, even if right now it doesn’t seem like it. It’s a weirdly important time. Even a dream journal could be really useful right now. I don’t know about you, but I feel like my dreams have been more vivid and “message-y” this week than usual. Looking up what your dreams mean is a fun morning activity too.

TAROT: Sick of playing random board games? Bust out a tarot deck and see what the cards hold for you. I’m no tarot expert, but it’s fun and usually insightful!

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2019 Favorites

Here we are again! Didn’t I just write my 2018 favorites three seconds ago? I guess it’s true what they say about time going faster as you age.

2019, you’ve been a good one. Since I’m a 1990 baby, 2010 – 2019 has been ALL of my twenties! Well, pretty much anyway. I still have six more months to soak in being 29! I have to say, I’m pretty excited to welcome the 20s though! It’s going to be a fab decade. It’s probably the avid reader in me (who didn’t love The Great Gatsby?), but something about 2020 seems magical.

Here are some of my favorite things from the past year!

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Insta-Famous Brands That are Worth the Hype

Instagram can suck you into a never-ending spiral of companies and products that sound too good to be true. Every now and then, though, some sparkly gems emerge that really ARE worth the hype they get. I like things that are organic, efficient, and add value to my life in some way. These are my favorite insta-worthy brands/products that I keep coming back to all the time.

Daily Harvest – This is honestly one of the best things I’ve done for myself this year. I mean, does it get any better than someone delivering organic food to your door? No. I don’t like to cook, but I also want to eat healthy, which is why the entire concept of frozen, healthy meals that you can just dump into a skillet/blender is PERFECT. It’s as close to no effort as you can get. Do yourself a favor and try the mint & cacao smoothie and the chaga lattes. They literally taste like ice cream and hot chocolate. For $25 off, use code RE-AHKY4YY.

Rothy’s – I LOVE THESE. First of all, they’re the comfiest shoes ever. I have two pairs right now, and I’ll probably never buy another brand of shoes again. They’re that good. Plus they’re made out of recycled water bottles, and are machine washable. DO IT. For $20 off, click here.

JaxKelly – JaxKelly makes the cutest nontoxic candles ever. They each have a crystal inside too! You know I can’t resist a good crystal/candle combo. My favorite scents are rose quartz, blue chalcedony, and citrine. They also have super cute earrings that I love. My ears are really sensitive and their earrings don’t make me itchy or sore, which is saying a lot.

Lola Tampons – By now you’ve probably heard about Lola. They’re everywhere and helping change the world of feminine care. Traditional tampons are nasty AF (see my previous post here) so it’s important that you’re buying organic tampons/pads. No one wants sketchy chemicals up there! I love that I don’t ever have to think about going to the store since they come straight to your house. The only downside is the shipping is pretty slow (NY to OK takes about 10 days, which seems excessive).

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Green Beauty vs Conventional Beauty: Why You Should Practice Balance

I’m not an all-or-nothing kind of girl. I want a little bit of this and a little bit of that, especially when it comes to beauty. Let’s face it: organic isn’t always better.

There, I said it.

It doesn’t always perform, and it isn’t always accessible. If I’m being honest, a lot of the natural products I try, I end up hating and selling on Poshmark later. It got me thinking – is going fully organic with your beauty routine really worth being only semi-satisfied with how you look? Both sides can be argued and both present valid points. Organic is, overall, better for your health in the long run. Conventional, however, usually performs way better and is better for your wallet. So where do you draw the line?

Like anything in life, it’s important to practice balance for both your sanity and your financial health. It isn’t feasible for most of the population to ditch all the products they’ve ever known and get entirely new organic ones. And that’s okay. I’m pretty sure my NARS concealer isn’t going to kill me and believe me, I’ve tried to replace it with everything under the sun. Nothing compares. Frankly, I’m tired of throwing money out the window in hopes of a miracle product that’s clean and won’t break me out.

In fact, I refuse to keep doing it.

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My Favorite Vegan Leather Brand: Angela Roi

I love animals. All of them! Not just my pets. I wave at cows when I drive by them, say hello to the frogs in our backyard, and am obsessed with basically any animal I lay eyes on. I mean, who isn’t?

No, I’m not fully vegetarian, but I hardly ever eat meat. Not only do I just not really like meat that much, but I start overthinking it and get sad. One time I tried to cook bacon and started crying before I could even open the package. I realize there are people who need to eat meat sometimes for health reasons, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still help in other ways. One aspect of saving animals that we don’t always think about is the use of leather in fashion.

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