Beauty, Daily

Typical day in the life of a full-time blogger

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While blogging isn’t typically a run of the mill daily routine and set schedule, I thought I’d take a wee bit out of my week and show you the fun parts of being a blogger are. I swear, most days are spent all alone, workin’ the internets, stylin’ flatlays and coming up with collaborations and campaigns. And oh gosh, I do not take blogging for granted and it has its privileges. Especially these past few months where now I can make monetary compensation off what I have been doing for over 15 years as a hobby.You better bet I miss a bit of routine in my life. Not a week goes by where I don’t miss my old job and co-workers in Canada! If you want to see who I’ve partnered with to make this blog post come to life, please see the disclaimer towards the end of the post.

SEVEN O’CLOCK

06:45| I love waking up early when I know I don’t have to. Does that make sense for anyone else? I mean, I could sleep in, but think of the length of the day when I get up at the crack of dawn. I wake up and check my e-mail and social accounts on my phone for 15 minutes or so. Probably not the best thing to do when you first wake up but I love checking it! I know this might seem like an ungodly hour to wake up when I mention I work from home, but I tend to feel focused and most productive in the morning. It’s also nice waking up while my husband is still around in the house! He wakes up around this time daily for either commuting, or going to the swimming pool.

07:00 – 07:15| Get dressed and let Alfie outside for his morning walk. Come back inside and turn on my computer and immediately start playing some tunes on Google Play music (I prefer a bit of noise in the house). This is also when I clean up my desk, as it’s always a pile of grocery receipts / post-it-notes / mugs. I’m not a fan of working around clutter.

Ninja nutri bowl duo07:15 – 07:30| Some mornings I either drive to the town of Los Gatos for my famous CPR (lol…I know, the name of that drink kills me!) or head to McDonalds and grab an iced coffee. This isn’t an every day occurrence, and I definitely savor it when I drink my specialty drinks. I don’t like to have a ton to eat when I first wake up, so I’ll make an omelette as soon as I get home. On special occasions where I want a cool treat in the a.m. I’ll make an acai bowl topped with fruit and coconut chips. I’ve been going ham over this Nina Blender I was sent a few weeks ago (I vlogged about it here!). It’s the Ninja nutri bowl duo and perfect for frozen treats — I broke our other blender last summer by making too many açai bowls. Oops. One of these ‘jars’ is enough for two bowls — and I only use 1 frozen packet of açai from Trader Joe’s, the rest of the goodies inside the bullet is made up of frozen goods: blueberries, strawberries, 1 full banana chopped, and some milk. Boom. So good.

07:30– 08:10| This is when I sit back and relax, eat my banana + sip on ice coffee, and catch up on Snapchat, IG stories, YouTube videos and reading blog posts. I only allow myself 30-40 minutes for this otherwise I could easily sit there for hours. Clearly I seem to work best when I’m on a schedule of sorts.

EIGHT O’CLOCK

08:10– 08:55| Hop in the shower and get ready for the day. Here are the contents of what I applied on my face this day: Tarte Maracuja Oil, It Cosmetics CC Cream (applied with a beauty blender), BECCA bronzer, Burberry blush, Tom Ford lip balm (that I bought from the Sephora VIB sale) and top it with Marc Jacob’s new mascara. Whooo wee it’s nice. Also, remember my fancy dyson hair dryer with hilarious pictures? I still use it. It’s annoying to store under the bathroom cabinet as I don’t want to twist the wires up so I’ve been leaving it unplugged on my counter. I’ve actually been having a bit of issues with the ground fault protection needing to be reset any time I turn on the dryer. I had a sunken feeling the first two times the dryer wouldn’t turn on. But my husband told me that perhaps the wiring in this place can’t handle such voltage. Anyway, just a little tidbit for you if you have/had that issue! Side-note: Like my agenda that’s half-showing? It’s a caviar leather planner from Cloth & Paper, it’s all-black-everything (because it has black hardware on the inside) and the perfect size. I really need to get crackin’ on my stationery favourites, either a post or a video — any preference?

08:55| I pop all my supplements and allergy pills to combat my hives. Yes, they’re still going on and no we still don’t know the reason. At this point (close to 2 years) they’re simply considered chronic. This is when I review my schedule for the day and list of goals I want to accomplish in my planner. Occasionally I’ll plan a breakfast/brunch date with another local blogger, pack up my laptop, planner and notebooks and head out to meet with them.

NINE O’CLOCK

Black + Decker pet vacuum9:00| This is when I get some chores done. I start cleaning up the house and doing my daily clean-up, each day is different but this day I vacuumed (every second day I’ll rotate between floors. Today I vacuumed the stairs because I’m completely obsessed with this new Black + Decker pet vacuum (the mid-part is removable!!!! It’s perfect for getting into the crevices of stairs.

Then I empty the dishwasher, tidy up the kitchen, bring any clothes on the main floor up to the bedroom, and put away the clean laundry.

TEN O’CLOCK

10:00| I’m a PR Manager with Canadian Beauty Bloggers network (say hi #BBloggersCA!), so at this time I check the inbox and reply to any e-mails that may come in during the day. After the tasks are done for the CBB’ers I continue working on spiffykerms blog posts and/or responding to comments / tweets / Instagram comments, and checking my own two e-mail accounts.

10:40| Take Alfie out for a lil’ piddle. I either make myself a mid-morning tea (always tetley), or fill up a glass of water. Trying my hardest not to consume caffeine every day. I now order decaf lattes at coffee shops, and going on 6 days without that buzz! Ha. Funny how you can get addicted, and I only started drinking coffee beverages 2~3 years ago.

ELEVEN O’CLOCK – NOON

11:00 – 12:30| If I’m not out with a friend for coffee/brunch or hanging with a pal, I’m usually writing blog posts at this time. I don’t write blog posts every day, if you’ve noticed I backed off from 5 posts a week, to 3. However, lately I’ve been blogging less — eep I want to get back to blogging regularly again. I find it’s easier to manage, as I am more careful with how I articulate things on my blog. I make sure the meta/keywords/SEO on the particular blog post is up to par.I change my top, in exchange for one that isn’t covered in pet hair, put on my Forever 21 corduroy jacket and head out the door. This day I was writing this exact post at my friend Elisabeth’s house on my Lenovo Yoga Book. I’ve been using my Lenovo for blogging on-the-go lately and I love how portable and light it is, it’s so handy to have and just shove in your purse!

12:45|  I head back home and stop by Trader Joe’s to grab a salad and run any other errands I need to do (groceries, Daiso items: dish sponges, etc).

ONE O’CLOCK – THREE O’CLOCK 

1:20| If I’m not writing another blog post, I’d probably be taking photos/flatlays for my Instagram, especially during this time when the lighting is perfect at my flatlay-taking-spot in our house. Sometimes this can take hours if I’m in the mood to stylize many products. It’s one of my favourite things to do lately. You might’ve noticed I cut back on how many blogs I post a week over the past few months. That’s intentional as I’m trying to focus more on quality content, narrowing in on my niche, and providing better value for my blog readers

2:00| There’s a 4.5 hour time difference between my Mom and I, and I talk to her pretty regularly on FaceTime. This is when I ring her up and hope she picks up for a chat to discuss what’s going on back home in Newfoundland.

THREE O’CLOCK

3:00| Dreading the inevitable late afternoon crash I try and get as much done in the morning as possible. Like most, around 3:00pm is when I hit my slump so if I’m on the computer I walk away, make myself a snack, then check the mail and take Alfie for another piddle. My UPS guy usually comes around this time, so I’m often opening up PR parcels on Snapchat lol.

3:45| Pop back on the computer, check Instagram and reply to some comments, and check into YouTube to see if anyone posted any new videos (I’m addicted!) and watch one or two.

FOUR O’CLOCK

4:15| I’ve been turning off my computer and putting my phone on airplane mode for an hour a day, just to unwind and decompress. This is the time I’ll take Alfie out for a super long walk or if it’s raining I’ll literally get out those adult colouring books and giv’er, it’s surprisingly relaxing.

FIVE O’CLOCK

5:15| Sometimes my neighbour texts me for a walk with Alfie and her pup Nelly (and baby in tow!). Alfie’s girlfriend, Nelly? Alfie hates her… hahahahaah I’m serious too. It’s unfortunate situation really but seeing them two loud-mouth dogs together make me laugh.

SIX O’CLOCK - TEN O’CLOCK

6:15| I’ll unload the dishwasher and start preppin’ supper for us. One of the easiest recipes I make us is my “Fish Friday” meal which… I tend to serve on you guessed it… Thursdays. Just kidding. I really do make fish basically every Friday and I love it. I purchase boneless skinless salmon from Trader Joe’s and it’ll make 4 meals (two lunches for me when I save the left overs). All I do is plop’er on a sheet of parchment paper, coat both sides in a mixture of honey mustard, and yellow mustard. Boil a pot for basmati rice, and halfway through everything cooking I also lay out some broccolini (so much better tasting than reg. brocc), with salt/pepper/olive oil drizzle and boom, a tasty meal. Carb heavy yes, but sometimes I make it with the crunchy brown rice that Trader Joe’s sells… equally as nice.

6:35| Alfie gets pretty active around the time my husband gets home, so I’ll play fetch with one of his favourite toys :)

7:00 – 10:00| It varies of when I start my nightly routine. I’ve been removing my makeup with some Trader Joe’s micellar water makeup wipes, and washing with my ol’ faithful Purity by Philosophy cleanser. Then following up with my two aveda moisturizers that I reviewed a while back. They’re sooo good, and I’m using them so so so sparingly. Not too often, but 1-2x a week I’ll do a longer nightly routine with my skincare. This is when I whip out the Pixi beauty products with glycolic acid (both the serum and the glow tonic have it). When I do that, and pair my aveda moisturizer on top? Boom, unreal skin the next morning. I should do it every night, but I don’t want to… lol.

10:20| When I head to bed, I end the day the same way I start it, on my phone — a habit I should probably break but it’s the reality. And that’s it! A day in the life of me. One of the best parts of being a blogger is that no two days are the same, so it rarely feels stagnant. I spent this entire day writing down what my day looked like, but it will be completely different tomorrow I’m sure! I put in a lot of hours into this blog and social media to support our household (which I’m sure makes the tiniest dent… ha!).

I hope you enjoyed this detailed peek into my daily life!

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Disclaimer: Products shown in this post were sent for review, I was not paid or sponsored in any way for this post.

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Daily

The Volvo kept me safe. Here’s why.

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A few weeks ago I had a Volvo XC60 for the week, everything was smooth sailing up until the last full day.

This Volvo was a heaven sent angel for me — let me tell ya. If you guys followed along my IG and Snapchat stories, you would’ve seen my huge rant.

Driving on the busy freeway, I was in the left hand lane, keeping a safe distance like ya normally would on a highway, when I noticed the Range Rover vehicle ahead of me came to a complete halt. Literally suddenly slammed her brakes and stopped on the highway (who does that? lol). Obviously I had to react at lightening speed and I had to swerve hard into the left shoulder while trying to avoid hitting the concrete wall myself, and not drive straight into traffic on my right side.

A terrifying experience that shook me — and I know for certain my 10 year old car wouldn’t have that much control over the situation to move that smoothly and aggressively to avoid a collision. It was brutal you guys! One of the scariest things I’ve ever had happen to me. No damage was done to the vehicle at all, I just swerved and avoided a detrimental accident. What I could tell from driving away and looking in my rear-view mirror was that the woman driving the car that came to a halt in the middle of a highway (!!!) simply missed her exit off the highway (y tho? Just exit the next one, right?!)

Sure, it sounds like the perfect ad for Volvo, but man I was happy I was in it at the time and not my car as I knew mine wouldn’t be able to handle those movements. Sweet merciful Moses what a fright. (Alfie was not with me, this is just the sweetest photo of him I took on one of the first days I had the vehicle). I mean, that accident would’ve easily hurt many people. Even writing about it now makes me so angry and it was 2+ weeks ago, eek.

I’m totally fine now, but I do have to say once again I’m super happy I was driving that Volvo XC 60 that day. Now that the scary story is over, I’ll show you some fun photos of Alfie with the car, along with the interior. Can ya spot the BBC World Service radio playing? Haha… it’s informative! And plus since my husband has it playing a lot of the time on the radio here at home, I’ve gotten used to listening to it.

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Beauty

BECCA x Chrissy Teigen Glow Face Palette

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I have yet to dabble into the world of highlighting products, although I try to achieve a glowing complexion with the products when I wear makeup. Mainly for the fact I didn’t want to add yet another step into my beauty routine. Why do I need a serum, primer, moisturizer, sunscreen, eye cream, then foundation, concealer, blush etc. I prefer a quick and easy go-to complexion look and amp it up with tons of bronzer. I guess you could say I have a signature look already? By the way, I totally do wear sunscreen on the daily. I am in California ya know, and this face doesn’t look its age for a reason.

The BECCA Cosmetics x Chrissy Teigen palette recently launched and people are going ham over it. No wonder. Chrissy is hilarious and keeps it real, plus it’s a highlighting palette. Everyone seems to love highlighting lately. I’m always late to the bandwagon anyway.

To be honest, I was most excited about the 5 new BECCA Sunlit bronzers they launched around the same time — and here I am pushing people to try that out (see my review here!). By the way I still don’t know which one is my favourite because I keep rotating between the 3 darkest. Maybe you should just make your decision for yourself, rather than my recommendation, ha! Clearly I’m still excited over this launch. Alright back to the Chrissy Teigen palette.

The front of the palette is my aesthetic, with that blush pink marble and rose gold (though I do prefer gold over rose gold), with the colours of the product written on the back. Remember, I don’t wear highlighting products ever so I think this might be a bit difficult for me to review as I have nothing to compare it to. But perhaps that gives me some leverage on the review. Thanks to my pal Erin, she suggested I’ll tell you about the texture, and about the shimmer.

Upon opening, I thought it came with two palettes, and the other one I hadn’t heard of (Lol… my bad). You know I’ll be candid either way (especially if you saw my unboxing on Snapchat/Twitter video when I said I got a t.v. in the BECCA box haha!!). How rad is that? I must say it’s probably quite the expense to build and send all those out. I’m not entirely sure what to do with it but it was a gorgeous presentation.

For $46 USD you’ll receive 2 highlighters, 1 blush, and 1 bronzer. I’m not sure how much product you get in each pan, but the total for the 4 combined powders is: 15g. In hind sight, I wish they’d switch the sizes of the bronzer with the rose gold highlighter. I go to town on bronzer, but maybe others prefer highlighter to bronzer, and this is why the palette was made the way it was, given the name: Chrissy Teigen Glow Face Palette.

Upon first inspection, I noticed the mirror was absolutely huge — that’s a great thing! It’ll probably stay on my bathroom counter because I always need to check the back of my head on second day to see where I need to apply dry shampoo (hey, no filter over here folks). The mirror does not stay put where you move it. It’ll stay open up until (lol gettin’ technical here) it passes the 130°/obtuse angle. If you’re sitting at your desk and you want to apply your makeup using this palette, you’ll have no trouble — but open it further than that 130 mark, and it’ll plop back onto your desk. I mean, if you cared that much — just tellin’ you some facts. I also wouldn’t travel with this since quite frankly I have a tiny makeup bag and refuse to put anything that doesn’t fit in it, while traveling. Plus, I wouldn’t want it to smash!

Check out BECCA’s picture on Instagram showcasing how well it translates on various skin tones. BECCA’s long-time favorite Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Highlighter makes an appearance in this palette (Rose Gold highlighter), along with three new shades created in collaboration with Chrissy — Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Highlighter in Beach Nectar, Sunlit Bronzer in Malibu Soleil and Luminous Blush in Hibiscus Bloom.

Each of the products felt silky to the touch, and blended out smoothly when applied. Neither of them are overly sparkly, nor chalky, and lordy for-the-blog I even tested these beauties out on my eyes, because I love a good diverse multi-use product. I don’t have any dry skin patches on my face so I can’t let you know if it does/doesn’t cling to those.

Rose Gold highlighter| “Chrissy’s favourite”
On my skin it pulls more on the reddish warm side. This highlighter has a sparkly sheen to it, larger sparkles than the rest of the palette but it’s definitely not a chunky glitter as you can see from the swatches on my arm, above. However it’s not as soft and buttery as the others, but not gritty. Maybe not as finely milled.

Beach Nectar highlighter|
A warm baby-peach shade. You know, like baby pink/blush pink; it’s like that, but peach. My favourite of the two highlighters as it pulls more golden, but also felt softer in the pan than the Rose Gold shade, not to be mistaken with the word chalky, it just kicked up a bit more powder.

Malibu Soleil Bronzer|
This warm toned bronzer with incredible pigmentation has the least shimmer in the palette (okay the blush too isn’t as shimmery as the highlighters, but that’s to be expected, right? Highlighters gonna glow). It’s not a complete matte bronzer, but the finish of it is quite similar to the Sunlit Bronzers, a hint of glow without being overly glittery/shimmery. I’ve been pleased with the BECCA Bronzers I’ve tried so far this past month (6 in total!) and they’re all great if you’re looking to add a new bronzer to your makeup wardrobe. Malibu Soliel doesn’t resemble any of the new BECCA Sunlit Bronzers I received, I’d say the closest would be Bronzed Bondi.

Hibiscus Bloom blush|
The blush didn’t seem to have much shimmer once applied to my cheeks. The colour leans more on the rosy peach side. Not too pink, not quite peach. Although swatched on my arm it wouldn’t be something I’d reach for, but on my cheeks I like how it looks on my complexion. I’m definitely going to be combining the Beach Nectar highlighter with this to achieve my own ‘custom’ colour.

I used 3 of the 4 products on my face: malibu soliel all over, hibiscus bloom on the apples of my cheeks, and beach nectar on the cheekbones.

 

I’m pleased to announce that these aren’t harsh highlighters, and look more glowy than “instagram-worthy” on the face, nor do they accentuate any pores. The right side I applied way too much and it definitely looked too crazy on me. A light hand is needed with the highlighters since they’re so pigmented. Showing you my left, I kinda like a natural-and-glowy look, I’m diggin’ it. However I doubt I’ll add this extra step into my beauty routine since I don’t like the look of a highlight placed on the cheek bone.

Can I also add that I’m a bit upset that brands are releasing so many limited-edition goodies? What if I don’t realize I love this palette until another year down the road? Either way you look at it, the palette is limited edition so I wouldn’t hesitate to get your hands on it quickly if you want to add this to your collection.

Will the BECCA x Chrissy Teigen Glow Face Palette be a staple in your summer makeup routine? Shop the BECCA Cosmetics x Chrissy Teigen palette $46 USD/$54 CDN

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