January Favorites!
I’m sure many of you out there have seen Jaclyn Hill’s January Favorites video. She is one of my all-time favorite Youtubers out there. She’s so honest and real with her viewers, which is what separates her from a lot of vloggers for me.
Anyway…
In the middle of watching her video, I thought to myself, I have products that I’ve tried in January that I love too. So I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you all. To make it much easier, I’ve decided to separate everything into 4 categories; skin, hair, makeup, and fashion.
Skin:
My grandma has amazing skin. Even strangers always comment on how flawless her skin is. Whenever I show people pictures of her, they always say something along the lines of, “WAIT. That’s your grandma?!” because she looks so young.
Needless to say, I’ve always taken care of my skin because of her. I always use a moisturizer in the morning and make sure that I take my makeup off every night—okay, usually every night. I switch off my moisturizers often just because I like to treat my skin to new products. Staples in the past for me have been Clinque’s Dramatically Different Moisturizer and Neutrogena’s Oil-Free Moisturizer.
This past month I’ve feel in love with two new moisturizers: Olay’s Age Defying Night Cream and Ole Henriksen’s Nurture Me.
My skin has been so ridiculously dry because of winter. Like my nose has actually been chapped—it’s so not cute. So when I went into Walgreens one night to pick up gum and toothpaste, I decided to swing by the lotions to find a night cream. I found the Olay Age Defying Night Cream after reading probably 6 different lotion bottles. I’m so paranoid about having wrinkles, so the fact that it’s age defying basically sold me instantly. I’ve been using it for about a month now and I’m totally obsessed with it. It smells so clean—kind of like tulips and Ivory soup—and literally feels like a spa on my face. I put it on after I take my makeup off and wash my face. Then in the morning, I wash my face (or splash it with cold water if I’m lazy) and apply my second new favorite cream…
Ole Henriksen’s Nurture Me! I found this in Sephora (my second home) during the holidays. I’ve been using it since the end of December and I can’t get enough of it. A little bit goes a long way—I’m just halfway through the container now. I used to use it at night and in the morning before I found the Olay night cream. This one smells so much better than the Olay one—which seems impossible once you smell the other one. It smells like grapefruit, chamomile, and roses. It feels like I’m putting straight up vitamins on my face (which I pretty much am because it has Vitamin A, C, and K in it). IT’S SO AMAZING, GUYS.
Hair:
So for hair, two products that I’ve been obsessing over in January have been the Living Proof dry shampoo and my new Bellami extensions.
The Living Proof Perfect Hair Day dry shampoo is one of the best dry shampoos I’ve ever used. It smells incredible, but it is a little pricy ($22 for a 1.8oz bottle) for a dry shampoo, so I only use it when I’m going out or if I know I’m going to be very close to someone (like a last-minute cuddle date or a brunch outing). Regardless, it doesn’t give my hair that chalky feel like a lot of dry shampoos do, and it doesn’t give it as much of a white cast either (I don’t mind white casts though because I have light blonde hair, but for those of you that do, don’t worry with this one).
The second hair favorite is my Bellami extensions. I’ve used these extensions for years, but usually every year or year and a half, I’ll order a new set. When I got my new set, I was just reminded of how much I love them. They’re so soft and fresh and always blend nicely with my hair. I always get the Bambina 160g 20” Beach Blonde set. Then once they arrive, I cut them into my hair and then tone them with a quick purple shampoo rinse. I’ve had extensions since 7th grade, and Bellami has always been my favorite brand.
Makeup:
I received the PUR Love Your Selfie kit for Christmas. I didn’t really touch any of the products until mid-January, but I wish I would’ve earlier. In the kit, there are eight eyeshadows, a mascara, a lip gloss, and three powders (bronzer, blush, and illuminator). One day I was just playing around and swatched the illuminator on my hand. It was beautiful. It was a gorgeous vanilla highlight. I’m obsessed with it now. Since I’m still religiously tied to my Becca x Jaclyn Hill Champagne Pop highlighter, I’ll apply the PUR illuminator all the way up to the highest part of my cheekbone, and then apply the Becca one lower on my cheekbone, and blend them together where they meet—it creates an ombre affect almost. I also really like the blush in the PUR kit too. It’s a really nice, deep, matte color. Usually I’m not a fan of matte blushes, but this one applies so nicely. I’m excited to use it when I’m a little bit more tan.
I bought myself a set of Sigma brushes too (the 12-piece Beauty Essential Kit). I bought them off Amazon though so I could get them Prime. Anyway, I’m in love with all of the brushes in the set (I just cleaned them today too so they’re super fresh again), but my favorite brush is the E55 Eye Shading brush. It is making all of my eyeshadows apply so nicely. I don’t know how, but it’s making even my most pigmented shadows not have as much fall out. I don’t understand it one bit, but it’s magical to me. If you’re looking for a new eyeshadow brush, I highly recommend this one.
Fashion:
I love Victoria’s Secret, a lot. So much so that I only have two bras that are not from Victoria’s Secret. Why? They’re quality, fit, design, and service are just incredible. On my most recent trip to VS, I picked up a new bra—the Very Sexy Push Up. Not only is it a gorgeous bra (nude with black lace, silver details, and mesh back), but it’s so comfortable. It’s super soft and after awhile, it doesn’t even feel like I’m wearing a bra. The straps are also very stable, as in, it stays adjusted and doesn’t slip—so you don’t have to ever really adjust the straps at all. I highly recommend it for a Valentine’s Day bra if you don’t have something already—it’s super sexy and makes the girls look fantastic.
(Update: They don't have the one I bought in stock online anymore, but this one is super similiar, it just is fishnet instead of mesh.)
My mom bought me this gorgeous Marsala/Wine-colored faux fur vest for Christmas and I can’t get enough of it. I wore it to the screening for The Choice (which is a total must-see, by the way) with black leggings, a black long sleeve top, and my black Steve Madden wedge booties. I felt like a queen. The vest is from Decree and looks like it could easily be from Guess or Akira. It’s so chic and I’m in love with it. It would be cute to wear on a semi-casual Valentine’s Day date too!
Alright everyone! Those are just a few of my favorites from January. I might try to do more posts like this every month or every other month too because I feel like it’s a great way to update you guys. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or email. Thanks for reading!
