Trying New Things: February 2016

Hey there, friends! I'm excited to share some new things with you. Hopefully you're excited too. If not, what are you even doing here? Go do something you're excited about. Life is too short to read blog posts you don't care about. 

I'm a product reviewer and motivational speaker, all rolled into one. Aren't you glad we're friends?

But okay, here we go on to some new stuff I've tried lately. 

Garnier Micellar Water

Here’s a little fun fact about me: I hate, hate, hate washing my face at the sink. I know, that’s kind of a random and specific thing to hate, but I really do. The water splashes everywhere and drips down my arms so I get wet along with everything on my bathroom counter. Plus, by the time I’m getting ready for bed at night, I’m usually pretty impatient. Bed! Sleep! NOW. The moral of the story is that I wash my face in the shower in the morning, and at night, I use facial cleansing wipes.

Now, the wipes are great. I’ve used every brand under the sun and definitely have my favorites (Ponds!). They take off my makeup and clean my face quickly and without having to rinse. They’re not perfect, though: the ones I like cost about $4.50 for 30 wipes (a little cheaper if on sale, but in my experience, it is not worth getting a cheap brand), and usually by the time you get to the last wipe, it’s kind of dried out a bit. 

Enter Micellar Water:

This stuff is pretty nifty. I guess it’s like a more traditional liquid makeup remover, but you don’t have to rinse it off! Just saturate a cotton ball/pad, wipe off your makeup, and you’re done. It’s also about $7 for the bottle (plus another $1-2 for cotton pads), and the bottle lasts for a long time (I’ve been using it for a month and it’s not even half gone), so cost-wise, it’s a good alternative to the wipes.

Now, I will say this: I don’t wear a ton of makeup. Usually eyebrow pencil and mascara almost every day, plus BB cream or powder and eyeshadow when I want to be a little more “done.” One cotton pad is enough to remove all this for me. If you wear quite a bit of makeup, I could see having to use multiple cotton pads to get it all off, which could take away the convenience a bit. Also, I think I’ll stick to wipes when it comes to traveling, since the extra little bit of convenience is totally worth it for me when I’m away from home.

Otherwise, this has been a perfect product for my makeup removing needs. If you want to try it, you can get it at Target or Walmart or a drugstore or pretty much anywhere. 

Epsom Salt Baths

I've kind of been a bundle of nerves lately. Maybe I'll go into more detail in some future post, and maybe I won't, but the "bundle of nerves" is all you really need to know in terms of backstory here. Someone recommended epsom salt baths to me and what the heck where has this stuff been all my life?

(Side note: Please try to ignore the fact that "Relax & Relief" is an incredibly annoying thing to put on a package. C'mon, Dr. Teal! Those are two different parts of speech! It should either say "Relaxation & Relief" or "Relax & Relieve" (my personal preference), but this? Anarchy. So try to ignore it. I obviously can't, but you should. Side note over.)

So an epsom salt bath. I'd imagine it's pretty self explanatory. Just dump a bunch of the stuff in a nice hot bath and sit in it. It smells great (there are apparently a jillion different varieties; this is what they had at Target so it's what I got) and leaves your skin soft and lovely. And don't ask me to get all scientific and stuff, but apparently you absorb the magnesium sulfate and it's good for stress or something. 

Wow, I really sound like I know what I'm talking about. 

Even disregarding all possible science that applies here, it's incredibly relaxing. Some people also swear by epsom salt baths for relieving cold symptoms, but I've never tried that. I've just tried handing the children over to my husband and taking a bath. And it's GOOD. 

Like I said, I got this at Target, but the place to get any of the jillion varieties you want is probably Amazon. They have everything from A to Z, donchaknow?

Snapchat

As my husband will surely attest to, I am never, ever wrong.

(cue husband laughing hysterically to himself)

So it's kind of a big deal when I admit to being wrong about something. 

And my friends, I was wrong about Snapchat.

I'm sure if you're anything like I was, you're currently freaking out that someone so wholesome such as myself could be using such a corrupt and vile piece of software. 

Buuuuut...it's actually kind of fun. Here's why:

• It's the social media app that doesn't take itself seriously. The filters make you look stupid, instead of glamorous and retouched. You don't "like" anything, so it's not about who can create the cutest picture that will get the most likes. It feels a lot less like a popularity contest, and I think that's cool (probably because I'm not popular...)
• I think because of the above, people are a lot more casual about it. You can post that picture of your lunch because it's only going to be in people's faces for 24 hours instead of living on your profile forever and ever. (Yes, I know people can screenshot your snaps, and hopefully everyone knows that by now. But I don't think people are screenshotting my pictures of the burrito I'm eating. Just saying.)

If you're a Snapchat newbie, such as myself (I have 20 friends guys), you should know that there are 2 major things you can do on Snapchat:

1. You can send snaps to your friends. Snaps are pictures or videos that you can send to one or more of your friends directly. They are only able to view the snap once (viewing it twice is an option, but apparently you're only supposed to save that for your very most favorite snaps). You can choose how long you'd like them to be able to see the snap -- anywhere from 1 to 10 seconds. Once they've seen it, they can't see it again (unless of course they screenshot it -- always a possibility, peeps!).
2. You can add snaps to your "story." Your story contains any snaps you have chosen to publish to your story in the past 24 hours. Your story can be as public or as private as you want it to be. Once a snap has been on your story for 24 hours, it expires and is no longer available to view as part of your story. 

You can also have a "chat" in Snapchat, much like a Facebook messenger. Like snaps, your messages disappear after they are viewed, unless you save them.

Can Snapchat be used for bad things? Yes. Should you be careful about what you post on it? Yes, of course. If you have teenagers, should you be careful about letting them use Snapchat? Uh, yeah. But I'm just going on record to say that like most technology, Snapchat can be used for evil, but it is not inherently evil itself. It's worth trying. Give it a try. And if you do, use that picture I posted above to be my friend (just take a picture of that, then when you're adding friends in the app choose "Add by snapcode" and choose the picture). Oh, and if you already use Snapchat, let's be friends! 

Whew, I feel like that was a lot of info. Hopefully some of it was helpful, and hopefully at least one of these things is worth trying for yourself!

Have a great day, y'all.