9 Tips to Banish Cake Face!

After a very rough month or so health wise and sleep wise, my face is in rough shape.  I did not wash and moisturize twice a day like I should have while I was sick and my skin shows it.  When your skin is dry, uneven, and full of dead skin layers, cake face is so hard to avoid!
Luckily I found a scrub and a face oil that really help! I can now actually salvage my poor skin and have my foundation apply smoothly without the dreaded cake face look.
Since I have been struggling with this and researching tips and tricks I thought I would make a post with all of the useful tips and tricks out there.  There are so many things you can do to help avoid cake face:
1. exfoliate (2-3 x's a week) 2. moisturize (2-3 x's a day) 3. add some oil to your foundation before applying (see demonstration here) bonus tip: if you have dry skin or lots of texture to your skin avoid watery, or very thin liquid foundations. You can even put your skin type into Sephora's website and see recommendations for foundation based on your skin type) 4. apply foundation with a beauty blender or soft foundation brush 5. try to stipple (push foundation straight into your skin) instead of rubbing the foundation around your face 6. use downward strokes when applying foundation (peach fuzz generally grows downwards on your face and you want it to lay smooth and flat not stand it up) 7. make sure your foundation is completely dry before adding any finishing powder 8. press instead of rubbing powder in 9. use a glycerin, moisturizing setting spray
Thanks for reading!!  Sorry there are no pictures in this post, my camera lens is not able to pick up cakey vs. smooth makeup difference :(

Take a Trip Thursday: Packing tips and Hawaii Pics

Napali Coast Kauai

You know how some people have the most gorgeous, coordinated, well put together outfits when they travel?  I am not one of those people.  At all.  I have made a lot of packing blunders in the past.  I'm still not the perfect packer, but I thought I could share what I have learned so far. :)

1.  Plan ahead:  Waiting until the last minute results in grabbing many miscellaneous items that may or may not go well together.  I have learned this the hard way.  Also it is hard to pack the right amount when you are in a hurry.
2.  Plan multiple outfits with your pieces:  As you decide what pieces you want to take lay them all out and start putting together potential outfits.  You want clothes that you feel comfortable in and that work well together.  I am very bad at grabbing a bunch of my favorites and then finding out on the trip that I only can make a few outfits and that some pieces don't match with anything :(
3.  Dress for your activities:  Take your itinerary and decide, based on what you are doing each day, what you should plan on wearing.  You don't have to plan everything out to a T, but if you are going to be doing a ton of hiking (like we did in HI), you will want multiple outfits that work for that activity and less outfits for other activities.  

We brought old shoes for hiking.  Thank goodness!

Our trip consisted mainly of hiking with a side of driving and beaching :)

Waimea Canyon

4.  Bring at least one "fancy" outfit:  It is nice on vacation to go out to a nice dinner or do some shopping at least once.  It isn't as much fun when you feel like the frumpy tourist.
5.  Don't under or over pack:  I have decided that slightly over packing is better than under packing.  I tend to under pack, but I am getting better :)  Once again look at your activities and then how many days you will be gone.  Plan maybe one extra just in case outfit, but not three. :)

You can't tell from the picture but there is a nice swimming hole right here...

see we're actually standing up in this pic.

We hiked, waded, and kayaked to get to the swimming hole.

Maliuhi Road

Poipu Beach 

I bet you want to go to Kauai now ;)  It was a fun trip!

Thanks so much for reading!!  Comment if I should do a post about traveling cheaply.  Also if you have any packing tips I would love to hear them!

linking up with: BeYoutiful Link Party

The best tips for how to grow long, healthy hair fast

I LOVE long hair. I have had hair down to my waist a few times in my life and I have only had it shorter than my shoulder blades three times. My hair is naturally pretty healthy and usually grows fast. The last year or so I have started to have more breakage. That combined with a botched hair cut has left me with shoulder blade length hair that I intend to grow out ASAP. 

I have done quite a bit of research lately and I wanted to share it and my own experience with other long hair addicts and dreamers out there.

Welcome to hair school!

First you want to encourage growth and secondly you want to prevent breakage. (Duh, right?) But seriously all tips fit into one of these two.

Encourage growth:

1.  Healthy diet:

  Lots of fruits and veggies

  Whole grains

  Healthy fats and proteins (fish, legumes, yogurt, eggs, avocados, etc.)

2.  Biotin/hair and skin vitamins

3.  Exercise

4.  Enough sleep

5.  Scalp stimulation:

  Brush/comb from scalp

  Scalp massage

  Part hair in different spots to style and also to brush/comb (putting your head       upside down and brushing your hair out feels sooo good on your scalp)

Preventing breakage:

6.  Use good MOISTURIZING shampoo and conditioner (choose moisturizing over volumizing, etc.)

7.  Deep condition every week or every other week (can do this with coconut oil, tutorial here)

8.  Wash hair every other day at the most

9.  Lather shampoo in hands before shampooing roots (if your shampoo lathers)

10.  Shampoo roots only

11.  Condition all of your hair, start at the roots and scalp and work to ends (use the conditioner to massage your scalp for about two minutes after you've coated all of your hair)

12.  Don't brush through wet hair

13.  Satin or silk pillow case

14.  Braid hair before going to bed

15.  Don't pull hair up into a bun or pony tail every day (I have been guilty of this and think it's the cause of a lot of my breakage)

16.  Use bobby pins, clips and barrettes more than pony tail bands to prevent breaking hair

17.  Trim broken and split ends when you notice them (great tutorial here)

18.  Only trim breakage don't get trims just "to keep hair healthy" or "to help it grow."   Your hair is dead and has no way of even knowing it has been trimmed. It will not make it grow faster, but breakage needs to be removed as splits and breaks will continue up the hair shaft and will also contribute to tangles and more breakage

19.  Avoid heat styling: do bun curls, sock bun curls, braids, etc. to get body and different styles.

20.  Air dry hair, if you have to use a blow dryer, let your hair dry almost all of the way and then use blow dryer, don't towel dry hair.



So I had a really, really bad hair trim in January.  I finally had the courage to go in and get it fixed last weekend.  I knew I was going to lose a lot of length, but it was so uneven that I couldn't even wear my hair down.  Here's the before and after of my "fix it" cut.

Do you have any good tips I left out?  Share them below, pretty please!  :)