I've Moved!

Hey guys! Quick update! I've changed blogging platforms and am now over here!
I will no longer be creating posts for this site but am currently posting every week on my new, updated blog =) I explain more over there - go check it out!

Cara Delevingne Joins The Rimmel London Family!

Rimmel London announced yesterday that Cara Delevingne is their new brand ambassador! I'm thrilled to see Cara join #TeamRimmelLondon! I love her work and think this will be such a great fit! ALSO - she's hosting a Global Snapchat Press Conference on Friday and she wants YOUR questions! Use the hashtag #RimmelXCara on Twitter and Instagram so you get your Q's in! 😉

Also, have you seen my newest YT video? It's all about working from home as a YouTuber and blogger!  Check it out here!

NO MORE SPONSORED VIDEOS?!

             Lately, I've noticed the views on my recent videos are lower than the norm and quite frankly, that drives me insane. I believe it's due to working with too many brands at this point (which is great for me, but not so much for my viewers). As much as I try to incorporate the products I really do love into my videos, it seems to completely backfire when someone sees that it might be sponsored.         So, in my new video, I talk about my thoughts and feelings on sponsored videos - mine and other Youtubers. I also bring up what direction I want to take my channel and whether or not I will be working with so many brands in the future.         In my YouTube analytics, I noticed that the highest viewed videos on my channel are NOT sponsored. If you're a YouTuber and look at the top 10 videos in your analytics from the past 30 days, you know what your audience want to see more of. That's when I realized my channel cannot grow if I keep working with brands. Which is unfortunate because that's how I pay my bills =(  What are your thoughts on sponsored videos?  Click HERE to watch my video! I'm considering being VERY strict when I do decide to work with a brand in the future but I think you guys might agree with what I have to say. 

Music Festival Essentials

       Music festival season is just around the corner and I recently made a video showing off some essential items to take with you if you're lucky enough to go. Click here for my Coachella Essentials video to see everything. In this blog post I've included a few from the video and one extra I wish I had thought of when filming and editing! 

*image taken from Instagram
       The other day I was in the mood to play around with a 'festival' look and this is what I came up with. Follow me on Instagram and my YouTube channel to see more makeup & fashion pics. 

Favorite Photo Editing Apps For Instagram

      I've been editing videos and photos for a while now for Instagram and currently have 3 favorite apps I wanted to talk about. These are my go-tos I use when editing a picture on my phone and I have barely used anything else in the past few months. 

1. Afterlight
      This seems to be everyone's favorite - I love messing around with making photos brighter and using the saturation to enhance color or lack of color creating a faded look. I've been to beauty events at night where some of the pictures/selfies I'll take with people will look too dark (I can't stand the flash on my phone, I think it makes everyone look ghost-like lol) using Afterlight helps brighten a photo so much! It reminds me of Picmonkey where you can brighten the background of photos by turning up the highlight. I also love the filters you could use in Afterlight. Although I don't use them often, they can really change the tone of your photos.

Makeup Manual - For Everyone From Beginner to Pro by Bobbi Brown

      I've had a copy of Makeup Manuel by Bobbi Brown for a while now and realized I never did a proper book review on it. As a huge fan of Bobbi Brown's work and of makeup, I am still thoroughly impressed by this book. Whether you're starting out with makeup or a seasoned professional, this book is a must have for all makeup lovers out there. It's quite simply the best.  

 I love that each chapter covers so much information in a condensed yet helpful form and it ranges from several topics. Brushes, different makeup products and how to use them plus tips for building your portfolio and more. There's also so many pictures showing off her technique when applying makeup which is very helpful.

Favorite Beauty & Fashion Bloggers

       For being still fairly new to the blogging world (this will be my second consistent year blogging!) I've read and kept my eye on a few key beauty & fashion bloggers I think you guys will love if you're not following them already. Do it! Here are my top 4 I've loved all last year and even some before then. I've also included ipsyOS at the end for beauty Youtubers and bloggers. Their blog is filled with incredible tips and advice for anyone who loves creating online content.

               *image taken from Instagram 1. Katie's Bliss       I first found out about Katie from watching her Youtube channel a few years ago and really enjoy her channel and blog. She's got a great taste in fashion and she also shares lifestyle videos on her channel. Just scroll through her Instagram and you'll be hooked. I constantly get inspired by her posts and you will too. I also enjoy watching her Snapchat, Katie'sBliss - go check her out!

NYE Makeup & Giveaway

       New Years Eve is tomorrow and I wanted to upload this look a little early! I used a few products from Urban Decay and really like the way it turned out. Hope you guys have had a great year and I'm excited to take on 2016. I've recently been inspired to make my main Youtube channel more focused and I can't wait for you guys to see the videos I've been planning.
       If you'd like to see how I created this look, click here and enter my giveaway I've included. It's for a $50 gift card to Sephora! 

Winter Reading List

        Hope you guys have had a great Holiday! I'm excited for the new year and wanted to jump on a Winter reading list before it gets any later. Click here & here if you'd like to see my other reading lists from past seasons. I love the Winter holidays and cozying up in a blanket with some hot chocolate and a great book... who doesn't? I've picked out 10 books for this list I think you guys might enjoy as well...

1. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
       After reading The Husband's Secret, I'm curious about reading more from Liane Moriarty. She's a great writer and I really enjoyed the first book I read from her. Here's an overview of Big Little Lies;

"Sometimes it’s the little lies that turn out to be the most lethal.

#FBF - My Favorite Snack & Drink Recipes

      Hope you guys have had a great week! Thought of adding a little #FBF to my blog today featuring some snack recipe videos. Let me know if you like these and if you'd like to see more! Here are just a few of the healthier snacks I like to make and I've also included a DIY Holiday drink recipe from Starbucks - Butterbeer! I think I'd like to incorporate more recipe videos into my vlog channel; breakfast & lunch ideas, coffee drinks & more. My current favorite for a quick to make, healthy breakfast is avocado toast.

        Click here to see how to make it. I love eating this as a side with whatever else I'm having in the morning or alone - I think it's even filling enough to have it without the toast. I was curious about making this a few months back after scrolling through Pinterest and have loved it ever since. It takes less than two minutes to make and it's so delicious!

VLOGMAS 2015!

        In case you didn't know, I'm vlogging everyday until Christmas this month on my 2nd Youtube channel! This is something I've never (successfully) done before and I couldn't be more excited to take on the challenge! Let me know if you guys like daily vlogging and what you think about it. Below are a couple of my vlogs from this past week! 

      Go subscribe to my Vlog channel for the other videos and keep an eye out for more beauty giveaways! Also, I have more giveaways on my main channel as well =) Happy Holidays everyone!

Monday Motivation

      Here's to a new week. Monday used to be something I would dread and now, not so much. I actually kind of look forward to them --- hope I'm not freaking you out. I thought it would be nice to list off a few tips that help me get motivated at the start of the week.

1. The first thing I like to do Friday or Monday, is plan out my week. 

      I like to do this on Friday before the next week comes so I'm more aware of what will be going on. If not, I'll tackle this first thing Monday morning with my planner, notebook & of course, coffee! I love sitting in the kitchen area and looking through my planner, spotting things that need to get done that day, the next day and also the rest of that week. I'll also bring my laptop into this double checking everything. I make Youtube videos every week and am constantly working with several brands so I like to make sure I have video deadlines met, any phone appointments noted, etc. Honestly, I get so much more focused and relaxed when I have a game plan of my week at the beginning.

Something Special

        First off, happy October! Hope you guys have had a great week so far - it's already almost Friday! I've been behind blogging this week and wanted to share something cool I've been working on. I teamed up with Givingstream for today's main channel video and also wanted to let you guys in on it a little early before posting the video. 

        Givingstream is a place where you can shop and know that what you're purchasing is going towards good in the world. It is "the socially conscious marketplace" and I really love it! Givingstream has a wide variety of clothing, accessories, skin care items and more. When you purchase something from their web site, you're allowing a family to eat & help restore our environment. 

Favorite Places In California

Hi all! I wanted to post about a few of my favorite places in California. My husband, Kyle and I have lived here now for a little over two and half years and there are a few places we both really love. If you guys like this, I'll make a part 2. 

Maybe for that, I could make it all about restaurants or places you have to really hunt for to find. As of now, these places are my top 5.

Monday Playlist

I wanted to make a different kind of post today sharing some music I've been loving! Here's a list of songs I can't get enough of, hope you guys like this and let me know which songs you've been loving lately!

10 Tips For Working From Home

I've been working from home now for almost 2 and a half months and am so happy with how everything has been going! I remember the day I was still working in an office in Korea Town, Los Angeles freaking out about giving my two weeks notice. I thought, 'am I really ready?' I was and I'm sure if you're currently working from home or have thought about working from home, that thought might have crept up. In this blog post, I'll give my top 10 tips for working from home as well as the steps I took before quitting my full-time office job.

1. Plan - When I realized I wanted to quit my office job, I knew I needed to start planning my exit. It wasn't just the 'I'm tired of doing this job' thought. I knew there was something else I wanted to do and needed the support to go for it.

My Channels

Hope you all had an amazing Labor Day weekend. Kyle and I enjoyed BBQ and drinks at a friends house and going to Universal Studios Hollywood! I wanted to make today's post about my video from the past week and start incorporating my videos more on my blog. Here's the video from this past week;

This was especially fun and I got pretty good feedback from viewers. I went through how I get ready for a social media day; taking pictures, my backgrounds I like to use, products to feature and the tools I use. Check it out!

What's In My Clutch? Friday Night Essentials

I've thought about switching my Friday Favorites to Friday Night Essentials. Each Friday, I'll have a different night planned and share tips, stories or plans for what I intend to do or have done in the past. For this first Friday Night Essentials post, I'm sharing what I typically bring with me on a night out. Also you should know, most Friday nights I end up usually staying home, working on Saturday's video or chilling and watching Netflix with a GIANT bowl of popcorn. I know.. LAME lol. But every once in a while, I fancy a troll to some restaurants and bars in the neighborhood.

This is the usual necessities I'll bring in my clutch...

My Shop!

I 've recently gotten the opportunity to work with Parsel, a company that makes it easier for beauty/fashion lovers to find and shop items. It kind of reminds me of a shop-able Instagram, plus you can view videos from Youtubers on the site as well. As a Youtuber, I can add my videos to my shop and add the products from that video so my viewers can find everything in one place. I love this because I could add a photo as well instead of a video, so anyone from my Instagram can go directly to the link from my Parsel page too.

This is what you'll see when you go to my shop. I currently only have videos to choose from and I'm really excited to add more! I've added makeup and fashion items and my ideal use with my shop is to add more items each week from video projects and Instagram photos.

August Favorites | 2015

It's already September??? I feel like August went by in a week! I only have a few beauty favorites from August and you guys will get a sneaky peek of my new Favorites video on my vlog channel! I've set the video to unlisted for now and it'll be live later today... anywho, here are my beauty favorites...