PopSugar Must Have vs. FabFitFun: Winter 2018 Box!

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Good morning, everyone! I’m excited to be sharing my thoughts on the winter PopSugar Must Have and FabFitFun boxes today :) If you’re curious about how these two quarterly boxes compare to one another, stay tuned! 

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PopSugar Must Have

The PopSugar Must Have box is a $75/box quarterly subscription that includes full-size fashion, beauty, fitness, and lifestyle items. This summer’s box focused on products that will help you unwind and relax! 

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Box Faves:

  • Ellia Essential Oil Roll-on: I was so excited to receive this product because I’ve been exploring essential oils as a way to reduce anxiety. Every since starting graduate school, I’ve noticed my anxiety flaring up and using essential oils is one way I’m trying to stop anxiety in its tracks! This on-the-go roller will make bringing my essential oils around so much easier!

  • Kate Spade Calendar: I’m a little obsessed with all things planner, calendar, and organization related. This Kate Spade calendar is classy and is working its magic bringing a little liveliness to my boring office desk!

Box Flops:

  • Honestly? I don’t have any particular flops to share because I wasn’t really thrilled with anything else in the box! While the rest of the box included some stunning products, most of it was stuff I didn’t really feel like I needed or wanted!

FabFitFun:

FabFitFun is a quarterly subscription box that sends full-size versions of the seasons top fitness, fashion, beauty, and wellness products. Each box is about $50 if you subscribe month-to-month and slightly less if you select an annual subscription.

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Box Faves:

  • Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Lipstick: Hands down my favorite of the box :) I love a good lipstick and Bite does an amazing lipstick. Every lipstick I have from Bite has easily become a favorite because of their amazing formula (perfect mix between moisturizing + decent staying power)!

  • Bearpaw Headband and Glove Duo: I didn't think this was going to be one of my favorites but I've continued to reach for this headband and glove duo over and over again!

Box Flops:

  • Anthropolie x Mer-Sea Body Cream: I really wanted to like this body cream, but the scent was just too much for me - I swear you can smell it from 2 rooms over if I put even a tiny bit on my hands!

  • Thrive Causemetics Eye Brightener: This was a flop for me because I already own this product and hardly *ever* use it! Although the formula of the product goes on really smoothly, this eye brightener doesn't really show up much on my skin, so I think I'll be gifting it to someone else!


The winner: FabFitFun

This season, there was a clear winner for me - so much so that I actually cancelled my subscription for the must have box! (sorry popsugar!). As much as I used to love the PopSugar box, I’ve found that the new quarterly box format really wasn’t for me. Although the products they select are now higher quality and always nice to have, I’ve found that the box no longer really fits my life at the moment. I’m at a point in my life where I’m trying to be more intentional about the things I buy and I’ve found that most of the products I receive from my PopSugar box don’t really see much use :( so unfortunately, you won’t see any more PopSugar reviews from me (for now!).

I will, however, be continuing my subscription to FabFitFun! I still find myself using most of my FabFitFun products and love how it seems to predict my needs and interests well! I think a huge part of this is the fact that, as an annual subscriber, I'm able to choose a lot of what I receive in the box. Although this does mean I'm not *as* surprised when I receive the items, it's still a surprise getting to see what items I can choose from! I love being able to choose what I receive because oftentimes, I'll go for an item that I really need or one that I don't already have!

What did you think of your subscription boxes this month? Do you prefer PopSugar or FabFitFun? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Self Care with Smile Brilliant ♡

Disclaimer: This blog post is in partnership with Smile Brilliant. Smile Brilliant kindly sent me a free teeth whitening set for review. Opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for your support!

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Happy New Year, everyone! I am so excited to share with you an extra special post today on self-care in partnership with Smile Brilliant. As you might already know, I recently started a PhD program and whew it has been a journey, to say the least. I thought I was busy when I worked a full-time job, but getting thrown back into student life and the whole world of academia has been a huge wake-up call.

One way in which I try to maintain some sort of normalcy in graduate school is making time for self-care which, for me, means having a cup (or 2 or 3) of hot chocolate, getting out all my beauty products, and getting my at-home spa on! ♡ Self-care means different things to different people so even if you’re not into the spa-vibe type of self-care, I highly recommend taking the time to find what works for you and finding something that you do purely for you.

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When Smile Brilliant reached out to me, I was very excited to test out their whitening set because incorporating teeth whitening into my routine has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while! I’ve tried every white strip known to mankind but have always found them to be difficult to use since they don’t tend to stay on my teeth for very long and I find it difficult to commit to the 30+ days of daily use that most white strips require. Smile Brilliant’s system sends you custom-fitted whitening trays that fit your teeth and only require 7-14 days of whitening - both huge wins for busy schedules!

To be perfectly honest, I still thought that finding the time to sit down and whiten my teeth for 1-3 hours a day somewhat difficult. As a grad student, I’m often out of the house running from meeting to classes to more meetings for 12 hours at a time which means that when I finally arrive home, I’m often passed out before my head even hits the pillow! That being said, I think Smile Brilliant’s teeth whitening system makes the process so, so much easier than other whitening systems and think it’s absolutely worth a shot.

The Smile Brilliant system recommends a minimum 45-1 hour minute whitening time, but you can go up to 3 hours in one sitting for better whitening results. Plus, the fact that you only need to commit to whitening for 7-14 days is huge for those of running around during the day! While my teeth weren’t extra yellow in the first place, even after 2 weeks of 1-hour whitening sessions, I can tell that a lot of the yellowing in between my teeth (thanks to my 3-cups-a-day coffee addiction) are already starting to disappear. With the holiday break coming up, I’m actually really excited to try longer periods of whitening to see if I can get even better results with the Smile Brilliant system :)

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Lastly, a huge shoutout to the team at Smile Brilliant - outside of partnering on this blog post, they’ve been super helpful throughout the whitening process and have offered tons of advice on how to use their whitening kits. Customer service is a huge factor in most of my purchasing decisions so I think it’s always worth noting when I have a good experience with a company :)

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If you’d like to win your own Smile Brilliant whitening kit enter the giveaway HERE!

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BeautyFix Review: October & November 2018

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

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Hello, friends! It’s been a minute since I posted over on the blog and I’ve missed it so, so much. Grad school is in a word - insane- and it has been a huge wake up call for me to have deadlines, and presentations, and papers all over again! I guess that’s what happens when you work for 3 years and forget what it’s like to have homework :P 

Anyway, enough of my ramblings - what better way to get back into blogging than a little review of my favorite subscription box! BeautyFix is a monthly skincare, makeup, and haircare subscription box created by Dermstore. A monthly subscription is $24.95 per box and a one-time box purchase is $34.95. Most items in the box are either full or deluxe sample size products. 



November 2018

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November Box Faves:

  • Lancer: Omega Hydrate Oil - I’ve been loving facial oils for a while now and they can be quite expensive. Although a single bottle can last you a while (since you’re really only using 2-5 drops at a time, it’s still a tough pill to swallow when a single bottle can set you back $50+! This hydrating oil is a full-size product and since it goes for $75 normally, this thing pays for the entire box three times over!

  • Tarte Amazonian Clay Bronzer in Park Avenue Princess - I’m a big fan of Tarte products and honestly haven’t disliked a single product I’ve tried from them! I’ve used this bronzer a handful of times and love that there’s a bit of shimmer in it but not enough that it draws a ton of attention.

November Box Flops:

  • I don’t have any particular flops this month as it was a pretty good month product-wise, however, it was really apparent to me that the box had way fewer products than I’m used to with BeautyFix. Although this might be a function of the fact that the full-size product this month has a really high retail price, this month’s box was noticeably smaller quantity wise than previous months.

October 2018

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Miss de Gaspe Beaute: Anti-Aging Hydrating Mask - Similar Set $32

Miss de Gaspe Beaute: Anti-Aging Hydrating Mask - Similar Set $32

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October Box Faves:

  • Sanitas Skincare: Lemon Cream Scrub - I am a huge, huge fan of the Dr. Brandt PoreDermabrasian products, so my standards are abnormally high when it comes to exfoliating products, however, I was super impressed by this scrub! It smells amazing and I would argue is pretty close in quality to the fine exfoliating experience you get from the Dr. Brandt line for less cost.

  • Alterna Anti-Frizz Dry Oil Mist - I was also thoroughly impressed with this dry oil mist! Normally, the oils I use on my hair tend to weigh it down just a little bit even if they’re super light, but this dry oil mist doesn’t feel heavy at all and achieves the same smoothing effect.

October Box Flops:

  • Rituals: The Ritual of Dao Balancing Foam Shower Gel - I didn’t particularly love the scent of this shower gel which made it just okay for me. While I like the idea of a foaming shower gel I actually found it difficult to get the foam out of the pump! Maybe it was just the bottle I received, but unfortunately combined with the meh scent, this will definitely not be a re-buy for me.

  • Glytone: Ultra Softening Heel and Elbow Cream - The instructions for this product tell you to put on the cream, leave it on several minutes, and then to wash it off. I think this can be a bit misleading since it’s labeled a cream, rather than some sort of exfoliant. Plus, at least for me, the cream really burned while it was on my skin and even a bit after I’d already rinsed it off. This might be a good product for people who need an intense exfoliant for heels or elbows, but it was too much for my skin.

I hope you enjoyed this little BeautyFix review! Let me know if there are any other beauty boxes you’d like to see me try or any products you want to hear more about!

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