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The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid + B5 and Niacinamide + Zinc serums

I think by now, everyone and their mothers have heard of The Ordinary. However, if you haven't, here's the low-down. The Ordinary is a skincare brand under Deciem that is not tested on animals and doesn't contain any of these long words that I will never be able to pronounce in my entire life: parabens, sulphates, mineral oil, methylchloroisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone, animal oils, benzalkonium chloride, coal tar dyes, formaldehyde, mercury, oxybenzone. In short, the products are very basic, very affordable, and are straight to the point and get the job done. Seeing these products on social media is unavoidable, so I took the plunge and tried out two different serums to introduce myself to the line. 

The first one I ordered, two months or so ago, was the Niacinamide and Zinc serum. If you remember, I was obsessed with the Glossier Super Pure serum and honestly still am. However, if I'm being honest, spending $28 consistently for a 15ml bottle of serum just isn't possible with my income (see: lack of). I had heard ages ago that this serum from The Ordinary was literally the same thing, with 30ml per bottle, for $5.90. Francesca, did you just say five dollars and ninety cents? Ten cents shy of six dollars? Yes, yes I did. These products do the same thing. Niacinamide is good for all skin types, but I like these combination serums to keep my acne at bay, including scarring at active blemishes. So far, this one is working the same as my Glossier serum, so if you've been hesitant to try Super Pure or are looking for something similar for much less money, here you go! The formulation is just a tiny bit stickier, but honestly, not even noticeable once it settles in. 

The second serum I decided to try out was the Hyaluronic Acid + B5 serum. Hyaluronic acid is amazing for hydration and we all know how the winter is not normally kind to skin. Mine gets super dried out around this time of year and I need something that penetrates deeper than just my normal moisturizer and moisturizing masks. It's hard to describe how well this one is working because it's not something that I would notice like my acne only appearing in small, whiteheads around my period and my scarring fading gradually. I just have to say that I haven't had tight feeling skin or a large flaky dry patch since before I started using this so....big thumbs up from me.

I definitely want to try out more products and I found this really comprehensive article on Beautyeditor about what to try out, what not to try out, and basically why. I'm probably going to scour this list before I make any more decisions. Also, you can order these products from some different websites besides the Deciem website. Sephora, ASOS, Amazon (prices are jacked up on Amazon though, just beware), and Beautylish. 

On The Street Where You Live by Mary Higgins Clark

Shoutout to the first book of 2018! On Christmas Eve, my cousin and I were talking about books and I was trying to explain the three types of books I read. I mainly read only these types of books: Young Adult fiction, books of essays/memoirs, and Gone Girl types of books. The third category seems very ambiguous, but mainly, it can be narrowed down to books that involve some sort of twist or five and follow very similar patterns. I was this way with Jodi Picoult books for a while too. Anyways, my cousin told me that I'd probably like Mary Higgins Clark's books and offered to lend me her pretty extensive collection. I took two books and based off how I felt about this book, I'll probably take a few more next time.

This book takes place in Spring Lake, New Jersey, a town with a dark period of the past that has carried itself into the present day. Criminal defense attorney Emily Graham leaves Albany, New York so she can work in Manhattan after her divorce and a stalker situation after a trial. She ends up purchasing a home in Spring Lake, a home that belonged to her family before it was sold in 1892 after Madeline Shapley, her ancestor, disappeared. After she moves in and the pool is being excavated, bones are found in the ground, the remains of a girl who had disappeared a few years before holding a finger with one of the Shapley heirlooms still attached.

Honestly y'all...this book had me all sorts of effed up. It was a slow start, but that's usually how it happens with these kinds of books. You read about seventy pages, wonder if it's worth it, and then everything starts to snowball and you end up finishing the rest of the book in one sitting. It took me until this week to read up to page 73 and then on Tuesday, I finished the rest of the book in one sitting. I couldn't put it down, I needed to know more and contrary to the people who said it was predictable on GoodReads, it wasn't. I swear, some people are just too cool to admit that something was a damn good plot twist. Anyways, I personally think I picked a good one to start out with, but I guess we'll see as I started to read more of her works. I'll keep you posted!

"For You" by Rita Ora and Liam Payne

The Fifty Shades of Grey franchise is, quite frankly, shit. I've done a post about my opinions on the franchise in the past and it was my first taste of online hate I've ever had to deal with LOL. However, the only thing that is done right about any of this franchise are the soundtracks and this song by Rita and Liam is a straight up BOP. You won't catch me cracking the spine of any of the books or watching anything but the trailers when they're on commercials I can't skip, but you will catch me jamming to this song. 

Trader Joe's Frozen Mango Chunks

I don't even know how many years ago it was at this point, but back in my early days of watching YouTube in high school, Meghan Rienks (then, just MeghanRosette) would talk about how much she loved these frozen mango chunks. Now, in my head, this sounded...impossible to eat? What did she do, put them in smoothies? Defrost them and eat them hot? Both didn't sound appetizing. Anyways, I forgot about them until I was babysitting a few weeks ago and the kids were snacking on frozen mango. I was curious, tried a piece, and realized that Meghan was right the whole time. A week or so later, we were at Trader Joe's and I finally picked up a bag, albeit like, seven years too late. I'm a fan, y'a'll. They're a great snack or dessert and are really refreshing. Big fan, big fan.

What have you been loving lately?