I talk about a lot of things I love on here; I rarely talk about things I dislike, expect the disappointing beauty products.  I also LOVE a lot of things; just small, trivial things make me super happy, like the first crisp fall day, wearing a comfortable sweatshirt, when the subway comes as soon as I get on the platform, or a fresh biscuit right out of the oven.

It's the little things in life, and I've always truly believed that.

That's why I wanted to manifest that feeling into something concrete, like this blog series. I talk a lot about beauty products I love, and the fashion items/accessories, but never really the truly random items in my day to day life. The little things that make life a little easier, a little happier, and nicer.

I want to try to do this once every few weeks because I'm constantly discovering new bits that make my days.

• Poppin Pens: I felt the need for new pens, because I need to buy everything & anything. I have one Poppin pen at work, and have used them in the past so I figured a pack would do me good. I got the multi-color pack, and they're perfect. The price is right, they write so smoothly, and they're thicker than a normal pen, but not too thick. Poppin also has some great other products; if you're a office supply junkie, I highly recommend this website.

• Essential Oils & Diffuser: Once I get really into this (if I ever get really into it), I'll do a full fledged post. When I knew I was going to move into my own room, I knew I wanted an oil diffuser. I've heard so many things about essential oils and what they do for anxiety, and all around mental well being, and I knew I needed to try them. I purchased this oil diffuser from Amazon, along with these oils, the moment I was settled into my room. I love burning oil at any time of the day, because it is so soothing. It brings warmth and scent into the room, and the oil diffuser itself is so pretty because it changes color. I also just like keeping the lavender or peppermint oil on me when I feel a migraine coming on & it really does help.

• Marble Post Its: Like I said, I adore office supplies and I've talked about the love a lot on the blog. In the past month or so, I've discovered a lot of websites that have the cutest stuff. One of those sites is Effies Paper. She has so many great products but when I saw the marble post its, I knew I had to have them. They are so cute and are a perfect addition to anyone's desk mess! 

• POPSUGAR: I've just been having a love affair with the brand and the website. I've partnered with them a few times on the blog, and am no stranger to their Must Have Box. What sealed the deal was the event I went to last week, and coming tomorrow is another review of the Must Have Box. I just really love everything about them lately.

• El & Emm Sweatshirt: When I saw this sweatshirt on Instagram, I knew I needed it. First off, it's says Vogue, it's grey, and it looked incredibly comfy. It just spoke to me on another level. I'm really enjoying the graphic tee trend lately, and my wardrobe for the fall/winter is going to prove it. But this sweatshirt.... oh my God. I'm wearing it as I type this since it's the first day it feels like fall (helllo breeze!) and it's the softest thing I own. I feel like I'm wrapped in a warm blanket that resembles the womb. I need like 10 more of these. Please, if you listen to me about anything this fall season, GO BUY THIS SWEATSHIRT. 

• Lilly To Do Planner: I finally got into the groove of what feels good for me on a planning level. I have many to-do lists, many notebooks, and my Lilly Pulitzer planner. Well, my world was tipped on it's ass when I saw this little number from Lilly Pulitzer. I mean, it's a to-do planner, I needed it! I was more curious about the inside layout of this, and it really is just a huge planner that is the same all the way through. It has a huge list for to-dos, and then separate sections for appointments, items to buy, and calls & emails to respond to. I use it daily and make lists for things to get done around the house. I have a lot of moving parts in my organizational system so I'll definitely be doing a post on that, but for now, this little planner is so cute & nice to keep at home on your desk! 

There you have it! The first Little Loves post. Do you like this layout? Let me know :) 

Weekly Wrap Up

Fall is officially here, the weather is cooling off, and it was an odd week. I felt really down in the dumps on Monday but snapped out of it as the week went on. Sometimes you just have an off day; nothing bad happens, nothing goes wrong, you just feel shitty.

Those days are allowed, and they're ok. It's important to never beat yourself because you feel bad, because everyone has these days. The grass is always greener, and the bad days always end.

On that same note, this week felt long -- did it feel like that to anyone else? The days dragged on, and it feels like Monday was months ago. I'm happy to say hello to the first weekend of fall!

I can't wait for all the fun things to come within the next month -- lots of stuff on the blog, lots of fun activities in my personal life, and some new projects I'm hoping to get into play.

I truly do come alive in the fall, and I feel good about it.

This week, I was able to do something fun, for me and for the blog because #content. I was invited to the launch party for Lisa Sugar's (founder of POPSUGAR) new book, Power Your Happy.

I've been awaiting this book release for MONTHS and was going to buy the book the moment it hit the shelves, so when I got the invite to the launch party, I jumped at the chance and immediately RVSPed.

The entire event was set up so cute, decorated with copies of the book, POPSUGAR blue, and of course, some popcorn! All the attendees received the book and a POPSUGAR Must Have Mini Box (which had a gorgeous Sparklepop Necklace & Amplilash Mascara Serum & Fiber Lash Duo).

Lisa Sugar spoke, and then they had a panel of some great career ladies, including Deborah Lloyd, the President & Creative Director of KATE SPADE.

It was a really fun night, and I left there feeling completely inspired. I always feel great after events like this, maybe that's why my mood picked up?

Anyways, expect some more POPSUGAR fun next week, for now here are the links I loved:

• JK Rowling released the Patronus feature on Pottermore -- I got a Sparrow, what about you?
• The best TV couples. Let's do this.
• Cheese can be healthy? I mean, I'm down with it
• I am OBSESSED with Barstool Sports. This article doesn't even do it justice.
• Here's a quick, easy list of when beauty products expire
• A really interesting article on the red carpet and how it's gone south
• I loved reading about January Jones' beauty routine. She is the ultimate gal

What you missed on Royally Pink:

• Book Review Wednesday: SweetBitter
• GenBeauty 2016 Recap
• Manicure Monday: Kendra Scott Nailpolish

Have a great weekend everyone :) 

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Book Review Wednesday: Sweetbitter

I was really excited to read Sweetbitter. It was one of those books where the cover drew me in just as much as the summary did.

It was described as a coming of age novel, a girl coming to New York and figuring out her way. It sounded like I would love it -- who doesn't love a good "coming of age novel"?

Uh, well I was surely mistaken.

The book follows around Tess, who moves to New York from I'm assuming New Jersey (not that far from home), and she gets a job at the best restaurant in town. Almost the entire book is about her working at this restaurant/wine bar and the cast of characters that comes through the doors.

Still, it doesn't sound so bad.

Well, it was.

My goodness, I really hated this book. I couldn't wait for it to be over. I listened to it on Audible and it was incredibly long. I didn't stop listening to it because I thought it would pick up and something truly shocking would happen.

It never did.

This was one of the most anti-climatic books ever, and Tess was a very annoying protagonist. She was very whiny, and I really didn't feel bad for her at any point in the book, even though she played the victim very well.

There was a lot of drugs and drinking in the book; the book was all over the place, jumping from one scene to another without wrapping up the previous scene. I felt like it moved at a glacial pace and nothing ever really happened.

I couldn't even tell you what the book was about, because none of it made sense. I think it was supposed to be a little poetic, that's what some reviews said, but it was just too much for me. I felt like I really didn't understand what was going on half the time.

I usually don't write this negative of a review of a book, but I know that this book has gotten a lot of hype, and a lot of people want to read it; if you've been reading my Book Review Wednesday series for a while, and have similar taste as me, don't waste your time. This book was all over the place.

What was a bad book you read lately?

GenBeauty 2016 Recap

I love going to conferences and expos; I love doing something I love, surrounded by other people who share the same passion as I do.

I didn't really know what these makeup expos were like until I started going with my job; being on the other side, I already know the ins and outs of these things.

I attended GenBeauty NYC last year with my job and I so didn't want to work; all I wanted to do was go around to other booths and see what the brands were offering.

That's why when my friend Marissa told me she wanted to go to this year's GenBeauty, I jumped at the chance. We went this past Saturday, September 17th and it was incredible!

GenBeauty is hosted by ipsy and basically, it's a huge makeup expo for makeup lovers. There is a variety of brands there and you get to visit each of them. They have fun activities, free samples, and you can try their other products.

As the beauty industry grows, so do events like these; because of that, there were SO many Youtube stars there. They were having meet ups at different brands and you could wait on line to meet them. There was only one star that Marissa & I wanted to see, and that was KathleenLights. Besides Jaclyn Hill, she is my #1 BAE and the fact that I met her was truly incredible.

But back to the beginning...

I bought my GenBeauty tickets around March, for about $70. They were the pre-sale price, and went up afterwards. My one piece of advice is to buy these tickets as early as possible. I wouldn't have purchased them for over $100.

Another tip of mine? It doesn't really matter what time you get there, you're going to wait on line until the doors open. I'm happy I got there at 10 AM because I only had to wait an hour; and they let all of us in at the same time.

This year the expo was at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal with gorgeous views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty; I will never get tired of that view.

They let us in at 11AM and Marissa and I immediately went for the Tarte booth. *Another tip: have it mapped out which booths you want to go to and at which times. We knew we wanted to go to Tarte to buy their Shape Tape Concealer (some booths were selling select products for a discounted rate) so we tackled that booth first.

Michelle Phan

The event was kind of incredible and it was surreal to be there; there were booths, products, people everywhere! There was so much to do, I couldn't focus on what I wanted to do first.

We went from Tarte, to a few other smaller booths, and checked out what they were giving out. We knew which brands we wanted to visit 100%, and pretty much got them all done.

I'd be lying if I said a majority of the reason I was there was to get free samples, and some of the booths were giving out incredible samples: Too Faced gave us full size Born This Way Concealers (which I know said didn't work for me, but I want to try again), and Tarte gave us full size Tarteist Lash Paint Mascaras.

Forget about what we actually got in a goodie bag that every attendee got; it's insane!

Some other brands we visited were: Crown Brushes, POPBeauty, Luxie Brushes, Ofra, Cover FX, NudeStix, Josie Maran, and a few others.

We went to Ofra for the sole reason that KathleenLights was having her meet up there; we waited on line for about an hour and a half but it was well worth it. I also got her liquid lipstick in Miami Fever and I'm so hyped to try it.

The event went on till about 6 PM but we left at 3... I had so much fun, but the lines seemed longer by the time the afternoon came, our feet hurt, we were hungry & thirsty (I saw no food or water at the event) -- it was just time to go. We met Kathleen, we got our goodie bags and basically saw everyone we wanted to see.

Everything about the event was a lot of fun and interesting to be on the other side of it. If you're a huge beauty addict, and want to be around other huge beauty addicts, I highly recommend checking out GenBeauty (or even BeautyCon) in your area!
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Manicure Monday: Kendra Scott Nail Polish

I know I said I'd have the GenBeauty recap up on the blog today, but after painting my nails with this nail polish over the weekend, I knew I had to do a Manicure Monday.

Kendra Scott is a well known, high end jewelry brand that is very popular amongst bloggers -- that's how I found out about it, at least.

I have a few pieces of her jewelry and it's definitely high quality, and I really love the items I have. That's why when I saw that she released nail polishes, I was highly intrigued.

I will admit, it was a little odd to me that a jewelry brand was coming out with nail polishes but when you think about it, it makes sense. We were jewelry on our hands, so wouldn't a jewelry company want to make your hands & look beautiful?

Well, Kendra Scott is doing just that and I kind of love it. All of the colors in the collection are truly gem inspired. You could tell just by looking at the soft, sparkly colors that they were jewelry inspired.

The packaging is stunning -- an octagon shaped bottle with a gold top (I thought it would be a little more luxurious feeling, but the top is just plastic)

The nail lacquer is 5 free, and not tested on animals. The formula is super smooth, easy to apply, and not patchy at all. It's definitely up there with my Smith & Cult polishes.

The color I have is called "Goldstone" and it doesn't seem to be available on the website right now, but its a gorgeous bronze color that is similar to Essie's "Leggy Legend".

It has already chipped on me but I don't think my nails hold polish that well anyways. Even if that is the case, I'll continue to use this polish anyway because the formula is A+ and the color is stunning.

I will say, I don't think I'll be buying any more Kendra Scott polishes for the sole reason that they're expensive, and you need to pay shipping. To me, I'd rather go to my local drugstore and buy Essie.

Have you tried Kendra Scott polishes?