The Friday Five

Happy, happy Friday, friends! Hope you all have had a great week…every work-week seems to somehow get crazier and crazier – I’m livin’ for the weekends these days! Anyway…I thought it was time to share a new Friday Five since it’s been a while since my last one. As with most of my Friday Five posts, I’m sharing a bunch of randomness…so here we go…

Self Tanner

One thing I have started to do a lot more during quarantine is self tanning. I don’t think I have ever been so pale! I do not have a ton of experience with self tanning, but it is the safest option and so I am trying to embrace it and do it more often. I have used St Tropez in the past and I do like and would recommend it. I was running out of my last bottle so I decided to give Loving Tan a try. It’s been circulating quite a bit in the blogger/Instagram world, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. So far, I really like it! The biggest differences I can tell between the St Tropez and the Loving Tan, is that the Loving Tan is more brown, the mousse is thicker, and I feel like the color lasts longer. I also think it develops more quickly. It does not smell at all when you first apply it, but after it starts to develop, you can smell it but it is not overwhelming. One of the reasons I avoided self tanning for so long is because I could not handle the smell, but as I have become more acclimated to self tanning, the smell does not bother me as much. I use the Medium shade in this particular self tanner, and I also apply it with this mitt – the mitt is KEY to a good self tan (also shave, exfoliate and moisturize before self tanning!). For my feet and hands, I bought a cheap foundation brush from Target and apply the tanner using that, and I can tell a big difference in that it doesn’t look as splotchy.

Face Tanning Drops

I bought these face tanning drops during the Sephora sale several weeks ago. I avoid sun on my face at all costs – I wear sunscreen on my face every single day, so my face is definitely pale when compared to my chest (after self tanning of course!). At first, I was not a fan (I think I even told a few folks on Instagram that had asked about them that I wouldn’t recommend them). Here is why I was turned off in the beginning. The bottle says to apply 1-4 drops. Well, the first time I used them, of course I went all in and did 4 drops. When I woke up the next morning, I forgot I had put them on the night before, so when I looked in the mirror I scared myself, lol! It was WAY too orange and I could also tell where I had missed spots like around my mouth and my hairline…it was very obvious. Lastly, I have one sun spot on the side of my face (hello sun damage and aging!), but it is actually really light and you cannot see it on a regular basis unless you are looking really hard. Well, the tanning drops darkened it A LOT and made it stand out. For these reasons, I was not a fan at first. But, I decided to keep playing around with them. I have figured out the sweet spot for me right now is 2 drops. I apply them at night, and just mix them in with my nightly moisturizer and I take care to apply evenly on my entire face, all around my mouth and my hairline. After I apply it, I wet a q-tip, and dampen the area where I have the dark spot, essentially to wipe off the tanner, and it works! I only use them a couple of times a week, but I am digging them now that I’ve figured out how to make them work for me. A lot of these tanning products are just trial & error! I went with the light/medium shade in these drops.

Headbands

I was a little iffy about these headbands at first, but they have definitely grown on me! They come in a pack of 6 that includes all of the colors you see above for only $14! They are a great little accessory that elevate a casual outfit – throw one on with a tank and jean shorts, or with a cute little dress and you’re good to go!

Update on the Revlon Blow Dryer Brush

I shared this blow dryer brush back in December and I raved about it – it dried my hair in under ten minutes and it looked like a salon blowout! Now six months later, I wish I had never laid eyes on it. Since I posted about it originally, I felt I needed to give this update to say BEWARE! The reason I say that is because I am seeing a lot of breakage, and nothing has changed in my routine except adding in the dryer. The breakage is all on top of my hair and there are some really short pieces. I posted about this on my Instagram stories recently, and I was blown away by the number of people that responded and said the same thing had happened to them. I did get a lot of feedback that the DryBar brush dryer and the Dyson hair dryers were awesome. I am going to do a little research and maybe try one of those. For now, I am using a regular T3 dryer – I see a lot of bloggers post about T3 hair tools…I stumbled across my dryer in the checkout line at Marshall’s like three years ago and it was a steal! I tell you, you can find some real gems at Marshall’s & TJMaxx!

My Latest Binge Watch: Outlander

To say I am obsessed with Outlander is an understatement. We first started watching it at the beginning of quarantine and honestly, I had a hard time getting into it after the first few episodes. My husband watched it with me at first, and he gave up and didn’t want to watch anymore. I decided to go back one day and try again, and I got hooked. I would lay in bed at night and watch it on my laptop with my ear buds in, and I would stay up wayyy past my bedtime watching! I could not stop talking about it so my husband finally agreed to start back watching with me somewhere during season 2, and even he got a little into it! It was funny – he started calling me “Sassenach” for a while there. Also, can we just talk about Jamie!? He is some serious eye candy – who knew a man in a skirt could look so good, lol! I will say that there are a lot of hard scenes to watch…particularly the season 1 finale – I was actually kind of traumatized after that episode. The show is based on a series of novels, so they tried to keep it as true to the books as possible from what I have heard. I ordered the first book in the series off Amazon, and while I haven’t had much time to dig into it, I cannot wait to read it! I was so addicted! You can find seasons 1-3 on Netflix, and then season 4 & 5 are on Starz. Season 5 was actually just aired recently. Let me know if you decide to watch!

Hope y’all have a great weekend!