cruelty free & vegan beauty wishlist

I want to start off this post by saying I'm still going through a lot of non-cruelty free and vegan beauty and personal care products. I used to coupon regularly a few years ago before I bought cruelty free and vegan products, so I have quite the stash. I wouldn't purchase them again, but I'm not going to waste them, either.

With that said, I'm still building up my cruelty free and vegan products. I find a lot at Marshall's and Ross, but there's some I can only find at Ulta, at stores a bit too far away to drop in regularly, and online. Here are some that I've been lusting after - and will hopefully be able to make room for in my stash soon!

Andalou Naturals Aloe & Willow Bark Pore Minimizer // I desperately need a pore minimizer. I've tried Andalou Naturals deep conditioner on my hair and I love it, so I thought I'd try more of their products. try

Pacifica Stellar Gaze Length & Strength Mineral Mascara in Supernova // I reaaaally want to try new types of vegan mascara. Pacifica's is infused with coconut oil, so it's worth a shot. try

Hurraw Coffee Bean Lip Balm // This is described as a coffee-choco flavor. That alone sold me. My local Wegman's carries Hurraw balms, but I have yet to get over there to pick some up. I've been having a hard time finding vegan lip balms, so I might place an order for some. try

Trust Fund Beauty Nail Polish in Beach Vibes // I've really been loving the greige trend and this nail polish doesn't disappoint. It's a big pricey, but I've heard good things about Trust Fund. try

Lunatick Cosmetic Labs Supernatural Palette // It's in the shape of a coffin. And it has a bat. Not only does that have me in love, but the colors are pretty and goes right along with my go-to colors. try

Lush Superbalm Scalp Treatment // I've always had a super itchy, dry scalp. Gross, I know. I've tried almost everything. Coconut oil helps, but I'd like to try more targeted treatments, and this one tops the list. try

This is just the beginning of my wishlist, but I didn't think having seventy items would be fun to read. Do you have any products you'd like to try?

blogger friends & nova trips

Yesterday I made a trip up to NOVA and visited my friend, Jess! We had a whole girls' day out planned and it was just the thing I needed after the week I'd been having. First, we started off with lunch at Cava Grill, which was delicious. I had a rice bowl with falafel, traditional hummus, harissa hummus (which was super spicy, but good!), and the dill yogurt dressing (the dressing wasn't vegan, oops). I'm so glad Jess had this on the list for the day. When I got home I wanted more falafel. I'm going to be raving about this place until I go at least fifteen more times.



Next we headed off to Tysons Corner. I'd never been before and I was super excited. GUYS, we don't have these kinds of stores down where I'm from. The first place we stopped was Lush, as I'd never been there either (I know, ugh). I had no idea they had so many products! I could easily have come out of there with a ton of stuff, but I managed to limit myself to a few items.



As we were heading to Lululemon, we spotted macarons! I got honey lavender and Jess got raspberry. They were so good!



Then there was Lolli & Pops! I love checking out candy stores wherever I go to see what others have to offer. This one didn't disappoint! We took a little tour and I only got one picture there - our feet. Haha! They had a massive selection of candies in bulk bins - we definitely tried some samples.



Afterward we stopped off and did some thrifting! I found some pretty great stuff (and some of it will be up in the shop once I have it photographed). It was pretty awesome having a thrifting buddy - I had someone to laugh about hideous items with! Jess took me by the used bookstore, too, and I found a couple Stephen King's I haven't read, yet. And everyone knows how much I love secondhand bookstores...

Then after a Wegman's stop for vegan Ben & Jerry's, we hung out for a bit so I'd avoid traffic. I had a fab day and can't wait til we make a trip to Richmond! It was pretty awesome to have someone to talk to that knew about blog terms and websites. And we even managed to take a selfie...the only one all day, but hey, time flies!



Have you had any interesting trips lately? Let me know in the comments!

thoughts

A lot's been going on and sometimes my brain can't keep up. I've gone through a split up several weeks ago, moved on, and I've started some great things since. Big shout out to my girl Jess for being such an awesome friend through all that!

I haven't had much motivation to write much of anything, and when I did I was snowed in away from my laptop. The area had a nice little blizzard come through last week and buried us in almost three feet of snow.

However, I've had some thoughts going on that didn't completely warrant an entire post for each, so I figured I'd get them out here.

• I've been listening to the British Invasion station on Pandora almost non-stop lately. It's such a great mix of upbeat and sorrowful songs. I've really fallen in love (again) with The Hollies and The Zombies. I guess the 60s are my music era? Haha.
• Being appreciated is a wonderful thing - and it's even better when you realize that's what you've been missing.
• Netflix has removed Doctor Who, and I'm so upset. I kept Doctor Who on loop all the time. I'd listen to it as background noise when I was getting ready, blogging, and more. Ugh. BBC, are the rumors true? Are you creating a streaming site? Yes, please.
• I've found that cooking dinner causes me a great amount of stress. Food in general causes me a great amount of stress, simply because I've grown so picky about what I eat. How does one stop being a picky eater? Help meeeee

I think I just need more yoga in my life. Warrior pose for daaaaays.

life lately - holidays and movies

Happy holidays! I was super busy over Christmas, so I didn't have much time to blog. I hope everyone had a great holiday. I had a wonderful day! Lots of family, gift giving and receiving, and food.

We went to our first Christmas Day movie the evening of the 25th. We saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens! I'm going to be honest, I was just going to wait until the end of it's theatre showing to see it. I assumed it was going to be packed, but we lucked out with an 9:20pm showing and the theatre had plenty of room.

And no spoilers here! It was a great movie. If you're even remotely a Star Wars fan, go see it.

I'm not one of those people who takes numerous dramatic pictures of what they got for Christmas, but look at this sweatshirt my dad got me!!!!

I love it! You can pick one up at Animal Hearted. (Sign up for their email list and get free shipping!)

The holiday isn't quite over yet for me, as on the 31st I'm heading out to Tennessee with my brother to have our Christmas with Mumma. So excited!

Any exciting end-of-season plans?