I caught Covid-19

It’s been a while. I left without meaning to and it was completely unexpected. I ended up getting Covid-19. Boy it was quite the experience. As weird as it may sound, I am grateful for the experience. It has grounded me and it has helped my spiritual practice.

One thing about Covid is that the symptoms are so different for all those who have had it. I got a further understanding of the complexity of this new virus that is here to stay. That’s the bottom line… it is here to stay. It has changed the way we interact with each other. Will we ever go back to how things were, I am not sure… maybe to some extent but not fully.

My symptoms started with a simple congestion and a feeling of like a sore throat. I woke up the next day and I felt gross, my voice was gone I sounded completely ill. I started researching symptoms because intuitively I felt like I had the corona virus. I did a test as I usually do every week for work but my gut was telling me I had caught it. I went into quarantine not even leaving my bedroom. Sure enough, a couple of days later my suspicion were confirmed, I as well as several workers had caught the virus.

Luckily my symptoms were not worse than a flu. I did lose my sense of smell for about a day and half but I think that was due to just being so congested. What did I do and how did this turn spiritual?

For one: I was forced to slow down during Mercury Retrograde, I mean right at the beginning. I meditated a lot. I counted my blessings because for a while I got a bit angry. I had a moment were I was annoyed that I had caught when I was doing everything that I was supposed to. I don’t go out unless it’s necessary and I am still required to come into work… and I caught it. Goes to show that anyone despite doing it all can catch it.

I looked inward and tried to find the bigger lesson. I flipped the script and took the pause as a blessing. For one I was probably getting the rest that my body desperately needed, I used the moment to meditate and read. Look for all the miracles and the blessings that I had daily. Just being able to finally breathe, wake up to see the sun shinning. Having a roof over my head.

Our bodies are amazing— the fact that we can take on this new virus and have the antibodies to get healthy. I wasn’t prescribed any medication. I didn’t even receive an inhaler. Basically my doctor said to just treat it like a flu and I was cleared to go back to work after 10 days.

This post isn’t to minimize the dangers of the virus. Or to say not to take it seriously. Absolutely still take all the precautions and maintain your social distance. The virus is so complex and affects us all so differently. At the same time— know that your body is strong enough to tackle it. As long as your healthy and have a positive mindset.

Sending all of the light and love out into the world We’ll get through this!

Palette Inspired By An Iconic Artist

Do you remember the last time you were so excited about something, that it completely inspired you? Like you are so excited that you’re telling anyone and everyone about it? You just find yourself going on and on about how great it is, and how everyone needs to try it. well my friends… this is me doing just that and the must have product is an eye shadow palette that will smack you in the face with beautifully pigmented shadows and a beautiful color story!

There’s a brand new indie brand called “Musee Beauty”. They have released an eye shadow palette that’s inspired by “impressionsim” (yes, as in the art style) and the famous and iconic artist Vincent Van Gogh This brand’s entire vision is using makeup a tool to express yourself. You definitely have a feel for that as soon as you see the color story. I mean even the packaging will have you dreaming or creating masterpieces and using your face as a canvas.

The Impressionism Palette comes with 16 pigmented eye shadows. It has eight matte shades and eight shimmer shades. Which gives you a pretty good balance to play with textures. There is a range of shades from brights to everyday. They have names like “Waterlily” and “Parasol”.

It’s been such a long time since a makeup brand has made me super excited; and let me just say WOAH! This is a beautifully curated palette. By the way the shadows are arranged, to the color story and even how they compliment each other. The creators have thought about everything and I mean everything! The colors all complement each other in the way they even attract the light completely paying homage to the “impressionist” art style. Just looking at the palette had me feeling inspired and thinking of ways to play and combine colors. As their first makeup product: this company has completely knocked it out of the park! It is absolutely beautiful and it is a must have!

Some things to keep in mind. As far as I know, the company doesn’t have international shipping just yet (brand new, I am sure they are slowly working on expanding). The palette is available to ship in the U.S. and Canada. The cost is $42 dollars plus shipping.

I can’t rave about this product enough, it is absolutely beautifully curated and will get you excited about playing with color!

If you would like to order the palette check out their website http://www.museebeauty.com

If you’ve tried the palette, what do you love about it? What do wish they would have included? Let me know!

I have included a few pictures of the looks I was able to come up with the palette, the second picture is without any primer! Yeah, the pigmentation is unreal!

Disclaimer The Product(s) mentioned above have been purchased by me. All opinions are strictly my own and have not been influenced in anyway. Honesty is my top priority. I am not in any shape or form affiliated with the company or manufacturers.

• 

• 

• 

How Did I Not Know About This?

Hello you party people!

Hope everyone is having an awesome start to their work week. At work, we’re getting ready to launch another hour of morning television and with a couple of my co-workers working from home, it has been a whole lot of juggling. It’s absolutely amazing how quickly we all we’re able to make a switch and still do a 5.5 hour long live morning show, in the middle of the pandemic. It really goes to show how adaptable humans really are. I wish we could put the same energy to protect mother nature and live in a more sustainable world.

COVID-19 has changed the way we even shop! Recently I ran out of my current moisturizer and stumbled upon the Purito skincare line. I decided to try the Purito Deep Sea Water Cream. I purchased it from the Yes Style website. It costs me just around $20 with taxes, but the down side is that it took about three weeks for it to arrive. The website did warn me that it would take about three to four weeks. But it was so worth the wait! Yes, while I waited, I completely ran out of my moisturizer, but luckily I just added a little of my face oil and I was good to go.

Purito takes pride in being an eco and vegan friendly product line. They use as natural and raw ingredients in all of their skincare line while also being sustainable. This particular face cream uses 60% purified deep ocean water that is rich in ingredients perfect for those with really dry to dehydrated skin (perfect for my parched skin!). This also has Sodium Hyaluronate. This ingredient is one of the stars of this cream. Sodium Hyaluronate just so happens to be a form of Hyaluronic Acid which helps your skin retain moisture and keep it nice, healthy, and plump! And who doesn’t love that?

But wait… there’s more! It also has niacinamide which helps brightening up your skin! Recently this little magic ingredient has been getting a lot of attention. In case you didn’t know, niacinamide is an active vitamin B3 ingredient. This little magic ingredient can help with pigmentation and even wrinkles. It also helps repair the skin barrier and maintain the skin’s protective layer to keep those wrinkles away. It’s absolutely great!

However, I did purchase an older version which means the version that I have has a bit of a medicinal smell. It’s not too strong and it disappears very quickly once it is rubbed into the skin. The new version doesn’t really have a smell. However, it seems there still may be a bit of an odor. The purito website warns that you may notice a smell and it’s all due to the all natural and raw ingredients that they use to create this product.

You guys…. I think I may have found THE ONE. This cream is absolutely amazing! My skin just soaks up the product. It leaves my skin nice, plump and glowy. It feels nice and soft and it make my skin look so healthy! It works well underneath makeup and doesn’t react with my face primer. My foundation just goes on super smoothly. I have never been so in love with a face cream that costs less than $40 dollars. Over the years, I have tried so many products ranging in prices. After writing a lot of reviews, this has been the best one for my skin. I think everyone needs to try this skincare line. If you have dry to dehydrated skin, you need try this product. Your skin will just soak up the all natural ingredients. If you do, let me know what you think!

Below is the link to the website I used to purchase the product. I hope you guys have an awesome week. See you guys back next week with another makeup review! If you have any questions, leave me comment or just leave a comment just because! I love connecting with you guys!

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated to purito in any way shape or form. The item mentioned above was purchased with my own money. All opinions are strictly my own.

https://puritoen.com/

Product Review: Altilis Beauty

Hello My Dear Readers,

I have been on a roll when it comes to my skincare. Not because I am wearing less makeup— but I am loving how the skin looks on my makeup free days. I have been experimenting with a few products for some time. I like to really take my time when it comes to reviewing skin care items. It takes more than two weeks to effectively see if a certain moisturizer or serum is in fact working.

Today I am reviewing the indie brand Altilis Beauty Line. I bought the entire line a few months back and it is all I have been using on my face. I learned about the brand back when it was still owned and operated by Kenna Whitnell who does have her own YouTube channel. She did a video that provided viewers with an in depth look at her skincare line. She mentioned that her skincare line uses breadfruit and other sustainable ingredients proven to help your skin. I like that the line was created using a natural extract which was being sourced sustainably and given Kenna’s background as a chemist, I decided to give it try.

The entire line which is listed as Infloressence on the website. It comes with the cleanser, the serum and the moisturizer that can be used both day and night. At the time of my purchased, this cost me about $80. Since then, it seems that the price has gone up and it is currently listed on their website for around $90.99. Another big change, Kenna no longer owns the Altilis Beauty line. She made a YouTube video revealing why she parted ways with the line that she created.

I tried really hard to love this line… but the products somehow made my skin drier than normal. The cleanser worked fine, it doesn’t feel like it leaves my skin too stripped. The biggest issue that I had was with the serum and the moisturizer. The serum feels a little too emollient and almost greasy. I did not like the feeling of it at all on my skin. I would wait about a minute to let it absorb into my skin, but the greasy feeling was still there. I added the moisturizer and it didn’t feel like I was putting anything on my skin. Despite feeling greasy, it didn’t feel like I was adding the ingredients needed to really give my skin the much needed moisture. It felt greasy while and tight at the same time. I needed to add a little of my “Good Molecules Squalane Oil” to really feel like I was adding moisture.

Since, I spent $80 on this line, I kept using them while waiting for my skin to get used to the new ingredients. Sadly, it was a lot of the same thing. Greasy while also still managing to feel really dehydrated. I found this really bizarre because on the website, the products are promoted as helping to restore the skin’s natural moisture barrier. I imagine that my skin simply did not like the breadfruit ingredient or it just didn’t have what I needed for my dehydrated skin. For those who have a sensitivity to smells, there is a bit of a smell that is almost acidic. I can quite place my finger on it so I assume it’s simply a smell from the breadfruit flower.

I have used up all of products in this line—and I will definitely not be repurchasing. The ingredients just didn’t react well to my skin type. While I didn’t make me break out in any way—just the state of my skin took a turn for the worse and this line is all I have been using. My skin got so dry that I needed to find a sleeping mask to somehow add some moisture to my skin. This is how I found the Laneige sleeping mask and the toner that helped with my skin.

My advice to you, I would purchase the samples first to do a little trial run and see if it works for your particular skin type. Remember, just because it didn’t work for me doesn’t mean it will not work for you.

I hope you found this blog post useful. As always I hope you guys are staying healthy. If you guys have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment.

Much love as always,

-Kat

Product Review: AHC Skin Care

Hello My Lovelies!

I hope all of you are having a fantastic summer so far! I actually just got back from spending some time away in Central America; specifically El Salvador. It was lovely and a much needed break!  I did come back to a lovely surprise. I was picked by Influenster to participate in one of their Voxbox to review the AHC Skincare line! I was super excited for this.  Those that are fans of the beauty community and skincare are aware that Korean skincare line is the creme de la creme at the moment, and with good reason! Their ingredients, skin serums, and products are unmatchable and their approach to makeup is very fresh as well. You all know the secret to great looking makeup is having great skin as well!

The products that were sent to me where The Essential Real Eye Cream and the Aqualoronic Cream. I’ll start with the Essential Real Eye Cream. The product contains 1.01 fl ounces and retails for about $28.99 at Target. This little tube is packed with the latest technology to leave your skin feeling nice and moisturized. It also targets fine line and wrinkles. I didn’t sense any scent when using this product, so all of you who are a bit sensitive to smell are in the clear! It does feel very moisturizing without feeling too heavy or greasy.  My under eye area just soaks this stuff right up and it looks great underneath my makeup.

The Aqualoronic Cream is 1.69 fl oz and costs $31.99 at Target. This is a lightweight gel-like texture cream that packs a lot of moisture. The formula includes ceramides that helps strengthen the moisture barrier. This product does have a smell that I am completely obsessed with! It’s fresh and not overpowering. This product also melts right into the skin.  On it’s on– it leaves my face looking quite glowy and fresh.

Overall I am very impressed with this line. I did hop onto their website and they offer an entire range of different skin care items. I know Target now carries their line, but I am not entirely sure if it will carry all of their products. I definitely recommend these products if you’re looking to try something new that’s also affordable.  I have included the website if you guys want to take a look at their line! Until next time!

Much love as always,

-Kat

https://us.ahcbeauty.com/

DISCLAIMER: The products mentioned above were sent to me by Influenster for reviewing purposes only. All opinions are 100% honest and strictly my own.

Product Review: Kokie Cosmetics So Matte Mattifying Foundation Primer

Welcome back to another post mi gente!

I hope you are kick starting this week well rested and full of energy. My goal for this week is to proactive and work on my fitness by hitting the gym at last three times this week. I tend to fall off the wagon and get lazy but it’s time to get up and get moving!

I want to start this blog post by saying that drugstore brands have come a long way. I mean there are some true treasures hiding around in there. Recently I was shopping at my local Rite Aid store and came across the brand “Kokie Cosmetics”. I heard of this brand after I received a nail polish from them thanks to one of my Ipsy bags. I was quite intrigued by their display since they have a la variety of products. I decided to dip my toe into the brand by picking up one of their primers.

My skin tends to be combination and I’m always fighting the blossoming if you will around my t-zone when I am wearing makeup. I decided to grab their “So Matte Mattifying Foundation Primer”.  It cost me around $11 dollars but I get about dollar off thanks to being a Rite Aid member.  This product claims that it will help with the longevity of the foundation by providing a shine free look with one a sheer coating.

There is no smell to the product. It’s comes out a bit milky and it feels very slippery. I prepped my skin my using my trusty eye and face serum followed by my eye cream and face cream. I let each layer soak into the skin for about five minutes before adding the primer. I places few dots around my face and blended it in. First thing I noticed is that it felt just a bit oily. There is a heavy silicone type feel that creates the sensation of slip like it is sliding all over the face. Next thing I noticed is that it did not play well with my moisturizer. It began to separate and bunch up to the point that I was having tiny white flecks. I had to wipe my face clean and try it out on bare skin.
 
Once I re-applied the primer it still felt incredibly oily and slippery. I did not enjoy the sensation on my skin at all. The foundation that I used was my trusted Fenty Beauty foundation. It applied great but it had a bit of slip due to the primer. I quickly set the face with translucent powder and continued to finish the rest of my makeup. In about four hours I could see that my foundation had started to break down around my nose area. I blotted the excess oil off and it ended up taking away my foundation. I  was left looking splotchy and not good overall. I did try out the primer with the colourpop foundation and I had the same thing happen again.

Sadly, I would not recommend this primer. I think the slippery and greasy feeling is unpleasant and creates a bit of a problem for whatever foundation you put on top. I saw nothing of a matte finish in fact it made it look a bit oily as the hours went on. The fact that it caused my foundation to completely come off is a definite “no-no”.

If you’ve tried this primer and it has worked for you let me know some tips. I’m a little bummed it ended up failing so hard for me. I hope you all enjoyed this post and until next time. Much love as always,

-Kat

Gone Forever? Say it ain’t so!

Hello Dearies!

I am back today with another post this time it has to do with makeup. This post is extra special because it has a bit of nostalgia. By now I am sure all makeup lovers have heard that Urban Decay is saying goodbye to their most famous palette the original Naked Palette. That really took me back. First of all, this was actually one of my very first makeup palettes that I ever bought. I remember falling in love with it after watching Marlena from Makeupgeek do a tutorial with it. I tried to purchase it but of course it ended up being sold out everywhere. Since then my makeup collection has grown and Urban Decay expanded their now iconic Naked line.

Of course I got rid of my original naked palette years ago, but once it was announced that it was being discontinued I totally purchased mine before it was too late! Not because I needed it but as a makeup collector this being the first palette it brought back some nostalgia. Once it arrived at my door I tore the packaging like a child on Christmas morning.

I have to admit the original naked palette is a beautifully put together basic palette