When this tag started popping up in my Bloglovin' feed, I knew that I was going to end up doing it. I love a tag post, especially one that works well in a blog format, because I like answering questions about makeup even more than I like just rambling off with my own thoughts about products.

Keep reading!

While Zoe is on vacation in warmer climes, I had the opportunity to put together a Guest Post over on Writing Whimsy! The post is all about my favorite products that are worth the cost of shipping to Canada, since all of us Canadian beauty lovers know that can be a pain and a half. So head over to Writing Whimsy now and check out the products that I would absolutely give my stamp of approval, with products from the US, the UK, and South Korea!

I am definitely old enough at this point that birthdays are not the celebration that they once were. Still, my birthday is a time when I get to sit down at my computer and do a little fantasy shop so that I can give the people who buy me gifts some ideas of what I want. Unfortunately, my birthday falls shortly before all of the holiday palettes get released at Sephora, but that doesn't mean that I can't make a pretty epic wish list of things that I've been coveting for my collection. 

I really wanted to acknowledge Earth Day here on the blog, because I feel like it's an important thing. I believe pretty strongly in trying to live in a way that is kind and harmonious with the planet, with nature, and with other creatures, so when there's a day to really focus on that I think it's important. I have to admit, with some disappointment in myself, that I'm not 100% Cruelty Free yet. I'd like to be on my way to using only cruelty free products, because I absolutely love animals and my heart breaks for them when I think about them being tested on and given a life that no creature should endure simply because I want cosmetic products.

Anyway, I figured today was a good day to put a focus on cruelty free brands and products that I use and love, so I chose 20 of my favorite cruelty free brands and chose my favorite products from those brands to share with you guys! Some of these products will be really familiar to you, because there are definitely some of my Holy Grail products in here.

Keep reading to take a look!

So... To be entirely cliché... Can you believe we're already two months gone in 2015? I can't. I'm pretty much floored by this and when I think about it, I end up thinking too much about aging and time passing quickly and how it's going to be no time until I am an old lady. Yes, I have anxiety. And yes, this time of year seems to be particularly flooring on the anxiety front. Anyway. At least February is a short month, and therefore it's supposed to pass more quickly than other months. AND I WILL BE YOUNG FOREVER. Ahem.

When I put together my monthly favorites, I don't think too hard about it. I go with my gut on the things that I just instinctively feel are my favorites of the month. This month happened to feel very thematic when I came out the end of it. The theme, you ask? MOISTURE. I swear, this month has been the absolute worst as far as dry skin and hair and I've been slathering myself up with everything I can find to try and combat that, and I've found that there are definitely some very solid products that take care of this for me.

Without further adieu (and neuroses... because HOLY on that first paragraph!)... Keep reading for a look at my February Favorites.

Time is running out to get your hands on the February GLOSSYBOX LOVE EDITION, which is all about - You guessed it! - love and comes in a specially designed, limited edition box that is just too cute for words! Everyone who orders this box before it runs out will receive a FULL SIZE Yogi Flow Foaming Shower Gel from Rituals Cosmetics as well as the Unwash Bio Cleansing Conditioner, along with 3 other products. As you can see from the picture above, there are also some other really great products featured in this month's boxes and many of them are full size, so I think this is definitely a get-it-while-you-can moment!

For those of you who don't know, GLOSSYBOX is a monthly beauty subscription service that costs $21 a month (*plus $5 shipping for those of us within Canada). Each box contains 5 products and comes packaged in a beautiful box that makes for great makeup and beauty storage after you've unboxed it. When you sign up for GLOSSYBOX, you fill out a beauty profile that will help decide which 5 products will be featured in your monthly boxes, making each of your boxes more customized to your beauty tastes! One of the great things about GLOSSYBOX is the wide selection of unique and high end brands that they feature in their boxes, making this a great little monthly treat for all of us beauty lovers!

Keep an eye on the blog for more GLOSSYBOX features in the future! And don't forget to hurry over to GLOSSYBOX and sign up for your February box before they're all gone!

First off, I've gotta admit that I've been planning on doing this favorites post all week, since I always prefer to do it as early as possible, but life has been a little bit crazy and I just hadn't gotten around to doing photos for the post. Also, I am planning on doing full reviews on a lot of these products in the near future, since so many of them are new to me things that I've been trying out, so keep a look out for those if any of these pique your interest! January feels like one of those months when the makeup world goes a little mad with power and new collections seem to be launching every week, so there are so many things that I need to get around to trying and reviewing right now.

That said, this is about my favorites this month, so keep reading for a closer look....

Every Wednesday in February, I'm planning on skipping the usual makeup and beauty reviews and instead focusing on sharing ideas about love and beauty with my readers. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you find some value here!

When I started thinking about writing this, I really had to look into myself for how vulnerable I'm willing to be right now. I'm a product of the same society as anyone else, sometimes a slave to my own insecurities, and most of the time it seems easier to pack those insecurities up and hide them away rather than draw attention to them. After all, who wants to draw attention to their flaws and insecurities? But it's February, a month generally steeped in hearts and flowers and professions of love, but that rarely focuses on the most important love of all - self love, and sometimes when you're talking about something as important as this it's important to put yourself out there.

The people that I love are the most beautiful people in the world to me. It doesn't matter what their flaws are or where they fit in the narrow construct of what it means to be beautiful in world that seems to value beauty above most things. They are beautiful because when I look at them, I see all of the things that I believe make a person beautiful. In the women I love and admire most, I see strength of character, intelligence, courage, wit, and yes, beauty. I look at these women and I do see their physical beauty, whatever it is about them that makes them uniquely beautiful. It doesn't matter what the world says is beautiful, because that version is far too narrow. We all possess beauty, inside and out, and it's important to acknowledge that. So why do I look in the mirror and see my big, jiggly ass or my imperfect skin first rather than looking to all of the characteristics that I find beautiful in others? Why don't I see myself the way that the people who love me see me?

As little girls grow up, they take in the messages that are all around them and those inform the way they see themselves. When you really think about it, you can probably pick out a few of these messages, both the subtle whispering ones and the flashing neon ones that have helped to inform the way you see yourself. I don't believe there's anything wrong with wanting to feel beautiful, but I think it's important to be mindful of how you measure your own beauty in order to be happy and healthy as people.

1. Don't Allow Beauty To Define Your Worth

Oftentimes women are told that being beautiful is the most important thing, but I think we all know in our hearts that that isn't true. We are whole people, beautiful in our humanity and in the things that all combined together make us who we are as human beings. Beauty isn't all about what's on the outside, it isn't shiny and perfect and outer. I think that most of us feel the most beautiful when we are the most ourselves, when we're being true to who we are, when we're striving to be who we want to be. There will always be times when we don't feel beautiful, but remember that your own beauty is and always will be your own. And remember that even when you feel Unpretty, you're still worthwhile, you're still a whole person, and you should not be discounted - particularly by yourself.
 

2. Be The Gatekeeper Of Your Own Confidence

Recently I saw a compilation of men's reactions to a woman accepting compliments over social media in regards to their appearance by saying something along the lines of, "Thank you, I know." Generally, the reactions were to accuse the woman of being arrogant, to rescind the compliment, and to assure her that she wasn't as hot as she thinks she is. I think this is because our society perpetuates the message that potential sexual or romantic partners should be the gatekeepers to our belief in our own beauty, that a woman should only feel beautiful under someone else's gaze. Those kinds of reactions enraged me. It's hardly any wonder that women struggle with feeling beautiful when they've been taught that the measure of their own beauty is up to someone else and that feeling confident and recognizing their own beauty is something to be shamed for, something negative. I believe that the kind of person who would react like that to a show of unabashed confidence is one who is threatened by that confidence. Being confident is good and there is no shame to be found in expressing your own confidence. The people who are worth having next to you are the people who will acknowledge and encourage that. Sometimes feeling confident takes a lot of effort, self reflection, and hard work - Don't let anyone try to take that away from you.

3. Choose Your Own Brand Of Beauty

I love makeup. Sometimes I like to play with different parts of myself, different facets of my identity, and one way to express that is with makeup and clothes. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm a feminist who loves makeup, who thinks that every woman has the right to decide whether or not she wears makeup and what it means to her. I don't think that beauty resides in what we put on our faces and bodies, it's so much deeper than that. That said, I find that makeup can make me feel beautiful and confident when I need a bit of a boost, sometimes it can even feel a little bit like armor, and I think that's okay. Don't let anyone tell you that you're not beautiful because your choices are different than theirs. Makeup or no makeup, beauty resides in all of us, it's up to use how we choose to express that. Or not express it, whatever the case may be.

4. Take Care Of Yourself

Making healthy choices feels good, it really does. Self care is important and most people will not only feel more beautiful when they're eating right, getting enough exercise, getting enough sleep and just generally taking time to do things that are good for them, but others will likely see it as well. Health tends to glow. This isn't to say that you're not allowed to feel beautiful when you're not taking care of yourself as you probably should or when you're not at your healthiest. I think that people should always feel beautiful, because you are always beautiful, but sometimes the best way to feel beautiful is to prioritize and take care of yourself. Self care is important, it builds confidence and encourages positive feelings about one's self.

5. Have Fun With Beauty

Whether beauty, as something that is on the outside, is to you something quiet and soft or something loud and vibrant, choose to have fun with it. I always think of makeup, fashion, and accessorizing as a kind of play. For me, playing with different expressions of the facets of my identity harkens back to playing dress up as a kid. It can and should be fun. Whenever you start to take anything too seriously, it can feel heavy and burdensome, so if you maintain an aspect of play and fun it won't feel like an obligation or work and you'll be able to enjoy it for what it is.

6. And most important... Try To Look At Yourself The Way You Look At Other People You Love

It's easy to see all of the brilliance and beauty in other people, but sometimes it can be really hard to see yourself that way. We put so much pressure on ourselves and end up seeing ourselves in a magnifying mirror rather than a wide lens that encapsulates all that we are. When you start to look at yourself and see those bad things, try to stop and take a moment to remind yourself that you're putting all of those negative things onto someone that you should love unconditionally and that so much beauty is getting lost in that picture. Remind yourself that you are beautiful, that you are loved, and that you have a lot to offer the world. Sometimes the most important thing is just taking a moment to remember your own brilliance and beauty.


I'm no expert on these types of things and I don't really feel like I'm bringing anything particularly new to the table, but I think these are things that sometimes we all need a reminder of. My goal is to one day be able to look in the mirror every morning without seeing my big, jiggy ass and the imperfections in my skin and all of the other things that could be better or more and instead see everything that I am and recognize just how beautiful that is. Not in spite of my big, jiggy ass and my imperfect skin, but because of them. Like everyone else, sometimes it's far to easy to measure myself against impossible beauty standards and find myself wanting, because that's what I've learned to do, but when I really think about it I know that those things aren't making me happy or healthy. I am beautiful. I am beautiful because I'm myself. I am beautiful because I choose to believe that beauty isn't an impossible goal, but something that we all inherently possess. You are beautiful. You are beautiful because you are yourself. The trick for all of us is to really believe that, or at least try. 

So... This has been a good month. Not gonna lie, it's kinda weird to say that when my feet are still frozen from being out in the -40º weather this morning, but here I am saying it. It's been a bit of a low key kind of a month, staying home and cooking cold weather comfort food and curling up on the couch to binge-watch TV shows. My little introverted heart loves this time of year for that very reason, nature gives you a built in excuse to hide in your house and not bother with real pants other than when it's time to go to work. It's also been a good month for beauty products, I found. It wasn't until I started compiling my list of favorite things this month that I realized what a good month it was.

So without further adieu, keep reading for my monthly favorites...