Haul: Room/Home Decor

I moved into my new apartment last month, and I have been having a blast decorating the space! I didn't put much effort into decorating my last apartment because I knew I would only be living there for a year. I think I'll probably live in my current apartment for 3-4 years while I attend optometry school. I have been scouting vintage home decor places, thrift stores, garage sales, Marshalls, Ross, and the like for unique home decor items. I was able to find some cute pieces this week that I would like to share:

Letter holder from Marshalls

Subway art from Marshalls

"Home" Photography from Artscape in Baltimore, MD

Tealight Holder from a vintage decor shop

Corner shelf from a vintage decor shop

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Beauty Haul: iHerb & Amazon

Hi everyone! I want to share a collective beauty haul from iHerb and Amazon. I will not review any products in this post because I've only used them once or twice thus far.

I stumbled upon this post on Apartment Therapy, and became very interested in coconut oil. I have troubled skin (blemishes, hyper-pigmentation, sensitivity, dry spots, etc), and everyone was raving about how coconut oil worked miracles for their skin and hair. I don't live near a Trader Joe's, so I went to the next best organic supply shop--in the comfort of my own living room: iHerb! If you're not familiar with iHerb, they sell brand name natural products from vitamins to beauty products. Not surprisingly, coconut oil on this site had rave reviews as well. I was sold. I bought a jar of it as well as this Alba body lotion. I have dry skin from head to toe during the winter, and those damn Bath & Body Works/Victoria Secret lotions that I must have received 6 of during Christmas, do not hydrate my skin.

If you are interested in making a purchase on iHerb, you can use this code to get $5 off your first order: NEZ002

From Amazon, I purchased these My Beauty Diary masks since they were on sale. I bought the Aloe and Mixed Berry masks. The aloe mask is targeted for dry and sensitive skin, and the berry mask claims to brighten skin. I will probably post a review on these masks in the near future. I also bought Korres Quercetin & Oak Antiageing & Antiwrinkle Night Cream. I saw it on Sephora, but was able to snag it on Amazon for just $35 ($17 cheaper than Sephora!). Last but not least, I purchased the Ole Henricksen Truth Serum Collagen Booster. This is my very first serum, but the benefits seemed well worth it. I bought a 0.5 oz bottle for just $18 (a 1 oz bottle at Sephora is $48).

Hopefully, I will see good results with these products.

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Haul: Candles!

I am a fanatic of many things in life, and candles are one of them. Candles come in all sorts of aromas: you can put a bakery scented candle in your kitchen, a fresh scented candle in your bathroom, and a romantic floral scented candle in your bedroom! I also love fruity scents for my bedroom and kitchen. I just received my order from Candles by Victoria, and I really like these scents. First off, allow me to commend the owner of this business, Victoria. She is the only owner of Candles by Victoria, and has the full time job of being a single parent to two kids. Nevertheless, she always manages to fill every order in a timely manner. Thanks, Victoria! (I doubt she will ever read this though LOL) Anyway, onto the candles :)

From L to R: Blueberry Monkey Bread, Coco Beach Baby Peach, Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Blueberry Monkey Bread is definitely my favorite out of the three candles. It smells just like it sounds: a mesh of blueberries and monkey bread. So decadent! I'm not particularly fond of Coco Beach Baby Peach. It smells like a blend of peaches and cardboard, and is a bit too musky for my liking. :-/ Pineapple Upside Down Cake also smells delicious. It smells like fresh pineapples with a hint of shortbread cookies. Overall, these candles are a great buy. Each 9oz jar is $8.25 and shipping is a flat rate fee of $8.50. You can take 10% off your total purchase with this code: cbvictoria.

I also bought two candles from Bath & Body Works since they were having a "buy two for $20" sale. However, I purchased these a couple weeks back, so I am not sure if this sale is still going on.

From L to R: Passion Flower and Peach Bellini

I haven't had a chance to burn Passion Flower, but it smells so delightful. According to the BBW website, this scent is described as: "Juicy passion fruit, watery pear and casaba melon combine perfectly with Tahitian vanilla." It's pretty spot on. Peach Bellini is also a very sweet scent. It smells like fresh peaches with a hint of vanilla and jasmine. I love both of these scents.


On another note, I finally found a Vietnamese restaurant somewhat close to my house (~30 minutes) that makes bahn mi sandwiches. *happy dance* For some reason, I've been craving banh mi for the past two weeks. My boyfriend also found an Italian delicacy in the same shopping center that sells canolis, which he has been craving for... well, pretty much everyday. It looks like we'll be making frequent trips there.

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