Weekend Retreat

It's almost the weekend. Relax!

This bathroom is a little more traditional than my usual taste. But with the French doors, the checkerboard tile and the 18th-century French buffet used as a sink, it does feel nice and cozy, like the bathroom at my (well, not mine but some rich grandma with really good taste) grandma's house.

I hope you all have a warm, relaxing and bath-filled weekend.

Christmas Goodies

When I was a kid, one of the best parts of Christmas was telling my best friend what I go. So I thought I would share a few of my favorite Christmas presents with you.

I got a Fresh Brown Sugar gift set from my husband that contained the perfume (shown below), a Sugar Rose Tinted Lib Treatment and Brown Sugar Body Cream. I love the smell of the perfume and the lip balm has a great color for when I'm going casual. I think I will use the body cream when traveling, so I don't have to pack the perfume bottle. I don't think this exact gift set is available any more, but Sephora and Fresh have plenty of other gift set options.

Next up, my mom bought me a Clarisonic. When I visited Canyon Ranch Miami last year and got a facial, the aesthetician used a Clarisonic on me, and I've been dying to get one since then. I didn't do a lot of research, I just told her I wanted the turquoise one. So far I've been pretty happy with it. It does feel great on my skin, and it gets me motivated to actually wash my face (instead of just using a makeup remover wipe, which is what I usually do). We'll see if the motivation lasts.

I got a bunch of other great stuff, like some slippers, a Silpat baking sheet, some jewelry and more. I know. I'm spoiled. But I'm dying to hear what you got. Do tell.

Happy New Year

Since it's that time of year, I've been thinking about some New Year's resolutions, or rather some vague promises to myself. I would like this year to be a year in which I focus more on my accomplishments and less on what I'm not getting done. I would like to focus on learning some new skills instead of just acquiring new things. And, as always, I want to focus on taking time out to relax.

I hope that you all had a great holiday, and I wish everyone the best in 2012!

It's All About the Nails

There was a time in my life, mainly college, when I did not believe in painting my nails. It seemed like a big waste of time, and I figured it was completely useless when it came to attracting co-eds. As I matured (a little), I realized that keeping my nails well-manicured was actually kind of fun and did add to the overall effect of being a well-groomed professional. Recently, thanks to a lot of the great nail blogs out there, I've become a little obsessed with all of the fun nail colors. I dress in a fairly conservative, classic manner, and I don't play around much with makeup. But I love changing nail colors. I even like to play around with blues and greens and purples, although I save those primarily for my toes. Judging from my husband's reaction, I still don't think colorful nails are a big turn on for the guys. But I think it's a chance for us girls to have a little fun, maybe even be a little wild or adventurous. So today, I thought I'd share some of the shades I will be trying out the fall.

Chanel's Paradoxal is the must-have color of the season. I already got my hands on some, but haven't actually put it on my nails. It looks pretty purple, but reviewers are saying that it's a greige with a purple tint and a little bit of shimmer. I think this is color just screams fall, and I can't wait to try it out.

I've been eying this China Glaze teal that's called Shower Together for awhile. I love blue/green colors, and I've been wearing the China Glaze For Audrey, which is a light turquoise, this summer. Again this is a great fall shade, and even though my toes won't get as much air time with this color on my feet I will enjoy looking at my gorgeous pedicure every time I go to yoga class.

I'm always looking for a good neutral nail polish that I can put on in a hurry and won't clash with my outfit or my toes. The other day on the Beauty Counter I read that Gisele wears OPI Bubble Bath, so I decided to give it a try. It's very sheer similar to Essie's Mademoiselle. It's pretty nice if not exciting. I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I used to love Essie's Ballet Slippers, but then I kind of got tired of that whitish nail look. So if you have any suggestions for a great everyday nail polish drop me a line.

If you love nail polish or think you could start, check out All Lacquered Up. If you really don't want to get hooked on the latest polish colors, stay away!

A Little Slice of Relaxation in the Middle of My Family Vacation

For those of you who don't have kids, you probably think of vacation as a time to relax. For those of with kids, vacation can be as much work (or more) than our actual jobs. I love my kids, but they can be a real handful. And when we're all holed up together for hours in the minivan and then in a hotel room, it can be almost too much togetherness. So I was really excited to find out that there was easy spa access on my most recent family vacation.

We went to the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City, KS. It's a super fun hotel and huge indoor/outdoor water park. The kids, of course, had a blast, and I enjoyed a few trips down the Triple Twist water slide myself. But my mom and I did manage to sneak in pedicures at the on-site Elements Spa Salon. It was a small, but nice little Aveda Concept spa, that offered facials, mani/pedis and massages. (I wish I had scheduled in a massage after running after my kids all day, although I did sneak in some time at the adults-only hot tub in the water park.) There was a small relaxation room for waiting. I was offered water, but they didn't have tea or snacks available. My nail technician did a good job on the pedicure. My feet felt super smooth and my polish looked great. (I went with OPI Strawberry Margarita.) They carried mainly OPI. I think I saw one Essie polish.

They also have a Scoop Kids Spa for 4-12 year olds. I have boys, so I really don't know what to think about the whole kids spa thing. For pre-school and even young elementary kids it seems a little weird to me, but I can't really explain why. And I have to admit that I have painted my 4-year old son's nails quite a bit. He thinks it looks cool, and he really doesn't think of it as being a girl thing. He go for the blue or green polishes though.

Anyway, I would definitely give my experience a thumbs up.I think it's great that the Great Wolf Lodge provides a place to take a break amidst all of the buzz and craziness of the family activities. And next time I will make sure to schedule a massage!

My New Favorite Hand Cream: love + toast

I don't have a lot of time to post this week. Going on a short trip with the fam, and somehow I have managed to misplace my swimsuit. Maddening!

Anyway, I did want to give a quick review of the love + toast gin blossom hand cream I picked up the other day. I saw this at a local shop and the packaging was so cute that I couldn't resist. And I'm glad I didn't. The scent is great but not overpowering. I have to say that I love a good G&T, so I loved this combination of gin with a nice floral scent. This cream is also nicely moisturizing without being overpowering. Only downside is that it doesn't have any SPF. I really don't know why all hand creams don't have SPF. When I am the ruler of the world, they will! Actually, I've been using my facial moisturizer with SPF on my hands, and I have been using this cream to refresh my feet before I go to yoga class. There are some other great scents, like Sugar Grapefruit and Mandarin Tea, that I'd love to try out too. Also, love + toast supports Girls, Inc., which provides vital educational programs to millions of American girls, particularly those in high-risk, underserved areas. Love that!

OK, now I'm off to buy a new swimsuit. Ugh!

P.S. Thanks to The Simply Luxurious Life for the link to A Spa Life in her newsletter. Make sure and get on her mailing list!

I Don't Want No Scrubs

Ok, the title of my post is a little harsh. But when I saw a post on Daily Beauty Reporter about the importance of body scrubs if you want celebrity-style glowing skin, it reminded me that I've been neglecting my exfoliation. Courtney over at Beauty to the People mentioned recently that even though she's a beauty editor, she never uses masks. So I think we all have our beauty steps that we prefer to skip. Mine is the body scrub.

I actually own the Soap & Glory Body Scrub pictured above. And really it's a pretty good scrub. It comes in a super-cute package, has a nice scent and seems to do the job. But I still almost never take the time to use it. I guess I just don't feel like my skin is that desperately in need of being scrubbed, although I am probably wrong about that.

If you do love a good body scrub, which one do you love? Fresh Brown Sugar and Origins Ginger seem to get a lot of press. I do love the smell of the Origins Ginger.

What beauty steps do you read about but never get around to actually doing?