December 2016 | Favorites

Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe another year is in the books. I think 2015 was a great year for me and I am excited to see what 2016 has in store. Hopefully my blog gains a lot more followers too! Here are some of my favorite products from December.

Philosophy Back to Nurture Oil Gelee

I have to write about his product first because I am blown away by how great it has been. Over Thanksgiving weekend I stopped at Ulta in hopes of finding a good serum. I tried two Clinique serums which both caused breakouts. I usually don’t impulse buy skincare products, but I saw this gelee next to Philosophy’s Take A Deep Breath moisturizer which I love in the summer months. An Ulta salesperson said the gelee was a new product, so grabbed it.

The Back to Nurture Oil Gelee is meant to give your skin serious hydration. It is a light weight oil (lighter on your skin than coconut oil) that you can apply morning and night. I started by applying it only at night to make sure I didn’t breakout. For the past month I have been using this product twice a day and I LOVE it. My skin, especially my t-zone, gets very dry in the winter. This product has kept my skin so hydrated without causing breakouts. I have seen a tremendous improvement in my skin overall. Since using this product my skin looks brighter and more plump. I have even noticed improvement in the appearance of dry lines. My makeup also applies nicely over this product. The only downside of this product is the price. I’ve gone through almost half a bottle in one month. Also, like many Philosophy product this one has a scent, but it is very mild.

OGX Eucalyptus Mint Shampoo

As I have mentioned in previous posts, my skin and scalp get dry in the winter. The crown of my head always seems to be dry and itchy. I started using this Eucalyptus Mint Shampoo a few months ago and love it. My scalp has barely been itchy. I usually wash my hair twice week, which definitely helps to combat dryness. OGX is frequently on sale at Ulta which makes it a great buy.

BareMinerals Deluxe Original Mineral Foundation

Around the holidays, BareMinerals offers a deluxe size original foundation. It is a great value if you regularly use this product. It is more than twice the size of the standard package, but not twice the price. The original foundations last for a long time. The special holiday packaging is really pretty too. I have actually found the foundation from the deluxe foundation to be sitting better on my skin. Sometimes you just need new, fresh product!

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Vanilla Bean Noel Lotion

I haven’t been able to get enough of Bath & Body Works Vanilla Bean Noel holiday lotion. It is light and delicious. Early in December I took advantage of a Bath & Body Works sale and coupons. I keep a bottle of this lotion in my room and on my desk at work. The holiday scents are on sales now, so it’s a great time to stock up.

VS Iced Cranberry Winter Plum Body Spray

A few years ago I got Victoria Secret’s Iced Cranberry Winter Plum Body Spray in my stocking. I LOVE this scent and always get compliments when I wear it. It is light and fruity without being over powering. Unfortunately, this holiday scent has been discontinued. My mom found it on Amazon, so I had a nice surprise in my stocking last week!

xo Miss Alyss

California Gluten-Free Guide: LA

Along our trip from San Diego to San Fran, my boyfriend and I made a quick stop in Los Angeles to visit a friend for a night. Although it was great getting to see our friend, we did not plan this portion of our trip well. We were also visiting during a heatwave, which didn’t make for ideal sight seeing conditions. Hopefully I can offer some tips and help you make better use of your time while in the LA area. My #1 tip is to make a plan, don’t wing this portion of your trip. There is so much to see in LA that it can be overwhelming. The night we were there, we narrowed our plans down to two options; a Mumford and Sons concert or the more touristy option of seeing the Santa Monica Pier. I kind of felt like we could have seen Mumford and Sons in NY and I wasn’t sure that we would visit LA again, so I decided we should go to Santa Monica. After sitting in LA traffic for over an hour, I realized that I had not made the right call. When in doubt, go to the concert!

EVO Kitchen

While in LA, we stopped at EVO Kitchen on Sunset Boulevard for lunch. EVO is completely gluten-free friendly and offers a large variety of options. They also have gluten-free beer. Although the pizza looked delicious, I opted for a salad. We enjoyed our meal and I would have went back for a second time to try the pizza, but we were in LA for less than 24 hours.

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

From San Diego to LA, one of my favorite frequent stops was to The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I loved that they offered almond milk! At home, the only place I can find coffee with almond milk is Dunkin Donuts. In addition to almond milk, they offer gluten-free instant oatmeal. When I’m not traveling I make fresh oatmeal almost every morning for breakfast, so after 5 days of not having oatmeal I was thrilled to find some at The Coffee Bean.

The Line Hotel

While in LA we stayed at The Line Hotel and I would definitely recommend it to others. The Line is an awesome boutique hotel with an urban feel. I loved how unique it was. It was like no hotel I’ve ever stayed at. Every room has a huge window with a view of the city and a comfortable bed. We also got a great price on Expedia. To top it off, we saw a member of Portugal. The Man in the elevator.

Do you have any gluten-free recommendations for LA? Leave them in the comments below!

Hello world!

After a so-so attempt at starting my first blog (theclassycollegebook.com and .blogspot.com) I have decided to create this blog to share two aspects of my life; my fascination with beauty products and my love/hate relationship with a gluten-free lifestyle. You may think this makes for a strange combo, but hey it’s my blog, not yours! My posts will be FULL of my favorite beauty products and FREE of gluten. Hopefully someone out there other than my mama enjoys reading these posts 🙂 xo Miss Alyss