This month’s theme for Ipsy was On the Wild Side. The leopard print bag is pretty cute, although honestly they could’ve used any bag or theme this month and I would’ve been happy because I finally am the owner of a NYX cream blush! Plus, because I referred two people last month, I also got a shiny BaubleBar bracelet! Not including the bracelet, I am pleased with four out of the five products which isn’t bad considering the contents of this month’s bag was a surprise like always.

For previous Ipsy bags I’ve received, check out this tag.

• NYX: Cream Blush in “Natural”
  The NYX Cream Blush offers radiant color for a dewy, sultry, long lasting finish.
  When I first decided I wanted to try out cream blushes, NYX’s cream blush was the first one I researched. However, my local makeup haunts generally don’t carry NYX and I didn’t want to splurge for online shipping, so I went with another company instead. Now, though, I finally have a NYX cream blush! Natural is a very, well, natural shade. It’s perfect for daytime and work appropriate wear, as it isn’t too deep or bright for my skintone.
• Cailyn: Line-Fix Gel Eyeliner in “Purple”
  The Cailyn Line-Fix Gel Eyeliner brushes on smooth and stays moist just long enough for wearers to perfect their look. Once dry, the gel is smudge-proof and waterproof for 24 hours. The highly concentrated pigment of the liner creates smooth lines and is safe for sensitive eyes.
  I’m a gel eyeliner lover through and through so I’m excited by this. I’m also very intrigued by the design of this gel eyeliner considering it has a built-in applicator! This should come in handy when traveling. I often wear purple eyeliner at night, so I’m happy to have received it in this color.
• Starlooks: Lip Pencil in “Nude”
  This creamy, moisturizing formula glides on softly to smooth lips and ensure lipstick stays in place, while extending its wear. Can also be used as an all-over, highly-pigmented lip color.
  I recently have come to the conclusion that I am not a lipstick girl because I need to line my lips before wearing any to prevent bleeding and I never do that. Unfortunate, since I do have a few pretty lipsticks. But now that I have a lip pencil, I can finally experiment a little bit with lipstick as long as I’m also armed with a lip brush.
• J.Cat Beauty: Sparkling Cream Palette in “Volta”
  The creamy texture allows the sparkle to be applied easily with an applicator onto your skin. This product should be used on the body and not on the eye area.
  This is the product I am mystified by. It’s designed like an eyeshadow palette, but it’s not for eyes. (Good, because I’d never wear glittery eyeshadow that had actual chunks of glitter in it.) So I guess this is a body glitter? I neeeeever wear body glitter… so I can either save this for Halloween, or hack it into nail polish colors. Hmm.
• Chella: Ivory Lace Highlighter Pencil
  Chella’s Ivory Lace Highlighter Pencil is a fresh and pretty neutral pencil that will brighten and visibly lift your eyes when lightly applied on the brow bone, dark circles, blemishes and red spots.
  I’ve got highlighters in lots of forms but surprisingly, I don’t have a highlighter pencil. This is something handy to add to my stash! I’ll probably use this most to highlight my brow bone.

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This is a pretty bare bones chicken salsa verde recipe, but the day I made this I was short on time in the kitchen and ingredients so that suited me just fine. I’ll be remaking this soon and dressing it up a bit, perhaps with some extra spices or plain Greek yogurt and beans. Still, it’s just as good without any dressing up! Although by the looks of it, it’s not a very appealing dish when it’s in the actual slow-cooker. However, when it’s in your mouth it is very, very delicious. I can promise you that.

Ingredients

• 4 boneless chicken breasts
• 1 16 oz jar salsa verde
• 1 4 oz can green chiles
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken breasts. Place them in the slow-cooker.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the salsa verde and green chiles. Pour evenly over the chicken.
3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4. When done cooking, shred the chicken in the slow-cooker with a fork. Serve by itself or with rice.

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Unfortunately I won’t be able to eat any of it until later this week (if there are even leftovers!) as I am starting a juice cleansing regimen today. Ha! But of course, more about that later. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the wonderful company of those who I am making the strawberry rhubarb crisp for in the first place. Words cannot express how grateful I am that I will be spending time today with some of my favorite boys, particularly as today is Father’s Day – a day that has always been hard for me. (Partly why I reminisced about Mother’s Day in yesterday’s post, I think.)

Fashion
Clem talks about her frustrations with women’s vanity sizing. Just yesterday I was talking with a guy friend who said, “Women shouldn’t be blamed for how long they spend shopping because half the time they spend is just trying to figure out what size they are.” PREACH!

Life
The Asian Pear wonders if she’s worrying too much about the past and future to the point where she’s not enjoying the present.

Read and weep, T-Swift. Here’s the lyrics of “22″ rewritten so they actually reflect the lives of 22 year olds and not high schoolers.

Mandy shares her thought process during a recent moment of silence in yoga class.

Nicole writes a beautifully touching letter to her 18 year old niece on her 28th birthday.

A recent revelation about a former friend of mine made Girl Meets Debt’s post about a former friend of hers hit a little close to home.

Travel
NZ Muse asks: what kind of traveler are you? (Personally, I “travel” more than I “vacation.”)

The post Link Love, Vol. 21 appeared first on Break the Sky. Want to continue the conversation? Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Tough as thinking back on this and selecting a memory might be, I think the best $20 I ever spent was when I treated my mom to brunch on Mother’s Day the day after my college graduation.

It was a beautifully gorgeous day, with skies bluer than blue and not a cloud in sight. She had come all the way from Hong Kong to see me graduate and was my only family member present at my graduation, not including my “chosen” family of my best friend and G. I had just graduated magna cum laude and had several potential job offers in the works. And it was Mother’s Day; I wanted to treat her to something special on her day.

I took her to Open City, one of the best brunch locations in DC. In a city that is all about brunch, that says a lot! It was a wonderful brunch with delicious food and good conversation. There was also the knowledge that while I might have only been able to treat my mom sporadically before graduating college and landing a steady job, this post-graduation Mother’s Day brunch marked the turning point where the would change.

It’s such a positive memory and it was definitely money well spent. For that, that makes it the best $20 I ever spent.

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Blogs are also unlike books because whenever I discover a new blog, I’m smack in the middle of the ongoing “story.” Only once have I discovered a new blog and read all the way back to the very first post because I was riveted by the storytelling and writing involved (thanks, Tara.) I rarely, if ever, discover a blog that’s just begun, unless it’s by a friend who is restarting a blog or who I’ve known prior to the blog’s inception.

Perhaps it’s my innate curiosity or I’m inherently nosy, but from time to time I’ll go to my favorite blogs and click through the archives to read the first couple of posts. It’s partly to see if the blog has changed since then, but I also find it fascinating to see the ways that content or even writing style have shifted since then. I’m sure if you go back through my blog’s archives you’ll find that the content is drastically different – actually, I know this because I used to abide by a strict editorial calendar that involved Internet finds and movie reviews, both of which I haven’t written about in years.

I think the earliest archives of a blog can also provide a glimpse into the blogger’s character or personality as they tend to be less polished than the newer posts. After a while, most bloggers begin to develop a “blogging voice” and have a sense of what type of content to write about and what their readers would be most interested in. Consciously or not, this can affect the way a blog is written over time. But in the very beginning, all of that is stripped away to just the blogger and his or her words. That’s what I find the most fascinating about the earliest archives of any given blog, I think.

And now that I’ve presumably piqued your interest about what some of my earliest posts were about on Break the Sky, here’s a few:

• Back to Blogging (my very first post!)
• How Many Countries Can You Name in 5 Minutes? (looks like the website’s changed it from five minutes to 12)
• When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be… (I was still minoring in French at the time)
• Leggings and Tights Are Not Pants (I still abide by this belief)
• Naked in Chicago (I found clothes on a Chicago sidewalk)

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Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business.

For the better half of the last year, I have struggled with acne-prone skin. A combination of a lot of factors, both internal and external, triggered a lot of hormonal and stress-related acne. That, combined with either ineffective products or ones that made my skin react poorly, meant that I was constantly battling breakouts in some form or another. After a certain point, I resigned myself to the fact that breakouts would most likely always be a part of my life. I might not be able to eliminate them completely, but at the very least I wanted to find a skincare routine that would reduce my acne.

I tried a lot of things, some of which worked better than others, and some which didn’t work for me at all. I saw an aesthetician when I was in Hong Kong last December and she advised me to switch whatever products I used for my “base” when putting on makeup, as it was clogging my pores. That helped immensely. I used Clinique 3-Step for a while but came to the conclusion that while it might not have been harming my skin, it wasn’t helping. The aesthetician I saw in DC confirmed that, so after my first trip to see her I headed to Sephora to seek out the assistance of a sales associate.

That Sephora salesgirl knew her stuff, let me tell you. After asking me about my skin and my skincare habits, she pointed me in the direction of the products that, with regular use and the remaining acne-clearing facials I received, have done wonders in clearing up my skin and eliminating my acne altogether.

Morning
In the morning, I cleanse my face with Murad Time Release Acne Cleanser. I follow up with Boscia Clear Complexion Treatment and Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel. For my eyes, I swipe some of Simple Revitalizing Eye Roll-On and dab some of Neutrogena Clear Face Sunscreen in SPF 30 all over.

Night
I use LUSH Ultrabland cleanser to break down both face and eye makeup. With my Clarisonic and the acne brush head, I use Murad Clarifying Cleanser to wash my face. I follow up with Murad Exfoliating Acne Treatment Gel. I moisturize with Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief. My night eye cream is Shiseido White Lucent Anti-Dark Circles Eye Cream. For spot treatment, I either use Neutrogena On-the-Spot Acne Treatment, The Body Shop tea tree blemish gel, or Murad acne spot treatment.

I also like to rotate through face masks and use them once or twice a week depending on my mood and what my skin is like on a particular given day. However, that’s for a whole other post!

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• Hoard boxes ahead of time.
  People generally have some kind of advance notice as to when they will need to move, so use that time to hoard boxes. If you’re an online shopping addict, save all the boxes your items get shipped in. Ask around to see if anyone’s got some boxes to spare. Maybe your office has some flattened storage boxes that you could use!
• Pack all of your daily necessities, a spare change of clothes, and extra pairs of clean underwear in a small, separate bag.
  If you’re like me and it might take you several days (at least!) to get fully unpacked, have everything you will need in the interim in a separate bag. I packed a small rollie suitcase with a couple change of clothes, lots of clean underwear, and my toiletries. This way, even if I hadn’t gotten to unpacking all of my clothes or shower stuff, I had what I needed for the next couple of days on hand and could feel like a human being even if the rest of my stuff was yet to be unpacked.
• Invest in a measuring tape.
  Measuring tapes aren’t expensive and can make a world of difference when you’re trying to figure out how to arrange your furniture. Is there anything more frustrating than lugging a heavy dresser into a corner of your apartment that you were convinced would fit but is too big by just 2-3 inches? I didn’t think so. Measure your furniture and your living space prior to moving in – and then get creative with pen and paper (plus some math).
• Pack boxes by category.
  Unpacking and locating your stuff will be much easier when you’ve packed by category. A box for clothes, a box for cookware, a box for toiletries… you get the picture. It will be much easier to organize your stuff in your new place when you haven’t got books, shampoo, utensils, and picture frames all in the same box.
• Trash bags are cheap, useful and convenient. Take advantage of them.
  I ran out of good-sized boxes so I turned to my suitcases and trashbags to store my clothes and bedding. Obviously, items like my dinner plates had to go in a box so they wouldn’t get smashed during the move. But bundling up my bedding in a trash bag saved me a box or two and nothing was worse for wear because of it.

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Still, tired or not my plan for today is to tackle the last of my unpacking and to get my apartment in tip top shape. Considering my feelings towards unpacking and my (extremely lackluster) record with unpacking in a timely manner, I’ve impressed myself with how much unpacking I’ve done in the week or so I’ve been in my new apartment. What I have left to unpack is going to pose more of a challenge than what I’ve already sorted because now I need to figure out where these last few items should go. But once I have that figured out, my next steps will be hanging up my photos and pictures!

Family
Pear’s empty nest syndrome mother made me LOL.

Life
In light of her upcoming transatlantic move, Aisy talks about familiarity.

Leslie talks about what it’s like after a year of not having Facebook or a smartphone.

In light of the recent June 4 anniversary, Yu Hua writes about the spirit of May 35th.

Relationships
I love Peter’s Future Wife series, and this kick butt version is no different.

When writing their wedding vows, Jordann and her fiance vowed not to love each other unconditionally – something that definitely made me consider a new perspective!

Travel
Coming home after going away for travel is usually harder than anticipated.

Because Hong Kong is, and always will be, the city that has captured my heart. (Thanks Chantelle for linking me to this!)

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When I was in San Francisco last month for work, I had a free evening. I relished the opportunity this presented for me to explore the city on my own (and to shop at Uniqlo!) but this also posed a challenge for me when it came to my evening meal. Undaunted, I decided to embrace the opportunity and treat myself to a nice meal for my first proper experience eating alone in a restaurant.

I picked Puccini and Pinetti as my restaurant of choice and ordered the following:

My complimentary starter was bread with a side of olive oil, sundried tomato and capers, all of which was delicious.

My drink was a glass of prosecco.

My appetizer was a butter lettuce salad with herb vinaigrette, strawberries, toasted almonds and feta cheese.

My main course was grilled salmon California, served on a bed of whole grain wild rice and alongside grilled asparagus. (Ignore the fact that I took a knife to my salmon before I realized I hadn’t yet taken a photo. Clearly I’m not very good at food photography.)

My dessert was valrhona truffle cake with a warm chocolate truffle center topped with vanilla gelato. Unfortunately I forgot to snap a pic as I wanted to make sure I had a chance to eat the gelato before it all melted into the gooey cake! It looked pretty much just like this photo, though.

Ultimately I think eating alone at a restaurant was a rewarding experience for me simply because it was a novelty. There’s something to be said to for being seated in a corner of a restaurant right before rush and see how the place transforms as diners will the room and orders start flooding in. I’m always fascinated by stories G tells me from his days as a waiter, so my experience on dining alone allowed me to feel like a fly on the wall during a bustling Saturday evening dinner rush.

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I’ve always been told that friends are the family you choose and that’s true in many respects. I made lifelong friends at university and in my abroad program, with some of my closest ones people I would consider to be my brothers or sisters. It’s a logical step because during my four years of my degree, I spent far more time with my friends than I did with my family since I moved to a different city for university and lived on campus (or off-campus with friends in shared housing).

Now, though, I work full-time. Like with any full-time job, I’m spending a minimum of 40 hours a week in the office, although it’s usually more than that since that’s the nature of public relations. This means that since starting to work full-time, the people I spend most of my time with are no longer family or friends but instead are my colleagues.

This past year has been a trying year, with the last month of May more so than the rest. Since working for my current employer, I’ve had to adjust to being in a long-distance relationship and plan and save for trips to Asia to visit my mom and G. I’ve had to cope with the heartache and sadness and jet lag that comes with the return of a vacation to see loved ones. In the past month alone, I’ve had to juggle coordinating moving apartments, adjusting to jet lag and the emptiness in my heart after returning from Taiwan, and doing my part in the office for the various tasks and projects we had going on in the office in addition to traveling to San Francisco for work. Needless to say, that’s meant that the month of May did a real number on me, mentally and physically.

I know that I am incredibly fortunate to have a supportive workplace and colleagues who are there for me to reach out to in times of need. It hasn’t been lost on me that during my most trying month yet, my colleagues stepped up their support and offered their help and advice for both work-related and personal issues. Which leads me to think that in addition to friends, colleagues are also the family you inadvertently choose.

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