What I made:

Korean fried chicken. Let me know if you want the recipe!

June 20th OOTD—Rainy Day edition

My grandma’s apartment is my dream place.

Plants and flowers can’t survive with me; I do not have a green thumb. Apparently air plants are super easy.

Do any of you have air plants and is it true? Are they friendly for non-green thumbers?

The Fear of Trying and Succeeding

I have a tattoo on my wrist that I got a few days before the end of group therapy. It’s silly and probably stupid to anyone that doesn’t know me, didn’t see the hell I walked through during the program. I get it. Even I look at it and think, “if it didn’t carry so much weight, it’s probably a little silly.”

It doesn’t matter what people think of it. Like all of the tattoos I have and maybe for others that have tattoos too (though I’m not speaking for them), I don’t care what people think of my tattoos. In fact, most of the time, tattoos are so normalized (in my reality) that I’m shocked when I find out someone doesn’t have any tattoos. Or I’m taken aback when people stare or glare at me. (Yes, I’ve had someone actually turn around in their seat at a restaurant to glare at me. Priceless.)

 

I should explain quickly how group therapy was organized. There were twelve of us in our phase and we had therapy altogether for three out of the four groups. The last group we were split into two groups and had others from different phases join us. Confusing? I hope not.

The last group was a free for all; it was called Insight and we all just talked about what was going on in our heads, lives, emotions and feelings. Or sometimes we talked about nothing at all; the therapists hated when we did that. But movies are important too, right?

KAJA Heart Melter Lip Gloss Stick Hunny Bun Review

 

Can we all just admit at this point that I love KAJA as a brand and their products? The thing is, every product I’ve tried from them is good. Beyond a mere ‘good’. Yes, I admit, I love the brand’s aesthetics and packaging (my gosh, the packaging!) but the product itself is deserving of their ratings.

 

So what is a Heart Melter Lip Gloss Stick? A super long product name (I guess we all fall susceptible to long-winded titles and names, right?) for a lip balm/gloss. I don’t consider it a lip gloss, probably because I think of lip glosses as…well, gloopy. I want to call this a lip balm but what’s the difference? If I go ham and call everything a lip balm, where will the madness end? I don’t know but I do know I am not going to open up that debate.

Kaja makes cute products, let’s just get that out of the way, even before I start the review. That way, the review won’t be filled with, “so cute”, “the aesthetics”. Cool? Okay, cool.

 

Onto the review!

Coming home, Coming Back to Myself.

| April 2018 | June 2019 |

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I’ve come a long way–survived hell and back, and back again–to finally end up here.

I mentioned before but for three years, I was in an abusive and toxic situation/relationships. It was soul-crushing and destructive. I worked hard in group therapy to re-wire my broken mind and I’m still struggling with the ramifications of leaving the situation behind me.

Even before those three years, since the winter of 2015 (when I was first diagnosed with having bipolar disorder), my life started to crack at the seams. Until finally, my life fell apart, myself with it.

I fell so hard and like Alice, I tumbled down, down, down the rabbit hole, free falling for years until group therapy. There, I learned how to climb out of hell, only leaving it behind after I walked through it.

eBay Haul!

You know it’s bad (your eBay addiction) when your mail person laughs at the number of packages.

Kaja Mochi Glow Bouncy Highlighter Toy Alien Review

 

Prepare for an influx of KAJA product reviews. Remember my KAJA stash? It’s taken me a while to actually sit down and write these reviews, despite using most, if not all, of these products already (more than once). Toy Alien I’ve used almost every day. It’s just that good.

I saw some reviews from people (on Sephora) saying this highlighter isn’t “blinding” and I don’t want to be rude but this isn’t that type of highlighter. I’m so over with the blinding highlighter and Neapolitan ice cream look of unblended highlighter, blush and bronzer (basically the Instagram fads). Give me a natural, radiant, unassuming, subtle and glowing, glassy face.

I like highlighters that aren’t intensely pigmented but with a quick swipe, will give you a glow you can either sheer down or build up. BECCA makes fantastic highlighters though I only use Opal (when I’m not using this highlighter) because it’ll give me a healthy glow without me looking like a glazed doughnut.

But are you wondering if this highlighter is perfection or has a few flaws? Want to find out?

Onto the review!

Holika Holika Makgeolli Brightening Sheet Mask Review

Hello, today I’m going to be reviewing Holika Holika’s Makgeolli Brightening Sheet Mask. I was so excited to try this out, mainly because of the fermented rice wine (makgeolli) and the fact that fermented/probiotics are apparently good for the skin.

The day I ordered this mask from eBay, I received a this as a free gift from a generous eBay seller (when I opened my mail). How nice is that? So did it live up to my expectations? Did my face thank me?

Onto the review!

Momentously Small: Wearing a Skirt

If you’ve read my post about finally being okay, after all of these years, then you know I’m trying to come alive and be present in my own life. For the most part, it’s working. Other days, I fall back into my old ways but I catch myself, each time, which is the most important part.

Since the last two weeks of group therapy, I’ve started to dress differently. In grade 8, something happened and I changed how I dressed. I used to wear clothes that fit me, skirts, t-shirts; I wasn’t ashamed of my body, I wasn’t disgusted with it. Then grade 8 happened and I couldn’t bear to wear skirts anymore. Dresses, yes but they had to be long and my clothing, for the most part, had to be loose fitting and baggy.

So I always wore clothing that was two or three sizes too big and wondered why I was so fat. I didn’t like when my clothing hugged my body, with all of the messages I heard growing up (I was fat, I was ugly, I needed to diet. I had any bulges painfully pinched and laughed at), maybe I really was disgusting and gross.