what’s the deal with sulfate free shampoo?

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As an adult, we make a lot of decisions in our life. From picking out our outfit for work in the morning, what we are making for dinner, and what type of car insurance we commit too. The last thing I want to do is stand in the shampoo aisle and pick out a shampoo. I know it seems silly, but do you realize how many options there are??? Luckily, I have been blessed by having companies send me shampoos or coupons towards them to try the last few months ,so I haven’t had to make that type of commitment.

I have been coloring my hair for about a decade, so picking the right shampoo is important to preserve my hair color and keep its shine.  My day is always significantly better when I am having a good hair day. I get compliments daily on my hair even when it is dirty and I have used an entire can of dry shampoo! My shiny, healthy and full head of hair is possible because I take reallly good care of my hair. Even after using heat tools almost daily, my hair shows little damage because I take care of it. This month, I am using Garnier Whole Blends shampoo to give my hair a break from chemicals and have pure, clean hair.

Switching to a sulfate-free shampoo is a good move for anyone who wants to keep their hair healthy, full and shiny especially if you color your hair. Sulfate-free shampoo preserves your natural hair oils leaving it feeling softer that when you use shampoos that strip your hair of good and bad oils. The only negative is that without the sulfates (which helps create the extra bubbles to help lathering easier) it is a bit difficult to wet my hair and scrub my hair with its normal amount of shampoo. I make two squirts of shampoo, one for on top of my head and another at my neck to make sure I wash all of my hair.

Sulfate-free shampoos can help to make your hair smoother, repairing dry, damaged hair, especially color treated hair. If you use a lot of hair products or always have greasy hair, try switching to a sulfate free shampoo. The shampoo can help strip away gunk left over from all of those products, but also keep the natural oils that keep your hair healthy, while getting rid of the oil that makes your hair greasy. This is a miracle worker for frizzy hair because instead of relying on products to tame the frizz, sulfate-free shampoo keeps the natural oils on your hair to tame the frizz naturally. Frizzy hair is often caused by dry hair after a shampoo strips away good and bad oils. Finally, if you have thin hair this can help create some body for you. Instead of your hair being weighed down by products or because it is dry, sulfate-free shampoo gives you that healthy hair with a bit of volume.

I encourage you to grab a bottle the next time you are in the shampoo aisle! I am in loooove with the coconut one and it makes my hair smell amazing!

Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale

Published on by blonde rosieLeave a comment

aps2017_presale_top_mMark your calendars and set your alarms!

The Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale dates have been announced! The sale starts Monday, August 28th and ends on the 30th, leaving you plenty of time to shop and fill your closet with lots of bright colors!

Lilly rarely goes on sale, so don’t think twice and add it to your cart because items sell out fast.

How to shop:

Lilly Pulitzer understands how much traffic their website gets during this once a year sale. To prevent the site from crashing, they have you wait in a virtual waiting room before you get access to the website to shop. In the past you have had to wait hours to minutes to get in… it all depends on what time you shop. Once it is your turn to shop, you will then have access to the sale page.

Shopping Tricks from the Pros:

Set up an account now before the sale and enter your address and billing info. That way you don’t have to fuss with your credit card trying to check out. Even though your items may be in your cart, there is no guarantee they will not sell out by the time you check out. If there is something you like, order it and then go back to shop again. Make sure you are logged into your account before you start to browse. Also, know your size before the sale starts.If you can, run into a Lilly store to try things on or look in your closet at Lilly you already own.

Don’t feel like dealing with all of the waiting in line? The sale is on Monday, so while you are at your desk at work, have the website up so you can wait in the virtual line. The sale lasts for a few days, giving you plenty of time to shop. I was able to buy a dress in my size on the last day of the sale last year so don’t get caught up in the virtual waiting line.

lilly pulitzer after party sale how to

how millennials define success

Published on by blonde rosieLeave a comment

I am a month shy of my one year anniversary of working retail. A job that was supposed to be a short term job while I transitioned into another job. Whelp. It has been a year and I can actually say that I love my job and more doors are opening for me taking on more responsibility at work.  I know I am not the first to stalk my friends from college to see what they are doing, how they are doing. I think we define our success by comparing it to how our friends are doing. Where are they working? How much are they working? How many friends they have? What their Instagram says about them.

I scroll on Facebook at night and I see friends on cruises, living in New York City in a hip apartment, killing it at their job, or brunching on Sunday’s with really cool Instagram photos to prove it. When my friends and I get together, we get to goof off and laugh together. Pose for a picture or snap a picture of our food to Instagram to prove to our friends on social media that we still hang out. We also break down with the honest truth when we get asked how we are doing. It is nice to have a group of people in my life who listen when I admit that my life is not as glamorous as it is in my Instagram photos. We all graduated at the same time, but it is amazing to see that we are all on different paths. All accomplishing different things. We are all going through different stages of life

How I define success is not the same as how one of my friends defines success. A college friend of mine called me out of the blue. I was very concerned when I saw his name pop on my phone thinking something was wrong. The only communication we have had since graduation was the occasional snapchat, photo like or random text saying we miss each other. When I answered the phone, he asked me how I was doing. At first I started to say I was great, because that is what we all say right? We both started to tell each other how great we were doing…and then started to laugh because we started to roll off what was going wrong in our lives like a grocery list. Never ending.

When our parents were our age, success was defined differently. They wanted other things. They were buying houses, not spending all of their money on avocado toast ha!! Further proof, that what our parents had, what they want for us, is not what we may want for ourselves. Only we can define what success is.

I thought I would share how I define success on the blog. Since there is no true definition of success, it can be tricky to answer that for ourselves. Do we define it with our career? How Pinterest worthy our apartment is? How many friends we have? How many followers we have on Instagram?

When I graduated college, I took a job working for my town. Within months, I had picked up 4 other job titles, more responsibility came with respect. And I grew to hate it because while I worked my butt off, I wasn’t getting paid for the work I was doing. I put in my resignation and got a part time job working at a college as well as a job working retail to help pay my bills. So here I am a year later… and even though I am not as financially stable as I would like to be, I really do love my job.

When I was talking to my friend on the phone, he was doing very well as a project manager making good money. However, he was overwhelmed by the responsibilities he had causing him to dislike his job. It doesn’t matter how much money you make at a job, what matters most is if you like your job. We spend the majority of our life working so make sure you find a job that you love. Being financial stable is lovely, but make sure you like your job. Loving what you do motivates you to wake up in the morning, encourages you to grow and gives you a purpose.

While we scroll on Instagram, we compare ourselves to other people. I love social media for many reasons. A way to stay connected, to get inspired, the list goes on and on. It is also a place that has a lot of negativity. Something I have spent a lot of time on this past year is learning to love myself. It has been a very difficult challenge. One that has good days and bad days. But I know that I cannot have good relationships with others if I don’t love myself first. As I write this, I have a giant zit on my face, but I no longer allow superficial things like this get in my way. I have learned to become more independent, accepting that only I control my own happiness. With a bit of concealer, a whole lot of mascara and a cute outfit, I know that anything is possible!

A big source of my happiness comes from the friends I have in my life. I don’t need a lot of friends, I just need good people to surround myself with. I can be failing at life, but I know I will be okay when I have my people around me.

Understanding that plans don’t work out the way we plan and accepting that makes things a lot easier. I made plans…a lot of them. And none of them have gone as planned. I know that I will end up where I am supposed to be. I didn’t plan on being a manager at a J. Crew when I graduated from college. But I decided to stop trying to control everything, and just see how it all plays out. We cannot control our success. Our success is not on a map for us to see ahead of time. We have to just do our best, surround ourselves with good people, stop comparing ourselves to others and just do our best.

By having a healthy relationship with ourselves, we can have healthy relationships with the people around us. Success cannot be easily defined. Each stage in your life, success has to be redefined. Right now in my life success to me is finding good people to surround myself with. In a year or two, that definition of success will change. Let me know how you define success in the comments. I would love to know!

organizing a small closet

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A few weeks ago, I came home from work exhausted and literally tripped four times in my room because there was so much stuff on my bedroom floor. For the last month, we have had family visiting us, I have had a full work schedule and all of my free time has been spending time with the family. With all of this going on, my clean laundry pile and dirty laundry has been growing. My shopping bags of recent purchases have turned into clutter because I haven’t had a few free minutes to put it away.img_7313

I hope you joined me on my Insta Stories as I took you along on my closet cleaning. To start with, I have a very tiny closet. I spent about two hours taking everything out of my closet to clean it out and then using creative storage solutions to find ways for all of it to fit back in. Every few months I take everything out of my closet to find new ways to store things in my room. I have a full closet of clothing and shoes, but I am constantly taking garbage bags filled with clothes to Goodwill to donate. This isn’t my first post about organizing my room, and will definitely not be my last!  I have a very small closet, but need a lot to fit into it. If I can make everything look neat and have a place, I am positive you can too!

Here are some closet organizing tips I shared in my Insta stories. If you like posts like this, let me know in the comments so I can share more.

  1. Get Comfortable Put on comfy clothes, light a candle, put on a good Netflix show to get yourself in the mood to start a project like this. The most difficult part is getting started. Once you start cleaning your closet, you can’t really stop because your room will become a mess in the process ! HA! Make sure you have enough time set aside to do this.
  2. Take Everything Out of the Closet I find it helpful to take everything out of your closet to start with a clean closet with nothing in it. I color code all of my shirts on my bed, put all of my purses in a pile and shoes go in a bin. A new thing I have started to do is to separate my work clothes and casual clothes.
  3. Make Piles Once everything is on your bed (or floor) I start to make piles for items to donate, seasonal storage and things to keep. I also make a pile of my work wardrobe and my more casual stuff. I’ll explain this last part further down!
  4. Make sure you love it before you put it back in your closet… I make sure that I love it before I put it back in my closet. I also have rules like does it fit correctly? Have I worn it in the last year? If I haven’t worn it lately, why not? I also put a year rule on my clothes. If it is from high school – donate immediately. If it has been in my closet since college- think hard and find a good reason to justify keeping it.
  5. Work Wardrobe and Casual Clothes Since we spend more days a week wearing work clothes than the basic t shirt or leggings, I found ways to make more room in my closet. I only hang my clothes that I would wear to work and my casual t shirts and more weekend apparel is folded and put in a hanging closet organizer. Just by doing this I saved sooo much room in my closet. It is also very helpful because when I wake up tired in the morning, I know I can just grab a top and I can make a work outfit easily. And of course, my closet is organized by short sleeves and long sleeves and then by color.
  6. Invest in Good Hangers Before you hang a thing in your closet, go to Costco and buy felt lined hangers to replace all of your current hangers. It makes a closet look neat, prevents clothes from falling off hangers and it takes up less room in the closet.
  7. Organize Your Off Season Clothes I have my winter wardrobe in cardboard boxes and organized by style and by fall/winter. I also have written on them what is in them so I know what is in each box. Helpful when you are looking for that cozy cardigan but can’t remember what box it is in!
  8. Creative Storage I took a bookcase that went on top of a desk and put it in my closet to store work pants and jeans. On the bottom, I use boxes to store my sandals, leggings and sweatshirts. No matter how big or small your closet is, it is helpful to put a bookcase or other storage in your closet like I did to make the best use of your closet. img_7407

How to Have Better Mornings

Published on by blonde rosieLeave a comment

I am not and will never be a morning person. Unfortunately, every day that alarm goes off in the morning and I have to get out of bed. Why is it that our bed becomes like a soft cloud in the morning making it impossible to get out of it when that morning alarm goes off? I hate getting out of bed in the morning, but I also know that I don’t work well being rushed in the morning so I like to give myself at least an hour before I leave the house in the morning.

Here are some ways I have better mornings….

  • Eat Breakfast Even if it is a cup of coffee and some fruit, I need to eat something before I start the day. I will sit at my vanity and scroll on Instagram while I do my makeup. But taking a little time out of my morning for some me time allows me to wake up at a slow pace.
  • Make A To Do List The worst thing is going to bed at night and feeling like you have accomplished nothing. While I eat my breakfast, I make to do lists of things I want to complete that day. It gives me purpose, helps me plan out my day and it feels so good at night crossing things off my list.
  • Look At Your Planner To See The Day/Week Ahead How many times do we forget someone’s birthday, forget about that hair appointment we scheduled a month ago, or you look like a slob at work the day you have an important meeting. It is a good idea to at least peak at your planner before you leave the house to see what you have that day. I keep mine in my car and look at it before I go into the house at night and before I head to work in the morning.
  • Having an Organized Closet I would not be able to get out of the house on time if I did not have an organized closet. I know people roll their eyes and laugh at how organized my bedroom and closet are. But I know that I can wake up and put an outfit together because I know where everything is in my bedroom. I know I will never be late for work because I couldn’t find my other shoe!
  • Wake Up To A Clean Kitchen Before I go to bed every night, I clean my kitchen, start my dishwasher, and pick out a cute coffee mug and a K Cup ready for the next day. Again, one of those silly things overlooked, but waking up to a clean house allows me to easily get ready and get out of the house one time.
  • Start Your Week With A Fridge Full of Food I will stand in front of my fridge and open and close it hoping that new food will appear. It never does, but those weeks I don’t go food shopping ruin my morning. I have nothing to pack for lunch and only have a cup of coffee for breakfast. I like to buy food that are pre-made meals so I can grab and go.
  • Sleep! Set that alarm on your phone that tells you to go to bed and actually go to bed at a normal hour. Your morning and day will be ruined if you are tired all day.