Hi everyone.
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
It's Aileen.
Today I want to share
some favorites from July.
It's basically my travel edition favorites
because I was traveling for most of the month.
If you don’t follow me on Instagram
and you don't know what's been going on, I basically went on a huge road trip
through Europe with my family.
We were there for almost three weeks.
We started in Paris for a few days and then we drove all the way
across ten different countries, and then we made a loop
and went back to Paris for another few days.
It was a huge trip:
fourteen family members in a big Asian tour bus, and it was quite a trip for the memories.
My first favorite is gonna be my gel nails I got done right before the trip.
Let me tell you the story about these nails.
I ordered foreign currency to pick up at the bank.
So when I went to pick it up at the bank, the teller had these bomb nails.
They just looked so magical.
They were so sparkly.
And I had to compliment her on it.
After I complimented her, we just made conversation and eventually she told me
where she got it done.
And right after that meeting, I booked an appointment
to get nails done at the place that she got it done.
And I wanted the same exact nails
because I just loved them so much that I was like, "Why not?"
So I went to that place to get my nails done.
I'll post a link and address down below.
Basically I get them done by this really sweet woman named Stacy.
And it's so cute because she only speaks a little bit of English and she speaks mostly
Chinese,
so it was a good opportunity for me to practice my Chinese.
We were only speaking Chinese.
She was doing my nails, and after I got them done, I was staring at them for days.
Literally, I kept doing this and looking at my hand every few minutes
just because they were so pretty and I loved them so much.
They're just so sparkly and simple, but unique, if you know what I mean.
I don't normally do gel nails.
I haven't done gels in over a year, I'd say,
because I normally just wear natural nails or press-on nails.
But going on a trip that's like three weeks long, I knew that I wanted to get gel nails
because gels are really sturdy.
Even now, after my trip, it's been four weeks
and my nails are still intact even though I have nail growth.
So yeah, I think,
when you're traveling, my best option for nails is to get gel nails
because if I'm wearing natural nails–carrying the luggages and doing all the stuff
you do when you travel, most likely your nails are gonna break
or something's gonna go wrong.
Or even, at the very least, your nail polish is gonna chip
and who has time to do nails when you're traveling?
Next, I'm moving on to some travel favorites in skincare.
Whenever I travel,
I try to keep my skincare products to a minimum.
I don't want to bring too many products,
so I usually stick to one cleanser, one makeup remover, and one moisturizer.
Sometimes I'll throw in an eye cream or something.
For this trip, my main moisturizer–
the only moisturizer that I brought–was this one.
It's the Pacifica Coconut Probiotic Cream.
I got this at Target.
I think it's pretty inexpensive, if I do remember correctly.
And it's vegan, cruelty-free, all that good stuff.
And it's just a simple, basic cream
that you can wear day, night.
It's really just simple.
I like it because it feels hydrating.
The hydration stays longer than other creams because this one's a little on the thicker
side.
And it's really good enough.
It's all I need.
When I'm traveling,
I don't want to bring all my products, like a toner, serum, essence, whatever.
At home, I pack on the layers, but when I'm traveling, I definitely try to keep it
as simple as possible.
This is all that you need: anything to make your skin not feel so dry.
The cleanser that I brought for this trip was this Skinesque Enzyme Washing Powder.
I love it and wanted to mention it because it's a powder, so you don't have to
think about being under the liquid requirements for TSA.
Because it's a powder,
it passes.
I definitely like it because it's a brightening cleanser.
Your face definitely feels brighter the next day after you wash it with this.
And it cleanses your face without stripping it too much.
You don't feel super dry.
You don't feel like there's too many chemicals involved.
It really feels okay.
I do want to note that this is a cleanser and not a makeup remover,
so I wouldn't recommend you use this to try to take off eyeliner and mascara.
I brought a makeup remover and then after I took off my makeup,
I would use this to do the second cleanse and that was good enough for me.
My next favorite is this backpack that I got right before my trip.
My qualifications for a travel bag is just any bag that can fit my DSLR camera.
I bring–let me get this.
I bring my Sony with me when I travel and, as you can tell,
it has a really big lens.
This is the 24-70.
This is a zoom lens.
I like to be able to zoom
when I'm taking travel photos and videos.
So it's very versatile, but it's also very big.
And it's hard for me to find a cute bag that fits this camera.
So for the longest time,
I didn't have a bag that could actually fit this camera.
And a few days before my trip,
I came across this backpack.
I got it at the most random place.
It was a stand in a Chinese supermarket, right in front of the Chinese food court.
There's a food court that I go to, to get Hainan chicken, amazing Hainan chicken.
If you guys are ever in San Gabriel, I'll post the name and the address down below.
There's this stand where this lady's selling all these bags,
and that's where I spotted the backpack.
It was only $23 which I think is pretty cheap for a bag.
Once I saw it, I saw that it was big enough for my camera.
And I like the color.
It just felt right.
I'm just really happy that I found a bag because I just wanted something cheap
because I don't want to wear anything too expensive when I'm traveling
because it could get lost or stolen, whatever.
But also, a bag that could not only fit my camera
but it could also go with every single outfit that I could possibly wear on my trip.
Something very versatile that would look good on Instagram, all that criteria.
This bag fits it all, so that's why it was my favorite.
Alright, that's it for my favorites for the month of July.
Thanks so much for watching.
Let me know if you have questions about anything in the comments.
And also: Let me know your music suggestions.
I love it when you guys suggest new music
so that I can add any cool new songs to my summer Spotify playlist.
I'll link that playlist down below because yeah, it's still summer.
I'll see you guys next time.
Love you all.
Bye!