What's in my traincase...

So there is this great new site called TRAINCA.SE. It's kind of like if your makeup bag had a baby with pinterest. It is a gigantic catalog of every beauty product ever that you use to create your "traincase." Then you and your friends can show what products you're using and how much you love (or don't love) them. It's really fun to play around on, and there are now currently about a million nail polishes I need in my life. 

You can find all the info on the products above by visiting my page here. Most of it is self-explanatory, but I want to talk about two specific items. First, the YSL primer is AMAZING. I never bought into the idea of primer because I just saw it as one more layer of stuff on my face that will later mix with my face oils and look gross. Then someone at Saks convinced me to try this one by YSL and it blew my mind. It makes your skin so silky that your foundation just glides on and rubs in so easily. And when you wear foundation about five times a year like me, it lasts forever. Second, the Trish McEvoy Intense Gel Eyeliner pencil is the single best beauty product I have ever owned. I never wear makeup without eyeliner and mascara. I have small eyes and invisible eyebrows, so I need all the eye definition I can get. I don't have the precision to apply liquid eyeliner, but this pencil is so creamy that it goes on like gel. Also, it "sets" very quickly and won't get smudged around throughout the day. Buy it now. Trust me.

So check it out and add me as your friend. I want to know what beauty products you're using that I need to waste money on. 

Love,

Lauren

Curls yall...

Giving unsolicited advice is one of my strengths, but what I want to share with yall today is too life changing to even consider keeping it to myself. I have always been pretty good with hair. I attribute half of this to the fact that my mom literally doesn't even know how to make a braid, so I always had to rely on myself for whatever goofy hair stuff I wanted to do as a little girl. I bought a hairbraiding book in 2nd grade and practiced on my barbies before doing it to myself. I even gave myself hair wraps at one point. And honestly, they were damn good. 

My entire life, I feel like I have been in search of the perfect curl. I've tried everything from a curling iron, to hotrollers, to the flat iron. Each method has it's strengths and weaknesses, but I always knew there was something better out there. 

Then I came across this. It's a devastatingly simply way to curl your hair that results in a wavy look. But for some reason, the curls hold really well. My hair is soft and fine, and it can't hold curl at all unless I straight up Toddlers & Tiaras the hell out of it. 

WATCH THIS...

The results...

I used only a little bit of hairspray at the end, and it pretty much held all night. Then I slept with it in a pony tail and it STILL looked pretty good this morning. (The hair looked good, not me). 

You may still have some questions. Like why are you wearing makeup? How did you have time to shower? Well last night was an oil field event for Tom and Henry's first night with a non-grandma babysitter. It sounds like he did great, and the babysitter said he fell asleep in 30 seconds. I couldn't be more proud. SLEEP TRAINING WORKS, YALL! And speaking of that, tonight we're going to put him to sleep upstairs in his crib for the first time. We've been avoiding it because of convenience, but I'm ready to have our bedroom back and sleep in a room without a white noise machine. Plus, the dogs have woken him up a couple times in the past few weeks. Wish us luck!

Love,

Lauren

My first mom badge...

Mom hair. This Saturday I cut about 5 inches off my hair. I still can't really believe I did, as I am overly passionate about long hair. My feelings are that if your hair is long, then you don't have to do anything to it because it's... long. And that's the "look." Long hair works especially well for people like me who don't like to dry their hair and prefer to wear it in a pony tail most of the time. I also feel that I need to exercise my right as a free woman to flaunt long locks.

But then Henry started grabbing it and throwing up in it. I've had to rise it out in the sink a couple times. It was so long that even when it was pulled back, it hung down so far that he was constantly latching on to it with his little monkey hands.

Bye bye pretty hair...

Hello slightly less cool but infinitely more comfortable hair...

This is the shortest my hair has been since... maybe sophomore year of college? It took about 5 years to grow my hair out that long, so this is a big adjustment. I realize it's not really that short or anything, but I feel like I'm bald... Little Edie style. Time to invest in some brightly colored head scarves. If you get that reference, go ahead and consider us best friends.

Love,

Lauren

PS - My first mom badge might actually be when I tried on a pair of pants of Chico's. They looked terrible, just as expected.

Some BODY that I used to know...

I know you're tired of hearing it, but I want to catch you up on some body that I used to know.

Ironically, at the beginning of the year, in the midst of a strong a commitment to crossfit and the paleo diet, I decided to enter a body makeover contest with Oxygen Magazine. I took a lot of measurements and had Thomas take a bunch of "before" photos. Like the next day, I found out I was pregnant. If there was any part of me that kind of freaked out at the news of a surprise pregnancy, it was only the part of me that felt so determined to accomplish my diet and fitness goals.

At first, I was convinced that I would continue to eat clean and go to crossfit well into my pregnancy. I was reading all these blogs by women who did crossfit throughout their pregnancy, and I was really excited to take on the challenge. Well, I tried for about a week. Then the morning sickness came on so fast and strong that I was basically in bed for the next six weeks, never to return to crossfit. And the diet? Please. I had more carbs while I was sick than I did the entire previous year. Not because I was going on a crazy pregnant binge, but because about all I could eat was cereal and various crackers/snacks/cookies.

I constantly have dreams about going back to crossfit post-birth and either 1 of 2 things always happens. 1. I am somehow magically stronger before I got pregnant and can do pullups and climb the rope like crazy, or 2. everything at the gym has changed from the people/coaches to the facilities, and no one is nice to me. In reality, I don't think either of those are possible.

So what you are about to see is proof that my parents probably loved me way too much as a child. Because no one in their right might would feel ok with putting these pictures of themselves on the internet. But, I'm keepin it real, yall. I actually made this over two weeks ago, and went back and forth on whether or not I should post it. The first picture was intended to be the "before" picture for weight loss... an unnattractive baseline from which I was suppose to get way hotter. Instead, I gained a ton of weight and grew a baby. Also, the first picture was taken from above by my husband, and the second was take from below with a self-timer. Just wanted to clarify why my chin is looking more like chins.

Behold...

The truth is, I feel good about my body. This post is not meant to be entirely self-depricating. Looking back at the "before", I remember how badly I wanted to improve but it was to see how far I could push myself, not because I was unhappy. And now that I am 34 weeks pregnant and everything has gone to hell, a big part of me still just feels proud about what my body has done. Yeah, extra cellulite is not neccesary for growing a baby, but I have it, and I am surprisingly blase about it.

So now lets all hold hands, wear baltic amber necklaces, and talk about how all pregnant women are beautiful, and what's happening to our bodies is a mircale. We are, and it totally is.

Love,

Lauren

I promise I'm not ugly...

See? Not ugly...

I just had to make sure we were all on the same page before I shared the worst picture ever taken of me. My husband is especially good at capturing terribly unflattering pictures of me. This one was taken because I unknowingly had a piece of popcorn on my shirt for like 30 minutes. 

So here you go...

Thomas laughed for like a minute straight after he took this. To make matters worse, like a day later he said, "you know, that picture kind of reminds me of a celebrity mugshot." Oh. Great... Thanks. 

But, I mean, he does kind of have a point...

Other than the ugly face I'm making, and the popcorn... that picture is pretty much a typical day for me. Sports bra, no makeup (well maybe some leftover from yesterday), haven't showered, only half of my hair has managed to stay in a pony tail, and definitely sitting on the couch. Still waiting for that pregnancy glow...

Love,

Lauren

I mean it for real this time...

So much has happened since my last post. Tom and I bought a house, I had the best bachelorette party ever, we got married, went to maui, I started a new job, we bought furniture, and I have completely changed my approach to health and fitness. I can't address all these topics at once, but my hope is to commit to posting more regularly.

For now, I am going to share something completely random. Yesterday I went to my very first Mary Kay party. To be honest, I had no desire to buy any Mary Kay products, and never really thought much about their stuff. But the party was being hosted by my crossfit trainer, and really, in life, not many people are there for you every day like the person yelling at you to do deadlifts and burpees. So the least I could do was be there FOR HER, and help her with her business. My expectations were pretty low going into it, but I left feeling very impressed with all of their products.

I am a skincare FREAK. As in, I went to the dermatologist at age 24 and demanded retin-A to prevent wrinkles from ever making it to my face. I know all the skincare lingo, ingredients, and lines from vitamin C to AHA. My current regiment is I wash my face with Aveda Purifying Gel Cleanser. This stuff is THE BOMB. It gets all of my makeup off with no real effort. I basically can't live without it. After cleansing, I moisturize with Priori Idebenone Facial Moisturizer aka skin crack. My skin soaks this stuff up and also has powerful anti aging/ melanin reducing ingredients. At night time, before I moisturize, I use Atralin which is a pH balanced version of Retin-A that you get from the doctor.

Speaking of retin-A... Just want to make sure you all realize that there is literally nothing better for your skin than retin-A. Decades ago, derms prescribed it to people with acne. And the way it worked is that it makes your skin turn over, or shed an entire layer, twice as fast as normal. So bacteria has no where to stay trapped and form pimples because the skin is shedding and renewing at such a fast rate. So about 10 years after this stuff hit the market, doctors noticed that people who had been using it for acne had achieved the bonus side effect of perfect skin that looked young and flawless. Yes, retin-A can irritate your skin... That's what exfoliation is: flaking off peely dead skin. In my case, I used a low dose topical gel that is mild enough for daily use. The brand I use is pH balanced so it doesn't irritate as much as traditional or generic forms of retin-A. And yes, it does cost more and no, insurance doesn't cover all of it.

Look - no makeup on and my complexion is killing it....

Anyway, so with all that said - sorry Mary Kay, I just don't have any room in my life for more skin care friends. So instead, I bought some lip balm and a brush set. BUT, if you are looking to spice up your skin care routine, I can say as a self-proclaimed expert that their products are legit. They use great ingredients and because Mary Kay is a direct sales company, their products have a much lower markup and cost much less to you. Go to my friend Valerie's Mary Kay page to check out their stuff. I highly recommend the microdermabrasion kit as well as the vitamin C serum.

Love, 

Lauren