Essentials | Summer

Happy Saturday everyone! 

It has been incredibly hot here, so I thought I would share my summer essentials with you guys! Zoe and Louise recently posted a video on Zoe's channel (which you can view here) where they talked about their Summer essentials. That video inspired me to write this post. These are some of the products that I enjoy using or wearing during the warmer months. I've included some beauty items as well as a few fashion items and accessories.

First off, I have this super cute case for my sunglasses that I got from Forever 21 back in May. I can't find it on their website so I'm not too sure if they still have it in stock. Anyways, it was only a few dollars and it's just made of fabric so it's not structured or anything. If I had a pair of expensive, designer sunglasses I don't think I'd trust this case to protect them, haha. Inside I just have a really cheap pair of Forever 21 sunglasses.

Second, I have this beautiful Essie nail polish in California Coral ($8 CDN). It's a bright, fun coral (duh!) colour that is perfect for Summer. I love to use this colour on my toes.

Another one of my summer essentials is the Tea Tree Water Toner from Lush ($9.95-$21.95 CDN). This toner is alcohol free so it is not at all harsh on the skin. I love spraying this on my face when it's incredibly hot out to refresh my skin. While using this, I also found that any skin issues I had have settled down. The scent is light and fresh and I think this product would be great to bring on an plane to keep your skin refreshed and to prevent it from drying out! It comes in two sized bottles, 100ml (which is allowed in a carry-on bag in Canada) or 200ml.

Protecting your lips from sun is very important all year round, especially during the summertime. To keep my lips safe, I will often use lip balms with SPF. The current lip balm I'm using is the Blistex Fruit Smoothies lip balm in Melon Medley ($3.79 for a three pack). This balm keeps my lips super moisturized and contains SPF 15.

Instead of reapplying powder throughout the day to keep my face shine-free, I like using blotting papers. These adorable Hello Kitty ones I got from Sephora a while back, but I'm not sure if they still have them in stock (I couldn't find them on the website). Obviously you can find your standard blotting papers at your local drugstore, but these ones are just too cute and really keep me from looking overly shiny.

I find washing my hair very laborious. I actually hate having to wash it. During the summer months I find my hair to start looking greasy and dirty much more often. So, in between washes I use my Batiste Dry Shampoo (Prices vary). I just give my hair a few spritzes, let it soak in a bit and then brush it out and my hair looks much better than it did. I really enjoy the fresh scent, as well. It leaves your hair smelling and looking clean.

I use Ocean Salt Face and Body Scrub from Lush ($21.95-$35.95) all year round, however I find that I reach for it a lot more during the summer months. This product can be used on both your face and body, but sometimes it's a little too harsh and drying to use on my face. I like to use this before shaving my legs to exfoliate. I find that it really scrubs off any dead skin (yuck!) and gives me a super close shave. It also kind of smells like margaritas :3

Next, I have the Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunscreen ($11.99 CDN). I like to use this sunscreen just on my face because it's incredibly light and absorbs very quickly. Another great thing about this sunscreen is that after application my face does not look at all shiny or oily. After reading some reviews I've noticed some users skin broke out after wearing this product on their faces. My sister and I both use this sunscreen and neither of us experienced any issues with our skin. So, if you have blemish prone skin I would not recommend this. 

I really love denim shorts! They're comfy and super casual and can make any outfit look instantly cool. These two pairs I recently picked up from American Eagle while they were having a sale (buy one pair get the second for $10!) The first pair is the AE Destroyed Festival Shortie ($42.97 CDN) in a medium denim colour. The second pair is the AE Destroyed Denim Shortie ($42.27 CDN) and they're a light denim (they look a lot more blue-ish on the website than in person). There is currently a 40% off sale on the American Eagle website, so if you need anything - go check it out!

I'm not a huge fan of scarves during Summer, but this one was way too cute to pass up. I got it back in May from Chapters and I believe it is no longer in stock. However, they still have a bunch of equally cute ones that you can buy from their website here (plus a few of them are 30% off!). I like wearing this on cooler Summer days or during the evenings when I'm wearing a pretty simple and casual outfit.

My final Summer essential is my favourite Starbucks beverage to order during the warmer months, an Iced White Chocolate Mocha. I had no intentions of incorporating this in my essentials, however when my ever-so kind sister, Laura brought it home for me while I was taking my photos, I couldn't help but include it.

So! Those are all my Summer essentials! I'm thinking maybe I'll do similar posts for each season. Let me know in the comments below what your essentials for Summer are!

Happy Weekend!

Baking | Strawberry and Blueberry Muffins

Happy July everyone! And Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian readers!

 This morning my mom and I decided to put all the strawberries and blueberries in our fridge to good use. So we whipped up some delicious, summery muffins! 

The other day my mom made these really tasty strawberry-rhubarb muffins using this recipe from Satisfy My Sweet Tooth. The muffins came out great and were almost cake-like. I'm not the biggest fan of rhubarb, so when we made the muffins today we left it out completely. We used the same recipe but with minor alterations. Continue reading below to see what we did!

Strawberry/Blueberry Muffins -

Yield: 24 Muffins

Ingredients:

1/3 Cup of Grape Seed Oil

1 Cup Milk

2 Eggs

2 Tsp Vanilla

3 Cups Flour

1 1/2 Cups Sugar

1 Tsp Salt

4 Tsp Baking Powder

1 1/2 Cups Chopped Strawberries

1 1/2 Cups Blueberries

Lemon Zest

Additional Sugar for Topping

Instructions:

1 - Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line muffin pan with liners.

2 - In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

3 - In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine oil, eggs, milk and vanilla until everything is mixed together.

4 - Add the dry ingredients into the wet and and mix until entirely combined.

5 - Grab a second bowl and divide the batter in half.

6 - In the first bowl fold in the strawberries until well incorporated. Use large spoonfuls to add batter to muffin tray.

7 - In the second bowl gently fold in the blueberries and add lemon zest. Again, use large spoonfuls to add batter to the muffin tray.

8 - Sprinkle granulated white sugar over the tops of each muffin.

9 - Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Recipe adapted from Satisfy My Sweet Tooth.

I think the muffins came out so pretty! Especially with the fruit inside all gooey and delicious, running down the sides! The muffins themselves came out so soft and taste amazing. They are packed with so much fruit and are perfect for summer!

Let me know if you end up baking some of these for yourself! Thank you so much for reading! I hope you all had a great weekend!

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