I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy as we navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic! Although our bodies may be self-isolating, at least our minds can wander and escape the relentless news cycle by diving in the pages of a good book. My March book review round-up offers plenty of escapism: dystopian fiction, YA coming-of-age stories, and lighthearted adult romances. If you're looking for more recommendations, you can check out my past book posts here.
Lazy Girl Approved highlights long-lasting, goof-proof, fuss-free products that can fit into the most minimalist of regimens. If you consider yourself a low-maintenance beauty lover, these product reviews are for you!
Did you know that you could be over-exfoliating or under-exfoliating? That was my main takeaway after attending an exfoliation masterclass hosted by my longtime facialist, Kathryn Sawers of Collective Skincare. If you take a closer look at your skincare routine, you might be surprised by all the sources of exfoliation there are. Scrubs provide physical exfoliation, while many of the cleansers, toners, and moisturizers that promise to "renew" skin and improve tone and texture contain acids that act as chemical exfoliants. And then there's retinol, which is (you guessed it) also an exfoliant. All of this is enough to trigger skin irritation at worst or serious consumer confusion at best. So what would a Lazy Girl to do? She'd turn to a quick, easy-to-use product like the Dermalogica Rapid Reveal Peel ($12 for a single tube, or $116 for the kit at Varnish) that's guaranteed to work.
Happy first week of March! Here at Solo Lisa headquarters, I haven't been that focused on blogging lately. A new CEO and a new boss at work mean I have loads of projects on the go; consequently, my brain bandwidth is usually maxed out by the time I get home and all I'm good for is curling up with a good book and doing a face mask. The masks featured in this post, most of which are gifted PR samples, have taken up permanent residence in my bathroom cabinet. They have a slight edge over sheet masks in some ways: They usually don't take as much time to work their magic (ideal when I'm in peak Lazy Girl mood); they don't generate as much single-use waste; and they allow me to multi-mask, addressing different concerns in different areas.
After the bewildering number of empties in December and January, February seems so tame by comparison. There are only 12 in today's post and 2 are duplicates. Most of them are affordable drugstore and naturals-heavy brands, with a couple of purchases from last year's trip to Paris thrown in. I realized as I was compiling this post that many of these products have never been featured on the blog before, and only a few are gifted PR samples, so going forward I'm going to be a lot clearer about labeling everything in the mix. Now, let's get to it, shall we?
