selfcare

Thanks given through a Flashback

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No, no, and nope. I am not going to be cheesy and start to list all the things that I’m thankful or grateful for because, truth be told, there are too many things to list!

I am not a pessimist, neither am I an optimist. I linger somewhere in the middle because that’s my safe zone. In the past, I’ve had to manage a laundry list of mental health issues and would bounce from one extreme to another. Never feeling mentally strong or stable to understand myself and what I needed verses what I believed I wanted. When I was overly optimistic, I would only focus on the activities that were going “well” and that was it. I would miss the bigger picture or the long term goal because I’d try so hard to stay positive about the present or current situation. Then the opposite happened when my attitude become more pessimistic.

As I was clearing data from my laptop, I stumbled on the picture above. I quickly started to reminisce to that moment in time. I was in the middle of the feeding routine, a mundane task that typically last about hour from start to finish. But a crucial one for my daughters development. This picture was part of a series of shots, each seemingly doing something subtly different; Bella facing out the window or me looking down. As my iPhone was mounted on a tripod in the middle of my kitchen, I set up the self timer to capture us during the routine. Although I didn’t feel very confident wearing such a bold floral quarter sleeve t-shirt, I thought I still looked nice and put together. My hair was tied back into a high ponytail and in my mind, it had bounce, shape and length. Just to see the pictures afterwards and realize the only cute one was sitting still in her high chair wondering what the heck was that black thing doing in the middle of our kitchen.

During my postpartum year, it was unsteady but I kept reminding myself that the moment wouldn’t last. I planned to take it easy on myself for the sake of my mental health, but also wanted to find a way to document what was happening in the moment so I can compare my progress. My biggest fear was to somehow permanently impair my sense of rationality. It was a shakeup year and praying to God for an answer taught me what resiliency really meant.

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Burt’s Bees Brightening Dark Spot Corrector x Review

When I purchased the Burt’s Bees Brightening Dark Spot Corrector with Daisy Extract I was sold on the promises marketed on the packaging. Its a huge goal of mine to fade out the dark spots and so called freckles on my cheeks that were caused from too much sun exposure. If you have sun damage, you know how difficult and annoying it is to apply a full face of foundation because the freckles will easily give your attempts away which sucks! Sun damage causes age spots by the UV rays, hyperpigmentation and collagen damage. For me, sun spots are tough to tackle, so this post is a review of my first impressions on this $20.00 drugstore product.

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The packaging is cute with a daisy printed on the center of the box followed by a yellow, gray and red packaging color palette. The wholesomeness of its appearance shows the honesty of the company’s 100% natural and gentle ingredients (which I love). If you would search on google ways to remove sun spots, one of the options is to bleach your skin which honesty seems unnatural and more damaging long term then sun damage.

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Although it took a while to see some difference on the surface of my skin, there were a few qualities of the product that I didn’t enjoy. If you’ve tried this product before, let me know about your experience in the comments below…

Personally, I hated the smell because it was a bit bitter and like sour tea. Although I didn’t expect it to have a lot of fragrance, in my mind I envisioned a subtle floral scent or nothing at all. The smell was out of left field in a strong bad way and its was the main reason why I wasn’t using it every single night and morning like the directions suggested.

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During the times I did use it, the liquid would sometimes come out clear without any traces or hints of some color even after I would shake it. It was weird. But then there were times that it looked slightly brown. Then as I got close to finishing the bottle, the color of the liquid was brown… brown? whether that was normal or not, it seemed a bit odd. After seeing that, I can’t help but feel as if I didn’t get any product throughout the time that I used it especially since it was a clear liquid that smelled bad.

From afar, I can’t notice most of my dark spots except for the ones that are in ackward places on my face which sucks. My old job required me to drive a lot and most of the time I would forget to put on sunscreen so I got more damage on one side of my face then the other. To completely thank this product is hard because for most of the year it was winter and now that its summer, I’ve been putting on sunscreen even to go to the corner store.

One thing I should have done to really monitor the product performance was to take before and after pictures. Now I know for next time but weather or not I’ll be spending 20$ for another 1 oz bottle… I don’t think so.

Thank you so much for checking out my blog! Have you had a similar experience before with this product? Whats your summer beauty must haves? Let me know in the comments below and have a blessed day!