February Essentials
FEB 4 2018
Or shall we call this the Valentine's Day Essentials? February, the month of love! Personally I'm not a huge believer in Valentine's Day. I fee like it's a "holiday" the greeting card companies made up, but I know many of you love the romance and overall cheese of it. So whatever floats your boat, do what makes YOU happy. So take these essentials how you want, you can make it for February or make it for Valentine's Day!
Robert Mondavi Whiskey Barrel Wine - A friend introduced me to this wine over the Christmas holidays. Apparently they have a white as well but I've only tried their Cabernet Sauvignon. I'm not even a red wine fan but this wine is delish! I can honestly say it's the only red wine I like. It's aged in Bourbon Barrels and has a bit of a spicy kick to it. Perfect for those cold Friday February evenings to unwind from the work week and start your weekend off right. Also this would make a great gift for the man in your life for Valentine's Day. Ha! Honestly though Valentine's Day always seems centred around woman only, with all the flowers, chocolates, jewelry etc. This is a nice gift, really for any occasion to give to your man.
In trying to find the LCBO link for this wine it seems it was a limited release, probably over the holidays only. Bummer. Chances are selection will be slim, if any bottles are left in the stores. I guess I will have to taste test his regular Private Selection red as it sounds a bit similar to the tastes of the Whiskey Barrel one. Tough gig.
Purple Lips - Everyone is going to do a red or pink lip for the month of February and we've honestly just done red for Christmas. I say go bold with purples! For me personally a darker purple doesn't work on my skin tone, I found this lighter purple at Sephora from Kat Von D's collection and am so in love! It's the purple I'm wearing in the Instagram picture for this blog post. I find this violet colour goes with so many of my outfits and is just so cute and feminine, plus a very durable wear.
Rose Quartz - The stone of love. Self love, attracting love and keeping love as well as healing properties. My family became very spiritual a few years back, before it was an "in" thing and for authentic reasoning. We decided that everyone should have a rose quartz stone as their "starter" stone, since we all need more self love. If you don't love yourself how is someone else supposed to love you or how are you to put your best self out there? I have a rose quartz stone I carry in my purse, a raw stone beside my bed and a rose quartz beaded bracelet my dear friend bought me. Being it's the "month of love" treat yourself, or a friend who could use a reminder to love themselves more. Get them a stone or piece of jewellery. The Rose Quartz is one of the most popular healing stones, so you'll find tons of bracelets, necklaces, earrings and rings on Etsy or your "go to" spiritual store.
"Pink Sugar" - Look, you've just spent all of January eating clean, detoxing from refined sugars. DO NOT cave for all those cheap Valentine's Day sweets. Get yourself a different kind of sugar, one you'll still enjoy, doesn't derail your healthy train and frankly lasts longer. Pink Sugar has to be my all time favourire scent! I get my sugar fix from Soapstones Natural Skincare, they have so many products available in this scent. Bath Bombs, Bubble Baths, Body Wash, Shaving Butter, Hand Soap, Body Spray, Body Butters.... I think you get it.
If you've been reading my blog you know I'm trying to gain more experience out of life versus wasting money on materialistic things. If you haven't read that blog refresh yourself, then come back. I'm now going to always try and include an "essential experience" for my essential lists. For this month my essential experience is visiting a Greenhouse to get your fix on Vitamin D. Disclaimer, a greenhouse will not actually boost your Vitamin D, however a greenhouse will give you the feeling of summer and sunshine which in turn gives you the illusion you're getting Vitamin D. A greenhouse is a great place to visit with your special someone for a cheap Valentine's Day date, plus guys no need to buy your girl flowers when you have a greenhouse full of them! My sister had visited the Centennial Green House and the pictures she took were gorgeous! I needed to get myself to that cactus garden within the greenhouse. I mentioned it to my parents and turns out that's where they did their wedding photos! It was such a nice day to return there with them and now their first grandbaby. We wandered around with baby girl, took pictures and just had a nice few hours in what felt like a summer day. Centennial Gardens is free to go to but does take donations to upkeep the gardens, I highly encourage you to donate if you visit.
I'd love to see your bold purple lips for February! Tag me in your selfies ladies and say hi!