{Just Relax}

Just relax. 

This is certainly a mantra I’ve repeated to myself and had others tell me in recent months. It’s incredibly easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed when you’re constantly searching for job listings, writing cover letters and networking. The tricky part is staying positive: my personal belief is that all things happen for a reason and everything will work out in the end.

In the mean time, I have jazzed up my beauty routine to pamper myself and create mini-spa moments in my day. The wake up, brush teeth, wash face, wash hair routine was getting a little boring and almost drove me right back to bed! The point of the morning hygiene routine is to wake up and get ready to seize the day! The night routine is to unwind and get rid of the city dirt from the day. As clean as DC is, city grime is still there.

My favorite products for my “mini-spa moments” are all reasonably priced and most can be found at your local CVS or Walgreens. CVS is everywhere in DC!! Back in 8th grade when I, a mini-and-aspiring DC Girl in Pearls,  first visited DC with my mother we both laughed there was a CVS and Starbucks on seemingly every corner of the city.

If you live in a city filled with CVS stores, I’d highly recommend you get an ExtraCare card to receive coupons on items you use everyday. CVS also has an ExtraCare Beauty Club where members receive $5 ExtraBucks for every $50 spent on beauty, $3 ExtraBucks on your birthday and great coupons throughout the year!

But I digress…

Yes to Carrots Body Butter  ($15)

My roommate used to laugh at me for my love of this body butter because it’s actually made from carrots, pumpkins, sweet potato and other natural ingredients. However, it has a clean, fresh scent and leaves my skin feeling smooth but not greasy like other lotions do. A jar of body butter costs about $15 but usually CVS has them on sale for $10. This cream lasts you awhile even if you use it every morning and night as I do!

St. Ives Apricot Scrub ($5.50)

I’ve used St. Ives for the longest time because my mother is a big fan of this product. I am prone to dry skin when the weather rapidly changes so I keep a jar of St. Ives in my shower to exfoliate. St. Ives & Yes to Carrots are a power couple for luxuriously smooth skin!! For best results, scrub with St. Ives, towel dry and then put on a light layer of the body butter.

Garnier Fructis Fortifying Deep Conditioner ($4.50)

Good things come in small packages. Garnier’s fortifying deep conditioner is a 3 minute masque for your hair and scalp to strengthen and smooth. You apply the masque after rinsing out your shampoo, I put my hair in a shower cap after application so I can stay in the warm shower! As a note, a little bit of this product goes a long way and make sure you thoroughly rinse it out with a wide tooth comb or else your hair will appear oily…and no one wants that.

Philosophy Purity One-Step Facial Cleanser  ($32.50)

At a whopping $32.50 for 16 ounces, this facial cleanser I purchased with a Sephora gift card is the priciest beauty item in this list by a landslide. However, I felt I should include it because I truly love this product. I cannot stand my face feeling oily or “muddy” and I love the feeling on my face after a thorough cleaning. I started using Purity last January and have barely made a dent in it despite using it twice each day. While I would normally have a hard time forking over $32.50+ for a face wash, this bottle will last you a long time and make your face look and feel smoother and more vibrant. When you think about how many times you purchase a face wash, I think it probably would add up to 1 bottle of this for a year. In the end, it’s a good investment and like the masque, a little bit goes a long way!

Bath & Body Works Shower Gel ($11)

My mother and I are very into Bath & Body Works, it’s one of our favorite stores. Shower gels, body butters, mud masks, you name it and we probably have it in our B&BW stash. Normally, this store tends to be a bit pricey but they have tremendous annual sales where you can find shower gels for $2 or $3 each. When these sales happen, my mother and I load up on goodies and we are set for the year! I’m currently using their Peach Sparkle shower gel and I love it. Next up is the Cherry Blossom (pictured).

Biore Deep Cleaning Pore Strips ($6) 

Remember what I said about city grime? These strips will take care of that, no problem! I use these strips weekly after I wash my face at night, I just feel so much better knowing the dirt from traffic and buses is no longer in my pores, ewww! Usually, these pore strips will go on sale so they are a must-watch item.

Moisturizing Gloves

I’ve never had a problem with dry skin on my hands until last winter. I detest dry skin in case you couldn’t tell by my worship of body butter & St. Ives so this nearly drove me up a wall. For Christmas, my mother bought me moisturizing gloves as a stocking stuffer and I was one happy girl on Christmas morning! I’m not sure how much she paid for them but I found a comparable pair at CVS for $5. Before bed, you pile lotion onto your hands and then slip the gloves on as you drift off to sleep. Voila, you wake up with soft-to-the-touch hands. But no matter how soft your hands are, hands with chipped nail polish are never in vogue.

Which brings us to the final item…

Nail Polish 

For years, I only varied within the hot pink family for nail polish but now I am going outside of my hot, hot, hot pink comfort zone to try out other nail polish colors. One of my current favorite colors is Essie’s Bangle Jangle although I do have my eye on Recessionista from {Wednesday’s post}…

How do you create “mini spa moments” for yourself without spending a ton of money?