Top 12 Albums Of My Life (Thus Far)

Hello beautiful people!

Since I have seen this floating around on Facebook and, sadly, no one has tagged me to do it I thought I would I do it here! Without further a-do, here are my top 12 albums of my life (thus far)...

1. Plans by Death Cab for Cutie

Best Tracks: Soul Meets Body, Summer Skin, Crooked Teeth and Stable Song

2. Settle by Disclosure

Best Tracks: Latch, F For You, White Noise, You and Me, and Voices

3. The Listening by Lights

Best Tracks: River, The Listening, Quiet, Second Go, and February Air

4. Bright Lights by Ellie Goulding

Best Tracks: The Writer, Starry Eyed, Your Biggest Mistake, and Salt Skin

5. The Stranger by Billy Joel

Best Tracks: Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, Just The Way You Are, The Stranger, and Movin' Out

6. X&Y by Coldplay

Best Tracks: Talk, Fix You, The Hardest Part, Square One, and White Shadows

7. Sometimes by City and Colour

Best Tracks: The whole album! One of very few albums I can listen to all the way through again and again

8. Discovery by Daft Punk

Best Tracks: Once again, the whole album. This HAS to be listened to all the way through to get the full effect

9. † by Justice

Best Tracks: Genesis, D.A.N.C.E, Phantom Pt II, Newjack, and DVNO

10. Graduation by Kanye West

Best Tracks: Champion, Stronger, Homecoming, and Can't Tell Me Nothing

11. A Fever You Can't Sweat Out by Panic! At The Disco

Best Tracks: Whole album! But Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks is my absolute favorite song by them

12. Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend

Best Tracks: Oxford Comma, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, The Kids Don't Stand a Chance and Mansard Roof

Honorable Mentions: Set Yourself on Fire by Stars, Shrines by Purity Ring, Bankrupt! by Phoenix, Galore by Dragonette, KIDS by Mac Miller, Saturdays = Youth by M83, Matangi by M.I.A., Nanda Collection by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Hot Fuss by The Killers, Speak for Yourself by Imogen Heap, From Under The Cork Tree and Infinity On High by Fall Out Boy, and Group Therapy by Above & Beyond

Comparing myself to other top albums lists I've seen, mine is really modern. The only album I ever listened to as a kid was The Stranger by Billy Joel. My parents (more specifically, my dad) owned and listened to a lot of Greatest Hits albums by older bands and I felt like including them wouldn't have counted. The Beatles and The Beach Boys Greatest Hits were the soundtracks to my childhood. My list reflects the blossoming of my own music taste that happened around grade eight. Most of these albums were the sounds of me growing up into an adult and they shaped who I am and what I listen to today.

Hope you all enjoyed a peek into my eclectic music taste! Comment below some of your top albums because I'd love to see what you guys listen to. Until next time :)

Rachel xo

Londonlicious 2014: Winter Edition

Hi everyone!

I went out for Londonlicious with my best friend, Kate on Thursday for the third time in a row. We, also, went to see Akira at the Digital Film Festival and it was quite interesting. I can see how it is an anime classic. Enough about that, let's get back to the food! The whole premise of Londonlicious is to try the upper scale restaurants in London, Ontario. There is a set menu that you can choose an appetizer, entree, and dessert of your choice for either $25, $30, or $35 (depending on the original pricing of the restaurant). I have gone to this for the three years; once in the winter and once in the summer as it happens twice a year. I have always been impressed with the meals that I have had and would recommend to try it at least once.

This year I went to Crave which was in the $30 tier. I had a Caesar salad, top sirloin and sauteed shrimp, and caramel and Bailey's creme brule. The Caesar salad was good as most Caesar salad go. It was a smaller portion which I liked because I don't like having too big of an appetizer salad. The top sirloin and sauteed shrimp were pretty delicious. I was a little turned off because I normally eat my steak medium-well to well done and I was advised to have this done medium. But this is merely my personal preference. The stand out of that meal was DEFINITELY the mashed potatoes. Holy shit, were they good! They were the pureed kind and had some type of seasoning in them but I can't figure out what it was. The real star of the entire meal was the creme brule. I had never had it before and I was pleasantly surprised! It was smooth and not too sweet which, for me, can make or break a dessert (I'm not one to have a sweet tooth). Overall, I'd say that dinner was delicious. Service was a little slow but our waiter made sure our drinks were refilled and that our food was to our liking.

If you're hankering for some fancy-ish type cuisine, definitely give Crave a shot! (www.craverestaurant.ca) I peeped the regular menu and it is quite pricey (entrees averaged around $30). If you want to treat yourself and splurge or just wait until the summer edition of Londonlicious happens.

Hope you all liked my first non-beauty/fashion related post! 

Rachel xo

I'm Baaack!

Well hi there!

I'm baaaaaaack! I did a bad thing and completely abandoned this blog sometime last year. It wasn't because I didn't want to blog, I just had a lot going on. Second year of university kicked my ass and I had no time at all to post or update here. When summer rolled around, I had planned to get back into it but, as summer usually does, it carried me away and I forgot all about blog posts I had intended on writing. So, here I am and ready to blog!

What have I been up to? Well, I finished up second year of university with relatively good grades which I am proud of since it was the hardest year of my life thus far. I spent the majority of my summer working and travelling. I went to Toronto a couple of times, went to Montreal for Osheaga Music Festival, and went to the States for a couple of days. I've managed to keep my depression at bay which I am extremely proud of. I still struggle with anxiety on a daily basis but I have methods now that I use to keep it from getting the best of me. 

Currently, I am in my third year of university. I had a pretty rough first semester since it was all film courses but this semester is a little less heavy (hence why I'm back here!). I dyed my hair hot pink back in September and have had it ever since. I'm still working as a cosmetician and experienced my first Christmas in retail which was absolutely CRAZY. But I survived! 

As you may have noticed, I changed the title of my blog. I did this because I want this to be a place where I can write about anything and not just fashion and beauty. I will definitely be posting about those still but I wanted to add in more lifestyle bits like trips, concerts, and restaurants. I, also, wanted feminism to be an aspect of this blog. I feel that it's important for women and men to learn about gender equality in a number of different ways and I want to help others learn and understand that.

Anyways, that's all from me here! Thanks for sticking with me (and if you're new, thanks for reading!) and I promise I will try my hardest to post as often as I can. I have a few ideas for posts already and I just need to get them organized. Can't wait to start fresh!

Rachel xo

Let's Talk

Hi guys, this post isn't going to be beauty or style related but I feel it's probably the most important post I will write on here. This post is also really hard for me to write but today is the perfect day to talk about it. So, Let's Talk.

If anyone knows me, they know I'm a bit of a worrier. Growing up I just thought I had a tendency to worry about a lot of things and take things very seriously. I just thought it was part of who I was and that I could eventually grow out of it. But as I got older, I noticed that my worrying intensified. It was like no matter what I did I felt uneasy or anxious about it. I shaked the feelings off and continued to blame it on me being silly and worrying too much.

One day, last year, I was reading a blog post from one of my favourite bloggers/YouTubers, Zoella. She was talking about how she suffered from panic and anxiety attacks. She was listing all of her symptoms and I identified with almost all of them. That was when I began to realize that maybe the uneasiness I felt so often could be something more. Maybe I had anxiety. 

While this was going on, I had something more coming my way. Every one who knows me knows I am a very emotional person. I can cry over the stupidest things, everything makes me cry. Earlier, I thought this was hilarious and a little bit embarrassing. But once again, I thought that was just who I was. As I got older, I would have moments of intense sadness. I just thought it was hormones or I was being too emotional. I remember one day over Christmas break in 2011, I spent an entire day in my bed just crying for no reason. I couldn't understand what was wrong with me so I just ignored it. This should've been a red flag for what was about to come a year later.

In October of last year, I began to start feeling really sad. I would think of the worst possible things and it would make me even more sad, to the point where I would force myself to sleep just so I could escape my own thoughts. I kept thinking I was going crazy because I hadn't felt happy in months. Normally, I am a very happy person and it felt like no matter what I did, I couldn't be happy. Then for two weeks in December I hit a breaking point. Every day I locked myself in my room, cried, slept, and tried to stomach a piece of fruit. It was then that I had to finally talk to my parents about what was going on because they started to notice my unusual habits. My mom decided to call a therapy group that she uses through her work benefits. I was set up for an appointment to speak with a therapist about what was going on with me. I was terrified because I had a feeling I knew what they were going to tell me but I didn't want to hear it.

I met with the therapist and after a week, we met up again and she told me what was going on. I was depressed and had just experienced a manic depressive episode. This meant I had depression. I knew she was going to tell me that and I wasn't ready to hear that I could be depressed. I always thought people with depression were always sad, would inflict pain upon themselves to feel better and feel suicidal (two things I didn't do nor did I want to). I was, also, scared of being labelled crazy and then someone would give me pills to calm me down. 

I learnt that depression is really just a chemical imbalance in the brain. Every one experiences depression, just some experience it more than others. I, also, learnt that it made me feel a lot better when I talked to someone about how I was feeling. It felt like my parents couldn't understand how I was feeling and they would tell me to "let it go". My therapist listens to me and helps me to deal with days when I am feeling down and doesn't always ask me about my bad days, but mostly my good days. Also, I found out that a lot more suffer from depression than I thought. Even people close to me. It made me feel better that I had more people that I could go to to talk about how I this and they would understand.

So, the point of this post is to raise awareness. Today is Bell Let's Talk Day. Bell donates 5 cents to mental health awareness for every text sent through the Bell network and for every tweet that has #BellLetsTalk in it. I knew this day was important for others but it is really important for me as of recently. An important thing you can take away from this campaign is that EVERYONE is affected by mental health issues. There shouldn't be a stigma around it where no one takes it seriously enough or don't understand how mental illness happens.

The most important thing you can take away from all this is to TALK. Talk to someone if you're unsure of how mental health affects you or others around you. Talk to someone if you don't understand mental illness. Talk to someone if you start feeling something different than what you're normally feeling. If any of you just need to talk to someone, I am always here. You can tweet me, send me a message on Tumblr or you can message me on here. I am here to listen.

Does this look like someone who suffers from a mental illness? Educate yourselves and become more aware of mental health. Don't be so quick to judge. 

Thank you for reading :) New beauty post is coming next week! 

Love you all to the moon and back,

Rachel xo

Christmas & Boxing Week Haul

Hi lovelys!

Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas! I definitely did. Got to spend time with my family and eat lots of yummy food so I'm pretty happy :) I was spoiled this year and got a lot of great gifts from my family. I, also, spoiled myself with some Boxing Week shopping. Thought I'd show you some of the stuff I got!

Beauty

Essie Nail Polishes in Sew Psyched and Mink Muffs. OPI Nail Polish in OPI Ink

Perfume Sampler with Lady Million, Prada Candy, Lacoste Love of Pink, Burberry Body, Ralph Lauren Big Pony #2, Wonderstruck, Donna Karan Cashmere Mist, Givenchy Very Irresistible, Viva La Juicy La Fleur, and Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue

So far my favourites from the sampler are Prada Candy and Big Pony #2.

Givenchy Roller Perfume Samples in Very Irresistible L'Intense, Hot Couture, and Very Irresistible

Crown Brush 10 Piece Pink Syntho Set from HauteLook

Clothes

Striped Cardigan from Forever21

Leopard Print Cardigan from Forever21 (Look familiar? Haha)

Cross Print Cardigan from Forever21

Heart Pattern Wool Sweater from Forever21

Floral Print Pant from Forever 21 (Another familiar item hehe!)

Peter Pan Embellished Collar Dress from Forever21

Peplum Embellished Collar Top from Forever21

Peter Pan Embellished Collar Sleeveless Dress from Forever 21 (Very Breakfast at Tiffany's right?!)

Embellished Long Sleeve Collared Shirt from Forever 21

Wilfred Free TShirt from Aritizia

So, there's my haul from Christmas and Boxing Week! I hope I inspire some of you to go and pick these items up for yourself :) Comment down below with some of the presents you got or any questions you have for me. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Tumblr :) Also, I'll have a beauty review of the beauty products from Lush and Sephora I received for Christmas so look out for that!

I may not be updating for a bit because I'm going to visit my friends in Quebec City for New Years and for my friend, Roxie's birthday :) Hope everyone has a great New Years and all the best for 2013!

Rachel xo

All I Want For Christmas...

Hi everyone!
 I'm so sorry I've been away for over a month. I was really busy with school (I had four assignments going on at once plus midterms gah!) and I had some personal issues going on so that's why I haven't updated in so long but I'm back now! I thought I'd let you guys know some items that are on my Christmas wishlist in case you need ideas for Boxing Day sales, last minute Christmas shopping or for next year :)

Floral Print Pants

Not going to lie, I was not a fan of the floral print pant trend when it was around about a year ago because most of the items I saw looked gaudy or like a couch I'd see at my Grandma's house. But recently, the prints have become more wearable and I've become obsessed with this trend. You can wear this print during the winter season, you just need to match it with colours that are in style (so darks or jewel toned). I prefer to toughen up the look by wearing it combat boots with an oversized sweater.

Peter Pan Collar Shirts

I have been waiting for this trend to blow up in North America since seeing so many beauty bloggers and gurus from the UK wear these shirts. I am loving this trend because it's so classy and cute. If you want to make a look a little more girly, this is the go-to item! Wearing this with a top bun would make this look more classic and chic.

Oversized Cardigan

There is nothing easier than throwing on a cardigan over a simple looking outfit to make it pop a bit more. I am particularly lazy when it comes to dressing for school so cardigans with a cool print are just so easy to throw and complete a look. Also, they're very cozy and warm for those cold Canadian winters.

Glossybox Subscription

I heard that Glossybox was coming to Canada in the summer and it quickly became the first thing to go on my Christmas list. It costs $21 a month, you get a box mailed to you every month and it's filled with some high end beauty goodies. If you're big on beauty products and trying new ones out then this a perfect gift! 

Lush Products

Lush is my current obsession. Every thing in that store smells amazing, is good for you, and is vegan! I have heard some wonderful things about Lush and have wanted to try some of their products out. My must have items are Cosmetic Warrior Fresh Face Mask, Rub Rub Rub Scrubby Sea Salt and Mimosa Shower Wash, Dream Cream, Vanilla Puff Powder, and Dirty Body Spray. I will post a review of all the products when or if I receive them for Christmas.

So, there is a list of some of my most wanted items on my Christmas wish list. I hope it gave some of you ideas for next year, Christmas gifts for others, or things you'd like to buy for yourself! I will posting a haul from Christmas and a review of the beauty products I will receive. Thank you for reading and comment down below on some items that you asked for for Christmas! 

Merry Christmas :)

Rachel xo

Review: Garnier Skin Renew Miracle Skin Perfector BB Cream

Hello lovelies! 

I have my first beauty related post for you and it's going to be a review of the Garnier BB Cream (as you can tell by the title of this post)! I've been on the fence about using BB creams because I am so used to wearing foundation and wasn't sure how the coverage of a BB cream would be. I, also, have very sensitive skin and have had problems with different foundations/tinted moisturizers because they make me break out like crazy. I decided to try out this BB cream because it was the most recommended and I wanted a change from having to wear foundation to school every day because it got very tedious. 

Overall, I am very impressed with this product. I did notice a difference I had applied it to my skin. I usually have redness if I don't wear any kind of foundation and I'm a bit blotchy too but as soon as I applied to my face and blended it in, I noticed my complexion got smoother and was more evenly toned. It looked like I was wearing foundation, but there wasn't the heaviness you can feel. It went on like a moisturizer and left my skin feeling soft and light.

The best part about BB creams is that they're good for your skin and this brand is especially made to make your skin even better. Garnier says that the Skin Renew Miracle Skin Perfector is meant to renew radiance, brighten your complexion, even your skin tone and blur imperfections, hydrate for 24 hours, and protects against dryness and environmental factors. I suffer from really dry skin and I found that it kept my face hydrated all day. I haven't seen any radiance or brighter complexion but if I continue using it, I am expecting it to do this over time.

 So, if you're looking into using BB creams, I would definitely recommend this one. It is a little pricier than the other creams available but I will continue to splurge on this because the results are pretty fantastic. Hopefully I helped some of you if you're debating on whether or not to start using BB creams.

Also, I am VERY sorry that I haven't updated in a while. I've had a lot of midterms and papers due recently and I'm hoping to get back into posting more as I don't have anything due until December. Thank you for sticking with me and reading my posts. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Tumblr :) 

Rachel xo