Life In Limbo

Inspiration | June 20

June 20, 2014

Read at whim! What a delightful idea. This post has lots of great thoughts on reading from the book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, which is now on my to-read list for sure.

Speaking of which, I loved this round-up of good reads for summer.

I’ve only done 11 of these, which is making me feel like I still have so much to experience in the beautiful city of Montreal. I have to go back!

“…Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you’re 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written; or you didn’t go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It’s going to break your heart. Don’t let this happen.” More of this please.

This hammock chair DIY is amazing and it makes me want to build one ASAP.

One day this week I watched the entire city.ballet. series in one fell swoop. I have a fascination with ballet dancers and I loved this behind-the-scenes look at the New York City company.

I loved this post that was full of beautiful outfits and timeless style.

Interesting and helpful tips from Anthony Bourdain about travelling the world.

I finally saw Oprah’s commencement speech at Harvard and I liked it a lot.

My new aspiration in life is to find a career that lets me work from home in a backyard studio like this one.

I found + fell in love with Molly’s blog this week. Her photography is so brilliant and her life seems so awesome.

Some things I’d like to make and eat: french chocolate cake | frozen coconut limeade | chickpea sliders.

Two Instagram accounts I’m loving lately: the aforementioned @mollyyeh, and @kellypurkey because she’s in Paris right now and her photos are making me nostalgic.

Some oldies-but-goodies: that time I ran the Colour Run, what to pack to backpack through Europe (written one year ago today, which is insane to think about).

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This week was much better than the last, but it held its fair share of growing pains too since I was doing a lot of errands and trying hard to figure things out. Things are feeling exponentially more settled this Friday than they were last Friday and it seems crazy how fast the past two weeks have gone. I’m feeling grateful that things have worked out the way they have and that I’ve had a lot of support during this hectic time.

This weekend I’m planning to visit the nearby city of Gyeongju which is full of Korean historical and cultural landmarks, spend some time at the beach, and check out the local beer fest. It’s going to be a good one! Cheers, friends and happy weekend to you.

Greener Beauty Products

June 19, 2014

Over a year ago, Laura and I recorded an episode of the podcast about green beauty and skincare products. At the time I was doing pretty good in the shower department, using Live Clean shampoo and conditioner and Dr. Bronner’s as body wash. I still love both products but just haven’t been able to find them in Korea.

Unfortunately back then I wasn’t doing so great in the makeup and skincare department, and I still wasn’t until a couple months ago. I found it harder to make switches with my makeup, mostly because I buy new makeup so rarely and because I didn’t know where to start. It seemed like all drugstore makeup was icky and full of chemicals and that all potentially eco- and body-friendly makeup was expensive and hard to find. Poor excuses, I know, but they still managed to hold me back.

When I moved to Korea and started using iHerb, I realized that in addition to great pantry staples, I could also use the website to buy healthy beauty products at drugstore prices. It had always bugged me that I wasn’t avoiding putting certain toxins onto my face and body, but I just hadn’t made the jump. Happily, I now have and I don’t see any reason why I’d go back.

Resources

If you’re considering transitioning to a greener skincare or beauty routine, make it just that: a transition. You don’t have to overhaul your entire collection of products overnight – you can start small. The next time you run out of something, try replacing it with something greener! In our blog post, we linked to the above graphic as seen on Elise’s blog. It’s such a great resource for these kinds of changes because it makes it simple to check labels for the worst toxins when you’re looking for new products. If it doesn’t have one of those bad guys listed on the package, you’re probably safe.

We also linked to EWG’s Skin Deep cosmetics database, which rates products based on their safety in a number of categories. I’ve since learned that the database uses an imperfect rating system with many inconsistencies (read more here and here) but nonetheless I think it can be worth a check as well before you make a new purchase, as long as you take the information with a grain of salt.

And of course you needn’t go to iHerb to get these products. A lot of companies are aware that customers are starting to want products free from parabens and SLS, so more than ever you will probably be able to find great options at the drugstore!

Beauty

I’m happy to say that I’ve switched out lots of my beauty products and now most of the things I use on a daily basis are free from the most harmful toxins, but they still work wonderfully! I’m still currently in the market for a greener concealer and liquid eyeliner.

Physician’s Formula Super BB Cream: I’d fallen for BB creams last year because I loved the all-in-one nature of them, but had been using a not-so-green one. I recently switched to this one and I’m pretty satisfied overall! It’s not a very heavy coverage but it does what it’s supposed to and it’s a good green option.

Honeybee Gardens Pressed Mineral Powder: I’d never really used powder before, but I’m liking this one. For days that I don’t feel like using the BB cream, this gives me a (very) light coverage option. I’ve never been one for foundations, but I like that this makes me look just a little more polished.

E.L.F. Cosmetics Mellow Mauve Blush: This blush does unfortunately contain one toxin, talc, but it’s very cheap and works pretty well. I would probably choose another colour next time because this one doesn’t show up very well on my face.

Physician’s Formula Organic Wear Mascara: I love this stuff. It works exactly like a mascara should, but it’s free of all those yucky chemicals. This is a really great product.

Sierra Bees Organic Mint Burst Lip Balm, Alba Botanical Terra Tints, LUSH Santa Baby Lip Tint: I don’t often use lip balm, but I keep the first two in my bag and I’ll use those if my lips are feeling chapped. The LUSH tint I got as a Christmas gift -it’s very pigmented and good to use as a lipstick.

Skincare

As it stands now my shower products aren’t overly green, but my next purchases will be. I’m using Tresemmé shampoo and conditioner and a Korean brand of lavender body wash. I use Johnson’s Baby Bedtime lotion and my own homemade, completely natural deodorant. Depending on the day I wash my face either just with water or with a Korean brand face wash. I’m planning to start washing my face with oil (learn more about that here) soon.

Thayer’s Rose Petal Witch Hazel toner: I just started using toner for the first time about a month ago and haven’t noticed any real changes in my skin. But it helps me get off all my makeup and the smell is nice, and it makes me feel like my face is very clean after I use it. I’ve been using it with these organic cotton rounds.

Queen Helene Mint Julep mask: I didn’t realize this had methylparaben in it, so I probably won’t be buying it again. I’ve also never used a mask in my life, but this product had gotten such good reviews and is very cheap so I gave it a try. Overall I don’t think it did much for me, but I’ll keep doing the treatment every once in a while.

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I’m planning to keep exploring greener options and incorporating the good ones into my daily routines. It’s fun, and it’s good for me and my body!

Do you make an effort to use greener beauty and skincare products? Do you have any tips for choosing them or specific products to recommend? I’d love to hear which ones you like in the comments.

Note: while this post contains a couple of affiliate links, mostly I linked to the iHerb product listings (which I am not currently an affiliate for) so that you can find out more information about the products.

24 Before 24: Go Trampolining

June 18, 2014

I’m doing 24 fun or new things before I turn 24. You can see the rest of my list here.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Dylan and I made quite the trek out to one of Busan’s many beaches, Dadaepo. The draw was the Dadaepo Sunset Fountain of Dreams (believe it or not that’s its real, official name), a water fountain show with multicoloured lights and water spray patterns, choreographed to music of all kinds. We’d been excited about theshow, but we hadn’t anticipated just how much we would love the beach itself.

It was absolutely stunning – when we looked to our right, it was all soft sand stretching as far as the eye could see, and on our left, green trees and big rocks curving around the coast. As is typical with these kinds of things, the photos don’t quite do it justice.

We arrived in the late afternoon and did the coastal walk (Korea is home to so many beautiful coastal walks that they’ve become one of our favourite pastimes) to the place where the walkway ended. From there we scampered over some rocks and dodged some creepy insects, ending up on a big rock listening to lovely music and talking as the sun started setting. It was a pretty blissful afternoon. The fountain was just icing on the cake!

But my favourite part of the day had to be the discovery of a free outdoor trampoline and the subsequent jumping around on it like a maniac until I had cramps from laughing so hard and my legs were too weak to catch me on the big bounces (resulting in quite a few painless tumbles & giggles). On the way from the bus stop to the beach, right on the main road, there was a little outdoor arcade, fairly run-down and with no employees. It was just open to the elements and to the public, and when we walked by there were just a few people in the batting cage. Everyone was utterly uninterested in the perfectly decent trampoline sitting unused right alongside them!

After a brief moment of looking around flabbergasted that it was free and that nobody was going to stop us, we climbed up the little ladder and onto the bouncy castle of our dreams. For me, it was one of those awesome moments in life where you get exactly what you want without having known that it was what you wanted. When I put “go trampolining” on my 24 Before 24 list, I’d pictured visiting one of the indoor trampoline rooms that are so common here in Korea. It never occurred to me that it would end up being an absolutely perfect moment – spontaneous, outdoors, with views of the fountain and the trees, full of giddy joy and hysterical laughter – and one that I was lucky enough to share with such a great friend. I know it sounds so cliché, but it made me feel like a kid again. Free and happy.

It was also an excellent reminder to stay open to new experiences and to doing things just because they’re insanely fun. If I hadn’t decided (totally arbitrarily) to put trampolining on my list this year, I might have walked right by that arcade without a second thought. I think we all get so used to doing things a certain way and going through the motions of our routines, but I want to remember to keep trying to incorporate joy and fun and impracticality into my life as much as I can. It’s really worth it.

Vegan Cashew Cheese

June 17, 2014

Holy yummy, batman! Even though it’s true that I can eat the same thing over and over, lately I’ve been getting bored with what I’ve been eating. That’s part of why I love that I made this resolution to try new recipes: it breaks me out of food ruts and keeps my mind open to different meal ideas. The other part of why I love it, of course, is because the results so far have been very tasty. There’s also a third reason, and that is that I really love cooking and puttering around in the kitchen. It makes me feel industrious and healthier. I love that sentiment from Michael Pollan: “Eat anything you want, just cook it yourself.” I’ve been trying to embrace that more lately.

Oh Dear Drea is a blog that makes vegan living look easy. I was opening browser tabs like crazy yesterday, getting so much inspiration for delicious, easy vegan food. I had a huge bag of cashews in my kitchen, so I decided that this cashew cheese recipe would be the first one I’d try. Despite making a few changes to her original recipe, it still turned out great.

Cashew Cheese

Adapted from Oh Dear Drea

Ingredients:

1 cup of raw cashews, soaked in a bowl of water for 1+ hours
1-2 cloves garlic
1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp salt (to taste)
Herbs

Soak the cashews for an hour or more. Drain them but save the water. Blend together all your ingredients, adding spoonfuls of cashew water until you reach your desired consistency (like a queso sauce). I forgot to pick up lemons so I substituted apple cider vinegar for the lemon juice the original recipe called for. Next time I’ll try with lemons and nutritional yeast because I know that would make it that much more delicious.

I’d treated myself to a garlic baguette (my first baguette since arriving in Korea!) after my run this morning, and loved eating some pieces of it with this yummy sauce. I think this would be great on a vegan pizza, like it was suggested in the original post. I’m excited to use it in veggie wraps and tacos too! Really it seems like you could just throw it on just about anything. The recipe makes a lot, almost a cup full, so I’m looking forward to discovering all the possibilities.

Yum! Dig in, friends.