For my sister: Facial Routine for Evening Out Tone

My sister and I have medium toned, combination skin. We fall in the light tan range.

What does this mean? We're more likely to tan than get sunburned because of the melanin in our skin and when it comes to getting acne, we're prone to getting dark spots (a.k.a. post inflammatory hyper pigmentation) on our skin after the acne heals. And those take forever to go away :(

I like talking skin care because I've really expanded my skin care regimen in an effort to target my skin issues. It's a lot like working out (not that I know a lot about working out) when I hear people talk about leg days, weight training, cardio, and such, it's not unlike my situation of looking at my skin and needing a mask, scrub, or sleeping pack. Also, it's nice waking up in the morning and seeing good looking skin.

I'll be tackling evening out skin tone.

Chocolate vs. Sardines

It's easy to like Lilly. That's my little sister to the right. She's got a really likable personality.

In a small conversation over a fortune cookie fortune, I related to my little sis:

"You're like chocolate. It's easy for people to like you in varying doses. Even people who eat chocolate occasionally still like it. You're just easy to like."

I'm like sardines. I'm an acquired taste. At the same time sardines are "out there" enough to where if someone says they like them, there's some real genuine liking going on. We know sardines are not as easily likable as chocolate.

I personally like both at different times for different reasons.

A book worth writing about

Males, Nails, and Sample Sales by Stephanie Pierson...

is by far the worst advice book I have ever read.

I'm normally fond of advice books that entail fashion along with the other tribulations of daily life, so when I found this at Anthropologie, I thought it would be worth a look. I had nothing to lose except $7. Looking back, that could've bought me a sandwich.

Having read many books like this, I can say that the one thing that irritates me about it the most is it's structure - or lack there of. I was only able to get through the first three chapters before I found myself looking for the receipt so I could return it.

Introductions generally are short, a little vague, but engaging enough to where you're left with questions and you want to read more of the book until those questions are answered. So I read the introduction "I'll tell you why you should do X. I'll tell you why you shouldn't do Y."

Essentially, the first few chapters read like an introduction in conjunction with a mothers nagging. She told you that "you shouldn't do X" with reasoning as simple as something like "because it makes you look like a snob." End of question. She just goes on to another topic. It was all very non sequitur while maintaining that same structure. And it never seemed to end. I'm quite glad that I was able to return it. I got a sandwich with the money after wards.

For one thing, I don't like books bluntly saying what you should or shouldn't do. Another thing is that if a book is going to do that, they better have some well researched reasons why other than an illogical partial sentence.