Today, I was killing some time in an upscale, well stocked, Duane Reade on the Lower East Side before an appointment. I went in to purchase a good lip balm, because my lips were chapped this morning. I decided to purchase an Avene lip balm. I also purchased a dual pack of Avene thermal spring water spray that came with a free sample of sunscreen.

The Avene cold cream lip balm is a creamy, thick balm that really moisturizes your lips. I used it once in the morning after I bought it, and once again at 6:30PM, and my lips felt great all day. I didn’t feel the need to reapply over and over again.

The Avene thermal spring water spray is like the Evian spray that I’ve seen in drug stores before. However, the Avene spray is specifically formulated for sensitive skin. I like this spray because it is safe on sensitive skin, reduces redness and irritation, but also softens the skin. It’s a great product for those really hot days. I can imagine that it would be useful to spray it on my face and wipe off any sweat, dirt, or oil that built up on my face during a hot summer day.

Spa Castle is this mind-blowing amazing place on 57th street in NYC. Since I turned 27 this year on my birthday, I decided to forgo the usual clubbing party that I have, and my friends and I did a spa day for my birthday. Its supposed to be this tranquil place so they recommend you don’t bring your phone so it doesn’t go off and disturb you or anyone else while your in this relaxing sanctuary. Therefore, I unfortunately don’t have any pictures from my birthday. But when I saw that there was a deal on living social for the general admission fee, which is usually $65, for $35 I had to buy it. I told my friends about it, and my friend Ariel was willing to indulge herself and come with me again. This time I brought my waterproof camera with me so I could take pictures and show everyone how beautiful and amazing Spa Castle really is. Please ignore the horrible quality of the photos.

When you walk into the lobby / cashier area from the elevators, you can already tell that you’ve walked into a beautiful wonderland that is Spa Castle. When you walk in you are greeted by black marble floors and elegant purple benches, in addition to an employee or two at the cashier desk. You pay the entrance fee up front, but then they give you this really awesome bracelet-like watch thing that not only opens your locker, but you can charge everything you do at spa castle to the watch and pay for it when you exit. That way, you don’t have to carry around anything with you during your experience at Spa Castle.

After you pay the entrance fee, you walk into your respective locker room, left for men and right for women. You put all your belongings in the locker, and they give you a towel, slippers, and a uniform (a t-shirt and shorts) to wear during your day at Spa Castle. Each locker room has lockers, bathrooms, showers, hot tubs, a steam room, and a sauna. But don’t be disappointed, this is just one regular sauna. Spa Castle has 5 hot saunas and one cold room upstairs available to everyone.

Spa Castle has one indoor pool and one outdoor pool. However the outdoor pool is currently closed, and I asked an employee when it would open and she said that it was up to the courts. I guess NYC isn’t too happy with Spa Castle’s plan of having an outdoor pool. So, that might be why they offered a living social deal.

The indoor pool is still pretty nice though. It has a small sunning area with skylights and lounge chairs, so it has an outdoor feeling, almost (I might be stretching a little bit here). The pool area also has its own bar with alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks available to purchase via your watch. No mixed drinks though, just beer, wine, sparkling wine, champagne, and some mixed “mock-tails” (alcohol free).

Unfortunately, the living social deal brought in all kinds of people that didn’t appreciate the Spa Castle experience. There was a group of older teenagers that got in somehow (they do ask for ID, but maybe they just don’t let people under 21 drink) and were acting like children that had never been in a pool before, and it was really disruptive. The bartender had to actually go over to them and tell them to stop acting like children. I’m not actually sure what she said, and she was really nice, so I doubt she actually said that. However, they were acting ridiculously immature. Splashing each other, pulling each other around in the pool, pushing each others heads under water, screaming and laughing loud; unacceptable behavior at such a sophisticated place. It was a huge disappointment, and I will absolutely wait till the living social deal is OVER before going back to Spa Castle again.

When you get sick of the pool or just want to check out the rest that Spa Castle has to offer, you can head upstairs. The upstairs area has Asian fusion food, a mix of bendo boxes, dumplings, udon and glass noddle soups, and other types of foods including fresh smoothies and fruit juices. My friend Ariel and I ate lunch first before hitting the saunas.

Upstairs there is a plentiful amount of special rooms and saunas to relax in. Spa Castle has a mediation room, a sleeping room, a foot reflexology massage section, an infrared lounge section, and several saunas.

We first went into our favorite sauna first: the gold sauna. It’s lined with gold infused tiles and looks amazing when you’re in it. Spa Castle claims that gold helps reduce dependency and improves mental acuity and concentration by increasing the conductivity between nerve endings. It seems to be the coolest of the hot saunas, and it easy to ease into it by sitting in this one first.

Going down the line, next we sat in the infrared sauna, which was pretty hot. I actually had to sit on my damp towel because I couldn’t sit on the stone bench because it was so hot!

Next we took a break from the heat in the cold room, which is awesome because its walls are lined with ice. Its not too cold, don’t worry, its not 30 degrees in there, it feels more like 45 or 50 after you’ve been in the hot saunas.

The next sauna that we tried was the color therapy sauna. This one had the heat of the gold one, but had different color booths that educe different moods. My two favorite colors were green and blue. According to Spa Castle’s sign, green is associated with peace, love, and relaxation and helps reduce stress and calms the mind, while blue is the color of truth, serenity, creativity, health, vitality, and decisiveness, and has anti-inflammatory properties.

The next sauna is another favorite of mine, and probably many other people considering its popularity, the Himalayan salt sauna. It was really hot, and had bamboo floor mats to lie on because it’s too hot to sit in. Spa Castle claims that this room will help regulate water and blood pressure throughout the body. Calcium, sodium, magnesium, carbon, and manganese found in the blocks of salt help to relieve allergies and asthma, softens and clears the skin, and reduces signs of aging. The salt also moisturizes the air allowing for easier breathing for those with respiratory issues.

The final sauna we spent time in was the soil and charcoal sauna. It had the same set up as the salt sauna and was just as hot. Spa Castle says the scent of Korean yellow clay creates a meditative environment.

After my friend and I were all heated up and ready to cool off, we showered in the shower area in the locker room and changed into our clothes to leave Spa Castle to come back another time. I miss it already.

As a VIB Rouge member at Sephora, I got invited to a Beauty Before Brunch event at any local Sephora store. I choose to go to the nearest Sephora to my house, on 99th and Columbus, because the store is not so crowded and as always has very helpful sales people. I tried inviting my friends, but they didn’t want to get up that early on a Sunday (it was 9am-11am, before the store opened). They had orange juice, flavored water, snacks, and fruit all for special VIB members.

Yay, its finally summer! I’m so excited to share with you my June Birchbox favorites! Lets just forget about the fact that it’s already July…Moving on!

After I got my June Birchbox, I was so in love with the Bianca Tocca perfume that I rushed and bought it almost immediately. If you have been reading my blog, you’ve heard me mention it before so I won’t be lengthy. The Bianca perfume is a light and airy, fresh scent that’s perfect for the summer. But is also has a feminine touch because it has hints of floral in it. I bought a travel fragrance spray size, and it came in this really cute box that looks and opens like a book.

I also picked up two full-size products that I received in previous Birchboxs. This first product I got a full size of is the jelly pong pong glow getter luminizer gel, and it is the best highlighter that I have ever used. I must admit I like it way more then Benefit’s watt’s up. What’s great about this product is that you don’t have to use a lot to get that dewy, sun-kissed glow. The packaging is a bit strange though; it looks like a mini nail polish.

The other full size product that I purchased is a foaming shower gel from Rituals. The packaging of this product is also a little weird because at first it seems to be either shaving cream or hairspray. However this body wash is awesome. You only put a little bit on your hand and it foams up sort of like shaving cream. You then lather the mousse all over your body, like you would any other body wash. What I like about this particular product is that a little seems to go along way. Also, with the scent of fresh eucalyptus and rosemary, this body wash is a wonderful refreshing start to the day.

To those people that are either skeptical about subscription boxes or just confused about a particular product that you got in a subscription box, I just want to say to you: be open-minded. Most of the products that I initially thought I was going to hate when I first opened my box, I have ended up liking after using them. There were even some products that I still hated after trying them once or twice, but some grew on me after I learned to use them correctly or to adjust to the right amount of product to use.

The first time I got a liquid lipstick I was like, “Wooh! What is this?” But now I totally love them! By the way I am wearing a liquid lipstick right now! This full size Mirenesse matt lip rouge as also included in my June Birchbox. I get two full size beauty samples in my monthly Birchbox because I opted in for the “Plus” option for an extra $20 (for a total of $30 a month).

I believe that make up is supposed to be fun and creative. I like to think of it as painting on your face! Plus, if you don’t like it, it’s not permanent just wipe it off. It’s no big deal if you don’t like it, and no one will ever judge you for not liking a product. I just think you should be adventurous and when a subscription box gives you a sample product, try it out. Sometimes they gave you that product for reason. Be daring, try new things.