In honor of my 30th birthday, I’ve decided to restart this blog! I have been posting on instagram, however, I know I’ve let this site slide. But starting now, I’m back on the blog!

I turned 30 *queue screams* and I had a house party in my new brooklyn apartment. Had a great time with a few very close friends playing cards against humanity. I ordered Momofuku Milkbar cake and tons and tons of cookies!

After we all finally got over our jet lag, my father took us to see the Tuileries Garden next to the Lourve museum. There is also another smaller museum in the garden, the Orangerie Museum, that is the home to the famous water lilies paintings by Monet. 

After the museum, we decided to walk the Rue Saint Honré where all of the expensive shops are. Our intention was to do some window shopping, but of course we bought some stuff. I got this wonderful black leather bag that is convertible into a backpack. My mom was generous enough to buy me these stunning Alexander McQueen heels.

Later that night we went to the Philharmonic to see Yuja Wang play the piano. She was beyond amazing. Her fingers literally floated across the keyboard. Her fingers reminded me of little birds flying around a flower. It was so spectacular!

The new Philarmonic building is bit outside the city center of Paris. Its an awesome modern building by the architect Jean Nouvel. Its not in the best neighborhood, but its worth making the metro trip. 

The most awe inspiring parts about Paris are the simple things. My dad was telling me that all the buildings in the center part of Paris are historically protected buildings. People are not allowed to change the outside appearance of any of the buildings in the center of Paris. Because of this, it really makes you feel as if you’ve traveled back in time. The architecture is truly awe inspiring in a very historical way. Also, because the buildings aren’t tall you really get a connection to the outdoors. You still can’t see stars, but you can always see the sky, and at night the moon is truly magnificent.

Also, I found that the basics of French food were the most delicious. Of course you would expect things like baguettes and croissants to stand out, and of course they were delicious, but I found that all the breads were amazing. You can’t have some bread without some butter, and oh was the butter good! My mother was telling me that the water has a higher fat content then in America, and that’s why it’s so delicious.

I must not forget the wine! The wine really blew me away. You can buy a very inexpensive bottle wine, around €8 to €15, and almost guarantee it will be delicious. Obviously when you go to a restaurant they rack up the price quite a bit, but you don’t have to spend a lot to get great wine is my point.

My outrageously generous and very kind parents decided that because I had never been to Paris it would be a great graduation present. It took me a while to finally graduate college because I wanted to work while going to school. I always found the real world, hands-on experience, was always the best teacher.

I like to think that because my parents are so generous, all of their friends are very generous with them. They have a friend of a friend who owns an apartment and the 7th in Paris. We stayed in his gorgeous apartment. Trust me, when I say gorgeous I’m not trying to brag, but his apartment was actually featured in a french decor magazine. Staying at an apartment instead of a hotel, along with flying on Mondays, kept the costs of traveling down. This made it possible for us to go out to dinner every night and do plenty of shopping.

We flew out of JFK at around 7 PM on Monday evening and got into CDG Paris airport at 8 AM Tuesday morning. I rarely ever sleep on planes so when we finally got into Paris I was exhausted. Our first day was mostly trying to figure out the neighborhood, getting some groceries, and we all took a mid afternoon nap before dinner.

After we all showered and changed for dinner, we went to a local spot that was recommended to us by the owner of the apartment that we were staying in. We ate dinner at Le Petit Lutetia, a very cozy but clearly authentically French place. I had the spicy lobster spaghetti, and it was delicious. After dinner, we were all very tired and we went immediately to bed when we got home.

I’ve been obsessed with the Artis brushes since they came out, but I always considered them way too expensive. I even went as far as to buy Amazon knock offs of the brushes.

Then Gilt City offered 20% off discount code. I promptly decided to purchase some brushes! I bought the palm brush in smoke, and the oval 8. I also got the the oval 3 and the circle 1R from they’re newer less expensive line Brush Craft.

The Artis brushes are way thicker that all of the knock offs that I purchased on Amazon. I could tell the difference immediately. The oval 8 and the palm brush are my two favorites right now. They make it quick and efficient to apply makeup. However, the Artis brushes are definitely a luxury item and I would never recommend buying an entire set.

For most of my life I’ve had my hair colored by only one man, a good family friend name Brian. He is a hairdresser, belt and bag designer, and is going to start a skincare line. However, he has always been really expensive, and it costs me around $500 all in for cut and color for one appointment with him. I’ve never wanted to go the “cheep” route with my hair because I have fine hair that can damage quickly. I also prefer to get my hair highlighted using the balayage treatment, which is more expensive and time consuming but I like it because it looks more natural.

I purchased a Living Social deal for Kolor Bar on 86th street after I messed up my color at another salon. I bet everyone at most Kolor Bars in Manhattan do a great job, but I loved the recent highlights that Casey gave me. I’ve gone back to her twice and I love my hair every time she touches it. Casey also gives great haircuts.

I was invited to a special app launch even for the app The Glam Archive. It was a really awesome event filled with independent makeup artist and beauty entrepreneurs. There they served Vodkila cocktails, a new mixed alcohol that has 70% Vodka and 30% Tequila. There were also several independent vendors advertising their products. My favorite brand was Gem Cosmetics, a cosmetics line formulated by Shakema Cyrus. The lipsticks were pigmented and smelled awesome. The lipstick I purchased from her I put on at the event and it lasted the entire night. The Gem eye shadows were very pigmented as well and all looked so bold and awesome that I purchased one in addition to the lipstick.

The hair care brand Haircredible also had featured products for purchase. Haircredible was formulated for thinning hair and is used to thicken hair strands while adding volume with out weighing the hair down. Also, the cosmetics brand Wunderblender featured their cover-up concealer at this event. This concealer does a great job at covering up major skin issues. I tired it on my tattoo and it worked quite well.

Because I am a VIB Rouge member at Sephora, I got a chance to go to a makeup forever event for 750 Sephora points. They rented out a pretty big space in the city for the event. Makeup artists that work for makeup forever doing special lip applications, and you could even mix your own shade of lipstick. There was also a photo booth and photographers. It was such an awesome atmosphere as well. There were cocktails, wine, little hors d’oeuvers, and a DJ. I was able to bring a friend, and we each got a small gift bag with makeup forever goodies inside. I had such a blast!