Girl Talk: Our Favorite Skin Care, Books, Wellness Tips & More!

Welcome to The In Between Podcast. I'm Astrid.

And I'm Alexis. And we're 2 best friends on a journey to living a fun, intentional life.

We know it's easier to share on a season of life once it's behind you, but what about when you're in the middle of the growth, confusion, and decision-making?

This lifestyle podcast is for the everyday gal who loves to travel, talk about business, relationships, fashion, and everything in between.

Hello, friends.

And welcome back to another episode of The In Between Podcast. It is one half of the pod, Alexis.

And the other half, Astrid. And I am so excited for today's episode. It is one that was actually sent in by one of our listeners, and it was asking for some of our favorites. So we're going to be diving into some of our favorite skincare, makeup, clothing, podcasts, wellness routines, All the fun things. Uh, we haven't done one of these in a really long time. I feel like we did one when we first started the podcast, so I'm excited and also mentally prepared to not be influenced to shop this month by your recommendations.

Yes, I'm gonna be adding these to a wish list. And again, this is gonna be a girly chat, so, um, I'm very excited for this. I also will— well, oh, you know what, I'll update that later. I was going to tell you like about the influencing stuff and I'll tell you my life update. So do you want to go first with your life update for the week?

Yes. Yes. So, um, your girl traveled quite a bit earlier this week, so it ended up being a total of almost 30 hours. Um, and then I traveled last night again to Kentucky, a 6-hour round trip. But this was just for fun. It was for family. My boyfriend's cousin is in his regional game where then he goes to state. And so he really wanted to go see him play. So we made the drive, got back this morning at 1:00 AM and kind of just rolled into the workday. But it was good. It's one of those things where you're tired, but just so glad that you went because seeing their face of Hey, you showed up for me and you made that drive for me. It was just priceless and so precious.

Love that.

And yeah, it was just good catch-up time for us. And this will be my first weekend in 4 weeks, 5 weeks that I will get to be home. So I am so excited to settle in, to literally just cook at home and have a homemade meal and get back into routine and do laundry and all the things. Yeah, that's where I've been at. And then just really getting my March goals set in place now that I have more of a routine. And that has been really fun to create and be intentional with my month, like who I want to hang out with, do some spring cleaning, organize stuff and everything. So yeah, that is what's up on my end. What have you been up to?

I love that. I'm glad they're getting some time to just be. Be at home, get back into your routine. There's nothing like it. It's like grateful for the travel, grateful for the downtime.

Yes.

Yeah, it's rodeo season in Houston. So if you have ever been to a state fair, think of the largest, most American state fair you've ever been to and just like multiply it by 10. It's huge. It's a huge Houston thing. I think like 150,000 people go every night. For 3 weeks straight. And so we—

Oh, wow.

We went to see, um, the rodeo. We went to the rodeo twice. So you go to like the rodeo itself, which is like 9 or 10 events, like in the rodeo, you know, I don't even know what words I'm supposed to use here, but like rodeo events. I don't know how to explain that because whenever you think of like the rodeo, you're like, oh, bull riding. But there's like, there's All these other events. There's bareback, there's roping steers, there's a bunch of other stuff. So anyways, obviously I don't know much about the rodeo, but we had a couple of fun. Then we saw Jelly Roll afterwards and he brought on Cody Johnson, which is a big Texas country guy. It was really fun. I love being in environments where everyone's like low-key. Jelly Roll said, and he's a country music artist if you're not familiar with him, But after his first song on stage, he was like, hello, Texas. He's like, I want you to know that this is the largest show I've ever played in my career. 75,000 people.

Oh, wow.

And like, he started to break down crying and the whole stadium stood up and gave him a standing ovation. And everyone was like, you know when you're a part of that feeling in a concert or like you get to witness someone else having a big moment in their life? It's like watching someone get engaged and you're just a bystander. It was— I started crying in the stadium because I was like, I just love that he's getting to have this moment that he's worked so hard for. Anyways, that was actually one of the highlights of my week, was just like getting to witness someone's dream come true. And anyways, I don't even necessarily listen to his music, but I was like, I just love this for you, Jelly Roll.

But I'm so proud of you. I love that so much.

Yeah, that and like Prepping for a trip to Turkey for work. So excited for that.

Oh, that's going to be amazing. I have loved your rodeo posts. I had no idea you were going to be going to rodeos and then just hard launches posts on stories. And it's fun. It's fun to try something different and be a part of the culture that you're in there in Houston. And I love that it comes with a concert too. There's something That feels so special as an adult whenever you get to go to events during a work week. I don't know if you feel that. Yes. Where you're just like, oh yeah, I just partied up last night. I don't have to wait for the weekend. I love that for you.

Yes, truly.

Absolutely.

What are you in between right now?

What am I in between?

Hard launch into the question. Yeah.

Um, okay. Well, um, do you, do you have yours picked out?

I do. Yeah. Do you want me to go first?

Go for it.

Okay.

Yeah.

And if you're new to the pod, we always start each episode talking about what we're in between because we always believe you're in between something. So I'm in between getting my financial life together again. Um, I feel like we did the financial girl, that edition in January. I was doing so good and now it's March and I'm like, It's springtime and everyone's doing all these TJ Maxx and Marshalls hauls on TikTok. And like, I'm just seeing all of the spring content and my spending the last 2 to 3 weeks has just like not been reflective of the kind of person that I am and who I'm becoming and my financial goals. And so I am getting that kind of like wrapped up and I know that's Spending a lot of times is tied to something emotionally that's going on in my life that maybe is unresolved, and so I then like I kind of comfort myself with spending or like online shopping. And so I've noticed that being popping up, and so I'm in between like recognizing that quicker, and I'm doing a no spend actually starting yesterday. So for four weeks, so my it I I think that's another thing that. I'm learning is like, I love doing no-spends, but it's like, oh well, just because I didn't start on March 1st, I can't do it this month. It's like, no, you can actually do a no-spend like no matter what the date is. And so just starting on March 7th and going until April 3rd, which is like exactly 4 weeks, and I feel really good about it, just like owning it, being like, okay, we're gonna cut spending in clothing, accessories, skincare, and makeup. And we're going to be very diligent, continue adding things to our wishlist, but just like being more disciplined with the online shopping.

Hmm. That's so good. I am so proud of you. Like the way that you communicated that, not just on the spending portion, but also the emotional side of it. I feel like it can take a while to get to that point to recognize that. Or even just the courage to admit it. And so I admire you for that and owning it and saying like, okay, yeah, this one could be related to a few other things I need to figure out emotionally. And so let's take some action and pull away that mechanism. And yeah, I feel like we're always going to have these downs in our life. And that's why I love this podcast is sharing the in-betweens of It's not like we have our finances figured out, our relationships, our business. We're going to have the downs, but the goal is to always grow in the direction where the gaps in between are a little bit shorter and we can grow emotionally to get there quicker. And I'm just so freaking proud of you for saying that. And it's encouraging as well to me. Thank you.

I appreciate that. Yeah, I don't have everything together at all. I have certain areas of my life, but none of us have everything together. And if someone really thinks that they do, Don't trust them. You know, some—

Literally massive red flag if they say they have their life together.

Agreed. Okay, what about you?

Yeah, I am in between. Gosh, I'm so indecisive today on it. Yeah, I would agree with the financial aspect of one. I even responded to your story last night. I just think starting the new year and then rolling into trips, and then on trips it just kind of feels like you just have to spend money sometimes because you're eating out or you're staying at someone's house and you're like, well, I have to thank them for doing this, so here's what I'm spending. And then there's life and emergencies and all of that. And just life things that have happened this month that were very unexpected expenses. And so to be honest, I've been avoiding it. I've been avoiding looking at it because I know that it's, it's substantial.

Yeah.

And mine hasn't been as much on like the shopping front, but it's more the travel front and still a little bit of shopping too. And so, um, yeah, that's on my to-do list for this weekend on my reset Sunday. We're gonna reevaluate all of it, including like the business side of things too. Like, get a pulse of where are all our expenses at and what needs to be cut back. And yeah, and I will say, like, one thing that has helped me is just automating stuff. So I've, at the beginning of the year, I automated a certain amount to go into an account each month for my Europe trip. And so even in these times where it's like my spending is off and everything, It's brought me a lot of peace to not feel like, oh crap, well now I have this trip coming up and now I'm behind and now like all this coming up. It's like, okay, that's reserved. I still need to make sacrifices and catch up, but like that's just been solved for me beforehand. So I just need to figure out more ways in my life to do that so that I'm not thinking through every single step. Like maybe I just need a spending account for my clothing and creating that separately. And then when the money's gone, it's It's gone. That's it.

I know. Actually, one of my girlfriends, Kate, she's like, you find yourself here a lot. And she wasn't saying it in a mean way at all, but she's one of my best friends, so she can say these things. She's like, you seem to find yourself here a lot. What do you think about just having a monthly budget and you just stick to that? And I was like, eh.

But she's right.

Good Kate.

There's opportunities.

I know. And so I need to figure out what that looks like for me. I also, I know that we have, like I have a 2-week trip to Europe on a Mediterranean cruise with Matthew's family coming up. And then I know we're going to France in July. And there are like, I want to get a new swimsuit. I want to get some new things for those trips. And at the same time, I feel like in order for me to do that responsibly, I need to go through my clothes. I need to try on all my swimsuits. I need to like really see what I do have.

Yeah.

And then shop for those trips and like fill in the gaps versus like blindly spending and preparing for something that's like literally 4 months away. Um, but it's like, I would rather stop spending money this month, regroup, look at what I have, and then say, okay, I want to buy 2 dresses and 1 new swimsuit and a new pair of sandals. And then I'm like, okay, now I've got this list and I'm working off of something that's intentional.

Yeah.

Versus off of something that's reactive. And like, that's what I'm working on.

I love that. Well, let's support each other through this no-spend month because that's where mine came through as well. Trying to hold myself accountable to not eating out too, because that's always a massive one for me. So yeah, we will support each other. We will give updates at the end of our 4-week, uh, stint. And I believe in us. It'll be fine. We're going to re-regulate.

We got this. We are regulating. We are, we are assessing. We are auditing. I am so proud of us.

Absolutely.

Shall we talk about our favorite things? I'm so excited for this episode. I had way too much fun prepping.

Me too. I love the, um, in-betweens on the financial side. And now we're like, okay, now let's share our favorite things from the things that we have bought.

Exactly. For the things that we have and have used, this is like some of the favorite things and not all of them you have to purchase.

So absolutely, absolutely. Well, let's kick things off with skincare. What have you been loving? What are you obsessed with? What has worked?

Yes, so the La Roche-Posay moisturizer, the dual action moisturizer, it's just unreal. Like, I love it. I am oily to acne-prone skin, and I do feel like that moisturizer does not make me break out. I like how thin and smooth it is on my skin. And so some moisturizers sit on my skin too heavy and then just like lean into that oil and I don't like it. So I'm loving that moisturizer. I'm also loving the La Roche-Posay retinol, specifically their B13 retinol. And what I've been doing is I just get like a little bit of moisturizer from the La Roche-Posay and then I use the Like the syringe applicator and put the retinol on top of the moisturizer and kind of dilute it a little bit so it's not as harsh on my skin. And then I've been using that about 3 times a week and I can really notice the texture difference from using the retinol on my skin and I'm loving that. And then the last one I would mention is the Tatcha. Am I saying that correctly? Is it Tatcha?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The like purple brand.

Okay.

I have been loving their Rice Wash Cleanser. So they have this like really soft, creamy rice wash cleanser and it smells so good. I love the way that it like foams up and I just feel like it really strips all the oil and makeup off of my face at the end of the day. And it leaves me feeling so soft. And I feel like sometimes cleansers can make you feel like your skin feels stripped, if that makes sense. And I feel like this rice wash cleanser is like soft and not super harsh. So like while it's removing the makeup and the oil, it's still like leaving my skin texture feeling really soft. So those are my skincare recommendations.

I love those. I also use the La Roche-Posay moisturizer, but I use the Tolerane one, which is more for allergy-prone, like very sensitive skin.

Ah, okay.

But good to know on the retinol because I've been wondering about their retinol and I was curious it would be too harsh.

I love it.

Great tip on adding it to the moisturizer. But yeah, I felt like my face completely changed when I started using that brand. It felt like a little bit of a filter came onto like my skin and like the evenness. But last month I bought— have you heard of Dime Beauty?

Yes.

Okay, it's like the natural brand.

Yeah.

So I used to use the Drunk Elephant Vitamin C Serum, and it's actually not that clean for you, and it's way more expensive than it needs to be. And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna slowly, when this runs out, try a more clean brand. So I'm slowly starting to switch things out. I bought the Hyper Glow Serum from Dime Beauty, and when I tell you I've seen such a huge difference in my skin, like plumpness and like hydration and, and like literally glow. Like some of the mornings by the beach, I would just wear that and then the moisturizer and sunscreen, like nothing else. And it helps so, so much to make my skin look brighter. So I have been using that with their hyaluronic acid serum to just get lots of hydration in. Love it. 10 out of 10 recommend. really affordable, honestly, for what it does, and high quality, and it's clean ingredients. And on that front, that same brand, even though it's not skincare, their perfumes are incredible too. So I've committed to not spending any more money on like not natural perfumes, because that can really mess with hormones. And that was a harsh like switch for me, but 10 out of 10 recommend Dime as well.

Okay.

The other thing I've been loving is I've I used to do this before, but I picked it back up again, is oil cleansing. And so I noticed my skin was, when I was just doing regular cleanser, it was getting very dry, especially with the winter. And so now I'm back to doing double cleansing. So I'll start with the oil. It really helps my, like, all the makeup come off. And then I use my, I have like all these little towels. So when I use, I put the oil and I do it with the towels, it's almost like it exfoliates very gently my skin. And I've been doing this for the whole month that I've been traveling and my blackheads have reduced so much because it's just dirt accumulated there.

Yeah.

And so it really helps to make sure you strip everything makeup-wise. And then I'll lightly go in with just a little bit of a regular cleanser, the CeraVe one, and then just to finish everything off before adding all the layers. So I've been loving that. And then the last one is a mud mask. So the girl that does my facials does a very natural holistic mud mask, and it's a Hungarian mud mask.

Hmm.

And so I've done it just once a month, and my skin looks so, so much better afterwards. And mud just pulls like all the toxins out. And in the summer, if you girls like ever feel like stinky under your armpits, or if you're wanting to get a really smooth shave, like just use mud, the mud mask. It like helps to get all of that out of your skin. Wow. Um, but yeah, I've been using it on my face, uh, and it's incredible. I'm so obsessed with it.

I love that.

I need to get—

I think I do have a mud mask, but I never thought about using it underneath like my armpits. Before. Is it a certain brand?

Yeah, it is Alexandria Professionals. But you can buy just an organic mud mask, Hungarian one on Amazon that's good quality, mix it with water and then you add it. But yeah, a lot of girls that transition from regular deodorant to a natural one, that's something that they highly recommend to do so that it helps you transition. But yeah, it's great to just pull out toxins. It's good to just do every once in a while, even if you don't smell under your armpits, to just pull toxins out. So yeah, I have started to do that more regularly and I love it. So moving—

I'm influenced. One thing I want to say is the oil cleanser before your regular cleanser. I also this past week, or like for Galentine's Day, one of my girlfriends and I co-hosted and we had a skincare show and tell.

I love it.

And it was so much fun. All the girls brought their like 1 to 2 favorite skincare products and then we talked about it, got to try it, smell it, texture, all of that. And one of the girls, so I was using the Tatcha Rice Wash Cleanser, she brought the Tatcha Oil Cleanser that she uses before the Rice Wash Cleanser. And I've been doing that on days where I'm wearing like heavier makeup. I'm not doing it every day. And I will tell you that I've like noticed how much better my skin feels after I use the oil cleanser. So I just want to plus one the oil cleanser because I feel like I've never done that before. I've never double cleansed with different products. I've just double cleansed with like the same product. I'll just cleanse my face with like the CeraVe twice. And yeah, yeah, cool to use the like oil and then the cleanser.

It's insane how much more hydrating it is for your skin, right? Yeah, I love— also 10 out of 10 for that event. That sounds incredible.

So fun. I'm like, how do we do this for the in-between pod girlies? Like, how do we have a skincare show and tell virtually?

Yes. Let us know if you want this.

Yeah, seriously.

Moving on to your favorite makeup. What are you loving right now for your makeup products?

I am a big IT Cosmetics gal. I love their CC cream. I feel like it's my go-to. It's very glowy. It's, I would say, like light to medium coverage. So I usually wear it like in the summertime. Um, but I've been loving that. Also Benefit's It Eyebrow, um, pencil. I feel like that, you know, when you like find a product and you just, you use it like all the time and you don't ever change, where like sometimes you'll change out concealers or you'll change out other things. My brow pencil is my baby. Like, I love her so much. It's one side's the pencil and the other side's the brush, and I just, I love her. It's like a great dual. dual action. And then there's something that Astrid put me on. I'm sure it's probably on your list as well. Do you know what I'm going to say?

DIBS.

We are DIBS girlies. The DIBS Duo Stick. It's half creamy contour and half creamy blush. I literally love it. And also this past month I broke down and finally got the brush. Like the Div famous brush that like everyone was obsessed with. I finally got it.

You love it?

And I really do love the way— like I've been using a blender, a Beauty Blender to like do all my makeup for forever. And switching to doing my contour and my blush with an actual brush has like changed the way that it's blending into my skin and I'm loving it. So plus one for like actually getting good makeup brushes to apply your makeup. I do think that makes a difference on how it lays and sits throughout the day.

Absolutely. I have had that on my wishlist for some time. I do use a brush for putting on the DIBS, but I can tell their quality, like when I see videos, that it is just so much better. So I am influenced. I love it. Yes. Yeah. For anyone that hasn't tried DIBS, it is so, so creamy and It just looks so natural on your skin, very healthy, very like summer glow. So I'll move on to my next one after the dips, which is the, I believe it's the Tatcha brand as well, but it's the glow spray. And it just gives you like such a dewy, glowy like look at the finish of your makeup.

Mm-hmm.

So I wouldn't recommend that for summertime 'cause you're already like, you know, warmer, sweaty, or whatever. But in those like fall to springtime where you just want a little bit of that extra glow, what I will do is when I mostly finish my makeup before I do all my powdered stuff, um, I will mist it on and then I'll add like a little bit of powdered blush on top and it almost like sets it all in. And instead of just looking like a greasy mess, it's just like glowy in the parts that it needs to be. And then the Parts where I don't want it, it's like matted down. So really, really love that for just like a fun summery look. And I'm obsessed with the Rare Beauty brow gel. So if you're a girl that has thick eyebrows, I've struggled so hard to find a brow gel that actually will stay enough time. And so I got my eyebrows laminated a few times and I love the look of it. And you're not supposed to get them done very often. Yeah. So I was on a hunt for a solid brow gel that could give a little bit of that illusion. And so that's the one. It actually really holds up. It has been sweatproof through lots of hot wedding days already this year, and it's incredible. And along with that, the Rare Beauty mascara is fantastic. I don't have very long eyelashes, but when I put that one on, it really separates them, really curves them without it being clumpy. So 10 out of 10 for Rare Beauty.

I— one, I'm really glad you brought up the brow gel because I've been in search of a brow gel that like looks good on me. Like, I tried the Anastasia, if I'm saying that correctly, and I didn't love the, like, the brow gel look. So thank you for that. And to, to tack— to like tack on to Rare Beauty, their lip liner lipsticks and lip gloss. Do not sleep on their lip products. Like, I love their lip liner, and their gloss is like now my go-to gloss. Like, I just love it. So I feel like I tried Charlotte Tilbury, and it's— I don't love the texture of their Pillow Talk liner and lipstick. And like, I love how smooth and like natural and glossy Rare Beauty's lip products are. So, and also shout out to my girl Danielle, my girlfriend here in Houston who like put me on a lip, like she has like a whole lip liner and I never really wore it before. Like she's the first person that like got me lip liner. She's like, try this lip combo. And I was like, okay. And I did and I loved it, which is just like so fun to have girly friends that are into that. And now I'm like, now I don't leave the house all dressed up. Without like my lip combo on, and I love it.

Yeah, I feel finished. Yeah, agreed. I've actually been also doing, uh, even for a casual look, I'll do lip liner and then I'll wear chapstick on top or just like a clear gloss, and it really makes it like— makes my lips look so much bigger too, and just a little bit naturally put together in a sense. So 10 out of 10 recommend also on a casual one, but Um, the other one I was gonna add, as you mentioned it, is the Rare Beauty lip oil. So you mentioned the gloss, but if you girls haven't tried the lip oil, it's perfect for that night out where you need the color to stay but you want it to look glossier without it being like stickier.

Hmm.

And I'm amazed. It's probably on my lips what has felt the most hydrating and comfortable and beautiful. So 10 out of 10 for Rare Beauty. They're killing it.

I'm sold, but not this month. Um, should we move on to clothing and style? Yes.

Yes. So on clothing and style, um, I'm a little bit like in a weird in-between where it's cold at home and then I've been in warmer weather. But overall, some things that I am loving is I finally invested last fall in, uh, an Alo workout set. And love the quality of it is amazing. It looks so smooth without it being so like insanely compressed. It's very sharp too for travel, and you just feel more put together. Um, absolutely love them. The other one is just in general, I'm really vibing with linen and silk, and it might just be the fact that I have spent so much time by the beach this month. But I don't want anything besides that. Like, I am already eyeing some solid, like, linen pants for the summer. I have some linen shorts I want to bring back. And then just like, I think that's going to be more of my go-to for the summer is linen and silk mix. Um, and then the last one, this is more on the, like, denim side of things. Abercrombie& Fitch finally came out. If you're a tall girl, They've always had long sizes, but they would still be way too short for me, and it would be like a hit or miss. Very rare that I could find one that would fit. They just came out with like extra long ones in the Curve, and it just fits so well. Very comfortable. It'll like sit at my waist a little bit loosely, and then like everything just fits very comfortable, where the other sizes, the regular ones, just like literally— flattened my butt and then made my waist look big. And it just, it's just weird. And it was a little bit cropped. So yeah, if you're looking for that like comfortable oversized, long wide leg jeans and you're a tall girl, Abercrombie always hits on that. And lastly, like this isn't a specific clothing item, but I have been even more so doing a lot of Pinterest boards for trips or for seasons. And so for springtime, I'll like save stuff to it. For my summer in Europe, I've been saving inspo for it. For this trip, I just really got into doing braids in my hair on top of my natural hair. And I just got that idea from Pinterest. So just really having fun by getting inspo has been really cool.

Yes. Honestly, same. I've been so into creating different Pinterest boards for different trips or style. And I was kind of feeling a couple weeks ago in a little bit of a style rut. And just going to Pinterest and looking up ideas and then seeing what was in my closet to remake that outfit. Not that I needed to go buy something. That has been really fun of like, let's find a look that we like and let's recreate it with our own clothing. And so I love that idea. It's a great way to get out of a wardrobe rut, if you will.

Yes.

Plus one also to the linens and the silks. I've also been very much like, there's a linen pant, kind of the baggy linen pant trend that's happening right now. I already have some, you know, from last year. So I'm kidding, but I'm like, okay.

She's ahead of the curve.

I'm finally ahead of some trend, you know, but just like continuing to wear my like linen baggy, like I love that like slack, like kind of an oversized slack look with, um, silk as well as like I've been in my cardigan era. So I did not have any cardigans that like button up. And that look more tailored. So you can have them buttoned or unbuttoned, or you can have them like wrap over the shoulder. I just like didn't have that. And so over the last couple of weeks, I got a couple of cardigans. And I got one from TJ Maxx, one from Old Navy, and one from H&M. And just like, you know, not super expensive, but just like those staple pieces where you're like, okay, yes, I Oh, and I got one from Brandy Melville. Sorry, it was Brandy Melville, not H&M. So just testing out more of that style. I kind of put underneath here, I put coastal European chic where I like the casual but elevated look with a big belt cinched in the waist, but oversized clothes. That's just my vibe. And then I've been wearing more jewelry, wearing more rings. Wearing different earrings, trying to wear different necklaces. And it's stuff I already have, but I feel like I get in a jewelry rut where I reach for the same pair of earrings, the same ring combo, and like never switch it up. And so that's another thing I've been trying to do is accessorize a little bit more, pull out some of those like specialty bags and cool purses that I have, those scarves that I have, and like actually accessorize fully an outfit.

So that's awesome.

So I've been trying to do more of that and be more intentional and give myself time when I'm getting ready to actually do that. Whereas a lot of times I'm like, I don't have time. So just making time for that.

I love that. I feel like it sounds like you're being very creative with your overall style and embracing that in different ways. So bringing that into, okay, how do we grab from our closet already and recreate something or look at the accessories differently or this piece that was maybe more winter, how can we make it summer? Like, I'm sure those cardigans too, with like some linen shorts and some cute, like your Steve— or yeah, is it Steve Madden? That like the clogs. I think that would look so cute too, to like transition it all out.

Yeah, I know. I'm excited for testing some of these, these looks out. Okay, moving on to podcasts. So not to be too meta, isn't that the next category?

Yeah.

Okay. Podcasts. So I'm just going to list the 3 that I've been listening to the most. One is On Purpose with Jay Shetty. Loving a lot of the discussions, the guests that he has on, just thinking bigger, kind of getting into some different frameworks to look at life and look at creativity. I've just really been enjoying his podcast. Like very much personal development. I've also, I feel like I'm in my wellness era. Like Whole30 sent me down this path of like really looking at more ingredients and being like really mindful of my hormones and supplements and all of that. So I've been absolutely devouring the podcast Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn. She's also the founder of Bloom Greens, which I did not know that. Like I had been following her for her fitness and wellness journey and just somewhere along the way— Wow. Did not even realize that she was the founder of Bloom. So that was cool, like just like putting those 2 things together. And I've really been loving her podcast. She's very honest. She's also going through like a fertility journey right now and just like really been loving the content that she's been putting out. And then the 3rd podcast I listen to weekly is Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal. He is a creator, big YouTuber, Instagrammer. Um, he also happens to use Circle as well, which is how I first found out about him, uh, for his memberships and courses. And he puts out really great content with other entrepreneurs where he's like deep diving into their process, the way they think, the way they solve problems. And so it's not just like having another entrepreneur to come on and talk about what everyone else talks to them about.

Mm-hmm.

So I love like his interview style is very deep, very intentional and a really great show. And he's based in the UK. And so he has on a lot of UK entrepreneurs that I've never heard of before. That also is just like a fresh, you know, when you listen to podcasts and they have like the same people on and that's fine, but I love like just hearing a fresh story. I'm like, okay, I'm like juicy for that. So those are some of the podcasts I've been enjoying lately.

Oh, I love those. Um, I have been— I've listened to a few episodes on the wellness one that you've sent me, and I loved it. And I want to deep dive more into those because I feel like there's so much to learn about our bodies, and being able to digest it week by week feels great. Um, and I'm gonna have to check out the one by— is it Ali? Is that how you say his name?

Ali Abdaal. Yeah.

Ali Abdul, that sounds incredible. I feel like some of the business podcasts can feel all just very similar. I got burnt out on them for a little bit there earlier this year, so that sounds amazing. Um, on my end, the podcast— so my first one is also a wellness one. It's Wellness Her Way by Gracie Norrin. Um, I first followed her on TikTok because she went through a similar thing that I did with my gut health where, um, we had to like go on a very strict diet to heal our gut. And we had all these symptoms and I had a lot of allergies. She had different ones, but overall our doctors put us through the same process. So she shared a lot of her routines, her food, and what it's like now that we can eat more things, but how do we protect our gut from that? And so anyway, I followed her on TikTok for a while. She came out with a podcast now. And I love it because she will do a hybrid between her solo episodes and how she's navigating things. So for example, she used to cycle sync, but now she wanted to run a 10K. So how does it look like to cycle sync when you're training for something and that everyday vibe? And then she'll also interview other people. So she had the founder of Primally Pure come on. She had the girl from Pursuit Wellness, the one that you mentioned.

Pursuit of Wellness, yeah. Come on.

Pursuit of Wellness. Yeah. And just a few, like quite a bit of different influencers and doctors and like holistic people and like as women just learning more about our bodies. So love her. Then I love listening to the one, Let's Talk Attachments. So attachments is something that I've been learning a lot more about of like all of us either have like an anxious attachment, secure attachment. Like there's just Quite like 5 different ones. And so learning which one we gravitate towards and where maybe your partner or your friends can land has been really helpful to understand other people better and to recognize that we all have different needs and be like, okay, it's not like a communi— because for me it's like, oh well, if we just communicate through it, if you just communicate, I'll be fine. And sometimes you can communicate and still not get there. And so the attachments part has helped me unlock where someone might be coming from. And then the last one that I recently started listening to 2 weeks ago is That's My Personal Business by Eden Strader. I think that's how you say her name. She is a photographer turned educator and coach. And I love her podcast because she will have a variety of photography/business people come on, and it's just been really cool to see all the different paths you can take in photography. I think sometimes we feel like there's just one path and I'm going to do this forever. And so I've just been learning a lot this past month on things that I want to implement in my business. And I shared this a little bit on the podcast, but I'm feeling a little bit not stuck in a rut, but I'm like, okay, what's like What do I need to grow more? What do I need to focus on? I feel a little bit in a limbo there. So that has helped me just consume a lot of ideas and then decide where I'm going to head with that. So yeah, those are my top 3.

I want to listen to those. I actually did listen to Gracie Norton. One of her podcast episodes with Sydney McAdams is really good. And then the attachment one sounds amazing. Like I would definitely benefit from that. And then this last one, it's always helpful too, to like listen to podcasts that are in your specific niche as well. So like, you know, listening, you know, as a photographer, listening to a podcast who, you know, she's a photographer and how she's doing different things in her business. It's always like helpful to see the inside of what someone else is doing. I've done the same thing with coaching podcasts in the past. Where I try not to consume like too much of that content because it can sometimes make me feel like I have to do everything a certain way, but it can get you of like, what else is out there? Let's think of some new ideas and then you can like take it and run with it.

Yeah, for sure. I love just idea consumption and that's why I love hers because she'll have so many different guests and so you get so many different aspects. It's not just, here's how I do it. But moving on to TV and movies, which I know you are a big TV movie girly, so I am excited for your recommendations on this.

I really am. I really am. Okay, so, um, The Gentlemen by Guy Ritchie. So he came out with a movie with Matthew McConaughey and a few other like really big, um, actors a couple of years ago. Loved the movie so much. Loved the way that it was shot. Like there were so many things about the cinematography that I was just so like, oh my gosh, it's such a good movie and I love the storyline as well. It follows a marijuana dealer in London and it's like again essentially like all of these drug cartels, you know, fighting for different corners of the market. Okay, so they end up. With Theo James, who's like one of my favorite actors. He's, he's the main guy in Divergent. Little hottie. You know what I'm talking about?

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Little hottie, little hottie man. Um, he is the main actor in The Gentlemen, and they turned it into a show on Netflix. And we actually watched it. It came out, um, this past week, and we watched the first 2 episodes, and we were just like in awe. Like, we were like, this is— the first episode is insane. I loved it. If you love like crime, family drama, um, kind of like seeing someone become something in real time based on the circumstances that they're thrust into, really good show. Um, but not for the faint of heart. So just take that with what you will.

So it's The Gentlemen?

The Gentlemen.

Is this a show?

Yeah. Okay.

And what was the movie that you mentioned?

It's called The Gentlemen. Like they turned the movie, Guy Ritchie, the movie went so well. They are now doing a prequel, a prequel series of like the main character who is played by Matthew McConaughey in the movie. The show is like the making of him. Does that make sense?

Oh, that sounds amazing. Yeah, I am hooked. This is like what I need to be watching.

It's really freaking good. So that's on Netflix. The other one is Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It's also something that used to be a movie with Brad and Angelina. You know, it's like probably over 10 years old now. Amazon Prime picked it up, turned it, spun the plot completely, and they turned it into a show. Fantastic. If you love spy, corporate espionage, forced lovers, if you love any of those tropes, you would love Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Also, the way they film it, I feel like you really get to see just a relationship unfold. And it's just like, I don't know, I love the way that they filmed it. It's got Donald Glover from Childish Gambino, and then I don't know the female actor's name, but they're both incredible.

Mm-hmm.

Devouring that right now. We're halfway through it. Also, Dune 2 is coming out or has come out in the last couple weeks, and I finally watched the first Dune. And I don't know if like when I started to watch it, maybe like a year or two ago, I was like, eh, I wasn't in like the right headspace, but I watched it. So freaking good. Such a good movie. And I also watched a TikTok synopsis. explaining the politics behind the movie. And I think it made me enjoy it better. I'm like, okay, now I know what's going on. So I recommend watching Dune. If you like sci-fi, world, planets, prophecy, messiah, waiting for this one savior to come change the world, very good movie. And then the last one is Oppenheimer.

Wow.

Obviously, I'm late to the game on Oppenheimer, but we watched it this past month. And Really enjoyed it. Obviously, it's about Dr. Oppenheimer, the creator of the first atomic bomb and nuclear bomb. Yeah, nuclear and atomic bomb. Anyways, you watch—

It's a bomb.

It's a bomb. Yeah. From World War II. You watch him grapple with the reality of creating a weapon of mass destruction. And like you get to witness him and the way that they filmed it, him like wrestle emotionally with what it did to Japan and like Hiroshima. And anyways, it was just very, it was very layered, very fast-paced movie, movie. And I highly recommend watching it. It's fantastic. Also just like a look into some, you know, history of like something that happened. And yeah, Albert Einstein's also reflected in it as well, which for some reason I just thought that Albert Einstein was way older in my head. And like the fact that he's in— he was alive during World War II and like anyways, was a mentor to Oppenheimer. Very good. Sorry, I know I'm getting into rabbit hole, but that's what I'm watching and loving right now and recommend.

I love those. I feel like whenever I'm ready to sit down to watch a series, and we'll just scroll and we're like, okay, what should we watch? This has been so helpful. We're doing date night tonight with our projector. And so this is very timely. I think we'll really love that first one you mentioned with the cartels.

Gentlemen.

The Gentlemen. Yes, I am excited to watch that. So on my end, honestly, I haven't been watching too much just because of travel, but I have been rewatching some. So at the beginning of the year, we rewatched Breaking Bad, which was one of my absolute favorite series. I watched it like 10 years ago, whenever it was that it came out.

Yeah.

And so we rewatched it and it was so fun because I had forgotten so many details from it. So it felt in a way like rewatching it. And I love the character development, the intensity of the show, the whole drug cartel situation going on. Big fan of that. We also rewatched Narcos. Um, not all of it, but part of it before we left to Mexico.

We're both big on the drug cartels right now.

Yeah.

I promise there's nothing to see here. Okay.

There is not. We just love the drama.

Yeah.

Um, and then this past, like, 2 days ago, uh, we rewatched, um, Queen's Gambit. So we just started it again because it was on there. Yeah. Great show as well. So, uh, I'm ready to not rewatch anymore. So I will be picking up probably The Gentlemen. But it's one of our favorite things to do is like watch some very intense show with a lot of action and drama and just make a whole date night out of it and, uh, like put the projector out, grab our snacks, like do the whole setup. So I am excited for that. Um, but what I have been doing, moving on to our next category of books, is I have been reading a lot. So since I bought the Kindle in late December, I've read 6 books already.

That's amazing.

Yeah. Yeah. So which last year I think I read 1 book altogether in the whole year. So this is a lot for me. So I've started with a lot of the Colleen Hoover. I think that's how you say her name. Love it. There's some of her books that are just like fun reads, feels like a movie. But the majority of the ones I read from her really include a lot of like trauma and the intricacies of life. I guess it's not pretty. It's very messy. It's very like real life scenario or just wild scenario that you're like, how in the world is this happening? Along with like romance and just all the different things. So easy, fun, interesting reads. I'm ready to explore some new authors. So I'm excited to hear your recommendations on like just fun romance books because I love those to unwind. And then on the personal development side, 4-Day Workweek has been really great. Still reading through that. The Psychology of Money has been really, really powerful. I'm just through a portion of it, but just talking through like retirement is so recent, you know, in the grand scheme of things and like how we approach money. We expect so much of ourselves when we're really like the first few generations that are really looking at it that way. And so fantastic read. And then of course, The Mountain Is You. Like, I absolutely love that book the first time I read it, rereading it now. And then actually I was telling my boyfriend about it last night, how I was rereading it.

Mm-hmm.

And we're going to start doing kind of like a book club with Mountain Is Used because I'm not too far into it. So we're going to be reading a chapter a week and then discussing it together, which I'm really excited for because it's definitely one of those books where it can spark a lot of conversation. So those are my recs. What are yours? I know you absolutely love to read as well. We're fellow Kindle girlies.

We are. I love to read so much. Um, great recs too. I also have The Mountain Is You on my list as well. So I'm just gonna plus one what Astrid already said. It's so good. I listened to the audiobook on Spotify. If you have Spotify Premium, it includes 20 hours of audiobook listening per month, I think is how that goes.

Mm-hmm.

And so I've been listening to some of these like deeper, meatier books like a podcast, and it's really helped me Um, differentiate like my learning style. And so I love to read for entertainment. So I'm reading a lot of fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, mystery. And then I'm listening to audiobooks when I'm like wanting to learn. I'm on a walk, I'm in the car. I'm still very like present, but I've noticed with some of these meatier topics like finance, it's really difficult for me to sit down and read that. I do not enjoy it, but I'm enjoying listening to it.

Mm-hmm.

So I think just like figuring out what kind of auditory versus like reading learner you are. But the first recommendation is I just finished the entire Knockemount series. It's, um, Knockemount is a town outside of Washington, DC, and there's 3 books. They're standalones. Um, actually, this is worth me pulling up my Kindle app really tiny quick, just like so quickly.

Go for it. I've heard of that series. That's actually like something that I have on my list because I've heard of it so, so much.

It's amazing. So I, I've— this past month I read book 2 and book 3. Book 2 is Things We Hide from the Light and book 3 is Things We Left Behind. I will say I enjoyed book 2 and 3 better than book 1, so take that with what you will. But I cruised through these. I enjoyed them so much. small town romance, crime mystery. There's like some bigger plot going on and then people are falling in love along the way. And I loved it. That was so good. And then the other series I just started, the opposite of that for my fantasy gals, is Daughter of the Drowned Empire. And it's, it's a part of the Drowned Empire series. There's 4 books in the series. I just started book 2. Cruised through book 1, loved it. It's a mixture of like Cleopatra mixed with like a little bit of Hunger Games-ish. And there's like royalty, there's a lot of politics in this book. And there's of course like love interest, but it's not the main— I would not say that that's the main focus of the, of this series, but very good. And then the last like personal development book I'm listening to right now, Since I listened to Mountain Is You in February, the month of March, I'm listening to Invested. And it's really good. It's also on Spotify Premium. Worth me pulling up the full title for you because it kind of explains a little bit more about it. But it's called Invested: How Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Taught Me to Master My Mind, My Emotions, and My Money. Oh, cool. And it's this woman, it's written by a woman, which I really appreciate that perspective. And she talks and shares her story from a place of like, I didn't want to invest my money. I just didn't want to work. Like she was working 80 hours a week as a lawyer, absolutely killing herself. And her dad was, you know, in the investment banking industry and learned how to invest. And Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger were his mentors. And so he has invested to a point where he just works for fun because he's invested so much into the stock market and has made so much money that he was able to retire early, which is what she wanted, like wants to do as well. So each, there's 12 chapters. Each chapter is a month of the year. And so it's like, hey, by the end of the year, the next 12 months, Let's prepare you and get you ready to learn how to invest your money into the stock market on your own. And so there's a lot of activities. There's a PDF, a workbook that goes along with it. But I learned about the book from my girlfriend Millie who was reading it. Um, and we're both like, how do we make more with our money? Like saving money with inflation is not enough. Like you have to be investing it somewhere even outside of your 401 and retirement. So I just like, I want to improve my financial literacy honestly, and like really start to understand this better. So that's what I'm reading right now.

Girl, I love that. You have inspired me. I feel like being able to have that woman perspective of, I don't know, sometimes people just feel so passionate about stocks and when you're just not someone that feels passionate about it, but you're like, okay, this is an ends to a means or the ends to Like, what's that saying? It means to an end, but it's totally— Long day. But anyway, when you have a goal, yes, then you're able to like sacrifice through that. And I love that she breaks it down per month with a PDF. Like, give me tangible things. Sometimes it's a little too much storytelling where I'm like, okay, Just tell me how to do it. I get it. I know I'm supposed to be investing. I know I'm supposed to be smarter with my money. Like, how do I do it? So let me know how that all goes and how you feel with it because I'm super, super interested. And I think I'm going to start the first series that you mentioned. What is it? Oppen or Knock 'Em Out? Knock 'Em Out. Yeah.

I'll send you the link to all 3 books on Kindle. It's also on Kindle Unlimited. So I pay for the Kindle like monthly subscription. I think it's like $9.99 and you get access to all of Kindle's library and a lot of books are there for free. So like buying, you know, new books, like I read about 5 to 6 books a month. And so buying that amount of books, it really does add up. And so I love that a lot of what I read is actually on Kindle Unlimited. So I don't have to like buy new books every time I want to read something.

Yeah, yeah, that's been part of my budget. I bought all the books I've read, so we absolutely need to shift that.

Yeah.

Um, okay, let's talk about hobbies. Um, honestly, I kind of struggled whenever I came to this section because I was like, what are my hobbies? What are my hobbies? I feel so, I feel so all over the place. Sometimes putting photography as a hobby just like Doesn't count because it's also my career.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, overall, like this year, uh, painting has been one of them and just really like art focus. I want to have more art in my house. So I have been like looking at design inspo for hanging the art that I got from Paris and I got it framed. So that has been a fun creative outlet. And at the same time, looking at those paintings inspires me to paint. So I love that. I'm excited to be home and paint more and just continue to develop that. And then the other one has been cooking. So I have been, since October, pretty on making healthier meals and not just trying to just eat healthy and eat the same thing over and over again, but having fun with it. So what are some of my favorite meals overall and how can I do a twist on it. And my mom is on that journey as well. So she was sharing with me healthier ways to make arepas and make quinoa arepas where you're able to get more protein and everything and how she's been making that. Or she's been making fried yuca. I don't know how you say yuca in English. Or isn't that the same?

I don't know. Do you know what? I'm so sorry.

That's okay. Let me see. How do you—

is it like—

it is, um, J-I-M. What is it? It says yuca in English. That's how you say it.

Okay, cool. I love it. So fried yuca?

Yeah, yeah, yuca. It's like, um, almost like a potato, but it has a lot more nutrients in it.

I have—

so she was making— okay, so she was making them like crispy and then like almost like her own chips for her— all her vegetables and her own dip. So I am just really into experimenting with food and eating healthier that doesn't feel restrictive. Painting is a big one. And lastly, I guess I will say photography. I've been playing more or intentionally shooting outside of just what I'm booked for. So I did that shoot with the grandparents, which was so sweet and so fun. I've just been taking my Canon G7X places. And if I feel inspired, we'll just shoot and that's that and capture the moment. So trying to take it just back down to basics with that camera. So those are my main 3. What are yours?

Yes to cooking. That's on mine as well. Not getting in a food rut and trying new recipes, trying new, making different oat banana bread flavors and just Making my own sauces, making juice. Like, I love my juice maker, my juicer, um, trying different juice recipes. I do feel like that has become a hobby of mine. It's something I look forward to on the weekends, trying new recipes, looking up new ingredients, like, just like testing things and experimenting. It feels very relaxing to me. Um, Mm-hmm. The other one is flower/floral arranging. I've really enjoyed like buying different bundles at the grocery store, Trying different flowers that I've never like had before or seen before. The HEB floral section is amazing right now with spring. They're like they're bringing in shipments from so many flowers like I haven't really seen before, and or like you see them honestly like on Pinterest or like on social, but you've never like had them at the grocery store to buy. So I don't know the names of them, but they're beautiful. Okay, we love to look at them. I love to look at them and just like. having fun with the creativity of just arranging different florals and just like what that can look like together, putting different things together. And then the last one is hosting parties and dinners. I feel like this is a huge hobby of mine, like slash getting people together, but having people over, making different recipes. Um, my friend Danielle and I hosted, co-hosted Galentine's. We made like these floral, um, phone cases with And so we got dried flowers and then used resin UV, like curing resin, and then we cured it with a UV lamp that you would put like your nails in to get your nails done. Just like having different parties where you're doing a craft, you're doing a skincare show and tell, you're like being more connective with each other instead of just like come over and eat and drink. It's like, no, like come have this experience together. And that's been so much fun. So fulfilling to me.

Oh, I love that. I feel like sometimes as adults we forget to play. Like, as kids we had these playdates and you're like, yeah, these— the kids are gonna do this and that activity and all of that. And being able to bring that back in is just so healing to our inner child.

Yeah.

Like, just play. Let's just play together, not be so serious. So I love all of those so, so much. Um, we've got 2 more sections, so we're gonna chat through our favorite influencers and then our wellness routine, uh, favorite things, which I'm super excited to share some there. So as far as influencers, I don't feel like I'm very emotionally attached to any of them, so I kind of struggled with this one a little bit. But, um, that is very—

What?

Emotionally attached to any of them.

Why do you think that is? I don't know. Back in the day, I used to be like, there were certain influencers that I was just so tuned in on. And I just feel like, yeah, I don't care. But I'm just, I don't, maybe because there's so many of them. It's like, I'm not dialed in. What do you think?

Yeah, I agree. I think that there's just so many of them. And honestly, it just all blurs in together. So I will love the content of like multiple Mm-hmm. Of them, but there's not one that I, I'm like, I love following her for, or him for all of these aspects. And like, I want to know the updates on all of like their life and their travels and all their stuff. It's just more like, oh cool, you traveled here. Like, this is a cute outfit. Or I love the vulnerability of this post here and there. Um, so top of mind right now is Tezza. Um, she's always been there for me.

I just, She's always been there for me, girl. I wish she don't know you exist, but we love the death.

We love her.

We love her so much. She does not know we exist.

She's coming to my 30th birthday party.

She's always been there for me. Oh my gosh.

Yeah, she has always been a top influencer for me whenever I need inspiration. Like the way that she shoots and like she just has such a cool creative eye from like a photography standpoint. And from a business standpoint, how she does launches and how she's been able to pivot too with like the demands of the business and stay relevant has been really fascinating to watch. And I also love how private she is. Like, she is a businesswoman that's creative and will let you in a little bit, but like, you don't really know too much about her life besides just she's married, she has a kid. And that is fascinating to me as a business owner because I love being vulnerable and I love the community aspect. And sometimes it's exhausting too. You just want to share your work as a creator. It's like, can I just post my art and that's that? That is an aspect that feels really appealing of how she's managed that. On the flip side, I've been loving Whitney Simmons. I've loved her for a really long time. Love her her workouts, her— she just seems to have such like a sweet personality, very down to earth. Loved her wedding content. Like she had beautiful photography, beautiful, like aesthetics and everything. But recently she made a post about like her body changing in the past year. I don't know if you saw that one.

Yeah.

And I love that. I loved it so much because she's at the top of fitness influencers and Just as we were chatting last week, the way that we see ourselves as women is just a huge struggle all the time. And to see someone at the top of the fitness industry share that vulnerably and also put people in their place and be like, you have no right to talk about my body. I'm actually healthier than I was back then.

Mm-hmm.

And normalize that and create that focus of we will not sacrifice our mental health for the sake of looking a certain way. And this is great. too. And this is healthy. Like, she's working out, she's eating healthy, all that good stuff. So I really admire and respect that and love that she just stood up for herself. And, um, that was a fun— uh, not a fun, but it was like a really, um, inspirational post to see.

Yeah.

Um, and honestly, those are my top 2 right now this month. I'm sure they'll have different ones next month. But, uh, the other ones that I follow, like, they inspire me in different ways. But It's not like I'm a diehard fan. So I'm curious to hear yours.

I feel like mine are more like I enjoy their content, but I don't— I also don't necessarily feel emotionally connected to them. Um, the first one is Morgan Riddle. She is, um, she's most popular right now honestly for being, um, a tennis girlfriend. Like, you know how you like follow like MLB or football wives and things like that? She is a tennis girlfriend and she's amazing. Her style is incredible. She's done like the US Open, the Australian Open, and she is a style icon and she'll share a lot of like style inspiration of what people are wearing at these different events. It's just very fun. I'm not in the tennis world at all. And it's just very like, oh, like I found her maybe a year ago from TikTok. She was doing day in the lives and she travels with her partner, um, around the world. He's like a very famous— I— this is so bad, but I don't know his name. Um, he's very famous though. I think like Taylor or something like that. I don't know. Um, but Morgan Riddle, love her. I mostly follow her stories and I really enjoy like her travels, what she's listening to. I've gotten some good podcast recommendations and book recommendations from her. She just seems like an interesting mix of like Someone that loves fashion and loves creating content, but she seems to have some substance there as well with the kind of things that she shares on her stories, which I'm like, oh, I like that. And then the other one is Monet McMichael. I'm a huge Monet fan. Do you know who that is?

No, I don't.

She's amazing. She's a beauty creator. I feel like I've learned how to do my makeup better because of her. She started on TikTok a couple of years ago and now she's a full-time content creator. But she, for me, like she's my Alex Earle. You know how you'll see that and sometimes people's comments are like, you're my Alex Earle. Monét is my Alex Earle. She's like 22 years old, 23. But I just, I love following her fashion. She's the way, she's very different. Like her fashion is very like not what's trending and hot. Like it's very her. And I just love— I love that. I love following someone that just like owns She does her makeup the way she wants. She does her hair the way she wants. She wears whatever she wants and she's not a carbon copy. And I do feel like there's something, you know, this is probably like a little hot take, but a lot of influencers give carbon copy energy where it's like, it's just the same outfits. They're doing the same Abercrombie hauls. They're doing the same like thing, which is totally fine in their own right. And I do feel like because of the quantity of content creators and influencers, It's kind of hard for anyone to stand out and like differentiate. I think that's why I gravitate to Monet's, um, her video editing. Oh my gosh. Like she's a, she is like a film editor. She's a, she's amazing. So love following her and just like, I feel very inspired anytime I interact with her content. So those are my 2 people that I am enjoying following right now.

Oh, I love that. I am inspired to follow both of them. I think it's really cool whenever a creator can share a skill like the makeup one, but also engage you into like their everyday life and be like, okay, this is who I am as a whole person and here's my whole style. So I have been influenced and I will absolutely be looking them up.

I love it.

All right. Wrapping up with our last section is our wellness routine. So I am very excited to share this because if I feel like it was life-changing for me is sugar waxing. So if you have sensitive skin or even as you prep for the summer, the way my legs and everything have just changed with sugar waxing is insane. Like my hair grows back so much thinner. It's barely there. It's like 2 weeks or 3 weeks until I like actually need to go back where before I would need to literally shave almost every day or every 2 days. And so even for this last month where I went to the beach, we didn't have time. We did a Brazilian and we did half of my legs and we didn't have time to do the other half. So I was like, whatever, I'll just shave. I was in so much pain because it's like I would shave one day and then the next day I needed to shave again, but it wasn't fully grown out. And so when you get into the water, especially the ocean, it burns.

Mm-hmm.

And the way the top half of my leg looks so smooth and clear even though it had been a week and a half since waxing. And the bottom half of my leg, fresh shave, still did not look the best. And I did all the routine, the scrubbing, the everything. And I was like, this I wish is what 15-year-old Astrid had had this whole time. And I just love the reduction of it over time. So if you consistently do it every month, then— 3 to 6 months in, you like see such a huge reduction in hair. So that is what I have picked back up again, um, so that I have like a regimen so that for summer I'm like ready to go. And it just feels like that way I won't be in pain. So highly recommend. You can wax like your armpits, everything. Like the sugar waxing too, compared to regular wax, it is exfoliating on your Because it's literally just sugar, lime, and water. That is all the ingredients compared to like regular one. It will not burn your skin. It is just natural. It exfoliates as it rips off but leaves your healthy cells on your, on your body. Um, so 10 out of 10. I could preach on sugar waxing for a really long time. The other thing—

I've never tried it. I'm like, I'm like thinking of doing laser hair removal. Because some of my girlfriends here in Houston do it. And we just had a deep dive conversation about it. And I'm like, maybe I don't know what I want to do, but I need to do something.

Yeah. So I'm doing laser too, but it just takes a really long time. And I'm doing laser, my Brazilian, but I haven't dived into doing legs yet. So it's great. Say you're doing laser for Brazilian, you can go still to sugar wax your legs and it's like a good budget-friendly option to meet both in the middle.

Yeah.

But yeah, 10 out of 10 recommend. The other thing is, I don't know if I told you, but I cut off like 4 inches off my hair like 2 weeks ago and it feels— you can't see it in camera, but in person it feels so different and way, way shorter. But I kind of like had fried my ends to be honest. And it's not like I use a lot of product or anything. It's just as your hair gets longer, the oil that comes from the top just does not reach the bottom.

Yeah.

And so you have to hydrate it a lot. So this top half of my hair was healthy, but the bottom half wasn't. So she cut those. I got so much shine back in my hair. And then I've been meticulously oiling my hair for 3 weeks. So I'm really into Doing that. And I've noticed a huge difference even with just like air drying my hair. So I've been using the OI hair oil, which is more— has helped me with frizz. On my last day, I'll use argan oil, which is a little bit thicker and more intense hydration. I did a deep conditioning at the salon, but then also have been doing it on my own. So yeah, I'm just really into hair care this year. Like, I want to embrace my natural hair. I want to take care of it and I want it to grow back again to the same length, but like a lot more healthy. And then the last thing is dry brushing. So for my legs, I've noticed a huge improvement in my cellulite from dry brushing and it's just really good for your lymphatic system and you just feel very like refreshed. So I just do that every morning. You just dry brush your legs and your arms all the way up to your heart and then you shower afterwards. to get rid of all those cells. And it's just great for your lymphatic system, your circulation, and all of that.

What kind of brush is it?

It's like those brushes where it has a really long stick that always come in the bath sets. And you're like, okay, I guess it would be to clean your back. I don't know. But this is more— I don't know how to— it's a little bit harsher.

The bristles are a little bit— they're like a little bit more firm.

Yes, it's a little bit more firm and it has like a long stick so you can do it on like your back and everything as well.

Okay.

So yeah, you can just look up like a dry brush, dry brushing brush. But it's really, really, really good for you, especially like for your lymphatic system. So those are my wellness routine ones. Which ones have you been into?

I have heard a lot about dry brushing, but Matthew's pouring me coffee right now off camera.

Thank you so much. Oh, hi, Matthew.

No, you're the best. Thank you so much for this. I appreciate it. I have been wanting to try dry brushing as well. And then I need to look deeper into what I want to do with my hair, like waxing or whatever. Mine were my supplements. So I got really into supplements this past year. I take my vitamin D every day. I also am on a Ritual subscription. Ritual's just like a— I feel like it's very millennial, like care millennial, to have your supplements shipped to you.

Yes.

But the branding's really great and it's really good. I take the women's everyday supplement and then I take their gut health supplement every day. And I really like how they make me feel, especially the vitamin D and my energy. I skewed vitamin D deficient a lot. And so taking that vitamin D, also been taking more magnesium in the evenings to help me sleep, which has been really great. I love my magnesium sleepy time tea. And I just like, if I am maybe feeling a little bit more stressed or I just feel like I'm carrying a lot of tension in my body and I'm going to have a hard time sleeping, I'll take some magnesium that's meant for, you know, drowsiness, and I'll take it before bed. And I'm literally like out within 30 minutes. And it's amazing. So highly recommend that. Also, in terms of just wellness routines, specific movement apps that I really like is I love tracking like walks and runs with the app Strava. I love that you can like, you know, track your pace and like on the map where you went. I just, I love that. Also, I alternate between the Alive app and the Sweat app. Whitney Simmons that Asher mentioned earlier, she's the creator of the Alive app. And then I've also been using the Sweat app off and on throughout the last like 4 years. And I'm also starting to work with a personal trainer Mondays and Wednesdays. And I like using those apps at the gym for like my off days of like, I know that I hit legs with my trainer and I did full body HIIT. So then I'm going to do like an arm and core, and then I'm going to do like a quad and like back or something like that. So I can use those apps instead of like going to the gym and not necessarily knowing what to do. I feel like at this point I do know what to do because I've been going to the gym for 3 years, almost 3 years. But there is something nice about just like having that consistency. app that you can use for that.

Yeah.

And then, the other thing I was going to mention for wellness movement was brands that I'm loving for athletic clothes. I live and die by the brand TLF. I literally love— I have so many TLF sets. And, the majority of probably if you follow me online and I post a lot of my movement mirror selfies, A lot of those sets are from TLF, super affordable, love the fabric. And they have different kinds of fabric depending on what level of compression you want. A lot of my short sets, like short and halter tops are from there. And things are like $30, $40. And if you're like, hey, I don't want to buy LuLu, and I love my Alo set as well, but it's expensive. And so if you're looking for something that is a little bit more affordable, And still really good quality. I've had those sets for 2 to 3 years now. I love them. So those are my wellness tips, tricks, and things to buy and add to your wishlist, if you will.

I love that. I like plus one on the magnesium. Oh my gosh, that is a game changer. I feel like not only for getting quality sleep, but also for regulating like going to the bathroom. I feel like that has been a huge game changer. The one that I take has like all the different types of magnesium in it. I don't know, but, um, it helps so, so much. So absolutely love that one. And yeah, your sets are the cutest ever. So y'all need to check out that brand. I always forget about it every time that I'm in a shop. I'm like, um, and I gravitate to the same thing. So, um, I hope that you all have enjoyed this episode. I know I did. It was so fun, even like as best friends, just hearing like, okay, what are you into right now? What are you loving?

Yes.

Having a little girly chat about all things wellness and lifestyle and highly influenced to watch certain shows, read certain things now too. So I hope that you all enjoyed it. And if you will, if you did love it, please leave us a review. Those help us so, so much to, um, be found on the podcast players and just overall the show when people see it. So we would absolutely love that. You can always connect with us on Instagram as well at inbetween.pod, and you can connect with me at @astrajohannaphoto.

Or me @alexisteichmiller on Instagram. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for spending time with us. We love you, we're grateful for you, and we will see you next time.