beaches and books on the best coast

Today we decided to go to the beach. It was like, 4 or 5 degrees Celsius, but as far as we know, it's probably warmer than the rest of Canada right now haha. We're damn lucky to be on the West Coast, and days as beautiful as today really serve to emphasize that!

The world always manages to seems a bit brighter at the beach. Plus, today there were lots of beautiful doggies to wave hello to!! Nothing warms my heart quite like seeing doggies having fun and living their little doggie lives, other than living my life with Navneet, of course.

coat from h&m, top from h&m, jeans from american eagle, belt from my mom's closet, v necklace from h&m, sun necklace from charming charlie, 3.1 phillip lim x target bag, gloves from h&m, shoes from spring

tank top from h&m, jacket from zara, gloves from h&m, tights from costco, shoes from target

vintage leather bag from italy 

v necklace from h&m

hattie stewart gold lomin watch by triwa

We also had our first official book club meeting today, featuring Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami and The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House by Audre Lorde. Basically, they rock and you should read them and think about them, preferably with someone who likes talking about this stuff. It is 100 times better that way, we promise you.

skin care

I'm not willing to spend more than $20 per sitting on most things (food, gas, university textbooks, etc.) but skin care products are the one thing I consistently splurge on without feeling guilty. My mom instilled in me the belief that my skin was worth it ever since I was a pimple-faced preteen. I've dealt with my fair share of acne throughout my teenage years and I've tried a ton of products along the way. It only took me 7 years, but I've finally found a routine that works with my skin! I sincerely hope it doesn't take you quite as long.

Ultrabland from Lush: I must have tried at least 15 different facial cleansers on my quest for clear skin, and this is the only one that has actually worked for me. It may be because I started using it when I was 20 and my hormones were changing, but there's no way I'm gonna stop using it to test that hypothesis. Thanks to this stuff, my skin is usually blemish-free (minus finals week). This is a pretty heavy cleanser, meaning it's really moisturizing and leaves my skin feeling so, so soft. I'm probably never going to use anything else.

Enzymion from Lush: My face has always been perpetually oily. Luckily, I found this! I've been using this moisturizer for over a year now and I've noticed it has reduced my skin's overall oil production. It's not a miracle worker - I do still have oily skin, but it is something great.

Enzymion, Ultrabland

Formula 10.0.6 deep down detox ultra-cleansing mud mask from Target: 

1.) smells heavenly

2.) super easy to apply and remove, unlike some masks I've tried

3.) makes my skin noticeably more even, both in tone and texture

Neutrogena clear face sunscreen: I picked this up on a whim during a Target trip and I'm so glad I did! I swear this sunscreen actually makes my face more matte. My life is a love letter to Target.

Full of Grace serum from Lush: I picked up this little guy a couple weeks ago and I love it! A layer under my moisturizer acts as a barrier against the drying winter air. Plus, when I actually use the right amount, it doesn't make my skin feel greasy.

Honey I Washed the Kids soap from Lush: This soap!!!!!! It smells like caramel without the sickly sweet sugariness, as caramel should smell. Plus, it makes my skin way softer than any shower gel I've tried. Pro-tip: Lush has a soap BOGO sale on Boxing Day! $20 of soap will easily last you an entire year.

Honey I Washed the Kids, Full of Grace

All I gotta say is:

finals mode: go

It's been a while! Mainly because papers and midterms and now FINAL EXAMS are upon us. It's so hard to keep up with life when that happens. Here's a little something to help you get through it:

kick some academic butt from gabbypaulina on 8tracks Radio.

Go hard and good luck on your exams, folks!

got a curse we cannot lift

3.1 phillip lim x target pyjama shirt, h&m tank top, levi's jeans, boots from target, topshop jacket (this outfit was inspired by 2 of my favourite fall things: Harry Styles and pea soup)

headband from forever21, necklace from h&m, coat from zara, shoes from spring, tights from target, skirt from dynamite, top from garage, aaaand cardigan from boohoo 

#datfriendship

It's getting to be that time of the semester again... The time where you are lacking in significant Vitamin D (or so Gabby, the healthsci major, keeps insisting on) and are just ready to hibernate for the rest of the season so you won't have to deal with school anymore. Yay for fashion distractions! I like that we had our Halloween spirit going this year. Although I think we look a lot dorkier than the badass lyrics this post is titled after may suggest.

Anyway, here's a Halloween-y sort of jam--at least, the one I rock out to every Halloween for the past few Halloweens.

This post also seems like an appropriate time to introduce you to my obsession with Jessica from HowSweetEats. This is the best food blog out there, period. I'm 100% convinced she can read my mind. Take this recipe for candy bar caramel corn for example. It's basically popcorn covered in chocolate bars. Is there a better way to eat popcorn????? The answer is no. If this picture doesn't convince you, I don't know what will. 

hello fall

Fridays are the best days. You know why? Because they're our food days, and now they're also officially our designated fashion blog days.

h&m sweater, jacket from urban outfitters, levi's jeans, shoes from spring

coat by zara, shoes from spring, jeans from bluenotes, sweater stolen from my sister

Hopefully in the near future we'll be trying makeup looks out and blogging about those too! So much fun :)

the a to z on gabby and me (#slightlyawkwardfirstpost)

From Livejournal in the mid-2000s to Tumblr in the early 2010s, it's been one blogging journey after another for me. I've created personal blogs, a travel blog, a writing blog, an art inspiration blog, a resource blog, a music blog...you name it, haha. But I am especially excited to start this particular blog because I hope that it can be a little bit of a mix of all of those. What makes me extra excited about it, though, is the fact that 1. I'm doing this with one of my closest friends and 2. I hope to make this a place all about self-love and appreciation. Friendship and self-love, yo. The best things in life!

So, without further ado, meet the creators:

Navneet is twenty twoooo ooo ooooo (I hope you sang along) and she's currently studying English and the Humanities. Actually, she's almost done university! #proudofher After this momentous occasion, she hopes to be a teacher. The thing is, Navneet is going to be the greatest teacher because she loves kids so much and they love her right back. Her love of food is almost as massive as mine, which is probably one of the reasons we get along so well. Navneet introduced me to Korean food and for that I am forever grateful. She also loves cute Korean dramas and foreign-language shows/movies in general. The most accurate word to describe Navneet would be resilient. She's also daringly honest and super knowledgeable about cool stuff that matters in real life (read: FEMINISM!). If I had to describe us in one emoji it would obviously be the 2 girls linking arms dressed in black because we're always on the same page. Honestly, the times where she's said something I was just thinking is slightly insane. She is a total book nerd, like it's unreal how avid she can be sometimes. She also wants to do more creative things since she hasn't been reading or writing or drawing nearly enough these days (thanks school). Navneet is passionate about knowledge and education and people, among other things. She also LOVES telling anecdotes about her little brothers.

Gabby is 20 years old (ALMOST 21!) and she's studying Health Sciences and Human Development & Counselling. She hopes to do something involving helping kids, potentially counselling (and she's going to be excellent at it because she's a great listener and extremely open-minded and big-hearted). Her phone case has cartoon pictures of pizza with the words "you are all beautiful and I love you equally"... that should tell you a lot. Gabby loves One Direction and would like you to know that she is not ashamed in the least. She thinks teenage girls are amazing. She loves breakfast food in particular and also making music mixes (and driving to really amazing music mixes made by her amazing friends, of course). She is extremely into shiny fashion trends at the moment. She keeps things real but also manages to keep the "glass half full" which can be baffling but also wonderful. We go on food dates together... what does that say about us? (It says, "we love other enough to eat good food together often and make an actual hobby out of it" obviously.) Finally, Gabby loves the Office almost as much as she loves food. And she loves Nico Mirallegro's beautiful brown eyes almost as she loves the Office. And don't even mention Liam Payne around her (this really means, mention Liam Payne and enter into a 10 minute conversation about his puppy dog eyes).

Whew, long post. We leave you with this:

Except we both get to be Beyoncé in this relationship. Always.