My entire life, December has been my favourite month of the year. First, because my birthday is on the 11th and second, because I absolutely love anything and everything Christmas. This year was my first birthday in New York City and my first birthday as an "adult." (I use the quotation marks because even though I'm 23 now, I feel like I'm still years away from feeling grown-up!) I went to a happy hour with some friends after work and had the most amazing lychee martinis ever!
But overshadowing even my birthday is Christmas. If you've ever experienced Christmas in New York City, you'll know just how magical it can be, so I have been soaking it all up as much as possible! There are so many of the city's Christmas attractions that I've already experienced and some more that I want to check out before the season ends. Here is my list of the top things to do in New York City at Christmastime!
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and Ice Skating
Bryant Park Christmas Market
The Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall
When it comes to makeup, a nice statement lip is definitely my favourite part of any look! Now that it's December and getting into winter and the holiday season, I have been absolutely loving dark lips and red lips even more than usual. I am a bit of a lipstick addict and have so many different ones that I wear regularly. Out of all my lipsticks, these are the ones that I've been wearing most this season:
from left to right: L'Oréal "British Red," Wet N Wild "Cherry Bomb," Rimmel Kate Moss "#10," L'Oréal "Blushing Berry," Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain "Smitten"
First up is one of the shades that I added to my collection fairly recently: L'Oréal "British Red." Like all of the L'Oréal lipsticks I've tried, this lipstick is such great quality, lasts a long time, and is hydrating. I love this colour, and it has kind of an orange tint to it, which is different from other red lipsticks that I have. I feel like it's a really versatile shade, so it will look just as good in the summer as it does in winter!
My favourite makeup trend this season is dark lips, Besides my red lipsticks, I didn't have any dark lipsticks up until a couple months ago when I bought this shade: Wet N Wild "Cherry Bomb." I've been loving the way this colour looks with simple eye makeup, creamy skin, and strong eyebrows. The only downside to this particular formula is that I find it quite drying, so you really need to keep applying lip balm throughout the day. I think this was a perfect first step into the dark lipstick trend, and for my next lipstick purchase, I might look for one that is even a little bit darker!
If you were to take a look through my makeup collection, you would probably notice straight away that I have a little bit of an obsession with red lipstick. Overall, I probably have at least 10 different red lipsticks. But what can I say...it's a classic look that I never get tired of! This is probably my favourite out of all my red lipsticks: Rimmel Kate Moss in #10. I bought this (and 2 other red lipsticks from the Kate Moss line) last year and have loved them so much that they are my go-to lipsticks. The quality is great, and I think red lipstick is almost always the perfect finishing touch to anything I wear!
Another trend I've been loving is berry toned lips! You already saw my dark berry lipstick above, but another one I've been loving is L'Oréal "Blushing Berry." It is more subtle than the darker berry lipstick I bought this season, but still adds a really nice pop of colour. I've been loving this lipstick with bronze eye makeup and think it adds a nice warmth to my face. This has also been one of my go-to colours for work this season, because it's more conservative than a really dark lip, and I don't need to worry about touching it up quite as often as a red lip.
And last up is a lip colour that I have actually had for about 3 years, but completely forgot I had up until recently: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in "Smitten." I have 4 shades of this Revlon balm stain and am totally in love with them all. First off, they are really nice colours, but best of all, since they are a balm stain, they are so moisturising on the lips which is perfect in winter, and they stay on for so long. This magenta colour has been so nice this season, and I love that is has a sort of purple tint to it because it's different from other lip colours that I have.
Thanks so much for reading! Leave a comment to let me know what your favourite lipsticks are during the Autumn/Winter season!
Over the past year, so much has happened in my life, and I really feel like I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving:
My family
Good friends all over the country and around the world
I was even lucky enough to reconnect with some of my international friends when I went to England and France a couple months ago!
My first post-grad job at one of my dream companies
I'm working on the Garnier brand at L'Oréal USA, and I have loved it so far!
Having the opportunity to move to New York City
In October, I moved to one of my favourite cities, New York City, for my job and have absolutely loved it!
All of the travel opportunities I've had in the past year
In the past year, I have been to New York City 4 times (before moving there of course!), Washington DC, Atlanta, North Carolina, Prince Edward Island, Boston, Provincetown, London, Bath, Cardiff, Weston-Super-Mare, and Paris :)
A little over a month ago, I made a big move to New York City. Two weekends ago, my mom came to visit me, and we had such a fun time! We did some shopping, ate a lot of good food, explored, and went to see the show This Is Our Youth on Broadway! She was my first visitor since I arrived in NYC and it was so nice having her here!
She arrived on Friday night just as I was getting out of work, and we decided to hit up a few happy hours! We went to a couple places for drinks, and then found a restaurant called Tony's near Times Square. It's a family-style Italian place and was so good! We got a big serving of spaghetti and meatballs that was delicious!
On Saturday, we did quite a lot of exploring! We started off the day at the Bryant Park Christmas Market. It was so cool and there were so many cute little shops! There was ice skating too, which we didn't do, but it was cool to see. There was a chocolate shop that was giving out samples of chocolate covered almonds that were so delicious! I think I may make a couple detours there after work soon to get some more samples :)
ice skating in Bryant Park
a cute vintage shop in Bryant Park
Next, we did some shopping and walked through Rockefeller Center. We saw the ice skating and we even saw the famous Christmas tree being put up! Then we took the subway up to the Upper West Side/southeast Harlem because that is one of the areas I want to look when I start searching for a new apartment. The area was even nicer than I expected and actually had kind of a Parisian feel to it! There were a bunch of cafes and outdoor fruit/vegetable stands, and the architecture was really pretty. We also saw the Columbia University campus which was amazing! It looked like it was taken out of a painting.
Columbia University
On our walk back to the subway, we came across Tom's Restaurant...aka Monk's Cafe from Seinfeld! Me and my entire family are huge Seinfeld fans, so we were so excited to see this! We had already had lunch a few hours earlier, but we stopped in for some hot chocolate. coffee, and cheesecake. It was delicious and all the other food we saw people eating looked so good too! There was Seinfeld memorabilia all over the walls and some of the waiters even called customers by the Seinfeld characters' names! It was such a cool experience and we definitely want to go back next time my dad is here too because we know he would absolutely love it!
Tom's Restaurant, aka Monk's Cafe!
After our awesome Seinfeld experience, we headed downtown to the Financial District. That is another area where I want to look in my apartment search. I have been to this area a bunch of times, and I already know I love it! We saw the Freedom Tower, went into some shops, and then walked to Soho and Little Italy where we found an amazing restaurant called Bianca's. It was such a cute restaurant and had a great atmosphere! My mom and I both ordered lasagna, and it was probably the best lasagna I've ever had! I definitely want to go back there at some point!
the Freedom Tower
delicious lasagna from Bianca's
Fast forward to day 2 of my mom's visit... we started off the day by heading to Times Square to get discounted broadway tickets! We originally got tickets for the Idina Menzel show If/Then and we were so excited because everyone in the ticket line was raving about it. So we bought our tickets, got lunch, did a little shopping, and headed to the theatre. We found our seats and they were in such a perfect spot! But then, less than 5 minutes before the show was due to start, we heard people complaining near us about how Idina Menzel was sick that day and wasn't going to be performing. A lot of people were leaving and getting their tickets refunded, so we decided to do that too, because Idina was the main reason we had wanted to see the show. We brought our tickets back to the TKTS office in Times Square and got a refund and were able to get tickets for the other show we had really wanted to see...This Is Our Youth starring Michael Cera!
That show wasn't starting until a few hours later, so we had some more time to explore. We walked around and came across another iconic Seinfeld attraction—the Soup Nazi stand! We got a butternut squash soup to split and walked to nearby Central Park to eat it. It was so delicious! The stand is famous on the show for having the best soup in New York, and I can see why! Unlike on the show though, the people working there were really friendly. I gotta say I was a little disappointed about that because I wanted them to be rude like the Soup Nazi and say "no soup for you!" That is another place we want to take my dad next time he visits because he would love it! I can picture him ordering his soup in the exact structured way that people order it on the show :)
No soup for you!
Thanks for the delicious soup, Soup Nazi!
After eating our soup, we walked around Central Park. The foliage was looking so pretty that weekend so I really enjoyed it and got so many nice pictures!
Central Park
Then, it was almost time for the show! We wanted to get some food before, so we stopped at Junior's. We got some Thai chicken wings which were delicious and of course we had to try some of what Junior's is famous for—their cheesecake! The cheesecake was so good and I will definitely being going back there at some point to get another piece!
our tickets for This Is Our Youth
yum!
And then it was time for the show! It took place in the 80s in New York and starred Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin, and Tavi Gevinson. It's a coming-of-age story about a boy (Michael Cera's character) who gets kicked out of his dad's house for smoking weed all the time. He then steals thousands of dollars from his dad and goes to his friend's house where he looks for help to solve his dilemma. The play takes place over that night and the next morning and involves friends, disfunctional families, and romance. I'm not very good at explaining plots, but it was a really good show, and the actors were all so amazing! I would definitely recommend seeing this if you are in New York.
Michael Cera!
I got to meet Michael Cera after the show! He's one of my favourite
actors so I was really excited, and he was such a nice guy!
My weekend with my mom was so amazing and I was so happy to have her here! I was sad for her to leave, but on the bright side, I am going home for Thanksgiving in a couple of days so I will get to see my family again soon!
If you're interested, I also tried my hand at vlogging for the first time while my mom was here, so if you'd like to check out what our weekend was like in video form, you can check it out below :)
