7 Days of Self Love

   I've been stuck at home for about a week now due to this Corona outbreak and I'm bored as heck. I'm trying to be productive and busy and not sit on my ass and watch Netflix all day but there's really only so many loads of laundry I can do. The outbreak has kinda put a halt to my Love Life List but there are still things on it that I can do at home. I've started my Juice Cleanse I'm on day two of it right now, but I want something else to keep my mind busy and to keep me from being tempted to eat something.

   I've decided to start my 7 days of self-care challenge today. So every day for 7 days I'm going to treat myself to some kind of self-care activities, like a bubble bath or a facial. Originally when I planned this challenge out, the world wasn't utter chaos so I pictured myself going to salons and getting my nails done but since that's the case now, I'm just going to have to get creative. 

Day 1 
   Okay, so I've picked 7 things that I can do to pamper myself at home. Along with those I have a little list of things that I want to do every day. On this mini list is: Shower every day, moisturize, drink the recommended amount of water, eat healthily, drink green tea, and get 8 hours of sleep. Before you think I'm disgusting, I shower every day already, or at least every other day, I can't go very long before I feel gross.
   My pamper item for today is to do a face mask. I don't do this very often because I haven't owned for a while (I bought one). Usually, I get a couple for Christmas from my mom and I use them up relatively quicky. I found this one online and it looked good so I bought it.

  The picture is post-shower and moisturizer and all that jazz that I mentioned I would do, I did it. the jar says to leave the mask on for like 5-10 minutes, it drys pretty quick. The second this stuff touched my face I was in love. My pores were tingling so bad and I enjoyed every single second of it. It was a good time. It also says to do it 2-3 times a week, that seems a little excessive to me, but I'm not a beauty guru so... I'll probably do it once a week or whenever I just feel like it.

Day 2

 Alright, it's the last day of my juice cleanse today so tomorrow I can drink my green tea and eat my healthy food, I'm excited also a little sad. I like this juice cleanse. I had my shower and did all of my everyday things. Today my pamper project is to do a full face of makeup. Go all out. Get dolled up. 

   So I've never really been 'into make-up', sure I wear foundations and mascara every day but that's because I look like extra in a zombie movie when I don't. I haven't worn actual lipstick since like prom so it's been a while. For Christmas this past year I got a makeup kit form my boyfriend's mom and it had a bunch of stuff in it. There was eyeshadow and lipgloss, highlighter and blush, there was liquid eyeshadow (never used that before) and then there was lipstick. Now here's how much I know about makeup; I was testing out these products a few days later, and it was easy for me to tell what some of them were right like the highlight was obviously the white sparkly stuff, the blush was pink. got it. However, the two that I ended up not being sure what was what, was the liquid eyeshadow and the lipstick. So I guessed. I was wrong. I wore liquid eyeshadow on my lips for a whole day. It was a bit sticky and tasted horrible, but it did the job, it still made me feel like a dumbass when I found the box and actually read it. 

   So now that I figured that out, that is, in fact, the lipstick on my lips. I loved the way I felt today, I loved the way I looked. I know you shouldn't wear make-up to make your self feel beautiful, you're beautiful already, it's what's inside that counts blah blah we know. However I felt really empowered today, I did my hair, my makeup, I wore my nice guess jeans (SO to goodwill) had my hoops in. I felt like a bad bitch. I loved it.

Day 3

  Today was a lazy day, every day for the past week has been a lazy day lets be honest. Today was just extra lazy. I wore my comfy clothes all day, slippers, no makeup. it was great. I still had my shower and moisturized my skin. I've also been doing really good at getting my 8 hours of sleep in. It's amazing what will happen when you can't go to work. My pamper party's (consisting of myself and my pup) daily task was to do a Mani/Pedi. No, I did not paint my dogs nails, he's a boy and he's already wearing a purple collar. I don't want to confuse him too much.

   This is the only color I will paint my nails, been that way for years. I'm nail polish OCD I guess.. I painted my toes too but I'm not posting a picture of that because feet are weird, but I painted them light blue so use your imagination. Also, I messed up my nail polish because I was playing with Jackson (pup), totally worth it though.

Day 4

   Today was chill, I went on a run and did a little at home work out. The news said that we should all still be trying to get our exercise even though we're not supposed to leave the house, I wonder how many people are actually doing that. I forgot to track my sleep last night so I'm not sure how much I got, but I had a hard time falling asleep last night so I don't think I got my 8 hours. I feel kinda stressed and I've had a whirlwind of emotions go through me today, I think the quarantine is getting to me. I mean I'm definitely an introvert so I didn't think it would bother me this much being stuck inside but it's a lot harder than I thought. I decided that today would be a good day for my "Relax in some clothes and drink my favorite tea, which is green tea I think I've mentioned that a couple times. Green tea is the shit. I put honey in mine. 

   I didn't take I selfie of my comfy clothes outfit because honestly, I look like trash. Not my outfit, my outfit is great I'm in sweatpants and a sweater that looks like it swallowed me whole. I'd definitely go out in public like this. I mean that I look trash as in my hair is a rats nest, it's clean I washed it earlier when I had a shower but I just threw it up in a bun. I don't know if anyone else's hair gets all weird if it doesn't dry within a certain time but mine does. and then my face just looks exhausted and I didn't feel like dealing with all that on camera. Anyway, tonight was a good night for tea, it certainly helped me chill out a bit.

Day 5

   I feel like a very productive member of my four-person household society today, I was in the kitchen slaving away all day. I'm totally kidding, I was in there for like maybe two hours and I made kale chips which I'm really the only person here that will eat those, I made my brother some peanut butter birthday cookies but it was a box recipe so minimal effort was required. I did, however, make some bomb ass banana mini muffins, I almost burnt the second batch but we're not gonna talk about that. I definitely got my 8 hours of sleep last night, I still felt kinda groggy when I woke up though. Does anyone else get like that, like the more sleep you get the more tired you feel? I'm set if I sleep for four hours, I have energy and I'm good to go for the day. However they say that not healthy so... gotta follow the rules I guess. My self-care act today is to journal 10 things that I'm grateful for. So here goes.

1. My Incredibly supportive and caring family.
2. My encouraging friends who push me past my limits and out of my comfort zone.
3. My weirdo little pups who know exactly how to make me laugh.
4. The cozy house that I call home
5. The gorgeous state I live in.
6. My ability to do the things that I love to do.
7. My past and my memories that have shaped me into who I am. 
8. My health 
9. And of course, my green tea (did I mention I loved that yet?)
10. I am grateful to be taking this time for myself 

   I'm not going to go into detail because I don't want this blog post to be like a trillion pages long, but that's it guys. Those are my ten things. Writing them out made my heart happy. 

Day 6

 What even did I do today? The days are starting to blur together. I know what I did, I went to the grocery store because my stress levels aren't high enough already. Let's fight with some random stranger of a can of soup. Other than that I didn't do too much I started a craft project that took some time I made scrabble coasters. The thing I chose to do today was a lip scrub, super quick and easy, but it was nice.

   When I was looking for a wedding dress a few years ago I was on a bridal site and this thing popped up, it was a chance to win a facial/make-over thing and I was like sure sign me up. I never win anything so why not. Well, guys, I fricken won. So did a bunch of other people, I guess it was a group thing. Anyway, so we were able to take guests with us and since I don't have any friends who live close by I took my mom. She was probably the best person I could have picked, we had a blast together. The time I picked to do this worked out so it was just me and my mom and the gal doing the program; if I picked an hour before it would've been a whole lot more crowded in there. I think her name was Jodie. She was super cool, made the experience very memorable. At the end of the day my mom and I bought some products for her (which is really the whole point of her doing this thing) We each got the lip scrub and balm and then I got a hand cream and I can't remember what else my mom got, maybe she got the hand cream too. I really like this lip scrub, I find I have to wash my face after I use it though because I don't like that my lips and around my lips feel greasy. So that's what I did today, now my lips are super smooth!

Day 7 

   I saved the best for last. The infamous bubble bath, I think I was in there for at least two hour. I seriously didn't want to get out. I haven't had a bubble bath in years. It was lit by candlelight and I had soft soothing music playing, I even poured myself a glass of wine. Pink Moscato is my obsession. I went all out, I shaved my legs, I did another face mask, I put bath salts in there. Didn't snort any of them, don't worry. I waited until after my bath to have my daily shower, I love baths but I don't feel clean after them. Probably because I have the water super hot but in my opinion, if your bathwater isn't hot enough be burn satan you're doing it wrong. After I had my shower I did my moisturizer and all that. I washed my hair so I put it in braids so hopefully, it looks all cute and wavy tomorrow and I can look good for my dog.

    Well, the seven days are over and with all the stress in all our lives right now, it was the perfect time to do this. It really helped some days just taking that time for myself even if it was just five minutes. It gave me a chance to check in with myself, to say hey girl, you're okay, life happens, and shit happens, and you're fine or you going to be fine. Some days I needed it a lot more than others. If any of you are feeling the pressures of life, I challenge you to do this, it doesn't have too extreme but just do something for yourself every day. It really does make a difference. Thanks for reading.

       -Coco