Hi, lovelies! How are ya? What happened in your week? We’re doing well over here. It was a much better week than the last as far as busy-ness and Dave being around — thank goodness. I taught my usual classes, worked, got a flu shot, worked out, got my nails done and all of that stuff. This weekend, on the agenda, I’ve got some work, group fitness and lunch with an old friend, and we’re preparing for our trip to the East Coast next weekend for Thanksgiving with my family in Atlanta. Yay! 

Right now, I’ve got a fresh set of favorites for you, and we’ll start with the biggest sale of the year for Beautycounter, with a little giveaway included!

Current Faves

The biggest Beautycounter sale is here!

It’s here! This is THE biggest sale of the year for Beautycounter and it started today and is going through next week on December 1. Beautycounter does these big site-wide sales annually around Black Friday in order to make it easier for you to get started using safer beauty and skincare that’s good for your skin and health. And I’d love for you to use this sale to dip your toe into Beautycounter if you haven’t tried it before. With a 60-day money-back guarantee on your products, you’ve got nothing to lose. 🙂

Here’s the deal:

15 percent off site-wide and free shipping on orders of more than $50

Here’s the giveaway:

To show appreciation to you for shopping with me and supporting my business, everyone who orders more than $100 worth of Beautycounter during this sale will be entered to win one of the holiday sets — as a little thank-you from me to you. I’m also going to send out a little something to anyone who spends more than $200. 

And here’s what to get in the sale:

The sale is site-wide, but it doesn’t include collections or regimens. However, all the holiday sets are 15 percent off — which is pretty incredible. You can see all my favorite holiday sets in this blog post, or shop the holiday sets here. You could almost cross everyone off your list with these. I love them all!

Here are the a la carte products I’d recommend …

If you want makeup …

• Color Intense Lipstick — Such a beautiful lip product to wear when you want some color. The shades I wear most include: 9 to 5, Beautycounter Red and Brunch.
• Sheer Lipstick — A slightly less bold simple moisturizing lipstick for daily wear. You can’t go wrong with any of these colors, and you can layer it on for slightly darker look. I’m usually wearing Twig.
• Lip Gloss — Once again, you can’t go wrong. I usually wear Buff or Bellini. It’s not sticky either.
• Color Pinch Cream Blusher — This blush stick lasts forever, and all you do is dab a little on your cheek with your finger. I use the Hibiscus shade.
• Tint Skin Hydrating Foundation — A liquid foundation with medium to full coverage, which I love. I wear it maybe 1 to 2 times a week and wear the Linen shade.
• Dew Skin Tinted Moisturizer — A liquid foundation with minimal coverage, with SPF 20 built in. I wear this almost every day and wear shade 2.
• Touch-up Concealer Pen — Cover those under-eyes with this one, friends.
• Precision Liquid Eyeliner — Love this for days when I want a little bit more dramatic eye. It’s easy to use.
• Color Define Brow Pencil — Even if I don’t wear makeup, I almost always pencil in my brows with this one. It even has a little brush on one end.
• Retractable Foundation Brush — This retractable foundation brush is life. How did I ever apply my foundation without it?
• Starlight Eyeshadow Palette — There are so many great colors, but this one is super festive for the season.

If you want a skincare treatment …

• Counter+ Charcoal Facial Mask — This is a great weekly treatment for most skin types, which exfoliates, detoxifies and helps minimize pores. And if you watch my Instagram stories, you know I like to do my mask on Friday nights with a cold glass of Chardonnay. 
• Counter+ Overnight Resurfacing Peel — Once again, a 2-3 times a week treatment for most skin types. It helps reduce pores, fix dullness and uneven skin tone too. And it tingles.
• Countertime Tripeptide Radiance Serum — Serums are the little powerhouses that you use at night on your skin for deep results. I love the Countertime one.
• Counter+ Lotus Glow Cleansing Balm — This is perhaps my favorite Beautycounter product, which can do basically everything. I took it on our summer vacation and used it to wash my face and moisturize too. My favorite use is to put it on as an overnight mask.

If you want to moisturize your skin …

• Countertime Tetrapeptide Supreme Cream — I love the Countertime nightly and daily cream for hydrating and helping with fine lines. So creamy and luxurious.
• Countermatch Adaptive Moisture Lotion — This one is awesome for combination skin.
• Counterman Oil-Free Face Lotion — This one is a moisturizer for the dudes, and Dave loves it.

If you want to cleanse your skin …

• Charcoal Cleansing Bar — Nothing gets your face as squeaky clean as this. It lasts forever too, and I usually suggest it to almost everyone.
• Countertime Lipid Defense Cleansing Oil — This feels so good on the face and removes makeup well too. I use it most nights as part of my Countertime regimen.
• Countercontrol Clear Pore Cleanser — This one is awesome for acne-prone skin.
• Nourishing Cream Cleanser — This is the most gentle cleanser from Beautycounter, perfect for all skin types.
• Instant Eye Makeup Remover — One of my favorite products, I use this every night to get rid of eye make-up.

If you want products for your body or hair …

• Hydrating Body Lotion in Citrus Mimosa — This is so soft and has the best smell.
• Daily Shampoo — I haven’t used this yet, but people are obsessed. It’s actually in my shopping cart for the sale.

If you want a holiday gift set …

• Mini Lip Gloss Vault — The cutest ever.
• The Jellies — Also the cutest ever.
• Glow & Go Mini Oils — Oils do wonders for your skin. I love to put the Brightening Facial Oil on under my makeup for a fresh look.
• Counter+ Skincare Favorites — The best gift set to get someone started with Beautycounter.

We’ll stop there. If you have ANY questions about what may be right for you, please reach out to me with an Instagram DM or an email. I’d love to help you pick out the perfect products and get them on sale.

Here’s my direct link to shop for this sale. And THANK YOU!

Books

“This Will Only Hurt a Little” by Busy Philipps

I haven’t read a ton of celebrity books, but for some reason, I saw “This Will Only Hurt a Little” by Busy Philipps on the new release shelf at the library and decided to bring it home with me, just because I was in the mood for a tell-it-like-it-is non-fiction book about real-life stuff. It sat in my drawer for a few weeks while I was finishing another book (which I told you about in this post), and then once I started, it only took me about five nights to complete it — which is really fast for me. I was pulled in to Philipps’ life story.

So who is Busy Philipps? She’s an actress. She was on “Dawson’s Creek” and “Cougar Town,” as two of her more popular shows, and I didn’t watch either of those, but I know I saw her in some movies and as a guest star on other series, because I felt familiar with her work. She’s also become quite popular on Instagram stories, but I wasn’t following her until I read this book and haven’t found her stories to be all that entertaining, yet? Maybe I caught her on a bad day. HOWEVER, I really enjoyed the book. And here’s why …

It’s all about her life. She basically shares her entire life story from being a child in elementary school and deciding she wanted to be an actress, all the way up to working in the business and having a child of her own. She had some down times as she grew up (don’t we all), a lot of failures, body insecurities, mistakes and you name it — but she owns up to it all and speaks openly about how her experiences shaped her. She also talks a lot about how some men treat women in Hollywood, which as we know, is generally not that good. I really like to know the behind-the-scenes ways of the acting world, so hearing how the audition and working part goes down was quite interesting to me too. In fact, reading this book makes me want to read other celebrity books. It was a quick and entertaining read.

Fun

Family time at the Oakland Zoo

Now this is a favorite, because I love spending time on the weekends doing things together with Dave and Brady — especially after how busy the weekdays are lately. We had been talking about taking Brady to his first zoo experience for months and finally made it happen on Sunday.

Brady absolutely loved the zoo and is still talking about the animals he saw and what they were doing. “Bear go night night” (The bears were sleeping) “Monkey in tree” (The monkeys were up high swinging around), etc. etc., so clearly the zoo made an impact on him.

We arrived at the Oakland Zoo shortly after it opened and spent about 2.5 hours walking around and seeing almost everything except for one area. We took the gondola up to the California exhibit and even rode a little train around the zoo, which took us past some cute wallabies. The exhibits were nice, the zoo was easy to navigate around and it wasn’t even all that crowded in the morning, so we had our space.

(Rocking my favorite classic sneakers and some Everlane stretch high-rise skinny jeans.)

But here’s the honest part: I didn’t love the zoo. I didn’t find the animals all that exciting, and it was a little weird to be staring at them while they were just trying to live their lives. Even though it was a beautiful day out, I was totally ready to go about 90 minutes into the experience. Funny thing is: There’s an option to buy an annual pass, which I had been considering before we went because all of my friends have one, but I knew after about the first 15 minutes that I would not be going back any time soon. 

Moral of the story: Visiting the zoo on a nice day is a great family activity, toddlers live for it, but you know … it may not be for you, and that’s okay too. 🙂

Kitchen

The very best frother for my tea lattes

This Zulay Kitchen handheld frother is a great thing to have in your kitchen to spice up your lattes. And this model is much better than the first frother that I bought a year ago or so at Bed, Bath and Beyond, which couldn’t handle my daily frothing and died after a couple months. I’ve been using this one for a few months now, and it’s holding up quite well (also, I love that it has its own little stand). I got it on Amazon Prime Day, by the way.

Here’s how I use it to make my morning tea latte: I turn my tea kettle on to boil water and drop a green tea bag in a big mug. Then, in a separate mug, I heat up some Ripple original milk in the microwave for 90 seconds. Once the milk is hot, I use the frother in an up-and-down motion to get some lovely foaminess. After the tea bag has steeped for about three minutes in the boiled water, I add the frothed milk, some cinnamon, stevia, honey and collagen to the original mug, stir it all around and enjoy. Intricate process, but well worth it for some froth.

Giveaway

Win some Liquid IV over on Instagram

Liquid IV is one of my favorite healthy products I found and started using this year (super electrolytes to get you extra hydrated with a great taste). And I’m hosting a giveaway over on Instagram if you want to enter to win!

Here’s the post to enter. ALSO, you can get 25 percent off your order with free shipping from the Liquid IV site using the code ALADYGOESWEST. I would HIGHLY recommend these stick packs for pre- and post-workout or pre- and post-holiday party festivities, if you know what I mean.

Fitness

Weekly workout recap

Here are my workouts from last week …

• Monday: 1-hour BODYPUMP, 10 a.m.
• Tuesday: 30-minute CXWORX, 10 a.m., taught 45-minute BODYATTACK, 4:45 p.m.
• Wednesday: 15 minutes of weights, taught 1-hour barre, 4:45 p.m.
• Thursday: Taught 1-hour-barre, 12 p.m., 15 minutes of BODYATTACK, 5 p.m.
• Friday: Taught 1-hour BODYPUMP, 12 p.m. 15 minutes of POP Pilates, 3 p.m.
• Saturday: 1-hour BODYATTACK, 9:30 a.m.
• Sunday: Rest day

This past week was full of Les Mills classes. I wanted to spend more time working on POP Pilates, because I need to shoot my video to become fully certified as an instructor, but all gym time was accounted for with teaching and taking classes. So I guess that’ll be on the agenda for after Thanksgiving. Overall, a good week of diverse movement, although almost all done in the class setting. Speaking of Les Mills group fitness, if you haven’t checked out Les Mills On Demand yet, click here for your free 21-day trial so you can do the workouts at home.

Best reads

A few things from around the web …

• Fertility facts. You know I love to share resources on hormones, periods and fertility, so this is a good one. In case you’re in the dark about how a woman’s fertility works, check out this article with some interesting facts, as well as basic info that all women should know about their systems.
• Mom fails. Why do we love to read about embarrassing moments? Oh we do. Here’s a funny round-up of mom fails.
• Nutritional genes. Here’s something I know for sure: No diet is THE diet for everyone, because we are all very different. When I read “The Longevity Book” I learned a ton about how genes are expressed and passed down from generation, and this recent article talks about how your genes also determine what foods and supplements are best for your body. Pretty interesting stuff. I want to get one of the DNA tests to determine my expressions now.

Here’s the quote of the week from my morning meditations …

A Lady Goes West favorite archives

• Clean beauty gifting. It’s never too early, so here we go … “Why you should give the gift of clean beauty and Beautycounter holiday sets for 2019.” Remember, if you order more than $100 from me during the sale, you’ll be entered to win one of these holiday sets!

• Perspective in fitness. Fitness is a luxury, you never know where someone is on their fitness journey and more … “What I’ve learned about fitness from taking time off from the gym.”

Thank you for coming by the blog today! I hope you have an awesome weekend, and I’ll see you back here next week. 🙂 

Questions of the day

How was your week?

Are you traveling for Thanksgiving this year?

Have you read any “celeb” books?

What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Are you going to shop the Beautycounter big sale?