2018 Lifestyle Edit. Highlights and Favorites.

Hello. Today, I finally have my 2018 Lifestyle Edit including all the highlights and favorites I had throughout 2018 outside of beauty. This includes Youtubers, TV shows, Food, Gaming, and various other things. Kind of a general overview.

2018 had some really great moments and some not so great scary bits. I want to mostly focus on the good. I know everyone on twitter is saying “leave the negativity in 2018” and that is what I am going to try and do. I think I got on a bit of rant in my last MOTD post about that kind of thing.

Anyway, this might be a bit of a long one so grab a snack. I have a lot to talk about.

YouTube

I want to start with something fun and go over some of the you tubers I started watching in 2018. I spent a lot of time watching/listening to YouTube while I worked and played. It was my background soundtrack this year. It helped me sleep, distracted me in the best ways and the not so great way. I learned from them, related and loved them.

Before I get into people I discovered in 2018, I still watched all my other favorites like Coffee Break with Dani, Jenna Marbles, Grav3yardgirl, Tati, Shane. Mallory Cornelison, and Dan Bell, just to name a few. I look forward to their content always but I found some new favorites this year to look forward to.

Beauty

Let’s start with the beauty channels.

I am so late to the game on these creators. They have been making fantastic content for years but that also gave me tones of videos to binge. I personally enjoy watching beauty videos in the bath or while I am doing my makeup, sometime before bed if my husband is working.

My favorite before bed, and in fact I save her videos for when my husband is on nights so I can watch her before bed is Suzie’s Nail Career Education. Her videos are so relaxing and so well done. They are truly a pleasure to watch. Suzie makes educational and fun videos all about acrylic and gel nails. Do I have an interest in either, not really? I paint my nails and take care of them but as far as enhancements? nah. Or watching a video where Suzie is just reviewing the electronic drills. Does that pertain to me in any way? Nope, but I watched it and enjoyed it. There is something so lovely and endearing about Suzie and I have learned so much about nail enhancements that I will never use.

That brings us to Samantha Ravndahl. Why has it taken me this long to start watching her? She’s amazing, relatable and real AF. Not only that but again, educational. I learn all kinds of little tips and tricks from her. She encourages me to try new styles of makeup and have fun with it. While she is being creative with makeup and creating beautiful looks, she still makes you want to embrace yourself. She’s not about looking like a plastic doll. I feel like she is all about embracing and excepting “flaws” because that is a part of you and you are unique kinda thing which really speaks to me. I like how she is open about her feelings on just about everything and she’s funny at the same time. She’s the best kind of outspoken in my opinion. I feel a kindred kind of spirit there. Her honesty is something that I really respect especially when it comes to the stuff no one wants to hear. She’s not blowing sunshine up anyone’s ass. She is telling it like it is and that is my kind of bitch.

On what feels like the other end of the spectrum is Patrick Starr. His channel is fun, you learn all kinds of tricks and he is like a beaming ray of sunshine and positivity. His style is all about creating an illusion, and super glam. He’s just fun and seems like a kind person. I admire the amount of success he has achieved as well. A year-long collab with MAC which multiple collections that have all been stunning. Hell yeah! He just makes me happy to watch. It’s crazy that I just this year started really watching his videos. I have seen a few here and there and of course, knew who he was but I was just sucked in by him this year.

Emily Noel is a creator I have known about for years as well and watched on and off but after her collab with Makeup Revolution, my interest in her was peaked. She leads a wholly different lifestyle than me, like polar opposite so I don’t really relate to her on that kind of level but her reviews are so in-depth and well done. And she reviews products that not everyone is talking about. She’ll speak about super old school Covergirl products that I haven’t thought about in ages and so many hidden drugstore gems that have gotten brushed over. I love that. I like her personality, she seems like the kindest person too.

And lastly in the beauty community is Jkissa. I found her late 2017 but really got into her videos this year. She has a wonderful personality, I love how caring she is and passionate about animals. Her doggies are too cute. I like her more avant-garde style and her perspective on makeup.

Lifestyle

This is probably the first year I was more into Lifestyle videos than before. I discovered I enjoy vlogs and seeing how other people live.

I had a big moment with Sharmander, or Sharla and her vlogs and videos about life in Japan and now South Korea. It awakened a side of me that actually wants to travel. Like we’re planning to visit South Korea. I just love seeing how different day to day life can be, yet so the same.

Through Sharla, I found Megan Bowen who’s channel has been so informative about Korea, and so fun. She makes me laugh while still teaching you about the culture. I have really enjoyed all her content and Sharla’s

Next up is Pretty Pastel Please. Someone who is so opposite of me in style. Like I am not into pastel at ALL but I like her. And I love her bird, Archie. The first video I wanted from Alex is of the bird picking her makeup and I was hooked. I pretty much watch for the bird because he makes me laugh. It’s funny cause I used to HATE birds. Still not a fan in person but I LOVE Birb memes and Archie is so cute and funny. I also like Alex’s content, I like her Korean and Japanese fashion hauls as well as her Wish videos. It’s fun for me to watch someone so different from myself. She’s the pretty, tall and skinny Australian redhead with a bird who loves pastel. You can’t get much more opposite aside from the reddish hair.

Now for someone who I relate to a whole lot is Leigh Ann Vlogs. Her beauty channel is Leigh Ann Says and I watched her beauty channel for years but it wasn’t my favorite because we nothing in common on that aspect. However, she’s been doing more lifestyle content and I found her vlog channel. Lifestyle wise we have quite a bit in common. I love her personality and her mid-century style. She’s got quirky tastes that I love and I have just fell in love with her vlogs.

Gaming + Comedy

I am grouping Gaming and Comedy together because with the people I like, the two go hand and hand. My husband and I watch gaming videos before bed. It’s our thing.

First, Subscribe to Pewdiepie.

No, really, I never watched Pewds until this year and I am not really into his gaming content but I LOVE Meme Review and Pew News. He cracks me up.

Next is Funhaus which is a comedy gaming channel. NSFW mind you but so fucking funny. My husband and I cry laugh at their videos. We just got back into watching them after a year or so not. I don’t know why we stopped. LOL. The Sims 3 gameplay. I can’t even.

Another before bed favorite is Al Chestbreach. His Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 4 playthroughs are so funny and just fun to watch. Also Cat Tails.

Lastly, in the gaming category is The Sims Gallery. It’s just speed builds of houses, I think she had a legacy storyline going too but the speed builds. I love watching her build and decorate a house. It’s relaxing, I get ideas and it helps me go to sleep.

Gaming

I played one game in 2018. Sims 4. A whopping 1926 hours of it and am 12,453 downloaded mods deep.

I have a history with Sims and an obsession. I am trying to keep it casual and not make mods and run a blog about it like I did back in the day. I just wanna play here and there. I feel like I can get to into it and it can become a black hole.

Yes, I made a sim of me, Ross and Pumpkin.

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Mostly what I enjoy about Sims for is the decorating and building aspect, I can spend hours on that. Def more than actually playing.

Shows

This was a good year for shows in my world. So many new great series or new to me at least.

I am a huge Sci-fi fan and thanks to Netflix, I got my fix beyond just reading. My favorite kind of Sci-fi is the cyberpunk dystopian feature kind of thing, think Blade Runner.

The first show is Travelers. I am currently watching the newest season. I really love the show and all the characters. I am loving Eric Mccormick in a different kind of role. He makes a hella FBI agent. Travelers is about people from the future coming back in time through host bodies to save the future. There is more too it of course and it’s so much better than I thought it would be.

I watched Black Mirror finally. While not episode is created equal, some kind of suck but others are amazing. If you watch any of them check out San Junipero. That episode is beautiful.

Altered Carbon. Everything I want in a series.

On to the more straight forward dramas, there was The Crown which is just stunning all around. I LOVE anything about the Royal Family so I was all over this series.

Handmaids Tale goes without say. Such a well done series.

Ozark, thanks to Samantha Ravndahl’s suggestion is so binge-worthy. My husband and I tore through it.

I really got into the USA show, Queen of the South. Sometimes you need a good narcos type of show.

On to some shows that just make me happy.

If you are a fan of Vikings, check out Norsemen. It’s so fucking funny. I thought it was gonna be kind of stupid but I ended up laughing my ass off at it.

The Great British Baking Show consumed me for a good month. It’s all I wanted to do was watch it. I love all the constants, hosts and judges but that Mary Berry has a special place in my heart.

Another show I really really enjoyed was Riverdale. I thought it was going to a cheesy CW show but it’s so much more. Yeah, it’s a kind of cheesy show about teens solving crimes based on Archie but something about the actors and the way it’s filmed just sucks you in. I mean, I did do a make tutorial inspired by the show. You can check that out here.

I really got a kick out of Glow. A series about women started a wrestling league in the 1980s. It’s funny and all around entertaining.

Dancing Queen because Alyssa Edwards is everything.

Iliza Shlesinger Elder Millennial. As an Elder Millennial myself, well.

While hanging out with friends one evening, we were on the hunt for spooky shows to watch and we accidentally came across The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell thinking it was a scary show. Turns out it’s a spooky themed cooking and craft show with a goofy cast of monsters and a reanimated raccoon who live with Christine. Also, Dita Von Teese lives in her mirror. This show was hella cute.

And lastly, Claws. think Ozark meets Queen of the South but funny.

Music

What music is I listen too for a whole year. Gunship.

Food

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Since I do keto, my cooking skills have adapted and leveled up. I don’t know what happened but switching to keto made me so much better in the kitchen. it’s been challenging yet fun, finding new alternatives that are healthy and keep it interesting. I really got into Asian cooking too. I make a mean keto pad thai, Korean BBQ, and some hella chicken. Konjac noodles are a game changer.

Lot’s of taco salads were had as well.

There were also plenty of cheat days. Flan, donuts, bread pudding and Blue Bunny Sundaes.

My coffee and tea game were hella upped last year.

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Some others cool things this year was upgrading my PC, getting a tablet which was a game changer for me and redoing our studio/office space. We also did a little redecorating around the house that I still need to show ya’ll.

There were some pretty cool and special moments among some sad ones. The bar we all called home closed but it allowed us to get out more and spend more time together actually doing stuff aside from sitting around a bar. There were some super fun times with friends last year. We did our first Thanksgiving too.

There were bitter sweet moments like my dad giving me my mom’s high school journal. Over all my mental health was good. The only anxiety I felt was due to real life things and not made up in my head so that was progress. I practiced a lot of self care this year in little ways like hot baths and keeping up a skincare routine, and taking time off when I needed to.

I am still trying to find a good balance in all things but part if life is not being perfect but just trying.

2018 was also a year of bravery, self love and self acceptance. I mean, I took a picture of myself in a bathing suit and it on the internet.

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I lost about 50 pounds last year and am nowhere near perfect or done but I learned through that to love my body regardless and my goofy crooked face.

I know I am a beauty blogger and I am talking about weight loss but those things don’t really matter. Makeup doesn’t fix you, neither will losing weight. You have to love the person underneath all that and embrace “flaws”, that is what I learned to do, and am still learning of course. I have days where I hate my skin or this or that but that’s human. You’re never going to be perfect. I don’t strive for perfection, just to do better all around in life. Some days that is just being proud you did the dishes.

2019 will be about just doing better and fuck what anyone else thinks.

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