The first week of 2025 literally came and went. I have a pretty good feeling about this year despite the real potential for chaos. For this year, I picked the word alignment as my word of the year. With this word, I am hoping to find balance and purpose when it comes to my work and personal life. Surprisingly, this is the first time that I’ve picked a word of the year, so here’s to hoping that it goes well!
Despite the year just starting, there has already been a couple new brands and releases that I am pretty excited for. Some newbies include the brand Daise, the Miss Dior Solid Perfume launch expansion, and the Revlon glimmer blush drops. Also, I wanted to highlight a few books I finished in December and some repeat beauty offenders and must haves.
Table of Contents
New in Beauty (January 2025)
DAISE* Body Care
When I was browsing the end of year Ulta sales, I noticed a new brand launch –DAISE*. The packaging stood out with its colorful palette and cute shapes. When I researched the brand, I found that it was created by Jaimee Lupton, the founder of miscellaneous brands like Monday haircare, Osana Naturals, and Châlon Paris. All three brands have beautiful branding and packaging.
I’ve always admired Monday haircare’s muted packaging. I enjoyed the Smooth shampoo and conditioner, which is priced reasonably and available at several retailers like Target.
Back to DAISE*, a brand that is targeted towards the younger consumers of Gen Alpha and Gen Z. The product line includes fragrance body mists, foaming body washes, and body scrubs in fun scents like coconut, pineapple, melon, and cherry. I’m particularly excited about the foaming body washes, similar to the sundae whipped shower foams, but priced at a more affordable price point. I’m not even close to being the target audience, but I am definitely going to pick a couple body washes up.
Miss Dior Mini Miss Solid Perfume Trio
When I initially saw this launch, it was available only in certain areas. I believe that the Miss Dior Mini Miss Solid Perfume Trio was initially available in Asia, but availability has now expanded. The Solid Perfume Trios are now available in the United States. When I tell you that I rushed to checkout when I get the email, I definitely rushed to checkout. The wait is over. I was finally going to get my hands on the Dior Solid Perfume but unfortunately, my order got cancelled.
Well, I guess not exactly. I ordered some other extras like the newly formulated Dior Lip Glow Balms. I really ordered from Dior though to get the Solid Perfumes, but I guess they ran out of stock when I purchased. Then, I had to deal with customer service, and by the end of it I didn’t even feel like reordering anymore. It almost feels like the world is telling me no, so I guess I’ll stop trying. Do I actually need it? No. But do I kinda still want it? Yes.
If you end up picking one up, let me know how you feel about it please!
Available at Dior, Sephora, and Ulta. Approximately $72 or $251.
Revlon Glimmer Blush Drops
Revlon dropped a new blush formula -the Glimmer Blush Drops available at the moment in three different shades (Coralicious, Pink it Over, and Field of Roses). The shades that I am excited about are Coralicious and Field of Roses. I haven’t seen anyone review it yet, so I might have to pick one up at least.
Available at Ulta and Amazon for approximately $10.49.
A Browser Better than Firefox or Chrome?
As I was perusing the magazines on Libby, I found an article talking about a browser called Arc. I don’t really remember specifics, but I guess the praise was good enough that I downloaded it. I have issues with Safari sometimes, particularly with filling out Google forms and it can be a pain at times.
I was actually testing out the Vivaldi browser for a while but I couldn’t fully switch over. Or at least 90% of the way since I still use Safari for certain things. I have been enjoying Arc though. I really like the design and user interface. Like every new platform, new users would have to learn how to navigate the platform, but the benefits outweighed the testing period.
Arc has some things that it could improve upon. I am unable to use certain extensions like the LTK and ShopMy extensions. I may have to try other methods, but I am currently using Safari for these websites. It also doesn’t save passwords in the traditional sense, though this may be better for security purposes.
The browser is free, so I would definitely recommend testing it out if you have been seeking a better alternative to Safari.
New Year, New Vision Board
As I previously mentioned, this year was the first year that I was able to decide on a word of the year before the year started. The word that I came up with is Alignment. I’ve been watching a lot of Youtube surrounding manifestation and the Laws of the Universe. The word alignment stood out to me continuously.
This year was also the first year that I was able to create a vision board on time! I feel like I’m actually on a roll. I created mine on GoodNotes. Very happy with how it came out.
December Favorites
December was a blip in the timeline and January is moving forward, but I wanted to take a step back and talk about some of my favorites during the last month of 2024. According to Goodreads, I was able to finish 54 books last year. December was probably my best month.
Some standouts include The Magic Path of Intuition by Florence Scovel Shinn, Ask and It is Given by Esther Hicks, Beautiful Things by Hunter Biden, and A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.
I didn’t really want to read Beautiful Things at first. I was a little bit torn about the whole Hunter Biden scandal, but President Biden just pardoned him, so I wanted to see his point of view. I do like that he didn’t shy away from talking about his addiction. The recollection of Beau Biden was heartbreaking. The parts when he talked about addiction was terrifying. As someone who has minimal exposure to addiction, even more so crack addiction, it scared me quite a bit. Since Hunter Biden wrote it, it is biased since it is from his own point of view, but at the same time, I think it was decent of him to talk about the darker parts of his story. I cried for the ending while I was in line waiting to see my son’s holiday recital. (Completely unexpected obviously lol).
A Man Called Ove was an easy read that had moments of sadness. The book was actually turned into a movie that Tom Hanks played in, A Man Called Otto. I liked the book, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the movie. Understanding that there will always be differences between books and movies, there just seemed to be too much of a disconnect.
Lastly, I had to mention my favorite purchase of the month –Sol De Janeiro’s Cheirosa 71. I honestly thought that 71 was just a stronger 62, but now it seems entirely different. In any case, I do love the scent and I highly recommend. Also, I just finished another Round Lab sunscreen. I’ve definitely talked about this suncreen previously, and I will reorder this sunscreen more in the future.
Last Thoughts
How was your first week of the new year? It was a pretty productive week and I have a couple topics that I want to write about in the next week that I’m excited for.
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