I want to get a few things out of the way before discussing my running shoes.
I’m not a hardcore runner who pumps out 20-50km’s within days. I don’t sign up for running races because they make me too nervous. I run on my own, or with my husband and Alfie. I’ve been running on-and-off for close to ten years, I’ve had a casual running coach when I lived in Ontario (Canada) for a few months which was pretty awesome.
I do know that I’m a neutral runner and my strike is … I guess you could say neutral too. I’m not a heel-striker, nor a toe hopper. Did I make that term up? Probably. But I do know which running shoes I prefer, and I can tell you what I personally think of them.
Over the past few years I’ve tried to run in Saucony shoes, Nike Free’s, and Mizuno. To be honest I do prefer my Mizuno’s the most, and have reached out to them while I lived in Canada for collaborations. Then it took me three years to get in touch with the USA crowd. I’m pretty happy to be working with them again.
A few months ago I was sent two pairs of running sneakers to try out. Mizuno Wave Rider 19 and Mizuno Sayonara.
I already know how the Mizuno Wave Rider’s felt like, because I had already owned and loved a pair. I must say, working with them came at the perfect time. I was in the process of placing an online order of Mizuno Wave Rider’s that very week they reached back out to me.
B’ys got some perfect timing hey?
Since I’ve never tried the Sayonara’s before I definitely wanted to give them a run for their money before properly reviewing them. Ya know? So, it’s been a while.
Mizuno Wave Rider 19 -vs- Mizuno Sayonara:
Wave Rider 19| (shown above)
Feels familiar and comfortable (I’ve ran in Wave Rider’s for 3+ years).
The new Wave Rider’s feel so bouncy, cushiony and a little higher off the ground.
Although a neutral runner, I don’t get shin-pain when running in Wave Rider’s (I do in other shoes!).
An excellent shoe for high-mileage.
You know it’s a fantastic series when they make 20 versions of it!
Nothing negative to say about it, it’s my favourite running shoe.
Sayonara’s|Â (shown above)
First impressions: it’s a light shoe!
Has a roomier toe-box than the Wave Rider but narrower overall.
Feels a little flatter and more of a minimal shoe (although it’s not – it’s just less cushiony than Wave Rider’s).
I prefer the look of this shoe, more. It’s not as bulky.
Hard to decide on which one I prefer, but I do reach for the Wave Rider’s more when I run! But I’ve actually received more compliments on the Sayonara’s (the blue one’s).
Generation Beauty by Ipsy San Francisco has come and gone, and whoa what a whirlwind. To be honest I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. All I knew was that people told me how busy and fun it would be.
Days before the invite-only cocktail party for Ipsy (GenBeauty) Creators, I too received an invite and accepted immediately since (well, let’s be honest….) the swag bags would be incredible. This was the first Generation Beauty held in San Francisco, so I wasn’t sure how busy it would be. After all, the LA and NYC one’s have been known to be so jam-packed. The invite-only cocktail party was held at the Terra Gallery, a gorgeous spot!
When I got to the event via Uber after parking in a garage about a kilometre away), there was this massive line to get in. When I got to the front door of the Terra Gallery I had my invite on my phone, but my name wasn’t on the invite for some strange reason. I showed them my cell phone, gave them my full name with my married last name, they couldn’t find me. So I gave them my maiden name. Then I said okay search by Nancy, or Spiffykerms. Nada. I didn’t really panic because I mean… I knew I got the invite, so why wasn’t I on their list? Lol. Luckily no one panicked on their end either and simply told me to write my name down on their print-out sheet and that’ll be fine. And so it was.
Since I was there by myself I felt a little nervous, because walking up to strangers and striking up a conversation isn’t one of my strong points. But with everyone involved in the YouTube beauty community, it was easy to chat to anyone and everyone. Here’s a list of all the big names who attended the private party.
I spotted Michelle Phan walk in and I felt like no one batted an eye — I mean, She has 8 million YouTube subscribers. Generation Beauty was founded by Michelle Phan and her company Ipsy.
I wasn’t star-struck, but I thought it was so freaking cool she was there just walking around the event. After a while, some people started lining up (including me towards the end of the evening) to chat to her, and/or take photos with her. I was one of those people too — and after our selfie together I handed her one of my business card buttons and she was totally genuine about how much she thought that was a brilliant idea. She fist-bumped me telling me how cool it was, in her soft-spoken voice. So… that was neat.
But I felt strange walking up to some people being all “heyyyy I’m a subscriber. You don’t know who I am, but I like your videos ok bye!”. I mean, it’s all new to me meeting these YouTubers too. I don’t know if they’re weirded out by it!
I also was excited to meet Sam Schuerman, I’ve been a long time subscriber and we always tweet back and forth to one another. So I finally met her! She was super down to earth, and very easy to chat to. I ended up sitting with her for a good half hour or more talking about everything (and not just beauty stuff, either). It was really nice to have a normal conversation with her.
The next day Lauren and I went together to the GenBeauty convention at Pier 27 in San Francisco. A place to purchase discounted makeup, get samples of makeup, have YouTuber meetups and chat with the PRs from the brands. So many of the booths were insane! So well put-together. I mean, check out the NYX and Benefit one’s below! Because Lauren and I had Creator Badges for the event we were able to be a bit more flexible with the lineups and receive different items.
We both wanted to pop by the ghd booth because we both worked with the brand separately at different times within the last little while. We both were educated on how to do beachy waves in our hair.
I’m gonna have a hard time replicating that when I try again soon.
I clearly loved my hair. So much body, bounce and volume you guys.
As vain as it sounds, I couldn’t stop looking in the mirror, hah!!! (Side note: All these photos were taken on my Google Pixel phone — the quality of the photo above is just so sharp… isn’t it?!)
I filmed a video from the event, so you can see how jam-packed it was! It’ll be live on my YouTube channel tomorrow (the video above is from the cocktail party). It was different at the actual convention on Saturday because when the famous YouTubers walked out, everyone was screaming, which I unfortunately didn’t catch on camera. It was definitely an interesting experience!
GenBeauty was definitely a fun spot to be, and we did as much walking around on the two-floors of beauty brands as much as possible. We stayed for a couple of hours — hopefully GenBeauty SF was successful enough to come back for a yearly event like they have in other major cities.
Also! Stay tuned for some giveaways coming up really soon. Many of the brands not only gifted me in general (and I have a lot of makeup and beauty supplies, I honestly don’t need it all). But one brand in particular gave me TONS of full-sized goodies specifically for a giveaway for you guys. I’m stoked.
Not long ago I drove up to Kiehl’s Fillmore location in San Francisco for a 3pm appointment to receive my first one-on-one complimentary consultation which lasted about twenty minutes. I was one of the first to be introduced to the Apothecary Preparations, which is pretty snazzy. But, the service is available now for customers too.
I sat down with a Kiehl’s specialist to discuss which type of skin I think that I have. I sort of knew, but I wasn’t entirely sure how true it was. After some quick testing strips on my forehead and cheek area it was determined that I have a normal-oily t-zone along with dehydrated skin. The ‘normal’ percentage is 50% water in the skin. Me? I have 26%. Oops! Shortly after that consult I was introduced to Jeremy and have a chat about the newest Kiehl’s launch, the Apothecary Preparations.
After evaluating my skin type Jeremy introduced me to the Kiehl’s skin atlas where I took a look at each step to determine which skin care needs I wanted. IÂ ranked my own skin by least of my worries to the most ‘problematic’ so to speak. Ranging from redness, pore size, clarity, hyper pigmentation, fine lines and vibrancy.
Basically what Kiehl’s has created is a tailor-made custom formula specifically for my needs and wants in a skincare product. Brilliant, right? The skin-strengthening concentrate concentrate enriched with squalane and botanicals is the bigger bottle, and it comes with 2 personalized complexes with the most potent ingredients and needed to be mixed when I got home. I chose one for redness and one for wrinkles. The result? The perfect formula created just for me. Creating everything my skin needs, and nothing added that I don’t need.
I love how completely involved and personalized this concept is. I asked all sorts of questions and discussed my concerns with Jeremy, and he was so informative and helpful (and a pretty fun guy, too!).
They sent me on their way with my own bottle of special serum to apply only at night (because it’s like a retinol product) and to use SPF daily (of course!). And you know I had to include some bloopers there for you. I was getting nervous posing for the photos!!
Thanks to Kiehl’s for the invite!
Apothecary Preparations are only available in store, but once you create your personalized formula it will be in the Kiehl’s system and you can access it again to re-order.
I want to get a few things out of the way before discussing my running shoes.
I’m not a hardcore runner who pumps out 20-50km’s within days. I don’t sign up for running races because they make me too nervous. I run on my own, or with my husband and Alfie. I’ve been running on-and-off for close to ten years, I’ve had a casual running coach when I lived in Ontario (Canada) for a few months which was pretty awesome.
Wave Rider 19| (shown above)
Sayonara’s|Â (shown above)
