My Current Favorite Products

I'm no Oprah, so there's no real reason why you should consider my favorite things to be amazing products and go out and buy them, BUT I do like the whole Oprah's Favorite Things concept, and decided I'd try my hand at it! So, here is a list of some of my favorite products at the moment, separated by category. Oh, but first a disclaimer! Since we talk a lot on this blog about media-- movies, books, music, YouTube, podcasts, etc.-- this post is focusing on my favorite products in other areas of life rather than media.

Health and Body

Bedhead Urban Antidotes Hair Moisturizer

So my mom got a whole load of really nice gifts from her boss and coworkers for Christmas, so naturally I asked if I could use a bunch of it! One of the gifts she got was this Bed-Head leave in conditioner. I've used it probably five or six times so far and I can say with certainty that I'm really pleased with the results. It's great for someone who is low maintenance in the beauty department, because all you have to do is massage it onto your scalp while your hair is wet and that's all! I've even just been putting a little blob on my hand and then swiping it over the teeth of my hairbrush and letting my brush do that "scalp massaging" for me while I brush my hair. It leaves my hair super soft for a couple of days and massages in quickly. I read some reviews online that said they thought the product was a little greasy, and I could see where they're coming from, but I'd say the solution is to simply use as little as possible. You don't need much to make a difference in the softness of your hair! 

Cleansing Brush from Forever 21

I know there are tons of expensive electric cleansing brushes out there that promise miracle results, but I'm telling you, this manual cleansing brush that I bought at Forever 21 for literally $2.50 does a great job on it's own, plus it's so cute and super portable! Now, mine doesn't look exactly like this picture from Forever 21's website, but it's pretty close. I usually put my face wash on my palm, dab it on my face, and then use my brush to massage it in. It creates such a nice clean feeling lather that I could never achieve with just my hands. 

Tongue Scraper

I watched this really gross Buzzfeed video where people got their tongues scraped by doctors, and they talked about how simply brushing your tongue when you brush your teeth could actually be compacting plaque and bacteria deeper into your taste buds while scraping your tongue actually lifts the bacteria up and off the tongue. It was very intriguing to me, so I went to Dollar Tree and bought one and have been using it every time I brush my teeth. I always use it after I brush my teeth because I want to see what I've missed on my tongue even though I've just brushed, and you guys, it's gross. I'm telling you, you need one of these things. I didn't even realize just how nasty my tongue was before!

Food

Silly Cow Farms "Chocolate Moo-usse" Hot Chocolate

My Sunday School teacher gave me a jar of this as a Christmas gift and I just love it! The packaging is absolutely adorable and is something I'll be able to keep even once all the product has been used. The hot chocolate itself I've actually only tried one time, but it was tasty, and refreshingly mild because sometimes I think that hot chocolate can be way too sweet and intense, but this wasn't sickeningly sweet, which I appreciated. 

Grandma Utz BBQ Chips

This will always confound me: I do not like barbecued meat, bbq sauce, or barbecue chips. They don't even taste like barbecue, they just taste weird. HOWEVER, Grandma Utz's Bar-B-Q chips are my absolute favorite chips on the planet. Please explain that to me?? They're soooo addicting, and they don't taste like any other chip I've ever tasted. They're like on a plane of their own. There must be some secret recipe to make them so delicious. I don't know. They're amazing, you gotta try them. Unfortunately they aren't available everywhere, and I don't know why that is...

Lifestyle

Velvet watch from JC Penney

My friend Kaitlyn got me this adorable burgundy velvet watch for Christmas from JC Penney and I love it! This picture doesn't look exactly like the one I have because mine has a silver watchface with small gems surrounding the circle. But this was the closest I could find. If you know me, you know that I really love velvet, so this watch is perfect for me. I'm not a huge watch person, but I have actually tried to wear a watch a few times at work so I can check the time without having to look at my phone or crane my neck to see the clock out in the hallway so I can know when I get off work. I've worn this watch a lot since Kaitlyn gave it to me, and it's actually really comfortable! I've always struggled with watches hurting my wrist when I bend it back, and this one does cause a tiny bit of discomfort, but not nearly as much as other watches I've tried. Plus, it's just so my style that I can get past a small bit of wrist pain for the sake of fashion. Teehee. 

Bloom and Prosper candle from Ross (Woodland Snowfall Scent #03)

Once again, I couldn't find a picture of the exact product I own, but these candles give you an idea of basically what mine looks like. It came in one of these cute little tin jars with a really pretty design on the top and sides, and the wax itself is a beautiful dark green and smells SOOO good and permeates the whole room without being too strong. I'm going to be so sad whenever it melts completely down. I've already used it so many times during the Christmas season that I know it won't last a very long time, but it was incredibly inexpensive ($2.99 if I remember correctly) so for that price, I feel like I've already gotten my money's worth! Plus, it's just such a cute decor piece that I'll definitely keep the jar after the candle is gone. It would be great for making a new candle in when the time comes! I also bought some of my friends Bloom and Prosper candles from Ross in various other scents, and they were all cute and smelled good too, so I'll definitely be buying more from that company in the future!

Sonoma Knee Socks

Listen y'all, ya girl has some meaty calves and thighs, all right? What exactly does that mean? It means that finding boots and knee high socks that fit around my legs is its own unique form of torture. So when I bought these socks on sale for $5 at Kohls, I was quite skeptical. Before I bought them I obviously checked to see how stretchy they were, and they seemed to have a pretty wide girth, but even so, I couldn't actually try them on because they were packaged in such a way that I'd have to cut off the packaging and stuff to try them. But, when I got home I immediately tried them on over pants and they fit soooo well! Better than any other socks I own, to be honest. I am incredibly pleased and would definitely buy more in the future. I will say that after their second wash, I noticed that the elastic around the top on one of the socks came out, so hopefully they'll still stay up, but I'm kind of nervous about that. I don't think it's necessarily a reflection on the sock itself because they look and feel really well made, but I think my washer or dryer might have just been really hard on them. 

Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon Car Freshener

Obviously this is an image of the Spruce freshener and not the Cucumber Melon, but you get the idea. (For the internet being such a vast place, it's surprisingly difficult to find pictures of exactly what I want...I digress). I opened up the Cucumber Melon freshener in my car a few weeks ago and it still smells as strong as ever and smells SO AMAZING and fresh I just want to lick it, harhar. 

Pilot V5 pen

A few years ago, Austin and Kourteney got me a pack of these pens for Christmas, and from that moment on, my life was changed for the better forever. These pens have the most amazing flow and write so clearly without having to press at all. Plus, they just look cool in my opinion. You can get them in all different colors too, which is nice when you want a change from plain black, although I prefer the plain black ones as a rule. I love that they have a cap rather than a clicker because I can get easily distracted by clicky pens, and I seriously appreciate that they have a window in the side so you can see when you're running low on ink and need to get a new one. Like anything, they do have a few downsides such as bleeding through thin paper, and not being very cheap. Plus, I've had two or three over the years that have leaked ink. If you prefer a pen that doesn't bleed as much and still has a nice flow, I'd also recommend the Pilot G2-07 (which SE recommended to me). 

So there you have it folks! Some of my favorite products as of right now! This was a really fun post to write, so maybe I'll do more like this in the future! 

VaughnDL