As any traveler knows, whether you're embarking on a road trip through the deserts of California (like I am above!), are on a painfully long flight to Australia, or are even commuting on NYC's Metro North train, there are a few must-haves that keep you looking fresh and feeling glam (without taking up too much real estate in your purse). Here are the things I currently take with me everywhere I go in my faux-leather Honest Beauty Jetsetter Travel Makeup Bag.

When I turned 24, my skin went through quite a bit of change. While I have always had pretty clear skin, I have noticed that I need to do a bit more in my skincare routine for that baby-soft, youthful glow that once came so easily. I have tried about a million and one products, but here is the current routine that is really working for me.

From fragrance to all-natural deodorant, here are the products I can't get enough of this Fall...

On most days (especially with summer getting dangerously close), I turn to a no-fuss, au naturale makeup routine with products I can easily take with me on-the-go, enhancing my features with minimal effort.

It's my 24th birthday!
As a little girl, I had always been a dancer, and still to this day, it's a dream of mine to learn how to dance ballet en pointe. This year for my birthday, I wanted desperately to see the ballet, and lucky for me, The Sleeping Beauty (one of my most favorite fairytales) was being performed at the NYC Ballet.

​One of my New Years' resolutions is to spend more time caring for my skin. That means cleaner eating, drinking more water, allowing my skin to breathe with more makeup-free days, and spending more time each morning and night pampering and caring for my personal skin concerns.

​Here is the routine that has been helping me stay ultra-hydrated and blemish-free this winter...

This past Saturday, I got to celebrate Isabella's Sweet 16 with my family and friends!
(You all first saw my cousin Bella in the Fairytale Hair post).
It is rare to have all members of my big, Cuban/Italian family in one room, but it is always a night to remember when we are together.

All the ladies spent hours getting glam for the special night - and here is what I kept in my clutch to make sure we all kept our looks on-point and photo-ready up until the very last dance.

​I always dreamt of how my life might have been if I lived in the age of my grandmother, or even my great-grandmother. A bustling Harlem that lit up as soon as the sun went down, or the roaring world gilded by the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald (before he was a legend in his own right). Shoulders draped in exotic furs (I'd like to think they were faux, this is my dream after all), or dancing in a sea of red-lipped women trying to get a glimpse at the ever-handsome Elvis Presley.

The 20s all the way through the 50s seemed like quite a time to be alive.
And though each decade had its problems, I can't help but fantasize how each might have been.

Aside from dreaming, here are a few ways to add that touch of glamour and sparkle into your everyday life...

I have always been my most inspired when it's raining (maybe because I'm a Pisces), and today, my mother and I thought we would get in the Jeep and drive up to a sleepy Hudson River town called Cold Spring. Here I am, shoes untied and surrounded by fog, mid-way to our destination. Sometimes, you need a break from the fast-paced city, and sometimes, you just have to jump out of the car in the middle of a winding road for a photo-op...

As I begin my (painfully) long journey to the icy blonde locks of my dreams, I'm realizing how difficult it is to go from hair like Ariel from The Little Mermaid, to a mane more like Elsa's from Frozen.
(Check out my previous red color in my Tell-All post).
​
My new mission: rid my head of the red - and the best way to do that I'm told, is to grow it out completely and chop away my Ariel moment.
Here are some tips to eating and treating your way to longer and stronger hair...

After yoga, I feel completely free and at peace. It's the getting to yoga that can often pose a problem, or the remembering all that you've learned in yoga that can ​create some issues...
Sometimes, your bed is just too damn comfy, or right after you say "namaste," you slip on an icy path and get the lavender-scented wind knocked out of you (true story). So alas, I have come up with some tricks to stay zen when the world around you just doesn't want to cooperate. 

It's that time of year again... as Shakespeare put it so nicely, " April hath put a spirit of youth in everything."
Thus - festival season! Dust off your flower crowns and prepare to swoon over some of the hottest musicians of the year.

(pictured below - DIY flower crown. All it took was one creative night and a couple of glasses of wine with my girlfriends. Let me know if you all would like to see a full DIY in the future!)

Dressing up, getting glam, and taking gorgeous photos definitely comes second to the music - but that doesn't make it any less important! Here are some festival essentials, from trial and error (lots of it), and a couple of ways to keep that glam from fading as the sun goes down...