Earlier in the summer I was scrolling through Instagram one day and saw some beautiful photos of Volunteer Park Conservatory filled with tons of colorful plants and flowers. To my surprise, I found out that it was located here in Seattle! So a few weeks ago my friends Merri and Missy joined me for the day and we explored the area. We had such a great time together and really enjoyed seeing all of the vibrant plants in the conservatory. I wanted to share some of my favorite photographs from the day!







Have you been on any fun adventures this summer? Let me know in the comments below!

After buying a new (to me) car this month, I've been trying not to spend loads of money on new skincare and beauty products, but I have tried a couple things this summer that I wanted to share with you. While I love Glossier to death, I decided to go on a hunt for a new daily moisturizer that is just as good as their Priming Moisturizer Rich without spending $35 every time I have to restock. I think I succeeded with my first product test! I also finally gave in and ordered the Glossier Lip Gloss while restocking on Boy Brow and oh my goodness, guys...it's amazing.

First off, let's talk about the moisturizer. I have very finicky skin. It typically feels very oily towards the end of the day, but my skin gets super dry if I don't use a rich daily moisturizer. I absolutely love Glossier's Priming Moisturizer Rich (the scent alone is divine), but I needed to find a comparable dupe in order to save some cash every few months on skincare. I recently came across Honest Beauty and decided to try out their Hydrogel Cream Moisturizer after seeing a few great reviews for it online. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the scent, but it seems to fade quickly after I apply the moisturizer, so I can look past that. It's half the price of the Glossier cream ($17.99 on Amazon with the same amount of cream- 1.7 fl oz) and the moisturizing effect is just as good, if not a little better! It leaves a pretty dewy finish on the skin and feels a tiny bit tacky, but it acts as a great primer under makeup. If I'm not wearing makeup, I like to apply a mattifying sunscreen over it just to counteract the shiny look. I haven't had any issues with my skin breaking out from using it. The hydrogel cream feels a little more lightweight than Glossier's moisturizer, but it somehow keeps my skin just as dewy.


In comparison to the Glossier moisturizer, the Honest Beauty cream gets extra points because it's silicone free- which is really hard to find in most moisturizers! Target also carries this brand if you want to grab it right away or avoid shipping costs online. I will definitely continue to purchase this moisturizer in place of the Glossier Priming Moisturizer Rich, even though I do miss that lovely lavender scent.

Next up I will give Glossier some love, because I do absolutely love their products. I really don't wear lipstick very often anymore. My lips are always very dry and I like the more natural look of gloss for every day wear. After eyeing the Glossier Lip Gloss for ages, I finally bit the bullet and ordered it now that the gloss comes in a tinted shade rather than just clear (my lips barely have any natural color). Holy. Freaking. Heck. This gloss is sooooo gorgeous! It's not sticky at all when you press your lips together and gives the most subtle cherry red color. It's unscented and doesn't have any flecks of glitter in it, unlike my Fenty Lip Gloss which I still love, but they both have totally different looks. There's no need to constantly reapply it throughout the day because it stays on the lips for hours. I'm a huge fan! Definitely throw this in your cart if you're making a Glossier order. You won't regret it.


I wore the Glossier Lip Gloss today for a mini-photoshoot in my Dark Rey sweater from Musterbrand. Perfectly timed for the release of the latest trailer for The Rise of Skywalker.


Have you tried any new skincare/beauty products this summer? What are your current "must haves" on your beauty counter? Leave a comment below!

Most of my pre-teen years were spent with metal in my mouth. Braces, palate expanders, lip bumpers (just Google this one and laugh)- you name it, I've had it! After enduring several years of all these annoying (and painful) procedures, I've taken extra good care of my teeth. I mean, why let your smile look bad when you've already done the hard part, right? (Oh yeah, thanks mom and dad for shelling out tons of cash for my pearly whites.) Speaking of precious pearls, one of the sweetest compliments I've heard from friends and family is about how white my teeth look. If you've ever wondered how I get such white teeth, here's the scoop- I do it at home!

I've never used charcoal or LED lights to whiten my teeth at home because I always thought it seemed too good to be true. However, I was an avid user of whitening strips until about a year ago when my tooth sensitivity just became too unbearable. It wasn't worth being in pain for a couple days after using the strips just to have whiter teeth. I also started to notice that the whitening strips weren't doing any favors for the crevices between my teeth, which really emphasized how yellow my teeth had gotten. Thankfully Smile Brilliant reached out to me just in time when I was about to revert back to the horrible whitening strips. *swoon* My hero!

Smile Brilliant immediately caught my eye because they claim that their whitening methods are great for sensitive teeth. After using their whitening trays for several weeks, I can honestly say that I'm a huuuuuge fan. The best part about the trays is that they are created to fit your own teeth. When you receive your Smile Brilliant kit in the mail, all you have to do is mix up a two-part mold putty, follow their directions to get the impressions correct, then you mail them back to Smile Brilliant. In about a week you'll receive your custom fitted trays. If you have sensitive teeth like me, you can choose a kit that has desensitizing gel that you put on after each whitening session. It works like a charm! You just squeeze a bit of the whitening gel into the upper and lower trays, pop them in for about an hour, and then remove them and use the desensitizing gel for about 20 minutes immediately after whitening. I haven't experienced any pain after whitening, which is truly mind blowing to me. I remember almost being in tears after using whitening strips before. Glad those days are over!


Professional Teeth Whitening

This week on The Dorky Diva Show, Savanna and Brian are joined by their good friend Jim Capron to discuss Rogue One! 

Photo provided by Brian and Elias Fulton

I can't believe we're already talking about the next Star Wars Celebration! I'm still riding the high from Celebration Chicago, but with tickets and hotels already available for Celebration Anaheim, many of us Star Wars fans are already planning our next trip to the greatest convention in the galaxy.

I attended Star Wars Celebration Anaheim back in 2015, which was my very first visit to the area. I later moved to Anaheim and lived 10 minutes from the convention center for a year. Planning trips and vacations to southern California can quickly become a little overwhelming when you factor in the cost of flights, hotels, meals, and activities. I wanted to share my insight about the area and convention center to prepare you for the best Celebration ever!

Since attending Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in 2015, I've attended three other conventions there including WonderCon and D23 Expo. I'm very familiar with the convention center itself and the surrounding area since I spent most of my free time there when I lived in Anaheim. Let's go over flights, hotels/accommodations, and my favorite part- the food in the area!

Flights

If you're flying into southern California for this event, you're in luck with airport options! There are many airports within the area, including LAX in Los Angeles. I think LAX is really great for people who travel frequently because it's a huge hub for many airlines and offers a wide varieties of flight options. However, most people don't realize how long it can actually take you to get from LAX to Anaheim after your flight has landed. Traffic in Los Angeles is no joke! No matter the time of day, there will always be traffic jammed around the city. I highly recommend looking into the John Wayne airport in Orange County (SNA) or Long Beach airport (LGB) when planning your flights. Trips to and from SNA or LGB might be a tad more expensive than flying into LAX, but consider this- an Uber/Lyft from either of those smaller airports to the Anaheim Convention Center will only cost you around $20 and take about 20-30 minutes, depending on the time of day. Going from LAX to the Anaheim Convention Center could cost you much more and end up eating at least an hour (or more) of your time. When you really crunch the numbers of your flight plus a rideshare or shuttle, you'd really end up spending about the same amount of money.

The John Wayne and Long Beach airports are also very clean, small, and easy to navigate. The security lines are rarely super long and there are several great restaurants in each airport to grab food before your flight. If you don't travel often or don't like to fly, traveling through these airports will be much less overwhelming than having to go through LAX. If LAX is your only option based on the availability of flight times, just keep in mind that you will need to leave the Anaheim area at least 2-3 hours before your flight time. Also keep an eye on TSA lines online!

Hotels/Accommodations

This is the best part about visiting the Anaheim area! Thanks to Disneyland being nearby, there are SO many options for hotels and accommodations nearby. The two closest hotels to the Anaheim Convention Center are the Hilton Anaheim and the Anaheim Marriott. You could leave your hotel and literally be inside the convention center within a minute. If those hotels are already booked up or fall outside of your budget when planning your trip, fear not! There are literally dozens and dozens of other hotels within walking distance. The best way to get a good deal on a hotel for Star Wars Celebration is to book your room directly through the Star Wars Celebration website. Airbnb is also a great way to save money on accommodations and also have amenities like a kitchen, larger bathroom, more privacy, etc.

Two things that I wanted to note here, both the Hilton and Marriott have great amenities that you can use even if you're not staying there. For example, the Hilton has a full size Starbucks in the lobby, which is great if you need to grab some caffeine on your way to the convention! There's The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on the other side of the Hilton if you prefer that over Starbucks or if the line is too long. The Hilton also has a small food court inside the hotel with food stops like Baja Fresh (they have $3 tacos!) and Sbarro. The Marriott has a FedEx Office Print & Ship in the hotel, which is wonderful if you buy items at the convention that you need to ship home or need to pick up a poster tube for artwork that you bought! I'd recommend visiting the FedEx office before the very last day of the convention to avoid long lines to ship your goods.

There is also a CVS and a Walgreens right around the corner from the convention center in case you need to grab snacks, water, or anything that you forgot to pack like toothpaste or a hair brush. My mom and I always swing by a CVS to buy snacks that we can take into the convention.

Anaheim Convention Center decked out for WonderCon 2018

Food

As mentioned above, the Hilton has a small food court inside the hotel. The convention center also has your standard overpriced pizza, burgers, and sandwiches, but the best part about conventions in Anaheim are the food trucks! Yes, you heard that right- food trucks. The convention center has a paved area in front (between the Hilton and Marriott) where they bring in about 10-20 different food trucks each day. These will also be a little pricey, but if you budget accordingly for lunch, you can get some really great food and eat outside to enjoy the sunshine. If food trucks aren't your thing, there are tons and tons of restaurants within walking distance as well. Less than two minutes away is a really cute diner restaurant called Coco's where they serve pretty much anything you can imagine from burgers to salads, waffles and even pies! This is a really great place to eat if you have kids because the menu has options for everyone. There are several Denny's nearby too if you want quick food on a tight budget. I recently ate at the Denny's closest to the convention center and was pleasantly surprised with the great service and cleanliness.

If you stay on Harbor Blvd and walk 2-3 blocks down the street, there is an area with a Target, Red Robin, Outback Steakhouse, and Joe's Crabshack. You could walk there or take a quick Uber. It's not very far at all. Across the street from the convention center is also the Anaheim Garden Walk. They have tons of dining and shopping options there as well. Don't forget Downtown Disney is a 10-15 minute walk away too! This is a great place to visit at night to grab some food and shop.

One thing to keep in mind always is that Anaheim is a tourist area, which means you'll most likely always wait for a table at dinner. Sometimes you'll get lucky and sit down for your meal immediately, but don't be surprised if it takes a few minutes to be seated.

Convention Center

I don't think there's too much to be said about the convention center itself other than I find it to be very easy to navigate and there are tons of quiet spots outside of the building if you need to take a break and get some fresh air. If you're facing the convention center and turn directly to your right, there is a shaded walkway with tons of palm trees and concrete benches. Oftentimes photographers will set up their strobes and equipment there to take photos of cosplayers. It's typically a little more quiet in this area, which would be good for podcasters/vloggers who may need to record audio in an area that isn't buzzing with noise. It's also a great place to sit and drink some coffee before the center opens. The convention center itself has a couple different coffee stands in the lobby where you can grab coffee, tea, and light snacks.

Tons of sunshine, shade, and great lighting near the Anaheim Convention Center

I'll have more tips leading up to Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, but I hope this starts your planning process off on the right foot! If you have any other questions, feel free to leave a comment below or ask me on Twitter @thedorkydiva. Is Anaheim going to be your first Star Wars Celebration experience? Click here for all my tips as a first time Celebration attendee!

Anytime Glossier drops a new product, I immediately turn into frantic mode and order it right away. My entire makeup routine and most of my skincare routine are made up of Glossier products, so when they released the new Brow Flick eyebrow pen last week, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Although I've grown out my brows a lot in the past year, I still have some patches of sparseness and always fill them in if I'm putting makeup on for the day. Since I've never used a product like this before, I wanted to share my review of Brow Flick along with several other Glossier items I've been using for the past month.

Before we get into Brow Flick, I quickly want to talk about Niteshine. I mentioned in my Glossier Seattle blog that I picked this up at the new pop-up store and was really excited to start using it. Holy heck! I've literally worn it every single day since I bought it. I've never been a huge fan of highlighter. I own Glossier Haloscope in two different shades, but I don't wear it on a regular basis because it always felt tacky on my skin. Niteshine is so subtle, yet buildable, and catches the light in such a gorgeous way. It melts right into the skin and dries down so it's not tacky at all. I've been wearing this in the shade Pale Pearl on my cheekbones, cupid's bow, inner corner of my eye, and brow bone even on days where I don't put on a lot of makeup. It brings out that dewey "inner glow" that everyone wants to achieve in their skincare routine! It's very easy to apply with the applicator and blend out with your fingers. You can see the subtle shimmer it leaves on my cheeks in the photo above.
Brow Flick

Okay, now onto brows! I wear Glossier Boy Brow every single day and while I've never felt like it didn't fulfill my brow filling needs, I have noticed that it's a little difficult to fill in patches with Boy Brow alone. Brow Flick is a brand new brush-tip pen product that can fill your brows with feathery hair-like strokes. I will say, it took me two or three times to get the light handed swiping motion mastered, but I really loved the final look after a few tries.

In the photo above, the brow closest to the camera (the one I'm filling) is completely bare while the other one already has Brow Flick and Boy Brow applied. It's important to use the tip of the marker with a gentle hand to create the thin hair strokes. I don't think I'll be using Brow Flick alone because I still need Boy Brow to help thicken the rest of my brows, but I really love using them together! Brow Flick is also extremely waterproof. I had to use Milky Oil and a cotton pad to remove it so this might be good for people who play sports, wipe their face, or sweat a lot. It stays put all day!



The Super Pack

I recently mentioned that I also got The Super Pack of serums while at the Glossier pop-up. I've used Super Pure and Super Bounce before and totally love them, but I had never tried the Super Glow formula. I've been using these for a month now and I've already decided that I'll be repurchasing them after I run out, which probably won't be for a while. I use Super Pure only when I see a breakout starting, but I alternate using Super Bounce and Super Glow every other day. Yes, I replaced my ride or die Vitamin C serum with Super Glow! I never thought it would happen, but I really love the Glossier formula. I haven't had any breakouts pop up since using this combo which is amazing. I can't say if Super Glow helps lighten acne scars like my old favorite Vitamin C serum did, but it has definitely helped keep breakouts at bay. I've been using all of these frequently over the last four weeks and have barely used any of the bottle, so I have a feeling they will last at least 3-4 months, maybe even longer. I'm very happy Glossier repackaged these in bigger bottles because they are a really great value now.


Colorslide

I never ever wear eyeliner because it always seems to make my eyes look smaller. Liquid eyeliner is always really difficult for me to apply in a clean line since I have hooded eyes and pencil eyeliner always smudges around my eyes or transfers onto my eyelids. I tested several of the Colorslide eyeliner pencils at Glossier Seattle and loved every single color, but I didn't buy any that day. When I ordered Brow Flick, I decided to add Colorslide in the shade Critical Mass (dark magenta) to my cart for free shipping. I'm a really big fan of this eyeliner! I don't think I'll wear it every single day, but it's super fun for a pop of color that's still subtle because of the shape of my eyes. It glides right onto the skin and stays put all day without transferring. It also doesn't smudge, which is great for me, but something to be aware of if you like to blend out your eyeliner at all. It's very waterproof! I also use Milky Oil to remove this. I'm going to pick up a few more shades the next time I make a Glossier order.



Bubblewrap

The eye cream of my dreams!!! I've tried several different eye creams and they either make my under eyes super dry or super oily- there has never been a happy balance until now. Bubblewrap is a really great lightweight eye cream that I put on before my moisturizer both morning and night. I can tell it has really helped plump up the skin under my eyes to reduce fine lines and the tired look that I sometimes get after being on a computer for too long. One more note- Bubblewrap is also marketed as a lip plumping cream, but I haven't seen very many benefits of using it on my lips. Highly recommend this one for eyes though!


I feel like I owe everyone at the Glossier product development team a giant hug because their products make me feel so confident in my own skin. My skin has been soooo glowy and radiant over the last month since using these new products along with other Glossier staples in my makeup/skincare routine like Skin Tint, Priming Moisturizer Rich, and Invisible Shield. Two thumbs up for all the items I mentioned in this blog. If you've been on the fence with any of these products, just do yourself a favor and order them now!