Coffee Conversations

Hello and Happy Friday! I’m back home after a few days at my sister’s house meeting the newest member of the family, a sweet baby girl! It’s still such a shock that I have a niece on that side of the family – we have two on Mike’s side. I miss her already and can’t wait to hold her again in a couple weeks!

Mike is officially done with his first year of graduate school! (He’s currently working on his masters in Occupational Therapy.) He crushed it and I’m so proud! It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a full academic year since we moved to Virginia. Time is going by so quickly.

Since I spent 9 hours or so driving in the last three days, I started listening to some new (to me) podcasts. Someone Knows Something season 4 and In The Dark season 2 were my choices for my drive. I enjoyed them both!

This arrived the day I returned home and I put it on immediately. It’s so, so soft. I ordered a small and it’s the perfect fit!

I’m going to give natural deodorant a try. Admittedly, I’m not as conscious of the ingredients in the products I use as I should/could be, so I’m trying to become more aware. One thing that I’ve heard/read a lot about is the things that come in standard deodorant, which I’ve used for years. I thought it would be an easy change to make – just swapping out one product for another. I ordered this brand and am excited by all of the amazing reviews. I’ll share an update once I’ve used it for a bit and decided if I like it or not.

This is the blue nail polish I was wearing this week – I loved to wear a different color than pink!

The cutest sneakers!

I’ll be catching up on missed work from being gone this week, but I’m hoping to go out with Mike tonight to celebrate the end of his first year. Have a great weekend!

Hi there!

Lauren Bown Lifestyle Blog is an online destination where I share my personal style, beauty finds, and bits of life in hopes to inspire other women to feel good in their skin and find the beauty in the ordinary.

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15 Comments

  1. 5.11.18
    Erin said:

    I use Native deodorant and love it.

    • 5.12.18

      I've heard/read great things, so I'm excited to try it!

  2. 5.11.18
    Mallory said:

    Congratulations on your new niece! She is just precious. Have a great weekend!

  3. 5.11.18

    I bought Native deodorant to try recently but haven't started it yet. I read that this mask, used with apple cider vinegar is a great detox to use on your underarms before starting a natural deodorant! https://www.amazon.com/Aztec-Secret-Cleansing-Original-Bentonite/dp/B0014P8L9W/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1526049948&sr=8-3&keywords=Bentonite+Clay+Mask

    • 5.11.18

      Interesting! I use this mask on my face every other week, so I'm interested in trying it out as a detox.

  4. 5.11.18

    I recently made the switch to natural deodorant and chose to try Schmidt's; mainly because I live in a small town and it's sold in our local Walmart and I'm terrible about ordering things online before I completely run out. I used it for three weeks with NO problem. Then one day I broke out in a horrible, terrible rash. Tomorrow makes two weeks and I'm still dealing with this painful, bumpy rash. After more research, I found out that others have had the same problem. Native is next on my list to try, but I'll have to wait until this mess clears up first. Plus I'm a little scared it will break me out also. I hope it works well for you! Please keep us posted!

    • 5.11.18
      DeBraber said:

      I had the same thing with Schmidt's. I used it for a while and it was okay and suddenly not. I had to go deodorant free for 2 weeks (I used some Young Living Purification oil) since it was July in the humid south! I since changed to Tom's and now am using the Meadow Mist from Young Living and love it. My friend is using Native and hasn't reported any issues! I've found going natural with some products is a lot of trial and errror!

    • 5.12.18
      Krystal said:

      The same thing happened to me. It turns out that I need to use their sensitive formula. I switched and it's great! Unfortunately they do not sell the sensitive formula at stores.

  5. 5.11.18

    How do you like VA so far? I lived in Arlington/Tysons for almost two years!

    Kim

    http://trendkeeper.me .. Excellence Playa Mujeres RESORT REVIEW!

    • 5.12.18

      We're loving it! So many things to do in the area and the weather is much better than Chicago 😉

  6. 5.12.18
    AG said:

    Whoop whoop for occupational therapy (that’s my degree)! Just always have to comment because so many people have absolutely no idea what I do as an occupational therapist

    • 5.12.18

      Haha yes! It's always funny when my husband tells people what he's studying and you can tell that they don't know what that is.

  7. 5.14.18

    Occupational therapy is such a great occupation (ha!). I’m about to finish up graduate school for speech language pathology now, and I always say that if I were to go back for a different discipline, it would be OT! Hope he is loving it so far. Please let us know what you think about Native…I, like some other commenters, have tried Schmidt’s and it turned into a painful mess. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

    Oh, and of course, congrats on your new niece! So exciting 🙂

  8. 5.15.18

    NATIVE is great!