Eating My Way Through San Diego

After L.A. and Catalina Island, we hit the road. Destination: San Diego. Apart from the zoo and SeaWorld, I really didn't know much about the city but after spending a few days there, I can now say from experience that it is really is a nice place to visit!

A friend recommended we rent beach cruisers and ride from Mission Beach to Pacific Beach. Since I love casual bike rides, especially if there are some beach/water views involved, I knew I would love this activity. We also stopped for brunch at Miss B's Coconut Club where I had the most delicious Coconut Rum French Toast.

In fact, you'll see from this post that I spent a lot of my time in San Diego eating. Turns out this city has a really great foodie scene, with tons of restaurants to discover. For example, "hipster ramen" from Underbelly, the best fried chicken from The Crack Shack, and breakfast heaven takes the form of cast iron omelettes from Cafe 21. Yum!

La Jolla is a hilly seaside community that seemed very family friendly with less of a party vibe than Mission Beach and Pacific Beach. The cove is really pretty.

I also knew they I wanted to explore Little Italy for sure (such a nice neighbourhood downtown) and we were able to get a table at Bencotto for dinner. I don't typically eat pasta but vacation is when you can kind of pig out so I went for their handmade gnocchi al formaggi and then the pannacotta for dessert. If you remember my trip to Rome from way back when you'll know I love pannacotta.

If you get a chance to visit San Diego, I definitely recommend it! It was never even on my travel list but it turned out to be such a pleasant surprise... especially if you love eating as much as I do.

The Estée Edit by Estée Lauder Lip Flip Shade Transformers in Turn Up & Turn Down

The Estée Edit by Estée Lauder is a rotating collection of bold makeup and radiant skincare products products inspired by Estée Lauder herself along with a series of Guest Editors. This season, the Guest Editors are Kendall Jenner and Irene Kim, both of whom bring a youthful energy to the lineup.

Perhaps the most interesting release (or at least the one that caught my eye first) are the Lip Flip Shade Transformers, two matte lipsticks intended to lighten (Turn Up) or deepen (Turn Down) any full-coverage lipstick you already own.

When swatched on their own, you can see that Turn Up is a bold yellow and Turn Down is a matte black. If you're feeling adventurous I suppose you could wear either on their own (not gonna lie, I kind of want to do that with Turn Down). However, the real magic happens when you pair them with another lipstick.

Here's the original lip colour I decided to test the Lip Flip Shade Transformers on: Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy Lipstick in Confident (also featured in this post). It's a juicy-looking medium berry pink.

With Turn Up, Confident is toned down considerably to a more neutral and subdued pink. You can see it takes on a bit of a yellow tone but nothing too crazy or weird. I actually like the result a lot because it's adds more dimension to the colour.

Turn Down was a little more difficult to work with because the black is so dark. Initially it just looked like I had smeared black lipstick all over but I figured the best way to use it was to smudge and layer it with Confident. In the end, I was left with a nice deep purple shade.

Side note: I tested Turn Down over some lighter shades and it didn't work so well... probably best to use this one with brighter or darker lipsticks rather than your nude MLBBs if you don't want to end up with patchy-looking black lips.

The Lip Flip Shade Transformers retail for $26 CAD. Are they a necessity? Certainly not. But they are fun to play around with and allow you to get different wear out of your everyday lipsticks without having to buy more shades (although let's be real.. if you're a beauty junkie like me you probably already have more than enough lip colours thank you can handle). If you were to only get one, I'd recommend Turn Up since it should work with pretty much any lipstick.

Catalina Island

A 75 minute boat ride from San Pedro is an easy and fun getaway for Los Angeles locals: Catalina Island. It was a bit of a random decision to go here but turned out to be my favourite place I visited on my recent CaliTrip (see my L.A. recap here).

Dress: NOUL / Bag: Longchamp (here) / Sunglasses: Polette (c/o)

You can rent golf carts and drive them around the island, allowing you not only easy access to random beaches and great views along the way but it's also super fun! I definitely recommend this if you're ever in the area.