DIY: Secret Santa

Tis' the holiday season, where gifts are given and food is eaten. One of my favorite parts about the holidays is gifts...more specifically, giving gifts (getting them is great too). I love spending the time and the effort putting together the perfect gift for somebody, and seeing their reactions as they open the gift. 

Since I celebrate Hanukkah, we don't give as many gifts as people do for christmas. I mostly just get gifts from my grandma and give to family members, but even that is rare. The one time I really get to give a gift is when my grade at school, or my advisory, plans a secret santa. 
Secret santa just gives me the best feeling because you can't wait to get your gift from your mystery person, and you also can't wait to see the look on your person's face when they find out their amazing gift is from you.
This year I am doing both an advisory and whole grade secret santa, so I thought I would get a little creative and show you what I did so maybe it will give you some ideas for gifts you might need to give the time of year.

The present I made has two parts to it. the first part could easily be the gift itself, or you can go on to the next half and make the gift even bigger (but it does require a little more work)

The Unassembled Hot Cocoa

Find a mug (or something to hold it in)
Lucky for me I had a ton of extra mugs leftover from my brother's bar mitzvah.
I put the mug in an unused berry basket lined with wax paper. You can make the delivery more simple, but thats the basic idea.

                               

Bagged cocoa powder
Fill one corner of a plastic zip-lock bag with any sort of cocoa powder (I used Nesquik)

Tie the bag closed with ribbon

Tip for curling ribbon: 
Hold the top end of the ribbon and place it on the open blade of the scissors then pull the blade along the ribbon till it is curled as tightly as you would like.

Cut off the zipper part of the bag, and place in mug

Do the same with marshmallows
I used these DELICIOUS vegan marshmallows (from whole foods), because they are probably the best tasting marshmallows ever. I will never taste a normal marshmallow the same way again. Even people who don't usually like marshmallows like these.

Put them in the corner of a zip-lock bag

Tie with ribbon, and curl ribbon

Finishing Touch
Put the marshmallows inside the mug along with the cocoa powder. Then wrap the whole thing in cellophane, and your done!

If you feel like this is enough you can just stop here and this makes a perfect and quick secret santa gift.

But you can also add this to a box I like to call 'the pamper box'.

The Pamper Box
Inside the pamper box you can put almost anything. The idea of this box is to give a bunch of little gifts that are fun when you feel like a little feel good pampering might do you good.

Soap from Whole Foods

 $1 Nail Polish from your local pharmacy
(This brand is the best quality long wearing nail polish that I have found, and bonus! It costs $1)

 Sample perfumes

 Mini Sticky Notes

 Tag (or any card will do)

Wrapping String

 Stamps for card

Of course, Unassembled Hot Cocoa

Tissue Paper

And throw it all in

Merry Whatever-Holiday-You-Celebrate

xoxoxo

Nina

Song stuck in my head right now: Distance - Christina Perri

Beauty: My Skin Care Routine

I am a huge believer in taking care of your skin. When you wash your face, its more than just throwing some water on it in the shower. Everyones face is different so it is important to learn what products work best for your type of skin. If you have oily skin you may need one product, of you have dry skin you need another. But no matter who you are or what your face looks like, you must take care of your skin.
If you are looking for some recommendations to try, these are the products I use religiously every day and night and I am going to go through and explain how I use each one and what each product does.
I hope that this either inspires you to start taking care of your skin if you have been too lazy before, or helps you with your search to find the right products for you. So...ya! Enjoy.

Product #1
Nuxe Paris: Aroma-Perfection
Purifying Cleansing Gel
This face wash is the first product I use each day and night. If you are going to buy any product I would suggest a good face wash because you can never go wrong. I use this simply to wash my face of any dirt or oil because I am lucky enough to have pretty small pores, so I don't get many pimples often, but this just ensures that my face is clean at the start of the morning and at the end of the day.

Product #2

Nuxe Paris: Crème Prodigieuse

Anti-Fatigue Moisturizing Cream

This moisturizer is what I use in the morning after I have already washed my face with the face wash. I started using this product because I had noticed that certain areas of my face would get a bit dry. For this product especially, a little bit goes a long way.

Product #3

Nuxe Paris: Contour des Yeux Prodigieux

Anti-Fatigue Moisturizing Eye Cream

I put this product on at night, put a drop on my finger and apply it under my eyes. I normally have dark under-eye circles, but this cream reduces not only discoloration but also puffiness. What makes dark under-eyes so noticeable is usually the puffiness of them, so this product really reduced how noticeable they were...along with a little bit of concealer.

Product #4

Clindamycin Phosphate Topical Lotion

I also use this at night, and apply a really thin layer of it all over my face. This product is actually a prescription medicine. Since I generally have pretty good skin, I only apply a very light amount of it. I use this medicine mostly just to make sure that I won't have any unexpected brake-outs and to just even out my skin. I know there is a whole bunch of prescription skin care medicine, and although I have only ever used this one, I have had a really great experience with it.

THE PRODUCTS:

xoxoxo

Nina

Song stuck in my head right now: All of the Starts - Ed Sheeren

Life Update: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is all about spending time with your family and just being reminded of the people in your life that you are thankful for. 
This year I spent thanksgiving in my home with my family, my brother who came home from college and my grandma.
Here are some photos of the delicious food my mom and grandma made and just some family fun times.

I just wanted to thank you all for taking time to read through my blog and supporting me with your kind words. It really means a lot to me.

xoxoxo

Nina

Song stuck in my head right now: I'm Not The Only One - Sam Smith