Brighter Sides

I Like To Put Expensive Goo On My Face – My Skincare Routine

A few weeks ago after buying some new stuff at Sephora, I tweeted “I like to put expensive goo on my face.” I thought I might elaborate on that, as I am always curious about what other people use, especially if they really like it.




From top right, going clockwise:
Burt’s Bees Makeup Removing Facial Towelettes
Paula’s Choice RESIST Optimal Results Hydrating Cleanser
Paula’s Choice RESIST Advanced Replenishing Toner
Philosophy Take A Deep Breath Oil-Free Energizing Oxygen Gel Cream Moisturizer
Paula’s Choice RESIST Intensive Wrinkle-Repair Retinol Serum
Philosophy The Microdelivery Exfoliating Wash
Clear Improvement™ Active Charcoal Mask To Clear Pores


This is the full range of non-makeup goo that I put on my face regularly to semi-regularly. It looks a little high maintenance, but I don’t use everything all the time. I’ve actually been making an effort to use take better care of my skin and not just vaguely wipe off my makeup or go to bed without washing myself at all – which I still do sometimes (don’t tell the… skin care fairy, or whoever.)


You may also notice one very important element missing – sunscreen. This was, I guess, because I was using a makeup primer that had sunscreen in it. But I stopped using that primer because I didn’t like the way it made my face feel, it was too light, and I didn’t think it helped my makeup stay in place. So I’m looking for a good sun protective product that is light and non-oily if anyone has a suggestion. Until I find one, I’ll just keep spraying my face with my Paul Mitchell Color Protect Locking Spray when i spray it on my hair. That helps… right? Probably not so much, since I have noticed that my face is getting a little too tan for my powder. Egh.


Here’s the breakdown:

- I use the Towelettes (which I reviewed here) the most often. I use those to take off my makeup, especially eye makeup. And sometimes this is all I use. If I’m traveling, these are all I take with me.


- The Paula’s Choice face wash, I use pretty much daily. At least in the morning if not morning and night. It’s light and creamy, it’s unscented and it doesn’t dry my face out.


- The Philosophy exfoliator is my most recent purchase. I’ve been using it every few days and I like that it has a distinguishable amount of grit to it, but it doesn’t hurt. I’d really been needing an exfoliator (remember that aforementioned tan… that needs to go away) and this fit the bill without breaking the bank.


- The Philosophy moisturizer. I use this almost every day. It’s not heavy or greasy – it’s a cross between a gel and a cream, hence the name “gel cream moisturizer”. It also has a VERY light scent. I don’t like my face to smell like stuff.


- Paula’s Choice toner. I don’t use this as often as I probably should. I get why you’re supposed to use toner, but it always feels like a weird step if I am putting a bunch of other stuff on my face. Still, like everything else I use, it’s light and unscented, and I suppose it does what it ought to (restores the pH of your skin after washing) though it’s not something you can physically see.


- The Origins charcoal mask is also new, I purchased it concurrent with the exfoliator. I have issues with clogged pores and wanted something to help with this. My mom passed a lot of great stuff on to me, but she also passed on the propensity for enlarged pores, which are a pain in the figurative ass. I haven’t been using this long enough to really see results, but it seems promising and my skin feels very soft after I use it.


- And last but not least is the Paula’s Choice Retinol serum. This was really my what sparked my recent foray into quality skin care products. The past couple of years I’ve started noticing more little lines, especially around my eyes, and I’m not ready for that. I asked my product and ingredient conscious friend Jessica of Out In A Pout if she knew of things to lessen the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines that ACTUALLY worked and she said retinol! She suggested a couple of brands and I opted for the this one, as it has come highly recommended and was also the most affordable of the options I was looking at.


I’ll be 29 next week, and while I don’t get carded at bars half the time, I was told the other day that I would have to be 18 to sign the waiver, so I must be doing SOMETHING right, right? Or he just wasn’t really paying attention and didn’t look at y 29 year old face. Whatever. Still, I rather like my skin care products. What products are your favorite? And suggestions of UV protection for face is more than welcome!



Life, Music, Tornadoes, Food, and Stuff

The past few weeks have been insane. Both good and bad. And I’ll try to keep this as short as I can and not get into too much boring (for you) detail, while explaining a little of what’s been going on. Which has been a lot.




In my last TILT post, I mentioned that I was going down to Austin, TX to visit my friend John Elliott and attend his live record recording. (As I’ve said before, check out his music, you won’t be disappointed. I never am.) That, I did. Though, I took the train instead of driving, which was a much better idea. 10 hours of just reading comics and listening to music and looking at Twitter instead of boredly staring at the road. I stayed down there for the weekend and it was absolutely lovely. It felt so great to take a mini vacation and allow my brain to switch off for a couple of days. Oh, and I made cookies. And they were good. I also met up with my Twitter-friend, Jen at the show and I think we really hit it off. It’s nice to finally meet people that you talk to pretty regularly online. I feel like several years ago that would have been odd, but now it’s the norm. And I’ve met some of the best people via Twitter. Anyway. Austin trip: fabulous. Needed it. Would do it again in a heartbeat. I wish I had some cool photos to share, but dumbly, I only really took a photo of the sign at the train station, and my hair in the heat and humidity after rolling out of bed in the morning. C’est la vie.




The day after I came back though, shit hit the fan. There was a huge EF5 tornado that went through Moore, just south of where I live, in Oklahoma City. Last I heard, they were saying it was the worst one in history. It was terrible to watch happen live on the news, and the aftermath was even worse. I won’t go in to all the detail that I could, but suffice to say I spent the evening sobbing on the couch while watching the news – though my immediate surroundings were left physically unaffected, it was just heartbreaking to watch and left me feeling helpless.


Later that week, my friend Erin asked if I would be interested doing social media for a fundraiser event happening to benefit tornado victims. I jumped at the chance and I’m so happy that I did. It ended up being such a wonderful and fulfilling experience. It felt good to be putting my personal skills and talents to work in a meaningful way.




The fundraiser was a “pop-up restaurant” featuring many of Oklahoma City’s most famous chefs, and chef Daniel Bowien of Mission Chinese in New York City. The team was there for 2 days creating AMAZING food on a rotating menu, made from ingredients donated by local shops and restaurants. Outside, there was live music, and artists doing live painting. The art was auctioned off at the end of the night. (My friend Allyson did a couple of nice blog posts about it here and here) The goal was to raise $35,000 that weekend and we raised a mind-blowing $75,000, which went directly to the OK chapter of Red Cross!




Erin at CooperHouse made the gorgeous OK Chefs Relief website and did all of the branding. You can find out more information about the event there, including the chefs and artists who were involved. If you’d like, you can see what I was doing on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It’s hard to believe that the accounts grew as much as they did and and were as active as they were in just a few days – it was fast paced work! And very fulfilling.


Here is a wonderful video that Choate House made about the event. It’s worth a watch, trust me.

OK Chefs Relief from CHOATE HOUSE on Vimeo.


A couple of days later, I was asked by Tracey and Rob, who had managed the PR for OK Chefs, if I’d like to manage the social media for another fundraiser happening that week called Music 4 Moore – which was a benefit concert. I, of course, said yes. Once again, it was great to be putting my skills to work in a meaningful way. It was also so nice to be introduced to some good local music, because I’ve been complaining about the lack of it since I moved here. (Also the legendary “Queen of Rock”, Wanda Jackson performed. She’s absolutely adorable – you should look up some of her videos from the 50′s and 60′s) All of the proceeds, including ticket sales, parking, food and alcohol went directly to Red Cross and the event raised another $12,000 for tornado victims.



Again, if you’d like, you can see what I was doing on their Facebook page and Twitter.


If you watch this concert promo video, you can see some of the devastation that occurred from the storms, as well as short clips of interviews with many of the generous and wonderful bands that played.


Music 4 Moore // Concert Interview Video (2013) from Nathan Poppe on Vimeo.


Then we had another pretty scary EF5 tornado which took out some places west of us and it came much closer to where I live. Close enough that we were advised to get underground. This is the first time I’ve had to do this, and our house doesn’t have a shelter or a basement. Luckily our friend Marek invited us to come hide in her basement with something like 20 other people and 18 dogs. The tornado missed the majority of the city, but the storm caused a lot of flooding and power outages everywhere, which was kind of incredible to see.


Being from the West coast I am definitely not used to all of this weather… I hope it calms down, but that might be too much to hope for. We’ll see. So…. how have you been?




P.S. If you don’t live in the area, but would like to help, you can always donate online at redcross.org or text FOOD to 32333 to have a $10 donation to the regional foodbank added on to your regular phone bill.



Outfit Of The Day: Navy & Neon

This past week or so I’ve been going through my closet. I’d say a good 80% of my clothing never gets worn. It either doesn’t fit, or it’s not my style any more, or I just ignore it because I don’t know how to style it and I’d rather go to one of my old fallbacks (Hhello skinny jeans and The Smiths t-shirt). This is one of those dresses that I never wear. And I don’t know why. I think because it’s so short. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m pretty tall (5’9″) so dresses that should hit mid-thigh or so barely cover my butt. And that makes me uncomfortable… partly because it’s windy in Oklahoma and partly because I’m not 18.

Anyway… this dress is pretty cute. I’m still obsessed with Peter Pan collars, and I love the little neon detail on the front. This dress is from Forever21 a couple years ago, so I can’t link to the actual product, but I’ll link to a couple similar-ish ones at the end.

|| Dress : similar, similar // Boots: Dr. Martens 1490 // Tights: similar ||

These boots, I love. They’re the classic Dr. Marten 1490′s and they’re pretty comfy despite the fact that I’m still breaking them in. I’ve been wearing them almost every day, so they ought to be broken-in in no time.

Also, in my last post, I mentioned that I was embracing my natural curl. This is what it looks like when I don’t brush it out, and just let it do it’s thang. I’m in to it. Thanks to Rachael for taking pics for me.

Also, unrelated, but my sweet friend Katie made a bunch of cake balls to give to customers at my shop last weekend to help promote her blog. She’s fairly new to blogging and hers is one of the best new blogs that I’ve seen. She’s doing an awesome job, and you should go check her out and follow her. And I’m not just saying that because she made me cake.

How often do you all clean out your closet? Do you do it regularly or once a year or not at all? Last time I did was before I moved to Oklahoma and needed to downsize for the move. I’ve been having the urge to downsize everything I own lately… I just have too much STUFF. How am I supposed to run away and join the circus with this many belongings, afterall?



TILT – Things I Love Thursday, May 9th, 2013

So, it’s been a while. I don’t know if I’ve felt like I don’t have much to say or I’ve just been busy/overwhelmed with things. My friend Jessa just sent me a message saying “Wow do you realize the last TILT you did was back when I first dyed my hair blue?!?” Which was a WHILE ago, trust me. I told her “I don’t love anything, I don’t have anything to TILT about.” Which was a joke, of course. But it prompted me to start writing this and to have to THINK about what I love right now. Stuff that has made me happy lately. And I have been pretty happy lately aside from being somewhat stressed and busy. Here’e some stuff.



- My big hair! I decided to just embrace it for the most part. I’ve been letting it dry naturally curly, wearing it like that for a few days and then just brush it the hell out and let it be loud and proud. I get a surprising amount of compliments when I wear it this way.

- My job! You might remember back in November I started doing social media for a local business, and I’ve picked up a few other clients since then. All jobs can be chaotic at times but as I was sitting in my jeans and oversized t-shirt, eating pizza and listening to Spotify today while I was working, I hopped on Facebook and exclaimed “I love my job! Seriously!” and I do. It’s fun and I enjoy it a lot.

MUSIC! This has been a great week for music.

Pt. 1 – Last Wednesday I got to see one of my long-time favorite bands, Alkaline Trio play. I saw quite a few of their shows in my late teens and young twenties when I lived in Seattle and always hand a blast, and okay, so maybe I’ve had a little bit of a crush on Matt Skiba for the past decade, what of it? Anyway, my friend Erin and I packed up and drove to Tulsa and fully went for the Alk3 concert experience like our bodies weren’t 10 years older than the last time we saw them. We got right up front and jumped up and down and screamed along and elbowed guys in the ribs and pushed people off of us in the pit and it was a BLAST! It’s been so, so long since I did that and think needed it! Unfortunately after staying on a couch overnight and waking up the next morning, my body reminded me “Hey, bro. You’re not 19″ by way of being incredibly tired and having extremely sore abs, shoulders, ass, and any other muscles I might have used through the course of the night. BUT it was worth it. Totally. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Pt. 2 – On Saturday I drove down to Denton, TX to see my friend (and also one of my favorite musicians) John Elliott play. I met John when I lived in Seattle and he happens to be on tour right now and was playing not too far away, so of course I journeyed down that way. The show was great, and the people who’s house it was at were very kind and welcoming and let me stay there for the night and most of the rest of the next day (they even made me breakfast!) – it reminded me a lot of my friends (my second family, really) back home at Mirkwood in WA. And of course it was great to see John too, and he got a sweet haircut out of the deal (self-brag I’m still pretty great at cutting hair even after not having done it for 8 months). I’d highly recommend checking out his music right now, since you’re just sitting there at your computer, in need of background music. He generously has all of his music streaming for free on his website at http://www.thehereafterishere.com It’ sort of mellow, folky music. I’m terrible at describing music, but you’ll like it, okay? The other fellow he played with, who is also great (and who I had also met in WA and had no idea I was going to see in TX) can be heard here: http://www.jwagnermusic.com So go on. I’ll also be driving down to Austin, TX (a grueling 8 hour drive that I’m not looking forward to – by myself, mind you!) next weekend on the 17th for John’s live record recording. It’s gonna be great… if you live anywhere near-ish Austin, I’d recommend it.

There was something else I was going to add to this list, but that was last night before my computer became haunted and started scrolling for no reason, putting the curser in random spots so I would type in the middle of sentences and erasing whole paragraphs of text. This post took about ninety-thousand times longer than it should have. So I’m just going to say I love my poor, decrepit computer…. just so it doesn’t finally self destruct, because I NEED it, in a very literal sense.



Giveaway: Sephora Gift Card & Ad Space!

Yay, a giveaway! I’ve teamed up with a few of my sponsors to bring one lucky reader a fun prize pack including a $35 e-gift card to Sephora.com provided by Caked Blog, Rachael Really and yours truly, AND large ad space for your blog or shop on both Mia Moore and Brighter Sides. (Please note that Sephora.com only ships to the United States and Canada at this time.)


This is my first time using Rafflecopter for entries, I hope you guys like it! The only mandatory entry is to comment on this blog post, but you cane earn extra entries by following me and my sponsors on social media! (A note about etiquette: We like that you like us, and giveaways are our way of thanking you for your readership and your interest in our blogs. Please don’t follow us using spammy/fake accounts that you only created in order to enter giveaways or unfollow us immediately after the giveaway. It’s tacky, you know? Don’t be that person.) Ready, set, enter!


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Outfit Of The Day: Girls’ Night Out

We had a girls’ night out with our friend Erin and some ladies the other day, and since I wasn’t wearing jeans and a t-shirt for once, my roommate (Rachael) insisted on taking my picture. You can tell how excited I was about that in the first picture… (“I’m cold. My skirt is too short. I just want to go get a drink already.”)


kelsi girls night out outfit

girls night out dress

And then she made me laugh about something or other in the second photo. Hey, you can see the tattoo on my thigh making a very rare appearance through my tights. I have a feeling that this summer it’s not going to be so rare though. Everything I’m wearing here I’ve had for a while, so I couldn’t find any of it still for sale online but I found some things that are similar!


(Dress – similar,similar // Cardigan – similar // Belt- similar, similar // Shoes – similar // Coat – similar, similar // Tights – similar)


Also, My hair. Look how much pink is showing through on my ends! Yikes. Luckily I remedied that on Sunday. For Ostara (Easter), instead of coloring eggs, we colored each other’s hair! I don’t really celebrate anymore – what’s a single adult with no family in the area and no children supposed to do? Just eat candy? I guess that’s the correct answer to any question.


Sorry for the rambly, randomness…. I need coffee.