I’m not a dermatologist. And I won’t pretend to be an expert on skincare. But there are a few products that, no matter what else I try, I always go back to. Some might say this is just a force of habit, but I have to disagree. I personally stand by all of the products listed below because they really work! So for those of you who have been emailing me requests for product recommendations (face lotions, etc.), this for you.

To wash my face – Proactive 3-Step System: Cliche or not, Proactive is a great system. It saved my life in high school when I first started getting some semblance of acne (I never jumped on the Accutaine bandwagon, like everyone else seemed to). And it still saves my life to this day. Yes, I’ve tried a lot of the competitors, but none have compared to Proactive. It’s still the best of the best, if you ask me.

To moisturize my face at night – Clean & Clear Oil-Free Dual-Action Moisturizer: It’s light and oil-free, so it doesn’t clog my pores. And it has leaves a nice tingly feeling that makes you feel like it’s doing something to fight breakouts too (perhaps that part is psychological? Ha.)

To moisturize my face during the day – Laura Mercier Oil-free Tinted Moisturizer: During the day, I rely on a moisturizer a little color to even my skin out, and also with SPF to protect it from the sun. This is a great tinted moisturizer because it feels nice and light but gives me the protection and coverage I need.

For in the shower after a workout – Neutrugena Body Clear Body Wash ‘Pink Grapefruit’: I like to use a body wash with salicylic acid (an acne-fighting ingredient that doesn’t bleach your clothes) after a workout, which is when a person is most scecptable to mild breakouts. Side note: Save your skin by showering as soon as you can after you work out – every time! Neutrugena Body Clear Body Wash keeps my skin clear, even when I’ve just come back from sweating it out at the gym. I always use this after a workout.

For any other time I shower – Dove Deep Moisture Body Wash: Everything with Dove’s label on it smells amazing, but I tend to stick with their lighter, more natural scents so that my body wash doesn’t try to compete with my perfume (which is Marc Jacobs ‘Lola’, in case you were wondering.) That’s one of the many reasons that I love Dove Deep Moisture Body Wash. Another is is because it keeps my skin soft and hydrated, while leaving me feeling super clean.

To moisturize my body – Johnson’s Baby Lotion: I try to keep a big bottle of lotion around so that I can apply liberally after getting out of the shower. (It makes a HUGE However, finding a lotion with a consistency you like (non-greasy, moisturizing, stays on, etc.) can be a challenge. Recently, I’ve started using Johnson’s Baby Lotion and I love it. It has a very faint scent, so it won’t compete with perfume, it’s totally cheap, and makes my skin baby soft! I like the original lotion and the Oatmeal lotion, which has a similar consistency to the original but also a light and appealing perfume scent.

So there you have it. These are the products I try to use every day (hence the name “product junkie”) and my recommendations for those of you who have similar skin as mine.

After losing my faux-leather jacket a while back, I ended up making the decision to purchase this one to replace it. I love it, and wear it quite a bit (as you have seen here and here), but I still couldn’t help but yearn for a supple, buttery-textured, real leather moto jacket. Low and behold, I found this one from ASOS for a reasonable price (as far as real leather goes), and decided to splurge on it. I wear it all the time because it quite literally goes with everything (I’m wearing it right now, as I type this). I love how moto jackets make any outfit just a little more interesting.

But one of my favorite ways to wear it is with dresses. The evening weather is perfect – not to warm, not too cool – for the ‘leather jacket over dress look.’ One of the reasons I think this feels so natural is because of all the ultra-feminine dresses that are in style this season. It’s easy to feel a little too cute when you’re covered in lace, chiffon, and pastels. The leather (or faux-leather) moto jacket is the perfect piece to add some contrast. I like to pair it with some booties or a pair of sky-high, strappy sandals to make the look even more interesting.

Below is some of my outfit inspiration. (The image above is via Pinterest.)

I love Madewell! (Who doesn’t?) So I was thrilled to see their unique take on Spring’s polka dot trend. Needless to say, I’m kind of obsessed with all their polka dot pieces right now. These outfits are just the right combination of classic elegance and feminine details. Perfect for spring and summer, no?

*All images from Madewell

One of the easiest (and least scary) ways to add color to an outfit is with bright shoes. With warm weather just around the corner (or already here for those of you not living in Oregon), it’s time to start thinking about what sandals you’re going to invest in for the spring/summer seasons. I suggest jumping on the color bandwagon and getting some bright, strappy sandals that will bring a little fun to any outfit.

Some of my favorites are in various shades of neon, but there are lots of colored sandals to fit whatever your taste!

Sandals from above: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Colored sandals are actually really easy to wear, but in case you doubt me, here is some inspiration for how to wear them from none other than Pinterest!

I’ll be brief because there are better recaps already published on other blogs, but one of the highlights of my weekend was attending the Portland Bloggers Meet Up on Saturday evening. You may recognize where we are standing here because it’s the setting for most of my outfit posts.The event was held at my condo building – Adi rented our Amenities Room for the event and Jenni organized everything.

There were decorations, cupcakes, cocktails, sponsors and, of course, a whole lot of well dressed women (and some of their boyfriends and husbands). I didn’t take any photos myself, so I borrowed the ones for this post from Olga of Vintage Pretty and Sam of Samantha Rosen. To see more photos, check out their wonderful blogs.

Finally, I’m so grateful to all our sponsors (below) for their generous contributions.
A Well Crafted Party: Party supplies and event styling by Jenni Bost.
Nuvrei Pastisserie & Cafe: A delicious local bakery. Also check them out on Facebook!
Radiant Cosmetics: A cosmetics company that is fighting human trafficking one lipstick at a time.
Blue Strawberry Scents: Vegan bath products that smell good enough to eat.
Meme & Saysay: A baby and kids goods shop.
FiftyFlowers.com: Flower shop that sells wholesale flowers.
Cash4Books.net: A Portland-based book buying (and selling) company.
AbleMade: Handmade local goods.

Also a special thanks for Jenni, Sam, Nicole, and Adi for your donations and time!

Maybe it’s because one of my sorority‘s symbols was the skull and crossbones. Maybe it’s because I’m a dark and morbid girl at heart (probably not). Or maybe it’s because they’re just kind of cute – but I’m really intrigued by skull accessories. skull accents first became popular by Alexander McQueen, but in the past couple of years there have been lots of other brands jumping on the bandwagon. For example, you may have seen this Zoe Chicco Skull Necklace over on the right side of my blog in my Favorites list last month!

Chambray and denim shirts have been popular for quite a few seasons now, and for good reason. They are, hands down, one of the easiest trends to wear. They’re also the glue that ties many other spring trends together (as you’ll see in this guide).

Personally, I’m a huge fan of the chambray. Some of my favorites are from J Crew (I have this one), Lauren by RL, Urban Outfitters, GUESS and Rubbish.

However, I’m sad to see that many women have avoided purchasing a chambray because they’re just not sure how to wear them. That’s where I come in. Because one of the questions I get asked most often is how to pull off the chambray (or I get asked how to wear other things and the answer is always “with a chambray!”), I decided it was time to put together a guide. So here are my tips for wearing a chambray or denim shirt. Enjoy!

Image on left via See Jane. Image on right is me.

So if you add one thing to your wardrobe this spring, make it a chambray or denim shirt. In fact, make it two – because if you follow these tips for wearing yours, you’ll get so much use out of it that you’ll want to own both.

Friday started out with meeting up with my friend Emily for some pizza and cocktails (we’re so classy) and then heading over to the new Kells Brewery that just opened on NW 21st. (The new Kells looks AMAZING – great job, Garrett!) It ended up being a really fun evening because I got to catch up with a bunch of people from high school and college that I haven’t seen in years, say goodbye to another friend who is leaving Portland for a job opportunity elsewhere, and wear a new outfit I was quite excited about! Good stuff.

The Saturday and Sunday that followed were equally awesome because we had THE BEST weather! So I decided it would be completely unthinkable not to take advantage of our rare April opportunity to do something outside.

My friend Megumi and I decided that getting a little physical activity in before our mimosa-clad picnic on Saturday wouldn’t kill us, so we hiked Forest Park.

It was the cutest thing because it was the day before Easter and someone had set out easter eggs filled with candy all along the hiking trail! So everywhere we turned there were little pastel-colored eggs wedged between tree trunks, hanging from branches, and just sitting on the trail. What a lovely surprise.

Another highlight of the hike was all the amazing dogs we saw. (It made me wish I had brought Winston!) One of my favorites was this English Bulldog. He was just so lovable and happy to pose for a photo!

Immediately following our hike we got a little bit lost. As we were wondering around the neighborhood just next to where I had parked my car, we came across this awesome little “Dinosaur park” someone had set up for people to play with! There was chalk and all sorts of little toys! How cool is this?

It’s things like this that reminds me how ridiculously awesome Portland is!

Once we eventually found my car (oops!), we headed downtown to meet up with our friend Joani and enjoy some grapefruit mimosas (everyone always “day drinks” when Portland has sunny days on the weekends…) and a late lunch. It was honestly the PERFECT Saturday.

However, I feel like a bit (okay – a lot) of a failure as a Jew because I ended up celebrating Easter and NOT Passover on Sunday… Whoops. It just sort of worked out that way because my mom is Christian and she wanted to do Easter brunch and we went to Boyfriend’s family’s house for Easter dinner. Oh well. Passover, I’ll getcha next year!

On another note, as you might have figured out if you’re still reading this far into my post, I sort of took a vacation from fashion/beauty blogging over the weekend. This was unintentional but I was just so busy relaxing and enjoying myself doing other things, I didn’t get around to planning anything for The Confessions of a Product Junkie for this week. So as a result, you get a recap of my weekend and no outfit post today. However, come Wednesday, fashion and beauty posts will resume as usual.

Have patience. :) I hope everyone else had a lovely weekend and got to enjoy the sun as much as I did!

I know this isn’t one of my usual topics of conversation on my blog (obviously), but if you ever find yourself suffering from writer’s block, wishing there was an easier way to keep track of your ideas, or a more effective method to take notes, then this is something you will be interested in…

My company just finished a really cool project that we have been working on (and I’ve been quite involved in) for a long time. I’m bubbling over with pride as I announce that we just launched our iPad app – Inspiration Maps! Now available on the iPad App Store in two versions (a free preview version – Inspiration Maps Lite and a full-functioning version – Inspiration Maps), our app is the ultimate tool for brainstorming, thinking, and organizing, whether you’re a student or a professional.

This app is designed to be used for personal use AND for use in schools and classrooms. There was special attention put into the app to provide a selection of education templates to jumpstart assignments and planning and easy ways to turn in work. In addition, as a personal productivity tool, Inspiration Maps offers a wide selection of features for brainstorming, writing and note taking that appeal to professionals, students and educators alike.

****Download the free preview Inspiration Maps Lite or Inspiration Maps to your iPad now!****

Brainstorm, take notes, and organize
As a robust visual thinking app, Inspiration Maps makes it easy to capture ideas and brainstorm freely without being interrupted by a need for organization. You can just let your ideas flow. Then, when you’re ready to make sense of your notes from your brainstorm, it takes only a few seconds to organize and form visual connections between your ideas. This type of brainstorming and organization has been proven to increase understanding of information and be an effective strategy for studying, pre-writing and presenting information.

Write – visually or in an outline
One of the things that makes our app (and really, our whole suite of products) different from other visual thinking apps is that it has integrated diagram and outline views.

This means that whether you’re more comfortable starting your writing (or brainstorm session) in a visual format or a text format, we’ve got you covered either way. With just the click (or in the case of the iPad – the tap) of a button, your visual diagram becomes an organized outline or your outline becomes a beautiful visual diagram. So it’s easy to start in one view and finish in another. It’s that simple. And you can go back and forth as often as you like because both your outline and diagram are automatically updated.

Style and beautify your work
It wouldn’t be a good iPad app if we didn’t have a way to make your work look pretty, now would it? In addition to the creation of a simple bubble diagram, map, or web, Inspiration Maps allows you to beautify your diagrams with a selection of colors, symbols, backgrounds, textures and link styles. (See the first image in this post for an example of how to do this.)

Moving your work
And with just the tap of your finger, your work is transferred to Pages, emailed to the recipient of your choice, or copied to Dropbox.

If you’re interested in learning more before you download, there are a number of resources I can refer you to:

+First of all, our website can give you a great overview of Inspiration Maps as well as a list of the main features and some beautiful examples of work created using Inspiration Maps.

+You can check out this video demo of the product and see it in action (this was the beta version of the product you’d be seeing here – but it’ll give you an idea of what Inspiration Maps can do.)

+Or you can go straight to the iPad App Store and read about Inspiration Maps Lite and Inspiration Maps there!

This project is near and dear to my heart because, as some of you may know, my company is a family business (my parents founded it), so I’ve been fairly involved in the creation of this product (although our wonderful iPad Product Manager, Mike Kruse, did all the heavy lifting). I’m SO proud of how the app has turned out and I truly believe we have succeeded in bringing the best of our desktop and web products to the iPad with Inspiration Maps.

I hope you are interested enough to go check it out! :)

Disclosure: I work for the maker of this app, Inspiration Software, Inc. But I was not compensated or asked to write this article (in fact, I just shelled out full price of my own money for the paid version of Inspiration Maps because I wanted it for myself!)

I’m obsessed with this picture (originally found via Pinterest)! Not only is she ridiculously beautiful, but who knew spikes could be so elegant? I was wondering where I might be able to track down this necklace when something came over me.

I rarely have this feeling because I’m not a crafty or creative person at all, but immediately I thought “I could totally make that myself!” And I was right. My version is practically identical to the designer necklace. And best of all, it was really, really easy to make. (And cost very little.)

Supplies: I just sort of guessed on their size and bought 53 mm spike beads for $12 (total) from this Etsy shop. (I bet you could find cheaper ones if you did a little digging around online.) I already had a set of jewelry pliers (about $15 at Michael’s), a chain (about $3), some brass rings (about $3), and a fastening clasp (about $1), laying around from a brief jewelry making phase I went though last year – so I didn’t have to purchase any of those. And this is how I did it…

Worth it? Definitely. This only took me about a half hour, and now I have a beautiful spike necklace (that I’m wearing today!) I hope you try it for yourself!