the dry shampoo struggle

the first dry shampoo i ever tried was bumble and bumble spray for blondish hair, i loved it. i've had medium to long hair all my life and washing/drying it every day is not only bad for it, but a pain and a time suck. over the last 10 or so years i feel like i've tried them all. my favorite spray is elizabeth & james black nirvana, even 3rd day hair is acceptable. for powders, it's oscar blandi i fear is discountinued. with no blandi to order and areosole shipping not allowed, what did i manage to find in budapest?

bumble and bumble pret a powder is a good travel size and does nearly as good a job as the oscar blandi. i say nearly b/c it's a bit harder to get out of the bottle after a few shakes.

lee stafford was a co-worker reccomendation and is a close second to elizabeth and james. it's got good absorbsion for a spray, blends into my darker hair and doesn't have an offensive smell. the downside is the size of the can, it runs out pretty quickly.

batiste has a stronger smell. the original is fine but there's no 3rd day possibility here. the xxl volume is pretty sticky, like a hairspray with powder, which might be what you're looking for.

aussie miracle is pretty crap. the smell is the standard aussie smell which is a bit over powering. the powder also seems to separate from the spray, it needs a lot of shaking before each use.

mom and dad explore europe - budapest update

the first thing i got asked when i told my friends and family i was spending the year in budapest was "when can i visit?" my parents have both been to europe but at different times. they've been planning a trip to selvacava, italy, where my dad's grandparents immigrated from, for as long as i can remember. they finally got to take that trip, bookended by weekends with me in budapest.

i have to say, budapest - italy - budapest was the right way to do this. they got to visit me and had something to do during the week while i worked. we managed to make it out to a few places i hadn't ventured yet.

european rail trip - part 2 vienna

when last we met we had explored sopron and were on our way to vienna. i have to say, the train ride from sopron to vienna was much more scenic than from budapest to sopron. but moving on.

european rail trip - part 1 sopron

it's been a while since i traveled anywhere, i've been falling into a rthym of life in budapest. we had a long holiday weekend and lucky me, my best friends decided to make the trek from the us all the way to budapest just for little old me! it was the 10 year anniversary of us being friends so we felt it was appropriate to celebrate, we're kind of a big deal.

502pc!

minimal-ish travel beauty bag

while i've never been the full on face of make up type, i don't consider myself a minimalist either. my skin is too dry for that!

on my recent overnight trip to prague i was only packing in my backpack so i knew i'd need to streamline even further than i usually do. here's how the packing in went:

the whole load

my face