CURRENT HOME FAVORITES

Finally, finally, finally, back with a new blog post and more are on their way!

I am going to be honest - I hit a lot of creative ruts this summer, and just this past year in general in terms of my blog. I have taken on a lot of incredible rolls for this fall semester, but there is no excuse for not blogging - I simply have not made it a priority, which I am trying to work on.

Get ready for some fun, new content coming your way very soon.

Today I want to share everything I have been loving for the home, aka my room. Some of these are nothing new or groundbreaking, just the items I have noticed making an actual difference in my day-to-day!

NESPRESSO.
It is no secret I am obsessed with coffee, and a Nespresso machine has been on my wishlist for SO long. After coming back from Italy and drinking espresso every day, instead of a regular cup of coffee, I knew it was worth it. Reality: I save so much money on coffee. Of course, some days I like to park it at a coffee shop to get work done, but other than that I make all my coffee at home and it makes a big difference! A Nespresso is definitely an investment piece, and I plan on having mine for a long time. I have the Vertuo style machine which allows you to make different sizes of coffee, not just standard espresso size, and of course a milk frother.

CHARGING STATION.
You think you don't need a charging station until you get one and realize it is one of the most convenient gadgets in your room! My nightstand is a lot smaller than what I am used to, so I was trying to think of ways to minimize clutter and space. This charging station has been a gamechanger. On one little thing, I have a place for my phone, Airpods, and watch! It has kept my nightstand neater, which I love. It sits on this little pink tray from target next to my glasses and my oil diffuser. Who knew a charging station could be so useful and chic at the same time?

SATIN PILLOWCASES.
If you haven't heard by now, cotton pillowcases are out. For your skin's sake, for your hair's sake, get on the trend, trust me. You could pay like $100 for a pure silk pillowcase, but it is honestly not worth the money when they are plenty of extremely affordable options on Amazon! For me, satin > silk, because satin absorbs less moisture aka all the oils on your face stay on your face and keep your skin hydrated and moisturized when you wake up, which we love. I have the light pink ones! These have drastically changed the nature of my skin and hair. My hair is way less frizzy and chaotic when I wake up and my skin is smoother and retains all the goodness I put on before I go to sleep.

MORROCAN MOON OIL DIFFUSER.
I have this problem with candles where I forget to blow them out... my mom would never let me have them in my room since I could barely remember to turn my straightener off, whoops. So, I don't really trust myself to have them here at school either! I found this oil diffuser at Target while browsing the candle aisle, ironic I know, and I swear this was made for me. You just put the sticks in the oil and it makes your room smell good alllll the time. Truly amazing and I am still shocked it has taken me this long to discover these types of diffusers, but not complaining now!

It feels so, so good to be creating content again! I have been loving these items in my room and seeing actual results come out of using all of them. Let me know if you have any/try any of these items mentioned today! Thanks so much for reading!

KYLIE SKIN: IS IT WORTH THE HYPE?

I am obsessed with skincare. Ever since I was like 11 my skin has been crap. Although my aggressive acne has finally settled down, I am still dealing with texture, redness, and the occasional breakout (by occasional I mean one every day, but it's fine). I am constantly looking for new products to enhance my life in some way because better skin = enhanced life, for some reason lol. Anyways, the point of this post is a BRAND/PRODUCT REVIEW! I love product reviews - I love reading them and I love writing them. My L'Oreal Lash Paradise review is my most popular post of all time, so I hope y'all are excited about this one!

✩ MY SUMMER '19 INTERNSHIP ✩

After my semester abroad, it is so nice to be home and back on a steady-ish routine. I am working almost every day of the week and love it! I cannot believe we are already half-way through July and I head back to USC in less than a month. Wondering what exactly I have been up to this summer? Keep reading to hear all the specifics! ✩

THE EASIEST WAYS TO EDIT INSTAGRAM STORIES

I was never one to "hide my secrets", I mean every app is out there, people just need to find it. I did the research and I did the digging so you don't have to! These are the just the apps I use, and I know there are so many out there, but they are all free and so easy to use. If you aren't already following me on Instagram - go for it if you want: @just.jojo.things!

Typically, I start with editing the photos and my favorite apps to edit are Snapseed and Lightroom. I do create my own edits on Lightroom, so if you have any specific questions on how I edit or my editing style, feel free to DM me on Instagram! Sometimes I dabble back into VSCO, but I find only some photos work well with the VSCO filters. Totally up to you! The editing features on the Instagram app itself are always good tools - I typically always do finishing touches using these tools.

Now into the two apps, I use for layouts, backgrounds, everything else - Unfold and Storyluxe! They are honestly so much fun to play around with and have so many variations for being free apps. I love them both equally, and am going to dip into which is better for what reasons and some examples of how I use each one!

One of my favorite features of Unfold is that you can organize your edits into folders, so you never get lost and can keep similar edits all in the same place. Unfold is super clean and sleek with simple color, sticker, and font additions you can do right in the app. If you've never heard of Unsplash, it is a high quality, free, stock photo website, so you have the option of using Unsplash images as your background. To finish it all off, you can preview the image full screen in story mode to make sure it looks good.

Storyluxe is FUN. Like cool backgrounds, the most fun layouts that add the best flares. Storyluxe is great for multiple photos, better-premade layout additions, and adorable collages where all you need to do is insert your photo. You cannot, however, add font or extra pieces directly in the app, but you can just use Instagram for that stuff. Storyluxe also lets you choose story or post size, which I love. Also, if you want, you can pay something to the app to get all the branding to be personalized which is super cool, especially if you are interning for a business or something.

There ya have it. Nothing too special or crazy, just some awesome apps that do all the hard wor for ya! All cute and fun while we are at it. You cannot go wrong with either app or both! I constantly am switching out between the two. Let me know if you enjoyed today's post and if you'd like to see more like this in the future! Thanks for reading ✧