Tag: oils

Good Morning! I’m Becca Bristow. – Morning Routine Series

by Madison

Hi everyone! Happy Friday and welcome back to V&L – SO glad you stopped by.

Today is one of my favorites because I get to share this incredible gal with you all. Becca Bristow is here on V&L today and I am stoked. I was introduced to Becca through the essential oil world and cannot believe that I had not found her before that. She is such a light on social media and the world needs more of that. Becca blogs and makes YouTube videos AND podcasts!!! She does it all. She chats allll about non-toxic beauty products, healthy eating, as well as style. She is so real and transparent ( I feel like all of the girls on this series have been this way… ) and I really appreciate that. Stop what you’re doing right now and go subscribe to her YouTube Channel and follow her on Instagram.

She is also a part of our amazing boss babe community that I get to dive into through Young Living. Our Facebook groups are constantly poppin’, it’s like a party in there. Oils have changed my life in more ways than I can say and these groups of uplifting and empowering women are just a part of it.

Becca is also having a BABY! How freaking exciting. If you go follow her on socials, make sure to say congratulations! I am so excited for her and her hubs, Matt. They share all about their journey on their podcast – The Bristow’s Made a Baby. I mean, how cute????

Becca totally dives in and gets SPECIFIC about her morning routine – my favorite thing. She takes us through her normal morning routine and gives details about each step of the process, including her oily faves. You guys I am SO excited for you all to read this morning routine! Let’s get to it:

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Okay so my morning routine is way simpler nowadays that I’m pregnant haha but I will take you through a typical morning!

7:30: Now that I’m pregnant, I sleep in a little later. (And also wear a big t-shirt and my husband’s boxers to bed lol, so glam!) I used to be up well before 7am, and actually LOVE doing that because I’m the most productive in the morning, but I’m trying to get in all the sleep that I can before baby comes! My husband usually sets his alarm, and when it goes off we roll out of bed within a few minutes. He takes our doodle Rosie downstairs to feed her breakfast, and I head to the bathroom to get my day started. I start by washing my face – sometimes just splashing it with water, sometimes using my DIY, all natural cleanser. I then apply my fav non-toxic SPF lotion by Erin’s Faces, and then brush my teeth. I love the Thieves mouthwash & Aromabright toothpaste by Young Living – I use so many of their products. I usually will throw on a couple oils at this time too – always Endoflex (for thyroid support), and usually Joy, Idaho Blue Spruce, Valor, or one of the many rollers I have made up! Just whatever I’m feeling that day 🙂

7:50: I head downstairs, fill up my giant water bottle, and start drinking. I like to try and get in a full 30oz by the time I finish breakfast – hydrating right off the bat in the AM is key for me! I find when I skip this, I am so much less likely to drink water throughout the day. I will make myself something to eat, usually oatmeal. While I’m getting my breakfast together, I usually like to get the diffuser in my kitchen going – I typically diffuse something invigorating for the morning, lately, I’ve been loving Jade Lemon & Spearmint! My husband and I will usually eat together (he’s an oatmeal fan too!) and then after that, I’ll head back upstairs to change into workout clothes. While I’m changing, he takes Rosie out for a morning walk. This used to be part of my morning routine, but now that he’s home and working with me, he’s taken over that job! (Madison’s Sidenote: Her husband gets to stay at home and work with her because of OILS!!! Financial freedom is so dreamy.)

8:20: About this time, I either head out for a long walk or Matt and I head to the gym together. I was pretty sick for the first 15-16 weeks of pregnancy, so the gym was not a thing! But now that I’m finally feeling like myself again, it’s so nice to get a good workout in other than just walking.. although walking is pretty great too!

9:00: Around this time I’m usually done working out (maybe a little later if it’s a gym day) and I’m usually hungry again, so it’s time for a second breakfast #pregnancy. I will usually whip up some eggs & toast, and I will make myself a cup of coffee too. I did not want anything to do with coffee for many months but finally I can stomach it again, which is amazing!! I barely even drink half the cup, but that little bit of caffeine is so helpful to get me motivated and into my workflow.

9:40: Time to work! I head upstairs to our office, park myself at my computer, and work on responding to emails/messages, plan content, etc..basically all of the admin type stuff. I really like getting that completed while I’m fresh & alert in the morning. I also have a diffuser at my desk and LOVE diffusing while I work. It’s one of the best tools I have to keep me energized, focused, and motivated. It seriously works wonders!! I have so many favorites I like to diffuse while I work..but lately I’ve been loving Abundance & Orange, Gratitude & Lime, and Highest Potential. After I completed all my tasks, I will either get myself ready if I’m going to be filming later that day, or sometimes it’s more of a ‘behind the scenes’ type day and I just get a ton of work done at my computer and don’t even bother putting on makeup or anything!

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Eeeeeek one of my favorite morning routines thus far! So grateful to Becca for taking a moment and sharing the details with us. Becca will absolutely light up your social feeds and channels AND will teach you some amazing info about how to stay healthy and put the right products on your skin.

If you have ANY questions about any of the oils she mentioned, feel free to DM me on Instagram or just shoot me an email at madison@vogueandalatte.com. <3

That’s all for this week everyone! I have been nonstop crazy busy with work and interning and life so I have only been able to get to these morning routines each week but I have so many ideas for blog posts that I will hopefully get to share with you all soon. Thanks for stopping by!

‘Til next time,Autumn in November

Good Morning! I’m Madison. ⏤ Morning Routine Series

by Madison

Hiiii babes! Thanks for jumping onto Vogue and a Latte. So glad you ended up here. 🙂

Today is the launch of a series. A series I am ECSTATIC about. I have a vision / goal  / dream / whatever of community and collaboration. It’s my favorite. There are so many bloggers that I follow who inspire me and always encourage me to think bigger and reach for my dreams. I think that bloggers coming together to help each other is KEY. We all want to be badass babes together so let’s just do it, ya know?

I was trying to figure out how to incorporate my desire for a series that highlights my favorite boss babes and shows their personalities: who they are and what they love, and how to make it easy for them to share. I want to shout out babes that I love following on Instagram and reading about on their blogs. I am also obbbssseessedddd with morning routines. I have no idea why. I love reading how empowering people start their mornings and get motivated. I also love hearing about new products and new ways of doing things. Like a full glass of H2O to start the day or a piping hot cup of joe? What’s your preference? I want to know.

So each week I will be highlighting a different one of my fave blog babes and their morning routines! Stay tuned and keep your eyes peeled because there are some exciting names coming up. BUT to start off the series, I am going to share my own morning routine.

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Okay, let’s set the scene. This is my IDEAL morning. I am lucky enough to often have ideal days even on weekdays, not just weekends. Life is good, y’all.

I am normally suuuuper cozy in my bed with tons of pillows, blankets, and my pup. I love slow mornings. If that means I have to set my alarm extra early, that’s what I’ll do. I am all about being up early in the AM and heading to bed at a reasonable hour. On the weekends I love to grab drinks with friends and hang out, but if I am getting up for spin class, as I would on an ideal day, I will be in bed by 10!

6:40 – Alarm goes off and is immediately snoozed. The alarm goes off again in about 8 minutes and by then Boston is licking my face and begging me to get up and start the day. I grab my glasses and leave my phone on my nightstand to take him outside.

7:00 – Boston’s morning walk has been completed and I fix him his breakfast. While he eats, I pop a K-cup into the Keurig and drink a glass of water with a drop of lemon oil in it. I use his morning walk and breakfast time to just chill, clear my mind, and get ready for the day. I love peaceful mornings where I can be in the moment, enjoy my pup, and being without my phone or laptop for 30 minutes. After I have downed my large glass of water, I grab my coffee with dairy-free creamer in it and head upstairs to get ready.

7:30 – By now I am all decked out in workout gear and have grabbed my phone to begin engaging with and checking up on everything going on in my phone. Instagram DMs, Facebook message replies, posts, comments, all in a mornings work when your work is all from your fingertips! All of that being said, before I open up my social apps I always make sure to head on over to my Bible app, read and sit in the verse of the day, and chat with Jesus before I head into engagement.

8:00 – Time for morning products! I brush my teeth with toothpaste and a drop of orange oil for teeth whitening. I have been using the same face wash for years and I love it; it’s the Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser. It’s only $7 and it’s honestly a holy grail product for me. It gets all of my makeup off of my face in one wash. As I am learning more about the toxicity of skincare products, I am slowly switching all of my products out for non-toxic, clean products but this will be one that is hard to replace! After my morning face wash, I moisturize with my morning facial oil! I combine valor ( confidence, courage; a real boss babe oil ), frankincense, tea tree, and fractionated coconut oil. It’s light, refreshing, and makes me super glowy. I used to use a bazillion different products and now my morning facial routine is literally two steps – oils are magic.

8:30 – Spin class time! I go to Full Psycle and it is my FAVORITE. High energy, great instructors, and super convenient location. If you’re in OC or in TX, hit up a Full Psycle. I always spritz myself with my post-spin refresher that is peppermint oil mixed with water for a cooling effect and also so to help with the whole drenched in sweat situation.

9:20 – Grab a coffee or a smoothie from a shop near spin class. Grabbing breakfast / coffee after spin class is one of my favorite things. I’m not sure why… but I love it. Sometimes I will take it to go, other times I will bring my laptop and set up shop amongst the other creatives filling up the tables.

10:00 – By this time I am normally deep into my laptop and inbox. I am brainstorming blog ideas, checking out new oils that I need to add to my collection, creating content for my social media job, and outreaching to brands for Caitlyn! Often I am listening to a podcast while I work, multitasking at its finest. I would consider myself a workaholic but in the BEST way. I love what I do, every single second of it, and none of it feels like work. Truly living the dream over here.

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Well, I hope you loved diving into my morning! Every person has a different morning routine which makes me so intrigued. I love learning how people start their day because how you start your day really sets the tone and your mindset for the rest of your awake time!

Keep your eyes peeled for next weeks blogger morning routine! STOKED to share with yall. Make sure you follow along on socials to keep up with my daily life! –> @MadisonCrowley

Tabs I have open 24/7… And why I can’t let them go.

by Madison

It’s Friday Eve! Isn’t that the best feeling ever? Thanks for popping into V&L. Hope ya like it. Explore around, search some terms, read up on who I am. I am always ready to chat so DM me on Insta ( @MadisonCrowley ) if you feel like being bffs.

This was a post that I randomly thought about one night as I was closing multiple tabs before ending my work for the day night. I realized there were so many that I keep open and frequently use so I wanted to give those a shoutout. I am going to start polling about blog posts because I want to know what YOU guys want to read about. Have any questions or topics that you want me to research? Please let me know so I can write about them!

Most of these tabs are super useful!! I keep a lot open so y’all may be slightly stressed by this. BUT I have most of them “pinned” so that they don’t take up alllllll of the room on my browser.
Let’s jump in.

☆ Google Docs: I am always thinking, writing, and brainstorming so I always have a Google doc up. I categorize with a few different keywords like V&L | Brand or V&L | Blog Ideas and then if I am doing work for my internships I will do C&C | Partnerships or if I am researching a new oil I will do YL | Notes. So you get the idea. Everything in its place! And Google docs are perfect because I can be typing up a post on my computer and then have to run out the door and can finish on my phone. I love that I never have to worry about losing my work and I can always share the docs with someone if I want to collaborate or share what I have been working on.

☆ Coolors: This website is way too exciting if you are a blogger or into branding. I could spend hours on this site going through color palettes and finding new tones of blush to fawn over. You can also install a coolors plugin onto your bookmark bar and go through with a “picker” that allows you to pick the colors from your favorites brands and websites to see just what colors they are using to define their brand.

☆ Virtual Office: I always have VO up so that I can check on what my business babes are up to or look up an oil to see what it’s benefits are and what it does. I am constantly finding new Young Living products that I want to add to my home or oil collection. There is really an oil for everything and I love finding them. Virtual Office keeps track of how big my paychecks are going to be!

☆ V&L Stats: Alllllways using this! I love to see where people come to my blog from and what they click on after they get there. A lot of people use Google Analytics, I need to start using it as well. But for now, I just use the stats that come with WordPress and I devour them. I like to see what people search and what items they click because that really helps me write content that not only I like but what YOU guys like.

☆ Facebook: Let’s be real, I find myself scrolling waaaaaay too often. I normally catch myself doing it and then close FB and then go right back when I remember that there is something I need to do. FB holds all of my Bachelor groups and secret oily groups filled with my gfs who I use oils with so I am always finding inspo from them or a new recipe that I want to try, hence what always pulls me back to Facebook. I am working on sharing more of my life on FB as well, I just want to connect with you people!!!

☆ Back & forth between H+H and TSC ‘Relentless‘ post: As all of you guys know, I finally made the move to start a blog in 2016 after reading Hustle + Halcyon for the first time!!! Payton is my fave and every time I need inspo or need to remember why I started blogging I head to hers and am instantly inspired by her realness. That’s exactly what I want to be for my followers – real. No bs over here. Life can be hard and life can be wonderful. I want to share it alllll. I also fell in love with the word relentless from Lauryn Evart’s post on The Skinny Confidential. I’ve linked it here so you can read and I am writing up my own post with info on the word that moves me. It may be a long time coming since I want it to be perfect. #perfectionistbloggerprobs

☆ Canva: Being a blogger means making tonnnnns of graphics! I love making graphics and making my blog posts pop. It’s super fun for me. I make all kinds of things on Canva. Social media posts, labels, my media kit, you name it and it has probably come from Canva. I made the pic at the top of this post with Canva!

Honorable Mentions:

V&L Email / Yahoo Mail / Intern Email: Emails, emails, and more emails. Never a day where I’m not constantly checking my email. Personal, work, internship. There is always something going on!

Instagram: Engaging on Insta is SO much easier on a desktop. I like typing on my computer so much more than on my phone. I actually hate typing on my phone LOL.

Amazon: I am always popping things into my cart. Prime is life.

Nordstrom: Allllllways browsing as a blogger. And a gal who likes to window shop.

Well, there ya have it! My most frequently used / always open tabs on my browser! Hope you guys got a glimpse into my world and what I do on the daily. I am always googling and researching and looking things up so this definitely isn’t all that I use but it sums it up super well. What tabs do you always have open? AM I MISSING SOMETHING? I need to know. Share your tabs with me by commenting or whatever way you like to share.

‘Til next time,Autumn in November

The Essentials

by Madison

Hi babes! Thanks for stopping by Vogue and a Latte! This has been a highly requested post so I hope you all enjoy. Have a question? Shoot me a DM on Insta ( @MadisonCrowley ) or an email at madison@vogueandalatte.com.

Now, let’s do this.

A month ago I jumped into the oil world. I was SO hesitant because I did not believe that oils actually had power and I kinda just thought that everyone who used them was crazy or had fallen victim to annoying MLM marketing. I truly had no idea the impact that this world would have on me. My skin, my emotions, my sleep, my health, my community, and my finances… but here I am to tell you that it is not just a fad and that oils actually have power, whether I like it or not! ( Who am I kidding, I love it. )

REMINDER: I am all about transparency and honesty here on V&L – I like to keep things real. If I am bringing a topic or product to you guys, it is because I believe in it and I use it.

So, what exactly are essential oils, you ask? If you care to know the scientific info behind it, here is a blurb about what essential oils are:
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