When I lived in NYC, there was a joke about the first warm day of the year and all of the New Yorkers baring their pasty white legs for the first time since the previous summer. Today it’s about 70 degrees in Boston, and in an effort to prevent being one of those jokes, I broke out the self-tan. I’ve done a post on my favorite formulas before, but like most women, when it comes to cosmetics and body and skincare I’m always on the lookout for something better.

I feel like I JUST got my October box, but none-the-less, my November Birchbox has arrived. I’ll say it now – I’m THRILLED with this box. November’s theme is “Feeling Fancy” and I definitely am with this box. I love the cool floral pattern and the metallic copper logo is gorgeous. This is one of my favorite box designs so far this year (after the Rifle Paper Co box of course)!

As the weather gets colder and suntans fade, you’re going to want to make some changes to your routine. Here are a few updates I’m making: The other day, it was pretty clear that it’s no longer acceptable to go outside with wet hair. You could catch a cold (or freeze and damage your tresses)! So I’m pulling out the blowdryer more often, and shampooing as infrequently as possible to make those blowouts last.

What’s on my desk? Here’s a peek at the essentials I like to keep on hand at work. Hand cream – Industrial, generic, anti-bacterial office bathroom soap is a dry hand nightmare, especially in the winter. I keep Aerin Rose Hand and Body Cream at my desk. I got a sample of this cream and loved it so much I went out and bought the full size. The scent is light but lovely, and the cream itself is thick and luxe, so a little bit goes a long way and the $40 tube lasts a long time.

I spent the long Labor Day weekend saying so long to summer in Cape Cod. We had a super fun girls weekend (#girlstrip!) drinking Bud Light Limes and frozen mudslides, eating lobster, and enjoying the last bit of summer. Spending a lot of time out in the sun and consuming a heavier than usual amount of alcohol can be really taxing on your body, so here are the steps I took to make sure I made it out of the weekend in one non sunburnt piece.

It’s that time of year, when the temperature surges above 50 degrees and the bare legs are set free. Except most of those bare legs haven’t seen the sun in literally months and are looking a bit sickly pale. I never really got into the whole self tanner thing until recently, but now I consider myself fairly well versed in the application, formulation, and other aspects of becoming sunlessly bronzed.