Finding products that are good but safe to use during pregnancy and while breastfeeding can be really scary and daunting. I personally really struggle with acne and use to resort to using some pretty powerful skincare products to keep it at bay. However, while you're pregnant, you're suppose to steer clear of products that have retinol in them and my doctor advised me to not use any products that carried more than 2% of salicylic acid. After realizing a lot of the products I were using contained these two things plus some other chemicals that didn't seem all that great for you, I started to hunt for great all natural products to use while I was pregnant, breastfeeding, and even after. After trying and testing a lot of products here is a run down of all my favorites that I personally felt safe using while I was pregnant.
*Please note that you should still check with your doctor to make sure these products are safe for you to use while your pregnant as all pregnancies and women are different.  

oseamalibu.com - $44
I use this moisturizer morning and night. I use about 3 pumps both times and it's enough to smooth over my whole face and neck. It really goes a long way and the bottle lasts awhile. It also has a nice minty smell to it that is so refreshing. In the spring, summer, and fall when my allergies are really acting up, it also helps to clear up my sinuses a little bit. A perk you never thought your face moisturizer could do!

Target - $2.49
I like to take my makeup off right away when I get home for the evening or before I do a work out. I was using the Up & Up Grapefruit Cleansing Wipes for acne before I was pregnant, but since I wanted to cut out salicylic acid as much as possible, I switched to these wipes. They work great at getting my makeup off or just to give my face a nice wipe down if I feel a little oily or dirty.

oseamalibu.com - $44
I use this cleanser every night in the shower or just at the sink to wash my face. I use my makeup remover wipes first and then I go in with this cleanser. I wet my face first and then use 3 pumps that I massage in to my face for about 30 seconds. This cleanser also has a minty smell just like the Blemish Balm moisturizer has. So like I said above, very refreshing and great for my allergies!

Target - $5.99
While I was pregnant I had a real issue with certain scents during my first trimester. Vanilla scented products really made me nauseous and strong floral scents gave me terrible headaches. I had a lot of stuff like this from Bath & Body Works prior to being pregnant and I just had to stop using them because I would really dread showering and feeling even worse coming out of it. I discovered that lavender actually helped ease my nausea, so I tried to find a body wash that was lavender scented and came upon this Aveeno body wash. It smells amazing and feels amazing. My skin is so smooth after using it, too.

Sephora - $44
I was using this Fresh rose toner long before I got pregnant and was so relieved I could still use it during my pregnancy. It's on the pricier side but it lasts FOREVER! I was actually worried it was going to expire, that's how long I had my first bottle. Even though I have oily skin, hydrating it is still important. If you dry out your oily skin too much then it actually starts to produce extra oil. So this toner was a great way for me to help keep my skin balanced. The roses make it feel extra luxurious, too!

Sephora - $38
Eye cream was so important for me during my skincare regimen while I was pregnant because it really helped with my dark circles. I was zapped of energy like every other pregnant woman out there and my eyes definitely showed it. However, as long as I made sure to use my eye cream I felt like I looked decently awake. This eye cream also really helps with puffiness, too.

oseamalibu.com - $32
Thanks to my other Osea products my acne was pretty good during my pregnancy, but if it flared up at all, I could safely use this corrective complex on any pimples. They go away within just a couple of days! It has a little roller for the applicator so it's very easy to evenly spread over any blemishes to get the whole area without having to touch it with your fingers and potentially make it worse.

Lush - $14.95
This mask from Lush is my favorite mask, EVER. It smells like peppermint and is so refreshing. It really helps with blemish prone skin and leaves your skin feeling so smooth afterwards. I loved putting this mask on and sitting in a warm bath to help myself relax while I was pregnant. 

Target - $8.99
Like I mentioned before I was very sensitive to smells while I was pregnant, so my solution to that with finding the perfect daily lotion to use was to get a scentless one! I used it every day after showering and it is so moisturizing. It definitely helped keep my skin from drying out this past winter.

Target - $5.49
I was so scared of getting horrible stretch marks on my belly and breasts, so I started using this cocoa butter as soon as I found out I was pregnant. I've gotta say, too, it did a pretty good job at keeping them at bay! They sprang up pretty bad on my belly my very last week of pregnancy but with how big Kai got towards the end I think it was inevitable. I never got any of my breasts though and it helped the lighten some that I already had on my thighs. Plus it smells like chocolate! Now that was a smell I was 100% ok with while I was pregnant ;)

​Make sure you follow me on Snapchat (@dianakaravida). I always feature any new products I get or products I fall in love with in my story!

Happy Wednesday everyone! This last week has been full of lots of snuggles and resting. I had the not so fun experience of having a blocked milk duct this past weekend. It started late last week and I think I was actually on the verge of getting mastitis, which really frightened me. I somehow magically beat it though! I'm feeling so much better and and the clog is gone. It was kind of a wake up call for me though to start taking it easier and that I just need to rest more. Thanks to finally slowing down though I was able to get rid of the clog and my tailbone is finally better now, too. My house may look like a tornado ran through it and I might be super behind on laundry but at least I'm getting healthy. Kai's needed all the snuggles, too, because he seems to be going through his first mental leap. He wants to be nonstop held and has been waking up early from his naps HANGRY. However, I'm going to be positive and grateful for that last bit because thanks to him wanting to be constantly nursing it really helped unclog that milk duct. So thank you baby boy for healing me!

Today I wanted to share my lash extensions experience with all of you! Ever since I got them done back at the end of December I've received so many compliments on them as well as had lots of questions about them. So here are my thoughts on the process and why I decided to get them done!

Taking care of yourself as a mom is really hard. Your baby always comes first and as a mom I am 100% on board with that. However, you have a lot going on with hormones, lack of sleep, not feeling tip top, and struggling with the image of yourself after awhile when you're a new mom. I knew all of this full well before giving birth. I started thinking of ways I knew would give me a little bit of confidence and possibly help cure some of those baby blues once Kai came in to this world. I truly love beauty products and doing my makeup, but being on maternity leave and not having any time to put on a face every morning really puts a hinder on that love. So I had the idea of getting lash extensions. This way I could look in the mirror every day and personally feel like I still looked nice. I loved the idea of not having to put mascara on EVER, too. A lot of times if I keep mascara on too long it starts to burn my eyes, but I love long lashes. I feel like I look so tired when I don't put mascara on and let me tell you as a mom to a 1 month old...I'm SO TIRED. All these little factors kept creeping in to my head, so I decided to make an appointment with a lash studio for a free consultation to see if getting extensions would work for me.

I went to my free consultation and after asking a bunch of questions like if I stop getting them will my natural lashes still be healthy? (yes), how often do you need to get them re-done? (every 2-4 weeks), and what kind of day to day maintenance do they require? (brush them out with a little clean mascara wand), I decided to get them. I made an appointment for a couple days later and was so excited about it. The first appointment to get the full set done was about 2 hours long. I was really late in to my pregnancy and was worried about having to lay flat on my back to get them put on but my consultant was so nice and understanding. She propped my hips and belly up with some pillows and I was good to relax for the next 2 hours. I absolutely loved how they turned out but was interested to see how they would hold up over time. I made an appointment for my first fill 2 weeks later and went off with my new lashes. Well even with wearing makeup and putting eye shadow on my eyes, my lashes held up so well! They still looked really good even after 2 weeks so I knew I could probably push that 3 week mark when the baby came if I needed to. I went to my first fill appointment at that 2 week mark though and my consultant was able to make them even fuller, which made me love them even more. I was hooked and have gone back three more times for fills. Each fill lasts only 1 hour if you go every 2 to 3 weeks. If you push it to 4, then you can get an hour and a half session to make up that extra week.

Like I said at the start of this post, I've gotten so many compliments on my lashes, which definitely makes me feel really good about myself. Most importantly though, I feel beautiful with them. I look at myself in the mirror every time I go to the bathroom and smile. Even though I don't have the time to put any makeup on right now or do a bunch of self care, I still feel like I look great. They have given me so much confidence and I don't mind snapping pictures all day long even though I'm not wearing makeup. Before I use to feel really self conscious if I wasn't at least wearing mascara, but now it's like selfie central with my cutie little baby! I am truly so happy I got them and it's my little treat that I do for myself every few weeks. I've gone twice since becoming a mom and it's a nice little break away, too. It's nice to only have to be gone for an hour so I never miss a feeding or start feeling like I've been gone from Kai for too long, but I get an hour to myself just relaxing!

They are seriously so easy to care for! All I do for them all day is brush them out with a little clean mascara wand in the morning and before I go to bed. I also make sure not to rub my eyes, and I never put mascara on them or use an eyelash curler. The other rule I strictly follow is I don’t put any kind of oily products on my face. I know facial oil is a big trend right now but this can really ruin your lash extensions and it will all turn in to a big waste of money. I also never use eye makeup remover anymore. To get any eye shadow off, I take a makeup wipe and gently rub the lid and avoid the lash line as much as possible. I’ve personally never been one to wear eyeliner on my top lid (I only apply it to my water line if I do chose to put some on) so when I’m taking off any eye makeup now I can avoid that upper lash line. The last thing I make sure to do is I never wipe my eyes with water. When I’m in the shower, I let water run on my face but not too harshly. That’s honestly it though! They are really low maintenance for something that really helps make me feel beautiful all the time!

The only downside to getting lash extensions though is how much they cost. I believe for me, it's worth it, but I'm not going to deny that it's not expensive. For reference if you're interested in getting your lashes done and want to know what a good price is, at my studio a full set of natural lashes is $260. However, my studio always offers promotions on full sets and it usually comes out to being around $200. Each fill is $75 if you go every 2 to 3 weeks and if you decide to go every 4 weeks and need a longer session then it costs $90. If you're interested in going to my studio and live in the north shore area of Chicago, I go toL Studio Lash & Skincare Boutique in Libertyville.

If you have any more questions about getting your lashes done please leave me a comment below! What is your self care thing you love to do for yourself? Leave me a comment below and share!

Product Details:
Drybar Sake Bomb Shampoo | Drybar Sake Bomb Conditioner | Drybar Velvet Hammer Hydrating Control Cream | Drybar Prep Rally Detangler

Hi there, friends! If you had a long weekend, I hope it was a nice and relaxing one, and if you had to work yesterday, I hope your week is going well! I was one of the lucky bunch to have the day off yesterday but I actually really needed it. I have some kind of cold/sinus thing going on that hit me real hard on Sunday. I haven't been sick this whole pregnancy and now of course when I'm about ready to go in to labor I catch something. I've done nothing but rest and drink a bunch of fluids the last two days though and it seems to be gradually getting better. Prior to Sunday though we had a fun weekend with having some friends over at our house for dinner on both Friday and Saturday. It's so weird to think the next time we'll see them is when we have our baby! Life is about to change immensely but we seriously can't wait.

I wanted to share with you all today the hair products I've been using for a couple years now that really help keep my hair hydrated, especially in the harsh Chicago winters. I have naturally curly hair and even though I don't produce much oil, my hair is never brittle or dry. I attribute this all to the hair products I use from Drybar. I made the switch the Drybar products about two years ago and haven't looked back. I started out slowly with just using the shampoo and conditioner you see and have gradually started a whole collection of hair products from them! Today though I'm just going to share with you the four products I use when washing my hair, which I do about every 2 to 3 days.

The first step in my hair washing routine is obviously in the shower with my shampoo and conditioner. I use their Sake Bomb products as they are meant for nourishment and hydration. I have really thick hair but I try not to use too much of each because like any shampoo and conditioner, it can really weigh down your hair. I put about a quarter size amount of shampoo in my hand and lather it just in to my scalp. I let the water rinsing the shampoo out get the rest of my hair. I've done this technique for years and I've noticed that it also helps preserve the hydration if you aren't saturating the whole strand with shampoo. Next I take about the same amount of conditioner and apply it to the bottom half of my hair and then rub any excess in to the top and my scalp. I've found that if I don't add any conditioner to the top half that it will be frizzy but if I add too much then I'll have no volume. So this trick is a nice medium to combat the battle between frizz and limpness. I let the conditioner sit in my hair for about 30 seconds and then rinse it out.

After I get out of the shower but before I brush my hair, I spray a good amount of Drybar's Prep Rally detangler spray on my hair. This is my newest addition in to my regimen. I've had my eye on this product for quite some time now but never pulled the trigger and bought it. This past Christmas though, Caleb got me a Drybar set and this travel size came in it! I've added it in to my hair routine and it really does help. My hair is way less tangly and doesn't break when I finally do go to brush it out. I'd also like to add that I use Drybar's Lemon Drop detangler hair brush for double the non-breakage. I've used the Lemon Drop hairbrush for a couple years now, too, and can attest to it being another big factor on keeping my hair in tip top shape.

My final step when washing my hair is applying Drybar's Velvet Hammer hydrating control cream. I let my hair dry a little bit in a towel while I do my skincare routine and then let it down and apply this cream. I brush out my hair one more time then once again put about a quarter size of the cream in to the palm of my hand and apply it to the bottom half of my wet hair. I run my fingers through the strands with it and that's it.

I almost always let my hair air dry unless I'm in a big rush or am giving myself a blow out. I usually always shower at night, too, so I will let my hair air dry while I read a book or watch some Netflix. But that is all I do for keeping my hair hydrated! It's a really simple process and I feel like with how short and simple it is, it is going to transition so well in to me becoming a mom. I can be quick about washing my hair but also not have to sacrifice all the work I've put in to keeping it nice and hydrated the last couple of years!

What are some of your hair secrets? I love hearing what works for all of you, too! Please leave me a comment below with what your favorite techniques and products are!

Product Details:
Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Facial Toner | Osea Blemish Balm | Osea Ocean Cleansing Mudd | Korres Wild Rose Brightening Eye Treatment

Hey there friends! I hope you all had the best Thanksgiving and holiday weekend! I took a break from the blog and social media for the most part this weekend to really enjoy the holiday and our family. Our Thanksgiving dinner was so yummy and filled with love and it was so nice visiting with my father in law and some of our close friends. We also put up all of our Christmas decorations this past weekend, too! I love the Christmas season so much and can't wait to bake all the cookies and see all the beautiful lights around our neighborhood start to go up. Today on here though I want to talk to you all about some amazing beauty products I've come across during my pregnancy that have quite literally changed my life!

I've struggled with acne for a long time now. I've always gotten really bad breakouts since I was a teenager. I feel like I've tried everything under the sun to fix the issue and I'll find products that work for a little bit then when I go to get a fresh bottle of it, it won't work anymore. I've been to a dermatologist, have had a 10 step regime, everything...nothing seems to really work. When I started taking my prenatal vitamins I had high hopes that they would start to help, too. Or maybe pregnancy would alter my skin itself and tone down the oiliness. Nope, if anything it only got worse. I stopped using my intense acne products that had retinol and salicylic acid based on advice I'd received from my doctor and personal preference. (FYI: have no fear if you are still using products with 2% or less salicylic acid in them, in my doctors opinion those were ok, but being a first time mom I was nervous and still stopped - however always check with your own doctor as all pregnancies are different). So as you can imagine I was really frustrated and just not feeling "pretty." I also don't like to wear too much makeup and some days I really just want to go natural, which those days we're basically "hand me a pair of sunglasses and baseball cap so I can hide my face as much as possible days."

About half way through my pregnancy I discovered the skincare brand Osea Malibu, and they really sparked my interest. I've never really bought in to the whole all-natural/vegan thing before but since I am pregnant now I want to be using the safest products out that for myself and my baby. I researched their products and the ingredients that they used thoroughly and actually discovered that the founder created the first products due to being pregnant and her whole family is now involved in the company! I've also run the list past my doctor, and she fully approves me using them. So that step was done...now I moved on to the question, will these products without the "good acne stuff" actually work on my skin? The answer is honestly YES! I began using the Ocean Cleansing Mudd to wash my face in the evening and followed it up with the Blemish Balm for my moisturizer. I also use the Blemish Balm in the morning after I rinse my face off with just water. I noticed a difference in two days. Within a week my big pimples were gone. I'm not going to lie to you guys, I still get little ones here and there but they are mostly around my chin and upper lip, which has always been a common issue for me. But in the past they use to be huge pimples on my chin and it would take weeks to get rid of them. I've simplified my skincare routine so much thanks to Osea and my skin has never looked or more importantly felt better in my whole life. I feel confident to go sans makeup on non-office days and on the weekends and when I do put makeup on I'm blown away how flawless my skin looks. I've actually started to notice my acne scars slowly fading, too! So here is my super refined skincare routine that I now do every single night using my amazing Osea products as well as some of my previous favorites that are still safe to use during pregnancy.

I love to take a hot shower at night to help me relax and ease my sore muscles before bed. So before my shower I will remove all my eye makeup with some eye makeup remover and makeup remover wipes and then I will take the Osea Ocean Cleansing Mudd in to the shower with me and wash my face. I just massage it in to my wet skin with my finger tips for about 30 seconds and rinse it off. Oh and I'd like to add it also smells like mint which helps clear any sinus congestion I might have because I have really bad allergies. If I don't take an evening shower then I still use this cleanser at the sink with a wash cloth. After I'm done rinsing, I dry my face.

This product was a favorite of mine even before I was pregnant. I apply a small amount of this to a cotton pad and wipe my face and neck with it. This toner really helps to get any excess dirt and makeup off my face and neck as well as tones down my redness. I wait about a minute for this to dry and soak in to my skin.

Once the toner has dried on my face, I take two pumps of the Osea Blemish Balm and apply it all over my face and neck. That's it...just two pumps! My skin feels so refreshed but at the same time doesn't feel greasy or oily. This product also smells like mint, which only adds to the refreshness!

I started using this under eye cream before I was pregnant and was so relieved to find out that Korres is a wonderful pregnancy-safe company, as well. This under eye cream is actually reasonably priced, lasts for a long time, and really works at keeping my dark circles at bay. I also never get puffiness under my eyes when I use it. I apply a small amount with my ring finger under each eye.

That's it! That is my whole evening skincare routine. And like I said earlier, in the morning all I do is throw some warm water on my face, dry my face, and apply two pumps of the Osea Blemish Balm. Not only has this routine saved me a lot of money because I'm not buying a ton of products to use in between all these steps but most importantly it has saved me so much time every day. The time factor is huge to me as a soon to be mom. Plus what pregnant woman wants to stand at her bathroom sink for 20 minutes doing her skincare routine? I struggled to do that when I wasn't pregnant and had way more energy! I definitely feel though that the stars of the show are the Osea products and they are the reason why I've been able to simplify my routine so much. I plan to stick to the same exact routine post-pregnancy, too. I really hope this little run down helps some of you especially if you're pregnant and struggle with acne, too. It's scary and so overwhelming to try to find the right products that are going to help your skin but also not harm your baby. I truly think Osea is the answer though!

For more random thoughts and musings, follow me on Twitter! I always post about new blog posts on there as well as all my rather funny #pregnancytales as I like to call them. Hope you all have a super happy week ahead!

*This post was NOT sponsored in any way and is my genuine skincare routine and opinion :)

Hello friends! I would like to start out by thanking you for following me over to Tiny Dapper Fox. I know you might be wondering why change from This Boundless Journey? And I will definitely be addressing that as well as all the exciting things you can read about and find here on Tiny Dapper Fox. But let's start with why we're changing first...

So like I said before, this site will be a look into bits of our whole life, starting with motherhood. I want to share with all of you this magical experience I'm currently going through and offer any words of wisdom for mamas who might need it. I know at the start of this journey I was like a deer in headlights. I was so nervous and didn't know where to start. While I am NO expert and I will NEVER claim to be, I've found it's nice to hear that other mamas to be are going through the same thing I'm going through. I won't ever be offering medical advice here, for that I will always suggest you call your doctor but I do plan on writing about my pregnancy experiences/safe products I've loved using and after Nugget arrives (that's our temporary name for our baby boy) my postpartum experiences/awesome baby products I've found.

I also plan on incorporating a lot about our cozy home that we're slowly making our own. I'll be doing room tours and honestly you'll probably get multiple of one room because we're always transforming them! We have big plans for a lot of rooms throughout our house and as for the ones that are "done" we're always coming up with new ideas to make them more us and I love to decorate them differently for every season. On top of decor, I also want to bring you all some DIY posts! One of the biggest reasons I wanted to create Tiny Dapper Fox is to get my creative juices flowing again. I miss using my hands and the right side of my brain. I really love my day job but it is very structured and I really miss flexing those creative muscles on a regular basis, so I think this blog and some fun crafty projects might just be the answer to cure that! It's also no secret that Caleb and I love hosting get togethers and to be honest it really is an art to pull off some of the bigger ones like Thanksgiving or our gender reveal. I want to share with you all our tips and tricks of how we make all this happen as well as all of Caleb's yummy recipes you all ask me for all the time. I'm going to try to get over my shyness as well and share some of my baked goods recipes, too!

In the travel section all of our tips/trip stories will be available as well as our original City Guides from This Boundless Journey. We will no longer be offering trip itineraries but I will be putting together quick guides for places that we don't have city guides for but have visited and have some recommendations for. The way we establish a city guide is we need to feel that we have thoroughly explored that city and be able to give multiple recommendations. For places like Niagara Falls or the Cinque Terre that we only visited for a day or two do not warrant that, but we do have some great info to share on those places so those quick guides can be found in the general Travel section and the Stories/Tips category. On top of all that, I will be putting together our long awaited Disney series. It's no secret that we really really love Disney and having been to Walt Disney World two years in a row we have some really great tips and recommendations to share with all of you. I will be putting together multiple posts about Disney and those can all be found in their own special Disney category.

The last section will cover any fashion or beauty tips I have. I'm no fashionista or beauty expert but I do love putting together fun outfits and trying out new beauty products. Being pregnant as also presented its challenges with these two bits of life and I want to share some wisdom with all of you mamas to be that might need it!

And last but not least the last section of the site and honestly the one I'm really really excited for is our Shop page! So at the very top I mentioned Tiny Dapper Fox has been a long awaited of dream of mine but also of Caleb's. We came up with this name a really long time ago when we first started dappling in to a couple of our hobbies. Mine being stationary and Caleb's being woodworking. We've thought long and hard about how we'd like to execute these hobbies into making them a bit of a side hustle, I suppose. We've thought about Etsy and Offer Up but have always felt kind of shy about putting ourselves out there and also don't really have the time or resources to market products to the max since we have day jobs. Well when I mentioned to Caleb that I wanted to start up a little lifestyle blog for our growing family it sparked the idea of maybe putting up some of his designs on the site so that you all can see them in real life through our home tour posts. If you don't know, a lot of the furniture in our home is made by Caleb! We often get questions about where we got pieces and I always say with so much pride that my hubby made it! He has really refined his skills and is finally confident that he can create pieces that everyone would love to have in their homes, too. So as we get our stock up and put up home tours you'll be able to shop those pieces from our Shop page! As for my little creative piece in stationary, I just love all things papers. I pick up journals and cards even when I don't need them and I love snail mail. I always have an idea for cards or invitations that I'd like to send to people but a lot of times I run in to that road block of I can't find what I'm looking for or I have such a good idea for something that I should just create it myself! Well I'd like to share those ideas with all of you, too! So keep an eye on that little corner of the site as we build it up with all of our favorite little things.

And that's it for now! I don't want to confine myself to just these topics but I believe this is a good basis and what I've been itching to write about for a long time now. I hope you enjoy Tiny Dapper Fox and find some fun inspiration from it! Please leave me a comment and let me know if there are any topics that YOU would like for me to cover, too. Hope you have the happiest of days!