Hey guys - welcome to my monthly update! Below you can catch up on what I've been doing and my current culture, style, and beauty recommendations. I've listed a lot of questions through the post and summarized them at the bottom because I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! It's so hard to blog when I'm tired if I don't know who I'm talking to and why they want to hear from me.
Love you.
Mean it.
elyse
elyse + residency
I mentioned in the last post that I was moving to a new site for the next four months. It's a much slower pace than the previous site, which is a good change of pace. The honeymoon period of dermatology is quickly coming to an end. I study pretty much all the time now (hence the lack of blogging during the entire month of November) and we start taking after-hours and weekend call in January! Plus, our big mock boards exam is in February, so basically, I have to attempt to learn all of dermatology in the next few months.
It really is comical how much we have to learn for residency vs. the stereotype of what other specialties think we actually do. In fairness to stereotypes, I did get my nails done for a wedding during my lunch break this week and I go out, a lot. We definitely have it good compared to other specialties, but my friends in finance and corporate law can't understand that I have to study after work and on the weekends (or how I make so little money haha).
elyse + love
I went to my first Jewish wedding this weekend and it was insanely beautiful (and very, very fancy). My favorite Jewish wedding tradition is marriage under the chuppah - the wedding ceremony takes place under a canopy which symbolizes the home that the wife and husband will build together. The sides are left open to leave room for friends, family, and children.
The wedding was on a workday so I was dateless.
elyse + beauty
The drop in temperature resulted in dry, flaky skin for a few days. In transition to Fall, I have decreased how often I use drying acne products (benzoyl peroxide and tretinoin) and increased the thickness of my moisturizers.
My current morning face routine:
1. Panoxyl 4% benzoyl peroxide face wash three times a week, cetaphil facial wash on off days
2. eltaMD UV daily broad spectrum sf 40 - yes, SPF every day, all year to protect from photoaging and photocarcinogenesis.
related post: sunscreen 101 and my favorite sunscreen
3. Laneige water bank moisture cream - yes, A LOT of moisturizer. I love this cream because it's super hydrating without feeling thick on the skin so I can wear it under make-up in the mornings without feeling too heavy. I highly recommend the Laneige hydration trial kit! I've used all of the products within it and they are all excellent. The cream i'm using it actually from the trial kit. It's a great deal. The water serum is probably one of my favorite serums ever. You can see instant results.
elyse + style
home: My mattress in my Atlanta apartment was by far the best thing to ever happen to me, but unfortunately I failed at recreating it in NYC. The mattress I bought was just a little too firm and I’d been having trouble getting a good nights sleep. I spent this month focused on creating a cozy bed and let me tell you, a down comforter and quality pillow makes a huge difference. I'm not completely finished with the transformation but it's already much harder for me to get out of bed. Does anyone know the difference between a down mattress pad vs a down mattress topper?
personal: I've debated getting an expensive winter coat but so far my very cute Madewell Parka has held up. I was also pretty impressed that my very thin Columbia Mightly lite jacket holds up until about below 35-40 degrees. The omni-heat thermal reflective lining reflects heat back to the body so it warms you as you wear it.
elyse + culture
movie to watch: Moonlight is by far one of the best movies I’ve seen. It’s the story of a young, gay black boy growing up poor in Miami. It’s funny. It’s heartbreaking, and it’s realistic. GO SEE IT. The movie was released slowly throughout the country but is now in more than 650 theatres, so check your local theatre (particularly your local indie theatre) for movie times. If they don't have it, ask if it will be coming in the neat future.
"To describe “Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins’s second feature, as a movie about growing up poor, black and gay would be accurate enough. It would also not be wrong to call it a movie about drug abuse, mass incarceration and school violence. But those classifications are also inadequate, so much as to be downright misleading. It would be truer to the mood and spirit of this breathtaking film to say that it’s about teaching a child to swim, about cooking a meal for an old friend, about the feeling of sand on skin and the sound of waves on a darkened beach, about first kisses and lingering regrets. Based on the play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” by Tarell Alvin McCraney, “Moonlight” is both a disarmingly, at times almost unbearably personal film and an urgent social document, a hard look at American reality and a poem written in light, music and vivid human faces." - A. O. SCOTT ‘Moonlight’: Is This the Year’s Best Movie?, NY Times
albums to listen to: Solange’s A Seat at the Table and Mac Miller The Divine Feminine. My unofficial top albums of the year. What's your favorite song/album of the year? What music streaming service do you guys use? I am currently a loyal Tidal user but I just signed up for 3 months of spotify. I'll compare the two and let you know what I think, but I'd love to know what you guys are using. I would like to make you some playlists!
instagram account to follow: @btpctrsmvnggrp is my new favorite instagram account. It's blank images with positive messages with the goal of creating light and white space in your world. It's so easy to get caught up in all of the "perfectly curated" images on instagram. It's nice to have an account not promoting any image, just positivity.
Speaking of "perfectly curated," I've started to use instagram stories to give you guys a look at the day to day of my life (pretty much me studying, me at the gym, me out to dinner with friends). It's not as fun and the stories aren't as good as snapchat but it is nice to have it all on the same platform. Do you check instagram stories? Snapchat stories? Which do you prefer? What type of content would you like to see on my instagram vs instagram stories?
elyse + nyc
The city has started to prepare for the holiday season and it is BEAUTIFUL. Walking down 5th avenue past all of the beautiful window treatments to go study at the winter village at Bryant Park or meet friends for drinks is an absolute dream (and my real life!). When I initially moved here, I was very firm that it was for 3 years only. I couldn't imagine a long-term future in the city, but NYC continues to grow on me.
The diversity of NYC does not exist anywhere else in the country (not even in two of my favorite cities - Atlanta and Chicago). I think a lot about where I want to raise my kids (who will most likely be mixed race). Before moving to NYC, I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to raise kids here, but now I get it. Based off of my few friends who were raised in the city, this city raises politically conscious and kind human beings... who very much live in a bubble and are unaware of how the rest of the world works, feels, functions. It's a trade off but I'd rather my kids grow up in a culturally acceptant bubble and learn about places that are different than the other way around.
What other cities outside of NYC do you think fit this profile?
elyse + fitness
I'm thinking of training for the 2018 NYC marathon which means I will need to run 9 races in the city in 2017. I ran a marathon 4 years ago but basically haven't run since, so I'm starting from square one basically. I looked up a 10K schedule today, so Sunday I plan to start long runs again!
questions for you:
- What's the difference between a down mattress pad vs a down mattress topper?
- What music streaming service do you use?
- What's your favorite song/album of the year?
- What type of content would you like to see on my instagram vs instagram stories?
- Where do you want to raise kids? Is it because of proximity to family or other reasons?
Thanks for reading!
elyse
