My June Favorites

Long time no see, blog! After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, content trends, and overall life changes — particularly a new job — I've decided to try to get back into writing and blogging. I miss writing and not all of my content ideas are best or easiest with short-form video. So without further ado, I'm returning with what I love to do most: share what I love and enjoy! Here are my favorites from the month of June.

Media and Entertainment

The Little Mermaid (2023)

I wasn't expecting to love the new, live action Little Mermaid, but now I want to watch it at least once a week. Halle Bailey was perfectly cast as Ariel and has an impeccable combination of wonder, youthfulness, and talent that make her Ariel one of a kind and a performance to remember. The new scenes and songs — most of them — added a entertaining and valuable depth to the stories, characters, and relationships that I really enjoyed.

Ariel and Prince Eric have never had more chemistry. Eric's motivations are so much clearer, and he has an actual backstory. Plus I loved seeing all of Ariel's sisters. It makes total sense that the king of the sea has daughters who represent all of the different oceans of the world.

My April Favorites

April was a rather busy month as I had a few events on my calendar, went to new places, and tried and found new things. But most of all of my favorites for last month came from the April 2, when I went to downtown Chicago and had a great day in the city. This monthly favorites post is full of fun pictures and entertainment, including movies, musicals, and more.

Winky Lux Experience Chicago

I knew I wanted to write about this fun, awesome place and experience on my blog, but I didn't know if I wanted to dedicate an entire post to it. Well, now it's been nearly a month since I went to Winky Lux and went through the Winky Lux Experience, so it felt too late to give it it's own blog post. So I'm just featuring it as my top favorite from April in this blog post!

Simply put, the Winky Lux Experience is like a super cute, interactive, Instagrammable exhibit inside the Winky Lux store in downtown Chicago. There are a bunch of different rooms featuring different Winky Lux beauty products, and they're all adorable. I didn't get a picture of every room, but I did get a picture of most of them. 

One of my favorites is the first room, picture above, which is the floral room. It's no secret I love pink and florals, so of course I'm a fan of that room. It promotes Winky Lux's signature flower lip balm, which is what it's known for. Someone please tell me where I can get a pretty floral backdrop like that entire room! Thank you. 

Up next is the watermelon room. If I recall correctly, this room promotes its watermelon lip balm, which is a reactive pH lip balm, so when you apply the lip balm, it reacts to the pH of your skin and lips to change to whatever shade of pink/red goes with your skin. 

I absolutely love the neon sign in this room. I love a good pun and reference, and I 100% want a pink neon sign for my room. 

My Favorite Pop Culture Galentines and Valentines

Happy belated Galentine's Day, and happy Valentine's Day! In honor of the lovely holiday, I'm sharing some of my favorite female friendships and romantic couples from some of my favorite books, movies, and TV shows. A lot of people often think of Valentine's Day as a day for couples, but I want this post to serve as a reminder that this day is simply about love. It doesn't matter if you're single, in a relationship, married, or engaged. Celebrate the day with people you love, whether it be friends, family, or significant others.

Galentines

Lara Jean and Chris (To All the Boys I've Loved Before)

As the self-proclaimed Filipino Lara Jean Covey, there was no way I could leave my favorite fictional character to ever exist off this blog post. Whether you've read the book or have only seen the movie (if you haven't at least seen the movie, please do ― this is probably like the fifth time I've mentioned TATBILB on my blog), you'll know Lara Jean doesn't have very many friends, but she does have Chris, who's her best friend. (And if you haven't read or watched TATBILB, Chris is short for Christine.) The two of them have been friends since they were kids, but now that they're older and have developed different interests and whatnot, they don't spend as much time together. But that doesn't stop them from being best friends and being there for each other. 

View this post on Instagram

Get you a bestie like Chris.

A post shared by The Letters Are Out (@toalltheboysnetflix) on Aug 25, 2018 at 1:06pm PDT

As someone who also doesn't have a lot of friends and doesn't spend a lot of time with the ones I do have, I really appreciate and admire their friendship. Lara Jean and Chris don't hang out as much as they used to because of school, different interests, and just different lives (we all know life's much easier when you're 7). But when Lara Jean needs Chris, Chris is there. Chris even goes on the ski trip for Lara Jean ― and Chris doesn't do school functions (or school)! 

For me, pretty much all of my friends live in different states, thousands of miles away. So I don't get to see them very often. But if and when I need them (and when they need me), we're there for each other.

Why Lara Jean Song Covey Means A Lot to Me

If you've gone on social media ― specifically Facebook or Twitter ― or opened Netflix in the last two weeks or so, you've probably heard of To All the Boys I've Loved Before, one of Netflix's latest original  movies. Based off the young adult novel by Jenny Han, To All the Boys follows the story of protagonist Lara Jean Song Covey after the secret love letters she wrote to five boys she had a crush on are somehow sent out.

The movie has quickly become a sensation for various reasons, from its cute but not terribly stereotypical story to the lovable and relatable characters to the family relationships to the Asian-American representation― not to mention it's a good adaptation of the book.

I've already watched To All The Boys twice (I know that's not much compared to others, but my sister doesn't want to watch it all the time like me), and I could honestly probably watch it every day. What I love most about the movie (and the book) is Lara Jean herself. I didn't realize this when I was reading the books last month, but I relate to Lara Jean so much. I like to joke that I am Lara Jean. As I read the books, it was easy to see how I was similar to Jenny Han's protagonist. But it wasn't until I watched the movie and saw Lana Condor bring Lara Jean to life on screen that I truly realized just how similar and how much Lara Jean meant to me. (Side note: there might be spoilers for the movie and entire book series in this post.)