Hat c/o Rella  |  Stripe jacket and coat c/o Helly Hansen  |  Target denim  |  Sneakers c/o Timberland  |  Ray-Ban sunglasses

I feel so lucky that I got to have a couple of unplugged days on the coast before jumping headfirst into a full month of fashion week travel. It was so refreshing to spend a couple days eating pancakes cooked over open flames and skipping rocks on the beach. Although we're still at the tail end of summer, Washington forests like to keep things rather chill, so layers on layers were necessary. New-to-me brand Rella kept my head warm with their beautiful Sway knit hat in a soft grey. They just launched a new online store so poke around and see what versatile, stylish, hand-knit pieces you'll want to pick up before the temperature really drops!

Thank you to Rella for sponsoring this post.

A skin story. Everybody has one.

Mine is the one that goes, “I had great skin all through puberty and high school, and then when I was twenty-one, all the problems came on at once.” I had the kind of spots and problems that kept me from doing things I wanted to do, and made me feel ugly no matter what I was wearing or how I did my make-up.

A lot of those stories end with, “But then I found ‘x product,’ and I went back to beautiful skin!” Not for me. Improving my skin and finding solutions to old or new problems is a constant and continuing process for me, and I didn’t know that was normal until I visited Skin Rejuvenation Clinic, just twenty minutes from my downtown apartment in Minneapolis.

After I got my active breakouts under control with prescriptions from my general physician, I knew I wanted to do something about the scarring and discoloration my years of issues had left behind. I didn’t really know what my options were, so once I started Googling treatments and products and procedures, I reached out to several skin clinics around the Twin Cities about working together to find a solution for my face. Treatments like chemical peels or microdermabrasion can be expensive, and since I had just quit my job to try and blog full-time, any discount I could find would help.

Skin Rejuvenation Clinic was the first place to send me an email back, and it happened to be sent from an industry friend of mine in the Twin Cities. Emily told me that they had already been planning to reach out to me in hopes of working together, so the timing and circumstances couldn’t have been better. I popped in for an appointment and came away with some products to try and a SkinPen appointment—more on that later.

Besides assuring me that the skin problems I was having were totally normal and common, Emily convinced me of one important thing: I mattered to the clinic. My feelings mattered. They truly wanted to help me, and were as honest and plainspoken as they could be—improving my skin might not be an easy road, and I might not see results as quickly as I wanted. I’m used to people on the Internet telling me this when I read reviews about products I want to try, but I’m not used to hearing it from skincare professionals. Honesty is refreshing from a business that’s hoping to keep you as a customer.

After my first round of test products, I stuck with IS CLINICAL's Pro-Heal serum, which I still use every day, and my new favorite daily moisturizer from Revision Skincare. I had started with a dark-spot lightening product and an AHA from Obagi, but after a few months, I still wasn't satisfied with the texture of my face. Emily switched me to IS CLINICAL's White Lightening complex and a .5% retinol. I'm still using these products daily, and I've found that retinol and the White Lightening are my dream combination. They work so quickly at fading the scars and dark spots on my skin. Progress!

After my skin got used to the new products, I went in for my SkinPen treatment. Based on my personal research, and Emily and the Skin Rejuvenation Clinic’s recommendations for my needs, it sounded like the most effective avenue. I was quite nervous about getting it, because I’ve never done anything to my face besides topical treatments. It works like this: when your body has a wound, it repairs itself by building a new skin layer. The SkinPen, or DermaPen, is basically a tiny little needle that is drawn all over your face, creating microscopic wounds that your skin then repairs with a new layer. Weird, right? I blinked a few times after it was explained to me, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

Kate, my treatment gal, numbed my face before the procedure, so I didn’t feel a thing besides a little pressure. I listened to my iPod while it was happening to keep myself calm, but after the twenty minutes or so were over, I realized I hadn’t really needed it. The whole process was very low stress, which I appreciated coming into it as a newbie to the skin treatment world. The first thing I noticed, besides noticeable redness, was how smooth my skin was. It didn’t seem to do a lot in terms of helping discoloration, but SkinPen is also a procedure that they recommend doing in a series of 3. For my first time, it seemed to be very effective in helping to heal the deep scars along my cheeks.

So here I am, showing you my not-so-perfect bare skin, but compared to what it was, I'm proud to show it off. I couldn't have done it without Emily, Kate, and the generously kind team at Skin Rejuvenation Clinic! Of course, I was more than disappointed to find them right before my move to Seattle, but since I still have so many ties to Minneapolis, I’ll definitely be trying to squeeze in appointments when I’m back in the Twin Cities to visit. When you find a match this perfect, you don’t want to let go.

Thanks a million to Skin Rejuvenation Clinic for the product and treatment—all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

And please, feel free to ask me any questions about any products or treatments I mentioned here! I'd love to share more.

If you’re into big city travel like I am, you’ll be familiar—like I am—with big city hotel prices. It’s easy to find an available suite for five-hundred dollars a night, but that’s unrealistic for this solo traveler’s wallet. 

However, another commonality you may run into is a boutique hotel that’s trying to change that. In Vancouver, B.C., that’s The Burrard. 

I had the pleasure of sitting down to coffee with the hotel’s general manager, Darren Simpson, at the attached Elysian Coffee Roasters. Besides a cup of perfectly brewed drip, I was enlightened by the story of how The Burrard came to be and what a day in the life is like for a small hotel’s general manager, something I didn’t know I was interested in until I was hearing about it for the first time. 

The Burrard itself is a unique space for a notoriously grey and gloomy city, and you can see it before you even enter the lobby. The old Hollywood-style neon is viewable from several blocks away. As you step inside, you’re met with a bright retro vibe that includes custom art from artist Dina Goldstein. It only gets cuter the deeper in you go.

Pick up your keycard from the friendly and informative front desk personnel, then take the stairwell or elevator up a couple levels to your desired floor—and welcome to Palm Springs. The open-air hallway walls are designated turquoise and yellow, which marries perfectly with the crisp white railings and grass-green carpet. I only wish I could have seen it all in the rain. 

There’s a beautiful outdoor fireplace to relax and mingle with other guests if you wish (the only thing missing is s’mores), under the cover of some stately palm trees that look quite at home within the hotel but out of place in Vancouver as a whole. It’s an interesting clash of vacation vibes—every time I walked out the door, I felt like I stepped from California back into Canada. 

One thing is for sure; escaping to The Burrard from the city you’re already vacationing in sets the mood for a radically relaxing trip. It’s rare that I find a kitschy idea for a hotel so enjoyable, but The Burrard seems to have it all down to the very last detail.