May Favorites

It's already June, so I thought I'd go with the series, May Favorites! You can check out my February Favorites here, & March Favorites here. 

If you have been reading my blog posts, you know how I've been traveling a lot last month, along with my graduation. It was such a crazy month! Also with blogging full time, I thought I'd go a bit different on this Favorites Series, instead of narrowing it to only restaurants and cafe. So let's get right into these 7. 

1. Tailwind
This tool is perfect for your Pinterest. I am probably one of the people who started to use Tailwind after hearing so much about this tool. At first, I didn't know how to use it since I wasn't even familiar with Pinterest. It took me like a week to figure out how Pinterest and Tailwind works, how to schedule it and so on. You can call Tailwind as an automation tool for Pinterest. You can also add Instagram as well, but I am currently on a free trial, and only using it for my Pinterest.

So as you can see it in the first photo, I try to schedule a bulk with intervals. Instead of adding only to your own board, you can also share it with other boards which is great if you want to reach more audience. Scheduling pins are great especially when you have other things to do as well. Started off from 0, and in a week, my Monthly Views came up to almost 10k!!! Isn't that crazy? I definitely think active pinning is important especially when you want to drive traffic to your blog. That is why Tailwind is used so much between businesses and bloggers. 

One more tip to add: If you are looking to grow your Pinterest, you should organize the boards. Try to organize the ones you think it's absolutely necessary and related to your blog. Don't just have any boards created. That will attract wrong audience for you. Make sure to pin a lot in each board, maybe more than 30+ each. So if this seems like something you need, or if you want to grow your Pinterest audience and get steady traffic on your website, you can sign up here today & see your blog grow much more. 

2. Grammarly
As I talked about it on my last New York City Travel Guide post, Grammarly is my best friend that helps me all the time. You probably wouldn't be able to live without this one (once you start using it) especially because when you are typing a lot of things, for example, an email, it just picks out all of your grammatical and spelling errors! It's easy to use because it's an widget/plugin that you can download it, and it will work on any website you go to automatically. You don't even have to click it. It just works. Like your personal assistant! 

It also sends you weekly reports + analysis on how you did, what things you've been getting incorrect the most, and how you are doing compared to all the other Grammarly users. I think it's definitely something I love since I don't have any mistakes when I write something to someone. It also checks any plagiarism which would probably be perfect for teachers who are grading student papers (haha) or when you are writing an essay. You can download it here and use it right away, it's that easy :) 

3. Macaron Lip Balm
I found this lip balm in Sephora in New Haven! (I checked, and it's also in Amazon - click the image to buy) If you haven't had a chance to read my New Haven travel post, it's here. I wasn't actually looking to buy a lip balm this day, but when I was looking around, I knew I had to have this one. Two reasons were because it looks like macaron and it smells so...good! When you put this on, you smell like you are eating strawberry flavored candy. It doesn't give you any colors, but it's good at moisturizing your lips. Perfect to put inside your purse or to carry around. Totally loving this!  

4. Powder Perfection BB Creme
This BB creme from The Face Shop is seriously my favorite, since the Bobby Brown BB Creme I used to use. If you see below, the second one is the one I am currently using. Mine is more of a small tube style, but I checked, and it's the same product (just different bottle). The reason I really like this one is because of how moisturizing it is. When you put it onto your face, you won't feel any heaviness or struggle like it's not spreading onto your skin. It is light, makes your skin a bit brighter, smells good, and soft texture. I am almost done with my current one, and I think I am going to buy another soon.

Also if you see below, there's the Aloe Soothing gel. I also have this product, since this really helps your skin to rest and breathe. I always use it right after I wash my face in the morning. It smells so good, and it's cold & fresh once you put it on. This is my second case, I am looking to buy more soon as well. If you want to see more products I use, I did a review post, read here. 

5. IamAileen
If you are a travel blogger or any type of blogger who wants to learn, you should go check out her.
I found her website while googling for travel bloggers. She's been featured in so many huge companies, worked with them, and has been gotten various awards. 

The reason I really want to share her blog is because of her content & her writing style. Her content is gold. It's not bunch of ads everywhere, trying to promote things. Instead, she really goes in-depth on every topic she writes about. I was shocked how useful her content is, and how well-written everything was. There's a lot to learn, and I think she's a motivation to all the people out there. Her website is full of content, but looks clean at the same time. Nicely designed, too. 

6. Yogurt From ALDI
You might wonder, where is ALDI? ALDI is a grocery store originated from Germany, Europe, and starting with their first launch in California, they began to expand worldwide. Since then, it has been growing and expanding tremendously. It's popular for it's cheap price with high quality. Lucky me, ALDI is right across from my apartment which means I don't have to go to HEB or Kroger anymore. My total from ALDI comes out to be about $20 in total, when it used to be $50-60 in other stores. 

Anyways, this yogurt I am trying to tell you about, is so delicious. I normally don't eat yogurt, barely buy them; I only buy them when I am on healthy diet or something. However, after trying this yogurt, I've been continuously buying it, because it's that good. It's also great for breakfast, add some fruits and granola inside. 

Also some more insider tips about ALDI: they recommend you bringing your own grocery bag to keep things environmental-friendly and simple. If not, you can purchase the shopping bag or rent a cart for a quarter. Did you know that the bigger the shopping cart is, the more you feel forced to buy items? This behavior was written in several marketing strategies & consumer behavior articles before, but it is definitely true. That is why when I normally shop, I try to use a basket or smaller carts, rather than a huge one. Also with bringing my own shopping bags at ALDI, I feel like I'm working out my arms (haha). 

ALDI - Houston

​7. Canva
This isn't just only my May Favorites, I've been using this tool since last year. I want to recommend Canva to everyone, because it really is useful when designing for all occasions. Best part is, Canva is always improving and coming out with more designs and platforms you can utilize. From social media posts, documents, marketing materials, events, and ads, they literally have so many tools available. The only thing you have to do? Get creative. You can design all on your own whichever you want. You can also share the designs you made with public, or edit the design with another person. I've made a lot of Pinterest image with Canva, as well as flyers and headers for my social media platforms. More, it has design courses and tutorials for you to learn. It offers a lot of various things, and they are currently expanding more. 

So those were the 7 May Favorites of different categories I picked. Instead of reviewing the restaurants or cafe I've been only once or twice, I thought it would be fun & much more helpful to you if I share the ones I really like. I also figure all of these can viewed or used online, from anywhere. Hope you enjoyed, and please leave some comments below what your monthly favorites are (or all-time favorites).
Thank you so much for reading! :)