With only a week left, I really felt like a true Parisian. On day 24, my friends and I got breakfast and attended class and then walked around the area of Bastille (the metro stop!). I love this area because they have tons of tiny boutiques that offer unique items and they have a couple open air markets here. Of course, I can't go to the open air market without picking up cherries and peaches... for some reason, they're so much better than the ones from home! For dinner that night, a group of us went to
Académie De La Bière (In English, this means the Beer Academy) and got the moules et frites (mussels and french fries!). Evidently, this place is known for this dish and I can see why! It was excellent and they gave super large servings! They're also known for their beers, but I'm not a big beer drinker so I obviously didn't get any. A great place to eat and they're open late ;) If you take the RER B, get off on Port-Royal.. it's very close to the RER exit.

On day 25 of my study abroad experience in Paris, Michael and I visited the Louvre Museum after class. With our program, we got in for free to all the museums in Paris, and since this museum is HUGE, we decided it was a good idea to go back and explore the museum one more time before we left. We spent more time in the Egyptian wing of the museum, and looked at all the mummified cats, dogs, fish, and crocodiles! So crazy! This is one museum I could spend days in and still not lose interest...and that's saying a lot ;) After, we got coffee and dinner at a cafe near the Cité Universitaire and met up with some friends to enjoy their company along the Seine River.  

Some of the displatys in the Louvre

On Day 26 of studying abroad in Paris, it was a typical day except we got a bunch of friends, crepes (yum!), apple cider (an alcoholic version of sparkling apple juice that's super popular in France), and a blanket and hung out in front of the Eiffel Tower for the night. We stayed there all night watching the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower and the people, who were all enjoying the beautiful warm, evening weather. It was amazing being there with good company, and just relaxing, which is sometimes hard to do in such a busy city :) We caught the last metro back (the metro closes at 2 am I believe) and went to bed!

Even though it was the middle of the night, you can see how busy and lively this area is all the time! :)

 Almost done with my Paris trip! So sad :( Let me know what you guys think or if you've ever visited any of the places I've mentioned!

Read my next post on Sacre Coeur and Montmartre! Seriously so beautiful!

xoxo, Morgan 

How to Sick Day Makeup - Natural Makeup Tutorial

We all know the feeling...you're sick but still have to go to work, school, etc. But let's face it, you don't want to look like a total wreck! In this tutorial, I show you a quick makeup tutorial that looks nice and natural but still hides the fact you're lacking sleep and not feeling well.  

What's your routine when you're feeling under the weather?? Let me know what you think :)

And when you're feeling better, try out this makeup look! An awesome Smokey Purple Duochrome Smokey Eye that will definitely perk you right up! :) 

xoxo, Morgan 

My Crazy Cat Fights with me Over Making the Bed

I just thought this was funny/cute so I wanted to share! 

My cat, Lucky, loves sleeping and napping in my bed when all the blankets are messed up...So whenever I try and make the bed, she does everything she can think of to stop me from making it! She's so funny!

Does your cat do this too? Or anything else that's weird? 

xoxo, Morgan 

Fast and Easy Bombshell Hot Rollers Hair Tutorial - Low Heat

In this video, I BREAKDOWN how to achieve a voluminous, sexy, bombshell look using hot rollers. Hot rollers are super easy to use once you get the hang of it, and I love them because they don't damage my hair as much as a curling iron would.

I would love to hear your feedback on what you think of this easy hairstyle :) I'll be adding more videos very soon so be sure to subscribe to my channel or this blog (add your email into the email subscription section on the right ;) ) so you'll be updated when I add my next video or post!
P.S. Wanna see a tutorial on 3 Cute Hairstyles to Wear to the GYM?

xoxo, Morgan 

3 Cute, Easy, and Fun Hairstyles for the GYM

Alright girls and boys, here's my first video upload for my channel THE BEAUTY BREAKDOWN !

Check it out :) 

In this video, I show 3 hairstyles that I like to wear to the gym! They're all super fast, simple, and quick and stay in place while I'm working out! 

Be sure to let me know what you think and if you like videos like this! Also, check out my channel by clicking HERE

Like I've been promising! I'll have a ton of videos coming out within the next week or so :) Like this one on how to use Hot Rollers to get Bombshell Curls! Quick, cute and easy with low heat!

xoxo, Morgan 

LOTD: Pretty Gold, Bronze, and Copper Smokey Eye Makeup Tutorial

This look is something you could wearing during the day for a more dramatic look, or something you can wear on a night out! I love how bronze and copper looks together, and the copper makes my eyes look more brown!

So let's go ahead and BREAKDOWN how I achieved this look :)

First, I applied my foundation and primed my eyes with my NYX HD Eyeshadow Primer!

Once I had gotten that all over my eye area, I took my MAC Indian Wood Paint Pot and smooth that over my eyelid.

I took the bronze color below and place that right on top of the indian wood paint pot. 

I took the yellow-y/gold color below and put that on the inner part of my eyelid and the inner part of my lower lashline. 

I took the light, matte-brown color (lower left hand side) from this Tarte palette that came in the "Art of Giving" set. I blended that into my crease to soft the edges of the Indian wood and bronze color. 

I, then, took this matte darker brown color (top right hand corner) and put it on my outer "v" area of my eyelid and ran it under the outer part of the lower lashline.

To help blend and soften everything, I took this matte, medium brown and blended into my crease on top of the light matte brown. It just makes the makeup look a little more blended and uniform :)

I use MAC's Blacktrack Fluid line (in the picture above with the Indianwood paint pot) and created a cat eye along my lashline. I then filled in the waterline with the eyeliner below. I believe it's from Covergirl, but the writing has smudged off of the packaging. haha.

I applied my Neutrogena Healthy Volume Mascara to finish the eye makeup!

 I contoured and bronzed my face with my Physician's Formula Glow Boosting Airbrushing Bronzing Veil (phew what a mouthful!).

And put MAC's blush in "blush baby" on my cheeks, slightly on top of the bronzer.

And on my lips, I wore Revlon's lipstick in the color "Demure" (*this is one of my favorite lipsticks of all time!)

Hope you guys enjoyed this look! :)

xoxo, Morgan 

The Travel Breakdown: Study Abroad in Paris; Pétanque, Galeries Lafayette, Saint-Chapelle

By day 22 of my study abroad experience in Paris, we were back from Normandy and Brittany. The weather was much warmer (around 85 degrees!) in the city than near the coast. We continued to resume our normal routine and got pastries and coffee at Aux Castelblangeois and went to class. After class, our whole study abroad group participated in a game of Pétanque. Evidently, this game is a popular French game. It's similar to bocce ball. It was pretty hot and we were all still tired from a weekend away, so we weren't really into the game. After playing for a while, we stopped by the Carrefour to pick up things to eat for dinner, and then went back to the Cité Universitaire and ate dinner. This day was pretty uneventful just because we were still recovering from the exciting weekend.

After class on day 23, a group of us went to the Galeries Lafayette shopping mall. This is a huge, 10 story mall that features all kinds of designer brands. I've visited this mall in the past (before I studied abroad in Paris, I had visited Paris during the summer of 2011 for a couple of days) so I just walked around and looked. This mall is pretty impressive if you've never visited before, so if you're big on shopping, definitely stop by!

We walked around the mall for a couple hours and went back to the Cité Universitaire to get ready for the opera. We got all dressed up and headed over to the famous La Sainte Chapelle to watch a performance around 6:30 pm. The performance was a Renaissance-style concert, and featured songs the royalty of France would have listened to centuries ago. I loved this performance because it made me feel like I was French royalty! Definitely something you should look into if you ever visit Paris :)

After watching the performance, we wandering around Paris at night! So beautiful!

After we finished watching the performance, we wandered the city and got late-night crepes. We walked around the Notre Dame, which is my favorite place to visit at night. I love how they illuminate the beautiful church. It literally looks like it came straight from a fairytale :) By the way, if you ever visit the Notre Dame, you MUST stop by an ice cream parlor called Berthillon. It's on the Île Saint-Louis (if you need to, Google it!) and try the salted caramel ice cream! That's the best one in my opinion :)

What do you think of this series so far?

Read my next post about The Academy of Beers and great eats in Paris!

xoxo, Morgan

The Travel Breakdown: Study Abroad in Paris; Normandy, Brittany, St. Malo, Omaha Beach

For days 19-21, my study abroad group and I went on an excursion to Normandy and Brittany. This was an optional excursion, and was an additional $300 to go on. This weekend was DEFINITELY worth the money though! This was easily my absolute favorite part of the whole experience.

On day 19, we all loaded up on nice charter busses and headed to Brittany. On the way, we stopped at Mont St. Michel. This place is magical. It's kind of hard to explain but it's close to the coast. When the tides come in at certain times during the year, the whole city and monastery (which sits on a mountain) is surrounded by water. This makes is kind of an island...kind of not. Look up information on this area if you're interested because it's a little difficult for me to explain. Anyways, we walked around the quant little city, which has only one main path up the mountain to the monastery on top. Once we got to the monastery at the top of Mont St. Michel, we got a tour. The inside was obviously magnificent, and the views were to die for!

The view walking up to Mont St. Michel

The monastery at the top of Mont St. Michel

You can see how the ocean in the background! During certain times of the year, Mont St. Michel is surrounded by water!

The garden in the center of the monastery

Michael and I by the courtyard of the monastery

After our tour and lunch, we hopped back into the tour bus and arrive at our destination in St. Malo. St Malo is a really neat area because the whole city is surrounded in castle walls. It's literally an area frozen in history and has a ton of character. If you can make the trip out here, definitely try! It's such a fun little beach city and it was really refreshing to get outside of the busy city.

The sunset at St. Malo

The view while walking around the walls of St. Malo. The ocean here was is so beautiful! You can see they built a pool into the ocean in the background, complete with a diving board! 

Walking along the walls surrounding the city on our first day in St. Malo.

You can see how St. Malo is truly a "beach city". 

On day 20 of my study abroad experience, we got an official tour of St. Malo in the morning. We then got into our charter busses and visited the city of Dinan. This place literally looks like the city from The Beauty and the Beast. We walked around this city for a bit, got lunch, and headed back to St. Malo. This day was also Michael's 21st birthday, so I ran out to a local bakery and bought him a cake. We then got a HUGE group of us together and went out to dinner. We at a place called Cafe Simon, and got a preset meal. Preset meals are really popular in France, and they'll give you an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert for a set price.. you just have to pick from options they provide. There's usually 3-4 options for each course. I tried duck for the first time, which was really good! I liked this place because it was a fair price and good food. They also brought us complimentary macaroons :) To end the night, we all walked along the beach and watched as the tide came in.

Some of my fav girls on the trip! :) Had a blast with these ladies. The picture is really grainy because it was actually pitch dark when we took this picture....we just held really still and had a long shutter speed :) haha

Michael and Eric decided to jump in! haha

Our group at Cafe Simon for Michael's 21st birthday in St. Malo

He couldn't resist. Haha. You can kind of see my dinner, which was duck!

Day 21 of my study abroad in Paris was the last day of the excursion. We got on our charter bus and visited Omaha Beach on the way back. This was really fun for me because I'm a huge history buff. We got to see where the landing of D-Day was and saw all the war memorials. I took some sand back to the United States with me from Omaha Beach! They also a store where they sold vintage war memorabilia. I found a gun clip holder with a soldier's name on it so I bought it for about 30 euros and brought that back as well for my dad. He loved it :)

Michael and I walking along Omaha Beach... We were looking for neat looking rocks and shells to take home with us as souvenirs!

Literally, this excursion was the highlight of my trip. Everything we did was incredible, and I would really like to visit again one day. So much history and it's really nice to see another side of France.

Would you ever visit these places?

Read my next post on Petanque (a French game), La Galeries Lafayette (HUGE department store), and Saint-Chappelle.

xoxo, Morgan