Will & Grace
I'm so excited Will & Grace has returned to the air after a 11 year hiatus! I was laughing so hard during last week's premiere. Seems like quite a few shows are coming back: Full House, Roseanne, and Dynasty. You might remember that Karen was friends with Trump so the entire episode was very political which I heard turned off some people. Before the Nov. election, the cast got together to do a political PSA video, and that led to them thinking about doing the show again so I assume that's why this first episode was so political. You'll also notice that Megan Mullally has as slimmer figure since we last saw her.

The cast was on the Megyn Kelly show, the new 9am hour of the Today show and afterwards Debra Missing wrote in the comments under one of her instagram pics that she regretted being on there, here's the video. I think I was more surprised a celebrity was responding to comments on instagram! lol  The show has already been picked up for a second season so I look forward to watching! You can catch it Thursdays at 9pm on NBC or you can watch it for free online if you missed it. Reminds me of the good old days when all my favorite TV shows were on Thursday nights: Seinfeld, Will and Grace, Frasier, Without a Trace, and CSI.



Seal Team
There's a few military inspired shows this season, but the critiques seem to give Seal Team their stamp of approval. The show follows an elite unit of Navy SEALs as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous, high stakes clandestine operations around the world. You can catch it Wednesdays at 9pm on CBS.


I'm also watching the new seasons of Dancing with the Stars and Modern Family. One of my most popular posts this year is What's New on Netflix  and if you like Orange is the New Black I highly recommend the Australian version Wentworth. What are you watching this fall?

It's officially fall, I can't believe summer went by so fast! Every year I pull out my Fall Bucket List and look forward to all the fun activities this season brings!  Last year I joined a Fall Fashion Challenge which made fall a fun season to get dressed in for me! Here are my top 5 reasons when you should be excited for fall!

I like to change skincare brands when I finish a bottle of product so every year I'm trying something new out on my skin. I'm really lucky that right now my skin is pretty normal. The only issues I have is a few milia on my forehead and blackheads on my nose. Milia are tiny skin colored bumps that no amount of physical exfoliation will get rid of and they don't go away on their own. To remove it you have to make an incision into the skin, not like popping a zit where you can just squeeze the skin with your nails, you have to use a tiny needle.  Best to go to an esthetician and ask for extractions. But you do have a few options at home with chemical exfoliation in the form of light peels, BHA and retinols.

I used to love gel manicures, and thought it was the best thing ever since it didn’t chip as fast as normal nail polish and was just perfect for my 2 week summer vacations. Then I tried keeping them for 6 months and after wearing them for that continuous stretch my nails were so weak. After I removed the gel my nails wouldn't hold regular nail polish for more than a couple days so I had to quit nail polish for awhile to nurse my nails back to health, it was horrible let me tell you. lol Once they were back to normal, my nails used to break all the time and I never got any length. I very quickly got sick of how often I was thinking about them as they were always splitting and peeling. Then I heard about dip nails.

What is that you ask? Well it's not a new trend, it's been around a long time but wasn't talked about much. The dip nail polish is actually a powder that is sealed in between coats of wet sealant that dries instantly without a UV light. The one thing I hated about gel nails was that LED light on my hands and worried about the exposure to my skin since not all salons offer gloves for the process. Like gel, dip nails lasts chip free for 3 weeks! I could probably even stretch it out longer if I wanted to.  The removal process is easier on your nails than gel. You soak your nails in a bowl of acetone  for 15 minutes and it easily dissolves. The most popular brands of dip powder are SNS and Nexgen and thus it's often called one of those names instead of just "dip". The powder has vitamin E and calcium in it to help strengthen your nails and has no smell. I pay $40 to have this done and have been really happy with the results. The nails are thin to the touch but don't quite feel like naked nails when you scratch yourself. The whole process takes about one hour to do. I've done it 3 times now and am addicted!

The last time I had my polish removed, I couldn't believe how long my nails had grown! And they felt strong naked without the dip powder on them. Unlike when I'd remove gel and my nails would feel weak. The only downside of the dip nails is that the salon uses an electric file to buff my nails. Not sure if that damages them or not? The other issue is all the customers are dipping their fingers into the same jar of powder. I'm not asked to wash my hands  first, but maybe having soaked my fingertips in acetone sterilizes them?

I have a friend who does these at home and she recommends  this starter kit  to see if you like the process of doing it yourself. And she soaks off her nail polish in this bowl. I've been toying with the idea of doing it myself but don't want to commit to the start up costs of buying all the colors when I already have so many regular colors. But the idea of having dip nails without the filing done at salons by the dremel tool does appeal to me.

I am now totally obsessed with dip nails! My nails never chip and I'm finally able to grow long nails, it basically makes your nails bulletproof. And there's a huge range of colors to choose from including sparkle. With dip nails you only have to deal with your nails every 3 weeks and don't have to think about them because your nails are indestructible.  I have been doing dip nails for a couple months now and now my nails never break and seem to be very strong so I'm hooked!

Cookies and Cream has been my all-time favorite ice cream flavor since childhood! The other day my co-worker brought in two packages of Oreo cookies: Dunkin Donuts Mocha Oreo and Oreo Thins, both were completely inedible to me. First I don’t like coffee so a coffee flavored cookie is just wrong. And the thins are half the cookie and half the filling, why would you do that?

thins to regular comparison

My favorite ice cream brand Halo Top just announced that they've updated the Cookies & Cream flavor. If you've never heard of Halo Top Ice Cream, it's a low-calorie, high-protein low-sugar ice cream that tastes amazing. I talked about it here and reviewed their chocolate flavor. They only use social media to advertise and yet have grown 2500% in sales in 2 years! Hence no surprise Breyers is now copying them, even with their pint label design.

Breyers Ice Cream recently released it's new Delights low calorie line. Both Halo Top and Breyers are sweetened with Erythritol, a natural sugar alcohol. Both pints of ice cream come in at about 330 calories and have 20g of protein. Which tastes better? Well I did a taste comparison of the two Cookies and Cream flavors for you.

Halo Top is made with eggs so it has an off white color while the Breyers has a pure white vanilla ice cream base. The Breyers has larger cookie chunks so you you can really taste the oreo cookie. But this comes with more grams of sugar than Halo Top. I wanted to share the label from their website but oddly all the Delights flavors don't have nutritional content on the Breyers website. They label the sugar content in a tricky, non-straightforward way.

The Halo Top Cookies & Cream tastes really good, and if that's all you had you would be satisfied. But when you compare the two together against each other, there's a slight difference that crowns the Breyers the winner because it tastes more like real ice cream. While Halo almost, but not quite, tastes more like frozen yogurt. It's a very subtle difference probably due to the sugar difference.

Halo Top also recently announced that it has released new flavors that I'm super excited to try! Mochi Green Tea, Pumpkin Pie, Cinnamon Roll, Candy Bar, Rainbow Swirl, Pancakes & Waffles, Caramel Macchiato and Chocolate Covered Banana.

I found Breyers Delights and Halo Top at my local Safeway. I've also seen Halo Top at Giant, Whole Foods, Walmart, Aldi, Target, Costco and Harris Teeter. This wide spread availability must have prompted Breyers to enter the low-cal ice cream game, because let's face it they could have done this a long time ago right? What's your favorite Halo Top flavor?