SHEET MASK | Dr. Althea Premium Squalane and Conditioning Silk Masks

This is going to sound crazy, but now that I've tried so many sheet masks (and will continue to try more in my lifetime until I am but a little Asian prune) it takes a lot to catch my eye. What caught my eye with these two Dr. Althea sheet masks was the fact that the packaging was metallic and...horizontal. I just thought it was interesting even though it's all just a matter of perspective, but I also had heard good things about Dr. Althea and had used one or two sheet masks through my FaceTory subscription and had a positive experience. I was also really curious about just HOW silky these masks would be and now I wish I could have my sheets made with this sheet mask! 

Purchased by me

MAKEUP | YSL Rouge Volupte Rock'N Shine Lipsticks

It feels a bit strange talking about glossy lip products since they won't be something I will be wearing in public for the next little while since they smear all over the inside of my face mask. While I don't necessarily need to wear a mask at work every single second like if I'm alone or working far away from my co-workers, I do wear one with clients. Even some of my matte or satin finishes have transferred and stained all up and down the inside of the face masks and though it might be easier not to wear any lip colour whatsoever, I do derive much joy from wearing lipstick and looking put together for work. That doesn't mean I don't wear glossy lips when I'm at home (because I do!) or that I can't still ogle some beautiful YSL Beauty packaging and prepare for the day when we will be rid of COVID or at least have a resistance to it. I just pray to God that there isn't COVID version 2.0.

  PR gifted

NAILS | The Ciate Denim Manicure #MidweekMani

When I used to work at the mall, browsing at Winners was a dangerous lunch time activity and a lot my beauty self purchases came out of that store for years with many things purchased on a whim or because they were "such a good price" only to be used 6 years later...like this Ciate Denim Manicure kit. This is when I am glad nail polish doesn't go bad! I made it a point during my 7 weeks off work to go through some of these kits that I purchased and because the #CBBxManiMonday team and I have monthly themes, "denim" never really seemed to fit it with any of them, but since I had a bit more time over the last few weeks, I sat down one night to watch Tati and paint a pair of jeans on my nails!

 Purchased by me SO LONG AGO!

HAIR | Conair Unbound Cordless Auto Curler

I have been back at work just one week and I am already struggling to write. This past week has been challenging and tiring both in just getting back into the routine of going to bed at a reasonable hour and getting up early (I am NOT a morning person). I rarely have breakfast so being able to sit down in the mornings and have a proper meal was something I truly enjoyed. I am also still trying to keep up with meal planning and baking since I don't plan on getting prepared food anytime soon. I know we want to support local business and restaurants, but the process of sanitizing the packaging the food comes in reminds me so much of grocery shopping that in my mind, it isn't worth the stress. I can feel that at some point I will want some takeout as I miss some of my favourite restaurants, but right now we are still enjoying cooking everything. I am all for buying a meal for someone else though so once I get back into the groove of work, I plan on continuing what I started earlier this year with buying from local and small businesses and giving to charity. I just got some cute reusable face masks from the Vancouver Aquarium for my husband and I as they have and will lose much of their tourism business this year like so many other places, but I have a soft spot for animals so I will happily support them. Now, I have totally digressed, but such is the way of things since this pandemic began so I'm sure many of you can relate!

 PR gifted from LDBeauty

NAILS | OPI Mexico City Inspired Flowers #CBBxManiMonday

Summer always has the BEST nail polish collections because everything is just so BRIGHT and I love it! The sad news is that now that I wear gloves at work, no one will see them except all of you, but it just goes to show that I do the nail art for my own enjoyment so even if I wear gloves most of the time ManiMondays are here to stay! Today's manicure was inspired by OPI's North American Education Manager Sigourney (@nailartbysig) as I had been looking for a way to use more of the OPI Mexico City collection and when I saw her nail art, I knew I had to give it a whirl!

 Polishes PR gifted

SHEET MASK | Huxley Secret of Sahara Mask Oil and Extract

My last experience with an oil mask was less than stellar, but that was mianly because I didn't realize that the Sephora mask was a cleansing oil mask as opposed to an oil-in-essence mask which, after using both now, are VERY different! I first heard of the latter mask after seeing a few kbeauty reviews on the brand Huxley, which other than having a very popular skincare line, also has a sheet mask called the Secret of Sahara Mask Oil and Extract. This is a blend of certified organic Sahara prickly pear seed oil and cactus extract that will level up your sheet masking experience especially if your skin is in need of hydration!

 Purchased by me

HAIR | Meditatively Washing my Hair with the Innersense Organic Beauty Pure Trio

There are A LOT of brands out there and I don't know about you, but with Instagram becoming oftentimes, the SOLE platform that brands get famous on, I am constantly saving photos to my created "Wishlist" of products to look into and try. Though I only discovered Innersense Organic Beauty through a Detox Market press box a few months ago, this brand seemed to have a large following on Instagram so I did a bit of investigating. I'm always in the market for healthy haircare that will be safe AND effective on colour-treated hair as it is still generally the salon-grade products that "cut to the chase" the quickest. Innersense seemed to be a blend of the two having been founded by husband and wife team Greg, the chemist, and Joanne, the hair stylist, and has since become a well-known and beloved brand especially among those in the textured hair community. The products are pH balanced and I kind of enjoy the philosophy behind the brand of treating the act of hairwashing and haircare as a ritual or "ceremony" as they would phrase it. I think of a skincare routine that way, so why not my hair which influences so much of my life and how I feel?

 PR gifted

MAKEUP | Avon Cashmere Complexion Longwear Foundation and Concealer

Nothing excites me more now than a fresh bottle of foundation to try out. I didn't always used to be this way with the first foundation review only appearing on Cosmetic Proof in 2013 because that is when I first used foundation EVER! Up until then, it was Asian BB creams or the Pur Minerals 4 in 1 Pressed Mineral Foundation because it was powder and easy to blend. Liquid foundations would freak me out because I was convinced they would be cakey, but over the years I have found that by taking care of the "canvas underneath", most foundations get a fair chance and give me a good idea of how they wear and look throughout the day.

 PR gifted

MAKEUP | Milani Amore Matte Metallic Lip Cremes with Lip Swatches

When I first started getting into makeup, it was the drugstore stuff that pulled me in. At the time I was watching Michelle Phan and Holly Ann get ready with NYX, Maybelline and Milani. Those were the brands I heard a lot about and I bought everything they used because they were the first Asian influencers I saw using shades that worked with my skin tone. Now, I have MANY women of colour to choose from which is fantastic and though I feel like I have moved on from drugstore makeup as a whole, there are still brands that stay on my radar because they do have some cult favourites that I swear by. When it comes to Milani, it has to be their Liquif'eye Eyeliner and their Luminoso Blush. I am literally wearing this blush as I type this! Now, I had never tried a lip product from them and why I decided to be adventurous and blindly buy these Amore Matte Metallic Lip Cremes I don't know, but it was on a lunch break at work and maybe I was feeling sassy. Regardless, they did not turn out to be something I would want to experience often, but they did seem pretty cool in theory.

Purchased by me

NAILS | Fun Spring Flowers #CBBxManiMonday

I have a Pinterest board/archived Instagram list of nail art that I want to do and with only doing my nails once a week, it'll be a long time before I ever check everything off the bucket list! This is why I love having our #CBBxManiMonday themes every month as I get to focus on one area for 4 weeks and try all the techniques and looks I have been interested in! Today's nail art features the brand Bio Sculpture whose performance has been rock solid with every colour I have used so far. Even shades I think would be sheer are opaque so you will be seeing more manicures with Bio Sculpture shades for the summer season because there are some really pretty colours!

All polishes PR gifted

SKINCARE | 5 Facial Oils That You May Want in Your Life

I love that facial oils are more common and seen as more acceptable in a skincare routine. I tend to use oils in place of moisturizer on days that I have sheet masked (I guess that's almost everyday?) if my sheet mask is on the more hydrating side. There are so many options and scents to choose from now that I realized I was using quite a number and hadn't really talked about them all in one place before so today I've got everything from drugstore to luxury beauty pricing!

 PR gifted

MAKEUP | Avon Glimmerkiss Liquid Lipsticks with Lip Swatches

It seems silly to think that it is very possible that no one outside of my home will ever see my lips again as they will probably be covered up at work and shopping with a mask, but I have to keep thinking positively and have faith that one day we will be able to show our full faces again. I guess for those of you who are able to work from home and take Zoom calls, then you might be able to get all glammed up and show off some sparkly lips with the new Avon Glimmerkiss Liquid Lipsticks! It's possible I may have grabbed one of these and baked with it on just to feel fancy because these guys pack a punch without feeling heavy. You can even eat your baked goods without the lipsticks budging as that has now become a VERY important requirement for me!

 PR gifted

MAKEUP | The Urban Decay Wired Palette: The Trials, Errors and Successes

Ever since my subscription to Seventeen magazine in high school, Urban Decay has had a special place in my teenage heart along with brands like Hard Candy and Revlon's Streetwear line. It was makeup that was edgy, something I could never be brave enough to wear or make enough money to afford. While I wouldn't call Urban Decay an inexpensive brand, I have always found that the quality I get is fair for the price. The eyeshadows have always been among my favourite formulations with every palette I have used being consistently solid in pigmentation and colour payoff. I had no reason to believe that the brand new Wired palette would be any different from previous ones, but lemme tell ya, this one is not like the others!

PR gifted

NAILS | Abstract Tulips #CBBxManiMonday

I have just gotten word that I might be headed back to work as early as next week as part of a limited team and I won't lie that I feel a mixture of relief that I still have a job, fear of how to stay safe and sadness that I won't be able to blog every single day, but it has been a good run! I know I won't have the same energy to do the volume I've been doing let alone actually schedule posts a week in advance which is something I have been able to do the last few weeks which I have to say has felt really good. Having the last 6 weeks off has been a myriad of feelings, but having the freedom to be in this space more has been very cathartic and a silver lining to the shitstorm that we will all need to wade through and start to understand in the coming months. No more handshakes, kissing on the cheek (I hated this custom anyway and it was only for meetings with French people) and what about if I need to help a little old lady who has fallen? This has happened before where I was the only one who rushed over so do we now just let bystander effect officially take over?

PR gifted

SHEET MASK | A by BOM Ultra Cool Leaf Mask

I started taking my sheet mask game REALLY seriously in the middle of 2018 and from there, I discovered so many Korean brands that took sheet masking to a whole other level. To this day, even with the amount of masking I do, there are thousands of masks I have yet to try! The quality, creativity and technology of Asian sheet masks has always been so much more advanced than what is available in the North American market with the multi-step masks being among my favourite examples of this. A. by BOM is one of the coolest and earliest brands I discovered and I cannot believe I have let almost two years go by without featuring them again!

 Purchased by me

BODY | Apothekari pH Balanced Natural Deodorant

Earlier this year, I pledged to feature more local brands and I thought I was doing so well until I looked back at every post I have written this year and realized that THIS will be the first time I am doing so! Granted, I have been doing a fair amount of it in my Instagram stories especially when it comes to bath bombs, but today is all about Vancouver and science-based skincare company Apothekari. They have a fantastic sunscreen that I reviewed last year and last Fall, after over two years in the making, Apothekari released natural deodorants! Coming in three scents, these deodorants are free of aluminum, parabens and baking soda with a formulation focused on pH balanced pits! We talk about using pH balanced products for our skin in our skincare routines, our hair and scalps, but what about one of THE most finicky and sensitive places like our underarms?!

 PR gifted

MAKEUP | Marc Jacobs Beauty Enamored Hi-Shine Lip Lacquer Lipglosses

As we have seen many times on social media, everyone deals with this quarantine in different ways and it has been interesting to observe how we all as a group manage every week. I do agree that no one should judge another person on how they choose to deal with what's happening and I generally like to keep busy as accomplishing even little things like taking out the recycling or emptying out the dishwasher make me feel somewhat productive. The two things I seem to have focused on are blogging and making sure we have some form of baked good in the house. It seems that having muffins, cookies and cake at any given time is VERY important to our mental well-being! I have also realized that makeup and looking good has worked wonders for my mental state and though I have taken a few days off to be makeup-free, I have been enjoying all of the products I never had a chance to take out of their boxes and coming up with content to share in this space! When I picked up this gift set of Marc Jacobs Enamored Hi-Shine Lip Lacquer Lipglosses probably two Christmases ago, it was going to be my first foray into his lipglosses and though I only opened up the package last summer, I'm glad I got the pack of 5 to play the field a bit instead of committing to almost $40 for a single lipgloss!

Purchased by me

MAKEUP | Playing with Some New-to-Me Purple Products

I cannot believe that I haven't been at work for over a month now as I feel like the last 5 years of my life have been so devoted to my day job that I never thought in a million years I would suddenly have the time I have to play with makeup AND the universal okay to do so! I literally can do whatever I want whether it'd be nothing at all, to a few things or to cleaning the whole apartment from top to bottom. Like most of us, I had more steam at the beginning when staying at home was a newer concept mentally and the "world" was my oyster, but now I find that even though I'm still consistently posting on all Cosmetic Proof avenues, I'm getting hung up on the fact that x, y and z are still not done. For example, I wanted to finish my crazy book by the end of April and I still have 400 pages left (it's just over 1000) and I wanted to clean out my beauty room, but all that has happened with that is that I've made MORE of a mess because I am rediscovering things in there that I want to blog about or use. I've organized a few beauty areas, but with my husband working from home, it's hard to organize when he is taking calls in the same space.

Some items PR gifted and are marked with a "*"

NAILS | April Showers Bring May Flowers #CBBxManiMonday

I did these nails on Friday afternoon which is a true testament to how life has changed as I don't think I have ever done a #ManiMonday early AND during the day! I never do my nails during the day because something always comes up where having no hands available proves detrimental like when I realized I wanted mushrooms in my omelette and had to chop very slowly. Anyway, this month is actually our flower theme which I did not realize as I snuck in some flowers last month because I didn't read our group chat properly! Last week, I used two polishes from the new Sally Hansen Pure collection, one of which I loved so much I wanted to try it as a full base for today's flowery manicure!

 PR gifted

SHEET MASK | Lancome Rénergie Lift Multi-Action Ultra Hydrating Double Wrapping Cream Face Mask

*gleeful laughter* Lancome has a new sheet mask and I am freakin' excited! This is a double wrap cream-based mask with 20g of moisturizer that promises to firm, hydrate and add long-lasting radiance to the skin. While this type of mask is fairly new in the North American market, as always the Asian market has done it before but I will say that it isn't done very often and is actually one of the most luxurious ways to sheet mask! 

 PR gifted