NAILS | Autumn Owl Nail Art #CBBxManiMonday

Now, these are nails I actually give a *hoot* about! I said in my previous nail post that I have let the hand-drawn element of my nail art die a little bit just because I've been too tired for probably a year now to sit down for hours just to do one hand, but last night I wanted to draw again! One animal that I have seen for Fall that I have been too scared to attempt was the owl. Though my owls looked "a little high" as my husband said, I think they turned out alright considering! I tried to stick to solely nail polish instead of acrylic paint, but I feel that the owls would have turned out better had I used a more workable medium like acrylic paint. Either way, it was good to get my paintbrush dirty again with some drawing!

Press samples used

SHEET MASK | Neostrata Pure Hyaluronic Acid Biocellulose Mask

I took the last few days off as I had a bout of food poisoning that started early Wednesday morning last week followed by Inventory at work on Thursday/Friday and then ended with me having to come home from work early on Friday as the bathroom and I were just becoming too close of friends...I magically became better on Saturday morning as if nothing had happened so I think I just needed a bit of rest as classically food poisoning is 24 hours (two other people who were with me also got sick, but recovered much faster). Pre-pandemic Jayne would have continued to push to get blog posts and Instagram content out, but now I am much more okay with just coming and going in this space, though I still like to have at least 10 blog posts just for my own personal goal.

Press sample

NAILS | Fall Leaves #CBBxManiMonday

Hope everyone got out there to vote in Canada today! I was originally going to get this done with advanced voting last week, but I was too tired after work and then with Hugo's surgery happening on the 13th I was just too mentally preoccupied. I also didn't really know who to vote for...I usually have a pretty good idea of what platform I agree with, but I was waffling. Today I knew what to do so my husband and I walked to the polls and enjoyed some decent weather as the polling station that was assigned to us was like 20 blocks away!

Polish purchased by me. Water decals are press samples.

SHEET MASK | Vivlas Luxury Prestige, Premium Rose and Special Platinum Foil Masks

We've all hoarded a perfectly pristine lipstick or face product with beautiful embossing on it and I feel like that's what I did with these Vivlas Cosmetics foil masks that I picked up in 2018 from a little Kbeauty store on St. Catherine's. I understand that I have a slight problem when it comes hobbies and perhaps I have an addictive personality so back in 2018, when my love for sheet masks was at an all-time high I went CRAZY one afternoon at this place. They had a great selection and I probably dropped about $200 there just on sheet masks alone! Among my glorious haul were these masks from Vivlas, a brand I had not heard of at the time, and to this day have not seen much of. I actually don't think they do sheet masks anymore based on their Instagram page, but the packaging and fun looks of these masks was something I wanted to share with you all!

Purchased by me

NAILS | Quo Beauty XTreme FX in "Happy Go Lucky" and Weekly Catch Up

Not much has been happening this week as I took off the first three days to take care of my kitty Hugo and his dental surgery. I wanted to be there to drive him to the vet and pick him up that day as well as be around the next day should anything happen. Thankfully, our furry boo survived with flying colours or as the vet put it "had a very boring surgery just the way I like it"! Hugo had one tooth removed due to something called tooth resorption where the body starts to break down the tooth from within. Apparently it's pretty common and anywhere from 20%-60% of cats aged 5 and older will experience it. Luckily he only had the one tooth removed as sometimes they discover more issues once the cat is under anesthesia. I do try my best to brush both of my cats teeth almost every day, but I'm usually only able to get the top teeth and not the bottom which is where Hugo's bad tooth was. He was pretty grateful to be home and a bit loopy for a few hours. Watching him bump into things and walk with his back legs all wonky was funny to my husband, but a little sad for me to watch! Hugo ended up just chilling in his carrier until he felt better enough to emerge around midnight where he started to beg for food and ATE which was great! He's now pretty much back to normal! 

Purchased by me

MAKEUP | Avon x fmg Limited Edition Colors of Love Collection

This is not the first time I have said this, but I have had a really hard time wearing makeup when I don't have to. Maybe it's my new lazy makeup routine for work that has caused this or maybe it's my new outlook on blogging (Don't feel like it? Then, don't!), but I have found it more challenging to get mentally revved up for a full makeup look on days off. Last week, I suddenly felt like looking pretty around the house and just testing myself to see if I still knew how to blend in foundation and in doing so, I realized that the top half of my face is slightly more tanned than the bottom half that has been covered! I feel like I am on my way to something akin to a goggle tan! Despite this, I was still able to capture some of that golden sunkissed glow with the now not so new, fmg Colors of LOVE collection!

Press samples provided

NAILS | Bi-Colour Fall #CBBxManiMonday

I am a ball of nerves today as my kitty Hugo heads in for dental surgery. I know this type of thing is fairly routine, but I always feel so badly bringing my cats to the vet in general and then having him need to go under and deal with the post-op pain just makes me feel so sorry for him. He just needs one tooth extracted as I noticed last year that it was red and bleeding in the gum area, but he also needs a cleaning. He only just turned 7 so he's a young guy and will probably be fine, but still I can't help worrying! 

Bio Sculpture "Ornamented Arch" sent as press sample

SHEET MASK | Leaders in Solution Daily Wonders Masks

I am back with another Leaders in Solution #SheetMaskSunday this time with masks from their Daily Wonders collection! I don't really understand why this series of masks is called "Daily Wonders", but what caught my attention were the amusing, almost judgemental names of each of the masks! They are marketed as "mood masks" so whatever your skin is feeling, there is a mask for it which fits with my general skincare philosophy that parts of your routine can change based on your skin's temperament for the day. We're not always in happy moods every day and I believe the same is true for our skin so I like the idea of a sheet masks with the same basic formula with a few tweaks to match the mood.

Purchased by me

NAILS | Cirque Colors Game Over and Weekly Catch Up

Well, hello there! I think I will use these nail swatch posts as a guise to do more of a journal entry where I talk all about the "hot goss" in my life. Riiiight, as if there is much adventure going on in my life right now! I am still one of those people who isn't going out much though I did recently venture out to a friend's place to hang out for the day and she was the first person I had visited outside of my work bubble since the start of the pandemic! I'm not normally a social person so the pandemic has definitely fed into my natural desire to be alone and lemme tell ya, I have been eating it up! I have always found my day job socially quite draining so having all of my free time to decompress the last 18 months has truly felt so good. I still get tired, but I am nowhere near the level of mental exhaustion I used to be at. I also have a new outlook on blogging, Instagram and PR which has calmed me down when it comes to always posting, always blogging, always trying to get product and running around like a madwoman trying to do it all!  

Purchased by me

SKINCARE | Antipodes Baptise H20 Ultra Hydrating Water Gel and Culture Probiotic Night Recovery Water Cream

When it comes to my skincare routine, I am very much a serum girl. That is the step I focus on and generally spend the most money on as that is where ingredients are most concentrated. Without a serum in your routine, you will never get the targeted results you want especially when you get older. As a result, I constantly swap out my moisturizers depending on what sheet mask I have used that night or how my skin is feeling first thing in the morning. It is rare that I stick with the same day/night moisturizer unless I am reviewing something so when I opened up these jars of day and night moisturizer from Antipodes to try, I expected to just say "Oh, these are nice" and then move on to something else once I got bored or had something new land on my desk. What ended up happening was a true love affair where I would hungrily look at these two products and apply them slowly and methodically "American Psycho" style. The fact that I have not talked about a moisturizer on Cosmetic Proof for one year and have not given a dedicated review to a singular moisturizer in THREE years speaks volumes to just how much I have been enjoying both these creams!

Press samples provided

NAILS | Not Quite Ready to Say Hello to Fall Shades #CBBxManiMonday

I swear this was totally going to be a Fall-themed manicure, but I blame the discovery of this matte glitter! Why did Sephora stop making their own house brand of nail polish?! It was so good! First, there was Sephora by OPI which was so good and then came Formula X which I adored. Great shades, formulas and really funky matte glitter like this! 

One polish gifted and the other purchased by me

SHEET MASK | 23 Years Old Cocoon Gold Silky Mask

Going back to the beginnings of my sheet mask obsession, the 23 Years Old Cocoon Gold Silky Mask was one of the first brands AND masks to pop up as "must try" on my radar as at the time it was one of the few masks I had seen made of a super silky and thin material. Even just reading the name of the mask and the words "cocoon" and "silky" - you immediately want this on your face!

Purchased by me

NAILS | Cirque Colors Electric Daisy Swatch and Life Chat

As I write this, it is Sept.1st and I know I am not alone when I say that for some reason, this year's arrival of Sept.1st feels so much faster and more surreal than last year! Last year, we were still trying to adjust to life in a pandemic and with work, I was just trying to keep an open mind about an ever-changing environment. This year, we have vaccines, the introduction of vaccine passports, continued mask-wearing which means I have a a good idea of what life is going to be like until 2022. Maybe the summer seems to have gone by more quickly because it all started with a weeklong incredibly uncomfortable heatwave (without an A/C) and then only after that did I realize comfortable summer temperatures should be enjoyed to their fullest! 

Purchased by me