T'is the Year of the Tiger! I am a little jealous that I am not born in this year because who wouldn't love a tiger?! I am a "water pig" and I guess there is something cute about a pig as well. Today's nails were inspired by this post by @princessscottage and it has been awhile since I have painted something quite this detailed and so late at night so Mr. Tiger looks a little loopy!
NAILS | Year of the Tiger #CBBxManiMonday
SHEET MASK | Ultru I'm Sorry For My Skin Jelly Revitalizing Mask
LIFESTYLE | Five on Friday - Jan 28 - Sephora Haul, New Candles, Wordle, Beekeeper's Naturals and Lab Grown Diamonds!
SKINCARE | Neo Naturelle C-Major 23% Vitamin C Serum, Silky Skin Natural Sugar Scrub and Aqua Harmony Moisture Infusion Complex
NAILS | Cirque Colors Cool Blast Swatch #CBBxManiMonday
SHEET MASK | Jayjun Cosmetic Gold Snow Black Mask
LIFESTYLE | Five on Friday - Jan 21- (Birch + Fog Order, First Book on Kobo, Yellowjackets, MaskerAide Haul, LEGO N64 Cube)
Putting five relatively interesting things to discuss for today's post seemed to be a bit of a challenge because between work, home and the pandemic, I have realized that I am incredibly uneventful and I don't hate it, but I feel like you will all read this and think I'm so full of it! I feel boring AF! I had a short four day work week which was nice as we are all trying to burn through remaining vacation days before the fiscal year end in March. At my work, we are only allowed to carry over five vacation days and amazingly enough, it can be challenging to actually take vacation over the year as you need to coordinate with other employees to make sure you aren't short-staffed and you also need to be around for certain sales events or risk not making commission!
ONE
MAKEUP | Rimmel Oh My Gloss! Plump Review and Swatches
Thanks to some well-timed days off, I feel like I have been able to reset and get back some motivation to blog a bit more regularly. Yes, we are only just past the middle of January, but I am still giving myself some credit for having some posts prepared and actually doing my makeup! I've realized that I no longer like doing a full face of makeup on my days off because IF I need to wear a mask or go out at all, I just hate getting my lipgloss/lipstick all mucked up. I also don't like getting my masks dirty and now with my opting to wear N95s that seem so hard to come by, I want to conserve and reuse them as much as I can. I guess there is nothing wrong with using a mask with some makeup on the inside, but I just feel *blergh* about it now especially because I'm in one for 8-9 hours. For this reason, I have been accepting much less in the way of makeup press samples or prioritizing posting about them because lipsticks and lipgloss are not a big part of my life anymore (and my wallet seems happy!). However, I got bitten by the "makeup play bug" over the NYE weekend and wanted to try ALL of the new Rimmel Oh My Gloss! Plump Lipglosses! It has been awhile since my lips have felt the tingle of a plumping gloss so I got all dolled up and tried on each of these pretties!
NAILS | Blurple Leopard Print #CBBxManiMonday
Here we are at Monday again, OMG. This is one weekend that felt like it just vanished and though I have today off, I was feeling so out of it and tired yesterday that today is going to be the day that I set out to accomplish EVERYTHING that I wanted to do yesterday. It's probably going to be exhausting and by 3pm I will need a nap! I did today's manicure while watching the first episode of the new season of Queer Eye and of course I was tearing up and thought the episode was so sweet! I love this new iteration of the series as it's never about changing someone to be who they aren't. The woman they were focusing on didn't want JVN to touch her hair AT ALL or even have him see it in its natural state and though he tried to reassure her that he has seen it all, she refused and he immediately backed off. I love that eventually she took his advice in 2020 so that when they went back for a follow up in 2021, she was showing off her natural hair!
SHEET MASK | Skin Republic Purifying, Hyaluronic Acid, Brightening and Collagen Masks
LIFESTYLE | Five on Friday - Jan 14 - (First Book, First Movie, Home Sick, New Shoes and New Norvina Palette)
I said I would "diversify my portfolio" this year and after thinking about the best way to do this, I thought I would take a page out of Renee's book (blog?) See the World in Pink and try doing the "Five on Friday" posts! If I can manage every Friday, that's great, but even just one Friday a month is something I would be happy with maintaining. I am also hoping that because the nature of these posts is to find five random things in the week to chat about that it will help me to appreciate each day a little bit more! It also helps the weeks from blurring together and having me feel like I have reached the end of the month not knowing how I got there!
ONE
HAIR | JVN Hair Embody Daily Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner
Have you all started watching the new season of Queer Eye yet? I am saving them for when I have vacation next month to binge! A couple of months ago, I received a couple of JVN Hair products to try out to celebrate the launch and I have been making my way through them with my first review being for the Undamage Collection. Now, after a solid number of uses I have some thoughts on the Embody Shampoo and Conditioner!
NAILS | Purple Matte and Holo #CBBxManiMonday
Today was my first time driving my car in a long time! I drove it back from work on Christmas Eve and then Vancouver had its snowfall and subzero temperatures. Without winter tires, I didn't feel comfortable driving in the snow and ice and I honestly thought it would all go away and melt a few days later as it normally does in Vancouver. Two weeks later, it was still snowing and while I have no issues with taking public transit, what DOES bother me is that I currently pay $354/month for my parking downtown which means that every day I don't park there is costing me money! So, last week when it looked like I could finally get out of my street parking spot that was never shovelled, I made it to my parking and LEFT the car there until today since my parking is paid for 24/7 and is super secure (I guess that's why I pay the big bucks!). My boss had given me some good advice in telling me that once I made it to the parking, I could just leave my car there and never have to dig it out of the snow again! Now, we are about to enter torrential "atmospheric river" weather so at least it's semi-driveable weather unless it floods...
SHEET MASK | Merbliss Wedding Dress Intense Hydration Mask
NAILS | Sally Hansen Miracle Gel "Under the Tree" Swatch #MidWeekMani
Today was an unexpected sick day as both my husband and I started feeling a little under the weather with headaches and for me, a mild sore throat and dry cough. Unfortunately, these are all symptoms of the very contagious Omicron variant so we have both decided to stay in for a week. The line ups are so long to get tested that since our symptoms are so mild and the wait time for results is now 48 hours, we figured that by the time we know for certain we have what we think we have, we will probably be on the mend. We have our meals delivered via Chef's Plate so at least dinners are taken care of and we have enough snacks to make it through. Even the cats have everything they need so we don't even need to go out for them! The only thing we REALLY need is a 9V battery because our smoke detector decided to do its super annoying "I'm dying chirp" at 4am which freaked out the cats for hours. I found Harper in some random corner of the apartment and she didn't even eat until much later in the afternoon. So, for now we don't have a functioning smoke detector until Monday when we can leave the house!
MAKEUP | Cheekbone Beauty SUSTAIN Liquid Lipstick, New Brow Gel and Limited Edition Gold Body Shimmer
It has been a snowy week here in Vancouver with a 20cm dumping of snow happening last night, but I happened to request today off so I got to stay at home! I only had to go out to return a library book and pick up some cat food so other than that, it was very much an indoor day. Last month, I received an unexpected package from Cheekbone Beauty with some of their new releases that I wanted to share as this is a brand I admire and respect for what they stand for and the actions they take to achieve what they say they will do! They are now in Sephora which is amazing, but I still prefer shopping from their site directly. Cheekbone Beauty has done SO MANY things to ensure their products are kind to people, animals and the Earth (read more about their sustainability practices here) with their packaging having changed a little bit from my last review to reflect these new and improved policies while still making sure the product feels and looks luxe!
NAILS | Purple Holo Taping Gradient #CBBxManiMonday
SHEET MASK | TSAIO Girls on Period Masks in Joyce and Jenny (Yes, You Read That Right...)
LIFESTYLE | Looking Back at 2021 (It Was Kind of a Crazy One)
I often refer back to my previous year's post for 2020 just to see where my head was at and now a year later, I feel like not a lot has changed AND that the world has changed. When I wrote my post last year, there was no vaccine for me yet and now after two doses and a booster to come, I don't feel quite as afraid, but now we have the Omicron variant to deal with. I think at some point, no matter how careful I am I will probably catch it as this variant seems to be much more infectious, but thankfully survivable for most. This past year has been somewhat dystopian in feel with the world being divided over vaccinations, vaccine passports and government mandates and I am thankful that most of my friends and family are fairly rational people.