SKINCARE | New Pacifica Beauty Travel Minis!

Press samples

I would just like to say that I have not had the time/energy to generate more than 10 blog posts per month other than a few times last year, but from January to March of this year, I have managed to do it! I can't believe that at my blogging peak, I was doing 20 posts a month! I look back on that now and find that to be utterly insane! Granted these last three months, my work schedule has been ever so slightly easier due to sprinkling some "need to use" vacation days before the end of our fiscal year. No complaints though I will admit that many of those days off have been used to work on things for my day job up until about 2 weeks ago.

NAILS | Oscar the Grouch #CBBxManiMonday

One press sample*

My baby nails are still growing their way back to fullness so I was sort of at a loss for what to do for today's last day of green manicures. I suddenly thought of Oscar the Grouch and then found this manicure from 2 years ago from @aculednails on RedditLaqueristas and thought I would give it a go!

SKINCARE | East 29th Valia Cleanser and Verse Lotion Mist

Purchased by me

It has been far too long since I have featured this lovely Vancouver-based brand on the blog, but if you have not tried East 29th's Vital Serum, you and your skin are missing out! Since being introduced to the product via East 29th owner, Victoria Ferguson, I have gone through 4 bottles of it and absolutely do not plan on stopping! For a little while, this was their only product, but then came the Valia Cleanser and Verse Lotion Mist which I am finally going to review today!

BODY | Sol de Janiero Bom Dia Bright Jet Set

Purchased by me. 

While I do enjoy the Sol de Janiero Bum Bum Cream collection and the Cheirosa 62 scent, my husband does not. He finds it quite intense (I mean, he's not wrong) and starts to sneeze in the office so I only use my Bum Bum Cream products if he's on a work trip. During the last Sephora VIB Event in November, I decided to try the Bom Dia Bright collection and its Cheirosa 40 scent in the hopes that it would be more tame for my husband.

NAILS | NerdLacquer Crunchy Frog Swatch #CBBxManiMonday

 

Purchased by me

Happy Monday everyone! For the first time in awhile, I am actually writing this on a Monday as I am off today and a few more days this week which is kind of nice! Awhile ago, I had wanted to redo a few of the swatches/nail posts I had written over 10 years ago now that my lighting is better and NerdLacquer's Crunchy Frog was one of them!

SHEET MASK | Dermovia Rice Sake Matcha Hydrating Facial Mask

Purchased by me

Have we all recovered from DST yet and jumping forward? I swear it takes my body SO LONG to catch up now because I can never fall asleep at night, but then wake up feeling like death in the morning. What is exciting (for me) is that BC has decided that this is the last time we will be changing out clocks! We will have permanent DST which I love, but I also understand will be very confusing come November when all the other provinces "Fall Back" and we don't. Well, I guess the time difference will be smaller and maybe easier to work with when it comes to Teams calls for work or chatting with the in-laws!

NAILS | Happy St. Patrick's Day! #CBBxManiMonday

 

Some press samples

I have not painted my nails in a month and I missed it! As you can see, my nails are much shorter than usual as they have been suffering from multiple breakages in the last few weeks. They have been really weak and my cuticles have also been a bit of a mess so it's going to take some time for them to come back, but at least they have some shape to them for me to do a bit of nail art for St. Patrick's Day! 

SHEET MASK | Aceology Frose Infusion Gel Mask

Purchased by me

I keep saying that I won't buy more sheet masks and then I see something cute and fun and cannot resist! I saw these Aceology Frose Infusion Gel Masks as an Ipsy add-on and they were just a really great price! Normally, a SINGLE mask is $19.99 USD, but Ipsy was selling a pack of 4 for just $13 USD and they did not disappoint!

SKINCARE | FirstBase Skincare Clean Slate Cleanser

Press sample

It may be Friday, the 13th, but we're not going to let ANY bad things happen on this day because we are going to wash away alllll the bad juju with this glorious FirstBase Skincare Clean Slate Cleanser!

HAIR | SEEN Shampoo and Conditioner - Haircare that Equals Skincare!

 

Press samples

Have you ever thought of good skincare as having good haircare as well? That's what dermatologist-developed brand is all about! Developed by Dr. Iris Rubin, SEEN promotes both healthy hair and skin and is especially the answer for those suffering with eczema, sensitive skin on the face and scalp and autoimmune diseases. Instead of hiding because of reactive skin or hair, this haircare brand let's you be SEEN!

SKINCARE | TIRTIR 5 Actives Power Serums Kit

 Provided by YesStyle Glow Up Giveaway. Affiliate link.   

Twice per week, YesStyle offers an assortment of products that can be claimed on their website and added for free to your order of $29+. You can only choose one product and they sell out fairly quickly so when I wanted to place an order, I waited for a product I wanted to try on the Glow Up Giveaway and saw this set of TIRTIR Power Serums and had to try it! The product you choose needs to be reviewed within 2 months which is the perfect amount of time to see what these serums can do!

SHEET MASK | Black Timeless Control Clarifying Truth Mask

Press sample

I feel like I am almost working part-time this month as we are trying to use up some of my vacation days before the end of the fiscal year wraps up since we can only carry over so many days. I had a whopping 10 days that I needed to use which is crazy considering I have never run into this problem before and then we realized that now that my work environment is relatively pleasant, I haven't felt the need to get away! I vowed to myself that I would use this time to get back on track when it came to blogging, but I've actually been working from home as there is a sales target I would like to meet for work and though it's not a big deal for me if I make it or not, it's just something I personally would like to see on my file!

MAKEUP | Victoria Beckham by Augustinus Bader The Foundation Drops with TFC8

Purchased by me. Affiliate links.

While I have plenty of foundation to last a few lifetimes, I can never resist trying a bougie new formula especially when it comes from Posh Spice herself! Victoria Beckham Beauty has yet to let me down on any of the products I have purchased so when the "skin-first" Foundation Drops with TFC8 launched at Holt Renfrew last Fall, I had to pick it up during the Holt's client shopping event!

EMPTIES | Jan + Feb 2026

While I usually feature my monthly empties on Instagram Stories, I thought I would try a blog post just to get my writing juices flowing again! Instead of doing little reviews of each empty like the traditional Empties reviews of yore which took an incredibly long time to do, I will instead write a little blurb on what was notable - good and/or bad! 

 

Some items are press samples

Starting with skincare, I finished four full-sized products with the Tata Harper Hydrating Floral Essence being my 6th bottle so it will continue to be a skincare staple! The Vichy Mineral 89 Booster is kind of like a serum, but I treat it more like an essence as there aren't necessarily any active ingredients. but it does create a hydrated canvas for layering additional products. The East 29th Vitamin C Serum is one of my all-time favourite serums, so I already have two in my backup stash! 

HOBBIES | February Pixyls Projects

 

Purchased by me. Affiliate links.

I probably Pixyl more than I blog at this point mainly because it is a passive and meditative activity I can do when my brain is dead after work. I love Pixyling before bed with a cozy beauty or minimalist YouTube video from JenLuv or Simple Happy Zen. Every month, Pixyls has a little contest where everyone can submit, through the Discord channel, a photo or video of their completed Pixyls and win 250 Pix points.The points count towards various discount levels of 5% (500 points), 10% (1000 points), 15% (1500 points) or 20% (2000 points). I generally hold out for 2000 as it makes the most sense to me, but I also probably buy more than I should! This photo above was my February submission and as you can tell it was cat-themed!

BODY | Loopha Chalk Hand and Body Powder Wash

Purchased by me

Leave it up to Deciem to come up with some strange packaging to house a strange product! I was on my lunch break one day at the Deciem store (it's next door to my work) and saw one of Deciem's many brands that I had not seen before - Loopha! Loopha focuses on fragrance by "activating atmospheres by scenting areas of daily life and filling them with function".  

MAKEUP | L'Oreal Faux Brow with Before and After Video Application

Press sample. Affiliate links.

I have been feeling incredibly nostalgic the last few months which has led me to looking at products I loved back in the heyday of "beauty influencing" as well as going back to watching beauty videos from OG YouTubers like Tati, Lara Lee and Nikki La Rose. While I still cannot stand Lara's style of talking, I have not missed a single Tati video since she went back to her roots and away from the beauty drama of 2019. With my renewed interest in a classic beauty video, I was recommended Nikki's videos and while they can be very long and wordy, she seems genuine in her product recommendations so when she went on and on about how amazing the L'Oreal Faux Brow was, I put it on my list to try not realizing I had had it sitting in a box of PR since August 2025. I know, shame on me!

HAIR | Pantene Miracle Intense Rescue Shots Dry Hair Treatment

Purchased by me. Affiliate links.

With my hair being as coarse and dry as it has been since puberty hit, hair masks and treatments have always been an absolute MUST in my haircare routine and I have reviewed A LOT of them here! I haven't really thought about drugstore options since the Garnier Fructis 1 Minute Hair Masks, but do you know who told me to pick up these Pantene Miracle Intense Rescue Shots? My very own husband! He saw them at London Drugs and said to me "Those are probably good you should try them". When I asked why, he responded by saying "Well, Pantene always does good hair stuff, right?" Yes, yes the do.

NAILS | L'Occitane Shea Nail and Cuticle Oil (aka The Winter Saviour!)

 

Provided by Butterly. Affiliate links.

Just when I thought my nails couldn't get anymore destroyed than they already have been! We shall see if I can manage a set of nails this week as my nails cannot stop breaking, flexing (and then developing a partial crack) and generally feeling awful so instead of showcasing nails for the usual #CBBxManiMonday post, today we will be "nail adjacent" with a product that helps the nails look their best - cuticle oil!

NAILS | Happy Lunar New Year! #CBBxManiMonday

 

Purchased by me

Happy Year of the Horse! It has been a little bit too busy in my day job to have the energy to do #LunarFebruary this year, but I couldn't miss out on doing some red and gold nails for LNY today!

SHEET MASK | Garnier Skinactive Super Hydrating and Brightening Moisture Bomb

Purchased by me

I am getting to enjoy a true long weekend like a "regular person" today as I had requested yesterday off to attend a friend's bridal shower and now I have today and Family Day off so I am using it to do some blog and house chores catch up! Hopefully, I will not fall asleep as that's usually what happens on my days off when I try to get everything done all at once! This is actually the first day I have had off in over 2 weeks where I have the whole day to myself!

KBEAUTY | Lore Skin - Your Newest Canadian Stop for All Things K-Beauty!

Sponsored post

K-Beauty has truly taken the beauty space by storm in recent years and one thing I really try to do is purchase my Korean beauty products from Canadian businesses as shipping from Asia often takes longer (I have waited up to 2 months!), can get lost (granted this has only happened once to me) or you get hit with duties. This is why I was delighted to see Lore Skin, a new K-beauty e-commerce store based right here in Vancouver!

NAILS | Happy Valentine's Day! #CBBxManiMonday

Purchased by me

It has been a weird week for me. Throughout the years, I am sure I have mentioned Inventory on this blog many times and as of last year, we started doing it on Sundays when we are closed. We used to do it over two days - Saturday night and Sunday morning, but now it's all done on just the one day. While it's great to do Inventory on a day where we don't have to open the store, it does screw us all up for the week in terms of all of us thinking Sunday was a Monday! 

NAILS | Purple and Pink Flower Vibes #CBBxManiMonday

Purchased by me

The weekend is always done way too fast especially because I always work Saturdays so Sundays are truly precious. I usually sleep in on Sundays, but never really past 8am because my cat, Buster, has an internal clock of 7am on the dot for breakfast! He sleeps all the way through the night which is great though, but at 7am it's time to get up. Sometimes it's 6:57am or 7:30am, but this is the only cat I have had who has slept all through the night and wakes up at a reasonable time!  

SKINCARE | A by Bom Ultra Bouquet Patch Mask

Purchased by me

How are we at the end of January already?! While I was on staycation two weeks ago, I did a clean out of "items I have purchased and want to blog about". One of those items were these A by Bom patch masks that I purchased 7.5 years ago...yeah, I know. In an effort to rip off the Bandaid and USE stuff, I plunked these on my bathroom counter and started using them right away!

BEAUTY | December Ipsy Original Bag

Purchased by me

I was supposed to have a morning facial at Dior this morning, but my esthetician was sick which was kind of good with me as I really wanted to stay home instead of driving downtown. It's also a gloomy day so perfect for hunkering down and writing about my December Ipsy Original Bag! I haven't done much writing in probably two weeks as I have been spending a lot of my time organizing and cleaning and trying to do what I can just to have LESS STUFF in my life. I think everyone is really good at this in January, but not so good in July so I am hoping to keep it up!

NAILS | Wintery Glitter #CBBxManiMonday

One press sample

I had originally intended on spending my Sunday doing some blogging, but I ended up going through my craft bins and doing some organizing which took about 5 hours! It was incredibly tiring and then I always get leg cramps because there is a lot squatting, kneeling and just being on the floor sorting through things. I still have a few things to sort through, but bit by bit I will hopefully be able to reduce just the amount of STUFF I have in my house!

SHEET MASK | Village 11 Factory Daily Fresh Up Tea Tree Mask

Press sample

I must have been really tired on Sunday because this post was pretty much ready to go, but I feel like the day just went by really quickly and then suddenly it was 4pm, dark outside and I wanted a nap! Today is my day off, but I am actually leaving my cave and going to a Pixi Beauty event later on just to prove to myself that I can be social and because Pixi has some fun looking new releases I want to see!

NAILS | Sally Hansen Gem Crush Be-Jeweled Swatch #CBBxManiMonday

Purchased by me

Throwing it back again to Sally Hansen Gem Crush this week because this collection was truly an amazing release over 10 years ago now! I only wish I had gotten the whole collection back then, but I just had too much self-control LOL! 

FRAGRANCE | NEW PixiPerfume ft. PixiFig, PixiRose and PixiMimosa EDP

Press samples

I was watching a new Tati video last week and she featured these new Pixi Beauty fragrances and I was like "Did I hear you correctly? Pixi has FRAGRANCES??" Then a few days later, this perfect package of #PixiPerfume showed up completely unexpectedly at my door, I sniffed and then knew I had to share what my nose thought with all of you!

BEAUTY | Content Goals for 2026

I am a little late in finalizing my thoughts for what's to come for me and the blog this year, but I feel like from watching YouTube videos of both past and present creators I have been following that "having less" and focusing on things of value is the theme for 2026! For me, it was a already a theme for 2025 with trying to cut down and track my spending and what started with watching finance content eventually evolved into the algorithm recommending minimalism videos. The above photo is an example of a hobby that I kind of went crazy with in the last year, but what I like about it is that even though I have spent like $4000 on Pixyls since 2024, it's a hobby that stores neatly and the only "equipment" you need is a pair of sharp tweezers. I store most of my completed pieces in a big art notebook and that's it! Anyway, here is what you should be seeing from me and Cosmetic Proof this year!

NAILS | Purple and Gold Glitter Gradient #CBBxManiMonday

 

Some press samples

I just did a mass reorganization of just one small section of beauty goods and it honestly took a whole afternoon! I also have four different medium size bags of cosmetics that are being given to various work colleagues and friends. Thank goodness I know people of all different ages, skin tones and types because much of this would then go to waste! 

SHEET MASK | A By Bom Ultra Serum Leaf Mask

Purchased by me

It has been extremely wet and rainy these last few days so staying indoors and cleaning has not been the hardest thing in the world to do while I am on my "forced" vacation. I only say "forced" because the other manager and I realized that neither one of us had taken any vacation days since August! November and December is a blackout period for us in retail, but the fact that neither one of us had taken any was a bit of a surprise to me and then I realized that this is the FIRST year where we didn't have that horrible employee of ours! I usually would use a few vacation days every month just to escape work and seeing that awful woman's face/dealing with abusive emails, but now work is enjoyable so there is nothing more to escape! 

BEAUTY | November Ipsy Original Bag

 

Purchased by me

Oh goodness, I had all the photos for this November Ipsy Original Bag taken so early and then December got so busy that I completely forgot to test out the products until this month! I am off until next Thursday so my original plan was to play catch up as well as experiment with some new product, but then the clothing moths hit. I have been vacuuming like crazy, going through each and every piece of clothing I own to find out if any of my natural fibres have been compromised (my Dior cashmere scarf is currently in the freezer as I found two moths on it!) which has been overwhelming and tiring especially when I had planned to take some time off to relax! Next up, is now doing a massive load of laundry and putting things in the dryer to kill what I can with heat!

NAILS | I Sea You Wear OPI Swatch #CBBxManiMonday

Press sample

We have been doing this #CBBxManiMonday thing for 9 years now and while I haven't been the most consistent, I still do my nails fairly often and when I see them all done up even with just a plain nail polish colour, I feel super put together. This month's theme is simple, but I think one of the more fun ones - "Shimmer and Glitter"!

SHEET MASK | Pacifica Future Youth Time Shift Hydrogel Facial Mask

Purchased by me

It's our first Sheet Mask Sunday of 2026! I started doing Sheet Mask Sunday way back in 2020 as a way to stay organized about my sheet mask usage and lo and behold six years later, I am still doing it! Sometimes, I'm good about weekly other times not so much, but I gotta give myself a pat on the back anyway! I feel like I am starting to see the effects of being such a religious sheet mask user now that I am in my 40s as it's probably the only thing other than genetics that I use more than the average person. 

MAKEUP | Fenty Beauty Holiday Lined + Luminized 2-Piece Lip Set

 

Purchased by me. Affiliate links.

While I was making my Sephora VIB purchases in November last year, I made a little pact with myself that IF I were to make a purchase, I should indirectly "subsidize" the cost of it by doing a review and blogging about it. Yes, this was the idea with all of the other purchases I have made in the past, but I actually struggled to keep my VIB Rouge status last year now that I do most of my makeup purchases through Dior/Holts. I basically ordered 4x from Sephora - two of which were VIB Rouge events, one order of sale items to add to my birthday gift and one order to use my $100 Rouge Gift so it was all very controlled and they were specifically Sephora exclusive items. This year, I don't even know if I want to give Sephora $1000 of my money, but I am sure the beauty lover in me is going to want something new and fun to try out at some point so we shall see!

SKINCARE | Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum

Press sample courtesy of YesStyle. Affiliate links.

Happy 2026! We made it everyone! It only made sense for the first review of this year to be all about *GLOW* so here we go with the Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum!