NAILS | Limited Edition Dior #628 Lucky Swatch #CBBxManiMonday

I honestly do not know what is happening to my nails, but they were constantly breaking in Montreal and then started looking super dry. I have a feeling living in AC conditions contributed to both my sore throat and my dry nails that week and I am still recovering - on both fronts!

Purchased by me

LIFESTYLE | First Montreal Visit Since 2018!

The last time I visited Montreal was all the way back in 2018 if you can believe it! I skipped 2019 and then of course there was 2020 where the whole world came to a halt and then air travel just looked overly complicated until around 2022. As someone who does not fly well already, routine is really what makes me feel better and having not flown for a few years at this point, I did not feel like doing it anymore. I had to fly to Paris in 2023 for work so that kind of got the juices flowing again, but since then I haven't flown - until last week and all in all everything was fine other than the usual air travel discomforts like Premium Economy being the same leg room as regular economy, delays at take-off and just weird people who treat the plane like its their own.

This visit was all about seeing family, especially our new nephew! We saw him our first full day in Montreal and he is a cutie! We stayed with my mother-in-law so we were well-housed and well-fed and from there it was just catching up with everyone, lots of socializing and lots of eating!

SHEET MASK | Anua Niacinamide TXA Serum Mask (K-Pop Demon Hunters Edition)

Purchased by me

As I write this, I have been back from Montreal two days and I am still struggling with the jet lag. I was up at 5:17am PST and could not fall back asleep so I went with the flow and just decided to get up. If I had been working, I would have stayed in bed as I am still feeling tired, but not tired enough to sleep as I just want to hit the ground running with catching up at both work and in the house! I made sure to do as many household tasks as I could before leaving so that we didn't come home to a messy apartment. We had a cat sitter come in once/day for the cats and she left everything really neat and clean so we were truly able to relax right when we got home.

EMPTIES | August 2026

Holy hell it's September! We are now basically welcoming Fall (I see red tips on the leaves outside) and officially closer to the end of the year than the beginning! Why is it that summer goes so fast? August went by pretty quickly as I was gone for the last bit of it and though I did use up a few little things here and there while I was on vacation, I had no plans on carrying back beauty garbage on the plane!

 

I used up FIVE skincare products last month including this entire tub of Anua Brightening Pads! I have always found these hard to use, but I really liked how nice these felt on my skin as they were kind of spongy (photo and review). I did it on days where I would wash my hair and didn't want to use a whole sheet mask so these were the next best thing! 

I used up SO MANY pimple patches because I got the worst cystic pimple on my chin back in July that took a week to stop spewing stuff. Now, I'm still scarred from it and you can easily see it in all of my mask photos. Granted, I have had these pimple patches for at least 5 years because I don't get a chance to use them very often, but they DO work at drawing stuff out and at least protecting the area overnight and encouraging healing. The Peace Out Skincare ones were by far the most effective!

Don't judge me on the makeup wipes. I have not purchased ANY makeup wipes in almost 10 years because I used to receive a lot of them in PR, but now I rarely use them and don't want to encourage waste. I am just trying to use up what I have and I still have probably 12 months worth of wipes left!

This might not look significant, but trust me, it is! This is a full size of the Smashbox Photo Finish Eye Primer where you only use a minuscule amount each time because a little goes a very long way! I even cut it up and was using product from every crevice to make sure this was REALLY empty! Pretty good product, but I have so many priming products to get through that I do not need to repurchase this at the moment.

I used 15 sheet masks last month is not bad for me now with my masking schedule not being quite as consistent as before. Compared to the sad two masks I used last month, this is a marked improvement!

If I were to include my travel empties, the number should be SEVEN, but honestly as these are samples I'm not too fussed. The sleeping masks actually come in packs of 30 so will see these again! 

Another month of skincare as makeup is truly SO HARD to use up in full! Why do we buy so much of it?

SHEET MASK | Anua Vita C Porestrix Brightening Serum Mask (K-Pop Demon Hunters Edition)

Purchased by me

I don't think I could ever get sick of the K-Pop Demon Hunters theme and now that Anua has partnered up with them on some of their most popular products, I will enjoy the gimmicky packaging and the ongoing song "Golden" in my head every time I use a KDH-themed product (and there are a lot)! 

SKINCARE | Solara Suncare Good Karma Dry Oil Mineral Sunscreen SPF 30

Press sample

Summer is almost over and I wanted to squeak in one last sunscreen review, which honestly, I was ready to do last summer, but just never got a chance to feature on the blog though I have mentioned Solara Suncare on my IG Stories quite a few times due to my love for it!

SHEET MASK | ElishaCoy Calming, Hydra and Lift Up Mushroom Mask Sheet Collection

Press samples

I am officially on vacation for the next two weeks! I will have one week at home and then the next we will be travelling to Montreal to visit family! My brother-in-law and his partner just had a baby boy so we will be meeting him for the first time! I also have not been to Montreal since 2018 so almost 10 years! This is mainly due to the pandemic and us not having someone to watch the cats while we are gone, but we are trying out a cat-sitting service this time around so let's see how things go!

BEAUTY | June 2026 Ipsy Original Bag

Purchased by me

I cannot believe that summer is winding down and already the Back to School advertising and mayhem has begun! It has been decades since I have gone back to school, but there is something about September that instills a slight sense of anxiety, excitement for sweaters and pumpkins and then before you know it, it's Christmas and the end of the year! I think the latter half of the calendar year just flies by because of how much happens in a short few months before getting the breather we all need in January. I am hoping to get a few more blog posts in before we go on vacation next week starting with this one for my June Ipsy Original Bag! I feel like the theme for June was "Prom/Graduation" with the taffeta bow inspired makeup bag which was cute, but not one of their nicer bags as I feel like the fabric would be hard to clean.

BEAUTY | May 2026 Ipsy Original Bag

 

Purchased by me

Here we are well into the second week of August and I cannot believe we are already this far into summer and I am still reviewing my May Ipsy Original Bag LOL!

NAILS | Manucurist Active Blur - Makeup for Your Nails?

Press sample

Sadness! I had another nail break which was significant enough that I chopped down my nails to give them all a restart which gave me a chance to dig into my archives and review a product I have been using over the last few weeks - the Manucurist Active Blur!

FRAGRANCE | Pacifica Strawberry Cream Body Mist and Eau de Parfum

Press samples

My husband said I smelled good and it was because of Pacifica's Strawberry Cream! This is high praise coming from a man who sneezes at most scents and tells me when our Dyson air filter is upset with something I have sprayed! I have been on a bit of a Pacifica kick ever since discovering that their Glow Baby Serum is now one of my most favourite vitamin C serums! Even though I have reviewed their sheet masks in the past, I have become a full convert to their other products this year. I have also reignited my passion for fragrances so when Pacifica announced that they had released new body mists and EDPs, I was totally in! 

SHEET MASK | Mediheal x BTS NMF and Tea Tree Sheet Masks

Purchased by me

I am cheating a little bit here because I have reviewed one of these Mediheal sheet masks in the past, but because today's masks had limited edition BTS packaging, I wanted to give them their own review! It has been about 7 years since the Mediheal x BTS collaboration was announced, so I think I picked up these masks between 2018-2020 and have been sitting on the reviews since. These two masks were the last ones in the boxes of 10 I purchased so it seemed fitting to give them a sendoff review worthy of how much I enjoyed them!

NAILS | Neon Flower Nail Art for Summer #CBBxManiMonday

 

Press sample

I swear I bring this nail polish out every summer because it truly is a perfect neon to wear when the sun is out and the temperature is well into the mid-20s! It has also been about a month since I have even painted my nails so it felt like a good way to start the month!

EMPTIES | July 2026 (So many skincare empties!)

Let's soft launch August as I realize that I only managed to blog 8x last month! Usually if I do less than 10 blog posts it is because I am sick, away or dealing with some sort of mental anguish. For July, I was just so sleepy on a lot of my time off and just wanted to get house things done instead of sit down and type. We have also been using my days off to enjoy the summer weather and enjoy some quality time so truthfully, taking a bit of a summer break has been welcome!

My empties bucket was overflowing last month because of these SEVEN skincare products that I managed to finish! Most of them were at sort of the 3/4 or 1/2 mark so I committed to using them the last couple of months and it paid off! I really loved the Kiehl's Herbal Cleanser, but it's a shame it has been discontinued. I also enjoyed the Naked Sundays sunscreen though it looks like this exact product no longer exists, but they seem to have many other options that I might try later on in the year.

The JOWAE Hydrating Water Mist lasted probably 6 months and though the cherry blossom scent was a bit overpowering in the end, I love waking up in the morning to a refreshingly cold mist like this one! I was sent two in PR so I will start my second bottle as soon as I am done with my current toner. 

NAILS | Into the Vault with Revlon Unicornicopia #CBBxManiMonday

Press sample

Seeing as how Revlon Unicornicopia was released back in 2017, I think I was given this nail polish at one of the London Drugs events and am only getting around to trying it now! The summer feels like a time to be nostalgic so I will diving into my box of untrieds from way back which will be fun especially for any of you who have been nail polish fans for the last 15 years!

BEAUTY | April 2026 Ipsy Original Bag

Purchased by me

This review I have definitely been sitting on because I realized by entire Instagram feed was nails, sheet masks, Ipsy Original bags and repeat! It was getting a bit samesy to me and it also made me realized that I have been beauty blogging without a real plan for the month. I used to LOVE planning out themes and such, but the last two years have been rough. Once I have two days off, I feel like I can think and feel excited about content creation, but then I create my plan and it all goes to shambles once I work 1-2 days. I definitely do not have the same stamina as when I was in my 30s! My goal with these Ipsy reviews is to catch up for the summer because I find summer products really are more specific to summer and it will let me get back on track!

SHEET MASK | Augustinus Bader Hydrogel Face Mask with TFC8

Purchased by me

I just wrapped up my one week of vacation and what I love about how I tend to structure my time off is that I leave mid-week and I come back on a Friday because while it is still a weekday, you cannot really follow up on anything because everyone is already packing up for the weekend! Then I work Saturday where I can have more time to catch up and then come Monday, I am ready for the week!

SKINCARE | Sunscreen 2026 Edition

Some PR marked with *

It's that time again! I used to use a ton of different sunscreens throughout summer, but in the spirit of reducing unnecessary spending "for the sake of the blog", I have stopped doing this as I have actually had to throw quite a few out because sunscreens expire. Some, I have continued to use as primers like the ones from Supergoop, but generally I try to use them all up before reviewing new ones and I think I've been doing alright! In fact, one of the sunscreens featured today has now been used up!

NAILS | We Love Purple #CBBxManiMonday

One purchased by me

As I type this, I am nestled in a blanket as I watch a live replay of Stage 3 of the Tour de France. What a vacation life right? For the last two years, we have done a one month subscription to Flo Bikes as they are the only place in Canada that shows TDF. Before, you had to subscribe for the whole year for something like $150, but now you can pay $49.99 CDN for one month which is perfect! I have tried to keep up with the other Grand Tours during the year, but TDF is truly the most exciting!

SHEET MASK | Miniso Comic Style Facial Sheet Mask Collection

Purchased by me

With a Miniso location a block away from my work, I go from time to time to pick up Asian snacks and check out Asian skincare and makeup. Miniso has a number of house brand sheet masks and a few months ago, I came across these very attractively packaged sheet masks that looked cute and had some fun-smelling scents.