NAILS | Dior Coral Pop with Butterflies #CBBxManiMonday

 

Purchased by me

June is here and we are officially halfway through 2025! How crazy is that? The last 6 months has absolutely flown by both at work and in my personal life and I am looking forward to summer! My birthday is in a month which means vacation and annual birthday shopping spree is coming up so lots to look forward to. It has also been 6 month at work where for the first time in YEARS, I am actually enjoying the "managing people" part of my job in terms of educating the staff by putting together what I think are fun features and benefits emails, but for jewelry! It is the first time I have ever seen anyone do this in our location and I can only hope that the staff find this information useful. We have almost the perfect team and I say that in the sense that we have half a team of people who are keen to learn and care and the other half who are riding this job out until retirement so it is extremely hard to get ANYTHING from them. They make mistake and they don't really care to improve or apologize, BUT they are the most senior members of the team and currently the most knowledgeable since everyone else is so new. This situation is definitely loads better than the having the awful and toxic employee we used to have (thank God she left in December!), but still leaves us with questions on how to move forward.

NAILS | Bright and Blue #CBBxManiMonday

Press sample

We are all complaining in Vancouver about how we don't have a summer yet (I wore a merino wool sweater into work yesterday!), I am trying to enjoy our sub 20 degree weather as I love being able to still sleep at night with the covers on! However, I am enjoying being able to go "full Summer" with all of these summer nail polish collections!

NAILS | Summa-time Has Arrived! #CBBxManiMonday

Press samples

I recently received the new summer Morgan Taylor collection "Up in the Air" and I loved everything about it so expect to see many manicures over the next three months with this collection! I know this manicure is a bit late for the week, but wow has it been hard to sit down and focus this last week! I come home and I just cannot envision myself sitting and typing and my time off has been filled with running errands and cleaning out my closet even though I SO WANT to sit down and blog about all of these new beauty things that have entered my life! I have some time off coming up at the end of the month so I am hoping to make a small dent in things then!

SKINCARE | Bondi Sands Pure Self Tanning Sleep Mask

Press sample

I had planned on talking about self tanners and being glowy for summer a loooong time ago having tested this Bondi Sands Self Tanning Sleep Mask back in July when I was on vacation, but fate intervened and all things beauty were put on hold for a bit. I guess we still want to look glowy in the dead of winter so maybe this product can still be of use to some of you!

SKINCARE | The Clarins Sunscreen Collection

 

Is it too late for me to talk about sunscreens? Never! Just when I thought Vancouver was going to be done with the heat, we got slapped with one more heat wave last week! Now, we are back to our somewhat wet and gloomy weather, but that's ok because the air quality was getting pretty bad and parts of BC were literally on fire so hopefully Northern BC gets some relief soon. As always, I get a little sunscreen crazy every year trying new textures and brands and with the last year and half focusing more on skincare, I have found myself devouring different sunscreens as it has literally been the last thing I put on my face as my makeup routine no longer involves foundation or other face makeup. Sigh, how the pandemic has changed things! 

Press samples provided

NAILS | Inspired by the Clarins Frozen Summer Eyeshadow Palette #CBBxManiMonday

While some may look to nature for inspiration, beauty packaging holds so much potential for nail art inspiration and has been incredibly fun to create and when I saw the new Clarins Frozen collection, I picked up this eyeshadow palette, looked at it and knew it had to somehow end up on my nails. For the first time in awhile, I did my nails ahead of time mainly because I got my second vaccine shot on Sunday morning and I wanted to be prepared "in case I went down"! While I could be fine, I also could be very much NOT fine! I have today off as well and I am prepared to hunker down and sit in front of Netfllix should my condition go South!

 

Polishes purchased by me. Clarins Eyeshadow Palette is a PR sample.

SHEET MASK | Ultru I'm Sorry For My Skin S.O.S Jelly Mask

Have I mentioned how much I love my FaceTory subscription? I have discovered so many cool brands and masks that every month has me so excited to put all this stuff on my face! Though I discovered the brand Ultru through the Beauteque mask subscription and subsequently fell hard for the clay sheet mask, Facetory also carries the brand and included a summery-looking jelly mask in the August 2018 box that I finally tried out this past July! Hey, don't judge me! At least it wasn't expired and even then, I would probably would still put it on my face!

Purchased by me as part of the FaceTory yearly subscription

SHEET MASK | FaceTory Sun Bae Soothing Mask

I will be honest that I haven't gone out in the sun much this year. This whole summer I have pretty much worked and stayed inside since I feel like I don't spend that much time at home. I had a ton of plans to outfit the patio with summer chairs and tables at the end of June and while I did get the patio cleaned up, everything in June fell to the wayside when Hemingway got sick. Since then, my motivations for getting things done have gone downhill and while I wouldn't say I've been wallowing and doing nothing, my picturesque view of a carefree summer has been tainted and I will always think of "Summer 2019" as one of loss. Throughout all of this, there have been small joys with friends and thankfully beauty which will always be a source of enjoyment for me.

Purchased by me

SUNSCREEN | Five New Sunscreens That Have Wowed Me!

How the hell are we in AUGUST right now? The summer feels like it has just begun and with this heat, I am totally feelin' the summer burn. I know it doesn't stay warm in Vancouver for very long so I should really be enjoying this, but the air has been feeling really heavy and muggy which I can't stand so I hope things lighten up a bit! This post has been a long time coming and now that we are in the throes of summer it seems a good a time as any to chit chat about some new (and maybe not so new) favourite sunscreens that I have been reaching for this season!

Some PR samples featured and are indicated with *

NAILS | A Kitty Tribute #CBBxManiMonday

It's hard to believe that the last time I posted, I had mentioned dealing with a sick kitty and now Hemingway is gone...the last two weeks have felt both too fast and incredibly long with Hemi going from a being a normal 4 year old kitty who loved food to being diagnosed with lymphoma in the liver and spleen 2 weeks later. We only said goodbye to him this past Wednesday and yet it feels like so long ago. He was such a special cat in the sense that he was kind of slow when it came to certain things and he never had the typical conniving cat face. He was such a child in his behaviour that you always knew what he was thinking and never had a menacing bone in his body. He was just so simple and uncomplicated which is why we felt so badly when he got really sick. Having to put furbabies down has still got to be one of the worst things anyone needs to do and even though I don't have kids of my own, even friends of mine who are parents find it just as awful. I love cats so I will always have them in my life, but I guess I was just expecting to be doing this every decade, but life goes on and I will never forget my first black kitty.

Inspiration was lacking this week, but I wanted to feel somewhat normal again and join in on today's CBBxManiMonday so in remembrance of Hemi and his black bean toes, here are some paw prints <3

PR sample

EXPERIENCE | Visiting Steveston and My Much Cooler Momma!

As some of you know, I took a staycation last week to celebrate my birthday on Canada Day and do some major cleanup of the Beauty Room. I also had a crown done which made me very grumpy as even today my gums are still sore from the procedure. In addition to all of the things I HAD to do, I also decided it was time for my husband and I to take a day out in Steveston, Richmond which is where TV show "Once Upon a Time" and the new Power Rangers movie were shot (FYI!). I don't often visit Richmond as I despise driving in the area and by transit, Steveston is exactly 1.5 hours of Seabus, Skytrain and Bus. It's a trek, but we had one goal in mind and that was to finally visit my mom's store - Steve's Board & Apparel Shop! 

NAILS | Subtle Summer Holo #ManiMonday

I know, I know, it's not Monday anymore, but I guess because of the long weekend today is Monday for a lot of people. I actually have my weekend now so I'm feeling good, productive and also ready for the pedicure I have planned for later this afternoon. I haven't had a pedicure since June and although I won't let anyone touch my nails, I cannot be bothered to paint my toes. I enjoy the extra foot massage and for today's appointment, I added in 15 minutes of reflexology so looking forward to that!

I have posted a few times about the limited edition Cirque Colors Vice collection and after realizing that I hadn't used three of the shades, this holo taping manicure was born. Yes, I may have a slight obsession with using striping tape and YES, I have less lazy nail art planned for the month, but sometimes when it's all about the pretty colours like these ones, crazy nail art can be a bit distracting.

NAILS | Neon Colourblocking #ManiMonday

Now, this was a manicure that I felt I could still see even with the lights out! Continuing on with the Cirque Vice Collection, I wanted to put all of these bright shades together somehow, but lemme tell ya that neon nail polish shades aren't the easiest to pair off with each other because each shade is as equally loud as the next! Taping seemed like a safe technique to try and although I wasn't too happy with the final results, people I ran into thought this was a fun little manicure for summer which led me to sharing it here with you!

BEAUTY | The Live Clean Summer Beauty Care Giveaway!

I am not quite done with summer yet and even though Fall is slowly making its way into my wardrobe and makeup, I find myself still reaching for sunscreen, products to enhance my tan and my ever-rotating collection of TKEES sandals. Even though my last hair review for Live Clean didn't quite work out, these summer beauty products have been pretty awesome.

NAILS | Drippy, Trippy Neons #ManiMonday

I love summer brights, but I don't often wear neons because some can be fairly high maintenance when it comes to making them look good. I don't believe in wearing a white base to enhance a neon's intensity and a neon formula can be tricky with many applying unevenly. I didn't think I'd be wearing a neon this summer until the Cirque Colors Vice Collection*. Cirque is one of those indie polish brands that I treat like gold in my collection. Companies like Cirque inspire the mainstream brands and when Nail Polish Canada started carrying their polishes, my wallet breathed a sigh of relief that I no longer would have to worry about the 30% US exchange on my credit card!

BEAUTY | Summer Beauty with Rexall #SummerProofBeauty

This is a long awaited weekend as we have been very short-staffed at work which means I have been banking some very long days. Thank God things will be somewhat back to normal next week, but I feel absolutely spent. Normally, I would have headed outside to beachier pastures, but because of the horrible wildfire situation in BC, air quality in Vancouver is currently WORSE than that of Beijing so my husband's asthma has been acting up and even my throat and eyes have been a bit irritated from the ash that has been in the air. So, instead of trudging out to the beach, I will have to settle for staying in and occasionally popping my head out, but that doesn't change what are some absolute essentials from Rexall for comfortably enjoying the rest of this (hopefully less hazy) summer! 

SUMMER | Natural Sunscreen with Alba Botanica + GIVEAWAY!

It's finally totally acceptable to show some serious skin and whether I'm going through some sort of early mid-30s crisis or not, I have been craving some smaller clothing which means I need to be much more cognizant of applying sunscreen and WHEN I last applied it. In keeping with my ever-growing collection of green beauty products, natural sunscreens were never the best because they felt like heavy, pore-clogging creams that protected skin from the sun, but made you break out. It's interesting to see how much better technology is now because there are a ton of natural products that rival if not exceed the the performance and quality of the "big guys".

Alba Botanica has been creating 100% vegetarian products since 1979 and though I have used the odd body scrub here and there as well as the sunscreens from last year, but honestly it wasn't until these new sunscreens that Alba flew back onto my radar! 

MAKEUP | Mary Kay Summer Time Jewel Look with Swatches

Typically, summer looks are all about fairly neutral shades because it's all about showcasing that bronzed goddess glow. It's kind of nice because I feel like I can be a bit lazier in the summer months because heavy foundation and eye makeup just don't feel comfortable. I have already been living in ultra light foundation with SPF this month and it feels pretty good to be wearing less on my face. One thing I rarely do in the summer is pull out colour so when I saw that the new collection from Mary Kay focused on emerald jewel tones I was intrigued as to how I could make it work because I can definitely say that I have never thought of green as a summer shade!

FASHION | Prada Linea Rossa Sunglasses from SmartBuyGlasses

Sunglasses are an accessory I never really took seriously until I had a client who was an optometrist. She basically educated/scared me into protecting my eyes from the sun or any form of brightness deemed too intense for my eyes to handle especially when driving. Have you ever forgotten to bring sunglasses and then had to drive blinded by the sun? It is single-handedly one of THE most uncomfortable situations having to squint and make sure you know what colour the traffic lights are!

I don't know about you, but I pretty much feel like summer is here once June hits and with the ability to walk outside in shorts or just a summer dress I am ready to welcome the heat and sunshine with open arms which also means an excuse to upgrade my sunglasses game!

NAILS | Green, Green and More Green! #ManiMonday

Two weeks ago, CND Canada had their seasonal event to launch their latest summer collection - Rhythm and Heat to get us thinking about sun, sand and the tropics. It's set to snow yet again in Vancouver so thoughts of warm weather might seem like cruel torture, but my favourite nail polish shades have always been the ones for summer. Neons, brights and holos are my soul and this collection has got me all hot and bothered!