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 | Candy Hearts #CBBxManiMonday

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It is currently STILL snowy, cold (-2 degrees) and I am finding it very cozy as I am off today, but yesterday was a little uncomfortable in the store and tomorrow will likely be as well. I just picked up a pair of skin-coloured fleece-lined tights which definitely helped in keeping me warm, but I would love to have an entire skin suit lined with fleece for the next few days!

NAILS | Red and White Hearts #CBBxManiMonday

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I just really wanted to have red nails that worked for both Lunar New Year AND Valentine's Day and stumbled upon this juicy red in Gossip Mag from Canadian brand Trust Fund Beauty! This is the old packaging from eons ago, but I am so happy that TFB is still around as I started working with them more than 10 years ago when they were first getting started and then I sort of lost track of the brand. This polish still applied like a total dream though and could almost have been a one coater! I added some hearts using a dotting tool (I wasn't the neatest...) and then I was done! I have actually received a number of compliments on this manicure especially for the shade of red!

NAILS | Last Round of Hearts, I Promise! #CBBxManiMonday

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I know Valentine's Day is long over, but I had seen this manicure on Pinterest (sorry, there was no credit given to who did them) and really wanted to do it because I have super long nails now which means more real estate for designs like these! 

NAILS | Velvet Hearts with Cirque Colors "Chemistry" #CBBxManiMonday

Purchased by me

I use the month of February to get the heart manicures out of my system because I actually REALLY enjoy them! I also picked up a bunch of magnetic polishes from Cirque Colors as I have now fallen for the velvet nail trend! I was never into magnetic polish before as the cat eye or chatoyancy look never appealed to me, but then I saw an IG video of Cirque Colors "Chemistry" in action and I was so enamoured with how velvety the nails looked! 

BODY | Stoic Beauty LoveTO Valentine's Bundle

 

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I have only ever celebrated one Valentine's Day on the day itself and that was when my husband and I first started dating back in 2006. I baked some heart-shaped sugar cookies and iced them with an Argyle sweater pattern (he was really into Argyle sweaters back then). We then went to IKEA to get some cheap furniture and ended the "date" with a Swedish meatball dinner at the IKEA cafeteria because you can't go to IKEA without having these delicious pieces of heaven! After 2006, if we did happen to celebrate Valentine's Day, it was on February 15th and after because I think it's so ridiculous how much more expensive flowers are and how much busier restaurants are. So, here we are two days after the infamous day of love talking about Stoic Beauty's LoveTO Valentine's Bundle!

NAILS | Hello Hearts! #CBBxManiMonday

Purchased by me 

Happy Valentine's Day! We don't really celebrate this very commercial holiday, but I won't lie that I do love cheesy hearts and the colours red and pink! I also find eating heart-shaped chocolate very satisfying, but I always buy it on sale after Valentine's Day because we know it will be 50% off on February 15th! 

NAILS | Happy Valentine's Day! #CBBxManiMonday

How convenient that Valentine's Day falls on a CBBxManiMonday! Today is the last official day of my vacation which I am both sad and relieved about as I realized that being super out of it for two days after having my Booster put me on a path of..."unproductivity". I was pretty much the most efficient in my first 3 days and then kind of lost it though my husband often says that I should just find a way to relax instead of running around taking photos and forcing myself to play with makeup. He kind of has a point, but I feel like the guilt would kill me if I didn't do SOME blog planning. I did do a relatively big clean out and gave away about 4 bags of makeup and skincare, but there will always be much to do! 

Cirque Colors purchased by me

NAILS | Pink Gradient Polka Dots ft. OPI Nature Strong #CBBxManiMonday

February is classically one of my favourite nail art months because even though I think Valentine's Day is kind of "blergh" in terms of consumerism, I do really love hearts, pink and all of the decorations and designs that accompany this "holiday"! I just received a package with OPI's newest line of vegan polishes and my my are they ever gorgeous! Coming in 30 shades, even just having the core collection will have you covered for all of your manicure needs for years to come! I found myself some Valentine's Day appropriate colours and though this isn't a complicated manicure, it sure is cute!

 

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NAILS | Valentine's Day 2021 #CBBxManiMonday

Yes, I know it's February 15th and Valentine's Day is over, but it seemed a shame to not have done any Valentine's Day-themed nails so here they are! I came across a screenshot of a Cutepolish tutorial in my Google search for some ideas as she often "borrows" from other nail polish bloggers without giving credit so I won't bother linking her video. I think in this particular video she has her collaborators doing the design so it's not her specifically anymore, but I have read enough about her in my early blogging days taking ideas from smaller bloggers, having those smaller bloggers fight back only to be attacked by her followers. I don't think it's hard to give credit to where you originally saw a design and though it's hard to call anything original now, I think you should do your best so if you Google "Valentine's Day Nail Art", a screenshot of her video will pop up should you wish to use it. The only thing I changed is making the pinky nail a leopard print nail. 

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BATH | Lush Valentine's Day Collection 2021

It's what we've been waiting for! Well, I don't know about you, but I always look forward to what Lush has in store for their Valentine's Day collection and this year is just as sweet as every other year. I am a little sad that I didn't get one of the new releases (the Blow Me a Kiss Bubble Blower) as it was sold out when I went to my local Lush store to pick one up, but if you do happen to get one, it looks like a lot of fun! 

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BATH TIME | Gettin' Sexy with the Lush Valentine's Day Collection

The eggplant and the cheeky peach are back in this year's Lush Valentine's Day collection with some new and old classics! I almost picked up the entire collection, but I reminded myself that I am trying to cull my beauty collection this year and STILL have not purchased a single thing from Sephora since December so I held back! 

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NAILS | Comme des Garcons Play #CBBxManiMonday

Yes, I know I am cheating a little bit with posting a ManiMonday on a Tuesday, but I've never been great at doing these way in advance and now even less so with work. We were crazed on Sunday so I decided to go into work an hour early to catch up on things yesterday and just as I thought it was about to happen (checkin' off tasks one by one), it got really busy with clients and before I knew it, it was closing time. So much for being ahead of the game! 

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NAILS | Sexy Emoji Valentine's Day Nail Art

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I wasn't actually planning on doing a set of themed nails, but after getting nostalgic about the days where I used to do more detailed nail art and came out with creative designs like the Trojan Condoms I decided it was time to challenge myself again so we had an easy, early dinner, I took an early shower and I plunked myself down at my station to do these "sexting" nails!

Some PR samples used in design

VALENTINE'S | Lush Valentine's Day Collection

It's that time of year again where you can't go out for dinner on Valentine's Day because all the restaurants are packed so if you are an old married couple like myself and KC, I will be making dinner at home and HE will be getting me jewelry LOL! I think after awhile you just want to spend time at home relaxing with people you love. I don't even know how to segue into the bath concoctions Lush has released this year because this year's collection is a little racy! All I can say is Lush, you make a girthy eggplant! 

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BATH & BODY | The Lush Valentine's Day Collection

I said on Twitter that I would focus less on Valentine's Day posts and more on Asian brands with the exception of Lush. I cannot say no to their seasonal collections and I feel like this year there are so many new things that even those who are boycotting Valentine's would have to pick up just for the sake of cuteness!