NAILS | (YELLOW) DAY 3 OF THE 31DC2016 WITH Wavy Taping #ManiMonday

Geez, I am cutting it close with my Mani Monday post again though I did manage to edit one photo for IG this morning and share it with ya'll. Today was my Friday and worked a bit of a long weekend as Saturday was quite the night with my smoke alarm choosing to DIE at 2am. Of course, smoke alarm death = loud beeping. We didn't know how to disconnect it since it was hard-wired into our building and finally at 4am, the building manager came to disable it. I had to be up at 6am for work so that 2 hours of sleep felt like nothing. I actually packed a blanket that morning instead of a lunch because I knew I was going to be using my break to sleep in the basement of the building! I have not slept on the floor of ANYTHING since I was a teenager, but that's pretty much what I did and it was amazing.

The nap was a good idea as it gave me the strength to get these nails done! I wanted to do this colour combination back in August, but then I decided to save it for the nail challenge to maximize both my time and manicures. 

SKINCARE | Racinne Ultimate Youth Power Eye Serum Review and Giveaway!

I know it seems like I have been using random skincare all at once with my last skincare review being just a few days ago, but believe me when I say that since June I have been reviewing a total of four different skincare lines. I have given about a month to each which is adequate enough for a review (depending on the type of skincare product) though I would ideally like two months with one brand if I can. I have been steadily declining more recent skincare reviews as my face is fully booked until the end of the year, but one brand that made my cut-off date was a brand rooted in Korean skincare science and that was Racinne.   

SKINCARE | Ecocertified and Canadian with Zorah Biocosmetiques!

My mother-in-law is a big fan of natural products. She may not be quite as religious about skincare as I am, but I always like her recommendations because she is a more educated consumer and is particular about ingredients. She also MAILS me newspaper articles about skincare products. It's really quite cute because she used to do it with my husband all the time and when I received my first newspaper clipping I knew that I was truly part of the family (it was all about Korean skincare)!

For those who are unaware, my husband and in-laws are from Montreal so it is probably the one Canadian city that I make a point of visiting about every year or two. After visiting Montreal in the dead of winter twice in a row, last year I decided to visit in August in the heat and humidity. My birthday was also the month before, so my MIL held on to my gift until our visit which turned out to be my introduction to Quebec and 100% plant-based brand Zorah biocosmetiques. She knew that I loved green beauty and so got me the Maeva Body Cream which I ended up really enjoying!  

NAILS | #BCDNails CHALLENGE WEEK 18 "Plant Cell Puzzle Nails"! #MANIMONDAY

Apologies for not having this up earlier today, but these nails took a wee bit longer than I had anticipated last night and it was just too late to type up the post! I have now taken on two nail challenges though I am not intense enough to have a different set of nails every day! For Week 18 of the #BCDNails Challenge, the theme was "Border Nails". I was about to do a traditional set of border nails with a solid colour outlined with black when suddenly inspiration hit me. Aren't all cells "bordered" by a cell membrane? Thus, inspiring these "plant cell nails"! I had no idea how these were going to turn out as I have NEVER seen these done before, but I am very pleased! 

FRAGRANCE | Demeter Foolproof Blending Kit #CBBCustomBlend

Earlier this year, Demeter and the CBB got together to make us all master perfumers (here) with the Demeter Foolproof Blending Kits ($45.00 USD). We all had so much fun that we have partnered up again for each of us to create our own custom scents from blending to designing our own bottle label (Yes, there may have been craft time involved!).

What I have always loved about Demeter's scents when I first started using them as a teenager was how EASY it was to wear just about ANY scent. From Birthday Cake to Dirt, it all seemed to work and was never too much or worse, too artificial. If anything, Demeter always had this uncanny ability to replicate every dimension of even the most uncapturable fragrances. When it came to choose my scents for this experiment in parfumerie, I decided to go with two scents that I love in real life: "Wet Garden"* and "Salt Air"* and one where I had no idea what to expect - "Gin & Tonic"*. There are duo and trio blending kits available should you want a little bit of direction instead of trying to decide from Demeter's extensive 300+ fragrance library!

NAILS | (ORANGE) Day 2 of the 31DC2016 with Amoeba Nail Art

Orange is a tough colour to pull off as a whole manicure even though I love the vibrancy of it. Even though I don't often wear orange manicures in full, I took Day 2 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge to bring out my orange brights! I had a great time doing the blobbicure from June (here) and thought I would try again with orange and blue which are complementary colours! The blobs started looking like amoebas partway through so one became giant enough to be a buddy of mine ;-)