NAILS | Ikat Velvet #CBBxManiMonday

Getting on the computer to type has been at bit painful as over the last two days my left eye has suddenly decided to get all swollen. It started on Sunday night after we went for a walk and I just figured that I got something in my eye while we were outside, but when I woke up the next morning, my eye was swollen. I went to work anyway, but I was so self-conscious all day because now that half my face is covered, all you see are my eyes and eyebrows so if one of those isn't lookin' too good, it's pretty noticeable. Luckily I didn't have too many clients to deal with, but all of my coworkers noticed and were like "What's wrong with your eye?!" which made me feel a bit like a leper.

Some press samples provided

LIFESTYLE | Evora Sequin Cotton Masks

It has now gotten to the point where I am matching my face masks to my work outfits AND classifying them as "dressy" vs "casual". Please tell me that I'm not the only one who is doing this now? It has been hard buying "off the rack" when it comes to face masks with most being too big for my face and not being adjustable. Last year I had turned to Asian online retailer Yesstyle for some face masks that hopefully fit a bit better and had interesting designs. I was not disappointed!

Purchased by me

NAILS | Read Between the Lines #CBBxManiMonday

I am having a hard time focusing on "non-work" related things today. I keep thinking about what I need to deal with when I come back which is really frustrating since I can't DO anything until I AM back so my brain knows that worrying about this is pointless so I am trying to distract myself by working on my to-do list for the next two days. I did bake a new cake so that's something (an Apple Cake) that I am proud I tried and now it's just figuring out the blogging calendar which right now, I find pretty exciting. I love seeing what my month could potentially look like even if I always start off VERY ambitious and then have to remove stuff from the calendar due to time constraints. I use my Google Calendar to keep track of my blog and Instagram posts so it makes it easy to move things around if I need to. I started doing this at the beginning of the pandemic while I was off work and I have found it to be a really useful and satisfying tool to keep things organized.

Some polishes are press samples

SHEET MASK | A By BOM Ultra Night Leaf Mask #SheetMaskSunday

I am on a small 4-day staycation so I started it off on Sunday by sleeping for 10 hours. It was the first time I hadn't set an alarm for myself so just let my body do what it wanted to do. It felt really good to do although I always feel guilty whenever I sleep in past 9am. I feel like as we get older, we want to do more with our day and getting up earlier, makes me feel more accomplished at least mentally! So, it obviously isn't Sunday today, but I am a sucker for sticking to a routine and I have blogged about a sheet mask every Sunday since the pandemic started a year ago and have enjoyed doing this so here's to a #SheetMaskSunday on a Monday!

Purchased by me

MAKEUP | The Face Shop Rouge Powder Matte Lipsticks

When these Face Shop Rouge Powder Matte Lipsticks first launched through Avon over the summer, I was fully convinced that I would wear even MORE makeup at work because I now needed some heavy duty, long-lasting products to make sure things didn't budge under my face mask, but things changed rather quickly once Fall/Winter came around. I feel like a bit of a fraud reviewing lip products other than balms, glosses and serums now, but if I don't use lipsticks in this space, I will probably never use them again for the foreseeable future so think of my lipstick posts as an ode to what I miss about life pre-pandemic! 

Press samples

NAILS | It's Easy Being Green #CBBxManiMonday

Oh man was it hard to get up this morning...thankfully I had some time to breathe as it wasn't too crazy busy at work and I had a moment to catch up. I have been having a lot of fun creating content for my work Instagram and realized that I had a lot more jewelry Instagram reels than beauty ones so I decided to change that for today's #CBBxManiMonday!

Some press samples