SHEET MASK | A By Bom Ultra Serum Leaf Mask

Purchased by me

It has been extremely wet and rainy these last few days so staying indoors and cleaning has not been the hardest thing in the world to do while I am on my "forced" vacation. I only say "forced" because the other manager and I realized that neither one of us had taken any vacation days since August! November and December is a blackout period for us in retail, but the fact that neither one of us had taken any was a bit of a surprise to me and then I realized that this is the FIRST year where we didn't have that horrible employee of ours! I usually would use a few vacation days every month just to escape work and seeing that awful woman's face/dealing with abusive emails, but now work is enjoyable so there is nothing more to escape! 

BEAUTY | November Ipsy Original Bag

 

Purchased by me

Oh goodness, I had all the photos for this November Ipsy Original Bag taken so early and then December got so busy that I completely forgot to test out the products until this month! I am off until next Thursday so my original plan was to play catch up as well as experiment with some new product, but then the clothing moths hit. I have been vacuuming like crazy, going through each and every piece of clothing I own to find out if any of my natural fibres have been compromised (my Dior cashmere scarf is currently in the freezer as I found two moths on it!) which has been overwhelming and tiring especially when I had planned to take some time off to relax! Next up, is now doing a massive load of laundry and putting things in the dryer to kill what I can with heat!

NAILS | I Sea You Wear OPI Swatch #CBBxManiMonday

Press sample

We have been doing this #CBBxManiMonday thing for 9 years now and while I haven't been the most consistent, I still do my nails fairly often and when I see them all done up even with just a plain nail polish colour, I feel super put together. This month's theme is simple, but I think one of the more fun ones - "Shimmer and Glitter"!

SHEET MASK | Pacifica Future Youth Time Shift Hydrogel Facial Mask

Purchased by me

It's our first Sheet Mask Sunday of 2026! I started doing Sheet Mask Sunday way back in 2020 as a way to stay organized about my sheet mask usage and lo and behold six years later, I am still doing it! Sometimes, I'm good about weekly other times not so much, but I gotta give myself a pat on the back anyway! I feel like I am starting to see the effects of being such a religious sheet mask user now that I am in my 40s as it's probably the only thing other than genetics that I use more than the average person. 

MAKEUP | Fenty Beauty Holiday Lined + Luminized 2-Piece Lip Set

 

Purchased by me. Affiliate links.

While I was making my Sephora VIB purchases in November last year, I made a little pact with myself that IF I were to make a purchase, I should indirectly "subsidize" the cost of it by doing a review and blogging about it. Yes, this was the idea with all of the other purchases I have made in the past, but I actually struggled to keep my VIB Rouge status last year now that I do most of my makeup purchases through Dior/Holts. I basically ordered 4x from Sephora - two of which were VIB Rouge events, one order of sale items to add to my birthday gift and one order to use my $100 Rouge Gift so it was all very controlled and they were specifically Sephora exclusive items. This year, I don't even know if I want to give Sephora $1000 of my money, but I am sure the beauty lover in me is going to want something new and fun to try out at some point so we shall see!

SKINCARE | Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum

Press sample courtesy of YesStyle. Affiliate links.

Happy 2026! We made it everyone! It only made sense for the first review of this year to be all about *GLOW* so here we go with the Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum!