Hi, everyone! Today’s post is a review of the Natasha Denona Mini Lila Palette, which I recently purchased when it was half price at Sephora. I’ve never really had an urge to try Natasha Denona, for some reason. I guess I’ve always just felt like I already owned enough eyeshadow palettes and couldn’t justify buying a ~$150 palette. When the brand began releasing their mini palettes, I was pretty tempted to try them since they were a lot more affordable, but I just never ended up buying one. However, when I saw that the Mini Lila palette was 50% off, I couldn’t resist snatching it up!
Hello, beauties! Today I have another installment of Feel-Good Friday because there are a lot of lifestyle things I’ve been enjoying lately, and would love to share with you.
I started watching the TV show Shameless two weeks ago, and I’m already on Season 5! I’m the definition of a binge-watcher, haha. Shameless was recommended to me by a coworker, who said it’s a really funny show. It centers around the Gallagher family, which includes 6 kids and their deadbeat alcoholic father and bipolar mother. They live on the South Side of Chicago (ie the sketchy area), and since both parents are otherwise preoccupied, the children are raised by the oldest daughter, Fiona. The family is scrappy and completely messed up, but at the center of it all, they love each other fiercely. It is a funny show, but it’s definitely dark humor. If you’re sensitive to bad language, nudity, crass humour, or inappropriate topics, this is not the show for you!
Today, I’m sharing a post on my empties for the first half of the year. If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll know that it takes freaking forever for me to finish my products. Read on to see what I finished in the last few months, and whether I would repurchase them.
Joe Fresh Nail Polish Remover
I don’t really have a go-to brand for nail polish remover, so I picked this up on a whim one day when I was running low on nail polish remover. It’s not that good; I feel like you really have to scrub harder at certain types of polishes. I’m not talking about glitter polishes, but even just shimmer polishes that usually aren’t too hard to remove with other removers.
Repurchase? No
Shiseido Facial Cotton
This stuff is the creme de la creme of cotton pads. I’ve probably bought two dozen packs of these in my lifetime, and haven’t been able to go without them since I discovered them about 6 years ago. This is why Stashy calls them crack cotton! They are so luxurious, and it reflects in the price. Stashy sent me a pack of the Muji cottons, which are supposed to be a dupe for this. I also found a pack of cotton at Miniso that also looks like it’s supposed to be a dupe, so I will be using those up first before deciding whether I want to repurchase these or not.
Hello, everyone! This post was supposed to go up on Monday, but it’s been such a crazy week that I kept forgetting to post it. Today I am sharing with you my final update on the Project Pan I’ve been working on for the last six months. Read on to see my final progress on these products!
What these products looked like in JanuaryWhat these products look like at the end of June.
Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Poured Crème Highlighter in Moonstone
6 months later, and I’m nowhere close to seeing any pan! It was pretty silly to think I would be able to finish a freaking highlighter, which are notoriously difficult to finish, when it was still fairly new to my collection at the beginning of the year. I enjoyed using this highlighter enormously, but I used it so often that I’ve gotten sick of it – I can’t express how excited I am to start using different highlighters in my collection for the next half of the year!
NYX High Definition Blush in Taupe
Look at this, I’m done with this blush! Okay, so I still have some crumbles to finish up, but would you not agree that it’s fair to say that this one is as good as done? I need to buy another one of these stat, because I’ve gotten so used to contouring that I don’t think I can go without it!
Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Paaaarty
Oooh, not quite there on completely finishing this up, but very close on this one! I started seeing baby pan on this at the end of April, and continued making progress in May and June. Hint: Since I’m on a role with this blush, you may be seeing this in my second Project Pan, because I would really like to finish this!
Today’s post is a review on the Maybelline Total Temptation Washable mascara. I first heard about this mascara on Nicole of PrettyRuffLife’s blog, who said she really enjoyed using this mascara. A few months ago, I saw this on sale at Shoppers Drug Mart, so I purchased it as a backup for when I ran out of the current tube I was using. I finally broke it out at the beginning of April, and after using it for a month and a half, I feel like I have a good enough idea of this mascara to make a verdict.
THE BASICS
I bought this mascara on sale for $8.99, and it can be found at retailers that sell drugstore brands. It is made in the USA.
For reference, I have sparse lashes that are naturally straight and are somewhat weak. They’re not particularly short, but I wouldn’t consider them long either. My ideal mascara is something that provides both lengthening and volume, holds a curl all day, and doesn’t clump my lashes together or make them look spidery.
Happy 1st day of May, everyone! In today’s post, Today’s post is a haul of everything I picked up during the month of April. Most of it is from the Sephora Spring sale, but I also ended up picking a few things from other places along the way. I’m pretty happy that I mainly stuck with replenishments during the Sephora sale, but I spent WAY more than anticipated, so I’m hoping to cut down my spending a little in June and July (May is my birthday month so I’ve gotta treat myself, obviously).
SEPHORA VIB SALE PURCHASES
Farmacy Green Clean Makeup Meltaway Cleansing Balm with Echinacea GreenEnvy
This was on my “definitely buy” list and I did end up picking it up as a replacement for my MAC Cleanse Off Oil, which I’m running low on. I’m really excited to start using this – it smells so fresh and clean with a light lime-y scent, and it’ll be my first cleansing balm!
Today’s post is a bit of a negative one: beauty brands I’m not interested in trying. I came up with this idea as I was browsing Trendmood and found myself scrolling right past new product releases from certain brands without even looking at the post. As a beauty blogger, I should probably want to try everything out there to test out, but there are just some brands that I just can’t get into for whatever reason. Obviously, if you love any of the brands mentioned, I don’t mean any offense – each and every one of these brands are immensely popular, so I’m probably in the minority!
Natasha Denona
Natasha Denona is quite possibly the #1 brand I have no interest in trying, although at one point I did want to buy their palettes. The high price tag of their products would be justified if 100% of the shades in their palettes performed amazingly, but I’ve swatched a number of their palettes at Sephora in the past, and the glittery shades seem like a hot mess with so much fallout. I do like that they have been coming out with smaller palettes that are more affordable for people who want to try the brand but don’t want to make the investment.
Today is the third installment in my Thursday Chats, where I discuss “hot topics” within the beauty community. As you can tell from the title, this month’s topic is PR trips. Just a disclaimer: none of these photos are mine, and they are all credited to the original source. There will always be that one person who tells me I’m gorgeous because they thought I was Tati (or whoever), even though I linked to the original source 😂
So, for those of you who may not be familiar with the term, what is a PR trip? It is a trip in which an influencer is invited to travel to another city (often a vacation hotspot and/or trending city) where they will participate in activities organized by the brand. The flight, accommodations, and activities are paid for and provided by the brand (likely partnered with other companies such as hotels or brands that will provide swag). The influencer may or may not be paid to attend the trip.
Happy Friday, everyone! Today’s post is a review of another highlighter – probably because I’ve been buying too many of them lately 😂 This review is of Becca’s Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in the shade Parisian Lights, which was added to my collection about a month and a half ago. I usually like to use products for a bit longer before I review them, but I believe this is a limited edition release, so I wanted to get a review out in case anyone out there is still contemplating getting this highlighter. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve actually seen any reviews of this highlighter myself.
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve loved Paris since I was a little girl, which I think stemmed from my love of the cartoon/books Madeline. I loved the city when I visited about 10 years ago, and now the city holds special meaning to me as it was one of the places we visited on our honeymoon. I’m not usually one to make impulse purchases, but the minute I saw this highlighter announced on Instagram back in January, I wanted to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, I found out that I wouldn’t be able to just walk into a Sephora to buy it, so I had to look at the other sources.
Today is Part 2 of my Sephora VIB sale posts! As per usual during the VIB sale, today I want to share with you what’s on my own wish list/shopping. It’s funny, because since I only purchase from Sephora during the sales, I spend a lot of time creating my shopping list and looking forward to the all the things I’m going to buy during the sale. Then when it actually comes time to shop the sale, there’s very little that I actually want to spend my money on. I think I’m becoming more careful about buying what I need from Sephora instead of spending frivolously, especially considering the rewards system is not great. I’m really trying to focus on buying things I “need” this time (aka replacement items), which only consists of two things. Maybe I’ll buy one or two “fun” things – I haven’t completely decided yet. I just know it’s not going to be a massive haul of 20 items this time.
Polished and Inspired 