Project Use it the F*%@ Up!

This idea came to me when I rediscovered my Mirabella Outshine lip gloss in Illusion, which I keep in a pen holder on my desk at work.  I absolutely LOVE this lip gloss, it’s probably one of my top 5 coloured lip products of all time.  But can you believe that this particular tube is almost 4 years old?
Mirabella1
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28 Days

Conventional addiction recovery models suggest that in order to break a habit, one has to give it 28 days (some literature even say 21 day – whoa there buckaroo!) Well today is day 28 of my planned No-Buy 2015.  So how have I fared? I think I did amazingly!

Bwahahaha!  Have you seen my Target entry?
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Charmzone Natural Skinade BB cream

I’m a big fan of BB creams and light coverage base makeup in general.  What are BB creams?  Since BB creams have become much more prevalent outside of Asia in recent years, I’ll let the authority provide an explanation: Wikipedia.  For ages, I wore the Skin79 Super Plus Beblish Balm Triple Function SPF30 PA++ (also affectionately just called the Hot Pink BB) but I always found it to be a bit too ashy / grey on me.  I routinely mixed it with the now discontinued Kiehls Ultra Facial Tinted Moisturizer SPF 15 in Medium, which was too dark on its own for me.  The mixture worked well, but it wasn’t ideal.

After using up my last Skin79 BB cream, on a whim, I decided to try the Charmzone Natural Skinade BB cream.

Charmzone Natural Skinade BB cream
Charmzone Natural Skinade BB cream box front and back

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Untrieds: Body Shop Colour Crush Nail Polish in #730 Almond Kiss

A recurring series on this blog will be to showcase items in my stash that I have yet to try (spoiler alert: a lot of nail polishes).  The first in this series will be The Body Shop Colour Crush Nail Polish in #730 Almond Kiss.  I’ve been eyeing this ever since the Body Shop nail polish line launched in October, so I included in my Christmas wishlist and received it in my Christmas stocking.

Body Shop Almond Kiss
The Body Shop Colour Crush Nail Polish in #730 Amond Kiss

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I thought it would be helpful for you to know my skin tone, skin type, hair type, etc., so that when I do reviews, there is a basis for my preferences.

Face: I’m ethnically Asian, originally from Hong Kong.  For now I’ve made the conscious decision to not post my full mug online, so you’ll have to imagine what I look like.  If forced to play “Which celebrity do I look like?”, the answer would be… Lucy Liu.  I personally don’t think there’s a strong resemblance (maybe a bit in the eyes and cheekbones?  I have freckles too?) but I get this comment often (it always starts out with “Has anyone ever told you…?”).   So I guess if complete strangers say this, they must see something I don’t (although I always assume that strangers are just being nice and want to pay me a compliment, and they think telling me that I look like Lucy Liu is the best way?) Continue reading

Dammit, Target!

Look at what you did!
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I was minding my own No-Buy 2015 business and you had to go and announce the closure of all 133 of your Canadian stores. Nothing triggers my hoarding drive than when companies either discontinue products or when they leave (see Illamasqua, Jacob, 2014).
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Why No-Buy 2015

In 2014 I went on a bit of a makeup buying binge especially toward the end of the year.  I keep a detailed multi-tabbed Excel spreadsheet that tracks my beauty stash, including date of acquisition (I’ll devote a blog post explaining my spreadsheet in the future, I promise).  From the spreadsheet, I was able to determine that in 2014, I acquired:

  • 22 blushes
  • 56 eye shadows (I count individual shades in palettes, so a quad = 4 eye shadows)
  • 112 nail polishes – I blame Illamasqua for this.  The counter inside The Bay was closing shop and the brand was leaving North America so I had to not only stock up on my favourites, but also take advantage of the 25-50% clearance sale!   I own a total of 46 Illamasqua nail polishes, and 39 of them were acquired in 2014…
Illamasqua
Sample of an Illamasqua haul from 2014

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Ground rules

As a heavy consumer of blogs and youtube videos, I know what I like to read and watch, so I’m applying some guidelines for myself and to let you know what to expect from this blog: Continue reading