Review: Essie Gel•Setter Top Coat

By now you’ve probably heard about the Essie Gel•Setter™ top coat – it’s fairly new on the market and promises “cushy, rock-hard shine of a gel, in a foolproof formula”. I was living under a rock and had not heard about this but stumbled upon a display while I was doing some birthday hauling. I picked it up mainly because at the time I had just recently got gel polish applied and loved the shine of the gel polish. Also, the top coat was on sale. 😉
Essie Gel Setter

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MAC Mineralize Skinfinish

This post was prompted by the prospect of letting go one of my MAC Mineralize Skinfinish (MSF) in my makeup purge.  By now, you will already know which one got the boot.  I only owned 3 of them in total, so the 33% reduction was a significant event.  I owned:
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish
Left to right:
Stereo Rose – Coral with golden bronze shimmering nuances
Petticoat – Pale rose with gold and amber veining
Rio – Bronze with bright pink pearl

Mineralize Skinfinishes are baked products with a marbled effect which makes them very eye-catching in the pans (they look like little planets to me!)  MAC describes them as “A luxurious powder with 77-Mineral Complex that adds highlights to the face and body”. MSFs can vary so much in their finish, level of shimmer and pigmentation from shade to shade.  There are some that are more of a highlight but some act more like a blush.  The 3 that I own I use as blush.

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Blogger Recognition Award and 250 Days of No-Buy

Today marks my 250 Days of No-Buy! 😀
nobuyachievement250days
Fun fact: As a Mandarin slang term, the number “250” (二百五 èrbǎiwǔ) is an insult meaning “stupid person” or “simpleton”. 😕

I was nominated sextuply (yes that’s the word) recently for the Blogger Recognition Award – first by Katie of Plus+Beauty, secondly by Chris of fivezero, thirdly by Janella of Skin Diary, fourthly by Joy of StyledWithJoy, fifthly by Chic and Polished, and finally by Polished and Inspired! 😀

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East Coast Canadian trip

As you know last week I was away on a trip to the East Coast of Canada, for a good friend’s wedding.  The wedding itself was in Labrador, but we took the opportunity to travel to Newfoundland prior to the wedding day.  Here’s a map to help orient you, Newfoundland is the most eastern province of Canada and is about 2 hrs and 30 mins by flight from Toronto (A):
eastcoast2
We spent 4 days in Newfoundland (B) and then 2 days in Labrador (C) for the wedding, in quite a remote place.  Today I’ll share photos from the 4 days we spent in parts of Newfoundland.

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How to Sanitize Makeup

Say you’ve just decluttered a whole bunch of your makeup, and you’re planning on giving them away.  Or conversely, you participated in a swap, and you received gently used makeup – how do you sanitize makeup?
sanitize makeup
I’ve participated in MUA swaps way back in the day, and have given away lots  of my makeup to friends. I generally keep my makeup in very clean condition, but it is still prudent to sanitize everything before you give them away. Here are some items you will need:

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The Purge: makeup edition

Hello! I’m back from vacation – I’ll post some pics from the trip by the end of the week. Today I’m back with a bang! Over the Labour Day long weekend, I spent hours going through my stash to declutter items that I no longer use.  Today, I bring you: The Purge!  I toyed with doing an elimination style competition for items in my makeup stash, but decided it would take too long.  And like removing a Band-Aid, makeup purging – while painful – should be done quickly.  Many of these items had been contemplated before and made it back into the fold because I had talked myself out of purging them.  This time, I’m being ruthless!  These are all being purged from my stash:
The Purge
o_O

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Collab: Collection Lasting Perfection Ultimate Wear Concealer

Today’s post is a collaboration with StyledWithJoy!  We both received the Collection Lasting Perfection Ultimate Wear Concealer a couple of months ago.  As we’re both in North America (her in the US, me in Canada), neither of us have direct access to this cult beauty item which is exclusive to shops in the UK. Luckily for us, we finally got our grubby hands on this from our respective fairy godmothers (her sister in her case, and through my lovely swapper Nicola, in my case).
Collection Lasting Perfection Ultimate Wear Concealer

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50 things that make me happy

This tag has been going around so I’m (finally) jumping on the bandwagon!

Like the Book of Awesome, I’ll just be naming random things and not family & friends because that’s just obvious. I’ll also not be naming makeup stuff because, well, it’s understood that makeup makes me happy, mkay? 😉

50 Things That Make Me Happy

1. Creamsicles
creamsicle
2. Scalp massages
3. Peeking through people’s houses from the street when they don’t draw their curtains
4. Snagging the last sale item on the shelf
5. Books on knitting

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Foundation mixology

Since I’m guilty of buying new foundations instead of using up my current open bottle(s), typically I have at least 12 different ones on the go.  Some of them are better suited for the summer, while others are only used during the winter months.  My skin tone often straddle between light and medium shades, so I typically mix 2 different shades to get a suitable colour match.   In addition, mixing different foundation formulas helps to get a finish that works better for my combination skin type.
foundations
Typically, I like to mix foundations to both colour match and improve on the formulations to my liking.

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My Deborah Lippmann neutral polishes

Today’s entry was prompted by THIS post from fivezero, showing the new Deborah Lippmann Fall 2015 collection called “Undressed”, which caused my face to go like this:
oh my gawd
Just look at this range of neutral gorgeousness:

Deborah Lippmann Undressed
Deborah Lippmann Undressed limited edition set

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