This has been a long time coming. I just needed to set some time aside and be in the right mood to be serious about getting rid of some items from my stash. Sometimes I feel a bit attached to items due to nostalgia and I talk myself into keeping stuff I really shouldn’t. I think I did well:
Since I’ve been hauling like a madwoman, it’s only fair to purge some stuff too! Tomorrow I’ll be purging some lip products. Let’s have a closer look at the foundation and concealer purge pile:
I mentioned in my blogiversary post that I feel one of the strengths of the blog is that I’m able to do comparisons between various products due to my stash. Here are some highlights of those comparison posts (I just remembered that I even did a week-long series called “Comparison Week” ha!): Breathless vs Breathless
This online order was actually my first official makeup purchase of 2016! Since most stores were closed on New Year’s Day I decided to place an online order to commemorate the occasion. However, with our Canadian dollar being so crappy, I was somewhat selective in what I was willing to pay. So I decided to place an order from a Canadian discount makeup site: SaleEvent.ca They sell mostly drugstore brands like Revlon, CoverGirl, Maybelline and some higher end brands like OPI and RoC – all at discounted prices, and many of the items are discontinued colours. Back in October, fivezero made a purchase from the site and I went to bookmark the site for future reference, only to discover that I already had it bookmarked – duh! 😛 I’ve never ordered from them before until now:
I ordered it on January 1st and it arrived on January 5th – pretty impressive turnaround time. And that Revlon nail file was a freebie they included.
I’ve been wanting to start some Throwback Thursday (TBT) posts for a while now, and I figured I’d start with a fun one: Internet Archive Wayback Machine
If you’re not familiar, Internet Archive Wayback Machine started in 1996 to archive the World Wide Web, page by page. You just type in a url into the Wayback Machine and it will display a timeline with every instance that a snapshot has been made of the site:
What’s great about the Wayback Machine is that it retains a fully functioning website with links and images (where available) as if time stood still. I’m fond of nostalgia, so I could honestly spend hours looking up old versions of websites. For fun, I dug up some old makeup sites!
This month I seem to have finished up the core components of my face skincare products all at the same time – so odd how that happens.
The sense of accomplishment in finishing up products never gets old!
On this Labour Day holiday, I thought I would examine where in the world our cosmetics are made. It’s something that I always take note whenever I buy a product – I like to turn over the compact or box to find that fine print: made in xx / fabriqué au xx. For me personally, of the typical cosmetics producing countries, here’s how I rank them in terms of quality, from high to low: Disclaimer: this post in no way is a reflection of all qualities of products made in each country. I understand that there are high and low quality products made in every country. This is a generalized overview, and as such, there will be exceptions.
France – most notable for perfumes and skincare. Certain brands exclusively produce in France, staying true to their origin, such as Guerlain, Chanel, and Bourjois. I feel that these brands focus on controlling both the heritage and integrity of their products. There are also excellent pharmacy skincare brands like Nuxe, Avene and Bioderma – luckily in Canada we have easy access to these brands!
Bourjois Little Round Pot Blush, Guerlain Meteorites Perles, Yves Rocher eyeshadow, Sisley makeup remover
Interestingly, I noticed that my Benefit Boxed Powder Blush changed from “Made in USA” (in the shade Dallas) to “Made in France” (Hervana) and 4g less product!
As I’m laying out all my lip stuff in preparation for photography in today’s post, The Boy asks me, “What’s the purpose of all these pictures?”
“They’re to show my whole collection on the blog.” I reply.
“So it’s like… makeup porn?” he asks.
“YUP! You got it!” 😆
My lip stash is probably the least exciting of all of my stashes – the majority of my lip products can fit into one frame:
I’m just not that into lipsticks. I feel bold colours don’t suit my face. I’m also not into matte textures or shimmer, or overly glossy finishes – so it leaves me with a fairly narrow band of comfort zone, as you’ll see in my stash. And I only own 5 MAC lipsticks! (of which 3 are retired) It’s relatively small by comparison to my eye shadow stash (600+) or nail polish stash (400+) That said, I have amassed a lot of lip balms and butter butters.
This post kicks off “Lash Week” on my blog! I will be posting products and tools catering just to eye lashes, one of my most obsessed over facial features. Like most of you, I’ve got a stash of mini mascaras through gwp and beauty sets. This year I’ve been making a conscious effort to go through mine to see if there are any hidden gems among the lot.
I trialed the following 4 mini mascaras for one week each: Buxom Sculpted Lash – $24 (Sephora) Clinique High Impact – $19 (Sephora, department stores, Beauty Boutiques) Benefit They’re Real! – $29 (Sephora, Beauty Boutiques) Shiseido Perfect Defining Volume – $30 (Sephora, department stores, Beauty Boutiques, select Rexalls)
The value of the samples are actually quite good when you look at the full sized price and how many ml you get in the samples:
I happen to have all of CoverGirl’s LashBlast mascaras in my stash, so I thought I’d do an overview post to show the differences between them, and my preferences.
From left to right, the order in which they were released, and their claims, they are: Volume (orange tube) Jan 2008 “For bold, high-volume lashes” Luxe* (deep pink tube) Feb 2009 “High-volume lashes tinted with shimmer” Length (yellow tube) Sept 2009 “Makes lashes up to 80% longer looking vs bare lashes” Fusion (purple tube) Apr 2010 “Volume + Length in one stroke” 24 Hour (black tube) Jan 2012 “Power hour after hour. Bold, intense volume” Clump Crusher (green tube) Nov 2012 “200% more volume + length, zero clumps” Full Lash Bloom (pink tube) Dec 2014 “Exceptional lash fullness that’s soft to the touch”
For this overview, I am just looking at the non-waterproof formulas. I typically do not wear waterproof mascaras for regular usage. *I just realized that I’m missing Luxe in my stash, the darker pink tube. But I can speak to it since I’ve tried it many moons ago – it’s a gimmick to have shimmer in mascaras, it doesn’t shows up on the lashes unless there’s a spotlight on them. The only place you’ll notice the glitter is on the cotton pad when you remove your makeup at night. The Luxe version is literally the original LashBlast Volume with glitter dumped into the formula. Keep reading for details on each type
stash matters 