My Current Holy Grail Beauty Products

Happy New Year! โค

This post idea came up last year when I posted my yearly favourite discoveries.ย  I did discover some gems in 2017 but I thought it would be more useful for me to list out all my Holy Grail (HG) items instead.

I’m going to force myself to just name ONE item for each category.ย  I feel like embarking on this project is like choosing a favourite child. I love you all equally! โค Continue reading

May 2017 No-Buy-Low-Buy Accountability

After my previous month of hauling in my April Low-Buy, May was a month of resisting temptations! I did add a few items to my stash, namely, I went hairspray crazy:

I ran out of hairspray entirely and I always feel uneasy whenever I don’t even have a back-up in my stash! Here’s how the month went:

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BHA Exfoliants: CosRX vs Paula’s Choice

Today I’m reviewing and comparing 2 BHA exfoliants:

โ€ข CosRX BHA Blackhead Power Liquid
โ€ข Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant

I’ve been a long time devoted customer of Paula’s Choiceย – I just checked my account, my first order from her was in 2011! ย My favourite products from her are the chemical exfoliants – they just work and are well-priced. So what prompted me to try something else?

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April 2017 No-Buy-Low-Buy Accountability

This is my first Low-Buy month this year since starting the No-Low-Buy “program” for 2017. I managed to pick up quite a few things – I had some luck on my side with some great deals, plus an Optimum Points redemption event:

I had $200 in my budget, let’s see how I did…

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Trash Stash: March 2017

It’s April already! Did anyone get pranked on April Fools Day? ๐Ÿ˜› Mine was uneventful. ย Here are the empties that March yielded:

I got a bit nervous at around mid-March since I didn’t have a lot of empties in my bag but it seems at the tail-end of the month, I was able to use up a bunch. ๐Ÿ™‚

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Best of 2016 Discoveries

And here it is – as you can imagine, trying to narrow down the best items was difficult! These items are new toย me but may not be new launches in 2016. ย Also, these items may not necessarily be my absolute “Holy Grail” of all time – they’re simply the bestย from the past year (I probably should do aย “Holy Grail of All Time” post one of these days…) ย Here’s what made it into myย Best of 2016 Discoveries list:
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A departure from previous years, instead of doing Top 10 or “Top xxย of 20xx” (ie. Top 16 of 2016), I’ll list top items within categories: makeup, skincare, nails, body care etc. ย This post is long but rather thanย breaking into several posts, I decided to do it all in one – I just hate it when they break movies into 2 parts – I don’t want to do that to you! ๐Ÿ˜›

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Trash Stash: September and October 2016

I skipped September Trash Stash due to post-vacation lethargy and the reevaluation of my life: Why am I not on vacation still? Why is anyone even interested in looking at my beauty empties? Why am I here? Then I snapped out of it and got back into the swing of things. ๐Ÿ˜›
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As my punishment, I now have to root through 2 months’ worth of garbage. At least, I’m not like someone (I won’t say who) with 6 months’ worth of empties to post! ๐Ÿ˜ฎ

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Favourites Lately: Late 2016

This year I decided to do quarterly favourites so I’ve had lists for early 2016 (covering January to March) and mid-year (covering April to June), and now I’m showing my third quarterly favourites to cover Julyย to September:
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It’s mostly Summery products but a little bit of Autumn is creeping in… yes, I’m a bit late in posting this – it should have been up early October. ๐Ÿ˜ณ

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Trash Stash: July 2016

It’s a holiday here today. It’s just called a Civic Holiday but the meaning varies depending where you live in Canada. In BC, it’s called British Columbia Day, in Alberta it’s called Heritage Day… very specifically, in the city of Toronto, it’s Simcoe Day. Simcoe Day is named after John Graves Simcoe, who founded the town of York, Upper Canada, which became Toronto. He was also the first lieutenant governor of the province. Now you know! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Onward to the July Trash Stash:
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I’d call this month a pretty average month in terms of using things up, except for ONE epic empty that I’ve been working away at for YEARS.

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Trash Stash: May & June 2016

Happy July 4th to my American friends! Hope you’re enjoying the extra day off. We Canadians just came out of a long weekend and are cursing you guys right now… ๐Ÿ˜†

Since I missed May’s Trash Stash, this is a combined empties post for both months. Hold onto your hats!
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I finished some long-time favourites and items that have been with me for years.

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