The Christmas chaos is over! I hope you had a fantastic time. It’s the annual tradition to post what I got for Christmas so here it is! (and as is with tradition, I’m too lazy to take photos so you get stock photos! 😛 )
Smashbox Drawn in. Decked Out. Multi-use Brush Set
It’s been a while since I last redeemed my Optimum Points. It’s funny to think that only a couple of years ago, I got super excited because I’d finally hit the top tier for the first time ever. Since then, I’ve hit that level several more times. It’s that Optimum app, I tell you! 😀 This points redemption event is a bit bittersweet because the Optimum Points program as it exists now will be gone by next February (read more about it over at fivezero’s blog). I wonder if there will be another redemption event before then. I wasn’t going to take a chance though, so I depleted most of my points at this event. I got:
I should mention that I went to Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) after I’d had a couple glasses of wine so some of my choices weren’t the most sound. 
Hey! I’m back. 🙂 Just in time for the Sephora sale. In a way, this is a bit of a cheat post since it was much easier to prepare than a review – ease my way back into blogging, right? 😉 If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that I was on vacation for a portion of my time away from the blog. Here are some more of what I did in the past month:
• Visited some cities in Alberta (Calgary, Banff / Canmore, Jasper and Edmonton) – the Canadian Rockies are truly incredible and I highly a recommend visit! ❤
• Attended my first “by invite only” L’Oreal warehouse sale – don’t get excited, since I was on a No-Buy I didn’t get makeup, but my friend went nuts for the $1 nail polishes. I got several bars of Kiehl’s Coriander exfoliating soaps which were limited edition from Christmas – yay! (Kiehl’s Coriander is one of my all time favourite scents) The most interesting part of attending the sale was seeing all of the brands that L’Oreal owns (besides L’Oreal): Maybelline, Essie, NYX, Lancôme, Shu Uemura, Urban Decay, YSL, Givenchy…
• Went to Canada’s Wonderland (amusement park) to ride the roller coasters – our favourite rides were Leviathan and Behemoth. Fall is the perfect time to visit since it wasn’t too hot and the line-ups weren’t long.
• Donated blood – it’s been years since I last donated because I almost fainted the last time. This time, everything went smoothly, although I did develop a large bruise that’s the width of my arm afterward. 
• Cleared out old mementos, photos, clothes – just stuff – from our storage locker – there were some hilarious gems… ah memories 😀 We’re doing some significant refurnishing soon so we need to make room – new couch, dining room table / chairs, shelves for the spare bedroom, etc.
• Finally finished the entire series of the Sopranos. It took us about 10 months to get through all 6 seasons (more like 7 seasons since season 6 was split into part 1 and 2). I’m not a fan of this show – I did not like the characters and the story line was only mildly interesting. I was so happy to be done with this show. Guess what? Now we can order Netflix! 😀 😀 😀
It feels great to be typing up a blog post again. At this point, I can’t promise that I’ll be posting as frequently as I was previously, but I’ll try my best! 🙂
Onward to the Sephora VIB Fall sale!
Since I skipped June’s Trash Stash, I’m breaking up this post into 2 parts instead of overwhelming you with a monster post. 😛 Here’s about half of what I used up in the past 2 months:
The first part will be solely focused on skincare and sample / travel sizes, and part 2 will be on the remaining beauty products.
This month was the month of finishing up a lot of facial skincare:
I finished both my day and night creams, plus a bunch of other essential face product. So weird how that happens.
This is my first quarterly favourites post for 2017. I’ve been taking down notes on various items that I’ve enjoyed between January and March:
I try to have a balance of items but it looks like this is more heavy on the makeup front. 😛
At the beginning of every month, I think to myself, “this month I probably won’t have too many empties, I might have 2 or 3 max”. Then around the third week of the month, I am suddenly faced with a bag full of empties. Go figure.
I finished some big containers too.
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! 😉
Onward to the July Trash Stash:
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.
I started doing quarterly favourites this year since monthly favourites don’t work for me, as my favourites tend to remain fairly static month over month. But with the changing seasons, I do find a shift in my skincare and makeup, so I’m able to pick some some seasonal favourites to share. My mid-year favourites focus on items I used in the Spring and when I went on my trip to Japan.
Here are my thoughts on each:
While I tend to pack light for my makeup, I don’t skim when it comes to skincare when I travel. I am fastidious in my skincare regime and I still maintain separate products for day and night time.
This is why it’s important for me to hoard travel sizes of my favourite products when I find them! If not, I just decant them into travel size containers.
stash matters 