Purchased by me It has been a few weeks since I have done one of these catch-up posts so how is everyone? After taking two weeks off to give my brain some time to recuperate from work, I dove back into my day job without skipping a beat. I would like to think that I am one of those people who still knows how to function when I go back to work after time off because from what I have seen with staff, someone people take two weeks off and then need another two weeks to remember how to perform basic skills. I also came back a little more fiery and less afraid of speaking my mind, but the main th ..read more

Purchased by me This is my FIRST review of the Ipsy Glam Bag in almost 10 years! Back then, there were a ton of subscription services and I was subscribed to probably five of them with a few brands like Glossybox and Birchbox sending me boxes to review. I was also receiving a lot more press samples so all of that combined left me overwhelmed and frankly, uninspired to review and use the products inside. I have not thought about signing up for anything since FaceTory until I took some time off at the start of this month and realized that I missed these little surprises and mini sizes of bran ..read more

  Press samples Sunday was all about filing my taxes. I know, they are due in 9 days and I still hadn't done them. My dad usually does them for me, but he has been travelling so I was left to do them on my own which quite frankly, was the LAST thing I wanted to do after being at work all day. Today, I got up early, grabbed a Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha and hunkered down. I got them filed by noon and then had the rest of the day to relax!  I just cannot stop with this Spring Morgan Taylor collection and I just wanted to wear this beautiful creamy, purple lilac shade so badly on ..read more

Press samples except for China Glaze Fairy Dust  I had a fairly uneventful first week back at work after being off for two weeks which I was grateful for because no one enjoys feeling overwhelmed and rushed on their first day back at work! I always think of that episode of The Office where Michael has just come back from Jamaica and he has a steel drum and beads in his hair. He is all relaxed and smiles and the first thing an employee says to him is "My bonus cheque was smaller than you promised" and in the space of a few hours, Michael's vacation energy has been zapped from him. While ..read more

Purchased by me I think I asked a friend to pick up this set of sheet masks from I Dew Care from Ulta before the pandemic hit. What was supposed to be a 14 day routine that I FULLY intended to review in a jiffy is now 5 years in the making, but it's only because I got distracted in between you know with the pandemic and life and all.  Compared to many of the other sheet masks I talk about here that are older, this set actually IS still available for purchase! When I initially saw it, I thought it was a good little starter kit as it contained a variety of 14 sheet masks tailored to a c ..read more

Press samples Back in December, I was introduced to the haircare brand Mayraki and was a bit hesitant to feature the brand because the product and customer service reviews were very mixed, but I have spent so much time using and enjoying the products I was sent that it seemed a waste to not let you all know how they worked out for me so just for a moment, we are going to isolate the product from the reviews and see how they did!   Mayraki are probably most well-known for their anti-grey treatments, but as I don't have too many grey hairs yet (I think I have six that I keep pulling ..read more

Press samples It's not often that I get to feature a new to me nail polish brand here so it is with great pleasure that I bring to you Morgan Taylor! I have seen Morgan Taylor only through a select number of Canadian retailers, but I was recently given the opportunity to try out their new Lace is More Collection for Spring and I could not have been more delighted with the quality!   What I love about this collection is how bright the pastels are! I'm typically not a huge pastel person because I don't find the paleness of the shades that flattering on me, but when they are bright like t ..read more

  Purchased by me Last week, my friend Gerry and I did our yearly shopping/catch up event where we allow ourselves to splurge a bit after going on a low buy after the Holidays. The shopping area changes from year to year, but this year we felt like staying Downtown near everything. Our first stop was Lush in Pacific Centre as I had 10 black tubs to return (5 for Gerry and 5 for me) so that we could each pick up a new Fresh Face Mask (I picked up the Enzymatic Cleanser) as well as oogle some other goodies! Many of their new and cute Mother's Day launches were out with one of them being ..read more

Purchased by me Some of you may have seen the marketing for the new NYX Cosmetics Duck Plump High Pigment Lip Gloss and I will say now that it had nothing to do with my decision to pick them up! If you haven't seen anything, it involved many men thinking that they could use this product to plump up their own genitalia. WHERE this marketing idea came from, I have no idea since literal humour like this is often seen as a bit cheap, but hey, it got everyone talking! Coming in 18 shades (though it says only 9 on the Canadian website vs. the US website), these lip glosses are highly pigmented ..read more

Press samples  So, I just started therapy regularly to deal with work things and had a productive therapy session today where we had a little breakthrough on how I process negative thoughts and it gave me some hope for the future. I went to my first session last August which I was nervous about, but found it helpful AND I found a therapist I liked all on my first try! I went for another session in October to work through some fears about my flight to Paris and then didn't really think about booking with her again until last month when things at work started to escalate. After seeing her ..read more