Fun (Not at all Inebriated) Tip

Hey, y'allllllllll! I may or may not be completely sober writing this. Open to interpretation! I also may or may not be listening to the lecture for my class tomorrow on Eco-Heroes. And the Nobel Peace Prize. WHOO. But anyways. I had a point in writing this (it was a good point, too). (Also, the lecturer just asked if anyone knew who Alfred Nobel was, and then waited approximately 1.5 seconds before answering. NOT ENOUGH TIME, Y'ALL.) But fun tip! (Did you know that the Nobel Peace Prize was intended to be awarded regardless of nationality? And that "ecology" can be subsumed under "peace" in the Nobel Prize categories? Now you do!) (Also, apparently "Maathai" is pronounced [ma'dai]. Who knew?) ANYWAYS. If you're wanting to order from an online site, with the exception of big multi-brand sites like Sephora, Ulta, Drugstore, etc., you should put things into your cart, create an account, and then not check out. Wait! For a couple of days! And many companies will send you a discount code. Tarte sends one for 20%, Pacifica for 10%, and Surrender to Chance for 5%. (And, loosely related, a lot of sites send out discount codes to email subscribers [Makeup Artist's Choice comes to mind in particular], so it's well worth signing up for emails. If you don't want lots of spam, just create an email account devoted to such things! And don't sign up for Estee Lauder, Clinique, Lancome, or Neiman Marcus emails, because they send out every. effing. day. Very irritating.)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to learn more about Maathai and Al Gore. Are there any other online retailers that you've encountered that give discounts to patient customers? Or any fun facts you know about other eco-heroes? (Yeah, I know, super random. Who the hell knows how they come up with these topics.)

NYX Blush in Taupe Review and Swatches

I wrote awhile back about how I was wanting to enter the world of contouring, and Makeup Morsels suggested NYX Taupe as a good choice for pale complected folk like myself. As a bonus, it was a mere $6.25 on eBay, including shipping, so even if it hadn't worked out, it wouldn't have been too much of a problem. Fortunately, it works great!

NYX Taupe

June Favorites, Acquisitions, and Empties

Well, this is a few days late, but considering how frighteningly busy I've been, I'm just glad I got it done before, say, August. More posts to come!


I'm going to try to keep my comments under 140 characters, so it doesn't end up being so horribly long. Minus the product names, of course. Items marked with a * were used until empty, and those marked with ** were thrown out due to inadequate performance.

Grocery Outlet and Fred Meyer:
Epielle Cucumber Cleansing Cloths: Not very moist, bit of film left behind. Try normal kind next time instead. Two cloths remove bulk of my makeup, though I always wash after.
Sally Hansen Nail Prisms: Backup of Mandarin Garnet, great new-to-me Golden Tourmaline. Saving the rest to give away.
Biotin: $2.50 for 60! Though only 1000 mg, not 5000. Not sure if it's made a difference yet, but I'll update in a month.
Essence Nail Art Cracking Top Coat Black: Bought to use in nail polish jewelry. Works like a charm!

Sunday Non-Summary

Remember back when I said I would have more time for blogging after school got out? That may have been a lie. I'm teaching English at the university this summer (Oral Skills level 5), which is every day, though fortunately only for 50 minutes (110 on Friday). Unfortunately, I have absolutely no experience with teaching English, so I get to spend lots of time prepping. Classes start Monday, though we have the 4th off (whee!), and I'll undoubtedly ramble on about my students and class on here. I've also been spending a lot of my free time with the boy, which really cuts into my blogging time! Not that I mind it, of course, but I do feel a bit bad for neglecting y'all. I have a new camera (simple point-and-shoot, Canon ELPH 100 HS), but it's been blechy and rainy here so I haven't really had the chance to have lots of fun with it yet. But I will! It's about half the size of my old camera (a Canon Powershot from 5 years ago), which means I can actually carry it around in my purse without feeling like I'm lugging a brick with me, so hopefully I'll get better about taking pictures of pretty things (food, flowers, cute shoes, weird bugs, etc.).

Instead of doing a normal Sunday Summary post (which I do realize I haven't done in months and I am so sorry and I promise I will get better about it!), I'm just going to chatter about random things.

1) Objects of Desire
Chanel's released their fall and Bombay Express collections, and hot damn, there are some gorgeous pieces.

Troublant (left) and Rouge Allure Extrait de Gloss in some random shade (right), via Chanel

I'm really tempted by the Rouge Allure Extrait de Gloss in Troublant, reviewed on Pink Sith here. I'm such a sucker for plummy MLBB shades. $28.50 isn't that bad, right? Right? It's going on my serious wishlist. Maybe I'll buy it for my birthday...

Fragrance Friday

Friday, June 22
Afternoon: My Aedes order arrived, so I immediately tore it open and decided to transfer Amouage Memoir Woman (Chypre: cardamom, mandarin, pink pepper, wormwood, clove, incense, pepper, woods, jasmine, rose, white flowers, musk, labdanum, oak moss, styrax, leather), a leather animalic chypre, since it was rainy and overcast. Dabbed the vial on my arm, as usual. Deliciously spicy, complex, and a bit overwhelming. Intense absinthe top note backed by deep forest green and frankincense that wears down to a woody floral with some fruit, but really, far beyond my skills as a sniffer to describe (though I will say, I don't get the pickles that I usually smell in leather scents). I recommend you to reviews by The Muse in Wooden Shoes and Olfactoria (who loved it) and Angela of Now Smell This (who didn't).

Evening: Transferred Frédéric Malle Noir Epices (Oriental Spicy: orange, rose, geranium, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, sandalwood, patchouli, cedar), which was one of the scents that the FM people had recommended to me when I filled out their online form (the others were Musc Ravageur and Carnal Flower, both of which I already have). I'm not really sure what about my answers suggested this would be the scent for me, but it's way too dry for my taste. Reminds me a lot of Timbuktu in that respect, so I'll definitely hold on to it for times when I want something arid, but let's just say I shan't be needing a larger sample.


Night: Transferred Amouage Jubilation 25 (Oriental Floral: ylang-ylang, rose, tarragon, lemon, labdanum, amber, patchouli, musk, vetiver, incense, myrrh), which is a fruity chypre, supposedly. All I can smell is the tarragon, aka curry. I feel like I'm in an Indian restaurant. This is not a bad thing, per se; I love curry. I just don't know if I want to smell like it.

My Beauty Arsenal

I figured it might be helpful (for me as well as y'all) to have a readily-available list of the products in my collection, so I made a page for it: My Collection, under the header. I'll try to update it at least once a month––hopefully more often than that, but given my scatterbrained-ness, that may be expecting too much.

Also, I have a new camera and it looks like it may finally get sunny around these parts, so you can expect a deluge of posts in the next few weeks!

Beauty "Duh!" Moments

Do you ever have moments where you realize there's a much better way to do something than the way you've been doing it? Good Lord I hope so, because I have them pretty often. I've had a couple of beauty-related ones recently that I thought I should share, and hopefully get further ideas from y'all!

I used to layer my Cover FX primer over my sunscreen, under my foundation. One day I was in a hurry and didn't want to wait for the various layers to all dry, so I decided to combine the primer and foundation steps, and wow. So much better! Not only does it save on time (only one step rather than two), but it also saves on product––I find I use a lot less primer, and a fair amount less foundation, when I blend them together (in my palm, and then apply with fingers), without sacrificing coverage! The primer makes the foundation just glide over my face, and keeps me just as shine-free as when I layered them. I find it works better with my Revlon ColorStay foundation rather than my MAC Matchmaster, perhaps because the former is thinner and creamier so it mixes better (the latter also works so well on its own that I hardly need primer). But moral of the story: Primer and foundation are better together.

I've also found that using my Sephora smudge brush to apply brow powder is so much more effective than using an angled eyeshadow brush (too wide, product would go where I didn't want it to) or gel eyeliner brush (too thin, took too much time). The smudge brush is dense and pretty thin, so it's great at filling in my brows really quickly and easily, and the size makes it such that I can get pretty accurate placement. It wouldn't work if you're wanting to do fancy eyebrow shaping or anything, but if you're like me and just need to fill in and even out your brows, I definitely recommend trying a smudge brush!

What are your favorite beauty tricks? I'm all ears!

Coast Meanderings

Last week I went to Bandon, a town on the southern Oregon coast, with my mother as an end-of-the-year vacation. It was lovely. Here, have some pictures and nattering! (This is really pic-heavy, natch.)

On our way down, we stopped at the Pancake Mill in Coos Bay, which has delicious foods (not just pancakes!), and got brunch. I neglected to take pictures (of most of the food we ate, whoops), but if you're ever in the Coos Bay area, you should stop by! Awesome link sausage. Then we stopped by Shore Acres, a gorgeous state park on the coast. It was originally owned by a lumber baron, and was donated to (or bought by? I'm not sure) the state after he died. It's got amazing views of the ocean, as well as some truly stunning gardens.

Ocean!

My beautiful mother :)

Me, in my movie star sunglasses and glamorous hat
(I didn't want to get sunburned! And yes, it worked)

More ocean!

They decorate everything with thousands of lights during the holidays, which is apparently quite the sight to behold. This time of year, there are oodles of blooms, though sadly we were past the time for tulips and rhododendrons, and some of the roses hadn't started blooming yet. I took too many pictures. Here are some of them:

Fragrance Friday

I haven't felt much like writing this past week, especially earlier in the week, as I finally finished with finals and grading and frankly wanted nothing to do with yet more writing. So I haven't been keeping track of weather or anything, so this FF post is going to be rather less wordy than previous ones (though let's be honest, when am I ever "not" wordy?).

Saturday, June 16

Morning: I think it was sunny? I wore Frederic Malle Carnal Flower (Floral: bergamot, melon, eucalyptus, ylang-ylang, jasmine, tuberose, salicylates), because I knew I was just going to be grading finals at home and so didn't have to worry about offending anyone's olfaction with tuberose overload. It ended up being a little too rubbery for me; I wish there were a way to know how my skin would react with fragrance before I wear it, because it sucks to put something on that I usually love only to find myself wondering why it's not working. Ah well.

Evening: Had a neighborhood graduation party to go to, and it was nice and warm so I sprayed Dior Eau Sauvage (Citrus Aromatic: lemon, basil, bergamot, cumin, lavender, fruit, jasmine, rose, carnation, iris root, coriander, patchouli, sandalwood, oakmoss, vetiver, musk, amber). Seriously yum, and I am super pleased to have a full bottle!

30 Days: Day 11

Hey, y'all! I'm writing this (note; the post itself was written awhile ago) from Bandon on the Oregon coast, a lovely little town. My mother and I came for a few days for a much-needed vacation, and so far it has been lovely. I've taken lots of pictures, but unfortunately forgot to bring my camera cord, so a full post will have to wait until I get home, at which point I will also catch up on comments and other blogs. Until then, though, have another 30 Days!

Show us your lippie collection! (Where "lippie" includes anything tinted you wear on lips, because I forgot to include lip balm and am too lazy to take more pictures.)

Full-coverage lipsticks: L'Oréal Infallible Le Rouge in Bold Bordeaux, Sephora Rouge Cream in Sexy Game, Clinique High Impact Lip Color in After Party

I rarely wear any of these, because I tend to not go for opaque lipstick, since I find it to be much less forgiving. I absolutely loathe the L'Oréal lipstick, and will post my scathing review once I take some more swatch pictures (the ones I have right now are after I fiddled with it for awhile to try and make it work, which is not as accurate a portrayal as I would like). The Sephora lipstick is a pretty color, it's just, again, really opaque, and I may throw it out. The Clinique is also very dark and vampy, but I find I can apply it sheerly when I want, and it was my first department store beauty purchase, so I'll hold onto it for sentimentality's sake if nothing else!