Something different.. empties by the week!

I have been on a huge product declutter/use up journey for the past few months. I have given away any products that I have multiples of (yes, I am a hoarder) or products that were new and unused but I wasn't interested in using. However, the honest truth is, a lot of what I have, I love and lovingly bought with hard earned money so I want to get my money's worth out of and use it. I have been concentrating on deluxe sizes and half used products to get them done and out of my life and so we have a lot of empties occurring very frequently. I don't want to store these for a month in wait of my next empties post and also, I want to talk about them in a timely way so that my thoughts on them are clear and my experience is recent. That's why I am doing an empties post so quickly after the last one.

I have finished -

a. Laneige Water Sleeping Mask (15 ml) - This was drying!! It's so strange that a hydrating mask could dry my skin but it did. Might work for oily folks but not for me.

b. No. 7 Softening Foot Balm (75 ml - full size) - This smelt nice, had a nice texture but did nothing for my feet. Glad to be done with it though.

c. Miranda May lipstick sample from Charlotte Tilbury (one use) - I love her lipsticks but so so pricey. This colour is really bright orangey pink, not for me.

d. Nuxe Gentle Exfoliating Gel (75 ml - full size) - This is such a rave reviewed product but I hated it as the exfoliating particles are massive and really abrasive but also too far and few in between. I ended up using it as a body scrub and am done with it. If you are looking for a good face exfoliator, my favourite of all time is the Vasanti Scrub.. so good.

e. Sample perfumes (8 ml in total) - None of these wowed me. However, the most disappointing was the La Rose by Maison Kurkdjian Paris. I love their Aqua Universalis perfume but I suppose I am not into rose fragrance so I was never going to love the La Rose. It smells exactly like an english rose in the garden. It's a true rose scent. Not for me.

f. Basic Earth Botanicals revive Body wash (30 ml) - This was nice but too liquidy so I ended up wasting product every time.

g. 3 shampoo and conditioner samples (30 ml in total) - They were all fine. I have good hair, so usually am fine with any shampoo or conditioner.

h. Philosophy Hide No More serum (2 ml) - This was a pleasant serum. No scent and a lovely texture. The 2 ml lasted me through 5 uses.

i. Foxes and Friends Bliss Butter (60 ml) - Came in my last Prospurly box (will review the next one). This was nice but smelled overwhelmingly of Cocoa Butter. So not my favourite. It was really thick too, but did moisturise well.

j. Chanel Glossimer lipgloss in 104 (full size) - I had finished about 80% of this product when it went gloopy on me. A reminder that I really need to finish my lip products. However, once I am done with all my glosses, I might buy this again. It's a beautiful iridescent pink. This empty brings my lip empties total to 5 for this year so far. Yippee!

That's all I have for now, hopefully I can finish more stuff next week. See ya.

Products that I have hit pan on..

Another post about products that are nearly empty. I am on a project pan / using up kick with my makeup. I have a shopping addiction and over the last 4 years I have purchased a lot of makeup and skincare. Skincare, I use and get through quickly but makeup tends to hang around a lot, especially since I tend to only use makeup on weekdays and go makeup free on weekends.

But I have found that when I concentrate my use on a small collection of products I can use them up eventually. If you like seeing products being used up then you will love this post. I have hit pan on several products that I am hoping to finish by summer this year. I love all of them (obviously) as I tend to declutter items that I cannot work with.

I recently hit pan on the Pixi Summertime Bronzer, this only comes with 3g of product and I got it in an Ipsy bag. So it was easier to hit pan on than some other bronzers which tend to come with a lot of product. It's still a feat for me as I am already tan and I only use this in the winter months. However, I plan on using this as my all over dusting of powder as I get darker. This is a cool toned bronzer which is light but fairly pigmented. It is also shimmery with tiny gold particles in it. I have been using it to contour for a very subtle contour and it works well on my NC42 skin tone. However, if you are darker than me, this wont show up on you at all. It can still be used as a darker version of Hourglass' Dim Light though as it looks beautiful gently dusted all over the skin for an instant glow. It's a nice product.

I have hit pan on a Clinique blush that came in a gift with purchase (GWP) palette. This is a very old GWP, but I believe they still sell these products separately. The blush is in the shade Sunset Glow and it's my favourite blush of all time. It's a very natural rusty mauve shade that is wearable but can be built up for an intense blush. It's a stunning colour and I will miss it when it's gone. The one I have is only 1.7g as it was part of the GWP. In the same palette I have also hit pan on the light cream shade in the eyeshadow duo - Butter Pecan. Clinique shadows have a terrible reputation and this duo is awful. However, I have used the cream shade to gently clean up around my eyebrows to make them look bolder and it works as there is almost no pigmentation at all. I have recently started using the brown shade in my brows and it works ok. I will declutter this palette when I have finished the blush.

The last powder product is the Matt and Radiant Pressed Powder from YSL in the shade 5. This shade is too dark for me, except when I am tanned so I can only use it in the Summer. It's a lovely powder that's almost creamy. It also has a lot of coverage. I will try and finish this in the Summer and declutter when I can't finish as this powder is over 5 years old! Yuck.

The two cream eye shadows that I have hit pan on are Maybelline's Pomegranate punk and Benefit's Busy signal. I love them both however, I am partial to the Benefit's formula which remains creamy for years. However, I plan on finishing both of these this year and I think I will be able to as I love them. I finished Maybelline's Bad to the Bronze last year and haven't replaced it.

Lastly, I have two Jouer products that I love and have been using regularly for over a year that I have major pan on. The first is their tint in Bare which is a lovely wearable everyday cream blush. You could wear this on your lips too, however, I like it better as a blush. I wear it everyday under my Clinique blush. The other product is a duo called Whisper and Feather, these are marketed as tint and highlighter duo. Jouer says that you can use the peachy shimmery shade as a cream blush and the champagne shimmery shade as a highlighter. I use both of these as highlighters, sometimes, I even mix them together. They give a lovely glow to the skin and last for about 4 hours on me, which is average for a cream product. I reckon both of these products will be done in a couple of months.

Hope you enjoyed reading about products that I have been using a lot lately. See you soon!

Empties Feb 2017

I am back, I cannot promise that it will be a permanent return to the blogosphere but I am back for now :) It's hard being a mom, working full time and blogging. Right now, I should be folding clothes and washing dishes (our dishwasher is dead), but I'm here talking to you guys. I have been on a bit of a project pan/ use stuff up kick for the past 4 months. So I have a ton of empties. I have to be honest, there are a few items that I tossed thinking that I wasn't going to blog but I will mention them too in this quick empties post. If you are still subscribed and like reading my blog, please say hello as I have been away for so long, that I want to make sure it's worth blogging again.

These are raw pictures, taken on my iPhone so I do apologise as they are aesthetically disgusting. But they are empty products guys!

Let me list the empties below -

A trio of eye masks - liked these, wouldn't purchase.

Dr Dennis Gross original formula alpha beta peel (1 use) - burn't my face for about 2 mins which is a long time. Wouldn't purchase.

Basic Earth body lotion (30 ml) - loved this, wouldn't purchase as I have a trillion body lotions.

Korres greek yoghurt cleanser (150 ml) - liked this, wouldn't repurchase. This took me 2 years of daily use and the product says that it expires in 9 months after opening!!

2 of the Lancome hydrating toner (30 ml) - Liked, but no reason to purchase.

Ole Henrickson eye peel (15 ml) - loved this, wouldn't repurchase as I already have a backup of this. Again this took me 1 year of daily use to use up!!

Dior Nude Air foundation in Nude Beige - LOVED this, but it's not cruelty free and also very expensive so wont be purchasing.

Boscia Tsubaki Cleansing Gel (50 ml) - Loved this, wont repurchase as I have other cleansers to use up.

Used a bunch of other samples but the only stand out item was the Cerave Moisturing Lotion with SPF 30 which is a drugstore product and is beautiful! I have other moisturisers to burn through but maybe in 2018 (yes I have THAT many backups) I will buy this.

I also finished a B&BW Cotton Linen candle which worked well and throw was decent, lasted me a month of burning every other day for 2 hours, so about 35 hours of burning. Would consider repurchasing but probably not for a few years as I have stockpiled candles, like a crazy person.

Also finished a Nuxe Reve De Miel moisturiser which is great and I will repurchase. I was using this as a night cream. I also finished 3 lip products! Yes 3! Finished a mini of Buxom lipstick in Get Ready, mini Buxom lipgloss in Dolly and a Maybelline Color Elixer in Blushing Petal. Liked all of them but I am on a no buy right now, so not buying anything new.

I hope you enjoyed this post, hope to be back soon.

Have a lovely day whatever you are doing!

The time I flew to India with a 10 month old.. it took us 30 hours to get to our destination!

I live in the Pacific Northwest, getting anywhere from this remote part of the country often involves flying. But when I told my co-workers and friends that I was going to India (read 30 hours journey) with my 10 month old in November, I could see them thanking the stars that they were not going to be traveling with us.

Lets rewind to when I was not a mom, my heart would drop when I saw a parent with a baby heading towards my seat on a plane. I am sure I made that face - you know the one I mean and I am certain I even used to sigh out loud.

Fast forward to last November when me and my husband and my little baby were making our way to our seats on the first flights on a series of flights that would eventually get us to India. I was scowling and staring down every face that made me feel like I was being a bad human being for bringing my baby onto the flight. What was I meant to do?? Well if only they would get a move on inventing teleporting.

As I walked through the aisles, I was cringing on the inside at the person I used to be, and wishing I could go back and apologize to all those parents.

Thankfully, for us at least, this potential nightmare had a fabulous end. My daughter was so well behaved, she made less noise than many of the adults on the flight and many of the co-passengers came up to us and congratulated us on a successful mission. Houston we had done it!

I don't claim to have brought into this world an unusually quiet baby. Ila (my daughter) is as boisterous as you'd expect any baby to be. She is curious about the world around her and in November she was crawling so didn't appreciate being restricted for hours on end. Unfortunately for us, she was too big for the bassinets that they provide on these flights and let's be real, she was never going to sleep in those things with all the pilot announcements and the lights around us.

But we made it work with a bit of team work and being prepared for the worst :) I will be sharing my tips and tricks to surviving long flights with a baby in my next post. Don't forget to subscribe to my blog if you want to know more :)

The non-resolution resolution for 2016

It's late in January, we are already almost one twelfth of the way into 2016. Everyone I know has new years resolutions, even the ones who claim not to have them, do. It's human nature to want to challenge yourself and then to fail.

I have had the same new years resolution since I was 10 and could spell the word weight. I wanted to lose weight. You would think that now that I am 33, I might have made a dent in that goal, but no, I am 20 pounds heavier than I was last year. In addition to my resolution some of the common ones are - eat more veggies, drink more water, walk / run 5 miles a day, the list is endless and boring.

I think what we all want to do is indulge in change that is both measurable (so we can check the box / pat our backs) but life long. This year I will be focusing on changing my mindset towards the way I use my time.

There is a famous story about daily management. "Rocks, Pebbles, Sand - The Important Things in Life" is a story that explains in plain words, that in order to be happy we need to pay attention to the important things in life first and then deal with the lesser stuff later. It is a story about recognizing what’s important and prioritizing. "Rocks, Pebbles, Sand - The Important Things in Life" assures us that we may have time to do everything that we want to do, only if we prioritize and manage our time wisely. That would lead to happiness indeed.

So the story goes, a professor showed an empty jar to his students and filled it with big rocks. He then asked his class, is the jar full? They replied - Yes. The professor said no, wrong answer. He then poured some gravel into the jar. He asked the students, is the jar full. They replied - Yes. He said no, that's wrong too. He then emptied a bag of sand into the jar. He then asked his students, is the jar full. Now, the students had wised up and they replied - No it's not. He agreed and proceeded to empty a pitcher of water into the jar. He said, NOW the jar is full.

The idea is that we fill our days with a lot of sand (small, inconsequential tasks which we think are quick wins) but in fact we should go after the big rocks first. The large measurable and impact-ful tasks that might take longer. I took another thing away from this story though, that it's important to identify small gaps (wasted time) in our day. If we can consolidate this time or even spend it knowingly and with a gain in mind, we will be a lot happier and more successful. 24 hours are quite enough if you are efficient.

So today, I am gathering up the sand and gravel in my day and writing this post. How will you spend the sand and gravel in your day? Let me know!!