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The Monthly Roundup #11/12: October/November 2014

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Despite the lack of content on my blog as of late, I have neither died, lost function of my hands or contracted a fatal illness. Life had just gotten all kinds of crazy especially over the last week or two and now that classes are done and I’m through that horrible crunch where I had to write three term paper kinds of things in a four day period, I’m feeling much more human and in turn, you can expect much more action around these parts, known as my blog – I’m rather excited about the prospect. Well, I skipped over my monthly round-up last month so I figured that I probably shouldn’t do so again and that I might as well combine the two months into one.

  1. My Sephora Sale Picks/Recommendations

I had it in my mind that in honour of the November Sephora VIB Sale, I was going to put together a group of my personal recommendations because I think its always nice to know what are the top picks in someone else’s view. I was determined and I got the post together in time. For me, the surprising thing was that the products I chose ended up being those essentials in my collection that I seriously would not want to be without. This pleased me – no shit.

  1. The Current Shower Staples

Don’t worry, I’m always – no scratch that to almost during crazy exam periods and like situations to be completely honest – appropriately concerned with bathing and hygiene but over the last two months I’ve been really into taking baths and showers to some extent as a kind of pampering experience. This post was where I detailed my favourite products back in October and I still stand by them now.

  1. The Elusive Mellow Saturday

Looking back at this edition of my ‘The Weekend Post’ entries, makes me laugh at my former belief that things university-wise were winding down and that there was nothing to be done, regardless this was one of my favourite posts. Also, it’s still an accurate one where I ramble on about my most relaxing day staples.

  1. My Sephora VIB Sale Goodies

I’m fairly certain that the most exciting event in the last two months was the whole getting of the Sephora 20% off coupon and spending it (agonizing included) but I’m absolutely certain that beauty-wise it was the most noteworthy kind of thing. I ended up quite pleased with my post detailing the products that I picked up for myself, pictures and all because I don’t think it was quite novella length, but I gave nice descriptions of the products I picked up and why I had done so.

  1. The Review: Chanel Perfection Lumiere Velvet Smooth-Effect Makeup

If you’re a regular reader here or know me in real life, you might be aware of my foundation-hoarding problem and overall obsession so it only seems fitting that I take my review posts very seriously and write them with lots of thought with extreme detail – so its not something one can just write in the spur of the moment after a few weeks of use. At the beginning of October, I pulled together a review of the foundation that I’ve been raving about since June and I stand by everything that I’ve said since.

Am I the only one who’s in complete disbelief that tomorrow marks the start of the second week of December?
Maggie, x.

The Monthly Roundup #10: September 2014

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Last month was definitely one of those fast-paced months of adjustment, as September tends to be in my world. I’m sure I’ve said this in loads of posts of this kind before but the following statement was especially true over the last month; While I might not have been able to get up as many blog posts as I would have liked, I’ve been particularly satisfied with my quality of content in September. Now, this seems awfully self-indulgent to talk about in a sense but so much of blogging for me comes down to how I feel about the content that I’m producing so it’s crucial to me in a non-narcissistic sense — first and foremost I’m doing this for me and what’s the point if I’m not enjoying what I’m producing. Can anyone relate? — I’m not positive this is coming out adequately. Regardless, I’ll be pleased if things continue down this path through this month and and even more pleased if I add a few more posts into the schedule of things.

1. The Weekend Post | Project 10 Pan –

Believe it or not, I’m actually making even more progress towards the commitment I made in the beginning of the month to finish up 10 products before purchasing other products of the kind despite that small little failure that didn’t even register as such, known as that time when I found myself at the register with the Dior Star Foundation prior to finishing up my beloved Rimmel Wake Me Up. This was definitely a post that I enjoyed writing and it’s the kind of post that I love reading for others fittingly. Plus I think there’s something so satisfying about trying to limit your endless product purchasing and accumulation by trying to finish up products before they go bad. The de-cluttering is also rather life affirming.

2. The Daily Face #22 –

I promise that I didn’t merely include this post because it was the only ‘The Daily Face’ post that I put up this month; I was actually rather pleased with the autumnal-themed makeup variation and it’s definitely been one that I’ve been sporting regularly. It features the lovely Smashbox Cherry Smokes Photo-Op Eyeshadow Palette and uses it in a way that I think is rather flattering and easy to achieve with half-assed effort. I liked it.

3. Weekly Medley #33 –

Now, I’m not saying that this post was preferred over any of the other weekly editions of the post but I’m rather enjoying refreshing these with the change of format where I was inspired by Laura a wee bit and decided to annotate the pictures included in the collage and provide a much shorter little ramble at the end that detailed my week. I’ve found that I have enjoyed writing these since the switch-up and I think they might be slightly less daunting to read with the more casual structure. I also rather enjoy being able to share my thoughts without going into formal paragraph structure on them all if that makes any sense…

4. The Monday Morning Edit –

I had to include my final post of the month; there was no doubt or deliberation concerning the matter. It was one of those posts that was written on the stir of the moment and almost seemed to write itself, surprising me with how quickly the end result came and how nice and authentically-me it was and it was easily my most liked post in months, so I’m assuming it went over well with you guys too. If you missed it and are curious about the products I reach for when I can hardly muster the effort to get out of bed in order to look presentable, I would love it if you gave it a little read.

5. A Standard Autumnal Shopping Trip –

I’ve shared the complexities of my feelings toward putting up haul posts on numerous occasions, so I’ll spare you another ramble here but keeping that anxiety in mind, I was particularly pleased with how this post detailing the small assortment of products I picked up recently turned out. I’m also enjoying the products, so this is a double source of pride for me. Lame?

6. The Weekend Post | The Productive Pamper –

Last-but-not-least is yet another one belonging to my the  ‘The Weekend Post’ variety and it’s one that I’m rather pleased with because I don’t find it painfully cliched, I think the material is a little bit different and it’s something that’s very true to me — I employ the whole technique often and love doing so. I also liked the pictures and this may have played more than a little bit into the consideration of including it here.
 
I promise I’m not as self-absorbed as the following question makes me sound but I would still like to know the answer: What kinds of posts are your favourite to see around these parts? I would love to hear some feedback to take into consideration!
Maggie, x.

Weekly Medley #35

oR9A9%iBQxqpAoYQsSZC+w21. The perfect escape from business as usual and that general craziness…. pouring through the pages of October’s phenomenal Elle Canada while drinking a cup of apple-cinnamon tea is amaaaaaazing.

2. Skincare-centric posting … I’m pleased to report that my skin has been pretty in control for a while now and I wanted to talk about the newer products that I’ve brought into the rotation and I did HERE.

3. Getting my reviewing game on … Beginning with this week’s post on the NARS Contour Blush HERE, I’ve been geting back into the routine of individual product review posts and I’m kind of liking it.

4. The crappy quality picture of my face… Do I even need to explain this? That aside, the Rimmel Colour Rush Balm in Lady Marmalade had to be mentioned for being all comfortable and balmy but also managing to last for ages on top. I really enjoyed the shade, too; it’s a coral. Shocker.

5. A perfumed body cream worthy of praise… You’ve caught me, this photo is not actually from a post within the last week or so, but I’ve realized my love for the Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Buttercream this week. It smells like an authentic zesty margarita and actually moisturizes like a champ too. If only it wasn’t irritating on the chronic leg eczema situation…

6. When all else fails, play The Sims … There’s something so comforting about playing The Sims as you’re too stressed to even think about tackling anything on your growing to-do list – but then there’s always that sad moment when you’re living vicariously through a simulation of your self. Alas.

Huh. I suppose this is going to be one of the shorter posts of this variety (and maybe any) by me and that would be because as I’ve been tackling my lovely little cold, it appears that full fledged heavy term-work has come over me and threatened to make me crash and burn. I might be being a little dramatic here but honestly work has been piling up and it’s at that point where I may actually have a breakdown if I don’t get to work on things so I need to get a move on in the sphere of non-beauty or blogging related things. As I write this, I’m afraid that I must return (yet again) to the books and word processors.

How was your week?

Maggie, x.

The Monthly Roundup #9: August 2014

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I might not have been loving life all August (but when am I ever?), but things have been pretty great here at Beautylit & Ramblings this month. Obviously, I haven’t done all of the posts that I planned to at some point but I’ve definitely been pleased overall with the quality of my posts and I did post 22 times, so I can’t complain.

1.  August Favourites –

Where I shared a nicely edited selection of products of the beauty variety (along with a few random ones) without going overboard with the most complex, exhaustively long sentences known to man. I’ve been good in the last few months and haven’t been consistently including every single favourites post in these monthly posts so I was happy to go back to my old way for once.

2. The Pre-Fall Haul –

Where I outlined the products that I picked up in preparation for the upcoming fall season and close-approaching fall school semester and gave my general thoughts on them. I was particularly pleased with the vast quantity of nice pictures included in the post along with my feelings towards the items themselves.

3. The Six-Step Sunday –

Where I wrote more of a typical lifestyle-infused ‘weekend post’ and talked about my six different steps for the ideal relaxed Sunday. It was definitely a different post for me but I was pleased with the results and it did get a significant number of views etc., so I’m assuming you enjoyed it as well.

4. The Five Sumer Essentials –

Where I wrote a ‘little’ ode to the five products that I agonized over including as my five standout products of the summer season. I liked it and it did take some thought…

5. My MAC Eyeshadow Palette –

Last but not least is a post that I’ve been meaning to do and planning for ages that finally came to fruition this month, taking more work than you would assume. I was happy with the result and I hope that my overview of my shadows was a helpful resource to some of you. I just about choke with satisfaction whenever I glance at this post…

What were your standout posts/things of the month?
Maggie, x.

The Monthly Roundup #8: July 2014

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I might moan and groan about those superficial daily life struggles more often than not but it’s not expected for those to be taken 100% seriously to account for my life, however, there is no exaggerating when I say that July was not a good month; it didn’t start off on a positive note and it ended on a wholeheartedly negative one. But, I’m moving on. Wait, I lied because I have to address the sad truth that it’s not particularly upsetting that school will be starting up again in a little over a month – there’s something comforting in the monotony of that routine. Is anybody with me on that one?

1. The Beauty Bargain #4: L’Oreal Glam Bronze Mono in 04 Universal Sun –
In short, where I managed to articulate my love for this red-toned bronzer in a somewhat satisfactory fashion, covering all the bases. I was also rather pleased with the photo shown above, considering my truly amateur skillset.
 
2. My Go-To Spring/Summer Lipsticks –
Again, where I was actually pleasantly surprised at the quality of the pictures in said post but also made the effort to narrow down my favourite lip products and showcase them on my lips – without going overboard.
 
3. Beauty Thoughts: The Verdict –
Where I tried a new post format that involved simply giving my thoughts on a handful of products and was pleased with the result and varying lot. I might expect more of these to come – thoughts?
 
4. The Essentials with Laura –
Surprisingly where I brought another face and perspective to my little corner of the internet and was able to share her favourite products with you. I hope it felt refreshing.
 
5. Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette –
As one might expect, where I gathered my honest thoughts and provided a detailed account of them on this hyped luxury buy. When I say detailed, I’m not exaggerating…
 
What were your highlights?
Maggie, x.
 
 

 

 

Weekly Medley #26

Recently Updated20(1) Soaking up the sun as it reemerged (2) Continuing with the ‘Daily Highlights’ posts (3) Good thing I didn’t say I was on a ‘No Buy’? (4) I kind of Netflix binge-watched both seasons of this – (no regrets)  (5) A somewhat adequate picture of the day above (6) A daily face featuring my MAC Palette (7) An amazing and hilarious video, of course courtesy of ChelseaWears (8) Yesterday’s therapeutic wishlist post (9) My most liked post of the week and quite possibly my favourite post too – linked here

Another week has passed and therefore I’m coming at you with a Weekly Medley post – to state the obvious. It was really not the greatest of weeks but it was not the worst of weeks as it wasn’t physically debilitating like that hellish week during exams for me; it’s been a serious family one, my grandfather whom I’m rather close to, has been sick for a while but things have escalated for the worse rather quickly, requiring lots of care, and it’s difficult to stomach the whole situation. Being someone who struggles with anxiety (putting it mildly), it’s no surprise that I’ve been affected in an unusual way — I’m constantly on edge and unable to focus on any sort of task at hand and be productive. I’m not someone who cries easily over these things and exhibits typical emotional displays but I’m supposing that I’m experiencing it in a different way. The funny thing is that I never intended for this blog to become so personal but writing this down was so therapeutic that I’m letting it slide. I’m not usually one to go on and on about weather actually, but until yesterday, the weather was warm and muggy but constantly overcast and raining on and off so it wasn’t a great one on that front either, until now. Spoiler alert: the last couple of days have been gorgeous sunny ones of 30 degrees that have been spent down at the dock, swimming in the 25 degree water — woo! I’m sure there will be a bit more on this next week and scrambled through upcoming posts.

On a much more superficial note, this week lost points because my basement started to accumulate heat and lose it’s status as the most delightfully cool room to escape to – but I’m working on not leaving every single electronic device on to help matters so it might be more along the lines of a fault of mine. This wasn’t my most exciting makeup week or one where I was particularly into wearing makeup; I did wear makeup most days but on a few occasions I ended up wiping it off a few hours later because I was feeling rather ‘meh’ and on others I found myself merely wearing wearing some BB cream, brows and maybe mascara. However, when I was feeling makeup, I was consistently reaching for my (ALMOST FULL – :))) MAC Palette and loving it. I know I look either extremely sleep-deprived in the picture above or drugged-up but I promise that it was just my general non-photogenic nature coming through. I didn’t wear this combination again on the eyes but I did rather like it and it was somewhat different than what I’ve been reaching for on other days in a nice way. As I have been doing daily, I began with running Soft Brown loosely through the crease – blah blah blah, I’m sure you get it. All over the lid I went for the pale pearly unique Vexshade that I’ve hit pan on but have been neglecting for ages and then deepened up the crease, as per usual (as of late) with Swiss Chocolate. The star of the show might have been Sketch, as it was used to add the plummy smokiness, packed onto the outer corner of the lid and blended out with actual effort (and placed underneath the lower lashes), but I liked the overall look. The shades minus Vex, have been my staples this week along with the other 10 shades in my palette – with a few exceptions.

Two of my lovely confidants from High School (that I happily still am close to and see frequently) decided that they wanted to go beauty product shopping and obviously told me to come along and I agreed, faintly aware of the purchases that would occur as a result, despite being somewhat committed to my ‘Low Buy’. In my defense, I held onto my pennies (joking, we can no longer use pennies here) and watched them go somewhat to town at Sephora and MAC (*pats self on back*) but gave in at the drugstore for a few practical purchases that I was rational about and then we went into Lush and weirdly out of character, I couldn’t resist a purchase or two. On more occasions than I would like to admit, I can be found grumbling on about how ridiculously expensive drugstore makeup in Canada is in comparison to the US and how tragically unfair it is that we cannot return drugstore makeup but I felt both sentiments rather strongly (particularly the second) as I tried and tried the L’Oreal Voluminous Miss Manga Mascaraand wish I had never allowed myself to look inside the drugstore with my friends (kind of) – or at least, wished I had the willpower to say that I would just wait it out for another mascara as I do have enough at the moment. In my defense, it was on sale and I had been hoping that it would be a really easy throw-it-on mascara that removed with minimal effort – a la Maybelline The Falsies, that has recently dried out completely on me. In the last post linked above, I ramble on about this product and four others in more detail that doesn’t reach the realm of excess tangential descriptions, IMO. Sweet success.

Funnily enough, I’m not actually a huge TV person, despite the shows that I’ve included in these posts as of late as I tend to watch them whilst doing other things but while doing so, I’ve found some really interesting ones that capture my attention by their own merits and complicated intricacies and the top spot in recent months might just go to Hannibal,which is a NBC horror show that can also be found on Netflix. It’s placed in the horror genre but it has that thriller-esque complexity that grabs my attention but at the same time, you need somewhat of a strong stomach in order to watch it. It’s psychologically intense (my cup of tea) but it’s best feature is the acting; Hugh Dancy is fantastic at playing the psychologically-troubled Will Graham, who has been pulled out of the classroom to help solve these complex murders and Mads Mikkelsen is just about as believable as the psychiatrist, Dr. Lecter, who has been brought in to theoretically ensure Will’s safety. It keeps you on your toes, that’s for sure. On the beauty-related front, I absolutely loved Chelsea’s latest video, “NEW IN: Skincare + Beauty Part Two”; with actual life busy-ness getting in the way, the hilarious but helpful Chelsea had taken a break from making videos and this has been among the first few videos of her return and I suddenly remembered why I missed them so much. Plus she’s such a genuine human being and her shop ships to Canada so I might actually have to order online.

How was your week? This sounds rather bullshitty (if that’s a word?) but despite lacking general functional human emotional stability, I hope yours was at least a little bit better than mine. Aaaaand I think I love you if you actually got through this little novella of mine!
Maggie, x.

P.S. I’m the last person to get Twitter and I most likely will be the most boring person to follow but if you’re interested in the occasional update, you can follow me @beautyandlit – because beautylit etc. etc. was already taken not because I absolutely loved the name…

 

Weekly Medley #24

Recently Updated16(1) Saturday’s face (2) My forth edition of  my The Beauty Bargain post (3) Outtake from yesterday’s style post (4) The trusted trio (5) The weekly blogging/youtube discovery (5) This week’s obligatory selfie (6) A look into my good pal Laura’s staples (7) A somewhat inaccurate depiction of the hurricane

 

Another week has passed, another three standout products have emerged. This week has been hot and humid, again, until Saturday when we got hit with the hurricane, some lost power and it was windy as anything. It almost getting to the point that the hurricane/wind situation was favourable because it meant that it wasn’t muggy and ridiculous. I’m not the kind of girl that can be a productive human being in the heat so it was nice to be able to wear full length pants without sweating up a storm, even while lounging in front of my fan. Weather and all that jazz aside, the beginning of the week was busy for me in a nice way – I was a nice functional social human being but an exhausted one at that.

I would be tempted to say that this was a shopping-heavy week as I did come out with a good (but not insane) number of purchases, but in truth it happened on Monday (one day) within a few hours. However, I don’t regret it at all. It being the pieces I picked up at American Eagle and Club Monaco, a few drugstore beauty bits that added up, three products from MAC that I provided an overview of here and the two beauty bits that I had been lusting after for ages from Sephora. It’s really not as bad as it sounds; I hadn’t been to the actual mall where MAC, Sephora and all that jazz is in ages so I did the damage that would usually be spread out among three trips into one.

For what felt like the 493489nd time, my lips were chronically dry, sore and somewhat chapped, at the beginning of the week and to sort it out, I used my Cicaplast Baume once or twice for reparative purposes but then went in consistently with my recent acquisition, the affordable Nivea Shea Butter and Vanilla Balm; after a few days, things were looking far less flaky and with this balm they’ve continued to improve. It appears that something I was using in the past few weeks wasn’t agreeing with my lips and the EOS balms weren’t exactly helping matters – retract what I said about it being the ideal balm for under lipsticks. With pot packaging, the thicker balm seems to hydrate instantly (once you open the jar that is) but tends to leave an unattractive white cast so it’s not one for aimless reapplication. In other words, I’ve been really loving it this week.

I seem to be following the pattern of picking three product yet again but I swear that it was accidental; the second two were both products that I’ve talked about in posts this week but they were results of that shopping trip. I declared my love for the L’Oreal Glam Bronze Mono in Universal Sun in my latest edition of The Beauty Bargain this week, despite having picked up a different shade than I intended to. The formula of the velvet-matte bronzer is luxurious and impressive on all fronts and the red-hued shade leans quite warm but really adds that natural bronze look to the face. I’ve even been foregoing blush whilst wearing a more wider application of this bronzer but it’s definitely not the ideal contour in my opinion and it won’t suit my fair skin in the cooler months.

I’ve not been as vocal about it around these parts but I’ve fallen equally in love with the MAC Pro Longwear Waterproof Brow Set in Quiet Brunette (discussed here slightly); I’ve been intrigued by the idea of a tinted brow gel for some added brow definition with some crazy hair-taming power for a while but every shade seems much too warm for my weirdly ashy brows and when I asked about this one, I wasn’t expecting much and I got more than I was asking for. The formula is waterproof and the small brush is easy to use and adds the illusion of thickness in the hairs and this shade is amazing – it doesn’t look particularly ashy in the container but it suits my medium toned brows to perfection on its own in a subtler way. It also takes like a minute to do my brows with it and that is rather appealing.

A few days back, I accidentally found myself searching the popular beauty page on Bloglovin’ and it ended up being a happy accident because I found myself clicking on a new blog and a fabulous one at that, whose writer also makes lovely videos too – that blog would be Beauty Life Michelle, a fabulous Irish gal living in Australia. She’s entertaining to read and watch and I found myself enjoying her Everyday Makeup For Pale Skin video tremendously.

What were your weekly highlights?
Maggie, x.

 

The Monthly Roundup #7: June 2014

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It doesn’t blow my mind that the month of June has already gone by, as shocking as that might be, but it’s kind of mind blowing that 2014 is more than half over but New Years seems like just last week. June was a good month, both as my Birthday month (I turned 20 – eek) and in terms of a month for blogging changes. I’ve changed the name of my blog (not by choice), upgraded it and have switched a variety of things around, aided by my new camera and been pleased with the 25 posts I’ve put up during the sunny and summery month — no complaints there if you ask me. Here’s a roundup of what I thought were my standout posts and I’ll try to be somewhat concise about it. I’m not promising anything though…

1. The Fuss-Free and Wearable Smoky Eye – where I provide my more detailed approach to my standard smoky eye than I can reasonably offer during my ‘The Daily Face’ posts, without writing a little novella.

2. The Summer Edit – where I provide a full-on standard seasonal ‘edit’ kind of post for the current season without nearing the territory of overkill. It was difficult to narrow the products down but I was rather pleased with the end result.

3. The Essential: NARS Orgasm Blush– where I articulate my love for the polarizing half cult-favourite and half overrated product much later than I originally should have.

4. The Acquisition: Chanel Perfection Lumiere Velvet– where I offer an abridged but comprehensive and all-inclusive account of my newest foundation love. My feelings haven’t changed one bit in the last month, unless they’ve perhaps grown stronger. I’m in a committed relationship with this one, not interested in settling for any other options more than once or twice a week at most.

5. The Daily Face #16– where I have written my first post with the new camera and am still pleased with the improved results and also did an everyday kind of makeup wordy post that I was pleased with the result of altogether. I rather liked the above photo and that might have slightly influenced my decision to include it here…

What were your June highlights?
Maggie, x.

 

 

Weekly Medley #19

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(1) the weekly product highlight (2) yesterday I upgraded my blog and have begun to make a few changes (3) the pre-birthday-supper face (5) soaking up the sun in short-shorts (4) I speed-read another book in the guilty pleasure series of mine (5) there’s nothing that compares to lounging outdoors in the heat with a book in hand (6) another post in my skincare series (7) another gorgeous day

This week was marked by Saturday’s one year anniversary of the blog here – it feels so strange to write that as it seems like yesterday – and today was actually my twentieth birthday, as well. This week was nothing particularly noteworthy to be honest but the constant gorgeous sunny weather had me pleasantly surprised and frequently lounging outdoors, reading and planning posts in my little book of blogging. More than that it was actually hot which is not exactly standard here on the east coast before later June but I’ve been enjoying it

Although I have only used the product once since picking it up, the Herbal Essences Naked Moisture Cleansing Conditioner has impressed me enough to deserve mention as a weekly love. I picked it up on impulse on a rare trip to Target as it seems to be the only place where its stocked near me and it was economical, priced at six dollars for its 500 mL container that actually came with a pump. With a nice minty herbal scent, the cleansing conditioner was hydrating but lightweight, catering to those with finer easily-weighed-down hair than those that I had tried before. For me, the only real negative to the product is that it contains the silicone that builds up in the hair titled dimethicone but at the very least it’s nowhere near the top of the ingredient list. In a nutshell, this provided nice curl formation and gentle cleansing with no limpness occurring either.

In honour of having my blog for an entire year, I decided to take the plunge and upgrade my blog to “premium status” or whatever, getting my own domain (and consequently having to change my blog title because the ‘beautylit’ was actually taken but I’m not opposed to the new name), more customization options and all that jazz. There will be a few more changes going on in the next little while but I’m sure you can see that I also switched up the layout quite a bit here. I’ve had the itch to do this for months but I talked myself out of it time and time again so I’m glad that I finally went for it. I’m sure you know the drill in regards to my indecisive nature by now.

There are few things in life (beauty included) that I enjoy as much as lounging lazily and reading a good book so the fact that this week consisted of loads of this, I’m pretty satisfied. Although I actually read three or four books, I thought I would give you the highlights. I read the brand-new City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare and pretty much devoured it which is unsurprising considering that this series has been the fuss-free guilty pleasure series for years. I also am still enjoying Middlemarch and have made significant progress on the less than brief novel.

How was your week?

Maggie, x.

 

Weekly Medley #17

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(1) evidence of writing the skincare series this week (2) if you’re total order at Sephora was $40 it clearly doesn’t count… (3) the lovely Natalie who writes the blog thunderl0ve that has been added to my bookmarks this week – it’s that good… (5) Essie Bikini So Teeny (6) the weekly product picks (7) the weekly selfie featuring the blush in question on the cheeks

Yet another pretty monotonous and nondescript week has gone by; I’m pleased to report that nothing semi-catastrophic happened but nothing of the particularly exciting sort happened – other than a fun low-key night with friends. I feel like I can sum-up my week into two phases – the first half of the week was characterized by continuing on in attempting to get somewhat in shape without leaving my living room that I started at the beginning of last week and the accompanying aches and pains and then suddenly the second half of the week was full of gorgeous sunny weather outside that could only be classified as hot and required things like sunscreen and shaved legs.

Right at the beginning of the week directly after the Sephora incident shown above, I went into the drugstore and Essie was on sale for a few dollars of so it was kind of expected that a polish or two would be coming home with me and the pale cornflower blue Essie Bikini So Teeny went right onto my nails and remained there until the very end of the week with minimal chipping. I’m kind of in love with the shade as it is a pastel blue kind of hue with a kind of different spin to it and the formula actually lasted on my chipping-prone nails. Being a light shade, it’s not the most opaque polish in the world, definitely requiring two solid coats but at the very least it wasn’t streaky or anything of that sort. I might be in love.

There’s another product of the beauty variety that stood out this  last week was the L’Oreal True Match Blush in Innocent Flush and if you’ve been reading my posts as of late and have a good memory, you’re probably aware that I initially misjudged this one. At fifteen dollars for a drugstore product, this is certainly not a bargain but this peachy-coral shade with that golden sheen is well worth it. In fact, I think I only went for a different blush once last week – ohemgee groundbreaking. Pretty much, it’s just a smooth-textured coral blush with a creamy texture that adds that glow to the cheeks that instantly perks up my face but it does deliver at a slightly lower price point and has that peachiness that differentiates it from the other 284847 coral blushes I own. I might have a slight blush hoarding problem, if you catch my drift.

On The Blog…

1. Weekly Medley #16 2. Skincare Thoughts and Tidbits 3. My Skincare Saviors 4. The Daily Face #15 5. Lip Product Addict Tag

You could easily have a different take on this than me, but I thought that this was one of my better weeks, putting out five posts that I’m pleased with and actually committing to writing the little skincare series that I’ve been pondering over for ages and ages without any sort of action occurring. I plan on doing a few more posts in the next little while, if you’re curious, but I do plan on trying to write a few more skincare posts on a regular basis in the future — thoughts?

I can’t be one hundred percent certain that these plans will come to fruition but in the next week you can expect another installment in the skincare series (or perhaps even two…) and perhaps a roundup of my essential beauty products throughout the duration of spring. I’d love to hear any sort of post requests as always!

How was your week?

Maggie, x.