Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Lipstick Bullet Massacre

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What do all of those lipsticks have in common? The fact that somehow I have managed to mangle them all!

I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me! Does anyone else have this issue? Over the years I’ve noticed that a lot of my lipsticks have indentations on the back sides where I’m obviously pressing too hard on the bullet when I apply the lipstick to my lips. However, more recently, I’m having lipsticks full on break on me!

Bite Beauty – Fig
Bite Beauty – Fig

I actually returned this lipstick from Bite Beauty because I thought I’d received an incredibly soft one since it broke the very first time I used it. However, the exact same thing happened to my replacement.

The mangled remains of Fig
The mangled remains of Fig

Since I like the lipstick so much I’ve tried to make do by flattening down the bullet so it applies more like a chapstick. It hasn’t actually broken off from the base, although I figure it’s not long off doing so.  I would de-pot it… but a lipstick in a pot is so much less convenient. Good god this thing looks like hell when I pull it out to apply it.

MAC Hibiscus
MAC Hibiscus

This one I actually did de-pot. MAC‘s Hibiscus is from a limited edition collection years ago and it snapped pretty quickly after I bought it. I tried using all the tricks to re-assemble it – melting, re-attaching, freezing, but none of it works for me! After realizing how little I use this because it’s in a pot, I stopped de-potting any of my other broken bullets.

Revlon Black Cherry & Snow Peach
Revlon Black Cherry & Snow Peach

This is usually how it starts – just a few indentations on the back side, and then eventually I end up using the lipstick too often (and clearly too roughly!) and eventually they snap off the bottom completely!

Maybelline Vivids – Vivid Rose and Neon Red
Maybelline Vivids – Vivid Rose and Neon Red

Some seriously rough looking Vivids. I think Neon Red is pretty close to snapping.

MAC Mystical and Cyndi
MAC Mystical and Cyndi

Mystical isn’t too bad, but Cyndi has already partially cracked off the base. I don’t even understand why either – this is my second tube of this lipstick and I didn’t have any problems at all with the first tube!

bareMinerals – Get Ready
bareMinerals – Get Ready

I even managed to snap this baby-sized bareMinerals lipstick. This is one of my attempts to melt and re-connect the two ends. You can see it didn’t turn out that well…

NYX – Fizzies
NYX – Fizzies

This one I actually know why it happened: I’d had a little bit too much to drink at the bar one night and wound the bullet all the way up to the top before I tried to apply it directly to my lips. Then… *snap*. ARGH!

So does anyone else have this problem? I can’t believe I’m the only one being rough with my lipsticks! I often feel like I don’t get enough pigmentation onto my lips unless I press hard enough on the bullet, but obviously that’s causing me problem! Unfortunately, I have no real solution for fixing these lipsticks since none of the DIYs on the net have worked for me. De-potting seems to be the way to go, but ugh… the hassle of a lip brush is just not worth it to me!

Empties – August through October

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Time to rifle through my garbage! Makeup items first, all the boring stuff after that.

Julep – Paris
Julep – Paris

I loved this polish like nobody’s business. Kalyn had sent me a package of Julep polishes after I had won them on her blog and I dove nose-deep into this disco glitter one. Julep‘sParis is a 3D glitter polish that seems to hint gold more than silver. I wore this sucker out on my toes for several months and eventually finished up the entire bottle.

Repurchase? Unlikely only because it’s a mail order thing and I prefer to pick up my stuff in stores.

MAC Kohl Power pencil in Feline
MAC Kohl Power pencil in Feline

I bought MAC‘s Feline eye pencil because it was hyped up several years back on YouTube. It was supposed to be the blackest pencil available and would stay on my waterline. Well… it’s black. But it’s also incredibly smudgy and would never really stay put if I used it as a solid line. This was great for smudging out and creating smokey looks, but it usually had to be set with a powder to keep it from transferring. Wouldn’t stick on my waterline either. And unfortunately, the closer I got to the bottom of the pencil, the more it just kept breaking off. :/

Repurchase? Nah.

Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm in Twilight
Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm in Twilight

I love the Revlon lipstains + balms something fierce. They may be drying, but they feel “normal” on the lips. I don’t have to be worried about my lip product transferring to clothing, food, glasses, etc., and that’s a huge relief to me. This product was in myProducts to Use Up in 2014 post and I’ve only just now reached the point where it’s dry enough that it’s not worth wearing anymore.

Repurchase: Yes, but a different colour.

CoverGirl Clump Crusher mascara
CoverGirl Clump Crusher mascara

CoverGirl‘s Clump Crusher mascara is a long standing favourite of mine: It separates my lashes well, the brush is fun and easy to use and the product doesn’t clump up. So with that being said, I don’t know what the hell was wrong with this tube but it sucked. It was too dry and didn’t work as well as the previous tubse I had purchase. This may have something to do with the fact that I picked it up at a discounted price at Winners one day, so it’s possible I just got a really old tube. (Ew)

Repurchase: Yes, definitely, but I’ll be picking it up at a drugstore next time!

Sephora – Tempting eyelashes
Sephora – Tempting eyelashes

I was gifted this pair of Tempting lashes from Sephora‘s collection by a friend who didn’t think she’d wear them. I didn’t get as much use out of these as I expected given the price tag associated with these suckers. I think maybe 3-4 uses? The band tended to straighten out more than I would like, which gave me a lot of grief when I would apply them. The effect was pretty, but not quite as voluminous as I tend to like my false lashes.

Purchase? Nope.

Tweezerman eyelash curlers
Tweezerman eyelash curlers

Soooo I didn’t realize that eyelash curlers aren’t supposed to hurt. I just assumed that since they look like torture devices, they’re actually supposed to feel like them too. Since this was my first ever pair of eyelash curlers, I really didn’t know any better. I left them at home by accident when I went on vacation and “had to” buy a new pair from a different brand at Sephora. The difference was unbelievable and I’ve since learned that theTweezerman eye lash curlers SUCK for my eye shape! I am so happy to discover that something can fit my eyeball shape better!

Repurchase? A world of no.

Benefit sample size of Big Easy
Benefit sample size of Big Easy

Benefit‘s Big Easy foundation (BB cream?) has certainly seen some hype, so I was interested in trying the sample packet I got from Sephora. However… First of all, there isn’t enough in one of those little swatchy things to actually do your whole face. Secondly, my skin was too dark for their third and fourth darkest shades and yet the 5th darkest said was way too dark. I mixed all three together and even then had barely enough to cover my face. The colour was still off. I’m kind of meh on the skin colours and the product didn’t wow me either.

Purchase? Not worth it in my book.

Pixi Flawless & Poreless primer
Pixi Flawless & Poreless primer

Another freebie from a friend! Pixi‘s Flawless and Poreless primer was… okay? I guess? I didn’t notice it actually doing anything under my foundation, but I felt compelled to use it anyway.

Purchase? No, I don’t see the point in it really.

Neutrogena Makeup Removing Wipes
Neutrogena Makeup Removing Wipes

You’ve seen these before, so I’ll be brief. Neutrogena Makeup Removing wipes are god-like. The Hydrating ones are better.

Repurchase? Yep!

Aveeno Positively Radiant Daily Moisturizer
Aveeno Positively Radiant Daily Moisturizer

Aveeno‘s Positively Radiant Daily Moisturizer is a staple in my skin care routine. Love this.

Repurchase? Forever and a day.

derma e Microdermabrasion Scrub and Fortune Cookie Soap Walnut Facial Scrub in Swankified
derma e Microdermabrasion Scrub and Fortune Cookie Soap Walnut Facial Scrub in Swankified

derma e Microdermabrasion Scrub: Small sample from my Ipsy bag. It was fine. Smelled a little too much of fake lemon.

Purchase? Unlikely.

Fortune Cookie Soap Walnut Facial Scrub in Swankified: I hated this by the end of the bottle. It worked fine on my face, but the scent was gag-inducing to me.

Purchase? NO!

The Body Shop Shea Butter Body Butter
The Body Shop Shea Butter Body Butter

I don’t know if this actually smells like what Shea Butter smells like, but I couldn’t care less, this stuff is delicious. The Body Shop‘s Shea Butter scent is almost masculine and rather cologne-like. And I seriously love it. This is a wonderful scent and a fantastic product.

Repurchase? Definitely.

Marrakesh Endz and Briogeo Don’t Despair, Repair
Marrakesh Endz and Briogeo Don’t Despair, Repair

Two samples from Ipsy.

Marrakesh Endz: I quite liked this actually. It smelled faintly of cinnamon and was thick and creamy. The ends of my hair seem fine, but I also recently had a hair cut, so who the heck knows if it actually works.

Repurchase? Possibly, if I saw it at a discount store.

Briogeo Don’t Despair, Repair Deep Conditioning Mask: This stuff SUCKED. I used it as the instructions said and it didn’t leave my hair feeling nice at all. If anything, my hair was sticky and close to uncomb-able after using it. What a piece of crap.

Repurchase? NO!

St. Ives Oatmeal & Shea Butter Hydrating Body Wash
St. Ives Oatmeal & Shea Butter Hydrating Body Wash

St. Ives Oatmeal & Shea Butter Hydrating Body Wash was left at my place by a guest who had come and stayed for a while. I finished it up because why would I let it go to waste? It was okay. The scent wasn’t amazing to me, but it was a perfectly serviceable body wash.

Purchase? Unlikely.

Fitness Friday – LCC – Internationaler Babenbergerlauf 10K

Another race while on vacation! This time in Vienna, Austria. This was the original race I intended to run while on vacation in Europe in September. It was the only one I could find close to Prague that was a reasonable enough driving distance away. Originally, I hadn’t signed up for the half marathon, so this was to be my only race while on vacation.

I didn’t know much about this race other than that it had an exceptionally long name I didn’t understand (Babenbergerlauf), it was a 10k race and it was in Vienna, roughly a 4 hour drive from Prague. A friend from Germany (an ex, actually) had offered to drive to Prague, pick me up, and then drive us both to Vienna where we could do the race together. Always up for a fun adventure and a challenge, I definitely wanted to do this. It was my last weekend in Europe before I flew home to Toronto so I really wanted to squeak this last race in.

 

Starting zone for the Babenbergerlauf
Starting zone for the Babenbergerlauf

The Babenbergerlauf 10K is a varying distance run (there’s a 5k, 15k and half marathon track that sets off at the same as the 10k we were doing) that has very, VERY few people in it. The 10K we did actually only had 40 people in it! Definitely the smallest race I’ve ever done and had some of the fittest people I’ve ever seen running this thing. Seriously, I think I was the heaviest one there.

The race takes place on a paved path through one of central Vienna’s parks. It’s right beside the Ernst-Happel Stadium, a huge soccer venue.

Nilo at the start zone
Nilo at the start zone

I had been kind of hoping that the path would be through a shady area of the park, but a lot of the run turned out to be in the incredibly bright sun. The forecast had also under-predicted the temperature at 14 degrees and instead it turned out to be an almost blazing 22 degree day.

Bib number
Bib number

So the deal with this race is that I had stipulated to Nilo was that, given all things equal, a man should be 10% faster than a female. A (somewhat healthy) competition got started then between us, but it quickly deteriorated into him saying “well I hope I just beat you”.

😐

(I’ll also point that he’s an entire foot taller than me, too.)

Anyway, I didn’t know how well I was going to do. This was a race done at the very tail end of my vacation. I had already run a half marathon the week before and I had been eating and drinking like it was going out of style (because really, what ELSE do you do on vacation?!). Realistically, I knew I couldn’t beat my previous fastest 10k time (55:14), but I had small fledgling hope that I’d find some burst of inspiration during the race and bust out at a 50 minute 10k (baaaaaaaaahahahah yeah no).

Found this on the event’s Google+ page, I’m famous!
Found this on the event’s Google+ page, I’m famous!

So we set off and it was fine. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember a whole lot of the run. It kind of comes to me in waves, my thought process being:

  • <1k: Okay, Imma beat him. Imma beat him! *goes fast*
  • 2-4k: Why am I doing this? This is stupid, you’ve been on vacation for a week or more, what are you trying to prove? *goes slower*
  • 4k: God it’s hot out here, where the hell are the water stations?
  • 4.2k: Oh man, that sun is REALLY shining down on me.
  • 4.4k: WHERE. ARE. THE. WATER. STATIONS.
  • 4.8k: EESH there’s the water station, why the heck wasn’t there one sooner??? *grabs two glasses and gulps them down*
  • Perpetual thought throughout the entire race: Why are there so many chestnuts on the ground? This isn’t safe! I’m going to roll my ankle!
  • 5-6k: Halfway there, this thing is almost done really.
  • 6-9k: WHYYYYYYYYYY AM I DOING THISSSSSSSSSS? (seriously, this whole chunk is a blur)
  • 10k: I’m done! THAT WAS AWESOME! Let’s go again!
Finish line!
Finish line!

In the end, Nilo beat me which I entirely expected. I finished in 56:24 which is the same finish time I had for that entirely downhill 10k in Toronto in April so I’m pretty pleased about that. Nilo finished in 54:07 which is a solid two minutes faster than me… but still wasn’t 10% quicker! (So really, I think I won this challenge!)

Babenbergerlauf 10K
Babenbergerlauf 10K

Race Results

  • Finish Time: 56:24
  • Pace: 5:38 per kilometer
  • Overall placement: 29/39
  • Age group placement (Women 30-39 years): 3/5
  • Gender placement (F): 8/13

My Vacation in Pictures: Czech Republic & Austria

Arrival in Prague, first night walking around!
Arrival in Prague, first night walking around!
First full day, meeting Isie (!!), walking around town.
First full day, meeting Isie (!!), walking around town.
Half Marathon in Usti nad Labem, well deserved drinks that evening!
Half Marathon in Usti nad Labem with my brother, well deserved drinks that evening!
Karluv Most, BEER SPA!
Karluv Most, BEER SPA!
Goddamn forks, Jewish cemetery, beer garden.
Goddamn forks, Jewish cemetery, beer garden.
The Savoy and Sacher Torte, the opera.
The Savoy and Sacher Torte, the opera.
Kutna Hora, Peperoncino (best Italian food ever) and the most amazing Adidas pants.
Kutna Hora, Peperoncino (best Italian food ever) and the most amazing Adidas pants.
Karlovy Lazne
Karlovy Lazne
"Are you Irish?", travelled to Vienna.
“Are you Irish?”, travelled to Vienna.
LCC – Internationaler Babenbergerlauf 10K race, CAT CAFE!!!
LCC – Internationaler Babenbergerlauf 10K race, CAT CAFE!!!
Traditional Austrian food, Ice club at Karlovy Lazne, absinthe.
Traditional Austrian food, Ice club at Karlovy Lazne, absinthe.

 

Night Out at the Opera

So I’ve been in Prague! I’ve been having a lovely vacation and wanted to share something slightly different on my blog because quite frankly, I don’t get to do this often (if ever). My good friend Sara, whom I am vacationing with, suggested we hit up the opera and get all fancy. And really, who can say no to that?

Poser
Poser

We chose to go to the opera on a Wednesday night. Which means we probably got a little overdressed, but that’s fine by me!

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I somehow managed to do this on the cheap. The dress was on a $10 sale rack at H&M that I’d picked up in Toronto. The shoes are ones I intended to wear to my wedding, but never did because they were too uncomfortable to wear for a long periods of time. The necklace was also a wedding castoff that had never been worn (bought from Etsy). So not only was I excited to wear stuff I hadn’t gotten a chance to before, but the dress was so cheap that it was actually exciting!

Face and hair
Face and hair

I had less time than normal to prep, because apparently not everyone requires two hours to do so. (Absolute blasphemy I tell you…)

Eye makeup
Eye makeup

I opted for an eye look that would match my dress, because frankly, I don’t know how to do contrasting colours well at all.

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Eyes
(using the Too Faced A Few of my Favorite Things palette)

  • Bluff all over the lid
  • Blue Satin Sashes in the outer corner
  • Pure Glam to deepen up the outer corner
  • Chocolate Milk through the crease to blend it out
  • Cream Colored Ponies on my browbone to highlight

Urban Decay Perversion mascara is on my lashes and I used Kat Von D‘s Tattoo liner in Trooper to create the wing. Sephora‘s Tempting lashes were then popped on as well.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: Boots No7 Stay Perfect in Deeply IIvory
  • Bronzer: Too Faced Chocolate Soleil
  • Blush: essence –Pinky Flow
  • Concealer: essence –match2cover
  • Brows: Anastasia Brow Whiz in Ash Blonde/Taupe
  • Lips: Wet n Wild 903C with NYX Butter Gloss in Tiramisu on top
Best shot I have of the both of us, despite it being a bit blurry
Best shot I have of the both of us, despite it being a bit blurry

The opera house itself was beautiful. I’d never been in such a gorgeous old world venue like that before!

On one of the (many) flights of stairs up to our seats
On one of the (many) flights of stairs up to our seats

We saw Jacobin, which was kind of a “take it or leave it” storyline for me. The sets and the singing were beautiful, and thankfully, although the entire opera was done in Czech, they actually had a scrolling screen high above the actors that translated everything into English. Genius idea for those of us who can’t speak Czech!

Outside the opera house after the show
Outside the opera house after the show

This is right about when my shoes started to kill my feet. Good times.

Beer me
Beer me

After the opera, we sauntered on down to Wenceslas Square and had bratwurst, fried cheese sammiches and beer because we are classy, classy ladies.

Sara with her deepfried cheese sandwich. It was way too delicious and I was seriously envious.
Sara with her deepfried cheese sandwich. It was way too delicious and I was seriously envious.