NOTD: Bling in the Spring

Last night I was trying to decide what colour to paint my nails. I was torn between Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Lilacism, and OPI Do You Lilac It? but none of them were really calling out to me. I felt like my nails needed a little bling so I decided to pair OPI Glitzerland and China Glaze Medallion (just on the ring fingers) and I actually really like it. Metallics are supposed to be “in” for spring but this almost reminds me a bit of the holidays. Oh well. Anyway that’s it. I just wanted to show you all what’s on my nails today.

Project 10 Pan is OVER!!

About a week ago I realized I had finished project 10 pan and I didn’t even know! I actually ended up using 14 products instead of 10 but the more the better, right? I don’t want this post to be too long so without further ado here are the final items I used up.

1. Essie To Dry For Topcoat

2. Yves Saint Laurent Faux Cils and Dior Extase Mascaras

3. Biotherm Nutrisource Levres

4. Neostrata Smoothing Cleansing Mask

5. Murad Exfoliating Acne Treatment Gel

6. Etival Hydra Boost Serum

Sally Hansen Mega Shine AKA Worst Topcoat Ever

A few months ago I was on the hunt for a new topcoat and decided to give Sally Hansen Mega Shine a try since I'd heard really great things about. All the reviews I saw claimed that this topcoat was like Seche Vite but even better because, as I'm sure most of you know, Seche Vite has the little disclaimer that it may cause birth defects (news flash, a lot of nail polish brands include the exact same ingredient - you're probably already using it). Even though I loved Seche Vite and I could care less about the disclaimer because I'm not pregnant, nor am I planning on being pregnant any time soon, I hated that it turned rock hard only halfway through the bottle so I thought this would be a great topcoat to try since it's supposed to be even better.

Old Products, New Uses

For a while now I’ve been trying to clear out all the products I don’t use or like in order to minimize the amount of makeup and skin care items I own. This means using cleansers I don’t like, wearing powders that are too dark, and applying lip balm that smells like wax. Luckily I’ve managed to find other uses for a few products that I thought were lost causes.

Cover FX 160 Foundation Brush. I originally bought this brush along with my Cover FX Cream Foundation because that’s what Cover FX recommends you apply it with. That was a big fail for me. Not only does this brush shed (think MAC 109), but the actual cream foundation just doesn’t look good when applied as an all over foundation. I can’t understand why they would market such a thick, full coverage product as a foundation. It’s excellent as a concealer and I think it lives up to the hype in that respect, but there are very few people that need the amount of coverage this gives you on their entire face. Hence, the 160 foundation brush became useless.

Insomnia: In & Out

It’s 1am and I can’t bring myself to sleep even though I’m tired. This always seems to happen to me at the end of the semester when I’m done everything and have basically zero school related stress. I’m technically not finished for another 3 weeks but the amount of work I need to do between now and then is minimal, hence no stress. Since I’m just sitting here refreshing Twitter and YouTube waiting for something to happen I figured I’d write a blog post. I’m going to attempt to do my first “In & Out” post but I’m going to warn you that it might suck. Here we go…

IN

Spring! Today it was ridiculously nice outside! We literally had a major snowstorm a week ago and today it was bright, sunny, and probably 15 degrees. I don’t expect it to last but I’m going to try and enjoy it while it does.

Dresses. It’s getting to be that time of the year that I go dress crazy again. I usually live in dresses all year round and just add leggings in the winter but for some reason this winter I ended up with a strict wardrobe of yoga pants. Even though I’m still yoga pant obsessed I’m feeling the urge to go buy some dresses. I have a lot of my old dresses lying around but the one downfall of losing weight is that my old clothes don’t really fit anymore so unless I belt them they just look shapeless.

Project 10 Pan

Some of you may know that I decided to venture out on a project 10 pan a few weeks ago. For those of you not familiar with Project 10 Pan, it’s pretty much a makeup buy ban. The premise is that you must completely use up 10 products before you buy any more and it's a way of using makeup that’s already in your collection instead of continually buying and forgetting about the old stuff *guilty*. A lot of people have different rules for Project 10 Pan and these are mine. I am not buying any cosmetic items (makeup, skin care, hair care, nail polish, etc.) until I have completely used up 10 I already own. I decided to limit myself to 5 skin care products because I tend to go through skin care pretty quickly and I had a lot of items that were already more than half done.

Here’s what I’ve used up so far…

Inglot

Recently, my parents took a trip down to Las Vegas and when they asked us if we wanted them to bring back anything I knew exactly what I was going to get. Inglot! Here in Canada Inglot is really difficult to come by. The only a few stores, all in Quebec, and for the majority of us Canadians that’s quite a long trip and not even remotely worth it for makeup. Some of you might know that I’m on project 10 pan but I figured I would take advantage of my parent’s offer since this was the only time I would be able to get my hands on some Inglot products in the near future.

Inglot eyeshadows are sold in a similar way to MAC eyeshadows. You can buy them in the pan or in palettes. Inglot calls their palettes the freedom system because you get to choose your palette size anywhere from a duo to a 20 pan palette and you can customize which colours go into your palette. I chose to go for a 10 eyeshadow palette which retails for $50 USD. Inglot breaks down the price for each eyeshadow differently depending on how many you buy. With the 10 pan palette the eyeshadows were $4.50 USD each and the palette was $5 USD. Each eyeshadow contains 2.7g of product. To put that into context, a single MAC eyeshadow in pro palette form contains 1.5g of product and retail for $11 USD/$13 CAD plus you need to purchase the actual palette! In my opinion, the quality of these eyeshadows is much better than MAC, and with a significantly better price point I say if you have access to Inglot, stock up.

I wanted to include some photos and swatches so you guys could get a better idea of what everything looks like so keep reading if you’re interested (just for reference I’m slightly lighter than NC15, so the colours will show up similar to if they were swatched on a white background)...

Things I Want

If you watch my YouTube videos you’ll probably know that I decided to undergo the torture of Project 10 Pan. I’m doing well so far and have used up a few products (I’ll update with my progress in another blog post) but I’ve also been adding to my wish list for when I’m done and can buy beauty products again. Here are some of the things at the top of my list.

Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. I’ve heard so many amazing things about this cleanser. While I love my Origins cleansers I get bored easily and I feel like it’s time to switch things up. Once my two cleansers are used up I think I’ll be placing an order for this cleanser. I’m especially curious about the muslin cloth.