It started with Nars Orgasm, because of course it is considered the best.  But then as my powder ran out I wanted to try The Multiple because I love multitaskers, but if you haven’t noticed Nars is a little on the pricey side.  So I looked for a different one.  I came across the Josie Maran Argan Cover Stick, which is very similar to the multiple.

What I got was a lovely color and texture which came out to look like a really natural blush.  It’s moisturizing, but didn’t cause my skin to break out at all.  My only problem with it was that the color didn’t seem to spread all that well, but that is most likely because cream blush doesn’t work the best with a powder foundation which is the foundation of my choice.  What is fantastic is that it can be used just like the multiple, it gave a nice bit of color and shine to my lips and eyelids without looking matchy matchy with my cheeks.

Unfortunately for the stick I received a Benefit gift set for my birthday a couple weeks ago and guess what was in it…yup you got it, blush! The Benefit Bella Bamba blush.

I am a sucker for cutesy packaging and this has it, cute brush that fits inside and bright colors will always win me over.  It is powder so it works way better with my foundation, and the color is amazing.  It doesn’t seem to dry my cheeks out even though its powder on top of powder, which is nice especially with winter coming up.  The Argan stick might have stayed as my basic if this hadn’t come along, but it has and the stick will stay in my main make-up bag until I want to try it out again.

But this isn’t the end, oh no! I want to try more, different brands, variations on the same color….and this is how my collection grows out of control without me even noticing it.

One product I do like, although it doesn’t get rid of under-eye circles it does moisturize and makes the concealer blend a little better.  It’s Clinique All About Eyes is fantastic for winter, especially this one when we had weeks of temperatures at -20.  It creates that barrier that keeps you comfortable so you don’t feel like your skin is tearing apart when you are walking in the wind.  It is a little heavy in the summer, but that heaviness is the key in the winter.

Clinique-all about eyes

Now the greatest product I have found, for now I will probably hate it in April, is a brand I don’t ever think about.  It is Quo Mineral Matter Double Concealer, it has a solid concealer on one end and a liquid on the other.  I have been using the solid side first, which is actually nice and creamy and will probably work very well in summer as well, and then layering the liquid on top to add a little more light.

Quo - Minerals Matter Double Concealer

I hate heavy make-up and it’s one of the reason I am a Big powder girl, but I do a full 8 hours at the store with this concealer and 1. it’s still there at the end of the day, and 2. I don’t feel as if I am wearing layered concealer.  It is about $10 if I remember correctly so it is affordable make-up, which of course is the key for me!

I should clarify, I work in retail.  Now those of you that have been in it, or are still, will know that at this time of year it seems hopeless.  Sales don’t come easily, if at all, and it’s ‘put pressure on associates because if we push harder they will create sales out of thin air’ time.  So you hope beyond hope that you can retry and maybe something will work, even if the last time you tried it failed miserably.

Which brings me to this blog.  I tried, I failed and in keeping with the rest of my life I am retrying, someone out there has to have enough time on their hands to find my life and opinions interesting.  Anyway reintroducing my blog as something a little different from the last time I tried (see not that insane I am changing it a little!).  It’s going to be fashion, beauty, life with some retail hell mixed in for the fun of it, basically I don’t want to keep bugging my fiance, friends and family (3 F’s awesomeeee!) so I will bug the internet! Thanks!

Unfortunately this leaves me with the problem of my growing wish list of stuff I want.  Luckily the jacket is taken care of, as well as the boots, I just bought a pair of black leather ankle boots so that covers that.  Now I still want a belt, a bag, not to mention a great pair of leather gloves!  Now some ideas for that, because of course I’m not going to make a purchase without some research am I.  Men do it for their cars and laptops and I do it for my clothes and accessories.

A belt that I love is this one from Danier, I love the studs on it, especially since I have been wearing a lot of neutrals lately I want something to add interest to my outfits.

There is also this one from H&M which I haven’t seen in stores yet and maybe only available in the U.S (as usual us Canadians get the short end of the stick with availability), but I can hope right!

As for purses I need a decent size bag, I like being able to fit everything I need into my purse.  So I definitely like this one from Guess.

Now hopefully I wont just be window shopping this fall, but at least my “research” keeps me busy until I have enough cash to buy all the fun stuff I want!

The colors are pretty good, not too many colors in the average shoppers drug mart but enough.  At the time though I was looking for a blue nail polish and they had it so I was happy, it was also on sale so even better!

It’s a really nice color, but my problem is that nic’s sticks are over ten dollars and really, for nail polish its too much.  So I went to Walmart the other day and tried the nail pen from Sally Hansen.  For some reason the shoppers drug marts/pharma plus that I go to don’t have a large selection of Sally Hansen so I haven’t been able to try this pen out.  So I bought a purple, and just tried it out.  Lets just say you do not have to pay double the price for the OPI!  The Sally Hansen brush is pretty similar, maybe not as slim as the nic’s sticks one but its the same basically.  The nail polish is just regular Sally Hansen nail polish so its perfectly good.

There is a nice color range, so unless the OPI has a color you really want there is no use for it.  I’m expecting it to act as all my other Sally Hansen polishes have and last just as long, if not longer than my more expensive polishes.  But in general for the nail polish pens, if you have the same trouble I do with painting your nails without painting your fingers as well, the pens are a great solution.

So my hunt was preferably a dress, something airy and not at all constricting.  I am very into blues, greens and greys so if something came in those colors even better.  I loved this one, I love how it has a nice structure to it.

When I tried it on though it wasn’t exactly the perfect fit, as well as I didn’t really want to spend $50 on something that was not exactly what I needed.  So on to the next one.  I love this next one because it looked very comfy and with a cardigan I could wear it to work.

The problem with this was that the top half was too big for me while the bottom fit quite well.  Oh well, the search continued! I loved the shape of this dress, the almost tulip shaped bottom half.  It also looks a little old greek style with the layered top.

Well lets just say it looked a lot longer on the hanger, and that lower layer does not cover as much as I thought.  It looked very nice on, aside from the fact that you got a glimpse of my very upper thigh every time i slightly moved.  That was unfortunate because it was a great price and came in a turquoise, burgundy and I think a few other colors.  I finally ended up with a jersey mix fabric dress in turquoise.  It has short sleeves and a deep V neck line.  I couldn’t find a picture of it online, but the closest style would be this one.

The dress I got though has a more structured top and no pockets.  I have been living in it though so it was an extremely good buy! Anything that can help me through this humidity is fantastic.  I hope that everyone else out there in Toronto is dealing with the heat in any way possible!

With the swine flu and everything else out there, and traveling on the TTC I wash my hands so many times in the day.  Again working retail helping tons of people on a shift, I am touching what these people touched, coins so I wash my hands.  Unfortunately because of it my hands are very dry and I need to treat them with extra TLC.  I used to use the method brand soaps because they are more natural, and should be a little more gentle on my hands.  Also they have a decent range of nice scents and colors, I love a bright soap in my bathroom.

But it still dried my hands out! I guess no matter how natural it still wont be as moisturizing as you need it to be.  So I ended up going for the cheap life brand which was fine, drying, but it was alright.  So Bath & Body Works opened up in Eaton Centre and my soap had run out, anyway I decided to try their soaps.  As usual Bath & Body Works had a 4 for the price of 3 on the soaps and with so many different scents I was pretty much in heaven. I got four and the first one I tried was the coconut lime verbena scent.

Amazing!!! I am not a big fan of coconut, long story involving eating  a lot of fresh coconut in too short a period, but this one smells great! The main smell is the lime but with just a touch of coconut.  The best aspect though is that its antibacterial, so it will kill germs not just remove the visible dirt.  Oh and well the other best aspect is that even after more than four washes in a short period of time (mounting things in the new apartment dirties the hands) my hands don’t feel dry at all! So antibacterial, great smell, moisturizing I don’t have a fault with it at all.  I can’t wait to try the other three that I bought.

The whole hipster emo style is really not my thing, it doesn’t suit me .  I also hate the whole skinny jeans on guys thing, but that is a rant for another time.

The grunge style that is coming back around seems to draw a lot from the early 90′s, but not as anti-fashion as it was originally.  It is a little more stylized, and there is a method to how it is put together, whereas originally there was little or no care put into what was worn.  It was a pretty simple look, no cleaning or ironing needed.  Just throw on a flannel shirt with some jeans and doc martens and you were set.  Considering the amount of work to shimmy into my skinny jeans and make sure the shirt I have complements them, as well as having a cute pair of flats to pair with it, the effort makes me want to pile on comfy baggy clothes and not care.

Start with flannel...

...add some denim...

...finish with doc martens. Et voila grunge!

But of course that wouldn’t be me, but this feeling had me on the hunt for a great pair of super comfy jeans.  I looked for a while, and I was looking for the perfect pair, comfortable, flattering, soft and most importantly well priced.

I went everywhere that I could think of, I even went to Jean Machine.  I deeply dislike that store, I really hate pushy sales people and that place has nothing but.  I guess it is just harder to find something when you have your mind set on an exact look.  Once again H&M comes to the rescue, seriously I would have no clothes without that store!  I found a nice soft light pair of jeans.  I ended up buying them a size too big because I wanted a boyfriend jean look, without the peg leg style.

Not the greatest picture of them, but there they are in all their glory.  They are super soft, and the most comfortable jeans I own.  They stretch out a lot, but even then they still look good on.  The only issue I had was that they weren’t distressed enough for me, but I think I was getting just a little too picky.  I decided to attempt to distress them myself and just buy the jeans.

So far this is all I have gotten for my own take on the grunge look.  I am still looking for a good plaid shirt, but once again I am very picky and will probably take a month or two to find.  I am looking for something red of course, with a longer sleeve so I can wear it through fall.  I like this one from urban outfitters, it would look really nice with a pair of shorts for the summer, and would be good for layering when October comes along.

So my search starts again, and hopefully it wont be as long as the jean search.  I have to say, I’m happy this look is back I really like being comfortable, but I hate looking like it.  The grunge look, along with the menswear inspired clothing out there makes it a little easier to be comfortable and stylish.

I had grown up with my mom dying her hair because she had gone grey, even overseas where she couldn’t get her color.  She either had my grandparents send it or filled a suitcase with the dye when we came back from summer vacation.  She had a system where she got multiple uses of one box, so needless to say when she saw how unflattering this color was for me she helped me start dying my hair.  It started with sun-in, which wasn’t half bad, but unpredictable.  It worked when I was young, but I wanted an all over color instead of just random lightness.

So the first dye I used was a L’oreal and wow did it smell, the ammonia level definitely has definitely improved in the last 10 years.  I was in Pakistan at the time, and it was my first prom and I wanted to get it done in the salon.  Well, that was a HUGE mistake.  Surprisingly trying to dye your hair blonde in a country where almost 100% of the people have dark brown or black hair is not a good idea.  Their idea of dying hair blonde is bleach, I mean they may have well as taken Clorox and left it on my hair.  What I ended up with was dry, brittle, basically white hair.  I went on summer vacation and as it was growing out the sun lightened it.  Because of how much it damaged my hair I decided to grow my hair out and after so many years of treating it have it completely natural.  The growing out period was hilarious to say the least. From having what looked like a black stripe down the center of my head, to having 3 different, very well defined color block stripes.  It finally grew out and I remembered why I had started dying it in the first place.

Now that I’m in Canada, land of the cold and no sun, and have no money there is such a need to have a good DIY hair dye.  I am very lucky to have a wonderful boyfriend who will spend the time and dye my hair for me, surprisingly is way better than my mom, who knew!  So I have been using L’oreal Dream Blonde for a while now, but it didn’t work the last time I used it.

Dream Blonde

So, after having a problem with this one I decided to use the L’oreal Perfect 10.  Unfortunately it just doesn’t come light enough, the color was too warm and didn’t compliment my skin tone, but it worked.  I am still looking for something else, I think next time I am going to try Clairol Nice and Easy, it has to be popular for a reason right?! I wish I could just get a swatch of my childhood color and make the perfect hair dye.  That would make my life a lot easier, but nothing is easy unfortunately.  No matter what I need that dye, especially in winter, so the search will continue until I find that one color that comes out perfectly every time.