A quick catch-up post for today — everything I’ve had kicking around that falls just short of a post on their own. Each of the subject headings were taken from folder names on my desktop (or from folders which sit on the desktop rather than in my documents), and there are… rather a lot of urgent-looking exclamation points. File this one away in “behind the non-pro beauty blogging scenes.”
Somehow, despite the aforementioned exclamation points, theNotice’s backlog is still thousands of photographs deep. The system appears to be irreparably broken, which is probably why I found a folder labelled “!! look at your life look at your choices,” a few weeks back.
November is totally an acceptable month for hot chocolate.
Because hot chocolate is delicious.
The recipe for the perfect hot chocolate: warm (but don’t boil) 2% milk on the medium heat. Add in a heaping spoonful of cocoa, 2-3 large marshmallows, and 1-2 drops peppermint oil. Squish the marshmallows with a spoon if they’re not melting down fast enough (because who needs patience when you could have hot chocolate), and whisk until smooth and steaming.
Alternately, add a heaping spoonful of cocoa into a cup of eggnogg and whisk thoroughly. Easy & almost impossible to mess up!
(Lucerne does the best eggnogg that I’ve found, at least in Canada — nothing else is really worth drinking.)
Lavender/lilac/violet eyeshadow swatches
Swatched from left to right, dry over primer: Rimmel Royal Violet, Senna Fantasy, MAC Lovely Lily, Marcelle Dimensional Mauve (x2), Lancome Angora, Annabelle Hawaïan Hues.
Who needs breaks when you could have insomnia instead
In the past few days, I’ve photographed and swatched twenty-ish different products. It’s kind of exhausting, and always a race against the clock.
Just some of what’s to come in the next few weeks…
Fun fact: the sun in Edmonton sets around 4:30 pm at this time of year, but is rather on the weak side until one or two. The golden hour starts around four, which gives you… I’d say two hours of good sunlight a day, if the sky’s completely clear. (Gorgeous sunlight while it lasts, though — much brighter & more diffuse than what we get in the summer!)
Red/vampy lip product swatches
Hover for shade names and combinations!
Swatched in the photo above: Marcelle Rouge Xpression in Amour, Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Sultry Sable, Korres Raspberry Liquid Lipstain in Berry, Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in True Vintage, Rimmel Kiss & Stay Lipgloss in Eternal Kiss, theBalm Plump Your Pucker in Boyz’n My Berry, Annabelle Le Gloss in Bitten.
Mixing German Nivea with Vaseline is also totally acceptable.
I live in Alberta and I have ridiculously dry skin; stop with your judge-y face.
Need a nighttime moisture fix? Smoosh* a half-serving of moisturizer together with a half-serving of Vaseline on your fingertips, work it into the skin, and hope to god you won’t still be dry & flakey in the morning.
*Smoosh: super-serious technical term. Yep.
Sephora + Pantone Universe Alchemy of Color Face Palette
Smells kind of extremely weird, but depots easily with an art knife and comes with a few rather pretty matte shades. The shimmer duo, however, is apparently an exploding glitterbomb whose life mission is to get on everything you own and never wash out.
Pass on this one — despite the half-off price tag (find it here), Sephora has much more exciting things coming up for the holidays. There are better finds within the Sephora + Pantone line itself, too.
Why yes, I did take this giant toilet-box and turn it into a lightbox today
Technically, they’re not lightboxes (see: this DIY infinity background tutorial), and there’s two of them, but the intent was definitely there. The new backdrops are larger and corner-free, so it should make shooting with them easier in the long run. The size makes them rather more cumbersome, though!
Classy with a capital K. But only a figurative one, because we’re not Kardashians or anything equally ill-advised.
And one last folder name…
ARE YOU A POTATO
This post has been brought to you by Rae Chen the Beauty Blogging Potato™, with the help of the old man-thermals (I will never understand underwear flaps) that her mother decided she should wear.
For future reference, when wearing thermals around the house, it helps if you aren’t wearing a t-shirt, a winter sweater, and a pair of pyjama bottoms underneath.
It helps kind of a lot.
