CherryReview: Josie Maran Bare Naked Wipes

First of all...Merry Christmas to everyone!!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones :)  Now onto the review...

I bought these nail removal pads from Sephora while waiting to pay one time. They set me back $11 CAD for 20 wipes...not bad I guess although I could have scored the nail and facial wipes for $12 during the Black Friday sale. Oh well!

That one pad was able to take off pretty much 95% of the red nail polish I had.  The dork I am, I forgot to take a photo of the state of my nails.  I had on Essie's Headmistress, which is a medium-dark red (base-one coat-top coat and touch ups).  It was pretty chipped on my index fingers and three fingers on my right hand. 

CherryReview: Lipbalms

I love lip balms - it is an essential in my purse and I cannot live without it.  Especially after my trip to Punta Cana - I think I got a sun burn on my lips which caused me to have massive peeling for almost a whole month...and nothing was working (the worst was that anything with salt dried my lips, they were peeling AND constantly feeling dry...exfoliating it helped at first but then it would be dry and peeling again) until the pharmacist recommended Blistex Complete Moisure.  I'll be discussing it further in this review :)

Right now I have a lip balm in every purse since I have a bad tendency to change purses and forget to put the lip balm in there.  I have my lipstick but I always make sure to put lip balm first.  Plus, kissing the fiance saans lip balm just doesn't seem nice at all...

My little stash (currently): Blistex Complete Moisture, Sugar Lip Treatment (from the Sephora birthday gift), Nivea Milk & Honey, Nivea Sun, Blistex Fruit Smoothies (Berry Explosion - it comes in a pack of three with two others - Tropical Fruit (orange) and Melon (green)), Blistex medicated

CherryReview: Eyeko Skinny Liner and Skinny Brush mascara

Sephora had the Eyeko liquid eyeliner and mascara set (minis) available for $19 near the cashier, so I decided to buy it on a whim because I never really use liquid eyeliner and wanted to try it out.  Hence this crappy looking lines in the photos you are about to witness (*nervous laugh*)

(Photos courtesy of Sephora)

FYI: Even after trying to use this for a month, I still can't get a good line out of it.  I blame my shaky hands...for some reason I'm better with gel liner.  Oh well...I guess it depends on the day too.

Anyways, the Eyeko liner is supposed to have a glossy finish, which is nice since it's different from the look that you get from other liquid liners and from gel or pencil liners.  It's definitely a good black liner - I had bought one from SaSa in Hong Kong once by Cybercolour and it was...subpar.  The black was a very liquid black - not an opaque black.

CherryTravels: Toronto and Halifax in 2 weeks (Part 2)

Holy moly yes...I realize that it's been a while and that my Part 2 is long overdue.  So sorry about that (it's already been more than a month since I went to Halifax oopsies) - work has been busy and the weekends have been equally busy, and I've been tired like you cannot imagine (work, lack of sleep...lots of things going on).

However, I'm determined to get this entry done (and another one soon) so here we go!

CherryReview: Dry shampoo

Left: TreSemmé FreshStart Waterless Foam shampoo, Right: Aveeno Active Naturals Pure Renewal Dry Shampoo

Dry shampoos were something that intrigued me when they first started making more headway around two summers ago (I think it was two summers ago...in 2010?  At least that's when I heard more about it).  Every time I go to the gym, I have to wash my hair because I hate the feeling of my swear just drying up on my hair - it just sounds gross!  But there are days where I don't want to wash my hair after I go to the gym because it takes forever for my hair to dry, and just showering at the gym gives me the hee-bee-jee-bees (lol).  I of course shower at the gym if I'm meeting up with friends after my workout, but it's always been a hassle when it came to washing my hair.  I'm not a fan of the "wet hair" look.

The first time I read about dry shampoos was probably in my Cosmopolitan magazine in the summer.  The one that was recommended was the TreSemme one, so I decided to pop downstairs from the office to the drugstore and pick it up.  I don't remember how much it was, but I'm pretty sure it ranged between $6 to $7 at the drugstore.

I recently picked up the Aveeno one (despite not finishing my TreSemme one, I know, terrible?) for $7.49 (on sale) at the same drugstore. 

CherryTravels: Toronto and Halifax in 2 weeks (Part I)

 

A snapshot of my week of dinners (and lunches) in Toronto and Halifax
Bier Markt // Spring Rolls // The Keg // Guu-Izakaya
The Battered Fish // Cut // The Maxwell Pub // Bitter End
Five Fishermen // Salty's // The Old Triangle

I did not bother taking any photos of training catering because it's not really THAT amazing (well it was tastier than Montreal catering)

The UFE was finished September 13th (yipee) and the firm I work for allows for an extra week off before starting back.  Lucky for me, I had two weeks for training (missed them during my study break) before I went back to work - it was like another two weeks extra vacation, since training is a no-brainer (having come back from studying the entire Handbook anyways for the big exam I just wrote), the firm puts us up for the time we are out of town and we have meal allowance.  The only drawback?  Having scheduling issues that couldn't be resolved right away, meetings that were REALLY important that had to be scheduled when I got back (which I'm anxious for because it could change a lot in the coming few months in terms of workload) and of course...not seeing the boyfriend.

CherryReview: Tarte primers

I (not so recently) purchased the Tarte Clean Slate Deluze Primer Trio at one of the Sephora's not-so-near my house (thanks to the bf for driving me to the mall...and letting me take my time in the Sephora despite the fact just having come back from Boston and NOT finding the trio there, much to my dismay).

L-R: Clean slate flawless, Clean slate poreless and Clean slate 360 Creaseless

First of all - I love Tarte because I love the idea that it's supposed to be natural - the fewer chemicals there are, the better, right?  My friend's mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer many years ago and survived after having surgery to remove all her female reproductive organs.  My own grandmother had thyroid cancer 4 years ago, which luckily, was quickly treated.  She is due for another full radioactive body scan beginning of October because you are not in the clear until 5 years has passed.  My great-aunt (who wasn't that old due to the fact that my grandma had a large family AND was married early, thus me having "Aunts" and "Uncles", or what non-Asians would say, second cousins, being the same age as me) died of a tumor in her brain about two years ago.  An uncle (mom's cousin), a man whom my brother looked up to greatly, died of a relapse of cancer (he originally had leukemia, which he defeated many many years ago) in his blood.  Strange right?  It happened nonetheless, around 5 years ago.  My own grandfather on my dad's side, despite being a smoker, did not die of lung cancer, but of liver cancer instead (not even a heavy drinker).

Regardless as you may be able to tell, my run-ins with cancer near my family means that I prefer not exposing myself to too many chemicals, if possible.  No, I am not a "hippie" who will go green and am an environmental purist.  I just try and find ways to expose myself to fewer toxins.  Why do I think that I just dug myself a hole here?  -_-"  Someone's going to have something to say about that, but you know what, that wasn't the point of this entry anyways.

CherryBlog: Restart

Once again...I did not die, I simply have been too busy with real life and not with blogging life...not that it ever really took off to start with.  Now with the UFE done, I'll have a bit more time until the results come out end of November, which will dictate the paths that I'll have to take in the future.  Not a fun time in my life, but nonetheless one that I have to go through.