Bridal Makeup: Lessons Learned

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of being a makeup artist for a day and do the makeup for my maid of honour's bridesmaids, which included myself. We got up at 5:00 am for the big day and we had until 9:00 am to get ready before the groom and groomsmen arrived. It was hectic, rushed, but ultimately a beautiful and super fun day.

Today, I wanted to share some lessons I learned from doing bridal makeup!

1. Don't underestimate how much time is needed to do each person's makeup. Even though we were up at 5am, I didn't start doing the bridesmaids' makeup until approximately 6:30am. I also had to wait for each bridesmaid to get their hair done. I did end up finishing the other two bridesmaids' makeup, but rushed on my own. Try to allocate at least an hour per person. 

2. Even if you pack a lot of makeup that you think you'll use, you'll probably only end up using 1/3 of what you brought. I probably packed 5 or 6 blushes, but I ended up using just the Hourglass Ambient Blush palette on the three of us. 

3. Don't wait until the last minute to match foundation shades. Unfortunately, we couldn't find time to meet up and do the foundation match at Sephora, so we did it the night before the wedding. For one of the bridesmaids, there was barely enough foundation in the sample bottle at Sephora to do a full face. We were lucky that there was just enough, but it would've been bad if we couldn't find matches in another foundation. 

4. Relating to 1., because I was doing the makeup as a friend and not as a vendor, I was asked many questions. Questions about what product I used, why I used that product, and what that product was used for. I also had questions about how to do certain things like, how to use gel liner, how to keep pencil liner from smudging, how to do a smoky eye, and so on. With so many questions, make sure to allocate even more time per person. 

5. While doing the bridesmaids' makeup, they kept saying I should consider doing it full-time and asking whether I've thought about it. Let me tell you, I thought about it at least a couple times that morning! But at this time, makeup is just a hobby and not something I feel could do at a professional level.

6. Prepare a makeup bag for touch ups in advance of the wedding day. I thought I would have time to pack all the essentials for the day, but I was already so rushed in finishing everyone's makeup. So, I just threw whatever brushes and powders and products I thought we would need for the touchups later in the day into a big makeup bag.

7. Corrector and setting spray are essentials. Corrector is necessary after staying up late the night before and getting little sleep, and setting spray will help the makeup last a lot longer than without the spray.

8. You get such relief and such joy when you hear from the bride that she loved the looks you did on the bridesmaids. Then it makes all the stress and pressure so worth it.

No Buy For The Rest Of 2015

Well, the title of this post says it all. I've put myself on a no-buy for the rest of the year. I've come to a point where I recognize I have too much makeup - much more makeup than I really need. The same goes with skincare products. There was even a point this past week where I looked at the promotions for holiday collections and I didn't feel any want or temptation to get anything. I had more thoughts about what items in my beauty stash I want to get rid of.

For the past couple of months, I used my maid of honour's wedding as an excuse to go out and buy more makeup, even if it was duplicates of products I already own. It was the excitement of being able to open new products and using new products, but now I have way too many of multiple products open at the same time. However, I will still save these duplicate products to use at my own wedding on my bridesmaids. 

I'm at the point where I'm more than satisfied with the amount of items and what I have in my beauty collection. But, I'd also like to pare down my collection to only the items I really like and can foresee a future in using them. I've already pulled out a few items I know I want to give away or rid from my collection.

As you might know, I'm getting married in 8 months, which means I'll be moving out in 8 months. That means I need to start thinking about what to pack and what needs to be disposed of or donated. So, hopefully a no-buy will help with curbing my hoarding tendencies and further piling up of beauty products.

Of course, during the next 3.5 months, I'll have to restock on everyday essentials. That's the only exception to this no-buy. Though, I have so much stuff stockpiled, I probably won't need to buy anything for next little while.

For anyone else that's also on a no-buy for the rest of the year, good luck! I hope this no-buy will help each of us realize what products we truly love in our collections. I don't know if I'll be posting about my decluttering or my progress in paring down my collection, but there may be an update post here and there. 

The 6 Month Mark

Sometimes I can't believe I've been blogging about makeup and beauty for 6 months. I'm not new to blogging, but this is probably the longest I've been totally committed to a specific topic. I've probably started and ended about 3 (or more) other blogs before this one.

It's been a pretty fun 6 months and I've learned a lot about my writing and photography skills. As I continue blogging, I continue to grow and improve upon these skills. To mark this half-year mark, I thought it would be appropriate to share a few facts about myself! I know I'm not typically very open in my posts, but I've always appreciated other bloggers' openness to their readers. 

1. I'm a petite girl standing at 5'2.5" tall. For the longest time, I thought I was only 5'1" until I recently measured myself. That's an extra 1.5 inches! When you're petite, you take what you can get. 

2. I'm engaged and set to marry in May 2016! I'm extremely excited and a little scared at the same time to move out and become an actual adult. 

3. I really want a dog and will most likely get one after I get married and move out of my parents' place. The breed I really want to get is a West Highland White Terrier. 

4. I'm Christian and my faith is extremely important to me. 

5. Gilmore Girls is probably my all-time favourite TV show. I've watched and re-watched all 7 seasons at least 4 times and everytime I watch it, I learn new things especially with all the cultural references. 

What's In My Bag: Dinner with Friends

I'm sure you've heard of OpenTable before - it helps connect restaurants with diners and their communities. You can find many restaurants all in one place and reserve a table to dine at these restaurants.

OpenTable Toronto reached out to me to talk about my experience with using OpenTable. I happily agreed to collaborate with them since I use OpenTable all the time to make dinner reservations and I love food. If you've seen my Instagram, most of my pictures are of food! If you're new to OpenTable, it's an easy way to look up new restaurants to try out and book a reservation all in one place. You can even earn points with each reservation you make to eventually redeem for money to use at any participating OpenTable restaurant.

OpenTable is very easy to use. Once you go to the site, all you need to do is type in the restaurant you want to make a reservation with, or search up restaurants in a specific area, or a specific cuisine. Then, select the number of people, the date and time, and fill in the required information. Then you're done! It's such an extremely easy and quick way to make a reservation at many restaurants. 

I was asked to write up two posts as part of this collaboration. For today's post, we're taking a look inside my bag to see what I bring with me on a night out with friends.

Most of the time, I go out for dinner with friends after a long day of work. To hold everything I need for the day and night, I carry the black Longchamp Les Planetes tote in the large size. My essentials that I bring with my everywhere are my Prada wallet and gold pouch. Of course, my wallet includes all my cards and money. If you read about my purse essentials, the gold pouch contains much of the same items. Within this little pouch are the Boscia Green Tea Blotting Linens, feminine pad, eye drops, vaseline, floss, NARS Light Reflecting Pressed Setting Powder, Too Faced Retractable Kabuki Brush, and a mini tube of hand cream. 

When I know I'll be going out for dinner after work, I like to bring with me the blush I used for the day. Preferably a blush that can fit one of those mini brushes that some blushes come with. For my recent night out, I used the Clarins Blush Prodige in Sweet Rose. I find applying blush after a work day brightens and refreshes the complexion. For the lips, I tend to stick with the same thing I use during the day. On this day, it was the Dior Addict Lip Glow. 

I also pack a lunch for the office and always carry around a pen with me - of course the boring bits aren't pictured.

To find out what products I use to create a simple and long lasting look, click here!

And if you're wondering where the food from the first picture is from, it's from Scaddabush. It's a great place to go for reasonably priced Italian food in the downtown Toronto area.

Disclosure: This is the first of two posts with my collaboration with OpenTable Toronto. This post is not sponsored. 

New Year's Resolutions

image via https://www.etsy.com/listing/88989316/happy-new-year-banner-new-year-vintage

As we ring in 2015, there have been some resolutions that I've thought about for both this blog and beauty in general.

For the blog: 

1. Keep improving - it's only been 2.5 months since I've started this blog, but I want to keep improving the posts I write, the pictures I take and the design of the blog.
2. Be more engaging - I want to be more engaging with readers, instead of just writing posts, letting it be and just responding to readers' comments. This will be a hard one for me, since I'll be much busier this year due to work, other commitments and planning my wedding.
3. Be more creative - I feel like a lot of the posts I've written so far have been the same. So, I want to try to write more posts that are different from the usual product reviews that are on this blog. 

For beauty:

1. Spend less - I have way too much makeup and too many products that are very similar, plus I'm someone who can spend a lot of money without thinking things through. That needs to change, especially since I'm saving for a wedding and home!
2. Use more - along the same lines as the previous resolution, but I want to use more products that are lying around in my collection, instead of looking for the next new thing to buy and use. Hopefully I'll be able to use up more of my products too!
3. Clean my makeup brushes more often - I'm definitely lazy when it comes to cleaning my brushes. I want to make more of an effort to clean them more often. Maybe then my face will have less pimples popping up!
4. Be more organized - my makeup is all over the place. So, this year, I want to get some storage that looks nice on my dressers, but is also able to store my makeup collection in an organized manner.
5. Don't requalify for Sephora's VIB Rouge status - at the end of last year, when I found out I had requalified for the VIB Rouge status, it was a shock to see just how much money I'd been spending on makeup and skincare products. I really didn't and shouldn't be spending that much money! So, I'm hoping to buy a lot less and only get essentials.
6. Make most of my beauty purchases at Shoppers Drug Mart and The Bay - similar to #5, I hope to buy less from Sephora, but make most of my purchases from SDM or The Bay. SDM and The Bay have rewards programs that actually translate to dollars that I can use towards future purchases, instead of dinky samples that aren't always that great. Unless certain products are only sold at Sephora, I'm going to try to get most of my beauty products elsewhere. 

A long list of resolutions, but hopefully I can stick to them! What are some of your resolutions for 2015?

Happy New Year!

Image via crafthubs.com

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had fun ringing in the new year! Another year, another new start. Make this year better than the last!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! I hope you all have a safe and joyous time this season in celebrating the birth of Jesus and spending time with your families!

To celebrate the Christmas season and spend time with friends and family, I will be taking a bit of a break blogging, so there won't be any new posts until the new year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians! I hope you all enjoy the long weekend by spending it with friends and family, and reflect on what you are all thankful for. 

In everything give thanks... - 1 Thessalonians 5:18