Hey guys! I hope everyone is doing well tucked in at home. I've personally been practicing as much social distancing as I can - and whipping up personal masks on my sewing machine for myself and the people close to me so that we can feel a little bit better going out when we need to. Also, I've been feeling a little bit overwhelmed and uninspired - which is the reason why the blog posts have been a little spotty. However, I had a spike of inspiration this weekend for what I wanted to do for this week's #CBBxManiMonday, our last week of the Blue & Green theme, though I'm calling this one "Green...ish" because all of the shades sort of straddle some lines.

So to check out this week's mani, keep reading!

Well, my friends, I hope you're all doing well and keeping safe and healthy during this... absolutely surreal time in our lives. Of course, nail art can be a great way to keep busy while we're all staying at home and avoiding contact with humans, and sometimes it can really, really kill a lot of time. I have to admit... this week's mani kind of took it out of me and ended up being both really easy to do and also really easy to mess up. This week I wanted to try something out that I've seen other nail artists do and have always wanted to try and I got a really clear picture of what it would look like in my head. It didn't turn out entirely as I planned, but I really like how it looks - and I can't wait to try it in different colours. 

Keep reading for more!

Hey guys! I hope everyone is keeping safe and happy during this super surreal time in our lives. Personally, I'm social distancing like I've been doing it my whole life (I have) and, though I'm actually genuinely terrible at not touching my face, I am listening to the advice to increase the frequency with which I wash my hands and it got me thinking. I'm pretty much obsessed with taking care of my hand, although, if we're being real transparent, I do pamper the one I take close up pictures of at least once a week a lot more than what I think of as my garbage hand. Anyway, the other day when my mom, who is immunocompromised and has to be extra diligent right now, told me that she's washing her hands so much that they feel like they're going to fall off from the dryness, I figured I'd share the advice here on the blog that I shared with her.

So, if you're interested in seeing how I personally am caring for my hands while also washing like... well, like we're in the midst of a pandemic, quite frankly, keep reading!

Dr. Belmeur is one of those skin care brands that has been on my radar for quite a while now, one I've definitely been interested in trying out, but just hadn't gotten around to yet. So, obviously, I was super excited when I found out that some of their products are included in the AVON x THEFACESHOP collaboration. I've been trying out a couple of the products for the past several weeks now and I'm a little bit in love, so I'm super excited to share them with you guys!

Keep reading for more!

Happy Monday, all! This weekend was full enough that I ended up passing out for a nap that was akin to a coma by yesterday afternoon, so when I woke up and remembered I still had to do my nails for Mani Monday, I knew that I didn't have a lot in me. It was actually kind of serendipitous, though, because I've been wanting to share swatches of Cadillacquer's Forest* nail polish for a while now and it fits absolutely perfectly into this month's Blue & Green #CBBxManiMonday theme - and is a polish I'm more than happy to wear through St. Patrick's Day tomorrow!

Keep reading for more!

So, I decided at the beginning of this year that 2020 was going to be the year that I care about my hair. For years now, I've had a sort of pattern that I've pretty consistently maintained - cut my hair shortish (just above my shoulders generally), get annoyed about not being able to put it up, grow it out long, wear it in a messy bun for several months and/or do some serious damage to it with bleach, and then cut it again to start the whole process over. This year, I decided I want to do things differently, actually learn different ways to style my hair and actually employ them, take better care of my hair overall and... yeah, just care about my hair. So I've been trying out a bunch of different products, playing with different styles, and actually really enjoying my hair overall and I wanted to share a handful of affordable products and one tool that I've been trying out recently.

Keep reading for more!

I feel like I'm probably in the minority, but I think green nail polishes and nail art looks are probably my personal favorite. Seriously, I can't get enough, so this month's #CBBxManiMonday Blue & Green theme is right in my wheelhouse. Another favorite of mine? Special occasion themed nails. I'll happily take pretty much any holiday or special occasion and splash it all over my nails. So, with those two things in mind - of course I was super excited to do some St Patricks Day nails. In fact, two of my absolute favorite mani's of last year were St Patty's themed (you can check them out here and here) so I was really excited to get into it this year. 

Keep reading to check out the nails!

Happy Monday! I'm super excited about our #CBBxManiMonday theme for March - Blue & Green! I'm definitely going to be getting into some green, some of my favorite polishes and nail art looks are all about the green, but this week I had a gorgeous blue polish that I wanted to reach for so I'm starting with blue. I had an idea percolating in my head all weekend that I really, really wanted to try. It wasn't something I'd ever seen before and I didn't know how it would work, but I really wanted to play in it. Ultimately, I feel like I sort of ran out of time to get all the way to where I wanted this mani to be, but I'm about ¾ happy with it....

Keep reading for more!

I'm one of those people that has a fairly small handbag that I use every day... and it's just absolutely jammed full of products to keep my hands and lips moisturized throughout the day. Like, seriously,  used to keep 16 different lipsticks in my purse, but I've definitely transitioned more to lip balms and masks in my purse. So why am I telling you this? I wanted to give some context to my excitement over when a package arrived containing an entire range of Lip Care products from Catrice, because I was genuinely excited. Catrice has been a brand that I've been overwhelmingly impressed with over the past few months, and I personally found it really impressive that a drugstore cosmetics brand really does have this whole range of different lip care products. 

Anyway, let's get into the specific products, shall we?