Monday Musings Vol. 9

Another Monday! It's already proven to be an interesting one. I didn't sleep well last night, so I'm a bit out of it.

I've been doing more sparkle science, so expect to see more posts on my random experiments. I will finally swatch Perversion next to Zero for you today, so that's coming up as well. I'm also planning on doing a project 10 pan, though I want to see if there are any limited edition Valentine's things I need in my life first...I'm working on gathering up products that I need to use up. Regardless, I have definitely banned myself from purchasing any more lotion, body soap, body wash, body spray, or perfume until I make a significant dent in my stash. My stash of body products doesn't hold a candle to what I've witnessed in many teenage girls' bathrooms, but I should probably start focusing on using one lotion consistently until I use it up, instead of having so many partially finished ones all over the place. I've been gathering up things for my blog sale, which should be up next week. I just have too many products that I am not using/haven't used, and hopefully they can find their way to people who will enjoy them!

Now time for swatching, food, and preparing a presentation. There are definitely a few signs I need to look up before I give my presentation, as I find that sometimes my ASL vocabulary is a bit more limited than I'd like. And on that note, I suggest you watch one of my favorite videos from the Deaf Professional Arts Network (also referred to as the Deaf Performing Artists Network) -

Monday Musings Vol. 8

Hello!
I have an eyeshadow drying from a rescue mission and a new Perversion eyeliner pencil. This week is looking okay, though I took a bad fall yesterday on the ice. Ouch. Trying to take it easy tonight because moving around hurts. I depotted an eyeshadow pan from a palette to re-press it, and now I want to depot everything! But I need to lay off of the new projects until my thesis and recital are finished...
I'll let you know how my eyeshadow rescue mission turns out, I've never tried to press or re-press anything before!
This week you can expect to see a post on Urban Decay's Perversion and my eyeshadow pressing and depotting, so stay tuned.
Now to go list some textbooks on half.com - I really need to start clearing out things I don't want/need to move 1,400 miles in June.
Any tips for minimizing unnecessary possessions?

Monday Musings Vol. 7

Hello, all!
Sorry for being a bad blogger and MIA for the past week, I got a bit caught up in the craziness of the holidays and visiting with family and friends. But now I'm back with so many things to show you! The backlog of photos in my computer is getting to be quite impressive. I happily spent the majority of yesterday indulging in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon with my sister, which we continued until 2AM. But now it's back to the grind, I have a lot of thesis work to do, as well as preparing for my senior recital. I took the past week off, except for a bit of thesis research.
Now that the holiday gift-giving has passed, I can reveal one of my recent secret (or not so secret anymore) projects!

I've been having a blast playing around with making lipglosses. It's definitely been one of those 'learn as you go' experiences/experiments, with a few minor mishaps. For example, peppermint oil is STRONG and will make your entire apartment smell strongly of peppermint if you're not careful. Just Peachy's lipgloss series, which can be found here along with her other awesome DIY posts, was definitely an inspiration and a large part of why I decided to give making lipgloss a shot.

Hope you all have had a wonderful holiday!

Monday Musings Vol. 6

It's Monday of finals week: it's getting hard to see the floor of my bedroom and I really should go grocery shopping because celery, ginger snaps, and string cheese are my main food groups right now.  I only have two finals left to worry about, an American Sign Language final in which I will be given a prompt and then must sign about it to the professor, and a Hinduism paper. Then Thursday I venture back to the southwest for a few weeks.
Brazen Cosmetics has launched their website, http://brazencosmetics.com/ , and I think it's looking good! As you are most likely well aware, Brazen's lip glosses were my gateway gloss and I love them for it. I'm extremely tempted to pick up a few tubes (yes! tubes!) since most of my Brazen glosses are potted. I'm so excited to see them opening their own website and listing the glosses in tubes instead of pots. Yay!
Physicians Formula has released a new Organic Wear mascara, which I can't wait to try.

(Image from http://www.physiciansformula.com/en-us/productdetail/eyes/mascara/07561.html)

It's the "Organic Wear 100% Natural Lash Boosting Mascara". Sometimes I wish Physicians Formula would come up with shorter names. I always have a hard time remembering long names like that. I really like the Physicians Formula Organic Wear 100% Natural Origin Jumbo Lash Mascara (see what I mean about the names?), or as I lovingly call it, the giant shiny leaf mascara. Since I've enjoyed the giant green shiny leaf mascara, I have high hopes for the giant black leaf mascara. Maybe I can convince my roommate that we need to leave early for the airport Thursday so I can run in to Ulta to see if they have the new mascara...

Stay tuned for my sparkly Monday EOTD!

Monday Musings Vol. 5

Brrrr...it's certainly feeling like winter. As the air gets colder and drier and the heaters get turned on, my skin needs some extra love. If I don't moisturize religiously, my whole face flakes and I start to look quite lizard-y. Anybody else have this problem? As much as I like my powder mineral foundation, I'm thinking I need to switch over to a liquid foundation or tinted moisturizer for the winter. The powder isn't doing any favors for my dry skin. Winter's not my favorite season- I tend to be hungry and tired much of the time, regardless of how much I eat and sleep. I am, however, happy to have my little tree out.

Monday Musings Vol. 4

After a nice Thanksgiving holiday break, it's back to the usual insanity. I only have 2.5 weeks left of this semester- time certainly has flown. In approximately 6 months, I will be moving once again. It's bittersweet. I've loved my time in the lovely green pacific northwest, but the southwest is where I grew up. I'll be finishing my music degree this coming spring, then moving south to work on my degree in sign language interpreting.
I've been toying with the idea of having a blog sale, as I have quite a few products that have not, and most likely will not, be used by me. I really need to focus on consolidation right now, as driving a car full of mica approximately 1,500 miles doesn't make much sense. I've certainly acquired a lot of things (makeup and otherwise) since I moved here 4 years ago.  (Though I've spent summers and such back in the southwest.) And with the amount of stuff I have now, I have no idea how I would possibly transport it back other than renting a moving truck, which I don't want to do.
I really just need to get all this extra stuff out of my apartment, which means cheap sparklies for sale! I know I have a lot of Aromaleigh looking for good homes, since I went a bit overboard when they closed. I'll probably wait until after the holidays to put the sale up, unless people tell me they would like it sooner. Any thoughts?
Also, I am officially not allowed to purchase any more body wash, soap, lotion or perfume. Ever.
Or at least until I use up about half of my stash.

Monday Musings Vol. 3

Happy Monday my lovely toucanets!
I feel like everybody around me right now (and myself as well) are feeling pretty sluggish these days. I have a feeling that it has to do with the weather and the end of the semester getting close. All the students I know are longing for a break. I haven't worn much any makeup since last Tuesday- but some sparkles are definitely what I need right now. Tomorrow I'm definitely going to make glitter a priority.
Speaking of sparkles, have you seen Aromaleigh's latest collection, "Starry Night"? When I first saw the shadow photos, I didn't think there was anything that I had to have. Then I saw the Aromaleigh swatches:
(from http://aromaleighv2.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/starry-night-our-newest-limited-edition-eyeshadow-collection/)

I'm pretty convinced that I need Bellatrix, Shaula, Altair, Izar, and Saiph. Especially Bellatrix and Altair.
Sample sets, individual samples, and full sizes can be purchased here: http://www.aromaleigh.com/newsniliedey.html
I'm pretty sure I see a sample order in my future...

Monday Mail Call!

The day started out a bit rough- with me cursing the college online course registration (registering for my last semester!), but two boxes in the mail today made it all better. I've been a bit on edge since I have a big performance Tuesday (on the oboe), but I'm also excited to have a great performance opportunity. It's been a few years since I got to perform as a soloist with a large ensemble- I'm also happy to get to wear a beautiful gown! I even have some diva-worthy bling to go with it.

My Target beauty bag arrived, I wan't even sure my request got through, so I was excited to see that it did! It contains samples and some coupons, which I'll write a post about in the near future.

I also got a box of Maybelline goodies sent to me for consideration by PR through BzzAgent, I'll be reviewing the Great Lash Lots of Lashes Mascara and the Baby Lips Lip Balm. Stay tuned!

How's your Monday going?

Monday Musings Vol. 2

It's a chilly Monday evening, and I'm lounging in the living room and looking up Halloween inspiration. What I should be doing is writing a paper, but I just can't make myself focus on it right now. I'd much rather look for good tentacle tutorials. Halloween has long been my favorite holiday and I tend to get pretty sucked up into crafty endeavors for my costumes.
I'm loving my halloween manicure, although I wish I could find some candy corn nail decals/stickers. I think my little skull from the Kiss Halloween nails set I found at Walgreens is pretty cute though.  I found a bottle of Wet n Wild's Buy Me A Drink hiding in the Halloween makeup at Fred Meyer, it's a very pretty vampy polish.

I'm excited to play with some Brazen goodies that arrived today- Sandi was kind enough to send me some of her Halloween products to review here at Glitter and Toucans! I told myself that I wasn't allowed to use them until I finish the paper I'm avoiding, so I'm hoping to have the review up tomorrow evening or Wednesday morning.

If anyone knows where I can get some candy corn nail stickers, please let me know! I've decided that Halloween manicures aren't just for October.

Monday Musings

Once again, it's Monday morning. I was a bit concerned when my day started with picking up my keys to find that my Yoshi keychain was beheaded. However, with the help of some tacky glue, he's looking much better. That's the second keychain of mine that has broken in the past week or so. I'm trying something new for the blog, with scheduled weekly posts Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Mostly to give myself some more structure so I can post more. Balancing structure and inspiration seems to be the way to go. Years ago, I had a blog that I posted in every day. I need to get back in the habit of that. So this is the first installation of "Monday Musings".
Have you seen the new Aromaleigh collection? I love the photo showing the inspiration for the collection.

(from http://www.aromaleigh.com/neftaliedeyc.html)

How's your Monday going?