Wakey wakey friends! It’s Friday! It’s been a long but short week! Things have been moving along here. Work is busy but busy is always good in my opinion! The week sort of dragged for me even if it was a shorter one. I’m starting to see more clients in office which can be weird and leaves me a little anxious. I know being fully vaccinated I shouldn’t feel that way but it’ll take a while to get used to being around people again!

I’m also slowly getting used to being alone again! As you know my boyfriend flew back to CA for work. He’ll be gone a month and he’ll start his normal back and fourth schedule. It’s weird for me and I’m trying to get used to him not being around. Ironically, I feel lonely. I have so many friends both online and in real life and of course, my family. I’m constantly getting calls from all the people I adore most in the world including my boyfriend but I still feel oddly lonely without him physically being here. I really got used to just being his shadow for a year and a half and following him from room to room with constant chatter about absolutely nothing. He’s such a great sport and gave me his comforting “mmm-hmmm Bells”. He always knew he didn’t have to offer feedback when I went into commentary about my latest Rae Dunn lemming, K-Drama I was watching, or my latest online crush or obsession but just listening to me and rubbing my back while mmm-hmmming was always enough! And no, it didn’t mean he was ignoring me or tuned out. He could relate back everything I said. He was just there, letting me chatter like I’ve been known to do, and caring enough to listen to it. I think the lonely feeling stems from the fact for nearly a year we are were in a bubble. I’ve always had a big social life. Out with friends, game nights, dinners, movies, concerts, etc…etc…it was a constant stream of always doing something. It was the same when my boyfriend was home. We we’re always doing something with our friends, going out, etc…when the pandemic struck we isolated like the rest of the world and it was just us in a little bubble and it was awesome. We never had that much “our” time before and here we were with an entire year’s worth of it! Now I have to get used to not having it anymore and it’s a little strange!

But anyway…enough of my pity party….

I hope you did your best this week! That you were strong, productive, and your awesome self that I know you are. I hope you were good humans and you made others feel great.

I think you’re beautiful, I think you can kick ass today, and I think you should go play with liquid eyeliner because that’s what I’ve been doing lately.

My love list goes out to eyeliner this week. I found myself with too much time on my hands this week and a loaded Ambreesh Cosmetics Draw the Line Eyeliner and that flick seems to be coming a little easier lately. Wow Ambreesh! Count me impressed. This is an interesting little liner you got going on here! This is actually a creme eyeliner that looks like a liquid formula…! It’s hard to explain but trust me it’s very interesting and draws the smoothest lines! I’ll have a review of it soon but if you’re a liner kind of girl or guy you need!

I have no idea why I decided I need to practice liquid lining. Some small part of me was like I wanna feel seggsy (don’t worry, I realize liquid liner is never going to improve upon how amazingly, incredibly sexy I am already! Heavy sarcasm ha!) so it was a let’s go poke our eye out and play with liquid liner and make poor makeup decisions kind of week! I started out with Beauty Bakerie’s Lollipop Liners Liquid Eyeliner which is actually pretty darn sharp but a little too advanced for my shaky, you’ll poke your eye out hands!

I moved on to L’Oreal Infallible Lacquer Liner which is the end all gel liner in my opinion. It blows everything else out of the water! But wow, it’s so hard to find in stores lately!

I was on some serious mission with the liner this week…! I can’t tell you what the mission was about but it was a mission!

To add to my love list today we should talk Ranch dressing. Who watches that Ranch girl from the UK on Tiktok? She’s discovered ranch and she puts it on all the damn things. There’s some debate whether ranch should go on pizza and let me shut it down right now. Ranch and pepperoni pizza are a MUST no questions, no buts, no disagreements. You can’t eat pizza without ranch.

Fight me.

I’m sorry but I’m adding netaporter.com’s sale on this list because it’s making me broke and I love it. They have so much sh1t on sale it’s surreal. Get over there and shop!

I think we need to add crap I ate but shouldn’t have eaten but loved anyway onto this list. Total cheat meal but I did have the Mcdonald’s BTS Meal and those sauces are growing on me…! I ate an entire theater size box of Reese’s Pieces the other day while watching the Mummy on HBOMax and wondering how Brendan Fraser is doing and thinking about how horrible it was they did a part three and recast Evie (I never watched it because of that!). I also may have eaten pate off Cheez-It Crackers the other day but I’m not confirming that rumor or denying it at the moment just no comment. Those Cheez-It Crackers are salty AF.

This my friend is today’s love list….!

Share yours! I always love reading them.

Be well, be happy, be safe, be the awesome humans I know you are!

The weekend is just a few hours away….!

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Tarte Amazonian Clay 16-Hr Full Coverage Foundation relaunched at qvc.com with a new, and improved formula. I have no idea what this means…No really, I don’t. They don’t list the ingredients so I’m not sure what’s improved about it. I feel offended.

Ha…

I mean, don’t get me wrong I actually like the original Tarte Amazonian Clay 16-Hr Full Coverage Foundation. I haven’t used it in a long time but I do like it. It’s pretty lightweight, provides great coverage, and has a nice consistency. I think I never really used it all that much because it is very pigmented and I’m a less is more foundation user.

According to Tarte the new formula has a soft matte finish, yes, ok so did the original! It’s weightless with full coverage, yes, ok, so did the original! And has a whipped mousse-like texture, mmmhmm, yup, we know…and it has Amazonian Clay for “longer, truer wear”. Tell me more….!

It’s also available in a larger array of shades, 46 to be exact (46 of almost the same exact shade! Wahooooooo! There’s sarcasm to be had here). There are POC that would like foundation too! 40 all pale shades and 6 dark shades really isn’t inclusive guys. Did we not learn anything from Shape Tape Foundation-Gate 2016…I mean, you almost got canceled over that.

Tarte, sit down. Let’s talk.

Tell me again what is that’s new and improved here. No seriously, I’m not being sarcastic. I really wanna know! The packaging looks different but what else…can we get an ingredient breakdown. Maybe a before and after look at the prior formula versus the newer?

I’m really just a generally curious girl.

Ok, I’m tired. I’ve exhausted myself trying to understand your shade range and improved formula.

Must take nap. Sorry, I was salty but this is 2021. We need to do better please.

For those that need a new and improved Tarte Amazonian Clay 16-Hr Full Coverage Foundation you can grab it with a brush for $39 at QVC.

Where to buy

QVC

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NARS Radiant Creamy Liquid Color Correct is a new color corrector available in four shades and it’s going to fix all my late night sleepy eye issues. The makeup gods have been hearing my prayers this week and have been coming through covering up my puffiness and dark circles. The struggle is real falling asleep lately. I’m fighting the good fight here and trying to understand how to sleep alone again. I should be happy to have a big bed to myself but nope….! I’m serving up clingy, needy girlfriend vibes with an extra large order of fries and a chocolate Frosty to dip them in and a little NARS Radiant Creamy Liquid Color Correct on the side as dessert.

Hey, beauty confession…

I’m about to shock you.

I don’t like NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer.

Oh my god….!

It’s raining fire. The makeup gods are crying in pain. A makeup mortal sin.

I just don’t understand the hype that is NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer. Everyone thinks it’s the bees knees but I’m sitting in the corner clutching my Tarte Shape Tape to my chest. Sorry! We’re still friends? Don’t hate me ok?

I’m curious enough to sort of want to try NARS Radiant Creamy Liquid Color Correct but I actually don’t have major dark circles issues. My problem is I tend to get sleepy eyes or puffy ones. I use concealer to give me that bright-eyed and bushy-tailed I sleep 20 hours appearance when I’m actually working on 4 hours of rest. I’ve never really had the need to actually correct darkness. I also find layering a correct and concealer can be a bit much at age and with my skin type (dry). It can look cakey and too overkill!

NARS formula apparently has full coverage and brightens eyes while neutralizing blue, purple, or darker-toned circles. You can use it under eyes or on your face. They even have it available in a fairly decent red version for darker skin tones (No more applying red lipstick under your eyes for correcting! Use this instead!)

NARS Radiant Creamy Liquid Color Correct is $30 same price as the Radiant Creamy Concealer and same size.

You can snag it now at Sephora.

Curious to try it?

Where to buy

Sephora

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Ulta updated their website recently and just said, “Listen guys, nothing to see here! We just decided to plop a drop down menu right here and call it a day! The pandemic has us like, we need a refresh, but let’s not put TOO much work into because we’re tired! It’s been a year! Give us a break ok?”

It feels like I’ve been waiting for an Ulta website update and redesign for ages! Christine (Temptalia) once told me she hated the layout of the Ulta website. I don’t actually hate it. In some cases, I even sort of like it more than Sephora’s website. It’s pretty basic and simple yet it gets the job done.

Earlier this week or maybe it was late last week I noticed they updated the site.

A little.

Barely an update.

The category menu was completely visible on the left hand side of the screen prior to their little Spring clean up and now it’s available in a what web designers call a hamburger menu (those three little lines that allow you click to drop down a menu).

I really want to sit down and talk to them about this. What was the game plan for this? Why not update the whole site? Did we run out of petty cash funds for website design? Did someone wake up and say, let’s just put a little menu RIGHT here and it’ll make everything a little more amazing!

It’s one of the oddest and smallest redesigns in the history of the Internet. What in the world…! Using that drop down hasn’t increased the page size by any means. We still have the same size page retail space! It’s not bigger or wider. Nothing has changed….aside from the drop down menu.

Did you know on Tiktok everyone is convinced we live in a parallel universe because we never see our neighbors take in the groceries (truth!) and it’s never been JCPenny and it’s always been JCPenney…..well, what if the Ulta hamburger menu is further proof we are living in some Lost parallel universe. Nothing is real….!

I’m kidding. Please don’t feed the conspiracy theorists! I promise we aren’t living in a parallel universe! It’s just the mandela effect. I think……!

None the less, Ulta has some website changes and I need to know what you think of them or if you even noticed them.

Let me know in the comments!

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As you know the lipstick index is a measure of how consumers are spending extra money. The phrased was coined by Leonard Lauder, Estee Lauder’s chairman of the board of Estee Lauder, and was used to describe increased sales of cosmetics during the recession early in 2000s. It’s a term that can’t be used to measure current makeup sales in our economy since the skincare and self care revolution overturned it in 2020.

That being said lipstick sales are actually up 80%! 80%! IRI, a market researcher that tracks points of retail sale, says that lipsticks hit 34.2 million dollars mid-April which is an increase of 80% from the same period last year. Don’t get too excited about the bounce back as they still fell short of pre-pandemic levels of over $40 million.

Actually, cosmetics sales for the past four-weeks ending May 22 have surged 16.7% from a year ago, according to data from Nielsen and over a 12-week stretch are up 24.7% from last year.

Here’s the good news….

The rise in sales actually has nothing to do with the Lipstick Index. I feel some sense of relief that sales of lipstick aren’t because people are tightening their belts and not spending money. Right now, the smart thing to do is save your money but also, you’re not going to see the economy return to normal until we let loose a little and start spending again.

Why are they up?

Simple answer that I’m sure you already know. Mask mandates have changed, more people are getting vaccinated and social interactions have picked up. We all want to look pretty again and do it wearing our favorite red lipstick.

Walmart recently told CNN Business that lipstick is a top performer in the last quarter sales.

I never stopped wearing makeup or lipstick the last year. As I’ve said many times in the past year it was important for me to keep my routines when things were so chaotic. It made me feel a sense of normal and I really don’t care that my routine may have included waxing my wood floors while wearing red lipstick. It’s all about the ritual for me.

I know many of you have missed wearing lipstick but haven’t yet felt comfortable getting out there without a mask yet. I’m vaccinated but I still very much wear a mask. I’m excited lipstick sales are seeing such an incredible turn over but it may take me a little while longer to be comfortable wearing it out without a mask on!

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